This song dates from about 1600. It was printed in Robin Goodfellow: commonly called Hob-Goblin, with his mad pranks and merry jests, published in 1628. Is it a recipe for some sort of herbal remedy? Is it nonsense?

Hope Mirrlees wove it cleverly into her 1923 novel Lud-in-the-Mist, which is where I learned it; its earlier provenance I discovered more recently.

ROBIN GOODFELLOW

-- Anonymous

And can the physician make sick men well?
And can the magician a fortune divine?
Without lily, germander, and sops-in-wine,
With sweet-briar and bonfire
And strawberry wire and columbine.

With in and out, in and out, round as a ball,
With hither and thither, as straight as a line,
With lily, germander, and sops-in-wine,
With sweet-briar and bonfire
And strawberry wire and columbine.

When Saturn did live, there lived no poor,
The king and the beggar with roots did dine,
With lily, germander, and sops-in-wine,
With sweet-briar and bonfire
And strawberry wire and columbine.