NOTE Τ HE text of the "Hesperides" is comparatively free from those problems which delight the heart of the commentator. Nevertheless, the commentator has been diligent with his notes. He has found ample field for his industry in tracing Herrick's innumerable borrowings from Greek and Latin authors, and in materializing the various shadowy persons to whom the poet addressed many of his verses. In the present volume the annotation is restricted to brief definitions of such obsolete words and phrases as seem to demand explaining, and are not to be found in ordinary dictionaries and handbooks. The compiler of the glossary here records his indebtedness to the several editors of Herrick's complete works. The text generally followed in the poems is that of Mr. Pollard's admirable edition (1891) the text that must necessarily be adopted, in the main, by all future editors of Herrick. INTRODUCTION A LITTLE over three hundred years ago England had given to her a poet of the very rarest lyrical quality, but she did not discover the fact for more than a hundred and fifty years afterward. The poet himself was aware of the fact at once, and stated it, perhaps not too modestly, in countless quatrains and couplets, which were not read, or, if read, were not much regarded at the moment. It has always been an incredulous world in this matter. So many poets have announced their arrival, and not arrived! Robert Herrick was descended in a direct line from an ancient family in Lincolnshire, the Eyricks, a mentionable representative of which was John Eyrick of Leicester, the poet's grandfather, admitted freeman in 1535, and afterward twice made mayor of the town. John Eyrick, or Heyricke-he spelled his name recklessly-had five sons, the second of which sought a career in London, where he became a goldsmith, and in December, 1582, married Julian Stone, spin ster, of Bedfordshire, a sister to Anne, Lady Soame, the wife of Sir Stephen Soame. One of the many children of this marriage was Robert Herrick. It is the common misfortune of the poet's biographers, though it was the poet's own great good fortune, that the personal interviewer was an unknown quantity at the period when Herrick played his part on the stage of life. Of that performance, in its intimate aspects, we have only the slightest record. Robert Herrick was born in Wood Street, Cheapside, London, in 1591, and baptized at St. Vedast's, Foster Lane, on August 24 of that year. He had several brothers and sisters, with whom we shall not concern ourselves. It would be idle to add the little we know about these persons to the little we know about Herrick himself. He is a sufficient problem without dragging in the rest of the family. When the future lyrist was fifteen months old, his father, Nicholas Herrick, made his will, and immediately fell out of an upper window. Whether or not this fall was an intended sequence to the will the high almoner, Dr. Fletcher, Bishop of Bristol, promptly put in his claim to the estate, "all |