1 All quotations from Shakespeare's plays are from The Complete Works, ed. G. L. Kittredge (New York, 1936).

2 Gio. Battista Giraldi Cintio, De gli hecatommithi (Nel Monte Regale, 1565), 1, 578: ‘il qualpannicello era lauorato alia moresca sottilissimamente’.

3 See Kendrick, A. F., English Needlework (London, 1933), p. 87 Google Scholar; Wace, A. J. B., ‘English Embroideries belonging to Sir John Carew Pole, Bart.’, The Twenty-First Volume of the Walpole Society (Oxford, 1933), p. 55 Google Scholar.

4 See Remington, Preston, English Domestic Needlework of the XVI, XVII, and XVIII Centuries (New York, 1945), p. 3 Google Scholar.

5 English Emblem Books (London, 1948), p. 94. For discussion, see Nevinson, J. L., ‘English Domestic Embroidery Patterns of the 16th and 17th Centuries’, The Twenty-Eighth Volume of the Walpole Society (Oxford, 1940), pp. 5–6 Google Scholar.

6 Shakespeare'sEngland (Oxford, 1916), 1, 373.

7 For the episode of the strawberries at ‘the counseil in the Tower’ see More’s Life of King Richard III, ed. J. Rawson Lumby (Cambridge, 1883), pp. 45-48.

8 J. Dover Wilson, ‘A Note on “Richard III“: the Bishop of Ely’s Strawberries', MLR LII (1957), 563-564.

9 For the Elizabethan proverbial use, see Tilley, Morris P., A Dictionary of the Proverbs in England in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries (Ann Arbor, 1950)Google Scholar, proverb S585.

10 The Heroicall Devises of M. Claudius Paradin … Translated out of Latin into English by P. S. (London, 1591), p. 84.

11 Whitney, Geffrey, A Choice of Emblemes, and other Devises (Leyden, 1586), p. 24 Google Scholar.

12 See 2 Henry VI III.i.228, Richard II III.ii.19, Romeo III.ii.73. Green, Henry, Shakespeare and the Emblem Writers (London, 1870), pp. 340–341 Google Scholar, notes the use of the proverb in emblem literature and in Shakespeare, but makes no reference to its classical origins or its relevance to the meaning of strawberries in the plays.

13 John Lyly, The Complete Works, ed. R. Warwick Bond (Oxford, 1902), 1, 202.

14 Whitney, p. 219: ‘In amore tormentum’.

15 The other devices from Paradin are the flower and the sun (‘Following no meane things', p. 46), the peacock feathers and the flies ('Take awaie the priekes [sic] of pleasnres [sic]', p . 288), and the dog jumping from the sinking ship ('A defence or safeguard in the dangerous waters', p. 252). For discussion, see Nevinson, ‘English Domestic Embroidery Patterns’, pp. 6-8; for reproduction of the panel, see his Plate in or Kendrick, Plate XII.

16 For the conception of moral choice referred to, see Richard Hooker, Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, I.vii.3 ff.; in The Works, ed. John Keble, 7th ed. rev. R. Church and F. Paget (Oxford, 1888), 1, 221 ff.; for discussion, see Cunningham, J. V., Woe of Wonder (Denver, 1951), p. 108 Google Scholar.

17 Symboloru & emblematum ex re herberaria desuntorum centuria vna collecta (Francofurti, 1654), fol. 91^v. Wilhelm Fränger, The Millennium of Hieronymus Bosch, tr. Eithne Wilkins & Ernst Kaiser (Chicago, 1951), p. 116, finds that the strawberry appearing as a prominent symbol in Bosch's painting ‘represents the essence of earthly voluptuous delight’.

18 An interpretation of the strawberry which bears some relation to the purport of the Henry V passage is found in Philip Picinelli's encyclopaedic Mundus symbolicus (Coloniae Agrippinae, 1687), Lib. x, Cap. XVIII, p. 622: ‘E Locis infirmis ac sylvestribus nonnunquam animos prodire nobiles & generosos, fraga demonstrant, quae illustriminio obducta, & in alpium desertis nata, à Carolo Rancato epigraphen cepere; SYLVESTHI NATA SUB UMBRA. Verbis ex Ovidio [Meta. III] mutuatis … ‘ . It is significant, in connection with the tradition of interpretation in bono discussed in my text below, that he should add: ‘Talis omnino Epithalamii Divini sponsa erat, quae ascendit de deserto, delitiis affluens. Et rursiis, sub arbore malo suscitavite [Cant. viii. 5 ].’

