heartsease, heart's-ease
(ˈhɑːtsiːz)
[See heart n. and ease.]
1. (prop. as two distinct words.) Ease of heart; tranquillity or peace of mind; freedom from care and trouble; blithesomeness.
| 14.. Chaucer's Clerk's T. 378 (MSS. Corp.; Lansd.) And wisly bringe hem alle in hertes eese [v.r. reste and ese]. 1444–60 Paston Lett. No. 330 I. 443 To his plesaunce, and to your herts ease. a 1569 A. Kingsmill Confl. Satan (1578) 50 He is at heartesease both in mind and bodie. 1591 Troub. Raigne K. John ii. (1611) 84 Hap and hearts-ease braue Lordings be your lot. 1748 Richardson Clarissa III. iii. 32 In mere wantonness and heartsease I was for buffetting the moon. 1855 Longfellow Hiaw. x. 265 Songs of happiness and heart's-ease. |
2. As name of a flower or plant. In 16th c. applied both to the Pansy and the Wallflower; at length restricted to the former.
The origin and occasion of the name are not clear. By the mediæval herbalists the pansy and wallflower or wall-gilliflower (as well as the stock gilliflower and other plants) were included in their genus Viola. Of the 16th c. herbalists, Turner 1548–51 has ‘heart's ease’ only as a name of the wallflower; Lyte in 1578, both of the wallflower (‘viola lutea’) and ‘pances’ (‘viola tricolor’). But Palsgrave 1530 applies it only to the pansy, and this appears to be the general usage from R. Greene onward.
a. The Pansy (Viola tricolor); more esp. the small wild form. Also extended to kindred species, as the mountain heart's-ease (V. lutea).
| 1530 Palsgr. 229/2 Hartysease, a floure. Ibid. 231/1 Hertes⁓ease, menve pensee. 1578 Lyte Dodoens ii. ii. 149 This floure is called..in English Pances, Loue in idleness, and Hartes ease. 1671 Salmon Syn. Med. iii. xxii. 440 Viola Flammea, Herba Trinitatis..Hearts-ease, it is Emollient, helps Epilepsies. 1821 Clare Vill. Minstr. II. 97 True-love-lies-bleeding, with the hearts-at-ease. 1828 Moore Ill Omens iii, She stole through the garden, where heart's-ease was growing. 1862 Huxley Lect. Wrkg. Men 132 Hearts⁓ease and red clover..are fertilized by the visits of the bees. |
| allusively. 1599 Life Sir T. More Commend. Ep. in Wordsw. Eccl. Biog. (1853) II. 47 The golden marygold of obedience, hearts-ease of a settled conscience. 1684 Bunyan Pilgr. ii. 100 This Boy..wears more of that Herb called Hearts-ease in his Bosom. |
† b. The Wallflower (Cheiranthus Cheiri). Obs.
| 1548 Turner Names of Herbes 80 Viola..There are diuerse sortes of Leucoion. One is called in english, Cheiry, Hertes ease or wal Gelefloure..it hath yealowe floures. 1562 ― Herbal ii. 163 b, Viola..that hath the yelow floure..is called..in Englishe Wal gelouer or hartis ease. 1562 W. Bullein Def. agst. Sickness (1579) 46 This herbe [Viola alba]..is commonly called Sweete William or Harts ease. 1578 Lyte Dodoens ii. iii. 151 The yellow Gillofer is called..in English Wall floures and Hartes ease. |
c. locally in U.S. The common Persicary or Peachwort (Polygonum Persicaria).
d. An ornament resembling a pansy flower.
| a 1542 Q. Kath. Howard in Burnet Hist. Ref. III. App. iii. lxxii. (1715) III. 171 He gave me a Heart's-Ease of Silk for a New-Year's Gift. |
3. slang. (See quots.)
| a 1700 B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Hearts-ease, a Twenty shilling piece; also an ordinary sort of Strong Water. 1785–96 Grose Dict. Vulgar T. |