NOTES.

[569]. And of any wood ye see, You can make a Mercury. Pythagoras allegorically said that Mercury's statue could not be made of every sort of wood: cp. Rabelais, iv. 62.

[575]. The Apparition of his Mistress calling him to Elysium. An earlier version of this poem was printed in the 1640 edition of Shakespeare's poems under the title, His Mistris Shade, having been licensed for separate publication at Stationers' Hall the previous year. The variants are numerous, and some of them important. l. 1, of silver for with silv'rie; l. 3, on the Banks for in the Meads; l. 8, Spikenard through for Storax from; l. 10 reads: "Of mellow Apples, ripened Plums and Pears": l. 17, the order of "naked younglings, handsome striplings" is reversed; in place of l. 20 we have:—

"So soon as each his dangling locks hath crown'd
With Rosie Chaplets, Lilies, Pansies red,
Soft Saffron Circles to perfume the head";

l. 23, to for too unto; l. 24, their for our; ll. 29, 30:—

"Unto the Prince of Shades, whom once his Pen
Entituled the Grecian Prince of Men";

l. 31, thereupon for and that done; l. 36, render him true for show him truly; l. 37, will for shall; l. 38, "Where both may laugh, both drink, both rage together"; l. 48, Amphitheatre for spacious theatre; l. 49, synod for glories, followed by:—

"crown'd with sacred Bays
And flatt'ring joy, we'll have to recite their plays,
Shakespeare and Beamond, Swans to whom the Spheres
Listen while they call back the former year
To teach the truth of scenes, and more for thee,
There yet remains, brave soul, than thou can'st see,"
etc.;

l. 56, illustrious for capacious; l. 57, shall be for now is [Jonson died 1637]; ll. 59-61:—

"To be of that high Hierarchy where none
But brave souls take illumination
Immediately from heaven; but hark the cock," etc.;

l. 62, feel for see; l. 63, through for from.

[579]. My love will fit each history. Cp. Ovid, Amor. II. iv. 44: Omnibus historiis se meus aptat amor.

[580]. The sweets of love are mixed with tears. Cp. Propert. I. xii. 16: Nonnihil adspersis gaudet Amor lacrimis.

[583]. Whom this morn sees most fortunate, etc. Seneca, Thyest. 613: Quem dies vidit veniens superbum Hunc dies vidit fugiens jacentem.

[586]. Night hides our thefts, etc. Ovid, Ars Am. i. 249:—

Nocte latent mendæ vitioque ignoscitur omni,
Horaque formosam quamlibet illa facit.

[590]. To his brother-in-law, Master John Wingfield. Of Brantham, Suffolk, husband of the poet's sister, Mercy. See [818], and [Sketch of Herrick's Life] in vol. i.

[599]. Upon Lucia. Cp. "The Resolution" in Speculum Amantis, ed. A. H. Bullen.

[604]. Old Religion. Certainly not Roman Catholicism, though Jonson was a Catholic. Herrick uses the noun and its adjective rather curiously of the dead: cp. [82], "To the reverend shade of his religious Father," and [138], "When thou shalt laugh at my religious dust". There may be something of this use here, or we may refer to his ancient cult of Jonson. But the use of the phrase in [870] makes the exact shade of meaning difficult to fix.

[605]. Riches to be but burdens to the mind. Seneca De Provid. 6: Democritus divitias projecit, onus illas bonae mentis existimans.

[607]. Who covets more is evermore a slave. Hor. I. Ep. x. 41: Serviet aeternum qui parvo nesciet uti.

[615]. No Wrath of Men. Cp. Hor. Od. III. iii. 1-8.

[616]. To the Maids to walk abroad. Printed in Witts Recreations, 1650, under the title: Abroad with the Maids.

[618]. Mistress Elizabeth Lee, now Lady Tracy. Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas, first Lord Leigh of Stoneleigh, in Warwickshire, married John, third Viscount Tracy. She survived her husband two years, and died in 1688.

[624]. Poets. Wantons we are, etc. From Ovid, Trist. ii. 353-4:—

Crede mihi, mores distant a carmine nostri:
Vita verecunda est, Musa jocosa, mihi.

[625]. 'Tis cowardice to bite the buried. Cp. Ben Jonson, The Poetaster, I. 1: "Envy the living, not the dead, doth bite"; perhaps from Ovid, Am. I. xv. 39: Pascitur in vivis livor; post fata quiescit.

[626]. Noble Westmoreland. See Note to [112].

Gallant Newark. Robert Pierrepoint was created Viscount Newark in 1627 and Earl of Kingston in the following year. But Herrick is perhaps addressing his son, Henry Pierrepoint, afterwards Marquis of Dorchester (see [962] and [Note]), who during the first Earl of Kingston's life would presumably have borne his second title.

[633]. Sweet words must nourish soft and gentle love. Ovid, Ars Am. ii. 152: Dulcibus est verbis mollis alendus amor.

[639]. Fates revolve no flax they've spun. Seneca, Herc. Fur. 1812: Duræ peragunt pensa sorores, Nec sua retro fila revolvunt.

[642]. Palms ... gems. A Latinism. Cp. Ovid, Fasti, i. 152: Et nova de gravido palmite gemma tumet.

[645]. Upon Tears. Cp. S. Bernard: Pœnitentium lacrimæ vinum angelorum.

[649]. Upon Lucy. Printed in Witts Recreations, 1650, under the title, On Betty.

[653]. To th' number five or nine. Probably Herrick is mistaking the references in Greek and Latin poets to the mixing of their wine and water (e.g., Hor. Od. III. xix. 11-17) for the drinking of so many cups.

[654]. Long-looked-for comes at last. Cp. G. Herbert, preface to Sibbes' Funeral Sermon on Sir Thomas Crew (1638): "That ancient adage, 'Quod differtur non aufertur' for 'Long-looked-for comes at last'".

[655]. The morrow's life too late is, etc. Mart. I. xvi. 12: Sera nimis vita est crastina: vive hodie.

[662]. O happy life, etc. From Virg. Georg. ii. 458-9:—

O fortunatos nimium sua si bona norint
Agricolas.

It is not uncharacteristic that these fervid praises of country life were left unfinished.

[664]. Arthur Bartly. Not yet identified.

[665]. Let her Lucrece all day be. From Martial XI. civ. 21, 22:—

Lucretia toto
Sis licet usque die: Laida nocte volo.

Neither will Famish me, nor overfill. Mart. I. lviii. 4: Nec volo quod cruciat, nec volo quod satiat.

[667]. Be't for my Bridal or my Burial. Cp. Brand, vol. ii., and Coles' Introduction to the Knowledge of Plants: "Rosemary and bayes are used by the commons both at funerals and weddings".

[672]. Kings ought to be more lov'd than fear'd. Seneca, Octavia, 459: Decet timeri Cæsarem. At plus diligi.

[673]. To Mr. Denham, on his prospective poem. Sir John Denham published in 1642 his Cooper's Hill, a poem on the view over the Thames towards London, from a hill near Windsor.

[675]. Their fashion is, but to say no, etc. Cp. Montaigne's Essais, II. 3, p. 51; Florio's tr. p. 207: "Let it suffice that in doing it they say no and take it".

[676]. Love is maintained by wealth. Ovid, Rem. Am. 746: Divitiis alitur luxuriosus amor.

[679]. Nero commanded, but withdrew his eyes. Tacit. Agric. 45: Nero subtraxit oculos, jussitque scelera, non spectavit.

[683]. But a just measure both of Heat and Cold. This is a version of the medieval doctrine of the four humours. So Chaucer says of his Doctor of Physic:—

"He knew the cause of every maladye,
Were it of hoot or cold, or moyste, or drye,
And where engendered and of what humour".

[684]. 'Gainst thou go'st a-mothering. The Epistle for Mid-Lent Sunday was from Galat. iv. 21, etc., and contained the words: "Jerusalem, quæ est Mater nostra". On that Sunday people made offerings at their Mother Church. After the Reformation the natural mother was substituted for the spiritual, and the day was set apart for visiting relations. Excellent simnel cakes (Low Lat., siminellus, fine flour) are still made in the North, where the current derivation of the word is from Sim and Nell!

[685]. To the King. Probably written in 1645, when Charles was for a short time in the West.

[689]. Too much she gives to some, enough to none. Mart. XII. x.; Fortuna multis dat nimis, satis nulli.

[696]. Men mind no state in sickness. There is a general resemblance in this poem to the latter part of Hor. III. Od. i., but I have an uneasy sense that Herrick is translating.

[697]. Adversity. Printed in Witts Recreations, 1650.

[702]. Mean things overcome mighty. Cp. [486] and [Note].

[706]. How roses came red. Cp. Burton, Anat. Mel. III. ii. 3: "Constantine (Agricult. xi. 18) makes Cupid himself to be a great dancer: by the same token that he was capering among the gods, he flung down a bowl of nectar, which, distilling upon the white rose, ever since made it red".

[709]. Tears and Laughter. Bishop Jebb quotes a Latin couplet inscribed on an old inn at Four Crosses, Staffordshire:—

Fleres si scires unum tua tempora mensem:
Rides, cum non sit forsitan una dies.

