ROBERT HERRICK

Vive velut rapto: fugitivaque gaudia carpe:Perdiderit nullum vita reversa diem.

457.While Fates permit.From Seneca,Herc. Fur.177:—

Dum Fata sinunt,Vivite laeti: properat cursuVita citato, volucrique dieRota praecipitis vertitur anni.

459.With Horace(IV.Od.ix. 29):—

Paulùm sepultae distat inertiaeCelata virtus.

465.The parting Verse or charge to his Supposed Wife when he travelled.MS. variants of this poem are found at the British Museum in Add. 22, 603, and in Ashmole MS. 38. Their title, "Mr. Herrick's charge to his wife," led Mr. Payne Collier to rashly identify with the poet a certain Robert Herrick married at St. Clement Danes, 1632, to a Jane Gibbons. The variants are numerous, but not very important. In l. 4 we have "draw wooers" for "draw thousands"; ll. 11-16 are transposed to after l. 28; and "Are the expressions of that itch" is written "As emblems will express that itch"; ll. 27, 28 appear as:—

"For that once lost thouneedst must fallTo one, then prostitute to all:

And we then have the transposed passage:—

Nor so immurèd would I haveThee live, as dead,orin thy grave;But walk abroad, yet wisely wellKeep 'gainstmy coming sentinel.And thinkeach man thou seest doth doomThy thoughts to say, I back am come.

Farther on we have the rather pretty variant:—

"Let themcall thee wondrous fair,Crown of women, yet despair".

Eight lines lower "virtuous" is read for "gentle," and the omission of some small words throws some light on a change in Herrick's metrical views as he grew older. The words omitted are bracketed:—

"[And] Let thy dreams be only fedWith this, that I am in thy bed.And [thou] then turning in that sphere,Waking findst [shall find] me sleeping there.But [yet] if boundless lust must scaleThy fortress andmustneeds prevail'Gainst thee andforce a passage in," etc.

Other variants are: "Creates the action" for "That makes the action"; "Glory" for "Triumph"; "my last signet" for "this compression"; "turn again in my full triumph" for "come again, As one triumphant," and "the height of womankind" for "all faith of womankind".

The body sins not, 'tis the will, etc. A maxim of law Latin: Actus non facit reum nisi mens sit rea.

466.To his Kinsman, Sir Thos. Soame, son of Sir Stephen Soame, Lord Mayor of London, 1589, and of Anne Stone, Herrick's aunt. Sir Thomaswas Sheriff of London, 1635, M.P. for the City, 1640, and died Jan., 1670. See Cussan'sHertfortshire. (Hundred of Edwinstree, p. 100.)

470.Few Fortunate.A variant on the text (Matt. xx. 16): "Many be called but few chosen".

479.To Rosemary and Bays.The use of rosemary and bays at weddings forms a section in Brand's chapter on marriage customs (ii. 119). For the gilding he quotes from a wedding sermon preached in 1607 by Roger Hacket: "Smell sweet, O ye flowers, in your native sweetness: be not gilded with the idle art of man". The use of gloves at weddings forms the subject of another section in Brand (ii. 125). He quotes Ben Jonson'sSilent Woman; "We see no ensigns of a wedding here, no character of a bridal; where be our scarves and our gloves?"

483.To his worthy friend, M. Thomas Falconbrige.As Herrick hints at his friend's destiny for a public career, it seemed worth while to hunt through the Calendar of State Papers for a chance reference to this Falconbridge, who so far has evaded editors. He is apparently the Mr. Thomas Falconbridge who appears in various papers between 1640 and 1644, as passing accounts, and in the latter year was "Receiver-General at Westminster".

Towers reared high, etc. Cp. Horace,Od.II. x. 9-12.

Saepius ventis agitatur ingensPinus, et celsae graviore casuDecidunt turres, feriuntque summosFulgura montes.

486.He's lord of thy life, etc. Seneca,Epist. Mor.iv.: Quisquis vitam suam contempsit tuae dominus est. Quoted by Montaigne, I. xxiii.

488.Shame is a bad attendant to a state.From Seneca,Hippol.431: Malus est minister regii imperii pudor.

He rents his crown that fears the people's hate.Also from Seneca,Oedipus, 701: Odia qui nimium timet regnare nescit.

496.To his honoured kinsman, Sir Richard Stone, son of John Stone, sergeant-at-law, the brother of Julian Stone, Herrick's mother. He died in 1660.

