The Hesperides & Noble Numbers: Vol. 1 and 2Herrick, Robert
General
The Hesperides & Noble Numbers: Vol. 1 and 2
Herrick, Robert
Poetry
Give then to the king
And queen wassailing:
And though with ale ye be whet here,
Yet part ye from hence,
As free from offence
As when ye innocent met here.
1036. HIS DESIRE.
Give me a man that is not dull
When all the world with rifts is full;
But unamaz'd dares clearly sing,
Whenas the roof's a-tottering:
And, though it falls, continues still
Tickling the cittern with his quill.
_Cittern_, a kind of lute; _quill_, the plectrum for striking it.
1037. CAUTION IN COUNSEL.
Know when to speak; for many times it brings
Danger to give the best advice to kings.
1038. MODERATION.
Let moderation on thy passions wait;
Who loves too much, too much the lov'd will hate.
1039. ADVICE THE BEST ACTOR.
_Still take advice; though counsels, when they fly
At random, sometimes hit most happily._
1040. CONFORMITY IS COMELY.
_Conformity gives comeliness to things:
And equal shares exclude all murmurings._
1041. LAWS.
Who violates the customs, hurts the health,
Not of one man, but all the commonwealth.
1042. THE MEAN.
'Tis much among the filthy to be clean;
_Our heat of youth can hardly keep the mean_.
1043. LIKE LOVES HIS LIKE.
Like will to like, each creature loves his kind;
Chaste words proceed still from a bashful mind.
1044. HIS HOPE OR SHEET ANCHOR.
Among these tempests great and manifold
My ship has here one only anchor-hold;
That is my hope, which if that slip, I'm one
Wildered in this vast wat'ry region.
1045. COMFORT IN CALAMITY.
'Tis no discomfort in the world to fall,
When the great crack not crushes one, but all.
1046. TWILIGHT.
The twilight is no other thing, we say,
Than night now gone, and yet not sprung the day.
1047. FALSE MOURNING.
He who wears blacks, and mourns not for the dead,
Does but deride the party buried.
_Blacks_, mourning garments.
1048. THE WILL MAKES THE WORK; OR, CONSENT MAKES THE CURE.
No grief is grown so desperate, but the ill
Is half way cured if the party will.
1049. DIET.
If wholesome diet can recure a man,
What need of physic or physician?
1050. SMART.
Stripes, justly given, yerk us with their fall;
But causeless whipping smarts the most of all.
1051. THE TINKER'S SONG.
Along, come along,
Let's meet in a throng
Here of tinkers;
And quaff up a bowl
As big as a cowl
To beer drinkers.
The pole of the hop
Place in the aleshop
To bethwack us,
If ever we think
So much as to drink
Unto Bacchus.
Who frolic will be
For little cost, he
Must not vary
From beer-broth at all,
So much as to call
For Canary.
1052. HIS COMFORT.
The only comfort of my life
Is, that I never yet had wife;
Nor will hereafter; since I know
Who weds, o'er-buys his weal with woe
1053. SINCERITY.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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