Gardens and Nature in Shakespeare Gardens and Nature in Shakespeare Author Kate Wrayton Supervising Editor Melissa Walter Editor Kate McPherson Copy Editor Leah Hamby Senior Encoder Leah Hamby Encoding and Metadata LEMDO Team Copyright Holder (Content) Kate McPherson Copyright Holder (XML and interface) University of Victoria Early Modern England Encyclopedia EMEE

Anthology Leads: Kate McPherson and Kate Moncrief.

 Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Mitacs Globalink Research Internship Utah Valley University

Released with Early Modern England Encyclopedia 1.0a

 University of Victoria on the Linked Early Modern Drama Online Platform

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Early Modern England Encyclopedia

By Kate Wrayton, inspired by Michael Best’s Shakespeare’s Life and Times, Internet Shakespeare Editions

Encoded in TEI P5 according to the LEMDO Customization and Encoding Guidelines

This document uses Canadian English spelling

 Document Types All documents in LEMDO are either born-digital documents or primary documents. Within those two general categories, LEMDO offers additional ways to categorize a file. Born-digital Born-digital documents are anything other than primary texts Critical Critical material, such as a general introduction or a textual introduction. Responsibilities Responsibilities Author A person, family, or organization responsible for creating a work that is primarily textual in content, regardless of media type (e.g., printed text, spoken word, electronic text, tactile text) or genre (e.g., poems, novels, screenplays, blogs). Use also for persons, etc., creating a new work by paraphrasing, rewriting, or adapting works by another creator such that the modification has substantially changed the nature and content of the original or changed the medium of expression. LEMDO uses the term author in two contexts: (1) to indicate the author of a primary work or document (such as Hamlet), and (2) to indicate the author of a secondary text (such as the Critical Introduction to <title level="m">Hamlet, by David Bevington). Editor A person, family, or organization contributing to a resource by revising or elucidating the content, e.g., adding an introduction, notes, or other critical matter. An editor may also prepare a resource for production, publication, or distribution. For major revisions, adaptations, etc., that substantially change the nature and content of the original work, resulting in a new work, see author. LEMDO uses the general term editor only in edition metadata and only to indicate when a person is responsible for editing all parts of an edition. Otherwise, use the more granular terms to describe the precise nature of the editorial role. Supervising Editor An editor who supervises the work of a student editor. Copy Editor LEMDO uses the term owner for the person who checks facts, quotations, and citations; may make formatting changes; may convert from one citation style to another; may suggest wording changes; and enforces conformity with the project style guide. Markup Editor A person or organization performing the coding of SGML, HTML, or XML markup of metadata, text, etc. Gloss needed. Copyright Holder A person or organization to whom copy and legal rights have been granted or transferred for the intellectual content of a work. The copyright holder, although not necessarily the creator of the work, usually has the exclusive right to benefit financially from the sale and use of the work to which the associated copyright protection applies. Normally the editor is the copyright holder for an LEMDO edition. EMEE Keywords Culture Learn about the customs, beliefs, and daily lives of people in early modern England. Daily Life Adultery Gender Sexuality Science Nature Published file. Updated metadata added figure. proofed Review of article finished. updated author respStmt. Created File. Michael Best Michael Best

Michael Best is Professor Emeritus at the University of Victoria, BC. He founded the Internet Shakespeare Editions in 1996, and was Coordinating Editor until 2017, contributing two editions to the ISE: King John and King Lear (the latter also available in print from Broadview Press). In print, he has published editions of works of Elizabethan magic and huswifery, a collection of letters from the Australian goldfields, and Shakespeare on the Art of Love (2008). He contributed regular columns for the Shakespeare Newsletter on Electronic Shakespeares, and has written many articles and chapters for both print and online books and journals, principally on questions raised by the new medium in the editing and publication of texts. He has delivered papers and plenary lectures on electronic media and the Internet Shakespeare Editions at conferences in Canada, the USA, the UK, Spain, Australia, and Japan.

