_All's Well_, act iv, sc. 4 (32).

(12) _Polyxenes._

I'll have thy beauty scratched with Briers.

_Winter's Tale_, act iv, sc. 4 (436).

(13) _Timon._

The Oaks bear mast, the Briers scarlet hips.

_Timon of Athens_, act iv, sc. 3 (422).

(14) _Coriolanus._

Scratches with Briers,
Scars to move laughter only.

_Coriolanus_, act iii, sc. 3 (51).

(15) _Quintus._

What subtle hole is this,
Whose mouth is cover'd with rude-growing Briers?

_Titus Andronicus_, act iii, sc. 3 (198).

In Shakespeare's time the "Brier" was not restricted to the Sweet Briar,
as it usually is now; but it meant any sort of wild Rose, and even it
would seem from No. 9 that it was applied to the cultivated Rose, for
there the scene is laid in the Temple Gardens. In some of the passages
it probably does not allude to any Rose, but simply to any wild thorny
plant. That this was its common use then, we know from many examples. In
"Le Morte Arthur," the Earl of Ascolot's daughter is described--

"Hyr Rode was rede as blossom or Brere
Or floure that springith in the felde" (179).

And in "A Pleasant New Court Song," in the Roxburghe Ballads--

"I stept me close aside
Under a Hawthorn Bryer."

It bears the same meaning in our Bibles, where "Thorns," "Brambles," and
"Briers," stand for any thorny and useless plant, the soil of Palestine
being especially productive of thorny plants of many kinds. Wickliffe's
translation of Matthew vii. 16, is--"Whether men gaderen grapis of
thornes; or figis of Breris?" and Tyndale's translation is much the
same--"Do men gaddre grapes of thornes, or figges of Bryeres?"[41:1]

FOOTNOTES:

[41:1] "Brere--Carduus, tribulus, vepres, veprecula."--_Catholicon
Anglicum._

BROOM.

(1) _Iris._

And thy Broom groves,
Whose shadow the dismissed bachelor loves,
Being lass-lorn.

_Tempest_, act iv, sc. 1 (66).

(2) _Puck._

I am sent with Broom before
To sweep the dust behind the door.

_Midsummer Night's Dream_, act v, sc. 1 (396).

(3) _Man._

I made good my place; at length they came to the Broomstaff
with me.