Chapter XVII (4)

I prithee speak. _Lyc._ I will. _End._ Say on.
_Lyc._ 'Tis thou, and only thou,
That art the cause, Endymion.
_End._ For love's sake, tell me how.

_Lyc._ In this regard: that thou do'st play
Upon another plain,
And for a rural roundelay
Strik'st now a courtly strain.

Thou leav'st our hills, our dales, our bowers,
Our finer fleeced sheep,
Unkind to us, to spend thine hours
Where shepherds should not keep.

I mean the court: Let Latmos be
My lov'd Endymion's court.
_End._ But I the courtly state would see.
_Lyc._ Then see it in report.

What has the court to do with swains,
Where Phyllis is not known?
Nor does it mind the rustic strains
Of us, or Corydon.

Break, if thou lov'st us, this delay.
_End._ Dear Lycidas, e're long
I vow, by Pan, to come away
And pipe unto thy song.

Then Jessamine, with Florabell,
And dainty Amaryllis,
With handsome-handed Drosomell
Shall prank thy hook with lilies.

_Lyc._ Then Tityrus, and Corydon,
And Thyrsis, they shall follow
With all the rest; while thou alone
Shalt lead like young Apollo.

And till thou com'st, thy Lycidas,
In every genial cup,
Shall write in spice: Endymion 'twas
That kept his piping up.

And, my most lucky swain, when I shall live to see
Endymion's moon to fill up full, remember me:
Meantime, let Lycidas have leave to pipe to thee.

_Oat_, oaten pipe.
_Prank_, bedeck.
_Drosomell_, honey dew.

493. TO A BED OF TULIPS.

Bright tulips, we do know
You had your coming hither,
And fading-time does show
That ye must quickly wither.

Your sisterhoods may stay,
And smile here for your hour;
But die ye must away,
Even as the meanest flower.

Come, virgins, then, and see
Your frailties, and bemoan ye;
For, lost like these, 'twill be
As time had never known ye.

494. A CAUTION.

That love last long, let it thy first care be
To find a wife that is most fit for thee.
Be she too wealthy or too poor, be sure
_Love in extremes can never long endure_.

495. TO THE WATER NYMPHS DRINKING AT THE FOUNTAIN.

Reach, with your whiter hands, to me
Some crystal of the spring;
And I about the cup shall see
Fresh lilies flourishing.

Or else, sweet nymphs, do you but this,
To th' glass your lips incline;
And I shall see by that one kiss
The water turn'd to wine.

496. TO HIS HONOURED KINSMAN, SIR RICHARD STONE.

To this white temple of my heroes here,
Beset with stately figures everywhere
Of such rare saintships, who did here consume
Their lives in sweets, and left in death perfume,
Come, thou brave man! And bring with thee a stone
Unto thine own edification.
High are these statues here, besides no less
Strong than the heavens for everlastingness:
Where build aloft; and, being fix'd by these,
Set up thine own eternal images.

497. UPON A FLY.

A golden fly one show'd to me,
Clos'd in a box of ivory,
Where both seem'd proud: the fly to have
His burial in an ivory grave;
The ivory took state to hold
A corpse as bright as burnish'd gold.
One fate had both, both equal grace;
The buried, and the burying-place.
Not Virgil's gnat, to whom the spring
All flowers sent to's burying;
Not Martial's bee, which in a bead
Of amber quick was buried;
Nor that fine worm that does inter
Herself i' th' silken sepulchre;
Nor my rare Phil,[K] that lately was
With lilies tomb'd up in a glass;
More honour had than this same fly,
Dead, and closed up in ivory.

_Virgil's gnat_, see 256.
_Martial's bee_, see Note.

[K] _Sparrow._ (Note in the original edition.)

499. TO JULIA.

Julia, when thy Herrick dies,
Close thou up thy poet's eyes:
And his last breath, let it be
Taken in by none but thee.

500. TO MISTRESS DOROTHY PARSONS.

If thou ask me, dear, wherefore
I do write of thee no more,
I must answer, sweet, thy part
Less is here than in my heart.

502. HOW HE WOULD DRINK HIS WINE.

Fill me my wine in crystal; thus, and thus
I see't in's _puris naturalibus_:
Unmix'd. I love to have it smirk and shine;
_'Tis sin I know, 'tis sin to throttle wine_.
What madman's he, that when it sparkles so,
Will cool his flames or quench his fires with snow?

503. HOW MARIGOLDS CAME YELLOW.

Jealous girls these sometimes were,
While they liv'd or lasted here:
Turn'd to flowers, still they be
Yellow, mark'd for jealousy.

504. THE BROKEN CRYSTAL.

To fetch me wine my Lucia went,
Bearing a crystal continent:
But, making haste, it came to pass
She brake in two the purer glass,
Then smil'd, and sweetly chid her speed;
So with a blush beshrew'd the deed.

_Continent_, holder.

505. PRECEPTS.

Good precepts we must firmly hold,
By daily learning we wax old.

506. TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE EDWARD, EARL OF DORSET.

If I dare write to you, my lord, who are
Of your own self a public theatre,
And, sitting, see the wiles, ways, walks of wit,
And give a righteous judgment upon it,
What need I care, though some dislike me should,
If Dorset say what Herrick writes is good?
We know y'are learn'd i' th' Muses, and no less
In our state-sanctions, deep or bottomless.
Whose smile can make a poet, and your glance
Dash all bad poems out of countenance;
So that an author needs no other bays
For coronation than your only praise,
And no one mischief greater than your frown
To null his numbers, and to blast his crown.
_Few live the life immortal. He ensures
His fame's long life who strives to set up yours._

507. UPON HIMSELF.

Thou'rt hence removing (like a shepherd's tent),
And walk thou must the way that others went:
Fall thou must first, then rise to life with these,
Mark'd in thy book for faithful witnesses.

508. HOPE WELL AND HAVE WELL: OR, FAIR AFTER FOUL WEATHER.

What though the heaven be lowering now,
And look with a contracted brow?
We shall discover, by-and-by,
A repurgation of the sky;
And when those clouds away are driven,
Then will appear a cheerful heaven.

509. UPON LOVE.

I held Love's head while it did ache;
But so it chanc'd to be,
The cruel pain did his forsake,
And forthwith came to me.

Ay me! how shall my grief be still'd?
Or where else shall we find
One like to me, who must be kill'd
For being too-too kind?

510. TO HIS KINSWOMAN, MRS. PENELOPE WHEELER.

Next is your lot, fair, to be number'd one,
Here, in my book's canonisation:
Late you come in; but you a saint shall be,
In chief, in this poetic liturgy.

511. ANOTHER UPON HER.

First, for your shape, the curious cannot show
Any one part that's dissonant in you:
And 'gainst your chaste behaviour there's no plea,
Since you are known to be Penelope.
Thus fair and clean you are, although there be
_A mighty strife 'twixt form and chastity_.

