d Hebenon in a vial,
And in the porches of my ear did pour
The leperous distilment; whose effect
Holds such an enmity with blood of man
That swift as quicksilver it courses through
The natural gates and alleys of the body,
And with a sudden vigour it doth posset
And curd, like eager droppings into milk,
The thin and wholesome blood; so did it mine;
And a most instant tetter bark'd about,
Most lazar-like, with vile and loathsome crust,
All my smooth body.

_Hamlet_, act i, sc. 5 (61).

Before and in the time of Shakespeare other writers had spoken of the
narcotic and poisonous effects of Heben, Hebenon, or Hebona. Gower
says--

"Ful of delite,
Slepe hath his hous, and of his couche,
Within his chambre if I shall touche,
Of Hebenus that slepy tre
The bordes all aboute be."

_Conf. Aman._, lib. quart. (ii. 103, Paulli).

Spenser says--

"Faire Venus sonne, . . .
Lay now thy deadly Heben bow apart."

_F. Q._, introd., st. 3.

"There (in Mammon's garden) Cypresse grew in greatest store,
And trees of bitter gall and Heben sad."

_F. Q._, book ii, c. viij, st. 17.

And he speaks of a "speare of Heben wood," and "a Heben launce."
Marlowe, a contemporary and friend of Shakespeare, makes Barabas curse
his daughter with--

"In few the blood of Hydra, Lerna's bane,
The juice of Hebon, and Cocytus breath,
And all the poison of the Stygian pool."

_Jew of Malta_, act iii, st. 4.

It may be taken for granted that all these authors allude to the same
tree, but what tree is meant has sorely puzzled the commentators. Some
naturally suggested the Ebony, and this view is supported by the
respectable names of Archdeacon Nares, Douce, Schmidt, and Dyce. A
larger number pronounced with little hesitation in favour of Henbane
(_Hyoscyamus niger_), the poisonous qualities of which were familiar to
the contemporaries of Shakespeare, and were supposed by most of the
botanical writers of his day (and on the authority of Pliny) to be
communicated by being poured into the ears. But the Henbane is not a
tree, as Gower's "Hebenus" and Spenser's "Heben" certainly were; and
though it will satisfy some of the requirements of the plant named by