569. And of any wood ye see, You can make a Mercury. Pythagoras allegorically said that Mercury's statue could not be made of every sort of wood: cp. Rabelais, iv. 62.575. The Apparition of his Mistress calling him to Elysium. An earlier version of this poem was printed in the 1640 edition of Shakespeare's poems under the title, His Mistris Shade, having been licensed for separate publication at Stationers' Hall the previous year. The variants are numerous, and some of them important. l. 1, of silver for with silv'rie; l. 3, on the Banks for in the Meads; l. 8, Spikenard through for Storax from; l. 10 reads: "Of mellow Apples, ripened Plums and Pears": l. 17, the order of "naked younglings, handsome striplings" is reversed; in place of l. 20 we have:—

l. 23, to for too unto; l. 24, their for our; ll. 29, 30:—

l. 31, thereupon for and that done; l. 36, render him true for show him truly; l. 37, will for shall; l. 38, "Where both may laugh, both drink, both rage together"; l. 48, Amphitheatre for spacious theatre; l. 49, synod for glories, followed by:—

l. 56, illustrious for capacious; l. 57, shall be for now is [Jonson died 1637]; ll. 59-61:—

l. 62, feel for see; l. 63, through for from.

579. My love will fit each history. Cp. Ovid, Amor. II. iv. 44: Omnibus historiis se meus aptat amor.

580. The sweets of love are mixed with tears. Cp. Propert. I. xii. 16: Nonnihil adspersis gaudet Amor lacrimis.

583. Whom this morn sees most fortunate, etc. Seneca, Thyest. 613: Quem dies vidit veniens superbum Hunc dies vidit fugiens jacentem.

586. Night hides our thefts, etc. Ovid, Ars Am. i. 249:—

590. To his brother-in-law, Master John Wingfield. Of Brantham, Suffolk, husband of the poet's sister, Mercy. See 818, and Sketch of Herrick's Life in vol. i.

599. Upon Lucia. Cp. "The Resolution" in Speculum Amantis, ed. A. H. Bullen.

604. Old Religion. Certainly not Roman Catholicism, though Jonson was a Catholic. Herrick uses the noun and its adjective rather curiously of the dead: cp. 82, "To the reverend shade of his religious Father," and 138, "When thou shalt laugh at my religious dust". There may be something of this use here, or we may refer to his ancient cult of Jonson. But the use of the phrase in 870 makes the exact shade of meaning difficult to fix.

605. Riches to be but burdens to the mind. Seneca De Provid. 6: Democritus divitias projecit, onus illas bonae mentis existimans.

607. Who covets more is evermore a slave. Hor. I. Ep. x. 41: Serviet aeternum qui parvo nesciet uti.

615. No Wrath of Men. Cp. Hor. Od. III. iii. 1-8.

616. To the Maids to walk abroad. Printed in Witts Recreations, 1650, under the title: Abroad with the Maids.

618. Mistress Elizabeth Lee, now Lady Tracy. Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas, first Lord Leigh of Stoneleigh, in Warwickshire, married John, third Viscount Tracy. She survived her husband two years, and died in 1688.624. Poets. Wantons we are, etc. From Ovid, Trist. ii. 353-4:—

625. 'Tis cowardice to bite the buried. Cp. Ben Jonson, The Poetaster, I. 1: "Envy the living, not the dead, doth bite"; perhaps from Ovid, Am. I. xv. 39: Pascitur in vivis livor; post fata quiescit.626. Noble Westmoreland. See Note to 112.

Gallant Newark. Robert Pierrepoint was created Viscount Newark in 1627 and Earl of Kingston in the following year. But Herrick is perhaps addressing his son, Henry Pierrepoint, afterwards Marquis of Dorchester (see 962 and Note), who during the first Earl of Kingston's life would presumably have borne his second title.

633. Sweet words must nourish soft and gentle love. Ovid, Ars Am. ii. 152: Dulcibus est verbis mollis alendus amor.

639. Fates revolve no flax they've spun. Seneca, Herc. Fur. 1812: DurÆ peragunt pensa sorores, Nec sua retro fila revolvunt.

642. Palms ... gems. A Latinism. Cp. Ovid, Fasti, i. 152: Et nova de gravido palmite gemma tumet.

645. Upon Tears. Cp. S. Bernard: Poenitentium lacrimÆ vinum angelorum.

649. Upon Lucy. Printed in Witts Recreations, 1650, under the title, On Betty.653. To th' number five or nine. Probably Herrick is mistaking the references in Greek and Latin poets to the mixing of their wine and water (e.g., Hor. Od. III. xix. 11-17) for the drinking of so many cups.

654. Long-looked-for comes at last. Cp. G. Herbert, preface to Sibbes' Funeral Sermon on Sir Thomas Crew (1638): "That ancient adage, 'Quod differtur non aufertur' for 'Long-looked-for comes at last'".

655. The morrow's life too late is, etc. Mart. I. xvi. 12: Sera nimis vita est crastina: vive hodie.

662. O happy life, etc. From Virg. Georg. ii. 458-9:—

It is not uncharacteristic that these fervid praises of country life were left unfinished.

664. Arthur Bartly. Not yet identified.

665. Let her Lucrece all day be. From Martial XI. civ. 21, 22:—

Neither will Famish me, nor overfill. Mart. I. lviii. 4: Nec volo quod cruciat, nec volo quod satiat.

667. Be't for my Bridal or my Burial. Cp. Brand, vol. ii., and Coles' Introduction to the Knowledge of Plants: "Rosemary and bayes are used by the commons both at funerals and weddings".

672. Kings ought to be more lov'd than fear'd. Seneca, Octavia, 459: Decet timeri CÆsarem. At plus diligi.

673. To Mr. Denham, on his prospective poem. Sir John Denham published in 1642 his Cooper's Hill, a poem on the view over the Thames towards London, from a hill near Windsor.

675. Their fashion is, but to say no, etc. Cp. Montaigne's Essais, II. 3, p. 51; Florio's tr. p. 207: "Let it suffice that in doing it they say no and take it".

676. Love is maintained by wealth. Ovid, Rem. Am. 746: Divitiis alitur luxuriosus amor.

679. Nero commanded, but withdrew his eyes. Tacit. Agric. 45: Nero subtraxit oculos, jussitque scelera, non spectavit.683. But a just measure both of Heat and Cold. This is a version of the medieval doctrine of the four humours. So Chaucer says of his Doctor of Physic:—

684. 'Gainst thou go'st a-mothering. The Epistle for Mid-Lent Sunday was from Galat. iv. 21, etc., and contained the words: "Jerusalem, quÆ est Mater nostra". On that Sunday people made offerings at their Mother Church. After the Reformation the natural mother was substituted for the spiritual, and the day was set apart for visiting relations. Excellent simnel cakes (Low Lat., siminellus, fine flour) are still made in the North, where the current derivation of the word is from Sim and Nell!

685. To the King. Probably written in 1645, when Charles was for a short time in the West.

689. Too much she gives to some, enough to none. Mart. XII. x.; Fortuna multis dat nimis, satis nulli.

696. Men mind no state in sickness. There is a general resemblance in this poem to the latter part of Hor. III. Od. i., but I have an uneasy sense that Herrick is translating.

697. Adversity. Printed in Witts Recreations, 1650.

702. Mean things overcome mighty. Cp. 486 and Note.

706. How roses came red. Cp. Burton, Anat. Mel. III. ii. 3: "Constantine (Agricult. xi. 18) makes Cupid himself to be a great dancer: by the same token that he was capering among the gods, he flung down a bowl of nectar, which, distilling upon the white rose, ever since made it red".

709. Tears and Laughter. Bishop Jebb quotes a Latin couplet inscribed on an old inn at Four Crosses, Staffordshire:—

710. Tully says. Cic. Tusc. Disp. III. ii. 3: Gloria est frequens de aliquo, fama cum laude.

713. His return to London. Written at the same time as his Farewell to Dean Bourn, i.e., after his ejection in 1648, the year of the publication of the Hesperides.