_Form_, beauty.

513. CROSS AND PILE.

Fair and foul days trip cross and pile; the fair
Far less in number than our foul days are.

_Trip cross and pile_, come haphazard, like the heads and tails of coins.

514. TO THE LADY CREW, UPON THE DEATH OF HER CHILD.

Why, madam, will ye longer weep,
Whenas your baby's lull'd asleep?
And (pretty child) feels now no more
Those pains it lately felt before.
All now is silent; groans are fled:
Your child lies still, yet is not dead;
But rather like a flower hid here
To spring again another year.

515. HIS WINDING-SHEET.

Come thou, who art the wine and wit
Of all I've writ:
The grace, the glory, and the best
Piece of the rest.
Thou art of what I did intend
The all and end;
And what was made, was made to meet
Thee, thee, my sheet.
Come then, and be to my chaste side
Both bed and bride.
We two, as reliques left, will have
One rest, one grave.
And, hugging close, we will not fear
Lust entering here,
Where all desires are dead or cold
As is the mould;
And all affections are forgot,
Or trouble not.
Here, here the slaves and pris'ners be
From shackles free:
And weeping widows long oppress'd
Do here find rest.
The wronged client ends his laws
Here, and his cause.
Here those long suits of chancery lie
Quiet, or die:
And all Star-Chamber bills do cease,
Or hold their peace.
Here needs no Court for our Request,
Where all are best,
All wise, all equal, and all just
Alike i' th' dust.
Nor need we here to fear the frown
Of court or crown:
_Where fortune bears no sway o'er things,
There all are kings_.
In this securer place we'll keep,
As lull'd asleep;
Or for a little time we'll lie
As robes laid by;
To be another day re-worn,
Turn'd, but not torn:
Or, like old testaments engrost,
Lock'd up, not lost.
And for a while lie here conceal'd,
To be reveal'd
Next at that great Platonick year,
And then meet here.

_Platonick year_, the 36,000th year, in which all persons and things
return to their original state.

516. TO MISTRESS MARY WILLAND.

One more by thee, love, and desert have sent,
T' enspangle this expansive firmament.
O flame of beauty! come, appear, appear
A virgin taper, ever shining here.

517. CHANGE GIVES CONTENT.

What now we like anon we disapprove:
_The new successor drives away old love_.

519. ON HIMSELF.

Born I was to meet with age,
And to walk life's pilgrimage.
Much I know of time is spent,
Tell I can't what's resident.
Howsoever, cares, adieu!
I'll have nought to say to you:
But I'll spend my coming hours
Drinking wine and crown'd with flowers.

_Resident_, remaining.

520. FORTUNE FAVOURS.

Fortune did never favour one
Fully, without exception;
Though free she be, there's something yet
Still wanting to her favourite.

521. TO PHYLLIS, TO LOVE AND LIVE WITH HIM.

Live, live with me, and thou shall see
The pleasures I'll prepare for thee;
What sweets the country can afford
Shall bless thy bed and bless thy board.
The soft, sweet moss shall be thy bed
With crawling woodbine over-spread;
By which the silver-shedding streams
Shall gently melt thee into dreams.
Thy clothing, next, shall be a gown
Made of the fleece's purest down.
The tongues of kids shall be thy meat,
Their milk thy drink; and thou shalt eat
The paste of filberts for thy bread,
With cream of cowslips buttered;
Thy feasting-tables shall be hills
With daisies spread and daffodils,
Where thou shalt sit, and red-breast by,
For meat, shall give thee melody.
I'll give thee chains and carcanets
Of primroses and violets.
A bag and bottle thou shalt have,
That richly wrought, and this as brave;
So that as either shall express
The wearer's no mean shepherdess.
At shearing-times, and yearly wakes,
When Themilis his pastime makes,
There thou shalt be; and be the wit,
Nay, more, the feast, and grace of it.
On holidays, when virgins meet
To dance the heyes with nimble feet,
Thou shall come forth, and then appear
The queen of roses for that year;
And having danced, 'bove all the best,
Carry the garland from the rest.
In wicker baskets maids shall bring
To thee, my dearest shepherling,
The blushing apple, bashful pear,
And shame-fac'd plum, all simp'ring there.
Walk in the groves, and thou shalt find
The name of Phyllis in the rind
Of every straight and smooth-skin tree;
Where kissing that, I'll twice kiss thee.
To thee a sheep-hook I will send,
Be-prank'd with ribands to this end;
This, this alluring hook might be
Less for to catch a sheep than me.
Thou shalt have possets, wassails fine,
Not made of ale, but spiced wine,
To make thy maids and self free mirth,
All sitting near the glitt'ring hearth.
Thou shalt have ribands, roses, rings,
Gloves, garters, stockings, shoes, and strings
Of winning colours, that shall move
Others to lust, but me to love.
These, nay, and more, thine own shall be
If thou wilt love, and live with me.

_Carcanets_, necklaces.
_Wakes_, village feasts on the dedication day of the church.
_The heyes_, a winding, country dance.
_Be-prank'd_, be-decked.

522. TO HIS KINSWOMAN, MISTRESS SUSANNA HERRICK.

When I consider, dearest, thou dost stay
But here a-while, to languish and decay,
Like to these garden-glories, which here be
The flowery-sweet resemblances of thee;
With grief of heart, methinks, I thus do cry:
Would thou hadst ne'er been born, or might'st not die.

523. UPON MISTRESS SUSANNA SOUTHWELL, HER CHEEKS.

Rare are thy cheeks, Susanna, which do show
Ripe cherries smiling, while that others blow.

524. UPON HER EYES.

Clear are her eyes,
Like purest skies,
Discovering from thence
A baby there
That turns each sphere,
Like an Intelligence.

_A baby_, see Note to 38, "To his mistress objecting to him neither
toying nor talking".

525. UPON HER FEET.

Her pretty feet
Like snails did creep
A little out, and then,
As if they played at Bo-Peep,
Did soon draw in again.

526. TO HIS HONOURED FRIEND, SIR JOHN MINCE.

For civil, clean, and circumcised wit,
And for the comely carriage of it,
Thou art the man, the only man best known,
Mark'd for the true wit of a million:
From whom we'll reckon. Wit came in but since
The calculation of thy birth, brave Mince.

527. UPON HIS GREY HAIRS.

Fly me not, though I be grey:
Lady, this I know you'll say;
Better look the roses red
When with white commingled.
Black your hairs are, mine are white;
This begets the more delight,
When things meet most opposite:
As in pictures we descry
Venus standing Vulcan by.

528. ACCUSATION.

If accusation only can draw blood,
None shall be guiltless, be he ne'er so good.

529. PRIDE ALLOWABLE IN POETS.

As thou deserv'st, be proud; then gladly let
The Muse give thee the Delphic coronet.