[710]. Tully says. Cic. Tusc. Disp. III. ii. 3: Gloria est frequens de aliquo, fama cum laude.

[713]. His return to London. Written at the same time as his Farewell to Dean Bourn, i.e., after his ejection in 1648, the year of the publication of the Hesperides.

[715]. No pack like poverty. Burton, Anat. Mel. iii. 3: Οὐδὲν πενίας βαρύτερόν ἐστι φόρτιον. "No burden, saith Menander, is so intolerable as poverty."

[718]. As many laws, etc. Tacit. Ann. iii. 27: Corruptissima in republica plurimæ leges.

[723]. Lay down some silver pence. Cp. Bishop Corbet's The Faeryes Farewell:—

"And though they sweep their hearths no less
Than maids were wont to do,
Yet who of late for cleanliness
Finds sixpence in her shoe?"

[725]. Times that are ill ... Clouds will not ever, etc., two reminiscences of Horace, II. Od. x. 17, and ix.

[727]. Up tails all. This tune will be found in Chappell's Popular Music of the Olden Time, vol. i. p. 196. He notes that it was a favourite with Herrick, who wrote four other poems in the metre, viz.: The Hag is Astride, The Maypole is up, The Peter-penny, and Twelfth Night: or, King and Queen. The tune is found in Queen Elizabeth's Virginal Book, and in the Dancing Master (1650-1690). It is alluded to by Ben Jonson, and was a favourite with the Cavaliers.

[730]. Charon and Philomel. This dialogue is found with some slight variations of text in Rawlinson's MS. poet. 65. fol. 32. The following variants may be noted: l. 5, voice for sound; l. 7, shade for bird; l. 11, warbling for watching; l. 12, hoist up for thus hoist; l. 13, be gone for return; l. 18, praise for pray; l. 19, sighs for vows; l. 24, omit slothful. The dialogue is succeeded in the MS. by an old catch (probably written before Herrick was born):—

"A boat! a boat! haste to the ferry!
For we go over to be merry,
To laugh and quaff, and drink old sherry".

After the catch comes the following dialogue, written (it would seem) in imitation of Herrick's Charon and Philomel: the speakers' names are not marked:—

"Charon! O Charon! the wafter of all souls to bliss or bane!
Who calls the ferryman of Hell?
Come near and say who lives in bliss and who in pain.
Those that die well eternal bliss shall follow.
Those that die ill their own black deeds shall swallow.
Shall thy black barge those guilty spirits row
That kill themselves for love? Oh, no! oh, no!
My cordage cracks when such foul sins draw near,
No wind blows fair, nor I my boat can steer.
What spirits pass and in Elysium reign?
Those harmless souls that love and are beloved again.
That soul that lives in love and fain would die to win,
Shall he go free? Oh, no! it is too foul a sin.
He must not come aboard, I dare not row,
Storms of despair my boat will overblow.
But when thy mistress (?) shall close up thine eyes then come aboard,
Then come aboard and pass; till then be wise and sing."

"Then come aboard" from the penultimate line and "and sing" from the last should clearly be struck out.

[739]. O Jupiter, etc. Eubulus in Athenaeus, xiii. 559: Ὠ Ζεῦ πολυτίμητ', εἶτ' ἐγὼ κακῶς ποτε | ἐρῶ γυναῖκας; νὴ Δί' ἀπολοίμην ἄρα· | πάντων ἄριστον κτημάτων. Comp. [885].

[743]. Another upon her Weeping. Printed in Witts Recreations, 1650, under the title: On Julia's Weeping.

[745]. To Sir John Berkeley, Governour of Exeter. Youngest son of Sir Maurice Berkeley, of Bruton, in Somersetshire; knighted in Berwick in 1638; commander-in-chief of all the Royalist forces in Devonshire, 1643; captured Exeter Sept. 4 of that year, and held it till April 13, 1646. Created Baron Berkeley of Stratton, in Cornwall, 1658; died 1678.

[749]. Consultation. As noted in the text, this is from Sallust, Cat. i.

[751]. None sees the fardell of his faults behind. Cp. Catullus, xxii. 20, 21:—

Suus cuique attributus est error,
Sed non videmus manticae quod in tergo est,

or, perhaps more probably from Seneca, de Irá, ii. 28: Aliena vitia in oculis habemus; à tergo nostra sunt.

[755]. The Eye. Æschyl. Fragm. in Plutarch, Amat. 21: Νέας γυναικὸς οὔ με μὴ λάθῃ φλέγων Ὀφθαλμὸς, ἥτις ἀνδρὸς ᾖ γεγευμένη.

[756]. To Prince Charles upon his coming to Exeter. In August, 1645.

[761]. The Wake. Printed in Witts Recreations, 1650, under the title: Alvar and Anthea.

[763]. To Doctor Alabaster. William Alabaster, or Alablaster, born at Hadleigh, Suffolk (1567); educated at Westminster and Trinity College, Cambridge; a friend of Spencer; was converted to Roman Catholicism while chaplain to the Earl of Essex in Spain, 1596. In 1607 he began his series of apocalyptic writings by an Apparatus in Revelationem Jesu Christi. On visiting Rome he was imprisoned by the Inquisition, escaped, and returned to Protestantism. Besides his theological works, he published (in 1637) a Lexicon Pentaglotton. Died April, 1640.

[766]. Time is the bound of things, etc. From Seneca, Consol. ad Marc. xix.: Excessit filius tuus terminos intra quos servitur ... mors omnium dolorum solutio est et finis.

[771]. As I have read must be the first man up, etc. Hor. I. Ep. vi. 48: Hoc primus repetas opus, hoc postremus omittas.

Rich compost. Cp. the same thought in [662].

[772]. A Hymn to Bacchus. Printed, with the misprint Bacchus for Iacchus in l. 1, in Witts Recreations, 1650.

Brutus ... Cato. Cp. Note to [4] and [8].

[774]. If wars go well, etc. Tacitus, Ann. iii. 53: cùm rectè factorum sibi quisque gratiam trahant, unius [Principis scil.] invidiâ ab omnibus peccatur.

[775]. Niggards of the meanest blood. Seneca, de Clem. i. 1: Summa parsimonia etiam vilissimi sanguinis.

[776]. Wrongs, if neglected, etc. Tacit. Ann. iv. 34: [Probra] spreta exolescunt, si irascare agnita videntur.

[780]. Kings ought to shear, etc. A saying of Tiberius quoted by Suetonius: Boni pastoris est tondere oves, non deglubere. Herrick probably took it from Ben Jonson's Discoveries.

[784-7]. Ceremonies for Christmas. More will be found about the Yule-log in Ceremonies for Candlemas Day ([893]); cp. also The Wassail ([476]).

[788]. Power and Peace. From Tacitus, Ann. iv. 4: Quanquam arduum sit eodem loci potentiam et concordiam esse.

[789]. Mistress Margaret Falconbridge. A daughter, probably, of the Thomas Falconbridge of number [483].

[797]. Kisses. Printed in Witts Recreations, 1650, with omission of me in l. 1.

[804]. John Crofts, Cup-bearer to the King. Third son of Sir John Crofts, of Saxham, Suffolk. We hear of him in the king's service as early as 1628, and two years later Lord Conway, in thanking Wm. Weld for some verses sent him, hopes "the lines are strong enough to bind Robert Maule and Jack Crofts from ever more using the phrase". So Jack was probably a bit of a poet himself. He may be the Mr. Crofts for assaulting whom George, Lord Digby, was imprisoned a month and more, in 1634.

[807]. Man may want land to live in. Tacitus, Ann. xiii. 56: Addidit [Boiocalus] Deësse nobis terra in quâ vivamus, in quâ moriamur non potest, quoted by Montaigne, II. 3.

[809]. Who after his transgression doth repent. Seneca, Agam. 243: Quem poenitet peccasse paene est innocens.

[810]. Grief, if't be great 'tis short. Seneca, quoted by Burton (II. iii. 1, § 1): "Si longa est, levis est; si gravis est, brevis est. If it be long, 'tis light; if grievous, it cannot last."

[817]. The Amber Bead. Cp. Martial's epigram quoted in [Note] to [497]. The comparison to Cleopatra is from Mart. IV. xxxii.

[818]. To my dearest sister, M. Mercy Herrick. Not quite five years his senior. She married John Wingfield, of Brantham, Suffolk, to whom also Herrick addresses a poem.

[820]. Suffer that thou canst not shift. From Seneca; the title from Ep. cvii.: Optimum est pati quod emendare non possis, the epigram from De Provid. 4, as translated by Thomas Lodge, 1614, "Vertuous instructions are never delicate. Doth fortune beat and rend us? Let us suffer it"—whence Herrick reproduces the printer's error, Vertuous for Vertues (Virtue's).

[821]. For a stone has Heaven his tomb. Cp. Sir T. Browne, Relig. Med. § 40: "Nor doe I altogether follow that rodomontado of Lucan (Phars. vii. 819): Coelo tegitur qui non habet urnam,

He that unburied lies wants not his hearse,
For unto him a tomb's the universe".

[823]. To the King upon his taking of Leicester. May 31, 1645, a brief success before Naseby.

