Page:Hesperides Vol 1.djvu/28

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xx
HESPERIDES.

to vanish.[1] His verses to the Earl of Pem broke, to Endymion Porter and to others, show that he was glad of " pay " as well as " praise," but the system of patronage brought no dis credit with it, and though the absence of any poetical mention of his uncle suggests that the rich goldsmith was not well-pleased with his nephew, with the rest of his well-to-do relations Herrick seems to have remained on excellent terms.

Besides patrons, such as Pembroke, West moreland, Newark, Buckingham, Herrick had less distinguished friends at Court, Edward Norgate, Jack Crofts and others. He com posed the words for two New Year anthems which were set to music by Henry Lawes, and he was probably personally known both to the King and Queen. Outside the Court he reckoned himself one of Ben Jonson's dis ciples, " Sons of Ben " as they were called, had friends at the Inns of Court, knew the organist of Westminster Abbey and his pretty daughters, and had every temptation to live an amusing and expensive life. His poems were handed about in manuscript after the fashion

  1. Yet in his Farewell to Poetry he distinctly says : " I've more to bear my charge than way to go " ; the line, however, is a translation from his favourite Seneca, Ep. 77.