530. A VOW TO MINERVA.

Goddess, I begin an art;
Come thou in, with thy best part
For to make the texture lie
Each way smooth and civilly;
And a broad-fac'd owl shall be
Offer'd up with vows to thee.

_Civilly_, orderly.
_Owl_, the bird sacred to Athene or Minerva.

534. TO ELECTRA.

'Tis evening, my sweet,
And dark, let us meet;
Long time w'ave here been a-toying,
And never, as yet,
That season could get
Wherein t'ave had an enjoying.

For pity or shame,
Then let not love's flame
Be ever and ever a-spending;
Since now to the port
The path is but short,
And yet our way has no ending.

Time flies away fast,
Our hours do waste,
The while we never remember
How soon our life, here,
Grows old with the year
That dies with the next December.

535. DISCORD NOT DISADVANTAGEOUS.

Fortune no higher project can devise
Than to sow discord 'mongst the enemies.

536. ILL GOVERNMENT.

Preposterous is that government, and rude,
When kings obey the wilder multitude.

_Preposterous_, lit. hind-part before.

537. TO MARIGOLDS.

Give way, and be ye ravish'd by the sun,
And hang the head whenas the act is done,
Spread as he spreads, wax less as he does wane;
And as he shuts, close up to maids again.

538. TO DIANEME.

Give me one kiss
And no more:
If so be this
Makes you poor,
To enrich you,
I'll restore
For that one two
Thousand score.

539. TO JULIA, THE FLAMINICA DIALIS OR QUEEN-PRIEST.

Thou know'st, my Julia, that it is thy turn
This morning's incense to prepare and burn.
The chaplet and Inarculum[L] here be,
With the white vestures, all attending thee.
This day the queen-priest thou art made, t' appease
Love for our very many trespasses.
One chief transgression is, among the rest,
Because with flowers her temple was not dressed;
The next, because her altars did not shine
With daily fires; the last, neglect of wine;
For which her wrath is gone forth to consume
Us all, unless preserved by thy perfume.
Take then thy censer, put in fire, and thus,
O pious priestess! make a peace for us.
For our neglect Love did our death decree;
That we escape. _Redemption comes by thee_.

[L] A twig of a pomegranate, which the queen-priest did use to wear on her head at sacrificing. (Note in the original edition.)

540. ANACREONTIC.

Born I was to be old,
And for to die here:
After that, in the mould
Long for to lie here.
But before that day comes
Still I be bousing,
For I know in the tombs
There's no carousing.

541. MEAT WITHOUT MIRTH.

Eaten I have; and though I had good cheer,
I did not sup, because no friends were there.
Where mirth and friends are absent when we dine
Or sup, there wants the incense and the wine.

542. LARGE BOUNDS DO BUT BURY US.

All things o'er-ruled are here by chance:
The greatest man's inheritance,
Where'er the lucky lot doth fall,
Serves but for place of burial.

543. UPON URSLEY.

Ursley, she thinks those velvet patches grace
The candid temples of her comely face;
But he will say, whoe'er those circlets seeth,
They be but signs of Ursley's hollow teeth.

544. AN ODE TO SIR CLIPSEBY CREW.

Here we securely live and eat
The cream of meat,
And keep eternal fires,
By which we sit, and do divine
As wine
And rage inspires.

If full we charm, then call upon
Anacreon
To grace the frantic thyrse;
And having drunk, we raise a shout
Throughout
To praise his verse.

Then cause we Horace to be read,
Which sung, or said,
A goblet to the brim
Of lyric wine, both swell'd and crown'd,
Around
We quaff to him.

Thus, thus we live, and spend the hours
In wine and flowers,
And make the frolic year,
The month, the week, the instant day
To stay
The longer here.

Come then, brave knight, and see the cell
Wherein I dwell,
And my enchantments too,
Which love and noble freedom is;
And this
Shall fetter you.

Take horse, and come, or be so kind
To send your mind,
Though but in numbers few,
And I shall think I have the heart,
Or part
Of Clipseby Crew.

_Securely_, free from care.
_Thyrse_, a Bacchic staff.
_Instant_, oncoming.
_Numbers_, verses.

545. TO HIS WORTHY KINSMAN, MR. STEPHEN SOAME.

Nor is my number full till I inscribe
Thee, sprightly Soame, one of my righteous tribe;
A tribe of one lip, leaven, and of one
Civil behaviour, and religion;
A stock of saints, where ev'ry one doth wear
A stole of white, and canonised here;
Among which holies be thou ever known,
Brave kinsman, mark'd out with the whiter stone
Which seals thy glory, since I do prefer
Thee here in my eternal calender.

546. TO HIS TOMB-MAKER.

Go I must; when I am gone,
Write but this upon my stone:
Chaste I lived, without a wife,
That's the story of my life.
Strewings need none, every flower
Is in this word, bachelour.

547. GREAT SPIRITS SUPERVIVE.

Our mortal parts may wrapp'd in sear-cloths lie:
_Great spirits never with their bodies die_.

548. NONE FREE FROM FAULT.

Out of the world he must, who once comes in.
_No man exempted is from death, or sin._

549. UPON HIMSELF BEING BURIED.

Let me sleep this night away,
Till the dawning of the day;
Then at th' opening of mine eyes
I, and all the world, shall rise.

550. PITY TO THE PROSTRATE.

'Tis worse than barbarous cruelty to show
No part of pity on a conquered foe.

552. HIS CONTENT IN THE COUNTRY.

Here, here I live with what my board
Can with the smallest cost afford.
Though ne'er so mean the viands be,
They well content my Prew and me.
Or pea, or bean, or wort, or beet,
Whatever comes, content makes sweet.
Here we rejoice, because no rent
We pay for our poor tenement,
Wherein we rest, and never fear
The landlord or the usurer.
The quarter-day does ne'er affright
Our peaceful slumbers in the night.
We eat our own and batten more,
Because we feed on no man's score;
But pity those whose flanks grow great,
Swell'd with the lard of others' meat.
We bless our fortunes when we see
Our own beloved privacy;
And like our living, where we're known
To very few, or else to none.

_Prew_, _i.e._, his servant, Prudence Baldwin.

553. THE CREDIT OF THE CONQUEROR.

He who commends the vanquished, speaks the power
And glorifies the worthy conqueror.

554. ON HIMSELF.

Some parts may perish, die thou canst not all:
The most of thee shall 'scape the funeral.

556. THE FAIRIES.

If ye will with Mab find grace,
Set each platter in his place;
Rake the fire up, and get
Water in, ere sun be set.
Wash your pails, and cleanse your dairies;
Sluts are loathsome to the fairies;
Sweep your house, who doth not so,
Mab will pinch her by the toe.

