18) makes Cupid himself to be a great
dancer: by the same token that he was capering among the gods, he flung
down a bowl of nectar, which, distilling upon the white rose, ever since
made it red".
dancer: by the same token that he was capering among the gods, he flung
down a bowl of nectar, which, distilling upon the white rose, ever since
made it red".
Robert Herrick
H.
Bullen.
604. _Old Religion. _ Certainly not Roman Catholicism, though Jonson was
a Catholic. Herrick uses the noun and its adjective rather curiously of
the dead: cp. 82, "To the reverend shade of his religious Father," and
138, "When thou shalt laugh at my religious dust". There may be
something of this use here, or we may refer to his ancient cult of
Jonson. But the use of the phrase in 870 makes the exact shade of
meaning difficult to fix.
605. _Riches to be but burdens to the mind. _ Seneca _De Provid. _ 6:
Democritus divitias projecit, onus illas bonae mentis existimans.
607. _Who covets more is evermore a slave. _ Hor. I. _Ep. _ x. 41: Serviet
aeternum qui parvo nesciet uti.
615. _No Wrath of Men. _ Cp. Hor. _Od. _ III. iii. 1-8.
616. _To the Maids to walk abroad. _ Printed in _Witts Recreations_,
1650, under the title: _Abroad with the Maids_.
618. _Mistress Elizabeth Lee, now Lady Tracy. _ Elizabeth, daughter of
Thomas, first Lord Leigh of Stoneleigh, in Warwickshire, married John,
third Viscount Tracy. She survived her husband two years, and died in
1688.
624. _Poets. _ _Wantons we are_, etc. From Ovid, _Trist. _ ii. 353-4:--
Crede mihi, mores distant a carmine nostri:
Vita verecunda est, Musa jocosa, mihi.
625. _'Tis cowardice to bite the buried. _ Cp. Ben Jonson, _The
Poetaster_, I. 1: "Envy the living, not the dead, doth bite"; perhaps
from Ovid, _Am. _ I. xv. 39: Pascitur in vivis livor; post fata quiescit.
626. _Noble Westmoreland. _ See Note to 112.
_Gallant Newark. _ Robert Pierrepoint was created Viscount Newark in 1627
and Earl of Kingston in the following year. But Herrick is perhaps
addressing his son, Henry Pierrepoint, afterwards Marquis of Dorchester
(see 962 and Note), who during the first Earl of Kingston's life would
presumably have borne his second title.
633. _Sweet words must nourish soft and gentle love. _ Ovid, _Ars Am. _
ii. 152: Dulcibus est verbis mollis alendus amor.
639. _Fates revolve no flax they've spun. _ Seneca, _Herc. Fur. _ 1812:
Durae peragunt pensa sorores, Nec sua retro fila revolvunt.
642. _Palms . . . gems. _ A Latinism. Cp. Ovid, _Fasti_, i. 152: Et nova de
gravido palmite gemma tumet.
645. _Upon Tears. _ Cp. S. Bernard: Poenitentium lacrimae vinum angelorum.
649. _Upon Lucy. _ Printed in _Witts Recreations_, 1650, under the title,
_On Betty_.
653. _To th' number five or nine. _ Probably Herrick is mistaking the
references in Greek and Latin poets to the mixing of their wine and
water (_e. g. _, Hor. _Od. _ III. xix. 11-17) for the drinking of so many
cups.
654. _Long-looked-for comes at last. _ Cp. G. Herbert, preface to Sibbes'
Funeral Sermon on Sir Thomas Crew (1638): "That ancient adage, 'Quod
differtur non aufertur' for 'Long-looked-for comes at last'".
655. _The morrow's life too late is_, etc. Mart. I. xvi. 12: Sera nimis
vita est crastina: vive hodie.
662. _O happy life_, etc. From Virg. _Georg. _ ii. 458-9:--
O fortunatos nimium sua si bona norint
Agricolas.
It is not uncharacteristic that these fervid praises of country life
were left unfinished.
664. _Arthur Bartly. _ Not yet identified.
665. _Let her Lucrece all day be. _ From Martial XI. civ. 21, 22:--
Lucretia toto
Sis licet usque die: Laida nocte volo.
