requently mentioned by
Shakespeare in some of his superb passages; as, for instance, in
"Cymbeline" (iv. 2), where Arviragus says:

"With fairest flowers,
Whilst summer lasts, and I live here, Fidele,
I'll sweeten thy sad grave: thou shalt not lack
The flower that's like thy face, pale primrose, nor
The azur'd hare-bell, like thy veins; no, nor
The leaf of eglantine, whom not to slander,
Out-sweeten'd not thy breath.

* * * * *

Yea, and furr'd moss besides, when flowers are none,
To winter-ground thy corse."

In "Hamlet" (iv. 5), the poor, bewildered Ophelia sings:

"Larded with sweet flowers;
Which bewept to the grave did go
With true-love showers."

Then, further on (v. 1), there is the affecting flower-strewing scene,
where the Queen, standing over the grave of Ophelia, bids her a long
farewell:

"Sweets to the sweet: farewell!
I hop'd thou should'st have been my Hamlet's wife;
I thought thy bride-bed to have deck'd, sweet maid,
And not have strew'd thy grave."

In "Romeo and Juliet" (iv. 5), Capulet says:

"Our bridal flowers serve for a buried corse."

And further on (v. 3) the Page says:

"He came with flowers to strew his lady's grave."[738]

[738] Cf. "Winter's Tale," iv. 4.

Once more, in "Pericles" (iv. 1), Marina is introduced, entering with a
basket of flowers, uttering these sad words:

"No, I will rob Tellus of her weed,
To strew thy green with flowers; the yellows, blues,
The purple violets, and marigolds,
Shall, as a carpet, hang upon thy grave,
While summer days do last."

Flowers, which so soon droop and wither, are, indeed, sweet emblems of
that brief life which is the portion of mankind in this world, while, at
the same time, their exquisite beauty is a further type of the glory
that awaits the redeemed hereafter, when, like fair flowers, they shall
burst forth in unspeakable grandeur on the resurrection morn. There is a
pretty custom observed in South Wales on Palm Sunday, of spreading fresh
flowers upon the graves of friends and relatives, the day being called
Flowering Sunday.

The practice of decorating the corpse is mentioned by many old writers.
In "Romeo and Juliet" (iv. 5), Friar Laurence says:

"Dry up your tears, and stick your rosemary
On this fair corse; and, as the custom is,
In all her best arr