[825]. 'Twas Cæsar's saying. Tiberius ap. Tacit. Ann. ii. 26: Se novies a divo Augusto in Germaniam missum plura consilio quam vi perfecisse.

[830]. His Loss. A reference to his ejection from Dean Prior.

[837]. Mistress Amy Potter. Daughter of Barnabas Potter, Bishop of Carlisle, Herrick's predecessor at Dean Prior.

[839]. Love is a circle ... from good to good. So Burton, III. i. 1, § 2: Circulus a bono in bonum.

[844]. to his book. Make haste away. Martial, III. ii. Ad Librum suum—Festina tibi vindicem parare, Ne nigram cito raptus in culinam Cordyllas madidâ tegas papyro, Vel thuris piperisque sis cucullus. To make loose gowns for mackerel. From Catullus, xcv. 1:—

At Volusi annales Paduam morientur ad ipsam,
Et laxas scombris saepe dabunt tunicas.

[846]. And what we blush to speak, etc. Ovid, Phaedra to Hipp. 10: Dicere quae puduit scribere jussit amor.

[849]. 'Tis sweet to think, etc. Seneca, Herc. Fur. 657-58: Quae fuit durum pati Meminisse dulce est.

[851]. To Mr. Henry Lawes, the excellent composer of his lyrics. Henry Lawes (1595-1662), the friend of Milton, admitted a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal, 1625. In the Noble Numbers he is mentioned as the composer of Herrick's Christmas Carol and the first of his two New-Year's Gifts. Lawes also set to music Herrick's Not to Love, To Mrs. Eliz. Wheeler (Among the Myrtles as I walked), The Kiss, The Primrose, To a Gentlewoman objecting to him his Grey Hairs, and doubtless others.

[852]. Maidens tell me I am old. From Anacreon:

Λέγουσιν αἱ γυναῖκες
Ἀνακρέων γέρων εἶ κ.τ.λ.

With a significant variation—"Ill it fits"—for μᾶλλον πρέπει.

[859]. Master J. Jincks. Not identified.

[861]. Kings seek their subjects' good, tyrants their own. Aristot. Politics, iii. 7: καλεῖν εἰώθαμεν τῶν μὲν μοναρχιῶν τὴν πρὸς τὸ κοινὸν ἀποβλέπουσαν συμφέρον βασιλείαν ... ἡ τυραννίς ἐστι μοναρχία πρὸς τὸ συμφέρον τὸ τοῦ μοναρχοῦντος.

[869]. Sir Thomas Heale. Probably a son of the Sir Thomas Hele, of Fleet, Co. Devon, who died in 1624. This Sir Thomas was created a baronet in 1627, and according to Dr. Grosart was one of the Royalist commanders at the siege of Plymouth. He died 1670.

[872]. Love is a kind of war. Ovid, Ars Am. II. 233, 34:—

Militiae species amor est: discedite segnes!
Non sunt haec timidis signa tuenda viris.

[873]. A spark neglected, etc. Ovid, Rem. Am. 732-34:—

E minimo maximus ignis erit.
Sic nisi vitaris quicquid renovabit amorem,
Flamma redardescet quae modo nulla fuit.

[874]. An Hymn to Cupid. From Anacreon:—

Ὠναξ, ᾧ δαμάλης Ἔρως
καὶ Νύμφαι κυανώπιδες
πορφυρέη τ' Ἀφροδίτη
συμπαίζουσιν ... γουνοῦμαί σε, κ.τ.λ.

[885]. Naught are all women. Burton, III. ii. 5. § 5.

[907]. Upon Mr. William Lawes, the rare musician. Elder brother of the more famous Henry Lawes; appointed a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal, 1602, and also one of Charles I.'s musicians-in-ordinary. When the Civil War broke out he joined the king's army and was killed by a stray shot during the siege of Chester, 1645. He set Herrick's Gather ye rosebuds to music.

[914]. Numbers ne'er tickle, etc. Martial, I. xxxvi.:—

Lex haec carminibus data est jocosis,
Ne possint, nisi pruriant, juvare.

[918]. M. Kellam. As yet unidentified. Dr. Grosart suggests that he may have been one of Herrick's parishioners, and the name sounds as of the west country.

[920]. Cunctation in correction. Is Herrick translating? According to a relief at Rome the lictors' rods were bound together not only by a red thong twisted from top to bottom, but by six straps as well.

[922]. Continual reaping makes a land wax old. Ovid, Ars Am. iii. 82: Continua messe senescit ager.

[923]. Revenge. Tacitus, Hist. iv. 3: Tanto proclivius est injuriae quàm beneficio vicem exsolvere; quia gratia oneri, ultio in quaestu habetur.

[927]. Praise they that will times past. Ovid, Ars Am. iii. 121:—

Prisca juvent alios: ego me nunc denique natum
Gratulor; haec aetas moribus apta meis.

[928]. Clothes are conspirators. I can suggest no better explanation of this oracular epigram than that the tailor's bill is an enemy of a slender purse.

[929]. Cruelty. Seneca de Clem. i. 24: Ferina ista rabies est, sanguine gaudere et vulneribus; (i. 8), Quemadmodum praecisae arbores plurimis ramis repullulant [H. uses repullulate, -tion, [336], [794]], et multa satorum genera, ut densiora surgant, reciduntur; ita regia crudelitas auget inimicorum numerum tollendo. Ben Jonson, Discoveries (Clementia): "The lopping of trees makes the boughs shoot out quicker; and the taking away of some kind of enemies increaseth the number".

[931]. A fierce desire of hot and dry. Cp. [note] on [683].

[932]. To hear the worst, etc. Antisthenes ap. Diog. Laert. VI. i. 4, § 3: Ἀκούσας ποτὲ ὅτι Πλάτων αὐτὸν κακῶς λέγει Βασιλικὸν ἔφη καλῶς ποιοῦντα κακῶς ἀκούειν, quoted by Burton, II. iii. 7.

[934]. The Bondman. Cp. Exodus xxi. 5, 6: "And if the servant shall plainly say: I love my master, my wife, and my children: I will not go out free: Then his master shall bring him unto the judges; he shall also bring him to the door, or unto the doorpost; and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl, and he shall serve him for ever".

[936]. My kiss outwent the bonds of shamefastness. Cp. Sidney's Astrophel and Stella, sonnet 82. For not Jove himself, etc., cp. [10], and [note].

[938]. His wish. From Martial, II. xc. 7-10:—

Sit mihi verna satur: sit non doctissima conjux:
Sit nox cum somno, sit sine lite dies, etc.

[939]. Upon Julia washing herself in the river. Imitated from Martial, IV. xxii.:—

Primos passa toros et adhuc placanda marito
Merserat in nitidos se Cleopatra lacus,
Dum fugit amplexus: sed prodidit unda latentem,
Lucebat, totis cum tegeretur aquis.
Condita sic puro numerantur lilia vitro,
Sic prohibet tenuis gemma latere rosas,
Insilui mersusque vadis luctantia carpsi
Basia: perspicuae plus vetuistis aquae.

[940]. Though frankincense, etc. Ovid, de Medic. Fac. 83, 84:—

Quamvis thura deos irataque numina placent,
Non tamen accensis omnia danda focis.

[947]. To his honoured and most ingenious friend, Mr. Charles Cotton. Dr. Grosart annotates: "The translator of Montaigne, and associate of Izaak Walton"; but as the younger Cotton was only eighteen when Hesperides was printed, it is perhaps more probable that the father is meant, though we may note that Herrick and the younger Cotton were joint-contributors in 1649 to the Lacrymæ Musarum, published in memory of Lord Hastings. For a tribute to the brilliant abilities of the elder Cotton, see Clarendon's Life (i. 36; ed. 1827).

[948]. Women Useless. A variation on a theme as old as Euripides. Cp. Medea, 573-5:—

χρῆν γὰρ ἀλλοθέν ποθεν βροτοὺς
παῖδας τεκνοῦσθαι, θῆλυ δ' οὐκ εἶναι γένος·
χοὒτως ἂν οὐκ ἦν οὐδὲν ἀνθρώποις κακόν.

[952]. Weep for the dead, for they have lost the light, cp. Ecclus. xxii. 11.

[955]. To M. Leonard Willan, his peculiar friend. A wretched poet; author of "The Phrygian Fabulist; or the Fables of Æsop" (1650), "Astraea; or True Love's Mirror" (1651), etc.

[956]. Mr. John Hall, Student of Gray's Inn. Hall remained at Cambridge till 1647, and this poem, which addresses him as a "Student of Gray's Inn," must therefore have been written almost while Hesperides was passing through the press. Hall's Horæ Vacivæ, or Essays, published in 1646, had at once given him high rank among the wits.

[958]. To the most comely and proper M. Elizabeth Finch. No certain identification has been proposed.

[961]. To the King, upon his welcome to Hampton Court, set and sung. The allusion can only be to the king's stay at Hampton Court in 1647. Good hope was then entertained of a peaceful settlement, and Herrick's ode, enthusiastic as it is, expresses little more than this.

For an ascendent, etc.: This and the next seven lines are taken from phrases on pp. 29-33 of the Notes and Observations on some passages of Scripture, by John Gregory (see note on N. N. [178]). According to Gregory, "The Ascendent of a City is that sign which riseth in the Heavens at the laying of the first stone".

