I add a few
readings
from Brit.
Robert Herrick
_ Gregory, p.
75, on "the reverend Say of Zoroaster, Seek
Paradise," quotes from the Scholiast Psellus: "The Chaldaean Paradise
(saith he) is a Quire of divine powers incircling the Father".
178. _The Jews when they built houses. _ Herrick's rabbinical lore (cp.
180, 181, 193, 207, 224), like his patristic, was probably derived at
second hand through some biblical commentary. Much of it certainly comes
from the _Notes and Observations upon some Passages of Scripture_
(Oxford, 1646) of John Gregory, chaplain of Christ Church, a prodigy of
oriental learning, who died in his 39th year, March 13, 1646. Thus in
his Address to the Reader (3rd page from end) Gregory remarks: "The
Jews, when they build a house, are bound to leave some part of it
unfinished in memory of the destruction of Jerusalem," giving a
reference to Leo of Modena, _Degli Riti Hebraici_, Part I.
180. _Observation. The Virgin Mother_, etc. Gregory, pp. 24-27, shows
that Sitting, the usual posture of mourners, was forbidden by both Roman
and Jewish Law "in capital causes". "This was the reason why . . . she
stood up still in a resolute and almost impossible compliance with the
Law. . . . They sat . . . after leave obtained . . . to bury the body. "
181. _Tapers. _ Cp. Gregory's _Notes_, p. 111: "The funeral tapers
(however thought of by some) are of the same harmless import. Their
meaning is to show that the departed souls are not quite put out, but
having walked here as the children of the Light are now gone to walk
before God in the light of the living. "
185. _God in the holy tongue. _ J. G. , p. 135: "God is called in the Holy
Tongue . . . the Place; or that Fulness which filleth All in All".
186, 187, 188, 189, 197. _God's Presence, Dwelling_, etc. J. G. , pp.
135-9: "Shecinah, or God's Dwelling Presence". "God is said to be nearer
to this man than to that, more in one place than in another. Thus he is
said to depart from some and come to others, to leave this place and to
abide in that, not by essential application of Himself, much less by
local motion, but by impression of effect. " "With just men (saith St.
Bernard) God is present, _in veritate_, in deed, but with the wicked,
dissemblingly. " "He is called in the Holy Tongue, Jehovah, He that is,
or Essence. " "He is said to dwell there (saith Maimon) where He putteth
the marks . . . of His Majesty; and He doth this by His Grace and Holy
Spirit. "
190. _The Virgin Mary. _ J. G. , p. 86: "St. Ephrem upon those words of
Jacob, This is the House of God, and this is the Gate of Heaven. This
saying (saith he) is to be meant of the Virgin Mary . . . truly to be
called the House of God, as wherein the Son of God . . . inhabited, and as
truly the Gate of Heaven, for the Lord of heaven and earth entered
thereat; and it shall not be set open the second time, according to that
of Ezekiel (xliv. 2): I saw (saith he) a gate in the East; the glorious
Lord entered thereat; thenceforth that gate was shut, and is not any
more to be opened (_Catena Arab. _ c. 58). "
192. _Upon Woman and Mary. _ The reference is to Christ's appearance to
St. Mary Magdalene in the Garden after the Resurrection, John xx. 15,
16.
193. _North and South. _ Comp. _Hesper. _ 429. _Observation_. J. G. , pp.
92, 93: "Whosoever (say the Doctors in Berachoth) shall set his bed N.
and S. , shall beget male children. Therefore the Jews hold this rite of
collocation . . . to this day. . . . They are bound to place their . . . house
of office in the very same situation . . . that the uncomely necessities
. . . might not fall into the Walk and Ways of God, whose Shecinah or
dwelling presence lieth W. and E. "
195. _Noah the first was_, etc. Cp. Gregory, _Notes_, p. 28.
201. _Temporal goods. _ August. , quoted by Burton, II. iii. 3: Dantur
quidem bonis, saith Austin, ne quis mala aestimet, malis autem ne quis
nimis bona.
203. _Speak, did the blood of Abel cry_, etc. Cp. Gregory's _Notes_, pp.
118: "But did the blood of Abel speak? saith Theophylact. Yes, it cried
unto God for vengeance, as that of sprinkling for propitiation and
mercy. "
204. _A thing of such a reverend reckoning. _ Cp. Gregory, 118-9: "The
blood of Abel was so holy and reverend a thing, in the sense and
reputation of the old world, that the men of that time used to swear by
it".
