Broken-Hearted Gardener, The

DESCRIPTION: "I'm a broken-hearted gardener and don't know what to do, My love she is inconstant and a fickle jade too." The singer calls her his myrtle, geranium, and other flowers. He botanically describes his misery, but rejects suicide because she wants him dead
AUTHOR: see NOTES
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love abandonment flowers suicide
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H499, pp. 387-388, "The Broken-Hearted Gardener" (1 text, 1 tune)
FriskyIrishSongster, pp. 41-42, "The Horticultural Wife" (1 text)
FolkSongAndMusicHall, "Horticultural Wife, The"
Roud #7966
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Broken-Hearted Fish Fag"
NOTES [727 words]: Roud uses #7966 to describe both this and the G. W. Hunt song that FolkSongAndMusicHall entitles "The Blighted Gardener; Cabbages and Turniptops." I am hesitant. The Sam Henry version, at least, spends a lot of time talking about flowers, which are no part of the Hunt song. Maybe they cross-fertilized, or perhaps the Henry version borrowed some flower lyrics from elsewhere, but as they stand, I'd be inclined to split them. If this derives from a music hall song at all, it is "The Horticultural Wife." And even that lacks the first verse collected by Sam Henry.
"The Horticultural Wife." according to FolkSongAndMusicHall, is by Alexander Lee, and dates back to 1839. This is older than most of the "Broken-Hearted Gardener" texts. However, one of the Bodleian broadsides of this piece, Firth b.25(15), is by T. Birt and was dated by the Bodleian site to 1833-1841. Harding B 40(23b), by Catnach, is dated 1813-1838. So is the Lee text the original? On the evidence, the two versions are probably just about the same age. So I don't think we can know if Lee originated the song or if he filed off parts of something traditional.
This resembles "The Gardener" (Child #219) in its use of flowers to describe emotions, but doesn't use the same sort of emotional symbolism. To this singer, the girl is the flower; in "The Gardener," the flowers describe their relationship.
The fullest description of flower symbolism I've found is from a piece in Norman Ault, Elizabethan Lyrics From the Original Texts, pp. 69-73, "A Nosegay Always Sweet, for Lovers to Send for Tokens of Loave at New Year's Tide, Or for Fairings," which was printed 1584. It offers this list:
"Lavender is for lovers true....
"Rosemary is for remembrance....
"Sage is for sustenance....
"Fennel is for flatterers....
"Violet is for faithfulness....
"Thyme is to try me [the usual meaning is of course virginity]....
"Roses is to rule me....
"Gillyflowers is for gentleness....
"Carnations is for graciousness....
"Marigolds is for marriage....
"Pennyroyal is to print your love So deep within my heart....
"Cowslips is for counsel...."
It will be noted that many of the broken-hearted gardener's flowers aren't in this list. Our Singer offers wild rose, cabbage (!), myrtle, geranium, sunflower, marjoram, tulip, honeysuckle, violet, hollyhock, dahlia, mignonette, apple, sweet pea, snowdrop, ranunculus, hyacinth, gillyflower, polyanthus, heartsease, pink, water lily, buttercup, daisy, daffodowndilly, cherry, mushroom (!), cucumber (!), dandelion, nettle, beetroot, chickweed, and pumpkin. It seems pretty clear that the author of this song knew of the idea of flower symbolism -- but didn't know the details, or simply made up his own.
Most of these herbs had some sort of traditional use as well as a symbolism; sometimes the two were linked. Sage, for instance, was said to improve the mind; Nicolas Culpeper declared that "Sage is of excellent use to help the memory" (Binney, p. 149). William Turner said that lavender was a "comfort to the brain" (Binney, p. 117). Robert Hacket by 1607 declared that rosemary "helpeth the brain, strengtheneth the memory, and is very medicinable for the head" (Binney, p. 86).
According to J. R. R. Tolkien, "heart's ease" was attested as a flower name by the sixteenth century, used for the wallflower or the pansy, and he believes it might have been referred to in Chaucer (Bowers, p. 113), although Bowers does not make it clear what Tolkien was citing (I suspect, after much sleuthing, that it is to line 519 of the "F" prologue, or line 507 of the "G" prologue, of "The Legend of Good Women": "The dayesie, and myn owene heartes reste" ("heartes rest" being equivalent to "heart's ease"). Shakespeare refers to a tune, "Heart's Ease," in "Romeo and Juliet," Act IV, scene v, around line 102, giving an impression that is refers to helping a broken heart, but there is no proof that Shakespeare knew of the flower.
And so forth.
Not every herb is so closely linked in use and meaning; fennel, for instance, was used as a digestive aid (Binney, p. 131; for more on its usage history, see the notes to "The Seven Virgins (The Leaves of Life)"). And thyme, used perhaps in more songs than any plant but the rose, is not mentioned at all in Binney's long list, which includes (I believe) every other plant in Ault's long list except pennyroyal. - RBW
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File: HHH499

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