To this white temple of my heroes.Ben Jonson's admirers were proud to call themselves "sealed of the tribe of Ben," and Herrick, a devout Jonsonite, seems to have imitated the idea so far as to plan sometimes, as here, a Temple, sometimes a Book (seeinfra,510), sometimes a City (365), a Plantation (392), a Calendar (545), a College (983), of his own favourite friends, to whom his poetry was to give immortality. The earliest direct reference to this plan is in his address to John Selden, the antiquary (365), in which he writes:—

"A city here of heroes I have madeUpon the rock whose firm foundation laidShall never shrink; where, making thine abode,Live thou a Selden, that's a demi-god".

It is noteworthy that the poems which contain the clearest reference to this Temple (or its variants) are mostly addressed to kinsfolk,e.g., this to Sir Richard Stone, to Mrs. Penelope Wheeler, to Mr. StephenSoame, and to Susanna and Thomas Herrick. Other recipients of the honour are Sir Edward Fish and Dr. Alabaster, Jack Crofts, Master J. Jincks, etc.

497.All flowers sent, etc. See Virgil's—or the Virgilian—Culex, ll. 397-410.

Martial's bee.SeeEpig.IV. xxxii.

De ape electro inclusa.Et latet et lucet Phaethontide condita gutta,Ut videatur apis nectare clausa suo.Dignum tantorum pretium tulit illa laborum.Credibile est ipsam sic voluisse mori.

500.To Mistress Dorothy Parsons.This "saint" from Herrick's Temple may certainly be identified with the second of the three children (William, Dorothy, and Thomasine) of Mr. John Parsons, organist and master of the choristers at Westminster Abbey, where he was buried in 1623. Herrick addresses another poem to her sister Thomasine:—

"Grow up in beauty, as thou dost begin,And be of all admired, Thomasine".

502.'Tis sin to throttle wine.Martial, I. xix. 5: Scelus est jugulare Falernum.

506.Edward, Earl of Dorset, Knight of the Garter, grandson of Thomas Sackville, author ofGorboduc. He succeeded his brother, Richard Sackville, the third earl, in 1624, and died in 1652. Clarendon describes a duel which he fought with Lord Bruce in Flanders.

Of your own self a public theatre.Cp. Burton (Democ. to Reader) "Ipse mihi theatrum".

510.To his Kinswoman, Mrs. Penelope Wheeler.See Note on130.

511.A mighty strife 'twixt form and chastity.Lis est cum formâ magna pudicitiæ. Quoted from Ovid by Burton, who translates: "Beauty and honesty have ever been at odds".

514.To the Lady Crew, upon the death of her child.This must be the child buried in Westminster Abbey, according to the entry in the register "163⅞, Feb. 6. Sir Clipsy Crewe's daughter, in the North aisle of the monuments." Colonel Chester annotates: "She was a younger daughter, and was born at Crewe, 27th July, 1631. She died on the 4th of February, and must have been an independent heiress, as her father administered to her estate on the 24th May following."

515.Here needs no Court for our Request.An allusion to the Court of Requests, established in the time of Richard II. as a lesser Court of Equity for the hearing of "all poor men's suits". It was abolished in 1641, at the same time as the Star Chamber.

517.The new successor drives away old love.From Ovid,Rem. Am.462: Successore novo vincitur omnis amor.

519.Born I was to meet with age.Cp.540. From Anacreon, 38 [24]:—

Ἐπείδη βρότος ἐτέχθην,Βιότου τρίβον ὁδεύειν,Χρόνον ἔγνων ὃν παρῆλθον,Ὅν δ' ἔχω δραμεῖν οὐκ οἶδα·Μέθετέ με, φρονίιδες·Μηδέν μοι καὶ ὑμῖν ἔστω.Πρὶν ἐμὲ φθάσῃ τὸ τέρμα,Παίξω, γελάσω, χορεύσω,Μετὰ τοῦ καλοῦ Λυαίου.

520.Fortune did never favour one.From Dionys. Halicarn. as quoted by Burton, II. iii. 1, § 1.

521.To Phillis to love and live with him.A variant on Marlowe's theme: "Come live with me and be my love". Donne'sThe Bait(printed in Grosart's edition, vol. ii. p. 206) is another.

522.To his Kinswoman, Mistress Susanna Herrick, wife of his elder brother Nicholas.

523.Susanna Southwell.Probably a daughter of Sir Thomas Southwell, for whom Herrick wrote the Epithalamium (No.149).

525.Her pretty feet, etc. Cp. Suckling's "Ballad upon a Wedding":—

"Her feet beneath her petticoat,Like little mice stole in and out,As if they feared the light".

