Hesperides "To the Maides to Walke Abroad,"
are entitled in the other book "Abroad with the
Maids," the stanzas addressed in Hesperides "To
Electra," and beginning

"'Tis ev'ning, my sweet

are in the Recreations directed "To Julia;" and
(not to enter into longer particulars) the well-known
poem of "The Wake" is called in the Recreations
"Alvar and Anthea," while a couple of stanzas
which follow with the heading "The Wake," do not
seem to be inserted at all in Hesperides.

In Harl. MS. 6917, are copies of the Epitha-
lamium on Sir Clipesby Crewe; of the song
beginning

"Good morrow to the day so faire-"

and twelve apparently unpublished lines headed
"Upon Parting." The former I have given in the
Appendix as the text exhibited important changes,
an entire stanza in the "Epithalamium" having seem-
ingly dropped out of the printed copy. In Add.
MS. 11,811 in the British Museum, are other poems
by Herrick. One of these is “The Fairy King,” and
as it struck me as most probably one of the series of
elvish lyrics composed by Herrick (although inserted
in the MS. under another name), I have included it
in the Appendix with a second copy of the same
production preserved in MS. Ashmole 38, with the
title of "King Oberon's Apparel."

Harl. MS. 3865 is said to contain poems by Her-
rick, by a misprint in the Index to that collection.
The article in question is the well-known copy of
Henryson's Scotish Æsop.

In the Appendix are likewise given the fourteen
letters addressed by the poet to his uncle during
1613-17.

Many of Herrick's pieces are copied almost word
for word, without acknowledgment, by Henry Bold

in his "Wit a Sporting, in a Pleasant Grove of New Fancies," a trashy volume printed in 1657, 8vo. A Greek version of the poem, "On Celia Weeping," was inserted in a rare volume by Henry Stubbe of Christ Church, Oxford, entitled, "Delicia Poetarum Anglicanorum in Græcum versæ," Oxon. 1658, 8vo. ; but it is here headed "Julia Weeping," under which name occurs also in "Witts Recreations" a distinct little poem, or rather epigram, extending only to a single couplet.

Herrick published his poems at an age when youth and inexperience could not be urged in extenuation of the blemishes which they presented. The author was fifty-seven years old when the "Hesperides" issued from the press, replete with beauties and excellencies, and at the same time abounding in passages of outrageous grossness. The title was perhaps rather apt to mislead, for besides golden apples, this garden assuredly contained many rank tares and poisonous roots. It would scarcely

suffice to plead the freedom and breadth of speech customary among all classes and with both sexes at that period. Some share of the blame must, beyond question, be laid to Herrick's voluptuousness of temperament, and not very cleanly ardour of imagination; yet, after all deductions which it is possible to make, what a noble salvage remains! Enough beauty, wit, nay piety, to convert even the prudish to an admiration of the genius which shines transparent through all. This fine old fellow, this joyous heart, who lived to be eighty-three, in spite of " dull Devonshire" and the bad times, wrote almost as much as Carew, Lovelace, and Suckling united, and how much there is in his weed-choked garden, which is comparable with their best compositions! How little we know of him! how scantily he has been realized to us! Could we but raise up for a summer afternoon the Devonshire which he lived in,

66

and the people with whom he mixed, or summon the ghost of faithful Prudence Baldwin, we might be furnished with inspiration to do something better than the bare sketch which follows.

TO WILLIAM PERRY-HERRICK, Esq., of Beaumanor Park, near Loughborough, Leicestershire, I am happy to have the opportunity of expressing my sincerest thanks for his valuable help towards my attempt to render the present edition of the "Hesperides" as satisfactory as possible. During a recent visit to Beaumanor, I transcribed from the originals the letters to Sir William Herrick (or Heyrick); and from the family papers Mr. Herrick supplied me in the most obliging manner at the same time with several new items of information illustrative of the early life of his illustrious kinsman.

Kensington,
Christmas, 1868.

W. C. H.

Robert Frarick

[BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE.]

F the "Hesperides" of Herrick it has been said with truth, that " there is no collection of poetry in our language, which, in some respects, more nearly resembles the Carmina of Catullus " both in beauties and defects; but our countryman has the advantage of the poet of Verona, that in addition to his festive and amatory spirit, we are often charmed with pictures of country life and manners, notices of old customs and popular superstitions, and with playful incursions into Fairyland. Indeed, the versatility of Herrick in catching the spirit of Anacreon, of Horace, or the pathos of Tibullus, as the occasion required, gives a varied charm to his volume which it is to be regretted should ever be disturbed by pollutions which were the common vice of his age.

Our poet was descended in the male line from an ancient and honourable family in Leicestershire, Robert Eyrick, of Houghton, who lived in the middle of the fifteenth century, being his immediate ancestor, many of whose descendants of mark are recorded in the ample account of the family collected by the diligence of the worthy John Nichols, in his History of Leicestershire.' Thomas Eyrick settled in Leices

[For the pedigrees of Herrick of Houghton (mis-spelled Haughton in some old gazetteers) and Beaumanor, see Appendix, No. V.]