Besides his
theological
works,
he published (in 1637) a Lexicon Pentaglotton.
he published (in 1637) a Lexicon Pentaglotton.
Robert Herrick - Hesperide and Noble Numbers
_ Sir John Denham
published in 1642 his _Cooper's Hill_, a poem on the view over the
Thames towards London, from a hill near Windsor.
675. _Their fashion is, but to say no_, etc. Cp. Montaigne's _Essais_,
II. 3, p. 51; Florio's tr. p. 207: "Let it suffice that in doing it they
say no and take it".
676. _Love is maintained by wealth. _ Ovid, _Rem. Am. _ 746: Divitiis
alitur luxuriosus amor.
679. _Nero commanded, but withdrew his eyes. _ Tacit. _Agric. _ 45: Nero
subtraxit oculos, jussitque scelera, non spectavit.
683. _But a just measure both of Heat and Cold. _ This is a version of
the medieval doctrine of the four humours. So Chaucer says of his Doctor
of Physic:--
"He knew the cause of every maladye,
Were it of hoot or cold, or moyste, or drye,
And where engendered and of what humour".
684. _'Gainst thou go'st a-mothering. _ The Epistle for Mid-Lent Sunday
was from Galat. iv. 21, etc. , and contained the words: "Jerusalem, quæ
est Mater nostra". On that Sunday people made offerings at their Mother
Church. After the Reformation the natural mother was substituted for the
spiritual, and the day was set apart for visiting relations. Excellent
simnel cakes (Low Lat. , _siminellus_, fine flour) are still made in the
North, where the current derivation of the word is from _Sim_ and
_Nell_!
685. _To the King. _ Probably written in 1645, when Charles was for a
short time in the West.
689. _Too much she gives to some, enough to none. _ Mart. XII. x. ;
Fortuna multis dat nimis, satis nulli.
696. _Men mind no state in sickness. _ There is a general resemblance in
this poem to the latter part of Hor. III. _Od. _ i. , but I have an uneasy
sense that Herrick is translating.
697. _Adversity. _ Printed in _Witts Recreations_, 1650.
702. _Mean things overcome mighty. _ Cp. 486 and Note.
706. _How roses came red. _ Cp. Burton, _Anat. Mel. _ III. ii. 3:
"Constantine (_Agricult. _ xi. 18) makes Cupid himself to be a great
dancer: by the same token that he was capering among the gods, he flung
down a bowl of nectar, which, distilling upon the white rose, ever since
made it red".
709. _Tears and Laughter. _ Bishop Jebb quotes a Latin couplet inscribed
on an old inn at Four Crosses, Staffordshire:--
Fleres si scires unum tua tempora mensem:
Rides, cum non sit forsitan una dies.
710. _Tully says. _ Cic. _Tusc. Disp. _ III. ii. 3: Gloria est frequens de
aliquo, fama cum laude.
713. _His return to London. _ Written at the same time as his _Farewell
to Dean Bourn_, _i. e. _, after his ejection in 1648, the year of the
publication of the _Hesperides_.
715. _No pack like poverty. _ Burton, _Anat. Mel. _ iii. 3: Οὐδὲν πενίας
βαρύτερόν ἐστι φόρτιον. "No burden, saith Menander, is so intolerable as
poverty. "
718. _As many laws_, etc. Tacit. _Ann. _ iii. 27: Corruptissima in
republica plurimæ leges.
723. _Lay down some silver pence. _ Cp. Bishop Corbet's _The Faeryes
Farewell_:--
"And though they sweep their hearths no less
Than maids were wont to do,
Yet who of late for cleanliness
Finds sixpence in her shoe? "
725. _Times that are ill . . . Clouds will not ever_, etc. , two
reminiscences of Horace, II. _Od. _ x. 17, and ix.
