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 OBERT HERRICK 
 
 A BIOGRAPHICAL AND 
 CRITICAL STUDY 
 
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ROBERT HERRICK 
 
 A BIOGRAPHICAL 
 & CRITICAL STUDY 
 

ROBERT HERRICK 
 
 A BIOGRAPHICAL & CRITICAL STUDY 
 BY F. W. MOORMAN, B.A., PH.D. Sfi 
 ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH 
 LITERATURE IN THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF LEEDS, WITH NINE FULL-PAGE 
 ILLUSTRATIONS INCLUDING A 
 FRONTISPIECE IN PHOTOGRAVURE 
 
 LONDON JOHN LANE THE BODLEY HEAD 
 NEW YORK JOHN LANE COMPANY MCMX 
 
Turnbidl ^ Spears, Printers, Edinburgh 
 
TO 
 MY WIFE 
 
PREFACE 
 
 THE charm of Herrick's personality, 
 quite apart from his high standing as 
 a lyric poet, calls for a biography. 
 Thirty-four years have passed since 
 there appeared, almost simultaneously, Mr 
 Edmund Gosse's brilliant essay on the poet in 
 the Cornhill Magazine, and Dr Grosart's edition 
 of the Hesperides, with its scholarly Memorial- 
 Introduction. The many editions of Herrick's 
 poems which have since been published furnish 
 abundant evidence of the fact that the poet's faith 
 in the immortality of his verses was no idle dream. 
 Some of his editors — in particular, Mr W. C. 
 Hazlitt and Mr A. W. Pollard — have thrown 
 fresh light upon his career and his scholarship, 
 and I gladly avail myself of this opportunity of 
 acknowledging the help which I have received 
 from their labours. An examination of State 
 Papers in the Record Office, and of the letters 
 and account-books of the poet's uncle, Sir 
 William Herrick, at Beaumanor, has not been 
 
 altogether fruitless, but the story which is told 
 
 vii 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 in the following pages owes most of all to the 
 record — often, it is true, tangled and inconclusive 
 — which is set forth by Herrick himself in his 
 verses. He is the most ingenuous and self- 
 revealing of poets ; and though the order in 
 which the poems are placed in the first edition 
 of Hesperides is anything but chronological, it 
 is not difficult to trace him in his progress 
 through life, and to see the working of his 
 mind. 
 
 I have followed Dr Grosart in detaching the 
 story of the poet's life from the criticism of his 
 verses. The place which the Hesperides poems 
 occupy in the history of the English lyric is a 
 peculiarly interesting one, and this must be my 
 excuse for the length of the first chapter in Part 
 II., in which I have attempted to review briefly 
 the development of the lyric of the English 
 Renaissance down to the time of Herrick. 
 
 In conclusion, I desire to offer sincere thanks 
 to all who have helped me in my work. Among 
 these I may mention, in particular, Mrs Perry 
 Herrick, who kindly allowed me to examine the 
 Herrick papers at Beaumanor, the Rev. C. J. 
 Perry- Keene, vicar of Dean Prior, and Sir Walter 
 S. Prideaux, the clerk of the Goldsmiths' Company, 
 who generously undertook to examine, on my 
 behalf, some of the company's records at Gold- 
 
 Vlll 
 
I 
 
 Preface 
 
 smiths' Hall, and who has allowed me to repro- 
 duce, from his " Memorials of the Goldsmiths' 
 Company," the engraving of Goldsmiths' Row, 
 Cheapside. My thanks are also due to the 
 Rev. Canon Egerton Leigh, who allowed me to 
 copy a hitherto unpublished letter of the poet 
 which is in his possession. Finally, I acknow- 
 ledge with special gratitude my debt to Mr 
 A. H. Bullen, and to my friend and colleague, 
 Professor Charles Vaughan, both of whom 
 rendered me conspicuous service by reading the 
 following pages in manuscript : the book has 
 gained much by their searching criticism and 
 wise suggestions. 
 
 F. W. MOORMAN. 
 
 The University of Leeds, 
 February 1910. 
 
 IX 
 

 CONTENTS 
 
 PART I— THE LIFE 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 sEarly Years 
 
 PAGE 
 
 vii 
 
 CHAPTER n 
 At Cambridge . . . .28 
 
 CHAPTER HI 
 "Sealed of the Tribe of Ben" . . -55 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 Dean Prior ...... 92 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 Last Years . . . . . .134 
 
 PART II— THE WORKS 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 [E Lyric of the English Renaissance . • ^55 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 The Lyrical Poems of the Hesperides . . 204 
 
 xi 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 PAGE 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 The Non-Lyrical Poems of the Hesperides . 265 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 The Noble Numbers . . . .298 
 
 Appendix I. (Herrick's Indenture of Apprentice- 
 ship) ...... 331 
 
 Appendix II. The Dirge of Eric Bloodaxe . 333 
 Index . . . . . -337 
 
 Xll 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 1. Robert Herrick (from Marshall's First Edition 
 
 oi Hesperides) .... Frontispiece 
 
 To face page 
 
 2. Goldsmiths' Row, Cheapside . . .28 
 
 3. Second Court, St John's College, Cambridge 56 
 
 4. The Library, Trinity Hall, Cambridge . 92 
 
 5. Facsimile of one of Herrick's Letters . 134 
 
 6. Dean Court, The Hall . . .156 
 
 7. Dean Prior Church .... 204 
 
 8. Dean Burn ..... 266 
 
 9. Title-Page to First Edition of Hesperides . 298 
 
 xiu 
 
PART I 
 
 THE LIFE 
 
CHAPTER I 
 
 EARLY YEARS 
 
 SIR WALTER SCOTT, writing of 
 Swift's mother in his memoir of the 
 Dean of St Patrick's, declares that her 
 '* ancient genealogy was her principal 
 dowry." The lady in question was Abigail 
 Ericke, descended from one of the branches 
 of the Leicestershire family of Erickes, Hey- 
 ricks or Herricks, to which also belonged the 
 author of the Hesperides, The family tradition 
 iHpf the Herricks is that they owe their origin to 
 a certain Eric the Forester, who raised an army 
 to oppose William the Conqueror, and who, 
 being defeated, was employed as a commander 
 n the Conqueror's army. In his old age this Eric 
 is said to have retired to his home in Leicester- 
 shire — the county with which the Herricks have 
 ever since been closely associated.^ 
 
 This tradition, unlike many such family tradi- 
 tions, does not seem to err through ambition, 
 prhe probability is, indeed, that the Herricks are 
 
 ^ See Deane Swift, Essay on the Life of Dr fonathan Swift, 
 Appendix, p. 37, and Nichols' History of the County of Leicester, 
 vol. ii. p. 579. 
 
 3 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 of royal descent. The name Herrick, the spell- 
 ing of which with the initial aspirate was not 
 common until late in the sixteenth century, and, 
 as we see from the name of Swift's mother, was 
 not even then adopted by all the branches of 
 the family, is undoubtedly Scandinavian in origin. 
 Under the forms Eirikr and Eirekr it appears 
 as the name of at least one Swedish and one 
 Danish king, and it is found in English history 
 as early as the middle of the tenth century. The 
 first English Eric of whom historic legend tells 
 was the famous Viking, Eric Blood-axe — Eirekr 
 Blodax — of whom Norse saga and English 
 chronicle have much to relate. He was the son 
 of the Norwegian king, Harold Fairhair, and 
 was born in Norway early in the tenth century. 
 Driven from his home by his kinsfolk, he settled 
 among the Anglian and Danish peoples of 
 Northumbria, who, in the year 952, at a time 
 of revolution, made him their king. For two 
 years he reigned at York, and then was driven 
 from his throne, and afterwards slain by Anlaf, 
 an under-king of Eadred of Wessex. This Eric 
 Blood-axe, by virtue of his deeds of daring and his 
 adventurous career, appealed to the imagination 
 of the gleemen, and in his honour was written the 
 famous Eiriks-Mal or Dirge of Eric, the earliest 
 of all Scandinavian Valhalla-songs.^ There was, 
 too, another Eric — Eric Hakonsson — who 
 
 ^ See Appendix II. 
 4 
 
P-: 
 
 Early Years 
 
 occupies a distinguished place in Dano-English 
 history, and is celebrated in song no less than 
 Eric Blood-axe. This was the Eric who married 
 the daughter of King Sveinn, and joined with 
 that king in the Danish conquest of Wessex. 
 He lived into the reign of Cnut, by whom he 
 was made Earl of Northumberland, and as **Dux 
 Ericus " his name is found in old English charters 
 down to the year 1023.^ 
 
 Under the stern rule of William the Conqueror 
 the Erics, as the family tradition already referred 
 to relates, found it prudent to retire to their 
 Leicestershire estates, within the old Danelaw, 
 where we find them leading a peaceful, law- 
 abiding existence in the centuries which follow. 
 There is still extant a letter sent by Henry III. 
 to a certain Ivo de Herric, and more than a 
 century later we hear of another Ivo de Herric, 
 or Eyrick, who was living at Great Stretton in 
 Leicestershire. The first of these two Ivos may 
 be the Eyrick of Stretton, ^emp. Henry HL, 
 o whom the Herrick pedigrees refer, and from 
 whom was descended Sir William Eyrick, the 
 progenitor of the Houghton branch of the family, 
 to which the author of the Hesperides belonged. 
 Another member of the family was Robert 
 Eyrick, who was the first Master of Trinity 
 Hall, Cambridge, and died Bishop of Lichfield 
 in 1385. 
 
 ^ See Corpus Boreale^ ii. 98. 
 5 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 At Houghton, a village six miles from Leicester, 
 the descendants of Sir William Eyrick increased 
 in number till the ancestral home was unable to 
 contain them all ; and one of the family, Thomas 
 Ericke, gentleman, accordingly migrated to the 
 neighbouring town of Leicester, about the end of 
 the fifteenth century. His name appears on the 
 Corporation Books of Leicester in 151 1, and he 
 was the first of the line of Herricks to be intimately 
 connected with the civic life of the county-town. 
 This Thomas Ericke was the great-grandfather 
 of the poet. His son John, who married Mary 
 Bond, the daughter of a Warwickshire gentle- 
 man, remained at Leicester, of which town he was 
 twice the Mayor, and brought up a family of five 
 sons and seven daughters. And now once again 
 the growth of the family called for a fresh migra- 
 tion. Just as the Leicestershire village was found 
 too small to provide sustenance for the numerous 
 members of the Herrick family of an earlier 
 generation, so now the county-town could not 
 support the twelve children of John and Mary 
 Eyrick. The eldest son, Robert, remained at 
 home, built up a considerable fortune as an 
 ironmonger, was three times elected Mayor, and 
 represented the borough in Parliament. The 
 second son, Nicholas, the poet's father, decided 
 to seek his fortune elsewhere. In, or before, the 
 year 1556 he was apprenticed to a goldsmith in 
 Cheapside, London, and on the expiration of his 
 
Early Years 
 
 apprenticeship, started business on his own 
 account in the same locality. 
 
 Thanks to the preservation at Beaumanor 
 Park, Leicestershire, of a number of papers 
 bearing on the Herrick family, we are able to 
 gather a good deal of information concerning 
 the poet's father. Among these papers are 
 certain letters written to him by his father in 
 Leicester, and extending from April i6, 1556, 
 to August 28, 1584. They represent the Cheap- 
 side goldsmith as an excellent son, doing all in 
 his power to provide for his brothers and sisters. 
 Some time between 1556 and 1575 his eldest 
 sister, Ursula, had followed him to London, and 
 had found a husband there. Another sister, 
 Mary, had also joined the London household, 
 and in 1575 was keeping house for her brother. 
 
 PSome years later she married Sir John Bennett, 
 and in 1603 ^^^^ i^ state to the Guildhall as 
 Lady Mayoress. In providing for his sisters, 
 Nicholas Herrick was not forgetful of his 
 brothers. About the year 1574 his youngest 
 brother, William, of whom we shall hear more 
 presently, was sent to London to'fenter Nicholas's 
 house and business. After 1575 there are several 
 letters to prentice William from his father and 
 mother, while from the last of John Eyrick's 
 letters, dated August 28, 1584, we learn that yet 
 another brother, John, had come up to London 
 and received help from Nicholas. 
 
 7 
 
 I 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 In 1582 Nicholas Herrick ^ married Julian 
 or Juliana Stone, daughter of William Stone 
 of London, gentleman. In the Allegations 
 for Marriage Licences, issued by the Bishop 
 of London,^ there is the following entry : 
 *' December 8, 1582, Nicholas Herycke, Gold- 
 smith, and Juliana Stone, Spinster, of City of 
 London ; at St Leonard's, Bromley, Middlesex." 
 Of the poet's mother not very much is known, 
 and her son refers to her only once in the 
 Hesperides. Like her husband, she came of a 
 good family. The Stones sprang originally from 
 Worcestershire, but the branch of the family to 
 which the poet's mother belonged had been 
 settled for some generations in London. Her 
 father is spoken of in the Visitations of London 
 as William Stone of London, gentleman, and in an- 
 other place as William Stoneof Seyno(Segenhoe), 
 in the county of Bedford. Certain complimentary 
 poems among the Hesperides show that their 
 author stood on very friendly terms with various 
 members of his mother's family. Anne Stone, a 
 sister of Juliana, was the wife of Sir Stephen Soame, 
 a member of a still more prominent London family 
 of the time ; and another sister, who gave shelter 
 to Juliana Herrick and her children after Nicholas 
 
 ^ Contrary to his father's custom, he usually spells his name 
 with the initial aspirate — perhaps in deference to cockney 
 pronunciation. 
 
 2 Edited by G. J. Armytage (Harleian Society Publications, 
 
 vol. XXV.). 
 
 8 
 
Early Years 
 
 Herrick's death, married Henry Campion, a 
 member of another family of some distinction in 
 the city of London and the county of Kent. 
 
 The members of the Herrick family in London 
 were doubtless present at Nicholas's wedding, but 
 age and infirmities prevented old John and Mary 
 Eyrick from making the journey from Leicester 
 in the inclement month of December. John 
 Eyrick's letter to his son on this occasion has 
 been preserved, and deserves inclusion here : — 
 
 " Sonne Nicholas Eyrick ; your mother and I 
 have us commended unto your bedfellowe and 
 you ; for I trust now that ye be a married man ; 
 for I hard by your brother Stanford that youe 
 weir appointed to marry on Monday the tenth of 
 December ; and if youe be maryed, we pray God 
 I^Kto sende youe bothe muche joye and comfort 
 '™ together, and to all hir friends and yours. I 
 pray you have us commended to your wive's 
 parents and frends not as yet knowne or ac- 
 quaynted with us ; but I trust hereafter we shall, 
 if God send us lyffe togethar. We wysshe our- 
 selffs that we had bene with youe at your 
 weddyng ; but the tyme of the year is so, that it 
 hade bene paineful for your moder and me to 
 have ridden suche a jornay : the dais being 
 so short, and way so foule, cheffeley being so 
 olde and onweldy as we be both ; and specyally 
 your mother hath such paine in one of her kne- 
 bones that she cannot goe many tyms about the 
 
 9 
 
 I 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 hows without a staff in her hand ; and I myselffe 
 have had for the spase of allmost of this halffe 
 yeare mych paine of my right sholder that I 
 cannot get on my gowne without help. Age 
 bringeth infyrmytes with it ; God hath so 
 ordayned. ... I trust we shall see your wiffe 
 and you at Leicester this next summer to make 
 mery with us, and lykewise your brother Haws 
 and his wiffe, your brother H olden and his wiffe, 
 with some other of your frends. Your mother 
 and I doe gyve harty thanks for your good 
 tokyns youe sente to us of late, and for all your 
 other good tokyns youe have sent us ; and we be 
 sorry that you have benne at such charge, and 
 we to send you but seldom anny thing that good 
 is, and sometyme marr'd in the carredge. 
 
 ** Your mother and I have sent your wiffe and 
 youe, to make mery withall in Christmas, two 
 sholdir of brawne and two ronds, and one rond 
 for your brother and sister Haws, and one rond 
 for your brother H olden and his wiffe, and one 
 rond to Thomas Chapman agenst the great 
 condyth in Chepe. Every body's pesse hath 
 their names written on them. . . . My wiffe hath 
 sent to your sistar Mary three yards of cloth to 
 make hir a smock. Thus I bid you hartely 
 farwell. At Leicester, on Sonday morning, 
 being the xv day of December, 1582. By your 
 loving father to his power, John Eyrick." ^ 
 
 * From Nichols' History of the County of Leicester^ vol. ii. pp. 622-3. 
 
 10 
 
Early Years 
 
 Other letters from Leicester follow, and 
 inform us that William and Mary Herrick 
 continued to live with their brother after his 
 marriage, and that Nicholas prospered in 
 business, but suffered much from ague. 
 
 Nicholas Herrick's church was St Vedast's in 
 Foster Lane, the register of which escaped the 
 great fire, and contains the entries of his 
 children's births. From it we learn that three 
 sons, William, Thomas, and Nicholas, and two 
 daughters, Martha and Anne, were born between 
 1585 and 1590, and then comes the following 
 entry : '' Roberte Herricke, sonne to Nicholas 
 Herricke, was baptized the xxiiii*^ day of 
 Auguste, 1 59 1." 
 
 It is not without significance that, in respect 
 of the time at which he was born, Herrick stands 
 midway between the early school of English 
 lyrists — represented by Peele (born 1558?), 
 Lodge (1558?), Greene (1560?), Shakespeare 
 (1564), Campion (1567), Jonson (1573), Donne 
 {1573), Barnfield(i574), and John Fletcher (1579) 
 — and the later school of Caroline lyrists, of which 
 Carew(i598?), Crashaw (161 3), Lovelace (1618), 
 and Vaughan (1622) are the most distinguished 
 members. Nearest to him of English poets 
 stand Quarles (1592), George Herbert (1593), 
 and Shirley (1596). 
 
 The place of the poet's birth can be determined 
 fairly exactly. One of the letters of Mary Eyrick 
 
 II 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 of Leicester, the poet's grandmother, to her son 
 William bears the following endorsement: "To 
 her lovynge sonne William Heryck in London, 
 dwelling with Nicholas Heryck in Cheip, give 
 theis." Another letter from the same source 
 indicates the birth-place still more exactly : it is 
 directed to ** M*" William Heireyck, at the Rowes 
 in the Goulsmeth Rowe in Cheap." From this we 
 gather that the poet was born in Goldsmiths' Row, 
 Cheapside, in the heart of the city, and in close 
 proximity to that house in Bread Street where, 
 seventeen years later, Milton first saw the light. 
 
 The first year of the poet's life was spent in 
 the business-house in Cheapside, but scarcely had 
 he entered on his second year when a dark 
 tragedy fell upon the family. Early in the 
 November of 1592, Nicholas Herrick, the 
 prosperous goldsmith, fell from an upper window 
 in his Cheapside house and sustained injuries 
 which proved fatal. On November 7 he made 
 his will, and three days later he was buried in the 
 church of St Vedast's. 
 
 For the widow and the orphaned children this 
 was sad enough, but the circumstances of his 
 death made it sadder. Suspicions were aroused 
 that the fall was intentional, and in accordance 
 with the laws of the time, the case was investi- 
 gated by the Queen's High Almoner, Dr Richard 
 Fletcher, Bishop of Bristol, the father of the 
 
 dramatist and uncle of Giles and Phineas Fletcher. 
 
 12 
 
I 
 
 i 
 
 Early Years 
 
 The Draconian severity of the law was such 
 that, if a person was found guilty of suicide, his 
 property reverted to the Crown. The statement 
 of the case, as made out by the High Almoner, 
 reads as follows : — 
 
 ** And where one Nich'as Herrick late citezeine 
 and Goldsmythe of London about the Nyneth 
 daye of this instant moneth of November (as is 
 supposed) did throwe himself forthe of a garret 
 window in London aforesaide whereby he did 
 kill and destroye himself. By reason whereof all 
 such goodes chattells and debtes as were the said 
 Nich'as Herrickes at the tyme of his deathe or 
 ought any waies to apperteyne or belonge vnto 
 him do nowe belonge apperteyne and are forfeyted 
 vnto o"" said sou'aigne Lady the queue by force 
 of her P'rogatyve royall and nowe are in the only 
 order and disposicon of me the saide bushopp 
 Almoner in augmentacon of her moste gracious 
 almes by force and vertue of the said I'res patentes 
 to me made and graunted as aforesaide (if the 
 saide Nich'as Herrick be or shalbe founde felon 
 of himselfe)." ^ 
 
 It would be hard to exaggerate the terrible 
 plight in which the widow, Julian Herrick, was 
 placed during these dark days of November, 
 1592. The mother of five children, and of a 
 sixth not yet born, she had lost her husband 
 
 ^ Miscellanea Genealogica et Heraldica^ ed. J. J. Howard, 
 Second Series, vol. i. p. 41. 
 
 13 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 under peculiarly distressing circumstances, and 
 was now threatened with the forfeiture of all his 
 hard-won possessions. Fortunately she was 
 surrounded by influential relations, both on her 
 own and her husband's side, and we may well 
 believe that it was owing largely to their in- 
 strumentality that, before the month was out, the 
 Bishop of Bristol gave up all claim to the dead 
 man's goods. 
 
 Nicholas Herrick could have been little more 
 than a name to his gifted son, but the poet does 
 honour to his memory in the poem entitled To 
 the Reverend Shade of his Religious Father^ 
 written about 1627 ; in it he craves his father's 
 forgiveness for neglecting for so long to pay 
 a visit to his tomb. His excuse is that he did 
 not know where his bones had been interred — 
 
 Forgive, forgive me, since I did not know 
 Whether thy bones had here their rest or no. 
 
 In his will Nicholas Herrick estimated his 
 property at the value of ;^3000, and bequeathed 
 one-third of this sum to his *' loveinge wife Julian," 
 and the other two-thirds in equal shares to his six 
 children. His two sons, Thomas and Nicholas, and 
 his brothers, Robert and William, were appointed 
 executors. Papers preserved at Beaumanor show 
 that the value of Nicholas Herrick' s estate was 
 
 * Hesperides^ ed. Pollard, No. 82. 
 14 
 
m 
 
 t 
 
 Early Years 
 
 not ^3000 but ^5068, and also that, in addition 
 to this, two London^ merchants, Edmund Pyggott 
 and Richard Coxe, were in possession of a con- 
 siderable sum of money — probably the proceeds 
 of some charitable fund — placed at the disposal 
 of the widow and her children. We read of 
 disbursements of ;^6oo in 1597 and ;^200 in 
 1598, together with smaller sums on subsequent 
 occasions. 
 
 Soon after her husband's death Julian Herrick 
 left London with her children, and took up her 
 abode at Hampton, in Middlesex, in the house of 
 her sister, Anne Campion. The boy Robert, 
 therefore, though city-born, was country-bred, 
 and we may think of his childhood as having 
 been spent in the delightful village which lies on 
 
 e north side of the great river which he grew 
 to love so well, and close to the palace which 
 Wolsey had built, and which, after that minister's 
 fall and death, had become a favourite residence 
 f the Tudor monarchs. The Hampton scenery 
 s of that quiet sylvan and pastoral character 
 which accords well with the prevailing mood of 
 the Hesperides. The royal parks, the river with 
 the willow trees growing on its banks and on the 
 numerous eyots which at this point lie in its 
 channel, the broad stretches of rich meadow-land, 
 and in the distance the chalk-hills of Surrey, must 
 have formed a landscape of peculiar attractive- 
 ness to one of Herrick's temperament. And if 
 
 15 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 the scenery was somewhat wanting in features 
 which appealed to the boy s imagination, these 
 were suppHed by the royal palace close at hand. 
 The villagers of Hampton must have had many 
 thrilling stories to tell of bygone doings at 
 Hampton Court. Many still alive could re- 
 member the building and princely equipment of 
 the palace by the great Lord Cardinal, and could 
 tell of the haughty state he kept there. Others 
 could relate stories of how Henry VHI. had paid 
 court to the hapless Anne Boleyn in its stately 
 gardens, or chill the blood in the boy's veins by 
 tales of the shrieking ghost of Queen Catherine 
 Howard that passed by night through the 
 " Haunted Gallery." Nor was it only with 
 stories of the past that the boy's imagination 
 could be fed. Queen Elizabeth kept Christmas 
 there in 1592 and 1593, and in the September 
 of 1599 she was there again, riding in state to 
 the palace from her Surrey home at Nonsuch, 
 and returning after a sojourn of three or four 
 days. The boy of eight may have caught sight 
 of the old queen as she rode over Kingston 
 Bridge, and perhaps saw something of the 
 characteristic incident recorded by Lord Semple 
 of Beltreis, the Scottish ambassador, on this 
 occasion : " At her Majesty's returning from 
 Hampton Court, the day being passing foul, she 
 would (as was her custom) go on horseback, 
 
 although she is scarce able to sit upright, and my 
 
 16 
 
Early Years 
 
 Lord Hunsdon said, ' It was not meet for one of 
 her Majesty's years to ride in such a storm.' 
 She answered in great anger, *My years ! Maids, 
 to your horses quickly ' ; and so rode all the way, 
 not vouchsafing any gracious countenance to him 
 for two days." ^ 
 
 With the accession of James I., Hampton Court 
 became the scene of splendid pageants, the lustre 
 of which must to some degree have extended to 
 the adjoining village. The King kept his first 
 Christmas there amid rounds of festivities such as 
 had never before been witnessed. Amongst others, 
 the King's Company of Comedians, with Shake- 
 speare in their number, was there, and in the course 
 of the Christmas festival performed no less than six 
 plays before the monarch and his court. Samuel 
 Daniel was also present, engaged in the preparation 
 of his masque, TAe Vision of the Twelve Goddesses, 
 which was performed in the Great Hall of the 
 palace on the night of January 8, 1604, ^^id in 
 which the Queen and some of the most dis- 
 dnguished nobles in the land took part. And 
 scarcely were the gates of Hampton Court closed 
 upon noble masquers and the King's players, 
 when they opened to dignitaries of the Church 
 ind Puritan divines, summoned thither by the 
 King to deliberate on the form of Protestant 
 religion which was to be observed in England, 
 
 ^ E. Law's History of Hampton Court Palace in Tudor Times, 
 P- 337. 
 
 B 17 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 and to hear the British Solomon utter his famous 
 
 dictum, ** No bishop, no king." 
 
 Of the doings within the Great Hall of 
 
 Hampton Court the boy Robert could have 
 
 seen nothing ; but of the outside bustle, the 
 
 comings and goings of ambassadors and bishops, 
 
 the hunting of the stag in the Hampton parks, 
 
 and all the activity which prevails when royalty 
 
 holds high festival, he doubtless saw and heard 
 
 a good deal. Such an impression, too, does he 
 
 give us in his poems of his love of gay colours 
 
 and gorgeous ceremonial, that we can well believe 
 
 that he took the keenest interest in all this royal 
 
 pomp. And if the glories of the King's court 
 
 were familiar to him in these early years, so, we 
 
 may imagine, were the civic festivities of the 
 
 city, fifteen miles away. Having so many 
 
 relations, both on his father's and his mother's 
 
 side, prominently associated with the life of the 
 
 capital, he could not have grown up altogether 
 
 ignorant of London affairs. He could hardly 
 
 have missed a visit with his mother to the city 
 
 and Cheapside in 1598, when his aunt, Anne, 
 
 Lady Soame, rode with her husband in state 
 
 to the Guildhall as Lady Mayoress ; nor again 
 
 in 1603, when the same honour fell to the lot 
 
 of another of his aunts, the Mary Herrick that 
 
 had spent many years under his father's roof, 
 
 and was now the wife of Sir John Bennett. 
 
 But court festivities and Lord Mayor's shows, 
 18 
 
I 
 
 I 
 
 Early Years 
 
 were, after all, only the dazzling delights of hours 
 of exceptional splendour. For the common 
 round of life the boy had only the simple 
 pleasures and interests afforded by a small river- 
 side village and the comradeship of his three 
 brothers and two sisters. The Thames, with its 
 richly caparisoned barges passing up and down 
 the stream, must have proved an endless source 
 of interest, and rambles along its banks, or 
 through the parks of Hampton, may well have 
 occupied many an idle hour. It could not have 
 been a dull life, and there is no likelihood that 
 the Herrick children, orphans as they were, felt 
 the pinch of poverty. The means at their 
 disposal were necessarily more slender than those 
 of their many city cousins, but their inheritance 
 from their father, and the money placed at the 
 disposal of their mother and their uncle William 
 for their support by the London merchants, 
 Edmund Pyggott and Richard Coxe, was 
 sufficient for the ordinary needs of life. 
 
 No information has as yet come to light as to 
 the school at which Robert Herrick received his 
 education. Walford and Grosart assumed that 
 he was educated at the famous Westminster 
 School, the headmasters of which during his 
 school-years were William Camden the antiquary 
 (1593-1599), and Richard Ireland (1599-1610). 
 But the foundations on which the assumption 
 rests are not capable of bearing much weight ; 
 
 19 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 they are to be found in the poem, His Tears to 
 Thamasis (1028)^ : — 
 
 I send, I send here my supremest kiss 
 
 To thee, my silver-footed Thamasis. 
 
 No more shall I reiterate thy Strand, 
 
 Whereon so many stately structures stand : 
 
 Nor in the summer's sweeter evenings go 
 
 To bathe in thee, as thousand others do ; 
 
 No more shall I along thy crystal glide, 
 
 In barge, with boughs and rushes beautified, 
 
 With smooth-soft virgins, for our chaste disport, 
 
 To Richmond, Kingston, and to Hampton Court. 
 