715. No pack like poverty. Burton, Anat. Mel. iii. 3: ??d?? pe??a? a??te??? ?st? f??t???. "No burden, saith Menander, is so intolerable as poverty."

718. As many laws, etc. Tacit. Ann. iii. 27: Corruptissima in republica plurimÆ leges.

723. Lay down some silver pence. Cp. Bishop Corbet's The Faeryes Farewell:—

725. Times that are ill ... Clouds will not ever, etc., two reminiscences of Horace, II. Od. x. 17, and ix.727. Up tails all. This tune will be found in Chappell's Popular Music of the Olden Time, vol. i. p. 196. He notes that it was a favourite with Herrick, who wrote four other poems in the metre, viz.: The Hag is Astride, The Maypole is up, The Peter-penny, and Twelfth Night: or, King and Queen. The tune is found in Queen Elizabeth's Virginal Book, and in the Dancing Master (1650-1690). It is alluded to by Ben Jonson, and was a favourite with the Cavaliers.

730. Charon and Philomel. This dialogue is found with some slight variations of text in Rawlinson's MS. poet. 65. fol. 32. The following variants may be noted: l. 5, voice for sound; l. 7, shade for bird; l. 11, warbling for watching; l. 12, hoist up for thus hoist; l. 13, be gone for return; l. 18, praise for pray; l. 19, sighs for vows; l. 24, omit slothful. The dialogue is succeeded in the MS. by an old catch (probably written before Herrick was born):—

After the catch comes the following dialogue, written (it would seem) in imitation of Herrick's Charon and Philomel: the speakers' names are not marked:—

"Then come aboard" from the penultimate line and "and sing" from the last should clearly be struck out.

739. O Jupiter, etc. Eubulus in Athenaeus, xiii. 559: ? ?e? p???t??t', e?t' ??? ?a??? p?te " ??? ???a??a?; ?? ??' ?p?????? ??a? " p??t?? ???st?? ?t??t??. Comp. 885.

743. Another upon her Weeping. Printed in Witts Recreations, 1650, under the title: On Julia's Weeping.745. To Sir John Berkeley, Governour of Exeter. Youngest son of Sir Maurice Berkeley, of Bruton, in Somersetshire; knighted in Berwick in 1638; commander-in-chief of all the Royalist forces in Devonshire, 1643; captured Exeter Sept. 4 of that year, and held it till April 13, 1646. Created Baron Berkeley of Stratton, in Cornwall, 1658; died 1678.

749. Consultation. As noted in the text, this is from Sallust, Cat. i.

751. None sees the fardell of his faults behind. Cp. Catullus, xxii. 20, 21:—

or, perhaps more probably from Seneca, de IrÁ, ii. 28: Aliena vitia in oculis habemus; À tergo nostra sunt.

755. The Eye. Æschyl. Fragm. in Plutarch, Amat. 21: ??a? ???a???? ?? e ? ???? f????? ?f?a???, ?t?? ??d??? ? ?e?e????.

756. To Prince Charles upon his coming to Exeter. In August, 1645.

761. The Wake. Printed in Witts Recreations, 1650, under the title: Alvar and Anthea.763. To Doctor Alabaster. William Alabaster, or Alablaster, born at Hadleigh, Suffolk (1567); educated at Westminster and Trinity College, Cambridge; a friend of Spencer; was converted to Roman Catholicism while chaplain to the Earl of Essex in Spain, 1596. In 1607 he began his series of apocalyptic writings by an Apparatus in Revelationem Jesu Christi. On visiting Rome he was imprisoned by the Inquisition, escaped, and returned to Protestantism. Besides his theological works, he published (in 1637) a Lexicon Pentaglotton. Died April, 1640.

766. Time is the bound of things, etc. From Seneca, Consol. ad Marc. xix.: Excessit filius tuus terminos intra quos servitur ... mors omnium dolorum solutio est et finis.

771. As I have read must be the first man up, etc. Hor. I. Ep. vi. 48: Hoc primus repetas opus, hoc postremus omittas.

Rich compost. Cp. the same thought in 662.

772. A Hymn to Bacchus. Printed, with the misprint Bacchus for Iacchus in l. 1, in Witts Recreations, 1650.

Brutus ... Cato. Cp. Note to 4 and 8.

774. If wars go well, etc. Tacitus, Ann. iii. 53: cÙm rectÈ factorum sibi quisque gratiam trahant, unius [Principis scil.] invidi ab omnibus peccatur.

775. Niggards of the meanest blood. Seneca, de Clem. i. 1: Summa parsimonia etiam vilissimi sanguinis.

776. Wrongs, if neglected, etc. Tacit. Ann. iv. 34: [Probra] spreta exolescunt, si irascare agnita videntur.

780. Kings ought to shear, etc. A saying of Tiberius quoted by Suetonius: Boni pastoris est tondere oves, non deglubere. Herrick probably took it from Ben Jonson's Discoveries.

784-7. Ceremonies for Christmas. More will be found about the Yule-log in Ceremonies for Candlemas Day (893); cp. also The Wassail (476).

788. Power and Peace. From Tacitus, Ann. iv. 4: Quanquam arduum sit eodem loci potentiam et concordiam esse.

789. Mistress Margaret Falconbridge. A daughter, probably, of the Thomas Falconbridge of number 483.

797. Kisses. Printed in Witts Recreations, 1650, with omission of me in l. 1.

804. John Crofts, Cup-bearer to the King. Third son of Sir John Crofts, of Saxham, Suffolk. We hear of him in the king's service as early as 1628, and two years later Lord Conway, in thanking Wm. Weld for some verses sent him, hopes "the lines are strong enough to bind Robert Maule and Jack Crofts from ever more using the phrase". So Jack was probably a bit of a poet himself. He may be the Mr. Crofts for assaulting whom George, Lord Digby, was imprisoned a month and more, in 1634.

807. Man may want land to live in. Tacitus, Ann. xiii. 56: Addidit [Boiocalus] DeËsse nobis terra in qu vivamus, in qu moriamur non potest, quoted by Montaigne, II. 3.

809. Who after his transgression doth repent. Seneca, Agam. 243: Quem poenitet peccasse paene est innocens.

810. Grief, if't be great 'tis short. Seneca, quoted by Burton (II. iii. 1, § 1): "Si longa est, levis est; si gravis est, brevis est. If it be long, 'tis light; if grievous, it cannot last."

817. The Amber Bead. Cp. Martial's epigram quoted in Note to 497. The comparison to Cleopatra is from Mart. IV. xxxii.

818. To my dearest sister, M. Mercy Herrick. Not quite five years his senior. She married John Wingfield, of Brantham, Suffolk, to whom also Herrick addresses a poem.

820. Suffer that thou canst not shift. From Seneca; the title from Ep. cvii.: Optimum est pati quod emendare non possis, the epigram from De Provid. 4, as translated by Thomas Lodge, 1614, "Vertuous instructions are never delicate. Doth fortune beat and rend us? Let us suffer it"—whence Herrick reproduces the printer's error, Vertuous for Vertues (Virtue's).

821. For a stone has Heaven his tomb. Cp. Sir T. Browne, Relig. Med. § 40: "Nor doe I altogether follow that rodomontado of Lucan (Phars. vii. 819): Coelo tegitur qui non habet urnam,

823. To the King upon his taking of Leicester. May 31, 1645, a brief success before Naseby.

825. 'Twas CÆsar's saying. Tiberius ap. Tacit. Ann. ii. 26: Se novies a divo Augusto in Germaniam missum plura consilio quam vi perfecisse.

830. His Loss. A reference to his ejection from Dean Prior.837. Mistress Amy Potter. Daughter of Barnabas Potter, Bishop of Carlisle, Herrick's predecessor at Dean Prior.

