ighness look so pale and wan?

_Tamora._ Have I not reason, think you, to look pale?
These two have 'tic'd me hither to this place:--
A barren detested vale, you see, it is;
The trees, though summer, yet forlorn and lean,
O'ercome with moss and baleful mistletoe:
Here never shines the sun; here nothing breeds,
Unless the nightly owl, or fatal raven."

[532] "Illustrations of Shakespeare," p. 386.

_Mushroom._ Besides his notice of the mushroom in the following
passages, Shakespeare alludes to the fairy rings[533] which are formed
by fungi, though, as Mr. Ellacombe[534] points out, he probably knew
little of this. In "The Tempest" (v. 1), Prospero says of the fairies:

"you demi-puppets, that
By moonshine do the green-sour ringlets make,
Whereof the ewe not bites; and you, whose pastime
Is to make midnight mushrooms;"

the allusion in this passage being to the superstition that sheep will
not eat the grass that grows on fairy rings.

[533] See page 15.

[534] "Plant-Lore of Shakespeare," p. 131.

_Mustard._ Tewksbury mustard, to which reference is made in "2 Henry
IV." (ii. 4), where Falstaff speaks of "wit as thick as Tewksbury
mustard," was formerly very famous. Shakespeare speaks only of its
thickness, but others have celebrated its pungency. Coles, writing in
1657, says: "In Gloucestershire, about Teuxbury, they grind mustard and
make it into balls, which are brought to London, and other remote
places, as being the best that the world affords."

_Narcissus._ The old legend attached to this flower is mentioned by
Emilia in "The Two Noble Kinsmen" (ii. 1):

"That was a fair boy certain, but a fool,
To love himself; were there not maids enough?"

_Nutmeg._ A gilt nutmeg was formerly a common gift at Christmas and on
other festive occasions, a notice of which occurs in "Love's Labour's
Lost" (v. 2), in the following dialogue:[535]

"_Armado._ 'The armipotent Mars, of lances the almighty,
Gave Hector a gift,--'

_Dumain._ A gilt nutmeg."

[535] Nares's "Glossary," vol. ii. p. 612.

_Oak._ A crown of oak was considered by the Romans worthy of the highest
emulation of statesmen and warriors. To him who had saved the life of a
Roman soldier was given a crown of oak-leaves; one, indeed, which was
accounted more honorable than any other. In "Coriolanus" (ii. 1),
Volumnia says: "he comes the third time home wi