 Never again shall I with finny oar 
 
 Put from, or draw unto the faithful shore. 
 
 And landing here, or safely landing there, 
 
 Make way to my beloved Westminster. . . . 
 
 To assume, with Walford and Grosart, that 
 Herrick's reference to his *' beloved Westminster " 
 is necessarily to the school there, and that he 
 went thither by boat from Hampton via Kingston 
 and Richmond, is manifestly unsafe ; or, if the 
 assumption be made, we may well share Mr 
 Alfred Pollard's wonder as to what William 
 Camden had to say to the '* smooth-soft virgins, 
 for our chaste disport " that kept him company. 
 The truth is that this poem recalls many of the 
 poet's memories of the river Thames — memories 
 which extended from infancy to manhood. The 
 fact that his uncle William had a house at 
 Westminster when the poet was a boy may well 
 
 1 The numbers here and elsewhere refer to Mr Pollard's num- 
 bering of Herrick's poems in the Muses' Library Herrick. 
 
 20 
 
I 
 
 Early Years 
 
 account for early visits there, and it is probable 
 that the neighbourhood was familiar enough to 
 him after he left Cambridge. His connection 
 with Westminster is also assured by the fact that 
 he spent some time in lodgings there in 1640, 
 and retired thither in 1647, when ejected from 
 his Dean Prior vicarage. In the absence, there- 
 fore, of fuller evidence, we have no right to 
 assume that he was educated at the school which 
 Jonson, Dryden, Locke, Prior, Cowper, and other 
 men of letters, have rendered famous. Two of 
 his cousins, sons of William Herrick, were 
 educated at the Merchant Taylors' School, but 
 the register of its alumni makes no mention of 
 the poet. He may, of course, have received his 
 instruction at one of the great London schools, 
 but it is also possible that he was educated nearer 
 home. Hampton Grammar School dates from 
 1557, while a little farther away, and across the 
 river, was the larger grammar school of the 
 royal borough of Kingston. Wherever educated, 
 Herrick undoubtedly received during his school 
 years sound instruction in the Latin language 
 and literature. As we shall see presently, one of 
 the most Horatian of his poems, that entitled 
 A Country Life : To his Brother, Mr Thomas 
 Herrick (106), was almost certainly written before 
 he went to Cambridge, and the frequent quota- 
 tions from Ovid, Seneca, Horace, and other 
 Roman authors which we meet with in his poems 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 point rather to his school-reading than to the 
 severely logical and theological training which 
 formed the main element in his university- 
 course of study. 
 
 While Robert was still at school, his elder 
 brothers, their school-days over, were being 
 settled in business in London. The eldest, 
 Thomas, senior to Robert by three years, was 
 placed, doubtless by his guardian uncle, William, 
 with a certain Mr Massam, a London merchant, 
 and the second son, Nicholas, junior to Thomas 
 by a year, was also apprenticed to a London 
 merchant, and later in life seems to have been 
 engaged in trade with the Levant. 
 
 With the close of the summer of 1607 Robert's 
 school-days were also over. He was now enter- 
 ing upon his seventeenth year, and the question 
 of his future career was engaging the thoughts 
 of himself, his mother, and his guardian-uncle, 
 William. It is probable that it was the boy's 
 wish to proceed forthwith to one of the universi- 
 ties, but for the present it was not to be. On 
 September 25, 1607, the future poet was 
 apprenticed to his uncle William, now Sir 
 William Herrick, goldsmith, of the city of 
 London. The indenture of apprenticeship is 
 preserved at Beaumanor, and will be found in the 
 appendix to this volume. From it we learn that 
 the term of apprenticeship was to be ten years. 
 
 The business-house which he entered was one 
 
 22 
 
I 
 I 
 
 Early Years 
 
 of the most substantial in the City of London. 
 His uncle William had prospered greatly since 
 the time when he had been summoned to London 
 by his brother Nicholas to enter the goldsmith's 
 shop in Cheapside. After his brother's death he 
 had removed to the neighbouring Wood Street, 
 and here he amassed a large fortune as gold- 
 smith and banker. In 1595 he purchased from 
 the agents of the Earl of Essex the seat of 
 Beaumanor in Leicestershire ; in 1601 he was 
 elected member of parliament for Leicester, and 
 in 1605 the honour of knighthood was conferred 
 upon him. 
 
 Sir Walter Scott has given us in his Fortunes 
 of Nigel 2. delightful picture of the household of 
 Master George Heriot, ''jingling Geordie," who 
 shared with Sir William Herrick the honour 
 of being jeweller to his Majesty ; by means 
 of it we are able to realise something of the 
 life which Robert Herrick was now leading 
 beneath his uncle's roof in Cheapside. The 
 dignity of Sir William's station would perhaps 
 excuse the apprentice the duty of standing before 
 the shop-door and accosting passers-by with 
 the familiar cry, ''What d'ye lack. Sir? What 
 d'ye lack, Madam ? Rings, bracelets, carcanets, 
 what d'ye lack?" His time would rather be 
 spent within the house, practising the delicate 
 craft of the jeweller and lapidary which had 
 brought the honour of knighthood to his uncle 
 
 23 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 William. At sunset his labours for the day 
 were over, for a strict injunction of the wardens 
 of the Goldsmiths' Company forbade buying 
 and selling by candle-light ; he was accordingly 
 free to wander forth into the streets and visit 
 his brothers, Thomas and Nicholas, or join 
 with other apprentices in some light-hearted 
 mirth. 
 
 The "honest and high-spirited prentices of 
 London," as Thomas Heywood calls them, 
 formed at this time an important section of the 
 body politic, as playwrights, actors, watermen, 
 and the Dogberrys of the city-wards knew to 
 their cost. Their cudgellings in the streets, 
 their tourneys on the river, and their outspoken 
 comments on the plays which, as two-penny 
 groundlings, they watched from the pits of 
 Bankside theatres, were a matter of common 
 reproach among the grave livers of London 
 society. But to what extent Herrick shared in 
 these riotous joys is unknown. His poems are 
 mainly concerned with the doings of later years, 
 and no letters from this period have been 
 preserved. Haunting of taverns was expressly 
 forbidden by the terms of his indenture, but we 
 are probably right in supposing that visits to the 
 theatres were reckoned among the golden hours 
 of these prentice days. Did he, we wonder, 
 see the performance of that stupendous play by 
 Thomas Heywood, The Four Prentices of 
 
 24 
 
I 
 
 Early Years 
 
 Londoji,^ which was written with the express 
 purpose of glorifying the London apprentices ? 
 The play enacted the thrilling adventures of four 
 representatives of that class, who leave their 
 shops in the city to join Robert of Normandy 
 in the First Crusade. Their ship being wrecked, 
 the four apprentices are washed ashore on the 
 coasts of France, Italy, Ireland, and the earldom 
 of Boulogne respectively, where they perform 
 wondrous deeds, and are at last re-united at 
 Jerusalem in time to defeat the Sultan of Babylon 
 and the Sophy of Persia! If he was present at 
 this performance — and what apprentice could 
 have missed such a compliment? — he may also 
 have seen Beaumont and Fletcher's travesty of 
 the play in The Knight of the Burning Pestle, 
 and laughed at the heroic adventurings of Ralph, 
 the London grocer's apprentice. 
 
 If Herrick had possessed a genuine interest 
 in a commercial career, it is doubtful whether 
 ny trade could have suited his temper better 
 han that of a goldsmith and jeweller — unless, 
 indeed, it were that of a perfumer! Many of 
 his verses show just that delicate polish, and 
 that dainty enamelling of thoughts with the gay 
 colours of poetic fancy, which, if applied to the 
 jeweller's craft, might have won him knighthood 
 and a fortune. His poems, too, are full of 
 references to the wares which he handled and 
 
 ^ Published in 1615, but written and acted some years earlier. 
 
 25 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 polished in his first youth. He sends his Julia 
 a carcanet or necklace of jet to ''enthral" the 
 ivory of her neck, and she bestows upon him in 
 return a bracelet of beads filled with sweet- 
 scented pomander-balls. The lips of the same 
 mistress are rocks of rubies, her teeth quarries of 
 pearls; elsewhere we read of **jimmal rings" 
 and true-love-knots, of bracelets of pearl and 
 amber beads. Surely, too, the young apprentice 
 must have found pleasure in engraving posies 
 for the rings which gay courtiers were presenting 
 to their ladies. Some of his epigrams read like 
 posies, and may even have been written for 
 this purpose in his prentice years. Professor 
 Arber has reprinted in his English Garner 
 several of these collections of Elizabethan posies, 
 but none of them contains a more delicately 
 fashioned thought than this from the Hesperides 
 
 (29):— 
 
 Love is a circle that doth restless move 
 In the same sweet eternity of love. 
 
 Whatever were the attractions of the gold- 
 smith's craft, and however great the prospects 
 of mercantile greatness, they were insufficient to 
 keep the future poet behind the counter for the 
 whole term of his apprenticeship. In 161 3, six 
 years after entering his uncle's business, he 
 broke loose from his Wood Street moorings, and 
 
 exchanged the apprentice's jerkin for the student s 
 ' 26 
 
Early Years 
 
 :ap and gown. It is hard to believe that his 
 uncle, Sir William, looked with favourable eye 
 upon this change of front. Robert's elder 
 brother, Thomas, who had been apprenticed by 
 Sir William to Mr Massam, a London merchant, 
 in 1605, had, in similar fashion, turned his back 
 upon the counting-house in 16 10, and started 
 farming in the country. This change of calling, 
 as we shall presently see, had not proved a 
 success ; and now, three years later, Sir William 
 saw another nephew, for whose future welfare 
 he had made careful provision, defeating his 
 well-laid plans. But the future poet, having now 
 reached the age of twenty-two, was to some 
 extent his own master, and his uncle, however 
 reluctantly, was forced to acquiesce in the change 
 of career. 
 
 27 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 AT CAMBRIDGE 
 
 BEFORE following Herrick to the 
 University of Cambridge, which he 
 entered some time in 1613, it is well to 
 consider whether any of the Hesperides 
 poems belong to the years of his apprenticeship. 
 The chronological ordering of those poems is a 
 desperate task for the most intrepid editor to 
 engage in. Poems extending over a period of 
 about forty years are here placed with almost 
 complete indifference as to subject and order of 
 composition. Yet internal evidence, carefully 
 considered, goes a certain way to indicate the 
 date at which certain poems were written, and 
 warrants us in allotting at least two of them to 
 the period which is now under consideration. 
 One of these is the poem, To my dearest Sister, 
 Mistress Mercy Herrick (818), which must have 
 been written not later than 161 2 ; for some time 
 before that year, as Metcalfe's Visitation of 
 Suffolk (161 2) informs us, she had married a cer- 
 tain John Wingfield, son and heir of Humphrey 
 Wingfield, Esq. of Brantham, Suffolk. 
 
 The other poem of this period is of a much 
 
 28 
 
o 
 
 CJ 
 
 O a: 
 s< a v^ 
 
 X c ^ 
 
 w r: ft 
 
 C/5 
 
 
I 
 
At Cambridge 
 
 more sustained and ambitious character, and is 
 entitled A Country Life: to his Brother, Mr 
 Thomas Herrick (io6). The opening verses of 
 this poem indicate clearly that the poet's brother 
 had recently exchanged a city for a country 
 life :— 
 
 Thrice and above blest, my soul's half, art thou, 
 
 In thy both last and better vow ; 
 Could'st leave the city, for exchange, to see 
 
 The country's sweet simplicity. 
 
 The reference is to the important step in his 
 
 career which Thomas Herrick took about the 
 
 year 1610, when he left the business house in 
 
 London of Mr Massam and settled himself on a 
 
 country farm. Moreover, the poem is eloquent 
 
 of the great content which Thomas and his 
 
 newly married wife are finding in their rural 
 
 sanctuary. But this content, however real it 
 
 may have been during the first few months, was 
 
 very short-lived. By the year 16 13 the farm 
 
 was anything but the Elysium which the poet 
 
 speaks of. On May 12 of that year Thomas 
 
 Herrick, writing to his uncle. Sir William, for 
 
 help, says that he is '' at present destitute of a 
 
 convenient stay for myself and wife," and he 
 
 begs to be appointed the tenant of one of his 
 
 uncle's Leicestershire farms. Nor was the 
 
 knowledge of his brother's sore straits withheld 
 
 from Robert, the first of whose letters to his 
 
 29 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 uncle from Cambridge was written with the 
 express purpose of begging money for his 
 brother. 
 
 From all this it may be Inferred that the poem 
 in question was written some time between 1610 
 and 161 3, though in the form in which it appears 
 in the Hesperides it has doubtless benefited by 
 those careful repolishings upon which Herrick 
 spent so much time during the long winter even- 
 ings at Dean Prior. Another, and probably 
 earlier, version of the poem is, in fact, extant in 
 Ashmole MS. 38, and has been carefully com- 
 pared with the printed copy by Dr Grosart in 
 his Memorial Introduction to Herrick's works.^ 
 But the poem, however altered, is of exceptional 
 interest by virtue of the light which it throws 
 upon the temper of the poet's mind and the 
 direction and extent of his reading. It is 
 obviously suggested by the second of Horace's 
 Epodes, the famous Beatus ille, written — may 
 we say, ironically ? — in praise of a country life. 
 But while the idea of the poem comes from 
 Horace, there is nowhere any trace of servile 
 imitation, and the pleasures of a country life which 
 Herrick points out to his brother are rarely out 
 of harmony with the surroundings of an English 
 homestead. 
 
 Interesting in its disclosure of the young poet's 
 feeling for nature and a country life, the poem 
 
 ^ pp. cli-cliv. 
 30 
 
At Cambridge 
 
 is no less interesting in the light which it throws 
 upon his reading. Echoes of classical authors 
 abound, and the borrowings are in almost every 
 case honourably acknowledged in Herrick's 
 accustomed manner by the use of italics. Horace 
 is clearly his first love, and in addition to the 
 Beatus ille Epode, we trace reminiscences of 
 more than one of the Odes. Thus he finds a 
 place for those lines from the third song of the 
 first book, — 
 
 Illi robur et aes triplex 
 
 Circa pectus erat qui fragilem tnici 
 
 Commisit pelago ratem 
 Primus — 
 
 which Horace in his turn had drawn from the 
 Prometheus of Aeschylus ; and he shows the 
 terseness of his style by expressing the thought 
 within the compass of a single distich : — 
 
 A heart thrice walled with oak and brass that man 
 Had, first durst plough the ocean. 
 
 There is, too, much sententious moralising in the 
 poem, and for this Herrick had recourse to 
 Martial, Juvenal, and Aristotle's Ethics.^ What 
 is no less interesting is the echo of Renaissance 
 oetry. Shakespeare's '' To thine own self be 
 true," seems to have been in the young poet's 
 :^^mind when he wrote the couplet, — 
 
 ^^H But to live round, and close, and wisely true 
 
 ^^^ To thine own self, and known to few ; — 
 
 I 
 
 i 
 
 See Mr Pollard's note to this poem, i. p. 265-6. 
 31 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 and there is abundant evidence that, in addition 
 to Horace's Epode, Herrick had in mind, when 
 writing the poem, Jonson's praise of a country 
 life expressed in his verses " To Sir Robert 
 Wroth." Jonson is describing the Hfe of a 
 country gentleman, Herrick that of a simple 
 farmer ; but there is a similarity of idea and style 
 throughout the two poems, and, what is even 
 more important, the verse of the address *' To 
 Sir Robert Wroth " is imitated by the younger 
 poet. 
 
 From all this it is clear that Herrick was 
 conversant with the poetry of his own time, 
 and also that, having received a fairly sound 
 classical education while at school, he had found 
 time for reading classic authors during the hours 
 which were not claimed by the shop and the 
 counting-house. In its wealth of classical 
 allusion the poem compares well with that of 
 Jonson, and shows, in particular, that intimacy 
 with Roman life and ceremonial, and that frank 
 transference of all this to English soil, which 
 characterise much of his later poetry. 
 
 It was probably in the summer of 1613 that 
 Herrick went up to Cambridge, and enrolled 
 himself a member of St John's College. His 
 mature age — he was nearly twenty- two — made 
 him unwilling to register himself as an ordinary 
 undergraduate, and he accordingly entered his 
 college as a fellow-commoner. In so doing, he 
 
 32 
 
At Cambridge 
 
 subjected himself to a heavy burden of expendi- 
 ture, and, as his Cambridge letters show, an eternal 
 lack of pence was his never-ending complaint 
 during the whole of his stay at the University. 
 His guardian- uncle, as we learn from his account- 
 books preserved at Beaumanor, had doled out 
 to his nephew certain sums of money during his 
 apprenticeship. Under the date February 9, 
 161 2, we find the entry, '* Lent to Robarte 
 Hericke more at his request £10," and a little 
 later, " Pd to him the 5 March 161 2 the sum of 
 ^42, los. od." From certain reckonings on the 
 margin of the page on which these and other 
 entries are made, we infer that these sums were 
 deducted from a sum of ^424, 8s. od. which 
 had been left to Robert by his father, that 
 he had drawn out ^74, 8s. od., and that 
 ;/^350 were still in hand. On entering St 
 John's College as a fellow-commoner, he was 
 to receive ^10 a quarter to cover the cost 
 of board, clothes, and tuition : extraordinary 
 items of expenditure were met by extraordinary 
 grants.^ 
 
 ' In Sir William's Account Books at Beaumanor we meet with 
 the following entries : "July 1613, to Mr Miller for a College Pot, 
 ;^5," and "4 Oct. 161 5, Paid to Mr Woolley for Robins Gown 
 and Hose, £2, 12s. od." The College-pot was the silver goblet of 
 10 oz., which, according to a decree at St John's College, every 
 fellow-commoner must present to his college on admission. See 
 Baker- Mayor, History of St Johrts College, Cambridge, p. 548. 
 The date, July 161 3, is of importance as indicating the time at 
 which Herrick went up to the University. 
 c 33 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 St John's College was at this time under the 
 rule of the Welshman, Owen Gwyn, who, after 
 some intriguing, had been appointed Master in 
 the May of 1612. Gwyn was a cousin of the 
 famous John Williams, a fellow of the college, 
 and subsequently Lord Keeper and Bishop of 
 Lincoln. St John's had somewhat fallen from 
 the high estate which it had enjoyed in the pre- 
 ceding century, when Roger Ascham and Sir 
 John Cheke were reckoned among its members ; 
 but it was still, with Trinity and King's, one of 
 the leading colleges of the University, and had 
 on its roll during the first half of the seventeenth 
 century the distinguished names of Thomas 
 Wentworth, Earl of Strafford, John Williams, 
 the Lord Keeper, and Thomas Fairfax, the great 
 Lord-General of the Civil War. The doyen of its 
 fellows was Andrew Downes, Regius Professor of 
 Greek in the University, and a worthy successor 
 to the great humanists of a former generation. 
 Earlier inmates of the University, in whom 
 perhaps the authorities took no special pride, but 
 who would have found a genial comrade in Robert 
 Herrick, were Robert Greene and Thomas Nash, 
 the latter of whom left behind him, as a sobriquet 
 for subsequent wassailers, the phrase, " a very 
 Nash." 
 
 Among the Herrick Papers at Beaumanor 
 are fourteen letters — the residue apparently of a 
 once larger collection — written by Herrick to his 
 
 34 
 
At Cambridge 
 
 uncle during his residence at Cambridge, and to 
 these we naturally turn for information concerning 
 the character of his college life. But in many- 
 ways these letters are most disappointing. They 
 tell us nothing of the part which he took in the 
 life of the University, nothing of college friend- 
 ships, nothing of poetic activity. Their persistent 
 burden, or, as Herrick himself expresses it, their 
 •* plainsong," is the request for money — " mitte 
 pecuniamr As already stated, the agreement 
 between nephew and uncle was that the former 
 should receive a payment of ^lo quarterly to 
 meet all ordinary expenses. The ex-apprentice 
 had not been long at the University before he 
 discovered that £^o a year was a quite inadequate 
 sum to meet his needs. His college was an 
 expensive one, and he had entered it as a fellow- 
 commoner. When Mr, afterwards Sir Simonds, 
 D'Ewes entered the same college as a fellow- 
 commoner in 1618, he tells us of the allowance 
 made to him by his father: "The utmost I 
 desired was but ^60, my father conceived £^0 
 to be sufficient ; which I was willing to accept, 
 being able to obtain no more, rather than to be 
 at his allowance ; because I easily foresaw how 
 many sad differences I was likely to meet with 
 upon every reckoning. I cannot deny but as this 
 short allowance brought me one way much want 
 and discontent, so another way it made me avoid 
 unnecessary acquaintance, idle visits and many 
 
 35 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 unnecessary expenses." ^ If D'Ewes experienced 
 want and discontent on ;^50 a year, the want 
 and discontent of Herrick must have been pro- 
 portionably greater on £40. What was worse 
 was that even this small sum was remitted only 
 with great reluctance and after considerable delay. 
 In one of these letters, written from ** Cambridg : 
 St John's," he makes the following complaint : ** I 
 have not as hitherto acquainted you with the 
 chardg I live in, but your self can judg by my 
 often (as now at this time) writing for mony, 
 which when I doe, it is for no impertinent expens, 
 but for constraind necessitie : for be your self 
 the judg, when above twentie pounds will not 
 suffice the house, not reckening with it com- 
 moditie for my self (I meane apparell nor other 
 complements) nor tuition mony nor other 
 sundrie occasions for chardges, this but 
 considered, their is no reasonable soule but will 
 kindly and indulgently censure of my lyfe and 
 me. Had I but a competent estate to mayntayne 
 my self to my title, I could presume of as soone 
 atayning to y^ end of the efficient cause — my 
 coming — as he that hath stronger cause and 
 fortune : S^ I know you understand me, and 
 did you but know how disfurnished I came to 
 Cambridg, without bedding (which I yet want) 
 and other necessaries, you would (as I now 
 
 ^ Autobiography of Sir Simonds UEives^ ed. Halliwell-Phillips, 
 vol. i. p. 119. 
 
 36 
 
I 
 
 At Cambridge 
 
 rust you will) better your thoughts towards me, 
 considering of my forct expence. S^ I entreat 
 you to furnish me with ten pounds this quarter ; 
 for the last mony which I receavd came not 
 till the last quarter had almost spent it self, 
 which now constraines me so suddenly to write 
 for more. Good S', forbeare to censure me as 
 prodigall, for I endevour rather to strengthen 
 (then debilitate) my feeble familie fortune." 
 From other letters we learn that the fellow- 
 commoner has been compelled " to runne some- 
 what deepe into my Tailours debt," and that 
 he needs money for books and his tutor's fees. 
 
 The following letter, the original of which I 
 discovered among a collection of autographs in 
 the possession of Canon Egerton Leigh of 
 Richmond, Yorkshire, belongs to the same 
 period, and is written in the same strain as that 
 quoted above : — 
 
 Cambridg, St John's. 
 
 S', the first place testifies my deutie, the 
 second only reiterats the former letter of which 
 (as I may justly wonder) I heard no answeare, 
 neither concerning the payment or receat of the 
 letter, (it is best knowne to your self). Upon 
 which ignorance I have sent this oratour en- 
 treating you to paye to M' Adrian Marius, 
 bookseller of the blackfryers, the sum of lo li, 
 from whome so soone as it is payd, I shall 
 receave a dew acknowledgment. I shall not 
 
 37 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 need to amplyfy my sense, for this warrants 
 sufficiencie. I expect your countenance and 
 your futherance to my well beeing who hath 
 power to command my service to eternitie. 
 Heaven be your guide to direct you to per- 
 fection which is the end of mans endeavour. 
 I expect an answeare from M'^ Adrian, con- 
 cerning the recipt. 
 
 Robin Hearick, 
 obliged to your virtue eternally. 
 
 [Endorsement] 
 
 " The right wor" his loving 
 uncle, S"" William Hearick, 
 dwelling at London in 
 great Wood-Street, this.^ 
 
 The humble and obsequious tone in which 
 Herrick addresses his uncle in these letters would 
 seem to indicate that his college expenses came 
 out of the knightly goldsmith's own pocket, but 
 references in them to his ''feebly ebbing estate" 
 place it beyond doubt that such was not the case. 
 A curious entry in Sir William's account books 
 also discloses the fact that while the impecunious 
 student was finding infinite difficulty in obtaining 
 
 ^ This letter was presented to Canon Leigh's grandmother, 
 Lady Sitwell of Rempstone, Derbyshire, by a foniier proprietor 
 of Beaumanor, early in the nineteenth century ; its discovery 
 raises the question whether other letters of the poet's are hidden 
 away somewhere in private autograph collections. 
 
 38 
 
At Cambridge 
 
 his quarterly allowance of ^lo, the wealthy uncle 
 was borrowing hundreds of pounds from the 
 nephew. The entry in question is as follows : 
 '* My Nephew, Robert Hericke of Cambridge, 
 the 25th March 16 14, I owe him upon a Bond 
 to be paid at my House at 3 Months 300 li." 
 Dr Grosart in his Memorial Introduction has 
 emptied the vials of his wrath upon the head of 
 " the closefisted old knight " with such zeal and 
 copiousness that subsequent biographers are 
 for all time relieved of a similar obligation. Yet 
 one may be allowed to express the opinion that 
 Sir William was making a churlish repayment to 
 the orphan son for the generous treatment which 
 he, when a raw apprentice, had received from the 
 father. The foundation of Sir William's princely 
 fortune was laid in Nicholas Herrick's shop in 
 the Goldsmiths' Row, Cheapside, and this fact 
 ought not to have been forgotten when, thirty 
 years later, Nicholas's son was struggling with 
 poverty at Cambridge. 
 
 It is unfortunate that Herrick's Cambridge 
 letters tell us nothing of college friendships. 
 The verses in the Hesperides addressed to 
 ** peculiar friends " are many in number, and 
 some of the friendships which he formed were of 
 long standing. As he was six years older than 
 the average freshman when he entered the 
 University, it would be natural for him to look 
 for acquaintances among the senior members and 
 
 39 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 fellows of the University ; and, as a matter of 
 fact, it was with a fellow of his own college that 
 one of his most lasting friendships was formed. 
 On March 26, 161 3, a certain John Weekes of 
 Devonshire was admitted a fellow of St John's.^ 
 This Weekes seems to have been the son of Simon 
 and Mary Weekes of Broadwood Kelly in the 
 county of Devon, ^ and though senior to Herrick 
 in academic standing, he was probably about the 
 same age. To this *' peculiar friend" three of 
 the Hesperides poems are addressed, and they 
 show clearly that the ties of friendship were of 
 the closest. The careers of the two men run a 
 curiously parallel course, and we shall meet with 
 Weekes in the company of Herrick on more than 
 one occasion in this biographical sketch. Another 
 intimate friend of after years, whose acquaint- 
 ance the poet must have made at Cambridge, 
 w^as Clipseby, afterwards Sir Clipseby, Crew, 
 the eldest son of Sir Ranulphe Crew, who was 
 Speaker of the House of Commons in 16 14 and 
 Lord Chief Justice in 1625. We learn from the 
 Baker Memoirs ^ that Clipseby Crew was a 
 student at St John's College, Cambridge ; and as 
 he was born in 1599, his residence at the Univer- 
 sity must have extended over almost the same 
 period that Herrick spent there. To this friend 
 
 ^ See Register of Fellows admitted to St John's College. 
 Baker- Mayor, p. 293. 
 
 2 Vivian, Visitation of Devon^ 1620. ^ P. 492. 
 
 40 
 
At Cambridge 
 
 several of the Hesperides poems are addressed, 
 and the verses show that their author found in 
 the son of the Lord Chief Justice a true friend 
 and patron. He celebrated his marriage, which 
 took place in 1625, with the most beautiful of all 
 his epithalamia, and in later poems he mourned 
 the death of his wife and his daughter. Other 
 verses to Sir Clipseby represent that knight as a 
 sharer in some of the poet's bacchanalian joys, 
 and the poem entitled A Hymn to Sir Clipseby 
 Crew (427), written apparently after a quarrel 
 had for a time estranged the two friends, shows 
 the warmth of the poet's affection. 
 
 It is not difficult to follow Herrick in his course 
 of study at the University. Seventeenth-century 
 Cambridge still clung somewhat tenaciously to 
 much of that outworn medieval curriculum which 
 made logic and rhetoric the chief studies of the 
 quadriennium or four years' course leading to the 
 bachelor's degree. During his freshman's year 
 he must have devoted himself chiefly to rhetoric, 
 acquiring a knowledge of that subject by the aid 
 of Quintilian's Institutes, Cicero's Orations and 
 the rhetorical works of Hermogenes the Greek. 
 During the two succeeding years, as junior and 
 senior sophister, he read mainly logic. For this 
 the writings of Aristotle still formed the chief 
 theme of study, though the subversive Dialectica 
 of Peter Ramus had by this time got a firm hold 
 of the English universities, and appeared among 
 
 41 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 the text-books of the Cambridge undergradu- 
 ates.i 
 
 Of humanistic teaching proper, as far as a 
 student's preparation for his degree went, there 
 was very Httle ; though Herrick may very well 
 have attended the pubHc lectures of the Regius 
 Professor of Greek, Andrew Downes, and listened 
 to his exposition of Demosthenes or Thucydides. 
 We may also be sure that he did not neglect the 
 Roman poets, whose acquaintance he first made 
 in his school days, and who have left so clear an 
 impress upon his poetry. Horace, Catullus, and 
 the Roman elegists were, doubtless, a part of 
 his daily fare. 
 
