hebenon

alternative hebon · alternative hebona

1. archaicuncountableA plant or flower used in Elizabethan times to make a poison (compare with John Gower's hebenus).

   […]vpon my ſecure houre Thy vncle came, with iuyce of Hebona In a viall[…]

   c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shake-speare, The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke: […] (First Quarto), London: […] [Valentine Simmes] for N[icholas] L[ing] and Iohn Trundell, published 1603, →OCLC, [Act I, scene v]

   5 more examples

   In few, the blood of Hydra, Lerna's bane, The juice of hebon, and Cocytus' breath.

   c. 1592, Christopher Marlowe, The Jew of Malta

   Vpon my ſecure hower thy Vncle ſtole With iuyce of curſed Hebenon in a Violl[…]

   c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene v], page 258, column 1

   Grim Mancinella haunts the mossy bed, Brews her black hebenon, and stealing near Pours the curst venom in his tortured ear.

   1789, Erasmus Darwin, The Loves of the Plants, J. Johnson, page 103

   Tree of many names, and under any of them, of ill repute, was the hebenon, hebona, hebenus, hebon or heben. At best, poets wrote of its narcotic effects. As early as 1386, John Gower wrote in Confessio Amantis, of 'Hebenus, that slepy tre'.

   1977, Lesley Gordon, Green Magic: Flowers, Plants, & Herbs in Lore & Legend, page 99

   From a compartment in his pouch, ranveer produces the dark glass vial of hebenon solution and gives it a few quick shakes. If there were a handbook for such things, it would advise that hebenon is best used in circumstances where the subject is in a very deep sleep or a coma.

   2021, Christian Cantrell, Scorpion