Hatched o'er with moonshine from their stolen delight
(When this to that, and that to this, had given
A kiss to such a jewel of the heaven,
Or while that each from other's breath did drink
Health to the rose, the violet, or pink),
Call'd on the sudden by the jealous mother,
Some stricter mistress or suspicious other,
Urging divorcement (worse than death to these)
By the soon jingling of some sleepy keys,
Part with a hasty kiss; and in that show
How stay they would, yet forced they are to go.
Even such are we, and in our parting do
No otherwise than as those former two
Natures like ours, we who have spent our time
Both from the morning to the evening chime.
Nay, till the bellman of the night had tolled
Past noon of night, yet wear the hours not old
Nor dulled with iron sleep, but have outworn
The fresh and fairest nourish of the morn
With flame and rapture; drinking to the odd
Number of nine which makes us full with God,
And in that mystic frenzy we have hurled,
As with a tempest, nature through the world,
And in a whirlwind twirl'd her home, aghast
At that which in her ecstasy had past;
Thus crowned with rosebuds, sack, thou mad'st me fly
Like fire-drakes, yet didst me no harm thereby.
O thou almighty nature, who didst give
True heat wherewith humanity doth live
Beyond its stinted circle, giving food,
White fame and resurrection to the good;
Shoring them up 'bove ruin till the doom,
The general April of the world doth come
That makes all equal. Many thousands should,
Were't not for thee, have crumbled into mould,
And with their serecloths rotted, not to show
Whether the world such spirits had or no,
Whereas by thee those and a million since,
Nor fate, nor envy, can their fames convince.
Homer, Musæus, Ovid, Maro, more
Of those godful prophets long before
Held their eternal fires, and ours of late
(Thy mercy helping) shall resist strong fate,
Nor stoop to the centre, but survive as long
As fame or rumour hath or trump or tongue;
But unto me be only hoarse, since now
(Heaven and my soul bear record of my vow)
I my desires screw from thee, and direct
Them and my thoughts to that sublim'd respect
And conscience unto priesthood; 'tis not need
(The scarecrow unto mankind) that doth breed
Wiser conclusions in me, since I know
I've more to bear my charge than way to go,
Or had I not, I'd stop the spreading itch
Of craving more, so in conceit be rich;
But 'tis the God of Nature who intends
And shapes my function for more glorious ends.
Kiss, so depart, yet stay a while to see
The lines of sorrow that lie drawn in me
In speech, in picture; no otherwise than when,
Judgment and death denounced 'gainst guilty men,
Each takes a weeping farewell, racked in mind
With joys before and pleasures left behind;
Shaking the head, whilst each to each doth mourn,
With thought they go whence they must ne'er return.
So with like looks, as once the ministrel
Cast, leading his Eurydice through hell,
I strike thy love, and greedily pursue
Thee with mine eyes or in or out of view.
So looked the Grecian orator when sent
From's native country into banishment,
Throwing his eyeballs backward to survey
The smoke of his beloved Attica;
So Tully looked when from the breasts of Rome
The sad soul went, not with his love, but doom,
Shooting his eyedarts 'gainst it to surprise
It, or to draw the city to his eyes.
Such is my parting with thee, and to prove
There was not varnish only in my love,
But substance, lo! receive this pearly tear
Frozen with grief and place it in thine ear.
Then part in name of peace, and softly on
With numerous feet to hoofy Helicon;
And when thou art upon that forked hill
Amongst the thrice three sacred virgins, fill
A full-brimm'd bowl of fury and of rage,
And quaff it to the prophets of our age;
When drunk with rapture curse the blind and lame,
Base ballad-mongers who usurp thy name
And foul thy altar; charm some into frogs,
Some to be rats, and others to be hogs;
Into the loathsom'st shapes thou canst devise
To make fools hate them, only by disguise;
Thus with a kiss of warmth and love I part
Not so, but that some relic in my heart
Shall stand for ever, though I do address
Chiefly myself to what I must profess.
Know yet, rare soul, when my diviner muse
Shall want a handmaid (as she oft will use),
Be ready, thou for me, to wait upon her,
Though as a servant, yet a maid of honour.
The crown of duty is our duty: well
Doing's the fruit of doing well. Farewell.
_Shoring_, copies _soaring_.
A CAROL PRESENTED TO DR. WILLIAMS, BISHOP OF LINCOLN AS A NEW-YEAR'S
GIFT.
