For an ascendent, etc.: This and the next seven lines are taken from phrases on pp. 29-33 of the Notes and Observations on some passages of Scripture, by John Gregory (see note on N. N. [178]). According to Gregory, "The Ascendent of a City is that sign which riseth in the Heavens at the laying of the first stone".
[962]. Henry, Marquis of Dorchester. Henry Pierrepoint, second Earl of Kingston, succeeded his father (Herrick's Newark) July 30, 1643, and was created Marquis of Dorchester, March, 1645. "He was a very studious nobleman and very learned, particularly in law and physics." (See Burke's Extinct Peerages, iii. 435.)
When Cato, the severe, entered the circumspacious theatre. The allusion is to the visit of Cato to the games of Flora, given by Messius. When his presence in the theatre was known, the dancing-women were not allowed to perform in their accustomed lack of costume, whereupon the moralist obligingly retired, amidst applause.
[966]. M. Jo. Harmar, physician to the College of Westminster. John Harmar, born at Churchdown, near Gloucester, about 1594, was educated at Winchester and Magdalen College, Oxford; was a master at Magdalen School, the Free School at St. Albans, and at Westminster, and Professor of Greek at Oxford under the Commonwealth. He died 1670. Wood characterises him as a butt for the wits and a flatterer of great men, and notes that he was always called by the name of Doctor Harmar, though he took no higher degree than M.A. But in 1632 he supplicated for the degree of M.B., and Dr. Grosart's note—"Herrick, no doubt, playfully transmuted 'Doctor' into 'Physician'"—is misleading. He may have cared for the minds and bodies of the Westminster boys at one and the same time.
The Roman language.... If Jove would speak, etc. Cp. Ben Jonson's Discoveries: "that testimony given by L. Aelius Stilo upon Plautus who affirmed, "Musas si latine loqui voluissent Plautino sermone fuisse loquuturas". And Cicero [in Plutarch, § 24] "said of the Dialogues of Plato, that Jupiter, if it were his nature to use language, would speak like him".
[967]. Upon his spaniel, Tracy. Cp. supra, [724].
[971]. Strength, etc. Tacitus, Ann. xiii. 19: Nihil rerum mortalium tam instabile ac fluxum est, quàm fama potentiae, non suâ vi nixa.
[975]. Case is a lawyer, etc. Martial, I. xcviii. Ad Naevolum Causidicum. Cùm clamant omnes, loqueris tu, Naevole, tantùm.... Ecce, tacent omnes; Naevole, dic aliquid.
[977]. To his sister-in-law, M. Susanna Herrick. Cp. supra, [522]. The subject is again the making up of the book of the poet's elect.
[978]. Upon the Lady Crew. Cp. Herrick's Epithalamium for her marriage with Sir Clipsby Crew, [283]. She died 1639, and was buried in Westminster Abbey.