839. Love is a circle ... from good to good. So Burton, III. i. 1, § 2: Circulus a bono in bonum.

844. to his book. Make haste away. Martial, III. ii. Ad Librum suum—Festina tibi vindicem parare, Ne nigram cito raptus in culinam Cordyllas madid tegas papyro, Vel thuris piperisque sis cucullus. To make loose gowns for mackerel. From Catullus, xcv. 1:—

846. And what we blush to speak, etc. Ovid, Phaedra to Hipp. 10: Dicere quae puduit scribere jussit amor.

849. 'Tis sweet to think, etc. Seneca, Herc. Fur. 657-58: Quae fuit durum pati Meminisse dulce est.851. To Mr. Henry Lawes, the excellent composer of his lyrics. Henry Lawes (1595-1662), the friend of Milton, admitted a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal, 1625. In the Noble Numbers he is mentioned as the composer of Herrick's Christmas Carol and the first of his two New-Year's Gifts. Lawes also set to music Herrick's Not to Love, To Mrs. Eliz. Wheeler (Among the Myrtles as I walked), The Kiss, The Primrose, To a Gentlewoman objecting to him his Grey Hairs, and doubtless others.

852. Maidens tell me I am old. From Anacreon:

With a significant variation—"Ill it fits"—for ????? p??pe?.

859. Master J. Jincks. Not identified.

861. Kings seek their subjects' good, tyrants their own. Aristot. Politics, iii. 7: ?a?e?? e???ae? t?? ?? ??a????? t?? p??? t? ?????? ?p???p??sa? s?f???? as??e?a? ... ? t??a???? ?st? ??a???a p??? t? s?f???? t? t?? ??a?????t??.

869. Sir Thomas Heale. Probably a son of the Sir Thomas Hele, of Fleet, Co. Devon, who died in 1624. This Sir Thomas was created a baronet in 1627, and according to Dr. Grosart was one of the Royalist commanders at the siege of Plymouth. He died 1670.

872. Love is a kind of war. Ovid, Ars Am. II. 233, 34:—

873. A spark neglected, etc. Ovid, Rem. Am. 732-34:—

874. An Hymn to Cupid. From Anacreon:—

885. Naught are all women. Burton, III. ii. 5. § 5.

907. Upon Mr. William Lawes, the rare musician. Elder brother of the more famous Henry Lawes; appointed a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal, 1602, and also one of Charles I.'s musicians-in-ordinary. When the Civil War broke out he joined the king's army and was killed by a stray shot during the siege of Chester, 1645. He set Herrick's Gather ye rosebuds to music.

914. Numbers ne'er tickle, etc. Martial, I. xxxvi.:—

918. M. Kellam. As yet unidentified. Dr. Grosart suggests that he may have been one of Herrick's parishioners, and the name sounds as of the west country.

920. Cunctation in correction. Is Herrick translating? According to a relief at Rome the lictors' rods were bound together not only by a red thong twisted from top to bottom, but by six straps as well.

922. Continual reaping makes a land wax old. Ovid, Ars Am. iii. 82: Continua messe senescit ager.

923. Revenge. Tacitus, Hist. iv. 3: Tanto proclivius est injuriae quÀm beneficio vicem exsolvere; quia gratia oneri, ultio in quaestu habetur.

927. Praise they that will times past. Ovid, Ars Am. iii. 121:—

928. Clothes are conspirators. I can suggest no better explanation of this oracular epigram than that the tailor's bill is an enemy of a slender purse.

929. Cruelty. Seneca de Clem. i. 24: Ferina ista rabies est, sanguine gaudere et vulneribus; (i. 8), Quemadmodum praecisae arbores plurimis ramis repullulant [H. uses repullulate, -tion, 336, 794], et multa satorum genera, ut densiora surgant, reciduntur; ita regia crudelitas auget inimicorum numerum tollendo. Ben Jonson, Discoveries (Clementia): "The lopping of trees makes the boughs shoot out quicker; and the taking away of some kind of enemies increaseth the number".

931. A fierce desire of hot and dry. Cp. note on 683.

932. To hear the worst, etc. Antisthenes ap. Diog. Laert. VI. i. 4, § 3: ????sa? p?t? ?t? ???t?? a?t?? ?a??? ???e? ?as?????? ?f? ?a??? p?????ta ?a??? ????e??, quoted by Burton, II. iii. 7.

934. The Bondman. Cp. Exodus xxi. 5, 6: "And if the servant shall plainly say: I love my master, my wife, and my children: I will not go out free: Then his master shall bring him unto the judges; he shall also bring him to the door, or unto the doorpost; and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl, and he shall serve him for ever".

936. My kiss outwent the bonds of shamefastness. Cp. Sidney's Astrophel and Stella, sonnet 82. For not Jove himself, etc., cp. 10, and note.

938. His wish. From Martial, II. xc. 7-10:—

939. Upon Julia washing herself in the river. Imitated from Martial, IV. xxii.:—

940. Though frankincense, etc. Ovid, de Medic. Fac. 83, 84:—

947. To his honoured and most ingenious friend, Mr. Charles Cotton. Dr. Grosart annotates: "The translator of Montaigne, and associate of Izaak Walton"; but as the younger Cotton was only eighteen when Hesperides was printed, it is perhaps more probable that the father is meant, though we may note that Herrick and the younger Cotton were joint-contributors in 1649 to the LacrymÆ Musarum, published in memory of Lord Hastings. For a tribute to the brilliant abilities of the elder Cotton, see Clarendon's Life (i. 36; ed. 1827).

948. Women Useless. A variation on a theme as old as Euripides. Cp. Medea, 573-5:—

952. Weep for the dead, for they have lost the light, cp. Ecclus. xxii. 11.

955. To M. Leonard Willan, his peculiar friend. A wretched poet; author of "The Phrygian Fabulist; or the Fables of Æsop" (1650), "Astraea; or True Love's Mirror" (1651), etc.

956. Mr. John Hall, Student of Gray's Inn. Hall remained at Cambridge till 1647, and this poem, which addresses him as a "Student of Gray's Inn," must therefore have been written almost while Hesperides was passing through the press. Hall's HorÆ VacivÆ, or Essays, published in 1646, had at once given him high rank among the wits.

958. To the most comely and proper M. Elizabeth Finch. No certain identification has been proposed.

961. To the King, upon his welcome to Hampton Court, set and sung. The allusion can only be to the king's stay at Hampton Court in 1647. Good hope was then entertained of a peaceful settlement, and Herrick's ode, enthusiastic as it is, expresses little more than this.

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 su 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.

979. On Tomasin Parsons. Daughter of the organist of Westminster Abbey: cp. 500 and Note.

983. To his kinsman, M. Thomas Herrick, who desired to be in his book. Cp. 106 and Note.

989. Care keeps the conquest. Perhaps jotted down with reference to the Governorship of Exeter by Sir John Berkeley: see Note to 745.

992. To the handsome Mistress Grace Potter. Probably sister to the Mistress Amy Potter celebrated in 837, where see Note.

995. We've more to bear our charge than way to go. Seneca, Ep. 77: quantulumcunque haberem, tamen plus superesset viatici quam viae, quoted by Montaigne, II. xxviii.

1000. The Gods, pillars, and men. Horace's Mediocribus esse poetis Non homines, non di, non concessere columnae (Ars Poet. 373). Latin poets hung up their epigrams in public places.

1002. To the Lord Hopton on his fight in Cornwall. Sir Ralph Hopton won two brilliant victories for the Royalists, at Bradock Down and Stratton, January and May, 1643, and was created Baron Hopton in the following September. Originally a Parliamentarian, he was one of the king's ablest and most loyal servants.

1008. Nothing's so hard but search will find it out. Terence, Haut. IV. ii. 8: Nihil tam difficile est quin quaerendo investigari posset.

1009. Labour is held up by the hope of rest. Ps. Sallust, Epist. ad C. Caes.: Sapientes laborem spe otii sustentant.

1022. Posting to Printing. Mart. V. x. 11, 12:—

1023. No kingdoms got by rapine long endure. Seneca, Troad. 264: Violenta nemo imperia continuit dies.

1026. Saint Distaff's Day. "Saint Distaff is perhaps only a coinage of our poet's to designate the day when, the Christmas vacation being over, good housewives, with others, resumed their usual employment." (Nott.) The phrase is explained in dictionaries and handbooks, but no other use of it is quoted than this. Herrick's poem was pilfered by Henry Bold (a notorious plagiarist) in Wit a-sporting in a pleasant Grove of New Fancies, 1657.

