He says
through Juliet (No. 36) that the Rose by any other name would smell as
sweet. But the whole world is against him. Rose was its old Latin name
corrupted from its older Greek name, and the same name, with slight and
easily-traced differences, has clung to it in almost all European
countries.

Shakespeare also mentions its uses in Rose-water and Rose-cakes, and it
was only natural to suppose that a flower so beautiful and so sweet was
meant by Nature to be of great use to man. Accordingly we find that
wonderful virtues were attributed to it,[255:1] and an especial virtue
was attributed to the dewdrops that settled on the full-blown Rose.
Shakespeare alludes to these in Nos. 22 and 27; and from these were made
cosmetics only suited to the most extravagant.

"The water that did spryng from ground
She would not touch at all,
But washt her hands with dew of Heaven
That on sweet Roses fall."

_The Lamentable Fall of Queen Ellinor._--Roxburghe Ballads.

And as with their uses, so it was also with their history. Such a flower
must have a high origin, and what better origin than the pretty mediaeval
legend told to us by Sir John Mandeville?--"At Betheleim is the Felde
_Floridus_, that is to seyne, the _Feld florisched_; for als moche as a
fayre mayden was blamed with wrong and sclaundered, for whiche cause
sche was demed to the Dethe, and to be brent in that place, to the
whiche she was ladd; and as the Fyre began to brent about hire, sche
made hire preyeres to oure Lord, that als wissely as sche was not gylty
of that Synne, that He wolde helpe hire and make it to be knowen to alle
men, of his mercyfulle grace. And when sche hadde thus seyd, sche
entered into the Fuyr; and anon was the Fuyr quenched and oute; and the
Brondes that weren brennynge becomen red Roseres, and the Brondes that
weren not kyndled becomen white Roseres, full of Roses. And these weren
the first Roseres and Roses, both white and rede, that evere ony man
saughe."--_Voiage and Travaile_, cap. vi.

With this pretty legend I may well conclude the account of Shakespeare's
Roses, commending, however, M. Biron's sensible remarks on unseasonable
flowers (No. 26) to those who estimate the beauty of a flower or
anything else in proportion to its being produced out of its natural
season.

FOOTNOTES:

[244:1] This was a familiar idea with the old writers: "Therefore,
sister Bud, grow wise by my folly, and know it is fa