Dum Fata sinunt,
Vivite laeti:
properat
cursu
Vita citato, volucrique die
Rota praecipitis vertitur anni.
Robert Herrick
The poem must
therefore have been written after 1645, _i.e._, more than twenty years
after the death of Duke Lodowick. But the duke then living was James,
who succeeded his father Esme in 1624, was recreated Duke of Richmond in
1641, and did not die till 1655. It is true that there was a brother
named Lodovic, but he was an abbot in France and never succeeded to the
title. Herrick, therefore, seems to have blundered in the Christian
name.
453. _Let's live in haste._ From Martial, VII. xlvii. 11, 12:--
Vive velut rapto: fugitivaque gaudia carpe:
Perdiderit nullum vita reversa diem.
457. _While Fates permit._ From Seneca, _Herc. Fur.
_ 177:--
Dum Fata sinunt,
Vivite laeti:
properat
cursu
Vita citato, volucrique die
Rota praecipitis vertitur anni.
459. _With Horace_ (IV. _Od._ ix. 29):--
Paulum sepultae distat inertiae
Celata virtus.
465. _The parting Verse or charge to his Supposed Wife when he
travelled._ MS. variants of this poem are found at the British Museum in
Add. 22, 603, and in Ashmole MS. 38. Their title, "Mr. Herrick's charge
to his wife," led Mr. Payne Collier to rashly identify with the poet a
certain Robert Herrick married at St. Clement Danes, 1632, to a Jane
Gibbons.