[962]. Henry, Marquis of Dorchester. Henry Pierrepoint, second Earl of Kingston, succeeded his father (Herrick's Newark) July 30, 1643, and was created Marquis of Dorchester, March, 1645. "He was a very studious nobleman and very learned, particularly in law and physics." (See Burke's Extinct Peerages, iii. 435.)

When Cato, the severe, entered the circumspacious theatre. The allusion is to the visit of Cato to the games of Flora, given by Messius. When his presence in the theatre was known, the dancing-women were not allowed to perform in their accustomed lack of costume, whereupon the moralist obligingly retired, amidst applause.

[966]. M. Jo. Harmar, physician to the College of Westminster. John Harmar, born at Churchdown, near Gloucester, about 1594, was educated at Winchester and Magdalen College, Oxford; was a master at Magdalen School, the Free School at St. Albans, and at Westminster, and Professor of Greek at Oxford under the Commonwealth. He died 1670. Wood characterises him as a butt for the wits and a flatterer of great men, and notes that he was always called by the name of Doctor Harmar, though he took no higher degree than M.A. But in 1632 he supplicated for the degree of M.B., and Dr. Grosart's note—"Herrick, no doubt, playfully transmuted 'Doctor' into 'Physician'"—is misleading. He may have cared for the minds and bodies of the Westminster boys at one and the same time.

The Roman language.... If Jove would speak, etc. Cp. Ben Jonson's Discoveries: "that testimony given by L. Aelius Stilo upon Plautus who affirmed, "Musas si latine loqui voluissent Plautino sermone fuisse loquuturas". And Cicero [in Plutarch, § 24] "said of the Dialogues of Plato, that Jupiter, if it were his nature to use language, would speak like him".

[967]. Upon his spaniel, Tracy. Cp. supra, [724].

[971]. Strength, etc. Tacitus, Ann. xiii. 19: Nihil rerum mortalium tam instabile ac fluxum est, quàm fama potentiae, non suâ vi nixa.

[975]. Case is a lawyer, etc. Martial, I. xcviii. Ad Naevolum Causidicum. Cùm clamant omnes, loqueris tu, Naevole, tantùm.... Ecce, tacent omnes; Naevole, dic aliquid.

[977]. To his sister-in-law, M. Susanna Herrick. Cp. supra, [522]. The subject is again the making up of the book of the poet's elect.

[978]. Upon the Lady Crew. Cp. Herrick's Epithalamium for her marriage with Sir Clipsby Crew, [283]. She died 1639, and was buried in Westminster Abbey.

[979]. On Tomasin Parsons. Daughter of the organist of Westminster Abbey: cp. [500] and [Note].

[983]. To his kinsman, M. Thomas Herrick, who desired to be in his book. Cp. [106] and [Note].

[989]. Care keeps the conquest. Perhaps jotted down with reference to the Governorship of Exeter by Sir John Berkeley: see [Note] to [745].

[992]. To the handsome Mistress Grace Potter. Probably sister to the Mistress Amy Potter celebrated in [837], where see [Note].

[995]. We've more to bear our charge than way to go. Seneca, Ep. 77: quantulumcunque haberem, tamen plus superesset viatici quam viae, quoted by Montaigne, II. xxviii.

[1000]. The Gods, pillars, and men. Horace's Mediocribus esse poetis Non homines, non di, non concessere columnae (Ars Poet. 373). Latin poets hung up their epigrams in public places.

[1002]. To the Lord Hopton on his fight in Cornwall. Sir Ralph Hopton won two brilliant victories for the Royalists, at Bradock Down and Stratton, January and May, 1643, and was created Baron Hopton in the following September. Originally a Parliamentarian, he was one of the king's ablest and most loyal servants.

[1008]. Nothing's so hard but search will find it out. Terence, Haut. IV. ii. 8: Nihil tam difficile est quin quaerendo investigari posset.

[1009]. Labour is held up by the hope of rest. Ps. Sallust, Epist. ad C. Caes.: Sapientes laborem spe otii sustentant.

[1022]. Posting to Printing. Mart. V. x. 11, 12:—

Vos, tamen, o nostri, ne festinate, libelli:
Si post fata venit gloria, non propero.

[1023]. No kingdoms got by rapine long endure. Seneca, Troad. 264: Violenta nemo imperia continuit dies.

[1026]. Saint Distaff's Day. "Saint Distaff is perhaps only a coinage of our poet's to designate the day when, the Christmas vacation being over, good housewives, with others, resumed their usual employment." (Nott.) The phrase is explained in dictionaries and handbooks, but no other use of it is quoted than this. Herrick's poem was pilfered by Henry Bold (a notorious plagiarist) in Wit a-sporting in a pleasant Grove of New Fancies, 1657.

[1028]. My beloved Westminster. As mentioned in the brief "Life" of Herrick prefixed to vol. i., all the references in this poem seem to refer to Herrick's courtier-days, between leaving Cambridge and going to Devonshire. He then, doubtless, resided in Westminster for the sake of proximity to Whitehall. It has been suggested, however, that the reference is to Westminster School, but we have no evidence that Herrick was educated there.

Golden Cheapside. My friend, Mr. Herbert Horne, in his admirably-chosen selection from the Hesperides, suggests that the allusion here is to the great gilt cross at the end of Wood Street. The suggestion is ingenious; but as Cheapside was the goldsmiths' quarter this would amply justify the epithet, which may indeed only refer to Cheapside as a money-winning street, as we might say Golden Lombard Street.

[1032]. Things are uncertain. Tiberius, in Tacitus, Annal. i. 72: Cuncta mortalium incerta; quantoque plus adeptus foret, tanto se magis in lubrico.

[1034]. Good wits get more fame by their punishment. Cp. Tacit. Ann. iv. 35, sub fin.: Punitis ingeniis gliscit auctoritas, etc., quoted by Bacon and Milton.

[1035]. Twelfth Night: or King and Queen. Herrick alludes to these "Twelfth-Tide Kings and Queens" in writing to Endymion Porter ([662]), and earlier still, in the "New-Year's Gift to Sir Simeon Steward" ([319]) he speaks—

"Of Twelfth-Tide cakes, of Peas and Beans,
Wherewith ye make those merry scenes,
Whenas ye choose your King and Queen".

Brand (i. 27) illustrates well from "Speeches to the Queen at Sudley" in Nichols' Progresses of Queen Elizabeth.

"Melibœus. Cut the cake: who hath the bean shall be king, and where the pea is, she shall be queen.

Nisa. I have the pea and must be queen.

Mel. I the bean, and king. I must command."

[1045]. Comfort in Calamity. An allusion to the ejection from their benefices which befel most of the loyal clergy at the same time as Herrick. It is perhaps worth noting that in the second volume of this edition, and in the last hundred poems printed in the first, wherever a date can be fixed it is always in the forties. Equally late poems occur, though much less frequently, among the first five hundred, but there the dated poems belong, for the most part, to the years 1623-1640. Now, in April 29, 1640, as stated in the brief "Life" prefixed to vol. i., there was entered at Stationers' Hall, "The severall poems written by Master Robert Herrick," a book which, as far as is known, never saw the light. It was probably, however, to this book that Herrick addressed the poem ([405]) beginning:—

"Have I not blest thee? Then go forth, nor fear
Or spice, or fish, or fire, or close-stools here";

and we may fairly regard the first five hundred poems of Hesperides as representing the intended collection of 1640, with a few additions, and the last six hundred as for the most part later, and I must add, inferior work. This is borne out by the absence of any manuscript versions of poems in the second half of the book. Herrick's verses would only be passed from hand to hand when he was living among the wits in London.

[1046]. Twilight. Ovid, Amores, I. v. 5, 6: Crepuscula ... ubi nox abiit, nec tamen orta dies.

[1048]. Consent makes the cure. Seneca, Hippol. 250: Pars sanitatis velle sanari fuit.

[1050]. Causeless whipping. Ovid, Heroid. v. 7, 8: Leniter ex merito quicquid patiare, ferendum est; Quae venit indignae poena, dolenda venit. Quoted by Montaigne, III. xiii.

[1052]. His comfort. Terence, Adelph. I. i. 18: Ego ... quod fortunatum isti putant, Uxorem nunquam habui.

[1053]. Sincerity. From Hor. Ep. I. ii. 54: Sincerum est nisi vas, quodcunque infundis acescit. Quoted by Montaigne, III. xiii.

[1056]. To his peculiar friend, M. Jo. Wicks. See [336] and [Note]. Written after Herrick's ejection. We know that the poet's uncle, Sir William Herrick, suffered greatly in estate during the Civil War, and it may have been the same with other friends and relatives. But there can be little doubt that the poet found abundant hospitality on his return to London.

[1059]. A good Death. August. de Disciplin. Christ. 13: Non potest malè mori, qui benè vixerit.

[1061]. On Fortune. Seneca, Medea, 176: Fortuna opes auferre non animum potest.

