Thee, sprightly Soame, one of my righteous tribe;
A tribe of one lip, leaven, and of one
Civil behaviour, and religion;
A stock of saints, where ev'ry one doth wear
A stole of white, and canonised here;
Among which holies be thou ever known,
Brave kinsman, mark'd out with the whiter stone
Which seals thy glory, since I do prefer
Thee here in my eternal calender.
546. TO HIS TOMB-MAKER.
547. GREAT SPIRITS SUPERVIVE.
Great spirits never with their bodies die.
548. NONE FREE FROM FAULT.
No man exempted is from death, or sin.
549. UPON HIMSELF BEING BURIED.
Till the dawning of the day;
Then at th' opening of mine eyes
I, and all the world, shall rise.
550. PITY TO THE PROSTRATE.
No part of pity on a conquered foe.
552. HIS CONTENT IN THE COUNTRY.
Can with the smallest cost afford.
Though ne'er so mean the viands be,
They well content my Prew and me.
Or pea, or bean, or wort, or beet,
Whatever comes, content makes sweet.
Here we rejoice, because no rent
We pay for our poor tenement,
Wherein we rest, and never fear
The landlord or the usurer.
The quarter-day does ne'er affright
Our peaceful slumbers in the night.
We eat our own and batten more,
Because we feed on no man's score;
But pity those whose flanks grow great,
Swell'd with the lard of others' meat.
We bless our fortunes when we see
Our own beloved privacy;
And like our living, where we're known
To very few, or else to none.
Prew, i.e., his servant, Prudence Baldwin.
553. THE CREDIT OF THE CONQUEROR.
And glorifies the worthy conqueror.
554. ON HIMSELF.
The most of thee shall 'scape the funeral.
556. THE FAIRIES.
557. TO HIS HONOURED FRIEND, M. JOHN WEARE,
COUNCILLOR.
To the indulgence of the rugged law,
The first foundation of that zeal should be
By reading all her paragraphs in thee,
Who dost so fitly with the laws unite,
As if you two were one hermaphrodite.
Nor courts[t] thou her because she's well attended
With wealth, but for those ends she was intended:
Which were,—and still her offices are known,—
Law is to give to ev'ry one his own;
To shore the feeble up against the strong,
To shield the stranger and the poor from wrong.
This was the founder's grave and good intent:
To keep the outcast in his tenement,
To free the orphan from that wolf-like man,
Who is his butcher more than guardian;
To dry the widow's tears, and stop her swoons,
By pouring balm and oil into her wounds.
This was the old way; and 'tis yet thy course
To keep those pious principles in force.
Modest I will be; but one word I'll say,
Like to a sound that's vanishing away,
Sooner the inside of thy hand shall grow
Hisped and hairy, ere thy palm shall know
A postern-bribe took, or a forked fee,
To fetter Justice, when she might be free.
Eggs I'll not shave; but yet, brave man, if I
Was destin'd forth to golden sovereignty,
A prince I'd be, that I might thee prefer
To be my counsel both and chancellor.
Hisped (hispidus), rough with hairs.
Postern-bribe, a back-door bribe.
Forked fee, a fee from both sides in a case; cp. Ben Jonson's
Volpone: "Give forked counsel, take provoking gold on either hand".
Eggs I'll not shave, a proverb.
560. THE WATCH.
Wound up again: once down, he's down for ever.
The watch once down, all motions then do cease;
And man's pulse stop'd, all passions sleep in peace.
561. LINES HAVE THEIR LININGS, AND BOOKS
THEIR BUCKRAM.
Shall find much farcing buckram in our books.
Farcing, stuffing.
562. ART ABOVE NATURE: TO JULIA.
With silken trees upon thy head,
And when I see that other dress
Of flowers set in comeliness;
When I behold another grace
In the ascent of curious lace,
Which like a pinnacle doth show
The top, and the top-gallant too.
Then, when I see thy tresses bound
Into an oval, square, or round,
And knit in knots far more than I
Can tell by tongue, or true-love tie;
Next, when those lawny films I see
Play with a wild civility,
And all those airy silks to flow,
Alluring me, and tempting so:
I must confess mine eye and heart
Dotes less on Nature than on Art.
Civility, order.
564. UPON HIS KINSWOMAN, MISTRESS BRIDGET
HERRICK.
Fresh blossoms from her cheeks did fall.
I thought at first 'twas but a dream,
Till after I had handled them
And smelt them, then they smelt to me
As blossoms of the almond tree.
