Civility, order.

564. UPON HIS KINSWOMAN, MISTRESS BRIDGET HERRICK.

Sweet Bridget blush'd, and therewithal Fresh blossoms from her cheeks did fall. I thought at first 'twas but a dream, Till after I had handled them And smelt them, then they smelt to me As blossoms of the almond tree.

565. UPON LOVE.

I played with Love, as with the fire The wanton Satyr did; Nor did I know, or could descry What under there was hid.

That Satyr he but burnt his lips; But mine's the greater smart, For kissing Love's dissembling chips The fire scorch'd my heart.

The wanton Satyr, see Note.

566. UPON A COMELY AND CURIOUS MAID.

If men can say that beauty dies, Marbles will swear that here it lies. If, reader, then thou canst forbear In public loss to shed a tear, The dew of grief upon this stone Will tell thee pity thou hast none.

567. UPON THE LOSS OF HIS FINGER.

One of the five straight branches of my hand Is lop'd already, and the rest but stand Expecting when to fall, which soon will be; First dies the leaf, the bough next, next the tree.

568. UPON IRENE.

Angry if Irene be But a minute's life with me: Such a fire I espy Walking in and out her eye, As at once I freeze and fry.

569. UPON ELECTRA'S TEARS.

Upon her cheeks she wept, and from those showers Sprang up a sweet nativity of flowers.



NOTES.



NOTES.



2. Whither, mad maiden, etc. From Martial, I. iv. 11, 12:—

Aetherias, lascive, cupis volitare per auras: I, fuge; sed poteras tutior esse domi.

But for the Court. Cp. Martial, I. iv. 3, 4.

4. While Brutus standeth by. "Brutus and Cato are commonplaces of examples of severe virtue": Grosart. But Herrick is translating. This is from Martial, XI. xvi. 9, 10:—

Erubuit posuitque meum Lucretia librum, Sed coram Bruto; Brute, recede, leget.

8. When he would have his verses read. The thought throughout this poem is taken from Martial, X. xix., beginning:—

Nec doctum satis et parum severum, Sed non rusticulum nimis libellum Facundo mea Plinio, Thalia, I perfer:

where the address to Thalia perhaps explains Herrick's "do not thou rehearse". The important lines are:—

Sed ne tempore non tuo disertam Pulses ebria januam, videto. ... ... ... Seras tutior ibis ad lucernas. Haec hora est tua, cum furit Lyaeus, Cum regnat rosa, cum madent capilli: Tunc me vel rigidi legant Catones.

When laurel spirts i' th' fire. Burning bay leaves was a Christmas observance. Herrick sings:—

"Of crackling laurel, which foresounds A plenteous harvest to your grounds":

where compare Tibull. II. v. 81-84. It was also used by maids as a love omen.

Thyrse ... sacred Orgies. Herrick's glosses show that the passage he had in mind was Catullus, lxiv. 256-269:—

Harum pars tecta quatiebant cuspide thyrsos ... ... ... ... Pars obscura cavis celebrabant orgia cistis, Orgia, quae frustra cupiunt audire profani.

10. No man at one time can be wise and love. Amare et sapere vix deo conceditur. (Publius Syrus.) The quotation is found in both Burton and Montaigne.

12. Who fears to ask, etc. From Seneca, Hippol. 594-95. Qui timide rogat ... docet negare.

15. Goddess Isis ... with her scent. Cp. Plutarch, De Iside et Osiride, 15.

17. He acts the crime. Seneca: Nil interest faveas sceleri an illud facias.

18. Two things odious. From Ecclus. xxv. 2.

31. A Sister ... about I'll lead. "Have we not power to lead about a sister, a wife?" 1 Cor. ix. 5.

35. Mercy and Truth live with thee. 2 Sam. xv. 20.

38. To please those babies in your eyes. The phrase "babies [i.e., dolls] in the eyes" is probably only a translation of its metaphor, involved in the use of the Latin pupilla (a little girl), or "pupil," for the central spot of the eye. The metaphor doubtless arose from the small reflections of the inlooker, which appear in the eyes of the person gazed at; but we meet with it both intensified, as in the phrase "to look babies in the eyes" (= to peer amorously), and with its origin disregarded, as in Herrick, where the "babies" are the pupils, and have an existence independent of any inlooker.

Small griefs find tongue. Seneca, Hippol. 608:

Curae leves loquuntur, ingentes stupent.

Full casks. So G. Herbert, Jacula Prudentum (1640): Empty vessels sound most.

48. Thus woe succeeds a woe as wave a wave. Horace, Ep. II. ii. 176: Velut unda supervenit unda. {Kymata kakon} and {kakon trikymia} are common phrases in Greek tragedy.

49. Cherry-pit. Printed in the 1654 edition of Witts Recreations, where it appears as:—

"Nicholas and Nell did lately sit Playing for sport at cherry-pit; They both did throw, and, having thrown, He got the pit and she the stone".

51. Ennobled numbers. This poem is often quoted to prove that Herrick's country incumbency was good for his verse; but if the reference be only to his sacred poems or Noble Numbers these would rather prove the opposite.

52. O earth, earth, earth, hear thou my voice. Jerem. xxii. 29: O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord.

56. Love give me more such nights as these. A reminiscence of Marlowe's version of Ovid, Amor. I. v. 26: "Jove send me more such afternoons as this".

72. Upon his Sister-in-law, Mistress Elizabeth Herrick, wife to his brother Thomas (see infra, 106).

74. Love makes me write what shame forbids to speak. Ovid, Phaedra to Hippol.: Dicere quae puduit scribere jussit amor.

Give me a kiss. Herrick is here imitating the well-known lines of Catullus to Lesbia (Carm. v.):—

Da mi basia mille, deinde centum, Dein mille altera, dein secunda centum, Deinde usque altera mille, deinde centum, Dein, cum millia multa fecerimus, Conturbabimus illa, ne sciamus, etc.

77. To the King, upon his coming with his army into the west. Essex had marched into the west in June, 1644, relieved Lyme, and captured royal fortresses in Dorset and Devon. Charles followed him into "the drooping west," and, in September, the Parliamentary infantry were forced to surrender, while Essex himself escaped by sea. Herrick's "white omens" were thus fulfilled.

79. To the King and Queen upon their unhappy distances. Henrietta Maria escaped abroad with the crown jewels in 1642, returned the next year and rejoined Charles in the west in 1644, whence she escaped again to France. This poem has been supposed to refer to domestic dissensions; but the "ball of strife" is surely the Civil War in general, and the reference to the parting of 1644.

81. The Cheat of Cupid. Herrick is here translating "Anacreon," 31 [3]:—

{Mesonyktiois poth' horais strepheth' henik' Arktos ede kata cheira ten Bootou, meropon de phyla panta keatai kopo damenta, 5 tot' Eros epistatheis meu thyreon ekopt' ocheas. tis, ephen, thyras arassei? kata meu schizeis oneirous. ho d' Eros, anoige, phesin; 10 brephos eimi, me phobesai; brechomai de kaselenon kata nykta peplanemai. eleesa taut' akousas, ana d' euthy lychnon hapsas 15 aneoxa, kai brephos men esoro pheronta toxon pterygas te kai pharetren. para d' histien kathisa, palamais te cheiras autou 20 anethalpon, ek de chaites apethlibon hygron hydor. ho d', epei kryos metheken, phere, phesi, peirasomen tode toxon, ei ti moi nyn 25 blabetai bracheisa neure. tanyei de kai me typtei meson hepar, hosper oistros; ana d' halletai kachazon, xene d', eipe, syncharethi; 30 keras ablabes men hemin, sy de kardien poneseis.}

Some of his phrases, however, prove that he was occasionally more indebted to the Latin version of Stephanus than to the original.

82. That for seven lusters I did never come. The fall of Herrick's father from a window, fifteen months after the poet's birth, was imputed at the time to suicide; and it has been reasonably conjectured that some mystery may have attached to the place of his burial. If "seven lusters" can be taken literally for thirty-five years, this poem was written in 1627.

83. Delight in Disorder. Cp. Ben Jonson's "Still to be neat, still to be drest," in its turn imitated from one of the Basia of Johannes Bonefonius.

85. Upon Love. Printed in Witts Recreations, 1654. The only variant is "To tell me" for "To signifie" in the third line.

86. To Dean Bourn. "We found many persons in the village who could repeat some of his lines, and none who were not acquainted with his 'Farewell to Dean Bourn,' which they said he uttered as he crossed the brook upon being ejected by Cromwell from the vicarage, to which he had been presented by Charles the First. But they added, with an air of innocent triumph, 'he did see it again,' as was the fact after the restoration." Barron Field in Quarterly Review, August, 1810. Herrick was ejected in 1648.

A rocky generation! a people currish. Cp. Burton, II. iii. 2: a rude ... uncivil, wild, currish generation.

91. That man loves not who is not zealous too. Augustine, Adv. Adimant. 13: Qui non zelat, non amat.

92. The Bag of the Bee. Printed in Witts Recreations, 1654, and in Henry Bold's Wit a-sporting in a Pleasant Grove of new Fancies, 1657. Set to music by Henry Lawes.

93. Luxurious love by wealth is nourished. Ovid, Remed. Amor. 746: Divitiis alitur luxuriosus amor.

95. Homer himself. Indignor quandoque bonus dormitat Homerus. Horace, De Art. Poet. 359.

100. To bread and water none is poor. Seneca, Excerpt. ii. 887: Panem et aquam Natura desiderat; nemo ad haec pauper est.

Nature with little is content. Seneca, Ep. xvi.: Exiguum Natura desiderat. Ep. lx.: parvo Natura dimittitur.

106. A Country Life: To his brother, M. Tho. Herrick. "Thomas, baptized May 12, 1588, was placed by his uncle and guardian, Sir William Heyrick, with Mr. Massam, a merchant in London; but in 1610 he appears to have returned into the country and to have settled in a small farm. It is supposed that this Thomas was the father of Thomas Heyrick, who in 1668 resided at Market Harborough and issued a trader's token there, and grandfather to the Thomas who was curate of Harborough and published some sermons and poems." Hill's Market Harborough, p. 122.

A MS. version of this poem is contained in Ashmole 38, from which Dr. Grosart gives a full collation on pp. cli.-cliii. of his Memorial Introduction. The MS. appears to follow an unrevised version of the poem, and contains a few couplets which Herrick afterwards thought fit to omit. The most important passage comes after line 92: "Virtue had, and mov'd her sphere".

"Nor know thy happy and unenvied state Owes more to virtue than to fate, Or fortune too; for what the first secures, That as herself, or heaven, endures. The two last fail, and by experience make Known, not they give again, they take."

Thrice and above blest. Felices ter et amplius, Hor. I. Od. xiii. 7.

