O, thou weed,
Who art so lovely fair and smell’st so sweet
That the sense aches at thee, would thou hadst ne’er been born!
– William Shakespeare
Othello, Act 4, Scene 2. Othello compares the two-faced Desdemona to a weed marquerading as a sweet smelling flower. On the outside she pretends to be something beautiful, but on the inside she is ugly, he believes. Shakespeare frequently references weeds as a metaphor in his plays.