and signifies love in vain,
or to no purpose, as in Chaucer: "The prophet David saith; If God ne
kepe not the citee, in ydel waketh he that keptit it."[196:2] And in
Tyndale's translation of the New Testament, "I have prechid to you, if
ye holden, if ye hav not bileved ideli" (1 Cor. xv. 2). "Beynge
plenteuous in werk of the Lord evermore, witynge that youre traveil is
not idel in the Lord" (1 Cor. xv. 58).

But beside these more common names, Dr. Prior mentions the following:
"Herb Trinity, Three faces under a hood, Fancy, Flamy,[197:1] Kiss me,
Cull me or Cuddle me to you, Tickle my fancy, Kiss me ere I rise, Jump
up and kiss me, Kiss me at the garden gate, Pink of my John, and several
more of the same amatory character."

Spenser gives the flower a place in his "Royal aray" for Elisa--

"Strowe me the grounde with Daffadowndillies,
And Cowslips, and Kingcups, and loved Lillies,
The pretie Pawnce,
And the Chevisaunce
Shall match with the fayre Flower Delice."

And in another place he speaks of the "Paunces trim"--_F. Q._, iii. 1.
Milton places it in Eve's couch--

"Flowers were the couch,
Pansies, and Violets, and Asphodel,
And Hyacinth, earth's freshest, softest lap."

He names it also as part of the wreath of Sabrina--

"Pansies, Pinks, and gaudy Daffadils;"

and as one of the flowers to strew the hearse of Lycidas--

"The White Pink and the Pansie streaked with jet,
The glowing Violet."

FOOTNOTES:

[196:1] "The Pansie Heart's ease Maiden's call."--DRAYTON _Ed._, ix.

[196:2] And again--

"The other heste of hym is this,
Take not in ydel my name or amys."

_Pardeners Tale._

"Eterne God, that through thy purveance
Ledest this world by certein governance,
In idel, as men sein, ye nothinge make."

_The Frankelynes Tale._

[197:1] "Flamy, because its colours are seen in the flame of
wood."--_Flora Domestica_, 166.

PARSLEY.

_Biondello._

I knew a wench married in an afternoon as she went to the
garden for Parsley to stuff a rabbit.

_Taming of the Shrew_, act iv, sc 4 (99).

Parsley is the abbreviated form of Apium petroselinum, and is a common
name to many umbelliferous plants, but the garden Parsley is the one
meant here. This well