The Hesperides & Noble Numbers Part 45

are corrected from each other, italics show the variations, asterisks mark lines omitted in _Hesperides_, and a dagger the absence of lines subsequently added.

"So _swift_ streams meet, so springs with gladder smiles Meet after long divorcement _made by_ isles: When love (the child of likeness) urgeth on Their crystal _waters_ to an union.

So meet stol'n kisses when the moonie _night_ Calls forth fierce lovers to their wisht _delight_: So kings and queens meet, when desire convinces All thoughts, _save those that tend to_ getting princes.

As I meet thee, Soul of my life and fame!

Eternal Lamp of Love, whose radiant flame Out-_darts_ the heaven's Osiris; and thy _gems Darken_ the splendour of his mid-day beams.

Welcome, O welcome, my ill.u.s.trious spouse!

Welcome as are the ends unto my vows: _Nay_, far more welcome than the happy soil The sea-scourged merchant, after all his toil, Salutes with tears of joy, when fires _display_ The _smoking_ chimneys of his Ithaca.

Where hast thou been so long from my embraces, Poor pitied exile? Tell me, did thy Graces Fly discontented hence, and for a time _Choose rather for_ to bless _some_ other clime?

*_Oh, then, not longer let my sweet defer *Her buxom smiles from me, her wors.h.i.+pper!_ Why _have those amber_ looks, the which have been Time-past so fragrant, sickly now _call'd_ in Like a dull twilight? Tell me, *_hath my soul *Prophaned in speech or done an act that is foul *Against thy purer essence?_ _For that_ fault I'll expiate with sulphur, hair and salt: And with the crystal humour of the spring Purge hence the guilt, and kill _the_ quarrelling.

_Wilt_ thou not smile, _nor_ tell me what's amiss?

Have I been cold to hug thee, too remiss, Too temperate in embracing? Tell me, has desire To-thee-ward died in the embers, and no fire Left in _the_ raked-up _ashes_, as a mark To testify the glowing of a spark?

_I must_ confess I left thee, and appeal 'Twas done by me more to _increase_ my zeal, And double my affection[]; as do those Whose love grows more inflamed by being _froze_.

But to forsake thee, [] could there _ever_ be A thought of such-like possibility?

When _all the world may know that vines_ shall lack Grapes, before Herrick _leave_ Canary sack.

*_Sack is my life, my leaven, salt to all *My dearest dainties, nay, 'tis the princ.i.p.al *Fire unto all my functions, gives me blood, *An active spirit, full marrow, and, what is good,_ _Sack makes_ me _sprightful, airy_ to be borne, Like Iphyclus, upon the tops of corn.

_Sack makes_ me nimble, as the winged hours, To dance and caper _o'er the tops_ of flowers, And ride the sunbeams. Can there be a thing Under the _cope of heaven_ that can bring More _joy_ unto my _soul_, or can present My Genius with a fuller blandishment?

Ill.u.s.trious Idol! _Can_ the Egyptians seek Help from the garlick, onion and the leek, And pay no vows to thee, who _art the_ best G.o.d, and far more _transcending_ than the rest?

Had Ca.s.sius, that weak water-drinker, known Thee in _the_ Vine, or had but tasted one Small chalice of thy _nectar, he, even_ he As the wise Cato had approved of thee.

Had not Jove's son, the _rash_ Tyrinthian swain (Invited to the Thesbian banquet), ta'ne Full goblets of thy [] blood; his *_l.u.s.tful_ sprite _Had not_ kept heat for fifty maids that night.

As Queens meet Queens, _so let sack come to_ me _Or_ as Cleopatra _unto_ Anthonie, When her high _visage_ did at once present To the Triumvir love and wonderment.

