K u UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT LOS ANGELES okcase. THE GIFT OF MAY TREAT MORRISON IN MEMORY OF ALEXANDER F MORRISON \ly Telegraph. ARY. laeh. READY ON THE 25/// OF EACH MONTH MORLEY'S UNIVERSAL LIBRARY. 1. SHERIDAN'S PLAYS. 2. PLAYS FROM MOLIERE. By English Dramatists. 3. MARLOWE'S FAUSTUS AND GOETHE'S FAUST. 4. CHRONICLE OF THE CID. 5. RABELAIS' GARGANTUA, AND THE HEROIC DEEDS OF PANTAGRUEL. 6. THE PRINCE. By Machiavelli. 7. BACON'S ESSAYS. 8. DE FOE'S JOURNAL OF THE PLAGUE YEAR. 9. LOCKE ON TOLERATION AND ON CIVIL GOVERN- MENT ; WITH SIR ROBERT FILMER'S PATRIARCHA. 10. BUTLER'S ANALOGY OF RELIGION. 11. DRYDEN'S VIRGIL. 12. SIR WALTER SCOTT'S DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 13. HERRICK'S HESPERIDES. 14. COLERIDGE'S TABLE TALK: WITH THE ANCIENT MARINER AND CHRISTABEL. 15. BOCCACCIO'S DECAMERON. 16. STERNE'S TRISTRAM SHANDY. 17. HOMER'S ILIAD, Translated by George Chapman. 18. MEDIEVAL TALES. 19. JOHNSON'S RASSELAS; AND VOLTAIRE'S CANDIDE. 20. PLAYS AND POEMS BY BEN JONSON. 21. HOBBES'S LEVIATHAN. 22. BUTLER'S HUDIBRAS. GEORGE ROUTLEDGE AND SONS, LONDON AND NEW YORK. MORLEY'S UNIVERSAL LIBRARY. 23. IDEAL COMMONWEALTHS : MORE'S UTOPIA ; BACON'S NEW ATLANTIS; AND CAMPANELLA'S CITY OF THE SUN. 24. CAVENDISH'S LIFE OF WOLSEY. 25 and 26. DON QUIXOTE (Two Volumes). 27. BURLESQUE PLAYS AND POEMS. 28. DANTE'S DIVINE COMEDY. Longfellow's Translation. 29. GOLDSMITH'S VICAR OF WAKEFIELD, PLAYS, AND POEMS, 30. FABLES AND PROVERBS FROM THE SANSKRIT. 31. CHARLES LAMB'S ESSAYS OF ELIA. 32. THE HISTORY OF THOMAS ELLWOOD, Written by Himself. 33. EMERSON'S ESSAYS, REPRESENTATIVE MEN, AND SOCIETY AND SOLITUDE. 34. SOUTHEY'S LIFE OF NELSON. 35. DE QUINCEY'S OPIUM EATER, SHAKSPEARE. GOETHE. 36. STORIES OF IRELAND. By Maria Edgeworth. 37. THE PLAYS OF ARISTOPHANES, Translated by Frere. 38. SPEECHES AND LETTERS. By Edmund Burke. 39. THOMAS A KEMPIS' IMITATION OF CHRIST. 40. POPULAR SONGS OF IRELAND, Collected by Thomas Crofton Croker. 41. THE PLAYS OF i^lSCHYLUS, Translated by R. Potter. GEORGE ROUTLEDGE AND SONS, LONDON AND NEW YORK. e.M.LAKTVNF, HANSON AMi CO., T- DIN UT i:< .11 t HANUOS SI KEEl, l.O.MHl.N hesim: kiDi: s OK Works both Human and Divine Ol' ROBERT IIERRICK WI7II AN INTRODUCTION BY HENRY MO RLE Y LI..D., PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH LITERATURE AT UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LONDON SECOND EDITION LONDON GEORGE ROUTLEDGE AND SONS BROADWAY, LUDGATE HILL NEW YORK: 9 LAFAYETTE PLACE 1885 » . J* MORLEY'S UNIVERSAL LIBRARY. VOLUMES ALREADY PUBLISHED. SHERIDAN'S PLAYS. FLA YS FROM MOLIERE. By English Dramatists, MARLO WE'S FA USTUS b' GOETHE S FA UST. CHRONICLE OF THE CID. RABELAIS' GARGANTUA and the HEROIC DEEDS OF PANTAGRUEL. THE PRINCE. By Maciiiavelli. BACON'S ESSAYS. DEFOE'S JOURNAL OF THE PLAGUE YEAR. LOCKE ON CIVIL GOl'ERNMFNT b^ FILMER'S " PATRIARCJIA." SCOTT'S DEMONOLOGY and WITCHCRAFT. DRYDEN'S VIRGIL. BUTLERS ANALOGY OF RELIGION. HERRICA'S HESPERIDES. COL E RIDGE'S TA />'/. /:'- TA I. A'. BOCCA CCIO'S DECAMERON. STERNE'S TRISTRAM. SHANDY. CHA'.PMAN'S 'i-J.d.ilEMS H.IAD. A tEDI.k I 'A L TA L ES. .i'p'L TM'R.'l-.'S 'CA^^DIDK- &- JOHNSON'S • ' ' 'R'a'ssfl.-i's. :'.:.•. '•• • • • I H INTRODUCTION. Rohf.kt Herrick — whose name was written also Hearicke, Htyiickc, Kyrick, and Erick — belonged to a Leicestershire family, out of which came in after years tiic Abigail Erick, who was mother to Jonathan Swift. The poet's father, Nicholas Herrick, was a goldsmith in Cheapsidc, who in 1582 married a Julian Stone and had seven children, of whom Rolx'rt, the youngest, was baptized on the 24th of August, 1591. In November, 1592, Nicholas Herrick, being sick in body, made his will, and within a day afterwards fell or threw himself froni a window of his house in Cheajjside and was killed. Dr. Fletcher, Bishop of Bristol, father of John Fletcher the poet, claimed, as High Almoner, the goods left by the dead man. He claimed them ; s goods and chattels of a suicide, but accepted upon arbitration an award of ^220. In the following year a posthumous child was born to Mrs. Herrick. He was named William, after the uncle who acted as guardian to the children. The father's possessions realized for the family about /;5,ooo Robert Herrick luul been named after the eldest of his uncles, an ironmonger, who was three times Mayor of Leicester, livccl to keep his golden widding-day, and died when his nephew and godson was twenty-seven years old. 'I'he poet had rich rela- tives, and many of them. His grandmother, when he wac twenty years old, died at the age of ninety-seven, and it is said on her tomb that "she did see, before her departure, of her chil- dren and her children's children, to the number of 142." Herrick had on his mother's side an Aunt Anne, married to Sir Stephen Soame, who was Lord Mayor of London in 1598. This brings the name of Soame into his poems. After an education of which nothing is known Init that it laid foundations for a keen enjoyment of the Latin lyric poets, Robert Herrick was apprenticed, at the age of si.\teen, to his uncle William, who obtained knighthood, and, like the poet's father, was a goldsmith. He lived in Wood Street, Cheapside, and had a manor — Beau Manor Park— in Leicestershire. Before he was out of his time as apprentice, Robert Herrick had given up the pursuit of trade and Mas studying as a Fellow Commoner at St. John's College, Cambridge. But it was from Trinity Hall th;it he graduated as B A. in the year of Shake- si)eare's death, and as M.A. in 1620, when his age was twenty- nine. Herrick was one of Nature's poets, and had by that time wiiuen man\- a line that gave him place among the younger men 429854 6 INTRODUCTION. of genius who gathered about Ben Jonsoii, and thought it fame if any one of them was called by him " son" and so sealed of the tribe of Ben. Herrick, who was no poetaster, could not fail of the just reverence that caused him afterwards to set up little shrines to Jonson in his verse. He became known among the Ivric poets of the town, and songs of his were set by the com- posers then in fashion. It was not until nine years after the completion of his course at Cambridge that Robert Herrick — in 1629, the year of his mother's death — took orders and was presented by Charles I. to the living of Dean Prior, in what he calls '• dull Devonshire." Though he was happiest as comrade of the poets of the town, and loved no scenery so well as that of Cheapside and the Strand ; though he abuses the rocky stream of Dean Burn that breaks down from the moor through a wild little valley and feeds watercresscs by the long and empty road between his parsonage and the few houses of Dean Prior ; the love of flowers runs through all his verse. The watercresscs of Dean Burn are not forgotten among the simple havings of his grange ; and if he shows no interest in rural scenery, he was full of sympathy with all that was human in his little world among the hills. Dean Prior is on the borders of Dartmoor, and within easy reach of some of the best scenery in Devonshire. For eighteen years Herrick lived in his Vicarage, and then reverse of fortune seemed to him almost a blessing, when he came to be among the deprived clergy; for when he gave place in 1647 to John Syms he returned to London, the blest place of his nativity. Herrick's source of income was cut off, but he belonged to a numerous and monied family. He had, as a poet and good Royalist, many patrons among whom the cause of his reverse entitled him to ready welcome, and he could dine well when he pleased at tables not his own. His first business when he came to London was to print, in 1647-8, the collection of poems he brought with him from Devonshire, and named, as being from the West, " Hesperides : Works Human and Divine." He was at that time about fifty-seven years old. The book strengthened friendships, but failed to win general attention in the troubled times of the last years of Charles L, or to touch the spirit that prevailed under the Commonwealth. Herrick published after this no other book, though he was for thirteen years, in London and elsewhere, withdrawn from his duties as a clergyman. It was not until August, 1662, that John Syms was in his turn ejected, and Robert Herrick, at the age of seventy-one, returned to his Vicarage. There he resumed liis duties and spent the last twelve years of his life. He was buried there, on the 24111 of October, 1674, aged eighty-three. Milton, whose age then was about &ixty-si.\, dictl on the 8th of the ncxl month. But Herrick lives with us for ever in his book. It was shaped during the eighteen years of his life in the \'icarage at INTRODUCTION. 