Ἐπείδη βρότος ἐτέχθην,
Βιότου τρίβον ὁδεύειν, Χρόνον ἔγνων ὃν παρῆλθον,
Ὅν δ' ἔχω δραμεῖν οὐκ οἶδα·
Μέθετέ με, φρονίιδες·
Μηδέν μοι καὶ ὑμῖν ἔστω.
Πρὶν ἐμὲ φθάσῃ τὸ τέρμα,
Παίξω, γελάσω, χορεύσω,
Μετὰ τοῦ καλοῦ Λυαίου.
[520]. Fortune did never favour one. From Dionys. Halicarn. as quoted by Burton, II. iii. 1, § 1.
[521]. To Phillis to love and live with him. A variant on Marlowe's theme: "Come live with me and be my love". Donne's The Bait (printed in Grosart's edition, vol. ii. p. 206) is another.
[522]. To his Kinswoman, Mistress Susanna Herrick, wife of his elder brother Nicholas.
[523]. Susanna Southwell. Probably a daughter of Sir Thomas Southwell, for whom Herrick wrote the Epithalamium (No. [149]).
[525]. Her pretty feet, etc. Cp. Suckling's "Ballad upon a Wedding":—
"Her feet beneath her petticoat,
Like little mice stole in and out,
As if they feared the light".
[526]. To his Honoured Friend, Sir John Mynts. John Mennis, a Vice-Admiral of the fleet and knighted in 1641, refused to join in the desertion of the fleet to the Parliament. After the Restoration he was made Governor of Dover and Chief Comptroller of the Navy. He was one of the editors of the collection called Musarum Deliciæ (1656), in the first poem of which there is an allusion to—
"That old sack
Young Herrick took to entertain
The Muses in a sprightly vein".
[527]. Fly me not, etc. From Anacreon, 49 [34]:—