Chapter XVII (5)

208. _Gather ye rosebuds while ye may._ Set to music by William Lawes in Playford's second book of "Ayres," 1652. Printed in _Witts Recreations_, 1654, with the variants: "Gather _your_ Rosebuds" in l. 1; l. 4, _may_ for _will_; l. 6, _he is getting_ for _he's a-getting_; l. 8, _nearer to his setting_ for _nearer he's to setting_. The opening lines are from Ausonius, ccclxi. 49, 50 (quoted by Burton, _Anat. Mel._ III. 2, 5 § 5):--

Collige, virgo, rosas, dum flos novus, et nova pubes,
Et memor esto aevum sic properare tuum:

cp. also l. 43:--

Quam longa una dies, ætas tam longa rosarum.

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

211. _His poetry his pillar._ A variation upon the Horatian theme:--

"Exegi monumentum aere perennius
Regalique situ pyramidum altius".
(III. _Od._ xxx.)

212. _What though the sea be calm._ Almost literally translated from Seneca, _Ep._ iv.: Noli huic tranquillitati confidere: momento mare evertitur: eodem die ubi luserunt navigia sorbentur.

213. _At noon of day was seen a silver star._ "King Charles the First went to St. Paul's Church the 30th day of May, 1630, to give praise for the birth of his son, attended with all his Peers and a most royal Train, where a bright star appeared at High Noon in the sight of all." (_Stella Meridiana_, 1661.)

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

_The swiftest grace is best._ Ὠκεῖαι χάριτες γλυκερώτεραι. Anth. Pal. x. 30.

214. _Know thy when._ So in _The Star-song_ Herrick sings: "Thou canst clear All doubts and manifest the where".

219. _Lord Bernard Stewart_, fourth son of Esme, third Duke of Lennox, and himself created Earl of Lichfield by Charles I. He commanded the king's troop of guards, and was killed at the battle of Rowton Heath, outside Chester, Sept. 24, 1645.

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

_Trentall._ Properly a set of thirty masses for the repose of a dead man's soul. Here and elsewhere Herrick uses the word as an equivalent for dirge, but Sidney distinguished them: "Let dirige be sung and trentalls rightly read. For love is dead," etc. "Hence, hence profane," is the Latin, _procul o procul este profani_ of Virg. _Æn._ vi. 258, where "profane" is only equivalent to uninitiated.

223. _The Fairy Temple._ For a brief note on Herrick's fairy poems, see Appendix. On the dedication to Mr. John Merrifield, Counsellor-at-Law, Dr. Grosart remarks: "Nothing seems to be now known of Merrifield. It is just possible that--as throughout the poem--the name was an invented one, 'Merry Field'." But the records of the Inner Temple show that the Merrifields were a legal family from Woolmiston, near Crewkerne, Somersetshire. John (son of Richard) Merrifield, the father, was admitted to the Inner Temple in 1581, and John, the son, in 1611. This latter must be Herrick's Counsellor. He rose to be a Master of the Bench in 1638 and Sergeant-at-Law in 1660. He died October, 1666, aged 75, at Crewkerne. On the other hand, it can hardly be doubted that Dr. Grosart is right in regarding the names of the fairy saints as quite imaginary. He nevertheless suggests SS. Titus, Neot, Idus, Ida, Fridian or Fridolin, Trypho, Felan and Felix as the possible prototypes of "Saint _Tit_, Saint _Nit_, Saint _Is_," etc. It should be noted that "Tit and Nit" occur with "Wap and Win" and other obviously made-up names, in Drayton's _Nymphidia_.

229. _Upon Cupid._ Taken from Anacreon, 5 [59].

Στέφος πλέκων ποθ' εὗρον
ἐν τοῖς ῥόδοις Ἔρωτα·
καὶ τῶν πτερῶν κατασχών
ἐβάπτισ' εἰς τὸν οἶνον·
λαβὼν δ' ἔπινον αὐτόν,
καὶ νῦν ἔσω μελῶν μου
πτεροῖσι γαργαλίζει.

234. _Care will make a face._ Ovid, _Ar. Am._ iii. 105: Cura dabit faciem, facies neglecta peribit.

