Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 2 1884.djvu/157

 THE FOLK-LORE OF DRAYTON. 149

a hundred to one if it be not Biascorides, for he is full of Ruch whim- sies; The truth is, I never stood so much upon the number of the leaves, nor whether I gave it in powder or decoction ; if " — continues this common-sense Englishman — " Jupiter were strong, and the moon applying to him or his good Aspect at the gathering, I never knew it miss the desired effects." Jupiter and the moon ; there was the rub ! According to Drayton, ♦ it was one of the privileges of the antediluvian age that^-

" In med'cine simples had that power, That none need then the planetary hour To help them in their working."

Having completed our examination of the worthy hermit's maund of simples we may take leave of him and of Clarinax ; but before turning from the subject of herbs altogether I must point out a passage f in which the use of them is referred to in the figurative manner which Drayton so much affected ; it is that touching the long persevered- in treatment of " grim Goodwin " (sands), who, ever resentful of the Norman Conquest, foams and frets with hatred to France and strives to swallow up the sea-marks —

" The surgeons of the sea do all their skill apply If possibly to cure his grievous malady : As Amphitrite's nymphs their very utmost prove By all the means they could his madness to remove. From Greenwich to these sands some scurvy grass % they bring, That inwardly apply'd s a wond'rous sovereign thing. From Shepey, sea-moss § some to cool his boiling blood ; Some, his ill-seasoned mouth that wisely understood, Rob Dover's neighbouring cleeves of samphyre, || to excite His dull and sickly taste, and stir up appetite."

In this chapter of vegetable virtues it is right to mention the folk- lore of S. Winifred's Well, because the moss growing thereby was as Drayton relates accounted of value against infectious damps. ^ It was worn as pomander, that is in a scented ball, compounded of various ingredients— apples frequently being one— which it was formerly the

• Noah's Flood [iv. 1526]. f Pol. xviii. [iii. 1021].

X Cochlearia officinalis. § Ulva latissima.

II Crithmwn marinvm. % Pol. iv. [ii. 731].