Book Review: A Shakespearean Botanical by Margaret Willes

Book Review: A Shakespearean Botanical by Margaret Willes

Quote: When Tatiana commands her fairies to serve Bottom the weaver with exotic fruits such as apricots, figs, and mulberries in A Midsummer's Night Dream, she is is indulging him with 'banqueting stuffe'.

On Saturday afternoon my boss showed me the gift her daughter bought from the Bodleian Library. A library I absolutely drool over, for Harry Potter freaks, that's your Hogwarts Library! And All Souls Trilogy fans that's where Diana met Mathew.

I practically waltzed around my boss, nagged her, geeked about the beautiful book to finally make her part with it for the weekend.

How many times have we read Shakespeare and gone he knew his stuff too well! Which is the major reason behind the long-standing debate of Mr. William's actual identity and authorship of his plays?

This book is aptly described as a marriage between the beautiful words of the Bard and the illustrations of John Gerard's herbals of 1597. Gerard was a good friend of the Bard and Sweet William the flower most probably was named after Shakespeare, by John.

It's meant to be a light read for people who love Shakespeare and want to read something more, and an educational insight for botany enthusiasts. But the research that went behind is commendable, to pick out lines about herbs and flowers from his not so popular and popular plays, poetry and sonnets, then finding out their original sources the Bard nicked from, and then explaining the social, class, and plot significance, and where the plants came from, is amazing.

Carrots and any root based plants were the food of the lowest class. The herb quinces helped in conceiving. The flowers and herbs Ophelia wanted to sew in her crown all had a meaning! And the herbs that went into the human pie in Titus Andronicus were foreshadowing treachery! When Lady Macbeth dies the herbs Macbeth seeks were known for numbing qualities. There is a lot of layering and metaphorical and allegorical play of text as well, sometimes Shakespeare uses a flower that signifies death in Greek mythology as a tool of foreshadowing. Sometimes plants were used in sexual context and other moments to indicate the nature of a character! Potatoes were seen as an aphrodisiac and were imported and pears often represented the male human's sexual parts.

The author did a wonderful job of explaining the changing nature of kitchen history, how recipe books were a source of information and a personal garden was an example of knowledge and learning. Some of the mentioned plants and herbs and vegetables were imported and only available to the royalty. How did Shakespeare learn about them? The author digs out the numerous relationships the bard had with from different classes of society. Gerard himself was once a tender and florist and researcher for James I.

It's a lovely book to hold and laze around with. The illustrations are so beautiful, the paper quality and the binding and the typesetting makes my heart ache in happiness. I don't want to return it!