_Neither will Famish me, nor overfill. _ Mart. I. lviii. 4: Nec volo quod
cruciat, nec volo quod satiat.
667. _Be't for my Bridal or my Burial. _ Cp. Brand, vol. ii. , and Coles'
_Introduction to the Knowledge of Plants_: "Rosemary and bayes are used
by the commons both at funerals and weddings".
672. _Kings ought to be more lov'd than fear'd. _ Seneca, _Octavia_, 459:
Decet timeri Caesarem. At plus diligi.
673. _To Mr. Denham, on his prospective poem. _ Sir John Denham
published in 1642 his _Cooper's Hill_, a poem on the view over the
Thames towards London, from a hill near Windsor.
675. _Their fashion is, but to say no_, etc. Cp. Montaigne's _Essais_,
II. 3, p. 51; Florio's tr. p. 207: "Let it suffice that in doing it they
say no and take it".
676. _Love is maintained by wealth. _ Ovid, _Rem. Am. _ 746: Divitiis
alitur luxuriosus amor.
679. _Nero commanded, but withdrew his eyes. _ Tacit. _Agric. _ 45: Nero
subtraxit oculos, jussitque scelera, non spectavit.
683. _But a just measure both of Heat and Cold. _ This is a version of
the medieval doctrine of the four humours. So Chaucer says of his Doctor
of Physic:--
"He knew the cause of every maladye,
Were it of hoot or cold, or moyste, or drye,
And where engendered and of what humour".
684. _'Gainst thou go'st a-mothering. _ The Epistle for Mid-Lent Sunday
was from Galat. iv. 21, etc. , and contained the words: "Jerusalem, quae
est Mater nostra". On that Sunday people made offerings at their Mother
Church. After the Reformation the natural mother was substituted for the
spiritual, and the day was set apart for visiting relations. Excellent
simnel cakes (Low Lat. , _siminellus_, fine flour) are still made in the
North, where the current derivation of the word is from _Sim_ and
_Nell_!
685. _To the King. _ Probably written in 1645, when Charles was for a
short time in the West.
689. _Too much she gives to some, enough to none. _ Mart. XII. x. ;
Fortuna multis dat nimis, satis nulli.
696. _Men mind no state in sickness. _ There is a general resemblance in
this poem to the latter part of Hor. III. _Od. _ i. , but I have an uneasy
sense that Herrick is translating.
697. _Adversity. _ Printed in _Witts Recreations_, 1650.
702. _Mean things overcome mighty. _ Cp. 486 and Note.
706. _How roses came red. _ Cp. Burton, _Anat. Mel. _ III. ii. 3:
"Constantine (_Agricult. _ xi.
18) makes Cupid himself to be a great
dancer: by the same token that he was capering among the gods, he flung
down a bowl of nectar, which, distilling upon the white rose, ever since
made it red".
709. _Tears and Laughter. _ Bishop Jebb quotes a Latin couplet inscribed
on an old inn at Four Crosses, Staffordshire:--
Fleres si scires unum tua tempora mensem:
Rides, cum non sit forsitan una dies.
710. _Tully says. _ Cic. _Tusc. Disp. _ III. ii. 3: Gloria est frequens de
aliquo, fama cum laude.
713. _His return to London. _ Written at the same time as his _Farewell
to Dean Bourn_, _i. e. _, after his ejection in 1648, the year of the
publication of the _Hesperides_.
715. _No pack like poverty. _ Burton, _Anat. Mel. _ iii. 3: ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? . "No burden, saith Menander, is so intolerable as
poverty. "
718. _As many laws_, etc. Tacit. _Ann. _ iii. 27: Corruptissima in
republica plurimae leges.
723. _Lay down some silver pence. _ Cp. Bishop Corbet's _The Faeryes
Farewell_:--
"And though they sweep their hearths no less
Than maids were wont to do,
Yet who of late for cleanliness
Finds sixpence in her shoe? "
725. _Times that are ill . . . Clouds will not ever_, etc. , two
reminiscences of Horace, II. _Od. _ x. 17, and ix.