1028. My beloved Westminster. As mentioned in the brief "Life" of Herrick prefixed to vol. i., all the references in this poem seem to refer to Herrick's courtier-days, between leaving Cambridge and going to Devonshire. He then, doubtless, resided in Westminster for the sake of proximity to Whitehall. It has been suggested, however, that the reference is to Westminster School, but we have no evidence that Herrick was educated there.

Golden Cheapside. My friend, Mr. Herbert Horne, in his admirably-chosen selection from the Hesperides, suggests that the allusion here is to the great gilt cross at the end of Wood Street. The suggestion is ingenious; but as Cheapside was the goldsmiths' quarter this would amply justify the epithet, which may indeed only refer to Cheapside as a money-winning street, as we might say Golden Lombard Street.

1032. Things are uncertain. Tiberius, in Tacitus, Annal. i. 72: Cuncta mortalium incerta; quantoque plus adeptus foret, tanto se magis in lubrico.

1034. Good wits get more fame by their punishment. Cp. Tacit. Ann. iv. 35, sub fin.: Punitis ingeniis gliscit auctoritas, etc., quoted by Bacon and Milton.1035. Twelfth Night: or King and Queen. Herrick alludes to these "Twelfth-Tide Kings and Queens" in writing to Endymion Porter (662), and earlier still, in the "New-Year's Gift to Sir Simeon Steward" (319) he speaks—

Brand (i. 27) illustrates well from "Speeches to the Queen at Sudley" in Nichols' Progresses of Queen Elizabeth.

"Meliboeus. Cut the cake: who hath the bean shall be king, and where the pea is, she shall be queen.

Nisa. I have the pea and must be queen.

Mel. I the bean, and king. I must command."

1045. Comfort in Calamity. An allusion to the ejection from their benefices which befel most of the loyal clergy at the same time as Herrick. It is perhaps worth noting that in the second volume of this edition, and in the last hundred poems printed in the first, wherever a date can be fixed it is always in the forties. Equally late poems occur, though much less frequently, among the first five hundred, but there the dated poems belong, for the most part, to the years 1623-1640. Now, in April 29, 1640, as stated in the brief "Life" prefixed to vol. i., there was entered at Stationers' Hall, "The severall poems written by Master Robert Herrick," a book which, as far as is known, never saw the light. It was probably, however, to this book that Herrick addressed the poem (405) beginning:—

and we may fairly regard the first five hundred poems of Hesperides as representing the intended collection of 1640, with a few additions, and the last six hundred as for the most part later, and I must add, inferior work. This is borne out by the absence of any manuscript versions of poems in the second half of the book. Herrick's verses would only be passed from hand to hand when he was living among the wits in London.

1046. Twilight. Ovid, Amores, I. v. 5, 6: Crepuscula ... ubi nox abiit, nec tamen orta dies.

1048. Consent makes the cure. Seneca, Hippol. 250: Pars sanitatis velle sanari fuit.

1050. Causeless whipping. Ovid, Heroid. v. 7, 8: Leniter ex merito quicquid patiare, ferendum est; Quae venit indignae poena, dolenda venit. Quoted by Montaigne, III. xiii.

1052. His comfort. Terence, Adelph. I. i. 18: Ego ... quod fortunatum isti putant, Uxorem nunquam habui.

1053. Sincerity. From Hor. Ep. I. ii. 54: Sincerum est nisi vas, quodcunque infundis acescit. Quoted by Montaigne, III. xiii.

1056. To his peculiar friend, M. Jo. Wicks. See 336 and Note. Written after Herrick's ejection. We know that the poet's uncle, Sir William Herrick, suffered greatly in estate during the Civil War, and it may have been the same with other friends and relatives. But there can be little doubt that the poet found abundant hospitality on his return to London.

1059. A good Death. August. de Disciplin. Christ. 13: Non potest malÈ mori, qui benÈ vixerit.

1061. On Fortune. Seneca, Medea, 176: Fortuna opes auferre non animum potest.

1062. To Sir George Parry, Doctor of the Civil Law. According to Dr. Grosart, Parry "was admitted to the College of Advocates, London, 3rd Nov., 1628; but almost nothing has been transmitted concerning him save that he married the daughter and heir of Sir Giles Sweet, Dean of Arches". I can hardly doubt that he must be identified with the Dr. George Parry, Chancellor to the Bishop of Exeter, who in 1630 was accused of excommunicating persons for the sake of fees, but was highly praised in 1635 and soon after appointed a Judge Marshal. If so, his wife was a widow when she came to him, as she is spoken of in 1638 as "Lady Dorothy Smith, wife of Sir Nicholas Smith, deceased". She brought him a rich dower, and her death greatly confused his affairs.

1067. Gentleness. Seneca, Phoen. 659: Qui vult amari, languid regnet manu. And Ben Jonson, Panegyre (1603): "He knew that those who would with love command, Must with a tender yet a steadfast hand, Sustain the reins".

1068. Mrs. Eliza Wheeler. See 130 and Note.

1071. To the Honoured Master Endymion Porter. For Porter's patronage of poetry see 117 and Note.

1080. The Mistress of all singular Manners, Mistress Portman. Dr. Grosart notes that a Mrs. Mary Portman was buried at Putney Parish Church, June 27, 1671, and this was perhaps Herrick's schoolmistress, the "pearl of Putney".

1087. Where pleasures rule a kingdom. Cicero, De Senect. xii. 41: Neque omnino in voluptatis regno virtutem posse consistere. He lives who lives to virtue. Comp. Sallust, Catil. 2, s. fin.

1088. Twice five-and-twenty (bate me but one year). As Herrick was born in 1591, this poem must have been written in 1640.

1089. To M. Laurence Swetnaham. Unless the various entries in the parish registers of St. Margaret's, Westminster, refer to different men, this Lawrence Swetnaham was the third son of Thomas Swettenham of Swettenham in Cheshire, married in 1602 to Mary Birtles. Lawrence himself had children as early as 1629, and ten years later was church-warden. He was buried in the Abbey, 1673.

1091. My lamp to you I give. Allusion to the ?apad?f???a which Plato (Legg. 776B) uses to illustrate the succession of generations. So Lucretius (ii. 77): Et quasi cursores vitaÏ lampada tradunt.

1092. Michael Oulsworth. Michael Oulsworth, Oldsworth or Oldisworth, graduated M.A. from Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1614. According to Wood, "he was afterwards Fellow of his College, Secretary to Earl of Pembroke, elected a burgess to serve in several Parliaments for Sarum and Old Sarum, and though in the Grand Rebellion he was no Colonel, yet he was Governor of Old Pembroke, and Montgomery led him by the nose as he pleased, to serve both their turns". The partnership, however, was not eternal, for between 1648 and 1650 Oldisworth published at least eight virulent satires against his former master.

1094. Truth—her own simplicity. Seneca, Ep. 49: (Ut ille tragicus), Veritatis simplex oratio est.

1097. Kings must be dauntless. Seneca, Thyest. 388: Rex est qui metuit nihil.

1100. To his brother, Nicholas Herrick. Baptized April 22, 1589; a merchant trading to the Levant. He married Susanna Salter, to whom Herrick addresses two poems (522, 977).

1103. A King and no King. Seneca, Thyest. 214: Ubicunque tantÙm honestÈ dominanti licet, Precario regnatur.

1118. Necessity makes dastards valiant men. Sallust, Catil. 58: Necessitudo ... timidos fortes facit.

1119. Sauce for Sorrows. Printed in Witts Recreations, 1650. An equal mind. Plautus, Rudens, II. iii. 71: Animus aequus optimum est aerumnae condimentum.

1126. The End of his Work. Printed in Witts Recreations, 1650, under the title: Of this Book. From Ovid, Ars Am. i. 773, 774:—

Upon the tops of corn. Virgil (Æn. vii. 808-9) uses the same comparison of Camilla: Illa vel intactae segetis per summa volaret Gramina, nec teneras cursu laesisset aristas.