727. _Up tails all. _ This tune will be found in Chappell's _Popular
Music of the Olden Time_, vol. i. p. 196. He notes that it was a
favourite with Herrick, who wrote four other poems in the metre, viz. :
_The Hag is Astride_, _The Maypole is up_, _The Peter-penny_, and
_Twelfth Night: or, King and Queen_. The tune is found in Queen
Elizabeth's Virginal Book, and in the _Dancing Master_ (1650-1690). It
is alluded to by Ben Jonson, and was a favourite with the Cavaliers.
730. _Charon and Philomel. _ This dialogue is found with some slight
variations of text in Rawlinson's MS. poet. 65. fol. 32. The following
variants may be noted: l. 5, _voice_ for _sound_; l. 7, _shade_ for
_bird_; l. 11, _warbling_ for _watching_; l. 12, _hoist up_ for _thus
hoist_; l. 13, _be gone_ for _return_; l. 18, _praise_ for _pray_; l.
19, _sighs_ for _vows_; l. 24, omit _slothful_. The dialogue is
succeeded in the MS. by an old catch (probably written before Herrick
was born):--
"A boat! a boat! haste to the ferry!
For we go over to be merry,
To laugh and quaff, and drink old sherry".
After the catch comes the following dialogue, written (it would seem) in
imitation of Herrick's _Charon and Philomel_: the speakers' names are
not marked:--
"Charon! O Charon! the wafter of all souls to bliss or bane!
Who calls the ferryman of Hell?
Come near and say who lives in bliss and who in pain.
Those that die well eternal bliss shall follow.
Those that die ill their own black deeds shall swallow.
Shall thy black barge those guilty spirits row
That kill themselves for love? Oh, no! oh, no!
My cordage cracks when such foul sins draw near,
No wind blows fair, nor I my boat can steer.
What spirits pass and in Elysium reign?
Those harmless souls that love and are beloved again.
That soul that lives in love and fain would die to win,
Shall he go free? Oh, no! it is too foul a sin.
He must not come aboard, I dare not row,
Storms of despair my boat will overblow.
But when thy mistress (? ) shall close up thine eyes then come aboard,
Then come aboard and pass; till then be wise and sing. "
"Then come aboard" from the penultimate line and "and sing" from the
last should clearly be struck out.
739. _O Jupiter_, etc. Eubulus in Athenaeus, xiii. 559: Ὠ Ζεῦ
πολυτίμητ', εἶτ' ἐγὼ κακῶς ποτε | ἐρῶ γυναῖκας; νὴ Δί' ἀπολοίμην ἄρα· |
πάντων ἄριστον κτημάτων. Comp. 885.
743. _Another upon her Weeping. _ Printed in Witts _Recreations_, 1650,
under the title: _On Julia's Weeping_.
745. _To Sir John Berkeley, Governour of Exeter. _ Youngest son of Sir
Maurice Berkeley, of Bruton, in Somersetshire; knighted in Berwick in
1638; commander-in-chief of all the Royalist forces in Devonshire, 1643;
captured Exeter Sept. 4 of that year, and held it till April 13, 1646.
Created Baron Berkeley of Stratton, in Cornwall, 1658; died 1678.
749. _Consultation. _ As noted in the text, this is from Sallust, _Cat. _
i.
751. _None sees the fardell of his faults behind. _ Cp. Catullus, xxii.
20, 21:--
Suus cuique attributus est error,
Sed non videmus manticae quod in tergo est,
or, perhaps more probably from Seneca, _de Irá_, ii. 28: Aliena vitia in
oculis habemus; à tergo nostra sunt.
755. _The Eye. _ Æschyl. _Fragm. _ in Plutarch, _Amat. _ 21: Νέας γυναικὸς
οὔ με μὴ λάθῃ φλέγων Ὀφθαλμὸς, ἥτις ἀνδρὸς ᾖ γεγευμένη.
756. _To Prince Charles upon his coming to Exeter. _ In August, 1645.
761. _The Wake. _ Printed in _Witts Recreations_, 1650, under the title:
_Alvar and Anthea_.
