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Transcriber's Note
Greek text has been transliterated, and is marked with plus signs,
e.g. +Peri Didaxeôn+.
Oe ligatures are indicated with [oe].
Superscripted characters are surrounded with braces, e.g. y{e}.
Characters with macrons, which usually indicate omitted letters, are
marked with square brackets and an equals sign, e.g. tha[=n]e.
Yogh is indicated as [gh], e.g. wyrt[gh]erd.
Apostrophus symbols, resembling a backwards C, are indicated with [C].
Tironian ampersands are indicated with [et].
A letter q with a small c above it, meaning the word 'qui', is
indicated with [qui].
A letter u with a small o above it, indicating pronunciation, is
marked as [ou].
Asterisms (three dots arranged in a triangle point-up) are indicated
with [.'.]. Reverse asterisms (three dots arranged in a triangle
point-down) are indicated with ['.'].
Other symbols are noted descriptively, and are enclosed in square
brackets and marked with tildes, e.g. [~Sun~].
The parallel-column text referred to on page 67 has been transcribed
as two separate paragraphs in this version of the e-text.
THE OLD
ENGLISH HERBALS
BY
ELEANOUR SINCLAIR ROHDE
AUTHOR OF "A GARDEN OF HERBS"
[Illustration: Illustration of the "lilie" from the Saxon
translation of the _Herbarium of Apuleius_]
Longmans, Green and Co.
1922
[Illustration: HERBS BEING DUG UP AND MADE INTO MEDICINES UNDER THE
DIRECTION OF A SAGE
From a 12th century copy of the _Herbarium of Apuleius_, now in the
Library of Eton College]
TO
MY BROTHER
"The Lely is an herbe wyth a whyte floure. And though the
levys of the floure be whyte: yet wythin shyneth the
lykenesse of golde."--BARTHOLOMÆUS ANGLICUS (_circ._ 1260).
PREFACE
The writing of this book on that fascinating and somewhat neglected[1]
branch of garden literature--the old English Herbals--has been a
labour of love, but it could not have been done without all the kind
help I have had. My grateful thanks are due to the authorities at the
British Museum, to Professor Burkitt of Cambridge, and very specially
to Mr. J. B. Capper for invaluable help. I am indebted to Dr. James,
the Provost of Eton, for his kind permission to reproduce an
illustration from a twelfth-century MS. in the Library of Eton College
for the frontispiece. I find it difficult to express either my
indebtedness or my gratitude to Dr. and Mrs. Charles Singer, the
former for all his help and the latter for her generous permission to
make use of her valuable bibliography of early scientific manuscripts.
I am further indebted to Dr. Charles Singer for reading the chapter on
the Anglo-Saxon herbals in proof. For their kind courtesy in answering
my inquiries concerning the MS. herbals in the libraries of their
respective cathedrals, I offer my grateful thanks to the Deans of
Lincoln and Gloucester Cathedrals, and to the Rev. J. N. Needham for
information concerning the herbals in the library of Durham Cathedral;
to the librarians of the following colleges--All Souls' College,
Oxford; Balliol College, Oxford; Corpus Christi College, Oxford;
Corpus Christi College, Cambridge; Emmanuel College, Cambridge;
Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge; Magdalene College, Cambridge;
Peterhouse, Cambridge; Jesus College, Cambridge; St. John's College,
Oxford, and Trinity College, Cambridge; to the librarians of Durham
University, Trinity College, Dublin, the Royal Irish Academy, and the
National Library of Wales; to the Honble. Lady Cecil for information
respecting MSS. in the library of the late Lord Amherst of Hackney;
and to the following owners of private libraries--the Marquis of Bath,
Lord Leconfield, Lord Clifden, Mr. T. Fitzroy Fenwick of Cheltenham,
and Mr. Wynne of Peniarth, Merioneth. For information respecting
incunabula herbals in American libraries I am indebted to Dr. Arnold
Klebs and to Mr. Green of the Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis.
No pains have been spared to make the bibliographies as complete as
possible, but I should be glad to be told of any errors or omissions.
There are certain editions of _Banckes's Herbal_ and _The Grete
Herball_ mentioned by authorities such as Ames, Hazlitt, etc., of
which no copies can now be found in the chief British libraries (see
p. 204 _et seq._). If any copies of these editions are in private
libraries I should be grateful to hear of them. The rarest printed
herbal is "_Arbolayre conten[=a]t la qualitey et vertus proprietiez
des herbes g[=o]mes et sim[=e]ces extraite de plusiers tratiers de
medicine co[=m]ent davicene de rasis de constatin de ysaac et
plateaire selon le co[=n]u usaige bien correct_." (Supposed to have
been printed by M. Husz at Lyons.) It is believed that there are only
two copies of this book now extant. One is in the Bibliothèque
Nationale, Paris; the other was sold in London, March 23, 1898, but I
have been unable to discover who is the present owner. For this or any
other information I should be most grateful.
ELEANOUR SINCLAIR ROHDE.
FOOTNOTE:
[1] It is a remarkable fact that even the eleventh edition of the
omniscient _Encyclopædia Britannica_ has no article on Herbals.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
PAGE
THE ANGLO-SAXON HERBALS 1
Evidence of the existence of books on herbs in the eighth
century--Tenth-century manuscripts--Their importance as the
first records of Anglo-Saxon plant lore and of folk medicine
of a still earlier age--Preliminary survey of the more
important manuscripts--_Leech Book of Bald_--Authorship and
origin--Oldest Leech Book written in the vernacular in
Europe--Saxon translation of the _Herbarium Apuleii
Platonici_--Illustrations--Saxon translation of the +Peri
Didaxeôn+--The _Lacnunga_--Importance of these manuscripts
to the student of folk lore--Folk lore of the origin of
disease--Doctrine of the "elf-shot"--"Flying
venom"--Doctrine of the worm as the ultimate source of
disease--Demoniac possession--Herbal
remedies--Picturesqueness of Saxon methods of treating
diseases--Smoking patient with fumes of herbs--Cattle
similarly treated--Use of herbs as amulets--Binding on with
red wool--Specially sacred herbs--Charms and incantations to
be used in picking and administering herbs--Transference of
disease--Predominance of the number nine--Ceremonies to be
observed in the picking of herbs--Nature-worship in these
ceremonies--Eostra--Prayer to Earth.
CHAPTER II
LATER MANUSCRIPT HERBALS AND THE EARLY PRINTED HERBALS 42
Later manuscript herbals--Copies of Macer's herbal--Treatise
on the virtues of rosemary sent by the Countess of Hainault
to Queen Philippa of England--Bartholomæus Anglicus, _De
Proprietatibus rerum_--Popularity of his
writings--Characteristics of _De herbis_--Trevisa's
translation--Bartholomæus on the rose, the violet,
etc.--Fleeting pictures of mediæval life in _De
herbis_--Feeding swine, making bread, building houses,
making linen, life in the vineyards, woods, etc.--Wynken de
Worde's poem at the end of his edition of _De Proprietatibus
rerum_--_Banckes's Herbal_--Possible sources--Later
editions--Rose recipes--Mediæval belief in wholesomeness of
fragrant herbs--Descriptions of herbs in _Banckes's
Herbal_--"The boke of secretes of Albartus Magnus"--Herb
lore and magic--The _Grete Herball_--Its origin--Peter
Treveris--Characteristics of this herbal--_The vertuose book
of the Dystillacion of the Waters of all maner of Herbes_.
CHAPTER III
TURNER'S HERBAL AND THE INFLUENCE OF THE FOREIGN HERBALISTS 75
William Turner--Cambridge with Nicholas Ridley--Travels
abroad--Bologna--Luca Ghini--Conrad
Gesner--Cologne--Appointed chaplain and physician to the
Duke of Somerset--His early writings on herbs--Turner's
Herbal--Illustrations--Characteristics of the
book--Descriptions of herbs--North-country lore--Old country
customs--Influence of the foreign herbalists on the later
English herbals--Leonhard Fuchs--Rembert Dodoens--Charles de
l'Escluse--Matthias de l'Obel--Lyte's translation of
Dodoens' _Cruÿdtboeck_--Illustrations--_Ram's little
Dodoen_.
CHAPTER IV
GERARD'S HERBAL 98
Popularity of Gerard's Herbal--Its charm--Gerard's
boyhood--Later life--His garden in Holborn--Friendship with
Jean Robin, keeper of the royal gardens in Paris--Origin of
Gerard's Herbal--Illustrations--Old beliefs in the effects
of herbs on the heart and mind--Use of herbs as
amulets--Other folk lore--Myth of the barnacle geese--Origin
and history of the myth--Old English names of plants--Wild
flower life of London in Elizabeth's day--"Master Tuggie's"
garden in Westminster--Shakespeare and Gerard.
CHAPTER V
HERBALS OF THE NEW WORLD 120
Herbals written in connection with the colonisation of
America by the Spaniards and English--Early records of the
plant lore of the Red Indians--English weeds introduced into
America and first gardens in New England--_Joyfull Newes
from out of the newe founde worlde_--Gums used by the Red
Indians--"Mechoacan"--"The hearbe tabaco"--First account and
illustration of this plant--Its uses by the Red Indians in
their religious ceremonies and as a wound-herb--Origin of
the name "Nicotiana"--Sassafras--Use by the Spanish
soldiers--Root used as a pomander in Europe in time of
plague--_New England's Rarities discovered_--Weeds
introduced into America with the first Colonists--First list
of English plants grown in New England gardens--_The
American Physitian_--The "Maucaw" tree--Use of the seed by
the Red Indians--Cacao and the making of chocolate--Cacao
kernels used as tokens--James Petiver--_The South-Sea
Herbal_.
CHAPTER VI
JOHN PARKINSON, THE LAST OF THE GREAT ENGLISH HERBALISTS 142
John Parkinson--The _Paradisus_--Myth of the vegetable
lamb--Origin of the myth--Characteristics of the book--An
Elizabethan flower-garden--Lilies, anemones, gilliflowers,
cucko-flowers, etc.--Sweet herbs: rosemary, lavender,
basil, thyme, hyssop--The kitchen garden--The
orchard--_Theatrum Botanicum_--Its importance--Old belief in
the power of herbs against evil spirits--Folk lore in this
Herbal--Bee lore--Beauty recipes--Country customs and
beliefs.
CHAPTER VII
LATER SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY HERBALS AND SIXTEENTH- AND
SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY STILL-ROOM BOOKS 163
Later seventeenth-century Herbals--Revival of belief in
astrological lore--Nicholas Culpeper--His
character--Popularity in the East End of London--His
Herbal--Coles's _Art of Simpling_--Doctrine of
Signatures--Herbs used by animals--Plants used in and
against witchcraft--Coles's astrological beliefs--On the
pleasures of gardening--Still-room books--Their relation to
herbals--The Fairfax still-room book--An old
love-letter--Recipes: "To make a bath for melancholy,"
"Balles for the face," "For them theyr speech
faileth"--_Lady Sedley her receipt book_--Noted contributors
to this book--_Mary Doggett Her Book of Receipts_,
1682--Recipes: "A pomander for balme water," "To dry roses
for sweet powder," "A perfume for a sweet bagg"--The
Countess of Kent's still-room book--"A comfortable cordial
to cheer the heart"--Tryon's still-room book--Sir Kenelm
Digby--Charm of his books--Recipes: "Sweet meat of apples,"
"Wheaten Flommery," "A Flomery Caudle," "Conserve of Red
Roses"--The old herb-gardens--Fairies and
herb-gardens--Revival of the old belief in the communion
between stars and flowers.
