The Hesperides & Noble Numbers Part 111

_Will show these garments._ So Acts ix. 39.

134. _G.o.d had but one son free from sin._ Augustin. _Confess._ vi.: Deus unic.u.m habet filium sine peccato, nullum sine flagello, quoted in Burton, II. iii. 1.

136. _Science in G.o.d._ Bp. Davenant, _on Colossians_, 166, _ed._ 1639; speaking of Omniscience: Proprietates Divinitatis non sunt accidentia, sed ipsa Dei essentia.

145. _Tears._ Augustin. _Enarr. Ps._ cxxvii.: Dulciores sunt lacrymae orantium quam gaudia theatorum.

146. _Manna._ Wisdom xvi. 20, 21: "Angels' food ... agreeing to every taste".

147. _As Ca.s.siodore doth prove._ Reverentia est enim Domini timor c.u.m amore permixtus. Ca.s.siodor. _Expos. in Psalt._ x.x.xiv. 30; quoted by Dr.

Grosart. My clerical predecessor has also hunted down with much industry the possible sources of most of the other patristic references in _n.o.ble Numbers_, though I have been able to add a few. We may note that Herrick quotes Ca.s.siodorus (twice), John of Damascus, Boethius, Thomas Aquinas, St. Bernard, St. Augustine (thrice), St. Basil, and St. Ambrose--a goodly list of Fathers, if we had any reason to suppose that the quotations were made at first hand.

148. _Mercy ... a Deity._ Pausanias, _Attic._ I. xvii. 1.

153. _Mora Sponsi, the stay of the bridegroom._ Maldonatus, _Comm. in Matth._ xxv.: Hieronymus et Hilarius moram sponsi pnitentiae tempus esse dic.u.n.t.

157. _Montes Scripturarum._ See August. _Enarr. in Ps._ x.x.xix., and pa.s.sim.

167. _A dereliction._ The word is from Ps. xxii. 1: Quare me dereliquisti? "Why hast Thou forsaken me?" Herrick took it from Gregory's _Notes and Observations_ (see infra), p. 5: 'Our Saviour ...

in that great case of dereliction'.

174. _Martha, Martha._ See Luke x. 41, and August. _Serm._ cii. 3: Repet.i.tio nominis indicium est dilectionis.

177. _Paradise._ Gregory, p. 75, on "the reverend Say of Zoroaster, Seek Paradise," quotes from the Scholiast Psellus: "The Chaldaean Paradise (saith he) is a Quire of divine powers incircling the Father".

178. _The Jews when they built houses._ Herrick's rabbinical lore (cp.

180, 181, 193, 207, 224), like his patristic, was probably derived at second hand through some biblical commentary. Much of it certainly comes from the _Notes and Observations upon some Pa.s.sages of Scripture_ (Oxford, 1646) of John Gregory, chaplain of Christ Church, a prodigy of oriental learning, who died in his 39th year, March 13, 1646. Thus in his Address to the Reader (3rd page from end) Gregory remarks: "The Jews, when they build a house, are bound to leave some part of it unfinished in memory of the destruction of Jerusalem," giving a reference to Leo of Modena, _Degli Riti Hebraici_, Part I.

180. _Observation. The Virgin Mother_, etc. Gregory, pp. 24-27, shows that Sitting, the usual posture of mourners, was forbidden by both Roman and Jewish Law "in capital causes". "This was the reason why ... she stood up still in a resolute and almost impossible compliance with the Law.... They sat ... after leave obtained ... to bury the body."

181. _Tapers._ Cp. Gregory's _Notes_, p. 111: "The funeral tapers (however thought of by some) are of the same harmless import. Their meaning is to show that the departed souls are not quite put out, but having walked here as the children of the Light are now gone to walk before G.o.d in the light of the living."

185. _G.o.d in the holy tongue._ J. G., p. 135: "G.o.d is called in the Holy Tongue ... the Place; or that Fulness which filleth All in All".

186, 187, 188, 189, 197. _G.o.d's Presence, Dwelling_, etc. J. G., pp.

135-9: "Shecinah, or G.o.d's Dwelling Presence". "G.o.d is said to be nearer to this man than to that, more in one place than in another. Thus he is said to depart from some and come to others, to leave this place and to abide in that, not by essential application of Himself, much less by local motion, but by impression of effect." "With just men (saith St.

Bernard) G.o.d is present, _in veritate_, in deed, but with the wicked, dissemblingly." "He is called in the Holy Tongue, Jehovah, He that is, or Essence." "He is said to dwell there (saith Maimon) where He putteth the marks ... of His Majesty; and He doth this by His Grace and Holy Spirit."

190. _The Virgin Mary._ J. G., p. 86: "St. Ephrem upon those words of Jacob, This is the House of G.o.d, and this is the Gate of Heaven. This saying (saith he) is to be meant of the Virgin Mary ... truly to be called the House of G.o.d, as wherein the Son of G.o.d ... inhabited, and as truly the Gate of Heaven, for the Lord of heaven and earth entered thereat; and it shall not be set open the second time, according to that of Ezekiel (xliv. 2): I saw (saith he) a gate in the East; the glorious Lord entered thereat; thenceforth that gate was shut, and is not any more to be opened (_Catena Arab._ c. 58)."

