233, 34:--
Militiae species amor est: discedite segnes!
Militiae species amor est: discedite segnes!
Robert Herrick - Hesperide and Noble Numbers
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!
Non sunt haec timidis signa tuenda viris.
873. _A spark neglected_, etc. Ovid, _Rem. Am. _ 732-34:--
E minimo maximus ignis erit.
Sic nisi vitaris quicquid renovabit amorem,
Flamma redardescet quae modo nulla fuit.
874. _An Hymn to Cupid. _ From Anacreon:--
Ὠναξ, ᾧ δαμάλης Ἔρως
καὶ Νύμφαι κυανώπιδες
πορφυρέη τ' Ἀφροδίτη
συμπαίζουσιν . . . γουνοῦμαί σε, κ. τ. λ.
885. _Naught are all women. _ Burton, III. ii. 5. § 5.
907. _Upon Mr. William Lawes, the rare musician. _ Elder brother of the
more famous Henry Lawes; appointed a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal,
1602, and also one of Charles I. 's musicians-in-ordinary. When the Civil
War broke out he joined the king's army and was killed by a stray shot
during the siege of Chester, 1645. He set Herrick's _Gather ye rosebuds_
to music.
914. _Numbers ne'er tickle_, etc. Martial, I. xxxvi. :--
Lex haec carminibus data est jocosis,
Ne possint, nisi pruriant, juvare.
918. _M. Kellam. _ As yet unidentified. Dr. Grosart suggests that he may
have been one of Herrick's parishioners, and the name sounds as of the
west country.
920. _Cunctation in correction. _ Is Herrick translating? According to a
relief at Rome the lictors' rods were bound together not only by a red
thong twisted from top to bottom, but by six straps as well.
922. _Continual reaping makes a land wax old. _ Ovid, _Ars Am. _ iii. 82:
Continua messe senescit ager.
923. _Revenge. _ Tacitus, _Hist. _ iv. 3: Tanto proclivius est injuriae
quàm beneficio vicem exsolvere; quia gratia oneri, ultio in quaestu
habetur.
927. _Praise they that will times past. _ Ovid, _Ars Am. _ iii. 121:--
Prisca juvent alios: ego me nunc denique natum
Gratulor; haec aetas moribus apta meis.
928. _Clothes are conspirators. _ I can suggest no better explanation of
this oracular epigram than that the tailor's bill is an enemy of a
slender purse.
929. _Cruelty_. Seneca _de Clem. _ i. 24: Ferina ista rabies est,
sanguine gaudere et vulneribus; (i. 8), Quemadmodum praecisae arbores
plurimis ramis repullulant [H. uses repullulate, -tion, 336, 794], et
multa satorum genera, ut densiora surgant, reciduntur; ita regia
crudelitas auget inimicorum numerum tollendo. Ben Jonson, _Discoveries_
(_Clementia_): "The lopping of trees makes the boughs shoot out quicker;
and the taking away of some kind of enemies increaseth the number".
931. _A fierce desire of hot and dry. _ Cp. note on 683.
932. _To hear the worst_, etc. Antisthenes ap. _Diog. Laert. _ VI. i. 4,
§ 3: Ἀκούσας ποτὲ ὅτι Πλάτων αὐτὸν κακῶς λέγει Βασιλικὸν ἔφη καλῶς
ποιοῦντα κακῶς ἀκούειν, quoted by Burton, II. iii. 7.
934. _The Bondman. _ Cp. Exodus xxi. 5, 6: "And if the servant shall
plainly say: I love my master, my wife, and my children: I will not go
out free: Then his master shall bring him unto the judges; he shall also
bring him to the door, or unto the doorpost; and his master shall bore
his ear through with an awl, and he shall serve him for ever".
936. _My kiss outwent the bonds of shamefastness. _ Cp. Sidney's
_Astrophel and Stella_, sonnet 82. For _not Jove himself_, etc. , cp. 10,
and note.
938. _His wish. _ From Martial, II. xc. 7-10:--
Sit mihi verna satur: sit non doctissima conjux:
Sit nox cum somno, sit sine lite dies, etc.
939. _Upon Julia washing herself in the river. _ Imitated from Martial,
IV. xxii. :--
Primos passa toros et adhuc placanda marito
Merserat in nitidos se Cleopatra lacus,
Dum fugit amplexus: sed prodidit unda latentem,
Lucebat, totis cum tegeretur aquis.
Condita sic puro numerantur lilia vitro,
Sic prohibet tenuis gemma latere rosas,
Insilui mersusque vadis luctantia carpsi
Basia: perspicuae plus vetuistis aquae.