7 Dean I'rinr, before his deprivation in 1647 ; brought then to London, and printed with tlie date of 1647 on the section contain- ing " Noble Numbers," and the date of 1648 on the " Hespcridcs." There was no reprint of it until that of 1823, which followed a book of Selections in 1810, but Merrick knew well that his book was for all time. In the quiet of his parsonage, the music of his life found utterance in every mood. His whole mind expressed itself, animal and spiritual. In the texture of his book he evidently meant to show the warp and woof of life. He aimed at effects of contrast that belong to the true nature of man, in whom, as in the world at large, " the strawberry grows underneath the nettle," nnd side by side with promptings of the flesh, spring uj) the asi)irations of the spirit. \l\ft\\ the dainty fairy pieces written under influence of the same fashion that caused Shakespeare to describe Queen Mab and Drayton to write his Nymphidia, even such pieces of his, written in earlier days, Herrick sprinkled about his volume in fragments. He would not make his nosegay with the llowers of each sort bunched together in so many lumps'. There is truth in the close contact of a playful sense of ugliness with the most delicate perception of all forms of beauty." Herrick's " epigrams" on running eyes and rotten teeth, and the like, are such exaggerations as may often have tumbled out spontaneously, in the course of playful talk, and if they pleased him- well enough, were duly entered in his book. In a healthy mind, this whimsical sense of deformity may be but the other side of a fine sense of beauty. A lyric poet must need sing of love, and Herrick was a bachelor who tells his tombmaker to write o\'er him — " Chaste I lived, witliout a wife, That's the story of my life," and who made it the last word in his Hesperides that, " Jocund his muse was, but his life was chaste."' But he could shape an ideal Julia, and play about her with many a dainty song ; could shape what music he pleased about Perilla, Sappho, Dianeme : while, in other moods, the doles to the poor at his parsonage door ; his spaniel Tracy ; his servant Prudence Baldwin in her lidelily, her sickness, her death ; the relatives and friends whom he loved, and to whom one after another he gives a place in his while Register, that they may live with hini immortal upon earth ; his loyalty to his king, not unmixed with a sense of limit to a king's'authority ; his lament over the tumults of the Civil War ; his loyalty to God ; his sense of grey hairs, age, and the quiet looking of his soul toward the passage from this life into the next ; in these and a hundred other moods, the whole mind speaks. The careful opening and close, the successive refer- ences to the early or late place in his book which he gives to a friend, are among many clear indications of the poet's order in disorder, of his design to use poems as foils and settings to one another. He avoids themonotony of a succession of pieces all in one key, and seeks to represent in his song the 8 IXTRODUCTION. o blended notes that make the full music of life, by expressing the whole nature of man. He passes, as we daily pass, from grave to gay, from lively to severe. When he is treading what is now forbidden ground, he may offend grossly against modern convention, but he never is immoral. He and his time held with Catullus, that — " — castum esse decet poetani Ipsum : versiculos niliil necesse est ; Qui turn denique liabent saleni ac leporem, Si sunt molliculi, ac pamm pudici, Et quod pruriat incitare possunt," Or as he himself put it — " Numbers ne'er tickle, or but lightly please, Unless they have some wanton carriages." Accordingly he played sometimes upon what is now forbidden ground, in lines that glanced only upon the animal side of life. They are left out of this volume, but how much is lost by the omission ? Here is Herrick's book just as he published it, with only the rust of age rubbed off, in accidents of spelling and bad punctuation that have nothing whatever to do with the expression of a poet's mind, except as dust upon a mirror that may make its images less clear ; and as to those lines which for us are " parum pudici '' and would interfere with the free reading of Herrick in our English homes, how much is lost by their omission ? Precisely 728 lines, or only as much as would fill another eighteen pages in the present volume. Those eighteen pages being away, the rest is as strong as all was formerly. There are only two places (on page 61 and page 109) where I have changed a line or word, and the two changes were very tri\ial. I have long felt how few were the omissions that would suffice to secure for Robert Herrick. his due place among the familiar English poets. As a lyric poet, he is, in range of thought and fulness of natural music, second only to Robert Burns. Those who wish to read Herrick in the old spellings and without any omissions, will have all they can desire in the edition of him published in 1S76 in three volumes by Dr. Cirosart, whose ''memorial introduction' contained some valuable results of search for facts touching the poet's life Those who wish for a volume of choice extracts, made by a critic with tme taste, and grouped according to their matter, will iind that in a little book that has been included in Macrnillan's Golden Scries — "Chrysomcla: a Selection from the Lyiical I'oems of Robert Herrick, arranged with notes, by Francis Turner Palgravc." Here the desire is that Herrick himself, brought home to all, should speak in his own clear way in the tongue we speak ourselves, and that, with only the few omissions become necessary by the change of times, he should speak through his whole book just as he uttered it. H. M. J^Iny, 1SS4. H ESPKRIDKS. To ilic Most Illustrious and I^Iost Hopeful Prince Charles, Prince if Whales. Well may my book come forlli like public day, When sucli a lii^'ht as Vou arc leads the way, Who are my works' creator, and alone The flame of it, and the expansion. And look how all those heavenly lamps acquire Light froni the sun, that incxhaustcd tire ; So all my morn and evening stars from You Have their existence, and their influence too. Full is my book of glories ; but all these By You become immortal substances. The ArifLiment of his Book. t> I SING of brooks, of blossoms, birds, and bowers, Of April, May, of June, and July flowers ; I sing of May-poles, hock-carts, wassails, wakes, Of bridegrooms, brides, and of their bridal cakes. I write of youth, of love, and have access By these, to sing of cleanly wantonness ; I sing of dews, of rains, and, piece by piece, Of balm, of oil, of spico. and ambergris ; 1 sing of limes trans-shifting; and I write How roses lirst came red, and lilies white ; I write of groves, of twilights, and I sing The court of Mab, and of the fairy King, I write of Hell ; I sing, and ever shall. Of Heaven, and hope (o have it after all. To his Muse. Whither, mad maiden, ^ilt thou roam .'' Far safer 'twere to stay at home ; Where thou may'st sit. and piping please The poor and private cottages, lo HESPERIDES. Since cots and hamlets best agree With this thy meaner minstrelsy. There f.vith the reedthrai inay'st express Thfe.-shepherd'j -tleeG";" -li ippiness, And with thy Eclogues intermix -iSome.^n.ibbtlv a Jul Uia vm,less Bucolics. •'T'I:>ere,''Oii «."hillo'cT'f,-.»hoil nrAVSt sing Unto a handsome shepherdling, Or to a girl that keeps the neat, With breath more sweet than \iolet. There, there, perhaps, such lines as these IVIay take the simple villages ; But for the court, the country wit Is despicable unto it. Stay then at home, and do not go, Or fly abroad to seek for woe ; Contempts in courts and cities dwell ; No critic haunts the poor man's cell, Where thou may'st hear thine own lines read, By no one tongue there censured. That man's unwise will search for ill, And may prevent it sitting still. To his Book. While thou didst keep thy candour undefiled Dearly I loved thee, as my first-born child ; But when I saw thee wantonly to roam From house to house, and never stay at home, I brake my bonds of love and bade thee go, Regardless whether ^^•ell thou sped'st or no. On with thy fortunes then, what e'er they be ; If good I'll smile, if bad Fll sigh for thee. Another. To read my book, the \irgin shy May blush while Brutus standeth by ; But when he's gone, read through what's writ, And never stain a check for it. To the Sour Reader. If thou dislik'st the piece ihou light'st on first, Think that, of all that 1 have writ, the worst; Ikit if thou rcad'st my book unto the end, And still dost this and that verse reprehend : O perverse man ! If all disgustful be, The extreme scab take thee and thine, for me HESPERIDES. I ! To his l^ook. Co.MK tliou not near those men, who arc hke bread O'cr-leuvcncd, or hkc cheese o'cr-rcncltcd. Wlien he would have his Verses read. In sober mornint^s do not thou rehearse The lioly incantation of a verse ; ])Ut wlicn that men have both well drunk and fed, Let my enchantments then be sung or read. When laurel spirts in the lire, and when the hearth Smiles to itself and gilds the roof with mirth; When up the thyrse is raised, and when the sound Of sacred orgies flies around, around ; When the rose reigns, and locks with ointment shine, Let rigid Cato read these lines of mine. Upon JuHa's Recovery. Droop, droop no more, or hang the head, Ye roses almost withered ; Now strength and newer ])urplc get, Each here declining violet. O primroses ! let this day be A resurrection unto ye ; And to all flowers allied in blood. Or sworn to that sweet sisterhood. For health on Julia's cheek hath shed Claret and cream commingled ; And those, her lips, do now appear As beams of coral, but more clear. To Silvia to Wed. Let us, though late, at last, my Silvia, wed, And loving lie in one devoted bed. Thy watch may stand, my minutes fly post haste ; No sound calls back the year that once is past. Then, sweetest Silvia, let's no longer stay ; True love we know precipitates delay. Away with doubts, all scruples hence remove, No man. at one time, can be wise and love. The Parliament of Roses to Julia. 