Note 302 — SCENE I.
Reading edition
Dittany. Cf. Virgil Aen. xii. 411-15:—
"Hic Venus, indigno nati concussa dolore, Dictamnum genitrix Cretaea carpit ab Ida, Puberibus caulem foliis et flore comantum Purpureo: non illa feris incognita capris Gramina cum tergo volucres hausere sagittæ."
Elizabethan poets are fond of alluding to the virtues of this herb. Cf. (one of many instances) Peele's Arraignment of Paris, iii. 1:—
"And whither wends yon thriveless swain? like to the stricken deer, Seeks he dictamnum for his wound within our forest here."