Having just read “All’s Well That Ends Well” it occurred to me to go back to see what references to plants and to “nothing” were in it. Not much to note in the former instance, not a lot plants named and not much in the way of correspondence between them that I can see. With respect to ‘nothing’ though, its recurrence really leaps out at you in this play and I’m going to see if I can scare up an idea about it.
By the numbers, the Shakespeare plays with the most ‘nothing’ mentions are Winter’s Tale with 35, Lear with 34 and Hamlet with 32. The plays with the fewest have in the five to ten range, while All’s well has 26.
.i`` * ^ / . . . . . ` `~ 