205. _A Position in the Hebrew Divinity. _ From Gregory's _Notes_, pp.
134, 5: "That old position in the Hebrew Divinity . . . that a repenting
man is of more esteem in the sight of God than one that never fell
away".
206. _The Doctors in the Talmud. _ From Gregory's _Notes_, _l. c. _: "The
Doctors in the Talmud say, that one day spent here in true Repentance is
more worth than eternity itself, or all the days of heaven in the other
world".
207. _God's Presence. _ Again from Gregory's Notes, pp. 136 sq.
208. _The Resurrection. _ Gregory's _Notes_, pp. 128-29, translating from
a Greek MS. of Mathaeus Blastares in the Bodleian: "The wonder of this is
far above that of the resurrection of our bodies; for then the earth
giveth up her dead but one for one, but in the case of the corn she
giveth up many living ones for one dead one".
243. _Confession twofold is. _ August, in Ps. xxix. _Enarr. _ ii. 19:
Confessio gemina est, aut peccati, aut laudis.
254. _Gold and frankincense. _ St. Matt. ii. 11. St. Ambrose. Aurum Regi,
thus Deo.
256. _The Chewing the Cud. _ Cp. Lev. xi. 6.
258. _As my little pot doth boil_, etc. This far-fetched little poem
is an instance of Herrick's habit of jotting down his thoughts in verse.
In cooking some food for a charitable purpose he seems to have noticed
that the boiling pot tossed the meat to and fro, or "waved" it (the
priest's work), and that he himself was giving away the meat he lifted
off the fire, the "heave-offering," which was the priest's perquisite.
This is the confusion or "level-coil" to which he alludes.
NOTES TO ADDITIONAL POEMS.
_The Description of a Woman_. Printed in _Witts Recreations_, 1645, and
contained also in Ashmole MS. 38, where it is signed: "Finis. Robert
Herrick. " Our version is taken from _Witts Recreations_, with the
exception of the readings _show_ and _grow_ (for _shown_ and _grown_, in
ll. 15 and 16). The Ashmole MS. contains in all thirty additional lines,
which may or may not be by Herrick, but which, as not improving the
poem, have been omitted in our text in accordance with the precedent set
by the editor of _Witts Recreations_.
_Mr. Herrick: his Daughter's Dowry. _ From Ashmole MS. 38, where it is
signed: "Finis. Robt. Hericke. "
_Mr. Robert Herrick: his Farewell unto Poetry. _ Printed by Dr. Grosart
and Mr. Hazlitt from Ashmole MS. 38.
I add a few readings from Brit.
Mus. Add. MS. 22, 603, where it is entitled: _Herrick's Farewell to
Poetry_. The importance of the poem for Herrick's biography is alluded
to in the brief "Life" prefixed to vol. i.
For _some sleepy keys_ the Museum MS. reads, _the sleeping keys_; for
_yet forc't they are to go_ it has _and yet are forc't to go_; _drinking
to the odd Number of Nine_ for _Number of Wine_, as to which see below;
_turned her home_ for _twirled her home_; _dear soul_ for _rare soul_.
All these are possible, but _beloved Africa_, and the omission of the
two half lines, "'tis not need The scarecrow unto mankind," are pure
blunders.
_Drinking to the odd Number of Nine_. I introduce this into the text
from the Museum manuscript as agreeing with the
"Well, I can quaff, I see,
To th' number five
Or nine"
of _A Bacchanalian Verse_ (_Hesperides_ 653), on which see Note. Dr.
Grosart explains the Ashmole reading _Wine_ by the Note "_? ? ? ? ? _ and
_vinum_ both give five, the number of perfection"; but this seems too
far-fetched for Herrick.
_Kiss, so depart. _ By a strange freak Ashmole MS. writes _Guesse_, and
the Museum MS. _Ghesse_; but the emendation _Kiss_ (adopted both by Dr.
Grosart and Mr. Hazlitt) cannot be doubted.
_Well doing's the fruit of doing well. _ Seneca, _de Clem. _ i. 1: Recte
factorum verus fructus [est] fecisse. Also _Ep. _ 81: Recte facti fecisse
merces est. The latter, and Cicero, _de Finib. _ II. xxii. 72, are quoted
by Montaigne, _Ess. _ II. xvi.
