（三）莎士比亞的芸香
芸香出現在莎士比亞多部戲劇作品中，有著豐富的文化內涵。
《冬天的故事》（The winter’s tale）第四幕的第四場，牧羊女珀迪塔（Perdita）對卡米洛（Camillo ，波西米亞國王身邊的臣子）說：
“歡迎您，先生。多卡斯，把那些花給我。尊敬的先生，這是送給你們的迷迭香和芸香，它們的外觀和顏色在整個冬季都不會消散。願你們兩位承蒙恩典，永被世人銘記。歡迎來我們的剪羊毛盛會！”
(PERDITA
To CAMILLO
You’re welcome, sir.
Give me those flowers there, Dorcas. Reverend sirs,
For you there’s rosemary and rue; these keep
Seeming and savour all the winter long:
Grace and remembrance be to you both,
And welcome to our shearing!)
珀迪塔用芸香和迷迭香來襯托兩位年紀較大的來賓。芸香是恩典草藥，迷迭香象征著“紀念”（remembrance）, 她同時祝福來賓們承蒙恩典並永被銘記。
《哈姆雷特》（Hamlet）第四幕第五場，處於癲狂狀態下的女主人公奧菲利亞（Ophelia）說：“這是迷迭香，代表紀念。請記住，愛。這是三色堇，代表思想……這是給你的茴香和鴿子花。 這是給你的芸香，還有一些給我，我們可以把它稱為星期日的‘恩典草藥’。哦，你必須用與眾不同的方式戴著芸香。-這是一朵雛菊。我會給你一些紫香堇，但是當我父親去世時，它們全部枯萎了。他們說他有個好結局（唱）甜蜜的羅賓是我所有的快樂……”
(There’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance. Pray you, love, remember. And there is pansies, that’s for thoughts……There’s fennel for you, and columbines.—There’s rue for you, and here’s some for me. We may call it “herb of grace” o' Sundays.—Oh, you must wear your rue with a difference.—There’s a daisy. I would give you some violets, but they withered all when my father died. They say he made a good end (sings) For bonny sweet Robin is all my joy— )
奧菲利亞分了一些芸香給王後，暗諷她的不忠，提醒王後要戴著它懺悔。她失去了父親和親人，也必須戴著它以示雙重痛苦。在中世紀，芸香有時被用來催產，或者在極端情況下被用來墮胎。因此某些讀者猜測送給自己一些芸香的奧菲利亞已珠胎暗結 – 這是她不想麵對的局麵，因而導致了她後來以溺水的方式終結自己的生命。
有人做了統計，莎士比亞的戲劇作品中總共出現了29個花園場景，曆史劇《理查二世》（ Richard II）的第三幕第四場的花園情景是最讓人印象深刻的。在約克公爵的花園裏，盡管宮女努力勸說理查二世的王後振作起來，她依舊很傷心。此時一位園丁和他的兩名仆人進入花園，王後和宮女躲在樹下偷聽。現將部分情節翻譯如下：
王後：
“要是哭泣可以讓我感到安慰，我會做得足足的，讓自己唱起歌來，用不著借你的眼淚了。”
（QUEEN
And I could sing, would weeping do me good,
And never borrow any tear of thee.）
一園丁及二仆人上。
（Enter a Gardener, and two Servants）
（王後）“但是且慢，園丁們來了。讓我們走進這些樹木的陰影裏。我打賭他們一定會談到政治，每當政局發生變化時，誰都會發一些議論。悲傷總是以悲傷的形式來宣告。”
（But stay, here come the gardeners:
Let’s step into the shadow of these trees.
My wretchedness unto a row of pins,
They’ll talk of state; for every one doth so
Against a change; woe is forerun with woe.）
王後及宮女等退後。
（QUEEN and Ladies retire）
園丁：
“去，把那些垂下的杏子紮起來。他們像不守規矩的孩子，使得老父不堪重負而彎下腰來。給彎曲的細枝一些支撐。你去，做一個劊子手，斬下那些長得過高過快的分枝，它們在咱們的共和國顯得太高了。咱們的政府一切都必須平等的。你們去幹這些，我來挖掉那些有害的雜草，它們根本沒有用，隻會同鮮花爭奪土壤裏的養分。”
（GARDENER
Go, bind thou up yon dangling apricocks,
Which, like unruly children, make their sire
Stoop with oppression of their prodigal weight:
Give some supportance to the bending twigs.
Go thou, and like an executioner,
Cut off the heads of too fast growing sprays,
That look too lofty in our commonwealth:
All must be even in our government.
