No More Learning

_ Thus, thus the gods celestial still decree,
For human joy contingent misery.
_Euc. _ The hallowed tapers all prepared were,
And Hymen call'd to bless the rites. _Cha. _ Stop there.
_Euc. _ Great are my woes. _Cha. _ And great must that grief be
That makes grim Charon thus to pity thee.
But now come in. _Euc. _ More let me yet relate.
_Cha. _ I cannot stay; more souls for waftage wait
And I must hence. _Euc. _ Yet let me thus much know,
Departing hence, where good and bad souls go?
_Cha. _ Those souls which ne'er were drench'd in pleasure's stream,
The fields of Pluto are reserv'd for them;
Where, dress'd with garlands, there they walk the ground
Whose blessed youth with endless flowers is crown'd.
But such as have been drown'd in this wild sea,
For those is kept the Gulf of Hecate,
Where with their own contagion they are fed,
And there do punish and are punished.
This known, the rest of thy sad story tell
When on the flood that nine times circles hell.
_Chorus. _ We sail along to visit mortals never;
But there to live where love shall last for ever.


EPITAPH ON THE TOMB OF SIR EDWARD GILES AND HIS WIFE IN THE SOUTH AISLE
OF DEAN PRIOR CHURCH, DEVON.

No trust to metals nor to marbles, when
These have their fate and wear away as men;
Times, titles, trophies may be lost and spent,
But virtue rears the eternal monument.
What more than these can tombs or tombstones pay?
But here's the sunset of a tedious day:
These two asleep are: I'll but be undress'd
And so to bed: pray wish us all good rest.




NOTES.




NOTES.


569. _And of any wood ye see, You can make a Mercury. _ Pythagoras
allegorically said that Mercury's statue could not be made of every sort
of wood: cp. Rabelais, iv. 62.

575. _The Apparition of his Mistress calling him to Elysium. _ An earlier
version of this poem was printed in the 1640 edition of Shakespeare's
poems under the title, _His Mistris Shade_, having been licensed for
separate publication at Stationers' Hall the previous year. The variants
are numerous, and some of them important. l. 1, _of silver_ for _with
silv'rie_; l. 3, on the Banks for _in the Meads_; l. 8, _Spikenard
through_ for _Storax from_; l. 10 reads: "_Of mellow_ Apples, _ripened_
Plums _and_ Pears": l. 17, the order of "naked younglings, handsome
striplings" is reversed; in place of l. 20 we have:--

"So soon as each his dangling locks hath crown'd
With Rosie Chaplets, Lilies, Pansies red,
Soft Saffron Circles to perfume the head";

l. 23, _to_ for _too unto_; l. 24, _their_ for _our_; ll. 29, 30:--

"Unto the Prince of Shades, whom once his Pen
Entituled the Grecian Prince of Men";

l. 31, _thereupon_ for _and that done_; l. 36, _render him true_ for
_show him truly_; l. 37, _will_ for _shall_; l. 38, "Where both may
_laugh_, both drink, _both_ rage together"; l. 48, _Amphitheatre_ for
_spacious theatre_; l. 49, _synod_ for _glories_, followed by:--

"crown'd with sacred Bays
And flatt'ring _joy, we'll have to_ recite their plays,
_Shakespeare and Beamond_, Swans to whom _the Spheres_
Listen while they _call back the former year[s]
To teach the truth of scenes_, and more for thee,
There yet remains, _brave soul_, than thou can'st see,"
etc. ;

l. 56, _illustrious for capacious_; l. 57, _shall be_ for _now is_
[Jonson died 1637]; ll. 59-61:--

"To be of that high Hierarchy where none
But brave souls take illumination
Immediately from heaven; but hark the cock," etc. ;

l. 62, _feel_ for _see_; l. 63, _through_ for _from_.

579. _My love will fit each history. _ Cp. Ovid, _Amor. _ II. iv. 44:
Omnibus historiis se meus aptat amor.

580. _The sweets of love are mixed with tears. _ Cp. Propert. I. xii. 16:
Nonnihil adspersis gaudet Amor lacrimis.

583. _Whom this morn sees most fortunate_, etc. Seneca, _Thyest. _ 613:
Quem dies vidit veniens superbum Hunc dies vidit fugiens jacentem.

586. _Night hides our thefts_, etc. Ovid, _Ars Am. _ i. 249:--

Nocte latent mendæ vitioque ignoscitur omni,
Horaque formosam quamlibet illa facit.

590. _To his brother-in-law, Master John Wingfield. _ Of Brantham,
Suffolk, husband of the poet's sister, Mercy. See 818, and Sketch of
Herrick's Life in vol. i.

599. _Upon Lucia. _ Cp. "The Resolution" in _Speculum Amantis_, ed. A. 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:
Duræ 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: Pœnitentium lacrimæ 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 Cæsarem. 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, 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.