557. TO HIS HONOURED FRIEND, M. JOHN WEARE, COUNCILLOR.

Did I or love, or could I others draw
To the indulgence of the rugged law,
The first foundation of that zeal should be
By reading all her paragraphs in thee,
Who dost so fitly with the laws unite,
As if you two were one hermaphrodite.
Nor courts[t] thou her because she's well attended
With wealth, but for those ends she was intended:
Which were,--and still her offices are known,--
_Law is to give to ev'ry one his own_;
To shore the feeble up against the strong,
To shield the stranger and the poor from wrong.
This was the founder's grave and good intent:
To keep the outcast in his tenement,
To free the orphan from that wolf-like man,
Who is his butcher more than guardian;
To dry the widow's tears, and stop her swoons,
By pouring balm and oil into her wounds.
This was the old way; and 'tis yet thy course
To keep those pious principles in force.
Modest I will be; but one word I'll say,
Like to a sound that's vanishing away,
Sooner the inside of thy hand shall grow
Hisped and hairy, ere thy palm shall know
A postern-bribe took, or a forked fee,
To fetter Justice, when she might be free.
_Eggs I'll not shave_; but yet, brave man, if I
Was destin'd forth to golden sovereignty,
A prince I'd be, that I might thee prefer
To be my counsel both and chancellor.

_Hisped_ (_hispidus_), rough with hairs.
_Postern-bribe_, a back-door bribe.
_Forked fee_, a fee from both sides in a case; cp. Ben Jonson's
_Volpone_: "Give forked counsel, take provoking gold on either hand".
_Eggs I'll not shave_, a proverb.

560. THE WATCH.

Man is a watch, wound up at first, but never
Wound up again: once down, he's down for ever.
The watch once down, all motions then do cease;
And man's pulse stop'd, all passions sleep in peace.

561. LINES HAVE THEIR LININGS, AND BOOKS THEIR BUCKRAM.

As in our clothes, so likewise he who looks,
Shall find much farcing buckram in our books.

_Farcing_, stuffing.

562. ART ABOVE NATURE: TO JULIA.

When I behold a forest spread
With silken trees upon thy head,
And when I see that other dress
Of flowers set in comeliness;
When I behold another grace
In the ascent of curious lace,
Which like a pinnacle doth show
The top, and the top-gallant too.
Then, when I see thy tresses bound
Into an oval, square, or round,
And knit in knots far more than I
Can tell by tongue, or true-love tie;
Next, when those lawny films I see
Play with a wild civility,
And all those airy silks to flow,
Alluring me, and tempting so:
I must confess mine eye and heart
Dotes less on Nature than on Art.

_Civility_, order.

564. UPON HIS KINSWOMAN, MISTRESS BRIDGET HERRICK.

Sweet Bridget blush'd, and therewithal
Fresh blossoms from her cheeks did fall.
I thought at first 'twas but a dream,
Till after I had handled them
And smelt them, then they smelt to me
As blossoms of the almond tree.

565. UPON LOVE.

I played with Love, as with the fire
The wanton Satyr did;
Nor did I know, or could descry
What under there was hid.

That Satyr he but burnt his lips;
But mine's the greater smart,
For kissing Love's dissembling chips
The fire scorch'd my heart.

_The wanton Satyr_, see Note.

566. UPON A COMELY AND CURIOUS MAID.

If men can say that beauty dies,
Marbles will swear that here it lies.
If, reader, then thou canst forbear
In public loss to shed a tear,
The dew of grief upon this stone
Will tell thee pity thou hast none.

567. UPON THE LOSS OF HIS FINGER.

One of the five straight branches of my hand
Is lop'd already, and the rest but stand
Expecting when to fall, which soon will be;
First dies the leaf, the bough next, next the tree.

568. UPON IRENE.

Angry if Irene be
But a minute's life with me:
Such a fire I espy
Walking in and out her eye,
As at once I freeze and fry.

569. UPON ELECTRA'S TEARS.

Upon her cheeks she wept, and from those showers
Sprang up a sweet nativity of flowers.

NOTES.

NOTES.

2. _Whither, mad maiden_, etc. From Martial, I. iv. 11, 12:--

Aetherias, lascive, cupis volitare per auras:
I, fuge; sed poteras tutior esse domi.

_But for the Court._ Cp. Martial, I. iv. 3, 4.

4. _While Brutus standeth by._ "Brutus and Cato are commonplaces of examples of severe virtue": Grosart. But Herrick is translating. This is from Martial, XI. xvi. 9, 10:--

Erubuit posuitque meum Lucretia librum,
Sed coram Bruto; Brute, recede, leget.

8. _When he would have his verses read._ The thought throughout this poem is taken from Martial, X. xix., beginning:--

Nec doctum satis et parum severum,
Sed non rusticulum nimis libellum
Facundo mea Plinio, Thalia,
I perfer:

where the address to Thalia perhaps explains Herrick's "do not _thou_ rehearse". The important lines are:--

Sed ne tempore non tuo disertam
Pulses ebria januam, videto.
... ... ...
Seras tutior ibis ad lucernas.
Hæc hora est tua, cum furit Lyæus,
Cum regnat rosa, cum madent capilli:
Tunc me vel rigidi legant Catones.

_When laurel spirts i' th' fire._ Burning bay leaves was a Christmas observance. Herrick sings:--

"Of crackling laurel, which foresounds
A plenteous harvest to your grounds":

where compare Tibull. II. v. 81-84. It was also used by maids as a love omen.

_Thyrse ... sacred Orgies._ Herrick's glosses show that the passage he had in mind was Catullus, lxiv. 256-269:--

Harum pars tecta quatiebant cuspide thyrsos
... ... ... ...
Pars obscura cavis celebrabant orgia cistis,
Orgia, quæ frustra cupiunt audire profani.

10. _No man at one time can be wise and love._ Amare et sapere vix deo conceditur. (Publius Syrus.) The quotation is found in both Burton and Montaigne.

12. _Who fears to ask_, etc. From Seneca, _Hippol._ 594-95. Qui timide rogat ... docet negare.

15. _Goddess Isis ... with her scent._ Cp. Plutarch, _De Iside et Osiride_, 15.

17. _He acts the crime._ Seneca: Nil interest faveas sceleri an illud facias.

18. _Two things odious._ From Ecclus. xxv. 2.

31. _A Sister ... about I'll lead._ "Have we not power to lead about a sister, a wife?" 1 Cor. ix. 5.

35. _Mercy and Truth live with thee._ 2 Sam. xv. 20.

38. _To please those babies in your eyes._ The phrase "babies [_i.e._, dolls] in the eyes" is probably only a translation of its metaphor, involved in the use of the Latin _pupilla_ (a little girl), or "pupil," for the central spot of the eye. The metaphor doubtless arose from the small reflections of the inlooker, which appear in the eyes of the person gazed at; but we meet with it both intensified, as in the phrase "to look babies in the eyes" (= to peer amorously), and with its origin disregarded, as in Herrick, where the "babies" are the pupils, and have an existence independent of any inlooker.