940. _Though frankincense_, etc. Ovid, _de Medic. Fac. _ 83, 84:--
Quamvis thura deos irataque numina placent,
Non tamen accensis omnia danda focis.
947. _To his honoured and most ingenious friend, Mr. Charles Cotton. _
Dr. Grosart annotates: "The translator of Montaigne, and associate of
Izaak Walton"; but as the younger Cotton was only eighteen when
_Hesperides_ was printed, it is perhaps more probable that the father is
meant, though we may note that Herrick and the younger Cotton were
joint-contributors in 1649 to the _Lacrymæ Musarum_, published in memory
of Lord Hastings. For a tribute to the brilliant abilities of the elder
Cotton, see Clarendon's _Life_ (i. 36; ed. 1827).
948. _Women Useless. _ A variation on a theme as old as Euripides. Cp.
_Medea_, 573-5:--
χρῆν γὰρ ἀλλοθέν ποθεν βροτοὺς
παῖδας τεκνοῦσθαι, θῆλυ δ' οὐκ εἶναι γένος·
χοὒτως ἂν οὐκ ἦν οὐδὲν ἀνθρώποις κακόν.
952. _Weep for the dead, for they have lost the light_, cp. Ecclus.
xxii. 11.
955. _To M. Leonard Willan, his peculiar friend. _ A wretched poet;
author of "The Phrygian Fabulist; or the Fables of Æsop" (1650),
"Astraea; or True Love's Mirror" (1651), etc.
956. _Mr. John Hall, Student of Gray's Inn. _ Hall remained at Cambridge
till 1647, and this poem, which addresses him as a "Student of Gray's
Inn," must therefore have been written almost while _Hesperides_ was
passing through the press. Hall's _Horæ Vacivæ, or Essays_, published in
1646, had at once given him high rank among the wits.
958. _To the most comely and proper M. Elizabeth Finch. _ No certain
identification has been proposed.
961. _To the King, upon his welcome to Hampton Court, set and sung. _ The
allusion can only be to the king's stay at Hampton Court in 1647. Good
hope was then entertained of a peaceful settlement, and Herrick's ode,
enthusiastic as it is, expresses little more than this.
_For an ascendent_, etc. : This and the next seven lines are taken from
phrases on pp. 29-33 of the _Notes and Observations on some passages of
Scripture_, by John Gregory (see note on N. N. 178). According to
Gregory, "The Ascendent of a City is that sign which riseth in the
Heavens at the laying of the first stone".
962. _Henry, Marquis of Dorchester. _ Henry Pierrepoint, second Earl of
Kingston, succeeded his father (Herrick's Newark) July 30, 1643, and was
created Marquis of Dorchester, March, 1645. "He was a very studious
nobleman and very learned, particularly in law and physics. " (See
Burke's _Extinct Peerages_, iii. 435. )
_When Cato, the severe, entered the circumspacious theatre. _ The
allusion is to the visit of Cato to the games of Flora, given by
Messius. When his presence in the theatre was known, the dancing-women
were not allowed to perform in their accustomed lack of costume,
whereupon the moralist obligingly retired, amidst applause.
966. _M. Jo. Harmar, physician to the College of Westminster. _ John
Harmar, born at Churchdown, near Gloucester, about 1594, was educated at
Winchester and Magdalen College, Oxford; was a master at Magdalen
School, the Free School at St. Albans, and at Westminster, and Professor
of Greek at Oxford under the Commonwealth. He died 1670. Wood
characterises him as a butt for the wits and a flatterer of great men,
and notes that he was always called by the name of Doctor Harmar, though
he took no higher degree than M. A. But in 1632 he supplicated for the
degree of M. B. , and Dr. Grosart's note--"Herrick, no doubt, playfully
transmuted 'Doctor' into 'Physician'"--is misleading. He may have cared
for the minds and bodies of the Westminster boys at one and the same
time.
_The Roman language. . . . If Jove would speak_, etc. Cp. Ben Jonson's
_Discoveries_: "that testimony given by L. Aelius Stilo upon Plautus who
affirmed, "Musas si latine loqui voluissent Plautino sermone fuisse
loquuturas". And Cicero [in Plutarch, § 24] "said of the Dialogues of
Plato, that Jupiter, if it were his nature to use language, would speak
like him".
967. _Upon his spaniel, Tracy. _ Cp. _supra_, 724.
971. _Strength_, etc. Tacitus, _Ann. _ xiii. 19: Nihil rerum mortalium
tam instabile ac fluxum est, quàm fama potentiae, non suâ vi nixa.
975. _Case is a lawyer_, etc. Martial, I. xcviii. Ad Naevolum
Causidicum. Cùm clamant omnes, loqueris tu, Naevole, tantùm. .
