Violets are a beautiful, sweet smelling flower. Traditionally violets represented faithfulness but for Shakespeare they were also symbolic of sorrow and death.
Violet (Viola odorata)
“I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,
Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows”
Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows”
- A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act II, Scene 1
"That strain again, it had a dying fall.
O, it came o'er my ear like the sweet sound,
That breathes upon a bank of violets ."
- Twelfth Night, Act I, Scene 1
“A violet in the youth of primy nature
Forward, not permanent, sweet not lasting
The perfume and suppliance of a minute
No more.”
- Hamlet, Act I, Scene 3
“I would give you some violets, but they withered all when my father died.”
- Hamlet, Act IV, Scene 5
“Lay her i’ th’ earth
And from her fair and unpolluted flesh
May violets spring.”
- Hamlet, Act V, Scene 1
“The purple violets and marigolds,
Shall as a carpet hang upon thy grave.”
Shall as a carpet hang upon thy grave.”
- Pericles, Act IV, Scene 1
“The forward violet thus did I chide,
Sweet thief, whence didst thou steal thy sweet that smells
If not from my loves breath? The purple pride
Which on thy soft cheek for complexion dwells
In my love’s veins thou hast too grossly dyed.”
Sweet thief, whence didst thou steal thy sweet that smells
If not from my loves breath? The purple pride
Which on thy soft cheek for complexion dwells
In my love’s veins thou hast too grossly dyed.”
- Sonnet XCIX
There are over one hundred different species of Violet and a large number of sub-species, including the Viola tricolor or Pansy. The herbalist John Gerard wrote “there
be made of them garlands for the head, nosegaies and poesies, which are
delightfull to look on and pleasant to smel … gardens themselves
receive by these the greatest ornament of all, chiefest beauty, and most
excellent grace.” Francis Bacon in his Essay of Gardening wrote “that which above all others yields the sweetest smell is the violet and next to that the musk rose.”
Although prized for their beauty and their smell, Violets were also
associated with melancholy and early death. This is expressed in Hamlet when Ophelia laments that she has no Violets to give to the court because “they withered when my father died” and in Laertes’ wish that Violets “may spring”
from Ophelia’s grave. Sonnet XCIX also conveys this sense of mourning
for premature death when the poet curses the Violet for having more life
in it than his beloved.
Violets appear in the early Spring and then fade away, for this reason
they were associated with early death, becoming “apt emblems of those
who enjoyed the bright springtide of life and no more.” (Ellacombe, The Plant-Lore and Garden-Craft of Shakespeare) Violets
were also linked to the Underworld in Greek myth, being one of the
flowers that Persephone was gathering when she was kidnapped by Hades.
This scene is recounted by Perdita in The Winter’s Tale.
Violets were also emblems of constancy and faithfulness, popular with
troubadours since the fourteenth century. A poem in a 1584 song book had
this verse:
“Violet is for faithfulness
Which in me shall abide
Hoping likewise that from your heart
You will not let it slide.”
This meaning suggests that Ophelia’s statement that the Violets had “wither’d all when my father died”
had a double meaning. Not merely lamenting the death of her father but
also acknowledging the lack of faithfulness and fidelity in the court,
particularly evident in the actions of the new King and his Queen.
Type: Perennial
Height: Up to 10 inches
When to Plant: Autumn or early spring
Flowers: Early spring to late summer