 Sir Simonds D'Ewes, who, as we have seen, 
 entered St John's in 1618, tells us a good deal 
 in his autobiography concerning his course of 
 studies at the University. We learn that he 
 attended Divinity Acts, Problems and Common- 
 places in the Public Schools, listened to George 
 Herbert's public lectures on rhetoric, and to 
 those of Dr Downes on Demosthenes' De Corona ; 
 also that he read Aristotle's Physics, Politics, and 
 Ethics, Florus's Roman History, and studied 
 his logic in various manuals. For lighter 
 moments he had Gellius's Attic Nights and 
 Macrobius's Saturnals. These last two works, 
 which supply in an informal manner much 
 antiquarian knowledge of Greek and Roman 
 
 1 Mullinger, The University of Cambridge^ vol. ii., p. 404 f. 
 42 
 
At Cambridge 
 
 life, may very well have been included among 
 Herrick's store of books, and have furnished him 
 with that acquaintance with Roman social life and 
 ceremonial which is so often at his service as a 
 poet, and gives to his verses their classical and 
 pagan flavour. 
 
 The period during which Herrickwas pursuing 
 his studies at Cambridge was not remarkable for 
 the exemplary behaviour of the students. Mr 
 Mullinger, indeed, informs us that at no period 
 do we find their conduct more unfavourably 
 represented. They were engaged in perennial 
 conflicts with the townsmen and the watch, and, 
 contrary to all regulations, they attended cock- 
 fights and bull-baitings, diced and drank, armed 
 themselves with swords and rapiers, and wore 
 apparel of velvet and silk ; a few desperate ones 
 even bathed in the river! D'Ewes, again, who 
 was something of a prig, confesses that *' swear- 
 ing, drinking, rioting, and hatred of all piety 
 and virtue under false and adulterate names did 
 abound there [St John's] and generally in all 
 the University." It may readily be granted that 
 Herrick, with the hot blood of Norse ances- 
 tors tingling in his veins, partook of as much of 
 the ''cakes and ale" of university life as proctorial 
 vigilance and a slender purse would admit. The 
 author of the Welco7ne to Sack — Was it perhaps 
 an effusion of these Cambridge days ? — was no 
 precisian, and could ruffle it with the best of the 
 
 43 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 *'high sons of pith " who met together in the 
 taverns of Cambridge. 
 
 It is difficult, if not impossible, to say what 
 poems of Herrick belong to these university 
 days. None of those published in the Hesperides 
 contain, as far as I have been able to discover, 
 any direct allusions to this important rperiod in 
 his career, but it is hard to believe that his 
 muse, which had vouchsafed The Country Life 
 in his prentice-years, could have been altogether 
 silent now. One is tempted to associate the love- 
 lyrics and drinking-songs chiefly with the suc- 
 ceeding period, which Herrick spent in London 
 at the feet of Ben Jonson, but some of these may 
 very well have been written at Cambridge. 
 
 It was Herrick's lot, during the first half of his 
 life, to be an eye-witness of pageants of more 
 than ordinary splendour. These had begun in 
 the days of his childhood when Lord Mayor 
 uncles and Lady Mayoress aunts were borne in 
 state to the Guildhall, and when, nearer home, he 
 beheld the royal processions entering the palace 
 of Hampton Court. As apprentice to the gold- 
 smith-uncle, whose business took him frequently 
 to court, he must again have seen a good deal 
 of the life of the Stuart courtiers, and now that 
 he had left London for the University, he was 
 destined to behold scenes of festive splendour 
 which might compare even with the pageantry 
 of Whitehall. Early in the winter of 1614-15, 
 
 44 
 
 I 
 
At Cambridge 
 
 an intimation reached Cambridge that the King 
 and his court would honour the University with 
 a visit in the following March. The news must 
 have caused a flutter of pleasurable expectancy 
 throughout the colleges, and preparations were 
 at once made to give the visitors a sumptuous 
 reception. St John's College, in accordance with 
 its status in the University, took, with Trinity, 
 a leading part in these preparations, and 
 Herrick, though only an impecunious fellow- 
 commoner, must have shared in the general 
 excitement. The news of the royal visit spread 
 to Oxford, and we find William Herrick, the 
 eldest son of Sir William, and a fellow-commoner 
 of St John's College, writing to his Cambridge 
 cousin and proposing to share his lodgings with 
 him on the occasion of the King's visit. His 
 tutor, however, Mr Christopher Wren, in a letter 
 to Lady Herrick, disapproves of this plan and 
 begs, "yf it soe like your Ladiship, that I might 
 have him with me inseparablye, both on the way 
 and there too." ^ 
 
 The University authorities at Cambridge, 
 having in mind the seemly behaviour of the 
 students on so important an occasion as a royal 
 visit, passed special ordinances. Having regard 
 to " the fearful] enormitye and excesse of apparell 
 scene in all degrees " of students, they expressly 
 forbade the wearing of '* vast bands, huge cuffs, 
 
 ^ Nichols, History of County of Leicester^ iii. p. 163, 
 45 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 shoe-roses, tufts, locks and topps of hare, un- 
 beseeminge that modesty and carridge of 
 students in so renowned an Universitye,"^ and 
 threatened with instant expulsion the under- 
 graduate who should offend the author of the 
 Counterblast by '* taking tobacco " in either St 
 Mary's Church or Trinity College Hall. 
 
 The King lodged in Trinity College, but the 
 Chancellor of the University, the Earl of Suffolk, 
 kept house at St John's, at the rate of ^looo 
 and five tuns of wine a day.^ To entertain 
 James during his four days' sojourn at the 
 University, elaborate Latin comedies, together 
 with Acts or Disputations, had been devised. The 
 Disputation, that exhibition of mental gladiator- 
 ship which was an heirloom of the Middle 
 Ages, and to which the universities still clung, 
 was a form of entertainment peculiarly attractive 
 to a monarch who loved hot debate as much 
 as he feared cold steel. Several Disputations 
 were held, but the subject which attracted chief 
 attention, and which interested the King most 
 of all, was one which concerned the reasoning 
 powers of dogs. " Can dogs syllogise .^ " was the 
 form in which the question was worded, and the 
 disputants were two learned divines, Matthew 
 Wren, afterwards Bishop of Ely, and John 
 
 ^ Nichols, Progresses of James /., iii. 44 ; Mullinger, The 
 University of Cambridge y ii. 516. 
 
 2 Letter of Mr Chamberlain to Sir Dudley Carleton, quoted by 
 Nichols, Progresses ofJa?nes /., vol. iii. p. 48. 
 
 46 
 
At Cambridge 
 
 Preston, the puritan, soon to be elected Master 
 of Emmanuel. The arguments of the latter, 
 who maintained the affirmative, were ingenious. 
 " The major proposition, present in the mind of 
 a harrier," he declared, ''is this : 'The hare has 
 gone either this way or that way.' With his 
 nose he smells out the minor. ' She has not gone 
 that way ' ; and he then arrives at the conclusion : 
 'Ergo, this way,' with open mouth." Thereupon 
 followed the usual logic-chopping. Did the dog 
 possess sapience, or was it only sagacity ? — until 
 at last the royal listener clenched the argument 
 in favour of Preston by relating an incident from 
 his own hunting experiences.^ 
 
 Following upon the Disputations, came the 
 Comedies. The St John's men had a play of 
 their own, Aemilia, which they performed on 
 the first night of the King's visit, but xh^ piece de 
 resistance was the comedy of Ignoramus, which 
 was performed on the evening of March 8th. 
 The author of this play was George Ruggle, 
 formerly a pensioner of St John's, but now a 
 fellow of Clare Hall, where the play was acted. 
 As a -fellow-commoner of the University, Herrick 
 was entitled to a seat at the back of the hall 
 during the performance, and we may be sure 
 that he did not fail to be present. The comedy, 
 we are told, proved an amazing success ; the 
 King followed the development of the plot and 
 
 ^ Mullinger, op. cit., ii. 520. 
 47 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 shared in the laughter called forth by the 
 satiric hits at the lawyers and the ridicule of 
 their debased law-latin. 
 
 The fun which was pointed at the legal 
 profession in the comedy of Ignoramus was, 
 perhaps, not too well received by Herrick him- 
 self; for about this time his thoughts were 
 turning towards the law as a profession. He 
 was still an undergraduate, but the sense of 
 advancing years and a slowly ebbing patrimony 
 made him anxious for the future. There is 
 nothing to indicate what projects had been 
 formed as to his future career at the time when 
 he entered the University, in 16 13, but after a 
 residence there of three years, he had made up 
 his mind to enter the legal profession. With 
 this purpose in view, he determined to leave St 
 John's College and become a member of Trinity 
 Hall, which was specially devoted to the study 
 of the law. In making this change, he also had 
 in view the retrenchment of his expenses. He 
 announces his intention to his uncle in a letter 
 which belongs to the year 1616 : 
 
 " After my abundant thanks for your last great 
 
 love (worthie Sir), proud of your favoure and 
 
 kindness shewne by my Ladie to my unworthy 
 
 selfe, thus I laye open my selfe ; that for as much 
 
 as my continuance will not long consist in the 
 
 spheare where I now move, I make known my 
 
 thoughts, and modestly crave your counsell, 
 
 48 
 
I 
 
 At Cambridge 
 
 whether it were better for me to direct my study 
 towards the lawe or not ; which if I should (as it 
 will not be impertinent), I can with facilitie laboure 
 my self into another colledg appointed for the like 
 end and studyes, where I assure myself the charge 
 will not be so great as where I now exist ; I make 
 bold freely to acquaint you with my thoughts ; 
 and I entreat you answeare me : this being most 
 which checks me, that my time (I trust) beeing 
 short, it may be to a lesser end and smaller 
 purpose ; but that shalbe as you shall lend 
 direction " 
 
 Sir William Herrick had apparently no objec- 
 tion to his nephew becoming a lawyer, and 
 was certainly not the man to frustrate any project 
 which made for economy ; and so the next letter 
 which reached him from Cambridge is headed 
 *' Trinitie Hall." Herrick's connection with 
 Trinity Hall is interesting, for when the Hall 
 was founded in the fourteenth century, its first 
 master was a collateral ancestor and namesake 
 of the poet, Robert Eyrick, who had died 
 Bishop of Lichfield in 1385. When Herrick 
 entered the Hall, its master was Dr Clement 
 Corbett, and the number of its members amounted 
 to only about sixty. The letter in which he in- 
 forms his uncle of the change which he has made 
 is not written in the best of spirits : — 
 
 49 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 Trinitie Hall, Camb. 
 
 S^ — The confidence I have of your bothe 
 virtuous and generous disposition makes me 
 (though with some honest reluctation) the 
 seldomer to solicite you ; for I have so incor- 
 porated beleef into me, that I cannot chuse but 
 perswade my self that (though absent) I stand 
 imprinted in your memorie ; and the remembrance 
 of my last beeing at London servd for an 
 earnest motive (which I trust lives yet unperisht) 
 to the effectuating of my desire, which is not but 
 in modesty ambitious, and consequently virtuous ; 
 but, where freeness is evident, there needs no 
 feare for forwardness ; and I doubt not (because 
 fayth gives boldness) but that Heaven, togeither 
 with your self, will bring my ebbing estate to an 
 indifferent tyde ; meanewhile I hope I have (as I 
 presume you know) changd my colledg for one 
 where the quantitie of expence wilbe shortned, 
 by reason of the privacie of the house, where I 
 propose to live recluse, till Time contract me to 
 some other calling, striving now with myself 
 (retayning upright thoughts) both sparingly to 
 live, and thereby to shun the current of expence." 
 Then follows the usual request for ;^io. 
 
 Before Time could contract him to another 
 calling, it was necessary for him to take the 
 degree of bachelor. Owing to the expenses 
 incumbent on graduation, his removal to a 
 
 50 
 
I 
 
 At Cambridge 
 
 college where the cost of living was less had not 
 relieved him of the burden of impecuniosity. 
 In his failure to secure a sufficient competence 
 from his uncle, he realises that he '* must crie with 
 the afflicted 'usquequo, usquequo, Dominey and 
 hopes against hope that his uncle will remember 
 him *' like a trew Maecenas." In January, 1 6 1 7, he 
 underwent the ordeal of the various Acts which 
 were required for the passing of the examination, 
 and in the same month his name, ^'Robertus 
 Hearick," appears on the register of bachelors of 
 arts. The successful passing of his '' Commence- 
 ment " is announced to his uncle as follows : 
 
 Camb. 
 
 Sir, that which makes my letter to be abortive 
 and borne before maturitie, is and hath been my 
 Commencment, v^hich I have now overgonn, 
 though I confess with many a throe and pinches 
 of the purse ; but it was necessarie, and the prize 
 was worthie the hazarde ; which makes me less 
 sensible of the expence, by reason of a titular 
 prerogative — et bonum est prodire in bono. 
 The essence of my writing is (as heretofore) to 
 entreat you to paye for my use to M' Arthour 
 Johnson, bookseller in Paules church yard the 
 ordinarie summe of tenn pounds, and that with as 
 much sceleritie as you maye, though I could wish 
 chardges had leaden wings and Tortice feet to 
 come upon me ; sed votis puerilibus opto. S"", 
 
 51 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 I fix my hopes on Time and you ; still gazing 
 for an happie flight of birdes, and the refreshing 
 blast of a second winde. Doubtfull as yet of 
 either Fortunes, I live, hoarding up provision 
 against the assault of either. Thus I salute your 
 vertues. 
 
 Hopeful R. Hearick. 
 
 The young graduate's better spirits are manifest 
 in his style as well as his signature. The 
 " titular prerogative " has been won, and with a 
 boldness born of success, he even ventures to 
 send his quarterly request for ten pounds before 
 the proper time.^ The future is still uncertain, 
 but there has been enough of despondency, and 
 now, in the first flush of academic honours, he finds 
 it possible to fix his hopes on so barren a prospect 
 as the generosity of his uncle, Sir William 
 Herrick. 
 
 With his graduation in 1617, Herrick's 
 residence at the University in all probability 
 came to an end. Dr Grosart and others have 
 assumed that he remained there until 1620, when 
 he proceeded M.A., but, under the circumstances, 
 nothing is more unlikely. For some time past 
 residence for the degree of master had ceased to 
 be compulsory, and, as a result, the resident 
 graduates of the University formed only *' a small 
 
 1 This I take to be the meaning of the phrase, " abortive and 
 borne before maturitie," as apphed to the letter which he is 
 writing. 
 
 52 
 
 I 
 
At Cambridge 
 
 minority composed almost exclusively of clerical 
 fellows of colleges, whose time was mainly given 
 to the all-absorbing controversial theology of the 
 day, and to the composition of ' commonplaces ' 
 to be delivered in the college chapel." ^ Now 
 Herrick was never a fellow of his college, and it 
 is by no means certain that, at the time when 
 he graduated, his wish was to enter the church. 
 A year before, as we have seen, his thoughts were 
 directed to the law. Moreover, his ripe age and 
 his lack of money indicate that he would not 
 remain at the University longer than was 
 necessary, and the termination of the letters to his 
 uncle at this time also gives colour to the view that 
 he quitted Cambridge in 1617. Since residence 
 was no longer compulsory, the course of study 
 for the mastership had become quite insignificant. 
 It consisted only in the keeping of one or two 
 " acts," and the composition of a single declama- 
 tion. This probably presented little difficulty 
 to Herrick when, three years later, he took the 
 higher degree, and was enrolled as a master of 
 arts at the registry. 
 
 In 161 7, then, Herrick packed up his few 
 personal belongings, took *' Hobson's choice," 
 and bade farewell to the University. He left 
 behind him a small circle of friends, including 
 Weekes and Crew, and a rather heavy burden of 
 debts. In the second report of the Historical 
 
 ^ Mullinger, op. cit.^ vol. ii. p. 414. 
 53 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 Manuscripts Commission (1870), Mr H. T. Riley 
 published certain documents preserved at Trinity 
 Hall, included among which are entries in the 
 Steward's Book of debts owing to the college by 
 •* Robert Herricke." The entries are for the 
 years 1623 and 1630, and the sums owed are 
 £Zy 17s. 7d. for the former year, and 
 £10, 1 6s. 9d. for the latter. Dr Grosart 
 attempted to father these debts upon another 
 Robert Herrick, the poet's cousin, and second son 
 of Sir William Herrick. But there is nothing to 
 show that this youth, who passed through Christ 
 Church, Oxford, and Lincoln's Inn, was ever 
 a member of Trinity Hall, or, indeed, of the 
 University of Cambridge. The probability is, 
 therefore, that Mr Riley was right in his identifica- 
 tion, and what we know of the poet's impecuni- 
 osity at the University supports this view. 
 
 54 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 " SEALED OF THE TRIBE OF BEN " 
 
 TH E twelve years which elapse between 
 Herrick's graduation at Cambridge 
 in 1617, and his induction as vicar 
 of Dean Prior in 1629, form one of 
 the most obscure periods in his long life. This 
 obscurity enjoins wary walking on the part of a 
 biographer. At no other point in the story is the 
 temptation to lay undue weight upon a slender 
 thread of evidence so great. In attempting to 
 unravel the tangled thread of these all-important 
 years, almost our only clue is that afforded by 
 the poet himself, and, as a single instance will 
 show, Herrick plays fast and loose with the 
 would-be chroniclers of his life. Because he 
 writes an epitaph on a person — to wit, Prudence 
 Baldwin, the faithful housekeeper of Dean Prior 
 days — and lays her in her "little urn," it must 
 not for a moment be assumed that she is dead ; 
 the parish register at Dean Prior records that 
 she lived at least thirty years after her epitaph 
 was written, saw her octogenarian master put 
 into his little urn, and his pulpit occupied by his 
 successor. The reader, therefore, in following 
 
 55 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 the story of the poet's life during these obscure 
 years, must be prepared to find, instead of the 
 record of estabHshed facts, a long series of more 
 or less plausible suppositions. He will frequently 
 encounter the words "probable" and "not im- 
 possible," and must rest content with these until 
 firmer ground is reached. 
 
 When Herrick left the University in 1617, it 
 is natural to suppose that he made his way back 
 to London. His Cambridge letters tell of visits 
 paid to the capital in undergraduate days, and it 
 was there that most of his friends and relations 
 were settled. It is uncertain whether his mother 
 was still living at Hampton. Some time before 
 1629, the year of her death, she had left that 
 home, and had gone to reside with her married 
 daughter at Brantham in Suffolk.^ His brother 
 Nicholas, however, was residing in London with 
 his wife and family, and several of Herrick's 
 poems point to a close friendship between the 
 brothers. Sir William Herrick, too, probably 
 passed a certain portion of the year at his busi- 
 ness-house in Wood Street, but there is nothing 
 to indicate that his nephew spent much time in 
 his society. With the poet's departure from 
 Cambridge, Sir William Herrick disappears from 
 our view. He lived at Beaumanor until 1653, 
 but we note, without surprise, that he finds no 
 place in the poet's " white temple of my heroes," 
 
 * Metcalfe, Visitation of Suffolk in 161 2. 
 
 56 
 
^"IHP 
 
I^^^^Sealed of the Tribe of Ben" 
 
 the ** eternal calendar " which promises im- 
 mortality to so many persons bearing the poet's 
 name. Various relations on his mother's side 
 — the families of Stone and Soame of whom 
 we shall hear more presently — were also either 
 residing- in London, or in some way connected 
 with it. 
 
 As we saw in the preceding chapter, it seems 
 to have been Herrick's purpose during the latter 
 portion of his stay at Cambridge to take up a 
 legal career as soon as he had finished with the 
 University. How far he carried this project is 
 uncertain ; his name does not appear on the 
 register of the Inner or Middle Temple, Gray's 
 Inn, or Lincoln's Inn, though some of the poems 
 in the Hesperides show that he numbered 
 amongst his friends several persons intimately 
 associated with the law. In any case, he had, 
 by the year 1627 at the latest, abandoned the 
 law for the church. We have no knowledge of 
 the date of his ordination, and it is particularly 
 unfortunate that in Dr M. Hutton's Extracts 
 from the Registers of the Bishop of London, 
 preserved in the Manuscript Room at the British 
 Museum (Harleian MSS., 6955-6), and giving a 
 list of clergymen ordained within the London 
 diocese, there is an hiatus for the years 1620-7. 
 It is probable, however, that his ordination did 
 not take place long before 1627, when he was 
 appointed chaplain to the Duke of Buckingham 
 
 57 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 on his military expedition to the Isle of Rhe. 
 We have, accordingly, a period of no less than 
 ten years, during which we learn nothing of 
 Herrick except what he chooses to tell us in his 
 poems. These make it clear that he moved 
 freely at this time in some of the most important 
 circles of London life, was intimate with city 
 fathers and their wives, with noblemen and 
 noblewomen, with musicians, men of letters, and 
 men of law ; but, in spite of his many friendships, 
 his name has as yet been sought in vain among 
 the printed and unprinted records of the period. 
 There is no mention of him prior to 1629 in any 
 of the State Papers, or in any of the valuable 
 collections of records published by the Historical 
 Manuscripts Commission, with the exception of 
 that reference to his debts at Trinity Hall, 
 already alluded to. The letter-writers of the 
 time are also silent concerning him. James 
 Howell, who, when in London, moved in the 
 same circles as Herrick, and, like him, was able 
 to subscribe himself ** son and servitor" to Ben 
 Jonson, never mentions his name in his Familiar 
 Letters. 
 
 It would also be interesting to know how the 
 impecunious Cambridge student of former years 
 managed to meet the expenses of fashionable 
 London life during the whole of this period. We 
 know that he had patrons like Endymion Porter, 
 Mildmay Fane, Earl of Westmorland, and the 
 
 58 
 
'' Sealed of the Tribe of Ben " 
 
 princely Philip, Earl of Pembroke, who supplied 
 him with what he happily calls ''the oil of 
 maintenance " ; but at what period in his career 
 he first won their patronage is uncertain. 
 But whether he obtained some lucrative appoint- 
 ment at Court or elsewhere, or was dependent 
 for his sustenance on patrons and rich relations, 
 or whether he had learnt Mrs Rawdon Crawley's 
 art of living well on nothing a year, one thing is 
 certain : there is throughout his poems, which tell 
 us so much of his state of mind and body, no 
 mention of poverty until we reach the time of his 
 ejection from Dean Prior in 1647. He has left 
 us no '' Compleynt to his Purse," and even hastens 
 to assure his readers in his Fa^^ewell unto Poetry} 
 which was almost certainly written in 1629, that 
 it is not lack of money which leads him to the 
 priesthood. Apostrophising the muse of poetry 
 as the almighty nature that gives 
 
 Food, 
 White fame and resurrection to the good, 
 
 he earnestly bids her turn from him at this crisis 
 in his career : 
 
 But unto me be only hoarse, since now 
 (Heaven and my soul bear record of my vow) 
 I my desires screw from thee, and direct 
 Them and my thoughts to that sublim'd respect 
 And conscience unto priesthood ; V/V not need 
 
 ^ Poems not included in the Hesperides^ Pollard, ii. 263. 
 59 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 (The scarecrow tmto mankind) that doth breed 
 Wiser conclusions in me^ since I know 
 Tve more to bear my charge than way to go ; 
 Or had I not, I'd stop the spreading itch 
 Of craving more, so in conceit be rich. 
 But 'tis the God of Nature who intends 
 And shapes my function for more glorious ends.^ 
 
 The story of Herrick's London years, as far 
 as we can piece it together by the help of his 
 poems, is the story of his friendships. His 
 friends were many, and thanks to the geniahty 
 of his nature, to which his poems bear abundant 
 testimony, he moved freely in circles somewhat 
 widely separated from each other. The circle 
 which he would most naturally enter when he 
 first came up from Cambridge was that of his 
 own family — the circle of prosperous city 
 merchants, alderman uncles and lady mayoress 
 aunts. On his mother's side were the " honoured 
 kinsmen " to whom some of the Hesperides poems 
 are addressed — Sir William Soame, his brother 
 Sir Thomas, who at a later period held the posts 
 of Sheriff of London and Middlesex, Lord Mayor 
 of London and M. P. for the city ; also Mr Stephen 
 Soame, the son of either Sir William or Sir 
 Thomas, and Sir Richard Stone. On his father's 
 side there were, in addition to his merchant 
 brother Nicholas, his wife and family — to whom, 
 according to Nichols' History of Leicester's hire, 
 
 ^ ii. 265. 
 60 
 
"f 
 
 Sealed of the Tribe of Ben " 
 
 no less than seven poems are addressed ^ — the 
 various branches of the family of Wheeler, one 
 member of which, John Wheeler the goldsmith, 
 had married a daughter of Mr Robert Herrick of 
 Leicester, the poet's uncle. Towards one of the 
 Wheelers he seems to have felt something deeper 
 than kinship. This was Elizabeth Wheeler, who 
 may, perhaps, be identified with the Elizabeth, 
 daughter of Edmund Wheeler, that was baptized 
 in St Vedast's Church, Foster Lane, on July 20, 
 1589. He celebrates her beauty in three of his 
 most graceful poems (Nos. 130, 263, 1068), woo- 
 ing her, somewhat after the manner of the 
 pastoralists, under the name of Amaryllis. 
 
 If Herrick was free of the society of city 
 merchants, their wives and pretty daughters, he 
 also had access to the literary circles of the time, 
 and forgathered with poets and wits in the 
 London taverns. His open sesame to this 
 society was, of course, his poetry, which was now 
 poured forth in no stinting measure. Of the 
 delight which he found in this tavern life, and 
 of his willingness to " let the canakin clink," 
 there can be no question. H is bacchanalian verses 
 and his anacreontics in praise of a life of boon 
 
 ^ These are the following : To his Brother, Nicholas Herrick^ 
 (iioo) ; To his Sister-in-law, Susanna Herrick isil) ; Upon his 
 Kinswoman, Mistress Elizabeth Herrick {yjd) \ To his Kinsman, 
 Tho7nas Herrick (983) ; To his Kinswoman, Mistress Susa7ina 
 Herrick (522) ; Upon his Kinswoman, Mistress Bridget Herrick 
 (564) ; To his Nephew to be prosperous in Painting (384). 
 
 61 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 fellowship are many and whole-hearted, while his 
 Ode for Ben Jonson (911) is an eloquent tribute 
 of his devotion to the *' father " who presided over 
 his ** sons and servitors " at those 
 
 Lyric feasts, 
 Made at the Sun, 
 The Dog, the Triple Tun. 
 
 Many of the most distinguished men of the age 
 were included among the frequenters of these 
 taverns. Of poets and dramatists, in addition to 
 Jonson and Herrick, there were Field, Brome, 
 Cartwright, Randolph, Suckling and Waller ; 
 statesmanship and diplomacy were represented 
 by Lord Falkland, Edward Hyde, and Sir 
 Kenelm Digby ; the church sent George Morley, 
 the future Bishop of Winchester, and Richard 
 Corbet, the future Bishop of Oxford and Nor- 
 wich. From the Leges Conviviales, which were 
 engraved in letters of gold upon black marble 
 above the chimney-piece in the Apollo Chamber 
 in the tavern of The Devil and St Dunstan, 
 Temple Bar, we learn that ladies were not 
 excluded from the revels, — 
 
 " Nee lectae foeminge repudiantor "— 
 
 but the doors were shut fast against the dullard, 
 the lewd fop, and the whey-faced precisian : 
 
 " Idiota, insulsus, tristis, turpis abesto." 
 
 In this congenial society Herrick's muse was 
 
 not idle. We learn from one of his poems, His 
 
 62 
 
r 
 
 ' Sealed of the Tribe of Ben " 
 
 Lachrymae (371), written years afterwards at 
 Dean Prior, that he was known to his comrades 
 of these London days as '^ the music of a feast ; " 
 and it is likely enough that many of his bacch- 
 analian and anacreontic verses, including the 
 magnificent lines. To Live Merrily and trust to 
 Good Verses (201), were specially indited for the 
 ears of the chosen comrades who met in the 
 Apollo Chamber, or at the Sun, the Dog, or the 
 Triple Tun. Towards Ben Jonson himself his 
 feelings were ever loyal and devout. When the 
 *' Master " died in 1 637, Herrick did not contribute 
 anything to the volume of memorial verses, en- 
 titled Jonsonus Virbius, which was edited by 
 Bishop Duppa in 1638, and which consisted of 
 tributes paid to the dead poet's memory by a 
 vast number of members of the *' tribe." But the 
 Devonshire vicar was by no means silent on 
 that occasion. His Ode for Ben Jonson, already 
 referred to, and his epigram upon him, beginning 
 ** After the rare arch-poet, Jonson, died " (382), 
 equal in the expression of admiration, as they 
 surpass in poetic worth, any of the poems in- 
 cluded m Jonsonus Virbius. The truth is — and 
 it is one to which we shall have to return later — 
 that Herrick recognised himself as the ** arch- 
 poet's " son in a very special manner : Jonson was 
 his father as head of the tribe of which he had 
 
 I been sealed a member, but he was also his 
 poetic father, to whom he looked for guidance in 
 
 I 
 I 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 the composition of his verses. It is in this spirit 
 of discipleship that one of the airiest of his lyrics, 
 his Prayer to Ben Jonson, is written (604) : — 
 
 When I a verse shall make, 
 
 Know I have pray'd thee, 
 For old religion's sake, 
 
 Saint Ben, to aid me. 
 