Swell up my _feeble sinews_, let my blood Fill each part full of fire,* _let all my good_ _Parts be encouraged_, active to do What thy commanding soul shall put _me_ to, And till I turn apostate to thy love, Which here I vow to serve, _never_ remove Thy _blessing_ from me; but Apollo's curse Blast _all mine_ actions; or, a thing that's worse, When these circ.u.mstants _have the fate_ to see The time _when_ I prevaricate from thee, Call me the Son of Beer, and then confine Me to the tap, the toast, the turf; let wine Ne'er s.h.i.+ne upon me; _let_ my _verses_ all _Haste_ to a sudden death and funeral: And last, _dear Spouse, when I thee_ disavow, _May ne'er_ prophetic Daphne crown my brow."

Certainly this ma.n.u.script version is in every way inferior to that printed in the _Hesperides_, and Herrick must be reckoned among the poets who are able to revise their own work.

_The smoky chimneys of his Ithaca._ Ovid, I. _de Ponto_, ix. 265:--

Non dubia est Ithaci prudentia sed tamen optat Fumum de patriis posse videre focis.

_Upon the tops of corn._ Virgil (_aen._ vii. 808-9) uses the same comparison of Camilla: Illa vel intactae segetis per summa volaret Gramina, nec teneras cursu laesisset aristas.

_Could the Egyptians seek Help from the garlick, onion and the leek._ Cp. Numbers xi. 5, and Juv., xi. 9-11.

_Ca.s.sius, that weak water-drinker._ Not, as Dr. Grosart queries: "Ca.s.sius Iatrosophista, or Ca.s.sius Felix?" but C. Ca.s.sius Longinus, the murderer of Caesar. Cp. Montaigne, II. 2, and Seneca, _Ep._ 83: "Ca.s.sius tota vita aquam bibit" there quoted.

201. _To trust to good verses._ Carminibus confide bonis. Ovid, _Am._ III. ix. 39.

_The Golden Pomp is come._ Aurea pompa venit, Ovid, _Am._ III. ii. 44.

"Now reigns the rose" (nunc regnat rosa) is a common phrase in Martial and elsewhere. For the "Arabian dew," cp. Ovid, _Sappho to Phaon_, 98: Arabo noster rore capillus olet.

_A text ... Behold Tibullus lies._ Jacet ecce Tibullus: Vix manet e tanto parva quod urna capit. Ovid, _Am._ III. ix. 39.

203. _Lips Tongueless._ Dr. Nott parallels Catullus, _Carm._ lii.

(lv.):--

Si linguam clauso tenes in ore, Fructus projicies amoris omnes: Verbosa gaudet Venus loquela.

208. _Gather ye rosebuds while ye may._ Set to music by William Lawes in Playford's second book of "Ayres," 1652. Printed in _Witts Recreations_, 1654, with the variants: "Gather _your_ Rosebuds" in l. 1; l. 4, _may_ for _will_; l. 6, _he is getting_ for _he's a-getting_; l. 8, _nearer to his setting_ for _nearer he's to setting_. The opening lines are from Ausonius, ccclxi. 49, 50 (quoted by Burton, _Anat. Mel._ III. 2, 5 -- 5):--

Collige, virgo, rosas, dum flos novus, et nova p.u.b.es, Et memor esto aevum sic properare tuum:

cp. also l. 43:--

Quam longa una dies, aetas tam longa rosarum.

209. _Has not whence to sink at all._ Seneca, _Ep._ xx.: Redige te ad parva ex quibus cadere non possis. Cp. Alain Delisle: Qui dec.u.mbit humi non habet unde cadat.

211. _His poetry his pillar._ A variation upon the Horatian theme:--

"Exegi monumentum aere perennius Regalique situ pyramidum altius".

(III. _Od._ x.x.x.)

212. _What though the sea be calm._ Almost literally translated from Seneca, _Ep._ iv.: Noli huic tranquillitati confidere: momento mare evert.i.tur: eodem die ubi luserunt navigia sorbentur.

213. _At noon of day was seen a silver star._ "King Charles the First went to St. Paul's Church the 30th day of May, 1630, to give praise for the birth of his son, attended with all his Peers and a most royal Train, where a bright star appeared at High Noon in the sight of all."

