or an ascendent_, etc.: This and the next seven lines are taken from
phrases on pp. 29-33 of the _Notes and Observations on some passages of
Scripture_, by John Gregory (see note on N. N. 178). According to
Gregory, "The Ascendent of a City is that sign which riseth in the
Heavens at the laying of the first stone".

962. _Henry, Marquis of Dorchester._ Henry Pierrepoint, second Earl of
Kingston, succeeded his father (Herrick's Newark) July 30, 1643, and was
created Marquis of Dorchester, March, 1645. "He was a very studious
nobleman and very learned, particularly in law and physics." (See
Burke's _Extinct Peerages_, iii. 435.)

_When Cato, the severe, entered the circumspacious theatre._ The
allusion is to the visit of Cato to the games of Flora, given by
Messius. When his presence in the theatre was known, the dancing-women
were not allowed to perform in their accustomed lack of costume,
whereupon the moralist obligingly retired, amidst applause.

966. _M. Jo. Harmar, physician to the College of Westminster._ John
Harmar, born at Churchdown, near Gloucester, about 1594, was educated at
Winchester and Magdalen College, Oxford; was a master at Magdalen
School, the Free School at St. Albans, and at Westminster, and Professor
of Greek at Oxford under the Commonwealth. He died 1670. Wood
characterises him as a butt for the wits and a flatterer of great men,
and notes that he was always called by the name of Doctor Harmar, though
he took no higher degree than M.A. But in 1632 he supplicated for the
degree of M.B., and Dr. Grosart's note--"Herrick, no doubt, playfully
transmuted 'Doctor' into 'Physician'"--is misleading. He may have cared
for the minds and bodies of the Westminster boys at one and the same
time.

_The Roman language.... If Jove would speak_, etc. Cp. Ben Jonson's
_Discoveries_: "that testimony given by L. Aelius Stilo upon Plautus who
affirmed, "Musas si latine loqui voluissent Plautino sermone fuisse
loquuturas". And Cicero [in Plutarch, Sec. 24] "said of the Dialogues of
Plato, that Jupiter, if it were his nature to use language, would speak
like him".

967. _Upon his spaniel, Tracy._ Cp. _supra_, 724.

971. _Strength_, etc. Tacitus, _Ann._ xiii. 19: Nihil rerum mortalium
tam instabile ac fluxum est, quam fama potentiae, non sua vi nixa.

975. _Case is a lawyer_, etc. Martial, I. xcviii. Ad Naevolum
Causidicum. Cum clamant omnes, loqueris tu, Naevole, tantum.... Ecce,
tacent omnes; Naevole, dic aliq