P. [52]. Ad Posteros.
On the account of Vaughan's life here given, see the Biographical note (vol. ii., p. xxx).
Herbertus. Matthew Herbert, Rector of Llangattock. Cf. the poem to him on p. 158, with its note.
Castae fidaeque ... parentis, i.e., perhaps, his mother the Church.
Nec manus atra fuit. Dr. Grosart omitted the fuit, together with the final s of the preceding line. In this he is naïvely followed by Mr. J. R. Tutin, in his selection of Vaughan's Secular Poems.
P. [53]. To the ... Lord Kildare Digby.
Lord Kildare Digby was the eldest son of Robert, first Baron Digby, in the peerage of Ireland. He succeeded to the title in 1642. He was about 21 at the time of this dedication, and died in 1661 (Dr. Grosart)
The date of the dedication is 17th of December, 1647. A volume was therefore probably prepared for publication at that date, and afterwards, as we learn from the publisher's preface, "condemned to obscurity," and given surreptitiously to the world. At the same time, as Miss Morgan points out to me, some of the poems in Olor Iscanus must be of later date than 1647. The death of Charles I. is apparently alluded to in the lines Ad Posteros, and certainly in the "since Charles his reign" of the Invitation to Brecknock (p. 74). This event took place on January 30th, 1648/9. The Epitaph upon the Lady Elizabeth (p. 102), again, cannot be earlier than her death on September 8th, 1650.
P. [54]. The Publisher to the Reader.
Augustus vindex. The lives of Vergil attributed to Donatus and others relate that the poet, in his will, directed that his unfinished Aeneid should be burnt. Augustus, however, interfered and ordered its publication.