 Make the way smooth for me, 
 
 When I, thy Herrick, 
 Honouring thee, on my knee 
 
 Offer my lyric. 
 
 Candles I'll give to thee, 
 
 And a new altar, 
 And thou, Saint Ben, shalt be 
 
 Writ in my Psalter. 
 
 Herrick's devotion to Jonson was apparently of 
 an exclusive nature ; of the other members of 
 the tribe, and of contemporary men of letters 
 outside of it, he tells us very little. He con- 
 tributed a commendatory poem to the 1647 edition 
 of Beaumont and Fletcher's works, but there is 
 nothing to indicate that he was acquainted with 
 either of these dramatists. He honoured Selden, 
 Denham and Charles Cotton with verses, 
 and seems to have been on intimate terms with 
 the last named ; but of Suckling, Carew, 
 Randolph, and the other stars in the Caroline 
 firmament, there is no mention. 
 
 Apart from Jonson, it would seem as though 
 64 
 

 "Sealed of the Tribe of Ben" 
 
 Herrick lived on more intimate terms with the 
 musicians of Charles's court than with the 
 courtier-poets and other men of letters. This 
 was largely due to the fact that several of the 
 lyrics in the Hesperides and Noble Numbers 
 were written with the express purpose of being 
 set to music and sung before the King in White- 
 hall. This brought him into touch with both 
 William and Henry Lawes, and also with other 
 leading musicians of the time, Robert Ramsay 
 and Nicholas Laniere. To each of the two 
 brothers, William and Henry Lawes, Herrick 
 devotes a poem (No. 907 and 851), and the 
 language in which he addresses them is full of 
 cordiality. 
 
 A study of the published song-books of the 
 seventeenth century discloses the fact that about a 
 dozen of the songs of the Hesperides were set to 
 music by Henry or William Lawes. In Henry 
 Lawes's three books of Ayres and Dialogues, 
 published from 1653 onwards, we find the follow- 
 ing : — " To a Gentlewoman objecting to his 
 Gray Hairs" (164), "The Primrose" (580), 
 ** Leander's Obsequies" (119), "The Bag of 
 the Bee" (92), and the dialogue-poem entitled 
 ^^"The Kiss" (329). Most of these reappear in 
 ■■John Playford's Treasury of Music ^ published in 
 '* 1669, together with the following : " To Elizabeth 
 Wheeler, under the name of the Lost Shep- 
 herdess " (263), *' The Willow Garland " (425), and 
 E 65 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 the famous song ** To Anthea — Bid me to Live " 
 (267). The composer of the music in the case 
 of each of the above lyrics was Henry Lawes. 
 His brother WilHam set to music '* To the 
 Virgins to make much of Time" (208), better 
 known as "Gather ye Rosebuds," and the two 
 dialogue-poems, "Charon and Philomel" (730) 
 and "The New Charon" (ii. p. 270) ; these also 
 find a place in Playford's collection, together 
 with the lyric, " How Lilies came White (190)," 
 set to music by Nicholas Laniere. 
 
 Very little reference has so far been made to 
 Herrick's love-poems, and it is now time to turn 
 our attention to the "lovely mistresses," the 
 "fresh and fragrant mistresses," to whom these 
 are addressed, or whose freshness and fragrance 
 they celebrate. The gift of verse, which opened to 
 him the doors of the Apollo Chamber at Temple 
 Bar, also made him a persona grata with some 
 of the Stuart beauties. One of these, " Mistress 
 Katherine Bradshaw, the lovely," seems on one 
 occasion to have placed a laurel wreath upon his 
 brow, and to have won for herself thereby that 
 amaranthine wreath which the poet promises to 
 all who are enshrined in his verses.^ His "mis- 
 tresses," as the most casual reader of his poems 
 must be aware, are many. Here are some of 
 them : — 
 
 1 To Mistress Katherine Bradshaw, the lovely, that crowned 
 him with Laurel (224). 
 
 66 
 
" Sealed of the Tribe of Ben '' 
 
 Upon the Loss of his Mistresses (39). 
 
 I have lost, and lately, these 
 Many dainty mistresses : 
 Stately Julia, prime of all : 
 Sappho next, a principal : 
 Smooth Anthea, for a skin 
 White, and heaven-like crystalline : 
 Sweet Electra, and the choice 
 Myrrha, for the lute and voice : 
 Next Corinna, for her wit, 
 And the graceful use of it : 
 With Perilla : all are gone ; 
 Only Herrick's left alone 
 For to number sorrow by 
 Their departures hence, and die. 
 
 The list is extensive, but by no means com- 
 plete. Elsewhere we meet with Lucia, with 
 whom he plays at stool-ball for sugar-cakes and 
 wine ; Dianeme, from whose finger he sucks the 
 sting of a '' fretful bee," moralising as he does it ; 
 Biancha, whom, when he is blind, he will be able 
 to follow by her perfumes ; Perenna, who is 
 invited to dress his tomb with smallage,^ cypress- 
 twigs and tears ; Phillis, whom he invites to share 
 the sweets of a country life with him ; Silvia, the 
 patient saint, and Oenone. To these, finally, 
 must be added the ladies with real names to whom 
 he professes love — Mistress Elizabeth Wheeler, 
 his kinswoman ; Mistress Dorothy Parsons, the 
 daughter of the organist at Westminster Abbey ; 
 Mistress Amy Potter, the daughter of his pre- 
 
 ^ Water parsley. 
 
 67 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 decessor in the living at Dean Prior ; and Mistress 
 Dorothy Keneday. Some of Herrick's critics, 
 placing charity above truth, would have us 
 believe that these mistress-poems belong ex- 
 clusively to the poet's ''wild, unhallowed times," 
 before he took orders, but there is surprisingly 
 little to adduce in proof of such a theory ; it is, 
 indeed, almost certain that some of them are to 
 be associated with his life in Devonshire. The 
 references in these poems to grey hairs, advanc- 
 ing years, and the approach of death, do not, of 
 course, count for much in determining their 
 date ; lyric poets from Anacreon onwards have 
 at all times loved to dwell on such things. But 
 there is one poem, obviously written only a 
 few years before the publication of HesperideSy 
 which sufficiently refutes the idea that Julia, 
 Anthea, Corinna, and all the other *' dainty 
 mistresses," belong exclusively to the London 
 years. The poem is entitled The Bad Season 
 makes the Poet Sad (612) and reads as follows : — 
 
 Dull to myself, and almost dead to these 
 My many fresh and fragrant mistresses : 
 Lost to all music now, since every thing 
 Puts on the semblance here of sorrowing. 
 Sick is the land to the heart, and doth endure 
 More dangerous faintings by her desp'rate cure. 
 But if that golden age would come again. 
 And Charles here rule, as he before did reign ; 
 If smooth and unperplexed the seasons were. 
 As when the sweet Maria lived here \ 
 68 
 
I 
 
 Sealed of the Tribe of Ben*' 
 
 I should delight to have my curls half drown'd 
 In Tyrian dews, and head with roses crown'd ; 
 And once more yet, ere I am laid out dead, 
 Knock at a star with my exalted head. 
 
 This poem evidently belongs to the period of 
 the Civil War, when Queen Henrietta Maria was 
 abroad, and the power of Charles was tottering 
 to its fall. It is hard, too, to believe that the 
 most beautiful of all his mistress-poems, 
 Corinna s going a-Maying (178), could have been 
 written amid London associations. The atmos- 
 phere of the poem is that of the country, and 
 the charm with which the poet has invested his 
 description of the May-day festival accords with 
 the life of Dean Prior rather than with that of 
 Westminster or the taverns of the City. 
 
 A more difficult point to determine is that of 
 the reality, or unreality, of these many mistresses. 
 Are they real women whom Herrick knew and 
 paid court to, or are they dream-children, created 
 by a poet's fancy, and calling no man father ? 
 Mr Edmund Gosse has discussed this matter at 
 some length in his essay on Herrick in Seventeenth 
 Century Studies, but most of the poet's editors 
 have refrained from expressing any very definite 
 opinion. Mr Gosse refuses to believe in Perilla, 
 Silvia, Anthea, and the deae minores, but has a very 
 real faith in Julia of the ''black eyes, double chin, 
 and strawberry-cream complexion." ^ He thinks 
 
 ^ Seventeenth Century Studies, p. 123. 
 
 69 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 that she belonged to the poet's Cambridge years,^ 
 and that she died before 1629. He even hints 
 at a serious liaison between the poet and JuHa, 
 and regards her as the mother of the girl to whom 
 is addressed the poem entided Mr Herrick : His 
 Daughter s Dow7y!^ Julia is certainly the mis- 
 tress who produces on our minds the greatest 
 impression of reality, and we may therefore con- 
 sider her first. If she elude our grasp, we may 
 dismiss the remaining mistresses of classic name 
 as airy nothings, without further comment. The 
 poet mentions Julia in some sixty poems of the 
 Hesperides, and confesses that of his ** many 
 dainty mistresses" she is '' prime of all." From 
 her he takes affectionate leave before starting on 
 his voyage^ — the voyage was probably that to 
 the Isle of Rhe in 1627 ; he bids her burn his 
 poems if he shall at his death leave them un- 
 perfected,* and upon her he lays other solemn 
 charges, if she shall outlive him. 
 
 Yet with all this sincerity of utterance and 
 semblance of reality, it is not at all certain that Julia 
 is anything more than a poetic fiction. Though 
 she is celebrated in poem after poem, she leaves 
 upon the mind a very shadowy impression. We 
 hear much of the ruby redness of her lips, the 
 
 ^ Mr Gosse, writing in 1872, believed that Herrick remained at 
 Cambridge until appointed vicar of Dean Prior. 
 ^ "Poems not included in Hesperides," Pollard, ii. 260. 
 ^ His Sailing frojn Julia (35). 
 * His Request to Julia (59). 
 
 70 
 
r 
 
 I 
 
 Sealed of the Tribe of Ben " 
 
 candour " of her teeth, the perfumes she ex- 
 hales and the clothes she wears ; but when we 
 try to form a conception of her as a real woman 
 we fail. There are, too, strange inconsistencies 
 in what the poet tells us of her. Often enough 
 she appears as a light o' love, and is addressed in 
 language which is grossly sensual ; but in the 
 curious poem, Julias Churching, or Purification 
 (898), she comes before us as a chaste matron, 
 making her way to church with her monthly 
 nurse ! But what strikes us most in the love- 
 poems to Julia and her rivals is the complete 
 absence of anything like incident or drama. 
 There is no development in the poet's amours, 
 no inrush of hot jealousy, no satiety, no quarrel- 
 ling, no reconciliation. The poet, in spite of his 
 fourteen mistresses, has no rivals who seek to 
 rob him of his love. We have, indeed, only to 
 compare, in this respect, Herrick's mistress- 
 poems with those of other poets in whose case 
 we know that the love and the loved ones are 
 real, in order to appreciate this difference. 
 Catullus's love for Lesbia can be traced exactly 
 through its different stages — passionate yearning, 
 full fruition, disillusionment and jealousy, ending 
 in bitter loathing — and something like this 
 dramatic development is found in some of the 
 love-poetry of Elizabethan poets — for instance, in 
 the love-elegies of Donne. Is it not, too, the 
 presence of this dramatic development which 
 
 71 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 makes the love-story of Shakespeare's Sonnets 
 seem so real? But of all this there is nothing 
 in the Hesperides, v The poet loves and is loved. 
 His placid, passionless mistresses accept his 
 gallant advances in silence and appear to him in 
 his dreams ; they fall sick and recover ; they 
 object to his grey hairs, but crown his head with 
 roses ; they find him growing old and infirm, 
 but love him none the less. And all this applies 
 to Julia just as much as to any of the other 
 mistresses. He entreats her to close his eyes 
 when death overtakes him, and follow him with 
 tears to the grave ; but he asks Perilla to perform 
 the same service for him, and forgets that the 
 presence of two such rivals at a clergyman's 
 bedside and tomb might be a cause of scandal. 
 
 Again, do not these fanciful classical names of 
 Herrick's mistresses, when set over against the 
 real names of Elizabeth Wheeler, Dorothy 
 Keneday, and Amy Potter, to whom also the 
 poet protests his love, suggest the fictitious char- 
 acter of those who bear them ? We have no 
 reason to doubt the genuineness of his affection 
 for the latter, though its ardour does not seem to 
 have been lasting. There is, indeed, a fervour in 
 the poem entitled His Parting from Mistress 
 Dorothy Keneday (^122), which is rarely met with 
 in the verses addressed to Julia. 
 
 I cannot follow Mr Gosse in his statement that 
 
 the poems to Julia belong exclusively to the 
 
 72 
 
" Sealed of the Tribe of Ben " 
 
 period before the poet's ordination. I believe, 
 on the contrary, that they extend over the whole 
 period of his manhood up to 1648, and that some 
 of them — for instance, His Charge to Julia at his 
 Death (627) — were probably written not long 
 before the publication of Hesperides. Still less 
 can I agree with him in thinking that Julia 
 was the mother of the girl addressed in His 
 Daughter s Dowry} There is absolutely no 
 statement to this effect in the poem itself, and, 
 knowing as we do the poet's love of make-believe, 
 we have a right to question the very existence of 
 this supposed daughter. The poem is not in- 
 cluded in the Hesperides, but has been introduced 
 by modern editors into the collective works of 
 Herrick from Ashmole MS. 38, in the Bodleian.^ 
 It bears at the close of it the poet's signature — 
 " Robt. Hericke," and its style, above all the 
 prevalence of run-on verses, suggests that it is of 
 early date. In casting doubt upon the reality of 
 this daughter, it must be remembered how fond 
 the poet was of setting up lay-figures in order to 
 clothe them with the draperies of his abundant 
 fancy. Among the Hesperides is a poem entitled 
 The Parting Verse, or Charge to his Supposed 
 Wife when he Travelled (465), in which he sets 
 forth in detail the course of life which this lady 
 is to follow during his absence. From first to 
 last the poem is a tissue of pure fantasy. 
 
 ^ See Pollard ii. 260. 
 73 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 There seems to be, therefore, no sufficient 
 reason for supposing that Julia had any more 
 real existence than Corinna, Anthea, or any of 
 the other classically named mistresses to whom 
 the poet makes love. And Herrick, if I read 
 him aright, comes very near to making on one 
 occasion a confession of the counterfeit nature 
 of the poems addressed to her and her rivals : 
 
 To His Book (194). 
 
 Like to a bride, come forth, my book, at last, 
 
 With all thy richest jewels overcast ; 
 
 Say, if there be, 'mongst many gems here, one 
 
 Deserveless of the name of paragon : 
 
 Blush not for that, for we have set 
 
 Some pearls on queens that have been counterfeit. 
 
 We have tarried long over the poet's mistresses, 
 and it is time to hasten on. The Hesperides 
 poems make it clear that, in addition to men of 
 letters and musicians, Herrick also numbered 
 amongst his friends certain country knights, 
 courtiers and court-officials ; that prominent 
 members of the nobility were his patrons, and 
 that some of his lyrics were sung in the royal 
 presence at Whitehall. The poem entitled A 
 New Years Gift to Sir Simon Steivard (319), 
 was probably written in the December of 
 1623 ;^ it is a poetical epistle, apparently written 
 from somewhere in the country to Sir Simon 
 
 ^ See Pollard's Note to this poem. 
 74 
 
" Sealed of the Tribe of Ben ' 
 
 who is in town. The poet, instead of sending 
 his friend political news and discussion of state 
 policy, informs him of 
 
 Winter's tales and mirth, 
 That milkmaids make about the hearth — 
 
 of Christmas sports and Twelfth-tide feasts, and 
 all the other festivites which belong to a Yule- 
 tide in the country. At the same time, he is 
 anxious that he shall not be forgotten by his 
 London friends in his absence. 
 
 Another associate of these years was Sir 
 Lewis Pemberton, a Northamptonshire knight, 
 with a seat at Rushden in that county. Herrick 
 seems to have paid a visit to this country house 
 and gives us in his Panegyric to Sir Lewis 
 Pemberton {^']']^ a glowing picture of the 
 hospitable board of a country knight in the 
 seventeenth century. The contemporary 
 character-writers, who draw their bows at 
 a venture, are fond of ridiculing the country 
 gentleman ''whose travel is seldom farther than 
 the next market-town," who is awkward and out 
 of place in town, and ''must home again, being 
 like a dor that ends his flight in a dunghill."^ 
 But Herrick, while glancing at the churlishness 
 of certain members of the class, pays a warm 
 tribute to the hospitality and inborn kindliness 
 of Sir Lewis. 
 
 1 Sir Thomas Overbury's Characters : " The Country 
 Gentleman." 
 
 75 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 Of Herrick's friends at Court notice may first 
 of all be taken of Edward Norgate, Clerk of the 
 Signet to Charles I., John Crofts, Cupbearer to 
 the King, and Sir John Mennes, the Commander 
 of the Navy, and a minor poet of some fame in 
 his day. To each of these Herrick addresses 
 verses. 
 
 Reference has already been made to the 
 
 noblemen and Court favourites whom Herrick 
 
 reckoned among his patrons — Philip, Earl of 
 
 Pembroke, Mildmay Fane, Earl of Westmorland, 
 
 Robert Pierrepont, Viscount Newark, and Mr 
 
 Endymion Porter, Groom of His Majesty's 
 
 Bedchamber. Of these the most important was 
 
 the last, who seems to have been to Herrick 
 
 what the impecunious undergraduate had vainly 
 
 desired his uncle. Sir William, to be — '*a true 
 
 Maecenas." Porter was, after Buckingham, one 
 
 of the most influential of the King's courtiers. 
 
 Born in 1587, he had been educated in Spain, 
 
 and had served for a time in the household of 
 
 Olivares. Returning to England, he had entered 
 
 the service of the royal favourite, Buckingham, 
 
 and his fortunes had advanced concurrently with 
 
 those of his master. Through Buckingham's 
 
 influence he was made Gentleman of the King's 
 
 Bedchamber about 1620, and when the Spanish 
 
 marriage scheme was afoot, his knowledge of 
 
 Spain led to his being sent thither in 1622 to 
 
 prepare for the arrival of the princely wooer. 
 
 76 
 
I 
 I 
 
 '' Sealed of the Tribe of Ben " 
 
 He returned to England, but in the following 
 year accompanied Prince Charles and Buckingham 
 to Madrid. After the new king's accession, 
 Endymion Porter attained to still higher power 
 and influence. The State Papers have much to 
 relate of the part he took in the affairs of Court 
 and State, and of the princely gifts bestowed 
 upon him by the King. In later years he shared 
 in the misfortunes of his party. After sitting in 
 the Long Parliament as member for Droitwich, 
 he was expelled from that body in 1643 on 
 account of his supposed connection with a popish 
 plot. A little later we find him with Queen 
 Henrietta in Holland ; shortly before the King's 
 death he returned to England, and is supposed 
 to have died obscurely at London in the August 
 of 1649.^ 
 
 It was Porter's ambition, when in the heyday 
 of his fortune, to shine as the patron of men of 
 letters. To him Dekker dedicated his Dream 
 in the year 1620, and Davenant his play, The 
 Wits, in 1634. Thomas May, Edmund Bolton 
 and Gervase Warmestry were amongst his 
 friends, and the last-named, dedicating to him his 
 England's Wound and its Cure in 1628, speaks 
 of him as beloved by two kings : *' by James for 
 
 ^ See State Papers, Domestic, of the reigns of James I. and 
 Charles l.^passhii^ and Dorothea Townshend, The Life a7id Letters 
 of Endymion Porter j also E. B, de Fonblanque, Lives of the 
 Lords Strangford. 
 
 77 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 his admirable wit, and by Charles for his general 
 learning, brave style, sweet temper, great experi- 
 ence, travels and modern languages." That, in 
 addition to these qualities, he was an accomplished 
 connoisseur is attested by the fact that he was 
 one of the agents employed by Charles I. in 
 forming his famous collection of pictures. 
 
 The friendship between Porter and Herrick 
 seems to have been close and honourable. There 
 is no trace of servility in the poet's reference to 
 the wealthy patron at whose porch he finds a 
 ** state of poets " attending upon him.^ He 
 confesses that Porter has given him *' the oil of 
 maintenance," just as Horace owns the gift of 
 the Sabine form from Maecenas, but in acknow- 
 ledging this bounty, he neither flatters nor fawns. 
 The most beautiful of the poems that bring 
 Porter before us is the Eclogue, or Pastoral 
 between Endymion Porter and Lycidas Herrick 
 (492), which is written in the lightest and most 
 graceful manner of the Spenserian school. In 
 it the poet declares himself jealous of the time 
 which his patron and friend is spending at Court, 
 and entreats him to leave those pleasures and 
 distractions for Latmos and the society of 
 Florabell, handsome - handed Drosomell, and 
 dainty Amaryllis. 
 
 The mention of Endymion Porter brings us 
 back to Herrick's earlier friend, John Weekes, 
 
 ^ See To the Honoured Master^ Endymion Porter {1071). 
 
 78 
 
F 
 
 I 
 
 " Sealed of the Tribe of Ben " 
 
 sometime Fellow of St John's College, Cambridge. 
 It is uncertain which of the two men left the 
 University first, but it is probable that they 
 spent some years in London together, and met 
 under Porter's roof. Weekes was for some time 
 Porter's chaplain, and it is possible that it was 
 Herrick who obtained for him this congenial 
 post. In a letter to Porter,^ dated July 5, 1629, 
 Weekes addresses him as '' My deare Patrone ;" 
 and in a second letter, written on October 3, 
 1633, when Weekes, like Herrick, was a parson 
 in Devonshire, he subscribes himself, *'Your 
 epicene chaplaine, both hee and shee, J oh. Weekes 
 and littel b." The jest which lurks in the words 
 " epicene " and ''littel b " is lost to us now, but the 
 tone of the letter enables us to see in Weekes 
 the humourist whose reputation for joviality is 
 recorded by Anthony a Wood. 
 
 It was probably through the instrumentality of 
 Porter that Herrick came under the notice of 
 Porter's patrons, the Duke of Buckingham and 
 the King. It has been suggested by Mr Carew 
 Hazlitt that the poet ''had some employment of 
 a subordinate character at the chapel in White- 
 hall, and we should assign to this period and 
 circumstance the composition of those pieces 
 among the Noble Numbers which bear a relation 
 to that institution." ^ The pieces in question 
 
 ^ See Calendar of State Papers^ DomestiCy 1629-1631, p. 5. 
 2 Introduction to Herrick's Works, p. xv. 
 79 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 are the Christmas Carols and Songs for the 
 Circumcision, which are described as ''sung 
 before the King, in the Presence at Whitehall." 
 Mr Hazlitt's theory also receives some support 
 from the words of the following distich in the 
 Noble Numbers (62) : — 
 
 God and the King 
 
 How am I bound to two ! God, who doth give 
 The mind ; the King, the means whereby I live. 
 
 On the other hand, it may be argued that if 
 Herrick had held a post at court, we might 
 expect to find some reference to it, and some 
 mention of the salary paid to him, among the 
 State Papers of the period. We meet with 
 frequent references of this character in the case 
 of Laniere, Ramsay, William and Henry Lawes, 
 and '* other gentlemen of the chapel," but there 
 is nowhere any mention of Herrick. But what- 
 ever be the relationship in which the poet stood 
 to the court, it is certain that Charles was 
 acquainted with him and his verses, and that 
 some of his lyrics, including poems of a secular 
 as well as of a sacred nature, were sung to 
 him, after being set to music by the royal 
 musicians. Nor did Herrick allow himself to 
 be entirely forgotten by his monarch when 
 residence in his Devonshire parish severed him 
 from the court. He celebrated the births of 
 
 the princes, Charles and James, in 1630 and 1633 
 
 80 
 
r 
 
 " Sealed of the Tribe of Ben " 
 
 respectively, addressed verses to the king during 
 the civil wars, and welcomed him with a son or 
 when, in 1647, he came to reside, under the 
 protection of Cromwell's army, in the royal 
 palace at Hampton Court. 
 
 In the list of Herrick's patrons must also be 
 placed the powerful Duke of Buckingham, 
 though the verses addressed To the high and 
 noble Prince George, Duke, Marquis, and Earl 
 of Buckingha^n (245) show reverent regard 
 rather than intimacy.^ But for some months 
 of the year 1627 it was the poet's lot to spend 
 much time in the duke's company. Early in 
 that year the king had decided to send an expedi- 
 tion to the Isle of Rhe in defence of the French 
 Huguenots, and to Buckingham had been en- 
 trusted the leadership. Encountering numerous 
 difficulties, the ill-starred expedition did not 
 set out until June 27, when some hundred sail, 
 carrying six thousand foot and a hundred horse, 
 left Stokes Bay for the French island. Herrick, 
 who was now probably entrusting his fortunes to 
 the waves for the first time in his life, seems to 
 have regarded the step he was taking with some 
 concern, and we are probably right in ascribing 
 to this occasion the composition of the poems, 
 His Sailing from Julia (35), The Parting Verse, 
 or Charge to his Supposed Wife when he Travelled 
 
 1 Some time after Buckingham's death in 1628, he addresses a 
 poem to the duke's niece, the Lady Mary ViUiers ; see No. 341. 
 F 81 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 (465), and, perhaps, his Sho7't Hymn to Neptune 
 (325). The first of these reads as follows : — 
 
 When that day comes, whose evening says I'm gone 
 
 Unto that watery desolation, 
 
 Devoutly to thy closet-gods then pray 
 
 That my wing'd ship may meet no remora.^ 
 
 Those deities which circum-walk the seas, 
 
 And look upon our dreadful passages, 
 
 Will from all dangers re-deliver me 
 
 For one drink-offering poured out by thee. 
 
 Mercy and truth live with thee ! and forbear, 
 
 In my short absence, to unsluice a tear ; 
 
 But yet for love's sake let thy lips do this. 
 
 Give my dead picture one engendering kiss : 
 
 Work that to life, and let me ever dwell 
 
 In thy remembrance, Julia. So, farewell. 
 
 In Other poems he begs his supposed wife to 
 be a Penelope in his absence from her, and 
 promises that if '' the great blue ruler of the 
 seas " will prove propitious, he will return before 
 many " full-faced moons shall wane." To Neptune 
 he promises a tunny-fish as thank-offering, if he 
 will speed him safely to his destination. 
 
 The various English and French accounts of 
 the ill-fated expedition to the Isle of Rhe which 
 I have seen make no mention of the duke's 
 chaplain. On the French side we hear much of 
 the "vrais dogues d'Angleterre qui devorent leurs 
 semblables," and of their leader '' Bouquincan " 
 
 ^ " Remora^ the sea lamprey, or suckstone, believed to check 
 the course of ships by clinging to their keels " (Pollard). 
 
 82 
 
" Sealed of the Tribe of Ben " 
 
 whose name the Gallic wit of the besieged soldiers 
 anagrammatlses into ''coquin bani." ^ The 
 English State Papers, and the late Professor 
 S. R. Gardiner ^ furnish us with a detailed account 
 of the siege, of the shortage in men and troops, 
 of the delay in sending reinforcements, and of 
 the ignominious return of the English fleet in 
 the following November. The duke's chaplain 
 doubtless saw a good deal of the military opera- 
 tions, and if the poem entitled A Vow to Mars 
 (386) is to be regarded seriously, actually took 
 part in them on one occasion. 
 
 Herrlck's military chaplaincy Indicates that, in 
 the year 1627 at the latest, he had finally decided 
 to enter the service of the Church. On his return 
 from the Isle of Rhe — " or, as some call it, the 
 Isle of Rue, for the bitter success we had 
 there " ^ — he was within measurable distance of 
 his '^ banishment " to the "loathed West," but 
 before we follow him there, it will be well to form 
 a conception of his personality during these years 
 of London life. The naive self-portraiture of 
 Herrick in his verses atones to some extent for 
 the meagreness of external evidence as to his 
 life and character. Those verses help us to 
 follow the poet along his primrose path of dalli- 
 
 1 See " Lettre du Baron de Sainct Surin k un sien amy dans 
 I'armee du Roy. Ecritte de la Citadelle S. Martin de R^ ce lo 
 Septembre (1627)." 
 
 2 History of England^ 1603- 1642, vol. vi. p. 167. 
 ^Howell, Familiar Letters^ ed. Jacobs, I. 250. 
 
 83 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 ance, enjoying to the full the pleasures of 
 London society, and taking no thought for 
 the morrow : 
 
 I fear no earthly powers, 
 But care for crowns of flowers ; 
 And love to have my beard 
 With wine and oil besmeared. 
 This day I'll drown all sorrow ; 
 Who knows to live to-morrow ? i 
 
 This is the cry of the anacreontic lyrist all the 
 world over, and in Herrick's case, at least, there 
 is no reason to doubt that, during these London 
 years, the sentiment was genuine and spontaneous. 
 The same thoughts and feelings recur in the ode 
 entitled *' His Age, dedicated to his peculiar 
 friend, Mr John Wickes (Weekes), under the 
 name of Posthumus " (336). Here there is 
 wistful regret for the years that are no more, and 
 a foreboding that worse times are to follow ; but 
 the poet refuses to give way to gloomy thoughts, 
 and, so far from experiencing sorrow's crown of 
 sorrow, feasts rapturously on past memories, 
 washed down with copious draughts of "brave 
 Burgundian wine " : 
 
 Crown we our heads with roses then. 
 And 'noint with Tyrian balm ; for when 
 We two are dead. 
 The world with us is buried. 
 