763. _To Doctor Alabaster. _ William Alabaster, or Alablaster, born at
Hadleigh, Suffolk (1567); educated at Westminster and Trinity College,
Cambridge; a friend of Spencer; was converted to Roman Catholicism while
chaplain to the Earl of Essex in Spain, 1596. In 1607 he began his
series of apocalyptic writings by an _Apparatus in Revelationem Jesu
Christi_. On visiting Rome he was imprisoned by the Inquisition,
escaped, and returned to Protestantism.
Besides his theological works,
he published (in 1637) a Lexicon Pentaglotton. Died April, 1640.
766. _Time is the bound of things_, etc. From Seneca, _Consol. ad Marc. _
xix. : Excessit filius tuus terminos intra quos servitur . . . mors omnium
dolorum solutio est et finis.
771. _As I have read must be the first man up_, etc. Hor. I. _Ep. _ vi.
48: Hoc primus repetas opus, hoc postremus omittas.
_Rich compost. _ Cp. the same thought in 662.
772. _A Hymn to Bacchus. _ Printed, with the misprint _Bacchus for
Iacchus_ in l. 1, in _Witts Recreations_, 1650.
_Brutus . . . Cato. _ Cp. Note to 4 and 8.
774. _If wars go well_, etc. Tacitus, _Ann. _ iii. 53: cùm rectè factorum
sibi quisque gratiam trahant, unius [Principis scil. ] invidiâ ab omnibus
peccatur.
775. _Niggards of the meanest blood. _ Seneca, _de Clem. _ i. 1: Summa
parsimonia etiam vilissimi sanguinis.
776. _Wrongs, if neglected_, etc. Tacit. _Ann. _ iv. 34: [Probra] spreta
exolescunt, si irascare agnita videntur.
780. _Kings ought to shear_, etc. A saying of Tiberius quoted by
Suetonius: Boni pastoris est tondere oves, non deglubere. Herrick
probably took it from Ben Jonson's _Discoveries_.
784-7. _Ceremonies for Christmas. _ More will be found about the Yule-log
in _Ceremonies for Candlemas Day_ (893); cp. also _The Wassail_ (476).
788. _Power and Peace. _ From Tacitus, _Ann. _ iv. 4: Quanquam arduum sit
eodem loci potentiam et concordiam esse.
789. _Mistress Margaret Falconbridge. _ A daughter, probably, of the
Thomas Falconbridge of number 483.
797. _Kisses. _ Printed in _Witts Recreations_, 1650, with omission of me
in l. 1.
804. _John Crofts, Cup-bearer to the King. _ Third son of Sir John
Crofts, of Saxham, Suffolk. We hear of him in the king's service as
early as 1628, and two years later Lord Conway, in thanking Wm. Weld for
some verses sent him, hopes "the lines are strong enough to bind Robert
Maule and Jack Crofts from ever more using the phrase". So Jack was
probably a bit of a poet himself. He may be the Mr. Crofts for
assaulting whom George, Lord Digby, was imprisoned a month and more, in
1634.
807. _Man may want land to live in. _ Tacitus, _Ann. _ xiii. 56: Addidit
[Boiocalus] Deësse nobis terra in quâ vivamus, in quâ moriamur non
potest, quoted by Montaigne, II. 3.
809. _Who after his transgression doth repent. _ Seneca, _Agam. _ 243:
Quem poenitet peccasse paene est innocens.
810. _Grief, if't be great 'tis short. _ Seneca, quoted by Burton (II.
iii. 1, § 1): "Si longa est, levis est; si gravis est, brevis est. If it
be long, 'tis light; if grievous, it cannot last. "
817. _The Amber Bead. _ Cp. Martial's epigram quoted in Note to 497. The
comparison to Cleopatra is from Mart. IV. xxxii.
818. _To my dearest sister, M. Mercy Herrick. _ Not quite five years his
senior. She married John Wingfield, of Brantham, Suffolk, to whom also
Herrick addresses a poem.
