leopatra" (i. 5), the queen pathetically says:

"Give me to drink mandragora.

_Char._ Why, madam?

_Cleo._ That I might sleep out this great gap of time,
My Antony is away."

Lyte, in his translation of "Dodoens" (1578), p. 438, tells us that
"the leaves and fruit be also dangerous, for they cause deadly sleepe,
and peevish drowsiness, like opium." It was sometimes regarded as an
emblem of incontinence, as in "2 Henry IV." (iii. 2): "yet lecherous as
a monkey, and the whores called him--mandrake." A very diminutive figure
was, too, often compared to a mandrake. In "2 Henry IV." (i. 2),
Falstaff says: "Thou whoreson mandrake, thou art fitter to be worn in my
cap, than to wait at my heels." Tracing back the history of this plant
into far-distant times, it is generally believed that it is the same as
that which the ancient Hebrews called Dudain.[528] That these people
held it in the highest esteem in the days of Jacob is evident from its
having been found by Reuben, who carried the plant to his mother; and
the inducement which tempted Leah to part with it proves the value then
set upon this celebrated plant. According to a curious superstition,
this plant was thought to possess the properties of making childless
wives become mothers, and hence, some suppose, Rachel became so desirous
of possessing the mandrakes which Reuben had found. Among the many other
items of folk-lore associated with the mandrake, there is one which
informs us that "it is perpetually watched over by Satan, and if it be
pulled up at certain holy times, and with certain invocations, the evil
spirit will appear to do the bidding of the practitioner."[529] In
comparatively recent times, quacks and impostors counterfeited with the
root briony figures resembling parts of the human body, which were sold
to the credulous as endued with specific virtues.[530] The Germans, too,
equally superstitious, formed little idols of the roots of the mandrake,
which were regularly dressed every day, and consulted as oracles--their
repute being such that they were manufactured in great numbers, and sold
in cases. They were, also, imported into this country during the time of
Henry VIII., it being pretended that they would, with the assistance of
some mystic words, increase whatever money was placed near them. In
order, too, to enhance the value of these so-called miracle-workers, it
was said that the roots