PREFACE NOTES. P. xii: Mr Grosart's edition of Herrick, with full biographical details, notes illustrative and exegetical, and indices (1869; three volumes, octavo), forms part of the series of Early English Poems, published by Messrs. Chatto and Windus. NO. I 2 L. 3, hock-carts: last in from the harvest-field;-wassails: merry meetings. L. 5, have access: opportunity. L. 9, times tran shifting may allude to the political poems, or to those on the course of life. L. 9, Eclogues: select poems. Bucolics (l. 10): pastorals; mainly brought together here under the name Idyllica. L. 13, neat: cattle. 3 L 7, Thyrse: a javelin twined with ivy;-orgies (1. 8): songs to Bacchus (Herrick): A round: a dance. L. 1o, Cato: any severe and ungenial critic. 9 10 L. 4, the fantastic pannicles: cells of the brain in which Fancy is bred. L. 3, old religion: Jonson was a Roman Catholic. 11 Allusive, apparently, to the alleged wish of Virgil when dying, in reference to his unfinished Eneid. 14Absyrtus in the Hellenic story was torn to pieces by Medea when she fled with Jason. 16 L. 22, soiled: manured. 17 - L. 11, Round: dance. L. 13. quintels: a game in which a post L. 19, carcanet: necklace. L. 22, brave: handsome. 18 L. 4. manchet: fine bread. L. 20, stocks = stooks, or shocks of L. 3, near: probably for close in its sense of narrow. Wee Candlemas Eve: February 1; eve of the Purification of the AGE NO. 37 - 13 วง 21 22 L. 5, bents: moor-grass; probably here sweet-gale. 23 L 3, palms: willows;-gems: buds. L. 5, Daulian minstre!: 25 A lyric more faultless and sweet than this cannot be found in any literature. Keeping with profound instinctive art within the limits of the key chosen, Herrick has reached a perfection very rare at any period of literature in the tones of playfulness, natural description, passion, and seriousness which introduce and follow each other, like the motives in a sonata by Weber or Beethoven, throughout this little masterpiece of music without notes.' 27 L. 4, fresh-quilted: so Milton, 'tissued clouds.' L. 25, L. 14, incurious: unfastidious. 28 I. 9, maukin: cloth. L. 14, hock-cart: see p. I. 25 23 31 32 33 horse: in the shafts. L. 15, fanes: probably winnowing-fans. L. 21, fill Genius: guard a. spirit. This truly original little poem has the classical character in its best sense. L. 4, benizon: blessing. Like the preceding, might have been willingly recognised by any of the Roman Idyllists. L. 6, creeking: word imitative of the hen's noise when she has laid her egg. L. 20, miching: slyly thieving. L. 22, Trasy : 'His spaniel' (Herrick). 34 Charles II, born 1630. 30 35 ww www w N 34 36 36 37 L. 17, A very rare instance of metrical failure in Herrick. He L. 3, neat-herdess: cattle-keeper. L. 3, Fail'agrees with nearest noun [shepherds] as in Shake speare' (Grosart). L. 4, quintel: see p. 11. L. 22, Voice's Daughter: Echo. 3) L. 7, enchaced: apparently for enchased. L. 22, canker L. 10, 14: These names are ingeniously contrived to recall names L. 7, bone: huckle-bone. L. 8, bruckeld: wet and dirty. L. 9, hatch'd: patter..ed. L. 12, bent: see p. 17. L. 33, nits: nuts. L. 13, 14: Mysteries, into which it may be discreet not to pry. L. 11, sterved: here the old pronunciation of er as ar has now the bee. 1. 7, drink of souce: pickle in which pork was iaid. L. 3, huckson: hip-bone. Chit (1.5) shoot. L. 11, orts : scraps. 53 52 54 L. 8, starvéd: the spelling indicates Herrick's pronunciation of swervéd. L. 6, Cittern: instrument of the guitar kind. L. 7, clusters: grapes, put for wine. 7, pap: sap. L. 10, Arabian dew: spikenard :-Retorted (1. 12) tossed wildly back. L. 12, A play on the name Ovidius Naso. 55 L. 4, purfling the margents: trimming the margins. L. 9, learned round: elaborate dance. L. 30, comply: caress. L. 2, Persius: printed Perseus, which to Herrick's lax scholarship may have suggested the epithetsnaky' as suitable to the satirist. L. 3, For for Grosart reads from; but the phrase remains somewhat obscure. L. 8: The omission of Shakespeare is strange, unless Herrick here commemorates only personal friends. L. 23, determines: ends. 56 L. 3, lautitions: dainty. L. 4, bastard Phoenix: probably a fanciful invention of Herrick's. L. 7, larded jet: blackened with fat smoke. Lar (1.8) hearth-fire. 58 L. 17, stint: measure. L. 6, tersely: strictly. L. 6, Compare Macbeth, act iv, sc. 1: 'By the pricking of my L. 17, private Lar: in privacy. L. 28, size: assize (Grosart). 59 L. 5, leaven: sour. 6 Paraenetical should be the spelling to give the sense of 'advisive. Herrick's scholarship lies in his fine feelings, his delicate use of ancient analogies (as in 1. 7 here, where he puts oil for farinproduce), not in philology. L. 9, strut: buttress by filling. 62 L. 2, tittyries: Mr Grosirt conjectures titularies, for titles conferred lavishly by James I and Charles I. Had the new year' been named, the political allusions of this brilliant poem might have been clearer. L. 7, That tost up: perhaps should be That's;-Fox: sec p. 11. Many similar allusions occur in the unfinished Country Life,' p. 9. L. 33, instant: just coming in. L. 2, Liber Pater: Father Bacchus; good revelry. 63 L. 6, rage: poetical inspiration. L. 9, Thyrse: see p. 3. This fine piece has much resemblance to some of the persor.al' poems by A. Tennyson. 