The Hesperides & Noble Numbers: Vol. 1 and 2Herrick, Robert
General
The Hesperides & Noble Numbers: Vol. 1 and 2
Herrick, Robert
Poetry
Fleres si scires unum tua tempora mensem:
Rides, cum non sit forsitan una dies.
710. _Tully says._ Cic. _Tusc. Disp._ III. ii. 3: Gloria est frequens de
aliquo, fama cum laude.
713. _His return to London._ Written at the same time as his _Farewell
to Dean Bourn_, _i.e._, after his ejection in 1648, the year of the
publication of the _Hesperides_.
715. _No pack like poverty._ Burton, _Anat. Mel._ iii. 3: Οὐδὲν πενίας
βαρύτερόν ἐστι φόρτιον. "No burden, saith Menander, is so intolerable as
poverty."
718. _As many laws_, etc. Tacit. _Ann._ iii. 27: Corruptissima in
republica plurimæ leges.
723. _Lay down some silver pence._ Cp. Bishop Corbet's _The Faeryes
Farewell_:--
"And though they sweep their hearths no less
Than maids were wont to do,
Yet who of late for cleanliness
Finds sixpence in her shoe?"
725. _Times that are ill ... Clouds will not ever_, etc., two
reminiscences of Horace, II. _Od._ x. 17, and ix.
727. _Up tails all._ This tune will be found in Chappell's _Popular
Music of the Olden Time_, vol. i. p. 196. He notes that it was a
favourite with Herrick, who wrote four other poems in the metre, viz.:
_The Hag is Astride_, _The Maypole is up_, _The Peter-penny_, and
_Twelfth Night: or, King and Queen_. The tune is found in Queen
Elizabeth's Virginal Book, and in the _Dancing Master_ (1650-1690). It
is alluded to by Ben Jonson, and was a favourite with the Cavaliers.
730. _Charon and Philomel._ This dialogue is found with some slight
variations of text in Rawlinson's MS. poet. 65. fol. 32. The following
variants may be noted: l. 5, _voice_ for _sound_; l. 7, _shade_ for
_bird_; l. 11, _warbling_ for _watching_; l. 12, _hoist up_ for _thus
hoist_; l. 13, _be gone_ for _return_; l. 18, _praise_ for _pray_; l.
19, _sighs_ for _vows_; l. 24, omit _slothful_. The dialogue is
succeeded in the MS. by an old catch (probably written before Herrick
was born):--
"A boat! a boat! haste to the ferry!
For we go over to be merry,
To laugh and quaff, and drink old sherry".
After the catch comes the following dialogue, written (it would seem) in
imitation of Herrick's _Charon and Philomel_: the speakers' names are
not marked:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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