John Gerarde, The Herball, 1597 - Goosetree described by Gerarde, p.1392.

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Date:1597

Description:Locations of plants known to Shakespeare's contemporaries.

Herbals and gardening books in Elizabethan England often describe the locations in which a plant may be found in the wild, as well as where it will thrive. Gerarde discussed some of the flora and fauna to be found on the seashore, including limpets and barnacles. In King Lear, looking over Dover Cliff , Edgar can see that ‘half-way down hangs one that gathers samphire...’ (4,5, line 15), while Cordelia describes her father in his madness having made himself a crown of ‘rank fumiter and furrow-weeds, with burdocks, hemlock, nettles, cuckoo-flowers, darnel, and all the idle weeds that grow in our sustaining corn.’ (4,3, lines 3-6).


Full title: John Gerarde, The Herball, [colophon: Edm. Bollifant for Bonham and John Norton], 1597.


Timeline

The timeline shows resources around this location over a number of years.

1570s
Henri Estienne, A mervaylous discourse upon... Katherine de Medici…, 1575 - title page
Henri Estienne, A mervaylous discourse upon... Katherine de Medici…, 1575 - title page

Shakespeare may have owned this book. Shakespeare purchased New Place, the largest ...

1590s
Church of England, Booke of Common Prayer, 1596 - binding view
Church of England, Booke of Common Prayer, 1596 - binding view

A much-used book, possibly owned by Shakespeare. This prayer book, whose dimensions ...

1610s
William Shakespeare, Quartos, A Midsummer Night's Dream, 1600 [1619] - Theseus goes hunting, p.F4v.
William Shakespeare, Quartos, A Midsummer Night's Dream, 1600 [1619] - Theseus goes hunting, p.F4v.

Duke Theseus’ hounds in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Theseus’s ...

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Donor ref:SR/OS 97.3 [827] (32/10517)

Source: The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust - Library

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