And for this dead, which under lies, Upon a Maid. "Here she lies, in beds of spice, For her beauty it was such, Upon a Child. "But born, and like a short delight, Upon Ben Jonson. "Here lies Jonson, with the rest Of the poets, but the best. Reader, would'st thou more have known? Ask his story, not the stone; That will speak, what this can't tell Of his glory. So farewell." And a variety of votive hymns, of which the following may serve as a specimen : A Hymn to Venus. "Goddess, I do love a girl, Ruby-lip'd, and tooth'd with pearl; If so be I may but prove I will promise there shall be Among his miscellaneous poems, the mad Maid's Song is worth extracting. The mad Maid's Song. "Good morrow to the day so fair; Good morning to this primrose too; Ah, woe is me; woe, woe is me! I'll seek him in your bonnet brave, I'll seek him in your eyes; Nay, now I think they've made his grave I'll seek him there; I know ere this The cold, cold earth doth shake him ; But I will go, or send a kiss By you, sir, to awake him. Pray hurt him not; though he be dead, He's soft and tender, pray take heed, The Bucolick between Lacon and Thyrsis deserves a place in this anthology, as a specimen of his skill in that department of poetry. "Lacon. For a kiss or two, confess What doth cause this pensiveness, Why so lonely on the hill; Why thy pipe by thee so still, That ere while was heard so shrill? Tell me, do thy kine now fail To fulfil the milking pail? Say, what is't that thou dost ail? Thyrsis. None of these; but out, alas! A mischance is come to pass; And I'll tell thee what it was: Lacon. Tell, and I'll lay down my pipe. That to me was far more dear Than these kine which I milk here; Party-colour'd like a pie, Smooth in each limb as a die; Clear of hoof, and clear of horn, Sharply pointed as a thorn; With a neck by yoke unworn, From the which hung down by strings, Balls of cowslips, daisy rings, Interplac'd by ribandings; Tears will spring where woes are deep. Now, ah me! ah me! last night Came a mad dog, and did bite, Me, and my sad playmates all, Live long, Lacon; so adieu! Lacon. Mournful maid, farewell to you; Earth afford ye flow'rs to strew!" There is a great deal of poetical imagery in the piece entitled "Corinna's going a Maying." "Get Nay, not so much as out of bed; When all the birds have mattins said, When as a thousand virgins on this day, Rise, and put on your foliage, and be seen Gems in abundance upon you: green, Besides, the childhood of the day has kept, And Titan on the eastern hill Retires himself, or else stands still Till you come forth. Wash, dress, be brief in praying; Come, my Corinna, come; and, coming, mark Or branch; each porch, each door, ere this Made up of whitethorn newly interwove, Can such delights be in the street And open fields, and we not see't? And sin no more, as we have done, by staying; There's not a budding boy or girl this day Back, and with whitethorn laden home : And some have wept, and woo'd, and plighted troth, Many a green gown has been given; Many a kiss, both odd and even ; From out the eye, love's firmament; Many a jest told of the keys betraying This night, and locks pick'd; yet we're not a Maying! Come, let us go, while we are in our prime, We shall grow old apace, and die So when or you, or I, are made Lies drown'd with us in endless night. Then, while time serves, and we are but decaying, Herrick had so very high a notion of the value of his compositions, that he conceived it necessary only to mention his friends in this volume, in order to confer immortality upon them. He constituted himself high priest of the temple of fame, and assumed the power of apotheosizing such writers as he conceived deserving of that honour, never once dreaming of the possibility of both himself and works being neglected or forgotten. Many addresses to his friends and relations, avowing his potency in this high vocation, are scattered through his works. Some of them, however, have juster titles to immortality than the lay of the poet can confer,-such as Selden and Ben Jonson. He addresses that patron of poets, Mr. Endymion Porter, in these words: |