565. UPON LOVE.
The wanton Satyr did;
Nor did I know, or could descry
What under there was hid.
But mine's the greater smart,
For kissing Love's dissembling chips
The fire scorch'd my heart.
The wanton Satyr, see Note.
566. UPON A COMELY AND CURIOUS MAID.
Marbles will swear that here it lies.
If, reader, then thou canst forbear
In public loss to shed a tear,
The dew of grief upon this stone
Will tell thee pity thou hast none.
567. UPON THE LOSS OF HIS FINGER.
Is lop'd already, and the rest but stand
Expecting when to fall, which soon will be;
First dies the leaf, the bough next, next the tree.
568. UPON IRENE.
But a minute's life with me:
Such a fire I espy
Walking in and out her eye,
As at once I freeze and fry.
569. UPON ELECTRA'S TEARS.
Sprang up a sweet nativity of flowers.
FOOTNOTES:
[A] A second William is said to have been born, posthumously, in "Harry Campion's house at Hampton," in 1593.
[B] Yet in his Farewell to Poetry he distinctly says:—
the line, however, is a translation from his favourite Seneca, Ep. 77.
[C] "A javelin twined with ivy" (Note in the original edition).
[D] "Songs to Bacchus" (Note in the original edition.)
[E] Orig. ed., should be burnt.
[F] Orig. ed., warty.
[G] Dardanium, a bracelet, from Dardanus so called. (Note in the original edition.)
[H] The sun. (Note in the original edition.)
[I] The moon. (Note in the original edition.)
[J] Hercules. (Note in the original edition.)
[K] Sparrow. (Note in the original edition.)
[L] A twig of a pomegranate, which the queen-priest did use to wear on her head at sacrificing. (Note in the original edition.)
[M] Clune = "clunis," a haunch.
NOTES.
NOTES.
2. Whither, mad maiden, etc. From Martial, I. iv. 11, 12:—
I, fuge; sed poteras tutior esse domi.
But for the Court. Cp. Martial, I. iv. 3, 4.
4. While Brutus standeth by. "Brutus and Cato are commonplaces of examples of severe virtue": Grosart. But Herrick is translating. This is from Martial, XI. xvi. 9, 10:—
Sed coram Bruto; Brute, recede, leget.
8. When he would have his verses read. The thought throughout this poem is taken from Martial, X. xix., beginning:—
Sed non rusticulum nimis libellum
Facundo mea Plinio, Thalia,
I perfer:
where the address to Thalia perhaps explains Herrick's "do not thou rehearse". The important lines are:—
Pulses ebria januam, videto.
... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...
Seras tutior ibis ad lucernas.
Hæc hora est tua, cum furit Lyæus,
Cum regnat rosa, cum madent capilli:
Tunc me vel rigidi legant Catones.
When laurel spirts i' th' fire. Burning bay leaves was a Christmas observance. Herrick sings:—
A plenteous harvest to your grounds":
where compare Tibull. II. v. 81-84. It was also used by maids as a love omen.
Thyrse ... sacred Orgies. Herrick's glosses show that the passage he had in mind was Catullus, lxiv. 256-269:—
... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...
Pars obscura cavis celebrabant orgia cistis,
Orgia, quæ frustra cupiunt audire profani.
10. No man at one time can be wise and love. Amare et sapere vix deo conceditur. (Publius Syrus.) The quotation is found in both Burton and Montaigne.
12. Who fears to ask, etc. From Seneca, Hippol. 594-95. Qui timide rogat ... docet negare.
15. Goddess Isis ... with her scent. Cp. Plutarch, De Iside et Osiride, 15.
17. He acts the crime. Seneca: Nil interest faveas sceleri an illud facias.
18. Two things odious. From Ecclus. xxv. 2.
31. A Sister ... about I'll lead. "Have we not power to lead about a sister, a wife?" 1 Cor. ix. 5.
35. Mercy and Truth live with thee. 2 Sam. xv. 20.
38. To please those babies in your eyes. The phrase "babies [i.e., dolls] in the eyes" is probably only a translation of its metaphor, involved in the use of the Latin pupilla (a little girl), or "pupil," for the central spot of the eye. The metaphor doubtless arose from the small reflections of the inlooker, which appear in the eyes of the person gazed at; but we meet with it both intensified, as in the phrase "to look babies in the eyes" (= to peer amorously), and with its origin disregarded, as in Herrick, where the "babies" are the pupils, and have an existence independent of any inlooker.
