And come upon your Bridegroom like a Tide
Bearing down Time before you; hye
Swell, mix, and loose your souls; imply
Like streams which flow
Encurled together, and no difference show
In their [most] silver waters; run
Into your selves like wool together spun.
Or blend so as the sight
Of two makes one Hermaphrodite._
9 [6].
"And, beauteous Bride, we do confess _you_ are wise
_On drawing_ forth _those_ bashful jealousies [doling
In love's name, do so; and a price
Set on yourself by being nice.
But yet take heed
What now you seem be not the same indeed,
And turn Apostat_a_: Love will
Part of the way be met, or sit stone still;
On them, and though _y'are slow
In going_ yet, howsoever go.
10.
"_How long, soft Bride, shall your dear C[lipseby] make
Love to your welcome with the mystic cake,
How long, oh pardon, shall the house
And the smooth Handmaids pay their vows
With oil and wine
For your approach, yet see their Altars pine?
How long shall the page to please
You stand for to surrender up the keys
Of the glad house? Come, come,
Or Lar will freeze to death at home._
11.
"_Welcome at last unto the Threshold, Time
Throned in a saffron evening, seems to chime
All in, kiss and so enter. If
A prayer must be said, be brief,
The easy Gods
For such neglect have only myrtle rods
To stroke, not strike; fear you
Not more, mild Nymph, than they would have you do;
But dread that you do more offend
In that you do begin than end._
12 [7].
"And now y'are entered, see the coddled cook
Runs from his Torrid Zone to pry and look
And bless his dainty mistress; see
_How_ th' aged point out: 'This is she
Who now must sway
_Us_ (_and God_ shield her) with her yea and nay,'
And the smirk Butler thinks it
Sin in _his_ nap'ry not t' express his wit;
Each striving to devise
Some gin wherewith to catch _her_ eyes.
13.
"_What though your laden Altar now has won
The credit from the table of the Sun
For earth and sea; this cost
On you is altogether lost
Because you feed
Not on the flesh of beasts, but on the seed
Of contemplation: your,
Your eyes are they, wherewith you draw the pure
Elixir to the mind
Which sees the body fed, yet pined._
14 [14].
"If _you must needs_ for ceremonie's sake
Bless a sack posset, Luck go with _you_, take
The night charm quickly; you have spells
And magic for to end, and Hells
To pass, but such
And of such torture as no _God_ would grutch
To live therein for ever: fry,
_Aye_ and consume, and grow again to die,
And live, and in that case
Love the _damnation_ of _that_ place. [the
15 [8].
"To Bed, to Bed, _sweet_ Turtles now, and write
This the shortest day,† this the longest night
_And_ yet too short for you; 'tis we
Who count this night as long as three,
Lying alone
_Hearing_ the clock _go_ Ten, Eleven, Twelve, One:
Quickly, quickly then prepare.
And let the young men and the Bridemaids share
Your garters, and their joints
Encircle with the Bridegroom's points.
16 [9].
"By the Bride's eyes, and by the teeming life
Of her green hopes, we charge you that no strife,
_Further_ than _virtue lends_, gets place
Among _you catching at_ her Lace.
Oh, do not fall
Foul in these noble pastimes, lest you call
Discord in, and so divide
The _gentle_ Bridegroom and the _fragrous_ Bride,
Which Love forefend: but spoken
Be't to your praise: 'No peace was broken'.
17[10].
"Strip her of spring-time, tender whimpering maids,
Now Autumn's come, when all _those_ flowery aids
Of her delays must end, dispose
That Lady-smock, that pansy and that Rose
Neatly apart;
But for prick-madam, and for gentle-heart,
And soft maiden-blush, the Bride
Makes holy these, all others lay aside:
Then strip her, or unto her
Let him come who dares undo her.
18 [11].
"And to enchant _you_ more, _view_ everywhere [ye
About the roof a Syren in a sphere,
As we think, singing to the din
Of many a warbling cherubin:
_List, oh list!_ how
_Even heaven gives up his soul between you_ now, [ye
_Mark how_ thousand Cupids fly
To light their Tapers at the Bride's bright eye;
To bed, or her they'll tire,
Were she an element of fire.