727. _Up tails all. _ This tune will be found in Chappell's _Popular
Music of the Olden Time_, vol. i. p. 196. He notes that it was a
favourite with Herrick, who wrote four other poems in the metre, viz. :
_The Hag is Astride_, _The Maypole is up_, _The Peter-penny_, and
_Twelfth Night: or, King and Queen_. The tune is found in Queen
Elizabeth's Virginal Book, and in the _Dancing Master_ (1650-1690). It
is alluded to by Ben Jonson, and was a favourite with the Cavaliers.
730. _Charon and Philomel. _ This dialogue is found with some slight
variations of text in Rawlinson's MS. poet. 65. fol. 32. The following
variants may be noted: l. 5, _voice_ for _sound_; l. 7, _shade_ for
_bird_; l. 11, _warbling_ for _watching_; l. 12, _hoist up_ for _thus
hoist_; l. 13, _be gone_ for _return_; l. 18, _praise_ for _pray_; l.
19, _sighs_ for _vows_; l. 24, omit _slothful_. The dialogue is
succeeded in the MS. by an old catch (probably written before Herrick
was born):--
"A boat! a boat! haste to the ferry!
For we go over to be merry,
To laugh and quaff, and drink old sherry".
After the catch comes the following dialogue, written (it would seem) in
imitation of Herrick's _Charon and Philomel_: the speakers' names are
not marked:--
"Charon! O Charon! the wafter of all souls to bliss or bane!
Who calls the ferryman of Hell?
Come near and say who lives in bliss and who in pain.
Those that die well eternal bliss shall follow.
Those that die ill their own black deeds shall swallow.
Shall thy black barge those guilty spirits row
That kill themselves for love? Oh, no! oh, no!
My cordage cracks when such foul sins draw near,
No wind blows fair, nor I my boat can steer.
What spirits pass and in Elysium reign?
Those harmless souls that love and are beloved again.
That soul that lives in love and fain would die to win,
Shall he go free? Oh, no! it is too foul a sin.
He must not come aboard, I dare not row,
Storms of despair my boat will overblow.
But when thy mistress (? ) shall close up thine eyes then come aboard,
Then come aboard and pass; till then be wise and sing. "
"Then come aboard" from the penultimate line and "and sing" from the
last should clearly be struck out.
739. _O Jupiter_, etc. Eubulus in Athenaeus, xiii. 559: ? ? ? ?
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ', ? ? ? ' ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? | ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ; ? ? ? ? ' ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? |
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Bullen.
604. _Old Religion. _ Certainly not Roman Catholicism, though Jonson was
a Catholic. Herrick uses the noun and its adjective rather curiously of
the dead: cp. 82, "To the reverend shade of his religious Father," and
138, "When thou shalt laugh at my religious dust". There may be
something of this use here, or we may refer to his ancient cult of
Jonson. But the use of the phrase in 870 makes the exact shade of
meaning difficult to fix.
605. _Riches to be but burdens to the mind. _ Seneca _De Provid. _ 6:
Democritus divitias projecit, onus illas bonae mentis existimans.
607. _Who covets more is evermore a slave. _ Hor. I. _Ep. _ x. 41: Serviet
aeternum qui parvo nesciet uti.
615. _No Wrath of Men. _ Cp. Hor. _Od. _ III. iii. 1-8.
616. _To the Maids to walk abroad. _ Printed in _Witts Recreations_,
1650, under the title: _Abroad with the Maids_.
618. _Mistress Elizabeth Lee, now Lady Tracy. _ Elizabeth, daughter of
Thomas, first Lord Leigh of Stoneleigh, in Warwickshire, married John,
third Viscount Tracy. She survived her husband two years, and died in
1688.
624. _Poets. _ _Wantons we are_, etc. From Ovid, _Trist. _ ii. 353-4:--
Crede mihi, mores distant a carmine nostri:
Vita verecunda est, Musa jocosa, mihi.
625. _'Tis cowardice to bite the buried. _ Cp. Ben Jonson, _The
Poetaster_, I. 1: "Envy the living, not the dead, doth bite"; perhaps
from Ovid, _Am. _ I. xv. 39: Pascitur in vivis livor; post fata quiescit.
626. _Noble Westmoreland. _ See Note to 112.
_Gallant Newark. _ Robert Pierrepoint was created Viscount Newark in 1627
and Earl of Kingston in the following year. But Herrick is perhaps
addressing his son, Henry Pierrepoint, afterwards Marquis of Dorchester
(see 962 and Note), who during the first Earl of Kingston's life would
presumably have borne his second title.