My soul's half: Animae dimidium meae, Hor. I. Od. iii. 8. The poem is full of such reminiscences: "With holy meal and spirting (MS. crackling) salt" is the "Farre pio et saliente mica" of III. Od. xxiii. 20; "Untaught to suffer poverty" the "Indocilis pauperiem pati" of I. Od. i. 18; "A heart thrice wall'd" comes from I. Od. iii. 9: Illi robur et aes triplex, etc. Similar instances might be multiplied. Note, too, the use of "Lar" and "Genius".

Jove for our labour all things sells us. Epicharm. apud Xenoph. Memor. II. i. 20, {ton ponon Polousin hemin panta tagath' hoi theoi}. Quoted by Montaigne, II. xx.

Wisely true to thine own self. Possibly a Shakespearian reminiscence of the "to thine own self be true" in the speech of Polonius to Laertes, Hamlet, I. iii. 78.

A wise man every way lies square. Cp. Arist. Eth. I. x. 11, {hos alethos agathos kai tetragonos aneu psogou}.

For seldom use commends the pleasure. Voluptates commendat rarior usus. Juvenal, Sat. xi. ad fin.

Nor fear or wish your dying day. Summum nec metuas diem, nec optes. Mart. X. xlvii. 13.

112. To the Earl of Westmoreland. Mildmay Fane succeeded his father, Thomas Fane, the first earl, in March, 1628. At the outbreak of the Civil War he sided with the king, but after a short imprisonment made his submission to the Parliament, and was relieved of the sequestration of his estates. He subsequently printed privately a volume of poems, called Otia Sacra, which has been re-edited by Dr. Grosart.

117. To the Patron of Poets, M. End. Porter. Five of Herrick's poems are addressed to Endymion Porter, who seems to have been looked to as a patron by all the singers of his day. According to the inscription on a medal of him executed by Varin in 1635, he was then forty-eight, so that he was born in 1587, coming into the world at Aston-under-Hill in Gloucestershire. He went with Charles on his trip to Spain, and after his accession became groom of his bedchamber, was active in the king's service during the Civil War, and died in 1649. He was a collector of works of art both for himself and for the king, and encouraged Rob. Dover's Cotswold games by presenting him with a suit of the king's clothes. A Wood tells us this, and mentions also that he was a friend of Donne, that Gervase Warmsely dedicated his Virescit Vulnere Virtus to him in 1628, and that in conjunction with the Earl of St. Alban's he also received the dedication of Davenant's Madagascar.

Let there be patrons, etc. Burton, I. ii. 3, Sec. 15. 'Tis an old saying: "Sint Maecenates, non deerunt, Flacce, Marones" (Mart. VIII. lvi. 5).

Fabius, Cotta, and Lentulus are examples of Roman patrons of poetry, themselves distinguished. Cp. Juvenal, vii. 94.

119. His tapers thus put out. So Ovid, Am. iii. 9:—

Ecce puer Veneris fert eversamque pharetram Et fractos arcus, et sine luce facem.

121. Four things make us happy here. From

{Hygiainein men ariston andri thnato; deuteron de phyan kalon genesthai; to triton de ploutein adolos; kai to tetarton, heban meta ton philon.} (Bergk, Anth. Lyr., Scol. 8.)

123. The Tear sent to her from Staines. This is printed in Witts Recreations with no other variation than in the title, which there runs: "A Teare sent his Mistresse". Dr. Grosart notes that Staines was at the time a royal residence.

128. His Farewell to Sack. A manuscript version of this poem at the British Museum omits many lines (7, 8, 11-22, 29-36), and contains few important variants. "Of the yet chaste and undefiled bride" is a poor anticipation of line 6, and "To raise the holy madness" for "To rouse the sacred madness" is also weak. For the line and a half:—

"Prithee not smile Or smile more inly, lest thy looks beguile,"

we have the very inferior passage:—

"I prithee draw in Thy gazing fires, lest at their sight the sin Of fierce idolatry shoot into me, and I turn apostate to the strict command Of nature; bid me now farewell, or smile More ugly, lest thy tempting looks beguile".

This MS. version is followed in the first published text in Witts Recreations, 1645.

130. Upon Mrs. Eliz. Wheeler. "The lady complimented in this poem was probably a relation by marriage. Herrick's first cousin, Martha, the seventh daughter of his uncle Robert, married Mr. John Wheeler." Nott.

132. Fold now thine arms. A sign of grief. Cp. "His arms in this sad knot". Tempest.

134. Mr. J. Warr. This John Warr is probably the same as the "honoured friend, Mr. John Weare, Councellour," of a later poem. Dr. Grosart quotes an "Epitaph upon his honoured friend, Master Warre," by Randolph. Nothing is known of him, but I find in the Oxford Register that a John Warr matriculated at Exeter College, 16th May, 1619, and proceeded M.A. in 1624. He may possibly be Herrick's friend.

137. Dowry with a wife. Cp. Ovid, Ars Am. ii. 155: Dos est uxoria lites.

139. The Wounded Cupid. This is taken from Anacreon, 33 [40]:—

{Eros pot' en rhodoisin koimomenen melittan ouk eiden, all' etoothe ton daktylon; patachtheis tas cheiras ololyxen; dramon de kai petastheis pros ten kalen Kytheren olola, mater, eipen, olola kapothnesko; ophis m' etypse mikros pterotos, hon kalousin melittan hoi georgoi. ha d' eipen; ei to kentron ponei to tas melittas, poson dokeis ponousin, Eros, hosous sy balleis?}

142. A Virgin's face she had. Herrick is imitating a charming passage from the first AEneid (ll. 315-320), in which AEneas is confronted by Venus:—

Virginis os habitumque gerens et virginis arma, Spartanae vel qualis equos Threissa fatigat Harpalyce volucremque fuga praevertitur Eurum. Namque umeris de more habilem suspenderat arcum Venatrix, dederatque comam diffundere ventis, Nuda genu nodoque sinus collecta fluentis.

With a wand of myrtle, etc. Cp. Anacreon, 7 [29]:—

{Hyakinthine me rhabdo chalepos, Eros rhapizon ... eipe; Sy gar ou dyne philesai.}

146. Upon the Bishop of Lincoln's Imprisonment. John Williams (1582-1650), Bishop of Lincoln, 1621; Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal, 1621-1625; suspended and imprisoned, 1637-1640, on a frivolous charge of having betrayed the king's secrets; Archbishop of York, 1641. Save from this poem and the Carol printed in the Appendix we know nothing of his relations with Herrick. He had probably stood in the way of the poet's obtaining holy orders or preferment. When Herrick was appointed to the cure of Dean Prior in 1629, Williams had already lost favour at the Court.

147. Cynthius pluck ye by the ear. Cp. Virg. Ecl. vi. 3: Cynthius aurem Vellit et admonuit; and Milton's Lycidas, 77: "Ph[oe]bus replied and touched my trembling ears".

The lazy man the most doth love. Cp. Ovid, Remed. Amor. 144: Cedit amor rebus: res age, tutus eris. Nott. But Ovid could also write: Qui nolet fieri desidiosus amet (1 Am. ix. 46).

149. Sir Thomas Southwell, of Hangleton, Sussex, knighted 1615, died before December 16, 1642.

Those tapers five. Mentioned by Plutarch, Qu. Rom. 2. For their significance see Ben Jonson's Masque of Hymen.

O'er the threshold force her in. The custom of lifting the bride over the threshold, probably to avert an ill-omened stumble, has prevailed among the most diverse races. For the anointing of the doorposts Brand quotes Langley's translation of Polydore Vergil: "The bryde anoynted the poostes of the doores with swynes' grease, because she thought by that meanes to dryve awaye all misfortune, whereof she had her name in Latin 'Uxor ab unguendo'".

To gather nuts. A Roman marriage custom mentioned in Catullus, Carm. lxi. 124-127, the In Nuptias Juliae et Manlii, which Herrick keeps in mind all through this ode.

With all lucky birds to side. Bona cum bona nubit alite virgo. Cat. Carm. lxi. 18.

But when ye both can say Come. The wish in this case appears to have been fulfilled, as Lady Southwell administered to her husband's estate, Dec. 16, 1642, and her own estate was administered on the thirtieth of the following January.

Two ripe shocks of corn. Cp. Job v. 26.

153. His wish. From Hor. Epist. I. xviii. 111, 112:—

Sed satis est orare Jovem quae donat et aufert; Det vitam, det opes; aequum mi animum ipse parabo:

where Herrick seems to have read qui for quae.

157. No Herbs have power to cure Love. Ovid, Met. i. 523; id. Her. v. 149: Nullis amor est medicabilis herbis. For the 'only one sovereign salve' cp. Seneca, Hippol. 1189: Mors amoris una sedamen.

159. The Cruel Maid. Printed in Witts Recreations, 1650, with no other variant than the mistaken omission of "how" in l. 7. I do not think that it has been yet pointed out that the whole poem is a close imitation of Theocritus, xxiii. 19-47:—

{Agrie pai kai stygne, k.t.l.}

Possibly Herrick meant to translate the whole poem, which would explain his initial And. But cp. Ben Jonson's Engl. Gram. ch. viii.: "'And' in the beginning of a sentence serveth instead of an admiration".

164. To a Gentlewoman objecting to him his gray hairs. Mr. Hazlitt quotes an early MS. copy headed: "An old man to his younge Mrs.". The variants, as he observes, are mostly for the worse. The poem may have been suggested to Herrick by Anacreon, 6 [11]:—

{Legousin hai gynaikes, Anakreon, geron ei; labon esoptron athrei komas men ouket' ousas k.t.l.}

168. Jos. Lo. Bishop of Exeter. Joseph Hall, 1574-1656, author of the satires.

169. The Countess of Carlisle. Lucy, the second wife of James, first Earl of Carlisle, the Lady Carlisle of Browning's Strafford.

170. I fear no earthly powers. Probably suggested by Anacreon [36], beginning: {ti me tous nomous didaskeis}; Cp. also 7 [15]: {Ou moi melei ta Gygeo}.

172. A Ring presented to Julia. Printed without variation in Witts Recreations, 1650, under the title: "With a O to Julia".

174. Still thou reply'st: The Dead. Cp. Martial, VIII. lxix. 1, 2:—

Miraris veteres, Vacerra, solos Nec laudas nisi mortuos poetas.

178. Corinna's going a-Maying. Herrick's poem is a charming expansion of Chaucer's theme: "For May wol have no slogardye a night". The account of May-day customs in Brand (vol. i. pp. 212-234) is unusually full, and all Herrick's allusions can be illustrated from it. Dr. Nott compares the last stanza to Catullus, Carm. v.; but parallels from the classic poets could be multiplied indefinitely.

The God unshorn of l. 2 is from Hor. I. Od. xxi. 2: Intonsum pueri dicite Cynthium.

181. A dialogue between Horace and Lydia. Hor. III. Od. ix.

Ramsey. Organist of Trinity College, Cambridge, 1628-1634. Some of his music still exists in MS.

