Part 109 (1/2)

971. _Strength_, etc. Tacitus, _Ann._ xiii. 19: Nihil rerum mortalium tam instabile ac fluxum est, quam fama potentiae, non sua vi nixa.

975. _Case is a lawyer_, etc. Martial, I. xcviii. Ad Naevolum Causidic.u.m. c.u.m clamant omnes, loqueris tu, Naevole, tantum.... Ecce, tacent omnes; Naevole, dic aliquid.

977. _To his sister-in-law, M. Susanna Herrick._ Cp. _supra_, 522. The subject is again the making up of the book of the poet's elect.

978. _Upon the Lady Crew._ Cp. Herrick's Epithalamium for her marriage with Sir Clipsby Crew, 283. She died 1639, and was buried in Westminster Abbey.

979. _On Tomasin Parsons._ Daughter of the organist of Westminster Abbey: cp. 500 and Note.

983. _To his kinsman, M. Thomas Herrick, who desired to be in his book._ Cp. 106 and Note.

989. _Care keeps the conquest._ Perhaps jotted down with reference to the Governors.h.i.+p of Exeter by Sir John Berkeley: see Note to 745.

992. _To the handsome Mistress Grace Potter._ Probably sister to the Mistress Amy Potter celebrated in 837, where see Note.

995. _We've more to bear our charge than way to go._ Seneca, Ep. 77: quantulumcunque haberem, tamen plus superesset viatici quam viae, quoted by Montaigne, II. xxviii.

1000. _The G.o.ds, pillars, and men._ Horace's Mediocribus esse poetis Non homines, non di, non concessere columnae (_Ars Poet._ 373). Latin poets hung up their epigrams in public places.

1002. _To the Lord Hopton on his fight in Cornwall._ Sir Ralph Hopton won two brilliant victories for the Royalists, at Bradock Down and Stratton, January and May, 1643, and was created Baron Hopton in the following September. Originally a Parliamentarian, he was one of the king's ablest and most loyal servants.

1008. _Nothing's so hard but search will find it out._ Terence, _Haut._ IV. ii. 8: Nihil tam difficile est quin quaerendo investigari posset.

1009. _Labour is held up by the hope of rest._ Ps. Sall.u.s.t, _Epist. ad C. Caes._: Sapientes laborem spe otii sustentant.

1022. _Posting to Printing._ Mart. V. x. 11, 12:--

Vos, tamen, o nostri, ne festinate, libelli: Si post fata venit gloria, non propero.

1023. _No kingdoms got by rapine long endure._ Seneca, _Troad._ 264: Violenta nemo imperia continuit dies.

1026. _Saint Distaff's Day._ ”Saint Distaff is perhaps only a coinage of our poet's to designate the day when, the Christmas vacation being over, good housewives, with others, resumed their usual employment.” (Nott.) The phrase is explained in dictionaries and handbooks, but no other use of it is quoted than this. Herrick's poem was pilfered by Henry Bold (a notorious plagiarist) in _Wit a-sporting in a pleasant Grove of New Fancies_, 1657.

1028. _My beloved Westminster._ As mentioned in the brief ”Life” of Herrick prefixed to vol. i., all the references in this poem seem to refer to Herrick's courtier-days, between leaving Cambridge and going to Devons.h.i.+re. He then, doubtless, resided in Westminster for the sake of proximity to Whitehall. It has been suggested, however, that the reference is to Westminster School, but we have no evidence that Herrick was educated there.

_Golden Cheapside._ My friend, Mr. Herbert Horne, in his admirably-chosen selection from the _Hesperides_, suggests that the allusion here is to the great gilt cross at the end of Wood Street. The suggestion is ingenious; but as Cheapside was the goldsmiths' quarter this would amply justify the epithet, which may indeed only refer to Cheapside as a money-winning street, as we might say Golden Lombard Street.

1032. _Things are uncertain._ Tiberius, in Tacitus, _Annal._ i. 72: Cuncta mortalium incerta; quantoque plus adeptus foret, tanto se magis in lubrico.

1034. _Good wits get more fame by their punishment._ Cp. Tacit. _Ann._ iv. 35, sub fin.: Punitis ingeniis gliscit auctoritas, etc., quoted by Bacon and Milton.

1035. _Twelfth Night: or King and Queen._ Herrick alludes to these ”Twelfth-Tide Kings and Queens” in writing to Endymion Porter (662), and earlier still, in the ”New-Year's Gift to Sir Simeon Steward” (319) he speaks--

”Of Twelfth-Tide cakes, of Peas and Beans, Wherewith ye make those merry scenes, Whenas ye choose your King and Queen”.

Brand (i. 27) ill.u.s.trates well from ”Speeches to the Queen at Sudley” in Nichols' _Progresses of Queen Elizabeth_.

”_Melibus._ Cut the cake: who hath the bean shall be king, and where the pea is, she shall be queen.

_Nisa._ I have the pea and must be queen.

_Mel._ I the bean, and king. I must command.”