192. _Upon Woman and Mary._ The reference is to Christ's appearance to St. Mary Magdalene in the Garden after the Resurrection, John xx. 15, 16.

193. _North and South._ Comp. _Hesper._ 429. _Observation_. J. G., pp.

92, 93: "Whosoever (say the Doctors in Berachoth) shall set his bed N.

and S., shall beget male children. Therefore the Jews hold this rite of collocation ... to this day.... They are bound to place their ... house of office in the very same situation ... that the uncomely necessities ... might not fall into the Walk and Ways of G.o.d, whose Shecinah or dwelling presence lieth W. and E."

195. _Noah the first was_, etc. Cp. Gregory, _Notes_, p. 28.

201. _Temporal goods._ August., quoted by Burton, II. iii. 3: Dantur quidem bonis, saith Austin, ne quis mala aestimet, malis autem ne quis nimis bona.

203. _Speak, did the blood of Abel cry_, etc. Cp. Gregory's _Notes_, pp.

118: "But did the blood of Abel speak? saith Theophylact. Yes, it cried unto G.o.d for vengeance, as that of sprinkling for propitiation and mercy."

204. _A thing of such a reverend reckoning._ Cp. Gregory, 118-9: "The blood of Abel was so holy and reverend a thing, in the sense and reputation of the old world, that the men of that time used to swear by it".

205. _A Position in the Hebrew Divinity._ From Gregory's _Notes_, pp.

134, 5: "That old position in the Hebrew Divinity ... that a repenting man is of more esteem in the sight of G.o.d than one that never fell away".

206. _The Doctors in the Talmud._ From Gregory's _Notes_, _l.c._: "The Doctors in the Talmud say, that one day spent here in true Repentance is more worth than eternity itself, or all the days of heaven in the other world".

207. _G.o.d's Presence._ Again from Gregory's Notes, pp. 136 sq.

208. _The Resurrection._ Gregory's _Notes_, pp. 128-29, translating from a Greek MS. of Mathaeus Blastares in the Bodleian: "The wonder of this is far above that of the resurrection of our bodies; for then the earth giveth up her dead but one for one, but in the case of the corn she giveth up many living ones for one dead one".

243. _Confession twofold is._ August, in Ps. xxix. _Enarr._ ii. 19: Confessio gemina est, aut peccati, aut laudis.

254. _Gold and frankincense._ St. Matt. ii. 11. St. Ambrose. Aurum Regi, thus Deo.

256. _The Chewing the Cud._ Cp. Lev. xi. 6.

258. _As my little pot doth boil_, etc. This far-fetched little poem is an instance of Herrick's habit of jotting down his thoughts in verse.

In cooking some food for a charitable purpose he seems to have noticed that the boiling pot tossed the meat to and fro, or "waved" it (the priest's work), and that he himself was giving away the meat he lifted off the fire, the "heave-offering," which was the priest's perquisite.

This is the confusion or "level-coil" to which he alludes.

NOTES TO ADDITIONAL POEMS.

_The Description of a Woman_. Printed in _Witts Recreations_, 1645, and contained also in Ashmole MS. 38, where it is signed: "Finis. Robert Herrick." Our version is taken from _Witts Recreations_, with the exception of the readings _show_ and _grow_ (for _shown_ and _grown_, in ll. 15 and 16). The Ashmole MS. contains in all thirty additional lines, which may or may not be by Herrick, but which, as not improving the poem, have been omitted in our text in accordance with the precedent set by the editor of _Witts Recreations_.

_Mr. Herrick: his Daughter's Dowry._ From Ashmole MS. 38, where it is signed: "Finis. Robt. Hericke."

_Mr. Robert Herrick: his Farewell unto Poetry._ Printed by Dr. Grosart and Mr. Hazlitt from Ashmole MS. 38. I add a few readings from Brit.

Mus. Add. MS. 22, 603, where it is ent.i.tled: _Herrick's Farewell to Poetry_. The importance of the poem for Herrick's biography is alluded to in the brief "Life" prefixed to vol. i.

For _some sleepy keys_ the Museum MS. reads, _the sleeping keys_; for _yet forc't they are to go_ it has _and yet are forc't to go_; _drinking to the odd Number of Nine_ for _Number of Wine_, as to which see below; _turned her home_ for _twirled her home_; _dear soul_ for _rare soul_.

All these are possible, but _beloved Africa_, and the omission of the two half lines, "'tis not need The scarecrow unto mankind," are pure blunders.

_Drinking to the odd Number of Nine_. I introduce this into the text from the Museum ma.n.u.script as agreeing with the

"Well, I can quaff, I see, To th' number five Or nine"

of _A Baccha.n.a.lian Verse_ (_Hesperides_ 653), on which see Note. Dr.

Grosart explains the Ashmole reading _Wine_ by the Note "_?????_ and _vinum_ both give five, the number of perfection"; but this seems too far-fetched for Herrick.

_Kiss, so depart._ By a strange freak Ashmole MS. writes _Guesse_, and the Museum MS. _Ghesse_; but the emendation _Kiss_ (adopted both by Dr.

Grosart and Mr. Hazlitt) cannot be doubted.