185. An Ode to Master Endymion Porter, upon his brother's death. Endymion Porter is said to have had an only brother, Giles, who died in the king's service at Oxford, i.e., between 1642 and 1646, and it has been taken for granted that this ode refers to his death. The supposition is possibly right, but if so, the ode, despite its beauty, is so gratingly and extraordinarily selfish that we may wonder if the dead brother is not the William Herrick of the next poem. The first verse is, of course, a soliloquy of Herrick's, not, as Dr. Grosart suggests, addressed to him by Porter. Dr. Nott again parallels Catullus, Carm. v.

186. To his dying brother, Master William Herrick. According to Dr. Grosart and Mr. Hazlitt the poet had an elder brother, William, baptized at St. Vedast's, Foster Lane, Nov. 24, 1585 (he must have been born some months earlier, if this date be right, for his sister Martha was baptized in the following January), and alive in 1629, when he acted as one of the executors of his mother's will. But, it is said, there was also another brother named William, born in 1593, after his father's death, "at Harry Campion's house at Hampton". I have not been able to find the authority for this last statement, which, as it asserts the co-existence of two brothers, of the same name, is certainly surprising. According to Dr. Grosart, it is the younger William who "died young" and was addressed in this poem, but I must own to feeling some doubt in the matter.

193. The Lily in a Crystal. The poem may be taken as an expansion of Martial, VIII. lxviii. 5-8:—

Condita perspicua vivit vindemia gemma Et tegitur felix, nec tamen uva latet: Femineum lucet sic per bombycina corpus, Calculus in nitida sic numeratur aqua.

197. The Welcome to Sack. Two MSS. at the British Museum (Harl. 6931 and Add. 19,268) contain copies of this important poem. These copies differ considerably from the printed version, are proved by small variations to be independent of each other, and at the same time agree in all important points. We may conclude, therefore, that they represent an earlier version of the poem, subsequently revised by Herrick before the issue of Hesperides. In the subjoined copy, in which the two MSS. are corrected from each other, italics show the variations, asterisks mark lines omitted in Hesperides, and a dagger the absence of lines subsequently added.

"So swift streams meet, so springs with gladder smiles Meet after long divorcement made by isles: When love (the child of likeness) urgeth on Their crystal waters to an union. So meet stol'n kisses when the moonie night Calls forth fierce lovers to their wisht delight: So kings and queens meet, when desire convinces All thoughts, save those that tend to getting princes. As I meet thee, Soul of my life and fame! Eternal Lamp of Love, whose radiant flame Out-darts the heaven's Osiris; and thy gems Darken the splendour of his mid-day beams. Welcome, O welcome, my illustrious spouse! Welcome as are the ends unto my vows: Nay, far more welcome than the happy soil The sea-scourged merchant, after all his toil, Salutes with tears of joy, when fires display The smoking chimneys of his Ithaca. Where hast thou been so long from my embraces, Poor pitied exile? Tell me, did thy Graces Fly discontented hence, and for a time Choose rather for to bless some other clime? +*Oh, then, not longer let my sweet defer *Her buxom smiles from me, her worshipper! Why have those amber looks, the which have been Time-past so fragrant, sickly now call'd in Like a dull twilight? Tell me, *hath my soul *Prophaned in speech or done an act that is foul *Against thy purer essence? For that fault I'll expiate with sulphur, hair and salt: And with the crystal humour of the spring Purge hence the guilt, and kill the quarrelling. Wilt thou not smile, nor tell me what's amiss? Have I been cold to hug thee, too remiss, Too temperate in embracing? Tell me, has desire To-thee-ward died in the embers, and no fire Left in the raked-up ashes, as a mark To testify the glowing of a spark? +I must confess I left thee, and appeal 'Twas done by me more to increase my zeal, And double my affection[+]; as do those Whose love grows more inflamed by being froze. But to forsake thee, [+] could there ever be A thought of such-like possibility? When all the world may know that vines shall lack Grapes, before Herrick leave Canary sack. *Sack is my life, my leaven, salt to all *My dearest dainties, nay, 'tis the principal *Fire unto all my functions, gives me blood, *An active spirit, full marrow, and, what is good, Sack makes me sprightful, airy to be borne, Like Iphyclus, upon the tops of corn. Sack makes me nimble, as the winged hours, To dance and caper o'er the tops of flowers, And ride the sunbeams. Can there be a thing Under the cope of heaven that can bring More joy unto my soul, or can present My Genius with a fuller blandishment? Illustrious Idol! Can the Egyptians seek Help from the garlick, onion and the leek, And pay no vows to thee, who art the best God, and far more transcending than the rest? Had Cassius, that weak water-drinker, known Thee in the Vine, or had but tasted one Small chalice of thy nectar, he, even he As the wise Cato had approved of thee. Had not Jove's son, the rash Tyrinthian swain (Invited to the Thesbian banquet), ta'ne Full goblets of thy [+] blood; his *lustful sprite Had not kept heat for fifty maids that night. +As Queens meet Queens, so let sack come to me Or as Cleopatra unto Anthonie, When her high visage did at once present To the Triumvir love and wonderment. Swell up my feeble sinews, let my blood +Fill each part full of fire,* let all my good Parts be encouraged, active to do What thy commanding soul shall put me to, And till I turn apostate to thy love, Which here I vow to serve, never remove Thy blessing from me; but Apollo's curse Blast all mine actions; or, a thing that's worse, When these circumstants have the fate to see The time when I prevaricate from thee, Call me the Son of Beer, and then confine Me to the tap, the toast, the turf; let wine Ne'er shine upon me; let my verses all Haste to a sudden death and funeral: And last, dear Spouse, when I thee disavow, May ne'er prophetic Daphne crown my brow."

Certainly this manuscript version is in every way inferior to that printed in the Hesperides, and Herrick must be reckoned among the poets who are able to revise their own work.

The smoky chimneys of his Ithaca. Ovid, I. de Ponto, ix. 265:—

Non dubia est Ithaci prudentia sed tamen optat Fumum de patriis posse videre focis.

Upon the tops of corn. Virgil (AEn. vii. 808-9) uses the same comparison of Camilla: Illa vel intactae segetis per summa volaret Gramina, nec teneras cursu laesisset aristas.

Could the Egyptians seek Help from the garlick, onion and the leek. Cp. Numbers xi. 5, and Juv., xi. 9-11.

Cassius, that weak water-drinker. Not, as Dr. Grosart queries: "Cassius Iatrosophista, or Cassius Felix?" but C. Cassius Longinus, the murderer of Caesar. Cp. Montaigne, II. 2, and Seneca, Ep. 83: "Cassius tota vita aquam bibit" there quoted.

201. To trust to good verses. Carminibus confide bonis. Ovid, Am. III. ix. 39.

The Golden Pomp is come. Aurea pompa venit, Ovid, Am. III. ii. 44. "Now reigns the rose" (nunc regnat rosa) is a common phrase in Martial and elsewhere. For the "Arabian dew," cp. Ovid, Sappho to Phaon, 98: Arabo noster rore capillus olet.

A text ... Behold Tibullus lies. Jacet ecce Tibullus: Vix manet e tanto parva quod urna capit. Ovid, Am. III. ix. 39.

203. Lips Tongueless. Dr. Nott parallels Catullus, Carm. lii. (lv.):—

Si linguam clauso tenes in ore, Fructus projicies amoris omnes: Verbosa gaudet Venus loquela.

208. Gather ye rosebuds while ye may. Set to music by William Lawes in Playford's second book of "Ayres," 1652. Printed in Witts Recreations, 1654, with the variants: "Gather your Rosebuds" in l. 1; l. 4, may for will; l. 6, he is getting for he's a-getting; l. 8, nearer to his setting for nearer he's to setting. The opening lines are from Ausonius, ccclxi. 49, 50 (quoted by Burton, Anat. Mel. III. 2, 5 Sec. 5):—

Collige, virgo, rosas, dum flos novus, et nova pubes, Et memor esto aevum sic properare tuum:

cp. also l. 43:—

Quam longa una dies, aetas tam longa rosarum.

209. Has not whence to sink at all. Seneca, Ep. xx.: Redige te ad parva ex quibus cadere non possis. Cp. Alain Delisle: Qui decumbit humi non habet unde cadat.

211. His poetry his pillar. A variation upon the Horatian theme:—

"Exegi monumentum aere perennius Regalique situ pyramidum altius". (III. Od. xxx.)

212. What though the sea be calm. Almost literally translated from Seneca, Ep. iv.: Noli huic tranquillitati confidere: momento mare evertitur: eodem die ubi luserunt navigia sorbentur.

213. At noon of day was seen a silver star. "King Charles the First went to St. Paul's Church the 30th day of May, 1630, to give praise for the birth of his son, attended with all his Peers and a most royal Train, where a bright star appeared at High Noon in the sight of all." (Stella Meridiana, 1661.)

213. And all most sweet, yet all less sweet than he. It is characteristic of Herrick that in his Noble Numbers ("The New-Year's Gift") he repeats this line, applying it to Christ.

The swiftest grace is best. {Okeiai charites glykeroterai.} Anth. Pal. x. 30.

214. Know thy when. So in The Star-song Herrick sings: "Thou canst clear All doubts and manifest the where".

219. Lord Bernard Stewart, fourth son of Esme, third Duke of Lennox, and himself created Earl of Lichfield by Charles I. He commanded the king's troop of guards, and was killed at the battle of Rowton Heath, outside Chester, Sept. 24, 1645.

Clarendon (History of the Rebellion, ix. 19) thus records his death and character: "Here fell many gentlemen and officers of name, with the brave Earl of Litchfield, who was the third brother of that illustrious family that sacrificed his life in this quarrel. He was a very faultless young man, of a most gentle, courteous, and affable nature, and of a spirit and courage invincible; whose loss all men lamented, and the king bore it with extraordinary grief."

Trentall. Properly a set of thirty masses for the repose of a dead man's soul. Here and elsewhere Herrick uses the word as an equivalent for dirge, but Sidney distinguished them: "Let dirige be sung and trentalls rightly read. For love is dead," etc. "Hence, hence profane," is the Latin, procul o procul este profani of Virg. AEn. vi. 258, where "profane" is only equivalent to uninitiated.

223. The Fairy Temple. For a brief note on Herrick's fairy poems, see Appendix. On the dedication to Mr. John Merrifield, Counsellor-at-Law, Dr. Grosart remarks: "Nothing seems to be now known of Merrifield. It is just possible that—as throughout the poem—the name was an invented one, 'Merry Field'." But the records of the Inner Temple show that the Merrifields were a legal family from Woolmiston, near Crewkerne, Somersetshire. John (son of Richard) Merrifield, the father, was admitted to the Inner Temple in 1581, and John, the son, in 1611. This latter must be Herrick's Counsellor. He rose to be a Master of the Bench in 1638 and Sergeant-at-Law in 1660. He died October, 1666, aged 75, at Crewkerne. On the other hand, it can hardly be doubted that Dr. Grosart is right in regarding the names of the fairy saints as quite imaginary. He nevertheless suggests SS. Titus, Neot, Idus, Ida, Fridian or Fridolin, Trypho, Felan and Felix as the possible prototypes of "Saint Tit, Saint Nit, Saint Is," etc. It should be noted that "Tit and Nit" occur with "Wap and Win" and other obviously made-up names, in Drayton's Nymphidia.