Could the Egyptians seek Help from the garlick, onion and the leek. Cp. Numbers xi. 5, and Juv., xi. 9-11.

Cassius, that weak water-drinker. Not, as Dr. Grosart queries: "Cassius Iatrosophista, or Cassius Felix?" but C. Cassius Longinus, the murderer of CÆsar. Cp. Montaigne, II. 2, and Seneca, Ep. 83: "Cassius tot vit aquam bibit" there quoted.

201. To trust to good verses. Carminibus confide bonis. Ovid, Am. III. ix. 39.

The Golden Pomp is come. Aurea pompa venit, Ovid, Am. III. ii. 44. "Now reigns the rose" (nunc regnat rosa) is a common phrase in Martial and elsewhere. For the "Arabian dew," cp. Ovid, Sappho to Phaon, 98: Arabo noster rore capillus olet.

A text ... Behold Tibullus lies. Jacet ecce Tibullus: Vix manet e tanto parva quod urna capit. Ovid, Am. III. ix. 39.

203. Lips Tongueless. Dr. Nott parallels Catullus, Carm. lii. (lv.):—

208. Gather ye rosebuds while ye may. Set to music by William Lawes in Playford's second book of "Ayres," 1652. Printed in Witts Recreations, 1654, with the variants: "Gather your Rosebuds" in l. 1; l. 4, may for will; l. 6, he is getting for he's a-getting; l. 8, nearer to his setting for nearer he's to setting. The opening lines are from Ausonius, ccclxi. 49, 50 (quoted by Burton, Anat. Mel. III. 2, 5 § 5):—

cp. also l. 43:—

209. Has not whence to sink at all. Seneca, Ep. xx.: Redige te ad parva ex quibus cadere non possis. Cp. Alain Delisle: Qui decumbit humi non habet unde cadat.

211. His poetry his pillar. A variation upon the Horatian theme:—

212. What though the sea be calm. Almost literally translated from Seneca, Ep. iv.: Noli huic tranquillitati confidere: momento mare evertitur: eodem die ubi luserunt navigia sorbentur.213. At noon of day was seen a silver star. "King Charles the First went to St. Paul's Church the 30th day of May, 1630, to give praise for the birth of his son, attended with all his Peers and a most royal Train, where a bright star appeared at High Noon in the sight of all." (Stella Meridiana, 1661.)

213. And all most sweet, yet all less sweet than he. It is characteristic of Herrick that in his Noble Numbers ("The New-Year's Gift") he repeats this line, applying it to Christ.

The swiftest grace is best. ??e?a? ????te? ????e??te?a?. Anth. Pal. x. 30.

214. Know thy when. So in The Star-song Herrick sings: "Thou canst clear All doubts and manifest the where".219. Lord Bernard Stewart, fourth son of Esme, third Duke of Lennox, and himself created Earl of Lichfield by Charles I. He commanded the king's troop of guards, and was killed at the battle of Rowton Heath, outside Chester, Sept. 24, 1645.

Clarendon (History of the Rebellion, ix. 19) thus records his death and character: "Here fell many gentlemen and officers of name, with the brave Earl of Litchfield, who was the third brother of that illustrious family that sacrificed his life in this quarrel. He was a very faultless young man, of a most gentle, courteous, and affable nature, and of a spirit and courage invincible; whose loss all men lamented, and the king bore it with extraordinary grief."

Trentall. Properly a set of thirty masses for the repose of a dead man's soul. Here and elsewhere Herrick uses the word as an equivalent for dirge, but Sidney distinguished them: "Let dirige be sung and trentalls rightly read. For love is dead," etc. "Hence, hence profane," is the Latin, procul o procul este profani of Virg. Æn. vi. 258, where "profane" is only equivalent to uninitiated.223. The Fairy Temple. For a brief note on Herrick's fairy poems, see Appendix. On the dedication to Mr. John Merrifield, Counsellor-at-Law, Dr. Grosart remarks: "Nothing seems to be now known of Merrifield. It is just possible that—as throughout the poem—the name was an invented one, 'Merry Field'." But the records of the Inner Temple show that the Merrifields were a legal family from Woolmiston, near Crewkerne, Somersetshire. John (son of Richard) Merrifield, the father, was admitted to the Inner Temple in 1581, and John, the son, in 1611. This latter must be Herrick's Counsellor. He rose to be a Master of the Bench in 1638 and Sergeant-at-Law in 1660. He died October, 1666, aged 75, at Crewkerne. On the other hand, it can hardly be doubted that Dr. Grosart is right in regarding the names of the fairy saints as quite imaginary. He nevertheless suggests SS. Titus, Neot, Idus, Ida, Fridian or Fridolin, Trypho, Felan and Felix as the possible prototypes of "Saint Tit, Saint Nit, Saint Is," etc. It should be noted that "Tit and Nit" occur with "Wap and Win" and other obviously made-up names, in Drayton's Nymphidia.

229. Upon Cupid. Taken from Anacreon, 5 [59].

234. Care will make a face. Ovid, Ar. Am. iii. 105: Cura dabit faciem, facies neglecta peribit.

235. Upon Himself. Printed in Witts Recreations, 1654, under the title: On an old Batchelor, and with the variants, married for wedded, l. 3, one for a in l. 4, and Rather than mend me, blind me quite in l. 6.

238. To the Rose. Printed in Witts Recreations, 1654, with the variants peevish for flowing in l. 4, say, if she frets, that I have bonds in l. 6, that can tame although not kill in l. 10, and now for thus in l. 11. The opening couplet is from Martial, VII. lxxxix.:—

241. Upon a painted Gentlewoman. Printed in Witts Recreations, 1650, under the title, On a painted madame.

250. Mildmay, Earl of Westmoreland. See Note to 112. According to the date of the earl's succession, this poem must have been written after 1628.

253. He that will not love, etc. Ovid, Rem. Am. 15, 16:—

How she is her own least part. Ib. 344: Pars minima est ipsa puella sui, quoted by Bacon, Burton, Lyly, and Montaigne.

Printed in Witts Recreations, 1654, with the variants, 'freezing colds and fiery heats,' and 'and how she is in every part'.

256. Had Lesbia, etc. See Catullus, Carm. iii.

260. How violets came blue. Printed in Witts Recreations, 1654, as How the violets came blue. The first two lines read:—

Other variants are did for sho'd in l. 3; Girl for Girls; you for ye; do for dare.

264. That verse, etc. Herrick repeats this assurance in a different context in the second of his Noble Numbers, His Prayer for Absolution.

269. The Gods to Kings the judgment give to sway. From Tacitus, Ann. vi. 8 (M. Terentius to Tiberius): Tibi summum rerum judicium dii dedere; nobis obsequi gloria relicta est.

270. He that may sin, sins least. Ovid, Amor. III. iv. 9, 10:—

271. Upon a maid that died the day she was married. Cp. Meleager, Anth. Pal. vii. 182:

278. To his Household Gods. Obviously written at the time of his ejection from his living.

283. A Nuptial Song on Sir Clipseby Crew. Of this Epithalamium (written in 1625 for the marriage of Sir Clipseby Crew, knighted by James I. at Theobald's in 1620, with Jane, daughter of Sir John Pulteney), two manuscript versions, substantially agreeing, are preserved at the British Museum (Harl. MS. 6917, and Add. 25, 303). Seven verses are transcribed in these manuscripts which Herrick afterwards saw fit to omit, and almost every verse contains variants of importance. It is impossible to convey the effect of the earlier version by a mere collation, and I therefore transcribe it in full, despite its length. As before, variants and additions are printed in italics. The numbers in brackets are those of the later version, as given in Hesperides. The marginal readings are variants of Add. 25, 303, from the Harleian manuscript.