[1062]. To Sir George Parry, Doctor of the Civil Law. According to Dr. Grosart, Parry "was admitted to the College of Advocates, London, 3rd Nov., 1628; but almost nothing has been transmitted concerning him save that he married the daughter and heir of Sir Giles Sweet, Dean of Arches". I can hardly doubt that he must be identified with the Dr. George Parry, Chancellor to the Bishop of Exeter, who in 1630 was accused of excommunicating persons for the sake of fees, but was highly praised in 1635 and soon after appointed a Judge Marshal. If so, his wife was a widow when she came to him, as she is spoken of in 1638 as "Lady Dorothy Smith, wife of Sir Nicholas Smith, deceased". She brought him a rich dower, and her death greatly confused his affairs.

[1067]. Gentleness. Seneca, Phoen. 659: Qui vult amari, languidâ regnet manu. And Ben Jonson, Panegyre (1603): "He knew that those who would with love command, Must with a tender yet a steadfast hand, Sustain the reins".

[1068]. Mrs. Eliza Wheeler. See [130] and [Note].

[1071]. To the Honoured Master Endymion Porter. For Porter's patronage of poetry see [117] and [Note].

[1080]. The Mistress of all singular Manners, Mistress Portman. Dr. Grosart notes that a Mrs. Mary Portman was buried at Putney Parish Church, June 27, 1671, and this was perhaps Herrick's schoolmistress, the "pearl of Putney".

[1087]. Where pleasures rule a kingdom. Cicero, De Senect. xii. 41: Neque omnino in voluptatis regno virtutem posse consistere. He lives who lives to virtue. Comp. Sallust, Catil. 2, s. fin.

[1088]. Twice five-and-twenty (bate me but one year). As Herrick was born in 1591, this poem must have been written in 1640.

[1089]. To M. Laurence Swetnaham. Unless the various entries in the parish registers of St. Margaret's, Westminster, refer to different men, this Lawrence Swetnaham was the third son of Thomas Swettenham of Swettenham in Cheshire, married in 1602 to Mary Birtles. Lawrence himself had children as early as 1629, and ten years later was church-warden. He was buried in the Abbey, 1673.

[1091]. My lamp to you I give. Allusion to the Λαμπαδηφορία which Plato (Legg. 776B) uses to illustrate the succession of generations. So Lucretius (ii. 77): Et quasi cursores vitaï lampada tradunt.

[1092]. Michael Oulsworth. Michael Oulsworth, Oldsworth or Oldisworth, graduated M.A. from Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1614. According to Wood, "he was afterwards Fellow of his College, Secretary to Earl of Pembroke, elected a burgess to serve in several Parliaments for Sarum and Old Sarum, and though in the Grand Rebellion he was no Colonel, yet he was Governor of Old Pembroke, and Montgomery led him by the nose as he pleased, to serve both their turns". The partnership, however, was not eternal, for between 1648 and 1650 Oldisworth published at least eight virulent satires against his former master.

[1094]. Truth—her own simplicity. Seneca, Ep. 49: (Ut ille tragicus), Veritatis simplex oratio est.

[1097]. Kings must be dauntless. Seneca, Thyest. 388: Rex est qui metuit nihil.

[1100]. To his brother, Nicholas Herrick. Baptized April 22, 1589; a merchant trading to the Levant. He married Susanna Salter, to whom Herrick addresses two poems ([522], [977]).

[1103]. A King and no King. Seneca, Thyest. 214: Ubicunque tantùm honestè dominanti licet, Precario regnatur.

[1118]. Necessity makes dastards valiant men. Sallust, Catil. 58: Necessitudo ... timidos fortes facit.

[1119]. Sauce for Sorrows. Printed in Witts Recreations, 1650. An equal mind. Plautus, Rudens, II. iii. 71: Animus aequus optimum est aerumnae condimentum.

[1126]. The End of his Work. Printed in Witts Recreations, 1650, under the title: Of this Book. From Ovid, Ars Am. i. 773, 774:—

Pars superest caepti, pars est exhausta laboris:
Hic teneat nostras anchora jacta rates.

[1127]. My wearied bark, etc. Ovid, Rem. Am. 811, 812:—

fessae date serta carinæ:
Contigimus portum, quo mihi cursus erat.

[1128]. The work is done. Ovid, Ars Am. ii. 733, 734:—

Finis adest operi: palmam date, grata juventus,
Sertaque odoratae myrtea ferte comae.

[1130]. His Muse. Cp. [Note] on [624].

NOBLE NUMBERS.

[3]. Weigh me the Fire. 2 Esdras, iv. 5, 7; v. 9, 36: "Weigh me ... the fire, or measure me ... the wind," etc.

[4]. God ... is the best known, not.... August. de Ord. ii. 16: [Deus] scitur melius nesciendo.

[5]. Supraentity, τὸ ὑπερόντως ὄν, Plotinus.

[7]. His wrath is free from perturbation. August. de Civ. Dei, ix. 5: Ipse Deus secundum Scripturas irascitur, nec tamen ullâ passione turbatur. Enchir. ad Laurent. 33: Cum irasci dicitur Deus, non significatur perturbatio, qualis est in animo irascentis hominis.

[9]. Those Spotless two Lambs. "This is the offering made by fire which ye shall offer unto the Lord: two lambs of the first year without spot, day by day, for a continual burnt-offering." (Numb. xxviii. 3.)

[17]. An Anthem sung in the Chapel of Whitehall. This may be added to Nos. [96-98], and [102], the poems on which Mr. Hazlitt bases his conjecture that Herrick may have held some subordinate post in the Chapel Royal.

[37]. When once the sin has fully acted been. Tacitus, Ann. xiv. 10: Perfecto demum scelere, magnitudo ejus intellecta est.

[38]. Upon Time. Were this poem anonymous it would probably be attributed rather to George Herbert than to Herrick.

[41]. His Litany to the Holy Spirit. We may quote again from Barron Field's account in the Quarterly Review (1810) of his cross-examination of the Dean Prior villagers for Reminiscences of Herrick: "The person, however, who knows more of Herrick than all the rest of the neighbourhood we found to be a poor woman in the 99th year of her age, named Dorothy King. She repeated to us, with great exactness, five of his Noble Numbers, among which was his beautiful 'Litany'. These she had learnt from her mother, who was apprenticed to Herrick's successor at the vicarage. She called them her prayers, which she said she was in the habit of putting up in bed, whenever she could not sleep; and she therefore began the 'Litany' at the second stanza:—

'When I lie within my bed,' etc."

Another of her midnight orisons was the poem beginning:—

"Every night Thou dost me fright,
And keep mine eyes from sleeping," etc.

The last couplet, it should be noted, is misquoted from No. [56].

[54]. Spew out all neutralities. From the message to the Church of the Laodiceans, Rev. iii. 16.

[59]. A Present by a Child. Cp. "A pastoral upon the Birth of Prince Charles" (Hesperides [213]), and [Note].

[63]. God's mirth: man's mourning. Perhaps founded on Prov. i. 26: "I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh".

[65]. My Alma. The name is probably suggested by its meaning "soul". Cp. Prior's Alma.

[72]. I'll cast a mist and cloud. Cp. Hor. I. Ep. xvi. 62: Noctem peccatis et fraudibus objice nubem.

[75]. That house is bare. Horace, Ep. I. vi. 45: Exilis domus est, ubi non et multa supersunt.

[77]. Lighten my candle, etc. The phraseology of the next five lines is almost entirely from the Psalms and the Song of Solomon.

[86]. Sin leads the way. Hor. Odes, III. ii. 32: Raro antecedentem scelestum Deseruit pede Poena claudo.

[88]. By Faith we ... walk ..., not by the Spirit. 2 Cor. v. 7: "We walk by faith, not by sight". 'By the Spirit' perhaps means, 'in spiritual bodies'.

[96]. Sung to the King. See Note on [17].

Composed by M. Henry Lawes. See Hesperides [851], and [Note].

[102]. The Star-Song. This may have been composed partly with reference to the noonday star during the Thanksgiving for Charles II.'s birth. See Hesperides [213], and [Note].

We'll choose him King. A reference to the Twelfth Night games. See Hesperides [1035], and [Note].

[108]. Good men afflicted most. Taken almost entirely from Seneca, de Provid. 3, 4: Ignem experitur [Fortuna] in Mucio, paupertatem in Fabricio, ... tormenta in Regulo, venenum in Socrate, mortem in Catone. The allusions may be briefly explained for the unclassical. At the siege of Dyrrachium, Marcus Cassius Scæva caught 120 darts on his shield; Horatius Cocles is the hero of the bridge (see Macaulay's Lays); C. Mucius Scævola held his hand in the fire to illustrate to Porsenna Roman fearlessness; Cato is Cato Uticensis, the philosophic suicide; "high Atilius" will be more easily recognised as the M. Atilius Regulus who defied the Carthaginians; Fabricius Luscinus refused not only the presents of Pyrrhus, but all reward of the State, and lived in poverty on his own farm.

[109]. A wood of darts. Cp. Virg. Æn. x. 886: Ter secum Troius heros Immanem aerato circumfert tegmine silvam.

[112]. The Recompense. Herrick is said to have assumed the lay habit on his return to London after his ejection, perhaps as a protection against further persecution. This quatrain may be taken as evidence that he did not throw off his religion with his cassock. Compare also [124].

