Editing Four-leaf clover (section)

==As a good luck charm==
Sir [[John Melton]]'s 1620 satirical play ''Astrologaster'' includes the line "That if a man walking in the fields, finde any foure-leaued grasse, he shall in a small while after finde some good thing." in a list of superstitious beliefs and rituals.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Melton |first1=John |title=Astrologaster, or, The figure-caster. Rather the arraignment of artlesse astrologers, and fortune-tellers, that cheat many ignorant people vnder the pretence of foretelling things to come, of telling things that are past, finding out things that are lost, expounding dreames, calculating deaths and natiuities, once againe brought to the barre |date=1620 |url=https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo2/A07418.0001.001?rgn=main;view=fulltext}}</ref> This is often thought to be the first reference to four-leaf clovers bringing good luck.{{cn|date=December 2024}}

A description from 1869 says that 4-leaf clovers were "gathered at night-time during the full moon by sorceresses, who mixed it with [[vervain]] and other ingredients, while young girls in search of a token of perfect happiness made quest of the plant by day."<ref>Masters MT. 1869. ''Vegetable Teratology, An Account of the Principal Deviations from the Usual Construction of Plants''. Robert Hardwicke Publisher, London, P 356.</ref> In an 1877 letter to [[St. Nicholas Magazine|''St.{{nbs}}Nicholas Magazine'']], an 11-year-old girl wrote, "Did the fairies ever whisper in your ear, that a 4-leaf clover brought good luck to the finder?"<ref>Child, Madge. 1877. In a letter titled "Four-Leaved Clovers," (St. Nicholas; an Illustrated Magazine for Young Folks), Volume 4, pp. 634-5, in the subsection of letters called "Jack-in-the-Pulpit", July 1877.</ref>