 Leah Hamby Leah Hamby

Leah Hamby is the primary encoder for the Early Modern England Encyclopedia. Aside from encoding, she also works as an editor for the project and contributed several articles of her own. She has been working on the EMEE since February 2023. As of February 2026, she is soon to graduate with honours from Utah Valley University with a major in history and a minor in creative writing. Her other work with the LEMDO program includes remediating William Kemp’s Kemp’s Nine Day’s Wonder for the Digital Renaissance Editions.

 Navarra Houldin Navarra Houldin

Training and Documentation Lead 2025–present. LEMDO project manager 2022–2025. Textual remediator 2021–present. Navarra Houldin (they/them) completed their BA with a major in history and minor in Spanish at the University of Victoria in 2022. Their primary research was on gender and sexuality in early modern Europe and Latin America. They are continuing their education through an MA program in Gender and Social Justice Studies at the University of Alberta where they will specialize in Digital Humanities.

 Kate McPherson Kate McPherson

Kate McPherson is Professor of English and Honors Program Director at Utah Valley University (Orem, UT, USA). In 2015, she began working to redevelop Shakespeare’s Life and Times, created by Michael Best, into the Early Modern England Encyclopedia. Her other publications include commentary on Pericles and The Comedy of Errors for the New Oxford Shakespeare (2016); the co-edited volumes Stages of Engagement: Drama and Religion in Post-Reformation England with James Mardock (Duquesne University Press, 2014) and Shakespeare Expressed: Page, Stage, and Classroom in Shakespeare and His Contemporaries, with Kathryn M. Moncrief and Sarah Enloe (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2013). With Kathryn M. Moncrief, Kate has also two edited collections, Performing Pedagogy in Early Modern England: Gender, Instruction, and Performance (Ashgate, 2011) and Performing Maternity in Early Modern England (Ashgate 2008). She has also published numerous articles on early modern maternity in scholarly journals. Kate participated in the 2008 National Endowment for the Humanities Institute, Shakespeare’s Blackfriars: The Study, the Stage, the Classroom, at the American Shakespeare Center. She also served as Play Seminar Director, a public humanities position, for the Utah Shakespeare Festival in 2017 and 2018.

 Melissa Walter Melissa Walter

Melissa Walter is Associate Professor of English at the University of the Fraser Valley. Her research focuses on early modern English drama and English and European prose fiction. She is the author of The Italian Novella and Shakespeare’s Comic Heroines (U of Toronto, 2019), and co-editor, with Dennis Britton, of Rethinking Shakespeare Source Study: Authors, Audiences, Digital Technologies (Routledge, 2018). Her work on English theatre and the European novella has appeared in several edited collections, including Transnational Exchange in Early Modern Theater (Ashgate, 2008), and Transnational Mobility in Early Modern Theater (Ashgate, 2012). She has also written about Translation and Identity in the Dialogues in English and Malaiane Languages (Indographies, ed. Jonathan Gil Harris. Palgrave 2012). At the University of the Fraser Valley, she is a lead coordinator of UFV’s Shakespeare and Reconciliation Garden.

 Kate Wrayton Kate Wrayton

Kate Wrayton was a student at the University of Fraser Valley.

 LEMDO Team The LEMDO Team is based at the University of Victoria and normally comprises the project director, the lead developer, project manager, junior developers(s), remediators, encoders, and remediating editors. University of Victoria https://www.uvic.ca/
The Meaning of Gardens

In historical and literary contexts in the early modern period, gardens were seen as productive, fertile, or even as erotic spaces. Sometimes, they were associated with forbidden love and adultery, a heritage from Christian concepts of the Garden of Eden. Gardens and the specific plants within them were important to elite members of society, with many searching to find rare plants for their gardens. Some courtiers either hired botanists to cultivate their gardens or would themselves become competent in botany. The social interest in gardens means they feature in drama from the period, and Shakespeare’s depictions of them offer useful tools to convey social values and thematic issues within his plays, including darker nuances such as mortality and corruption in the tragedies and love and its complications in the comedies.