All I have lost that could be rapt from me. From Ovid, III. Trist. vii. 414: Raptaque sint adimi quae potuere mihi.

[123]. Thy light that ne'er went out. Prov. xxxi. 18 (of 'the Excellent Woman'): "Her candle goeth not out by night". All set about with lilies. Cp. Cant. Canticorum, vii. 2: Venter tuus sicut acervus tritici, vallatus liliis.

Will show these garments. So Acts ix. 39.

[134]. God had but one son free from sin. Augustin. Confess. vi.: Deus unicum habet filium sine peccato, nullum sine flagello, quoted in Burton, II. iii. 1.

[136]. Science in God. Bp. Davenant, on Colossians, 166, ed. 1639; speaking of Omniscience: Proprietates Divinitatis non sunt accidentia, sed ipsa Dei essentia.

[145]. Tears. Augustin. Enarr. Ps. cxxvii.: Dulciores sunt lacrymae orantium quàm gaudia theatorum.

[146]. Manna. Wisdom xvi. 20, 21: "Angels' food ... agreeing to every taste".

[147]. As Cassiodore doth prove. Reverentia est enim Domini timor cum amore permixtus. Cassiodor. Expos. in Psalt. xxxiv. 30; quoted by Dr. Grosart. My clerical predecessor has also hunted down with much industry the possible sources of most of the other patristic references in Noble Numbers, though I have been able to add a few. We may note that Herrick quotes Cassiodorus (twice), John of Damascus, Boethius, Thomas Aquinas, St. Bernard, St. Augustine (thrice), St. Basil, and St. Ambrose—a goodly list of Fathers, if we had any reason to suppose that the quotations were made at first hand.

[148]. Mercy ... a Deity. Pausanias, Attic. I. xvii. 1.

[153]. Mora Sponsi, the stay of the bridegroom. Maldonatus, Comm. in Matth. xxv.: Hieronymus et Hilarius moram sponsi pœnitentiae tempus esse dicunt.

[157]. Montes Scripturarum. See August. Enarr. in Ps. xxxix., and passim.

[167]. A dereliction. The word is from Ps. xxii. 1: Quare me dereliquisti? "Why hast Thou forsaken me?" Herrick took it from Gregory's Notes and Observations (see infra), p. 5: 'Our Saviour ... in that great case of dereliction'.

[174]. Martha, Martha. See Luke x. 41, and August. Serm. cii. 3: Repetitio nominis indicium est dilectionis.

[177]. Paradise. Gregory, p. 75, on "the reverend Say of Zoroaster, Seek Paradise," quotes from the Scholiast Psellus: "The Chaldæan Paradise (saith he) is a Quire of divine powers incircling the Father".

[178]. The Jews when they built houses. Herrick's rabbinical lore (cp. [180], [181], [193], [207], [224]), like his patristic, was probably derived at second hand through some biblical commentary. Much of it certainly comes from the Notes and Observations upon some Passages of Scripture (Oxford, 1646) of John Gregory, chaplain of Christ Church, a prodigy of oriental learning, who died in his 39th year, March 13, 1646. Thus in his Address to the Reader (3rd page from end) Gregory remarks: "The Jews, when they build a house, are bound to leave some part of it unfinished in memory of the destruction of Jerusalem," giving a reference to Leo of Modena, Degli Riti Hebraici, Part I.

[180]. Observation. The Virgin Mother, etc. Gregory, pp. 24-27, shows that Sitting, the usual posture of mourners, was forbidden by both Roman and Jewish Law "in capital causes". "This was the reason why ... she stood up still in a resolute and almost impossible compliance with the Law.... They sat ... after leave obtained ... to bury the body."

[181]. Tapers. Cp. Gregory's Notes, p. 111: "The funeral tapers (however thought of by some) are of the same harmless import. Their meaning is to show that the departed souls are not quite put out, but having walked here as the children of the Light are now gone to walk before God in the light of the living."

[185]. God in the holy tongue. J. G., p. 135: "God is called in the Holy Tongue ... the Place; or that Fulness which filleth All in All".

[186], [187], [188], [189], [197]. God's Presence, Dwelling, etc. J. G., pp. 135-9: "Shecinah, or God's Dwelling Presence". "God is said to be nearer to this man than to that, more in one place than in another. Thus he is said to depart from some and come to others, to leave this place and to abide in that, not by essential application of Himself, much less by local motion, but by impression of effect." "With just men (saith St. Bernard) God is present, in veritate, in deed, but with the wicked, dissemblingly." "He is called in the Holy Tongue, Jehovah, He that is, or Essence." "He is said to dwell there (saith Maimon) where He putteth the marks ... of His Majesty; and He doth this by His Grace and Holy Spirit."

[190]. The Virgin Mary. J. G., p. 86: "St. Ephrem upon those words of Jacob, This is the House of God, and this is the Gate of Heaven. This saying (saith he) is to be meant of the Virgin Mary ... truly to be called the House of God, as wherein the Son of God ... inhabited, and as truly the Gate of Heaven, for the Lord of heaven and earth entered thereat; and it shall not be set open the second time, according to that of Ezekiel (xliv. 2): I saw (saith he) a gate in the East; the glorious Lord entered thereat; thenceforth that gate was shut, and is not any more to be opened (Catena Arab. c. 58)."

[192]. Upon Woman and Mary. The reference is to Christ's appearance to St. Mary Magdalene in the Garden after the Resurrection, John xx. 15, 16.

[193]. North and South. Comp. Hesper. 429. Observation. J. G., pp. 92, 93: "Whosoever (say the Doctors in Berachoth) shall set his bed N. and S., shall beget male children. Therefore the Jews hold this rite of collocation ... to this day.... They are bound to place their ... house of office in the very same situation ... that the uncomely necessities ... might not fall into the Walk and Ways of God, whose Shecinah or dwelling presence lieth W. and E."

[195]. Noah the first was, etc. Cp. Gregory, Notes, p. 28.

[201]. Temporal goods. August., quoted by Burton, II. iii. 3: Dantur quidem bonis, saith Austin, ne quis mala aestimet, malis autem ne quis nimis bona.

[203]. Speak, did the blood of Abel cry, etc. Cp. Gregory's Notes, pp. 118: "But did the blood of Abel speak? saith Theophylact. Yes, it cried unto God for vengeance, as that of sprinkling for propitiation and mercy."

[204]. A thing of such a reverend reckoning. Cp. Gregory, 118-9: "The blood of Abel was so holy and reverend a thing, in the sense and reputation of the old world, that the men of that time used to swear by it".

[205]. A Position in the Hebrew Divinity. From Gregory's Notes, pp. 134, 5: "That old position in the Hebrew Divinity ... that a repenting man is of more esteem in the sight of God than one that never fell away".

[206]. The Doctors in the Talmud. From Gregory's Notes, l.c.: "The Doctors in the Talmud say, that one day spent here in true Repentance is more worth than eternity itself, or all the days of heaven in the other world".

[207]. God's Presence. Again from Gregory's Notes, pp. 136 sq.

[208]. The Resurrection. Gregory's Notes, pp. 128-29, translating from a Greek MS. of Mathæus Blastares in the Bodleian: "The wonder of this is far above that of the resurrection of our bodies; for then the earth giveth up her dead but one for one, but in the case of the corn she giveth up many living ones for one dead one".

[243]. Confession twofold is. August, in Ps. xxix. Enarr. ii. 19: Confessio gemina est, aut peccati, aut laudis.

[254]. Gold and frankincense. St. Matt. ii. 11. St. Ambrose. Aurum Regi, thus Deo.

[256]. The Chewing the Cud. Cp. Lev. xi. 6.

[258]. As my little pot doth boil, etc. This far-fetched little poem is an instance of Herrick's habit of jotting down his thoughts in verse. In cooking some food for a charitable purpose he seems to have noticed that the boiling pot tossed the meat to and fro, or "waved" it (the priest's work), and that he himself was giving away the meat he lifted off the fire, the "heave-offering," which was the priest's perquisite. This is the confusion or "level-coil" to which he alludes.

NOTES TO ADDITIONAL POEMS.

[The Description of a Woman]. Printed in Witts Recreations, 1645, and contained also in Ashmole MS. 38, where it is signed: "Finis. Robert Herrick." Our version is taken from Witts Recreations, with the exception of the readings show and grow (for shown and grown, in ll. 15 and 16). The Ashmole MS. contains in all thirty additional lines, which may or may not be by Herrick, but which, as not improving the poem, have been omitted in our text in accordance with the precedent set by the editor of Witts Recreations.

[Mr. Herrick: his Daughter's Dowry]. From Ashmole MS. 38, where it is signed: "Finis. Robt. Hericke."

[Mr. Robert Herrick: his Farewell unto Poetry]. Printed by Dr. Grosart and Mr. Hazlitt from Ashmole MS. 38. I add a few readings from Brit. Mus. Add. MS. 22, 603, where it is entitled: Herrick's Farewell to Poetry. The importance of the poem for Herrick's biography is alluded to in the brief "Life" prefixed to vol. i.

