58. Twelfth-tide kings And queens. "It appears that the twelfth cake was made formerly full of plums, and with a bean and a pea: whoever got the former, was to be king; whoever found the latter, was to be queen" (Brand, Popular Antiquities, I, 26). The custom is referred to in Herrick's “Twelfth Night: or, King and Queen" [1035].

59. Christmas revellings. The Christmas holidays formerly extended for twelve days after Christmas, or till Twelfth Night. See "Ceremonies for Christmas," p. 67.

66. cockrood. “A broad way or glade in a wood, through which woodcocks, etc. might dart . . . ., so as to be caught by nets stretched across the opening" (New English Dictionary).

70, 71. Pollard points out that these lines closely follow Virgil (Georg. ii. 458-59).

Caetera desunt. "The rest is wanting."

THE WAKE (Page 62)

Instituted as a solemn annual festival commemorating the dedication of a parish church, the wake had degenerated in Herrick's time into a mere country fair.

4. junkets. Delicacies.

4. still. Always.

(Page 63)

7. Morris-dancers. See note on the preceding poem, l. 54.

9. mimic. A mime, or burlesque actor.

12. Base in action. Plebeian in their acting.

14. incurious. Uncritical.

17. coxcomb. Head.

THE WASSAIL (Page 63)

Cf. Joseph Strutt, Sports and Pastimes, p. 466: “Wassail, or rather the wassail bowl, was a bowl of spiced ale, formerly carried about by young women on New-year's eve, who went from door to door in their several parishes singing a few couplets of homely verses composed for the purpose, and presented the liquor to the inhabitants of the house where they called, expecting a small gratuity in return."

ary).

4 manchet. "The finest kind of wheaten bread” (New English Diction

16. pressed. Laden.

(Page 64)

28. leave a longer time to wait. Cease waiting longer.

CEREMONIES FOR CANDLEMAS EVE (Page 64)

Candlemas Day (February 2), or the evening before, seems to have been the time set for removing all reminders of Christmas. Herrick has a couplet entitled "Upon Candlemas Day":

"End now the white loaf and the pie,

And let all sports with Christmas die."

(Page 65)

16. Whitsuntide. The week beginning with the seventh Sunday after

Easter.

17. bents. Grass-like reeds.

THE CEREMONIES FOR CANDLEMAS DAY (Page 65)

1. Christmas brand. Yule log.

5. teend. Light.

THE HOCK-CARt, or Harvest HOME (Page 66)

"Harvest home" was the name of the rural holiday which celebrated the conclusion of the harvest, the cart or wagon on which the last load of the harvest was brought home being called the "hock-cart."

Mildmay Fane became second earl of Westmorland in 1628. He was a Royalist and a dabbler in poetry.

9. maukin. An effigy, often made of corn, which was carried from the field amid the shouting and singing laborers (Strutt, Sports and Pastimes, p. 288).

21. Some cross the fill-horse. Some bestride the shaft-horse.

34. frumenty. “A dish made of hulled wheat boiled in milk, and seasoned with cinnamon, sugar, etc." (New English Dictionary).

39. commonwealth. The common weal or good of the community. See "The Country Life," p. 61, l. 28, and note.

(Page 67)

40. fanes. Fans, or instruments for winnowing grain.

40. fats. Casks.

47. revoke. Recall.

54. pain. Toil.

CEREMONIES FOR CHRISTMAS (Page 67)

3. Christmas log. A great log which was, and in some parts of England still is, lighted on Christmas Eve.

12. a-teending. Being set on fire.

15. a-shredding. Being cut into small strips.

TO THE MOST FAIR AND LOVELY MISTRESS Anne Soame,
NOW LADY ABDIE (Page 68)

According to Grosart, Anne Soame was the “eldest daughter of Sir Thomas Soame, of London, Kt., and second wife of Sir Thomas Abdy, first baronet of Felix Hall, Essex." Hale (Dissertation, p. 37), on metrical grounds, assigns this poem to the Dean Prior period. Pollard cites Martial iii. 65; and Nixon, Martial xi. 8. Both epigrams contain similar catalogues of sweet odors.

26. maiden-pomander. A fresh pomander, or ball made of aromatic substances, carried often to ward off infection.

27. what. That is, like whatever.

THE HAG (Page 68)

Milton (Paradise Lost, II, 662) describes the night-hag as “riding through the air . . . . Lured with the smell of infant blood." Moorman (Robert Herrick, p. 272) says: “The swift anapæstic verses in which Herrick describes the night-hag stand out in bold contrast to the thin-spun fancies of the fairy poems ["Oberon's Chapel" and its two companion pieces.]"