1 DKKA.M I the Roses one time went To meet and sit in parliament ; 12 ffESPERIDES The place for these, and for the rest Of tlowers, was thy spotless breast Over the which a state was drawn Of tiffany, or cobweb lawn ; Then in that Parley all those powers Voted the Rose, the queen of flowers ; But so as that herself should be The maid of honour unto thee. No Bashfulness in BeQ^einsf. To get thine ends, lay bashfulness aside; Who fears to ask, doth teach to be denied. The Frozen Heart. I FREEZE, I freeze, and nothing dwells In me but snow and icicles ; For pity's sake, give your advice To melt this snow, and thaw this ice. I'll drink down tlames, but if so be Nothing but love can supple me, I'll rather keep this frost and snow, Than to be thawed or heated so. To Perilla. Ah, my Perilla ! dost thou grieve to see Me, day by day, to steal away from thee ? Age calls me hence, and my grey hairs bid come And haste away to mine eternal home ; 'Twill not be long, Perilla, after this, That I must give thee the supremest kiss ; Dead when I am, first cast in salt, and bring Part of the cream from that religious spring, With whicli, Perilla, wash my hands and feet ; That done, then wind me in that very sheet Which wrapped thy smooth limbs when thou didst implore The gods' protection but the night before ; Follow me weeping to my turf, and there Let fall a primrose, and with it a tear . Then lastly, let some weekly strcwings be Devoted to the memory of me ; Then shall my ghost not walk about, but keep Still in the cool and silent shades of sleep. A Song to the Maskers. COMK down, and dance yc in the toil Of pleasures, to a hc.it? But if to moisture, let the oil Of roses be your bucat, HESPERIDES. T3 Not only to yourselves assume These sweets, but let them tly From this to that, and so perfume E'en all the standers by ; As soddcss Isis, when she went Or glided throu;^h the street, Made all that touched her, with her scent, And whom she touched, turn sweet. To Percnn;i. Whkn I lliy parts run o'er. I can't espy In any one the least indecency, liut every line and limb diffused thence A fair and unfamiliar cxcclicuce ; So that the more I look the more I prove There's still more cause why I tlic more should love. Treason. The seeds of treason choke up as they spring : He acts the crime that gives it cherishing. Two Things Odious. Two, of a thousand tilings, arc disallowed ; A lying rich man, and a poor man proud. The Wounded Heart. Come, bring your sampler, and with art Draw in't a woundea heart. And dropping here and there ; Not that I think that any dart Can make yours bleed a tear, Or pierce it anywhere ; Yet do it to this end, that I May by This secret see, Though you can make That heart to bleed, yours ne'er will ache For me. No Loathsomeness in Love. What I fancy 1 approve. No dislike there is in love. Be my mistress short or tall, /\n(l distorted therewithal ; 14 HESPERIDES. Be she likewise one of those That an acre hath of nose ; Be her forehead and her eyes Full of incongruities ; Be her cheeks so shallow too As to show her tongue wag through ; Be her lips ill hung or set, And her grinders black as jet ; Has she thin hair, hath she none, She's to me a paragon. To Anthea. If, dear Anthea, my hard fate it be To live some few sad hours after thee, Thy sacred corpse with odours I will burn, And with my laurel crown thy golden urn. Then, liolding up there such religious things As were, time past, thy holy filletings, Near to thy reverend pitcher 1 will fall Down dead for grief, and end my woes withal ; So three in one small plat of ground shall lie, Anthea, Herrick, and his poetry. The Weeping Cherry. I SAW a cherry weep, and why ? ' Why wept it .-' But for shame ; Because my Julia's lip was by, And did out-red the same. But, pretty fondling, let not fall A tear at all for tliat Which rubies, corals, scarlets, all, For tincture, wonder at. Soft Music. The mellow touch of music most doth wound The soul, when it doth rather sigh than sound. The Difference betwixt Kings and Subjects. 'TvviXT kings and subjects there's this mighty odds : Subjects are taught by men ; kings by the gods. His Answer to a Question. SOMI". would know Why I so Long still do tarry, And ask why, IIESPERIDES. 15 Hero that 1 Live, and nul man)- i Thus 1 tlujsc Do ojipasc : Wliat man would be here Slave to thrall, If at all He could live free here? Expenses Exhaust. LiVK with a tlirifty not a needy fate ; Small shuts paid often waste a \ast estate. Love, what it is. Love is a circle, that doth restless move In the same sweet eternity of love. Presence and Absence. When what is loved is present, love doth spring ; But being absent, love lies languishing. No Spouse, but a Sister. A BACHELOR I will Live, as I have lived still, And never take a wife To crucify my life ; lUit this I'll tell ye too. What now I mean to do ; A sister in the stead Of wife about I'll lead, Which I will keep embraced. And kiss but yet be chaste. The Pomander Bracelet. To mc my Julia lately sent A bracelet, richly redolent ; The beads I kissed, but most loved her That did perfume the pomandew. The Carcanet. Instead of Orient pearls of jet, I sent my love a carcanet ; About her spotless neck she knit The lace, to honour me or it. i6 nKSPE^RlDKS. Then think how wrapped was I to see My jet to enthral such ivory. His Sailino- from Julia. When that day comes, whose evening says I'm gone Unto that watery desolation, Devoutly to thy closet gods then pray, That my winged ship may meet no Remora. Those deities which circum walk the seas, And look upon our dreadful passages, Will from all dangers re-deli\-er me For one drink-oftering poured out by thee. Mercy and Truth live with thee ! and forbear, In my short absence, to unsluice a tear ; But yet, for love's sake, let thy lips do this, Give my dead picture one engendering kiss ; Work that to life, and let me ever dwell In thy remembrance, Julia. So farewell. How the Wallflower came first, and Why so Called. Why this flower is now called so, List, sweet maids, and you shall know. Understand, this Hrstling was Once a brisk and bonny lass. Kept as close as Danae was ; Who a sprightly springall loved. And to have it fully proved, Up she got upon a wall, Tempting down to slide withal ; But the silken twist untied. So she fell ; and bruised, she died. Love, in pity of the deed. And her loving luckless speed, Turned her to this plant, we call Now the Flower of the Wall. Why Flowers Chani^e Colour. These fresh beauties, we can prove, Once were virgins, sick of love. Turned to flowers, still in some Colours go and colours come. To his Mistress objcctinj^ to Ilim neither Toying nor TalUini;. You say I love not, 'cause I do not play Still with your curls and kiss the time away. iii.'^ri.Kini-.s You blame mo, too, because I can't devise Some sport, to please those babies in your eyes ; liy Love's religion, 1 nuist here ( onfess it, '1 he most I love when 1 the least express it. Small griefs hnd tongues; full casks are ever found 'Vqi give, if any, yet but little sound.- : Deep waters noiseless are ; and this \vc know, That chiding streams betray small depths below. So when Love speechless is she doth express A depth in love, and that depth bottomless. Now since my love is tongueless, know me such, Who speak but little, 'cause I love so much. Upon the Loss of his iMislrcsscs. 