I was recently at the Ashland Shakespeare Festival, where I was not surprised to hear many references to plants in Shakespeare's plays, but I was surprised to notice that the playwright employed the symbolism of trees, flowers, and herbs in his tragedies and histories.
Plants were the stuff of not only romance and passion, they were also emblems of despair, fear, and decay. A look at Shakespeare's botanic symbolism reveals how our associations with plants have changed over the past several centuries, and, of course, how beautifully he wound together the human experience with the botanic life cycle.
Quotations and reference are from the book The Plant-lore and Garden-craft of Shakespeare, by Henry Nicholson Ellacombe (W. Satchell and Co., 1884).
Anna Laurent is a writer and producer of educational botanical media. Photographs from her forthcoming field guide to Los Angeles are available for exhibition and purchase at the author's shop.
