- 159 ##
159. The Cruel Maid. Printed in Witts Recreations, 1650, with no other variant than the mistaken omission of "how" in l. 7. I do not think that it has been yet pointed out that the whole poem is a close imitation of Theocritus, xxiii. 19-47:—
Ἄγριε παῖ καὶ στυγνέ, κ.τ.λ.
Possibly Herrick meant to translate the whole poem, which would explain his initial And. But cp. Ben Jonson's Engl. Gram. ch. viii.: "'And' in the beginning of a sentence serveth instead of an admiration".
- 164 ##
164. To a Gentlewoman objecting to him his gray hairs. Mr. Hazlitt quotes an early MS. copy headed: "An old man to his younge Mrs.". The variants, as he observes, are mostly for the worse. The poem may have been suggested to Herrick by Anacreon, 6 [11]:—
Λέγουσιν αἱ γυναῖκες,
Ἀνακρέων, γέρων εἶ·
λαβὼν ἔσοπτρον ἄθρει
κόμας μὲν οὐκέτ' οὔσας κ.τ.λ.
- 168 ##
168. Jos. Lo. Bishop of Exeter. Joseph Hall, 1574-1656, author of the satires.
- 169 ##
169. The Countess of Carlisle. Lucy, the second wife of James, first Earl of Carlisle, the Lady Carlisle of Browning's Strafford.
- 170 ##
170. I fear no earthly powers. Probably suggested by Anacreon [36], beginning: τί με τοὺς νόμους διδάσκεις; Cp. also 7 [15]: Οὔ μοι μέλει τὰ Γύγεω.
- 172 ##
172. A Ring presented to Julia. Printed without variation in Witts Recreations, 1650, under the title: "With a O to Julia".