235. _Upon Himself._ Printed in _Witts Recreations_, 1654, under the title: _On an old Batchelor_, and with the variants, _married_ for _wedded_, l. 3, _one_ for _a_ in l. 4, and _Rather than mend me, blind me quite_ in l. 6.

238. _To the Rose._ Printed in _Witts Recreations_, 1654, with the variants _peevish_ for _flowing_ in l. 4, _say, if she frets, that I have bonds_ in l. 6, _that can tame although not kill_ in l. 10, and _now_ for _thus_ in l. 11. The opening couplet is from Martial, VII. lxxxix.:--

I, felix rosa, mollibusque sertis
Nostri cinge comas Apollinaris.

241. _Upon a painted Gentlewoman._ Printed in _Witts Recreations_, 1650, under the title, _On a painted madame_.

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

253. _He that will not love_, etc. Ovid, _Rem. Am._ 15, 16:--

Si quis male fert indignae regna puellae,
Ne pereat nostrae sentiat artis opem.

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

Printed in _Witts Recreations_, 1654, with the variants, '_freezing_ colds and _fiery_ heats,' and 'and how she is _in every_ part'.

256. _Had Lesbia_, etc. See Catullus, _Carm_. iii.

260. _How violets came blue._ Printed in _Witts Recreations_, 1654, as _How the violets came blue_. The first two lines read:--

"The violets, as poets tell,
With Venus wrangling went".

Other variants are _did_ for _sho'd_ in l. 3; _Girl_ for _Girls_; _you_ for _ye_; _do_ for _dare_.

264. _That verse_, etc. Herrick repeats this assurance in a different context in the second of his _Noble Numbers_, _His Prayer for Absolution_.

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

270. _He that may sin, sins least._ Ovid, _Amor._ III. iv. 9, 10:--

Cui peccare licet, peccat minus: ipsa potestas
Semina nequitiae languidiora facit.

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

Οὐ γάμον ἀλλ' Ἀίδαν ἐπινυμφίδιον Κλεαρίστα
δέξατο παρθενίας ἅμματα λυομένα·
Ἄρτι γὰρ ἑσπέριοι νύμφας ἐπὶ δικλίσιν ἄχευν
λωτοί, καὶ θαλάμων ἐπλαταγεῦντο θύραι·
Ἠῷοι δ' ὀλολυγμὸν ἀνέκραγον, ἐκ δ' Ὑμέναιος
σιγαθεὶς γοερὸν φθέγμα μεθαρμόσατο,
Αἱ δ' αὐταὶ καὶ φέγγος ἐδᾳδούχουν παρὰ παστῷ
πεῦκαι καὶ φθιμένᾳ νέρθεν ἔφαινον ὁδόν.

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

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

1 [1].

"What's that we see from far? the spring of Day
Bloom'd from the East, or fair _enamell'd_ May
Blown out of April; or some new
Star fill'd with glory to our view,
Reaching at Heaven,
To add a nobler Planet to the seven?
Say or do we not descry
Some Goddess in a Cloud of Tiffany
To move, or rather the
Emerg_ing_ Venus from the sea?

2 [2].

"'Tis she! 'tis she! or else some more Divine
Enlightened substance; mark how from the shrine
Of holy Saints she paces on
_Throwing about_ Vermilion
And Amber: spice-
ing the chafte-air with fumes of Paradise.
Then come on, come on, and yield
A savour like unto a blessed field,
When the bedabbled morn
Washes the golden ears of corn.

3.

"_Lead on fair paranymphs, the while her eyes,
Guilty of somewhat, ripe the strawberries
And cherries in her cheeks, there's cream
Already spilt, her rays must gleam
Gently thereon,
And so beget lust and temptation
To surfeit and to hunger.
Help on her pace; and, though she lag, yet stir
Her homewards; well she knows
Her heart's at home, howe'er she goes._

4 [3].

"See where she comes; and smell how all the street
Breathes Vine-yards and Pomegranates: O how sweet,
As a fir'd Altar, is each stone
_Spirting forth_ pounded Cinnamon.
The Phœnix nest,
Built up of odours, burneth in her breast.
Who _would not then_ consume
His soul to _ashes_ in that rich perfume? [ash-heaps
Bestroking Fate the while
He burns to embers on the Pile.

