Part 110 (2/2)

Another of her midnight orisons was the poem beginning:--

”Every night Thou dost me fright, And keep mine eyes from sleeping,” etc.

The last couplet, it should be noted, is misquoted from No. 56.

54. _Spew out all neutralities._ From the message to the Church of the Laodiceans, Rev. iii. 16.

59. _A Present by a Child._ Cp. ”A pastoral upon the Birth of Prince Charles” (_Hesperides_ 213), and Note.

63. _G.o.d's mirth: man's mourning._ Perhaps founded on Prov. i. 26: ”I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh”.

65. _My Alma._ The name is probably suggested by its meaning ”soul”. Cp.

Prior's _Alma_.

72. _I'll cast a mist and cloud._ Cp. Hor. I. _Ep._ xvi. 62: Noctem peccatis et fraudibus objice nubem.

75. _That house is bare._ Horace, _Ep._ I. vi. 45: Exilis domus est, ubi non et multa supersunt.

77. _Lighten my candle_, etc. The phraseology of the next five lines is almost entirely from the Psalms and the Song of Solomon.

86. _Sin leads the way._ Hor. _Odes_, III. ii. 32: Raro antecedentem scelestum Deseruit pede Poena claudo.

88. _By Faith we ... walk ..., not by the Spirit._ 2 Cor. v. 7: ”We walk by faith, not by sight”. 'By the Spirit' perhaps means, 'in spiritual bodies'.

96. _Sung to the King._ See Note on 17.

_Composed by M. Henry Lawes._ See _Hesperides_ 851, and Note.

102. _The Star-Song._ This may have been composed partly with reference to the noonday star during the Thanksgiving for Charles II.'s birth. See _Hesperides_ 213, and Note.

_We'll choose him King._ A reference to the Twelfth Night games. See _Hesperides_ 1035, and Note.

108. _Good men afflicted most._ Taken almost entirely from Seneca, _de Provid._ 3, 4: Ignem experitur [Fortuna] in Mucio, paupertatem in Fabricio, ... tormenta in Regulo, venenum in Socrate, mortem in Catone.

The allusions may be briefly explained for the uncla.s.sical. At the siege of Dyrrachium, Marcus Ca.s.sius Scaeva caught 120 darts on his s.h.i.+eld; Horatius Cocles is the hero of the bridge (see Macaulay's _Lays_); C.

Mucius Scaevola held his hand in the fire to ill.u.s.trate to Porsenna Roman fearlessness; Cato is Cato Uticensis, the philosophic suicide; ”high Atilius” will be more easily recognised as the M. Atilius Regulus who defied the Carthaginians; Fabricius Luscinus refused not only the presents of Pyrrhus, but all reward of the State, and lived in poverty on his own farm.

109. _A wood of darts._ Cp. Virg. _aen._ x. 886: Ter sec.u.m Troius heros Immanem aerato circ.u.mfert tegmine silvam.

112. _The Recompense._ Herrick is said to have a.s.sumed the lay habit on his return to London after his ejection, perhaps as a protection against further persecution. This quatrain may be taken as evidence that he did not throw off his religion with his ca.s.sock. Compare also 124.

_All I have lost that could be rapt from me._ From Ovid, III. _Trist._ vii. 414: Raptaque sint adimi quae potuere mihi.

123. _Thy light that ne'er went out._ Prov. x.x.xi. 18 (of 'the Excellent Woman'): ”Her candle goeth not out by night”. _All set about with lilies._ Cp. _Cant. Canticorum_, vii. 2: Venter tuus sicut acervus tritici, vallatus liliis.

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