Cowslip - Primula Veris

 

Albrecht Dürer, Tuft of Cowslips, 1526, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.,

I like Durer as an artist, there is an accuracy in his paintings.  His Hare painting always appears on my Easter blog as well.  The leaves in the painting above somewhat dull but this could be due to age. 

The Cowslip has got an umbel of flowerheads, meaning they all spring at the same end of the stalk.  It is sweetly fragrant as a flower and Robert Louis Stevenson in his childish  poem the  'Cow' asks the cow to eat sweet herbs in the meadow to flavour the milk she gives.  But it is William Shakespeare who conjures up cowslips and fairies in this poem. It is called 'A Fairy Song'

 Over hill, over dale,
Thorough bush, thorough brier,
Over park, over pale,
Thorough flood, thorough fire!
I do wander everywhere,
Swifter than the moon's sphere;
And I serve the Fairy Queen,
To dew her orbs upon the green;
The cowslips tall her pensioners be;
In their gold coats spots you see;
Those be rubies, fairy favours;
In those freckles live their savours;
I must go seek some dewdrops here,
And hang a pearl in every cowslip's ear.

According to Grigson the old archaic name for cowslip was Paigle which according to the internet was used in the 15th century.  Cowslip once cowslop relates to the fact that this flower was always to be found in the meadows where the cows roamed and obviously cowpats occurred - need I go further?
It seems to follow the fairy name mostly in Somerset, and also 'keys' feature a lot in its local descriptions.

The key theme relates back to a Northern European story, that Saint Peter once dropped his keys in surprise when he was told that a duplicate keys had been made.  Where the keys dropped cowslips sprang up.  All due to the nodding head of the flowers just like a bunch of keys jangling.
What did it cure in medieval sympathetic medicine?  paralysis and as well the palsy of trembling hands, maybe because the flower heads trembled in the wind.  But it made a sweet wine also of the countryside and was much loved for its fragrance.