The date 1640 on the
title-page may have caught his eye and led to his
mistaken
allusion to
the "prior publication" of the Herrick poems in 1640, whereas
_Hesperides_ was published in 1648, and the editions of _Witts
Recreations_ which contain anything of his besides the _Description of a
Woman_ and _A Farewell to Sack_, in 1650, 1654, etc.
Robert Herrick
Of Epigrams, 700:
Epitaphs, 200: Fancies, a number: Fantasticks, abundance. With their
Addition, Multiplication, and Division. _London, Printed by M.
Simmons_," etc. In this edition many of the Epigrams are omitted and
more than one hundred fresh ones added. Additions are also made to the
Epitaphs and Fancies and Fantasticks. Of the new Epigrams and Poems no
less than seventy-two had been printed two years earlier in Herrick's
_Hesperides_, and ten others were added in 1654 from the same source.
_Witts Recreations_ was again reprinted in 1663, 1667, and perhaps
oftener. In 1817 it was issued as vol. ii. of a collection of _Facetiae_,
of which Mennis and Smith's _Musarum Deliciae_ and _Wit Restor'd_ formed
vol. i. On the title-page _Witts Recreations_ is said to be printed from
edition 1640, with all the wood engravings and improvements of
subsequent editions, and in the preface it is explained to be "reprinted
after a collation of the four editions, 1640, 41, 54, and 63, for the
purpose of bringing together in one body all the various articles spread
throughout, and not to be found in any one edition". This 1817 reprint
was re-issued by Hotten in 1874, and this re-issue, as his references to
pagination show, was the one used by Dr. Grosart.
The date 1640 on the
title-page may have caught his eye and led to his
mistaken
allusion to
the "prior publication" of the Herrick poems in 1640, whereas
_Hesperides_ was published in 1648, and the editions of _Witts
Recreations_ which contain anything of his besides the _Description of a
Woman_ and _A Farewell to Sack_, in 1650, 1654, etc.
In the Notes to the present edition I have drawn attention to all
variations in the text of the poems as printed by Herrick and the later
editors, and now subjoin a complete list of the poems under the titles
which they take in _Witts Recreations_, with their numbers in this
edition.
1645 Edition.
128. A Farewell to Sack.
[Not in _Hesp._] The Description of a Woman.
1650 Edition Adds:--
123. A Tear sent to his M^is.
159. The Cruel Maid.
162. His Misery.
172. With a Ring to Julia.
200.