 ^No. 170. 
 
 84 
 
'^ Sealed of the Tribe of Ben '* 
 
 Then live we free 
 As is the air, and let us be 
 Our own fair wind, and mark each one 
 Day with the white and lucky stone. 
 
 As a picture of the poet's manner of life at the time 
 when it was written, and of the golden days that 
 had gone before, the poem is of great value. It is 
 the Herrick of the taverns that is revealed, the 
 " music of a feast," whose lyrics win the applause 
 of Jonson himself and of every other member of 
 the tribe. Elsewhere he stands before us as the 
 squire of dames ; he is many times entertained 
 by " the most virtuous Mistress Pot," and, as is 
 his wont, rewards her with a poem and a declara- 
 tion that she is the ''lamp eternal to my poetry " ; ^ 
 to another of his ladies he sends not only a string 
 of verses but also ** a pipkin of jelly," which 
 inspires the verses.^ His mistress-poems are 
 full of all sorts of gallantry, and, as the verses to 
 the Countess of Carlisle (169) — the heroine of 
 Browning's Strafford — show, he could pay a 
 compliment to a high-born noblewoman with the 
 fine grace of the consummate cavalier : 
 
 I saw about her spotless wrist 
 Of blackest silk, a curious twist, 
 Which, circumvolving gently, there 
 Enthrall'd her arm as prisoner. 
 Dark was the gaol, but as if light 
 Had met t' engender with the night ; 
 
 1 To Mistress Pot (226). 
 
 2 A Tertiary of Littles (733). 
 
 85 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 Or so as darkness made a star, 
 
 To show at once both night and day. 
 
 One fancy more ! but if there be 
 
 Such freedom in captivity, 
 
 I beg of Love that ever I 
 
 May in like chains of darkness lie.^ 
 
 The year 1629 brought with it a great change 
 in the poet's circumstances and manner of Hfe. 
 The essenced cavalier, the sealed member of the 
 tribe of Ben, became the country parson, and 
 exchanged the gay society of London and the 
 Court for a vicarage and ninety-three acres of 
 glebe. Late in the summer of that year he lost 
 his mother, who had been spending the last 
 years of her life in the comfortable home of her 
 daughter, Mercy Wingfield, at Brantham in Suf- 
 folk. Of the poet's relations with her we know 
 nothing, and speculation on such a matter is 
 particularly undesirable. She left him in her 
 will a ring of the value of twenty shillings, a like 
 gift being made to her son Nicholas and her 
 daughter-in-law, the wife of William Herrick. 
 To her son Thomas, whose financial difficulties 
 as a farmer have already been mentioned, she 
 left nothing; he may have died before 1629. 
 She bequeathed ;^ioo to her son William, but 
 most of her property went to the daughter in 
 whose house she died. Her various legacies to 
 
 * upon a black twist rounding the arm of the Countess of 
 Carlisle (169). 
 
 86 
 
r 
 
 I 
 
 " Sealed of the Tribe of Ben " 
 
 friends and servants, and to the poor of Brantham, 
 show that she was possessed of fairly ample 
 means at the time of her death. ^ 
 
 Very soon after his mother's funeral, Herrick 
 set out for Devonshire. A docquet, preserved 
 among the domestic series of State Papers in the 
 Public Record Office, and endorsed September 
 30, 1629, furnishes us with the following informa- 
 tion : — 
 
 ** A presentacon to the vicarige of Deane- 
 Prior in the dioces of Exeter for Robert Hearick, 
 Gierke, and M"^ of Arts, the same being void 
 by the promocon of the last Incumbent to the 
 Bishoprick of Carlile. Subscr upon significacon 
 of his Ma^^ pleasure by the Lord Viscount 
 Dorchester, and procured by his Lo^. 
 
 p. Gall." 
 
 The living of Dean Prior was in the hands of 
 Sir Edward Giles, the lord of the manor there, 
 but as Dr Potter had been promoted to a 
 bishopric, the right of presenting a successor 
 reverted to the King ; the inference therefore is 
 that Herrick owed his living to Charles. There 
 was apparently some slight delay in the negotia- 
 tions, for among the State Papers we meet with 
 the following, which is in Herrick's own neat 
 handwriting, and which furnishes us with the 
 
 ^ The will is transcribed verbatim in Grosart's Memorial Intro- 
 duction^ p. Ixxxiv. 
 
 87 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 valuable information as to the poet's service 
 under Buckingham in the Isle of Rh6 : — • 
 
 '' To the Kinges most excellent Majesty : The 
 humble peticon of Robert Hericke, Chaplayne 
 to the late Duke of Buckingham in the Isle of 
 Reis. Whereas yt was yo'^ Ma*^ especiall favour 
 to bestow on y* peticoer the vicaridge of Deane, 
 by y^ remoovall of Doctor Potter to y'' B^p^ of 
 Carlyle. It may now please yo"" most sacred 
 Ma^y (the Commenda granted to him by yo' Ma^^ 
 being expired this present Mictias) that yo'' 
 sov^'aigne command may goe forth to the 
 signature for the dispatch of the peticoer, 
 who shall ever pray for yo' Ma*^ longe and 
 happie raigne. 
 
 — Ccetera mando Deo." 
 
 A further confirmation of Herrick's appoint- 
 ment to the Devonshire living is found in the 
 nineteenth volume of Rymer's Foedera where, in 
 a list of preferments for the year 1629, we 
 read : — 
 
 **Robertus Hearick, Clericus, A.M., habet 
 consimiles Literas Patentes de presentatione ad 
 Vicariamde Deane Prior, Diocesis Exoniensis,jam 
 legittime et de jure vacantem." 
 
 If one of Herrick's poems is to be believed — 
 
 and there is in it an accent of sincerity and real 
 
 88 
 
I 
 
 I 
 
 '' Sealed of the Tribe of Ben '' 
 
 emotion which is rarely met with elsewhere — it 
 is manifest that he realised to the full the serious- 
 ness of the step which he was now taking, and 
 the lofty duties of the services to which he was 
 dedicating his life and his powers. It was one 
 thing to be chaplain to the Duke of Buckingham ; 
 another, and a very different thing, to be the 
 spiritual guide and pastor of a village community. 
 In the Ashmole MS. 2>^, which contains several 
 of Herrick's poems, is a copy of verses entitled 
 Mr Robert Her rick : His Farewell unto Poetry,^ 
 and it was Dr Grosart who first pointed out the 
 importance of these verses in their bearing on the 
 poet's life and character, and drew attention to 
 the fact that they were written when he was 
 leaving London for Dean Prior. Some of the 
 verses of this poem have already been quoted 
 (see p. 59) as evidence of the poet's freedom from 
 poverty during his London years ; but it behoves 
 us now to consider the poem as a whole more 
 closely. The underlying idea of it is that 
 Herrick feels it his duty, now that he is taking 
 upon him the cure of souls, to bid farewell to 
 poetry, save only in as far as it can be applied 
 to the noble numbers of sacred song. The part- 
 ing is hard, for the muse of poetry has been the 
 yoke-fellow of his life, filling him with rapture 
 and mystic frenzy : — 
 
 ^ There is another copy of the same poem, with a few variants, 
 in the British Museum, Add. MS. 22, 603. 
 
 89 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 Even such are we, and in our parting do 
 
 No otherwise than as those former two 
 
 Natures like ours ; we who have spent our time 
 
 Both from the morning to the evening chime, 
 
 Nay, till the bellman of the night had tolled 
 
 Past noon of night — yet were the hours not old 
 
 Nor dulled with iron sleep — but have outworn 
 
 The fresh and fairest flourish of the morn 
 
 With flame and rapture ; drinking to the odd 
 
 Number of nine, which makes us full with God. 
 
 And in that mystic frenzy we have hurled. 
 
 As with a tempest, nature through the world. 
 
 And in a whirlwind twirl'd her home, aghast 
 
 At that which in her ecstasy had passed ; 
 
 Thus crowned with rosebuds, sack, thou mad'st me fly. 
 
 Like fire-drakes, yet didst me no harm thereby.^ 
 
 But now he turns from poetry and bids her be 
 hoarse to him. The God of Nature is now 
 shaping his powers for more glorious ends, and 
 he is entering a higher sphere of service than 
 that of the muses of HeHcon. He casts upon 
 his mistress the wistful eyes of Orpheus as he 
 turned to look upon his Eurydice, or those of 
 Demosthenes and Cicero as they fixed their 
 gaze upon the fatherland from which they were 
 banished ; and then, with tears starting from his 
 eyes, bids her farewell : — 
 
 Then part in name of peace, and softly on 
 With numerous ^ feet to hoofy Helicon ; 
 
 ^ Poems not included in Hesperides ; Pollard ii. 264. 
 2 Numerous = moving in rhythmic numbers. 
 90 
 
Sealed of the Tribe of Ben'' 
 
 And when thou art upon that forked hill 
 Amongst the thrice three sacred virgins, fill 
 A full-brim m'd bowl of fury and of rage, 
 And quaff it to the poets of our age . . . 
 Thus with a kiss of warmth and love I part, 
 Not so, but that some relic in my heart 
 Shall stand for ever, though I do address 
 Chiefly myself to what I must profess. 
 Know yet, rare soul, when my diviner muse 
 Shall want a handmaid, as she oft will use, 
 Be ready, thou for me, to wait upon her. 
 Though as a servant, yet a maid of honour. 
 The crown of duty is our duty : well 
 Doing's the fruit of doing well. Farewell. 
 
 91 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 DEAN PRIOR 
 
 DEAN PRIOR, to which Herrick was 
 "banished" in the autumn of 1629, 
 is a parish of about four thousand 
 acres, situated on the south-eastern 
 slopes of Dartmoor. The high-road from 
 Exeter to Plymouth passes through the scattered 
 village, and within a five miles' radius of Herrick's 
 church lie the ancient townships of Totnes and 
 Ashburton. Modern civilisation, as represented 
 by railways and factories, has laid the lightest 
 of fingers upon Dean Prior, and to this day the 
 village, though somewhat shrunk in size and 
 importance, presents to the visitor very much 
 the same appearance that it did to Herrick on 
 his arrival there in 1629. Many of the cottages 
 still retain their thatched roofs and penthouses, 
 their open hearths and massive chimneys ; and 
 though the manor-houses have been shorn of 
 much of their former splendour, they have at 
 any rate been spared the hand of the modern 
 renovator. Age, so far from withering their 
 pristine beauty, has enhanced it by the mellowed 
 
 colours of stone and woodwork. Ivy, roses, and 
 
 92 
 
Dean Prior 
 
 honeysuckle creep over the cottages, and the 
 Httle roadside gardens are still gay with the 
 flowers which we meet with in the Hesperides — 
 daffodils, primroses, violets, and wallflowers, the 
 crimson paeony, and the stately white lily. In 
 the valley are water-meadows, each meadow 
 irrigated in the characteristic Devonian manner 
 >y 'Meats" which bring fertility from the 
 Dartmoor streams ; and above these, climbing 
 upwards towards the heather moors, are the 
 cornfields, the bright red earth of which glows 
 in the early spring sunshine. 
 
 But the chief beauty of the village lies in its 
 apple orchards, which creep close to the church 
 and the cottages and follow the devious windings 
 of Dean Burn. For six months of the year the 
 trees are grey with ragged lichen, but in the first 
 warm days of May, the greyness is hidden 
 beneath sheets of rosy '' blooth," to be followed, 
 as spring and summer merge into autumn, by 
 clusters of golden fruit. There is no more 
 characteristic feature of the combes of South 
 Devon than these apple orchards, and they 
 must at the same time have recalled to Herrick's 
 mind the 
 
 uda 
 Mobilibus pomaria rivis 
 
 of Horace's Tibur, and thus have led him to 
 compare his Devonshire glebe with the Sabine 
 farm of the famous Roman lyrist. 
 
 93 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 Dean Burn, to which Herrick has given 
 enduring obloquy, is a typical Dartmoor stream. 
 Taking its rise on the moors to the west of the 
 village, it makes its way first of all through a 
 rocky gorge where buzzard and carrion crow 
 find a resting place, only to lose itself later 
 among thick coppices of scrub-oak and hazel. 
 Even when the combe widens and the waters 
 of the burn grow more placid, it still preserves 
 something of its '' warty incivility " : 
 
 Thy rocky bottom, that doth tear thy streams 
 And makes them frantic even to all extremes. 
 To my content I never should behold. 
 Were thy streams silver, or thy rocks all gold ? ^ 
 
 The stream divides the parish of Dean Prior 
 from that of Buckfastleigh, and at last pours its 
 waters into those of the Dart, not far from the 
 walls of the old Cistercian abbey of Buckfast. 
 
 The background to this picture of cornfields 
 and watered meadows, orchards and woodlands, 
 is formed by great stretches of moorland, the 
 soft contours of which are now and again broken 
 by rugged granite tors. As one stands in Dean 
 Prior churchyard, and looks northward across 
 the valley of the Dart, a wide stretch of this 
 moorland scenery skirts the horizon and adds 
 an element of grandeur and vastness to the 
 idyllic beauty which lies at one's feet. But for 
 
 1 To Dean Bu7 Ji {Zb). 
 94 
 
Dean Prior 
 
 the glories of Dartmoor Herrick cared as little 
 as that other Devonshire poet of the seventeenth 
 century, William Browne, who, with all his love 
 for the rich scenery of the Tavy valley, was con- 
 tent to leave the adjoining moorlands unsung. 
 
 The church and parsonage of Dean Prior 
 now stand close to the high-road, but in the 
 seventeenth century the road passed nearer to 
 the moors, and the church was reached by a 
 lane between high hedgerows. Herrick's church 
 is a somewhat spacious building, chiefly in the 
 Perpendicular style, with nave, north and south 
 aisles, and a western battlemented tower. The 
 vicarage has been altered and enlarged, but 
 some of the older parts of the building, now 
 used as offices, are probably not later in date 
 than the seventeenth century, and may well 
 have been the parlour, hall, kitchen, and buttery 
 for which the poet offers his hymn of thanksgiving 
 to God. 
 
 Herrick's parishioners were doubtless to a 
 large extent husbandmen, engaged in the cultiva- 
 tion of corn and fruit, and in the rearing of cattle 
 and sheep. Some of them, however, were pro- 
 bably occupied in the weaving trade, which the 
 monks of Buckfast had introduced into the Dart 
 valley centuries before, and which to this day 
 remains one of the staple industries of the 
 district. The village of Dean still preserves a 
 tradition of a weaver whose ghost used to appear 
 
 95 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 at his loom until laid to rest by the vicar, and 
 Westcote, in his View of Devonshire, published 
 in 1630, makes special mention of a coarse cloth, 
 called narrow-pin-whites, which was produced in 
 the neighbourhood of Totnes. The population 
 of the village in 1901 was 259, but the church 
 register gives evidence that it was somewhat 
 larger in the seventeenth century. 
 
 The lord of the manor of Dean, and Herrick's 
 most distinguished parishioner, was Sir Edward 
 Giles, who lived at Dean Court, within half a 
 mile of the church and vicarage. In 1629 the 
 knight was about fifty years of age and a man 
 of standing in the county. In his youth he had 
 travelled, and fought for queen and country in 
 the Netherlands ; returning to England in 1603, 
 he had been knighted by James I., and after his 
 father's death, he had, in the words of Prince, 
 " the whole power of the county put into his 
 hands.^ He represented Totnes Borough in 
 several of the parliaments of James I. and 
 Charles I. Connected by marriage with Sir 
 Edward Giles, were the families of Yard, Lowman, 
 and Northleigh, members of which were settled 
 at Dean Prior in Herrick's time, and are cele- 
 brated by him in his poems. 
 
 Of Herrick's manner of life at Dean Prior, 
 and of his relationships with his parishioners, we 
 learn a good deal from the Hesperides and 
 
 ^ Worthies of Devon, p. 422. 
 
 96 
 
Dean Prior 
 
 Noble Numbers ; but it is not easy to determine 
 exactly how far he appreciated his Devonshire 
 home, and how far it seemed to him a place of 
 bitter exile. In considering this matter, it is 
 important to remember that he was a poet of 
 moods, and that in a period of eighteen years 
 (1629- 1 647) spent at Dean Prior, he experienced 
 many moods and regarded his life there in 
 different ways. We have already seen with 
 what "sublim'd respect and conscience unto 
 priesthood " he entered upon his holy calling ; 
 we have now to consider the character of his life 
 as vicar. Scattered through the Hesperides are 
 some six poems which express with clearest 
 utterance his ''discontents in Devonshire." 
 There is first of all his poem To Dean Burn 
 (86), whose bed, he declares, is as rocky as the 
 hearts of the men who live by it — 
 
 A people currish, churlish as the seas, 
 And rude almost as rudest savages. 
 
 Following upon this, is the poem To his House- 
 hold Gods (278), which ends with the stinging 
 couplet — 
 
 Search worlds of ice, and rather there 
 Dwell than in loathed Devonshire. 
 
 Similar repugnance is expressed in the lines 
 Upon Himself {^s^), and His Return to London 
 {713), in which he welcomes, with something like 
 c 97 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 rapture, the change of fortune which led to his 
 
 departure from his country vicarage. 
 
 The loathing for the West Country which these 
 
 poems express is uncompromising enough. Were 
 
 we forced to form a judgment on these alone, it 
 
 would be possible to compare Herrick's exile at 
 
 Dean Prior with that of Ovid at Tomi. But if 
 
 we look at them more closely, we see that, 
 
 instead of being spread over the whole of the 
 
 poet's life in Devonshire, they all belong to about 
 
 the year 1647, the year of his ejection from 
 
 Dean Prior. Now we do not know with any 
 
 certainty to what extent the poet's parishioners 
 
 sympathised with the Puritan party during the 
 
 years of the Civil War, or with what feelings 
 
 they regarded the dismissal of their vicar and 
 
 the induction of his Puritan successor, John 
 
 Syms. But we can realise that in Dean Prior, 
 
 as throughout the country, those years of strife 
 
 must have sorely tried the better feelings of 
 
 many an English home. It was a time when 
 
 household was divided against household and 
 
 village against village, when homes were 
 
 ruined and precious blood shed in the defence 
 
 of creed and party. At such a time, too, the 
 
 village parson, so far from being able to allay 
 
 the strife, must himself have been the very 
 
 centre of the feud, and the butt of insult and 
 
 calumny. Herrick could not have escaped from 
 
 all this, and the bitterness of his feelings finds 
 
 98 
 
Dean Prior 
 
 utterance in his verse. At such a time, and 
 amid such surroundings, the memory of the old 
 London Hfe stirred strange yearnings within 
 him ; the paternal country where much of his 
 youth and early manhood had been spent called 
 him with persistent summons, and when at last 
 the release came, it was welcomed with rapture. 
 Yet it is evident from one short poem that this 
 feeling of rapture was tempered even at the time 
 by a sense of regret. His parishioners may have 
 grown churlish and currish, but the vicarage 
 with its associations was still dear to him : 
 
 To Lar (333) 
 
 No more shall I, since I am driven hence. 
 Devote to thee my grains of frankincense ; 
 No more shall I from mantle-trees hang down, 
 To honour thee, my little parsley crown ; 
 No more shall I (I fear me) to thee bring 
 My chives of garlic for an offering ; 
 No more shall I from henceforth hear a choir 
 Of merry crickets by my country fire. 
 Go where I will, thou lucky Lar stay here, 
 Warm by a gUtt'ring chimney all the year. 
 
 There remain for consideration two other 
 poems in which Herrick expresses his dislike to 
 Devonshire, and in which there is no indication 
 that they were written at the time of his ejection. 
 These are His Lachrymae (371) and Discontents 
 in Devon (51). The former is written in a mood 
 of deep dejection : 
 
 99 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 Call me no more, 
 
 As heretofore, 
 The music of a feast ; 
 
 Since now, alas ! 
 
 The mirth that was 
 In me is dead or ceas'd. 
 
 Before I went 
 
 To banishment 
 Into the loathed West, 
 
 I could rehearse 
 
 A lyric verse, 
 And speak it with the best. 
 
 But time, ay me ! 
 
 Has laid, I see. 
 My organ fast asleep ; 
 
 And tuned my voice 
 
 Into the noise 
 Of them that sit and weep. 
 
 If we did not know that Herrick was here 
 giving utterance to a passing mood of despond- 
 ency, we might assume that his muse entirely- 
 deserted him in Devonshire ; we have, of course, 
 abundant evidence that this was not the case, 
 and we need only turn to the Discontents in 
 Devon to find such an assumption plainly 
 falsified : 
 
 More discontents I never had 
 Since I was born than here. 
 Where I have been, and still am sad, 
 
 In this dull Devonshire ; 
 Yet, justly too, I must confess 
 
 I ne'er invented such 
 Ennobled numbers for the press. 
 Than where I loathed so much. 
 
 ICO 
 
Dean Prior 
 
 What, then, do Herrick's strictures on Devon- 
 shire and Dean Prior amount to ? They show 
 plainly enough that during the last months — 
 perhaps, the last years — of his residence there, 
 he found his surroundings often distasteful and 
 his parishioners churlish and insolent ; they show, 
 too, that at other times he experienced moods of 
 despondency in which his present life stood out 
 in drab contrast to the glittering shows of 
 earlier days. There must, indeed, have been 
 many occasions when the poet in his lonely 
 vicarage longed for the song and festive cheer 
 of the Apollo Chamber, the society of courtier 
 friends and the fleshpots of Whitehall, and on a 
 few of these occasions the sense of what he has 
 lost moves him to elegiac lament, or to male- 
 diction. But to suppose that this was a 
 prevailing state of mind, and that the whole of 
 his eighteen years' residence in Devonshire 
 was merely a time of bitter exile, is a distortion 
 of the statements recorded by Herrick himself in 
 his poems. Over against such verses as those 
 To Dean Burn or Discontents in Devon, may be 
 set His Content in the Country (552) which 
 belongs to the Dean Prior period and bears 
 witness to the quiet joy which he and his 
 housekeeper, Prudence Baldwin, experienced in 
 the country vicarage. What is uppermost in his 
 mind at the time when he wrote these verses is a 
 pleasant sense of independence and freedom from 
 
 lOI 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 care. It was a much more frugal life than that 
 which he had spent in London at the tables of 
 the rich ; but he had come to realise that frugality, 
 combined with independence, was better than 
 luxury supported by the ''oil of maintenance," 
 bestowed upon him by wealthy patrons. Another 
 poem, conceived in the same spirit of simple con- 
 tentment, and entitled His Grange, or Private 
 Wealth (724), brings the poets Devonshire life 
 before us with singular vividness and charm : 
 
 Though clock, 
 To tell how night draws hence, I've none, 
 
 A cock 
 I have to sing how day draws on. 
 
 I have 
 A maid, my Prew, by good luck sent 
 
 To save 
 That little Fates me gave or lent. 
 
 A hen 
 I keep, which creeking day by day. 
 
 Tells when 
 She goes her long white egg to lay. 
 
 A goose 
 I have, which with a jealous ear 
 
 Lets loose 
 Her tongue to tell that danger's near. 
 
 A lamb 
 I keep, tame, with my morsels fed, 
 
 Whose dam 
 An orphan left him, lately dead. 
 
 A cat 
 I keep that plays about my house. 
 
 Grown fat 
 With eating many a miching mouse. 
 102 
 
Dean Prior 
 
 To these 
 A Tracy ^ I do keep whereby 
 
 I please 
 The more my rural privacy ; 
 
 Which are 
 But toys to give my heart some ease ; 
 
 Where care 
 None is, slight things do lightly please. 
 
 But the poem which brings the Devonshire 
 parson most clearly before us is one contained 
 in the Noble Numbers, and entitled A Thanks- 
 giving to God for his House (47). It is too 
 long, and perhaps too familiar, to quote, but 
 some reference to it may be made, \i only to show 
 how completely it refutes the idea that its author 
 was habitually discontented with his surround- 
 ings. We see the parson seated in the chimney- 
 corner of his *' cell," eating his beloved beet and 
 drinking his spiced wassail bowls, while Prue 
 Baldwin is in the dairy making Devonshire 
 cream. Or we follow him to his acres of glebe, 
 where the cornfields are ripe to harvest, and the 
 pastures well stocked with the red Devon cattle. 
 The gratitude of the parish priest is chiefly for 
 "creature comforts," and the picture which he 
 paints would have better pleased the Sabine 
 Horace than Herrick's contemporary, the author 
 of The Priest to the Temple. Yet we are made 
 aware of the parson's simple generosity, and we 
 
 ^ Tracy is the name of his spaniel, as the poet himself informs 
 us in a note to the original edition of Hesperides. 
 
 103 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 see the threshold of his house worn away by the 
 footsteps of the poor. 
 
 When we attempt to realise the sharp contrast 
 which his manner of Hfe at Dean Prior presented 
 to that of the London years which preceded it, 
 our surprise is not that Herrick sometimes gave 
 voice to feeling^s of discontent and to wistful 
 yearnings after what had passed away, but that 
 he should, on the whole, have adapted himself so 
 well to the new conditions. That he did so is 
 due in no small measure to the pliancy of his 
 temper and the breadth of his tastes and 
 sympathies. His finely sensuous nature re- 
 sponded to varying, nay, conflicting appeals. 
 He is alike the poet of the town and the 
 country, of the Court and the cottage. He 
 delights in the artificial graces, the studied re- 
 finements, the culture and gallantry of the town, 
 but also in village customs and superstitions, 
 and the simple pleasures of rustic life. He 
 sings **of balm, of oil, of spice and ambergris," 
 but also '' of May-poles, hock-carts, wassails, 
 wakes " ; he can take delight in the riband that 
 supports Julia's petticoat and the odours of 
 ** camphire, storax, spikenard, galbanum " that 
 are breathed forth when she unlaces herself, but 
 also in the colour and grace of the daffodil 
 and the perfume of the violet. Settled in his 
 Devonshire home, the Anacreon of the Devil 
 
 Tavern, the courtier-lyrist, the poet of perfumes 
 
 104 
 
Dean Prior 
 
 and millinery, seeks amid his new surroundings 
 new themes for poetic handling, and finds them 
 close at hand in the rustic sports, junketings and 
 superstitions of his parishioners. 
 
 It is impossible to determine the dates at 
 which Herrick's poems on May-poles, hock-carts, 
 wassails, and wakes were written, but it is only 
 natural to assume that the majority of them 
 belong to the Dean Prior period. And if his 
 taste for these things was already developed 
 before he reached the west country, it is doubtful 
 whether he could have been "banished" to a 
 more congenial neighbourhood. To this day 
 Dartmoor and the villages that skirt it are 
 richer in folk and fairy lore, and more tenacious 
 of old-world customs, superstitions, and cere- 
 monies, than almost any other district in England. 
 Dartmoor farmers still declare themselves pixy- 
 led when they lose their way on the moor in 
 returning from market, and until quite recently 
 the wassailing of apple-trees by means of shot, 
 fired into the branches on Twelfth Night,^ and 
 the custom of passing young children suffering 
 from rupture through the split trunk of a young 
 ash-tree, were everywhere in vogue. Herrick's 
 fairy-poems are based rather on literary models 
 
 ^ For a reference to this custom see the Twenty-second Report 
 of the Co7ninittee on Devonshire Folk-lore^ edited by P. F. S. 
 Amery, 1905. For an interesting account of Devonshire folk-lore 
 of a hundred years ago, see Mrs Bray's Description of the part oj 
 Di^vonshire bordet ing on the Tamar and the Tavy. 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 than on popular local legend ; there is no mention 
 in them of the Dartmoor pixies, and, as we shall 
 see later, they were probably written before he 
 set foot in Devonshire ; but his folk-lore poems, 
 his charms and his descriptions of rustic cere- 
 monies have, in part at least, a distinct local 
 colour, and were probably written at Dean Prior. 
 It is not easy to determine exactly the kind 
 of relationship which existed between Herrick 
 and his parishioners. Certain of the Hesperides 
 poems indicate that he stood on good terms with 
 the gentlefolks of his parish, and that his muse 
 was at their service on more than one occasion. 
 But references to the humbler villagers, and a 
 few stinging epigrams written at the expense of 
 some of them, give, if taken alone, the impression 
 that he found the Devonshire peasant rude and 
 boorish. As a matter of fact, however, the 
 scurrilous epigrams which can be definitely con- 
 nected with his parishioners are few in number. 
 A search through the Dean Prior register shows 
 that the unsavoury epigrams on Scobble, Mudge, 
 Dundridge and Coone were probably hurled at 
 parishioners, but that these are all. On the 
 other side we have the assured fact that some of 
 his poems became the treasured possessions of 
 the parish, and that during the long years when 
 his name was entirely forgotten by the cultured 
 society of London, it was still held in esteem in 
 
 the Devonshire village. Our evidence for this 
 
 io6 
 
I 
 
 Dean Prior 
 
 is to be found in the very remarkable account of 
 a visit paid to Dean Prior in 1809 by Barron Field 
 and published by him in the Quarterly Review 
 (August, 1 8 10). ''Being in Devonshire during 
 the last summer," writes Barron Field, " we took 
 an opportunity of visiting Dean Prior, for the 
 purpose of making some inquiries concerning 
 Herrick, who, from the circumstance of having 
 been vicar of that parish (where he is still talked 
 of as a poet, a wit, and a hater of the county) 
 for twenty years, might be supposed to have left 
 some unrecorded memorials of his existence 
 behind him. 
 