_Small griefs find tongue._ Seneca, _Hippol._ 608:

Curæ leves loquuntur, ingentes stupent.

_Full casks._ So G. Herbert, _Jacula Prudentum_ (1640): Empty vessels sound most.

48. _Thus woe succeeds a woe as wave a wave._ Horace, Ep. II. ii. 176: Velut unda supervenit unda. Κύματα κακῶν and κακῶν τρικυμία are common phrases in Greek tragedy.

49. _Cherry-pit._ Printed in the 1654 edition of _Witts Recreations_, where it appears as:--

"_Nicholas_ and _Nell_ did lately sit
Playing for sport at cherry-pit;
They both did throw, and, having thrown,
He got the pit and she the stone".

51. _Ennobled numbers._ This poem is often quoted to prove that Herrick's country incumbency was good for his verse; but if the reference be only to his sacred poems or _Noble Numbers_ these would rather prove the opposite.

52. _O earth, earth, earth, hear thou my voice._ Jerem. xxii. 29: O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord.

56. _Love give me more such nights as these._ A reminiscence of Marlowe's version of Ovid, _Amor_. I. v. 26: "Jove send me more such afternoons as this".

72. _Upon his Sister-in-law, Mistress Elizabeth Herrick_, wife to his brother Thomas (see _infra_, 106).

74. _Love makes me write what shame forbids to speak._ Ovid, _Phædra to Hippol._: Dicere quæ puduit scribere jussit amor.

_Give me a kiss._ Herrick is here imitating the well-known lines of Catullus to Lesbia (_Carm._ v.):--

Da mi basia mille, deinde centum,
Dein mille altera, dein secunda centum,
Deinde usque altera mille, deinde centum,
Dein, cum millia multa fecerimus,
Conturbabimus illa, ne sciamus, etc.

77. _To the King, upon his coming with his army into the west._ Essex had marched into the west in June, 1644, relieved Lyme, and captured royal fortresses in Dorset and Devon. Charles followed him into "the drooping west," and, in September, the Parliamentary infantry were forced to surrender, while Essex himself escaped by sea. Herrick's "white omens" were thus fulfilled.

79. _To the King and Queen upon their unhappy distances._ Henrietta Maria escaped abroad with the crown jewels in 1642, returned the next year and rejoined Charles in the west in 1644, whence she escaped again to France. This poem has been supposed to refer to domestic dissensions; but the "ball of strife" is surely the Civil War in general, and the reference to the parting of 1644.

81. _The Cheat of Cupid._ Herrick is here translating "Anacreon," 31 [3]:--

Μεσονυκτίοις ποθ' ὥραις
στρέφεθ' ἡνίκ' Ἄρκτος ἤδη
κατὰ χεῖρα τὴν Βοώτου,
μερόπων δὲ φῦλα πάντα
κέαται κόπῳ δαμέντα, 5
τότ' Ἔρως ἐπισταθείς μευ
θυρέων ἔκοπτ' ὀχῆας.
τίς, ἔφην, θύρας ἀράσσει;
κατά μευ σχίζεις ὀνείρους.
ὁ δ' Ἔρως, ἄνοιγε, φησίν· 10
βρέφος εἰμί, μὴ φόβησαι·
βρέχομαι δὲ κἀσέληνον
κατὰ νύκτα πεπλάνημαι.
ἐλέησα ταῦτ' ἀκούσας,
ἀνὰ δ' εὐθὺ λύχνον ἅψας 15
ἀνέῳξα, καὶ βρέφος μέν
ἐσορῶ φἐροντα τόξον
πτέρυγάς τε καὶ φαρέτρην.
παρὰ δ' ἱστίην καθῖσα,
παλάμαις τε χεῖρας αὐτοῦ 20
ἀνέθαλπον, ἐκ δὲ χαίτης
ἀπέθλιβον ὑγρὸν ὕδωρ.
ὁ δ', ἐπεὶ κρύος μεθῆκεν,
φέρε, φησί, πειράσωμεν
τόδε τόξον, εἴ τι μοι νῦν 25
βλάβεται βραχεῖσα νευρή.
τανύει δὲ καί με τύπτει
μέσον ἡπαρ, ὥσπερ οἶστρος·
ἀνὰ δ' ἅλλεται καχάζων,
ξένε δ', εἶπε, συγχάρηθι· 30
κέρας ἀβλαβὲς μὲν ἡμῖν,
σὺ δὲ καρδίην πονήσεις.

Some of his phrases, however, prove that he was occasionally more indebted to the Latin version of Stephanus than to the original.

82. _That for seven lusters I did never come._ The fall of Herrick's father from a window, fifteen months after the poet's birth, was imputed at the time to suicide; and it has been reasonably conjectured that some mystery may have attached to the place of his burial. If "seven lusters" can be taken literally for thirty-five years, this poem was written in 1627.

83. _Delight in Disorder._ Cp. Ben Jonson's "Still to be neat, still to be drest," in its turn imitated from one of the _Basia_ of Johannes Bonefonius.

85. _Upon Love._ Printed in _Witts Recreations_, 1654. The only variant is "To tell me" for "To signifie" in the third line.

86. _To Dean Bourn._ "We found many persons in the village who could repeat some of his lines, and none who were not acquainted with his 'Farewell to Dean Bourn,' which they said he uttered as he crossed the brook upon being ejected by Cromwell from the vicarage, to which he had been presented by Charles the First. But they added, with an air of innocent triumph, 'he did see it again,' as was the fact after the restoration." Barron Field in _Quarterly Review_, August, 1810. Herrick was ejected in 1648.

_A rocky generation! a people currish._ Cp. Burton, II. iii. 2: a rude ... uncivil, wild, currish generation.

91. _That man loves not who is not zealous too._ Augustine, _Adv. Adimant._ 13: Qui non zelat, non amat.

92. _The Bag of the Bee._ Printed in _Witts Recreations_, 1654, and in Henry Bold's _Wit a-sporting in a Pleasant Grove of new Fancies_, 1657. Set to music by Henry Lawes.

93. _Luxurious love by wealth is nourished._ Ovid, _Remed. Amor._ 746: Divitiis alitur luxuriosus amor.

95. _Homer himself._ Indignor quandoque bonus dormitat Homerus. Horace, _De Art. Poet._ 359.

100. _To bread and water none is poor._ Seneca, _Excerpt._ ii. 887: Panem et aquam Natura desiderat; nemo ad haec pauper est.

_Nature with little is content._ Seneca, _Ep._ xvi.: Exiguum Natura desiderat. _Ep._ lx.: parvo Natura dimittitur.

