| (1) | Pistol. | Let gallows gape for dog; let man go free,
And let not Hemp his windpipe suffocate. | | Henry V, act iii, sc. 6 (45). | | | (2) | Chorus. | And in them behold
Upon the Hempen tackle ship-boys climbing. | | Henry V, act iii, chorus (7). | | | (3) | Puck. | What Hempen homespuns have we swaggering here? | | Midsummer Night's Dream, act iii, sc. 1 (79). | | | (4) | Cade. | Ye shall have a Hempen caudle then, and the pap of a hatchet. | | 2nd Henry VI, act iv, sc. 7 (95). | | | (5) | Hostess. | Thou Hemp-seed. | | 2nd Henry IV, act ii, sc. 1 (64). | In all these passages, except the last, the reference is to rope made from Hemp, and not to the Hemp plant, and it is very probable that Shakespeare never saw the plant. It was introduced into England long before his time, and largely cultivated, but only in few parts of England, and chiefly in the eastern counties. I do not find that it was cultivated in gardens in his time, but it is a plant well deserving a place in any garden, and is especially suitable from its height and regular growth, for the central plant of a flower-bed. It is supposed to be a native of India, and seems capable of cultivation in almost any climate.[122:1] The name has a curious history. "The Greek ????a??, and Latin cannabis, are both identical with the Sanscrit kanam, as well as with the German hanf, and the English hemp. More directly from cannabis comes canvas, made up of hemp or flax, and canvass, to discuss: i.e., sift a question; metaphorically from the use of hempen sieves or sifters."—Birdwood's Handbook to the Indian Court, p. 23.
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