The variants in this version are not very important; one of the most noteworthy, round for ground, in stanza 5 [4], was overlooked by Dr. Grosart in his collation. Of the seven stanzas subsequently omitted several are of great beauty. There are few happier images in Herrick than that of Time throned in a saffron evening in stanza 11. It is only when the earlier version is read as a whole that Herrick's taste in omitting is vindicated. Each stanza is good in itself, but in the MSS. the poem drags from excessive length, and the reduction of its twenty-three stanzas to sixteen greatly improves it.

286. Ever full of pensive fear. Ovid, Heroid. i. 12: Res est solliciti plena timoris amor.

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:—

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:—

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:—

301. Master Edward Norgate, Clerk of the Signet of his Majesty:—

Son to Robert Norgate, D.D., Master of Bene't College, Cambridge. He was employed by the Earl of Arundel to purchase pictures, and on one occasion found himself at Marseilles without remittances, and had to tramp through France on foot. According to the Calendars of State Papers in 1625, it was ordered that, "forasmuch as his Majesty's letters to the Grand Signior, the King of Persia, the Emperor of Russia, the Great Mogul, and other remote Princes, had been written, limned, and garnished with gold and colours by scriveners abroad, thenceforth they should be so written, limned, and garnished by Edward Norgate, Clerk of the Signet in reversion". Six years later this order was renewed, the "Kings of Bantam, Macassar, Barbary, Siam, Achine, Fez, and Sus" being added to the previous list, and Norgate being now designated as a Clerk of the Signet Extraordinary. In the same year, having previously been Bluemantle Pursuivant, he was promoted to be Windsor Herald, in which capacity he received numerous fees during the next few years, and was excused ship money. He still, however, retained his clerkship, for he writes in 1639: "The poor Office of Arms is fain to blazon the Council books and Signet". The phrase occurs in a series of nineteen letters of extraordinary interest, which Norgate wrote from the North, chiefly to his friend, Robert Reade, secretary to Windebank, on the course of affairs. In Sept., 1641, "Ned Norgate" was ordered personally to attend the king. "It is his Majesty's pleasure that the master should wait and not the men, and that they shall find." Henceforth I find no certain reference to him; according to Fuller he died at the Herald's Office in 1649. It would be interesting if we could be sure that this Edward Norgate is the same as the one who in 1611 was appointed Tuner of his Majesty's "virginals, organs, and other instruments," and in 1637 received a grant of £140 for the repair of the organ at Hampton Court. Herrick's love of music makes us expect to find a similar trait in his friends.

313. The Entertainment, or Porch Verse. The words Ye wrong the threshold-god and the allusion to the porch in the Clipsby Crew Epithalamium (stanza 4) show that there is no reference here (as Brand thinks, ii. 135) to the old custom of reading part of the marriage service at the church door or porch (cp. Chaucer: "Husbands at churchË door she had had five"). The porch of the house is meant, and the allusions are to the ceremonies at the threshold (cp. the Southwell Epithalamium). Dr. Grosart quotes from the Dean Prior register the entry of the marriage of Henry Northleigh, gentleman, and Mistress Lettice Yard on September 5, 1639, by licence from the Archbishop of Canterbury.319. No noise of late-spawned Tittyries. In the Camden Society's edition of the Diary of Walter Yonge, p. 70 (kindly shown me by the Rev. J. H. Ward), we have a contemporary account of the Club known as the Tityre Tues, which took its name from the first words of Virgil's first Eclogue. "The beginning of December, 1623, there was a great number in London, haunting taverns and other debauched places, who swore themselves in a brotherhood and named themselves Tityre Tues. The oath they gave in this manner: he that was to be sworn did put his dagger into a pottle of wine, and held his hand upon the pommel thereof, and then was to make oath that he would aid and assist all other of his fellowship and not disclose their council. There were divers knights, some young noblemen and gentlemen of this brotherhood, and they were to know one the other by a black bugle which they wore, and their followers to be known by a blue ribbond. There are discovered of them about 80 or 100 persons, and have been examined by the Privy Council, but nothing discovered of any intent they had. It is said that the king hath given commandment that they shall be re-examined." In Mennis's Musarum DeliciÆ the brotherhood is celebrated in a poem headed "The Tytre Tues; or, a Mocke Song. To the tune of Chive Chase. By Mr. George Chambers." The second verse runs:—

According to a letter of Chamberlain to Carleton, indexed among the State Papers, the Tityres were a secret society first formed in Lord Vaux's regiment in the Low Countries, and their "prince" was called Ottoman. Another entry shows that the "Bugle" mentioned by Yonge was the badge of a society originally distinct from the Tityres, which afterwards joined with it. The date of Herrick's poem is thus fixed as December, 162¾, and this is confirmed by another sentence in the same passage in Yonge's Diary, in which he says: "The Jesuits and Papists do wonderfully swarm in the city, and rumours lately have been given out for firing the Navy and House of Munition, on which are set a double guard". The Parliament to which Herrick alludes was actually summoned in January, 1624, to meet on February 12. Sir Simeon Steward, to whom the poem is addressed, was of the family of the Stewards of Stantney, in the Isle of Ely. He was knighted with his father, Mark Steward, in 1603, and afterwards became a fellow-commoner of Trinity Hall, Cambridge. He was at different times Sheriff and Deputy-Lieutenant for Cambridgeshire, and while serving in the latter capacity got into some trouble for unlawful exactions. In 1627 he wrote a poem on the King of the Fairies Clothes in the same vein as Herrick's fairy pieces.

321. Then is the work half done. As Dr. Grosart suggests, Herrick may have had in mind the "Dimidium facti qui coepit habet" of Horace, I. Epist. ii. 40. But here the emphasis is on beginning well, there on beginning.

Begin with Jove is doubtless from the "Ab Jove principium, MusÆ," of Virg. Ecl. iii. 60.

323. Fears not the fierce sedition of the seas. A reminiscence of Horace, III. Od. i. 25-32.

328. Gold before goodness. Printed in Witts Recreations, 1650, as A Foolish Querie. The sentiment is from Seneca, Ep. cxv.: An dives, omnes quÆrimus; nemo, an bonus. Cp. Juvenal, III. 140 sqq.; Plaut. MenÆchm. IV. ii. 6.

331. To his honoured kinsman, Sir William Soame. The second son of Sir Stephen Soame, Lord Mayor of London in 1598. Herrick's father and Sir Stephen married sisters.

As benjamin and storax when they meet. Instances of the use of "Benjamin" for gum benzoin will be found in the Dictionaries. Dr. Grosart's gloss, "Benjamin, the favourite youngest son of the Patriarch," is unfortunate.336. His Age: dedicated to ... M. John Wickes under the name of Posthumus. There is an important version of this poem in Egerton MS., 2725, where it is entitled Mr. Herrick's Old Age to Mr. Weekes. I do not think it has been collated before. Stanzas i.-vi. contain few variants; ii. 6 reads: "Dislikes to care for what's behind"; iii. 6: "Like a lost maidenhead," for "Like to a lily lost"; v. 8: "With the best and whitest stone"; vi. 1: "We'll not be poor". After this we have two stanzas omitted in 1648:—

Stanza vii., l. 2, has "close" for "both"; l. 3 "see" for "have"; l. 6, "open" for "that cheap"; l. 7, "full" for "same". Stanzas x.-xvii. have so many variants that I am obliged to transcribe them in full, though they show Herrick not at his best, and the poem is not one to linger over:—

This John Wickes or Weekes is spoken of by Anthony À Wood as a "jocular person" and a popular preacher. He enters Wood's Fasti by right of his co-optation as a D.D. in 1643, while the court was at Oxford; his education had been at Cambridge. He was a prebendary of Bristol and Dean of St. Burian in Cornwall, and suffered some persecution as a royalist. Herrick later on, when himself shedless and cottageless, addresses another poem to him as his "peculiar friend,"

A friend suggests that Hind may have been John Hind, an Anacreontic poet and friend of Greene, and has found references to a Thomas Goodricke of St. John's Coll., Camb., author of two poems on the accession of James I., and a Martin Nansogge, B.A. of Trinity Hall, 1614, afterwards vicar of Cornwood, Devon. Smith is certainly James Smith, who, with Sir John Mennis, edited the Musarum DeliciÆ, in which the first poem is addressed "to Parson Weekes: an invitation to London," and contains a reference to—

The early part of this poem contains, along with the name Posthumus, many Horatian reminiscences: cp. especially II. Od. xiv. 1-8, and IV. Od. vii. 14. It may be noted that in the imitation of the latter passage in stanza iv. the MS. copy at the Museum corrects the misplacement of the epithet, reading:—

for "Where Ancus and rich Tullus".