1 ll.wj; lost, and lately, these Many dainty mistresses : Stately Julia, prime of all ; Sappho next, a principal ; Smooth Anthea, for a skin White and heaven-like crystalline ; Sweet Klectra, and the choice IMyrrha, for the lute and voice. Next, Corinna, for her wit, And the graceful use of it ; With Perilla : all are gone, Only Hcrrick's left alone, For to number sorrow by 'I'iicir departures hence, and die. The Dream. ]METHOUt;iii', last night. Love in an anger came And brought a rod, so whipped me with the same : Myrtle the twigs were, merely to imply, Love strikes, but 'tis with gentle cruelty. Patient I was : Love pitiful grew then, And stroked the stripes, and I was whole again. Thus like a bee, love gentle still doth bring Honey to salve where he before did sting. To Love. I'm free from thee, and thou no more shalt hear My puling pipe to beat against thine ear ; Farewell my shackles, though of i)earl they be. Such precious thraldom necr shall fetter me. He loves his bonds who, when the first are broke, Submits his neck unio a second vokc. i8 HESPERIDES. Love's Play at Push-pin. Love and myself, believe me. on a day, At childish push-pin, for our sport, did play I put, he pushed, and heedless of my skin, Love pricked my finger Avith a golden pin ; Since which, it festers so, that I can prove 'T-was but a trick to poison me with love : Little the wound was, greater was the smart The finger bled, but burnt was all my heart. The Rosary. One asked me where the roses grew .'' I bade him not go seek ; But forthwith l^ade my Julia show A bud in either cheek. The Parcre ; or, Three Dainty Destinies. The Armilet. Three lovely sisters working were. As they were closely set. Of soft and dainty maiden-hair, A curious Armilet. I, smiling, asked them what they did, Fair destinies all three } Who told me they had drawn a thread Of life, and 'twas for me. They showed me then how fine 'twas spun : And I replied thereto, I care not now how soon 'tis done. Or cut, if cut by you. Sorrows Succeed. When one is past, another care we have, Thus woe succeeds a woe, as wa\c a wave. To Robin Redbreast. Laid out for dead, let thy last kindness be With leaves and moss-wmk for to cover me ; And while the wood-nymphs my cold corpse inter, .Sing thou my dirge, sweet warbling chorister. For cpitapli. in foliage, next write this : Here, here the tomb of Robin IIerrii.k is ! flESPERIDES. 19 Discontcntb in Devon. MoRK discontents I never had, Since I was born, than here ; Where I have been, and still am sad, In this dull Devonshire. Yet, justly too, I must confess, I ne'er invented such Ennobled numbers for the press, Than where I loathed so much. To his Paternal Country. O E.\RTH I earth ! earth ! hear thou my voice, and be Loving and gentle for to cover me ; Banished from thee I live, ne'er to return, Unless thou giv'st my small remains an urn. Cherry Ripe. Cherry rijic. ripe, ripe, I cry, P'ull and fair ones, come and buy ; If so be you ask me where They do grow ? I answer, there, Where my Julia's lips do smile There's the land or cherry isle, Whose plantations fully show- All the year where cherries grow. To his Mistresses. Put on your silks, and piece by piece. Give them the scent of ambergris ; And for your l^reaths, too, let them smell Ambrosia like, or ncctarel ; While other gums their sweets perspire, By your own jewels set on fire. To Anthea. Now is the time when all the lights wax dim, And thou, Anthea, must withdraw from him Who was thy servant. Dearest, bury me Under that holy-oak or gospel-tree ; Where, though thou see'st not, thou may'st think upon Me, when thou yearly goest procession ; Or, for mine honour, lay me in that tomb In which thy sacred relics shall have room ; For my embalming, sweetest, there will be No spices wanting when I 'm laid by thee, 20 HESPERIDES. The Vision to Electra, I DREAMED we both were in a bed Of roses, almost smothered ; The warmth and sweetness had me there I\Iade lovingly familiar, But that I heard thy sweet breath say, Faults done by night will blush by day I kissed thee, panting, and I call Night to the record, that was all. But, ah ! if empty dreams so please, Love, give me more such nights as these. Dreams. Here we arc all by day ; by night \\t are hurled By dreams, each one into a several world. Ambition. In man, ambition is the commonest thing ; Each one by nature loves to be a king. His Request to Julia. Julia, if l chance to die Ere I print my jioetry, I most humbly thee desire To commit it to the fire ; Better 'twere my book were dead, Than to live not perfected. Money Gets tlie Mastery. Fight thou with shafts of silver, and o'ercome, When no force else can get the masterdom. The Scar-fire. Water, water, I desire, Here's a house of llcsh on fire ; Ope the fountains and the springs, And come all to bucketings. What yc cannot queiuli pull down, Spoil a liDu^e to save a town, lietter 'li-. tlint one shoukl fdl Than by one to h;i7.nrd all. HESPERIDES. 31 Upon Silvia. When some shall say, Fair once my Silvia was, Thuu wilt complain, Kabe now's thy looking-glass ; Which renders that quite tarnished which was green, And priceless now wiiat peerless once had been. Upon thy form more wrmkles yet will fall, And coming down, shall make no noise at all. Cheerfulness in Charity ; or, the Sweet Sacrifice. 'TlS not a thousand bullocks' thighs Can please those heavenly deities, If the vower donl express In his offering, cheerfulness. Once Poor, still Penurious, Goes the world now, it will with thee go hard ; 'I'he fattest hogs we grease the more with lard. To him that lias there shall be added more ; Who is penurious, he sliall still be poor. ■ Sweetness in Sacrifice. 'Tis not greatness they require, To be ofitered up by hre ; But "tis sweetness that doth please Those eternal essences. Steam in Sacrifice. If meat the gods give, I the steam, tiigh towering, will devote to them. Whose easy natures like it well If we the roast have, they the smell. Upon Julia's Voice, So smooth, so sweet, so silvery is thy voice. As, could they hear, the damned would make no noisCy ]5ut listen to thee, walking in thy chamber, Melting medodious words to lutes of amber. •o Again. Whkn 1 ihy singing next shall hear, I'll wish 1 might turn all to car, 22 HESPERIDES. To drink in notes and numbers such As blessed souls can't hear too much ; Then melted down, there let me he Entranced, and lost confusedly, And by thy music stricken mute, Die and be turned into a lute. All Things Decay and Die. All things decay with time : the forest sees The growth and downfall of her aged trees ; That timber tall, which threescore lustres stood The proud dictator of the state-like wood, I mean the sovereign of all plants— the oak, Droops, dies, and falls without the cleaver's stroke. The Succession of the Four Sweet Months. First, April, she with mellow showers Opens the way for early flowers ; Then after her comes smiling May, In a more rich and sweet array ; Next enters June, and brings us more Gems that those two that went before ; Then; lastly, July comes, and she More wealth brings in than all those three. No Shipwreck of Virtue.— To a Friend. Thou sailest with others in this Argus here, Nor wreck or bulging thou hast cause to fear ; But trust to this, my noble passenger, Who swims with Mrtue, he shall still be sure, Ulysses-like, all tempests to endure, And 'midst a thousand gulfs to be secure. Upon his Sister-in-law, Mistress Elizabeth Herrick. First, for effusions due unto the dead, My solemn vows have here accomplished ; Next, how I love thee, that my grief must tell. Wherein thou liv'st for ever. Dear, farewell I Of Love. — A Sonnet. How love came in I do not know, Whetlur by tlic eye, or car, or no ; Or wlRihci- with the soul it came, At Hrst infused with tlie same; HESPERIDES. 23 Whether in part 'tis here or there, Or, like the soul, whole everywhere, This troubles inc : but I as well As any other, this can tell ; Then when from hence she docs depart, The outlet then is from the heart. The Rock of R'.ibies, and the Quarry of Pearls. Some asked me where the Rubies grew And nothinj^ I did say ; But with my fmj^fcr pointed to The lijis (jf Julia. Some asked how Pearls did grow, and where Then spoke I to mj' girl, To part her lips and show me there l"he quarelets of Pearl. Conformity. Conformity was ever known A foe to dissolution ; Nor can we that a ruin call, Whose crack gives crushing unto all. To the Kiny;, upon lii.s Coming with hi.s Army into the West. Welcome, most welcome to our \ows and us, Most great and universal genius ! The drooping West, which hitherto has stood As one, in long-lamented widowhood, Looks like a bride now, or a bed of flowers, Newly refreshed both by the sun and showers. War, which before was horrid, now appears Lovely in you, brave Prince of Cavaliers ! A deal of courage in each bosom springs By your access, O you the best of Kings ! Ride on with all white omens, so that where Your standard's up, we fix a conquest there. Upon Roses. Under a lawn, than skies more clear, .Some ruftlcd Roses nestling were, And snugging there, they seemed to lie As in a flowery nunnery : They blushed and looked more fresh than flowers Quickened of late by pearly showers ; 54 HESPERIDEH. And all, because they were possessed Rut of the lieat of Julia's breast, Which, as a warm and moistened spring, Gave them their ever flourishing. To the King and Otieen, upon their Unhappy Distances. Woe, woe to them, who by a ball of strife, Do, and have parted here a man and wife ; Charles, the best husband, while Maria strives To be, and is, the very best of wives ; Like streams you are divorced, but 't will come when These eyes of mine shall see you mix again. Thus speaks the oak here, C. and M. shall meet, Treading on amber with their silver feet ; Nor will 't be long ere this accomplished be ; The words found true, C. M. remember me. DanQers wait on Kino-s. As oft as night is banished by the morn, So oft we'll think we see a King new bojn. The Cheat of Cupid ; or, the Ungentle Guest. One silent night of late. When e\ery creature rested. Came one unto my gate, And knocking, me molested. " Who's that," said I, " beats there. And troubles thus the sleepv ? " Cast off," said he, '' all fear. And let not locks thus keep ye. " For I a boy am, who By moonless nights have swerved ; And all with sJiowers wet through, And e'en with cold half starved.'' I i)itihd arose. And soon a taper lighted ; And did myself disclose Unto the l.ul benighted. 