ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an opening by cutting into the history of reading in the hope of forging what was known in early modern England as a green wound, by reading some accounts thereof. In this chapter on 'Damon the Mower', then, hypothesizes Marvell's reading of Gerard's herbal, as well as Gerard's prior reading of his own mower. It discusses Grosart's reading of Marvell's reading of Gerard in order to generate with any legitimacy reading of Marvell's reading of Gerard. Gerard takes pains to emphasize his original work in discovering the plant. To recapitulate: connections between Marvell's poem and Gerard's anecdote are immediately and uncontroversially apparent. Both Damon and Gerard specifically suffer at least in part through what they see as another's ingratitude. Reprehension was not long in coming; what is most interesting, however, is that Gerard anticipated it and managed to represent such reprehension, in the best possible light, as a corrective force to which he patiently submitted.