_A Carol presented to Dr. Williams. _ From Ashmole MS. 36, 298. For Dr.
Williams, see Note to _Hesperides_ 146. This poem was apparently written
in 1640, after the removal of the bishop's suspension.
_His Mistress to him at his Farewell. _ From Add. MS. 11, 811, at the
British Museum, where it is signed "Ro. Herrick".
_Upon Parting. _ From Harleian MS. 6917, at the British Museum.
_Upon Master Fletcher's Incomparable Plays. _ Printed in Beaumont and
Fletcher's Works, 1647, and Beaumont's Poems, 1653.
_The Golden Pomp is come. _ Ovid, "Aurea Pompa venit" (as in _Hesperides_
201).
_To be with juice of cedar washed all over. _ Horace's "linenda cedro,"
as in _Hesperides_.
_Evadne. _ See Note to _Hesperides_ 575.
_The New Charon. _ First printed in "Lachrymae Musarum. The tears of the
Muses: exprest in Elegies written by divers persons of Nobility and
Worth, upon the death of the most hopefull Henry, Lord Hastings. . . .
Collected and set forth by R[ichard] B[rome]. _London_, 1649. " This is
the only poem which we know of Herrick's, written after 1648, and even
in this Herrick uses materials already employed in "Charon and the
Nightingale" in _Hesperides_.
_Epitaph on the Tomb of Sir Edward Giles. _ First printed by Dr. Grosart
from the monument in Dean Prior Church. Sir Edward Giles was the
occupant of Dean Court and the magnate of the parish.
APPENDIX I.
HERRICK'S POEMS IN WITTS RECREATIONS.
Both Mr. Hazlitt and Dr. Grosart have slightly misrepresented the
relation of _Hesperides_ to the anthology known as _Witts Recreations_:
Mr. Hazlitt by mistakes as to their respective contents; Dr. Grosart
(after a much more careful collation) by taking down the date of the
wrong edition. To put matters straight four editions have to be
examined:--
I. "Witts Recreations. Selected from the finest Fancies of Moderne
Muses, With a Thousand out Landish Proverbs. _London. Printed for
Humph. Blunden at ye Castle in Cornhill, 1640. _ 8vo. "
This general title-page is engraved by W. Marshall. The Outlandish
Proverbs were selected by George Herbert, and, like the first part, have
a printed title-page of their own.
II. "Witts Recreations. Augmented with Ingenious Conceites for the
wittie and Merrie Medicines for the Melancholie. _London. Printed
for Humph. Blunden: at ye Castle in Cornhill, 1641. _ 8vo. "
In this, and subsequent editions, Marshall's title-page is re-engraved
and the Outlandish Proverbs are omitted. The printed title-page reads:
"Wit's Recreations. Containing 630 Epigrams, 160 Epitaphs. Variety of
Fancies and Fantasticks, Good for Melancholly humours. _London. Printed
by Thomas Cotes_," etc. The epigrams vary considerably from the
selection in the previous edition.
III. "Witts Recreations refined. Augmented, with Ingenious Conceites
for the wittie, and Merrie Medicines for the Melancholie. . . . "
In the Museum copy of this edition the imprint to the engraved title has
been cropped away. The printed title-page reads: "Recreation for
Ingenious Head-peeces. Or, A Pleasant Grove for their Wits to walke in.
Of Epigrams, 630: Epitaphs, 180: Fancies, a number: Fantasticks,
abundance, Good for melancholy Humors. _Printed by R. Cotes for H. B.
London, 1645. _ 8vo. " Two poems of Herrick's occur in the additional
"Fancies and Fantasticks," first printed in this edition, viz. : _The
Description of a Woman_ (not contained in _Hesperides_), and the
_Farewell to Sack_.
IV. "Witts Recreations refined. Augmented, with Ingenious Conceites
for the wittie and Merrie Medicines for the Melancholie. _Printed by
M. S. sould by I. Hancock in Popes head Alley, 1650. _ 8vo. "
The printed title-page reads: "Recreations for Ingenious Head-peeces.
Or, A Pleasant Grove for their Wits to Walke in. Of Epigrams, 700:
Epitaphs, 200: Fancies, a number: Fantasticks, abundance. With their
Addition, Multiplication, and Division. _London, Printed by M.