820. _Suffer that thou canst not shift. _ From Seneca; the title from
_Ep. _ cvii. : Optimum est pati quod emendare non possis, the epigram from
_De Provid. _ 4, as translated by Thomas Lodge, 1614, "Vertuous
instructions are never delicate. Doth fortune beat and rend us? Let us
suffer it"--whence Herrick reproduces the printer's error, _Vertuous_
for Vertues (Virtue's).
821. _For a stone has Heaven his tomb. _ Cp. Sir T. Browne, _Relig. Med. _
§ 40: "Nor doe I altogether follow that rodomontado of Lucan (_Phars. _
vii. 819): Coelo tegitur qui non habet urnam,
He that unburied lies wants not his hearse,
For unto him a tomb's the universe".
823. _To the King upon his taking of Leicester. _ May 31, 1645, a brief
success before Naseby.
825. _'Twas Cæsar's saying. _ Tiberius ap. Tacit. _Ann. _ ii. 26: Se
novies a divo Augusto in Germaniam missum plura consilio quam vi
perfecisse.
830. _His Loss. _ A reference to his ejection from Dean Prior.
837. _Mistress Amy Potter. _ Daughter of Barnabas Potter, Bishop of
Carlisle, Herrick's predecessor at Dean Prior.
839. _Love is a circle . . . from good to good. _ So Burton, III. i. 1, §
2: Circulus a bono in bonum.
844. TO HIS BOOK. _Make haste away. _ Martial, III. ii. Ad Librum
suum--Festina tibi vindicem parare, Ne nigram cito raptus in culinam
Cordyllas madidâ tegas papyro, Vel thuris piperisque sis cucullus. _To
make loose gowns for mackerel. _ From Catullus, xcv. 1:--
At Volusi annales Paduam morientur ad ipsam,
Et laxas scombris saepe dabunt tunicas.
846. _And what we blush to speak_, etc. Ovid, _Phaedra to Hipp. _ 10:
Dicere quae puduit scribere jussit amor.
849. _'Tis sweet to think_, etc. Seneca, _Herc. Fur. _ 657-58: Quae fuit
durum pati Meminisse dulce est.
851. _To Mr. Henry Lawes, the excellent composer of his lyrics. _ Henry
Lawes (1595-1662), the friend of Milton, admitted a Gentleman of the
Chapel Royal, 1625. In the _Noble Numbers_ he is mentioned as the
composer of Herrick's _Christmas Carol_ and the first of his two
_New-Year's Gifts_. Lawes also set to music Herrick's _Not to Love_, _To
Mrs. Eliz. Wheeler_ (Among the Myrtles as I walked), _The Kiss_, _The
Primrose_, _To a Gentlewoman objecting to him his Grey Hairs_, and
doubtless others.
852. _Maidens tell me I am old. _ From Anacreon:
Λέγουσιν αἱ γυναῖκες
Ἀνακρέων γέρων εἶ κ. τ. λ.
With a significant variation--"Ill it fits"--for μᾶλλον πρέπει.
859. _Master J. Jincks. _ Not identified.
861. _Kings seek their subjects' good, tyrants their own. _ Aristot.
_Politics_, iii. 7: καλεῖν εἰώθαμεν τῶν μὲν μοναρχιῶν τὴν πρὸς τὸ κοινὸν
ἀποβλέπουσαν συμφέρον βασιλείαν . . . ἡ τυραννίς ἐστι μοναρχία πρὸς τὸ
συμφέρον τὸ τοῦ μοναρχοῦντος.
869. _Sir Thomas Heale. _ Probably a son of the Sir Thomas Hele, of
Fleet, Co. Devon, who died in 1624. This Sir Thomas was created a
baronet in 1627, and according to Dr. Grosart was one of the Royalist
commanders at the siege of Plymouth. He died 1670.
