APPENDIX OF EPIGRAMS, etc.
NOTE.
Herrick's coarser epigrams and poems are included
in this Appendix. A few decent, but somewhat
pointless, epigrams have been added.
APPENDIX OF EPIGRAMS.
5. [TO HIS BOOK.] ANOTHER.
The place where swelling piles do breed;
May every ill that bites or smarts
Perplex him in his hinder parts.
6. TO THE SOUR READER.
Think that of all, that I have writ, the worst:
But if thou read'st my book unto the end,
And still do'st this and that verse, reprehend;
O perverse man! if all disgustful be,
The extreme scab take thee, and thine, for me.
41. THE VINE.
Was metamorphos'd to a vine;
Which crawling one and every way
Enthrall'd my dainty Lucia.
Methought, her long small legs and thighs
I with my tendrils did surprise;
Her belly, buttocks, and her waist
By my soft nerv'lets were embrac'd;
} About her head I writhing hung,
And with rich clusters, hid among
The leaves, her temples I behung:
So that my Lucia seem'd to me
Young Bacchus ravish'd by his tree.
My curls about her neck did crawl,
And arms and hands they did enthrall:
So that she could not freely stir,
All parts there made one prisoner.
But when I crept with leaves to hide
Those parts, which maids keep unespy'd,
Such fleeting pleasures there I took,
That with the fancy I awoke;
And found, ah me! this flesh of mine
More like a stock than like a vine.
64. ONCE POOR, STILL PENURIOUS.
The fattest hogs we grease the more with lard.
To him that has, there shall be added more;
Who is penurious, he shall still be poor.
99. UPON BLANCH.
Has blear'd his eyes: besides, his head is bald
Next, his wild ears, like leathern wings full spread,
Flutter to fly, and bear away his head.
109. UPON CUFFE. EPIG.
Those Sundays only whenas briefs are read.
This makes Cuffe dull; and troubles him the most,
Because he cannot sleep i' th' church free cost.
Briefs.—Letters recommending the collection of alms.
110. UPON FONE A SCHOOLMASTER. EPIG.
Are twigs of birch, and willow, growing there:
If so, we'll think too, when he does condemn
Boys to the lash, that he does whip with them.
126. UPON SCOBBLE. EPIG.
He'll slit her nose; but blubb'ring, she replies,
Good sir, make no more cuts i' th' outward skin,
One slit's enough to let adultry in.
129. UPON GLASCO. EPIG.
Which though they fur, will neither ache or rot.
Six teeth he has, whereof twice two are known
Made of a haft that was a mutton bone.
Which not for use, but merely for the sight,
He wears all day, and draws those teeth at night.
131. THE CUSTARD.
To th' board, so hot as none could touch the same:
Furze three or four times with his cheeks did blow
Upon the custard, and thus cooled so;
It seem'd by this time to admit the touch,
But none could eat it, 'cause it stunk so much.
135. UPON GRYLL.
Gryll either keeps his breath to cool his broth,
Or else, because Gryll's roast does burn his spit,
Gryll will not therefore say a grace for it.
148. UPON STRUT.
But turn'd a ladies' usher now, 'tis true:
Tell me, has Strut got e're a title more?
No; he's but foreman, as he was before.
163. UPON JOLLY'S WIFE.
Squint-ey'd, hook-nos'd; and lastly, kidney-lipp'd.
171. UPON PAGGET.
183. UPON PRIG.
What's now the cause? we know the case is clear;
Look in Prig's purse, the chev'ril there tells you
Prig money wants, either to buy or brew.
Chevril, kid.
184. UPON BATT.
But out of hope his wife might die to bear 'em.
188. UPON MUCH-MORE. EPIG.
Yet Much-more still complains he is in want.
Let Much-more justly pay his tithes; then try
How both his meal and oil will multiply.
199. UPON LUGGS. EPIG.
Was lately whipt for lying with a wench.
Thus pains and pleasures turn by turn succeed:
He smarts at last who does not first take heed.
200. UPON GUBBS. EPIG.
Some say, for joy, to see those kitlings drown'd.
206. UPON BUNCE. EPIG.
For payment promis'd, though thou never pay:
Let it be Dooms-day; nay, take longer scope;
Pay when th'art honest; let me have some hope.
221. GREAT BOAST SMALL ROAST.
He has at home; but who tastes boil'd or roast?
Look in his brine-tub, and you shall find there
Two stiff blue pigs'-feet and a sow's cleft ear.
222. UPON A BLEAR-EY'D WOMAN.
Dry-roasted all, but raw yet in her eyes.
233. NO LOCK AGAINST LETCHERY.
To keep out the letcher, and keep in the whore;
Yet quickly you'll see by the turn of a pin,
The whore to come out, or the letcher come in.
237. UPON SUDDS, A LAUNDRESS.
Both with her husband's and her own tough fleam.