526.To his Honoured Friend, Sir John Mynts.John Mennis, a Vice-Admiral of the fleet and knighted in 1641, refused to join in the desertion of the fleet to the Parliament. After the Restoration he was made Governor of Dover and Chief Comptroller of the Navy. He was one of the editors of the collection calledMusarum Deliciæ(1656), in the first poem of which there is an allusion to—

"That old sackYoung Herrick took to entertainThe Muses in a sprightly vein".

527.Fly me not, etc. From Anacreon, 49 [34]:—

Μή με φύγῃς, ὁρῶσαΤὰν πολιὰν ἔθειραν· ...Ὅρα κἀν στεφάνοισινὍπως πρέπει τὰ λευκὰῬόδοις κρίν' ἐμπλακέντα.

529.As thou deserv'st be proud.Cp. Hor. III.Od.xxx. 14:—

Sume superbiamQuaesitam meritis et mihi DelphicaLauro cinge volens, Melpomene, comam.

534.To Electra.Printed inWitts Recreations, 1650, where it is entitledTo Julia.

536.Ill Government.... When kings obey, etc. From Seneca,Octav.581:—

Male imperatur, cum regit vulgus duces.

545.To his Worthy Kinsman, Mr. Stephen Soame(the son or, less probably, the brother of Sir Thomas Soame):One of my righteous tribe. Cp. Note to496.

547.Great spirits never with their bodies die.Tacit.Agric.46:—"Si quis piorum manibus locus, si, ut sapientibus placet, non cum corpore extinguuntur magnae animae".

554.Die thou canst not all.Hor. IV.Od.xxx. 6,7.

556.The Fairies.Cp. the old ballad ofRobin Goodfellow:—

"When house or hearth doth sluttish lie,I pinch the maids both black and blue";

and Ben Jonson'sEntertainment at Althorpe, etc.

557.M. John Weare, Councellour.Probably the same as "the much-lamented Mr. J. Warr" of134.

Law is to give to every one his own.Cicero,De Fin.v.: Animi affectio suum cuique tribuens Justitia dicitur.

564.His Kinswoman, Bridget Herrick, eldest daughter of his brother Nicholas.

565.The Wanton Satyr.See Sir E. Dyer'sThe Shepherd's Conceit of Prometheus:—

"Prometheus, when first from heaven highHe brought down fire, ere then on earth not seen,Fond of delight, a Satyr standing byGave it a kiss, as it like sweet had been.... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...The difference is—the Satyr's lips, my heart,He for a time, I evermore, have smart."

SoEuphues: "Satirus not knowing what fire was would needs embrace it and was burnt;" and Sir John Davies,False and True Knowledge.

Transcriber's EndnotesNumeration Errors in the Hesperides:Without an obvious solution to a discrepancy the numbers remain as originally printed, however the following alterations have been made to ensure any details in theNOTESsection apply to the relevant poem.Page204. OBERON'S PALACE. "444" changed to443."443. OBERON'S PALACE."Page221. FEW FORTUNATE. "472" changed to470."470. FEW FORTUNATE."Page223. THE WASSAIL. "478" changed to476."476. THE WASSAIL."Page317. Note to 496. "512" changed to510."... sometimes a Book (see infra, 510) ..."Page321. Note to 545. "498" changed to496."... Cp. Note to 496...."Page322. Note to 564. "562" changed to564."564.His Kinswoman, Bridget Herrick, eldest ..."Page322. Note to 565. "563" changed to565."565.The Wanton Satyr.See Sir E. Dyer's ..."Typographical Errors:Page83. 178. CORINNA'S GOING.... "pries" corrected topriest."And chose their priest, ere we can cast off sloth:"Page137. 275. CROSSES. "goods" corrected togood."Though good things answer many good intents,"Page316. Note to 479. " owers" corrected toflowers."Smell sweet, O ye flowers, in your native sweetness:"Unresolved Errors:The following errors remain as printed:In405. TO HIS BOOK.,Chipperfeild, has been retained as it is unclear whether this is a misprint, or intentional.In101. BARLEY-BREAK; OR, LAST IN HELL. No corresponding note can be found forBarley-break, a country game resembling prisoners' base.

Transcriber's Endnotes

Numeration Errors in the Hesperides:

Without an obvious solution to a discrepancy the numbers remain as originally printed, however the following alterations have been made to ensure any details in theNOTESsection apply to the relevant poem.

Typographical Errors:

Unresolved Errors:

The following errors remain as printed:

Vol. II.

REVISED EDITION

LONDON:LAWRENCE & BULLEN, Ltd.,16 Henrietta Street, W.C.1898.NEW YORK:LAWRENCE & BULLEN, Ltd.,153-157 Fifth Avenue1898.