BIBLIOGRAPHIES
ENGLISH HERBALS 189
I. Manuscript herbals, treatises on the virtues of herbs,
etc. Manuscripts written in Latin after 1400 are not
included in this list.
II. Printed books. The herbals are listed according to
authors, or, in the case of anonymous works, according to
the names by which they are usually known, and full titles,
etc., of all known editions are given. In cases where only
one copy of an edition is known the library where it is to
be found is indicated. Editions mentioned in Ames, Hazlitt,
etc., but of which no copies are now known, are listed, but
in each case the fact that the only mention of them is to be
found in one of the above is stated.
FOREIGN HERBALS 225
This list includes only the chief works and those which have
some connection with the history of the herbal in England.
INDEX 237
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
_Facing page_
HERBS BEING DUG UP AND MADE INTO MEDICINES UNDER
THE DIRECTION OF A SAGE _Frontispiece_
ÆSCULAPIUS PLATO AND A CENTAUR FROM THE SAXON
TRANSLATION OF THE "HERBARIUM OF APULEIUS" 10
MANDRAKE FROM A SAXON HERBAL 22
(1) ARTEMISIA AND (2) BLACKBERRY, FROM A SAXON HERBAL 30
FROM A SAXON HERBAL 40
WOODCUT OF TREES AND HERBS FROM THE SEVENTEENTH BOOK
OF "DE PROPRIETATIBUS RERUM" 48
INITIAL LETTERS FROM "BANCKES'S HERBAL" 56
WOODCUT FROM THE TITLE-PAGE OF THE "GRETE HERBALL" (1526) 64
WOODCUT OF PETER TREVERIS' SIGN OF THE "WODOWS" FROM THE
"GRETE HERBALL" (1529) 70
WOODCUT FROM THE TITLE-PAGE OF THE FOURTH EDITION OF THE
"GRETE HERBALL" (1561) 71
ILLUSTRATIONS FROM TURNER'S "HERBALL" 88
PORTRAIT OF JOHN GERARD FROM THE FIRST EDITION OF THE
"HERBALL" (1597) 104
ILLUSTRATIONS OF SASSAFRAS AND TOBACCO FROM NICHOLAS
MONARDES' "JOYFULL NEWES OUT OF THE NEWE FOUNDE
WORLDE" (1577) 128
TITLE-PAGE OF PARKINSON'S "PARADISUS" (1629) 144
TITLE-PAGE OF PARKINSON'S "THEATRUM BOTANICUM" (1640) 152
PORTRAIT OF JOHN PARKINSON FROM THE "PARADISUS" (1629) 160
NICHOLAS CULPEPER FROM "THE ENGLISH PHYSICIAN ENLARGED" 166
FRONTISPIECE OF "THE CURIOUS DESTILLATORY," BY THOMAS
SHIRLEY, M.D., PHYSICIAN IN ORDINARY TO HIS MAJESTY
(1677) 174
THE OLD ENGLISH HERBALS
CHAPTER I
THE ANGLO-SAXON HERBALS
"Everything possible to be believ'd is an image of truth."
WILLIAM BLAKE.
There is a certain pathos attached to the fragments from any great
wreck, and in studying the few Saxon manuscripts, treating of herbs,
which have survived to our day, we find their primary fascination not
so much in their beauty and interest as in the visions they conjure up
of those still older manuscripts which perished during the terrible
Danish invasions. That books on herbs were studied in England as early
as the eighth century is certain, for we know that Boniface, "the
Apostle of the Saxons," received letters from England asking him for
books on simples and complaining that it was difficult to obtain the
foreign herbs mentioned in those we already possessed.[2] But of these
manuscripts none have survived, the oldest we possess being of the
tenth century, and for our knowledge of Anglo-Saxon plant lore we look
chiefly to those four important manuscripts--the _Leech Book of Bald_,
the _Lacnunga_ and the Saxon translations of the _Herbarium of
Apuleius_ and the so-called +Peri Didaxeôn+.
Apart from their intrinsic fascination, there are certain
considerations which give these manuscripts a peculiar importance.
Herb lore and folk medicine lag not years, but centuries, behind the
knowledge of their own day. Within living memory our peasants were
using, and in the most remote parts of these islands they use still,
the herbal and other remedies of our Saxon ancestors. They even use
curiously similar charms. The herb lore recorded in these manuscripts
is the herb lore, not of the century in which they were written, but
of the dim past ages pictured in the oldest parts of _Widsith_ and
_Beowulf_. To the student of English plant lore, the _Herbarium of
Apuleius_ and the +Peri Didaxeôn+ are less interesting because they
are translations, but the more one studies the original Saxon writings
on herbs and their uses, the more one realises that, just as in
_Beowulf_ there are suggestions and traces of an age far older than
that in which the poem was written, so in these manuscripts are
embedded beliefs which carry us back to the dawn of history. It is
this which gives this plant lore its supreme interest. It is almost
overwhelming to recognise that possibly we have here fragments of the
plant lore of our ancestors who lived when Attila's hordes were
devastating Europe, and that in the charms and ceremonies connected
with the picking and administering of herbs we are carried back to
forms of religion so ancient that, compared to it, the worship of
Woden is modern. Further, it is only in these manuscripts that we find
this herb lore, for in the whole range of Saxon literature outside
them there is remarkably little mention of plant life. The great world
of nature, it is true, is ever present; the ocean is the background of
the action in both _Beowulf_ and _Cynewulf_, and the sound of the wind
and the sea is in every line. One is conscious of vast trackless
wastes of heath and moor, of impenetrable forests and terror-infested
bogs; but of the details of plant life there is scarcely a word. In
these manuscripts alone do we find what plant life meant to our
ancestors, and, as with all primitive nations, their belief in the
mystery of herbs is almost past our civilised understanding. Their
plant lore, hoary with age, is redolent of a time when the tribes were
still wandering on the mainland of Europe, and in these first records
of this plant lore there is the breath of mighty forests, of marsh
lands and of Nature in her wildest. We are swept back to an epoch when
man fought with Nature, wresting from her the land, and when the
unseen powers of evil resented this conquest of their domains. To the
early Saxons those unseen powers were an everyday reality. A
supernatural terror brooded over the trackless heaths, the dark mere
pools were inhabited by the water elves. In the wreathing mists and
driving storms of snow and hail they saw the uncouth "moor gangers,"
"the muckle mark steppers who hold the moors," or the stalking fiends
of the lonely places, creatures whose baleful eyes shone like flames
through the mist. To this day some of our place names in the more
remote parts of these islands recall the memory of those evil terrors.
In these manuscripts we are again in an atmosphere of eotens and
trolls, there are traces of even older terrors, when the first Teuton
settlers in Europe struggled with the aborigines who lived in caves,
hints as elusive as the phantom heroes in the Saxon poems, and as
unforgettable.
Still more remarkable is the fact that beneath the superstructure of
Christian rites to be used when the herbs were being picked or
administered we find traces not merely of the ancient heathen
religion, but of a religion older than that of Woden. It has been
emphasised by our most eminent authorities that in very early times
our ancestors had but few chief gods, and it is a remarkable fact that
there is no mention whatever of Woden in the whole range of Saxon
literature before the time of Alfred. In those earlier centuries they
seem to have worshipped a personification of Heaven, and Earth, the
wife of Heaven, and the Son, whom after ages called Thor. There were
also Nature deities, Hrede, the personification of the brightness of
Summer, and Eostra, the radiant creature of the Dawn. It will be
remembered that it was the worship, not of Balder, but of Eostra,
which the Christian missionaries found so deeply imbedded that they
adopted her name and transferred it to Easter. For this we have the
authority of Bede. Separate from these beneficent powers were the
destroying and harmful powers of Nature--darkness, storm, frost and
the deadly vapours of moorland and fen, personified in the giants, the
ogres, the furious witches that rode the winds and waves; in fact, the
whole horde of demons of sea and land and sky. It is the traces of
these most ancient forms of religion which give to the manuscripts
their strongest fascination.
Many of us miss all that is most worth learning in old books through
regarding anything in them that is unfamiliar as merely quaint, if not
ridiculous. This attitude seals a book as effectually and as
permanently as it seals a sensitive human being. There is only one way
of understanding these old writers, and that is to forget ourselves
entirely and to try to look at the world of nature as they did. It is
not "much learning" that is required, but sympathy and imagination. In
the case of these Saxon manuscripts we are repaid a thousandfold; for
they transport us to an age far older than our own, and yet in some
ways so young that we have lost its magic key. For we learn not only
of herbs and the endless uses our forefathers made of them, but, if we
try to read them with understanding, these books open for us a magic
casement through which we look upon the past bathed in a glamour of
romance. Our Saxon ancestors may have been a rude and hardy race, but
they did not live in an age of materialism as we do. In their writings
on herbs and their uses we see "as through a glass darkly" a time when
grown men believed in elves and goblins as naturally as they believed
in trees, an age when it was the belief of everyday folk that the air
was peopled with unseen powers of evil against whose machinations
definite remedies must be applied. They believed, as indeed the people
of all ancient civilisations have believed, that natural forces and
natural objects were endued with mysterious powers whom it was
necessary to propitiate by special prayers. Not only the stars of
heaven, but springs of water and the simple wayside herbs, were to
them directly associated with unseen beings. There are times when one
is reminded forcibly of that worship of Demeter, "nearer to the Earth
which some have thought they could discern behind the definitely
national mythology of Homer." They believed that the sick could be
cured by conjurations and charms, as firmly as we believe to-day in
curing them by suggestion--is there any real difference between these
methods?--and when one reads the charms which they used in
administering their herbs one cannot help wondering whether these were
handed down traditionally from the Sumerians, those ancient
inhabitants of Mesopotamia who five thousand years before Christ used
charms for curing the sick which have now been partially deciphered
from the cuneiform inscriptions. But before studying the plant lore
therein contained, it may be as well to take a preliminary survey of
the four most important manuscripts.
The oldest Saxon book dealing with the virtues of herbs which we
possess is the _Leech Book of Bald_, dating from about A.D. 900-950.