Small griefs find tongue. Seneca, Hippol. 608:
Full casks. So G. Herbert, Jacula Prudentum (1640): Empty vessels sound most.
48. Thus woe succeeds a woe as wave a wave. Horace, Ep. II. ii. 176: Velut unda supervenit unda. Κύματα κακῶν and κακῶν τρικυμία are common phrases in Greek tragedy.
49. Cherry-pit. Printed in the 1654 edition of Witts Recreations, where it appears as:—
Playing for sport at cherry-pit;
They both did throw, and, having thrown,
He got the pit and she the stone".
51. Ennobled numbers. This poem is often quoted to prove that Herrick's country incumbency was good for his verse; but if the reference be only to his sacred poems or Noble Numbers these would rather prove the opposite.
52. O earth, earth, earth, hear thou my voice. Jerem. xxii. 29: O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord.
56. Love give me more such nights as these. A reminiscence of Marlowe's version of Ovid, Amor. I. v. 26: "Jove send me more such afternoons as this".
72. Upon his Sister-in-law, Mistress Elizabeth Herrick, wife to his brother Thomas (see infra, 106).
74. Love makes me write what shame forbids to speak. Ovid, Phædra to Hippol.: Dicere quæ puduit scribere jussit amor.
Give me a kiss. Herrick is here imitating the well-known lines of Catullus to Lesbia (Carm. v.):—
Dein mille altera, dein secunda centum,
Deinde usque altera mille, deinde centum,
Dein, cum millia multa fecerimus,
Conturbabimus illa, ne sciamus, etc.
77. To the King, upon his coming with his army into the west. Essex had marched into the west in June, 1644, relieved Lyme, and captured royal fortresses in Dorset and Devon. Charles followed him into "the drooping west," and, in September, the Parliamentary infantry were forced to surrender, while Essex himself escaped by sea. Herrick's "white omens" were thus fulfilled.
79. To the King and Queen upon their unhappy distances. Henrietta Maria escaped abroad with the crown jewels in 1642, returned the next year and rejoined Charles in the west in 1644, whence she escaped again to France. This poem has been supposed to refer to domestic dissensions; but the "ball of strife" is surely the Civil War in general, and the reference to the parting of 1644.
81. The Cheat of Cupid. Herrick is here translating "Anacreon," 31 [3]:—
στρέφεθ' ἡνίκ' Ἄρκτος ἤδη
κατὰ χεῖρα τὴν Βοώτου,
μερόπων δὲ φῦλα πάντα
5κέαται κόπῳ δαμέντα,
τότ' Ἔρως ἐπισταθείς μευ
θυρέων ἔκοπτ' ὀχῆας.
τίς, ἔφην, θύρας ἀράσσει;
κατά μευ σχίζεις ὀνείρους.
10ὁ δ' Ἔρως, ἄνοιγε, φησίν·
βρέφος εἰμί, μὴ φόβησαι·
βρέχομαι δὲ κἀσέληνον
κατὰ νύκτα πεπλάνημαι.
ἐλέησα ταῦτ' ἀκούσας,
15ἀνὰ δ' εὐθὺ λύχνον ἅψας
ἀνέῳξα, καὶ βρέφος μέν
ἐσορῶ φἐροντα τόξον
πτέρυγάς τε καὶ φαρέτρην.
παρὰ δ' ἱστίην καθῖσα,
20παλάμαις τε χεῖρας αὐτοῦ
ἀνέθαλπον, ἐκ δὲ χαίτης
ἀπέθλιβον ὑγρὸν ὕδωρ.
ὁ δ', ἐπεὶ κρύος μεθῆκεν,
φέρε, φησί, πειράσωμεν
25τόδε τόξον, εἴ τι μοι νῦν
βλάβεται βραχεῖσα νευρή.
τανύει δὲ καί με τύπτει
μέσον ἡπαρ, ὥσπερ οἶστρος·
ἀνὰ δ' ἅλλεται καχάζων,
30ξένε δ', εἶπε, συγχάρηθι·
κέρας ἀβλαβὲς μὲν ἡμῖν,
σὺ δὲ καρδίην πονήσεις.
Some of his phrases, however, prove that he was occasionally more indebted to the Latin version of Stephanus than to the original.
82. That for seven lusters I did never come. The fall of Herrick's father from a window, fifteen months after the poet's birth, was imputed at the time to suicide; and it has been reasonably conjectured that some mystery may have attached to the place of his burial. If "seven lusters" can be taken literally for thirty-five years, this poem was written in 1627.
