).

(13) _Boult._

A Thornier piece of ground.

_Pericles_, act iv, sc. 6 (153).

(14) _Leontes._

Which being spotted
Is goads, Thorns, Nettles, tails of wasps.

_Winter's Tale_, act i, sc. 2 (328).

(15) _Florizel._

But O, the Thorns we stand upon!

_Ibid._, act iv, sc. 4 (596).

(16) _Ophelia._

Do not, as some ungracious pastors do,
Shew me the steep and Thorny path to Heaven.

_Hamlet_, act i, sc. 3 (47).

(17) _Ghost._

Leave her to Heaven,
And to those Thorns that in her bosom lodge,
To prick and sting her.

_Ibid._, act i, sc. 5 (86).

(18) _Bastard._

I am amazed, methinks, and lose my way
Among the Thorns and dangers of this world.

_King John_, act iv, sc. 3 (40).

_See also_ ROSE, Nos. 7, 18, 22, 30, the scene in the Temple gardens;
and BRIER, No. 11.

Thorns and Thistles are the typical emblems of desolation and trouble,
and so Shakespeare uses them; and had he spoken of Thorns in this sense
only, I should have been doubtful as to admitting them among his other
plants, but as in some of the passages they stand for the Hawthorn tree
and the Rose bush, I could not pass them by altogether. They might need
no further comment beyond referring for further information about them
to Hawthorn, Briar, Rose, and Bramble; but in speaking of the Bramble I
mentioned the curious legend which tells why the Bramble employs itself
in collecting wool from every stray sheep, and there is another very
curious instance in Blount's "Antient Tenures" of a connection between
Thorns and wool. The original document is given in Latin, and is dated
39th Henry III. It may be thus translated: "Peter de Baldwyn holds in
Combes, in the county of Surrey, by the service to go a wool gathering
for our Lady the Queen among the White Thorns, and if he refuses to
gather it he shall pay into the Treasury of our Lord the King xxs. per
annum." I should almost suspect a false reading, as the editor is
inclined to do, but that many other services, equally curious and
improbable, may easily be found.

THYME.

(1) _Oberon._

I know a bank where the wild Thyme blows.