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!
Non sunt haec timidis signa tuenda viris.
873. _A spark neglected_, etc. Ovid, _Rem. Am. _ 732-34:--
E minimo maximus ignis erit.
Sic nisi vitaris quicquid renovabit amorem,
Flamma redardescet quae modo nulla fuit.
874. _An Hymn to Cupid. _ From Anacreon:--
Ὠναξ, ᾧ δαμάλης Ἔρως
καὶ Νύμφαι κυανώπιδες
πορφυρέη τ' Ἀφροδίτη
συμπαίζουσιν . . . γουνοῦμαί σε, κ. τ. λ.
885. _Naught are all women. _ Burton, III. ii. 5. § 5.
907. _Upon Mr. William Lawes, the rare musician. _ Elder brother of the
more famous Henry Lawes; appointed a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal,
1602, and also one of Charles I. 's musicians-in-ordinary. When the Civil
War broke out he joined the king's army and was killed by a stray shot
during the siege of Chester, 1645. He set Herrick's _Gather ye rosebuds_
to music.
914. _Numbers ne'er tickle_, etc. Martial, I. xxxvi. :--
Lex haec carminibus data est jocosis,
Ne possint, nisi pruriant, juvare.
918. _M. Kellam. _ As yet unidentified. Dr. Grosart suggests that he may
have been one of Herrick's parishioners, and the name sounds as of the
west country.
920. _Cunctation in correction. _ Is Herrick translating? According to a
relief at Rome the lictors' rods were bound together not only by a red
thong twisted from top to bottom, but by six straps as well.
922. _Continual reaping makes a land wax old. _ Ovid, _Ars Am. _ iii. 82:
Continua messe senescit ager.
923. _Revenge. _ Tacitus, _Hist. _ iv. 3: Tanto proclivius est injuriae
quàm beneficio vicem exsolvere; quia gratia oneri, ultio in quaestu
habetur.
927. _Praise they that will times past. _ Ovid, _Ars Am. _ iii. 121:--
Prisca juvent alios: ego me nunc denique natum
Gratulor; haec aetas moribus apta meis.
928. _Clothes are conspirators. _ I can suggest no better explanation of
this oracular epigram than that the tailor's bill is an enemy of a
slender purse.
929. _Cruelty_. Seneca _de Clem. _ i. 24: Ferina ista rabies est,
sanguine gaudere et vulneribus; (i. 8), Quemadmodum praecisae arbores
plurimis ramis repullulant [H. uses repullulate, -tion, 336, 794], et
multa satorum genera, ut densiora surgant, reciduntur; ita regia
crudelitas auget inimicorum numerum tollendo. Ben Jonson, _Discoveries_
(_Clementia_): "The lopping of trees makes the boughs shoot out quicker;
and the taking away of some kind of enemies increaseth the number".
931. _A fierce desire of hot and dry. _ Cp. note on 683.
932. _To hear the worst_, etc. Antisthenes ap. _Diog. Laert. _ VI. i. 4,
§ 3: Ἀκούσας ποτὲ ὅτι Πλάτων αὐτὸν κακῶς λέγει Βασιλικὸν ἔφη καλῶς
ποιοῦντα κακῶς ἀκούειν, quoted by Burton, II. iii. 7.
934. _The Bondman. _ Cp. Exodus xxi. 5, 6: "And if the servant shall
plainly say: I love my master, my wife, and my children: I will not go
out free: Then his master shall bring him unto the judges; he shall also
bring him to the door, or unto the doorpost; and his master shall bore
his ear through with an awl, and he shall serve him for ever".
936. _My kiss outwent the bonds of shamefastness. _ Cp. Sidney's
_Astrophel and Stella_, sonnet 82. For _not Jove himself_, etc. , cp. 10,
and note.
938. _His wish. _ From Martial, II. xc. 7-10:--
Sit mihi verna satur: sit non doctissima conjux:
Sit nox cum somno, sit sine lite dies, etc.
939. _Upon Julia washing herself in the river. _ Imitated from Martial,
IV. xxii. :--
Primos passa toros et adhuc placanda marito
Merserat in nitidos se Cleopatra lacus,
Dum fugit amplexus: sed prodidit unda latentem,
Lucebat, totis cum tegeretur aquis.
Condita sic puro numerantur lilia vitro,
Sic prohibet tenuis gemma latere rosas,
Insilui mersusque vadis luctantia carpsi
Basia: perspicuae plus vetuistis aquae.
940. _Though frankincense_, etc. Ovid, _de Medic. Fac. _ 83, 84:--
Quamvis thura deos irataque numina placent,
Non tamen accensis omnia danda focis.