1 saw he had a bow. And wings too, which did .-hiver ; And looking down below, I spied he had a ipiivcr. IIESPERIDES. I to my ( liimncy's shine ImouljIu hiin, as Love professes, And chafed his hands with nunc, And dried his dropping tresses. I5ut when he felt him warmed, " Let's try this bow of ours And string, if they be Iiarmcd," Said- he, " with these late showers." Forthwith his bow he bent, And wedded string and arrow, And struck me that it went (Hiitc through my heart and marrow. Then laughing loud, he llcw Away, and thus saiti flying, " .\dicu, mine host, adieu, 1 11 leave thy heart a-dying." To the Reverend Shade of his Religious Father. That for seven hislres I did never come To do the rites to thy rehgious tomb ; That neither hair was cut, or true tears shed By me o'er thee, as justments to the dead ; Forgive, forgive me ; since I did not know Whether thy bones had here their rest or no. Ijut now 'tis known, behold, behold, I bring L'nto thy ghost the effused offering ; And look, what smallage, nightshade, cypress, yew, L'nto the shades ha\e been, or now are due. Here I devote ; and something more than so, I come to pay a debt of birth I owe. 'I'hou gavest me life, but mortal ; for that one Favour Til makr full satibfaction ; For my lite mortal, rise from out thy hearse, ,-\nd take a life inmiortal from my verse. Delight in Disorder. A SWEET disorder in the dress Kindles in clothes a wantonness; A lawn about the shoulders thrown Into a tine distraction ; An erring lace, which heie and there Enthrals a crimson stomacher ; A cuff neglectful, and thereby Ribbons to flow confusedly ; A winning wa\e, deserving note. In the teinpcituous petticoat ; 26 HESPERWES. A careless shoe-string, in whose tie I see a wild civility ; Do more bewitch me, than when art Is too precise in every part. To his Muse. Were I to give thee baptism, I would choose To christen thee the Bride, the Bashful Muse, Or Muse of Roses ; since that name does fit Best with those virgin verses thou hast writ ; Which are so clean, so chaste, as none may fear CatO the Censor, should he scan each here. Upon Love. Love scorched my finger, but did spare The burning of my heart ; To signify in love my share Should be a little part. Little I love, but if that he Would but that heat recall, That joint to ashes should be burnt, Ere I would love at all. D^an-Boum, a rude River in Devon, by which .sometimes he lived. Dean-ROURN, farewell ; I never look to sec Dean or thy warty incivility ; Thy rocky bottom, that doth tear thy streams And makes them frantic, even to all extremes, To my content I never should behold, Were thy streams silver, or thy rocks all gold. Rocky thou art ; and rocky we discover Thy men, and rocky are thy ways all over. O men, O manners ; now, and c\-er known To be a rocky generation I A people currisli, churlisli as the seas, y\nd rude almost as rudest savages. With whom I did, and may rcsojourn whvn Rocks turn to rivers, rivers turn to men. Kissing Usury. BlANCHA, lot Me pay the debt I owe thee for a kiss Tliou Icnd'st to mc, And I to thee Will render ten for this. HliSl'ERlDES. 27 If thou will say, Ton will not pay For that so rich a one ; I'll clear the sum, If it will come Unto a million. He must of right, To the utmost mite Make payment for his pleasure, — 13y this I guess, — Of happiness. Who has a little measure. To Julia. How rich and pleasing thou, my Julia, art, In each thy dainty and peculiar part ! First, for thy Queenship, on thy head is set Of tlowers a sweet commingled coronet ; About thy neck a carcanet is bound, Made of the ruby, pearl, and diamond ; A golden ring, thai shines upon thy thumb ; About thy wrist the rich Dardanium ; Between thy breasts, than down of swans more white, There plays the sapphire with the chrysolite. No part besides must of thyself be known. But by the topaz, opal, chalcedon. To Laurels. A FUNERAL Stone Or verse, I covet none ; But only crave Of you that I may have A sacred laurel sjjiinging from my grave, Which being seen Blest with perpetual green, May grow to be Not so much called a tree ^ As the eternal monument of me. His Cavalier. Give me that man that dares bestride The active sea-horse, and with pride, Through that huge field of waters ride : Who, with his looks, too, can appease The ruffling winds and raging seas, In midst of all their outrages, 28 UESPERIDES. This, this a viituous man can do, Sail against rocks, and split them too ; Ay, and a world of pikes pass through. Zeal required in Love. I'll do my best to win whene'er I woo ; That man loves not who is not zealous too. The Bag of the Bee. About the sweet bag of a bee^ Two Cupids fell at odds ; And whose the pretty prize should be, They vowed to ask the gods. Which \'enus hearing, thither came. And for their boldness stripped them, And taking thence from each his flame, With rods of myrtle whipped them. Which done, to still their wanton cries, When quiet grown she'd seen them, She kissed, and wiped their dove-like eyes, And gave the bag between them. Love Killed by Lack. Let me be warm, let me be fully fed, Luxurious love by wealth is nourished. Let me be lean, and cold, and once grown poor, I shall dislike what once I loved before. To his Mistress. Choose me your X'alcnline ; Next let us marry : Love to the death will pine. If we long tarry. Promise and keep your vows, Or vow ye ne\er ; Love's doctrine disallows Troth-breakers ever. You ha\'e broke promise twice, Dear, to undo me ; If you prove faithless thrice, None then will woo ye. To the Generous Reader. See and not see, and if thou chance to espy Some ubcrratiuns in my poetry ; HESPKRIDES. 2C) Wink at biuall faiills, ihc j^ieatcr, nc'erthcless, Hide, and with lhcn\ ihcir father's nakedness. Let's do onr best our watch and ward to ke«p ; Homer himself, in a long work, may sleep. To Critics. I'LL write, because I'll give You critics means to live ; For should I not supply The cause, the effect woidd die. Duty to Tyrants. r.ooi) princes must be prayed for ; for the bad They mual be borne with, and in reverence had. Do they tirst p:ll thee, next jjluck off thy skin ? (iood children kiss the rods that punish sin ; Touch not the tyrant, let the gods alone To strike him dead that but usurps a throne. Being once Blind, his Request to Biancha. When age or chance has made me blind, So that the path I cannot find ; Aiid when my falls and stumblings arc iMorc than the stones i' ih' street by far ; Go then afore, and I shall well Follow thy perfumes by the smell ; Or be my guide, and I shall be Led by some lij^hl that flows from thee. Thus held, or led by thee, I shall In ways confused, nor slip nor fall. Upon Blanch. Blanch swears her husband's lovely, when a scald, Has bleared his eyes ; besides, his head is bald. Next, his wild ears, like leathern wings full spread, Flutter to tly and bear away his head. No Want where there's Little. To bread and water none is poor ; And having these, what need of more ? Though much from out the cess be spent, Nature with little is content. BarleyT3reak ; or, Last in Hell. W'K two are last in hell ; what may we fear To be tormented or kept prisoners here .'' 30 HESPERIDES. Alas ! if kissing be of plagues the worst, We'll wish in hell wc had l^ecn last and first. The Definition of Beauty. Beauty no other thing is than a beam Flashed out between the middle and extreme. To Dianeme. Dear, though to part it be a hell, Yet, Dianeme, now farewell ; Thy frown last night did bid me ^o, But whither only grief does know. I do beseech thee, ere we part (If merciful as fair thou art, Or else desirest that maids should tell Thy pity by love's chronicle), O, Dianeme, rather kill Me, than to make me languish still ! 'Tis cruelty in thee to the height, Thus, thus to wound, not kill outright ; Yet there's a way found, if thou please, By sudden death, to give me ease ; And thus devised, do thou but this, Bequeath to me one parting kiss : So superabundant joy shall be The executioner of me. A Country Life : To his Bfother, Mr. Tho. Herrick. Thrice, and above, blest, my soul's half, art thou, In thy both last and better vow. Couldst leave the city, for excliange, to see The country's sweet simplicity. And it to know and practise, with intent To grow the sooner innocent By studying to know virtue, and to aim More at her nature than her name. The last is but the least, the first doth tell Ways less to live than to live well ; And both are known to thee, wlio now canst live, Led by thy conscience, to give Justice to soon-pleased nature, and to show Wisdom and she together go, And keep one centre ; this with that conspires To teach man to confine desires. And know that riches have their proper stint In the contented mind, not mint ; lIESPERinES. 