 " We found many persons in the village who 
 could repeat some of his lines, and none who 
 were not acquainted with his ' Farewell to Dean 
 Bourn,' which, they said, he uttered as he crossed 
 the brook, upon being ejected by Cromwell from 
 the vicarage to which he had been presented by 
 Charles I. ' But,' they added with a smile of 
 innocent triumph, ' he did see it again ' ; as was 
 the fact, after the Restoration. . . . 
 
 " The person, however, who knows more of 
 Herrick than all the rest of the neighbourhood, 
 we found to be a poor woman in the ninety-ninth 
 year of her age, named Dorothy King. She 
 repeated to us, with great exactness, five of his 
 Noble Numbers, among which was the beauti- 
 ful Litany quoted above. These she had learnt 
 
 from her mother, who was apprenticed to Merrick's 
 
 107 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 successor in the vicarage. She called them her 
 prayers, which, she said, she was in the habit of 
 putting up in bed, whenever she could not sleep : 
 and she therefore began the Litany at the second 
 stanza, 
 
 When I lie within my bed, etc. 
 
 Another of her midnight orisons was the poem 
 beginning 
 
 Every night thou dost me fright. 
 
 She had no idea that these poems had ever been 
 printed, and could not have read them if she had 
 seen them. She is in possession of few traditions 
 as to the person, manners and habits of life of 
 the poet ; but in return, she has a whole budget 
 of anecdotes respecting his ghost ; and these she 
 details with a careless but serene gravity, which 
 one would not willingly discompose by any hints 
 at a remote possibility of their not being exactly 
 true. Herrick, she says, was a bachelor, and 
 kept a maid-servant, as his poems, indeed, dis- 
 cover ; but she adds, what they do not discover, 
 that he also kept a pet pig, which he taught to 
 drink out of a tankard. And this important 
 circumstance, together with a tradition that he 
 one day threw his sermon at the congregation, 
 with a curse for their inattention, forms almost 
 the sum total of what we could collect of the 
 
 poet's life." The statements of Dorothy King, 
 
 1 08 
 
I 
 
 Dean Prior 
 
 and her ability to quote from the Hesperides and 
 
 Noble Numbers, furnish us with a remarkable 
 
 testimony to the interest which the Dean Prior 
 
 villagers of the seventeenth century took in the 
 
 poetry of their distinguished vicar. Of how 
 
 many English poets can it be said that some 
 
 of their poems have been handed down, for a 
 
 period of a hundred and fifty years, by oral 
 
 tradition, in the places where they lived ? Such 
 
 a record, as far as England is concerned, is 
 
 almost unique, and it bears witness, as no other 
 
 evidence could do, to the popularity which 
 
 Herrick enjoyed amongst his parishioners. 
 
 There is one more piece of evidence as to the 
 
 poet's celebrity in the county of his adoption. 
 
 On the title-page of most of the extant copies of 
 
 the original edition of Herrick's works stand the 
 
 following words : " London. Printed for John 
 
 Williams and Francis Eglesfield, and are to be 
 
 sold at the Crown and Marygold in St Pauls 
 
 Churchyard, 1648." But in some of the copies 
 
 — that in the show-case at the British Museum 
 
 is one of these — there occurs the following 
 
 variant: **And are to be sold by Tho. Hunt, 
 
 Bookseller in Exon." The meaning of this is 
 
 that a certain number of the copies were sent 
 
 direct from the printer's to the shop of the 
 
 Exeter bookseller. Thomas Hunt knew well 
 
 enough the popularity of Herrick as a local poet, 
 
 and accordingly, without waiting for the arrival 
 
 109 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 of the volumes in the usual way, he sent his 
 order to the publishers before they had passed 
 through the press, and thus secured the appear- 
 ance of his name upon the title-page of the 
 copies purchased by him. We have thus the 
 twofold evidence of Herrick's celebrity as a poet 
 both in his parish and in the county of Devon, 
 during his lifetime and after his death. 
 
 The record of Herrick's life at Dean Prior, 
 as far as it can be traced at all, is to be sought 
 in his poems. Fortunately for us, the vow to 
 abandon poetry, which he made when he took 
 upon him the sacred duties of a parish priest 
 and wrote his Farewell to Poetry, was not kept. 
 Some of the choicest poems of the Hesperides, 
 and probably most of the Noble Numbers, were 
 written after 1629. It is, however, likely that 
 the character of his poetry underwent a partial 
 change when he left London — a change which 
 is perhaps indicated by what he tells us in his 
 Lachrymae (see page 100). In these Devon 
 years the drinking songs and love songs, which 
 had been inspired by his associations with Jonson 
 at **the Sun, the Dog, the Triple Tun," and 
 which had won for him the proud title, *'the 
 music of a feast," were probably fewer ; the 
 half-lyric and half-descriptive poems of country 
 life more numerous. 
 
 In bidding farewell to London, Herrick de- 
 termined not to let himself be forgotten either 
 
 no 
 
Dean Prior 
 
 by the Court or his numerous city acquaintances. 
 Reference has already been made to the poems 
 in which he celebrates the birth of royal princes, 
 and to these Dean Prior years also belong many 
 of the verses addressed to his various patrons. 
 The ode to Endymion Porter, Upon his Brother's 
 Death (185), may be referred, with tolerable 
 certainty, to the year 1637, when that courtier 
 lost his brother. Captain Thomas Porter.^ The 
 verses to Mildmay Fane, Earl of Westmorland, 
 also belong to this period (112) ;2 he looks to 
 Westmorland and to Robert Pierrepont, Vis- 
 count Newark, as the foster-fathers who shall 
 protect his verses when their author is in his 
 grave. 
 
 The year 1637, which saw the death of Captain 
 Thomas Porter, is also the year in which a very 
 near friend of the poet's died. Ben Jonson, who 
 had been failing in health for some years, breathed 
 his last on August 6th, and three days later he 
 was buried in Westminster Abbey, with the 
 words, " O rare Ben Jonson," inscribed on his 
 
 1 Calendar of State Papers, Domestic ,16^7 , p. 435. 
 
 2 Mildmay Fane did not become Earl of Westmorland until 
 1629, and in one or two of the poems to the earl, he is addressed 
 as Westmorland, not only in the title, but in the poems them- 
 selves, e.^.^ 
 
 When my date's done, and my grey hair must die, 
 Nurse up, great lord, this my posterity ; 
 Weak though it be, long may it grow and stand, 
 Shored up by you, brave Earl of Westmorland. 
 Ill 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 tomb. The poems which Herrick wrote on the 
 death of the great literary dictator have already 
 been referred to (see page 62), and the sincerity 
 of their utterance is a sufficient indication of 
 the sense of loss which their author experienced 
 when the father of the '* tribe " had been for ever 
 removed. 
 
 While death was robbing him of old friends of 
 the London period, Herrick was forming new 
 acquaintances in Devonshire. Among these 
 were Sir Thomas Hele of Flete, whom he 
 addresses in one of his poems as '* his honoured 
 friend," and Sir George Parry, who was Chan- 
 cellor of the diocese of Exeter. Yet another 
 poem is addressed to his bishop, the famous 
 Joseph Hall, who in his youth had claimed to be 
 the first of English satirists, the first 
 
 To tread the steps of perilous despite, 
 
 and in his old age had come under the flail of 
 
 Milton's anti-prelatical pamphlets. It must also 
 
 be remembered that an old friend with whom 
 
 the poet had long stood on intimate terms was 
 
 now residing in Devonshire, though in a remote 
 
 corner of the shire. This was John Weekes, 
 
 who had been appointed Vicar of Sherwell, near 
 
 Barnstaple, about the same time that Herrick 
 
 had gone to Dean Prior. 
 
 In the eyes of the Church, Weekes was a more 
 
 important person than the vicar of Dean, for in 
 
 112 
 
I 
 
 Dean Prior 
 
 1633, while still retaining his Devonshire living, 
 he was elected to a prebend's stall in Bristol 
 Cathedral ; a little later he became a Doctor of 
 Divinity and a Licenser of Printed Books, with 
 authority to "gnaw out the choicest periods of 
 exquisitest books, and to commit a treacherous 
 fraud against the orphan remainders of worthiest 
 men after death." 
 
 The tenor of the poet's life within his parish 
 must have been, at least during his first years 
 there, singularly uneventful ; and probably the 
 chief subjects which presented themselves for 
 poetic treatment there were the rustic festivities 
 of his parishioners. In the festooning of May- 
 poles, the ceremonious home-bringing of the 
 hock-cart, the Christmas wakes and mummings, 
 and all the pagan ritual of Twelfth Night and 
 Shrovetide, he must have taken a very keen 
 interest, and endeared himself to the hearts of 
 his parishioners by finding in such festivities the 
 inspiration for matchless song. The simple 
 annals of the parish are faithfully recorded by 
 him in verse ; and though he has left us no 
 Parish Register, after the manner of Crabbe at 
 Aldborough, he found, during his term of in- 
 cumbency, events which made a demand upon 
 his poetic genius. In 1637, Sir Edward Giles of 
 Dean Court died. Herrick apparently wrote no 
 poem on the knight's death, but after he had 
 
 been followed to the grave by his wife, he 
 H 113 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 honoured the dead lord and lady of the manor 
 
 with the most beautiful of all his epitaphs, which 
 
 the visitor to Dean Church may still read on the 
 
 wall of the south aisle. 
 
 As Sir Edward Giles died childless, Dean 
 
 Court passed, after his widow's death, into the 
 
 hands of the Yarde family, who were related to the 
 
 Giles' by marriage. Members of this family had 
 
 long been residing at Dean Prior, as the parish 
 
 register plainly shows. The Yardes, too, were 
 
 distantly related to Herrick. The poet's first 
 
 cousin, Tobias Herrick, rector of Market Har- 
 
 borough, and son of the poet's uncle, Robert 
 
 Herrick of Leicester, married Elizabeth Yarde, 
 
 who, like the Dean Prior Yardes, was descended 
 
 from the Yardes of Bradley in Devonshire. 
 
 When, therefore, on 5th September 1639, Lettice, 
 
 the twenty-year-old daughter of Edward Yarde, 
 
 was married in Herrick's church to Mr Henry 
 
 Northleigh, or Northly, the poet, who had written 
 
 epithalamiums in earlier days for other friends, 
 
 was called upon to celebrate in like manner the 
 
 wedding of his kinswoman in her own parish. 
 
 In two short poems. The Entertainment or Porch 
 
 Verse (313) and The Good-night or Blessing i^^iA^, 
 
 he wishes, in the frank manner of the age, all 
 
 married bliss to the bride and bridegroom. The 
 
 Northleighs settled at Dean Prior after their 
 
 marriage, and in the parish register we find the 
 
 entries of their children's births. 
 
 114 
 
P" 
 
 Dean Prior 
 
 Another poem of a festive character, which 
 throws pleasant light upon Herrick's life at 
 Dean Prior, is that entitled The Meadow Verse, or 
 Anniversary, to Mistress Bridget Lowman (354). 
 The Lowmans, like the Yardes, were the vicar- 
 poet's parishioners, and were also relatives of 
 Sir Edward Giles. Giles Lowman had married 
 early in 1642 Welthian Austyn of Totnes, but 
 his wife had died in the following year, and it 
 was probably after her death that he had invited 
 his sister Bridget to come and live with him. 
 The Meadow Verse which, honouring one of the 
 many rural ceremonies of the village, celebrates 
 Bridget Lowman as " the meadow's deity " and 
 " princess of the feast," is full of gay compliment ; 
 but in the, Parting Verse which follows (355), and 
 hich was recited when the feast was ended, a 
 note of melancholy is heard ; and the poet, 
 mindful of his griefs and his grey hairs, wonders 
 whether, when next year's anniversary comes 
 round, he will be alive to sing another meadow- 
 verse in Bridget Lowman's honour. 
 
 The life of the country vicar in his cell has often 
 been represented as a life of solitude, broken 
 only by the faithful ministrations of his house- 
 keeper. Prudence Baldwin. Such a representa- 
 tion, however, though based on the evidence of 
 certain of the poet's own statements, is only 
 partially true. Quite apart from Herrick's share 
 in the life of the village, we have evidence that 
 
 115 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 he both visited, and received visits from, friends 
 at a distance, and also that for some length of 
 time one of his sisters-in-law was living with him. 
 The reader need scarcely be reminded that 
 Herrick was by temperament no hermit, and 
 that, if he practised at times the cloistral virtues, 
 it was from compulsion and not from choice. 
 The poem, entitled To his Maid, Prew {z"^"]), tells 
 us that during the pleasant summer months the 
 vicarage was not without guests. Who they were 
 we know not, but it is pleasant to imagine that the 
 poet gathered around his simple board at Dean 
 Prior some of the old comrades of the *' tribe of 
 Ben," and renewed, amid wassail bowls, spiced to 
 the brim, the memories of by-gone years. When 
 the guests have departed, the vicarage seems 
 lonely, and the poet seizes the occasion to do 
 honour to the faithful housekeeper who does not 
 quit his side. 
 
 When Herrick bade farewell to his many 
 London friends and relations in 1629, many 
 entreaties must have been made that he should 
 soon return ; ** the music of a feast " could ill be 
 spared from the festive board of the Apollo 
 chamber at Temple Bar. We do not know to 
 what extent the poet was able to comply with 
 such entreaties, but there is evidence that he 
 paid a visit to the old scenes in 1640. There 
 is a curious poem in Musarum Delicice, pub- 
 lished in 1655, the author of which was either 
 
 116 
 
Dean Prior 
 
 Herrick's old friend Sir John Mennes, or James 
 Smith. It is entitled To Dr Weekes : an 
 Invitation to London^ and from it we quote the 
 following verses : 
 
 How now, my John, what, is't the care 
 
 Of thy small flock that keeps thee there ? 
 
 Or hath the bishop, in a rage, 
 
 Forbid thy coming on our stage ? 
 
 Or want'st thou coin, or want'st thou steed ? 
 
 These are impediments indeed. 
 
 But, for thy flock, thy sexton may 
 
 In due time ring, and let them pray. 
 
 A bishop, with an offering, 
 
 May be brought unto any thing. 
 
 For want of steed, I oft see Vic 
 
 Trudge up to town with hazel stick ; 
 
 For coin, two sermons by the way 
 
 Will host, hostess and tapster pay. 
 
 A willing mind pawns wedding-ring. 
 
 Wife, gown, books, children, anything ; 
 
 No way neglected, nought too dear, 
 
 To see such friends as thou hast here. . . . 
 
 Ships lately from the islands came 
 
 With wines thou never heard'st their name : 
 
 Montefiasco, Frontiniac, 
 
 Viatico, and that old Sack 
 
 Young Herric took to entertain 
 
 The muses in a sprightly vein. . . . 
 
 A London goal, with friends and drink, 
 
 Is worth your vicarage, I think. 
 
 This amusing address to the vicar of Sher- 
 
 well, with its pointed allusion to Weekes' friend, 
 
 the author of the Welcome and Farewell to Sack, 
 
 gives us shrewd insight into the temptations 
 
 117 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 which beset the country vicar who had said 
 farewell to the revelry of London. It can 
 scarcely be doubted that the Vicar of Dean 
 Prior was favoured with similar invitations, in 
 verse or in prose, from the same circle of friends, 
 and on one occasion at any rate the invitation 
 was accepted. In a State Paper, undated, but 
 belonging to the year 1640, we come upon the 
 following disconcerting statement : 
 
 Thomsen Parsons hath had a Bastard lately ; shee was 
 brought to bedd at Greenw*"''. 
 
 Mr Herricque a Minister possest of a very good Living in 
 Devonshire hath not resided there haveing noe Lycence for 
 his non-residence and not being Chapline to any Noble man 
 or man qualifyed by Law as I heare, his Lodging is at West- 
 minster in the little Amrie at Nicholas Wilkes his house where 
 the said Thomsen Parsons lives. 
 
 The endorsement of the letter is as follows : 
 
 Mr Delles man abt Mr Henrique [sic] a minister. 
 
 The statement, and the apparent insinua- 
 tion of Mr Dell's man, call for notice. William 
 Dell was secretary to Archbishop Laud, and 
 among the State Papers are several references 
 to him in the discharge of his duties. It was 
 apparently his office to enquire into any breaches 
 of canonical law, and any delinquencies on the 
 part of clergymen who came under his special 
 jurisdiction. In the discharge of these duties 
 
 he doubtless had a number of men in his employ, 
 
 118 
 
Dean Prior 
 
 and the writer of the above letter was one of 
 these. It can hardly be doubted that '* Mr 
 Herricque," though the spelling in the endorse- 
 ment is apparently " Henrique," is the author of 
 the Hesperides. But who was Thomsen Parsons ? 
 Among the Hesperides we meet with the 
 following : 
 
 On Thomasin Parsons (979). 
 Grow up in beauty, as thou dost begin, 
 And be of all admired, Thomasin. 
 
 Also this : 
 
 To Mistress Dorothy Parsons (500). 
 If thou ask me, dear, wherefore 
 I do write of thee no more, 
 I must answer, sweet, thy part 
 Less is here than in my heart. 
 
 Mr A. W. Pollard is able to inform us who 
 Thomasin and Dorothy Parsons were. They 
 were the daughters of one of Herrick's musical 
 acquaintances, Mr John Parsons, who was 
 organist and master of the choristers at West- 
 minster Abbey in the reign of James I., and 
 died in 1623.^ There is no need to accept 
 the insinuation of Mr Dell's man that Herrick 
 was concerned with Thomasin Parsons' child. 
 There is no record among the State Papers of 
 any further steps being taken in the matter by 
 either the archbishop's secretary or his master. 
 
 ^ See Pollard's edition oi Herrick^ i. 318. 
 119 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 It may be that Laud was too busy with other 
 matters in 1640 to enquire into the suggestion 
 of misconduct brought against a clergyman from 
 Devonshire, or it may be that on examination 
 he found Herrick innocent. We all know the 
 couplet which rounds off the Hesperides : 
 
 To his book's end this last line he'd have placed : 
 Jocund his muse was, but his life was chaste — 
 
 but the importance which we attach to this state- 
 ment is somewhat lessened by the fact that it is 
 a quotation from Ovid : 
 
 Vita verecunda est, musa jocosa, mihi.^ 
 
 The same declaration, however, is made, with 
 some display of earnestness, in the poem To 
 his Tombmaker (546), and those who have learnt 
 to recognise the candour of Herrick in the 
 Hesperides will be disposed to accept his claim 
 to purity of life, in spite of " Mr Dell's man" : 
 
 Go I must ; when I am gone, 
 Write but this upon my stone ; 
 ^ Chaste I liv'd, without a wife ; 
 That's the story of my life. 
 Strewings need none, every flower 
 Is in this word bachelor. 
 
 Leaving the matter as it stands, it is interest- 
 ing to find that Herrick while In London was 
 
 ^ Tristia^ ii. 354. 
 120 
 
Dean Prior 
 
 residing in his " beloved Westminster," in one of 
 the houses in the Little Aumry close to the 
 Abbey. During- his stay there he must have seen 
 a good deal of old friends and kinsfolk, and it is 
 probable that some of the poems to the Soames 
 and Stones — his relations on his mother's side — 
 and to the family of his brother Nicholas, the 
 London merchant, were written at this time. 
 
 It seems likely that what brought the poet to 
 town in 1640 was the importunate demand of 
 his verses for printer's ink. Herrick, acting in 
 accordance with the fashion set by Sidney and 
 some other Elizabethan poets, had up to now- 
 neglected to publish any of his verses. They 
 had circulated freely in manuscript, as the poems 
 in the Ashmole, Rawlinson, and Harleian collec- 
 tions show, and as is also evident from statements 
 made in many of the poems themselves. But 
 the thought of printing his effusions had been 
 distasteful to him. In a couplet, entitled Posting 
 to Printing (1022), he says. 
 
 Let others to the printing press run fast ; 
 Since after death comes glory, I'll not haste. 
 
 But the march of years, bringing with it the 
 
 death of friends in whose keeping his poetic fame 
 
 chiefly rested, had led him to change his mind. 
 
 It was all very well to invite noble Westmorland 
 
 and gallant Newark to be the foster-fathers of 
 
 his verses when their begetter was no more ; 
 
 121 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 but in them ** nature's copy's not eterne," and 
 Herrick clung to the faith in the immortality of 
 his fame with a tenacity which has never been 
 equalled. If this immortality was to be won, 
 printing was necessary. As yet only one of his 
 poems had been published. This was a truncated 
 portion of Oberons Feast, which had appeared in 
 1635, ^^ ^ small volume bearing the following 
 title-page : 
 
 A I Description | of the King and Queene of | 
 Fayries, their habit, fare, their ] abode, pompe 
 and state. | Beeing very delightfull to the sense, 
 and I full of mirth. | [Woodcut] | London. | 
 Printed for Richard Harper, and are to be sold | 
 at his shop, at the Hospitall gate, 1635. 
 
 The place of honour in this collection of 
 poems is awarded to Herrick's friend Sir Simon 
 Steward, who contributes a poem, entitled A 
 Description of the King of Faery's Clothes, which 
 is declared to have been written as early as 1626. 
 Next follows Herrick's poem, which is here 
 entitled A Description of his Diet. Three other 
 poems, Orpheus, The Fairies Fegaries, and The 
 Melancholy Lover s Song from Fletcher's Nice 
 Valour, bring the volume to a close. It is 
 unknown whether Herrick had any knowledge 
 of, or share in, the publication of this volume of 
 fairy poems. 
 
 Four years later we meet with the following 
 
 entry, in the Stationers' Register : 
 
 122 
 
Dean Prior 
 
 *' 4 Nov. 1639. Entred for his Copie under 
 the hands of doctor Wykes and Master Feather- 
 ston, warden, An Addicion of some excellent 
 Poems to Shakespeare's Poems by other gentle- 
 men, vizt, His Mistris drawne and his mind by 
 Benjamin Jonson. An Epistle to B. J. by 
 Francis Beaumont. His Mistris Shade by R. 
 Herrick, etc., vi. d." 
 
 This volume was printed in the following year, 
 and the poem here described as His Mistris 
 Shade proves to be another version, with 
 numerous variants, of the poem in the Hesperides, 
 entitled The Apparition of his Mistress calling 
 him to Elysium (575). On this occasion Herrick 
 appears in noble company, and it may be that 
 the inclusion of his poem in a volume con- 
 taining verses by Shakespeare, Jonson, and 
 Beaumont, was due to the tribute of esteem which 
 His Mistris Shade brought to the memory 
 of the last two poets. Mention is made 
 of Shakespeare in this poem, and his 
 mistress finds the authors of Evadne and Every 
 Man in his Humour walking in the Elysian 
 fields in the company of Homer, Anacreon, 
 Virgil, Horace, *' witty Ovid" and **soft 
 Catullus." 
 
 The poem is one of the most sustained of the 
 HesperideSy and suffers nothing by comparison 
 
 with those of the mighty ones with which it is 
 
 123 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 associated. The publisher of the volume was 
 John Benson, and the licencer who is referred to 
 as "doctor Wykes" was the poet's tried friend, 
 the vicar of Sherwell. 
 
 To be associated as a poet with Shakespeare, 
 Jonson, and Beaumont was no small honour for 
 one who until now had to seek his reputation 
 mainly among the circle of friends in which his 
 manuscripts had circulated, and Herrick's last 
 scruples as to publishing his poems were now 
 swept away. Five months after the above entry 
 in the Stationers' Register, we meet with the 
 following : 
 
 " 29 Ap. 1640. Entred for his Copie under the 
 hands of Master Hanley, and Master Bourne, 
 warden. The Severall Poems, written by Master 
 Robert Herrick. vj. d." 
 
 The publisher who applied for this licence was 
 Andrew Crooke. Of this volume nothing is 
 known ; no copy has been traced, and it is un- 
 certain whether the poems ever passed through 
 the press. Did the poet, whose fastidious taste 
 is expressed in his request to Julia to burn his 
 poems rather than let them go forth unperfected, 
 stay the printer's hand at the last moment, or 
 did some one else step in and counsel delay? 
 We can only conjecture. 
 
 It may well have been with some reluctance 
 
 that Herrick returned to his remote Devonshire 
 
 parsonage after this visit to London. Although 
 
 124 
 

 Dean Prior 
 
 not yet fifty, he had begun to feel old, and with 
 this sense of aging years, his interest in country 
 activities probably lessened, while his apprecia- 
 tion of the comforts and good-fellowship of the 
 town grew stronger. He is fond of telling us in 
 his poems of his grey hairs and the approach of 
 old age, but the following poem, written in the 
 year 1 640-1, reiterates the theme with new 
 earnestness : — 
 
 A wearied pilgrim, I have wandered here 
 Twice five-and-twenty, bate me but one year ; 
 Long I have lasted in this world, 'tis true, 
 But yet those years that I have lived, but few. 
 Who by his grey hairs doth his lusters tell, 
 Lives not those years, but he that lives them well. 
 One man has reached his sixty years, but he. 
 Of all those threescore, has not lived half three. 
 He lives who lives to virtue ; men who cast 
 Their ends for pleasure, do not live, but last.^ 
 
 It is possible that, when he made the journey 
 back to Dean Prior, he was not alone. In the 
 verses, entitled No Spouse but a Sister {^i), he 
 declares with considerable emphasis that he will 
 spend his days as a bachelor : — 
 
 And never take a wife 
 To crucify my life, — 
 
 but will keep house with a sister. The promise 
 which he here makes seems to have been kept ; for 
 in the list of burials in the register at Dean Prior 
 
 1 On Htmse/f (loSS). 
 
 125 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 mention is made of '* Mrs Elizabeth Hearicke," 
 
 who was buried on April ii, 1643, Elizabeth 
 
 Herrick was his sister-in-law, and he wrote an 
 
 epitaph on her death — No. 72 in the Hesperides, 
 
 She was the wife of his brother William, who 
 
 died between 1629 — the date of Julian Herrick's 
 
 will, in which he is mentioned — and 1632, when 
 
 his will was proved. She may have come to 
 
 live with her brother-in-law immediately after 
 
 her husband's death, or, as just indicated, she may 
 
 have accompanied him there after his visit to 
 
 London in 1640. 
 
 The death of his sister-in-law, taking place as 
 
 it did under his roof and at a time when civil 
 
 war was raging in the land, must have brought 
 
 sad and serious thoughts to the poet's mind. It 
 
 is tempting to think of Herrick as the poet of 
 
 eternal youthfulness, the maker of love-posies 
 
 and the braider of garlands, the idle singer of an 
 
 empty day. And it is probable that had he died 
 
 in 1635, or even in 1640, such a conception 
 
 would need little adjustment. But, scattered 
 
 amid the lighter and gayer fancies of the 
 
 Hesperides, are a number of poems which tell of 
 
 sorrow, old age, decay of faculties, and approaching 
 
 death. It is natural to connect these with the 
 
 closing years of his stay at Dean Prior, though 
 
 some of them may have been written in transient 
 
 moods of despondency at an earlier period. 
 
 References to old age and death are found in 
 
 126 
 
Dean Prior 
 
 poems of varied character, but they are most 
 frequent in the verses which he addresses to his 
 mistresses or to himself. The moods in which 
 he faces the inevitable are very varied. Often 
 enough he contemplates death in a half-playful 
 and half-pathetic manner — the pathos being of 
 the lightest — as in the fanciful Divtfiation by a 
 Daffodil (107) or the address To Robifi Red- 
 breast (50). At other times he is more serious, 
 as for instance when he writes the poem entitled 
 His Winding-sheet (515), or His last Request to 
 Julia {log^). 
 
 To private bereavement, and the sense of 
 advancing old age, there was added, during these 
 last years at Dean Prior, the anxiety caused by 
 the trend of public affairs, and the consciousness 
 of being on the side of the losing party. Herrick 
 was by temperament and associations a Royalist, 
 and though some members of his family sided with 
 the Parliamentary cause, his allegiance to the king 
 remained unshaken. It is not quite easy to 
 determine his political tenets from the sentiments 
 expressed in his verses. The great controversy 
 which ended in the Civil War called forth from 
 him a number of gnomic utterances, expressed 
 for the most part in epigrammatic couplets. In 
 some of these he appears as the exponent of 
 extreme monarchical ideas. What, for instance, 
 could be more in keeping with Stuart pretensions 
 
 than the following "^ — 
 
 127 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 'Twixt Kings and subjects there's this mighty odds 
 Subjects are taught by men ; kings, by the gods.^ 
 
 The gods to kings the judgment give to sway ; 
 The subjects' only glory to obey.^ 
 
 On the other hand, the arbitrary conduct of 
 Charles I. in the matter of taxation calls forth 
 from him a mild protest in Moderation (780), and 
 a more energetic one in Bad Princes Pill the 
 People (826) :— 
 
 Like those infernal deities which eat 
 
 The best of all the sacrificed meat, 
 
 And leave their servants but the smoke and sweat ; 
 
 So many kings, and primates too, there are, 
 Who claim the fat and fleshy for their share. 
 And leave their subjects but the starved ware. 
 
 The protest is couched in general terms, but it 
 can hardly be doubted that the reference is to 
 Charles I. and Laud. 
 