Unlike some other MS. herbals of which only a few tattered pages
remain, this perfect specimen of Saxon work has nothing fragile about
it. The vellum is as strong and in as good condition as when it first
lay clean and untouched under the hand of the scribe--Cild by
name--who penned it with such skill and loving care. One's imagination
runs riot when one handles this beautiful book, now over a thousand
years old, and wonders who were its successive owners and how it has
survived the wars and other destructive agencies through all these
centuries. But we only know that, at least for a time, it was
sheltered in that most romantic of all English monasteries,
Glastonbury.[3] This Saxon manuscript has a dignity which is unique,
for it is the oldest existing leech book written in the vernacular. In
a lecture delivered before the Royal College of Physicians in 1903,
Dr. J. F. Payne commented on the remarkable fact that the Anglo-Saxons
had a much wider knowledge of herbs than the doctors of Salerno, the
oldest school of medicine and oldest university in Europe. "No
treatise," he said, "of the School of Salerno contemporaneous with the
_Leech Book of Bald_ is known, so that the Anglo-Saxons had the credit
of priority. Their Leech Book was the first medical treatise written
in Western Europe which can be said to belong to modern history, that
is, which was produced after the decadence and decline of the
classical medicine, which belongs to ancient history.... It seems fair
to regard it [the Leech Book], in a sense, as the embryo of modern
English medicine, and at all events the earliest medical treatise
produced by any of the modern nations of Europe." The Anglo-Saxons
created a vernacular literature to which the continental nations at
that time could show no parallel, and in the branch of literature
connected with medicine, in those days based on a knowledge of herbs
(when it was not magic), their position was unique. Moreover, the fact
that the Leech Book was written in the vernacular is in itself
remarkable, for it points to the existence of a class of men who were
not Latin scholars and yet were able and willing to read books. The
Leech Book belongs to the literary period commonly known as the school
of Alfred. It was probably written shortly after Alfred's death, but
it is more than probable that it is a copy of a much older manuscript,
for what is known as the third book of the Leech Book is evidently a
shorter and older work incorporated by the scribe when he had finished
the Leech Book proper.
The book itself was written under the direction of one Bald, who, if
he were not a personal friend of King Alfred's, had at any rate access
to the king's correspondence; for one chapter consists of
prescriptions sent by Helias, Patriarch of Jerusalem, to the king.[4]
We learn the names of the first owner and scribe from lines in Latin
verse at the end of the second part of the MS.
"Bald is the owner of this book, which he ordered Cild to write,
Earnestly I pray here all men, in the name of Christ,
That no treacherous person take this book from me,
Neither by force nor by theft nor by any false statement.
Why? Because the richest treasure is not so dear to me
As my dear books which the Grace of Christ attends."
The book consists of 109 leaves and is written in a large, bold hand
and one or two of the initial letters are very faintly illuminated.
The writing is an exceptionally fine specimen of Saxon penmanship. On
many of the pages there are mysterious marks, but it is impossible to
conjecture their meaning. It has been suggested that they point to the
sources from which the book was compiled and were inserted by the
original owner.
The _Leech Book of Bald_ was evidently the manual of a Saxon doctor,
and he refers to two other doctors--Dun and Oxa by name--who had given
him prescriptions. The position of the leech in those days must have
been very trying, for he was subjected to the obviously unfair
competition of the higher clergy, many of whom enjoyed a reputation
for working miraculous cures.[5] The leech being so inferior in
position, it is not surprising that his medical knowledge did not
advance on scientific lines. He relied on the old heathen
superstitions, probably from an instinctive feeling that in pagan
religion, combined with the herb lore which had been handed down
through the ages, the mass of the people had a deep-rooted faith.
Nothing is more obvious in the Leech Book than the fact that the
virtues ascribed to the different herbs are based not on the personal
knowledge of the writer, but on the old herb lore. This gives the
Leech Book its special fascination; for it is the oldest surviving
manuscript in which we can learn the herb lore of our ancestors,
handed down to them from what dim past ages we can only surmise. We
have, therefore, to bear in mind that what may strike our modern minds
as quaint, or even grotesque, is in the majority of instances a
distorted form of lore which doubtless suffered many changes during
the early centuries of our era. Nearly all that is most fascinating in
the Leech Book is of very ancient Indo-Germanic or Eastern origin, but
one cannot help wondering how much the Saxons incorporated of the herb
lore of the ancient Britons. Does not Pliny tell us that the Britons
gathered herbs with such striking ceremonies that it would seem as
though the Britons had taught them to the Persians?
One cannot read Bald's manuscript without being struck by his
remarkable knowledge of native plants and garden herbs. We are
inferior to our continental neighbours in so many arts that it is
pleasant to find that in the ancient art of gardening and in their
knowledge of herbs our Saxon forefathers excelled. It has been pointed
out by eminent authorities that the Anglo-Saxons had names for, and
used, a far larger number of plants than the continental nations. In
the _Herbarium of Apuleius_, including the additions from Dioscorides,
only 185 plants are mentioned, and this was one of the standard works
of the early Middle Ages. In the _Herbarius_ of 1484, the earliest
herbal printed in Germany, only 150 plants are recorded, and in the
German _Herbarius_ of 1485 there are 380. But from various sources it
has been computed that the Anglo-Saxons had names for, and used, at
least 500 plants.[6] One feels instinctively that the love of flowers
and gardens was as deep-rooted in our ancestors as it is in our nation
to-day, and though we do not know exactly what they grew in their
gardens--which they called wyrt[gh]erd (literally, herb-yard)--we do
know that the marigolds, sunflowers, peonies, violets and
gilly-flowers which make the cottage gardens of England so gay and
full of colour to-day were also the commonest plants in the Saxon
gardens. Fashions in large gardens have changed throughout the
centuries, and there are stately gardens in this country famed the
world over. But in regard to our cottage gardens we are staunchly
conservative, and it is assuredly the cottage garden which is
characteristically English. Incidentally, one cannot help regretting
that so many of our old Saxon plant names have fallen into disuse.
"Waybroad," for instance, is much more descriptive than "plantain,"
which is misleading.[7] "Maythen" also is surely preferable to
"camomile," and "wergulu" is more characteristic of that fierce weed
than "nettle." Those of us who are gardeners will certainly agree that
"unfortraedde" is the right name for knotweed. And is not "joy of the
ground" a delightful name for periwinkle?
The oldest illustrated herbal which has come down to us from Saxon
times is the translation of the Latin _Herbarium Apuleii
Platonici_.[8] The original Latin work is believed to date from the
fifth century, though no copy so ancient as this is in existence now.
The name Apuleius Platonicus is possibly fictitious and nothing is
known of the writer, who was, of course, distinct from Apuleius
Madaurensis, the author of the _Golden Ass_. The Saxon translation of
this herbal (now in the British Museum) is supposed to date from A.D.
1000-1050, and belongs to the school of Ælfric of Canterbury. The
frontispiece is a coloured picture in which Plato is represented
holding a large volume which is being given him by Æsculapius and the
Centaur, and on the other side of the page is a blue circle spotted
with white and red, within which is the name of the book: "Herbarium
Apuleii Platonici quod accepit ab Escolapio et Chirone centauro
magistro Achillis." The book consists of 132 chapters, in each of
which a herb is described, and there are accompanying illustrations of
the herbs. Throughout the book there are also remarkable pictures of
snakes, scorpions and unknown winged creatures. It has been pointed
out that the figures of herbs are obviously not from the original
plants, but are copied from older figures, and these from others older
still, and one wonders what the original pictures were like. It is
interesting to think that perhaps the illustrations in this Saxon
herbal are directly descended, so to speak, from the drawings of
Cratevas,[9] Dionysius or Metrodorus, of whom Pliny tells us "They
drew the likeness of herbs and wrote under them their effects." The
picture of the lily is very attractive in spite of the fact that the
flowers are painted pale blue. The stamens in the figure stand out
beyond the petals and look like rays of light, with a general effect
that is curiously pleasing. One of the most interesting figures is
that of the mandrake (painted in a deep madder), which embodies the
old legend that it was death to dig up the root, and that therefore a
dog was tied to a rope and made to drag it up. It is the opinion of
some authorities that these figures show the influence of the school
represented by the two splendid Vienna manuscripts of Dioscorides
dating from the fifth and seventh centuries. There is no definite
evidence of this, and though the illustrations in the Saxon manuscript
show the influence of the classical tradition, they are poor compared
with those in the Vienna manuscript. To some extent at least the
drawings in this herbal must necessarily have been copies, for many of
the plants are species unknown in this country.
[Illustration: ÆSCULAPIUS PLATO AND A CENTAUR
From the Saxon translation of the _Herbarium of Apuleius_
(Cott. Vit., C. 3, folio 19_a_)]
The Saxon translation of the +Peri Didaxeôn+ (Harl. 6258) is a thin
volume badly mutilated in parts. Herr Max Löwenbeck[10] has shown that
this is in part translated from a treatise by an eleventh-century
writer, Petrocellus or Petronius, of the School of Salerno--the
original treatise being entitled _Practica Petrocelli Salernitani_.[11]
As has been pointed out by many eminent authorities, the School of
Salerno, being a survival of Greek medicine, was uncontaminated by
superstitious medicine. Consequently there are striking differences
between this and the other Saxon manuscripts. The large majority of the
herbs mentioned are those of Southern Europe, and the pharmacy is very
simple compared with the number of herbs in prescriptions of native
origin. As Dr. J. F. Payne[12] has pointed out, Herr Löwenbeck's
important discovery does not account for the whole of the English book.
The order of the chapters differs from that of the Salernitan writer;
there are passages not to be found in the _Practica_, and in some
places the English text gives a fuller reading. It is fairly evident
that the Saxon treatise is at least in part indebted to the
_Passionarius_ by Gariopontus, another Salernitan writer of the same
period.
The _Lacnunga_ (Harl. 585), an original work, and one of the oldest
and most interesting manuscripts, is a small, thick volume without any
illustrations. Some of the letters are illuminated and some are rudely
ornamented. At the top of the first page there is the inscription
"Liber Humfredi Wanley," and it is interesting, therefore, to realise
that the British Museum owes this treasure to the zealous antiquarian
whose efforts during the closing years of the seventeenth and early
years of the eighteenth century rescued so many valuable Saxon and
other MSS. from oblivion.[13]
To the student of folk lore and folk custom these sources of herb lore
are of remarkable interest for the light they throw on the beliefs and
customs of humble everyday people in Anglo-Saxon times. Of kings and
warriors, of bards and of great ladies we can read in other Saxon
literature, and all so vividly that we see their halls, the long
hearths on which the fires were piled, the openings in the roof
through which the smoke passed. We see the men with their "byrnies" of
ring mail, their crested helmets, their leather-covered shields and
deadly short swords. We see them and their womenkind wearing golden
ornaments at their feasts, the tables laden with boars' flesh and
venison and chased cups of ale and mead. We see these same halls at
night with the men sleeping, their "byrnies" and helmets hanging near
them, and in the dim light we can make out also the trophies of the
chase hanging on the walls. We read of their mighty deeds, and we know
at least something of the ideals and the thoughts of their great men
and heroes. But what of that vast number of the human kind who were
always in the background? What of the hewers of wood and drawers of
water, the swineherds, the shepherds, the carpenters, the hedgers and
cobblers? Is it not wonderful to think that in these manuscripts we
can learn, at least to some extent, what plant life meant to these
everyday folk? And even in these days to understand what plant life
means to the true countryman is to get into very close touch with him.