83. Delight in Disorder. Cp. Ben Jonson's "Still to be neat, still to be drest," in its turn imitated from one of the Basia of Johannes Bonefonius.
85. Upon Love. Printed in Witts Recreations, 1654. The only variant is "To tell me" for "To signifie" in the third line.
86. To Dean Bourn. "We found many persons in the village who could repeat some of his lines, and none who were not acquainted with his 'Farewell to Dean Bourn,' which they said he uttered as he crossed the brook upon being ejected by Cromwell from the vicarage, to which he had been presented by Charles the First. But they added, with an air of innocent triumph, 'he did see it again,' as was the fact after the restoration." Barron Field in Quarterly Review, August, 1810. Herrick was ejected in 1648.
A rocky generation! a people currish. Cp. Burton, II. iii. 2: a rude ... uncivil, wild, currish generation.
91. That man loves not who is not zealous too. Augustine, Adv. Adimant. 13: Qui non zelat, non amat.
92. The Bag of the Bee. Printed in Witts Recreations, 1654, and in Henry Bold's Wit a-sporting in a Pleasant Grove of new Fancies, 1657. Set to music by Henry Lawes.
93. Luxurious love by wealth is nourished. Ovid, Remed. Amor. 746: Divitiis alitur luxuriosus amor.
95. Homer himself. Indignor quandoque bonus dormitat Homerus. Horace, De Art. Poet. 359.
100. To bread and water none is poor. Seneca, Excerpt. ii. 887: Panem et aquam Natura desiderat; nemo ad haec pauper est.
Nature with little is content. Seneca, Ep. xvi.: Exiguum Natura desiderat. Ep. lx.: parvo Natura dimittitur.
106. A Country Life: To his brother, M. Tho. Herrick. "Thomas, baptized May 12, 1588, was placed by his uncle and guardian, Sir William Heyrick, with Mr. Massam, a merchant in London; but in 1610 he appears to have returned into the country and to have settled in a small farm. It is supposed that this Thomas was the father of Thomas Heyrick, who in 1668 resided at Market Harborough and issued a trader's token there, and grandfather to the Thomas who was curate of Harborough and published some sermons and poems." Hill's Market Harborough, p. 122.
A MS. version of this poem is contained in Ashmole 38, from which Dr. Grosart gives a full collation on pp. cli.-cliii. of his Memorial Introduction. The MS. appears to follow an unrevised version of the poem, and contains a few couplets which Herrick afterwards thought fit to omit. The most important passage comes after line 92: "Virtue had, and mov'd her sphere".
Thrice and above blest. Felices ter et amplius, Hor. I. Od. xiii. 7.
My soul's half: Animæ dimidium meæ, Hor. I. Od. iii. 8. The poem is full of such reminiscences: "With holy meal and spirting (MS. crackling) salt" is the "Farre pio et saliente mica" of III. Od. xxiii. 20; "Untaught to suffer poverty" the "Indocilis pauperiem pati" of I. Od. i. 18; "A heart thrice wall'd" comes from I. Od. iii. 9: Illi robur et æs triplex, etc. Similar instances might be multiplied. Note, too, the use of "Lar" and "Genius".
Jove for our labour all things sells us. Epicharm. apud Xenoph. Memor. II. i. 20, τῶν πόνων Πωλοῦσιν ἡμῖν πάντα τἀγαθ' οἱ θεοί. Quoted by Montaigne, II. xx.
Wisely true to thine own self. Possibly a Shakespearian reminiscence of the "to thine own self be true" in the speech of Polonius to Laertes, Hamlet, I. iii. 78.
A wise man every way lies square. Cp. Arist. Eth. I. x. 11, ὡς ἀληθῶς ἀγαθὸς καὶ τετράγωνος ἄνευ ψόγου.
For seldom use commends the pleasure. Voluptates commendat rarior usus. Juvenal, Sat. xi. ad fin.
Nor fear or wish your dying day. Summum nec metuas diem, nec optes. Mart. X. xlvii. 13.
112. To the Earl of Westmoreland. Mildmay Fane succeeded his father, Thomas Fane, the first earl, in March, 1628. At the outbreak of the Civil War he sided with the king, but after a short imprisonment made his submission to the Parliament, and was relieved of the sequestration of his estates. He subsequently printed privately a volume of poems, called Otia Sacra, which has been re-edited by Dr. Grosart.