633. _Sweet words must nourish soft and gentle love. _ Ovid, _Ars Am. _
ii. 152: Dulcibus est verbis mollis alendus amor.
639. _Fates revolve no flax they've spun. _ Seneca, _Herc. Fur. _ 1812:
Durae peragunt pensa sorores, Nec sua retro fila revolvunt.
642. _Palms . . . gems. _ A Latinism. Cp. Ovid, _Fasti_, i. 152: Et nova de
gravido palmite gemma tumet.
645. _Upon Tears. _ Cp. S. Bernard: Poenitentium lacrimae vinum angelorum.
649. _Upon Lucy. _ Printed in _Witts Recreations_, 1650, under the title,
_On Betty_.
653. _To th' number five or nine. _ Probably Herrick is mistaking the
references in Greek and Latin poets to the mixing of their wine and
water (_e. g. _, Hor. _Od. _ III. xix. 11-17) for the drinking of so many
cups.
654. _Long-looked-for comes at last. _ Cp. G. Herbert, preface to Sibbes'
Funeral Sermon on Sir Thomas Crew (1638): "That ancient adage, 'Quod
differtur non aufertur' for 'Long-looked-for comes at last'".
655. _The morrow's life too late is_, etc. Mart. I. xvi. 12: Sera nimis
vita est crastina: vive hodie.
662. _O happy life_, etc. From Virg. _Georg. _ ii. 458-9:--
O fortunatos nimium sua si bona norint
Agricolas.
It is not uncharacteristic that these fervid praises of country life
were left unfinished.
664. _Arthur Bartly. _ Not yet identified.
665. _Let her Lucrece all day be. _ From Martial XI. civ. 21, 22:--
Lucretia toto
Sis licet usque die: Laida nocte volo.
_Neither will Famish me, nor overfill. _ Mart. I. lviii. 4: Nec volo quod
cruciat, nec volo quod satiat.
667. _Be't for my Bridal or my Burial. _ Cp. Brand, vol. ii. , and Coles'
_Introduction to the Knowledge of Plants_: "Rosemary and bayes are used
by the commons both at funerals and weddings".
672. _Kings ought to be more lov'd than fear'd. _ Seneca, _Octavia_, 459:
Decet timeri Caesarem. At plus diligi.
673. _To Mr. Denham, on his prospective poem. _ Sir John Denham
published in 1642 his _Cooper's Hill_, a poem on the view over the
Thames towards London, from a hill near Windsor.
675. _Their fashion is, but to say no_, etc. Cp. Montaigne's _Essais_,
II. 3, p. 51; Florio's tr. p. 207: "Let it suffice that in doing it they
say no and take it".
676. _Love is maintained by wealth. _ Ovid, _Rem. Am. _ 746: Divitiis
alitur luxuriosus amor.
679. _Nero commanded, but withdrew his eyes. _ Tacit. _Agric. _ 45: Nero
subtraxit oculos, jussitque scelera, non spectavit.
683. _But a just measure both of Heat and Cold. _ This is a version of
the medieval doctrine of the four humours. So Chaucer says of his Doctor
of Physic:--
"He knew the cause of every maladye,
Were it of hoot or cold, or moyste, or drye,
And where engendered and of what humour".
684. _'Gainst thou go'st a-mothering. _ The Epistle for Mid-Lent Sunday
was from Galat. iv. 21, etc. , and contained the words: "Jerusalem, quae
est Mater nostra". On that Sunday people made offerings at their Mother
Church. After the Reformation the natural mother was substituted for the
spiritual, and the day was set apart for visiting relations. Excellent
simnel cakes (Low Lat. , _siminellus_, fine flour) are still made in the
North, where the current derivation of the word is from _Sim_ and
_Nell_!
685. _To the King. _ Probably written in 1645, when Charles was for a
short time in the West.
689. _Too much she gives to some, enough to none. _ Mart. XII. x. ;
Fortuna multis dat nimis, satis nulli.
696. _Men mind no state in sickness. _ There is a general resemblance in
this poem to the latter part of Hor. III. _Od. _ i. , but I have an uneasy
sense that Herrick is translating.