Not only has suburban life separated the great concentrated masses of
our people from their birthright of meadows, fields and woods; of
Nature, in her untamed splendour and mystery, most of them have never
had so much as a momentary glimpse. But in Saxon times even the towns
were not far from the unreclaimed marshes and forests, and to the
peasant in those days they were full not only of seen, but also of
unseen perils. There was probably not a Saxon child who did not know
something of the awe of waste places and impenetrable forests. Even
the hamlets lay on the very edge of forests and moors, and to the
peasant these were haunted by giant, elf and monster, as in the more
inaccessible parts of these islands they are haunted still to those
who retain something of primitive imagination. And when we study the
plant lore of these people we realise that prince and peasant alike
used the simple but mysterious herbs not only to cure them of both
physical and mental ills, but to guard them from these unseen
monsters. Of the reverence they paid to herbs we begin to have some
dim apprehension when we read of the ceremonies connected with the
picking and administering of them.
But, first, what can we learn of the beliefs as to the origin of
disease? Concerning this the great bulk of the folk lore in these
manuscripts is apparently of native Teutonic origin, or rather it
would be more correct to speak of its origin as Indo-Germanic; for the
same doctrines are to be found among all Indo-Germanic peoples, and
even in the Vedas, notably the Atharva Veda. Of these beliefs, the
doctrine of the "elf-shot" occupies a large space, the longest chapter
in the third book of the _Leech Book of Bald_ being entirely "against
elf-disease." We know from their literature that to our Saxon
ancestors waste places of moor and forest and marshes were the resort
of a host of supernatural creatures at enmity with mankind. In the
_Leech Book of Bald_ disease is largely ascribed to these elves, whose
shafts produced illness in their victims. We read of beorg-ælfen,
dun-ælfen, muntælfen. But our modern word "elf" feebly represents
these creatures, who were more akin to the "mark-stalkers," to the
creatures of darkness with loathsome eyes, rather than to the fairies
with whom we now associate the name. For the most part these elves of
ancient times were joyless impersonations and creatures not of sun but
of darkness and winter. In the gloom and solitude of the forest,
"where the bitter wormwood stood pale grey" and where "the hoar stones
lay thick," the black, giant elves had their dwelling. They claimed
the forest for their own and hated man because bit by bit he was
wresting the forest from them. Yet they made for man those mystic
swords of superhuman workmanship engraved with magic runes and dipped
when red hot in blood or in a broth of poisonous herbs and twigs. We
do not understand, we can only ask, why did they make them? What is
the meaning of the myth? The water elves recall the sea monsters who
attended Grendel's dam, impersonations of the fury of the waves, akin
to Hnikarr, and again other water elves of the cavernous bed of ocean,
primeval deadly creatures, inhabiting alike the sea and the desolate
fens, "where the elk-sedge waxed in the water." If some were akin to
the Formori of the baleful fogs in Irish mythic history and the
Mallt-y-nos, those she-demons of marshy lands immortalised by the
Welsh bards, creatures huge and uncouth "with grey and glaring eyes,"
there were others who exceeded in beauty anything human. When Cædmon
wrote of the beauty of Sarah, he described her as "sheen as an elf."
With the passing of the centuries we have well-nigh forgotten the
black elves, though they are still realities to the Highlander and too
real for him to speak of them. But have we not the descendants of the
sheen bright elves in the works of Shakespeare, Milton and Shelley?
One feels very sure that our Saxon ancestors would have understood
that glittering elf Ariel as few of us are capable of understanding
him. He is the old English bright elf. Did not Prospero subdue him
with magic, as our ancestors used magic songs in administering herbs
"to quell the elf"? Here is one such song from the _Leech Book of
Bald_, and at the end a conjuration to bury the elf in the earth.
"I have wreathed round the wounds
The best of healing wreaths
That the baneful sores may
Neither burn nor burst,
Nor find their way further,
Nor turn foul and fallow.
Nor thump and throle on,
Nor be wicked wounds,
Nor dig deeply down;
But he himself may hold
In a way to health.
Let it ache thee no more
Than ear in Earth acheth.
"Sing also this many times, 'May earth bear on thee with all her might
and main.'"--_Leech Book of Bald_, III. 63.
This was for one "in the water elf disease," and we read that a person
so afflicted would have livid nails and tearful eyes, and would look
downwards. Amongst the herbs to be administered when the charm was
sung over him were a yew-berry, lupin, helenium, marsh mallow, dock
elder, wormwood and strawberry leaves.
Goblins and nightmare were regarded as at least akin to elves, and we
find the same herbs were to be used against them, betony being of
peculiar efficacy against "monstrous nocturnal visions and against
frightful visions and dreams."[14] The malicious elves did not confine
their attacks to human beings; references to elf-shot cattle are
numerous. I quote the following from the chapter "against elf
disease."
"For that ilk [_i. e._ for one who is elf-shot].
"Go on Thursday evening when the sun is set where thou
knowest that helenium stands, then sing the Benedicite and
Pater Noster and a litany and stick thy knife into the wort,
make it stick fast and go away; go again when day and night
just divide; at the same period go first to church and cross
thyself and commend thyself to God; then go in silence and,
though anything soever of an awful sort or man meet thee,
say not thou to him any word ere thou come to the wort which
on the evening before thou markedst; then sing the
Benedicite and the Pater Noster and a litany, delve up the
wort, let the knife stick in it; go again as quickly as thou
art able to church and let it lie under the altar with the
knife; let it lie till the sun be up, wash it afterwards,
and make into a drink with bishopwort and lichen off a
crucifix; boil in milk thrice, thrice pour holy water upon
it and sing over it the Pater Noster, the Credo and the
Gloria in Excelsis Deo, and sing upon it a litany and score
with a sword round about it on three sides a cross, and then
after that let the man drink the wort; Soon it will be well
with him."--_Leech Book_, III. 62.
The instructions for a horse or cattle that are elf-shot runs thus:--
"If a horse or other neat be elf-shot take sorrel-seed or
Scotch wax, let a man sing twelve Masses over it and put
holy water on the horse or on whatsoever neat it be; have
the worts always with thee. For the same take the eye of a
broken needle, give the horse a prick with it, no harm shall
come."--_Leech Book of Bald_, I. 88.
Another prescription for an elf-shot horse runs thus:--
"If a horse be elf-shot, then take the knife of which the
haft is the horn of a fallow ox and on which are three brass
nails, then write upon the horse's forehead Christ's mark
and on each of the limbs which thou mayst feel at: then take
the left ear, prick a hole in it in silence, this thou shalt
do; then strike the horse on the back, then will it be
whole.--And write upon the handle of the knife these words--
"Benedicite omnia opera Domini dominum.
"Be the elf what it may, this is mighty for him to
amend."--_Leech Book of Bald_, I. 65.[15]
Closely allied to the doctrine of the elf-shot is that of "flying
venom." It is, of course, possible to regard the phrase as the graphic
Anglo-Saxon way of describing infectious diseases; but the various
synonymous phrases, "the on-flying things," "the loathed things that
rove through the land," suggest something of more malignant activity.
As a recent leading article in _The Times_ shows, we are as a matter
of fact not much wiser than our Saxon ancestors as to the origin of an
epidemic such as influenza.[16] Indeed, to talk of "catching" a cold
or any infectious disease would have struck an Anglo-Saxon as
ludicrous, mankind being rather the victims of "flying venom." In the
alliterative lay in the _Lacnunga_, part of which is given below, the
wind is described as blowing these venoms, which produced disease in
the bodies on which they lighted, their evil effects being
subsequently blown away by the magician's song and the efficacy of
salt and water and herbs. This is generally supposed to be in its
origin a heathen lay of great antiquity preserved down to Christian
times, when allusions to the new religion were inserted. It is written
in the Wessex dialect and is believed to be of the tenth century, but
it is undoubtedly a reminiscence of some far older lay. The lay or
charm is in praise of nine sacred herbs (one a tree)--mugwort,
waybroad (plantain), stime (watercress), atterlothe (?), maythen
(camomile), wergulu (nettle), crab apple, chervil and fennel.
"These nine attack
against nine venoms.
A worm came creeping,
he tore asunder a man.
Then took Woden
nine magic twigs,
[&] then smote the serpent
that he in nine [bits] dispersed.
Now these nine herbs have power
against nine magic outcasts
against nine venoms
& against nine flying things
[& have might] against the loathed things
that over land rove.
Against the red venoms
against the runlan [?] venom
against the white venom
against the blue [?] venom
against the yellow venom
against the green venom
against the dusky venom
against the brown venom
against the purple venom.
Against worm blast
against water blast
against thorn blast
against thistle blast
Against ice blast
Against venom blast
. . . . . . .
if any venom come
flying from east
or any come from north
[or any from south]
or any from west
over mankind
I alone know a running river
and the nine serpents behold [it]
All weeds must
now to herbs give way,
Seas dissolve
[and] all salt water
when I this venom
from thee blow."[17]
In the chapter in the _Leech Book of Bald_[18] containing the
prescriptions sent by the Patriarch of Jerusalem to King Alfred, we
find among the virtues of the "white stone" that it is "powerful
against flying venom and against all uncouth things," and in another
passage[19] that these venoms are particularly dangerous "fifteen
nights ere Lammas and after it for five and thirty nights: leeches who
were wisest have taught that in that month no man should anywhere
weaken his body except there were a necessity for it." In the most
ancient source of Anglo-Saxon medicine--the _Lacnunga_--we find the
following "salve" for flying venom:--
"A salve for flying venom. Take a handful of hammer wort and
a handful of maythe (camomile) and a handful of waybroad
(plantain) and roots of water dock, seek those which will
float, and one eggshell full of clean honey, then take clean
butter, let him who will help to work up the salve melt it
thrice: let one sing a mass over the worts, before they are
put together and the salve is wrought up."[20]
But it is in the doctrine of the worm as the ultimate source of
disease that we are carried back to the most ancient of sagas. The
dragon and the worm, the supreme enemy of man, which play so
dominating a part in Saxon literature, are here set down as the source
of all ill. In the alliterative lay in the _Lacnunga_ the opening
lines describe the war between Woden and the Serpent. Disease arose
from the nine fragments into which he smote the serpent, and these
diseases, blown by the wind, are counteracted by the nine magic twigs
and salt water and herbs with which the disease is again blown away
from the victim by the power of the magician's song. This is the
atmosphere of the great earth-worm Fafnir in the Volsunga Saga and the
dragon in all folk tales, the great beast with whom the heroes of all
nations have contended. Further, it is noteworthy that not only in
Anglo-Saxon medicine, but for many centuries afterwards, even minor
ailments were ascribed to the presence of a worm--notably toothache.
