The Hesperides Noble Numbers: Vol. 1 and 2 | Page 8

eternal home;
'Twill not be long, Perilla, after this,

That I must give thee the supremest kiss.
Dead when I am, first
cast in salt, and bring
Part of the cream from that religious spring;

With which, Perilla, wash my hands and feet;
That done, then wind

me in that very sheet
Which wrapt thy smooth limbs when thou didst
implore
The gods' protection but the night before.
Follow me
weeping to my turf, and there
Let fall a primrose, and with it a tear:

Then, lastly, let some weekly-strewings be
Devoted to the memory of
me:
Then shall my ghost not walk about, but keep
Still in the cool
and silent shades of sleep.
_Weekly strewings_, _i.e._, of flowers on his grave.
_First cast in
salt_, cp. 769.
15. A SONG TO THE MASKERS.
Come down and dance ye in the toil
Of pleasures to a heat;
But if to
moisture, let the oil
Of roses be your sweat.
Not only to yourselves assume
These sweets, but let them fly
From
this to that, and so perfume
E'en all the standers by;
As goddess Isis, when she went
Or glided through the street,
Made
all that touched her, with her scent,
And whom she touched, turn
sweet.
16. TO PERENNA.
When I thy parts run o'er, I can't espy
In any one the least indecency;

But every line and limb diffused thence
A fair and unfamiliar
excellence:
So that the more I look the more I prove
There's still
more cause why I the more should love.
_Indecency_, uncomeliness.
17. TREASON.
The seeds of treason choke up as they spring:
_He acts the crime that
gives it cherishing_.

18. TWO THINGS ODIOUS.
Two of a thousand things are disallow'd:
A lying rich man, and a poor
man proud.
19. TO HIS MISTRESSES.
Help me! help me! now I call
To my pretty witchcrafts all;
Old I am,
and cannot do
That I was accustomed to.
Bring your magics, spells,
and charms,
To enflesh my thighs and arms.
Is there no way to
beget
In my limbs their former heat?
Æson had, as poets feign,

Baths that made him young again:
Find that medicine, if you can,

For your dry decrepit man
Who would fain his strength renew,

Were it but to pleasure you.
_Æson_, rejuvenated by Medea; see Ovid, Met. vii.
20. THE WOUNDED HEART.
Come bring your sampler, and with art
Draw in't a wounded heart
And dropping here and there:
Not that I
think that any dart
Can make yours bleed a tear,
Or pierce it anywhere;
Yet do it to this
end: that I
May by
This secret see,
Though you can make
That heart to bleed, yours ne'er will ache
For me.
21. NO LOATHSOMENESS IN LOVE.
What I fancy I approve,
_No dislike there is in love_.
Be my
mistress short or tall,
And distorted therewithal:
Be she likewise
one of those
That an acre hath of nose:
Be her forehead and her

eyes
Full of incongruities:
Be her cheeks so shallow too
As to
show her tongue wag through;
Be her lips ill hung or set,
And her
grinders black as jet:
Has she thin hair, hath she none,
She's to me a
paragon.
22. TO ANTHEA.
If, dear Anthea, my hard fate it be
To live some few sad hours after
thee,
Thy sacred corse with odours I will burn,
And with my laurel
crown thy golden urn.
Then holding up there such religious things

As were, time past, thy holy filletings,
Near to thy reverend pitcher I
will fall
Down dead for grief, and end my woes withal:
So three in
one small plat of ground shall lie--
Anthea, Herrick, and his poetry.
23. THE WEEPING CHERRY.
I saw a cherry weep, and why?
Why wept it? but for shame

Because my Julia's lip was by,
And did out-red the same.
But,
pretty fondling, let not fall
A tear at all for that:
Which rubies,
corals, scarlets, all
For tincture wonder at.
24. SOFT MUSIC.
The mellow touch of music most doth wound
The soul when it doth
rather sigh than sound.
25. THE DIFFERENCE BETWIXT KINGS AND SUBJECTS.
'Twixt kings and subjects there's this mighty odds:
Subjects are taught
by men; kings by the gods.
26. HIS ANSWER TO A QUESTION.
Some would know
Why I so
Long still do tarry,
And ask why

Here that I
Live and not marry.
Thus I those
Do oppose:
What
man would be here
Slave to thrall,
If at all
He could live free

here?
27. UPON JULIA'S FALL.
Julia was careless, and withal
She rather took than got a fall,
The
wanton ambler chanc'd to see
Part of her legs' sincerity:
And
ravish'd thus, it came to pass,
The nag (like to the prophet's ass)

Began to speak, and would have been
A-telling what rare sights he'd
seen:
And had told all; but