Drinking to the odd Number of Nine. I introduce this into the text from the Museum manuscript as agreeing with the
"Well, I can quaff, I see,
To th' number five
Or nine"
of A Bacchanalian Verse (Hesperides [653]), on which see Note. Dr. Grosart explains the Ashmole reading Wine by the Note "οἶνος and vinum both give five, the number of perfection"; but this seems too far-fetched for Herrick.
Kiss, so depart. By a strange freak Ashmole MS. writes Guesse, and the Museum MS. Ghesse; but the emendation Kiss (adopted both by Dr. Grosart and Mr. Hazlitt) cannot be doubted.
Well doing's the fruit of doing well. Seneca, de Clem. i. 1: Rectè factorum verus fructus [est] fecisse. Also Ep. 81: Recte facti fecisse merces est. The latter, and Cicero, de Finib. II. xxii. 72, are quoted by Montaigne, Ess. II. xvi.
[A Carol presented to Dr. Williams]. From Ashmole MS. 36, 298. For Dr. Williams, see Note to Hesperides [146]. This poem was apparently written in 1640, after the removal of the bishop's suspension.
[His Mistress to him at his Farewell]. From Add. MS. 11, 811, at the British Museum, where it is signed "Ro. Herrick".
[Upon Parting]. From Harleian MS. 6917, at the British Museum.
[Upon Master Fletcher's Incomparable Plays]. Printed in Beaumont and Fletcher's Works, 1647, and Beaumont's Poems, 1653.
The Golden Pomp is come. Ovid, "Aurea Pompa venit" (as in Hesperides [201]).