In the _Leech Book_ we find toothache ascribed to a worm in the tooth
(see _Leech Book_, II. 121). It is impossible in a book of this size
to deal with the comparative folk lore of this subject, but in passing
it is interesting to recall an incantation for toothache from the
Babylonian cuneiform texts[21] in which we find perhaps the oldest
example of this belief.
"The Marshes created the Worm,
Came the Worm and wept before Shamash,
What wilt thou give me for my food?
What wilt thou give me to devour?
. . . . . . .
Let me drink among the teeth
And set me on the gums,
That I may devour the blood of the teeth
And of the gums destroy their strength.
Then shall I hold the bolt of the door.
. . . . . . .
So must thou say this, O Worm,
May Ea smite thee with the might of his fist."
Closely interwoven with these elements of Indo-Germanic origin we find
the ancient Eastern doctrine which ascribes disease to demoniac
possession. The exorcisms were originally heathen charms, and even in
the _Leech Book_ there are many interesting survivals of these,
although Christian rites have to a large extent been substituted for
them. Both mandrake and periwinkle were supposed to be endowed with
mysterious powers against demoniacal possession. At the end of the
description of the mandrake in the _Herbarium of Apuleius_ there is
this prescription:--
"For witlessness, that is devil sickness or demoniacal
possession, take from the body of this same wort mandrake by
the weight of three pennies, administer to drink in warm
water as he may find most convenient--soon he will be
healed."--_Herb. Ap._, 32.
Of periwinkle we read:--
"This wort is of good advantage for many purposes, that is
to say first against devil sickness and demoniacal
possessions and against snakes and wild beasts and against
poisons and for various wishes and for envy and for terror
and that thou mayst have grace, and if thou hast the wort
with thee thou shalt be prosperous and ever acceptable. This
wort thou shalt pluck thus, saying, 'I pray thee, vinca
pervinca, thee that art to be had for thy many useful
qualities, that thou come to me glad blossoming with thy
mainfulness, that thou outfit me so that I be shielded and
ever prosperous and undamaged by poisons and by water;' when
thou shalt pluck this wort thou shalt be clean of every
uncleanness, and thou shalt pick it when the moon is nine
nights old and eleven nights and thirteen nights and thirty
nights and when it is one night old."--_Herb. Ap._
[Illustration: MANDRAKE FROM A SAXON HERBAL
(Sloane 1975, folio 49_a_)]
In the treatment of disease we find that the material remedies, by
which I mean remedies devoid of any mystic meaning, are with few
exceptions entirely herbal. The herb drinks were made up with ale,
milk or vinegar, many of the potions were made of herbs mixed with
honey, and ointments were made of herbs worked up with butter. The
most scientific prescription is that for a vapour bath,[22] and there
are suggestions for what may become fashionable once more--herb baths.
The majority of the prescriptions are for common ailments, and one
cannot help being struck by the number there are for broken heads,
bleeding noses and bites of mad dogs. However ignorant one may be of
medicine, it is impossible to read these old prescriptions without
realising that our ancestors were an uncommonly hardy race, for the
majority of the remedies would kill any of us modern weaklings,
even if in robust health when they were administered. At times one
cannot help wondering whether in those days, as not infrequently
happens now, the bulletin was issued that "the operation was quite
successful, but the patient died of shock!" And, as further evidence
of the old truth that there is nothing new under the sun, it is
pleasant to find that doctors, even in Saxon days, prescribed
"carriage exercise," and moreover endeavoured to sweeten it by
allowing the patient to "lap up honey" first. This prescription runs
thus:--
"Against want of appetite. Let them, after the night's fast,
lap up honey, and let them seek for themselves fatigue in
riding on horseback or in a wain or such conveyance as they
may endure."--_Leech Book_, II. 7.
In the later herbals, "beauty" recipes are, as is well known, a
conspicuous feature, but they find a place also in these old
manuscripts. In the third book (the oldest part) of the _Leech Book_
there is a prescription for sunburn which runs thus:--
"For sunburn boil in butter tender ivy twigs, smear
therewith."--_Leech Book_, III. 29.
And in _Leech Book_ II. we find this prescription:--
"That all the body may be of a clean and glad and bright
hue, take oil and dregs of old wine equally much, put them
into a mortar, mingle well together and smear the body with
this in the sun."--_Leech Book_, II. 65.
Prescriptions for hair falling off are fairly numerous, and there are
even two--somewhat drastic--prescriptions for hair which is too thick.
Sowbread and watercress were both used to make hair grow, and in
_Leech Book_ I. there is this prescription:--
"If a man's hair fall off, work him a salve. Take the mickle
wolf's bane and viper's bugloss and the netherward part of
burdock, work the salve out of that wort and out of all
these and out of that butter of which no water hath come. If
hair fall off, boil the polypody fern and foment the head
with that so warm. In case that a man be bald, Plinius the
mickle leech saith this leechdom: 'Take dead bees, burn them
to ashes, add oil upon that, seethe very long over gledes,
then strain, wring out and take leaves of willow, pound
them, pour the juice into the oil; boil again for a while on
gledes, strain them, smear therewith after the
bath.'"--_Leech Book_, I. 87.
The two prescriptions for hair which is too thick are in the same
chapter:--
"In order that the hair may not wax, take emmets' eggs, rub
them up, smudge on the place, never will any hair come up
there." Again: "if hair be too thick, take a swallow, burn
it to ashes under a tile and have the ashes shed on."
There are more provisions against diseases of the eye than against any
other complaint, and it is probably because of the prevalence of these
in olden days that we still have so many of the superstitions
connected with springs of water. Both maythen (camomile) and wild
lettuce were used for the eyes. In the following for mistiness of eyes
there is a touch of pathos:--
"For mistiness of eyes, many men, lest their eyes should
suffer the disease, look into cold water and then are able
to see far.... The eyes of an old man are not sharp of
sight, then shall he wake up his eyes with rubbings, with
walkings, with ridings, either so that a man bear him or
convey him in a wain. And they shall use little and careful
meats and comb their heads and drink wormwood before they
take food. Then shall a salve be wrought for unsharpsighted
eyes; take pepper and beat it and a somewhat of salt and
wine; that will be a good salve."
One prescription is unique, for the "herb" which one is directed to
use is not to be found in any other herbal in existence. This is "rind
from Paradise." There is a grim humour about the scribe's comment, and
one cannot help wondering what was the origin of the prescription:--
"Some teach us against bite of adder, to speak one word
'faul.' It may not hurt him. Against bite of snake if the
man procures and eateth rind which cometh out of Paradise,
no venom will hurt him. Then said he that wrote this book
that the rind was hard gotten."
These manuscripts are so full of word pictures of the treatment of
disease that one feels if one were transported back to those days it
would in most cases be possible to tell at a glance the "cures"
various people were undergoing. Let us visit a Saxon hamlet and go and
see the sick folk in the cottages. On our way we meet a man with a
fawn's skin decorated with little bunches of herbs dangling from his
shoulders, and we know that he is a sufferer from nightmare.[23]
Another has a wreath of clove-wort tied with a red thread round his
neck. He is a lunatic, but, as the moon is on the wane, his family
hope that the wearing of these herbs will prove beneficial. We enter a
dark one-roomed hut, the dwelling of one of the swineherds, but he is
not at his work; for it seemed to him that his head turned about and
that he was faring with turned brains. He had consulted the leech and,
suggestion cures being then rather more common than now, the leech had
advised him to sit calmly by his fireside with a linen cloth wrung out
in spring water on his head and to wait till it was dry. He does so,
and, to quote the words with which nearly all Saxon prescriptions end,
we feel "it will soon be well with him." Let us wend our way to the
cobbler, a sullen, taciturn man who finds his lively young wife's
chatter unendurable. We find him looking more gloomy than usual, for
he has eaten nothing all day and now sits moodily consuming a raw
radish. But there is purpose in this. Does not the ancient leechdom
say that, if a radish be eaten raw after fasting all day, no woman's
chatter the next day can annoy? In another cottage we find that a
patient suffering from elf-shot is to be smoked with the fumes of
herbs. A huge quern stone which has been in the fire on the hearth
all day is dragged out, the prepared herbs--wallwort and mugwort--are
scattered upon it and also underneath, then cold water is poured on
and the patient is reeked with the steam "as hot as he can endure
it."[24] Smoking sick folk, especially for demoniac possession, is a
world-wide practice and of very ancient origin. There is no space here
to attempt to touch on the comparative folk lore of this subject.
Moreover, fumigating the sick with herbs is closely akin to the
burning of incense. Even in ancient Babylonian days fumigating with
herbs was practised.[25] It was very common all through the Middle
Ages in most parts of Europe, and that it has not even yet died out is
shown by the extract from _The Times_ given below.[26] I have
purposely put in juxtaposition the translation of the ancient
Babylonian tablet and the extract from _The Times_.
It is noteworthy that not only human beings, but cattle and swine
were smoked with the fumes of herbs. In the _Lacnunga_, for sick
cattle we find--"Take the wort, put it upon gledes and fennel and
hassuck and 'cotton' and incense. Burn all together on the side on
which the wind is. Make it reek upon the cattle. Make five crosses of
hassuck grass, set them on four sides of the cattle and one in the
middle. Sing about the cattle the Benedicite and some litanies and the
Pater Noster. Sprinkle holy water upon them, burn about them incense
and cotton and let someone set a value on the cattle, let the owner
give the tenth penny in the Church for God, after that leave them to
amend; do this thrice."--_Lacnunga_, 79.
"To preserve swine from sudden death sing over them four masses, drive
the swine to the fold, hang the worts upon the four sides and upon the
door, also burn them, adding incense and make the reek stream over the
swine."--_Lacnunga_, 82.
* * * * *
Herbs used as amulets have always played a conspicuous part in folk
medicine, and our Saxon ancestors used them, as all ancient races have
used them, not merely to cure definite diseases but also as protection
against the unseen powers of evil,[27] to preserve the eyesight, to
cure lunacy, against weariness when going on a journey, against being
barked at by dogs, for safety from robbers, and in one prescription
even to restore a woman stricken with speechlessness. The use of herbs
as amulets to cure diseases has almost died out in this country, but
the use of them as charms to ensure good luck survives to this
day--notably in the case of white heather and four-leaved clover.
There is occasionally the instruction to bind on the herb with red
wool. For instance, a prescription against headache in the third book
of the _Leech Book_ enjoins binding waybroad, which has been dug up
without iron before sunrise, round the head "with a red fillet."
Binding on with red wool is a very ancient and widespread custom.[28]
Red was the colour sacred to Thor and it was also the colour abhorred
not only by witches in particular but by all the powers of darkness
and evil. An ancient Assyrian eye charm prescribes binding "pure
strands of red wool which have been brought by the pure hand of ... on
the right hand," and down to quite recent times even in these islands
tying on with red wool was a common custom.
Besides their use as amulets, we also find instructions for hanging
herbs up over doors, etc., for the benefit not only of human beings
but of cattle also. Of mugwort we read in the _Herbarium of Apuleius_,
"And if a root of this wort be hung over the door of any house then
may not any man damage the house."