Again the variant, "Open candle baudery," in verse 7, is an additional argument against Dr. Grosart's explanation: "Obscene words and figures made with candle-smoke," the allusion being merely to the blackened ceilings produced by cheap candles without a shade.

337. A Short Hymn to Venus. Printed in Witts Recreations, 1650, as A vow to Cupid, with variants: l. 1, Cupid for Goddess; l. 2, like for with; l. 3, that I may for I may but; l. 5, do for will.

340. Upon a delaying lady. Printed in Witts Recreations, 1650, as A Check to her delay.

341. The Lady Mary Villars, niece of the first Duke of Buckingham, married successively Charles, son of Philip, Earl of Pembroke, Esme Stuart, Duke of Richmond and Lennox, and Thomas Howard. Died 1685.

355. Hath filed upon my silver hairs. Cp. Ben Jonson, The King's Entertainment:—

359. Philip, Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery. Philip Herbert (born 1584, died 1650), despite his foul mouth, ill temper, and devotion to sport ("He would make an excellent chancellor to the mews were Oxford turned into a kennel of hounds," wrote the author of Mercurius Menippeus when Pembroke succeeded Laud as chancellor), was also a patron of literature. He was one of the "incomparable pair of brethren" to whom the Shakespeare folio of 1623 was dedicated, and he was a good friend to Massinger. His fondness for scribbling in the margins of books may, or may not, be considered as further evidence of a respect for literature.

366. Thou shall not all die. Horace's "non omnis moriar".

367. Upon Wrinkles. Printed in Witts Recreations, 1650, under the title To a Stale Lady. The first line there reads:—

375. Anne Soame, now Lady Abdie, eldest daughter of Sir Thomas Soame, and second wife of Sir Thomas Abdy, Bart., of Felix Hall, Essex. Herrick's poem is modelled on Mart. III. lxv.

376. Upon his Kinswoman, Mistress Elizabeth Herrick, daughter of the poet's brother Nicholas.

377. A Panegyric to Sir Lewis Pemberton of Rushden, in Northamptonshire, sheriff of the county in 1622; married Alice, daughter of Tho. Bowles. Died 1641. With this poem cp. Ben Jonson's Epig. ci.

But great and large she spreads by dust and sweat. Dr. Grosart very appositely quotes Montaigne: "For it seemeth that the verie name of vertue presupposeth difficultie and inferreth resistance, and cannot well exercise it selfe without an enemie" (Florio's tr., p. 233). But I think the two passages have a common origin in some version of Hesiod's t?? ??et?? ?d??ta ?e?? p??p?????e? ????a?, which is twice quoted by Plato.

382. After the rare arch-poet, Jonson, died. Perhaps suggested by the Epitaph of Plautus on himself, ap. Gell. i. 24:—

384. To his nephew, to be prosperous in painting. This artistic nephew may have been a Wingfield, son of Mercy Herrick, who married John Wingfield, of Brantham, Suffolk; or one of three sons of Nicholas Herrick and Susanna Salter, or Thomas, or some unknown son of Thomas Herrick. There is no record of any painter Herrick's achievements.

392. Sir Edward Fish, Knight Baronet, of Chertsey, in Surrey. Died 1658.405. Nor fear or spice or fish. Herrick is remembering Persius, i. 43: Nec scombros metuentia carmina, nec thus. To form the paper jacket or tunica which wrapt the mackerel in Roman cookery seems to have been the ultimate employment of many poems. Cp. Mart. III. l. 9; IV. lxxxvii. 8; and Catullus, XCV. 8.

The farting Tanner and familiar King. The ballad here alluded to is that of King Edward IV. and the tanner of Tamworth, printed in Prof. Child's collection. "The dancing friar tattered in the bush" of the next line is one of the heroes of the old ballad of The Fryar and the Boye, printed by Wynkyn de Worde, and included in the Appendix to Furnivall and Hales' edition of the Percy folio. The boy was the possessor of a "magic flute," and, having got the friar into a bush, made him dance there.

"Those monstrous lies of little Robin Rush" is explained by Dr. Grosart as an allusion to "The Historie of Friar Rush, how he came to a House of Religion to seek a Service, and being entertained by the Prior was made First Cook, being full of pleasant Mirth and Delight for young people". Of "Tom Chipperfield and pretty lisping Ned" I can find nothing. "The flying Pilchard and the frisking Dace" probably belong to the fish monsters alluded to in the Tempest. In "Tim Trundell" Herrick seems for the sake of alliteration to have taken a liberty with the Christian name of a well-known ballad publisher.

He's greedy of his life. From Seneca, Thyestes, 884-85:—

407. Upon Himself. 408. Another. Both printed in Witts Recreations, 1650, the second under the title of Love and Liberty. This last is taken from Corn. Gall. Eleg. i. 6, quoted by Montaigne, iii. 5:—

412. The Mad Maid's Song. A manuscript version of this song is contained in Harleian MS. 6917, fol. 48, ver. 80. The chief variants are: st. i. l. 2, morrow for morning; l. 4, all dabbled for bedabbled; st. ii. l. 1, cowslip for primrose; l. 3, tears for flowers; l. 4, was for is; st. v. l. 1, hope for know; st. vii. l. 2, balsam for cowslips.

415. Whither dost thou whorry me. Quo me, Bacche, rapis tui Plenum? Hor. III. Od. xxv. 1.

430. As Sallust saith, i.e., the pseudo-Sallust in the Epist. ad Cai. CÆs. de Repub. Ordinanda.

431. Every time seems short. Epigr. in Farnabii, Florileg. [a. 1629]:—

443. Oberon's Palace.—After the feast (my Shapcott) see. See 223, 293, from which it is a pity that this poem should have been divorced. Of the Palace there are as many as three MS. versions, viz., Add. 22, 603 (p. 59), and Add. 25, 303 (p. 157), at the British Museum, both of which I have collated, and Ashmole MS. 38, which I only know through my predecessors. The three MSS. appear to agree very harmoniously, and they unite in increasing our knowledge of Herrick by a passage of twenty-seven lines, following on the words "And here and there and farther off," and in lieu of the next four and a half lines in Hesperides. They read as follows:—

The italicised words in the last few lines appear in Hesperides; all the rest are new. Other variants are: "The grass of Lemster ore soberly sparkling" for "the finest Lemster ore mildly disparkling"; "girdle" for "ceston"; "The eyes of all doth strait bewitch" for "All with temptation doth bewitch"; "choicely hung" for "neatly hung"; "silver roach" for "silvery fish"; "cave" for "room"; "get reflection" for "make reflected"; "Candlemas" for "taper-light"; "moon-tane" for "moon-tanned," etc., etc.

Kings though they're hated. The "Oderint dum metuant" of the Atreus of Accius, quoted by Cicero and Seneca.

446. To Oenone. Printed in Witts Recreations, 1650, under the title: "The Farewell to Love and to his Mistress," and with the unlucky misprint "court" for "covet" (also "for" for "but") in the stanza iii. l. i.