 But though Herrick, like many another 
 Royalist, may have chafed under arbitrary 
 taxation, he was absolutely loyal to the king as 
 soon as matters passed out of the bounds of 
 parliamentary controversy into those of civil 
 war. Included among the Hesperides are a 
 number of poems which introduce us to that great 
 conflict. Early in 1642, impending hostilities 
 forced Charles and Henrietta apart. The latter 
 
 1 The Difference between Kings and Subjects (25). 
 '^ Obedience in Subjects (269). 
 128 
 
Dean Prior 
 
 left England for Holland, where she proceeded 
 to purchase munitions of war for the campaign, 
 while her husband went northwards to collect 
 troops. The separation of husband and wife 
 moved Herrick to write his verses To the 
 King and Queen upon their Unhappy Dis- 
 tances (79). 
 
 Here he is full of hope, and prophesies with 
 gladness of heart a speedy reunion of husband 
 and wife. But as the war proceeded, and the 
 Royalist cause experienced defeat after defeat, 
 his heart sank within him, In his poems, The 
 Bad Season makes the Poet Sad [612) and Upon 
 the Troublous Times (596), he writes in a mood 
 of deep depression, though still hoping against 
 'hope that things will right themselves and 
 Charles here rule as he before did reign." 
 
 O times most bad, 
 Without the scope 
 Of hope 
 Of better to be had ! 
 
 Where shall I go, 
 Or whither run 
 To shun 
 This public overthrow ? 
 
 No places are, 
 This I am sure, 
 Secure 
 In this our wasting war. 
 129 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 Some storms we've past, 
 Yet we must all 
 Down fall, 
 And perish at the last. 
 
 The sentiment of these verses is not very heroic, 
 but the poet's fighting days, if they ever existed, 
 were long since over. 
 
 In the early stages of the war Devonshire was 
 in the hands of the Parliamentarians, but the 
 victories of Lord Hopton at Stratton in Cornwall, 
 in May 1643, had wrought a great change in the 
 West. Herrick congratulated Hopton on his 
 success,^ and the latter replied in practical fashion 
 by advancing on Devonshire and winning over 
 the greater portion of It to the king's slde.^ With 
 the summer of 1644, the war approached very 
 near to Herrick's vicarage. Queen Henrietta 
 Maria was at Exeter, and on June 16 gave birth 
 to the Princess Henrietta there. Then, making 
 her way stealthily to the Cornish coast, she 
 embarked on July 14 for France. A fortnight 
 later, Charles himself was at Exeter, while a 
 section of the Parliamentary army, under Essex, 
 was at Tavistock, still nearer to Dean Prior. 
 Herrick seized the occasion of the king's proximity 
 to address to him a poem, To the King upon his 
 Coming with his Army into the West {"J 7), as 
 loyal in feeling as it is beautiful in expression : — 
 
 ^ See the poem, To the Lord Hopton on his Fight in Cornwall 
 (1002). 
 2 See S. R. Gardiner, History of the Great Civil War^ \. 162. 
 130 
 
Dean Prior 
 
 Welcome, most welcome, to our vows and us, 
 Most great and universal genius ! 
 The drooping West, which hitherto has stood 
 As one in long-lamented widowhood, 
 Looks like a bride now, or a bed of flowers 
 Newly refreshed both by the sun and showers. 
 War, which before was horrid, now appears 
 Lovely in you, brave prince of cavaliers. 
 A deal of courage in each bosom springs 
 By your access, O you, the best of kings ! 
 Ride on with all white omens ; so that where 
 Your standard's up, we fix a conquest there. 
 
 le hopefulness which warmed the poet's 
 drooping spirits was, for the time at least, well 
 sustained, and to Charles the verses of the 
 Royalist vicar must have seemed of fair augury. 
 The two armies met at Lostwithiel in Cornwall, 
 at the end of August, and the battle resulted in 
 a complete victory for the king. 
 
 Early in the following year, the last of the west- 
 ern campaigns took place. Fairfax, ** the rider of 
 the white horse," as the Yorkshire people called 
 him, was besieging Exeter and making raids up 
 and down the county. On January i8th he 
 carried Dartmouth by storm, and a day or two 
 later he was at Totnes, five miles from Dean. 
 While there, he called for a thousand recruits, 
 and three times that number flocked to his 
 standard. Nothing could show more plainly the 
 change in temper of the people of South Devon 
 towards the two contending parties. " We are 
 
 131 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 come," said Cromwell to the new recruits, " to set 
 you, if possible, at liberty from your taskmasters," 
 and his word was believed.^ This chano-e in 
 temper must have weighed heavily upon the 
 vicar of Dean Prior, and doubtless inspired him 
 to write his peevish outbursts upon the ** rocky 
 generation, currish, churlish as the seas," amongst 
 whom he must still continue to live. He 
 summons up courage to address a spirited poem 
 to Sir John Berkeley,^ who was bravely holding 
 Exeter against the besiegers, and hails with 
 gladness the arrival of Prince Charles at Exeter 
 in the following August : — 
 
 Meanwhile thy prophets watch by w^atch shall pray, 
 While young Charles fights, and fighting wins the day : 
 That done, our smooth-faced poems all shall be 
 Sung in the high doxology of thee.^ 
 
 But the poet's prevailing mood is best expressed 
 by his poems Upon the Troublous Times and 
 The Bad Season makes the Poet Sad, already 
 referred to, or by his beautiful dirge upon the 
 death of Lord Bernard Stuart, slain at Rowton 
 Heath on September 24, 1646.^ Reduced to 
 inactivity himself, he could but sit gloomily over 
 his hearth with his '' familiar Lar," and nurse his 
 wrath to keep it warm ; or, in serener moments, 
 
 ^ Gardiner, The Great Civil War, ii. 431. 
 2 " To Sir John Berkeley, Governor of Exeter^'' (745). 
 ^ To Prince Charles upon his Coining to Exeter (756). 
 *No. 219. 
 
 132 
 
I 
 
 Dean Prior 
 
 seek to draw comfort from those Good Thoughts 
 m Bad Times which the genial optimist, Thomas 
 Fuller, had just published at Exeter. 
 
 The ejection of those clergymen who had 
 refused to subscribe to the Solemn League and 
 Covenant had begun as early as 1643, ^^^ 
 Herrick's call did not come yet. For four years 
 after that date he brooded in his vicarage, or 
 took his solitary walks through the village, 
 where there was neither maypole nor hock-cart 
 to cheer his sight ; and then at last, in 1647, the 
 summons came. With an elation of spirits that 
 would have done credit to a schoolboy, he left 
 his parishioners to the spiritual ministrations of 
 Mr John Syms, and set out for London, '' blest 
 place of my nativity," registering his solemn vow, 
 as he crossed the rocky bed of Dean Burn, that 
 never again would he endure the warty incivility 
 of itself or its people : 
 
 With whom I did, and may re-sojourn, when 
 Rocks turn to rivers, rivers turn to men. 
 
 133 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 LAST YEARS 
 
 WHEN Herrick crossed Dean Burn 
 and took the high-road to Exeter, 
 his intention seems to have been, not 
 to proceed direct to London, but to 
 pay a visit first of all to his friend Weekes, at 
 Sherwell near Barnstaple. Weekes, accord- 
 ing to Anthony a Wood, ** suffered much for 
 the Royal Cause," but it is uncertain whether he 
 was dispossessed of his Devonshire living at 
 this time.^ He was, at any rate, still in posses- 
 sion when the notice to quit was served upon his 
 friend. The last of Herrick's poems to his 
 peculiar friend John Weekes, written upon his 
 ejection from Dean Prior, is a characteristic 
 effusion of humour, bonhomiey and independence 
 of spirit : — 
 
 Since shed or cottage I have none, 
 I sing the more that thou hast one, 
 To whose glad threshold and free door 
 I may a poet come, though poor, 
 And eat with thee a savoury bit, 
 Paying but common thanks for it. . . .^ 
 
 ^ See Walker, Sufferings of the Clergy^ p. 392. 
 2 No. 1056. 
 
 134 
 
c 
 
 ^-m-J^iy^A (t- 
 
 '^ 
 
 *< 
 
 
 ^^~«*u*^«. 
 
 
 
 I^Oyi^iA^U -//^^ ^W^«^ 
 
 
 ^. 
 
 
 
 .f 
 
 
 FACSIMILE OF ONE OF HERRICK S LETTERS 
 /« ^/id? possession of Canon Egerton Leigh 
 
Last Years 
 
 We do not know how long Herrlck stayed with 
 his friend, but the fact that he bore in his wallet 
 the little volume of poems which was to win him 
 his long-coveted immortality must have made 
 him impatient to reach London and secure for 
 his treasure the permanence of print. The joy 
 which was his when at last the metropolis was 
 reached is recorded in his memorable Return to 
 London (713). The curious tangle of truth and 
 error which goes to make up Wood's account of 
 Herrick in the Athenae furnishes us with the in- 
 formation that during a part of the time which 
 elapsed between 1647 and 1662, the poet was 
 residing in St Anne's Parish, Westminster. 
 John Walker, who, though a Devonian, knew 
 very little about, Herrick, says in his Sufferings of 
 the Clergy, that '' after his ejectment he returned 
 to London, and, having no fifths paid him, was 
 subsisted by charity until the Restoration." ^ It is 
 likely enough that both statements are correct as 
 far as they go. Nothing is more probable than 
 that the ejected vicar should take up his resi- 
 dence in his " beloved Westminster," where, as we 
 have seen, he was living in 1640 ; nor need we 
 take offence at Walker's phrase that '* he sub- 
 sisted by charity," provided that we understand 
 by it simply that, having no income of his own, 
 he was dependent upon the hospitality of 
 relations and friends. 
 
 * Sufferings of the Clergy, p. 263. 
 135 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 It can hardly be that Herrick suffered from 
 poverty during his exile. The presence in 
 London of wealthy relations, including his own 
 brother Nicholas,^ and the families of Soame and 
 Stone, with whom he stood, as his poems show, 
 on terms of intimacy, makes such an idea in- 
 credible. We learn from what he says in The 
 Plunder (460) that he left Dean Prior bereft of 
 everything, but we can well believe that in 1647, 
 as in 1629, he found among his numerous relations 
 and friends plenty " to bear my charges." It is 
 true that of his old patrons some were dead, 
 and others, including Endymion Porter, in sore 
 straits. But Mildmay Fane, Earl of Westmor- 
 land was at hand, and busied, like Herrick 
 himself, with the publication of his verses.^ 
 Another friend of distinction was Henry Pierre- 
 pont, eldest son of Viscount Newark, one of the 
 ** foster-fathers " of the poet's verses, who was 
 created Marquess of Dorchester in 1644, and to 
 whom is addressed the Ultimus Heroum (962). 
 
 Herrick's poetic activity continued right up 
 to the time of publication. When Charles I. came 
 to reside at Hampton Court on August 24, 1647, 
 under the protection of the Parliamentary army, 
 
 1 Nicholas Herrick was living in Goodman's Fields, in the 
 parish of St Mary Matfelon, county of Middlesex, where he died, 
 May 23, 1665. See Smith's Obituary (Camden Society) and 
 Miscellanea Genealogica et Heraldica, Second series, i. 98. 
 
 2 They appeared under the title, Otia Sacra^ in the same year 
 as the Hesperides. 
 
 136 
 
Last Years 
 
 the poet, loyal to his sovereign to the end, 
 welcomed his arrival there with glowing verses 
 which, like the lyrics of earlier days, were set to 
 music and sung in the royal presence. To some 
 of those who listened to the song there must 
 have seemed grim irony in the strains of the 
 chorus : 
 
 Long live the King ! and, to accomplish this, 
 We'll from our own add far more years to his.^ 
 
 And now at last the time, long foreseen and 
 long delayed, had arrived when the poet was to 
 secure for his minstrelsy that safe-conduct to fame 
 which he had coveted with no ordinary avidity. 
 His book of poems had, he tells us, been passing 
 freely from hand to hand in these London days,^ 
 and with each meed of praise that was bestowed 
 upon it, the desire to publish must have grown 
 stronger. He found publishers in John Williams 
 and Francis Eglesfield of St Paul's Churchyard, 
 and the printing of the manuscript began. It 
 seems that his first intention was to publish the 
 Noble Numbers before the Hesperides. In the 
 original edition of 1648 his sacred verses, though 
 they stand last, have a separate title-page, which 
 bears the date 1647, whereas the Hesperides are 
 dated in the following year. This intention, 
 however, of keeping his best wine until the end 
 of the feast was subsequently abandoned, and all 
 
 1 To the Ki?tg (961). 2 7-^ /^2j Book (3). 
 
 137 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 subsequent editors have followed the order of 
 the original edition. There is some difference of 
 view as to Herrick's share in the ordering of 
 the poems as they stand in the printed volume. 
 It was the opinion of Grosart that *'the poet 
 himself had nothing to do with the arrangement 
 or disarrangement" of the poems, and this 
 opinion is shared by some later editors. It rests 
 mainly upon the total disregard of chronological 
 order, and indeed of any other order, in the 
 Hesperides, which makes it impossible, in the 
 case of the majority of the verses, to say when 
 they were written. But it is by no means 
 certain that this disorder was not intentional on 
 the poet's part. It is clear that he exercised 
 some supervision over the printer. He prefixed 
 to the volume a number of corrections of printer's 
 errors, together with the following apology for 
 their occurrence : 
 
 For these transgressions, which thou here dost see, 
 Condemn the printer, reader, and not me. 
 Who gave them forth good grain, though he mistook 
 The seed ; so sowed these tares throughout my book. 
 
 Had the printer, in addition to making typo- 
 graphical errors, wantonly disarranged the order 
 of the poems, Herrick, we may readily believe, 
 would have drawn attention to the fact; nay, more, 
 would he not have seared the miscreant with an 
 epigram, white-hot from the caldron of his wrath, 
 
 138 
 
I 
 
 ■jr : 
 
 I 
 
 Last Years 
 
 and enshrined it within the covers of his book ! 
 The disorderliness of the collection is also not 
 quite so complete as it seems. We may not go 
 as far as Henry Morley and recognise the poet's 
 ** design to use poems as foils and settings to 
 one another," but the same editor is certainly 
 right in drawing attention to the careful opening 
 and close of the book." ^ The first eight poems 
 in the Hesperides are clearly introductory. They 
 give the "argument," tell us something of the 
 manner of composition and of the poet's mis- 
 givings as to publication ; they indicate '* when 
 he would have his verses read," and include an 
 admonition ** to the sour reader." In like 
 manner, the last seven poems are an obvious 
 farewell, in which he reiterates his hopes of 
 poetic immortality, dismisses his Ariel from his 
 service and commits his poems to the safe keep- 
 ing of kindly spirits — or the fire : 
 
 Go thou forth, my book ; though late, 
 
 Yet be timely fortunate. 
 
 It may chance good luck may send 
 
 Thee a kinsman, or a friend. 
 
 That may harbour thee, when I 
 
 With my fates neglected lie. 
 
 If thou know'st not where to dwell, 
 
 See, the fire's by : farewell.^ 
 
 It must also be borne in mind that, in placing 
 side by side a lyric of exquisite beauty and a 
 
 ^ Introduction to Hesperides in Morley's Universal Library. 
 2 To his Book {\\2^). 
 
 139 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 coarse epigram, Herrick had, in some measure, 
 the high warrant of his friend and master, Ben 
 Jonson. In that poet's Underwoods we find a 
 love song of great beauty, and almost immediately 
 before it an *' Epigram to the Smallpox." A 
 similar disorder also appears in the Carmina of 
 Catullus, which were also among the most 
 prized possessions of Herrick. In the absence, 
 therefore, of all proof to the contrary, it is natural 
 to assume that the arrangement of the 
 Hesperides was in accordance with the poet's 
 wishes. Another theory advanced by Dr 
 Grosart is that " the verse celebrations addressed 
 to friends and eminent contemporaries were 
 evidently designed to form a separate work." 
 The matter is not one of importance, seeing that 
 such a work, if it ever existed in manuscript, was 
 never published. The theory has been carefully 
 examined by Dr E. E. Hale in his dissertation. 
 Die chronologische Anordnung der Dichtungen 
 Robert Herricks, and with his refutation of it I 
 am disposed to agree. 
 
 The volume was dedicated to the *' most 
 illustrious and most hopeful Prince, Charles, 
 Prince of Wales," who is addressed in verses 
 which fully come up to the standard of adulation 
 which the occasion, and the age, demanded. 
 Eighteen years before he had sung the birth of 
 
 * Grosart, Memorial Introduction to Hesperides^ p. cxiv. 
 140 
 
Last Years 
 
 the prince, and in 1645 he had welcomed him 
 
 with a paean of exultation on his coming to 
 
 Exeter. The title-page deserves more careful 
 
 consideration. It reads as follows : '' Hesperides : 
 
 or the Works, both Humane and Divine, of 
 
 Robert Herrick, Esq." There are here three 
 
 points to notice. First, the title Hesperides, 
 
 including as it does the ''humane and divine" 
 
 poems, is clearly meant to be a general title, 
 
 covering both the Hesperides proper and the 
 
 Noble Numbers. In the second place, the 
 
 addition of the word * esquire' to Herrick's name 
 
 suggests that on his ejection from Dean Prior he 
 
 had assumed layman's dress, and as a layman 
 
 desired to appear before the public. Again, the 
 
 beautiful title, Hesperides, is significant. It can 
 
 hardly be doubted that in adopting it, he intended 
 
 his readers to understand that it was as "children 
 
 of the West Country " that he wished his poems 
 
 to be regarded. Some of them, as we know, 
 
 were written elsewhere ; but the title, read in the 
 
 light of what he tells us in his poem. To his Muse 
 
 (2) makes it probable that the majority of them 
 
 belong to the Dean Prior period. 
 
 The design of the frontispiece, with the bust 
 
 of the poet on a pedestal, was the work of the 
 
 engraver William Marshall, who had, earlier in 
 
 his career, engraved portraits of Bacon, Donne, 
 
 and Milton. This, our only portrait of Herrick, 
 
 141 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 is worse than nothing at all, for it can be little 
 
 better than a caricature. We may, perhaps, 
 
 accept the lustrous eye, the thick, tight curls, and 
 
 the curious beak-like nose which calls to mind 
 
 the busts of the Emperor Vespasian ; but the fat 
 
 stolidity of the rest of the face, together with the 
 
 grotesque neck, leave us incredulous, or 
 
 indignant. 
 
 It is to be feared that the reception accorded to 
 
 Herrick's volume of poems by the reading public 
 
 fell far short of his hopes and expectations. 
 
 Thomas Hunt of Exeter may have quickly 
 
 disposed of his copies of the work among the 
 
 poet's friends and admirers in Devonshire, but 
 
 it is doubtful whether the same can be said of the 
 
 London firm of publishers. No second edition 
 
 appeared until more than a hundred and fifty 
 
 years afterwards. The immortality of fame 
 
 which the poet had promised himself and those 
 
 in whose honour he indited his verses must 
 
 have seemed to him a delusive will-o'-the-wisp. 
 
 That immortality is now at last assured, but it 
 
 is doubtful whether even Herrick, with all his 
 
 buoyancy and assurance of poetic power, could 
 
 have strained his gaze as far forward as the 
 
 nineteenth century, which redeemed him from 
 
 oblivion and set him amongst his peers. It is 
 
 to be feared that to the sadness which must have 
 
 fallen on Herrick in the long years of Puritan 
 
 142 
 
Last Years 
 
 rule, there was added the sense of failure in the 
 hopes which had been so long and so fervently 
 cherished. The small esteem which was set 
 upon the poems at the time of their appearance 
 has been attributed to the untowardness of the 
 times. '' Herrick," says Mr Edmund Gosse, 
 *' brought out the Hesperides a few months before 
 the King was beheaded, and people were invited 
 to listen to little madrigals upon Julia's stomacher 
 at the singularly inopportune moment when the 
 eyes of the whole nation were bent on the unpre- 
 cedented phenomenon of the proclamation of an 
 English republic." ^ It would be idle to deny that 
 there is truth in Mr Gosse's words, yet it is 
 doubtful whether the year 1648 was more inop- 
 portune for the publication of a volume of poems 
 than the years which immediately preceded or 
 those which immediately followed it. In this con- 
 nection, too, it must be borne in mind that, within 
 the years 1645-51, a large amount of poetry 
 passed through the press, some of it being 
 received with an appreciation which was not 
 greatly lessened by the troubled state of national 
 affairs. In 1645, the year of Naseby and Row- 
 ton Heath, appeared the poems of Milton and 
 Waller — the former received with comparative 
 silence, the latter with rapturous applause. In 
 1646 Crashaw's Steps to the Temple was published, 
 
 ^ Seventeenth-Century Studies^ p. 115. 
 143 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 and both Vaughan and Shirley saw through the 
 press a volume of poems. In 1647 Abraham 
 Cowley added to his already over-topping 
 reputation by the publication of the Mistress. 
 The year 1648 belongs almost exclusively to 
 Herrick among poets of note, but the following 
 year brought to light the epodes, odes, sonnets, 
 and songs which Lovelace linked to the name of 
 Lucasta, and Thomas Stanley's volume of Trans- 
 lations from Latin lyrists. In 1650 Vaughan 
 published the first part of Silex Scintillans 
 and in 1651 appeared Davenant's Gondibert, 
 Vaughan's Olor Iscanus, the original poems of 
 Stanley, and the collected works — poems and 
 plays — of William Cartwright. 
 
 In the face of evidence such as this, the 
 reasons for the neglect of Herrick, in his own 
 and succeeding generations, must be sought, in 
 part at least, elsewhere. They are to be found 
 in the fact that for his most delicate and im- 
 perishable things the age was out of tune. 
 When the wit of Cowley and Waller was in the 
 ascendant, the imagination of Herrick was at its 
 nadir. To the contemporaries of Samuel Pepys, 
 the fairy-poems, the descriptions of May-poles, 
 hock-carts, wassails, wakes, and lyrics like '' The 
 Mad Maid's Song" or '* Corinna's going a- 
 Maying," must have seemed, like the Mid- 
 summer Nighfs Dream, insipid and ridiculous. 
 
 144 
 
Last Years 
 
 With the publication of the Hesperides in 1648, 
 Herrick's work as a poet was practically over. 
 The only known poem of his which belongs to a 
 later date is The New Charon,^ written on the 
 death of the young Lord Hastings in 1649 ; like 
 other lyrics of happier days it was set to music 
 by the friend of Herrick and Milton, Mr Henry 
 Lawes. The poem is in eclogue form, the 
 speakers being Charon and Eucosmia ; the latter 
 was the daughter of Sir Theodore Mayerne, the 
 physician, to whom Hastings was betrothed. 
 It is not without delicate fancy, but the fact that 
 the general idea of the poem is drawn from the 
 earlier Charon and Philomel (730) is a sign of 
 the author's waning power. Perhaps the chief 
 interest in it is its inclusion in the volume of 
 memorial verses, entitled Lachrymae Musarum, 
 alongside of similar poems by Denham, Marvell, 
 Dryden, and others. So placed, it associates 
 Herrick with the master-poet of the Restoration 
 in the same way that the verses, entitled His 
 Mistress Shade, published in 1 640, had associated 
 him with Shakespeare. 
 
 Of Herrick's life under the Commonwealth 
 and Protectorate we know absolutely nothing. 
 We may surmise that it was spent chiefly in 
 London in the society of his relations, friends, 
 and other "outed" clergymen: a visit to his 
 
 ^ Pollard, ii. 270. 
 K 145 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 sister, Mercy Wingfield, and her family at 
 
 Brantham in Suffolk was also doubtless paid. 
 
 There must have been some small excitement 
 
 for him in 1651, when his cousin, Richard 
 
 Herrick, third son of Sir William, and Warden 
 
 of the Collegiate Church of Manchester, was 
 
 imprisoned in the Tower on a charge of high 
 
 treason. There is no evidence of friendship 
 
 between the poet and any of Sir William's sons 
 
 since the time when the eldest of them, William, 
 
 then an Oxford student, had proposed to pay 
 
 a visit to Cambridge and lodge with Robert 
 
 at the time of the royal visitation of 161 5. 
 
 Political sympathies had forced the cousins 
 
 farther apart, for the family of Sir William had 
 
 sided with the Parliament and shown strong 
 
 Puritan leanings. Richard Herrick had, like his 
 
 cousin, entered the Church, and in 1635 ^^^ 
 
 been appointed to the important and lucrative 
 
 post of Warden of the Collegiate Church of 
 
 Manchester. He took an active part in the 
 
 struggle of the succeeding years, published in 
 
 1 64 1 three sermons in duodecimo, and dedicated 
 
 them to the House of Commons. Amid the 
 
 checkered fortunes of the Civil War, Richard 
 
 Herrick, endowed as he was with some of his 
 
 father's qualities for achieving material success, 
 
 managed to hold his own; but in 1651 he was 
 
 imprudent enough to join a party of discontented 
 
 146 
 
Last Years 
 
 Presbyterians in what was known as the London 
 Conspiracy, with the intention of overthrowing 
 the republican form of government. On June 
 II, 1 65 1, he was thrown into the Tower, and 
 remained there in close custody for several 
 months. On October 4, however, an order for 
 his discharge was signed, and he was bound over 
 to keep the peace on a bond of ;^400 and two 
 sureties of ^200 each, " if he can procure them." ^ 
 The restoration of Charles II. to the throne of 
 his fathers could have been desired by no one 
 more heartily than the poet who had sung his 
 birth and dedicated to him his most prized 
 possession. He witnessed, we may be sure, the 
 King's triumphal entry into London on May 29, 
 1660, and his coronation in Westminster Abbey 
 eleven months later. We may well believe, too, 
 that old as he now was — he was in his seventieth 
 year when Charles was crowned — he looked to 
 the King for promotion and for putting an end 
 to the long period of inactivity, during which he 
 had been dependent on others for the means of 
 subsistence. Even before the King returned from 
 his ** travels," Samuel Pepys makes the following 
 entry in his Diary: "May 21, 1660. At 
 Court I find that all things grow high. The 
 
 1 See Calendar of State Papers, 1651, pp, 247, 401, 457, 465, 
 466 ; also Grosart's Memorial hitroduction, p. cclxxx., and Diction- 
 ary of National Biography. 
 
 147 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 old clergy talk as being sure of their lands again, 
 and laugh at the Presbytery ; and it is believed 
 that the sales of the King's and Bishops' lands 
 will never be confirmed by Parliament, there 
 being nothing now in any man's power to hinder 
 them and the King from doing what they had a 
 mind, but everybody willing to submit to any- 
 thing." But the restoration of the ejected 
 clergymen to their livings did not proceed with 
 the rapidity which was expected. Until the 
 passing of the Act of Uniformity, most of the 
 Presbyterian ministers, including John Syms of 
 Dean Prior, were safe. On May 31, 1662, we 
 meet with another significant entry in Pepys' 
 Diary : '' The Act for Uniformity is lately 
 printed, which, it is thought, will make mad 
 work among the Presbyterian ministers. People 
 of all sides are very much discontented ; some 
 thinking themselves used, contrary to promise, 
 too hardly ; and the other that they are not 
 rewarded so much as they expected by the King." 
 It would be pleasant to gain some inkling of 
 Herrick's feelings at this time of clerical expecta- 
 tion. Did he hope for promotion to some 
 prebend's stall such as his friend Weekes had 
 enjoyed at Bristol under Charles I., or did he 
 desire a living which would have allowed him 
 to spend the remaining years of his life in the 
 
 ** blest place of his nativity " .-^ If such were his 
 
 148 
 
I 
 
 Last Years 
 
 hopes, they met with disappointment. He was 
 not passed over, but restored to the old living 
 in " dull Devonshire," which he had promised to 
 re- visit only when 
 
 Rocks turn to rivers, rivers turn to men. 
 
 John Syms, the Presbyterian, refused to 
 subscribe to the Act of Uniformity, even as his 
 predecessor had refused the Solemn League and 
 Covenant. He was ejected on August 24, and 
 then the parishioners of Dean Prior prepared to 
 welcome back to their midst their former Vicar. 
 
 The home-coming of Herrick to Dean Prior 
 in 1662 is a subject worthy of the painter's 
 canvas. Arriving as he did in the autumn of 
 the year, when the hock-cart was bringing in the 
 last sheaves of the harvest, his return must have 
 seemed to many a simple soul in the parish like 
 the return — the re-incarnation — of some genial 
 woodland divinity who, after long years of 
 absence, had come back to dwell amongst them 
 once more, to restore to them their wakes and 
 may-poles, and to *' wassail " their apple-trees 
 against the ravages of the foul fiend, Flibberti- 
 gibbet. They had turned from him and reviled 
 him in the dark days of the forties, and he had 
 retorted with stinging epigrams ; but when he 
 had left them, with the solemn vow never to 
 
 return, they thought of the part which he had 
 
 149 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 played in the rustic festivals that were now 
 taken from them ; and when they lay awake in 
 bed, they remembered how he had taught them 
 to repeat his Litany to the Holy Spirit until 
 slumber overtook them. And now at last he 
 had come back again in spite of his vow, and 
 all was to be as before. There were to be 
 Christmas mummings again, and the burning of 
 brands on Candlemas day ; charms might once 
 more be pronounced at bread-making, and ** the 
 hag that rides the mare " be scared away at the 
 sight of the hooks and shears suspended in the 
 stables ; above all, there was to be a blessed 
 restoration of cakes and ale, and of *' ginger hot 
 i' the mouth." We can imagine the smile of 
 amusement that played on the faces of priest 
 and parishioners, as the former crossed the waters 
 of the once execrated Dean Burn and entered the 
 village. But it was not a ''rocky generation" 
 which conducted the vicar along the half-mile of 
 Devonshire lanes which led to the church and 
 the vicarage, where the faithful Prudence Baldwin, 
 reinstated like her master, was waiting to receive 
 him. On both sides there was something to 
 forget, but also much to remember that was 
 tender and true. 
 
