_The farting Tanner and
familiar
King.
Robert Herrick
_Sir Edward Fish, Knight Baronet_, of Chertsey, in Surrey.
Died
1658.
405. _Nor fear or spice or fish. _ Herrick is remembering Persius, i. 43:
Nec scombros metuentia carmina, nec thus. To form the paper jacket or
_tunica_ which wrapt the mackerel in Roman cookery seems to have been
the ultimate employment of many poems. Cp. Mart. III. l. 9; IV. lxxxvii.
8; and Catullus, XCV. 8.
_The farting Tanner and familiar King. _ The ballad here alluded to is
that of _King Edward IV. and the tanner of Tamworth_, printed in Prof.
Child's collection. "The dancing friar tattered in the bush" of the next
line is one of the heroes of the old ballad of _The Fryar and the Boye_,
printed by Wynkyn de Worde, and included in the Appendix to Furnivall
and Hales' edition of the Percy folio. The boy was the possessor of a
"magic flute," and, having got the friar into a bush, made him dance
there.
"Jack, as he piped, laughed among,
The Friar with briars was vilely stung,
He hopped wondrous high.
At last the Friar held up his hand
And said: I can no longer stand,
Oh! I shall dancing die. "
"Those monstrous lies of little Robin Rush" is explained by Dr. Grosart
as an allusion to "The Historie of Friar Rush, how he came to a House of
Religion to seek a Service, and being entertained by the Prior was made
First Cook, being full of pleasant Mirth and Delight for young people".
Of "Tom Chipperfield and pretty lisping Ned" I can find nothing. "The
flying Pilchard and the frisking Dace" probably belong to the fish
monsters alluded to in the _Tempest_. In "Tim Trundell" Herrick seems
for the sake of alliteration to have taken a liberty with the Christian
name of a well-known ballad publisher.
_He's greedy of his life. _ From Seneca, _Thyestes_, 884-85:--
Vitae est avidus quisquis non vult
Mundo secum pereunte mori.
1658.
405. _Nor fear or spice or fish. _ Herrick is remembering Persius, i. 43:
Nec scombros metuentia carmina, nec thus. To form the paper jacket or
_tunica_ which wrapt the mackerel in Roman cookery seems to have been
the ultimate employment of many poems. Cp. Mart. III. l. 9; IV. lxxxvii.
8; and Catullus, XCV. 8.
_The farting Tanner and familiar King. _ The ballad here alluded to is
that of _King Edward IV. and the tanner of Tamworth_, printed in Prof.
Child's collection. "The dancing friar tattered in the bush" of the next
line is one of the heroes of the old ballad of _The Fryar and the Boye_,
printed by Wynkyn de Worde, and included in the Appendix to Furnivall
and Hales' edition of the Percy folio. The boy was the possessor of a
"magic flute," and, having got the friar into a bush, made him dance
there.
"Jack, as he piped, laughed among,
The Friar with briars was vilely stung,
He hopped wondrous high.
At last the Friar held up his hand
And said: I can no longer stand,
Oh! I shall dancing die. "
"Those monstrous lies of little Robin Rush" is explained by Dr. Grosart
as an allusion to "The Historie of Friar Rush, how he came to a House of
Religion to seek a Service, and being entertained by the Prior was made
First Cook, being full of pleasant Mirth and Delight for young people".
Of "Tom Chipperfield and pretty lisping Ned" I can find nothing. "The
flying Pilchard and the frisking Dace" probably belong to the fish
monsters alluded to in the _Tempest_. In "Tim Trundell" Herrick seems
for the sake of alliteration to have taken a liberty with the Christian
name of a well-known ballad publisher.
_He's greedy of his life. _ From Seneca, _Thyestes_, 884-85:--
Vitae est avidus quisquis non vult
Mundo secum pereunte mori.