117. To the Patron of Poets, M. End. Porter. Five of Herrick's poems are addressed to Endymion Porter, who seems to have been looked to as a patron by all the singers of his day. According to the inscription on a medal of him executed by Varin in 1635, he was then forty-eight, so that he was born in 1587, coming into the world at Aston-under-Hill in Gloucestershire. He went with Charles on his trip to Spain, and after his accession became groom of his bedchamber, was active in the king's service during the Civil War, and died in 1649. He was a collector of works of art both for himself and for the king, and encouraged Rob. Dover's Cotswold games by presenting him with a suit of the king's clothes. À Wood tells us this, and mentions also that he was a friend of Donne, that Gervase Warmsely dedicated his Virescit Vulnere Virtus to him in 1628, and that in conjunction with the Earl of St. Alban's he also received the dedication of Davenant's Madagascar.
Let there be patrons, etc. Burton, I. ii. 3, § 15. 'Tis an old saying: "Sint Mæcenates, non deerunt, Flacce, Marones" (Mart. VIII. lvi. 5).
Fabius, Cotta, and Lentulus are examples of Roman patrons of poetry, themselves distinguished. Cp. Juvenal, vii. 94.
119. His tapers thus put out. So Ovid, Am. iii. 9:—
121. Four things make us happy here. From
δεύτερον δὲ φυὰν καλὸν γενέσθαι·
τὸ τρίτον δὲ πλουτεῖν αδόλως·
καὶ τὸ τέταρτον, ἡβᾶν μετὰ τῶν φίλων.
(Bergk, Anth. Lyr., Scol. 8.)
123. The Tear sent to her from Staines. This is printed in Witts Recreations with no other variation than in the title, which there runs: "A Teare sent his Mistresse". Dr. Grosart notes that Staines was at the time a royal residence.
128. His Farewell to Sack. A manuscript version of this poem at the British Museum omits many lines (7, 8, 11-22, 29-36), and contains few important variants. "Of the yet chaste and undefiled bride" is a poor anticipation of line 6, and "To raise the holy madness" for "To rouse the sacred madness" is also weak. For the line and a half:—
Or smile more inly, lest thy looks beguile,"
we have the very inferior passage:—
Thy gazing fires, lest at their sight the sin
Of fierce idolatry shoot into me, and
I turn apostate to the strict command
Of nature; bid me now farewell, or smile
More ugly, lest thy tempting looks beguile".
This MS. version is followed in the first published text in Witts Recreations, 1645.
130. Upon Mrs. Eliz. Wheeler. "The lady complimented in this poem was probably a relation by marriage. Herrick's first cousin, Martha, the seventh daughter of his uncle Robert, married Mr. John Wheeler." Nott.
132. Fold now thine arms. A sign of grief. Cp. "His arms in this sad knot". Tempest.
134. Mr. J. Warr. This John Warr is probably the same as the "honoured friend, Mr. John Weare, Councellour," of a later poem. Dr. Grosart quotes an "Epitaph upon his honoured friend, Master Warre," by Randolph. Nothing is known of him, but I find in the Oxford Register that a John Warr matriculated at Exeter College, 16th May, 1619, and proceeded M.A. in 1624. He may possibly be Herrick's friend.
137. Dowry with a wife. Cp. Ovid, Ars Am. ii. 155: Dos est uxoria lites.
139. The Wounded Cupid. This is taken from Anacreon, 33 [40]:—
κοιμωμένην μέλιτταν
οὐκ εἶδεν, ἀλλ' ἐτοώθη
τὸν δάκτυλον· παταχθείς
τὰς χεῖρας ὠλόλυξεν·
δραμὼν δὲ καὶ πετασθεις
πρὸς τὴν καλὴν Κυθήρην
ὄλωλα, μᾶτερ, εἶπεν,
ὄλωλα κἀποθνήσκω·
ὄφις μ' ἔτυψε μικρός
πτερωτός, ὃν καλοῦσιν
μέλιτταν οἱ γεωργοί.
ἁ δ' εἶπεν· εἰ τὸ κέντρον
πονεῖ τὸ τᾶς μελίττας,
πόσον δοκεῖς πονοῦσιν,
Ἔρως, ὅσους σὺ βάλλεις;
142. A Virgin's face she had. Herrick is imitating a charming passage from the first Æneid (ll. 315-320), in which Æneas is confronted by Venus:—