For some sleepy keys the Museum MS. reads, the sleeping keys; for yet forc't they are to go it has and yet are forc't to go; drinking to the odd Number of Nine for Number of Wine, as to which see below; turned her home for twirled her home; dear soul for rare soul. All these are possible, but beloved Africa, and the omission of the two half lines, "'tis not need The scarecrow unto mankind," are pure blunders.

Drinking to the odd Number of Nine. I introduce this into the text from the Museum manuscript as agreeing with the

"Well, I can quaff, I see,
To th' number five
Or nine"

of A Bacchanalian Verse (Hesperides [653]), on which see Note. Dr. Grosart explains the Ashmole reading Wine by the Note "οἶνος and vinum both give five, the number of perfection"; but this seems too far-fetched for Herrick.

Kiss, so depart. By a strange freak Ashmole MS. writes Guesse, and the Museum MS. Ghesse; but the emendation Kiss (adopted both by Dr. Grosart and Mr. Hazlitt) cannot be doubted.

Well doing's the fruit of doing well. Seneca, de Clem. i. 1: Rectè factorum verus fructus [est] fecisse. Also Ep. 81: Recte facti fecisse merces est. The latter, and Cicero, de Finib. II. xxii. 72, are quoted by Montaigne, Ess. II. xvi.

[A Carol presented to Dr. Williams]. From Ashmole MS. 36, 298. For Dr. Williams, see Note to Hesperides [146]. This poem was apparently written in 1640, after the removal of the bishop's suspension.

[His Mistress to him at his Farewell]. From Add. MS. 11, 811, at the British Museum, where it is signed "Ro. Herrick".

[Upon Parting]. From Harleian MS. 6917, at the British Museum.

[Upon Master Fletcher's Incomparable Plays]. Printed in Beaumont and Fletcher's Works, 1647, and Beaumont's Poems, 1653.

The Golden Pomp is come. Ovid, "Aurea Pompa venit" (as in Hesperides [201]).

To be with juice of cedar washed all over. Horace's "linenda cedro," as in Hesperides.

Evadne. See Note to Hesperides [575].

[The New Charon]. First printed in "Lachrymae Musarum. The tears of the Muses: exprest in Elegies written by divers persons of Nobility and Worth, upon the death of the most hopefull Henry, Lord Hastings.... Collected and set forth by R[ichard] B[rome]. London, 1649." This is the only poem which we know of Herrick's, written after 1648, and even in this Herrick uses materials already employed in "Charon and the Nightingale" in Hesperides.

[Epitaph on the Tomb of Sir Edward Giles]. First printed by Dr. Grosart from the monument in Dean Prior Church. Sir Edward Giles was the occupant of Dean Court and the magnate of the parish.

APPENDIX I.
HERRICK'S POEMS IN WITTS RECREATIONS.

Both Mr. Hazlitt and Dr. Grosart have slightly misrepresented the relation of Hesperides to the anthology known as Witts Recreations: Mr. Hazlitt by mistakes as to their respective contents; Dr. Grosart (after a much more careful collation) by taking down the date of the wrong edition. To put matters straight four editions have to be examined:—

I. "Witts Recreations. Selected from the finest Fancies of Moderne Muses, With a Thousand out Landish Proverbs. London. Printed for Humph. Blunden at ye Castle in Cornhill, 1640. 8vo."

This general title-page is engraved by W. Marshall. The Outlandish Proverbs were selected by George Herbert, and, like the first part, have a printed title-page of their own.

II. "Witts Recreations. Augmented with Ingenious Conceites for the wittie and Merrie Medicines for the Melancholie. London. Printed for Humph. Blunden: at ye Castle in Cornhill, 1641. 8vo."

In this, and subsequent editions, Marshall's title-page is re-engraved and the Outlandish Proverbs are omitted. The printed title-page reads: "Wit's Recreations. Containing 630 Epigrams, 160 Epitaphs. Variety of Fancies and Fantasticks, Good for Melancholly humours. London. Printed by Thomas Cotes," etc. The epigrams vary considerably from the selection in the previous edition.

III. "Witts Recreations refined. Augmented, with Ingenious Conceites for the wittie, and Merrie Medicines for the Melancholie...."

In the Museum copy of this edition the imprint to the engraved title has been cropped away. The printed title-page reads: "Recreation for Ingenious Head-peeces. Or, A Pleasant Grove for their Wits to walke in. Of Epigrams, 630: Epitaphs, 180: Fancies, a number: Fantasticks, abundance, Good for melancholy Humors. Printed by R. Cotes for H. B. London, 1645. 8vo." Two poems of Herrick's occur in the additional "Fancies and Fantasticks," first printed in this edition, viz.: The Description of a Woman (not contained in Hesperides), and the Farewell to Sack.

IV. "Witts Recreations refined. Augmented, with Ingenious Conceites for the wittie and Merrie Medicines for the Melancholie. Printed by M. S. sould by I. Hancock in Popes head Alley, 1650. 8vo."

The printed title-page reads: "Recreations for Ingenious Head-peeces. Or, A Pleasant Grove for their Wits to Walke in. Of Epigrams, 700: Epitaphs, 200: Fancies, a number: Fantasticks, abundance. With their Addition, Multiplication, and Division. London, Printed by M. Simmons," etc. In this edition many of the Epigrams are omitted and more than one hundred fresh ones added. Additions are also made to the Epitaphs and Fancies and Fantasticks. Of the new Epigrams and Poems no less than seventy-two had been printed two years earlier in Herrick's Hesperides, and ten others were added in 1654 from the same source.

Witts Recreations was again reprinted in 1663, 1667, and perhaps oftener. In 1817 it was issued as vol. ii. of a collection of Facetiæ, of which Mennis and Smith's Musarum Deliciæ and Wit Restor'd formed vol. i. On the title-page Witts Recreations is said to be printed from edition 1640, with all the wood engravings and improvements of subsequent editions, and in the preface it is explained to be "reprinted after a collation of the four editions, 1640, 41, 54, and 63, for the purpose of bringing together in one body all the various articles spread throughout, and not to be found in any one edition". This 1817 reprint was re-issued by Hotten in 1874, and this re-issue, as his references to pagination show, was the one used by Dr. Grosart. The date 1640 on the title-page may have caught his eye and led to his mistaken allusion to the "prior publication" of the Herrick poems in 1640, whereas Hesperides was published in 1648, and the editions of Witts Recreations which contain anything of his besides the Description of a Woman and A Farewell to Sack, in 1650, 1654, etc.

In the Notes to the present edition I have drawn attention to all variations in the text of the poems as printed by Herrick and the later editors, and now subjoin a complete list of the poems under the titles which they take in Witts Recreations, with their numbers in this edition.

1645 Edition.

128. A Farewell to Sack.
[Not in Hesp.] The Description of a Woman.

1650 Edition Adds:—

123. A Tear sent to his Mis.
159. The Cruel Maid.
162. His Misery.
172. With a Ring to Julia.
200. On Gubbs.
206. On Bunce.
239. On Guesse.
241. On a Painted Madam.
310. On a Child.
311. On Sneape.
328. A Foolish Querie.
340. A Check to her Delay.
352. Nothing New.
357. Long and Lazy.
367. To a Stale Lady.
374. Gain and Gettings.
379. On Doll.
380. On Skrew.
381. On Linnit.
400. On Raspe.
407. On Himself.
408. Love and Liberty.
409. On Skinns.
428. On Craw.
434. On Jack and Jill.
517. Change.
534. To Julia.
572. On Umber.
600. Little and Loud.
616. Abroad with the Maids.
637. On Lungs.
640. On a Child.
644. On an Old Man, a Residentiary.
648. On Cob.
649. On Betty.
650. On Skoles.
661. Ambition.
666. On Zelot.
669. On Crab.
675. On Women's Denial.
676. Adversity.
693. On Tuck.
697. Adversity.
703. On Trigg.
711. Possessions.
735. Maids' Nays.
743. On Julia's Weeping.
752. No Pains No Gains.
761. Alvar and Anthea.
772. A Hymn to Bacchus.
776. Anger.
791. Verses.
795. On Bice.
796. On Trencherman.
797. Kisses.
832. On Punchin.
838. On a Maid.
840. Beauty.
846. Writing.
849. Satisfaction.
873. On Love.
881. ll. 13, 14, Sharp Sauce.
886. On Lulls.
902. Truth.
910. On Ben Jonson.
946. An Hymn to Love.
950. Leaven.
1025. On Boreman.
1084. On Love.
1085. On Gut.
1106. On Rump.
1119. Sauce for Sorrows.
1126. Of this Book.

1654 Edition Adds:—

49. Cherry Pit.
85. On Love.
92. The Bag of a Bee.
208. To make much of Time.
235. On an Old Batchelor.
238. Another. (On the Rose.)
253. Counsel not to Love.
260. How the Violets came blue.
337. A Vow to Cupid.
446. The Farewell to Love and to his Mistress.

APPENDIX II.
HERRICK'S FAIRY POEMS AND THE DESCRIPTION
OF THE KING AND QUEENE
OF FAYRIES PUBLISHED 1635.