229. Upon Cupid. Taken from Anacreon, 5 [59].

{Stephos plekon poth' heuron en tois rhodois Erota; kai ton pteron kataschon ebaptis' eis ton oinon; labon d' epinon auton, kai nyn eso melon mou pteroisi gargalizei.}

234. Care will make a face. Ovid, Ar. Am. iii. 105: Cura dabit faciem, facies neglecta peribit.

235. Upon Himself. Printed in Witts Recreations, 1654, under the title: On an old Batchelor, and with the variants, married for wedded, l. 3, one for a in l. 4, and Rather than mend me, blind me quite in l. 6.

238. To the Rose. Printed in Witts Recreations, 1654, with the variants peevish for flowing in l. 4, say, if she frets, that I have bonds in l. 6, that can tame although not kill in l. 10, and now for thus in l. 11. The opening couplet is from Martial, VII. lxxxix.:—

I, felix rosa, mollibusque sertis Nostri cinge comas Apollinaris.

241. Upon a painted Gentlewoman. Printed in Witts Recreations, 1650, under the title, On a painted madame.

250. Mildmay, Earl of Westmoreland. See Note to 112. According to the date of the earl's succession, this poem must have been written after 1628.

253. He that will not love, etc. Ovid, Rem. Am. 15, 16:—

Si quis male fert indignae regna puellae, Ne pereat nostrae sentiat artis opem.

How she is her own least part. Ib. 344: Pars minima est ipsa puella sui, quoted by Bacon, Burton, Lyly, and Montaigne.

Printed in Witts Recreations, 1654, with the variants, 'freezing colds and fiery heats,' and 'and how she is in every part'.

256. Had Lesbia, etc. See Catullus, Carm. iii.

260. How violets came blue. Printed in Witts Recreations, 1654, as How the violets came blue. The first two lines read:—

"The violets, as poets tell, With Venus wrangling went".

Other variants are did for sho'd in l. 3; Girl for Girls; you for ye; do for dare.

264. That verse, etc. Herrick repeats this assurance in a different context in the second of his Noble Numbers, His Prayer for Absolution.

269. The Gods to Kings the judgment give to sway. From Tacitus, Ann. vi. 8 (M. Terentius to Tiberius): Tibi summum rerum judicium dii dedere; nobis obsequi gloria relicta est.

270. He that may sin, sins least. Ovid, Amor. III. iv. 9, 10:—

Cui peccare licet, peccat minus: ipsa potestas Semina nequitiae languidiora facit.

271. Upon a maid that died the day she was married. Cp. Meleager, Anth. Pal. vii. 182:

{Ou gamon all' Aidan epinymphidion Klearista dexato parthenias hammata lyomena; Arti gar hesperioi nymphas epi diklisin acheun lotoi, kai thalamon eplatageunto thyrai; Eooi d' ololygmon anekragon, ek d' Hymenaios sigatheis goeron phthegma metharmosato, Hai d' autai kai phengos edadouchoun para pasto peukai kai phthimena nerthen ephainon hodon.}

278. To his Household Gods. Obviously written at the time of his ejection from his living.

283. A Nuptial Song on Sir Clipseby Crew. Of this Epithalamium (written in 1625 for the marriage of Sir Clipseby Crew, knighted by James I. at Theobald's in 1620, with Jane, daughter of Sir John Pulteney), two manuscript versions, substantially agreeing, are preserved at the British Museum (Harl. MS. 6917, and Add. 25, 303). Seven verses are transcribed in these manuscripts which Herrick afterwards saw fit to omit, and almost every verse contains variants of importance. It is impossible to convey the effect of the earlier version by a mere collation, and I therefore transcribe it in full, despite its length. As before, variants and additions are printed in italics. The numbers in brackets are those of the later version, as given in Hesperides. The marginal readings are variants of Add. 25, 303, from the Harleian manuscript.

1 [1].

"What's that we see from far? the spring of Day Bloom'd from the East, or fair enamell'd May Blown out of April; or some new Star fill'd with glory to our view, Reaching at Heaven, To add a nobler Planet to the seven? Say or do we not descry Some Goddess in a Cloud of Tiffany To move, or rather the Emerging Venus from the sea?

2 [2].

"'Tis she! 'tis she! or else some more Divine Enlightened substance; mark how from the shrine Of holy Saints she paces on Throwing about Vermilion And Amber: spice- ing the chafte-air with fumes of Paradise. Then come on, come on, and yield A savour like unto a blessed field, When the bedabbled morn Washes the golden ears of corn.

3.

"Lead on fair paranymphs, the while her eyes, Guilty of somewhat, ripe the strawberries And cherries in her cheeks, there's cream Already spilt, her rays must gleam Gently thereon, And so beget lust and temptation To surfeit and to hunger. Help on her pace; and, though she lag, yet stir Her homewards; well she knows Her heart's at home, howe'er she goes.

4 [3].

"See where she comes; and smell how all the street Breathes Vine-yards and Pomegranates: O how sweet, As a fir'd Altar, is each stone Spirting forth pounded Cinnamon. The Ph[oe]nix nest, Built up of odours, burneth in her breast. Who would not then consume His soul to ashes in that rich perfume? [ash-heaps Bestroking Fate the while He burns to embers on the Pile.

5 [4].

"Hymen, O Hymen! tread the sacred round [ground Shew thy white feet, and head with Marjoram crowned: Mount up thy flames, and let thy Torch Display thy Bridegroom in the porch In his desires More towering, more besparkling than thy fires: [disparkling Shew her how his eyes do turn And roll about, and in their motions burn Their balls to cinders: haste Or, like a firebrand, he will waste.

6.

"See how he waves his hand, and through his eyes Shoots forth his jealous soul, for to surprise And ravish you his Bride, do you Not now perceive the soul of C[lipseby] C[rew], Your mayden knight, With kisses to inspire You with his just and holy ire.

7 [5].

"If so, glide through the ranks of Virgins, pass The Showers of Roses, lucky four-leaved grass: The while the cloud of younglings sing, And drown you with a flowery spring: While some repeat Your praise, and bless you, sprinkling you with Wheat, While that others do divine, 'Blest is the Bride on whom the Sun doth shine'; And thousands gladly wish You multiply as do the fish.

8.

"Why then go forward, sweet Auspicious Bride, And come upon your Bridegroom like a Tide Bearing down Time before you; hye Swell, mix, and loose your souls; imply Like streams which flow Encurled together, and no difference show In their [most] silver waters; run Into your selves like wool together spun. Or blend so as the sight Of two makes one Hermaphrodite.

9 [6].

"And, beauteous Bride, we do confess you are wise On drawing forth those bashful jealousies [doling In love's name, do so; and a price Set on yourself by being nice. But yet take heed What now you seem be not the same indeed, And turn Apostata: Love will Part of the way be met, or sit stone still; On them, and though y'are slow In going yet, howsoever go.

10.

"How long, soft Bride, shall your dear C[lipseby] make Love to your welcome with the mystic cake, How long, oh pardon, shall the house And the smooth Handmaids pay their vows With oil and wine For your approach, yet see their Altars pine? How long shall the page to please You stand for to surrender up the keys Of the glad house? Come, come, Or Lar will freeze to death at home.

11.

"Welcome at last unto the Threshold, Time Throned in a saffron evening, seems to chime All in, kiss and so enter. If A prayer must be said, be brief, The easy Gods For such neglect have only myrtle rods To stroke, not strike; fear you Not more, mild Nymph, than they would have you do; But dread that you do more offend In that you do begin than end.

12 [7].

"And now y'are entered, see the coddled cook Runs from his Torrid Zone to pry and look And bless his dainty mistress; see How th' aged point out: 'This is she Who now must sway Us (and God shield her) with her yea and nay,' And the smirk Butler thinks it Sin in his nap'ry not t' express his wit; Each striving to devise Some gin wherewith to catch her eyes.

13.

"What though your laden Altar now has won The credit from the table of the Sun For earth and sea; this cost On you is altogether lost Because you feed Not on the flesh of beasts, but on the seed Of contemplation: your, Your eyes are they, wherewith you draw the pure Elixir to the mind Which sees the body fed, yet pined.

14 [14].

"If you must needs for ceremonie's sake Bless a sack posset, Luck go with you, take The night charm quickly; you have spells And magic for to end, and Hells To pass, but such And of such torture as no God would grutch To live therein for ever: fry, Aye and consume, and grow again to die, And live, and in that case Love the damnation of that place. [the

15 [8].

"To Bed, to Bed, sweet Turtles now, and write This the shortest day,+ this the longest night And yet too short for you; 'tis we Who count this night as long as three, Lying alone Hearing the clock go Ten, Eleven, Twelve, One: Quickly, quickly then prepare. And let the young men and the Bridemaids share Your garters, and their joints Encircle with the Bridegroom's points.

16 [9].

"By the Bride's eyes, and by the teeming life Of her green hopes, we charge you that no strife, Further than virtue lends, gets place Among you catching at her Lace. Oh, do not fall Foul in these noble pastimes, lest you call Discord in, and so divide The gentle Bridegroom and the fragrous Bride, Which Love forefend: but spoken Be't to your praise: 'No peace was broken'.

17[10].

"Strip her of spring-time, tender whimpering maids, Now Autumn's come, when all those flowery aids Of her delays must end, dispose That Lady-smock, that pansy and that Rose Neatly apart; But for prick-madam, and for gentle-heart, And soft maiden-blush, the Bride Makes holy these, all others lay aside: Then strip her, or unto her Let him come who dares undo her.

18 [11].

"And to enchant you more, view everywhere [ye About the roof a Syren in a sphere, As we think, singing to the din Of many a warbling cherubin: List, oh list! how Even heaven gives up his soul between you now, [ye Mark how thousand Cupids fly To light their Tapers at the Bride's bright eye; To bed, or her they'll tire, Were she an element of fire.

19 [12].

"And to your more bewitching, see the proud Plump bed bear up, and rising like a cloud, Tempting thee, too, too modest; can You see it brussle like a swan And you be cold To meet it, when it woos and seems to fold The arms to hug you? throw, throw Yourselves into that main, in the full flow Of the white pride, and drown The stars with you in floods of down.

20 [13].

"You see 'tis ready, and the maze of love Looks for the treaders; everywhere is wove Wit and new mystery, read and Put in practice, to understand And know each wile, Each Hieroglyphic of a kiss or smile; And do it in the full, reach High in your own conceipts, and rather teach Nature and Art one more Sport than they ever knew before.

