pen best
Neighbour'd by fruit of baser quality,"

deserves, says Mr. Ellacombe, a passing note. "It was the common opinion
in his day that plants were affected by the neighborhood of other plants
to such an extent that they imbibed each others virtues and faults. Thus
sweet flowers were planted near fruit-trees with the idea of improving
the flavor of the fruit, and evil-smelling trees, like the elder, were
carefully cleared away from fruit-trees, lest they should be tainted.
But the strawberry was supposed to be an exception to the rule, and was
said to thrive in the midst of 'evil communications, without being
corrupted.'"

_Thorns._ The popular tradition, which represents the marks on the
moon[557] to be that of a man carrying a thorn-bush on his head, is
alluded to in "Midsummer-Night's Dream" (v. 1), in the Prologue:

"This man, with lanthorn, dog, and bush of thorn,
Presenteth Moonshine."

[557] See p. 68.

Little else is mentioned by Shakespeare with regard to thorns, save that
they are generally used by him as the emblems of desolation and trouble.

_Violets._ An old superstition is alluded to by Shakespeare when he
makes Laertes wish that violets may spring from the grave of Ophelia
("Hamlet," v. 1):

"Lay her i' the earth:
And from her fair and unpolluted flesh
May violets spring!"

an idea which occurs in Persius's "Satires" (i. 39):

"E tumulo fortunataque favilla
Nascentur violae."

The violet has generally been associated with early death. This, Mr.
Ellacombe considers,[558] "may have arisen from a sort of pity for
flowers that were only allowed to see the opening year, and were cut off
before the first beauty of summer had come, and so were looked upon as
apt emblems of those who enjoyed the bright springtide of life, and no
more." Thus, the violet is one of the flowers which Marina carries to
hang "as a carpet on the grave" in "Pericles" (iv. 1):

"the yellows, blues,
The purple violets, and marigolds,
Shall, as a carpet, hang upon thy grave,
While summer days do last."

[558] "Plant-Lore of Shakespeare," p. 248.

Again, in that exquisite passage in the "Winter's Tale" (iv. 4), where
Perdita enumerates the flowers of spring, she speaks of,

"violets, dim,
But sweeter than the lids of Juno's eyes,
Or Cytherea's breath;"

upon which Mr. Singer[559]