Fly hence, pale care, no more remember
Past sorrows with the fled December,
But let each pleasant cheek appear
Smooth as the childhood of the year,
And sing a carol here.
'Twas brave, 'twas brave, could we command the hand
Of youth's swift watch to stand
As you have done your day;
Then should we not decay.
But all we wither, and our light
Is spilt in everlasting night,
Whenas your sight
Shows like the heavens above the moon,
Like an eternal noon
That sees no setting sun.
Keep up those flames, and though you shroud
Awhile your forehead in a cloud,
Do it like the sun to write
In the air a greater text of light;
Welcome to all our vows,
And since you pay
To us this day
So long desir'd,
See we have fir'd
Our holy spikenard, and there's none
But brings his stick of cinnamon,
His eager eye or smoother smile,
And lays it gently on the pile,
Which thus enkindled, we invoke
Your name amidst the sacred smoke.
_Chorus._ Come then, great Lord.
And see our altar burn
With love of your return,
And not a man here but consumes
His soul to glad you in perfumes.
SONG. HIS MISTRESS TO HIM AT HIS FAREWELL.
You may vow I'll not forget
To pay the debt
Which to thy memory stands as due
As faith can seal it you;
Take then tribute of my tears,
So long as I have fears
To prompt me I shall ever
Languish and look, but thy return see never.
Oh then to lessen my despair
Print thy lips into the air,
So by this
Means I may kiss thy kiss
Whenas some kind
Wind
Shall hither waft it, and in lieu
My lips shall send a 1000 back to you.
UPON PARTING.
Go hence away, and in thy parting know
'Tis not my voice but Heaven's that bids thee go;
Spring hence thy faith, nor think it ill desert
I find in thee that makes me thus to part.
But voice of fame, and voice of Heaven have thundered
We both were lost, if both of us not sundered.
Fold now thine arms, and in thy last look rear
One sigh of love, and cool it with a tear.
Since part we must, let's kiss; that done, retire
With as cold frost as erst we met with fire;
With such white vows as fate can ne'er dissever,
But truth knit fast; and so, farewell for ever.
UPON MASTER FLETCHER'S INCOMPARABLE PLAYS.
Apollo sings, his harp resounds: give room,
For now behold the golden pomp is come,
Thy pomp of plays which thousands come to see
With admiration both of them and thee.
O volume! worthy, leaf by leaf and cover,
To be with juice of cedar wash'd all over;
Here words with lines and lines with scenes consent
To raise an act to full astonishment;
Here melting numbers, words of power to move
Young men to swoon and maids to die for love.
_Love lies a-bleeding_ here, _Evadne_, there
Swells with brave rage, yet comely everywhere;
Here's _A mad lover_, there that high design
Of _King and no King_, and the rare plot thine.
So that whene'er we circumvolve our eyes,
Such rich, such fresh, such sweet varieties
Ravish our spirits, that entranc'd we see
None writes love's passion in the world like thee.
_THE NEW CHARON:_
UPON THE DEATH OF HENRY, LORD HASTINGS.
_The musical part being set by Mr. Henry Lawes._
THE SPEAKERS,
CHARON AND EUCOSMIA.
_Euc._ Charon, O Charon, draw thy boat to th' shore,
And to thy many take in one soul more.
_Cha._ Who calls? who calls? _Euc._ One overwhelm'd with ruth;
Have pity either on my tears or youth,
And take me in who am in deep distress;
But first cast off thy wonted churlishness.
_Cha._ I will be gentle as that air which yields
A breath of balm along the Elysian fields.
Speak, what art thou? _Euc_. One once that had a lover,
Than which thyself ne'er wafted sweeter over.
He was---- _Cha._ Say what? _Euc._ Ah me, my woes are deep.
_Cha._ Prithee relate, while I give ear and weep.
_Euc._ He was a Hastings; and that one name has
In it all good that is, and ever was.
He was my life, my love, my joy, but died
Some hours before I should have been his bride.
_Chorus._ Thus, thus the gods celestial still decree,
For human joy contingent misery.
_Euc._ The hallowed tapers all prepared were,
And Hymen call'd to bless the rites. _Cha._ Stop there.
_Euc._ Great are my woes. _Cha._ And great must that grief be
That makes grim Charon thus to pity thee.
But now come in. _Euc._ More let me yet relate.
_Cha._ I cannot stay; more souls for waftage wait
And I must hence. _Euc._ Yet let me thus much know,
Departing hence, where good and bad souls go?