Simmons_," etc. In this edition many of the Epigrams are omitted and
more than one hundred fresh ones added. Additions are also made to the
Epitaphs and Fancies and Fantasticks. Of the new Epigrams and Poems no
less than seventy-two had been printed two years earlier in Herrick's
_Hesperides_, and ten others were added in 1654 from the same source.
_Witts Recreations_ was again reprinted in 1663, 1667, and perhaps
oftener. In 1817 it was issued as vol. ii. of a collection of _Facetiae_,
of which Mennis and Smith's _Musarum Deliciae_ and _Wit Restor'd_ formed
vol. i. On the title-page _Witts Recreations_ is said to be printed from
edition 1640, with all the wood engravings and improvements of
subsequent editions, and in the preface it is explained to be "reprinted
after a collation of the four editions, 1640, 41, 54, and 63, for the
purpose of bringing together in one body all the various articles spread
throughout, and not to be found in any one edition". This 1817 reprint
was re-issued by Hotten in 1874, and this re-issue, as his references to
pagination show, was the one used by Dr. Grosart. The date 1640 on the
title-page may have caught his eye and led to his mistaken allusion to
the "prior publication" of the Herrick poems in 1640, whereas
_Hesperides_ was published in 1648, and the editions of _Witts
Recreations_ which contain anything of his besides the _Description of a
Woman_ and _A Farewell to Sack_, in 1650, 1654, etc.
In the Notes to the present edition I have drawn attention to all
variations in the text of the poems as printed by Herrick and the later
editors, and now subjoin a complete list of the poems under the titles
which they take in _Witts Recreations_, with their numbers in this
edition.
1645 Edition.
128. A Farewell to Sack.
[Not in _Hesp. _] The Description of a Woman.
1650 Edition Adds:--
123. A Tear sent to his M^is.
159. The Cruel Maid.
162. His Misery.
172. With a Ring to Julia.
200. On Gubbs.
206. On Bunce.
239. On Guesse.
241. On a Painted Madam.
310. On a Child.
311. On Sneape.
328. A Foolish Querie.
340. A Check to her Delay.
352. Nothing New.
357. Long and Lazy.
367. To a Stale Lady.
374. Gain and Gettings.
379. On Doll.
380. On Skrew.
381. On Linnit.
400. On Raspe.
407. On Himself.
408. Love and Liberty.
409. On Skinns.
428. On Craw.
Paradise," quotes from the Scholiast Psellus: "The Chaldaean Paradise
(saith he) is a Quire of divine powers incircling the Father".
178. _The Jews when they built houses. _ Herrick's rabbinical lore (cp.
180, 181, 193, 207, 224), like his patristic, was probably derived at
second hand through some biblical commentary. Much of it certainly comes
from the _Notes and Observations upon some Passages of Scripture_
(Oxford, 1646) of John Gregory, chaplain of Christ Church, a prodigy of
oriental learning, who died in his 39th year, March 13, 1646. Thus in
his Address to the Reader (3rd page from end) Gregory remarks: "The
Jews, when they build a house, are bound to leave some part of it
unfinished in memory of the destruction of Jerusalem," giving a
reference to Leo of Modena, _Degli Riti Hebraici_, Part I.
180. _Observation. The Virgin Mother_, etc. Gregory, pp. 24-27, shows
that Sitting, the usual posture of mourners, was forbidden by both Roman
and Jewish Law "in capital causes". "This was the reason why . . . she
stood up still in a resolute and almost impossible compliance with the
Law. . . . They sat . . . after leave obtained . . . to bury the body. "
181. _Tapers. _ Cp. Gregory's _Notes_, p. 111: "The funeral tapers
(however thought of by some) are of the same harmless import. Their
meaning is to show that the departed souls are not quite put out, but
having walked here as the children of the Light are now gone to walk
before God in the light of the living. "
185. _God in the holy tongue. _ J. G. , p. 135: "God is called in the Holy
Tongue . . . the Place; or that Fulness which filleth All in All".
186, 187, 188, 189, 197. _God's Presence, Dwelling_, etc. J. G. , pp.
135-9: "Shecinah, or God's Dwelling Presence". "God is said to be nearer
to this man than to that, more in one place than in another. Thus he is
said to depart from some and come to others, to leave this place and to
abide in that, not by essential application of Himself, much less by
local motion, but by impression of effect. " "With just men (saith St.