872. _Love is a kind of war. _ Ovid, _Ars Am. _ II. 233, 34:--
Militiae species amor est: discedite segnes!
published in 1642 his _Cooper's Hill_, a poem on the view over the
Thames towards London, from a hill near Windsor.
675. _Their fashion is, but to say no_, etc. Cp. Montaigne's _Essais_,
II. 3, p. 51; Florio's tr. p. 207: "Let it suffice that in doing it they
say no and take it".
676. _Love is maintained by wealth. _ Ovid, _Rem. Am. _ 746: Divitiis
alitur luxuriosus amor.
679. _Nero commanded, but withdrew his eyes. _ Tacit. _Agric. _ 45: Nero
subtraxit oculos, jussitque scelera, non spectavit.
683. _But a just measure both of Heat and Cold. _ This is a version of
the medieval doctrine of the four humours. So Chaucer says of his Doctor
of Physic:--
"He knew the cause of every maladye,
Were it of hoot or cold, or moyste, or drye,
And where engendered and of what humour".
684. _'Gainst thou go'st a-mothering. _ The Epistle for Mid-Lent Sunday
was from Galat. iv. 21, etc. , and contained the words: "Jerusalem, quæ
est Mater nostra". On that Sunday people made offerings at their Mother
Church. After the Reformation the natural mother was substituted for the
spiritual, and the day was set apart for visiting relations. Excellent
simnel cakes (Low Lat. , _siminellus_, fine flour) are still made in the
North, where the current derivation of the word is from _Sim_ and
_Nell_!
685. _To the King. _ Probably written in 1645, when Charles was for a
short time in the West.
689. _Too much she gives to some, enough to none. _ Mart. XII. x. ;
Fortuna multis dat nimis, satis nulli.
696. _Men mind no state in sickness. _ There is a general resemblance in
this poem to the latter part of Hor. III. _Od. _ i. , but I have an uneasy
sense that Herrick is translating.
697. _Adversity. _ Printed in _Witts Recreations_, 1650.
702. _Mean things overcome mighty. _ Cp. 486 and Note.
706. _How roses came red. _ Cp. Burton, _Anat. Mel. _ III. ii. 3:
"Constantine (_Agricult. _ xi. 18) makes Cupid himself to be a great
dancer: by the same token that he was capering among the gods, he flung
down a bowl of nectar, which, distilling upon the white rose, ever since
made it red".
709. _Tears and Laughter. _ Bishop Jebb quotes a Latin couplet inscribed
on an old inn at Four Crosses, Staffordshire:--
Fleres si scires unum tua tempora mensem:
Rides, cum non sit forsitan una dies.
710. _Tully says. _ Cic. _Tusc. Disp. _ III. ii. 3: Gloria est frequens de
aliquo, fama cum laude.
713. _His return to London. _ Written at the same time as his _Farewell
to Dean Bourn_, _i. e. _, after his ejection in 1648, the year of the
publication of the _Hesperides_.
715. _No pack like poverty. _ Burton, _Anat. Mel. _ iii. 3: Οὐδὲν πενίας
βαρύτερόν ἐστι φόρτιον. "No burden, saith Menander, is so intolerable as
poverty. "
718. _As many laws_, etc. Tacit. _Ann. _ iii. 27: Corruptissima in
republica plurimæ leges.
723. _Lay down some silver pence. _ Cp. Bishop Corbet's _The Faeryes
Farewell_:--
"And though they sweep their hearths no less
Than maids were wont to do,
Yet who of late for cleanliness
Finds sixpence in her shoe? "
725. _Times that are ill . . . Clouds will not ever_, etc. , two
reminiscences of Horace, II. _Od. _ x. 17, and ix.
