No More Learning

xi. 6.

258. _As my little pot doth boil_, etc. This far-fetched little poem
is an instance of Herrick's habit of jotting down his thoughts in verse.
In cooking some food for a charitable purpose he seems to have noticed
that the boiling pot tossed the meat to and fro, or "waved" it (the
priest's work), and that he himself was giving away the meat he lifted
off the fire, the "heave-offering," which was the priest's perquisite.
This is the confusion or "level-coil" to which he alludes.




NOTES TO ADDITIONAL POEMS.


_The Description of a Woman_. Printed in _Witts Recreations_, 1645, and
contained also in Ashmole MS. 38, where it is signed: "Finis. Robert
Herrick. " Our version is taken from _Witts Recreations_, with the
exception of the readings _show_ and _grow_ (for _shown_ and _grown_, in
ll. 15 and 16). The Ashmole MS.
contains in all thirty additional lines,
which may or may not be by Herrick, but which, as not improving the
poem, have been omitted in our text in accordance with the precedent set
by the editor of _Witts Recreations_.

_Mr. Herrick: his Daughter's Dowry. _ From Ashmole MS. 38, where it is
signed: "Finis. Robt. Hericke. "

_Mr. Robert Herrick: his Farewell unto Poetry. _ Printed by Dr. Grosart
and Mr. Hazlitt from Ashmole MS. 38. I add a few readings from Brit.
Mus. Add.