Bernard) God is present, _in veritate_, in deed, but with the wicked,
dissemblingly. " "He is called in the Holy Tongue, Jehovah, He that is,
or Essence. " "He is said to dwell there (saith Maimon) where He putteth
the marks . . . of His Majesty; and He doth this by His Grace and Holy
Spirit. "
190. _The Virgin Mary. _ J. G. , p. 86: "St. Ephrem upon those words of
Jacob, This is the House of God, and this is the Gate of Heaven. This
saying (saith he) is to be meant of the Virgin Mary . . . truly to be
called the House of God, as wherein the Son of God . . . inhabited, and as
truly the Gate of Heaven, for the Lord of heaven and earth entered
thereat; and it shall not be set open the second time, according to that
of Ezekiel (xliv. 2): I saw (saith he) a gate in the East; the glorious
Lord entered thereat; thenceforth that gate was shut, and is not any
more to be opened (_Catena Arab. _ c. 58). "
192. _Upon Woman and Mary. _ The reference is to Christ's appearance to
St. Mary Magdalene in the Garden after the Resurrection, John xx. 15,
16.
193. _North and South. _ Comp. _Hesper. _ 429. _Observation_. J. G. , pp.
92, 93: "Whosoever (say the Doctors in Berachoth) shall set his bed N.
and S. , shall beget male children. Therefore the Jews hold this rite of
collocation . . . to this day. . . . They are bound to place their . . . house
of office in the very same situation . . . that the uncomely necessities
. . . might not fall into the Walk and Ways of God, whose Shecinah or
dwelling presence lieth W. and E. "
195. _Noah the first was_, etc. Cp. Gregory, _Notes_, p. 28.
201. _Temporal goods. _ August. , quoted by Burton, II. iii. 3: Dantur
quidem bonis, saith Austin, ne quis mala aestimet, malis autem ne quis
nimis bona.
203. _Speak, did the blood of Abel cry_, etc. Cp. Gregory's _Notes_, pp.
118: "But did the blood of Abel speak? saith Theophylact. Yes, it cried
unto God for vengeance, as that of sprinkling for propitiation and
mercy. "
204. _A thing of such a reverend reckoning. _ Cp. Gregory, 118-9: "The
blood of Abel was so holy and reverend a thing, in the sense and
reputation of the old world, that the men of that time used to swear by
it".
205. _A Position in the Hebrew Divinity. _ From Gregory's _Notes_, pp.
134, 5: "That old position in the Hebrew Divinity . . . that a repenting
man is of more esteem in the sight of God than one that never fell
away".
206. _The Doctors in the Talmud. _ From Gregory's _Notes_, _l. c. _: "The
Doctors in the Talmud say, that one day spent here in true Repentance is
more worth than eternity itself, or all the days of heaven in the other
world".
207. _God's Presence. _ Again from Gregory's Notes, pp. 136 sq.
208. _The Resurrection. _ Gregory's _Notes_, pp. 128-29, translating from
a Greek MS. of Mathaeus Blastares in the Bodleian: "The wonder of this is
far above that of the resurrection of our bodies; for then the earth
giveth up her dead but one for one, but in the case of the corn she
giveth up many living ones for one dead one".
243. _Confession twofold is. _ August, in Ps. xxix. _Enarr. _ ii. 19:
Confessio gemina est, aut peccati, aut laudis.
254. _Gold and frankincense. _ St. Matt. ii. 11. St. Ambrose. Aurum Regi,
thus Deo.
256. _The Chewing the Cud. _ Cp. Lev. xi. 6.
258. _As my little pot doth boil_, etc. This far-fetched little poem
is an instance of Herrick's habit of jotting down his thoughts in verse.
In cooking some food for a charitable purpose he seems to have noticed
that the boiling pot tossed the meat to and fro, or "waved" it (the
priest's work), and that he himself was giving away the meat he lifted
off the fire, the "heave-offering," which was the priest's perquisite.
This is the confusion or "level-coil" to which he alludes.
NOTES TO ADDITIONAL POEMS.
_The Description of a Woman_. Printed in _Witts Recreations_, 1645, and
contained also in Ashmole MS. 38, where it is signed: "Finis. Robert
Herrick. " Our version is taken from _Witts Recreations_, with the
exception of the readings _show_ and _grow_ (for _shown_ and _grown_, in
ll. 15 and 16). The Ashmole MS. contains in all thirty additional lines,
which may or may not be by Herrick, but which, as not improving the
poem, have been omitted in our text in accordance with the precedent set
by the editor of _Witts Recreations_.
