This quatrain may be taken as evidence that he did
not throw off his religion with his cassock.
not throw off his religion with his cassock.
Robert Herrick
tormenta in Regulo, venenum in Socrate, mortem in Catone.
The allusions may be briefly explained for the unclassical. At the siege
of Dyrrachium, Marcus Cassius Scaeva caught 120 darts on his shield;
Horatius Cocles is the hero of the bridge (see Macaulay's _Lays_); C.
Mucius Scaevola held his hand in the fire to illustrate to Porsenna Roman
fearlessness; Cato is Cato Uticensis, the philosophic suicide; "high
Atilius" will be more easily recognised as the M. Atilius Regulus who
defied the Carthaginians; Fabricius Luscinus refused not only the
presents of Pyrrhus, but all reward of the State, and lived in poverty
on his own farm.
109. _A wood of darts. _ Cp. Virg. _AEn. _ x. 886: Ter secum Troius heros
Immanem aerato circumfert tegmine silvam.
112. _The Recompense. _ Herrick is said to have assumed the lay habit on
his return to London after his ejection, perhaps as a protection against
further persecution.
This quatrain may be taken as evidence that he did
not throw off his religion with his cassock. Compare also 124.
_All I have lost that could be rapt from me. _ From Ovid, III. _Trist. _
vii. 414: Raptaque sint adimi quae potuere mihi.
123. _Thy light that ne'er went out. _ Prov. xxxi. 18 (of 'the Excellent
Woman'): "Her candle goeth not out by night". _All set about with
lilies. _ Cp. _Cant. Canticorum_, vii.
The allusions may be briefly explained for the unclassical. At the siege
of Dyrrachium, Marcus Cassius Scaeva caught 120 darts on his shield;
Horatius Cocles is the hero of the bridge (see Macaulay's _Lays_); C.
Mucius Scaevola held his hand in the fire to illustrate to Porsenna Roman
fearlessness; Cato is Cato Uticensis, the philosophic suicide; "high
Atilius" will be more easily recognised as the M. Atilius Regulus who
defied the Carthaginians; Fabricius Luscinus refused not only the
presents of Pyrrhus, but all reward of the State, and lived in poverty
on his own farm.
109. _A wood of darts. _ Cp. Virg. _AEn. _ x. 886: Ter secum Troius heros
Immanem aerato circumfert tegmine silvam.
112. _The Recompense. _ Herrick is said to have assumed the lay habit on
his return to London after his ejection, perhaps as a protection against
further persecution.
This quatrain may be taken as evidence that he did
not throw off his religion with his cassock. Compare also 124.
_All I have lost that could be rapt from me. _ From Ovid, III. _Trist. _
vii. 414: Raptaque sint adimi quae potuere mihi.
123. _Thy light that ne'er went out. _ Prov. xxxi. 18 (of 'the Excellent
Woman'): "Her candle goeth not out by night". _All set about with
lilies. _ Cp. _Cant. Canticorum_, vii.