A photograph of a garden with large, square garden beds, paths in between them, and a white central fountain. An example of an Elizabethan garden, located at Kenilworth Castle in Warwickshire, UK. This garden, which was recreated in 2009, was originally designed by Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, for Queen Elizabeth I when he wished to marry her. This is an example of one of the more extravagent gardens of Shakespeare’s time. Photo taken in 2022. Courtesy of David Merrett. CC BY 2.0.
Early Modern Gardens

The gardens of early modern England would appear unfamiliar to the modern-day reader. Victorian naturalist Henry Ellacombe investigated Elizabeth gardens and concluded some of the following similarities: Flower gardens focused on uniformity and formality. The ideal shape for gardens was a square surrounded by a high hedge of holly, hornbeam, or brick wall. Main walkways were enclosed by trees or shrubs, formed into hedges and then shaped into topiary art. Square and surrounded by walkways, compartmentalized gardens were further divided into knots, beds that were arranged into patterns. Gardens featured no lawns, only flower beds and pathways. Gardens were decorated with ornaments such as statues, mazes, rocks, and fountains. Gardens were considered to be a continuation of homes.

According to experts at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, Elizabethan gardens were designed for either function or social applications. Many gardens would be used to produce vegetables, herbs, or fruits. Other gardens were utilized for social purposes or simply for decoration. Gardens of wealthier people were the most formal and often used in the summer for entertainment and social gatherings.

Plants and Flowers of Shakespeare

Henry Ellacombe’s book on plant-lore and garden-lore, available through Project Gutenberg, provides description on both the symbolic meaning behind individual plants and the structure and formation of gardens. Quotations from Shakespeare’s works are also provided with each plant discussed.

While gardens as a whole are utilized by Shakespeare and other playwrights as stages for themes and plots, the specific plants and flowers also hold significance. Individual flowers and plants have their own symbolic meaning that many audience members would have been aware of. The meanings behind these plants and flowers aid in the portrayal of the themes in Shakespeare’s plays, as the specific meanings tie in closely with the characters and themes. Perhaps the most famous example of the symbolic meaning of plants occurs in Hamlet, when the mad Ophelia distributes various herbs and flowers to members of the court as she grieves for her murdered father, Polonius, and laments the loss of her relationship with Hamlet prior to her death in Act 4. For example, she keeps the plant rue for herself, one widely known in the period used to bring about menstruation; many critics point out that this would signify to audiences that Ophelia was with child.

Key Print Sources Ellacombe, Henry Nicholson. The Plant-lore & Garden-craft of Shakespeare. W. Satchell and Co, 1884. Myers, Katherine. <quote>Men as plants increase</quote>: botanical meaning in Shakespeare’s <title level="m">The Winter’s Tale. Studies in the History of Gardens & Designed Landscapes vol. 40, no. 2, 2020, pp. 171–190. Scott, Charlotte. Introduction. Shakespeare’s Nature: From Cultivation to Culture. Oxford University Press, 2014. Tigner, Amy L. <title level="m">The Winter’s Tale: Gardens and the Marvels of Transformation. English Literary Renaissance vol. 36, no. 1, 2006, pp. 114–134.
Key Online Sources Best, Michael. A <term>knot</term> or design for a garden. Shakespeare’s Life and Times. Internet Shakespeare Editions. University of Victoria. https://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/SLT/society/huswifery/gardenknot.html. Accessed 4 Nov. 2023. Candy, Melissa et al. Plants in Shakespeare. Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, 22 Apr. 2022. https://www.kew.org/read-and-watch/plants-in-shakespeare. Things To See And Do: Elizabethan Garden. English Heritage. https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/kenilworth-castle/things-to-do/#section2. Accessed 4 Nov. 2023. Folger Staff. Inside the Elizabethan Garden. The Folger Shakespeare Library, 18 Jun. 2018. https://www.folger.edu/blogs/folger-story/inside-the-elizabethan-garden/. Joynes, Melissa. Gardens in Shakespeare. Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, 9 Sep. 2016. https://www.shakespeare.org.uk/explore-shakespeare/blogs/heritage-open-days-garden-event/. Smith-Bernstein, Isabel. Themes: Ophelia’s Garden. Utah Shakespeare Festival, https://www.bard.org/study-guides/themes-ophelias-garden/.
Image Sources Merrett, David. Elizabethan garden at Kenilworth Castle, Warwickshire. 2022. Photograph. Flickr. https://www.flickr.com/photos/davehamster/52376998285/in/photostream/.