[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 § 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, ætas 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.