21.

To the Maidens:]

"And now y' have wept enough, depart; yon stars [the Begin to pink, as weary that the wars Know so long Treaties; beat the Drum Aloft, and like two armies, come And guild the field, Fight bravely for the flame of mankind, yield Not to this, or that assault, For that would prove more Heresy than fault In combatants to fly 'Fore this or that hath got the victory.

22 [15].

"But since it must be done, despatch and sew Up in a sheet your Bride, and what if so It be with rib of Rock and Brass, Yea tower her up, as Danae was, [ye Think you that this, Or Hell itself, a powerful Bulwark is? I tell you no; but like a [ye Bold bolt of thunder he will make his way, And rend the cloud, and throw The sheet about, like flakes of snow.

23 [16].

"All now is hushed in silence: Midwife-moon With all her Owl-ey'd issue begs a boon Which you must grant; that's entrance with Which extract, all we + call pith And quintessence Of Planetary bodies; so commence, All fair constellations Looking upon you that the Nations Springing from to such Fires May blaze the virtue of their Sires."

—R. HERRICK.

The variants in this version are not very important; one of the most noteworthy, round for ground, in stanza 5 [4], was overlooked by Dr. Grosart in his collation. Of the seven stanzas subsequently omitted several are of great beauty. There are few happier images in Herrick than that of Time throned in a saffron evening in stanza 11. It is only when the earlier version is read as a whole that Herrick's taste in omitting is vindicated. Each stanza is good in itself, but in the MSS. the poem drags from excessive length, and the reduction of its twenty-three stanzas to sixteen greatly improves it.

286. Ever full of pensive fear. Ovid, Heroid. i. 12: Res est solliciti plena timoris amor.

287. Reverence to riches. Perhaps from Tacit. Ann. ii. 33: Neque in familia et argento quaeque ad usum parantur nimium aliquid aut modicum, nisi ex fortuna possidentis.

288. Who forms a godhead. From Martial, VIII. xxiv. 5:—

Qui fingit sacros auro vel marmore vultus Non facit ille deos: qui rogat, ille facit.

290. The eyes be first that conquered are. From Tacitus, Germ. 43: Primi in omnibus proeliis oculi vincuntur.

293. Oberon's Feast. For a note on Herrick's Fairy Poems and on the Description of the King and Queene of the Fayries (1635), in which part of this poem was first printed, see Appendix. Add. MS. 22, 603, at the British Museum, and Ashmole MS. 38, at the Bodleian, contain early versions of the poem substantially agreeing. I transcribe the Museum copy:—

"A little mushroom table spread After the dance, they set on bread, A yellow corn of hecky wheat With some small sandy grit to eat His choice bits; with which in a trice They make a feast less great than nice. But all the while his eye was served We dare not think his ear was sterved: But that there was in place to stir His fire the pittering Grasshopper; The merry Cricket, puling Fly, The piping Gnat for minstralcy. The Humming Dor, the dying Swan, And each a choice Musician. And now we must imagine first, The Elves present to quench his thirst A pure seed-pearl of infant dew, Brought and beswetted in a blue And pregnant violet; which done, His kitling eyes begin to run Quite through the table, where he spies The horns of papery Butterflies: Of which he eats, but with a little Neat cool allay of Cuckoo's spittle; A little Fuz-ball pudding stands By, yet not blessed by his hands— That was too coarse, but he not spares To feed upon the candid hairs Of a dried canker, with a sagg And well bestuffed Bee's sweet bag: Stroking his pallet with some store Of Emmet eggs. What would he more, But Beards of Mice, an Ewt's stew'd thigh, A pickled maggot and a dry Hipp, with a Red cap worm, that's shut Within the concave of a Nut Brown as his tooth, and with the fat And well-boiled inchpin of a Bat. A bloated Earwig with the Pith Of sugared rush aglads him with; But most of all the Glow-worm's fire. As most betickling his desire To know his Queen, mixt with the far- Fetcht binding-jelly of a star. The silk-worm's seed, a little moth Lately fattened in a piece of cloth; Withered cherries; Mandrake's ears; Mole's eyes; to these the slain stag's tears; The unctuous dewlaps of a Snail; The broke heart of a Nightingale O'er-come in music; with a wine Ne'er ravished from the flattering Vine, But gently pressed from the soft side Of the most sweet and dainty Bride, Brought in a daisy chalice, which He fully quaffs off to bewitch His blood too high. This done, commended Grace by his Priest, the feast is ended."

The Shapcott to whom this Oberon's Feast and Oberon's Palace are dedicated is Herrick's "peculiar friend, Master Thomas Shapcott, Lawyer," of a later poem. Dr. Grosart again suggests that it may have been a character-name, but, as in the case of John Merrifield, the owner was a West country-man and a member of the Inner Temple, where he was admitted in 1632 as the "son and heir of Thomas Shapcott," of Exeter.

298. That man lives twice. From Martial, X. xxiii. 7:—

Ampliat aetatis spatium sibi vir bonus: hoc est Vivere bis vita posse priore frui.

301. Master Edward Norgate, Clerk of the Signet of his Majesty:—

Son to Robert Norgate, D.D., Master of Bene't College, Cambridge. He was employed by the Earl of Arundel to purchase pictures, and on one occasion found himself at Marseilles without remittances, and had to tramp through France on foot. According to the Calendars of State Papers in 1625, it was ordered that, "forasmuch as his Majesty's letters to the Grand Signior, the King of Persia, the Emperor of Russia, the Great Mogul, and other remote Princes, had been written, limned, and garnished with gold and colours by scriveners abroad, thenceforth they should be so written, limned, and garnished by Edward Norgate, Clerk of the Signet in reversion". Six years later this order was renewed, the "Kings of Bantam, Macassar, Barbary, Siam, Achine, Fez, and Sus" being added to the previous list, and Norgate being now designated as a Clerk of the Signet Extraordinary. In the same year, having previously been Bluemantle Pursuivant, he was promoted to be Windsor Herald, in which capacity he received numerous fees during the next few years, and was excused ship money. He still, however, retained his clerkship, for he writes in 1639: "The poor Office of Arms is fain to blazon the Council books and Signet". The phrase occurs in a series of nineteen letters of extraordinary interest, which Norgate wrote from the North, chiefly to his friend, Robert Reade, secretary to Windebank, on the course of affairs. In Sept., 1641, "Ned Norgate" was ordered personally to attend the king. "It is his Majesty's pleasure that the master should wait and not the men, and that they shall find." Henceforth I find no certain reference to him; according to Fuller he died at the Herald's Office in 1649. It would be interesting if we could be sure that this Edward Norgate is the same as the one who in 1611 was appointed Tuner of his Majesty's "virginals, organs, and other instruments," and in 1637 received a grant of L140 for the repair of the organ at Hampton Court. Herrick's love of music makes us expect to find a similar trait in his friends.

313. The Entertainment, or Porch Verse. The words Ye wrong the threshold-god and the allusion to the porch in the Clipsby Crew Epithalamium (stanza 4) show that there is no reference here (as Brand thinks, ii. 135) to the old custom of reading part of the marriage service at the church door or porch (cp. Chaucer: "Husbands at churche door she had had five"). The porch of the house is meant, and the allusions are to the ceremonies at the threshold (cp. the Southwell Epithalamium). Dr. Grosart quotes from the Dean Prior register the entry of the marriage of Henry Northleigh, gentleman, and Mistress Lettice Yard on September 5, 1639, by licence from the Archbishop of Canterbury.

319. No noise of late-spawned Tittyries. In the Camden Society's edition of the Diary of Walter Yonge, p. 70 (kindly shown me by the Rev. J. H. Ward), we have a contemporary account of the Club known as the Tityre Tues, which took its name from the first words of Virgil's first Eclogue. "The beginning of December, 1623, there was a great number in London, haunting taverns and other debauched places, who swore themselves in a brotherhood and named themselves Tityre Tues. The oath they gave in this manner: he that was to be sworn did put his dagger into a pottle of wine, and held his hand upon the pommel thereof, and then was to make oath that he would aid and assist all other of his fellowship and not disclose their council. There were divers knights, some young noblemen and gentlemen of this brotherhood, and they were to know one the other by a black bugle which they wore, and their followers to be known by a blue ribbond. There are discovered of them about 80 or 100 persons, and have been examined by the Privy Council, but nothing discovered of any intent they had. It is said that the king hath given commandment that they shall be re-examined." In Mennis's Musarum Deliciae the brotherhood is celebrated in a poem headed "The Tytre Tues; or, a Mocke Song. To the tune of Chive Chase. By Mr. George Chambers." The second verse runs:—

"They call themselves the Tytere-tues, And wore a blue rib-bin; And when a-drie would not refuse To drink. O fearful sin!

"The council, which is thought most wise, Did sit so long upon it, That they grew weary and did rise, And could make nothing on it."

According to a letter of Chamberlain to Carleton, indexed among the State Papers, the Tityres were a secret society first formed in Lord Vaux's regiment in the Low Countries, and their "prince" was called Ottoman. Another entry shows that the "Bugle" mentioned by Yonge was the badge of a society originally distinct from the Tityres, which afterwards joined with it. The date of Herrick's poem is thus fixed as December, 1623/4, and this is confirmed by another sentence in the same passage in Yonge's Diary, in which he says: "The Jesuits and Papists do wonderfully swarm in the city, and rumours lately have been given out for firing the Navy and House of Munition, on which are set a double guard". The Parliament to which Herrick alludes was actually summoned in January, 1624, to meet on February 12. Sir Simeon Steward, to whom the poem is addressed, was of the family of the Stewards of Stantney, in the Isle of Ely. He was knighted with his father, Mark Steward, in 1603, and afterwards became a fellow-commoner of Trinity Hall, Cambridge. He was at different times Sheriff and Deputy-Lieutenant for Cambridgeshire, and while serving in the latter capacity got into some trouble for unlawful exactions. In 1627 he wrote a poem on the King of the Fairies Clothes in the same vein as Herrick's fairy pieces.

321. Then is the work half done. As Dr. Grosart suggests, Herrick may have had in mind the "Dimidium facti qui c[oe]pit habet" of Horace, I. Epist. ii. 40. But here the emphasis is on beginning well, there on beginning.

Begin with Jove is doubtless from the "Ab Jove principium, Musae," of Virg. Ecl. iii. 60.

323. Fears not the fierce sedition of the seas. A reminiscence of Horace, III. Od. i. 25-32.

328. Gold before goodness. Printed in Witts Recreations, 1650, as A Foolish Querie. The sentiment is from Seneca, Ep. cxv.: An dives, omnes quaerimus; nemo, an bonus. Cp. Juvenal, III. 140 sqq.; Plaut. Menaechm. IV. ii. 6.