19 Gerarde, John, The Herball: a Generall Historie of Plantes (London, 1597), p. 844 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

20 The Floral Symbolism of the Great Masters (New York and London, 1913), pp. 269- 270. She remarks (p. 268) that ‘the strawberry stands apart from all other symbolical fruits. It is found in Italian, Flemish and German art, and also in the English miniatures. As a symbol it is not only widespread, but of comparatively early origin.’

21 It is conceivable that Ovid's description of the Golden Age, in which the strawberry is mentioned among the fruits brought forth by nature without man's travail (Meta. I, 104), had some part in the development of this convention. In the moralized Ovid, where strawberries remain a typical Golden Age food, the world of the Golden Age is explicitly related to the Biblical Paradise; see ‘Ovide moralisé,’ Poème du commencement du quatorzième siècle, ed. C. de Boer (Amsterdam, 1915), Livre 1, ll. 492, 928-933. On the Ovidian reference to the strawberries itself, Peter Lavinius has the following note in his commentary on the Metamorphoses (in P. Ovidii Nasonis Poetae ingeniosissimi Metamorphoseos libri XV, Venetiis, 1536, fol. 7V): ‘Montana fraga: forsitanilludexplicare uoluit quod Moses scripserat. Ecce dedi uobis omnem herbam afferentem semen super terram: & uniuersa ligna quae habent in semetipsis sementem generis sui: ut sint uobis in escam [Gen. i. 29].’ The tradition of comparing the Golden Age and Eden is still in evidence in George Sandys’ Ovids Metamorphosis Englished, Mythologiz’d, and Represented in Figures (London, 1640), p. 14.

22 See Richard of St. Victor, In Cant., P.L. CXCVI, cols. 490-491; the discussion in D. W. Robertson, Jr., ‘The Doctrine of Charity in Mediaeval Literary Gardens: A Topical Approach Through Symbolism and Allegory’, Speculum xxvi (1951), 31; and the note in the Genevan Bible (1602 Bible quoted) at Cant. v. 1: ‘The garden signifieth the kingdome of Christ’.

23 ‘Omnia quae de Ecclesia dicta sunt, possunt etiam de ipsa Virgine, sponsa et matre sponsi, intelligi’ (Honorius of Autun, ‘Sigillum beatae Marie’, P.L. CLXXII, col. 494). There arc continual references to the Virgin as the sponsa in the sermons of St. Bernard (P.L. CLXXXH-CLXXXV) . For the tradition of interpretation whereby ‘Maria est paradisus plantatus a Deo’ see Bede, P.L. xci, col. 1102; Rupert, P.L. CLXVHI, col. 896; Speculum humanae salvationis, ed. J. Lutz and P. Perdrizet (Mulhouse, 1907), 1, 228; and Martino Del’Rio, In Canticum Canticorum Solomonis commentarius literalis, et catena mystica (Paris, 1604), p. I[5]4.

24 Freeman, English Emblem Books, p. 181.

25 H. A., Partheneia Sacra (Rouen, 1633), p. 10. Elizabeth Haig remarks that the strawberry is ‘… almost invariably accompanied by the violet, from which we may gather that the truly fruitful soul is always humble’ (Floral Symbolism, p. 271).

26 This painting is reproduced in the National Gallery's Illustrations, Italian Schools (London, 1937), p. 199, and in Haig, Floral Symbolism, frontispiece.

