No More Learning

's birth. See
_Hesperides_ 213, and Note.

_We'll choose him King. _ A reference to the Twelfth Night games. See
_Hesperides_ 1035, and Note.

108. _Good men afflicted most. _ Taken almost entirely from Seneca, _de
Provid. _ 3, 4: Ignem experitur [Fortuna] in Mucio, paupertatem in
Fabricio, . . . tormenta in Regulo, venenum in Socrate, mortem in Catone.
The allusions may be briefly explained for the unclassical. At the siege
of Dyrrachium, Marcus Cassius Scæva caught 120 darts on his shield;
Horatius Cocles is the hero of the bridge (see Macaulay's _Lays_); C.
Mucius Scævola held his hand in the fire to illustrate to Porsenna Roman
fearlessness; Cato is Cato Uticensis, the philosophic suicide; "high
Atilius" will be more easily recognised as the M. Atilius Regulus who
defied the Carthaginians; Fabricius Luscinus refused not only the
presents of Pyrrhus, but all reward of the State, and lived in poverty
on his own farm.

109. _A wood of darts. _ Cp. Virg. _Æn. _ x. 886: Ter secum Troius heros
Immanem aerato circumfert tegmine silvam.

112. _The Recompense. _ Herrick is said to have assumed the lay habit on
his return to London after his ejection, perhaps as a protection against
further persecution. This quatrain may be taken as evidence that he did
not throw off his religion with his cassock. Compare also 124.

_All I have lost that could be rapt from me. _ From Ovid, III. _Trist. _
vii. 414: Raptaque sint adimi quae potuere mihi.

123. _Thy light that ne'er went out. _ Prov. xxxi. 18 (of 'the Excellent
Woman'): "Her candle goeth not out by night". _All set about with
lilies. _ Cp. _Cant. Canticorum_, vii. 2: Venter tuus sicut acervus
tritici, vallatus liliis.

_Will show these garments. _ So Acts ix. 39.

134. _God had but one son free from sin. _ Augustin. _Confess. _ vi. :
Deus unicum habet filium sine peccato, nullum sine flagello, quoted in
Burton, II. iii. 1.

136. _Science in God. _ Bp. Davenant, _on Colossians_, 166, _ed. _ 1639;
speaking of Omniscience: Proprietates Divinitatis non sunt accidentia,
sed ipsa Dei essentia.

145. _Tears. _ Augustin. _Enarr. Ps. _ cxxvii. : Dulciores sunt lacrymae
orantium quàm gaudia theatorum.

146. _Manna. _ Wisdom xvi. 20, 21: "Angels' food . . . agreeing to every
taste".

147. _As Cassiodore doth prove. _ Reverentia est enim Domini timor cum
amore permixtus. Cassiodor. _Expos. in Psalt. _ xxxiv. 30; quoted by Dr.
Grosart. My clerical predecessor has also hunted down with much industry
the possible sources of most of the other patristic references in _Noble
Numbers_, though I have been able to add a few. We may note that Herrick
quotes Cassiodorus (twice), John of Damascus, Boethius, Thomas Aquinas,
St. Bernard, St. Augustine (thrice), St. Basil, and St. Ambrose--a
goodly list of Fathers, if we had any reason to suppose that the
quotations were made at first hand.

148. _Mercy . . . a Deity. _ Pausanias, _Attic. _ I. xvii. 1.

153. _Mora Sponsi, the stay of the bridegroom. _ Maldonatus, _Comm. in
Matth. _ xxv. : Hieronymus et Hilarius moram sponsi pœnitentiae tempus
esse dicunt.

157. _Montes Scripturarum. _ See August. _Enarr. in Ps. _ xxxix. , and
passim.

167. _A dereliction. _ The word is from Ps. xxii. 1: Quare me
dereliquisti? "Why hast Thou forsaken me? " Herrick took it from
Gregory's _Notes and Observations_ (see infra), p. 5: 'Our Saviour . . .
in that great case of dereliction'.

174. _Martha, Martha. _ See Luke x. 41, and August. _Serm. _ cii. 3:
Repetitio nominis indicium est dilectionis.

177. _Paradise. _ Gregory, p. 75, on "the reverend Say of Zoroaster, Seek
Paradise," quotes from the Scholiast Psellus: "The Chaldæan 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 Mathæus 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 "_οἶνος_ 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: Rectè
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.