331. To his honoured kinsman, Sir William Soame. The second son of Sir Stephen Soame, Lord Mayor of London in 1598. Herrick's father and Sir Stephen married sisters.

As benjamin and storax when they meet. Instances of the use of "Benjamin" for gum benzoin will be found in the Dictionaries. Dr. Grosart's gloss, "Benjamin, the favourite youngest son of the Patriarch," is unfortunate.

336. His Age: dedicated to ... M. John Wickes under the name of Posthumus. There is an important version of this poem in Egerton MS., 2725, where it is entitled Mr. Herrick's Old Age to Mr. Weekes. I do not think it has been collated before. Stanzas i.-vi. contain few variants; ii. 6 reads: "Dislikes to care for what's behind"; iii. 6: "Like a lost maidenhead," for "Like to a lily lost"; v. 8: "With the best and whitest stone"; vi. 1: "We'll not be poor". After this we have two stanzas omitted in 1648:—

"We have no vineyards which do bear Their lustful clusters all the year, Nor odoriferous Orchards, like to Alcinous; Nor gall the seas Our witty appetites to please With mullet, turbot, gilt-head bought At a high rate and further brought.

"Nor can we glory of a great And stuffed magazine of wheat; We have no bath Of oil, but only rich in faith O'er which the hand Of fortune can have no command, But what she gives not, she not takes, But of her own a spoil she makes."

Stanza vii., l. 2, has "close" for "both"; l. 3 "see" for "have"; l. 6, "open" for "that cheap"; l. 7, "full" for "same". Stanzas x.-xvii. have so many variants that I am obliged to transcribe them in full, though they show Herrick not at his best, and the poem is not one to linger over:—

10.

"Live in thy peace; as for myself, When I am bruised on the shelf Of Time, and read Eternal daylight o'er my head: When with the rheum, With cough and ptisick, I consume Into an heap of cinders: then The Ages fled I'll call again,

11.

"And with a tear compare these last And cold times unto those are past, While Baucis by With her lean lips shall kiss them dry Then will we sit By the fire, foretelling snow and sleet And weather by our aches, grown +Old enough to be our own

12.

"True Calendar [ ] Is for to know what change is near, Then to assuage The gripings in the chine by age, I'll call my young Iuelus to sing such a song I made upon my mistress' breast; Or such a blush at such a feast.

13.

"Then shall he read my Lily fine Entomb'd within a crystal shrine: My Primrose next: A piece then of a higher text; For to beget In me a more transcendent heat Than that insinuating fire Which crept into each reverend Sire,

14.

"When the high Helen her fair cheeks Showed to the army of the Greeks; At which I'll rise (Blind though as midnight in my eyes), And hearing it, Flutter and crow, and, in a fit Of young concupiscence, and feel New flames within the aged steal.

15.

"Thus frantic, crazy man (God wot), I'll call to mind the times forgot And oft between Sigh out the Times that we have seen! And shed a tear, And twisting my Iuelus hair, Doting, I'll weep and say (in truth) Baucis, these were the sins of youth.

16.

"Then will I cause my hopeful Lad (If a wild Apple can be had) To crown the Hearth (Lar thus conspiring with our mirth); Next to infuse Our better beer into the cruse: Which, neatly spiced, we'll first carouse Unto the Vesta of the house.

17.

"Then the next health to friends of mine In oysters, and Burgundian wine, Hind, Goderiske, Smith, And Nansagge, sons of clune[M] and pith, Such who know well To board the magic bowl, and spill All mighty blood, and can do more Than Jove and Chaos them before."

[M] Clune = "clunis," a haunch.

This John Wickes or Weekes is spoken of by Anthony a Wood as a "jocular person" and a popular preacher. He enters Wood's Fasti by right of his co-optation as a D.D. in 1643, while the court was at Oxford; his education had been at Cambridge. He was a prebendary of Bristol and Dean of St. Burian in Cornwall, and suffered some persecution as a royalist. Herrick later on, when himself shedless and cottageless, addresses another poem to him as his "peculiar friend,"

To whose glad threshold and free door I may, a poet, come, though poor.

A friend suggests that Hind may have been John Hind, an Anacreontic poet and friend of Greene, and has found references to a Thomas Goodricke of St. John's Coll., Camb., author of two poems on the accession of James I., and a Martin Nansogge, B.A. of Trinity Hall, 1614, afterwards vicar of Cornwood, Devon. Smith is certainly James Smith, who, with Sir John Mennis, edited the Musarum Deliciae, in which the first poem is addressed "to Parson Weekes: an invitation to London," and contains a reference to—

"That old sack Young Herrick took to entertain The Muses in a sprightly vein".

The early part of this poem contains, along with the name Posthumus, many Horatian reminiscences: cp. especially II. Od. xiv. 1-8, and IV. Od. vii. 14. It may be noted that in the imitation of the latter passage in stanza iv. the MS. copy at the Museum corrects the misplacement of the epithet, reading:—

"But we must on and thither tend Where Tullus and rich Ancus blend," etc.,

for "Where Ancus and rich Tullus".

Again the variant, "Open candle baudery," in verse 7, is an additional argument against Dr. Grosart's explanation: "Obscene words and figures made with candle-smoke," the allusion being merely to the blackened ceilings produced by cheap candles without a shade.

337. A Short Hymn to Venus. Printed in Witts Recreations, 1650, as A vow to Cupid, with variants: l. 1, Cupid for Goddess; l. 2, like for with; l. 3, that I may for I may but; l. 5, do for will.

340. Upon a delaying lady. Printed in Witts Recreations, 1650, as A Check to her delay.

341. The Lady Mary Villars, niece of the first Duke of Buckingham, married successively Charles, son of Philip, Earl of Pembroke, Esme Stuart, Duke of Richmond and Lennox, and Thomas Howard. Died 1685.

355. Hath filed upon my silver hairs. Cp. Ben Jonson, The King's Entertainment:—

"What all the minutes, hours, weeks, months, and years That hang in file upon these silver hairs Could not produce," etc.

359. Philip, Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery. Philip Herbert (born 1584, died 1650), despite his foul mouth, ill temper, and devotion to sport ("He would make an excellent chancellor to the mews were Oxford turned into a kennel of hounds," wrote the author of Mercurius Menippeus when Pembroke succeeded Laud as chancellor), was also a patron of literature. He was one of the "incomparable pair of brethren" to whom the Shakespeare folio of 1623 was dedicated, and he was a good friend to Massinger. His fondness for scribbling in the margins of books may, or may not, be considered as further evidence of a respect for literature.

366. Thou shall not all die. Horace's "non omnis moriar".

367. Upon Wrinkles. Printed in Witts Recreations, 1650, under the title To a Stale Lady. The first line there reads:—

"Thy wrinkles are no more nor less".

375. Anne Soame, now Lady Abdie, eldest daughter of Sir Thomas Soame, and second wife of Sir Thomas Abdy, Bart., of Felix Hall, Essex. Herrick's poem is modelled on Mart. III. lxv.

376. Upon his Kinswoman, Mistress Elizabeth Herrick, daughter of the poet's brother Nicholas.

377. A Panegyric to Sir Lewis Pemberton of Rushden, in Northamptonshire, sheriff of the county in 1622; married Alice, daughter of Tho. Bowles. Died 1641. With this poem cp. Ben Jonson's Epig. ci.

But great and large she spreads by dust and sweat. Dr. Grosart very appositely quotes Montaigne: "For it seemeth that the verie name of vertue presupposeth difficultie and inferreth resistance, and cannot well exercise it selfe without an enemie" (Florio's tr., p. 233). But I think the two passages have a common origin in some version of Hesiod's {tes aretes hidrota theoi proparoithen ethekan}, which is twice quoted by Plato.

382. After the rare arch-poet, Jonson, died. Perhaps suggested by the Epitaph of Plautus on himself, ap. Gell. i. 24:—

Postquam est mortem aptus Plautus, comoedia luget; Scena deserta, dein risus, ludu' jocusque, Et numeri innumeri simul omnes collacrumarunt.

384. To his nephew, to be prosperous in painting. This artistic nephew may have been a Wingfield, son of Mercy Herrick, who married John Wingfield, of Brantham, Suffolk; or one of three sons of Nicholas Herrick and Susanna Salter, or Thomas, or some unknown son of Thomas Herrick. There is no record of any painter Herrick's achievements.

392. Sir Edward Fish, Knight Baronet, of Chertsey, in Surrey. Died 1658.

405. Nor fear or spice or fish. Herrick is remembering Persius, i. 43: Nec scombros metuentia carmina, nec thus. To form the paper jacket or tunica which wrapt the mackerel in Roman cookery seems to have been the ultimate employment of many poems. Cp. Mart. III. l. 9; IV. lxxxvii. 8; and Catullus, XCV. 8.

The farting Tanner and familiar King. The ballad here alluded to is that of King Edward IV. and the tanner of Tamworth, printed in Prof. Child's collection. "The dancing friar tattered in the bush" of the next line is one of the heroes of the old ballad of The Fryar and the Boye, printed by Wynkyn de Worde, and included in the Appendix to Furnivall and Hales' edition of the Percy folio. The boy was the possessor of a "magic flute," and, having got the friar into a bush, made him dance there.

"Jack, as he piped, laughed among, The Friar with briars was vilely stung, He hopped wondrous high. At last the Friar held up his hand And said: I can no longer stand, Oh! I shall dancing die."

"Those monstrous lies of little Robin Rush" is explained by Dr. Grosart as an allusion to "The Historie of Friar Rush, how he came to a House of Religion to seek a Service, and being entertained by the Prior was made First Cook, being full of pleasant Mirth and Delight for young people". Of "Tom Chipperfield and pretty lisping Ned" I can find nothing. "The flying Pilchard and the frisking Dace" probably belong to the fish monsters alluded to in the Tempest. In "Tim Trundell" Herrick seems for the sake of alliteration to have taken a liberty with the Christian name of a well-known ballad publisher.

He's greedy of his life. From Seneca, Thyestes, 884-85:—

Vitae est avidus quisquis non vult Mundo secum pereunte mori.

407. Upon Himself. 408. Another. Both printed in Witts Recreations, 1650, the second under the title of Love and Liberty. This last is taken from Corn. Gall. Eleg. i. 6, quoted by Montaigne, iii. 5:—

Et mihi dulce magis resoluto vivere collo.

412. The Mad Maid's Song. A manuscript version of this song is contained in Harleian MS. 6917, fol. 48, ver. 80. The chief variants are: st. i. l. 2, morrow for morning; l. 4, all dabbled for bedabbled; st. ii. l. 1, cowslip for primrose; l. 3, tears for flowers; l. 4, was for is; st. v. l. 1, hope for know; st. vii. l. 2, balsam for cowslips.

