COLUMBINE AND PENNYROYAL

 COLUMBINE AND PENNYROYAL -REALITY AND IMITATION 

REALITY AND IMITATION 

By W.G.S. 

Not a tree 
A plant, a leaf, a blossom but contains 
A folio volume.We may read, and read. 
And read again, and still find something new;
Something to please, and something to instruct. 

PENNYROYAL in our Picture has evident reference to the drama, and, as the plant known by the same name, has ever enjoyed the "possession of subtile parts," we naturally imagine that Pennyroyal is playing one of the parts, of which one man in his time is said to play so many. No doubt the performance represented in our Picture is a Shakspearean revival and our lad is saying -

My crown is in my heart, not on my head, 

Not decked with diamonds and Indian stones, 

Nor to be seen My crown is called content; 

A crown it is that seldom Kings enjoy. 

Or may be

 There's Fennel for you and Columbines. 

        William Shakespeare

The bier descends the spotless roses too. 

The father's tribute in his saddest hour; 

O'Earth that bore them both thou hast thy due,- 

The fair young girl and flower; 

Give them not back unto a world again 

Where mourning, grief, and agony have power; 

Where winds, destroy, and suns malignant reign- 

That fair young girl and flower. 

          * * * * * * 

But he, thy sire, whose furrowed brow is pale, 

Bends lost in sorrow, o'er thy funeral bower; 

And Time the old oak's roots doth now assail; 

O fair young girl and flower; 

References:

THE ILLUSTRATED LONDON ALMANACK FOR 1868