[287]. Reverence to riches. Perhaps from Tacit. Ann. ii. 33: Neque in familia et argento quæque 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:—