The Floral Fortune-teller/White Flowers
PART I.
WHITE FLOWERS.
Describing your Character.
APPLE-BLOSSOM.
A most exquisite lady.
As one, in suffering all, that suffers nothing;
A man that fortune’s buffets and rewards
Hast ta’en with equal thanks; and bless’d are those
Whose blood and judgment are so well commingled,
That they are not a pipe for fortune’s finger
To sound what stop she pleases.
APRICOT-BLOSSOM.
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What an eye!—Methinks it sounds a parley of provocation.—An inviting eye, and yet, methinks, right modest.
A combination and a form, indeed,
Where every god did seem to set his seal
To give the world assurance of a man.
ANEMONE, OR WIND FLOWER.
And sweet your voice as seraph’s song.
It bids you hear the tale of woe.
Where none will sweat but for promotion,
And having that, do choke their service up,
Even with the having; it is not so with thee.
BACHELOR’S BUTTON.
Seeking the bubble reputation.
BALSAMINE.
Of flowers, garlands, love-knots, silly posies,
Groves, meadows, melodies and arbor-roses.
BLOOD ROOT.
Your spirits are too bold for your years.
CALLA.
Clad in the beauty of a thousand stars.
A handsome youth, indeed!
CANDY TUFT.
Handsome, young, and hast all those requisites that folly and green minds look after.
if the devil bid you.
CHINA ASTER.
Thy mind is a very opal! I would have men of such constancy put to sea, that their business might be everything, and their intent everywhere.
CAMELLIA.
As jealous creatures are.
CLEMATIS.
Pretty and witty; wild, and yet too, gentle.
Believe me, in thy breast are thy destiny’s stars. Trust in thyself. Decision is thy Venus. The Malignant, the only one that injures thee, is irresolution.
CANTERBURY BELL.
Wearing the rose of womanhood.
The world hath noted, and your name is great
In mouths of wisest censure.
COLUMBINE.
As quarrelsome as the weasel.
You are rather point-device in your accoutrements; as loving yourself than seeming the lover of any other.
CHRYSANTHEMUM.
But slow in speech, yet sweet as spring-time flowers.
As e’er my conversation coped withal.
DAHLIA.
Nor bite the lip, as angry wenches will;
Nor hast thou pleasure to be cross in talk;
But thou with mildness entertain’st thy wooers,
With gentle conference soft and affable.
Everything by starts, and nothing long.
DAISY.
As zephyrs, blowing below the violet,
Not wagging his sweet head; and yet as rough,
The blood enchased, as the rudest wind,
That by the top doth take the mountain-pine,
And make him stoop to the vale.
DAFFODIL.
Soft smiles by human kindness bred!
And seemliness complete, that sways
Thy courtesies, about thee plays.
Of every man’s good parts.
ELDER.
God hath given you one face, and you make yourself another; you jig, you amble, you lisp.
The observed of all observers.
EVERLASTING.
Whose pleasures are in wild fields gathered.
devil himself with courtesy.
HOLLYHOCK.
HOUSTONIA.
Whose heart is in her house.
In the low vale of life.
HONEYSUCKLE.
Wandering, and littering with unfolded silks
The polished counter, and approving none,
Or promising with smiles to call again.
Cunning in music and the mathematics.
HAWTHORN.
For every virtue, every worth renowned.
JASMINE.
I see thee sweet and bonnie.
And tender as a girl, all essenced o’er
With odors, and as profligate as sweet.
LILY.
Summed up, and closed in little.
That thinks men honest that but seem to be so,
And will as tenderly be led by the nose
As asses are.
LOCUST.
Beauty has corrupted thy heart. That little face! shame on thee! In the morning its splendor dies, its rose sheds its leaves. Swallows that love in the spring-time fly when the north-wind blows. Thine autumn will frighten away thy lovers.
LARKSPUR.
And your life like the new-driven snaw.
A delicate refinement known to few.
LEMON.
When the dew wets its leaves; unstained
As is the lily, and pure as the mountain snow.
Distilled from some worm-cankered homily.
* * * Thou from a throne
Mounted in heaven wilt shoot into the dark
Arrows of lightnings.
LUPINE.
A gentleman that loves to hear himself talk, and will speak more in a minute than he can stand to in a month.
MALLOWS.
MYRTLE.
ORANGE FLOWER.
A lady of most confirmed honor, of an unmatchable spirit, and determinable in all virtuous resolutions; not hasty to anticipate an affront, nor slow to feel, where just provocation is given.
OX-EYE.
Where there is little of transcendent worth,—
Like one of Shakspeare’s women.
An idle Dreamer!
PEA-BLOSSOM.
Graceful without design, and unforeseeing.
The picture of a life well spent.
PETUNIA.
A lovely soul, formed to be blest and bless.
Ambition to attempt, and skill to win.
PEONY.
Of manners sweet as virtue always wears
When gay good nature dresses her in smiles.
PINK.
In power of mind and eloquent discourse.
POPPY.
Of prouder stuff.
That hath a mint of phrases in his brains;
One when the music of his own vain tongue
Doth ravish like enchanting harmony.
POTATO.
The hearts of men adore thee.
ROSE.
As sweet as the evening among the new hay;
As blithe and as artless as the lambs on the lea.
A merrier man, within the limit of becoming mirth, I never spent an hour’s talk withal.
SNOW-DROP.
And love but thee forever;
For Nature made thee what thou art,
And ne’er made sic’ anither!
STRAWBERRY-BLOSSOM.
No artful wiles to win.
SNOWBALL.
A unit; a thing without a name in the state; a something to be governed, not to govern.
SWEET-WILLIAM.
In which more plainly I could trace
Benignity and homebred sense,
Ripening in perfect innocence.
SPIREA.
Thou art of so free, so kind, so apt, so blessed a disposition, that thou holdest it a vice in thy goodness not to do more than thou art requested.
STAR OF BETHLEHEM.
Of spirit so still and quiet, that thy motion
Blushes at thyself.
Of Love, of Hate, forever in extremes;
Gentle when unprovoked, easily won,
But quick in quarrel—thro’ a thousand shades
Thy spirit flits, chameleon-like; and mocks
The eye of the observer.
SYRINGA.
Nor sparingly endowed with worldly wealth.
In voices well divulged, free, learned and valiant,
And in dimensions and the shape of nature
A gracious person.
VERBENA.
With this, thy fair and outward character.
Not yet old enough for a man, nor young enough for a boy; as a squash is before it is a peascod, or a codling when’t is almost an apple.
VIOLET.
Incapable of base compliances.
A man of kindlier nature.
YARROW.
And mony full as braw,
But for a modest, graceful mien,
The like I never saw.