THE FAIRIES (Page 69)

1. Mab. Cf. Jonson's The Satyr:

"This is Mab, the mistress Fairy,

That doth nightly rob the dairy, . . . .

She that pinches country wenches,
If they rub not clean their benches,

And with sharper nails remembers

When they rake not up their embers."

Shakespeare in Romeo and Juliet, Act I, scene iv, ll. 88 ff., gives the fullest account of her traits, "in a way, an epitome," as Delattre says, "of all the common traditions about the fairy people which the boy Shakespeare may have heard many a time from the mouth of an old gossip, in the ingle-nook of some Stratford cottage" (English Fairy Poetry, p. 107).

CHARMS (Page 69)

The primitive simplicity of this and the following charms suggests a pop ular origin. Their general similarity to the Old English charms is apparent.

1. holy crust of bread. A piece of bread used for the eucharist.

4. Hags. See "The Hag," p. 68.

ANOTHER CHARM, FOR STABLES (Page 70)

1. hooks. Reaping-hooks.

TO DAFFODILS (Page 70)

Cf. Moorman (Robert Herrick, p. 325): "Nor is he afraid of placing verses which rhyme together at a great distance from one another, the delicacy of his ear assuring him that the effect of the rhyme will not be lost. Thus in the poem, To Daffodils (316), the rhyme of the first verse is not taken up till we reach the ninth, and in To Primroses filled with Morning Dew (257) [p. 72], the stanza of which is a masterpiece of the most cunning craftsmanship, there is the same interval."

15. brave. Beautiful.

6. arks. Baskets.

TO BLOSSOMS (Page 70)
(Page 71)

TO MEADOWS (Page 71)

10. round. A dance in a circle.

16. smoother. Very smooth.

TO PRIMROSES Filled with Morning Dew (Page 72)

See note above on "To Daffodils."

5. Teemed. Discharged.

26. lecture. Lesson.

TO A GENTLEWOMAN, OBJECTING TO HIM HIS GRAY HAIRS

(Page 72)

First printed in Shakespeare's Poems (1640).

2. I am gray. Cf. the opening of Anacreon's eleventh ode (cited by Pollard):

"Anacreon,' the lasses say,

'Old fellow, you have had your day:
Consult your mirror, mark with care,
How scanty now your silver hair.””ı

HIS LACHRIMAE; or, Mirth Turned to Mourning (Page 73)

It would be interesting to know at what time during Herrick's Devonshire days this poem was written. In spite of his general contentment in the

Translated by Bourne.

country, it is but natural that he should have suffered occasionally from fits of homesickness for London.

9. loathed. This same adjective he applies in "To His Household Gods" [278] to Devonshire and in "Upon Himself" [456] to country life.

TO THE KING UPON HIS COMING WITH HIS ARMY INTO THE WEST

(Page 74)

Apparently written in the summer of 1644, when Charles was at Exeter. The conquest hoped for by Herrick was in part realized, for a large portion of Essex' army was surrounded and captured at Lostwithiel, in Cornwall. 2. universal genius. "General protecting power" (Hale).

7. horrid. Horrible.

10. access. Approach.

11. white. Auspicious.

THE BAD SEASON MAKES THE POET SAD (Page 74)

Cf. Moorman (Robert Herrick, p. 69): "This poem evidently belongs to the period of the Civil War, when Queen Henrietta Maria was abroad, and the power of Charles was tottering to its fall."

12. Tyrian dews. Essences. Cf. note on "To Live Merrily and to Trust to Good Verses," p. 282, l. 10.

12. head with roses crowned. See "On Himself," p. 42, and note.

14. Knock at a star with my exalted head. Proverbial. Cf. Horace i. 1. 35, 36: "But if you place my name among the lyric bards, I'll strike the lofty sky with towering head" (tr. Bryce: Bohn).

UPON SMEATON (Page 75)

An example of the coarse epigrams—according to tradition, directed against the churlish parishioners at Dean Prior-which Herrick saw fit to scatter, probably for the sake of contrast, through the pages of the Hesperides.

HIS WISH (Page 75)

I, 2. Grosart cites Martial ii. 90: "Let me have a plump home-born slave, have a wife not too lettered, have night with sleep, have day without a lawsuit" (tr. Ker: Loeb).

4. everlasting fire. On the hearth of a Roman house a perpetual fire was kept burning in honor of the Penates.

TO HIS DEAR Valentine, MisTRESS MARGARET FALCONBRIDGE

(Page 75)

Margaret Falconbridge was perhaps the daughter or wife of the subject of another of Herrick's laudatory poems, "To His Worthy Friend, M. Thos. Falconbirge" [483].