239. UPON GUESS. EPIG.
To have men think he's troubled with the gout;
But 'tis no gout, believe it, but hard beer,
Whose acrimonious humour bites him here.
242. UPON A CROOKED MAID.
So you be straight where virgins straight should be.
261. UPON GROYNES. EPIG.
Stood in the holy forum candidate;
The word is Roman; but in English known:
Penance, and standing so, are both but one.
Candidate, clothed in white.
272. UPON PINK, AN ILL-FAC'D PAINTER. EPIG.
And so he may, if he'll be rul'd by me;
Let but Pink's face i' th' looking-glass be shown,
And Pink may paint the devil's by his own.
273. UPON BROCK. EPIG.
But not his mouth, the fouler of the two.
A clammy rheum makes loathsome both his eyes:
His mouth, worse furr'd with oaths and blasphemies.
277. LAUGH AND LIE DOWN.
And laugh no more; or laugh, and lie down next.
292. UPON SHARK. EPIG.
Eats to one's thinking, of all there, the least.
What saves the master of the house thereby
When if the servants search, they may descry
In his wide codpiece, dinner being done,
Two napkins cramm'd up, and a silver spoon?
305. UPON BUNGY.
Not out of conscience, or religion:
Or that this younker keeps so strict a Lent,
Fearing to break the king's commandement:
But being poor, and knowing flesh is dear,
He keeps not one, but many Lents i' th' year.
311. UPON SNEAPE. EPIG.
Forth into blushes whensoe'er he speaks.
315. UPON LEECH.
With speed give sick men their salvation:
'Tis strange, his father long time has been ill,
And credits physic, yet not trusts his pill:
And why? he knows he must of cure despair,
Who makes the sly physician his heir.
317. TO A MAID.
It that you lie, then I will swear you love.
326. UPON GREEDY. EPIG.
Not for affection to her or her bed;
But in regard, 'twas often said, this old
Woman would bring him more than could be told.
He took her; now the jest in this appears,
So old she was, that none could tell her years.
357. LONG AND LAZY.
Lazy to others, but be long to me.
358. UPON RALPH. EPIG.
But curse thy children, they consume thy wheat.
361. UPON MEASE. EPIG.
Ne'er yet set tooth in stump or rump of these.
363. UPON PASKE, A DRAPER.
Demands no money by a craving way;
For why, says he, all debts and their arrears
Have reference to the shoulders, not the ears.
368. UPON PRIGG.
Rather than fail, to steal from thence old shoes:
Sound or unsound be they, or rent or whole,
Prigg bears away the body and the sole.
369. UPON MOON.
Seldom or never knows a wain,
Only Moon's conscience, we confess,
That ebbs from pity less and less.
372. UPON SHIFT.
Save but his hat, and that he cannot mew.
Mew, change feathers.
373. UPON CUTS.
His linings are the matter running there.
374. GAIN AND GETTINGS.
The cobblers' getting time is at the last.
379. UPON DOLL. EPIG.
She ne'er remembers that she was a maid.
380. UPON SKREW. EPIG.
For all his shifts he cannot shift his clothes.
381. UPON LINNET. EPIG.
And sweetly sings, but yet his breath says no.
385. UPON GLASS. EPIG.
Turn'd from a Papist here a Predicant.
A vicarage at last Tom Glass got here,
Just upon five and thirty pounds a year.
Add to that thirty-five but five pounds more,
He'll turn a Papist, ranker than before.
398. UPON EELES. EPIG.
Driving these sharking trades, is out at heels.
400. UPON RASP. EPIG.
Many a tester by his game and bets:
But of his gettings there's but little sign;
When one hole wastes more than he gets by nine.
401. UPON CENTER, A SPECTACLE-MAKER WITH A
FLAT NOSE.
To others store of helpful spectacles.
Why wears he none? Because we may suppose,
Where leaven wants, there level lies the nose.
410. UPON SKINNS. EPIG.
His nails they were his meat, his rheum the drink.
411. UPON PIEVISH. EPIG.
Of English poets, and 'tis thought the worst.
412. UPON JOLLY AND JILLY. EPIG.
But yet get children (as the neighbours say).
The reason is: though all the day they fight,
They cling and close some minutes of the night.
419. UPON PATRICK, A FOOTMAN. EPIG.
His eyes and ears strive which should fastest run.
420. UPON BRIDGET. EPIG.
Two she spat out, a cough forced out the rest.
424. UPON FLIMSEY. EPIG.
Is it because his money all is spent?
No, but because the dingthrift now is poor,
And knows not where i' th' world to borrow more.
425. UPON SHEWBREAD. EPIG.
And showed me there much plate, but little meat.
Prithee, when next thou do'st invite, bar state,
And give me meat, or give me else thy plate.
428. UPON ROOTS. EPIG.
For a wrought purse; can any tell wherefore?
Say, what should Roots do with a purse in print,
That had not gold nor silver to put in't?