5 [4].

"Hymen, O Hymen! tread the sacred _round_ [ground
Shew thy white feet, and head with Marjoram crowned:
Mount up thy flames, and let thy Torch
Display _thy_ Bridegroom in the porch
In his desires
More towering, more _besparkling_ than thy fires: [disparkling
Shew her how his eyes do turn
And roll about, and in their motions burn
Their balls to cinders: haste
Or, _like a firebrand_, he will waste.

6.

"_See how he waves his hand, and through his eyes
Shoots forth his jealous soul, for to surprise
And ravish you his Bride, do you
Not now perceive the soul of C[lipseby] C[rew],
Your mayden knight,
With kisses to inspire
You with his just and holy ire._

7 [5].

"_If so, glide through the ranks of Virgins_, pass
The Showers of Roses, lucky four-leaved grass:
The while the cloud of younglings sing,
And drown _you_ with a flowery spring:
While some repeat
Your praise, and bless you, sprinkling you with Wheat,
While that others do divine,
'Blest is the Bride on whom the Sun doth shine';
And thousands gladly wish
You multiply as _do the_ fish.

8.

"_Why then go forward, sweet Auspicious Bride,
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:--

Postquam est mortem aptus Plautus, comoedia luget;
Scena deserta, dein risus, ludu' jocusque,
Et numeri innumeri simul omnes collacrumarunt.

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

392. _Sir Edward Fish, Knight Baronet_, of Chertsey, in Surrey. Died 1658.

405. _Nor fear or spice or fish._ Herrick is remembering Persius, i. 43: Nec scombros metuentia carmina, nec thus. To form the paper jacket or _tunica_ which wrapt the mackerel in Roman cookery seems to have been the ultimate employment of many poems. Cp. Mart. III. l. 9; IV. lxxxvii. 8; and Catullus, XCV. 8.

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

"Jack, as he piped, laughed among,
The Friar with briars was vilely stung,
He hopped wondrous high.
At last the Friar held up his hand
And said: I can no longer stand,
Oh! I shall dancing die."

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

_He's greedy of his life._ From Seneca, _Thyestes_, 884-85:--

Vitæ est avidus quisquis non vult
Mundo secum pereunte mori.

407. _Upon Himself._ 408. _Another._ Both printed in _Witts Recreations_, 1650, the second under the title of _Love and Liberty_. This last is taken from Corn. Gall. _Eleg._ i. 6, quoted by Montaigne, iii. 5:--

Et mihi dulce magis resoluto vivere collo.

412. _The Mad Maid's Song._ A manuscript version of this song is contained in Harleian MS. 6917, fol. 48, ver. 80. The chief variants are: st. i. l. 2, _morrow_ for _morning_; l. 4, _all dabbled_ for _bedabbled_; st. ii. l. 1, _cowslip_ for _primrose_; l. 3, _tears_ for _flowers_; l. 4, _was_ for _is_; st. v. l. 1, _hope_ for _know_; st. vii. l. 2, _balsam_ for _cowslips_.

415. _Whither dost thou whorry me._ Quo me, Bacche, rapis tui Plenum? Hor. III. _Od._ xxv. 1.

430. _As Sallust saith_, _i.e._, the pseudo-Sallust in the _Epist. ad Cai. Cæs. de Repub. Ordinanda_.

431. _Every time seems short._ Epigr. in Farnabii, _Florileg._ [a. 1629]:--

Τοῖσι μὲν εὖ πράττουσιν ἅπας ὁ βίος βραχύς ἐστιν·
Τοῖς δὲ κακῶς, μία νὺξ ἄπλετός ἐστι χρόνος.

