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 perspicuâ vivit vindemia gemmâ
Et tegitur felix, nec tamen uva latet:
Femineum lucet sic per bombycina corpus,
Calculus in nitidâ sic numeratur aquâ.
[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 wingèd 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.