Dum Fata sinunt,
Vivite laeti: properat cursu
Vita citato, volucrique die
Rota praecipitis vertitur anni.
[459]. With Horace (IV. Od. ix. 29):—
Paulùm sepultae distat inertiae
Celata virtus.
[465]. The parting Verse or charge to his Supposed Wife when he travelled. MS. variants of this poem are found at the British Museum in Add. 22, 603, and in Ashmole MS. 38. Their title, "Mr. Herrick's charge to his wife," led Mr. Payne Collier to rashly identify with the poet a certain Robert Herrick married at St. Clement Danes, 1632, to a Jane Gibbons. The variants are numerous, but not very important. In l. 4 we have "draw wooers" for "draw thousands"; ll. 11-16 are transposed to after l. 28; and "Are the expressions of that itch" is written "As emblems will express that itch"; ll. 27, 28 appear as:—
"For that once lost thou needst must fall
To one, then prostitute to all:
And we then have the transposed passage:—
Nor so immurèd would I have
Thee live, as dead, or in thy grave;
But walk abroad, yet wisely well
Keep 'gainst my coming sentinel.
And think each man thou seest doth doom
Thy thoughts to say, I back am come.
Farther on we have the rather pretty variant:—
"Let them call thee wondrous fair,
Crown of women, yet despair".
Eight lines lower "virtuous" is read for "gentle," and the omission of some small words throws some light on a change in Herrick's metrical views as he grew older. The words omitted are bracketed:—