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

"Some sort of pear,
Apple or plum, is neatly laid
(As if it was a tribute paid)
By the round urchin; some mixt wheat
The which the ant did taste, not eat;
Deaf nuts, soft Jews'-ears, and some thin
Chippings, the mice filched from the bin
Of the gray farmer, and to these
The scraps of lentils, chitted peas,
Dried honeycombs, brown acorn cups,
Out of the which he sometimes sups
His herby broth, and there close by
Are pucker'd bullace, cankers (?), dry
Kernels, and withered haws; the rest
Are trinkets fal'n from the kite's nest,
As butter'd bread, the which the wild
Bird snatched away from the crying child,
Blue pins, tags, fesenes, beads and things
Of higher price, as half-jet rings,
Ribbons and then some silken shreaks
The virgins lost at barley-breaks.
Many a purse-string, many a thread
Of gold and silver therein spread,
_Many a counter, many a die,
Half rotten and without an eye,
Lies here about_, and, as we guess,
Some bits of thimbles seem to dress
The brave cheap work; _and for to pave
The excellency of this cave,
Squirrels and children's teeth late shed_,
Serve here, both which _enchequered_
With castors' doucets, which poor they
Bite off themselves to 'scape away:
Brown _toadstones_, ferrets' eyes, _the gum
That shines_," etc.

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

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

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

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

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

453. _Let's live in haste._ From Martial, VII. xlvii. 11, 12:--

Vive velut rapto: fugitivaque gaudia carpe:
Perdiderit nullum vita reversa diem.

457. _While Fates permit._ From Seneca, _Herc. Fur._ 177:--

Dum Fata sinunt,
Vivite laeti: properat cursu
Vita citato, volucrique die
Rota praecipitis vertitur anni.

459. _With Horace_ (IV. _Od._ ix. 29):--

Paulùm sepultae distat inertiae
Celata virtus.

465. _The parting Verse or charge to his Supposed Wife when he travelled._ MS. variants of this poem are found at the British Museum in Add. 22, 603, and in Ashmole MS. 38. Their title, "Mr. Herrick's charge to his wife," led Mr. Payne Collier to rashly identify with the poet a certain Robert Herrick married at St. Clement Danes, 1632, to a Jane Gibbons. The variants are numerous, but not very important. In l. 4 we have "draw wooers" for "draw thousands"; ll. 11-16 are transposed to after l. 28; and "Are the expressions of that itch" is written "As emblems will express that itch"; ll. 27, 28 appear as:--

"For that once lost thou _needst must fall
To one, then prostitute to all:_

And we then have the transposed passage:--

Nor so immurèd would I have
Thee live, as dead, _or_ in thy grave;
But walk abroad, yet wisely well
_Keep 'gainst_ my coming sentinel.
And think _each man thou seest doth doom
Thy thoughts to say, I back am come._

Farther on we have the rather pretty variant:--

"Let them _call thee wondrous fair,
Crown of women_, yet despair".

Eight lines lower "virtuous" is read for "gentle," and the omission of some small words throws some light on a change in Herrick's metrical views as he grew older. The words omitted are bracketed:--

"[And] Let thy dreams be only fed
With this, that I am in thy bed.
And [thou] then turning in that sphere,
Waking findst [shall find] me sleeping there.
But [yet] if boundless lust must scale
Thy fortress and _must_ needs prevail
_'Gainst thee and_ force a passage in," etc.

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

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

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

470. _Few Fortunate._ A variant on the text (Matt. xx. 16): "Many be called but few chosen".

479. _To Rosemary and Bays._ The use of rosemary and bays at weddings forms a section in Brand's chapter on marriage customs (ii. 119). For the gilding he quotes from a wedding sermon preached in 1607 by Roger Hacket: "Smell sweet, O ye flowers, in your native sweetness: be not gilded with the idle art of man". The use of gloves at weddings forms the subject of another section in Brand (ii. 125). He quotes Ben Jonson's _Silent Woman_; "We see no ensigns of a wedding here, no character of a bridal; where be our scarves and our gloves?"

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

_Towers reared high_, etc. Cp. Horace, _Od._ II. x. 9-12.

Saepius ventis agitatur ingens
Pinus, et celsae graviore casu
Decidunt turres, feriuntque summos
Fulgura montes.

486. _He's lord of thy life_, etc. Seneca, _Epist. Mor._ iv.: Quisquis vitam suam contempsit tuae dominus est. Quoted by Montaigne, I. xxiii.

488. _Shame is a bad attendant to a state._ From Seneca, _Hippol._ 431: Malus est minister regii imperii pudor.