727. _Up tails all. _ This tune will be found in Chappell's _Popular
Music of the Olden Time_, vol. i. p. 196. He notes that it was a
favourite with Herrick, who wrote four other poems in the metre, viz. :
_The Hag is Astride_, _The Maypole is up_, _The Peter-penny_, and
_Twelfth Night: or, King and Queen_. The tune is found in Queen
Elizabeth's Virginal Book, and in the _Dancing Master_ (1650-1690). It
is alluded to by Ben Jonson, and was a favourite with the Cavaliers.
730. _Charon and Philomel. _ This dialogue is found with some slight
variations of text in Rawlinson's MS. poet. 65. fol. 32. The following
variants may be noted: l. 5, _voice_ for _sound_; l. 7, _shade_ for
_bird_; l. 11, _warbling_ for _watching_; l. 12, _hoist up_ for _thus
hoist_; l. 13, _be gone_ for _return_; l. 18, _praise_ for _pray_; l.
19, _sighs_ for _vows_; l. 24, omit _slothful_. The dialogue is
succeeded in the MS. by an old catch (probably written before Herrick
was born):--
"A boat! a boat! haste to the ferry!
For we go over to be merry,
To laugh and quaff, and drink old sherry".
After the catch comes the following dialogue, written (it would seem) in
imitation of Herrick's _Charon and Philomel_: the speakers' names are
not marked:--
"Charon! O Charon! the wafter of all souls to bliss or bane!
Who calls the ferryman of Hell?
Come near and say who lives in bliss and who in pain.
Those that die well eternal bliss shall follow.
Those that die ill their own black deeds shall swallow.
Shall thy black barge those guilty spirits row
That kill themselves for love? Oh, no! oh, no!
My cordage cracks when such foul sins draw near,
No wind blows fair, nor I my boat can steer.
What spirits pass and in Elysium reign?
Those harmless souls that love and are beloved again.
That soul that lives in love and fain would die to win,
Shall he go free? Oh, no! it is too foul a sin.
He must not come aboard, I dare not row,
Storms of despair my boat will overblow.
But when thy mistress (? ) shall close up thine eyes then come aboard,
Then come aboard and pass; till then be wise and sing. "
"Then come aboard" from the penultimate line and "and sing" from the
last should clearly be struck out.
739. _O Jupiter_, etc. Eubulus in Athenaeus, xiii. 559: Ὠ Ζεῦ
πολυτίμητ', εἶτ' ἐγὼ κακῶς ποτε | ἐρῶ γυναῖκας; νὴ Δί' ἀπολοίμην ἄρα· |
πάντων ἄριστον κτημάτων. Comp. 885.
743. _Another upon her Weeping. _ Printed in Witts _Recreations_, 1650,
under the title: _On Julia's Weeping_.
745. _To Sir John Berkeley, Governour of Exeter. _ Youngest son of Sir
Maurice Berkeley, of Bruton, in Somersetshire; knighted in Berwick in
1638; commander-in-chief of all the Royalist forces in Devonshire, 1643;
captured Exeter Sept. 4 of that year, and held it till April 13, 1646.
Created Baron Berkeley of Stratton, in Cornwall, 1658; died 1678.
749. _Consultation. _ As noted in the text, this is from Sallust, _Cat. _
i.
751. _None sees the fardell of his faults behind. _ Cp. Catullus, xxii.
20, 21:--
Suus cuique attributus est error,
Sed non videmus manticae quod in tergo est,
or, perhaps more probably from Seneca, _de Irá_, ii. 28: Aliena vitia in
oculis habemus; à tergo nostra sunt.
755. _The Eye. _ Æschyl. _Fragm. _ in Plutarch, _Amat. _ 21: Νέας γυναικὸς
οὔ με μὴ λάθῃ φλέγων Ὀφθαλμὸς, ἥτις ἀνδρὸς ᾖ γεγευμένη.
756. _To Prince Charles upon his coming to Exeter. _ In August, 1645.
761. _The Wake. _ Printed in _Witts Recreations_, 1650, under the title:
_Alvar and Anthea_.