_Cha._ Those souls which ne'er were drench'd in pleasure's stream,
The fields of Pluto are reserv'd for them;
Where, dress'd with garlands, there they walk the ground
Whose blessed youth with endless flowers is crown'd.
But such as have been drown'd in this wild sea,
For those is kept the Gulf of Hecate,
Where with their own contagion they are fed,
And there do punish and are punished.
This known, the rest of thy sad story tell
When on the flood that nine times circles hell.
_Chorus._ We sail along to visit mortals never;
But there to live where love shall last for ever.
EPITAPH ON THE TOMB OF SIR EDWARD GILES AND HIS WIFE IN THE SOUTH AISLE
OF DEAN PRIOR CHURCH, DEVON.
No trust to metals nor to marbles, when
These have their fate and wear away as men;
Times, titles, trophies may be lost and spent,
But virtue rears the eternal monument.
What more than these can tombs or tombstones pay?
But here's the sunset of a tedious day:
These two asleep are: I'll but be undress'd
And so to bed: pray wish us all good rest.
NOTES.
NOTES.
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:--
"So soon as each his dangling locks hath crown'd
With Rosie Chaplets, Lilies, Pansies red,
Soft Saffron Circles to perfume the head";
l. 23, _to_ for _too unto_; l. 24, _their_ for _our_; ll. 29, 30:--
"Unto the Prince of Shades, whom once his Pen
Entituled the Grecian Prince of Men";
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:--
"crown'd with sacred Bays
And flatt'ring _joy, we'll have to_ recite their plays,
_Shakespeare and Beamond_, Swans to whom _the Spheres_
Listen while they _call back the former year[s]
To teach the truth of scenes_, and more for thee,
There yet remains, _brave soul_, than thou can'st see,"
etc.;
l. 56, _illustrious for capacious_; l. 57, _shall be_ for _now is_
[Jonson died 1637]; ll. 59-61:--
"To be of that high Hierarchy where none
But brave souls take illumination
Immediately from heaven; but hark the cock," etc.;
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:--
Nocte latent mendæ vitioque ignoscitur omni,
Horaque formosam quamlibet illa facit.
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:--
Crede mihi, mores distant a carmine nostri:
Vita verecunda est, Musa jocosa, mihi.
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: Pœnitentium 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:--
O fortunatos nimium sua si bona norint
Agricolas.
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:--
Lucretia toto
Sis licet usque die: Laida nocte volo.
_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:--
"He knew the cause of every maladye,
Were it of hoot or cold, or moyste, or drye,
And where engendered and of what humour".
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:--
Fleres si scires unum tua tempora mensem:
Rides, cum non sit forsitan una dies.
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: Οὐδὲν πενίας
βαρύτερόν ἐστι φόρτιον. "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_:--
"And though they sweep their hearths no less
Than maids were wont to do,
Yet who of late for cleanliness
Finds sixpence in her shoe?"
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):--
"A boat! a boat! haste to the ferry!
For we go over to be merry,
To laugh and quaff, and drink old sherry".
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:--
"Charon! O Charon! the wafter of all souls to bliss or bane!
Who calls the ferryman of Hell?
Come near and say who lives in bliss and who in pain.
Those that die well eternal bliss shall follow.
Those that die ill their own black deeds shall swallow.
Shall thy black barge those guilty spirits row
That kill themselves for love? Oh, no! oh, no!
My cordage cracks when such foul sins draw near,
No wind blows fair, nor I my boat can steer.
What spirits pass and in Elysium reign?
Those harmless souls that love and are beloved again.
That soul that lives in love and fain would die to win,
Shall he go free? Oh, no! it is too foul a sin.
He must not come aboard, I dare not row,
Storms of despair my boat will overblow.
But when thy mistress (?) shall close up thine eyes then come aboard,
Then come aboard and pass; till then be wise and sing."
"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: Ὠ Ζεῦ
πολυτίμητ', εἶτ' ἐγὼ κακῶς ποτε | ἐρῶ γυναῖκας; νὴ Δί' ἀπολοίμην ἄρα· |
πάντων ἄριστον κτημάτων. 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:--
Suus cuique attributus est error,
Sed non videmus manticae quod in tergo est,
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: Νέας γυναικὸς
οὔ με μὴ λάθῃ φλέγων Ὀφθαλμὸς, ἥτις ἀνδρὸς ᾖ γεγευμένη.
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.] invidiâ 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 quâ vivamus, in quâ 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,
He that unburied lies wants not his hearse,
For unto him a tomb's the universe".
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.