947. _To his honoured and most ingenious friend, Mr. Charles Cotton. _
Dr. Grosart annotates: "The translator of Montaigne, and associate of
Izaak Walton"; but as the younger Cotton was only eighteen when
_Hesperides_ was printed, it is perhaps more probable that the father is
meant, though we may note that Herrick and the younger Cotton were
joint-contributors in 1649 to the _Lacrymæ Musarum_, published in memory
of Lord Hastings. For a tribute to the brilliant abilities of the elder
Cotton, see Clarendon's _Life_ (i. 36; ed. 1827).
948. _Women Useless. _ A variation on a theme as old as Euripides. Cp.
_Medea_, 573-5:--
χρῆν γὰρ ἀλλοθέν ποθεν βροτοὺς
παῖδας τεκνοῦσθαι, θῆλυ δ' οὐκ εἶναι γένος·
χοὒτως ἂν οὐκ ἦν οὐδὲν ἀνθρώποις κακόν.
952. _Weep for the dead, for they have lost the light_, cp. Ecclus.
xxii. 11.
955. _To M. Leonard Willan, his peculiar friend. _ A wretched poet;
author of "The Phrygian Fabulist; or the Fables of Æsop" (1650),
"Astraea; or True Love's Mirror" (1651), etc.
956. _Mr. John Hall, Student of Gray's Inn. _ Hall remained at Cambridge
till 1647, and this poem, which addresses him as a "Student of Gray's
Inn," must therefore have been written almost while _Hesperides_ was
passing through the press. Hall's _Horæ Vacivæ, or Essays_, published in
1646, had at once given him high rank among the wits.
958. _To the most comely and proper M. Elizabeth Finch. _ No certain
identification has been proposed.
961. _To the King, upon his welcome to Hampton Court, set and sung. _ The
allusion can only be to the king's stay at Hampton Court in 1647. Good
hope was then entertained of a peaceful settlement, and Herrick's ode,
enthusiastic as it is, expresses little more than this.
_For an ascendent_, etc. : This and the next seven lines are taken from
phrases on pp. 29-33 of the _Notes and Observations on some passages of
Scripture_, by John Gregory (see note on N. N. 178). According to
Gregory, "The Ascendent of a City is that sign which riseth in the
Heavens at the laying of the first stone".
962. _Henry, Marquis of Dorchester. _ Henry Pierrepoint, second Earl of
Kingston, succeeded his father (Herrick's Newark) July 30, 1643, and was
created Marquis of Dorchester, March, 1645. "He was a very studious
nobleman and very learned, particularly in law and physics. " (See
Burke's _Extinct Peerages_, iii. 435. )
_When Cato, the severe, entered the circumspacious theatre. _ The
allusion is to the visit of Cato to the games of Flora, given by
Messius. When his presence in the theatre was known, the dancing-women
were not allowed to perform in their accustomed lack of costume,
whereupon the moralist obligingly retired, amidst applause.
966. _M. Jo. Harmar, physician to the College of Westminster. _ John
Harmar, born at Churchdown, near Gloucester, about 1594, was educated at
Winchester and Magdalen College, Oxford; was a master at Magdalen
School, the Free School at St. Albans, and at Westminster, and Professor
of Greek at Oxford under the Commonwealth. He died 1670. Wood
characterises him as a butt for the wits and a flatterer of great men,
and notes that he was always called by the name of Doctor Harmar, though
he took no higher degree than M. A. But in 1632 he supplicated for the
degree of M. B. , and Dr. Grosart's note--"Herrick, no doubt, playfully
transmuted 'Doctor' into 'Physician'"--is misleading. He may have cared
for the minds and bodies of the Westminster boys at one and the same
time.
_The Roman language. . . . If Jove would speak_, etc. Cp. Ben Jonson's
_Discoveries_: "that testimony given by L. Aelius Stilo upon Plautus who
affirmed, "Musas si latine loqui voluissent Plautino sermone fuisse
loquuturas". And Cicero [in Plutarch, § 24] "said of the Dialogues of
Plato, that Jupiter, if it were his nature to use language, would speak
like him".
967. _Upon his spaniel, Tracy. _ Cp. _supra_, 724.
971. _Strength_, etc. Tacitus, _Ann. _ xiii. 19: Nihil rerum mortalium
tam instabile ac fluxum est, quàm fama potentiae, non suâ vi nixa.
975. _Case is a lawyer_, etc. Martial, I. xcviii. Ad Naevolum
Causidicum. Cùm clamant omnes, loqueris tu, Naevole, tantùm. .