_Mr. Herrick: his Daughter's Dowry. _ From Ashmole MS. 38, where it is
signed: "Finis. Robt. Hericke. "
_Mr. Robert Herrick: his Farewell unto Poetry. _ Printed by Dr. Grosart
and Mr. Hazlitt from Ashmole MS. 38.
I add a few readings from Brit.
Mus. Add. MS. 22, 603, where it is entitled: _Herrick's Farewell to
Poetry_. The importance of the poem for Herrick's biography is alluded
to in the brief "Life" prefixed to vol. i.
For _some sleepy keys_ the Museum MS. reads, _the sleeping keys_; for
_yet forc't they are to go_ it has _and yet are forc't to go_; _drinking
to the odd Number of Nine_ for _Number of Wine_, as to which see below;
_turned her home_ for _twirled her home_; _dear soul_ for _rare soul_.
All these are possible, but _beloved Africa_, and the omission of the
two half lines, "'tis not need The scarecrow unto mankind," are pure
blunders.
_Drinking to the odd Number of Nine_. I introduce this into the text
from the Museum manuscript as agreeing with the
"Well, I can quaff, I see,
To th' number five
Or nine"
of _A Bacchanalian Verse_ (_Hesperides_ 653), on which see Note. Dr.
Grosart explains the Ashmole reading _Wine_ by the Note "_? ? ? ? ? _ and
_vinum_ both give five, the number of perfection"; but this seems too
far-fetched for Herrick.
_Kiss, so depart. _ By a strange freak Ashmole MS. writes _Guesse_, and
the Museum MS. _Ghesse_; but the emendation _Kiss_ (adopted both by Dr.
Grosart and Mr. Hazlitt) cannot be doubted.
_Well doing's the fruit of doing well. _ Seneca, _de Clem. _ i. 1: Recte
factorum verus fructus [est] fecisse. Also _Ep. _ 81: Recte facti fecisse
merces est. The latter, and Cicero, _de Finib. _ II. xxii. 72, are quoted
by Montaigne, _Ess. _ II. xvi.
_A Carol presented to Dr. Williams. _ From Ashmole MS. 36, 298. For Dr.
Williams, see Note to _Hesperides_ 146. This poem was apparently written
in 1640, after the removal of the bishop's suspension.
_His Mistress to him at his Farewell. _ From Add. MS. 11, 811, at the
British Museum, where it is signed "Ro. Herrick".
_Upon Parting. _ From Harleian MS. 6917, at the British Museum.
_Upon Master Fletcher's Incomparable Plays. _ Printed in Beaumont and
Fletcher's Works, 1647, and Beaumont's Poems, 1653.
_The Golden Pomp is come. _ Ovid, "Aurea Pompa venit" (as in _Hesperides_
201).
_To be with juice of cedar washed all over. _ Horace's "linenda cedro,"
as in _Hesperides_.
_Evadne. _ See Note to _Hesperides_ 575.
_The New Charon. _ First printed in "Lachrymae Musarum. The tears of the
Muses: exprest in Elegies written by divers persons of Nobility and
Worth, upon the death of the most hopefull Henry, Lord Hastings. . . .
Collected and set forth by R[ichard] B[rome]. _London_, 1649. " This is
the only poem which we know of Herrick's, written after 1648, and even
in this Herrick uses materials already employed in "Charon and the
Nightingale" in _Hesperides_.
_Epitaph on the Tomb of Sir Edward Giles. _ First printed by Dr. Grosart
from the monument in Dean Prior Church. Sir Edward Giles was the
occupant of Dean Court and the magnate of the parish.
APPENDIX I.
HERRICK'S POEMS IN WITTS RECREATIONS.
Both Mr. Hazlitt and Dr. Grosart have slightly misrepresented the
relation of _Hesperides_ to the anthology known as _Witts Recreations_:
Mr. Hazlitt by mistakes as to their respective contents; Dr. Grosart
(after a much more careful collation) by taking down the date of the
wrong edition. To put matters straight four editions have to be
examined:--
I. "Witts Recreations. Selected from the finest Fancies of Moderne
Muses, With a Thousand out Landish Proverbs. _London. Printed for
Humph. Blunden at ye Castle in Cornhill, 1640. _ 8vo. "
This general title-page is engraved by W. Marshall. The Outlandish
Proverbs were selected by George Herbert, and, like the first part, have
a printed title-page of their own.