697. _Adversity. _ Printed in _Witts Recreations_, 1650.
702. _Mean things overcome mighty. _ Cp. 486 and Note.
706. _How roses came red. _ Cp. Burton, _Anat. Mel. _ III. ii. 3:
"Constantine (_Agricult. _ xi.
18) makes Cupid himself to be a great
dancer: by the same token that he was capering among the gods, he flung
down a bowl of nectar, which, distilling upon the white rose, ever since
made it red".
709. _Tears and Laughter. _ Bishop Jebb quotes a Latin couplet inscribed
on an old inn at Four Crosses, Staffordshire:--
Fleres si scires unum tua tempora mensem:
Rides, cum non sit forsitan una dies.
710. _Tully says. _ Cic. _Tusc. Disp. _ III. ii. 3: Gloria est frequens de
aliquo, fama cum laude.
713. _His return to London. _ Written at the same time as his _Farewell
to Dean Bourn_, _i. e. _, after his ejection in 1648, the year of the
publication of the _Hesperides_.
715. _No pack like poverty. _ Burton, _Anat. Mel. _ iii. 3: ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? . "No burden, saith Menander, is so intolerable as
poverty. "
718. _As many laws_, etc. Tacit. _Ann. _ iii. 27: Corruptissima in
republica plurimae leges.
723. _Lay down some silver pence. _ Cp. Bishop Corbet's _The Faeryes
Farewell_:--
"And though they sweep their hearths no less
Than maids were wont to do,
Yet who of late for cleanliness
Finds sixpence in her shoe? "
725. _Times that are ill . . . Clouds will not ever_, etc. , two
reminiscences of Horace, II. _Od. _ x. 17, and ix.
727. _Up tails all. _ This tune will be found in Chappell's _Popular
Music of the Olden Time_, vol. i. p. 196. He notes that it was a
favourite with Herrick, who wrote four other poems in the metre, viz. :
_The Hag is Astride_, _The Maypole is up_, _The Peter-penny_, and
_Twelfth Night: or, King and Queen_. The tune is found in Queen
Elizabeth's Virginal Book, and in the _Dancing Master_ (1650-1690). It
is alluded to by Ben Jonson, and was a favourite with the Cavaliers.
730. _Charon and Philomel. _ This dialogue is found with some slight
variations of text in Rawlinson's MS. poet. 65. fol. 32. The following
variants may be noted: l. 5, _voice_ for _sound_; l. 7, _shade_ for
_bird_; l. 11, _warbling_ for _watching_; l. 12, _hoist up_ for _thus
hoist_; l. 13, _be gone_ for _return_; l. 18, _praise_ for _pray_; l.
19, _sighs_ for _vows_; l. 24, omit _slothful_. The dialogue is
succeeded in the MS. by an old catch (probably written before Herrick
was born):--
"A boat! a boat! haste to the ferry!
For we go over to be merry,
To laugh and quaff, and drink old sherry".
After the catch comes the following dialogue, written (it would seem) in
imitation of Herrick's _Charon and Philomel_: the speakers' names are
not marked:--
"Charon! O Charon! the wafter of all souls to bliss or bane!
Who calls the ferryman of Hell?
Come near and say who lives in bliss and who in pain.
Those that die well eternal bliss shall follow.
Those that die ill their own black deeds shall swallow.
Shall thy black barge those guilty spirits row
That kill themselves for love? Oh, no! oh, no!
My cordage cracks when such foul sins draw near,
No wind blows fair, nor I my boat can steer.
What spirits pass and in Elysium reign?
Those harmless souls that love and are beloved again.
That soul that lives in love and fain would die to win,
Shall he go free? Oh, no! it is too foul a sin.
He must not come aboard, I dare not row,
Storms of despair my boat will overblow.
But when thy mistress (? ) shall close up thine eyes then come aboard,
Then come aboard and pass; till then be wise and sing. "
"Then come aboard" from the penultimate line and "and sing" from the
last should clearly be struck out.
739. _O Jupiter_, etc. Eubulus in Athenaeus, xiii. 559: ? ? ? ?
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ', ? ? ? ' ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? | ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ; ? ? ? ? ' ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? |
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
