John Gerarde, The Herball, 1597 - roses, p.1079.

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Date:1597

Description:Roses feature more than once in Shakespeare’s plays.

Gerarde's Herbal gave Elizabethans the chance to see the plants that Shakespeare had in mind as he wrote certain scenes in his plays. In the first part of the play of Henry VI the leading members of the York and Lancaster parties meet in the Temple Garden in London, and choose their emblems, the roses, at the beginning of the civil wars which will be known throughout history as the Wars of the Roses: Richard of York urges his followers: ‘from off this brier pluck a white rose with me.’, while Somerset challenges ‘pluck a red rose from off this thorn with me’. (Henry VI, Part 1, 2,4, lines 30 and 33).


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] (32/10606)

Source: The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust - Library

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