429. UPON CRAW.
Who can hold that, my friends, that will away?
430. OBSERVATION.
His bed, male children shall beget.
433. PUTREFACTION.
Of all that nature doth intend.
434. PASSION.
There would be no passion.
435. JACK AND JILL.
It seems a wonder unto me,
That they, no better do agree.
436. UPON PARSON BEANES.
And on the seventh, he has his notes to seek.
Six days he hollows so much breath away,
That on the seventh, he can nor preach or pray.
438. SHORT AND LONG BOTH LIKES.
But long or short, I'm well content with all.
440. UPON ROOK. EPIG.
Fie on this pride, this female vanity.
Thus, though the Rook does rail against the sin,
He loves the gain that vanity brings in.
456. UPON SPUNGE. EPIG.
Can hold of beer and ale an ocean;
Is this his glory? then his triumph's poor;
I know the tun of Heidleberg holds more.
464. UPON ONE WHO SAID SHE WAS ALWAYS
YOUNG.
To be but three, black-ey'd, we'll think you old.
465. UPON HUNCKS. EPIG.
About him, when the tavern's shot's to pay.
If he has none in 's pockets, trust me, Huncks
Has none at home in coffers, desks, or trunks.
476. UPON A CHEAP LAUNDRESS. EPIG.
That sharply trickles from her either eye.
The laundresses, they envy her good-luck,
Who can with so small charges drive the buck.
What needs she fire and ashes to consume,
Who can scour linens with her own salt rheum?
Drive the buck, wash clothes.
482. UPON SKURF.
All know a fellon eat the tenth away.
Fellon, whitlow.
500. UPON JACK AND JILL. EPIG.
Jack kisses Jill and bids her freely eat:
Jill says, Of what? says Jack, On that sweet kiss,
Which full of nectar and ambrosia is,
The food of poets. So I thought, says Jill,
That makes them look so lank, so ghost-like still.
Let poets feed on air, or what they will;
Let me feed full, till that I fart, says Jill.
503. UPON PARRAT.
Can teach a man the art of memory:
Believe him not; for he forgot it quite,
Being drunk, who 'twas that can'd his ribs last night.
514. KISSING AND BUSSING.
We buss our wantons, but our wives we kiss.
520. UPON MAGGOT, A FREQUENTER OF ORDINARIES.
Talks most, eats most, of all the feeders there.
He raves through lean, he rages through the fat,
(What gets the master of the meal by that?)
He who with talking can devour so much,
How would he eat, were not his hindrance such?
533. ON JOAN.
Having but seven in all: three black, four white.
534. UPON LETCHER. EPIG.
For false position in his neighbour's sheets:
Next, hanged for thieving: now the people say,
His carting was the prologue to this play.
535. UPON DUNDRIGE.
For all his issue, father of one child.
553. WAY IN A CROWD.
Skulls could not well pass through that scum of men,
For quick despatch Skulls made no longer stay
Than but to breathe, and everyone gave way;
For, as he breathed, the people swore from thence
A fart flew out, or a sir-reverence.
Sir-reverence, "save-reverence," the word of apology used for the indecency itself.
557. UPON ONE-EY'D BROOMSTED. EPIG.
And to the bath went, to be cured there:
His feet were helped, and left his crutch behind;
But home returned, as he went forth, half blind.
563. UPON SIBILLA.
Then gives it to the children to devour.
In cream she bathes her thighs, more soft than silk;
Then to the poor she freely gives the milk.
570. UPON TOOLY.
But ne'er so much as licks the speckled shells:
Only, if one prove addled, that he eats
With superstition, as the cream of meats.
The cock and hen he feeds; but not a bone
He ever picked, as yet, of anyone.
Superstition, reverence.
573. UPON BLANCH. EPIG.
Both for their comely need and some to spare;
But Blanch has not so much upon her head
As to bind up her chaps when she is dead.
574. UPON UMBER.
And, working it, by chance from Umber's erse
Flew out a crack, so mighty, that the fart,
As Umber states, did make his lion start.
579. UPON URLES.
Then from his feet it shifted to his hand:
When 'twas in's feet, his charity was small;
Now 'tis in's hand, he gives no alms at all.
580. UPON FRANCK.
She now wears silk to hide her blood-shot eye.
590. UPON A FREE MAID, WITH A FOUL BREATH.
But stinking breath, I do as hell abhor it.
591. UPON COONE. EPIG.
His nose is over-cool'd with icicles.
596. UPON SPALT.
He needs a tucker for to burl his face.
Pushes, pimples.
Tucker, a fuller.
Burl, to remove knots from cloth.
597. OF HORNE, A COMBMAKER.
To grace his own gums, or of box, or bone.
600. UPON A SOUR-BREATH LADY. EPIG.
When 'twas her breath that was the carrionere.
Carrionere, carrion-carrier.