"Of Croton oil plant. For hail and rough weather to turn
them away. If thou hast in thy possession this wort which is
named 'ricinus' and which is not a native of England, if
thou hangest some seed of it in thine house or have it or
its seed in any place whatsoever, it turneth away the
tempestuousness of hail, and if thou hangest its seed on a
ship, to that degree wonderful it is, that it smootheth
every tempest. This wort thou shalt take saying thus, 'Wort
ricinus I pray that thou be at my songs and that thou turn
away hails and lightning bolts and all tempests through the
name of Almighty God who hight thee to be produced'; and
thou shalt be clean when thou pluckest this herb."--_Herb.
Ap._, 176.
"Against temptation of the fiend, a wort hight red niolin,
red stalk, it waxeth by running water; if thou hast it on
thee and under thy head and bolster and over thy house door
the devil may not scathe thee within nor without."--_Leech
Book_, III. 58.
"To preserve swine from sudden death take the worts lupin,
bishopwort, hassuck grass, tufty thorn, vipers bugloss,
drive the swine to the fold, hang the worts upon the four
sides and upon the door."--_Lacnunga_, 82.
The herbs in commonest use as amulets were betony, vervain, peony,
yarrow, mugwort and waybroad (plantain). With the exception of
vervain, no herb was more highly prized than betony. The treatise on
it in the _Herbarium of Apuleius_ is supposed to be an abridged copy
of a treatise on the virtues of this plant written by Antonius Musa,
physician to the Emperor Augustus. No fewer than twenty-nine uses of
it are given, and in the Saxon translation this herb is described as
being "good whether for a man's soul or his body." Vervain was one of
the herbs held most sacred by the Druids and, as the herbals of Gerard
and Parkinson testify, it was in high repute even as late as the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It has never been satisfactorily
identified, though many authorities incline to the belief that it was
verbena. In Druidical times libations of honey had to be offered to
the earth from which it was dug, mystic ceremonies attended the
digging of it and the plant was lifted out with the left hand. This
uprooting had always to be performed at the rising of the dog star and
when neither the sun nor the moon was shining. Why the humble waybroad
should occupy so prominent a place in Saxon herb lore it is difficult
to understand. It is one of the nine sacred herbs in the alliterative
lay in the _Lacnunga_, and the epithets "mother of worts" and "open
from eastwards" are applied to it. The latter curious epithet is also
applied to it in _Lacnunga_ 46,--"which spreadeth open towards the
East." Waybroad has certainly wonderfully curative powers, especially
for bee-stings, but otherwise it has long since fallen from its high
estate. Peony throughout the Middle Ages was held in high repute for
its protective powers, and even during the closing years of the last
century country folk hung beads made of its roots round children's
necks.[29] Yarrow is one of the aboriginal English plants, and from
time immemorial it has been used in incantations and by witches.
Country folk still regard it as one of our most valuable herbs,
especially for rheumatism. Mugwort, which was held in repute
throughout the Middle Ages for its efficacy against unseen powers of
evil, is one of the nine sacred herbs in the alliterative lay in the
_Lacnunga_, where it is described thus:--
"Eldest of worts
Thou hast might for three
And against thirty
For venom availest
For flying vile things,
Mighty against loathed ones
That through the land rove."
Harleian MS. 585.
[Illustration: (1) ARTEMISIA AND (2) BLACKBERRY, FROM A SAXON HERBAL
(Sloane 1975, folio 37_a_)]
With the notable exception of vervain, it is curious how little
prominence is given in Saxon plant lore to the herbs which were held
most sacred by the Druids, and yet it is scarcely credible that some
of their wonderful lore should not have been assimilated. But in these
manuscripts little or no importance attaches to mistletoe, holly,
birch or ivy. There is no mention of mistletoe as a sacred herb.[30]
We find some mention of selago, generally identified with
_lycopodium selago_, of which Pliny tells us vaguely that it was "like
savin." The gathering of it had to be accompanied in Druid days with
mystic ceremonies. The Druid had his feet bare and was clad in white,
and the plant could not be cut with iron, nor touched with the naked
hand. So great were its powers that it was called "the gift of God."
Nor is there any mention in Saxon plant lore of the use of _sorbus
aucuparia_, which the Druids planted near their monolithic circles as
protection against unseen powers of darkness. There is, however, one
prescription which may date back to the Roman occupation of Britain.
It runs thus: "Take nettles, and seethe them in oil, smear and rub all
thy body therewith; the cold will depart away."[31] It has always been
believed that one of the varieties of nettle (_Urtica pilulifera_) was
introduced into England by the Roman soldiers, who brought the seed of
it with them. According to the tradition, they were told that the cold
in England was unendurable; so they brought these seeds in order to
have a plentiful supply of nettles wherewith to rub their bodies and
thereby keep themselves warm. Possibly this prescription dates back to
that time.
From what hoary antiquity the charms and incantations which we find in
these manuscripts have come down to us we cannot say. Their atmosphere
is that of palæolithic cave-drawings, for they are redolent of the
craft of sorcerers and they suggest those strange cave markings which
no one can decipher. Who can say what lost languages are embedded in
these unintelligible words and single letters, or what is their
meaning? To what ancient ceremonies do they pertain, and who were the
initiated who alone understood them? At present it is all mysterious,
though perhaps one day we shall discover both their sources and their
meaning. They show no definite traces of the Scandinavian rune-lays
concerning herbs, though one of the charms is in runic characters. It
is noteworthy that in the third book, which is evidently much older
than the first two parts of the _Leech Book_, the proportion of
heathen charms is exceptionally large. In one prescription we find the
names of two heathen idols, Tiecon and Leleloth, combined with a later
Christian interpolation of the names of the four gospellers. The charm
is in runic characters and is to be followed by a prayer. Many of the
mystic sentences are wholly incomprehensible, in others we find
heathen names such as Lilumenne, in others a string of words which may
be a corrupt form of some very ancient language. Thus a lay to be sung
in case a man or beast drinks an insect runs thus:--"Gonomil, orgomil,
marbumil, marbsai, tofeth," etc.[32]
If some of the charms have a malignant sound, others were probably as
soothing in those days as those gems are still which have survived in
our inimitable nursery rhymes.
For instance, the following has for us no meaning, but even in the
translation it has something of the curious effect of the words in the
original. A woman who cannot rear her child is instructed to
say--"Everywhere I carried for me the famous kindred doughty one with
this famous meat doughty one, so I will have it for me and go home."
In the _Lacnunga_ there is a counting-out charm which is a mixture of
an ancient heathen charm combined with a Christian rite at the end.
"Nine were Noddes sisters, then the nine came to be eight,
and the eight seven, and the seven six, and the six five,
and the five four, and the four three, and the three two,
and the two one, and the one none. This may be medicine for
thee from scrofula and from worm and from every mischief.
Sing also the Benedicite nine times."--_Lacnunga_, 95.[33]
One of the most remarkable narrative charms is that for warts copied
below from the _Lacnunga_. It is to be sung first into the left ear,
then into the right ear, then above the man's poll, then "let one who
is a maiden go to him and hang it upon his neck, do so for three days,
it will soon be well with him."
"Here came entering
A spider wight.
He had his hands upon his hams.
He quoth that thou his hackney wert.
Lay thee against his neck.
They began to sail off the land.
As soon as they off the land came, then began they to cool.
Then came in a wild beast's sister.
Then she ended
And oaths she swore that never could this harm the sick, nor him
who could get at this charm, nor him who had skill to sing this
charm. Amen. Fiat."--_Lacnunga_, 56.
Of the world-wide custom of charming disease from the patient and
transferring it to some inanimate object we find numerous examples.
This custom is not only of very ancient origin, but persisted until
recent times even in this country. As commonly practised in
out-of-the-way parts of Great Britain it was believed that the disease
transferred to an inanimate object would be contracted by the next
person who picked it up, but in the Saxon herbals we find an
apparently older custom of transferring the disease to "running water"
(suggestive of the Israelitish scapegoat), and also that of throwing
the blood from the wound across the wagon way. These charms for
transferring disease seem originally to have been associated with a
considerable amount of ceremonial. For instance, in those to cure the
bite of a hunting spider we find that a certain number of
scarifications are to be struck (and in both cases an odd
number--three and five); in the case of the five scarifications, "one
on the bite and four round about it," the blood is to be caught in "a
green spoon of hazel-wood," and the blood is to be thrown "in silence"
over a wagon way. In the _Lacnunga_ there are traces of the actual
ceremonial of transferring the disease, and the Christian prayer has
obviously been substituted for an older heathen one. The charm is in
unintelligible words and is followed by the instruction, "Sing this
nine times and the Pater Noster nine times over a barley loaf and give
it to the horse to eat." In a "salve against the elfin race" it is
noticeable that the herbs, after elaborate preparation, are not
administered to the patient at all, but are thrown into running water.
"A salve against the elfin race and nocturnal goblin
visitors: take wormwood, lupin.... Put these worts into a
vessel, set them under the altar, sing over them nine
masses, boil them in butter and sheep's grease, add much
holy salt, strain through a cloth, throw the worts into
running water."--_Leech Book_, III. 61.
One charm in the _Lacnunga_ which is perhaps not too long to quote
speaks of some long-lost tale. It appears to be a fragment of a
popular lay, and one wonders how many countless generations of our
ancestors sang it, and what it commemorates:--
"Loud were they loud, as over the land they rode,
Fierce of heart were they, as over the hill they rode.
Shield thee now thyself; from this spite thou mayst escape thee!
Out little spear if herein thou be!
Underneath the linden stood he, underneath the shining shield,
While the mighty women mustered up their strength;
And the spears they send screaming through the air!
Back again to them will I send another.
Arrow forth a-flying from the front against them;
Out little spear if herein thou be!
Sat the smith thereat, smoke a little seax out.
Out little spear if herein thou be!
Six the smiths that sat there-- making slaughter-spears:
Out little spear, in be not spear!
If herein there hide flake of iron hard,
Of a witch the work, it shall melt away.
Wert thou shot into the skin, or shot into the flesh,
Wert thou shot into the blood, or shot into the bone,
Wert thou shot into the limb-- never more thy life be teased!
If it were the shot of Esa, or it were of elves the shot
Or it were of hags the shot; help I bring to thee.
This to boot for Esa-shot, this to boot for elfin-shot.
This to boot for shot of hags! Help I bring to thee.
Flee witch to the wild hill top ... ...
But thou--be thou hale, and help thee the Lord."
Who were these six smiths and who were the witches? One thinks of that
mighty Smith Weyland in the palace of Nidad king of the Niars, of the
queen's fear of his flashing eyes and the maiming of him by her cruel
orders, and of the cups he made from the skulls of her sons and gems
from their eyes. We think of these as old tales, but instinct tells us
that they are horribly real. We may not know how that semi-divine
smith made himself wings, but that he flew over the palace and never
returned we do not doubt for an instant. To the fairy stories which
embody such myths children of unnumbered generations have listened,
and they demand them over and over again because they, too, are sure
that they are real.
