RALPH: The word perfume derives from the latin fūmigāge which meant to fumigate, to generate smoke for the purpose of disinfecting. By Shakespeare’s time perfume also referred to burning something to get a pleasant aroma, as we would use incense today. 
DAVINA: In medieval England, the two most valued perfumes, or incenses, were frankincense and myrrh, which come from the Arabian peninsula. 
RALPH: Shakespeare’s being ironic when he has Lady Macbeth refer to frankincense and myrrh while trying to cover up the traces of her sinful crime, because frankincense and myrrh were almost exclusively used in religious services. 
DAVINA: It was only about a century after Shakespeare, when the French went crazy drizzling nice smelling liquids on everything from gloves to furniture, that the word perfume took on its modern meaning.