Transcriber's NoteOriginal spelling and punctuation has been retained.All Greek words have mouse-hover transliterations,Κύματα κακῶν, and appear as printed in the original volume.Obvious typesetting errors have been corrected without note, however additional corrections have been recorded in theTranscriber's Endnotesat the end of the text.

Transcriber's Note

Original spelling and punctuation has been retained.All Greek words have mouse-hover transliterations,Κύματα κακῶν, and appear as printed in the original volume.Obvious typesetting errors have been corrected without note, however additional corrections have been recorded in theTranscriber's Endnotesat the end of the text.

When I love (as some have told,Love I shall when I am old),O ye Graces! make me fitFor the welcoming of it.Clean my rooms, as temples be,T' entertain that deity.Give me words wherewith to woo,Suppling and successful too;Winning postures, and, withal,Manners each way musical:Sweetness to allay my sourAnd unsmooth behaviour.For I know you have the skillVines to prune, though not to kill,And of any wood ye see,You can make a Mercury.

Suppling, softening.Mercury, god of eloquence and inventor of the lyre.

No more, my Silvia, do I mean to prayFor those good days that ne'er will come away.I want belief; O gentle Silvia, beThe patient saint, and send up vows for me.

I cannot pipe as I was wont to do,Broke is my reed, hoarse is my singing, too;My wearied oat I'll hang upon the tree,And give it to the sylvan deity.

Wilt thou my true friend be?Then love not mine, but me.

Desunt nonnulla——

Come then, and like two doves with silv'ry wings,Let our souls fly to th' shades where ever springsSit smiling in the meads; where balm and oil,Roses and cassia crown the untill'd soil.Where no disease reigns, or infection comesTo blast the air, but ambergris and gumsThis, that, and ev'ry thicket doth transpire,More sweet than storax from the hallowed fire,Where ev'ry tree a wealthy issue bearsOf fragrant apples, blushing plums, or pears;And all the shrubs, with sparkling spangles, shewLike morning sunshine tinselling the dew.Here in green meadows sits eternal May,Purfling the margents, while perpetual daySo double gilds the air, as that no nightCan ever rust th' enamel of the light.Here, naked younglings, handsome striplings, runTheir goals for virgins' kisses; which when done,Then unto dancing forth the learned roundCommixed they meet, with endless roses crown'd.And here we'll sit on primrose-banks, and seeLove's chorus led by Cupid; and we'll beTwo loving followers, too, unto the groveWhere poets sing the stories of our love.There thou shalt hear divine Musæus singOf Hero and Leander; then I'll bringThee to the stand, where honour'd Homer readsHis Odysseys and his high Iliads;About whose throne the crowd of poets throngTo hear the incantation of his tongue:To Linus, then to Pindar; and that done,I'll bring thee, Herrick, to Anacreon,Quaffing his full-crown'd bowls of burning wine,And in his raptures speaking lines of thine,Like to his subject; and as his franticLooks show him truly Bacchanalian-likeBesmear'd with grapes, welcome he shall thee thither,Where both may rage, both drink and dance together.Then stately Virgil, witty Ovid, byWhom fair Corinna sits, and doth complyWith ivory wrists his laureate head, and steepsHis eye in dew of kisses while he sleeps;Then soft Catullus, sharp-fang'd Martial,And towering Lucan, Horace, Juvenal,And snaky Persius, these, and those, whom rage(Dropt for the jars of heaven) fill'd t' engageAll times unto their frenzies,—thou shalt thereBehold them in a spacious theatre.Among which glories, crowned with sacred baysAnd flatt'ring ivy, two recite their plays—Beaumont and Fletcher, swans to whom all earsListen, while they, like syrens in their spheres,Sing their Evadne; and still more for theeThere yet remains to know than thou can'st seeBy glim'ring of a fancy. Do but come,And there I'll show thee that capacious roomIn which thy father Jonson now is plac'd,As in a globe of radiant fire, and grac'dTo be in that orb crown'd, that doth includeThose prophets of the former magnitude,And he one chief; but hark, I hear the cock(The bellman of the night) proclaim the clockOf late struck one, and now I see the primeOf day break from the pregnant east: 'tis timeI vanish; more I had to say,But night determines here, away.

Purfling, trimming, embroidering.Round, rustic dance.Comply, encircle.Their Evadne, the sister of Melantius in their play "The Maid's Tragedy".

Life is the body's light, which once declining,Those crimson clouds i' th' cheek and lips leave shining.Those counter-changed tabbies in the air(The sun once set) all of one colour are.So, when Death comes, fresh tinctures lose their place,And dismal darkness then doth smutch the face.