19 [12].
"And to your more bewitching, see the proud
Plump bed bear up, and _rising_ like a cloud,
Tempting _thee, too, too_ modest; can
You see it brussle like a swan
And you be cold
To meet it, when it woos and seems to fold
The arms to hug _you_? throw, throw
Yourselves into _that main, in the full_ flow
Of _the_ white pride, and drown
The _stars_ with you in floods of down.
20 [13].
"_You see 'tis_ ready, and the maze of love
Looks for the treaders; everywhere is wove
Wit and new mystery, read and
Put in practice, to understand
And know each wile,
Each Hieroglyphic of a kiss or smile;
And do it _in_ the full, reach
High in your own conceipts, and _rather_ teach
Nature and Art one more
_Sport_ than they ever knew before.
21.
To the Maidens:]
"_And now y' have wept enough, depart; yon stars [the
Begin to pink, as weary that the wars
Know so long Treaties; beat the Drum
Aloft, and like two armies, come
And guild the field,
Fight bravely for the flame of mankind, yield
Not to this, or that assault,
For that would prove more Heresy than fault
In combatants to fly
'Fore this or that hath got the victory._
22 [15].
"But since it must be done, despatch and sew
Up in a sheet your Bride, and what if so
It be with _rib of Rock and_ Brass,
_Yea_ tower her up, as Danae was, [ye
Think you that this,
Or Hell itself, a powerful Bulwark is?
I tell _you_ no; but like a [ye
Bold bolt of thunder he will make his way,
And rend the cloud, and throw
The sheet about, like flakes of snow.
23 [16].
"All now is hushed in silence: Midwife-moon
With all her Owl-ey'd issue begs a boon
Which you must grant; that's entrance with
Which extract, all we † call pith
And quintessence
Of Planetary bodies; so commence,
All fair constellations
Looking upon _you_ that _the_ Nations
Springing from to such Fires
May blaze the virtue of their Sires."
--R. HERRICK.
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:--
Qui fingit sacros auro vel marmore vultus
Non facit ille deos: qui rogat, ille facit.
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:--
"A little mushroom table spread
After _the dance_, they set on bread,
A _yellow corn of hecky_ wheat
With some small _sandy_ grit to eat
His choice bits; with _which_ in a trice
They make a feast less great than nice.
But all _the_ while his eye _was_ served
We _dare_ not think his ear was sterved:
But that there was in place to stir
His _fire_ the _pittering_ Grasshopper;
The merry Cricket, puling Fly,
The piping Gnat for minstralcy.
_The Humming Dor, the dying Swan,
And each a choice Musician._
And now we must imagine first,
The Elves present to quench his thirst
A pure seed-pearl of infant dew,
Brought and _beswetted_ in a blue
And pregnant violet; which done,
His kitling eyes begin to run
Quite through the table, where he spies
The horns of papery Butterflies:
Of which he eats, _but with_ a little
_Neat cool allay_ of Cuckoo's spittle;
A little Fuz-ball pudding stands
By, yet not blessed by his hands--
That was too coarse, but _he not spares
To feed upon the candid hairs
Of a dried canker, with a_ sagg
And well _bestuffed_ Bee's sweet bag:
_Stroking_ his pallet with some store
Of Emme_t_ eggs. What would he more,
But Beards of Mice, _an Ewt's_ stew'd thigh,
_A pickled maggot and a dry
Hipp, with a_ Red cap worm, that's shut
Within the concave of a Nut
Brown as his tooth, _and with the fat
And well-boiled inchpin of a Bat.
A bloated Earwig with the Pith
Of sugared rush aglads him with;
But most of all the Glow-worm's fire.
As most betickling his desire
To know his Queen, mixt with the far-
Fetcht binding-jelly of a star.