31 And ranst iiistrucl that tliosc who have the itch Of craving; more are never rich. These things thou know'st to the height, and dost prevent Tliat plague, because thou art content Witii that Heaven gave thee with a wary hand (More blessed in thy brass than land) To keep cheap Nature even and upright To cool not cocker appetite. Thus tliou ranst tersely live to satisfy The belly chictly, not the eye ; Keeping the Ijarking stomach wisely quiet, Less with a neat than needful diet. 15ut that which most makes sweet thy country life, Is the fruition of a wife. Whom, stars consenting with thy fate, thou hast (jOt not so beautiful as chaste ; By whose warm side thou dost securely sleep, While love the sentinel doth keep, With those deeds done by day which ne'er affright Thy silken slumbers in the night. Nor has the darkness power to usher in - Fear to those sheets that know no sin. The damasked meadows and the pebbly streams Sweeten and make soft your dreams ; The jnulingsprings, groves, birds, and well-weaved bowers, With tields enamelled with llowers, Present their shapes, while fantasy discloses Millions of lilies mixed with roses. Then dream ye hear the lamb by many a bleat Wooed to come suck the milky teat, WMiile Faunus in the vision comes to keep From ra\cning wol\cs the fleecy sheep. With thousand such enchanting dreams that meet To make sleep not so sound as sweet ; Nor can these figures so thy rest endear, As not to rise when chanticleer Warns the last watch, but with the dawn dost rise To work, but first to sacrifice ; Making thy peace with Heaven for some late fault, With iioly-meal and spirting salt ; Which done, thy painful thumb this sentence tells us.. "Jove for our labour all things sells U'^ " Nor are thy daily and devout affairs. Attended with those desperate cares, The industrious merchant has, who for to find Gold, runneth to the Western Inde, And back again ; tortured with fears, doth lly, Untaught, to suffer poverty. But thou at home, blest with securest ease, Sitt'st, and bclicv'st that there be seas HESPERIDES. And watery dangers, while thy whiter hap But sees these things witJiin thy map ; And viewing them with a more safe survey Mak'st easy fear unto thee say, "A heart thrice walled with oak and brass that man Had, hrst durst plough the ocean." But thou at home, without cr tide or gale, Canst in thy map securely sail. Seeing those painted countries, and so guess By those tine shades their substances ; And from thy compass taking small advice, Buy'st travel at the lowest price. Nor are thine ears so deaf but thou canst hear, Far more with wonder than with fear, Fame tell of states, of countries, courts, and kings. And believe there be such things \Vhen, of these truths thy happier knowledge lies More in thine ears than in thine eyes. And when thou hearest by too true report, Vice rules the most or all at court. Thy pious wishes arc, though thou not there, \'irtue had. and moved her sphere. But thou liv'st fearless ; and thy face ne'er shows Fortune when she comes or goes, But, with thy equal thoughts prepared, dost stand To take her by the either hand ; Nor car St which comes the first, the foul or fair. A wise man every way lies square ; And like a surly oak with storms perplexed. Grows still the stronger, strongly \exed. Be so, bold spirit ; stand centre-like unmoved ; And be not only thought but proved To be what I report thee, and inure Thyself if want comes to endure. And so thou dost ; for thy desires are Confined to live with private L,ar, Nor curious whether appetite be fed, Or with the fust or second bread. Who keep'st no proud mouth for delicious cates ; Hungei makes coarse meats delicates. Canst, and unurgcd, forsake that larded fare, Which art, not nature makes so rare ; To taste boiled nettles, coleworts, beets, and eat These and sour herbs as dainty meat, While soft opinion makes thy genius say, '"Content makes all ambrosia." Nor is it that thou keepest this stricter 'size So much for want as c.\orcisc ; To nunitj the sense of dearth, which, should sin haste it, Thou mighl'st but only sec 't, not taste it i HESPERIDES. 33 Yet can thy humble roof maintain a quire Of sin^'ing crickets bv thy fire ; And the brisk mouse may feast herself with crumbs, Till that the green-eyed kitling comes ; Then to her cabin, blest she can escape The sudden danger of a rape. And thus thy little well-kept stock doth prove, Wealth cannot make a life, but love. Nor art thou so close-handed, but canst spend (Counsel concurring with the end) As well as spare ; still conning o'er this theme, To shun the first and last extreme ; Ordaining that thy small stock find no breach, Or to exceed thy tether's reach. But to live round, and close, and wisely true To thine own self, and known to few. Thus let thy rural sanctuary be Elisium to thy wife and thee ; There to disport yourselves with golden measure ; For seldom, use commends the pleasure. Live, and live blest, thrice happy pair ; let breath, But lost to one, be the other's death. And as there is one love, one faith, one troth, Be so one death, one grave to both. Till when, in such assurance, live, ye may Nor fear nor wish your dying day. Divination by a Daffodil. When a Daffodil I see Hanging down his head t'wards me, Guess 1 may what I must be : First, I shall decline my head ; Secondly, I shall be dead ; Lastly, safely buried. To the Painter, to Draw him a Picture. Come, skilful Lupo, now, and take Thy bice, thy umber, pink, and lake ; And let it be thy pencil's strife To paint a liridgeman to the life. Draw him as like too as you can. An old, poor, lying flattering man ; His cheeks bepimpled, red and blue. His nose and lips of mulberry hue. Then for an easy fancy, place A burling iron for his face ; Next, make his cheeks with breath to swell. And for to speak, if possible ; B 34 HESPERIDES. But do not so, for fear, lest he Should by his breathing poison thee. " Upon Cuffe. — Epigram. CUFFE comes to church much, but he keeps his bed Those Sundays only whenas briefs are read ; This makes Cuite dull, and troubles him the most, Because he cannot sleep in the church free-cost. Upon Fone, a Schoolmaster. — Epigram. FONE says, those mighty whiskers he does wear Are twigs of birch and willow growing there ; If so, we'll think, too, w'hen he does condemn Boys to the lash, that he does whip with them, A Lyric to Mirth. While the milder fates consent, Let's enjoy our merriment ; Drink, and dance, and pipe, and play, Kiss our dollies night and day ; Crowned with clusters of the vine, Let us sit and quaff our wine ; Call on Bacchus, chant his praise, Shake the thyrse and bite the bays ; Rouse Anacreon from the dead, And return him drunk to bed ; Sing o'er Horace ; for ere long Death will come and mar the song ; Then shall Wilson and Gotiere Never sing or play more here. To the Earl of Westmorland. When my date's done, and my grey age must die, Nurse up, great lord, this my posterity : Weak though it be, long may it grow and stand. Shored up by you, brave Earl of Westmorland. Aorainst Love. Whene'er my heart love's warmth but entertains, O frost ! O snow ! O hail ! forbid the bancs. One drop now deads a spark, but if the same Once gets a force, iloods cannot cjuench the llame. Rather than love, let me be ever lost, Or let mc 'gender with eternal frost. HESPERIDES. 