[From

That age is best, which is the first,
When youth and blood are warmer,
But being spent, the worse, and worst
Times, still succeed the former.

Then be not coy, but use your time,
And while ye may, go marry;
For having lost but once your prime,
You may for ever tarry.

Hesperides, or the works both Humane and Divine of Robert Herrick, Esq. 1648." The idea is taken from Spenser

Gather therefore the rose whilst yet in prime;

For soon comes age that will her pride deflower;
Gather the rose of love while yet is time,

Whilst loving, thou may'st loved be with equal crime.

Faery Queene, Book 2, Canto 12, v. 73.

Mr. Campbell says this Song is "sweetly Anacreontic."]

TO ELECTRA.

ROBERT HERRICK.

'Tis Evening, my sweet,

And dark;-let us meet;

Long time w'ave here been a toying:

And never, as yet

That season could get

Wherein t'ave had an enjoying.

For pity or shame,

Then let not love's flame,
Be ever and ever a spending;

Since now to the port
The path is but short;

And yet our way has no ending.

Time flys away fast,

Our hours do waste:

The while we never remember,

How soon our life, here,

Grow's old with the year,

That dies with the next December.

From the "Hesperides," &c. p. 227, Ed. 1648.]

TO HIS MISTRESS.

ROBERT HERRICK.

Choose me your Valentine;
Next let us marry:
Love to the death will pine

If we long tarry.

Promise, and keep your vows,

Or vow ye never:
Love's doctrine disallows
Troth-breakers ever.

You have broke promise twice
(Dear) to undo me;

If you prove faithless thrice,
None then will woo ye.

[From "Hesperides," p. 32, Ed. 1618.]

TO ANTHEA WHO MAY COMMAND HIM ANY THING.

ROBERT HERRICK.

Bid me to live, and I will live
Thy Protestant to be:

Or bid me love, and I will give
A loving heart to thee.

A heart as soft, a heart as kind,
A heart as sound and free,

As in the whole world thou canst find
That heart I'll give to thee.

Bid that heart stay, and it will stay,

To honour thy decree:

Or bid it languish quite away,

And 't shall do so for thee.

Bid me to weep, and I will weep,
While I have eyes to see:
And having none, yet I will keep
A heart to weep for thee.

Bid me despair, and I'll despair,
Under that Cypress tree:
Or bid me die and I will dare
E'en death, to die for thee.

Thou art my life, my love, my heart,
The very eyes of me:

And hast command of every part,

To live and die for thee.

From "Hesperides," p. 122, Ed. 1648, Herrick is highly lauded by Mr. Campbell in his Specimens of the Poets.]

Where these well known lines are found, called :

CHERRIE-RIPE.

Cherrie-Ripe, Ripe, Ripe, I cry,
Full and fair ones; come and buy:
If so be, you ask me where
They doe grow? I answer, There,
Where my Julia's lips doe smile;
There's the Land, of Cherry-Ile:
Whose plantations fully show
All the year, where Cherries grow.

TELL ME NO MORE.

HENRY KING-BISHOP OF CHICHESTER.

Born 1591-Died 1669.

Tell me no more how fair she is,

I have no

mind to hear

The story of that distant bliss
I never shall come near:

By sad

That her perfection is my wound.

experience I have found

And tell me not how fond I am From whence no triumph ever came, tempt my daring fate,

To

But to repent too late:
hope ere long I may

There is some

In silence doat myself away.

I ask no pity, Love, from thee,
Nor will thy justice blame,
So that thou wilt not envy me

The glory of my flame;

Which crowns my heart whene'er it dies,

In that it falls her sacrifice.

[The poems of King are terse and elegant, but, like those of most of his contemporaries, deficient in simplicity. GEO. ELLIS.]

THE ANGLER'S WISH.

ISAAK WALTON.

Born 1593-Died 1683.

I in these flow'ry meads would be:
These crystal streams should solace me,
To whose harmonious bubbling noise,
I with my angle would rejoice,

Sit here and see the turtle-dove

Court his chaste mate to acts of love.

Or on that bank feel the west wind
Breathe health and plenty, please my mind
To see sweet dew-drops kiss these flowers,
And then wash'd off by April showers:

Here, hear my Kenna sing a song
There see a blackbird feed her young.

Or a leverock build her nest;

Here, give my weary spirits rest,

And raise my low pitch'd thoughts above
Earth, or what poor mortals love:

Thus free from law-suits and the noise
Of Princes' Courts I would rejoice.