Virginis os habitumque gerens et virginis arma, Spartanae vel qualis equos Threissa fatigat Harpalyce volucremque fuga praevertitur Eurum. Namque umeris de more habilem suspenderat arcum Venatrix, dederatque comam diffundere ventis, Nuda genu nodoque sinus collecta fluentis. _With a wand of myrtle_, etc. Cp. Anacreon, 7 [29]:-- Ὑακινθίνῃ με ῥάβδῳ χαλέπως, Ἔρως ῥαπίζων ... εἶπε· Σὺ γὰρ οὐ δύνῃ φιλῆσαι. 146. _Upon the Bishop of Lincoln's Imprisonment._ John Williams (1582-1650), Bishop of Lincoln, 1621; Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal, 1621-1625; suspended and imprisoned, 1637-1640, on a frivolous charge of having betrayed the king's secrets; Archbishop of York, 1641. Save from this poem and the _Carol_ printed in the Appendix we know nothing of his relations with Herrick. He had probably stood in the way of the poet's obtaining holy orders or preferment. When Herrick was appointed to the cure of Dean Prior in 1629, Williams had already lost favour at the Court. 147. _Cynthius pluck ye by the ear._ Cp. Virg. _Ecl._ vi. 3: Cynthius aurem Vellit et admonuit; and Milton's _Lycidas_, 77: "Phœbus replied and touched my trembling ears". _The lazy man the most doth love._ Cp. Ovid, _Remed. Amor._ 144: Cedit amor rebus: res age, tutus eris. Nott. But Ovid could also write: Qui nolet fieri desidiosus amet (1 _Am._ ix. 46). 149. _Sir Thomas Southwell_, of Hangleton, Sussex, knighted 1615, died before December 16, 1642. _Those tapers five._ Mentioned by Plutarch, _Qu. Rom._ 2. For their significance see Ben Jonson's _Masque of Hymen_. _O'er the threshold force her in._ The custom of lifting the bride over the threshold, probably to avert an ill-omened stumble, has prevailed among the most diverse races. For the anointing of the doorposts Brand quotes Langley's translation of Polydore Vergil: "The bryde anoynted the poostes of the doores with swynes' grease, because she thought by that meanes to dryve awaye all misfortune, whereof she had her name in Latin 'Uxor ab unguendo'". _To gather nuts._ A Roman marriage custom mentioned in Catullus, _Carm._ lxi. 124-127, the _In Nuptias Juliæ et Manlii_, which Herrick keeps in mind all through this ode. _With all lucky birds to side._ Bona cum bona nubit alite virgo. Cat. _Carm._ lxi. 18. _But when ye both can say Come._ The wish in this case appears to have been fulfilled, as Lady Southwell administered to her husband's estate, Dec. 16, 1642, and her own estate was administered on the thirtieth of the following January. _Two ripe shocks of corn._ Cp. Job v. 26. 153. _His wish._ From Hor. _Epist._ I. xviii. 111, 112:-- Sed satis est orare Jovem quæ donat et aufert; Det vitam, det opes; æquum mî animum ipse parabo: where Herrick seems to have read _qui_ for _quæ_.