Nor is the mystery of numbers lacking in these herbal prescriptions,
particularly the numbers three and nine. In the alliterative lay of
the nine healing herbs this is very conspicuous. Woden, we are told,
smote the serpent with nine magic twigs, the serpent was broken into
nine parts, from which the wind blew the nine flying venoms. There are
numerous instances of the patient being directed to take nine of each
of the ingredients or to take the herb potion itself for three or nine
days. Or it is directed that an incantation is to be said or sung
three or nine times, or that three or nine masses are to be sung over
the herbs. This mystic use of three and nine is conspicuous in the
following prescription:--
"Against dysentery, a bramble of which both ends are in the
earth take the newer root, delve it up, cut up nine chips
with the left hand and sing three times the Miserere mei
Deus and nine times the Pater Noster, then take mugwort and
everlasting, boil these three worts and the chips in milk
till they get red, then let the man sip at night fasting a
pound dish full ... let him rest himself soft and wrap
himself up warm; if more need be let him do so again, if
thou still need do it a third time, thou wilt not need
oftener."--_Leech Book_, II. 65.
The leechdom for the use of dwarf elder against a snake-bite runs
thus:--[34]
"For rent by snake take this wort and ere thou carve it off
hold it in thine hand and say thrice nine times Omnes malas
bestias canto, that is in our language Enchant and overcome
all evil wild deer; then carve it off with a very sharp
knife into three parts."--_Herb. Ap._, 93.
Some of the most remarkable passages in the manuscripts are those
concerning the ceremonies to be observed both in the picking and in
the administering of herbs. What the mystery of plant life which has
so deeply affected the minds of men in all ages and of all
civilisations meant to our ancestors, we can but dimly apprehend as we
study these ceremonies. They carry us back to that worship of earth
and the forces of Nature which prevailed when Woden was yet unborn.
That Woden was the chief god of the tribes on the mainland is
indisputable, but even in the hierarchy of ancestors reverenced as
semi-divine the Saxons themselves looked to Sceaf rather than to
Woden, who himself was descended from Sceaf. There are few more
haunting legends than that of our mystic forefather, the little boy
asleep on a sheaf of corn who, in a richly adorned vessel which moved
neither by sails nor oars, came to our people out of the great deep
and was hailed by them as their king. Did not Alfred himself claim him
as his primeval progenitor, the founder of our race? There is no
tangible link between his descendant Woden and the worship of earth,
but the sheaf of corn, the symbol of Sceaf, carries us straight back
to Nature worship. Sceaf takes his fitting place as the semi-divine
ancestor with the lesser divinities such as Hrede and Eostra, goddess
of the radiant dawn. It is to this age that the ceremonies in the
picking of the herbs transport us, to the mystery of the virtues of
herbs, the fertility of earth, the never-ceasing conflict between the
beneficent forces of sun and summer and the evil powers of the long,
dark northern winters. Closely intertwined with Nature worship we find
the later Christian rites and ceremonies. For the new teaching did not
oust the old, and for many centuries the mind of the average man
halted half-way between the two faiths. If he accepted Christ he did
not cease to fear the great hierarchy of unseen powers of Nature, the
worship of which was bred in his very bone. The ancient festivals of
Yule and Eostra continued under another guise and polytheism still
held its sway. The devil became one with the gloomy and terrible in
Nature, with the malignant elves and dwarfs. Even with the warfare
between the beneficent powers of sun and the fertility of Nature and
the malignant powers of winter, the devil became associated. Nor did
men cease to believe in the Wyrd, that dark, ultimate fate goddess
who, though obscure, lies at the back of all Saxon belief. It was in
vain that the Church preached against superstitions. Egbert,
Archbishop of York, in his Penitential, strictly forbade the gathering
of herbs with incantations and enjoined the use of Christian rites,
but it is probable that even when these manuscripts were written, the
majority at least of the common folk in these islands, though
nominally Christian, had not deserted their ancient ways of
thought.[35] When the Saxon peasant went to gather his healing herbs
he may have used Christian prayers[36] and ceremonies, but he did not
forget the goddess of the dawn. It is noteworthy how frequently we
find the injunction that the herbs must be picked at sunrise or when
day and night divide, how often stress is laid upon looking towards
the east, and turning "as the sun goeth from east to south and west."
In many there is the instruction that the herb is to be gathered
"without use of iron" or "with gold and with hart's horn" (emblems of
the sun's rays). It is curious how little there is of moon lore. In
some cases the herbs are to be gathered in silence, in others the man
who gathers them is not to look behind him--a prohibition which occurs
frequently in ancient superstitions. The ceremonies are all mysterious
and suggestive, but behind them always lies the ancient ineradicable
worship of Nature. To what dim past does that cry, "Erce, Erce, Erce,
Mother of Earth" carry us?
"Erce, Erce, Erce, Mother of Earth!
May the All-Wielder, Ever Lord grant thee
Acres a-waxing, upwards a-growing
Pregnant [with corn] and plenteous in strength;
Hosts of [grain] shafts and of glittering plants!
Of broad barley the blossoms
And of white wheat ears waxing,
Of the whole earth the harvest!
Let be guarded the grain against all the ills
That are sown o'er the land by the sorcery men,
Nor let cunning women change it nor a crafty man."
And that other ancient verse:--
"Hail be thou, Earth, Mother of men!
In the lap of the God be thou a-growing!
Be filled with fodder for fare-need of men!"
It is of these two invocations that Stopford Brooke (whose
translations I have used) writes: "These are very old heathen
invocations used, I daresay, from century to century and from far
prehistoric times by all the Teutonic farmers. Who 'Erce' is remains
obscure. But the Mother of Earth seems to be here meant, and she is a
person who greatly kindles our curiosity. To touch her is like
touching empty space, so far away is she. At any rate some Godhead or
other seems here set forth under her proper name. In the Northern
Cosmogony, Night is the Mother of Earth. But Erce cannot be Night. She
is (if Erce be a proper name) bound up with agriculture. Grimm
suggests Eorce, connected with the Old High German 'erchan' = simplex.
He also makes a bold guess that she may be the same as a divine dame
in Low Saxon districts called Herke or Harke, who dispenses earthly
goods in abundance, and acts in the same way as Berhta and Holda--an
earth-goddess, the lady of the plougher and sower and reaper. In the
Mark she is called Frau Harke. Montanus draws attention to the
appearance of this charm in a convent at Corvei, in which this line
begins--'Eostar, Eostar, eordhan modor.' ... The name remains
mysterious. The song breathes the pleasure and worship of ancient
tillers of the soil in the labours of the earth and in the goods the
mother gave. It has grown, it seems, out of the breast of earth
herself; earth is here the Mother of Men. The surface of earth is the
lap of the Goddess; in her womb let all growth be plentiful. Food is
in her for the needs of men. 'Hail be thou, Earth!' I daresay this
hymn was sung ten thousand years ago by the early Aryans on the Baltic
coast."
Even in a twelfth-century herbal we find a prayer to Earth, and it is
so beautiful that I close this chapter with it:--
"Earth,[37] divine goddess, Mother Nature who generatest all
things and bringest forth anew the sun which thou hast given
to the nations; Guardian of sky and sea and of all gods and
powers and through thy power all nature falls silent and
then sinks in sleep. And again thou bringest back the light
and chasest away night and yet again thou coverest us most
securely with thy shades. Thou dost contain chaos infinite,
yea and winds and showers and storms; thou sendest them out
when thou wilt and causest the seas to roar; thou chasest
away the sun and arousest the storm. Again when thou wilt
thou sendest forth the joyous day and givest the nourishment
of life with thy eternal surety; and when the soul departs
to thee we return. Thou indeed art duly called great Mother
of the gods; thou conquerest by thy divine name. Thou art
the source of the strength of nations and of gods, without
thee nothing can be brought to perfection or be born; thou
art great queen of the gods. Goddess! I adore thee as
divine; I call upon thy name; be pleased to grant that which
I ask thee, so shall I give thanks to thee, goddess, with
one faith.
"Hear, I beseech thee, and be favourable to my prayer.
Whatsoever herb thy power dost produce, give, I pray, with
goodwill to all nations to save them and grant me this my
medicine. Come to me with thy powers, and howsoever I may
use them may they have good success and to whomsoever I may
give them. Whatever thou dost grant it may prosper. To thee
all things return. Those who rightly receive these herbs
from me, do thou make them whole. Goddess, I beseech thee;
I pray thee as a suppliant that by thy majesty thou grant
this to me.
"Now I make intercession to you all ye powers and herbs and
to your majesty, ye whom Earth parent of all hath produced
and given as a medicine of health to all nations and hath
put majesty upon you, be, I pray you, the greatest help to
the human race. This I pray and beseech from you, and be
present here with your virtues, for she who created you hath
herself promised that I may gather you into the goodwill of
him on whom the art of medicine was bestowed, and grant for
health's sake good medicine by grace of your powers. I pray
grant me through your virtues that whatsoe'er is wrought by
me through you may in all its powers have a good and speedy
effect and good success and that I may always be permitted
with the favour of your majesty to gather you into my hands
and to glean your fruits. So shall I give thanks to you in
the name of that majesty which ordained your birth."
[Illustration: FROM A SAXON HERBAL
(Harl. 1585, folio 19_a_)]
FOOTNOTES:
[2] Nec non et si quos sæcularis scientiæ libros nobis ignotos
adepturi sitis, ut sunt de medicinalibus, quorum copia est aliqua apud
nos, sed tamen segmenta ultra marina quæ in eis scripta comperimus,
ignota nobis sunt et difficilia ad adipiscendum.--Bonifac.,
_Epistolæ_, p. 102.
[3] A catalogue of the books of that foundation cited by Wanley
(Hickes, _Thesaur._ Vol. II. Præf. ad Catalogum) contains the entry
"Medicinale Anglicum," and the MS. described above has on a fly-leaf
the now almost illegible inscription "Medicinale Anglicum." There is
unfortunately no record as to the books which, on the dissolution of
the monasteries, may possibly have found their way from Glastonbury to
the royal library.
[4] This chapter consists of prescriptions containing drugs such as a
resident in Syria would recommend. It is interesting to find this
illustration of Asser's statement, that he had seen and read the
letters which the Patriarch of Jerusalem sent with presents to the
king. From Asser also we learn that King Alfred kept a book in which
he himself entered "little flowers culled on every side from all sorts
of masters." "Flosculos undecunque collectos a quibus libet magistris
et in corpore unius libelli mixtim quamvis sicut tunc suppetebat
redigere."--ASSER, p. 57.
[5] The stories of miraculous cures by famous Anglo-Saxon bishops and
abbots are for the most part too well known to be worth quoting, but
the unfair treatment of the leech is perhaps nowhere more clearly
shown than in Bede's tale of St. John of Beverley curing a boy with a
diseased head. Although the leech effected the cure, the success was
attributed to the bishop's benediction, and the story ends, "the youth
became of a clear countenance, ready in speech and with hair
beautifully wavy."