763. _To Doctor Alabaster. _ William Alabaster, or Alablaster, born at
Hadleigh, Suffolk (1567); educated at Westminster and Trinity College,
Cambridge; a friend of Spencer; was converted to Roman Catholicism while
chaplain to the Earl of Essex in Spain, 1596. In 1607 he began his
series of apocalyptic writings by an _Apparatus in Revelationem Jesu
Christi_. On visiting Rome he was imprisoned by the Inquisition,
escaped, and returned to Protestantism.
Besides his theological works,
he published (in 1637) a Lexicon Pentaglotton. Died April, 1640.
766. _Time is the bound of things_, etc. From Seneca, _Consol. ad Marc. _
xix. : Excessit filius tuus terminos intra quos servitur . . . mors omnium
dolorum solutio est et finis.
771. _As I have read must be the first man up_, etc. Hor. I. _Ep. _ vi.
48: Hoc primus repetas opus, hoc postremus omittas.
_Rich compost. _ Cp. the same thought in 662.
772. _A Hymn to Bacchus. _ Printed, with the misprint _Bacchus for
Iacchus_ in l. 1, in _Witts Recreations_, 1650.
_Brutus . . . Cato. _ Cp. Note to 4 and 8.
774. _If wars go well_, etc. Tacitus, _Ann. _ iii. 53: cùm rectè factorum
sibi quisque gratiam trahant, unius [Principis scil. ] invidiâ ab omnibus
peccatur.
775. _Niggards of the meanest blood. _ Seneca, _de Clem. _ i. 1: Summa
parsimonia etiam vilissimi sanguinis.
776. _Wrongs, if neglected_, etc. Tacit. _Ann. _ iv. 34: [Probra] spreta
exolescunt, si irascare agnita videntur.
780. _Kings ought to shear_, etc. A saying of Tiberius quoted by
Suetonius: Boni pastoris est tondere oves, non deglubere. Herrick
probably took it from Ben Jonson's _Discoveries_.
784-7. _Ceremonies for Christmas. _ More will be found about the Yule-log
in _Ceremonies for Candlemas Day_ (893); cp. also _The Wassail_ (476).
788. _Power and Peace. _ From Tacitus, _Ann. _ iv. 4: Quanquam arduum sit
eodem loci potentiam et concordiam esse.
789. _Mistress Margaret Falconbridge. _ A daughter, probably, of the
Thomas Falconbridge of number 483.
797. _Kisses. _ Printed in _Witts Recreations_, 1650, with omission of me
in l. 1.
804. _John Crofts, Cup-bearer to the King. _ Third son of Sir John
Crofts, of Saxham, Suffolk. We hear of him in the king's service as
early as 1628, and two years later Lord Conway, in thanking Wm. Weld for
some verses sent him, hopes "the lines are strong enough to bind Robert
Maule and Jack Crofts from ever more using the phrase". So Jack was
probably a bit of a poet himself. He may be the Mr. Crofts for
assaulting whom George, Lord Digby, was imprisoned a month and more, in
1634.
807. _Man may want land to live in. _ Tacitus, _Ann. _ xiii. 56: Addidit
[Boiocalus] Deësse nobis terra in quâ vivamus, in quâ moriamur non
potest, quoted by Montaigne, II. 3.
809. _Who after his transgression doth repent. _ Seneca, _Agam. _ 243:
Quem poenitet peccasse paene est innocens.
810. _Grief, if't be great 'tis short. _ Seneca, quoted by Burton (II.
iii. 1, § 1): "Si longa est, levis est; si gravis est, brevis est. If it
be long, 'tis light; if grievous, it cannot last. "
817. _The Amber Bead. _ Cp. Martial's epigram quoted in Note to 497. The
comparison to Cleopatra is from Mart. IV. xxxii.
818. _To my dearest sister, M. Mercy Herrick. _ Not quite five years his
senior. She married John Wingfield, of Brantham, Suffolk, to whom also
Herrick addresses a poem.
