Credibile est ipsam sic
voluisse
mori.
Robert Herrick - Hesperide and Noble Numbers
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:--
Sume superbiam
Quaesitam meritis et mihi Delphica
Lauro cinge volens, Melpomene, comam.
534. _To Electra. _ Printed in _Witts Recreations_, 1650, where it is
entitled _To Julia_.
536. _Ill Government. . . . When kings obey_, etc. From Seneca, _Octav. _
581:--
Male imperatur, cum regit vulgus duces.
545. _To his Worthy Kinsman, Mr. Stephen Soame_ (the son or, less
probably, the brother of Sir Thomas Soame): _One of my righteous tribe_.
Cp. Note to 496.
547. _Great spirits never with their bodies die. _ Tacit. _Agric. _
46:--"Si quis piorum manibus locus, si, ut sapientibus placet, non cum
corpore extinguuntur magnae animae".
554. _Die thou canst not all. _ Hor. IV. _Od. _ xxx. 6,7.
556. _The Fairies. _ Cp. the old ballad of _Robin Goodfellow_:--
"When house or hearth doth sluttish lie,
I pinch the maids both black and blue";
and Ben Jonson's _Entertainment at Althorpe_, etc.
557. _M. John Weare, Councellour. _ Probably the same as "the
much-lamented Mr. J. Warr" of 134.
_Law is to give to every one his own. _ Cicero, _De Fin. _ v. : Animi
affectio suum cuique tribuens Justitia dicitur.
564. _His Kinswoman, Bridget Herrick_, eldest daughter of his brother
Nicholas.
565. _The Wanton Satyr. _ See Sir E. Dyer's _The Shepherd's Conceit of
Prometheus_:--
"Prometheus, when first from heaven high
He brought down fire, ere then on earth not seen,
Fond of delight, a Satyr standing by
Gave it a kiss, as it like sweet had been.
. . . . . . . . . . . .
The difference is--the Satyr's lips, my heart,
He for a time, I evermore, have smart. "
So _Euphues_: "Satirus not knowing what fire was would needs embrace it
and was burnt;" and Sir John Davies, _False and True Knowledge_.
Transcriber's Endnotes
Numeration Errors in the Hesperides:
Errors in the numbering system, despite the corrections mentioned in
the NOTE TO SECOND EDITION, still exist in the text. A clear example
is shown by _569. UPON ELECTRA'S TEARS_ ending Vol. I, whilst Vol. II
begins with _569. A HYMN TO THE GRACES_. When the poems within the
APPENDIX OF EPIGRAMS are considered, more errors in the numeration
system become apparent.
Without an obvious solution to a discrepancy the numbers remain as
originally printed, however the following alterations have been made
to ensure any details in the NOTES section apply to the relevant
poem.
Page 204. OBERON'S PALACE. "444" changed to _443_.
"443. OBERON'S PALACE. "
Page 221. FEW FORTUNATE. "472" changed to _470_.
"470. FEW FORTUNATE. "
Page 223. THE WASSAIL. "478" changed to _476_.
"476. THE WASSAIL. "
Page 317. Note to 496. "512" changed to _510_.
". . . sometimes a Book (see infra, 510) . . . "
Page 321. Note to 545. "498" changed to _496_.
". . . Cp. Note to 496. . . . "
Page 322. Note to 564. "562" changed to _564_.
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:--
Sume superbiam
Quaesitam meritis et mihi Delphica
Lauro cinge volens, Melpomene, comam.
534. _To Electra. _ Printed in _Witts Recreations_, 1650, where it is
entitled _To Julia_.
536. _Ill Government. . . . When kings obey_, etc. From Seneca, _Octav. _
581:--
Male imperatur, cum regit vulgus duces.
545. _To his Worthy Kinsman, Mr. Stephen Soame_ (the son or, less
probably, the brother of Sir Thomas Soame): _One of my righteous tribe_.
Cp. Note to 496.
547. _Great spirits never with their bodies die. _ Tacit. _Agric. _
46:--"Si quis piorum manibus locus, si, ut sapientibus placet, non cum
corpore extinguuntur magnae animae".
554. _Die thou canst not all. _ Hor. IV. _Od. _ xxx. 6,7.
556. _The Fairies. _ Cp. the old ballad of _Robin Goodfellow_:--
"When house or hearth doth sluttish lie,
I pinch the maids both black and blue";
and Ben Jonson's _Entertainment at Althorpe_, etc.
557. _M. John Weare, Councellour. _ Probably the same as "the
much-lamented Mr. J. Warr" of 134.
_Law is to give to every one his own. _ Cicero, _De Fin. _ v. : Animi
affectio suum cuique tribuens Justitia dicitur.
564. _His Kinswoman, Bridget Herrick_, eldest daughter of his brother
Nicholas.
565. _The Wanton Satyr. _ See Sir E. Dyer's _The Shepherd's Conceit of
Prometheus_:--
"Prometheus, when first from heaven high
He brought down fire, ere then on earth not seen,
Fond of delight, a Satyr standing by
Gave it a kiss, as it like sweet had been.
. . . . . . . . . . . .
The difference is--the Satyr's lips, my heart,
He for a time, I evermore, have smart. "
So _Euphues_: "Satirus not knowing what fire was would needs embrace it
and was burnt;" and Sir John Davies, _False and True Knowledge_.
Transcriber's Endnotes
Numeration Errors in the Hesperides:
Errors in the numbering system, despite the corrections mentioned in
the NOTE TO SECOND EDITION, still exist in the text. A clear example
is shown by _569. UPON ELECTRA'S TEARS_ ending Vol. I, whilst Vol. II
begins with _569. A HYMN TO THE GRACES_. When the poems within the
APPENDIX OF EPIGRAMS are considered, more errors in the numeration
system become apparent.
Without an obvious solution to a discrepancy the numbers remain as
originally printed, however the following alterations have been made
to ensure any details in the NOTES section apply to the relevant
poem.
Page 204. OBERON'S PALACE. "444" changed to _443_.
"443. OBERON'S PALACE. "
Page 221. FEW FORTUNATE. "472" changed to _470_.
"470. FEW FORTUNATE. "
Page 223. THE WASSAIL. "478" changed to _476_.
"476. THE WASSAIL. "
Page 317. Note to 496. "512" changed to _510_.
". . . sometimes a Book (see infra, 510) . . . "
Page 321. Note to 545. "498" changed to _496_.
". . . Cp. Note to 496. . . . "
Page 322. Note to 564. "562" changed to _564_.