415. Whither dost thou whorry me. Quo me, Bacche, rapis tui Plenum? Hor. III. Od. xxv. 1.

430. As Sallust saith, i.e., the pseudo-Sallust in the Epist. ad Cai. Caes. de Repub. Ordinanda.

431. Every time seems short. Epigr. in Farnabii, Florileg. [a. 1629]:—

{Toisi men eu prattousin hapas ho bios brachys estin; Tois de kakos, mia nyx apletos esti chronos.}

443. Oberon's Palace.—After the feast (my Shapcott) see. See 223, 293, from which it is a pity that this poem should have been divorced. Of the Palace there are as many as three MS. versions, viz., Add. 22, 603 (p. 59), and Add. 25, 303 (p. 157), at the British Museum, both of which I have collated, and Ashmole MS. 38, which I only know through my predecessors. The three MSS. appear to agree very harmoniously, and they unite in increasing our knowledge of Herrick by a passage of twenty-seven lines, following on the words "And here and there and farther off," and in lieu of the next four and a half lines in Hesperides. They read as follows:—

"Some sort of pear, Apple or plum, is neatly laid (As if it was a tribute paid) By the round urchin; some mixt wheat The which the ant did taste, not eat; Deaf nuts, soft Jews'-ears, and some thin Chippings, the mice filched from the bin Of the gray farmer, and to these The scraps of lentils, chitted peas, Dried honeycombs, brown acorn cups, Out of the which he sometimes sups His herby broth, and there close by Are pucker'd bullace, cankers (?), dry Kernels, and withered haws; the rest Are trinkets fal'n from the kite's nest, As butter'd bread, the which the wild Bird snatched away from the crying child, Blue pins, tags, fesenes, beads and things Of higher price, as half-jet rings, Ribbons and then some silken shreaks The virgins lost at barley-breaks. Many a purse-string, many a thread Of gold and silver therein spread, Many a counter, many a die, Half rotten and without an eye, Lies here about, and, as we guess, Some bits of thimbles seem to dress The brave cheap work; and for to pave The excellency of this cave, Squirrels and children's teeth late shed, Serve here, both which enchequered With castors' doucets, which poor they Bite off themselves to 'scape away: Brown toadstones, ferrets' eyes, the gum That shines," etc.

The italicised words in the last few lines appear in Hesperides; all the rest are new. Other variants are: "The grass of Lemster ore soberly sparkling" for "the finest Lemster ore mildly disparkling"; "girdle" for "ceston"; "The eyes of all doth strait bewitch" for "All with temptation doth bewitch"; "choicely hung" for "neatly hung"; "silver roach" for "silvery fish"; "cave" for "room"; "get reflection" for "make reflected"; "Candlemas" for "taper-light"; "moon-tane" for "moon-tanned," etc., etc.

Kings though they're hated. The "Oderint dum metuant" of the Atreus of Accius, quoted by Cicero and Seneca.

446. To Oenone. Printed in Witts Recreations, 1650, under the title: "The Farewell to Love and to his Mistress," and with the unlucky misprint "court" for "covet" (also "for" for "but") in the stanza iii. l. i.

447. Grief breaks the stoutest heart. Frangit fortia corda dolor. Tibull. III. ii. 6.

451. To the right gracious Prince, Lodowick, Duke of Richmond and Lennox. There appears to me to be a blunder here which Dr. Grosart and Mr. Hazlitt do not elucidate, by recording the birth of Lodowick, first Duke of Richmond, in 1574, his succession to the Lennox title in 1583, creation as Duke of Richmond in May, 1623, and death in the following February. For this first duke was no "stem" left "of all those three brave brothers fallen in the war," and the allusion here is undoubtedly to his nephews—George, Lord d'Aubigny, who fell at Edgehill; Lord John Stewart, who fell at Alresford; and Lord Bernard Stewart (Earl of Lichfield), who fell at Rowton Heath. In elucidation of Herrick's Dirge (219) over the last of these three brothers, I have already quoted Clarendon's remark, that he was "the third brother of that illustrious family that sacrificed his life in this quarrel," and it cannot be doubted that Herrick is here alluding to the same fact. The poem must therefore have been written after 1645, i.e., more than twenty years after the death of Duke Lodowick. But the duke then living was James, who succeeded his father Esme in 1624, was recreated Duke of Richmond in 1641, and did not die till 1655. It is true that there was a brother named Lodovic, but he was an abbot in France and never succeeded to the title. Herrick, therefore, seems to have blundered in the Christian name.

453. Let's live in haste. From Martial, VII. xlvii. 11, 12:—

Vive velut rapto: fugitivaque gaudia carpe: Perdiderit nullum vita reversa diem.

457. While Fates permit. From Seneca, Herc. Fur. 177:—

Dum Fata sinunt, Vivite laeti: properat cursu Vita citato, volucrique die Rota praecipitis vertitur anni.

459. With Horace (IV. Od. ix. 29):—

Paulum sepultae distat inertiae Celata virtus.

465. The parting Verse or charge to his Supposed Wife when he travelled. MS. variants of this poem are found at the British Museum in Add. 22, 603, and in Ashmole MS. 38. Their title, "Mr. Herrick's charge to his wife," led Mr. Payne Collier to rashly identify with the poet a certain Robert Herrick married at St. Clement Danes, 1632, to a Jane Gibbons. The variants are numerous, but not very important. In l. 4 we have "draw wooers" for "draw thousands"; ll. 11-16 are transposed to after l. 28; and "Are the expressions of that itch" is written "As emblems will express that itch"; ll. 27, 28 appear as:—

"For that once lost thou needst must fall To one, then prostitute to all:

And we then have the transposed passage:—

Nor so immured would I have Thee live, as dead, or in thy grave; But walk abroad, yet wisely well Keep 'gainst my coming sentinel. And think each man thou seest doth doom Thy thoughts to say, I back am come.

Farther on we have the rather pretty variant:—

"Let them call thee wondrous fair, Crown of women, yet despair".

Eight lines lower "virtuous" is read for "gentle," and the omission of some small words throws some light on a change in Herrick's metrical views as he grew older. The words omitted are bracketed:—

"[And] Let thy dreams be only fed With this, that I am in thy bed. And [thou] then turning in that sphere, Waking findst [shall find] me sleeping there. But [yet] if boundless lust must scale Thy fortress and must needs prevail 'Gainst thee and force a passage in," etc.

Other variants are: "Creates the action" for "That makes the action"; "Glory" for "Triumph"; "my last signet" for "this compression"; "turn again in my full triumph" for "come again, As one triumphant," and "the height of womankind" for "all faith of womankind".

The body sins not, 'tis the will, etc. A maxim of law Latin: Actus non facit reum nisi mens sit rea.

466. To his Kinsman, Sir Thos. Soame, son of Sir Stephen Soame, Lord Mayor of London, 1589, and of Anne Stone, Herrick's aunt. Sir Thomas was Sheriff of London, 1635, M.P. for the City, 1640, and died Jan., 1670. See Cussan's Hertfortshire. (Hundred of Edwinstree, p. 100.)

470. Few Fortunate. A variant on the text (Matt. xx. 16): "Many be called but few chosen".

479. To Rosemary and Bays. The use of rosemary and bays at weddings forms a section in Brand's chapter on marriage customs (ii. 119). For the gilding he quotes from a wedding sermon preached in 1607 by Roger Hacket: "Smell sweet, O ye flowers, in your native sweetness: be not gilded with the idle art of man". The use of gloves at weddings forms the subject of another section in Brand (ii. 125). He quotes Ben Jonson's Silent Woman; "We see no ensigns of a wedding here, no character of a bridal; where be our scarves and our gloves?"

483. To his worthy friend, M. Thomas Falconbrige. As Herrick hints at his friend's destiny for a public career, it seemed worth while to hunt through the Calendar of State Papers for a chance reference to this Falconbridge, who so far has evaded editors. He is apparently the Mr. Thomas Falconbridge who appears in various papers between 1640 and 1644, as passing accounts, and in the latter year was "Receiver-General at Westminster".

Towers reared high, etc. Cp. Horace, Od. II. x. 9-12.

Saepius ventis agitatur ingens Pinus, et celsae graviore casu Decidunt turres, feriuntque summos Fulgura montes.

486. He's lord of thy life, etc. Seneca, Epist. Mor. iv.: Quisquis vitam suam contempsit tuae dominus est. Quoted by Montaigne, I. xxiii.

488. Shame is a bad attendant to a state. From Seneca, Hippol. 431: Malus est minister regii imperii pudor.

He rents his crown that fears the people's hate. Also from Seneca, Oedipus, 701: Odia qui nimium timet regnare nescit.

496. To his honoured kinsman, Sir Richard Stone, son of John Stone, sergeant-at-law, the brother of Julian Stone, Herrick's mother. He died in 1660.

To this white temple of my heroes. Ben Jonson's admirers were proud to call themselves "sealed of the tribe of Ben," and Herrick, a devout Jonsonite, seems to have imitated the idea so far as to plan sometimes, as here, a Temple, sometimes a Book (see infra, 510), sometimes a City (365), a Plantation (392), a Calendar (545), a College (983), of his own favourite friends, to whom his poetry was to give immortality. The earliest direct reference to this plan is in his address to John Selden, the antiquary (365), in which he writes:—

"A city here of heroes I have made Upon the rock whose firm foundation laid Shall never shrink; where, making thine abode, Live thou a Selden, that's a demi-god".

It is noteworthy that the poems which contain the clearest reference to this Temple (or its variants) are mostly addressed to kinsfolk, e.g., this to Sir Richard Stone, to Mrs. Penelope Wheeler, to Mr. Stephen Soame, and to Susanna and Thomas Herrick. Other recipients of the honour are Sir Edward Fish and Dr. Alabaster, Jack Crofts, Master J. Jincks, etc.

497. All flowers sent, etc. See Virgil's—or the Virgilian—Culex, ll. 397-410.

Martial's bee. See Epig. IV. xxxii.

De ape electro inclusa. Et latet et lucet Phaethontide condita gutta, Ut videatur apis nectare clausa suo. Dignum tantorum pretium tulit illa laborum. Credibile est ipsam sic voluisse mori.

500. To Mistress Dorothy Parsons. This "saint" from Herrick's Temple may certainly be identified with the second of the three children (William, Dorothy, and Thomasine) of Mr. John Parsons, organist and master of the choristers at Westminster Abbey, where he was buried in 1623. Herrick addresses another poem to her sister Thomasine:—

"Grow up in beauty, as thou dost begin, And be of all admired, Thomasine".

502. 'Tis sin to throttle wine. Martial, I. xix. 5: Scelus est jugulare Falernum.

506. Edward, Earl of Dorset, Knight of the Garter, grandson of Thomas Sackville, author of Gorboduc. He succeeded his brother, Richard Sackville, the third earl, in 1624, and died in 1652. Clarendon describes a duel which he fought with Lord Bruce in Flanders.