You thus employ’d, I will go root away
The noisome weeds, which without profit suck
The soil’s fertility from wholesome flowers.）
仆甲：
“我們為何要在這個小小的圍牆內保持著法紀、秩序和有條不紊，使整個花園看起來像是個典範，當我們整個的國家，一個以大海作圍牆的花園裏雜草蔓生，最美的鮮花窒息而死，所有的果樹無人修剪，籬笆毀損，花池淩亂不堪，健壯的草藥上爬滿了毛毛蟲？”
（SERVANT
Why should we in the compass of a pale
Keep law and form and due proportion,
Showing, as in a model, our firm estate,
When our sea-walled garden, the whole land,
Is full of weeds, her fairest flowers choked up,
Her fruit-trees all upturned, her hedges ruin’d,
Her knots disorder’d and her wholesome herbs
Swarming with caterpillars?）
園丁：
“稍安勿躁。那個容忍著雜亂無章的春天的人，已經像秋天的落葉那樣凋零了。那些庇護在他的廣布的樹葉之下，看似擁護他，實則蠶食他的雜草，全都被博林布羅克連根拔起了，我說的是威爾特郡伯爵和布希、格林那些人。”
（GARDENER
Hold thy peace:
He that hath suffer’d this disorder’d spring
Hath now himself met with the fall of leaf:
The weeds which his broad-spreading leaves did shelter,
That seem’d in eating him to hold him up,
Are pluck’d up root and all by Bolingbroke,
I mean the Earl of Wiltshire, Bushy, Green.）
仆甲：
“什麽！他們死了？”
（SERVANT
What, are they dead?）
園丁：
“他們都死了。博林布羅克抓到了那個揮霍無度的國王。哦，可惜了，國王沒有像我們治理這個花園那樣仔細地治理他的土地！每年這個時候，我們會刺穿樹皮，以免果樹因自身的汁液過多而結不出果實。如果他能以同樣的手段對付那些財富和名望漸隆的人們，他們就不得不遵從於他，他也能品嚐到他們盡忠的果實。我們剪去多餘的旁枝，結果的幹枝才能茁壯生長。如果他也采取同樣的方式，他仍將擁有王冠，不至於在嬉戲享樂中將其葬送了。”
（GARDENER
They are; and Bolingbroke
Hath seized the wasteful king. O, what pity is it
That he had not so trimm’d and dress’d his land
As we this garden! We at time of year
Do wound the bark, the skin of our fruit-trees,
Lest, being over-proud in sap and blood,
With too much riches it confound itself:
Had he done so to great and growing men,
They might have lived to bear and he to taste
Their fruits of duty: superfluous branches
We lop away, that bearing boughs may live:
Had he done so, himself had borne the crown,
Which waste of idle hours hath quite thrown down.）
在上述的對話中，園丁將英國比作一個淩亂無序的大花園，使得博林布羅克（即後來的亨利四世）獲得了廣大民眾的支持，討伐成功。園丁在此也表達了大膽的想法，即普通公民如果對國家不滿，可向國王提出訴求。
此時，王後從樹蔭裏走出來與園丁對峙。她用強烈的隱喻語言訓斥園丁：
“喔，我再不說話就要憋死了。（上前）你，是老亞當在世，來打理這個花園的，怎敢如此放肆地嚼舌頭，說出這些不愉快的消息？哪個夏娃，哪條蛇，建議你讓被詛咒的人類第二次墮落的？你為什麽說理查國王被廢黜？你卑微如塵土，竟敢預測他的垮台嗎？說，你在什麽時候，什麽地方，怎樣聽到這些可怕的消息？快說，你這賤貨”。
（QUEEN
O, I am press’d to death through want of speaking!
Coming forward
Thou, old Adam’s likeness, set to dress this garden,
How dares thy harsh rude tongue sound this unpleasing news?
What Eve, what serpent, hath suggested thee
To make a second fall of cursed man?
Why dost thou say King Richard is deposed?
Darest thou, thou little better thing than earth,
Divine his downfall? Say, where, when, and how,
Camest thou by this ill tidings? speak, thou wretch.）
園丁直截了當地告訴王後，所有的人都支持博林布羅克，理查二世鐵定是要被廢黜的。王後傷心欲絕，說：“厄運捷足先登，你本該最先告訴我的，為什麽我是最後一個聽到這壞消息的？哦，你以為最後一個告訴我，我心中的感傷就會最長久。來，姑娘們，我們去倫敦，會會那不幸的君王吧。難道我命該如此，我的悲傷將用來點綴偉大的博林布羅克的勝利嗎？園丁，因為你告訴我這些不幸的消息，但願上帝使你種下的植物永遠不能生長”。
（QUEEN
Nimble mischance, that art so light of foot,
Doth not thy embassage belong to me,
And am I last that knows it? O, thou think’st
To serve me last, that I may longest keep
Thy sorrow in my breast. Come, ladies, go,
To meet at London London’s king in woe.
What, was I born to this, that my sad look
Should grace the triumph of great Bolingbroke?
Gardener, for telling me these news of woe,
Pray God the plants thou graft’st may never grow.）
王後及宮女離開後，園丁感慨一番：“可憐的王後！如果對您的狀況有所幫助，我甘心受您的詛咒，失掉我的技能。她的眼淚就落在這裏，我會在這兒種下一排芸香，苦味的恩典草藥。芸香也象征著憂傷，很快在這裏生長，紀念一位哭泣的王後。”
GARDENER
Poor queen! so that thy state might be no worse,
I would my skill were subject to thy curse.
Here did she fall a tear; here in this place
I’ll set a bank of rue, sour herb of grace:
Rue, even for ruth, here shortly shall be seen,
In the remembrance of a weeping queen.
園丁說出了芸香的花語，作為悲傷和遺憾的象征，它最適合這位倒黴的王後。
