“Their several virtues and effects”: Herbal Medicine and Botanical References in Cymbeline.

This article discusses the cross-references to plants and flowers used in the symbolic, metaphorical, and allegorical discourse that permeate Shakespeare’s Cymbeline. The ‘garden scene’, where the wicked Queen and her tutor, Doctor Cornelius, debate the “virtues and effects” (I.v.23) of several herbs, is of greatest importance to understanding the rich botanic imagery of the play, as well as the two characters’ relationship as male doctor and female apothecary-apprentice. Recent scholarship has revealed that reading about nature was a paramount activity of English gentlewomen. Drawing upon coeval herbaria, this paper will explore the floral and herbal metaphors of the play: references to flowers such as cowslips, primroses, and violets recur throughout the drama in relation to specific characters. As will be evinced, the play testifies to the fascinating intersection of literature, drama, and early modern medicine and to Shakespeare’s knowledge of coeval medical notions. Cymbeline’s Queen also displays her familiarity with some themes related to the new theories on alchemy and medicine popularised in the late sixteenth century due to the wide dissemination of the doctrines attributed to the Swiss physician and alchemist known as Paracelsus.