The silk-worm's seed_, a little moth
_Lately_ fattened in a piece of cloth;
Withered cherries; Mandrake's ears;
Mole's eyes; to these the slain stag's tears;
The unctuous dewlaps of a Snail;
The broke heart of a Nightingale
O'er-come in music; with a wine
Ne'er ravished from the flattering Vine,
But gently pressed from the soft side
Of the most sweet and dainty Bride,
Brought in a _daisy chalice_, which
He fully quaffs _off_ to bewitch
His blood _too high_. This done, commended
Grace by his Priest, the feast is ended."
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:--
Ampliat aetatis spatium sibi vir bonus: hoc est
Vivere bis vita posse priore frui.
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:--
"They call themselves the Tytere-tues,
And wore a blue rib-bin;
And when a-drie would not refuse
To drink. O fearful sin!
"The council, which is thought most wise,
Did sit so long upon it,
That they grew weary and did rise,
And could make nothing on it."
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, 1623/4, 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 cœpit 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:--
"We have no vineyards which do bear
Their lustful clusters all the year,
Nor odoriferous
Orchards, like to Alcinous;
Nor gall the seas
Our witty appetites to please
With mullet, turbot, gilt-head bought
At a high rate and further brought.
"Nor can we glory of a great
And stuffed magazine of wheat;
We have no bath
Of oil, but only rich in faith
O'er which the hand
Of fortune can have no command,
But what she gives not, she not takes,
But of her own a spoil she makes."
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:--
10.
"Live in thy peace; as for myself,
When I am bruisèd on the shelf
Of Time, and _read
Eternal daylight o'er my head:_
When with the rheum,
_With_ cough _and_ ptisick, I consume
_Into an heap of cinders:_ then
The Ages fled I'll call again,
11.
"And with a tear compare these last
_And cold times unto_ those are past,
While Baucis by
_With her lean lips_ shall kiss _them dry
Then will we_ sit
By the fire, foretelling snow and sleet
And weather by our aches, grown
†Old enough to be our own
12.
"True Calendar [ ]
_Is for to know_ what change is near,
Then to assuage
The gripings _in_ the chine by age,
I'll call my young
Iülus to sing such a song
I made upon my _mistress'_ breast;
_Or such a_ blush at such a feast.
13.
"Then shall he read _my Lily fine
Entomb'd_ within a crystal shrine:
_My_ Primrose next:
A piece then of a higher text;
For to beget
In me a more transcendent heat
Than that insinuating fire
Which crept into each _reverend_ Sire,
14.
"When the _high_ Helen _her fair cheeks
Showed to the army of the Greeks;_
At which I'll _rise_
(_Blind though as midnight in my eyes_),
And hearing it,
Flutter and crow, _and_, in a fit
Of _young_ concupiscence, and _feel
New flames within the aged steal_.
15.
"Thus frantic, crazy man (God wot),
I'll call to mind _the times_ forgot
And oft between
_Sigh out_ the Times that _we_ have seen!
_And shed a tear_,
And twisting my Iülus _hair_,
Doting, I'll weep and say (in truth)
Baucis, these were _the_ sins of youth.
16.
"Then _will I_ cause my hopeful Lad
(If a wild Apple can be had)
To crown the Hearth
(Lar thus conspiring with our mirth);
_Next_ to infuse
Our _better beer_ into the cruse:
Which, neatly spiced, we'll first carouse
Unto the _Vesta_ of the house.
17.
"Then the next health to friends of mine
_In oysters, and_ Burgundian wine,
_Hind, Goderiske, Smith,
And Nansagge_, sons of _clune[M] and_ pith,
Such _who know_ well
_To board_ the magic _bowl_, and _spill
All mighty blood, and can do more
Than Jove and Chaos them before_."
[M] Clune = "clunis," a haunch.
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,"
To whose glad threshold and free door
I may, a poet, come, though poor.
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--
"That old sack
Young Herrick took to entertain
The Muses in a sprightly vein".
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:--
"But we must on and thither tend
Where Tullus and rich Ancus blend," etc.,
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_:--
"What all the minutes, hours, weeks, months, and years
That hang in file upon these silver hairs
Could not produce," etc.
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:--
"Thy wrinkles are no more nor less".
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
τῆς ἀρετῆς ἱδρῶτα θεοὶ προπάροιθεν ἔθηκαν, 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:--