Tabbies, shot silks.

Let fair or foul my mistress be,Or low, or tall, she pleaseth me;Or let her walk, or stand, or sit,The posture hers, I'm pleas'd with it;Or let her tongue be still, or stir,Graceful is every thing from her;Or let her grant, or else deny,My love will fit each history.

Ask me why I send you hereThis sweet Infanta of the year?Ask me why I send to youThis primrose, thus bepearl'd with dew?I will whisper to your ears:The sweets of love are mix'd with tears.Ask me why this flower does showSo yellow-green, and sickly too?Ask me why the stalk is weakAnd bending (yet it doth not break)?I will answer: These discoverWhat fainting hopes are in a lover.

Ask me why I send you hereThis sweet Infanta of the year?Ask me why I send to youThis primrose, thus bepearl'd with dew?I will whisper to your ears:The sweets of love are mix'd with tears.

Ask me why this flower does showSo yellow-green, and sickly too?Ask me why the stalk is weakAnd bending (yet it doth not break)?I will answer: These discoverWhat fainting hopes are in a lover.

If nine times you your bridegroom kiss,The tenth you know the parson's is.Pay then your tithe, and doing thus,Prove in your bride-bed numerous.If children you have ten, Sir JohnWon't for his tenth part ask you one.

Sir John, the parson.

Bring me my rosebuds, drawer, come;So, while I thus sit crown'd,I'll drink the aged Cæcubum,Until the roof turn round.

Drawer, waiter.Cæcubum, Cæcuban, an old Roman wine.

All things subjected are to fate;Whom this morn sees most fortunate,The evening sees in poor estate.

The saints'-bell calls, and, Julia, I must readThe proper lessons for the saints now dead:To grace which service, Julia, there shall beOne holy collect said or sung for thee.Dead when thou art, dear Julia, thou shalt haveA trentall sung by virgins o'er thy grave:Meantime we two will sing the dirge of these,Who dead, deserve our best remembrances.

Trentall, a service for the dead.

I do love I know not what,Sometimes this and sometimes that;All conditions I aim at.But, as luckless, I have yetMany shrewd disasters metTo gain her whom I would get.Therefore now I'll love no moreAs I've doted heretofore:He who must be, shall be poor.

I do love I know not what,Sometimes this and sometimes that;All conditions I aim at.

But, as luckless, I have yetMany shrewd disasters metTo gain her whom I would get.

Therefore now I'll love no moreAs I've doted heretofore:He who must be, shall be poor.

Night hides our thefts, all faults then pardon'd be;All are alike fair when no spots we see.Lais and Lucrece in the night-time arePleasing alike, alike both singular:Joan and my lady have at that time one,One and the self-same priz'd complexion:Then please alike the pewter and the plate,The chosen ruby, and the reprobate.

Lais and Lucrece, opposite types of incontinence and purity. Cp.665,885.

If so be a toad be laidIn a sheep's-skin newly flay'd,And that tied to man, 'twill severHim and his affections ever.

For being comely, consonant, and freeTo most of men, but most of all to me;For so decreeing that thy clothes' expenseKeeps still within a just circumference;Then for contriving so to load thy boardAs that the messes ne'er o'erlade the lord;Next for ordaining that thy words not swellTo any one unsober syllable:These I could praise thee for beyond another,Wert thou a Winstfield only, not a brother.

Consonant, harmonious.

My head doth ache,O Sappho! takeThy fillet,And bind the pain,Or bring some baneTo kill it.But less that partThan my poor heartNow is sick;One kiss from theeWill counsel beAnd physic.

My head doth ache,O Sappho! takeThy fillet,And bind the pain,Or bring some baneTo kill it.

But less that partThan my poor heartNow is sick;One kiss from theeWill counsel beAnd physic.

Live by thy muse thou shalt, when others dieLeaving no fame to long posterity:When monarchies trans-shifted are, and gone,Here shall endure thy vast dominion.

Hence a blessed soul is fled,Leaving here the body dead;Which since here they can't combine,For the saint we'll keep the shrine.

O times most bad,Without the scopeOf hopeOf better to be had!Where shall I go,Or whither runTo shunThis public overthrow?No places are,This I am sure,SecureIn this our wasting war.Some storms we've past,Yet we must allDown fall,And perish at the last.

O times most bad,Without the scopeOf hopeOf better to be had!

Where shall I go,Or whither runTo shunThis public overthrow?

No places are,This I am sure,SecureIn this our wasting war.

Some storms we've past,Yet we must allDown fall,And perish at the last.

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