447. Grief breaks the stoutest heart. Frangit fortia corda dolor. Tibull. III. ii. 6.

451. To the right gracious Prince, Lodowick, Duke of Richmond and Lennox. There appears to me to be a blunder here which Dr. Grosart and Mr. Hazlitt do not elucidate, by recording the birth of Lodowick, first Duke of Richmond, in 1574, his succession to the Lennox title in 1583, creation as Duke of Richmond in May, 1623, and death in the following February. For this first duke was no "stem" left "of all those three brave brothers fallen in the war," and the allusion here is undoubtedly to his nephews—George, Lord d'Aubigny, who fell at Edgehill; Lord John Stewart, who fell at Alresford; and Lord Bernard Stewart (Earl of Lichfield), who fell at Rowton Heath. In elucidation of Herrick's Dirge (219) over the last of these three brothers, I have already quoted Clarendon's remark, that he was "the third brother of that illustrious family that sacrificed his life in this quarrel," and it cannot be doubted that Herrick is here alluding to the same fact. The poem must therefore have been written after 1645, i.e., more than twenty years after the death of Duke Lodowick. But the duke then living was James, who succeeded his father Esme in 1624, was recreated Duke of Richmond in 1641, and did not die till 1655. It is true that there was a brother named Lodovic, but he was an abbot in France and never succeeded to the title. Herrick, therefore, seems to have blundered in the Christian name.

453. Let's live in haste. From Martial, VII. xlvii. 11, 12:—

457. While Fates permit. From Seneca, Herc. Fur. 177:—

459. With Horace (IV. Od. ix. 29):—

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:—

And we then have the transposed passage:—

Farther on we have the rather pretty variant:—

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:—

Other variants are: "Creates the action" for "That makes the action"; "Glory" for "Triumph"; "my last signet" for "this compression"; "turn again in my full triumph" for "come again, As one triumphant," and "the height of womankind" for "all faith of womankind".

The body sins not, 'tis the will, etc. A maxim of law Latin: Actus non facit reum nisi mens sit rea.

466. To his Kinsman, Sir Thos. Soame, son of Sir Stephen Soame, Lord Mayor of London, 1589, and of Anne Stone, Herrick's aunt. Sir Thomas was Sheriff of London, 1635, M.P. for the City, 1640, and died Jan., 1670. See Cussan's Hertfortshire. (Hundred of Edwinstree, p. 100.)

470. Few Fortunate. A variant on the text (Matt. xx. 16): "Many be called but few chosen".479. To Rosemary and Bays. The use of rosemary and bays at weddings forms a section in Brand's chapter on marriage customs (ii. 119). For the gilding he quotes from a wedding sermon preached in 1607 by Roger Hacket: "Smell sweet, O ye flowers, in your native sweetness: be not gilded with the idle art of man". The use of gloves at weddings forms the subject of another section in Brand (ii. 125). He quotes Ben Jonson's Silent Woman; "We see no ensigns of a wedding here, no character of a bridal; where be our scarves and our gloves?"

483. To his worthy friend, M. Thomas Falconbrige. As Herrick hints at his friend's destiny for a public career, it seemed worth while to hunt through the Calendar of State Papers for a chance reference to this Falconbridge, who so far has evaded editors. He is apparently the Mr. Thomas Falconbridge who appears in various papers between 1640 and 1644, as passing accounts, and in the latter year was "Receiver-General at Westminster".

Towers reared high, etc. Cp. Horace, Od. II. x. 9-12.

486. He's lord of thy life, etc. Seneca, Epist. Mor. iv.: Quisquis vitam suam contempsit tuae dominus est. Quoted by Montaigne, I. xxiii.

488. Shame is a bad attendant to a state. From Seneca, Hippol. 431: Malus est minister regii imperii pudor.

He rents his crown that fears the people's hate. Also from Seneca, Oedipus, 701: Odia qui nimium timet regnare nescit.496. To his honoured kinsman, Sir Richard Stone, son of John Stone, sergeant-at-law, the brother of Julian Stone, Herrick's mother. He died in 1660.

To this white temple of my heroes. Ben Jonson's admirers were proud to call themselves "sealed of the tribe of Ben," and Herrick, a devout Jonsonite, seems to have imitated the idea so far as to plan sometimes, as here, a Temple, sometimes a Book (see infra, 510), sometimes a City (365), a Plantation (392), a Calendar (545), a College (983), of his own favourite friends, to whom his poetry was to give immortality. The earliest direct reference to this plan is in his address to John Selden, the antiquary (365), in which he writes:—

It is noteworthy that the poems which contain the clearest reference to this Temple (or its variants) are mostly addressed to kinsfolk, e.g., this to Sir Richard Stone, to Mrs. Penelope Wheeler, to Mr. Stephen Soame, and to Susanna and Thomas Herrick. Other recipients of the honour are Sir Edward Fish and Dr. Alabaster, Jack Crofts, Master J. Jincks, etc.497. All flowers sent, etc. See Virgil's—or the Virgilian—Culex, ll. 397-410.

Martial's bee. See Epig. IV. xxxii.

500. To Mistress Dorothy Parsons. This "saint" from Herrick's Temple may certainly be identified with the second of the three children (William, Dorothy, and Thomasine) of Mr. John Parsons, organist and master of the choristers at Westminster Abbey, where he was buried in 1623. Herrick addresses another poem to her sister Thomasine:—

502. 'Tis sin to throttle wine. Martial, I. xix. 5: Scelus est jugulare Falernum.

506. Edward, Earl of Dorset, Knight of the Garter, grandson of Thomas Sackville, author of Gorboduc. He succeeded his brother, Richard Sackville, the third earl, in 1624, and died in 1652. Clarendon describes a duel which he fought with Lord Bruce in Flanders.

Of your own self a public theatre. Cp. Burton (Democ. to Reader) "Ipse mihi theatrum".

510. To his Kinswoman, Mrs. Penelope Wheeler. See Note on 130.

511. A mighty strife 'twixt form and chastity. Lis est cum form magna pudicitiÆ. Quoted from Ovid by Burton, who translates: "Beauty and honesty have ever been at odds".

514. To the Lady Crew, upon the death of her child. This must be the child buried in Westminster Abbey, according to the entry in the register "163?, Feb. 6. Sir Clipsy Crewe's daughter, in the North aisle of the monuments." Colonel Chester annotates: "She was a younger daughter, and was born at Crewe, 27th July, 1631. She died on the 4th of February, and must have been an independent heiress, as her father administered to her estate on the 24th May following."

515. Here needs no Court for our Request. An allusion to the Court of Requests, established in the time of Richard II. as a lesser Court of Equity for the hearing of "all poor men's suits". It was abolished in 1641, at the same time as the Star Chamber.

517. The new successor drives away old love. From Ovid, Rem. Am. 462: Successore novo vincitur omnis amor.

519. Born I was to meet with age. Cp. 540. From Anacreon, 38 [24]:—

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":—

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—

527. Fly me not, etc. From Anacreon, 49 [34]:—

529. As thou deserv'st be proud. Cp. Hor. III. Od. xxx. 14:—

534. To Electra. Printed in Witts Recreations, 1650, where it is entitled To Julia.

536. Ill Government.... When kings obey, etc. From Seneca, Octav. 581:—

545. To his Worthy Kinsman, Mr. Stephen Soame (the son or, less probably, the brother of Sir Thomas Soame): One of my righteous tribe. Cp. Note to 496.

547. Great spirits never with their bodies die. Tacit. Agric. 46:—"Si quis piorum manibus locus, si, ut sapientibus placet, non cum corpore extinguuntur magnae animae".

554. Die thou canst not all. Hor. IV. Od. xxx. 6,7.

556. The Fairies. Cp. the old ballad of Robin Goodfellow:—

and Ben Jonson's Entertainment at Althorpe, etc.

557. M. John Weare, Councellour. Probably the same as "the much-lamented Mr. J. Warr" of 134.

Law is to give to every one his own. Cicero, De Fin. v.: Animi affectio suum cuique tribuens Justitia dicitur.

564. His Kinswoman, Bridget Herrick, eldest daughter of his brother Nicholas.565. The Wanton Satyr. See Sir E. Dyer's The Shepherd's Conceit of Prometheus:—

So Euphues: "Satirus not knowing what fire was would needs embrace it and was burnt;" and Sir John Davies, False and True Knowledge.

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1127. My wearied bark, etc. Ovid, Rem. Am. 811, 812:—

1128. The work is done. Ovid, Ars Am. ii. 733, 734:—

1130. His Muse. Cp. Note on 624.

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