27 See Cant. ii. 12, and for commentary, Rabanus Maurus, De uniucrso, P.L, CXI, col. 528: ‘Flores in terra visi sunt (Cant. 11); quibus etiam regnum coelorum promissum est.’ Also col. 529 : ‘ … Flores apparuerunt in terra (Cant. 11), id est, in otio fidei et justitia florucrunt in mundo, crescente Ecclesia.’ Cf. John Trapp, A commentary .. . upon … Canticles, p. 212, in Solomonis 1FANAPETOS: or, a Commentarie upon the Books of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs (London, 1650): ‘by flowers … are understood … the first fruits of the Spirit, whereby the Elect give a pleasant smell: and therein lyeth sweetnesse of speech and words going before workes, even as flowers before fruits.’

The motive is commonplace in painting; for its appearance in graphic art, see the engraving of the Madonna and Child in a garden with strawberries by Master E. S. in Max Geisberg, Die Anfänge des deutschen Kupferstiches und der Meister E. S. (Leipzig, n.d., Meister der Graphik, Band II).

28 Trapp, A commentary... upon … Canticles, p. 266, commenting on ‘ … let my wel beloued come to his garden, and eat his pleasant fruite’ (Cant. iv. 16). See also Hosea xiv 8, and the Genevan note at Cant. iv. 15: ‘The Church confesseth that all her glorie, & beautie commeth of Christ’.

29 For reproduction of these works, see the National Gallery's Illustrations, Italian Schools, p. 331, and Panofsky, Erwin, Albrecht Dürer (Princeton, 1948), II, fig. 135Google Scholar. A ‘domestication’ of the Virgin and Child with strawberry motive, interesting for our purposes, occurs in a Holy Family by the Master of the Magdalene Legend in the Antwerp Museum. This is an interior scene, and a pillow embroidered with the strawberry is in evidence.

30 See ‘The Argument’ preceding An excellent Song which was Salomons in Genevan 1602, and the discussion in Robertson, ‘Mediaeval Literary Gardens’, pp. 31-32. On the spiritual conception of Christ, see the marginal note and discussion in John Hooper, Later Writings, ed. Rev. Charles Nevinson (Cambridge, 1852, Parker Society), p. 28: ‘We must conceive Christ spiritually, and so bring him forth in our mouths and actions as occasion shall serve.’

31 For examples of the motive in tapestries, see Heinrich Göbel, Tapestries of the Lowlands, tr. Robert West (New York, 1924), figs. 219, 370, 389, 393; in horae, see fig. 6, a miniature illumination of the Virgin as ‘woman clothed with the sun’ (Rev. xii. i), with border of strawberries in apparent relief, from a Horae ad usum Romae written in Flanders, about 1500 (Princeton University Library, Garrett Collection Ms. 57, fol. 104^v); Illuminated Books of the Middle Ages and Renaissance: An Exhibition held at the Baltimore Museum of Art 1949 (Baltimore, 1949), PI. LXXVIII; Abbé V. Leroquais, Les livres d’heures: manuscrits de la Bibliothèque Nationale (Paris, 1927), Pls. 46, 47, 52, 54, 58, 59, 69, 72; in breviaries, see Leroquais, Les bréviaires: manuscrits des bibliotheques publiques de France (Paris, 1954), Pls. XC, XCII, XCIII, XCVI, cv. Good examples less conveniently viewed are Horae (British Museum Add. MS. 17280), fol. 130 (scenes from life of the Virgin); Prayers (British Museum Egerton MS. 2125), fol. 187 (Annunciation: rose, violet, and strawberry); Horae (Pierpont Morgan MS. M6), fol. 37 (Madonna of Humility).

32 See for example the floral decoration of the miniature of the Dance of ’La Carolle’ in the Roman de la Rose (British Museum Harley MS. 4425), done by the so-called Master of the Prayer Books whose painting of strawberries for the border of a Gerard David miniature of the nativity in Horae (Cambridge MS. Add. 4100) was quite clearly intended to be symbolically significant. A similar carry-over of the strawberry as a purely decorative motif in secular books by the artists who did prayer book illuminations can be seen in the Motets (British Museum Royal MS. 8.G.VII) made for Henry vnic. 1519-33.

33 See New Testament (Cambridge MS. Dd. VII.3.), made for John Colet, illuminated by a Flemish artist; see first fol. of Matt., ‘Liber generationis TESXI …’ decorated with a border containing strawberries. See Gospels (Oxford MS. 223), made for Cardinal Wolsey in 1529, illuminated by a Flemish artist; see border of miniature of Last Supper.

