A Victorian Flower Dictionary - Mandy Kirkby [22]
from MY MOTHER
Who fed me from her gentle breast,
And hushed me in her arms to rest,
And on my cheek sweet kisses prest?
My Mother.
When pain and sickness made me cry,
Who gazed upon my heavy eye,
And wept, for fear that I should die?
My Mother.
When thou art feeble, old, and grey,
My healthy arm shall be thy stay,
And I will soothe thy pains away,
My Mother.
ANN TAYLOR
MYRTLE
Love
The myrtle is a beautifully fragrant shrub bearing delicate white flowers and lustrous evergreen foliage. Since ancient times it has symbolized the chief of passions, love, and according to classical tradition it has the ability to both inspire and retain that emotion. It was observed too that wherever it grows, it excludes all other plants, just as love, wherever it has established its domain, forsakes all others.
Roman myth frequently associates Venus with this flower, the myrtle bush having once offered her protection when she was bathing. In honour of Venus, goddess of love and marriage, Roman brides wore myrtle sprigs in their hair, and bridegrooms carried them in their hands. In Piero di Cosimo’s Venus, Mars and Cupid, painted in 1490, Mars has laid aside his armour and succumbed to the pleasures of Venus’s love. Behind his sleeping figure are myrtle bushes where cupids are playing with his discarded helmet and sword.
Myrtle has been cultivated in Britain at least since the seventeenth century, and was popular in Victorian times as both a garden and an indoor plant. Because it was a flower of love and marriage, it was frequently paired with orange blossom in the bridal bouquet. J. Perkins’s 1877 Floral Designs for the Table recommended decorating the wedding breakfast table with chains of myrtle leaves studded with cyclamens. A young girl still waiting for her betrothal might send a lover a Valentine card of Cupid holding a sprig of the flower. In turn, a young man might gaze wistfully at Albert Moore’s Myrtle, a painting of a young Roman maiden who looks him full in the eye, sensuous and inviting.
from THE PASSIONATE SHEPHERD TO HIS LOVE
Come live with me and be my love,
And we will all the pleasures prove
That hills and valleys, dale and field,
And all the craggy mountains yield.
There will we sit upon the rocks,
And see the shepherds feed their flocks,
By shallow rivers to whose falls
Melodious birds sing madrigals.
There I will make thee beds of roses
And a thousand fragrant posies,
A cap of flowers, and a kirtle
Embroider’d all with leaves of myrtle;
A gown made of the finest wool
Which from our pretty lambs we pull;
Fair linèd slippers for the cold,
With buckles of the purest gold;
The shepherd swains shall dance and sing
For thy delight each May-morning:
If these delights thy mind may move,
Then live with me and be my love.
CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE
NASTURTIUM
Impetuous Love
This is a flower that simply cannot wait. Once it has soaked up the heat of the sun and been watered by a little rain, it proceeds at a fast pace to cover the ground with its warm and colourful flowers and all-embracing foliage. It will grow anywhere and everywhere, and does not think for a moment about tomorrow, when the chills of autumn will nip at its tender flowers and all will be for nothing.
Originally a native of Peru, the fast-growing, hasty nasturtium made its first appearance in English gardens in the early sixteenth century. The flower has a sweet scent, like honey, and with carnations it made for a delicate but effective nosegay. Its hot, peppery leaves are reminiscent