64 L. 4, As to thy house and home. L. 6, Vigil: guard. Buttoned (1. 7) with a knob of office. L. 9, waste: feed. L. 1, redeem: restore. Trencher-creature (1. 10), the waiter keeping guard over the dishes. L. 18, Trebius: may be the great man of the feast. L. 25, gotwit: Mr Grosart conjectures pewit or plover L. 11, stud: upright piece in a lath-and-plaster wall;-true to the time, like every touch in this vigorous piece: which, however, from the forcible repetition of ideas and the curious broken rhymes, may be ascribed to a comparatively early date in Herrick's career. Pemberton died about 1641. 67 A fine companion to No. 64. The first part skilfully reproduces PAGE NO. Horatian phrases; the latter is an interesting exhibition of Her. rick's judgment on his own poetry, and a proof how completely, though modestly, conscious he was of his qualities as an artist. 67 L. 7, repullulate: flourish again. L. 27, Baiae: the favourite Roman watering-place for the wealthy. The next 'ines allude to forms of Roman luxury. L. 8, Vulgar scrawls in candle-smoke. L. 22, circular: alludes to Horace's 'teres atque rotundus,' but must here imply less perfectly fitting to, or concentric with, each other. L. 23, may be taken as proof that Herrick was aware what a refined piece of colour he has given in No. 201. L. 27, pith: vigour. L. 8, pricket: buck in second year. L. 18, Mr Grosart joins night and bewearied. 70 L. 8, Platonic year: the period in which, according to Plato, 78 L. 15, 16, These Saints must be taken as representatives of maid. 85 L. 8, Dardanium: a bracelet, from Dardanus so called 86 I. 4, civility: decorum, good manners. 88 L. 8, quarrelets: small squares. 89 L. 5, state: canopy of state. It 99 L. 4, Remora: fish anciently supposed to cling to a ship's hull and stop her. 99 101 L. 8, thronelet: little throne. Herrick is fond of such pretty 'diminutives':-et hoc, quasi Catullus. 105 L. 2, indecency: inelegance or irregularity. 108 L. 2, Protestant: used apparently here as confessor or witnesser for. 113 L. 4, baby: the image in the pupil of the eye; compared here to a Spirit ruling a heavenly sphere. 122 Barley-break: a game of catching, played by six. The catchers stood in the middle, on a ground called Hell. IIO 120 Saucy old dog! 117 113 Armilet: bracelet. L. 1: Gossamers. I. 3, tinctures: colours in the sky. L. II, 133 The great beauty of this poem (reprinted from a MS. in the British Museum), which has a more earnest tone of passion than is common with Herrick, entitles it to a place in this collection, although he did not include it in his own volume. 134 L. 12, termly fires: as if living in some college or collegiate retreat. 119 136 L. 4, gospel tree: at which it was read when they beat parish boundaries. The effortless perfection of this little poem puts it on a level with the best elegies of the Anthology. 122 140 With this popular lyric compare one of the many lovely songs of modern Greece, the Smyrniote Garden,' as translated in Mi H. F. Tozer's interesting Highlands of Turkey' (1869). The lover hears a bird singing: PAGE NO. 127 161 132 180 137 189 140 195 143 144 145 146 For ever, while it warbled, Full soon your joys are o'er ! And will return no more.' -But it is difficult here not to suspect that the accomplished translator was conscious of Herrick. Imitates Martial, I. 16. Translated from a 'Scolion' attributed to Simonides. 200 L. 3, lawny continent: apron of lawn. 201 154 215 L. 3, compare L'Aliegro: Zephyr, with Aurora playing,' &c. This poem, which was justly a favourite with Herrick (see p. 77, 1. 23), shows his fine feeling for gradation and the effect of contrast in colour; and at the same time is a singularly skilful piece of writing :-altogether, a work worthy of Turner or Paul Veronese. L. 2, strokes: caresses. L. 23, scene: veil. L. 9, pride: beauty. L. 1: One version of the Gyges story assigns to him a magical ring, by which he made himself invisible during his amour with the wife of King Candaules. L. 3, pression: impression. 157 219 L. 8, carriages: turns. 163 230 164 166 233 L. 22, unflead: probably good, undamaged by mould (Grosart). L. 3, worts: cabbage: purslain: salad. L. 15, givest: under- L. 4, mell: presumably, honey. L. 5, of amber: goldencoloured. 168 236 L. 6, axle-tree: probably, funeral car. L. 7, state: magnificence; perhaps with allusion to canopies of worked Persian stuff. 172 173 237 L. 3, counter-changed tabbies: variously coloured clouds; tabby was a wavy-figured silk. 244 L. 19, cauls: head-dresses. L, 22, male-incense: some powerfully odorous species ? 174 245 L 24, deal: as in cards. 175 176 L. 3, maundy: gifts like those made on 'Maundy Thursday.' L. 7, for and: obsolete for also. L. 15, reaming: ready to overflow. L. 10, jet it: strut about (Grosart). Nothing in this collection is more characteristic of Herrick and of his period than the Dirge of Dorcas. Its quaint grace and picturesque geniality are perfect in their way: a way very difficult, if not very elevated. 179 252 L. 2, protonotary: chief recording clerk. L. 10, wind: turn round, or wind into? This poem and the next are, each in its way, singularly characteristic of Herrick. Confessions so truthful and natural have been rarely made. |