820. _Suffer that thou canst not shift. _ From Seneca; the title from
_Ep. _ cvii. : Optimum est pati quod emendare non possis, the epigram from
_De Provid. _ 4, as translated by Thomas Lodge, 1614, "Vertuous
instructions are never delicate. Doth fortune beat and rend us? Let us
suffer it"--whence Herrick reproduces the printer's error, _Vertuous_
for Vertues (Virtue's).
821. _For a stone has Heaven his tomb. _ Cp. Sir T. Browne, _Relig. Med. _
§ 40: "Nor doe I altogether follow that rodomontado of Lucan (_Phars. _
vii. 819): Coelo tegitur qui non habet urnam,
He that unburied lies wants not his hearse,
For unto him a tomb's the universe".
823. _To the King upon his taking of Leicester. _ May 31, 1645, a brief
success before Naseby.
825. _'Twas Cæsar's saying. _ Tiberius ap. Tacit. _Ann. _ ii. 26: Se
novies a divo Augusto in Germaniam missum plura consilio quam vi
perfecisse.
830. _His Loss. _ A reference to his ejection from Dean Prior.
837. _Mistress Amy Potter. _ Daughter of Barnabas Potter, Bishop of
Carlisle, Herrick's predecessor at Dean Prior.
839. _Love is a circle . . . from good to good. _ So Burton, III. i. 1, §
2: Circulus a bono in bonum.
844. TO HIS BOOK. _Make haste away. _ Martial, III. ii. Ad Librum
suum--Festina tibi vindicem parare, Ne nigram cito raptus in culinam
Cordyllas madidâ tegas papyro, Vel thuris piperisque sis cucullus. _To
make loose gowns for mackerel. _ From Catullus, xcv. 1:--
At Volusi annales Paduam morientur ad ipsam,
Et laxas scombris saepe dabunt tunicas.
846. _And what we blush to speak_, etc. Ovid, _Phaedra to Hipp. _ 10:
Dicere quae puduit scribere jussit amor.
849. _'Tis sweet to think_, etc. Seneca, _Herc. Fur. _ 657-58: Quae fuit
durum pati Meminisse dulce est.
851. _To Mr. Henry Lawes, the excellent composer of his lyrics. _ Henry
Lawes (1595-1662), the friend of Milton, admitted a Gentleman of the
Chapel Royal, 1625. In the _Noble Numbers_ he is mentioned as the
composer of Herrick's _Christmas Carol_ and the first of his two
_New-Year's Gifts_. Lawes also set to music Herrick's _Not to Love_, _To
Mrs. Eliz. Wheeler_ (Among the Myrtles as I walked), _The Kiss_, _The
Primrose_, _To a Gentlewoman objecting to him his Grey Hairs_, and
doubtless others.
852. _Maidens tell me I am old. _ From Anacreon:
Λέγουσιν αἱ γυναῖκες
Ἀνακρέων γέρων εἶ κ. τ. λ.
With a significant variation--"Ill it fits"--for μᾶλλον πρέπει.
859. _Master J. Jincks. _ Not identified.
861. _Kings seek their subjects' good, tyrants their own. _ Aristot.
_Politics_, iii. 7: καλεῖν εἰώθαμεν τῶν μὲν μοναρχιῶν τὴν πρὸς τὸ κοινὸν
ἀποβλέπουσαν συμφέρον βασιλείαν . . . ἡ τυραννίς ἐστι μοναρχία πρὸς τὸ
συμφέρον τὸ τοῦ μοναρχοῦντος.
869. _Sir Thomas Heale. _ Probably a son of the Sir Thomas Hele, of
Fleet, Co. Devon, who died in 1624. This Sir Thomas was created a
baronet in 1627, and according to Dr. Grosart was one of the Royalist
commanders at the siege of Plymouth. He died 1670.
872. _Love is a kind of war. _ Ovid, _Ars Am. _ II. 233, 34:--
Militiae species amor est: discedite segnes!
