（三）莎士比亚的芸香
芸香出现在莎士比亚多部戏剧作品中，有着丰富的文化内涵。
《冬天的故事》（The winter’s tale）第四幕的第四场，牧羊女珀迪塔（Perdita）对卡米洛（Camillo ，波西米亚国王身边的臣子）说：
“欢迎您，先生。多卡斯，把那些花给我。尊敬的先生，这是送给你们的迷迭香和芸香，它们的外观和颜色在整个冬季都不会消散。愿你们两位承蒙恩典，永被世人铭记。欢迎来我们的剪羊毛盛会！”
(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来衬托两位年纪较大的来宾。芸香是恩典草药，迷迭香象征着“纪念”（remembrance）, 她同时祝福来宾们承蒙恩典并永被铭记。
《哈姆雷特》（Hamlet）第四幕第五场，处于癫狂状态下的女主人公奥菲利亚（Ophelia）说：“这是迷迭香，代表纪念。请记住，爱。这是三色堇，代表思想……这是给你的茴香和鸽子花。 这是给你的芸香，还有一些给我，我们可以把它称为星期日的‘恩典草药’。哦，你必须用与众不同的方式戴着芸香。-这是一朵雏菊。我会给你一些紫香堇，但是当我父亲去世时，它们全部枯萎了。他们说他有个好结局（唱）甜蜜的罗宾是我所有的快乐……”
(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— )
奥菲利亚分了一些芸香给王后，暗讽她的不忠，提醒王后要戴着它忏悔。她失去了父亲和亲人，也必须戴着它以示双重痛苦。在中世纪，芸香有时被用来催产，或者在极端情况下被用来堕胎。因此某些读者猜测送给自己一些芸香的奥菲利亚已珠胎暗结 – 这是她不想面对的局面，因而导致了她后来以溺水的方式终结自己的生命。
有人做了统计，莎士比亚的戏剧作品中总共出现了29个花园场景，历史剧《理查二世》（ Richard II）的第三幕第四场的花园情景是最让人印象深刻的。在约克公爵的花园里，尽管宫女努力劝说理查二世的王后振作起来，她依旧很伤心。此时一位园丁和他的两名仆人进入花园，王后和宫女躲在树下偷听。现将部分情节翻译如下：
王后：
“要是哭泣可以让我感到安慰，我会做得足足的，让自己唱起歌来，用不着借你的眼泪了。”
（QUEEN
And I could sing, would weeping do me good,
And never borrow any tear of thee.）
一园丁及二仆人上。
（Enter a Gardener, and two Servants）
（王后）“但是且慢，园丁们来了。让我们走进这些树木的阴影里。我打赌他们一定会谈到政治，每当政局发生变化时，谁都会发一些议论。悲伤总是以悲伤的形式来宣告。”
（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.）
王后及宫女等退后。
（QUEEN and Ladies retire）
园丁：
“去，把那些垂下的杏子扎起来。他们像不守规矩的孩子，使得老父不堪重负而弯下腰来。给弯曲的细枝一些支撑。你去，做一个刽子手，斩下那些长得过高过快的分枝，它们在咱们的共和国显得太高了。咱们的政府一切都必须平等的。你们去干这些，我来挖掉那些有害的杂草，它们根本没有用，只会同鲜花争夺土壤里的养分。”
（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：
“我们为何要在这个小小的围墙内保持着法纪、秩序和有条不紊，使整个花园看起来像是个典范，当我们整个的国家，一个以大海作围墙的花园里杂草蔓生，最美的鲜花窒息而死，所有的果树无人修剪，篱笆毁损，花池凌乱不堪，健壮的草药上爬满了毛毛虫？”
（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?）
园丁：
“稍安勿躁。那个容忍着杂乱无章的春天的人，已经像秋天的落叶那样凋零了。那些庇护在他的广布的树叶之下，看似拥护他，实则蚕食他的杂草，全都被博林布罗克连根拔起了，我说的是威尔特郡伯爵和布希、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：
“什么！他们死了？”
（SERVANT
What, are they dead?）
园丁：
“他们都死了。博林布罗克抓到了那个挥霍无度的国王。哦，可惜了，国王没有像我们治理这个花园那样仔细地治理他的土地！每年这个时候，我们会刺穿树皮，以免果树因自身的汁液过多而结不出果实。如果他能以同样的手段对付那些财富和名望渐隆的人们，他们就不得不遵从于他，他也能品尝到他们尽忠的果实。我们剪去多余的旁枝，结果的干枝才能茁壮生长。如果他也采取同样的方式，他仍将拥有王冠，不至于在嬉戏享乐中将其葬送了。”
（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.）
在上述的对话中，园丁将英国比作一个凌乱无序的大花园，使得博林布罗克（即后来的亨利四世）获得了广大民众的支持，讨伐成功。园丁在此也表达了大胆的想法，即普通公民如果对国家不满，可向国王提出诉求。
此时，王后从树荫里走出来与园丁对峙。她用强烈的隐喻语言训斥园丁：
“喔，我再不说话就要憋死了。（上前）你，是老亚当在世，来打理这个花园的，怎敢如此放肆地嚼舌头，说出这些不愉快的消息？哪个夏娃，哪条蛇，建议你让被诅咒的人类第二次堕落的？你为什么说理查国王被废黜？你卑微如尘土，竟敢预测他的垮台吗？说，你在什么时候，什么地方，怎样听到这些可怕的消息？快说，你这贱货”。
（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.）
园丁直截了当地告诉王后，所有的人都支持博林布罗克，理查二世铁定是要被废黜的。王后伤心欲绝，说：“厄运捷足先登，你本该最先告诉我的，为什么我是最后一个听到这坏消息的？哦，你以为最后一个告诉我，我心中的感伤就会最长久。来，姑娘们，我们去伦敦，会会那不幸的君王吧。难道我命该如此，我的悲伤将用来点缀伟大的博林布罗克的胜利吗？园丁，因为你告诉我这些不幸的消息，但愿上帝使你种下的植物永远不能生长”。
（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.）
王后及宫女离开后，园丁感慨一番：“可怜的王后！如果对您的状况有所帮助，我甘心受您的诅咒，失掉我的技能。她的眼泪就落在这里，我会在这儿种下一排芸香，苦味的恩典草药。芸香也象征着忧伤，很快在这里生长，纪念一位哭泣的王后。”
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.
园丁说出了芸香的花语，作为悲伤和遗憾的象征，它最适合这位倒霉的王后。
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