No More Learning

443. _Oberon's Palace. --After the feast (my Shapcott) see. _ See 223,
293, from which it is a pity that this poem should have been divorced.
Of the _Palace_ there are as many as three MS. versions, viz. , Add. 22,
603 (p. 59), and Add. 25, 303 (p. 157), at the British Museum, both of
which I have collated, and Ashmole MS. 38, which I only know through my
predecessors. The three MSS. appear to agree very harmoniously, and they
unite in increasing our knowledge of Herrick by a passage of
twenty-seven lines, following on the words "And here and there and
farther off," and in lieu of the next four and a half lines in
_Hesperides_. They read as follows:--

"Some sort of pear,
Apple or plum, is neatly laid
(As if it was a tribute paid)
By the round urchin; some mixt wheat
The which the ant did taste, not eat;
Deaf nuts, soft Jews'-ears, and some thin
Chippings, the mice filched from the bin
Of the gray farmer, and to these
The scraps of lentils, chitted peas,
Dried honeycombs, brown acorn cups,
Out of the which he sometimes sups
His herby broth, and there close by
Are pucker'd bullace, cankers (?
), dry
Kernels, and withered haws; the rest
Are trinkets fal'n from the kite's nest,
As butter'd bread, the which the wild
Bird snatched away from the crying child,
Blue pins, tags, fesenes, beads and things
Of higher price, as half-jet rings,
Ribbons and then some silken shreaks
The virgins lost at barley-breaks.
Many a purse-string, many a thread
Of gold and silver therein spread,
_Many a counter, many a die,
Half rotten and without an eye,
Lies here about_, and, as we guess,
Some bits of thimbles seem to dress
The brave cheap work; _and for to pave
The excellency of this cave,
Squirrels and children's teeth late shed_,
Serve here, both which _enchequered_
With castors' doucets, which poor they
Bite off themselves to 'scape away:
Brown _toadstones_, ferrets' eyes, _the gum
That shines_," etc.

The italicised words in the last few lines appear in _Hesperides_; all
the rest are new. Other variants are: "The grass of Lemster ore soberly
sparkling" for "the finest Lemster ore mildly disparkling"; "girdle" for
"ceston"; "The eyes of all doth strait bewitch" for "All with temptation
doth bewitch"; "choicely hung" for "neatly hung"; "silver roach" for
"silvery fish"; "cave" for "room"; "get reflection" for "make
reflected"; "Candlemas" for "taper-light"; "moon-tane" for
"moon-tanned," etc. , etc.

_Kings though they're hated. _ The "Oderint dum metuant" of the _Atreus_
of Accius, quoted by Cicero and Seneca.

446. _To Oenone. _ Printed in _Witts Recreations_, 1650, under the
title: "The Farewell to Love and to his Mistress," and with the unlucky
misprint "court" for "covet" (also "for" for "but") in the stanza iii.
l. i.

447. _Grief breaks the stoutest heart. _ Frangit fortia corda dolor.
Tibull.