The publisher's freak, by which Herrick's three chief Fairy poems ("The Fairy Temple; or, Oberon's Chapel," "Oberon's Feast," and "Oberon's Palace") are separated from each other, is greatly to be regretted. The last two, both dedicated to Shapcott, are distinctly connected by their opening lines, and "Oberon's Chapel," dedicated to Mr. John Merrifield, Herrick's other fairy-loving lawyer, of course belongs to the same group. All three were probably first written in 1626 and cannot be dissociated from Drayton's Nymphidia, published in 1627, and Sir Simeon Steward's "A Description of the King of Fayries clothes, brought to him on New-yeares day in the morning, 1626 [O. S.], by his Queenes Chambermaids". In 1635 there was published a little book of a dozen leaves, most kindly transcribed for this edition by Mr. E. Gordon Duff, from the unique copy at the Bodleian Library. It is entitled:—

"A | Description | of the King and Queene of | Fayries, their habit, fare, their | abode pompe and state. | Beeing very delightfull to the sense, and | full of mirth. | [Wood-cut.] London. | Printed for Richard Harper, and are to be sold | at his shop, at the Hospitall gate. 1635."

Fol. 1 is blank; fol. 2 occupied by the title-page; ff. 3, 4 (verso blank) by a letter "To the Reader," signed: "Yours hereafter, If now approved on, R. S.," beginning: "Courteous Reader, I present thee here with the Description of the King of the Fayries, of his Attendants, Apparel, Gesture, and Victuals, which though comprehended in the brevity of so short a volume, yet as the Proverbe truely averres, it hath as mellifluous and pleasing discourse, as that whose amplitude contains the fulnesse of a bigger composition"; on fol. 5 (verso blank) occurs the following poem [spelling here modernised]:—

"Deep-skilled Geographers, whose art and skill
Do traverse all the world, and with their quill
Declare the strangeness of each several clime,
The nature, situation, and the time
Of being inhabited, yet all their art
And deep informèd skill could not impart
In what set climate of this Orb or Isle,
The King of Fairies kept, whose honoured style
Is here inclosed, with the sincere description
Of his abode, his nature, and the region
In which he rules: read, and thou shalt find
Delightful mirth, fit to content thy mind.
May the contents thereof thy palate suit,
With its mellifluous and pleasing fruit:
For nought can more be sweetened to my mind
Than that this Pamphlet thy contentment find;
Which if it shall, my labour is sufficed,
In being by your liking highly prized.
"Yours to his power,
"R. S."

This is followed (pp. 1-3) by: "A Description of the Kings [sic] of Fayries Clothes, brought to him on New-Yeares day in the morning, 1626, by his Queenes Chambermaids:—

"First a cobweb shirt, more thin
Than ever spider since could spin.
Changed to the whiteness of the snow,
By the stormy winds that blow
In the vast and frozen air,
No shirt half so fine, so fair;
A rich waistcoat they did bring,
Made of the Trout-fly's gilded wing:
At which his Elveship 'gan to fret
The wearing it would make him sweat
Even with its weight: he needs would wear
A waistcoat made of downy hair
New shaven off an Eunuch's chin,
That pleased him well, 'twas wondrous thin.
The outside of his doublet was
Made of the four-leaved, true-loved grass,
Changed into so fine a gloss,
With the oil of crispy moss:
It made a rainbow in the night
Which gave a lustre passing light.
On every seam there was a lace
Drawn by the unctuous snail's slow pace,
To which the finest, purest, silver thread
Compared, did look like dull pale lead.
His breeches of the Fleece was wrought,
Which from Colchos Jason brought:
Spun into so fine a yarn
No mortal wight might it discern,
Weaved by Arachne on her loom,
Just before she had her doom.
A rich Mantle he did wear,
Made of tinsel gossamer.
Beflowered over with a few
Diamond stars of morning dew:
Dyed crimson in a maiden's blush,
Lined with humble-bees' lost plush.
His cap was all of ladies' love,
So wondrous light, that it did move
If any humming gnat or fly
Buzzed the air in passing by,
About his neck a wreath of pearl,
Dropped from the eyes of some poor girl,
Pinched, because she had forgot
To leave clean water in the pot."

The next page is occupied by a woodcut, and then (pp. 5, misnumbered 4, and 6) comes the variation on Herrick's "Oberon's Feast":—

"A Description of his Diet.

"Now they, the Elves, within a trice,
Prepared a feast less great than nice,
Where you may imagine first,
The Elves prepare to quench his thirst,
In pure seed pearl of infant dew
Brought and sweetened with a blue
And pregnant violet; which done,
His killing eyes begin to run
Quite o'er the table, where he spies
The horns of watered butterflies,
Of which he eats, but with a little
Neat cool allay of cuckoo's spittle.
Next this the red-cap worm that's shut
Within the concave of a nut.
Moles' eyes he tastes, then adders' ears;
To these for sauce the slain stags' tears,
A bloated earwig, and the pith
Of sugared rush he glads him with.
Then he takes a little moth,
Late fatted in a scarlet cloth,
A spinner's ham, the beards of mice,
Nits carbonadoed, a device
Before unknown; the blood of fleas,
Which gave his Elveship's stomach ease.
The unctuous dew-laps of a snail,
The broke heart of a nightingale
O'ercome in music, with the sag
And well-bestrutted bee's sweet bag.
Conserves of atoms, and the mites,
The silk-worm's sperm, and the delights
Of all that ever yet hath blest
Fairy-land: so ends his feast."

On the next page is printed: "Orpheus. Thrice excelling, for the finishment of this Feast, thou must music it so that the Deities may descend to grace it." This is succeeded by a page bearing a woodcut, then we have "The Fairies Fegaries," a poem occupying three more pages followed by another woodcut, and then "The Melancholly Lover's Song," and a third woodcut. The occurrence of the Melancholy Lover's Song (the well-known lines beginning: "Hence all you vain delights") in print in 1635 is interesting, as I believe that The Nice Valour, the play in which they occur, was not printed till 1647, and Milton's Il Penseroso, which they suggested, appeared in 1645. But the verses are rather out of place in the little Fairy-Book.

APPENDIX III.
POOR ROBIN'S ALMANACK.

Herrick's name has been so persistently connected with Poor Robert's Almanack that a few words must be said on the subject. There is, we are told, a Devonshire tradition ascribing the Almanack to him, and this is accepted by Nichols in his Leicestershire, and "accredited" by Dr. Grosart. The tradition apparently rests on no better basis than Herrick's Christian name, and of the poems in the issues of the Almanack which I have seen, it may be said, that, while the worst of them, save for some lack of neatness of turn, might conceivably have been by Herrick—on the principle that if Herrick could write some of his epigrams, he could write anything—the more ambitious poems it is quite impossible to attribute to the author of the Hesperides. But apart from opinion, the negative evidence is overwhelming. Of the three earliest issues in the British Museum, 1664, 1667 and 1669 (all in the annual collections of Almanacs, issued by the Stationers' Company, and all, it may be noted, bound for Charles II.), I transcribe the title-page of the first. "Poor Robin. 1664. An Almanack After a New Fashion wherein the Reader may see (if he be not blinde) many remarkable things worthy of Observation. Containing a two-fold Kalendar, viz. the Iulian or English, and the Roundheads or Fanaticks: with their several Saints daies and Observations, upon every month. Written by Poor Robin, Knight of the burnt Island and a well-willer to the Mathematicks. Calculated for the Meridian of Saffron Walden, where the Pole is elevated 52 degrees and 6 minutes above the Horizon. London: Printed for the Company of Stationers."

In the 1667 issue the paragraph about the Pole runs: "Where the Maypole is elevated (with a plumm cake on the top of it) 5 yards ¾ above the Market Cross". The mention of Saffron Walden had apparently been ridiculed, and the author in this year joins in the laugh, and in 1669 omits the paragraph altogether. But what had Herrick at any time to do with Saffron Walden, and why should the poet, whose politics, apart from some personal devotion to Charles I., were distinctly moderate, mix himself up with an ultra-Cavalier publication? Also, if Herrick be "Poor Robin" we must attribute to him, at least, the greater part of the twenty-one "Poor Robin" publications, of which Mr. H. Ecroyd Smith gave a list in Notes and Queries, 6th series, vii. 321-3, e.g., "Poor Robin's Perambulation from the Town of Saffron Walden to London" (1678), "The Merrie Exploits of Poor Robin, the Merrie Saddler of Walden," etc. These have been generally assigned to William Winstanley, the barber-poet, on the ground of a supposed similarity of style, and from "Poor Robin" having been written under a portrait of him. Mr. Ecroyd Smith, however, attributes them to Robert Winstanley (born, 1646, at Saffron Walden), younger brother of Henry Winstanley, the projector of the Eddystone Lighthouse. He assigns the credit of the "identification" to Mr. Joseph Clark, F.S.A., of the Roos, Saffron Walden, but does not state the grounds which led Mr. Clark to his conclusion, in itself probable enough. In any case there is no valid ground for connecting Herrick either with the Almanack or with any of the other "Poor Robin" publications.

INDEX
TO
PERSONS MENTIONED.

INDEX
OF
FIRST LINES.

APPENDIX OF EPIGRAMS, etc.

NOTE.

Herrick's coarser epigrams and poems are included
in this Appendix. A few decent, but somewhat
pointless, epigrams have been added.