106. _A Country Life: To his brother, M. Tho. Herrick._ "Thomas, baptized May 12, 1588, was placed by his uncle and guardian, Sir William Heyrick, with Mr. Massam, a merchant in London; but in 1610 he appears to have returned into the country and to have settled in a small farm. It is supposed that this Thomas was the father of Thomas Heyrick, who in 1668 resided at Market Harborough and issued a trader's token there, and grandfather to the Thomas who was curate of Harborough and published some sermons and poems." Hill's _Market Harborough_, p. 122.

A MS. version of this poem is contained in Ashmole 38, from which Dr. Grosart gives a full collation on pp. cli.-cliii. of his Memorial Introduction. The MS. appears to follow an unrevised version of the poem, and contains a few couplets which Herrick afterwards thought fit to omit. The most important passage comes after line 92: "Virtue had, and mov'd her sphere".

"Nor know thy happy and unenvied state
Owes more to virtue than to fate,
Or fortune too; for what the first secures,
That as herself, or heaven, endures.
The two last fail, and by experience make
Known, not they give again, they take."

_Thrice and above blest._ Felices ter et amplius, Hor. I. _Od._ xiii. 7.

_My soul's half:_ Animæ dimidium meæ, Hor. I. _Od._ iii. 8. The poem is full of such reminiscences: "With holy meal and spirting (MS. crackling) salt" is the "Farre pio et saliente mica" of III. _Od._ xxiii. 20; "Untaught to suffer poverty" the "Indocilis pauperiem pati" of I. _Od._ i. 18; "A heart thrice wall'd" comes from I. _Od._ iii. 9: Illi robur et æs triplex, etc. Similar instances might be multiplied. Note, too, the use of "Lar" and "Genius".

_Jove for our labour all things sells us._ Epicharm. apud Xenoph. _Memor._ II. i. 20, τῶν πόνων Πωλοῦσιν ἡμῖν πάντα τἀγαθ' οἱ θεοί. Quoted by Montaigne, II. xx.

_Wisely true to thine own self._ Possibly a Shakespearian reminiscence of the "to thine own self be true" in the speech of Polonius to Laertes, Hamlet, I. iii. 78.

_A wise man every way lies square._ Cp. Arist. _Eth._ I. x. 11, ὡς ἀληθῶς ἀγαθὸς καὶ τετράγωνος ἄνευ ψόγου.

_For seldom use commends the pleasure._ Voluptates commendat rarior usus. Juvenal, _Sat._ xi. ad fin.

_Nor fear or wish your dying day._ Summum nec metuas diem, nec optes. Mart. X. xlvii. 13.

112. _To the Earl of Westmoreland._ Mildmay Fane succeeded his father, Thomas Fane, the first earl, in March, 1628. At the outbreak of the Civil War he sided with the king, but after a short imprisonment made his submission to the Parliament, and was relieved of the sequestration of his estates. He subsequently printed privately a volume of poems, called _Otia Sacra_, which has been re-edited by Dr. Grosart.

117. _To the Patron of Poets, M. End. Porter._ Five of Herrick's poems are addressed to Endymion Porter, who seems to have been looked to as a patron by all the singers of his day. According to the inscription on a medal of him executed by Varin in 1635, he was then forty-eight, so that he was born in 1587, coming into the world at Aston-under-Hill in Gloucestershire. He went with Charles on his trip to Spain, and after his accession became groom of his bedchamber, was active in the king's service during the Civil War, and died in 1649. He was a collector of works of art both for himself and for the king, and encouraged Rob. Dover's Cotswold games by presenting him with a suit of the king's clothes. À Wood tells us this, and mentions also that he was a friend of Donne, that Gervase Warmsely dedicated his _Virescit Vulnere Virtus_ to him in 1628, and that in conjunction with the Earl of St. Alban's he also received the dedication of Davenant's _Madagascar_.

_Let there be patrons_, etc. Burton, I. ii. 3, § 15. 'Tis an old saying: "Sint Mæcenates, non deerunt, Flacce, Marones" (Mart. VIII. lvi. 5).

Fabius, Cotta, and Lentulus are examples of Roman patrons of poetry, themselves distinguished. Cp. Juvenal, vii. 94.

119. _His tapers thus put out._ So Ovid, _Am._ iii. 9:--

Ecce puer Veneris fert eversamque pharetram
Et fractos arcus, et sine luce facem.

121. _Four things make us happy here._ From

Ὑγιαίνειν μὲν ἄριστον ἀνδρὶ θνατῷ·
δεύτερον δὲ φυὰν καλὸν γενέσθαι·
τὸ τρίτον δὲ πλουτεῖν αδόλως·
καὶ τὸ τέταρτον, ἡβᾶν μετὰ τῶν φίλων.
(Bergk, _Anth. Lyr._, _Scol._ 8.)

123. _The Tear sent to her from Staines._ This is printed in _Witts Recreations_ with no other variation than in the title, which there runs: "A Teare sent his Mistresse". Dr. Grosart notes that Staines was at the time a royal residence.

128. _His Farewell to Sack._ A manuscript version of this poem at the British Museum omits many lines (7, 8, 11-22, 29-36), and contains few important variants. "Of the yet chaste and undefiled bride" is a poor anticipation of line 6, and "To raise the holy madness" for "To rouse the sacred madness" is also weak. For the line and a half:--

"Prithee not smile
Or smile more inly, lest thy looks beguile,"

we have the very inferior passage:--

"I prithee draw in
Thy gazing fires, lest at their sight the sin
Of fierce idolatry shoot into me, and
I turn apostate to the strict command
Of nature; bid me now farewell, or smile
More ugly, lest thy tempting looks beguile".

This MS. version is followed in the first published text in _Witts Recreations_, 1645.

130. _Upon Mrs. Eliz. Wheeler._ "The lady complimented in this poem was probably a relation by marriage. Herrick's first cousin, Martha, the seventh daughter of his uncle Robert, married Mr. John Wheeler." Nott.

132. _Fold now thine arms._ A sign of grief. Cp. "His arms in this sad knot". _Tempest._

134. _Mr. J. Warr._ This John Warr is probably the same as the "honoured friend, Mr. John Weare, Councellour," of a later poem. Dr. Grosart quotes an "Epitaph upon his honoured friend, Master Warre," by Randolph. Nothing is known of him, but I find in the Oxford Register that a John Warr matriculated at Exeter College, 16th May, 1619, and proceeded M.A. in 1624. He may possibly be Herrick's friend.

137. _Dowry with a wife._ Cp. Ovid, _Ars Am._ ii. 155: Dos est uxoria lites.

