Love-In-Idleness

"That very time I say (but thou couldst not) Flying between the cold Moon and the earth, Cupid all arm’d; a certain aim he took At a fair Vestall, throned by the West, And loos’d his love-shaft smartly from his bow, As it should pierce a hundred thousand hearts, But I might see young Cupids fiery shaft Quencht in the chaste beams of the watry Moon; And the imperial Votresse passed on, In maiden meditation, fancy free. Yet markt I where the bolt of Cupid fell. It fell upon a little western flower; Before, milk-white: now purple with loves wound, And maidens call it, Love in idleness. Fetch me that flower; the herb I shew’d thee once, The juice of it, on sleeping eye-lids laid, Will make or man or woman madly dote upon the next live creature that it sees. Fetch me this herb, and be thou here again, Ere the Leviathan can swim a league."-A Midsummer Night's Dream (Act 1, Scene 2)

Origin
Love-In-Idleness is another name for the Viola Tricolor a Wild Pansy. In the Play. As stated above the flower came to existence when cupid misses an hit a flower instead. This flower is a plot device in Shakespeare's Comedy 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' In which Puck, A Fairy. Accidentaly use the flower on the wrong person which caused a massive confussion but in the end the flower is used again to restore order.