The Hesperides & Noble Numbers Part 107

743. _Another upon her Weeping._ Printed in Witts _Recreations_, 1650, under the t.i.tle: _On Julia's Weeping_.

745. _To Sir John Berkeley, Governour of Exeter._ Youngest son of Sir Maurice Berkeley, of Bruton, in Somersets.h.i.+re; knighted in Berwick in 1638; commander-in-chief of all the Royalist forces in Devons.h.i.+re, 1643; captured Exeter Sept. 4 of that year, and held it till April 13, 1646.

Created Baron Berkeley of Stratton, in Cornwall, 1658; died 1678.

749. _Consultation._ As noted in the text, this is from Sall.u.s.t, _Cat._ i.

751. _None sees the fardell of his faults behind._ Cp. Catullus, xxii.

20, 21:--

Suus cuique attributus est error, Sed non videmus manticae quod in tergo est,

or, perhaps more probably from Seneca, _de Ira_, ii. 28: Aliena vitia in oculis habemus; a tergo nostra sunt.

755. _The Eye._ aeschyl. _Fragm._ in Plutarch, _Amat._ 21: ??a? ???a????

?? e ? ???? f????? ?f?a???, ?t?? ??d??? ? ?e?e????.

756. _To Prince Charles upon his coming to Exeter._ In August, 1645.

761. _The Wake._ Printed in _Witts Recreations_, 1650, under the t.i.tle: _Alvar and Anthea_.

763. _To Doctor Alabaster._ William Alabaster, or Alablaster, born at Hadleigh, Suffolk (1567); educated at Westminster and Trinity College, Cambridge; a friend of Spencer; was converted to Roman Catholicism while chaplain to the Earl of Ess.e.x in Spain, 1596. In 1607 he began his series of apocalyptic writings by an _Apparatus in Revelationem Jesu Christi_. On visiting Rome he was imprisoned by the Inquisition, escaped, and returned to Protestantism. 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: c.u.m recte factorum sibi quisque gratiam trahant, unius [Principis scil.] invidia ab omnibus peccatur.

775. _n.i.g.g.ards 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 exolesc.u.n.t, 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 Wa.s.sail_ (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 a.s.saulting 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] Deesse n.o.bis terra in qua vivamus, in qua moriamur non potest, quoted by Montaigne, II. 3.

809. _Who after his transgression doth repent._ Seneca, _Agam._ 243: Quem poenitet pecca.s.se 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. x.x.xii.

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 s.h.i.+ft._ From Seneca; the t.i.tle 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 hea.r.s.e, 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 Caesar'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 madida 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 s...o...b..is 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 _n.o.ble 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:

?????s?? a? ???a??e?

??a????? ????? e? ?.t.?.

With a significant variation--"Ill it fits"--for ????? p??pe?.

859. _Master J. Jincks._ Not identified.

861. _Kings seek their subjects' good, tyrants their own._ Aristot.