II. "Witts Recreations. Augmented with Ingenious Conceites for the
wittie and Merrie Medicines for the Melancholie. _London. Printed
for Humph. Blunden: at ye Castle in Cornhill, 1641. _ 8vo. "
In this, and subsequent editions, Marshall's title-page is re-engraved
and the Outlandish Proverbs are omitted. The printed title-page reads:
"Wit's Recreations. Containing 630 Epigrams, 160 Epitaphs. Variety of
Fancies and Fantasticks, Good for Melancholly humours. _London. Printed
by Thomas Cotes_," etc. The epigrams vary considerably from the
selection in the previous edition.
III. "Witts Recreations refined. Augmented, with Ingenious Conceites
for the wittie, and Merrie Medicines for the Melancholie. . . . "
In the Museum copy of this edition the imprint to the engraved title has
been cropped away. The printed title-page reads: "Recreation for
Ingenious Head-peeces. Or, A Pleasant Grove for their Wits to walke in.
Of Epigrams, 630: Epitaphs, 180: Fancies, a number: Fantasticks,
abundance, Good for melancholy Humors. _Printed by R. Cotes for H. B.
London, 1645. _ 8vo. " Two poems of Herrick's occur in the additional
"Fancies and Fantasticks," first printed in this edition, viz. : _The
Description of a Woman_ (not contained in _Hesperides_), and the
_Farewell to Sack_.
IV. "Witts Recreations refined. Augmented, with Ingenious Conceites
for the wittie and Merrie Medicines for the Melancholie. _Printed by
M. S. sould by I. Hancock in Popes head Alley, 1650. _ 8vo. "
The printed title-page reads: "Recreations for Ingenious Head-peeces.
Or, A Pleasant Grove for their Wits to Walke in. Of Epigrams, 700:
Epitaphs, 200: Fancies, a number: Fantasticks, abundance. With their
Addition, Multiplication, and Division. _London, Printed by M.
Simmons_," etc. In this edition many of the Epigrams are omitted and
more than one hundred fresh ones added. Additions are also made to the
Epitaphs and Fancies and Fantasticks. Of the new Epigrams and Poems no
less than seventy-two had been printed two years earlier in Herrick's
_Hesperides_, and ten others were added in 1654 from the same source.
_Witts Recreations_ was again reprinted in 1663, 1667, and perhaps
oftener. In 1817 it was issued as vol. ii. of a collection of _Facetiae_,
of which Mennis and Smith's _Musarum Deliciae_ and _Wit Restor'd_ formed
vol. i. On the title-page _Witts Recreations_ is said to be printed from
edition 1640, with all the wood engravings and improvements of
subsequent editions, and in the preface it is explained to be "reprinted
after a collation of the four editions, 1640, 41, 54, and 63, for the
purpose of bringing together in one body all the various articles spread
throughout, and not to be found in any one edition". This 1817 reprint
was re-issued by Hotten in 1874, and this re-issue, as his references to
pagination show, was the one used by Dr. Grosart. The date 1640 on the
title-page may have caught his eye and led to his mistaken allusion to
the "prior publication" of the Herrick poems in 1640, whereas
_Hesperides_ was published in 1648, and the editions of _Witts
Recreations_ which contain anything of his besides the _Description of a
Woman_ and _A Farewell to Sack_, in 1650, 1654, etc.
In the Notes to the present edition I have drawn attention to all
variations in the text of the poems as printed by Herrick and the later
editors, and now subjoin a complete list of the poems under the titles
which they take in _Witts Recreations_, with their numbers in this
edition.
1645 Edition.
128. A Farewell to Sack.
[Not in _Hesp. _] The Description of a Woman.
1650 Edition Adds:--
123. A Tear sent to his M^is.
159. The Cruel Maid.
162. His Misery.
172. With a Ring to Julia.
200. On Gubbs.
206. On Bunce.
239. On Guesse.
241. On a Painted Madam.
310. On a Child.
311. On Sneape.
328. A Foolish Querie.
340. A Check to her Delay.
352. Nothing New.
357. Long and Lazy.
367. To a Stale Lady.
374. Gain and Gettings.
379. On Doll.
380. On Skrew.
381. On Linnit.
400. On Raspe.
407. On Himself.
408. Love and Liberty.
409. On Skinns.
428. On Craw.