For an English artist under Franco-Flemish influence, see the Sarum Horae (Pierpont Morgan MS. M93), borders with violets, strawberries, and periwinkles; for a more native product with such influence in the floral border, see the miniature illumination of Christ blessing in Pierpont Morgan MS. 487 (fol. 245^v), an English horae of about 1460.

On the printed horae, and the survival of this decorative motif, see Émile Mâle, L’art religieux de la fin du Moyen Age en France (Paris, 1908), p. 273. The unique copy of the first liturgical book printed in England [Horae Beatae Virginis Mariae, ad usum Sarum (Westminster, c. 1477)], has the strawberry in its borders (fols. [I]^r , and [45]^r); these are done by hand but by a much less skilled artist than the one who did the initial letters, so that the flowers can not be asserted to have more than a crude decorative effect.

For the decorative border woodcut of the strawberry in A Booke of Christian Prayers (London, 1590), see fol. 79^r.

34 Roses and strawberries often occur together, as in the splendid leaf with initial ‘ O ‘ and miniature of the Pelican in her Piety from a choir book, Spanish, sixteenth century, preserved in the Victoria and Albert Museum, Acquisition No. D. 287-1892. The grapes occur with the strawberry and the rose in the tapestry of The Infant Saviour Pressing Grapes in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Acquisition No. 14.40.709). This is reproduced in Göbel, Tapestries, fig. 133.

For a more stylized symbolic and decorative use of the strawberry in connection with an English religious book, see the reproduction of the embroidered binding of a copy of Christian Prayers (London, 1584), in Cyril Davenport, English Embroidered Bookbindings (London, 1899), Pl. 23.

35 See Davenport, Pl. 10 (Hope: one panel of an embroidered binding of N.T., 1625 bound with Psalmes, 1635),and Pl. 14 (Bible, 1648); J. L. Nevinson, Catalogue of English Domestic Embroidery of the Sixteenth & Seventeenth Centuries, Victoria and Albert Museum (London, 1938), PI. xxxa (Abraham and Hagar); PI. xxxrv (Sacrifice of Isaac; Jonah and Whale, 1613). A sixteenth-century Greek Testament and Hebrew Bible in the Durham Cathedral Library (B.m.31) has an embroidered cover, with strawberries predominant, worked by the Lady Arabella Stuart, who was committed to the charge of the Bishop of Durham in 1611. An early seventeenth-century embroidered cover for a Bible cushion in the collection of Judge Irwin Untermeyer (New York City) may be of special interest. The strawberry plant, prominently displayed in the foreground, is here associated (as frequently earlier) with the story of the falsely accused, chaste Susanna. Moreover, a snake pictured at the bottom of the design, though it is separated from the strawberry, may indicate that the other tradition of the symbolic plant—applicable to the two hypocritical elders—might also have been intended. This piece is reproduced in Remington, English Domestic Needlework, fig. 42.

36 See O.E.D., s.v. Spotted: ‘ I. Marked or decorated with spots… . b. Const, with (some colour, etc.). 2. Disfigured or stained with spots… . b.fig. Morally stained or blemished, c. Const, with (something disgraceful).’

37 The Book of Common Prayer (1559), in Liturgies and Occasional Forms of Prayer Set Forth in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth, ed. Rev. William Keatinge Clay (Cambridge, 1847, Parker Society), p. 223 (based on Eph. v. 22 ff∼.): ‘Ye husbands love your wives, even as Christ loved the church, and hath given himself for it, to sanctify it purging it in the fountain of water, through thy word, that he might make it unto himself a glorious congregation, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, but that it should be holy and blameless.’

38 I should like to acknowledge the following sources for the photographs: Fig. 1, the Folger Shakespeare Library; Figs. 2 and 6, the Princeton University Library; Fig. 3, Mr. Robert Lehman (photo: Bulloz); Fig. 4, Musee des Beaux-Arts, Strasbourg (the painting was destroyed by fire in 1947); Fig. 5, the National Gallery, London; Fig. 7, the British Museum (photo: John R. Freeman & Co., London).