(_Stella Meridiana_, 1661.)

213. _And all most sweet, yet all less sweet than he._ It is characteristic of Herrick that in his _n.o.ble Numbers_ ("The New-Year's Gift") he repeats this line, applying it to Christ.

_The swiftest grace is best._ ??e?a? ????te? ????e??te?a?. Anth. Pal. x.

30.

214. _Know thy when._ So in _The Star-song_ Herrick sings: "Thou canst clear All doubts and manifest the where".

219. _Lord Bernard Stewart_, fourth son of Esme, third Duke of Lennox, and himself created Earl of Lichfield by Charles I. He commanded the king's troop of guards, and was killed at the battle of Rowton Heath, outside Chester, Sept. 24, 1645.

Clarendon (_History of the Rebellion_, ix. 19) thus records his death and character: "Here fell many gentlemen and officers of name, with the brave Earl of Litchfield, who was the third brother of that ill.u.s.trious family that sacrificed his life in this quarrel. He was a very faultless young man, of a most gentle, courteous, and affable nature, and of a spirit and courage invincible; whose loss all men lamented, and the king bore it with extraordinary grief."

_Trentall._ Properly a set of thirty ma.s.ses for the repose of a dead man's soul. Here and elsewhere Herrick uses the word as an equivalent for dirge, but Sidney distinguished them: "Let dirige be sung and trentalls rightly read. For love is dead," etc. "Hence, hence profane,"

is the Latin, _procul o procul este profani_ of Virg. _aen._ vi. 258, where "profane" is only equivalent to uninitiated.

223. _The Fairy Temple._ For a brief note on Herrick's fairy poems, see Appendix. On the dedication to Mr. John Merrifield, Counsellor-at-Law, Dr. Grosart remarks: "Nothing seems to be now known of Merrifield. It is just possible that--as throughout the poem--the name was an invented one, 'Merry Field'." But the records of the Inner Temple show that the Merrifields were a legal family from Woolmiston, near Crewkerne, Somersets.h.i.+re. John (son of Richard) Merrifield, the father, was admitted to the Inner Temple in 1581, and John, the son, in 1611. This latter must be Herrick's Counsellor. He rose to be a Master of the Bench in 1638 and Sergeant-at-Law in 1660. He died October, 1666, aged 75, at Crewkerne. On the other hand, it can hardly be doubted that Dr. Grosart is right in regarding the names of the fairy saints as quite imaginary.

He nevertheless suggests SS. t.i.tus, Neot, Idus, Ida, Fridian or Fridolin, Trypho, Felan and Felix as the possible prototypes of "Saint _t.i.t_, Saint _Nit_, Saint _Is_," etc. It should be noted that "t.i.t and Nit" occur with "Wap and Win" and other obviously made-up names, in Drayton's _Nymphidia_.

229. _Upon Cupid._ Taken from Anacreon, 5 [59].

St?f?? p????? p??' e????

?? t??? ??d??? ???ta?

?a? t?? pte??? ?atas???

??pt?s' e?? t?? ??????

?a?? d' ?p???? a?t??, ?a? ??? ?s? e??? ??

pte???s? ?a??a???e?.

234. _Care will make a face._ Ovid, _Ar. Am._ iii. 105: Cura dabit faciem, facies neglecta peribit.

235. _Upon Himself._ Printed in _Witts Recreations_, 1654, under the t.i.tle: _On an old Batchelor_, and with the variants, _married_ for _wedded_, l. 3, _one_ for _a_ in l. 4, and _Rather than mend me, blind me quite_ in l. 6.

238. _To the Rose._ Printed in _Witts Recreations_, 1654, with the variants _peevish_ for _flowing_ in l. 4, _say, if she frets, that I have bonds_ in l. 6, _that can tame although not kill_ in l. 10, and _now_ for _thus_ in l. 11. The opening couplet is from Martial, VII.

lx.x.xix.:--