The Hesperides & Noble Numbers - Part 112
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Part 112

_Well doing's the fruit of doing well._ Seneca, _de Clem._ i. 1: Recte factorum verus fructus [est] fecisse. Also _Ep._ 81: Recte facti fecisse merces est. The latter, and Cicero, _de Finib._ II. xxii. 72, are quoted by Montaigne, _Ess._ II. xvi.

_A Carol presented to Dr. Williams._ From Ashmole MS. 36, 298. For Dr.

Williams, see Note to _Hesperides_ 146. This poem was apparently written in 1640, after the removal of the bishop's suspension.

_His Mistress to him at his Farewell._ From Add. MS. 11, 811, at the British Museum, where it is signed "Ro. Herrick".

_Upon Parting._ From Harleian MS. 6917, at the British Museum.

_Upon Master Fletcher's Incomparable Plays._ Printed in Beaumont and Fletcher's Works, 1647, and Beaumont's Poems, 1653.

_The Golden Pomp is come._ Ovid, "Aurea Pompa venit" (as in _Hesperides_ 201).

_To be with juice of cedar washed all over._ Horace's "linenda cedro,"

as in _Hesperides_.

_Evadne._ See Note to _Hesperides_ 575.

_The New Charon._ First printed in "Lachrymae Musarum. The tears of the Muses: exprest in Elegies written by divers persons of n.o.bility and Worth, upon the death of the most hopefull Henry, Lord Hastings....

Collected and set forth by R[ichard] B[rome]. _London_, 1649." This is the only poem which we know of Herrick's, written after 1648, and even in this Herrick uses materials already employed in "Charon and the Nightingale" in _Hesperides_.

_Epitaph on the Tomb of Sir Edward Giles._ First printed by Dr. Grosart from the monument in Dean Prior Church. Sir Edward Giles was the occupant of Dean Court and the magnate of the parish.

APPENDIX I.

HERRICK'S POEMS IN WITTS RECREATIONS.

Both Mr. Hazlitt and Dr. Grosart have slightly misrepresented the relation of _Hesperides_ to the anthology known as _Witts Recreations_: Mr. Hazlitt by mistakes as to their respective contents; Dr. Grosart (after a much more careful collation) by taking down the date of the wrong edition. To put matters straight four editions have to be examined:--

I. "Witts Recreations. Selected from the finest Fancies of Moderne Muses, With a Thousand out Landish Proverbs. _London. Printed for Humph. Blunden at ye Castle in Cornhill, 1640._ 8vo."

This general t.i.tle-page is engraved by W. Marshall. The Outlandish Proverbs were selected by George Herbert, and, like the first part, have a printed t.i.tle-page of their own.

II. "Witts Recreations. Augmented with Ingenious Conceites for the wittie and Merrie Medicines for the Melancholie. _London. Printed for Humph. Blunden: at ye Castle in Cornhill, 1641._ 8vo."

In this, and subsequent editions, Marshall's t.i.tle-page is re-engraved and the Outlandish Proverbs are omitted. The printed t.i.tle-page reads: "Wit's Recreations. Containing 630 Epigrams, 160 Epitaphs. Variety of Fancies and Fantasticks, Good for Melancholly humours. _London. Printed by Thomas Cotes_," etc. The epigrams vary considerably from the selection in the previous edition.

III. "Witts Recreations refined. Augmented, with Ingenious Conceites for the wittie, and Merrie Medicines for the Melancholie...."

In the Museum copy of this edition the imprint to the engraved t.i.tle has been cropped away. The printed t.i.tle-page reads: "Recreation for Ingenious Head-peeces. Or, A Pleasant Grove for their Wits to walke in.

Of Epigrams, 630: Epitaphs, 180: Fancies, a number: Fantasticks, abundance, Good for melancholy Humors. _Printed by R. Cotes for H. B.

London, 1645._ 8vo." Two poems of Herrick's occur in the additional "Fancies and Fantasticks," first printed in this edition, viz.: _The Description of a Woman_ (not contained in _Hesperides_), and the _Farewell to Sack_.

IV. "Witts Recreations refined. Augmented, with Ingenious Conceites for the wittie and Merrie Medicines for the Melancholie. _Printed by M. S. sould by I. Hanc.o.c.k in Popes head Alley, 1650._ 8vo."

The printed t.i.tle-page reads: "Recreations for Ingenious Head-peeces.

Or, A Pleasant Grove for their Wits to Walke in. Of Epigrams, 700: Epitaphs, 200: Fancies, a number: Fantasticks, abundance. With their Addition, Multiplication, and Division. _London, Printed by M.

Simmons_," etc. In this edition many of the Epigrams are omitted and more than one hundred fresh ones added. Additions are also made to the Epitaphs and Fancies and Fantasticks. Of the new Epigrams and Poems no less than seventy-two had been printed two years earlier in Herrick's _Hesperides_, and ten others were added in 1654 from the same source.

_Witts Recreations_ was again reprinted in 1663, 1667, and perhaps oftener. In 1817 it was issued as vol. ii. of a collection of _Facetiae_, of which Mennis and Smith's _Musarum Deliciae_ and _Wit Restor'd_ formed vol. i. On the t.i.tle-page _Witts Recreations_ is said to be printed from edition 1640, with all the wood engravings and improvements of subsequent editions, and in the preface it is explained to be "reprinted after a collation of the four editions, 1640, 41, 54, and 63, for the purpose of bringing together in one body all the various articles spread throughout, and not to be found in any one edition". This 1817 reprint was re-issued by Hotten in 1874, and this re-issue, as his references to pagination show, was the one used by Dr. Grosart. The date 1640 on the t.i.tle-page may have caught his eye and led to his mistaken allusion to the "prior publication" of the Herrick poems in 1640, whereas _Hesperides_ was published in 1648, and the editions of _Witts Recreations_ which contain anything of his besides the _Description of a Woman_ and _A Farewell to Sack_, in 1650, 1654, etc.

In the Notes to the present edition I have drawn attention to all variations in the text of the poems as printed by Herrick and the later editors, and now subjoin a complete list of the poems under the t.i.tles which they take in _Witts Recreations_, with their numbers in this edition.

1645 Edition.

128. A Farewell to Sack.

[Not in _Hesp._] The Description of a Woman.

1650 Edition Adds:--

123. A Tear sent to his M^is.

159. The Cruel Maid.

162. His Misery.

172. With a Ring to Julia.

200. On Gubbs.

206. On Bunce.

239. On Guesse.

241. On a Painted Madam.

310. On a Child.

311. On Sneape.

328. A Foolish Querie.

340. A Check to her Delay.

352. Nothing New.

357. Long and Lazy.

367. To a Stale Lady.

374. Gain and Gettings.

379. On Doll.

380. On Skrew.

381. On Linnit.

400. On Raspe.

407. On Himself.

408. Love and Liberty.

409. On Skinns.

428. On Craw.

434. On Jack and Jill.

517. Change.

534. To Julia.

572. On Umber.

600. Little and Loud.

616. Abroad with the Maids.

637. On Lungs.

640. On a Child.

644. On an Old Man, a Residentiary.

648. On Cob.

649. On Betty.