139. _The Wounded Cupid._ This is taken from Anacreon, 33 [40]:--

Ἔρως ποτ' ἐν ῥόδοισιν
κοιμωμένην μέλιτταν
οὐκ εἶδεν, ἀλλ' ἐτοώθη
τὸν δάκτυλον· παταχθείς
τὰς χεῖρας ὠλόλυξεν·
δραμὼν δὲ καὶ πετασθεις
πρὸς τὴν καλὴν Κυθήρην
ὄλωλα, μᾶτερ, εἶπεν,
ὄλωλα κἀποθνήσκω·
ὄφις μ' ἔτυψε μικρός
πτερωτός, ὃν καλοῦσιν
μέλιτταν οἱ γεωργοί.
ἁ δ' εἶπεν· εἰ τὸ κέντρον
πονεῖ τὸ τᾶς μελίττας,
πόσον δοκεῖς πονοῦσιν,
Ἔρως, ὅσους σὺ βάλλεις;

142. _A Virgin's face she had._ Herrick is imitating a charming passage from the first Æneid (ll. 315-320), in which Æneas is confronted by Venus:--

Virginis os habitumque gerens et virginis arma,
Spartanae vel qualis equos Threissa fatigat
Harpalyce volucremque fuga praevertitur Eurum.
Namque umeris de more habilem suspenderat arcum
Venatrix, dederatque comam diffundere ventis,
Nuda genu nodoque sinus collecta fluentis.

_With a wand of myrtle_, etc. Cp. Anacreon, 7 [29]:--

Ὑακινθίνῃ με ῥάβδῳ
χαλέπως, Ἔρως ῥαπίζων ... εἶπε·
Σὺ γὰρ οὐ δύνῃ φιλῆσαι.

146. _Upon the Bishop of Lincoln's Imprisonment._ John Williams (1582-1650), Bishop of Lincoln, 1621; Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal, 1621-1625; suspended and imprisoned, 1637-1640, on a frivolous charge of having betrayed the king's secrets; Archbishop of York, 1641. Save from this poem and the _Carol_ printed in the Appendix we know nothing of his relations with Herrick. He had probably stood in the way of the poet's obtaining holy orders or preferment. When Herrick was appointed to the cure of Dean Prior in 1629, Williams had already lost favour at the Court.

147. _Cynthius pluck ye by the ear._ Cp. Virg. _Ecl._ vi. 3: Cynthius aurem Vellit et admonuit; and Milton's _Lycidas_, 77: "Phœbus replied and touched my trembling ears".

_The lazy man the most doth love._ Cp. Ovid, _Remed. Amor._ 144: Cedit amor rebus: res age, tutus eris. Nott. But Ovid could also write: Qui nolet fieri desidiosus amet (1 _Am._ ix. 46).

149. _Sir Thomas Southwell_, of Hangleton, Sussex, knighted 1615, died before December 16, 1642.

_Those tapers five._ Mentioned by Plutarch, _Qu. Rom._ 2. For their significance see Ben Jonson's _Masque of Hymen_.

_O'er the threshold force her in._ The custom of lifting the bride over the threshold, probably to avert an ill-omened stumble, has prevailed among the most diverse races. For the anointing of the doorposts Brand quotes Langley's translation of Polydore Vergil: "The bryde anoynted the poostes of the doores with swynes' grease, because she thought by that meanes to dryve awaye all misfortune, whereof she had her name in Latin 'Uxor ab unguendo'".

_To gather nuts._ A Roman marriage custom mentioned in Catullus, _Carm._ lxi. 124-127, the _In Nuptias Juliæ et Manlii_, which Herrick keeps in mind all through this ode.

_With all lucky birds to side._ Bona cum bona nubit alite virgo. Cat. _Carm._ lxi. 18.

_But when ye both can say Come._ The wish in this case appears to have been fulfilled, as Lady Southwell administered to her husband's estate, Dec. 16, 1642, and her own estate was administered on the thirtieth of the following January.

_Two ripe shocks of corn._ Cp. Job v. 26.

153. _His wish._ From Hor. _Epist._ I. xviii. 111, 112:--

Sed satis est orare Jovem quæ donat et aufert;
Det vitam, det opes; æquum mî animum ipse parabo:

where Herrick seems to have read _qui_ for _quæ_.

157. _No Herbs have power to cure Love._ Ovid, _Met._ i. 523; id. _Her._ v. 149: Nullis amor est medicabilis herbis. For the 'only one sovereign salve' cp. Seneca, _Hippol._ 1189: Mors amoris una sedamen.

159. _The Cruel Maid._ Printed in _Witts Recreations_, 1650, with no other variant than the mistaken omission of "how" in l. 7. I do not think that it has been yet pointed out that the whole poem is a close imitation of Theocritus, xxiii. 19-47:--

Ἄγριε παῖ καὶ στυγνέ, κ.τ.λ.

Possibly Herrick meant to translate the whole poem, which would explain his initial _And_. But cp. Ben Jonson's _Engl. Gram._ ch. viii.: "'And' in the beginning of a sentence serveth instead of an admiration".

164. _To a Gentlewoman objecting to him his gray hairs._ Mr. Hazlitt quotes an early MS. copy headed: "An old man to his younge Mrs.". The variants, as he observes, are mostly for the worse. The poem may have been suggested to Herrick by Anacreon, 6 [11]:--

Λέγουσιν αἱ γυναῖκες,
Ἀνακρέων, γέρων εἶ·
λαβὼν ἔσοπτρον ἄθρει
κόμας μὲν οὐκέτ' οὔσας κ.τ.λ.

168. _Jos. Lo. Bishop of Exeter._ Joseph Hall, 1574-1656, author of the satires.

169. _The Countess of Carlisle._ Lucy, the second wife of James, first Earl of Carlisle, the Lady Carlisle of Browning's _Strafford_.

170. _I fear no earthly powers._ Probably suggested by Anacreon [36], beginning: τί με τοὺς νόμους διδάσκεις; Cp. also 7 [15]: Οὔ μοι μέλει τὰ Γύγεω.

172. _A Ring presented to Julia._ Printed without variation in _Witts Recreations_, 1650, under the title: "With a O to Julia".

174. _Still thou reply'st: The Dead._ Cp. Martial, VIII. lxix. 1, 2:--

Miraris veteres, Vacerra, solos
Nec laudas nisi mortuos poetas.

178. _Corinna's going a-Maying._ Herrick's poem is a charming expansion of Chaucer's theme: "For May wol have no slogardye a night". The account of May-day customs in Brand (vol. i. pp. 212-234) is unusually full, and all Herrick's allusions can be illustrated from it. Dr. Nott compares the last stanza to Catullus, _Carm._ v.; but parallels from the classic poets could be multiplied indefinitely.

_The God unshorn_ of l. 2 is from Hor. I. _Od_. xxi. 2: Intonsum pueri dicite Cynthium.

181. _A dialogue between Horace and Lydia._ Hor. III. _Od._ ix.

_Ramsey._ Organist of Trinity College, Cambridge, 1628-1634. Some of his music still exists in MS.