Of your own self a public theatre. Cp. Burton (Democ. to Reader) "Ipse mihi theatrum".

510. To his Kinswoman, Mrs. Penelope Wheeler. See Note on 130.

511. A mighty strife 'twixt form and chastity. Lis est cum forma magna pudicitiae. Quoted from Ovid by Burton, who translates: "Beauty and honesty have ever been at odds".

514. To the Lady Crew, upon the death of her child. This must be the child buried in Westminster Abbey, according to the entry in the register "1637/8, Feb. 6. Sir Clipsy Crewe's daughter, in the North aisle of the monuments." Colonel Chester annotates: "She was a younger daughter, and was born at Crewe, 27th July, 1631. She died on the 4th of February, and must have been an independent heiress, as her father administered to her estate on the 24th May following."

515. Here needs no Court for our Request. An allusion to the Court of Requests, established in the time of Richard II. as a lesser Court of Equity for the hearing of "all poor men's suits". It was abolished in 1641, at the same time as the Star Chamber.

517. The new successor drives away old love. From Ovid, Rem. Am. 462: Successore novo vincitur omnis amor.

519. Born I was to meet with age. Cp. 540. From Anacreon, 38 [24]:—

{Epeide brotos etechthen, Biotou tribon hodeuein, Chronon egnon hon parelthon, Hon d' echo dramein ouk oida; Methete me, phrontides; Meden moi kai hymin esto. Prin eme phthase to terma, Paixo, gelaso, choreuso, Meta tou kalou Lyaiou.}

520. Fortune did never favour one. From Dionys. Halicarn. as quoted by Burton, II. iii. 1, Sec. 1.

521. To Phillis to love and live with him. A variant on Marlowe's theme: "Come live with me and be my love". Donne's The Bait (printed in Grosart's edition, vol. ii. p. 206) is another.

522. To his Kinswoman, Mistress Susanna Herrick, wife of his elder brother Nicholas.

523. Susanna Southwell. Probably a daughter of Sir Thomas Southwell, for whom Herrick wrote the Epithalamium (No. 149).

525. Her pretty feet, etc. Cp. Suckling's "Ballad upon a Wedding":—

"Her feet beneath her petticoat, Like little mice stole in and out, As if they feared the light".

526. To his Honoured Friend, Sir John Mynts. John Mennis, a Vice-Admiral of the fleet and knighted in 1641, refused to join in the desertion of the fleet to the Parliament. After the Restoration he was made Governor of Dover and Chief Comptroller of the Navy. He was one of the editors of the collection called Musarum Deliciae (1656), in the first poem of which there is an allusion to—

"That old sack Young Herrick took to entertain The Muses in a sprightly vein".

527. Fly me not, etc. From Anacreon, 49 [34]:—

{Me me phyges, horosa Tan polian etheiran; ... Hora kan stephanoisin Hopos prepei ta leuka Rhodois krin' emplakenta.}

529. As thou deserv'st be proud. Cp. Hor. III. Od. xxx. 14:—

Sume superbiam Quaesitam meritis et mihi Delphica Lauro cinge volens, Melpomene, comam.

534. To Electra. Printed in Witts Recreations, 1650, where it is entitled To Julia.

536. Ill Government.... When kings obey, etc. From Seneca, Octav. 581:—

Male imperatur, cum regit vulgus duces.

545. To his Worthy Kinsman, Mr. Stephen Soame (the son or, less probably, the brother of Sir Thomas Soame): One of my righteous tribe. Cp. Note to 496.

547. Great spirits never with their bodies die. Tacit. Agric. 46:—"Si quis piorum manibus locus, si, ut sapientibus placet, non cum corpore extinguuntur magnae animae".

554. Die thou canst not all. Hor. IV. Od. xxx. 6,7.

556. The Fairies. Cp. the old ballad of Robin Goodfellow:—

"When house or hearth doth sluttish lie, I pinch the maids both black and blue";

and Ben Jonson's Entertainment at Althorpe, etc.

557. M. John Weare, Councellour. Probably the same as "the much-lamented Mr. J. Warr" of 134.

Law is to give to every one his own. Cicero, De Fin. v.: Animi affectio suum cuique tribuens Justitia dicitur.

564. His Kinswoman, Bridget Herrick, eldest daughter of his brother Nicholas.

565. The Wanton Satyr. See Sir E. Dyer's The Shepherd's Conceit of Prometheus:—

"Prometheus, when first from heaven high He brought down fire, ere then on earth not seen, Fond of delight, a Satyr standing by Gave it a kiss, as it like sweet had been. ... ... ... ... The difference is—the Satyr's lips, my heart, He for a time, I evermore, have smart."

So Euphues: "Satirus not knowing what fire was would needs embrace it and was burnt;" and Sir John Davies, False and True Knowledge.



Transcriber's Endnotes

Numeration Errors in the Hesperides:

Errors in the numbering system, despite the corrections mentioned in the NOTE TO SECOND EDITION, still exist in the text. A clear example is shown by 569. UPON ELECTRA'S TEARS ending Vol. I, whilst Vol. II begins with 569. A HYMN TO THE GRACES. When the poems within the APPENDIX OF EPIGRAMS are considered, more errors in the numeration system become apparent.

Without an obvious solution to a discrepancy the numbers remain as originally printed, however the following alterations have been made to ensure any details in the NOTES section apply to the relevant poem.

Page 204. OBERON'S PALACE. "444" changed to 443. "443. OBERON'S PALACE."

Page 221. FEW FORTUNATE. "472" changed to 470. "470. FEW FORTUNATE."

Page 223. THE WASSAIL. "478" changed to 476. "476. THE WASSAIL."

Page 317. Note to 496. "512" changed to 510. "... sometimes a Book (see infra, 510) ..."

Page 321. Note to 545. "498" changed to 496. "... Cp. Note to 496...."

Page 322. Note to 564. "562" changed to 564. "564. His Kinswoman, Bridget Herrick, eldest ..."

Page 322. Note to 565. "563" changed to 565. "565. The Wanton Satyr. See Sir E. Dyer's ..."

Typographical Errors:

Page 83. 178. CORINNA'S GOING.... "pries" corrected to priest. "And chose their priest, ere we can cast off sloth:"

Page 137. 275. CROSSES. "goods" corrected to good. "Though good things answer many good intents,"

Page 316. Note to 479. " owers" corrected to flowers. "Smell sweet, O ye flowers, in your native sweetness:"

Unresolved Errors:

The following errors remain as printed:

In 405. TO HIS BOOK., Chipperfeild, has been retained as it is unclear whether this is a misprint, or intentional.

In 101. BARLEY-BREAK; OR, LAST IN HELL. No corresponding note can be found for Barley-break, a country game resembling prisoners' base.



ABERDEEN UNIVERSITY PRESS.



ROBERT HERRICK

THE HESPERIDES & NOBLE NUMBERS: EDITED BY ALFRED POLLARD WITH A PREFACE BY A. C. SWINBURNE

VOL. II.

REVISED EDITION



LONDON: NEW YORK: LAWRENCE & BULLEN, LTD., CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, 16 HENRIETTA STREET, W.C. 153-157 FIFTH AVENUE 1898. 1898.



HESPERIDES.

569. A HYMN TO THE GRACES.

When I love (as some have told, Love I shall when I am old), O ye Graces! make me fit For the welcoming of it. Clean my rooms, as temples be, T' entertain that deity. Give me words wherewith to woo, Suppling and successful too; Winning postures, and, withal, Manners each way musical: Sweetness to allay my sour And unsmooth behaviour. For I know you have the skill Vines to prune, though not to kill, And of any wood ye see, You can make a Mercury.

Suppling, softening. Mercury, god of eloquence and inventor of the lyre.

570. TO SILVIA.

No more, my Silvia, do I mean to pray For those good days that ne'er will come away. I want belief; O gentle Silvia, be The patient saint, and send up vows for me.

573. THE POET HATH LOST HIS PIPE.

I cannot pipe as I was wont to do, Broke is my reed, hoarse is my singing, too; My wearied oat I'll hang upon the tree, And give it to the sylvan deity.

574. TRUE FRIENDSHIP.

Wilt thou my true friend be? Then love not mine, but me.

575. THE APPARITION OF HIS MISTRESS CALLING HIM TO ELYSIUM.

Desunt nonnulla ——

Come then, and like two doves with silv'ry wings, Let our souls fly to th' shades where ever springs Sit smiling in the meads; where balm and oil, Roses and cassia crown the untill'd soil. Where no disease reigns, or infection comes To blast the air, but ambergris and gums This, that, and ev'ry thicket doth transpire, More sweet than storax from the hallowed fire, Where ev'ry tree a wealthy issue bears Of fragrant apples, blushing plums, or pears; And all the shrubs, with sparkling spangles, shew Like morning sunshine tinselling the dew. Here in green meadows sits eternal May, Purfling the margents, while perpetual day So double gilds the air, as that no night Can ever rust th' enamel of the light. Here, naked younglings, handsome striplings, run Their goals for virgins' kisses; which when done, Then unto dancing forth the learned round Commixed they meet, with endless roses crown'd. And here we'll sit on primrose-banks, and see Love's chorus led by Cupid; and we'll be Two loving followers, too, unto the grove Where poets sing the stories of our love. There thou shalt hear divine Musaeus sing Of Hero and Leander; then I'll bring Thee to the stand, where honour'd Homer reads His Odysseys and his high Iliads; About whose throne the crowd of poets throng To hear the incantation of his tongue: To Linus, then to Pindar; and that done, I'll bring thee, Herrick, to Anacreon, Quaffing his full-crown'd bowls of burning wine, And in his raptures speaking lines of thine, Like to his subject; and as his frantic Looks show him truly Bacchanalian-like Besmear'd with grapes, welcome he shall thee thither, Where both may rage, both drink and dance together. Then stately Virgil, witty Ovid, by Whom fair Corinna sits, and doth comply With ivory wrists his laureate head, and steeps His eye in dew of kisses while he sleeps; Then soft Catullus, sharp-fang'd Martial, And towering Lucan, Horace, Juvenal, And snaky Persius, these, and those, whom rage (Dropt for the jars of heaven) fill'd t' engage All times unto their frenzies,—thou shalt there Behold them in a spacious theatre. Among which glories, crowned with sacred bays And flatt'ring ivy, two recite their plays— Beaumont and Fletcher, swans to whom all ears Listen, while they, like syrens in their spheres, Sing their Evadne; and still more for thee There yet remains to know than thou can'st see By glim'ring of a fancy. Do but come, And there I'll show thee that capacious room In which thy father Jonson now is plac'd, As in a globe of radiant fire, and grac'd To be in that orb crown'd, that doth include Those prophets of the former magnitude, And he one chief; but hark, I hear the cock (The bellman of the night) proclaim the clock Of late struck one, and now I see the prime Of day break from the pregnant east: 'tis time I vanish; more I had to say, But night determines here, away.