good for his verse; but if the reference be only to his sacred poems or Noble Numbers these would rather prove the opposite.
52. O earth, earth, earth, hear thou my voice. Jerem. xxii. 29: O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord.
56. Love give me more such nights as these. A reminiscence of Marlowe's version of Ovid, Amor. I. v. 26: "Jove send me more such afternoons as this".
72. Upon his Sister-in-law, Mistress Elizabeth Herrick, wife to his brother Thomas (see infra, 106).
74. Love makes me write what shame forbids to speak. Ovid, Phædra to Hippol.: Dicere quæ puduit scribere jussit amor.
Give me a kiss. Herrick is here imitating the well-known lines of Catullus to Lesbia (Carm. v.):—
Dein mille altera, dein secunda centum,
Deinde usque altera mille, deinde centum,
Dein, cum millia multa fecerimus,
Conturbabimus illa, ne sciamus, etc.
77. To the King, upon his coming with his army into the west. Essex had marched into the west in June, 1644, relieved Lyme, and captured royal fortresses in Dorset and Devon. Charles followed him into "the drooping west," and, in September, the Parliamentary infantry were forced to surrender, while Essex himself escaped by sea. Herrick's "white omens" were thus fulfilled.
79. To the King and Queen upon their unhappy