185. _An Ode to Master Endymion Porter, upon his brother's death._ Endymion Porter is said to have had an only brother, Giles, who died in the king's service at Oxford, _i.e._, between 1642 and 1646, and it has been taken for granted that this ode refers to his death. The supposition is possibly right, but if so, the ode, despite its beauty, is so gratingly and extraordinarily selfish that we may wonder if the dead brother is not the William Herrick of the next poem. The first verse is, of course, a soliloquy of Herrick's, not, as Dr. Grosart suggests, addressed to him by Porter. Dr. Nott again parallels Catullus, _Carm_. v.

186. _To his dying brother, Master William Herrick._ According to Dr. Grosart and Mr. Hazlitt the poet had an elder brother, William, baptized at St. Vedast's, Foster Lane, Nov. 24, 1585 (he must have been born some months earlier, if this date be right, for his sister Martha was baptized in the following January), and alive in 1629, when he acted as one of the executors of his mother's will. But, it is said, there was also another brother named William, born in 1593, after his father's death, "at Harry Campion's house at Hampton". I have not been able to find the authority for this last statement, which, as it asserts the co-existence of two brothers, of the same name, is certainly surprising. According to Dr. Grosart, it is the younger William who "died young" and was addressed in this poem, but I must own to feeling some doubt in the matter.

193. _The Lily in a Crystal._ The poem may be taken as an expansion of Martial, VIII. lxviii. 5-8:--

Condita perspicuâ vivit vindemia gemmâ
Et tegitur felix, nec tamen uva latet:
Femineum lucet sic per bombycina corpus,
Calculus in nitidâ sic numeratur aquâ.

197. _The Welcome to Sack._ Two MSS. at the British Museum (Harl. 6931 and Add. 19,268) contain copies of this important poem. These copies differ considerably from the printed version, are proved by small variations to be independent of each other, and at the same time agree in all important points. We may conclude, therefore, that they represent an earlier version of the poem, subsequently revised by Herrick before the issue of _Hesperides_. In the subjoined copy, in which the two MSS. are corrected from each other, italics show the variations, asterisks mark lines omitted in _Hesperides_, and a dagger the absence of lines subsequently added.

"So _swift_ streams meet, so springs with gladder smiles
Meet after long divorcement _made by_ isles:
When love (the child of likeness) urgeth on
Their crystal _waters_ to an union.
So meet stol'n kisses when the moonie _night_
Calls forth fierce lovers to their wisht _delight_:
So kings and queens meet, when desire convinces
All thoughts, _save those that tend to_ getting princes.
As I meet thee, Soul of my life and fame!
Eternal Lamp of Love, whose radiant flame
Out-_darts_ the heaven's Osiris; and thy _gems
Darken_ the splendour of his mid-day beams.
Welcome, O welcome, my illustrious spouse!
Welcome as are the ends unto my vows:
_Nay_, far more welcome than the happy soil
The sea-scourged merchant, after all his toil,
Salutes with tears of joy, when fires _display_
The _smoking_ chimneys of his Ithaca.
Where hast thou been so long from my embraces,
Poor pitied exile? Tell me, did thy Graces
Fly discontented hence, and for a time
_Choose rather for_ to bless _some_ other clime?
†*_Oh, then, not longer let my sweet defer
*Her buxom smiles from me, her worshipper!_
Why _have those amber_ looks, the which have been
Time-past so fragrant, sickly now _call'd_ in
Like a dull twilight? Tell me, *_hath my soul
*Prophaned in speech or done an act that is foul
*Against thy purer essence?_ _For that_ fault
I'll expiate with sulphur, hair and salt:
And with the crystal humour of the spring
Purge hence the guilt, and kill _the_ quarrelling.
_Wilt_ thou not smile, _nor_ tell me what's amiss?
Have I been cold to hug thee, too remiss,
Too temperate in embracing? Tell me, has desire
To-thee-ward died in the embers, and no fire
Left in _the_ raked-up _ashes_, as a mark
To testify the glowing of a spark?
†_I must_ confess I left thee, and appeal
'Twas done by me more to _increase_ my zeal,
And double my affection[†]; as do those
Whose love grows more inflamed by being _froze_.
But to forsake thee, [†] could there _ever_ be
A thought of such-like possibility?
When _all the world may know that vines_ shall lack
Grapes, before Herrick _leave_ Canary sack.
*_Sack is my life, my leaven, salt to all
*My dearest dainties, nay, 'tis the principal
*Fire unto all my functions, gives me blood,
*An active spirit, full marrow, and, what is good,_
_Sack makes_ me _sprightful, airy_ to be borne,
Like Iphyclus, upon the tops of corn.
_Sack makes_ me nimble, as the wingèd hours,
To dance and caper _o'er the tops_ of flowers,
And ride the sunbeams. Can there be a thing
Under the _cope of heaven_ that can bring
More _joy_ unto my _soul_, or can present
My Genius with a fuller blandishment?
Illustrious Idol! _Can_ the Egyptians seek
Help from the garlick, onion and the leek,
And pay no vows to thee, who _art the_ best
God, and far more _transcending_ than the rest?
Had Cassius, that weak water-drinker, known
Thee in _the_ Vine, or had but tasted one
Small chalice of thy _nectar, he, even_ he
As the wise Cato had approved of thee.
Had not Jove's son, the _rash_ Tyrinthian swain
(Invited to the Thesbian banquet), ta'ne
Full goblets of thy [†] blood; his *_lustful_ sprite
_Had not_ kept heat for fifty maids that night.
†As Queens meet Queens, _so let sack come to_ me
_Or_ as Cleopatra _unto_ Anthonie,
When her high _visage_ did at once present
To the Triumvir love and wonderment.
Swell up my _feeble sinews_, let my blood
†Fill each part full of fire,* _let all my good_
_Parts be encouraged_, active to do
What thy commanding soul shall put _me_ to,
And till I turn apostate to thy love,
Which here I vow to serve, _never_ remove
Thy _blessing_ from me; but Apollo's curse
Blast _all mine_ actions; or, a thing that's worse,
When these circumstants _have the fate_ to see
The time _when_ I prevaricate from thee,
Call me the Son of Beer, and then confine
Me to the tap, the toast, the turf; let wine
Ne'er shine upon me; _let_ my _verses_ all
_Haste_ to a sudden death and funeral:
And last, _dear Spouse, when I thee_ disavow,
_May ne'er_ prophetic Daphne crown my brow."

Certainly this manuscript version is in every way inferior to that printed in the _Hesperides_, and Herrick must be reckoned among the poets who are able to revise their own work.

_The smoky chimneys of his Ithaca._ Ovid, I. _de Ponto_, ix. 265:--

Non dubia est Ithaci prudentia sed tamen optat
Fumum de patriis posse videre focis.

_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 totâ vitâ 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.):--

Si linguam clauso tenes in ore,
Fructus projicies amoris omnes:
Verbosa gaudet Venus loquela.