[6] A small but striking instance of Saxon knowledge, or rather close
observation, of plants is to be found in the following description of
wolf's teazle in the _Herbarium of Apuleius_:--"This wort hath leaves
reversed and thorny and it hath in its midst a round and thorny knob,
and that is brown-headed in the blossoms and hath white seed and a
white and very fragrant root." The word "reversed" is not in the
original and was therefore added by the Saxon translator, who had
observed the fact that all the thistle tribe protect their leaves by
thorns pointing backwards as well as forwards.
[7] It is interesting to remember that even as late as the sixteenth
century plantain was called "waybroad." See _Turner's Herbal_.
[8] There are numerous Latin MSS. of this book, chiefly in Italian
libraries, several being in the Laurentian Library at Florence. The
book was first printed at Rome, probably soon after 1480, by Joh.
Philippus de Lignamine, who was also the editor. De Lignamine, who was
physician to Pope Sixtus IV., says that he found this MS. in the
library of the monastery of Monte Cassino. In the first impression the
book is dedicated to Cardinal de Gonzaga; in the second impression to
Cardinal de Ruvere. (The copy in the British Museum is of the second
impression.) In this small quarto volume the illustrations are rough
cuts. It is interesting to remember that these are the earliest known
printed figures of plants. The printed text contains a large number of
Greek and Latin synonyms which do not appear in the Saxon translation.
Subsequent editions were printed in 1528 (Paris) and in the Aldine
Collection of Latin medical writers, 1547 (Venice).
[9] Cratevas is said to have lived in the first century B.C. Pliny,
Dioscorides and Galen all quote him.
[10] Erlanger, _Beiträge zur englischen Philologie_, No. XII. (+peri
didaxeôn+), eine Sammlung von Rezepten in englischer Sprache.
[11] Printed by De Renzi in _Collectio Salernitana_, Vol. IV. (Naples,
1856).
[12] _English Medicine in the Anglo-Saxon Times._
[13] On the preceding blank page there is an inscription in late
seventeenth-century handwriting--
"This boucke with letters is wr [remainder of word illegible]
Of it you cane no languige make.
Ba C.
A happie end if thou dehre [dare] to make
Remember still thyn owne esstate,
If thou desire in Christ to die
Thenn well to lead thy lif applie
barbara crokker."
It is at least probable that Wanley, who at this period was collecting
Anglo-Saxon manuscripts for George Hickes, secured this MS. from
"barbara crokker." Her naïve avowal of her inability to read the MS.
suggests that she probably had no idea of the value of the book, and
when one remembers Wanley's reputation for driving shrewd bargains one
cannot help wondering what he paid for this treasure. Those must have
been halcyon days for collectors, when a man who had been an assistant
in the Bodleian Library with a salary of £12 a year could buy Saxon
manuscripts!
[14] _Herb. Ap._, I.
[15] For "elf-shot" herbal remedies see also _Leech Book_, III. 1, 61,
64.
[16] "The visitation raises again questions which were so anxiously
propounded three years ago. In what manner does an epidemic of this
kind arise? How is it propagated? We are still to a great extent in
the dark in regard to both these points. Indeed, it has recently been
suggested that we do not 'catch' influenza at all, but that certain
climatic or other conditions favour the multiplication on an important
scale of micro-organisms normally present in the human air passages.
It would be foolish to pretend to any opinion on a subject which is at
present almost entirely speculative: yet the theory we have quoted may
serve to show how complicated and difficult are the issues
involved."--_The Times_, January 13, 1922.
[17] Translation from Dr. Charles Singer's _Early English Magic and
Medicine_. Proceedings of the British Academy.
[18] _Leech Book of Bald_, Book II. 64.
[19] _Id._ Book I. 72. For other references to flying venom see _Leech
Book of Bald_, I. 113; II. 65.
[20] _Lacnunga_, 6.
[21] _Cuneiform Texts_, Part XVII. pl. 50.
[22] The directions for the vapour bath are given in such a brief and
yet forceful way that I cannot imagine anyone reading it without
feeling at the end as though he had run breathlessly to collect the
herbs, and then prepared the bath and finally made the ley of alder
ashes to wash the unfortunate patient's head. Like all these cheerful
Saxon prescriptions, this one ends with the comforting assurance "it
will soon be well with him," and one wonders whether in this, as in
many other cases, the patient got well in order to avoid his friends'
ministrations. The prescription for a vapour bath made with herbs runs
thus:--
"Take bramble rind and elm rind, ash rind, sloethorn, rind of apple
tree and ivy, all these from the nether part of the trees, and
cucumber, smear wort, everfern, helenium, enchanters nightshade,
betony, marrubium, radish, agrimony. Scrape the worts into a kettle
and boil strongly. When it hath strongly boiled remove it off the fire
and seat the man over it and wrap the man up that the vapour may get
up nowhere, except only that the man may breathe; beathe him with
these fomentations as long as he can bear it. Then have another bath
ready for him, take an emmet bed all at once, a bed of those male
emmets which at whiles fly, they are red ones, boil them in water,
beathe him with it immoderately hot. Then make him a salve. Take worts
of each kind of those above mentioned, boil them in butter, smear the
sore limbs, they will soon quicken. Make him a ley of alder ashes,
wash his head with this cold, it will soon be well with him, and let
the man get bled every month when the moon is five and fifteen and
twenty nights old."
[23] _Leech Book_, I. 60.
[24] _Lacnunga_, 48.
[25] In an incantation against fever we find the instruction:--
"The sick man ... thou shalt place
... thou shalt cover his face
Burn cypress and herbs ...
That the great gods may remove the evil
That the evil spirit may stand aside
. . . . . . .
May a kindly spirit a kindly genius be present."
R. Campbell Thompson, _Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylonia_, p. 29.
See also p. 43. Cf. also Tobit vi. 7.
[26] _A Pomeranian Rite._--An attempt was made a few days ago to cast
a devil out of a woman living in a village of the Lauenberg district
of Pomerania, on the Polish frontier. She appears to have been of a
sour and somewhat hysterical temperament, and three of the village
gossips came to the conclusion that she was a victim of diabolical
possession and resolved to effect a cure by means of enchantment. They
first of all gathered the herbs needed for the purpose in the forest
at the proper conjunction of the stars. Then a tripod was formed of
three chairs, and to these the patient was bound. Beneath her was
fixed a pail of red-hot coal on which the herbs were scattered. As the
fumes of the burning weeds veiled the victim the three neighbours
crooned the prescribed exorcism. The louder the woman shrieked the
louder they sang, and after the process had been continued long enough
to prove effective, in their opinion, they ran away, believing that
the devil would run out of the woman after them. She, however,
continued to shriek. Her cries were heard by a man, who released
her.--_The Times_, December 5, 1921.
[27] It is interesting to find the same beliefs amongst the ancient
Babylonians.
"Fleabane on the lintel of the door I have hung
S. John's wort, caper and wheatears
With a halter as a roving ass
Thy body I restrain.
O evil spirit get thee hence
Depart O evil Demon.
. . . . . . .
In the precincts of the house stand not nor circle round
'In the house will I stand,' say thou not,
'In the neighbourhood will I stand,' say thou not.
O evil spirit get thee forth to distant places
O evil Demon hie thee unto the ruins
Where thou standest is forbidden ground
A ruined desolate house is thy home
Be thou removed from before me, By Heaven be thou exorcised
By Earth be thou exorcised."
Trans. of Utukke Limnûte Tablet "B." R. C. Thompson, _Devils and Evil
Spirits of Babylonia_.
[28] Sonny (_Arch. f. Rel._, 1906, p. 525), in his article "Rote Farbe
im Totenkulte," considers the use of red to be in imitation of blood.
The instruction to bind on with red is found even in the _Grete
Herball_ of 1526. "Apium is good for lunatyke Folke yf it be bounde to
the pacyentes heed with a lynen clothe dyed reed," etc.
[29] See W. G. Black, _Folk Medicine_.
[30] Even modern science has not yet succeeded in solving some of the
mysteries connected with this remarkable plant. For instance, although
the apple and the pear are closely related, mistletoe very rarely
grows on the pear tree, and there is no case on record of mistletoe
planted on a pear tree by human hands surviving the stage of
germination. There are, it is true, two famous mistletoe pears in this
country--one in the garden of Belvoir Castle and the other in the
garden of Fern Lodge, Malvern, but in both cases the seed was sown
naturally. It grows very rarely on the oak, and this possibly accounts
for the special reverence accorded by the Druids to the mistletoe oak.
[31] _Leech Book_, I. 81.
[32] _Lacnunga_, 9.
[33] This closely resembles a Cornish charm for a tetter.
"Tetter, tetter, thou hast nine brothers,
God bless the flesh and preserve the bone;
Perish thou, tetter, and be thou gone.
Tetter, tetter, thou hast eight brothers."
Thus the verses are continued until tetter having "no brother" is
ordered to be gone.--R. Hunt, _Popular Romances of the West of
England_, p. 414.
[34] For further instances of the mystic use of three and nine see
also _Leech Book_, I. 45, 47, 67.
[35] St. Eloy, in a sermon preached in A.D. 640, also forbade the
enchanting of herbs:--
"Before all things I declare and testify to you that you shall observe
none of the impious customs of the pagans, neither sorcerers, nor
diviners, nor soothsayers, nor enchanters, nor must you presume for
any cause to enquire of them.... Let none regulate the beginning of
any piece of work by the day or by the moon. Let none trust in nor
presume to invoke the names of dæmons, neither Neptune, nor Orcus, nor
Diana, nor Minerva, nor Geniscus nor any other such follies.... Let no
Christian place lights at the temples or the stones, or at fountains,
or at trees, or at places where three ways meet.... Let none presume
to hang amulets on the neck of man or beast.... Let no one presume to
make lustrations, nor to enchant herbs, nor to make flocks pass
through a hollow tree, or an aperture in the earth; for by so doing he
seems to consecrate them to the devil. Let none on the kalends of
January join in the wicked and ridiculous things, the dressing like
old women or like stags, nor make feasts lasting all night, nor keep
up the custom of gifts and intemperate drinking. Let no one on the
festival of St. John or on any of the festivals join in the solstitia
or dances or leaping or caraulas or diabolical songs."--From a sermon
preached by St. Eloy in A.D. 640.
[36] A Christian prayer for a blessing on herbs runs thus:--
"Omnipotens sempiterne deus qui ab initio mundi omnia instituisti et
creasti tam arborum generibus quam herbarum seminibus quibus etiam
benedictione tua benedicendo sanxisti eadem nunc benedictione olera
aliosque fructus sanctificare ac benedicere digneris ut sumentibus ex
eis sanitatem conferant mentis et corporis ac tutelam defensionis
eternamque uitam per saluatorem animarum dominum nostrum iesum
christum qui uiuit et regnat dominus in secula seculorum. Amen."
[37] Translation from _Early English Magic and Medicine_ by Dr.
Charles Singer. Proceedings of the British Academy, Vol. IV.