_He rents his crown that fears the people's hate._ Also from Seneca, _Oedipus_, 701: Odia qui nimium timet regnare nescit.

496. _To his honoured kinsman, Sir Richard Stone_, son of John Stone, sergeant-at-law, the brother of Julian Stone, Herrick's mother. He died in 1660.

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

"A city here of heroes I have made
Upon the rock whose firm foundation laid
Shall never shrink; where, making thine abode,
Live thou a Selden, that's a demi-god".

It is noteworthy that the poems which contain the clearest reference to this Temple (or its variants) are mostly addressed to kinsfolk, _e.g._, this to Sir Richard Stone, to Mrs. Penelope Wheeler, to Mr. Stephen Soame, and to Susanna and Thomas Herrick. Other recipients of the honour are Sir Edward Fish and Dr. Alabaster, Jack Crofts, Master J. Jincks, etc.

497. _All flowers sent_, etc. See Virgil's--or the Virgilian--_Culex_, ll. 397-410.

_Martial's bee._ See _Epig._ IV. xxxii.

De ape electro inclusa.
Et latet et lucet Phaethontide condita gutta,
Ut videatur apis nectare clausa suo.
Dignum tantorum pretium tulit illa laborum.
Credibile est ipsam sic voluisse mori.

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

"Grow up in beauty, as thou dost begin,
And be of all admired, Thomasine".

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

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

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

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

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

514. _To the Lady Crew, upon the death of her child._ This must be the child buried in Westminster Abbey, according to the entry in the register "1637/8, Feb. 6. Sir Clipsy Crewe's daughter, in the North aisle of the monuments." Colonel Chester annotates: "She was a younger daughter, and was born at Crewe, 27th July, 1631. She died on the 4th of February, and must have been an independent heiress, as her father administered to her estate on the 24th May following."

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

517. _The new successor drives away old love._ From Ovid, _Rem. Am._ 462: Successore novo vincitur omnis amor.

519. _Born I was to meet with age._ Cp. 540. From Anacreon, 38 [24]:--

Ἐπείδη βρότος ἐτέχθην,
Βιότου τρίβον ὁδεύειν,
Χρόνον ἔγνων ὃν παρῆλθον,
Ὅν δ' ἔχω δραμεῖν οὐκ οἶδα·
Μέθετέ με, φρονίιδες·
Μηδέν μοι καὶ ὑμῖν ἔστω.
Πρὶν ἐμὲ φθάσῃ τὸ τέρμα,
Παίξω, γελάσω, χορεύσω,
Μετὰ τοῦ καλοῦ Λυαίου.

520. _Fortune did never favour one._ From Dionys. Halicarn. as quoted by Burton, II. iii. 1, § 1.

521. _To Phillis to love and live with him._ A variant on Marlowe's theme: "Come live with me and be my love". Donne's _The Bait_ (printed in Grosart's edition, vol. ii. p. 206) is another.

522. _To his Kinswoman, Mistress Susanna Herrick_, wife of his elder brother Nicholas.

523. _Susanna Southwell._ Probably a daughter of Sir Thomas Southwell, for whom Herrick wrote the Epithalamium (No. 149).

525. _Her pretty feet_, etc. Cp. Suckling's "Ballad upon a Wedding":--

"Her feet beneath her petticoat,
Like little mice stole in and out,
As if they feared the light".

526. _To his Honoured Friend, Sir John Mynts._ John Mennis, a Vice-Admiral of the fleet and knighted in 1641, refused to join in the desertion of the fleet to the Parliament. After the Restoration he was made Governor of Dover and Chief Comptroller of the Navy. He was one of the editors of the collection called _Musarum Deliciæ_ (1656), in the first poem of which there is an allusion to--

"That old sack
Young Herrick took to entertain
The Muses in a sprightly vein".

527. _Fly me not_, etc. From Anacreon, 49 [34]:--

Μή με φύγῃς, ὁρῶσα
Τὰν πολιὰν ἔθειραν· ...
Ὅρα κἀν στεφάνοισιν
Ὅπως πρέπει τὰ λευκὰ
Ῥόδοις κρίν' ἐμπλακέντα.

529. _As thou deserv'st be proud._ Cp. Hor. III. _Od._ xxx. 14:--