1Reading 23-2READING 23-2Source: Jules Janick. 1987. Proc. Second National Herb Growing and Marketing Conference, Purdue Research Foundation.The Herbal of John GerardThe herbal of John Gerard (1545–1612) is the best known botanical work published in English. It has remained popular for over 400 years for its amalgamation of horticultural lore, its collection of medical “vir-tues” of plants, and, not least, its graceful and delightful English prose. It is still useful and still a delight.Gerard was born in Cheshire, England and attended a village school in Wisterson. He was apprenticed for a career of a surgeon in 1562 and achieved eminence in his profession, being elected Master of the Com-pany of Barber-Surgeons. He traveled the Baltic coast to “Denmarke, Swevia, Poland, Livinia, Russia” and even mentions Moscow!Gerard’s reputation, however, rests on horticulture. As early as 1577, Gerard superintended several gardens and plant collections of William Cecil (Lord Burghley, the fi rst minister of Queen Elizabeth) in-cluding his residence in the Strand and at Theobalds, Hertfordshire. In 1586 he was appointed curator of the College of Physicians physics garden. In addition, Gerard’s own garden at Holborn, between Chancery Lane and Fetter Lane included “all the rare samples” and “all manners of strange trees, herbs, roots, plants, fl owers and other rare things ...”Gerard’s list of plants in his Holborn garden published in 1596 was the fi rst garden catalogue printed in English and included over 1,000 species including the fi rst English mention of potato. However, Gerard’s most famous work is his Herball or General Historie of Plants, published in 1597 and dedicated to Lord Burghley. The opening sentence of his preface is a delightful example of his style:“Although my paines have not been spent (Curteous Reader) in the gracious discoverie of golden mines, nor in the tracing after silver veines, whereby my native country might be enriched with such merchandise as it hath most in request and admiration; yet hath my labour (I trust) been otherwise profi tably employed, in descrying of such a harmlesse treasure of herbes, trees, and plants, as the earth frankely without violence offereth unto our most necessarie uses.”The origin of the Herball is an involved story. The publisher, John North, had commissioned a certain Dr. (Robert) Priest, a London physician, to translate Stirpium historiae pemptades sex (1583) of the Belgian botanist Rembert Dodoens (1517–1585) from Latin into English but who died before completing the task. The fate of Priest’s translation is obscure. Gerard stated in his preface to the Herball that he had never seen the manuscript but in a commendatory letter also printed in the Herball, Stephen Bredwell acknowledged Priest as follows:“D. Priest, for his translation of so much as Dodonaeus, hath thereby left a tombe for his honor-able sculpture.”This sentence has been interpreted to confl ict with Gerard’s account:.... Doctor Priest, one of our London Colleagues hath (as I heard) translated the last edition of Dodonaeus, which meant to publish the same; but being prevented by death, his translation like-wise perished:…Gerard’s reputation has suffered as a result of the comment “as I heard,” in light of the contradictory comment by Bredwell. He has been accused of plagerism at the worst or dishonesty at the least. However,2 Reading 23-2if one assumes there is no innocent explanation for this discrepancy, the lack of suppression must be based on the assumption that Gerard did not read the dedicatory letters included on his behalf.The Herbal contained about 1800 woodcuts, most of them from the collection of Tabernaemontanus (Jacob Dietrich of Bergzabern, 1520–1590) published in his Eicones plantarum of 1590, illustrations without text. However, Gerard had diffi culties coupling the fi gures with text and Mathias de l’Obel (1539–1616) was brought in by the printer to assist in this project. Diffi culties ensued and l’0bel was dismissed by Gerard on the ground that he has forgotten his English.The fi rst edition of the Herball was without competition in England for 36 years. When it was learned that a new herbal by John Parkinson was in the offi ng the successors to the rights to the Herball decided to publish a second edition and commissioned Thomas Johnson, a London apothecary and botanist, to un-dertake the task. The feat was accomplished within a year and the second revised edition was published in 1633. Johnson’s edition is even more famous than the fi rst. All corrections and emendations are indicated by special markings. The illustrations were augmented to 2766, most obtained from Christophe Plantin of Antwerp (1514–1588) and many new plants were described including the plantain or banana.Gerard’s Herball is more than a mere compilation. Although he stresses medicinal qualities of plants, attention is drawn to ornamental and food values, and includes extensive comments on culture and history. Gerard, above all, wrote with felicity and style, and the charm of his prose has done much to make this herbal a beloved work of English letters.According to J.W. Lever (1952) there is circumstantial evidence that Gerard’s Herball may have been a source for William Shakespeare. Love’s Labour’s Lost, presumably written in 1588 but printed in 1598 “newly corrected and augmented,” contains one of the more delightful songs of the great bard. The fi rst stanza is as follows:I. The Cuckoo SongWhen Daises pied, and Violets blew,And Ladie-smockes all silver white,And Cuckow-buds of yellow hewDo paint the Medowes with delight:The Cuckow then on everie treeMockes married men, for thus sings heCuckow.Cuckow, Cuckow: O word of feare,Unpleasing to a married eare.(Love’s Labour’s Lost, v.ii, 902–10)There are some odd horticultural allusions: (1) Ladie smocks (Cardamine pratensis) are pale lilac not silver-white; (2) Cuckow-buds (another name for Ladie Smocks) are not yellow!!!The confusion is cleared up by a reading of Gerard’s Herball. Chapter 18 of Book II, entitled “Of wilde water cresses or Cuckow fl owers” lists six varieties all but one are termed ladie smocks.The 5th variety is described as follows (italics provided by Lever):5. Milke white Ladie smockes hath stalkes rising immediately from the roote, deviding themselves into sundrie small twiggie and hard braunches,
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