Of the many dialect names by which clovers have been known, “honeystalks” and “lamb-sucklings” are amongst the most descriptive. The origin of the former will be obvious to anyone who has sucked the nectar from a clover flower, and the latter highlights white clover’s value as a feed for sheep.
In Titus Andronicus Shakespeare has Queen Tamora boast that she
will enchant the old Andronicus
With words
more sweet, and yet more dangerous,
Than baits to fish or honey-stalks to
sheep,
When as the one is wounded with the bait,
The other rotted with
delicious feed.
But sheep will thrive in a clover-rich pasture, so why should Shakespeare refer to the plant as “dangerous”? Certain strains of white clover contain a cyanogenic glycoside which, when the plant is eaten, is converted to prussic acid - not the most healthful of dietary additives! But glycoside poisoning is rare. It is more likely that the country-born bard was thinking of the “bloat” which can affect (sometimes kill) sheep if they gorge themselves too greedily when transferred from a poor pasture to a highly palatable, clover-rich one.
May 2003