35 Upon Julia's Ribbon. As shows the air when with a rainbow graced, So smiles that ribbon 'bout my Julia's waist ; Or like Nay, 'tis that zonulet of love, Wherein all pleasures of the world are wove. The Frozen Zone ; or, Julia Disdainful. Whither ? Say, whither shall 1 riy. To slack these llames wherein I fry ? To the treasures shall I go, Of the rain, frost, hail, and snow? Shall I search the underground, Where all damps and mists are found ? Shall I seek, for speedy ease, All the floods and frozen seas ? Or descend into the deep, Where eternal cold does keep ? These may cool ; but there's a zone Colder yet than any one ; That's my Julia's breast, where dwells Such destructive icicles, As that the congelation will Me sooner starve than those can kill. An Epitaph upon a Sober Matron. With blanieless carriage I lived here, To the almost seven-and-fortieth year. Stout sons I had, and those twice three, One only daughter lent to me : The which was made a happy bride, But thrice three moons before she died. My modest wedlock, that was known Contented with the bed of one. To the Patron of Poets, M. End. Porter. Let there be patrons ; patrons like to thee. Brave Porter ! Poets ne'er will wanting be. Fabius, and Cotta, Lentulus, all live In thee, thou man of men 1 who here dost give Not only subject-matter for our wit. But likewise oil of maintenance to it. For which before thy threshold we'll lay down Our thyrse for sceptre, and our bays for crown. For, to say truth, all garlands ate thy due ; The laurel, myrtle, oak, and ivy too. 5S 2,6 HESPEPIDES. The Sadness of Things for Sappho's Sickness. LlUES will languish, violets look ill, Sickly the primrose, pale the daffodil ; That gallant tulip will hang down his head. Like to a virgin newly ravished. Pansies will weep, and marigolds will wither, And keep a fast and funeral together ; If Sappho droop, daisies will open never, But bid Good-night and close their lids for ever. Leander's Obsequies. When as Leander young was drowned No heart by love received a wound; But on a rock himself sat by, There weeping superabundantly. Sighs numberless he cast about, And all his tapers thus put out ; His head upon his hand he laid. And sobbing deeply, tlius he said: "Ah, cruel sea !" and, looking on't. Wept as he'd drown the Hellespont. And sure his tongue had more expressed, But that his tears forbad the rest. Hope Heartens. None goes to warfare, but with this intent : The gains must dead the fear of detriment. Four Things make us Happy Here. Health is the first good lent to men ; A gentle disposition then : Next, to be rich by no byways; Lastly with friends to enjoj' our days. His Parting from Mrs. Dorothy Kcneday. When I did go from thee, I felt that smart Which bodies do when souls from them depart ; Thou didst not mind it, though thou then might'st see Me turned to tears, yet didst not weep for me. 'Tis true 1 kissed thee, but 1 could not hear Thee spend a sigh, to accompany my tear. Mcthought 'ivvciour youth. Then, fair ones, do not wrong Your joys by staying long ; Or let love's tire go out, By lingering thus in doubt ; But learn, that time once lost, Is ne'er redeemed by cost. ^ Then away ; come. Hymen, guide To the bed the bashful bride. ^;rvvv^^''-*-^'^^ These precious, pearly, purling tears, But spring from ceremonious fears. And 'tis but native shame, That hides the loving flame, And may a while control The soft and amorous soul ; . But yet love's fire will waste Such bashfulncss at last. Then away ; come, Hymen, guide To the bed the bashful bride. On. on devoutly, make no stay, While Domiduca leads the way ; And Genius, who attends The bed for lucky ends ; With Juno goes the Hours, And Graces strewing flowers. And the boys with sweet tunes sing, Hymen I O Hymen I bring Home the turtles, Hymen, guide To the bed the bashful bride. Behold, how Hymen's taper-light. Shows you how much is spent of night. See, see the bridegroom's torch Half wasted in the porch ; /^'.^^. And now those tapers five H •'* That show the svomb shall thrive, . ' 46 HESPERIDES. Their silvery flames advance, To tell all prosperous chance Still shall crown the happy life Of the goodman and the wife. Move forward then your rosy feet, And make, whate'er' they touch, turn sweet. May all like flowery meads Smell where your soft foot treads ; And everything assume To it the like perfume ; As Zephirus, when he 'spires Through woodbine and sweetbriars. Then away ; come, Hymen, guide To the bed the bashful bride, And now the yellow veil at last. Over her fragrant cheek is cast. Now seems she to express A bashful willingness ; Showing a heart consenting As with a will repenting ; Then gently lead her on With wise suspicion ; For that, matrons say, a measure Of that passion sweetens pleasure. You, you that be of her nearest kin, Now o'er the threshold force her in. But to avert the worst. Let her her flllets first Knit to the posts ; this point K Remembering, to anoint .> The sides, for 'tis a charm ■j Strong against future harm ; *;' And the evil deeds, the which ^ ^ There was hidden by the witch. No fatal owl the bedstead keeps, With direful notes to fright your sleeps ; No furies here about, To put the tapers out. Watch, or did make the bed; 'Tis omen full of dread : But all fair signs appear Within tlic chamber here. Juno here, far off doth stand, Cooling sleep with charming wand. 'On your minutes, hours, days, months, years, Drop the fat blessing of the spheres. h HESPERIDES. 47 That ijood which Heaven can give To make you bravely live, Fall, like a spangling dew, By day and night on you. May fortune's lily hand Open at your command, With all lucky birds to side With the bridegroom and the bride. -o' Let bounteous fate your spindles full Fill, and wind up with whitest wool. Let them not cut the thread Of life until ye bid. May death yet come at last. And not with desperate haste ; But when ye both can say, Come, let us now away. Be ye to the barn then borne, Two, like two ripe shocks of corn. Tears are Tongues. When Julia chid, I stood as mute the while As is the fish or tongucless crocodile; Air coined to words, my Julia could not hear, But she could see each eye to stamp a tear : By which mine angry mistress might descry, Tears are the noble language of the eye ; And when true love of words is destitute, The eyes by tears speak, while the tongue is mute. His Wish. It is sufficient if we pray To Jove, who gives and takes away: Let him the land and living find; Let me alone to fit the mind. His Protestation to Perilla. Noonday and midnight shall at once be seen ; Trees at one time shall be both sere and green ; Fire and water shall together lie In one self-sweet conspiring sympathy ; Summer and winter shall at one time show Ripe ears of corn and up to the ears in snow ; Seas shall be sandless, fields devoid of grass ; Shapeless the world, as when all chaos was, Before, my dear Perilla, I will be False to my vow, or fall away from thee. 48 HESPERIDES. To Julia. Permit me, Julia, now to go away, Or by thy love decree me here to stay. If thou wilt say that I shall live with thee, Here shall my endless tabernacle be ; If not, as banished I will live alone There, where no language c\er ytt was known. On Himself. Love-sick I am, and must endure A desperate grief that finds no cure. Ah me ! I Ir)-, and trying, prove, No herbs have power to cure love. Only one sovereign salve I know, And that is death, the end of woe. Virtue is Sensible of Suffering. Though a wise man all pressures can sustain, His virtue still is sensible of pain ; Large shoulders though he has, and well can bear, He feels when packs do pinch him and the where. The Cruel Maid. And, cruel maid, because I see You scornful of my love and me ; I'll trouble you no more, but go My way, where you shall never know What is become of me ; there I Will find me out a path to die. Or learn some way liow to forget You and your name for ever ; yet Ere I go hence, know this from me. What will in time your fortune be ; This to your coyness 1 will tell, And having spoke it once, farewell. The lily will not long endure. Nor the snow continue pure ; The rose, the violet, one day See, both these lady-ilowers decay ; And you must fade as well as (licy. And it may chance that love may turn, And, like to mine, make your heart burn And weep to see it ; yet this thing do, That my last vow toinmcnds to you : HESPERIDES. 40 When you shall see thai I am dead, For pity let a tear be shed, And, with your mantle o'er me cast, (iive my cold lijis a kiss at last ; If twice' you kiss, you need not tear, That I shall stir or live more here Next, hollow out a tomb to cover Mc ; mc, the most despised lover ; And write thereon, " This, reader, know, •'Love killed this man." No more, but so. To Dianeme. Sweet, be not proud of those two eyes, Which, star-like, sparkle in their skies ; Nor be you proud that you can see All hearts your captives, yours yet free ; Be you not proud of that rich hair, Which wantons with the love-sick air; When as that ruby which you wear, Sunk from the tip of your soft ear, Will last to be a precious stone, When all your world of beauty's gone. To the King-, to Cure the Evil. To find that tree of life, whose fruits did feed, And leaves did heal, all sick of human seed ; To find Bethesda, and an angel there, Stirring the waters, I am come ; and here At last I find, after my much to do, The tree, Bethesda, and the angel too ; And all in your blest hand, which has the powers Of all those suppling hcahng herbs and Uowers. To that soft charm, that spell, that magic bough, That high enchantment I betake me now. And to that hand, the branch of Heaven's fair tree, 1 kneel for help ; O lay that hand on me. Adored CiOsar ! and my faith is such, I shall be healed, if that my King but touch. The evil is not yours ; my sorrow sings, Mine is the evil, but the cure the King's. His Misery in a Mistress. Watkr, water I espy ; Come and cool ye, all who fry In your loves, but none as I. Though a thousand showers be Still a-falimg, yet I see Not one drop to light on me. so HESPERTDES. Happy you, who can have seas For to quench ye, or some ease From your kinder mistresses. I have one, and she alone, Of a thousand thousand known, Dead to all compassion. Such an one as will repeat Both the cause and make the heat More by provocation great. Gentle friends, though I despair Of my cure, do you beware Of those girls which cruel are. £j' Upon Jollie's Wife. First, Jollie's wife is lame ; then next, loose-hipped, Squint-eyed, hook-nosed ; and lastly, kidney-lipped. To a Gentlewoman, objecting to Him his Grey Hairs. Am I despised, because you say, And I dare swear, that I am grey 1 Know, lady, you have but your day, And time will come when you shall wear Such frost and snow upon your hair ; And when, though long it comes to pass, You question with your looking-glass. And in that sincere crystal seek But find no rose-bud in your check, Nor any bed to give the show Where such a rare carnation grew. Ah ! then too late, close in your chamber keeping. It will be told That you are old, By those true tears you are weeping. To Cedars. If 'mongst my many poems, I can see One only worthy to be washed by thee, I live for ever, let the rest all lie In dens of darkness, or condemned to die. Upon Cupid. Love like a gipsy, lately came, And did mc much importune To sec my hand, tlial by tlie samo He might foretell my fortune. HESPERFDES. 