The Hesperides & Noble Numbers: Vol. 1 and 2Herrick, Robert
General
The Hesperides & Noble Numbers: Vol. 1 and 2
Herrick, Robert
Poetry
You say you're young; but when your teeth are told
To be but three, black-ey'd, we'll think you old.
465. UPON HUNCKS. EPIG.
Huncks has no money, he does swear or say,
About him, when the tavern's shot's to pay.
If he has none in 's pockets, trust me, Huncks
Has none at home in coffers, desks, or trunks.
476. UPON A CHEAP LAUNDRESS. EPIG.
Feacie, some say, doth wash her clothes i' th' lie
That sharply trickles from her either eye.
The laundresses, they envy her good-luck,
Who can with so small charges drive the buck.
What needs she fire and ashes to consume,
Who can scour linens with her own salt rheum?
_Drive the buck_, wash clothes.
482. UPON SKURF.
Skurf by his nine-bones swears, and well he may:
All know a fellon eat the tenth away.
_Fellon_, whitlow.
500. UPON JACK AND JILL. EPIG.
When Jill complains to Jack for want of meat,
Jack kisses Jill and bids her freely eat:
Jill says, Of what? says Jack, On that sweet kiss,
Which full of nectar and ambrosia is,
The food of poets. So I thought, says Jill,
That makes them look so lank, so ghost-like still.
Let poets feed on air, or what they will;
Let me feed full, till that I fart, says Jill.
503. UPON PARRAT.
Parrat protests 'tis he, and only he
Can teach a man the art of memory:
Believe him not; for he forgot it quite,
Being drunk, who 'twas that can'd his ribs last night.
514. KISSING AND BUSSING.
Kissing and bussing differ both in this;
We buss our wantons, but our wives we kiss.
520. UPON MAGGOT, A FREQUENTER OF ORDINARIES.
Maggot frequents those houses of good-cheer,
Talks most, eats most, of all the feeders there.
He raves through lean, he rages through the fat,
(What gets the master of the meal by that?)
He who with talking can devour so much,
How would he eat, were not his hindrance such?
533. ON JOAN.
Joan would go tell her hairs; and well she might,
Having but seven in all: three black, four white.
534. UPON LETCHER. EPIG.
Letcher was carted first about the streets,
For false position in his neighbour's sheets:
Next, hanged for thieving: now the people say,
His carting was the prologue to this play.
535. UPON DUNDRIGE.
Dundrige his issue hath; but is not styl'd,
For all his issue, father of one child.
553. WAY IN A CROWD.
Once on a Lord Mayor's Day, in Cheapside, when
Skulls could not well pass through that scum of men,
For quick despatch Skulls made no longer stay
Than but to breathe, and everyone gave way;
For, as he breathed, the people swore from thence
A fart flew out, or a sir-reverence.
_Sir-reverence_, "save-reverence," the word of apology used for the
indecency itself.
557. UPON ONE-EY'D BROOMSTED. EPIG.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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