2015/07/27 by Francis Thackeray · 1 citation
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · #Botany, Ecology, and Taxonomy Studies #Ethnobotanical and Medicinal Plants Studies #Queen (butterfly) #Engraving #Art history #Art #History #Classics #Ancient history #Visual arts #Biology #Botany
paper · pdf · doi:10.17159/sajs.2015/a0115
openalex publication_date 2015/07/27 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/06
In a recent issue of Country Life, Mark Griffiths renews interest in John Gerard's Herbal, published in 1597 as a botanical book which includes engraved images of several people in the frontispiece. One of them (cited as 'The Fourth Man') is identified by Griffiths as William Shakespeare, but this identification is by no means certain. The question arises as to whether the engraving represents Sir Francis Drake. Gerard's Herbal refers inter alia to various kinds of 'tobacco' introduced to Europe by Drake and Sir Walter Raleigh in the days of Shakespeare in Elizabethan England. One can well imagine the scenario in which Shakespeare performed his plays in the court of Queen Elizabeth, in the company of Drake, Raleigh and others who smoked clay pipes filled with 'tobacco'. However, there were several kinds of 'tobacco' in those days, as indicated in this article.