51 He saw my palm ; and then, said he, " I tell thee, by this score here, That thou, within few months, shalt be The youthful Prince D 'Amour here." I gtniled, and bade him once more prove, And by some cross -line show it. That I could ne'er be Prince of Love, Though here the princely poet. How Primroses came Green. Virgins, time past, known were these, Troubled with green sicknesses, Turned to ilowers ; still the hue, Sickly girls, they bear of you. To Jos. Lord Bishop of Exeter. Whom should I fear to write to, if I can Stand before you, my learned Diocesan, And never show blood-guiltiness or fear. To see my lines excathedrated here. Since none so good are, but you may condemn, Or here so bad, but you may pardon them. If then, my lord, to sanctify my muse One only poem out of all you'll choose. And mark it for a rapture nobly writ, 'Tis good confirmed, for you have bishoped it. Upon a Black Twist, rounding the Arm of the Countess of Carlisle. I SAW about her spotless wrist. Of blackest silk, a curious twist, Which, circumvolving gently there, Enthralled her arm as prisoner. Dark was the gaol, but as if light Had met to engender with the night ; Or so, as darkness made a stay To show at once both night and day. 1 fancy more ; but if there be Such freedom in captivity, I beg of love that ever I May in like chains of darkness lie. On Himself. I FEAR no earthly powers. But care for crowns of Ilowers, 3 2 HESPERTDES. And love to have my beard With wine and oil besmeared. This day I'll drown all sorrow ; Who knows to live to-morrow ? Upon Pagget. PAGGET, a school-boy, got a sword, and then He vowed destruction both to birch and men ; Who would not think this younker fierce to fight ? Yet coming home but somewhat late last night, Untruss his master bade him, and that word Made him take up his shirt, lay down his sword A Ring- Presented to Julia. Julia, I bring To thee this ring, Made for thy finger fit ; To show by this. That our love is. Or should be, like to it. Close though it be, The joint is free ; So when love's yoke is on, It must not gall. Or fret at all With hard oppression. But it must play Still either way, And be, too, such a yoke, As not too wide, To over-slide. Or be so strait to choke. So wc, who bear This beam, must rear Ourselves to such a lieight, As that the stay Of either may Create the burden light. And as this round Is nowhere found To flaw, or else to sever; So let our love As endless prove, ^nd pure as gold for ever, JIESPERIDES. 53 To the Detractor. Where others love and praise my verses, still Thy lonj^ black thumb-nail marks them out for ill. A felon take it, or some whit-flaw come For to unslate or to untile that lliumb ! But cry thee mercy ; exercise tliy nails To scratch or claw, so that thy tongue not rails ; Some numbers jiruricnt are, and some of the-e Are wanton with their itch; scratch, and 'twill please. Upon the Same. I ASKED thee oft what poets thou hast read, And lik'st the best ? Still thou repliest, " The dead." I shall, ere long, with green turfs covered be ; Then sure thnu'lt like, or thou wilt envy me. To Music. Begin to charm, and as thou strok'st mine cars With thy enchantment, melt me into tears ; Then let thy active hand scud o'er thy lyre, And make my spirits frantic with the fire ; That done, sink down into a silvery strain, And make me smooth as balm and oil again. Distrust. To safe-guard man from wrongs, there nothing must Be truer to iiim than a wise distrust ; And to thyself be best this sentence known. Hear all men speak, but credit few or none. Corinna's going a-Maying. Get up, get up for shame, the blooming morn Upon her wings presents the god unshorn. See how Aurora throws her fair Frcsh-quilted colours through the air ; Get up, sweet slug-a-bed, aiul sec The dew bespangling herb and tree. Each flower has wept, and bowed toward the east, Above an hour since, yet you not dressed, Nay ! not so much as out of bed ; When all the birds have matins said, And svmg their thankful hymns ; 'tis sin, Nay, profanation to keep in, Whenas a thousand virgins on this day Spring, sooner then the lark to fetch in May. 54 HESPERIDES. Rise, and put on your foliage, and be seen To come forth, like the spring-time, fresh and green, And sweet as Flora. Take no care For jewels for your gown or hair ; Fear not, the leaves will strew Gems in abundance upon you ; Besides, the childhood of the day has kept Against you come, some orient pearls unwept. Come, and receive them while the light Hangs on the dew-locks of the night, And Titan on the eastern hill Retires himself, or else stands still Till you come forth. Wash, dress, be brief in praying ; Few beads are best, when once we go a-Maying. Come, my Corinna, come ; and coming mark How each field turns a street, each jtreet a park Made green, and trimmed with trees ; sec how Devotion gives each house a bough Or branch; each porch, each door, ere this, An ark, a tabernacle is, Made up of white thorn neatly interwove. As if here were those cooler shades of love. Can such delights be in the street And open fields, and we not see't? Come, we'll abroad, and let's obey The proclamation made for May : And sin no more, as we have done, by staying ; But, my Corinna, come, let's go a-Maying. There's not a budding boy or girl, this day, But is got up and gone to bring in May. A deal of youth, ere this, is come Back, and with white-thorn laden home. Some have despatched their cakes and cream Before that we have left to dream : And some have wept, and wooed and plighted troth, And chose their priest, ere we can cast off sloth ; Many a green gown has been given, Many a kiss, both odd and even. Many a glance, too, has been sent From out the eye, love's lirmament ; Many a jest told of the key's betraying This night, and locks picked, yet wo arc not a-Maying. Come, let us go, while we are in our prime, And take the liarmlcss folly of the time. We shall grow old ajjace and die Before we know our liberty. Our life is short, and our days run As fast away as does the sun. HESPERWES. 55 And as a vapour, or a drop of rain Once lost, can ne'er be found again ; So when or you or I are made A fable, song, or fleeting shade. All love, all liking, all delight Lies drowned with us in endless night. Then while time serves, and we are but decaying, Come, my Corinna, come, let's go a-Maying. On Julia's Breath. Breathe, Julia, breathe, and I'll protest. Nay more, I'll deeply swear, That all the spices of the East Are circumfused there. Upon a Child.— An Epitaph, But born, and like a short delight, I glided by my parents' sight. That done, the harder fates denied My longer stay, and so I died. If pitying my sad parents' tears. You'll spill a tear or two with theirs, And with some flowers my grave bestrew.. Love and they'll thank you for 't. Adieu. A Dialogue betwixt Horace and Lydia, translated Anno 1627, and set by Mr. Iv. Ramsay. Hor. While, Lydia, I was loved of thee, Nor any was preferred 'fore mc To hug thy whitest neck ; than I, The Persian King lived not more happily. Lyd. While thou no other didst affect. Nor Chloc was of more respect ; Then Lydia, far-famed Lydia, I flourished more than Roman Ilia. Hor . Now Thracian Chloe governs me, Skilful i' th' harp and melody ; For whose affection, Lydia, I, So fate spares her, am well content to die. Lyd. My heart now set on fire is By Ornithes' son, young Calais; For whose conimutual flames here I, To save his life, twice am content to die. 36 HESPERIDES. Hor, Say our first loves we should revoke, And severed, join in brazen yoke; Admit I Chloe put away, And love again love cast-oft Lydia? Lyci. Though mine be brighter than the star; Thou lighter than the cork by far, Rou