“And the new morn she saw not: but in peace
Hung over her sweet basil evermore,
And moisten'd it with tears unto the core.And so she ever fed it with thin tears,
Whence thick, and green, and beautiful it grew,
So that it smelt more balmy than its peers.”
So wrote John Keats, in his 1820 mediaeval romance ‘The Pot of Basil’, based on Boccaccio’s dark tale of jealousy and love. In the original tale, we are told that Isabella’s basil is from Salerno, a particularly fragrant variety ‘noted for its reddish color and rich odor’, no doubt capable of concealing any number of unpleasant smells (of which more, later…) 1
A holy plant
Let’s find out about the word itself.