 For twelve years he remained amongst his 
 people, and then, in the October of the year 1674, 
 a few months after John Milton, he passed away. 
 
 150 
 
Last Years 
 
 No tombstone remains to mark the spot where 
 he lies in the Httle churchyard that fronts the 
 moor, but in the parish register we meet with the 
 following entry : 
 
 Robert Herrick, Vicker, was buried y® 15*** day of 
 October, 1674. 
 
 Four years later, in the same register, another 
 entry stands : 
 
 Prue Balden [i.e. Baldwin] was buried y* 6*'' day of 
 January, 1678. 
 
 151 
 
PART II 
 
 THE WORKS 
 
I 
 
I 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 THE LYRIC OF THE ENGLISH RENAISSANCE 
 
 TO appreciate aright the qualities of the 
 Hesperides, it is necessary first of all to 
 determine the relation in which those 
 poems stand to contemporary poetry 
 and to the poetry of the preceding age. Herrick, 
 though much of his life was lived in seclusion, 
 never outgrew the influences which moulded his 
 youth ; from first to last his poetry bears upon it 
 the impress of the late Jacobean and early 
 Caroline age. Ben Jonson, alive or dead, was 
 still his master, and no poet paid the dues of 
 discipleship more loyally. Again, the relation of 
 Herrick to Jonson and other seventeenth century 
 lyrists opens up a larger field of enquiry. In 
 what position, we ask, does this Jacobean and 
 Caroline lyric stand to the Elizabethan ? Are 
 the verses of Carew, Herrick and Suckling in 
 the direct line of succession from that great out- 
 burst of Elizabethan song, the preluding strains 
 of which are heard in the lyrics of Wyatt and 
 Surrey? And if so, what differences of form 
 and temper can be observed as we pass from the 
 sixteenth to the seventeenth century .-^ In reply 
 
 155 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 to questions such as these, it may at once be 
 said that there is a general tendency to regard 
 EngHsh lyric poetry from the beginning of 
 Elizabeth's reign onwards to the Restoration as 
 possessed of a certain unity. It is the lyric of 
 the English Renaissance, and as such, it falls 
 into line with the drama of the Renaissance, the 
 evolution of which falls, roughly speaking, within 
 the same period. If the spirit of the Renaissance 
 is breathed into the sonnets of Sidney or Spenser, 
 so is it also into the songs of Milton's Comus 
 and Arcades. 
 
 But if there is general agreement as to the 
 period over which this Renaissance lyric extends, 
 there is the widest divergence of opinion as to 
 the relationship which the lyric poetry of the 
 seventeenth century bears to that of the sixteenth. 
 On the one hand, we are told that the Jacobean 
 and Caroline lyric shows the gradual dying away 
 of the splendid harmonies of Elizabethan song ; 
 on the other, that this later lyric, so far from 
 exhibiting signs of decay, marks the triumphant 
 consummation of all that has gone before. The 
 former view is that taken by certain distinguished 
 American students of our lyric poetry. Thus 
 Professor Schelling assures us that, when we 
 reach the days of the Stuart kings, "the golden 
 summer of the English lyric is on the wane ; " ^ 
 while Professor Barrett Wendell, tracing the 
 
 ^ A Book of Elizabethan Lyrics^ p. xxxiii. 
 
 156 
 
I 
 
r 
 
 Lyric of the English Renaissance 
 
 changes in the temper of the English people 
 during the seventeenth century, bids us see the 
 process of disintegration at work in the Caroline 
 lyric as surely as in the Caroline drama.^ The 
 opposite view is held by the most distinguished 
 master of lyric poetry in our own generation, 
 Mr Swinburne. *' It is singular," he writes, '* that 
 the first great age of English lyric poetry should 
 have been also the one great age of English 
 dramatic poetry : but it is hardly less singular 
 that the lyric school should have advanced as 
 steadily as the dramatic school declined from the 
 promise of its dawn. Born with Marlowe, the 
 drama rose at once with Shakespeare to heights 
 inaccessible before and since and for ever, to 
 sink through bright gradations of glorious decline 
 to its final and beautiful sunset in Shirley : but 
 the lyrical record that begins with the author of 
 Euphues and Endymion grows fuller if not 
 brighter through a whole chain of constellations 
 till it culminates in the crowning star of 
 Herrick." ^ 
 
 The contemporaneous expression of views so 
 divergent as these calls for a close examination 
 of the lyric of the English Renaissance, and a 
 judicious weighing of the evidence for and 
 against the theory of decadence. In making 
 such an examination, it will be convenient to 
 
 1 The Seventeenth Century in English Literature. 
 
 2 Preface to Herrick's Poems (Muses' Library edition). 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 ignore for the time being the work of Herrick 
 himself; the relation which his poems bear to the 
 general poetic tendencies of the age will be the 
 theme of a subsequent chapter. 
 
 During the first thirty years of Elizabeth's 
 reign jthe form of lyric most in vogue was the 
 popular song. This was an heirloom of the 
 fast vanishing Middle Ages, and it is no easy 
 matter to discover whence it came. In its danc- 
 ing rhythm, in its artlessness and spontaneity, in 
 its fondness for a refrain and for repetitions, 
 some of which take the form of meaningless 
 interjections like '' Hey, nonny, nonny! " it recalls, 
 in no uncertain way, the communal folk-song of 
 a primitive age. But with this element of folk- 
 song are mingled strains of a less remote 
 ancestry. Among these we may discover the 
 convivial drinking-songs of medieval scholares 
 vagantes, with Walter Map as their Coryphaeus ; 
 also Christmas carols of Norman origin, acclaim- 
 ing with joyous cries of Noel ! Noel ! the birth of 
 the infant Christ, or, in lighter mood, welcoming 
 the entrance into the baronial hall of the festive 
 boar's head of Yuletide : 
 
 Caput apri refero 
 Resonans laudes domino. 
 
 With these, too, are mingled the religious and 
 
 didactic songs, and the semi-religious lullabies, 
 
 which sprang to life under the shadow of church 
 
 158 
 
r 
 
 Lyric of the English Renaissance 
 
 and minster, and which had withstood the 
 Reformation ; likewise, the popular love-songs of 
 medieval minstrelsy, the pedlar-songs andhunting- 
 songs ; and, finally, all the store of lyric mirth 
 which ushered in, and gave a ceremonial char- 
 acter to, the great festivals of May-day, Harvest- 
 Home and Christmas. 
 
 Until the influence of the Italian Renaissance 
 was felt in England, this popular song was truly 
 national in character ; its strains were heard at 
 the monarch's court as well as in the market- 
 place or the furrow. In Wynkyn de Worde's 
 Song-Book^ published in 1530, and intended to 
 serve the needs of Henry VIII. and his courtiers, 
 appear such popular songs as "• Mynyon, go 
 trym," '' We Maydins berth the bell-a," and 
 '* Beware my lytyl fynger." Nearly half a 
 century later, too, when Queen Elizabeth was at 
 Kenilworth, we find that Leicester summoned 
 to his aid the versatile " Captain Cox," a mason 
 of Coventry, who, among other forms of enter- 
 tainment, produced ** a bunch of ballets and songs, 
 all ancient," with which to delight the queen's 
 ears ; and included amongst these we find 
 *' Bonny lass upon a green," *' By a bank as I 
 lay," '' Over a whinny, Meg," and other songs 
 of a distinctly popular character.^ 
 
 1 Edited by R. Imelmann, (Shakespeare Jahrbuch, xxxix., 
 p. 121.) 
 
 2 Captain Cox^ his Ballads and Books^ ed. F. J. Furnivall 
 (Ballad Society Publications) 1871. 
 
 159 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 A few years later, however, the popular song 
 in England received a blow from which it has 
 never entirely recovered. In 1588, Nicholas 
 Yonge published his Musica Transalpinay a 
 collection of madrigals and canzonets, translated 
 from such Italian authors as Petrarch and Ariosto, 
 and set to music by Orlando di Lasso, Alfonzo 
 Ferrabosco, and other Italian musicians of the 
 period. Now the madrigal, with its contra- 
 puntal music, its single strophe, its Italian grace 
 and Petrarchan sentiment, was directly opposed 
 to the homely words and simple recurring 
 melody, with attendant refrain, of the popular 
 song ; and, at a time when everything Italian was 
 welcomed with open arms by English courtiers, 
 it is easy to see that, in the conflict which arose 
 between the two classes of song-lyric, the mad- 
 rigal must win the victory. The Fitzwilliam 
 Virginal Book shows that one or two of the 
 early madrigalists, like William Byrd and Thomas 
 Morley, were still ready to supply musical settings 
 to such a popular song as, "The Carman's Whistle," 
 but their main energies were directed towards 
 the furtherance of the Italian song-lyric. Between 
 twenty and thirty collections of madrigals and 
 canzonets were published in England between 
 1588 and the close of the century, and in the 
 production of these the leading English com- 
 posers of the time, Morley, Weelkes, Wilbye, 
 
 Farmer, and others, were directly engaged. 
 
 160 
 
r 
 
 ft ■ 
 
 I 
 
 Lyric of the English Renaissance 
 
 The literary quality of these madrigals is for 
 the most part poor ; and only in a small number 
 of instances do we know who wrote the words, 
 which throughout, and contrary to the practice 
 in the popular song, are subservient to the music. 
 A recent historian of English music, Mr E. 
 Walker, speaking of the old madrigal books, 
 says : '' The words are printed in so casual and 
 incomplete a fashion as to suggest that even 
 when they were sung, the singer was allowed 
 a very free hand." ^ A few of the madrigals 
 and canzonets have a strain of homeliness in 
 them, and touch on popular themes almost after 
 the manner of the folk-song. Such is the case, 
 for instance, with the twentieth canzonet in 
 Thomas Morley's collection of 1593, in which a 
 rustic wedding is presented in the following 
 idyllic manner : — 
 
 List, hark yon Minstrells, how fine they firck it, 
 
 And how the maids irck it. 
 
 With Kate and Will, 
 
 Tom and Gill. 
 
 Now a skip, 
 
 Then a trip. 
 
 Finely fet aloft, 
 
 Ther againe as oft. 
 
 All for Daphnes wedding day ! 
 
 Hey ho, fine brave holiday ! ^ 
 
 1 History of Music in England, I907> P- 60. 
 
 2 Bolle, Die gedruckten englischen Liederbiicher (Palaestra, 
 vol. xxix, p. 65). 
 
 L 161 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 But for the most part they are artificial, and 
 foreign, both in sentiment and expression, to the 
 genius of EngHsh folk-song. The prevailing 
 theme is love, which is treated in the conven- 
 tional fashion familiar to us in most of the 
 sonnet-sequences of the same period, and the 
 mood of the poet-lover is one of wistful 
 melancholy. An air of unreality pervades the 
 madrigals, and only very occasionally do they 
 attain the unstudied grace and golden cadence 
 of the best Miscellany-lyrics, or of the Airs which 
 were destined to replace them after the turn of 
 the century. The following madrigal, taken from 
 John Wilbye's collection, published in 1598, is 
 typical of the general style and average attain- 
 ment of this form of lyric. From a musical 
 standpoint Wilbye's work ranks very high : — 
 
 Alas, what a wretched life is this ! 
 Nay, what a death, where tyrant Love commandeth. 
 My flowering days are in their prime declining. 
 All my proud hopes quite fallen, and life untwining. 
 My joys, each after other, in haste are flying. 
 
 And leave me dying 
 
 For her that scorns my crying. 
 O she from hence departs, my love refraining. 
 From whom, all heartless, alas, I die complaining.^ 
 
 The swift descent of the popular song from the 
 banqueting-hall to the ale-house, as soon as the 
 Italian song-lyric gained a footing in the land, is 
 
 * A. H. BuUen, Some Shorter Elizabethan Lyrics^ 1903, p. 150. 
 
 162 
 
 I 
 
p 
 
 Lyric of the English Renaissance 
 
 clearly indicated by George Puttenham. In his 
 Arte of English Poesie, published only one 
 year after the appearance of Yonge's Musica 
 Transalpina, he speaks of the popular song in 
 the following contemptuous manner : '* The over 
 busie and too speedy returne of one maner of 
 tune [doth] too much annoy and as is were glut 
 the eare, unlesse it be in small and popular 
 Musickes, song by these Cantabanqid upon 
 benches and barrels heads, where they have 
 none other audience then boys or countrey 
 fellowes that passe by them in the streete ; . . . 
 also they be used in Carols and rounds and such 
 light or lascivious Poemes, which are commonly 
 more commodiously uttered by these buffons or 
 vices in playes then by any other person." ^ 
 
 Puttenham's reference to the ** buffons or 
 vices in playes " brings us in the next place to 
 consider the lyrics scattered, often with lavish 
 hand, through the dramas of the Elizabethan 
 stage. Lyric poetry, in the form of the 
 popular song, had found a place already in the 
 Mystery and Morality plays of the medieval 
 period ; and when, early in Elizabeth's reign, we 
 reach the beginnings of true comedy in England, 
 we find that the value of the lyric as furnishing 
 relief from the dramatic tension is fully re- 
 cognised. Songs are frequent in Ralph Roister 
 Bolster and Gammer Gurtons Needle^ and it 
 
 1 Ed. Arber, p. 96. 
 163 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 would be hard to find lyrics which cleave more 
 closely to the popular tradition than '' I mun be 
 maried a Sunday," of the former, or *' Backe and 
 syde go bare, go bare," of the latter. Lyly in 
 his Court Comedies replaced the folk-songs by 
 lyrics of a more cultured and artificial nature, 
 but most of the dramas written for the public 
 stage remain, until the close of the century, true 
 to the artless speech and simple melodies of the 
 popular song. Nothing, indeed, indicates the 
 essentially popular character of the Elizabethan 
 drama of this period more faithfully than the 
 tenacity with which it clung to this form of lyric, 
 at a time when madrigal, canzonet and ballet 
 were in the noontide of their power. And of all 
 the dramatists of the time Shakespeare remained 
 throughout his career the most loyal to the 
 native tradition. In his early venture, Loves 
 Labour s Lost, he introduces art-lyrics, in the 
 form of sonnets, side by side with such a simple 
 song as ''When daisies pied and violets blue;" 
 but the experiment is not repeated, and in his 
 later dramas he keeps very close to the popular 
 melodies. Shakespeare, too, is the only dramatist 
 of the time who attempted to do for the folk- 
 songs of England what Burns did, on a far 
 larger scale, for the folk-songs of Scotland, that 
 is, remodel them and endue them with new life. 
 We know for a certainty that he did this in the 
 
 case of Desdemona's willow-song, and it is 
 
 164 
 
 I 
 
r 
 
 Lyric of the English Renaissance 
 
 probable that the same remodelHng has taken 
 place in the case of the jester's song at the 
 end of Twelfth Night. And even where his 
 songs are obviously new creations, and where 
 they admit neither of refrain nor of recurring 
 phrases, they still possess the simplicity of 
 manner and the tunefulness of the folk-song. 
 
 When we turn from the lyric which was written 
 to be sung, to the lyric which was written to be 
 read, we are at once confronted with the sonnet- 
 sequences and the lyrics of the Miscellanies. 
 The vogue of the sonnet in Elizabethan 
 England synchronises almost exactly with that 
 of the madrigal. Introduced into our literature 
 by Wyatt and Surrey, it made little progress 
 until the last decade of the century ; then, after 
 the publication of Sidney's Astrophel and Stella 
 in 1 59 1, it claimed the services of almost all the 
 poets of the day, and, in spite of occasional 
 protests, enjoyed an extraordinary vogue right 
 up to the close of the century. It is unnecessary, 
 after all that has been written about the Re- 
 naissance sonnet, to dwell long upon it here. 
 In England, as in Italy and France, it is an 
 essentially romantic and idealistic form of 
 lyric. Of Provencal origin, it retains from 
 first to last the spirit of medieval chivalry, 
 the spirit of worship and service. To render 
 the homage of pure adoration to her whose 
 beauty has him in thrall, and to serve her 
 
 165 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 with a loyalty which asks for no reward, 
 is the paramount quest of the sonneteer 
 from Dante to Spenser. With this spirit of 
 medieval chivalry had mingled, from the time of 
 Petrarch onwards, the ethereal aura of Platonic 
 idealism, imparting to the lyric love a mystic 
 rapture, and removing it yet further from 
 sensuous passion and the touch of reality. In 
 virginal purity, innate nobility, and soaring 
 exaltation, there is no love lyric in the world 
 which equals the best of the Renaissance sonnets. 
 Yet it was this very idealism, and this aloofness 
 from the world of sense, which, when the sonnet 
 became the fashion of the hour, brought about 
 its fall. It was easy for a Galahad soul like 
 that of Edmund Spenser to scale the heights of 
 chivalrous idealism, and to join with Plato in 
 mystic communion with that Aphrodite Urania, 
 who is 
 
 heavenly borne and cannot die. 
 Being a parcell of the purest skie. 
 
 But sonneteers of less ethereal temper, striving 
 
 to soar with Petrarch or Spenser, and feigning 
 
 a love which they did not feel, were only too 
 
 often carried away, ** ten thousand leagues 
 
 awry," into the arid regions of false sentiment 
 
 and rhetoric. The edicts of fashion made 
 
 sonnet- writing a literary convention, and then 
 
 the prostrate humility and despairing sighs of 
 
 i66 
 
r 
 
 Lyric of the English Renaissance 
 
 the poet-lover strike us chill, and we lose all 
 sense of the individuality of himself and of the 
 mistress whom he celebrates. From the first, 
 the artificiality of the sonnet had been discerned 
 and censured. Sir Philip Sidney, who set the 
 fashion in England, and whose sonnets have 
 more of the sense of reality in them than most 
 of those which followed, was, curiously enough, 
 the first to point out its unreality. Speaking 
 in his Apologie of '* that Lyricall kind of Songs 
 and Sonnets," he says : *' But truely many of such 
 writings, as come under the banner of unresist- 
 able love, if I were a Mistres, would never 
 perswade mee they were in love ; so coldely they 
 apply fiery speeches, as men that had rather 
 red Lovers writings, and so caught up certaine 
 swelling phrases, which hang together, like a 
 man which once told mee, the winde was at 
 North West and by South, because he would be 
 sure to name windes enowe, — than that in truth 
 they feele those passions : which easily (as I 
 think) may be bewrayed by that same forciblenes 
 or Energia (as the Greekes cal it) of the writer." ^ 
 A few years later we find the witty young 
 Templar, Sir John Davies, subjecting the 
 practice of sonneteering to wholesome parody in 
 his Gulling Sonnets ; and when the end of the 
 century is reached, we see how the fashion is 
 passing swiftly away. 
 
 * Apologie, ed. Shuckburgh, p. 57. 
 167 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 The lyrics of the Elizabethan miscellanies 
 
 lack the definiteness of form, or even of theme, 
 
 found in the lyrics of the madrigal-books and the 
 
 sonnet-cycles. They are anthologies, formed by 
 
 enterprising publishers at a time when poets set 
 
 little store by the fortunes of their writings, and 
 
 gathered from the romances, the sonnet-sequences, 
 
 the song-books, and from whatever manuscript 
 
 collections were accessible. There is, accordingly, 
 
 great variety in the character and quality of 
 
 these miscellany-lyrics, and in such a collection 
 
 as England's Helicon (1600), we come upon 
 
 many of the choicest flowers of Elizabethan lyric 
 
 poetry. Delightfully simple and spontaneous, 
 
 too, as many of these lyrics are, they are in the 
 
 main art-lyrics, and have little in common with 
 
 the folk-song. The miscellanies were compiled 
 
 for cultured and courtly circles of readers, and it 
 
 is worthy of note that, while the compilers often 
 
 cast their net very wide, they set no store by the 
 
 matchless song-lyrics of the dramas which follow 
 
 the tradition of the popular melodies. Thus the 
 
 anthology, entitled The Passionate Pilgrim, which 
 
 the pirate publisher, William Jaggard, compiled 
 
 in 1599, and fathered upon Shakespeare, contains 
 
 the three sonnets of Loves Labour's Lost, but 
 
 none of the snatches of song scattered through 
 
 that and through Shakespeare's other early 
 
 comedies. The ban of vulgarity which rested 
 
 upon the autochthonous song-lyric during the 
 
 168 
 
r 
 
 Lyric of the English Renaissance 
 
 closing years of the sixteenth century was not 
 to be lifted by publishers, eager at all costs to 
 fall in with the prevailing fashions. But if these 
 lyrics of the miscellanies are a little artificial as 
 compared with the wood-notes wild of Shake- 
 speare and Dekker, they seem artlessness itself 
 when set by the side of most of the sonnet- 
 sequences and most of the collections of 
 madrigals. In buoyancy and verbal melody, in 
 the absence of intellectual strain and the perfect 
 subjugation of thought to feeling, the best lyrics 
 of Marlowe, Breton and Lodge have never been 
 surpassed. 
 
 These lyrics are less dominated by foreign 
 literary influences than the sonnet and the mad- 
 rigal ; yet, as we read them, we feel the presence 
 of the Italy of the Renaissance. This manifests 
 itself in the glow of romantic idealism with 
 which they are suffused, in the pleasant garb of 
 pastoralism which they assume, and in a certain 
 innocent hedonism, which seems a little foreign 
 to our sober English temper even in the heyday 
 of the Renaissance. Varied in character as 
 these lyrics are, the quality which is common to 
 almost all of them is that of youthfulness. We 
 have here the lyric of a nation in the first glory 
 of adolescence, whose movements have an in- 
 definable rhythmic grace, and whose outlook 
 upon the world is untroubled by care or mis- 
 giving. It is a lyric which recreates for us 
 
 . 169 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 the golden age long dreamed of by the poets 
 
 of antiquity. 
 
 Come live with me and be my love, 
 And we will all the pleasures prove, 
 That valleys, groves, hills and fields, 
 Woods, or steepy mountains, yields. 
 
 Thus sings Christopher Marlowe in the exuber- 
 ance of youthful ardour, and the strain is taken 
 up by a whole chorus of poets, who sing because 
 they must. 
 
 It is indicative of this quality of youthful- 
 ness in the lyrics of the miscellanies that the note 
 of intensity is rarely heard in them. Occupied 
 as they are with the all-absorbing theme of love, 
 we look in vain for the poignancy and passion 
 which appear, a few years later, in the lyrics of 
 Donne. The lyric love is the creation of the 
 poetic imagination, which never comes into touch 
 with the hard facts of life, and finds utterance 
 only in the golden world of Arcadian fancy. 
 The proffered love may not find acceptance, 
 but denial brings with it no sense of disillusion- 
 ment, nor does the youthful idealism which 
 inspires the lyrics to Phillida or Amaryllis ever 
 stoop to mere gallantry. And with this lack of 
 intensity goes also a lack of self-revelation. 
 The poems of the miscellanies are lyrical by 
 virtue of their tunefulness rather than by their 
 power of disclosing the inmost recesses of the 
 
 poet's soul. Seventeenth century lyrists, like\ 
 
 170 ' 
 
r 
 
 Lyric of the English Renaissance 
 
 Crashaw, Vaughan, Suckling or Herrick, whether 
 their poetry be intense or not, stand revealed to 
 us in what they write, but how little information 
 do we gather as to the personality of Breton, 
 Lodge or Barnfield from their snatches of song 
 scattered through the miscellanies ! 
 
 We have now briefly reviewed the leading 
 forms of lyric poetry in England during the reign 
 of Elizabeth, and have marked the decline of 
 the popular song, with its simple melody and 
 homely realism, and the rise of the art-lyric in 
 the form of madrigal, sonnet, and miscellany 
 lyric. In noticing these changes, we have seen 
 how England has come under the influence of 
 Italy, and have witnessed the triumph of a love 
 lyric, somewhat diff"use in expression, fraught 
 with pastoral fancies, essentially romantic and 
 visionary, and, in its attitude towards woman- 
 hood, wholly loyal to the ideals of chivalry and 
 the teaching of Plato. It remains to be seen 
 what changes took place in the form and temper 
 of English lyric poetry after the death of 
 Elizabeth, and to what extent the influence of 
 Renaissance Italy became subject to modification. 
 Even the most casual student of the social 
 history and the literature of England must be 
 aware that a change in the temper of the nation 
 can be discerned soon after the death of 
 Elizabeth. We recognise a certain coarsening 
 
 in the fibre of the race, and a certain loss of 
 
 171 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 national solidarity. This is not the place to 
 analyse this change of temper, nor even, 
 following the quaint methods of the author of 
 The Anatomy of Melancholy, to lay our finger 
 on its prognostics, symptoms and causes. But 
 may not much of the inner meaning of the change 
 be summed up in the philosophy of Feste, the 
 fool : "• Youth's a stuff will not endure " ? 
 Youthfulness is the prime characteristic not 
 only of the lyric poetry, but of Elizabethan 
 literature as a whole. It is the secret of the 
 visionary power of that literature, and of that 
 desire to reach beyond one's grasp, which finds 
 characteristic expression in the dramas of 
 Christopher Marlowe. When the seventeenth 
 century opened, the Renaissance movement had 
 still far to run ; in some directions, indeed, the 
 power of the ancient world over life and litera- 
 ture was only just beginning to be felt : but none 
 the less we are aware that a conscious sobering 
 of the national temper has taken place, and that 
 the heyday of youth is over. 
 
 It is only natural that this change should 
 manifest itself first of all in lyric poetry, for of 
 all forms of literature the lyric is that which 
 furnishes the most perfect mirror of even the 
 most evanescent changes which come over a 
 nation's thoughts and emotions. In lyric poetry 
 we discern a change even before the end of the 
 
 sixteenth century is reached. Already in the 
 
 172 
 
r 
 
 Lyric of the English Renaissance 
 
 sonnets of Shakespeare we are aware that the 
 power of idealism over poetry is on the wane ; 
 for his love sonnets are not like those of Spenser, 
 nor even like those of Sidney. The wind of 
 realism sweeps across them, and brings with it 
 disillusionment and scepticism as to the worth 
 and dignity of womanhood. The ''dark lady" 
 of Sonnets cxxvii.-clii. is no Madonna Laura, 
 but a ''woman colour'd ill." The poet loves her 
 with a feverish, tempestuous love, which brings 
 perjury of soul with it, and the betrayal of his 
 " nobler part " to his " gross body's treason " : — 
 
 My love is as a fever, longing still 
 
 For that which longer nurseth the disease ; 
 
 Feeding on that which doth preserve the ill, 
 
 The uncertain sickly appetite to please. 
 
 My reason, the physician to my love, 
 
 Angry that his prescriptions are not kept, 
 
 Hath left me, and I desperate now approve 
 
 Desire is death, which physic did except. 
 
 Past cure I am, now reason is past care, 
 
 And frantic-mad with evermore unrest ; 
 
 My thoughts and my discourse as madmen's are. 
 
 At random from the truth vainly express'd ; 
 
 For I have sworn thee fair, and thought thee bright 
 Who art as black as hell, as dark as night. 
 
 As we read these burning lines, we feel that 
 we have travelled very far from the pallid 
 romanticism of Daniel's Delia or Drayton's Idea^ 
 or from the mystic idealism of Spenser's 
 Amoretti. At the very time, too, that Shake- 
 
 173 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 speare was writing these love sonnets, a younger 
 poet, standing apart from the main body of 
 Elizabethan men of letters, and content to lead 
 a life of intellectual isolation, was deliberately 
 making war upon both the temper and the form 
 of the Elizabethan lyric. According to Ben 
 Jonson, Donne wrote " all his best pieces before 
 he was twenty-five," that is before 1598 ; and this 
 statement has been accepted as substantially 
 correct by Donne's biographer, Mr Edmund 
 Gosse, and his latest editor, Mr E. K. Chambers. 
 By his **best pieces," Jonson probably means the 
 so-called ''Songs and Sonnets," concerning which 
 Mr Chambers writes as follows : *' All Donne's 
 love-poems — and the majority of the ' Songs and 
 Sonnets' are concerned with love — seem to me 
 to fall into two divisions. There is one, marked 
 by cynicism, ethical laxity, and a somewhat 
 deliberate profession of inconstancy. This I 
 believe to be his earliest style, and ascribe the 
 poems marked by it to the period before 1596. 
 About that date he became acquainted with 
 Anne More, whom he evidently loved devotedly 
 and sincerely ever after. And therefore, from 
 1596 onwards, I place the second division, with 
 its emphasis of the spiritual, and deep insight 
 into the real things of love." ^ 
 
 It is with the poems of the first division that 
 we are concerned at present, for it is in these that 
 
 * Poems of John Donne, vol. i. p. 220. 
 174 
 
r 
 
 Lyric of the English Renaissance 
 
 we chiefly see the warfare which he waged with 
 the cherished ideals of the Petrarchan school of 
 lyrists. In the poem, Loves Growth, he stub- 
 bornly refuses to rest content with the con- 
 templative love of those sonneteers who wrote 
 passionate centuries of love to an imaginary 
 mistress : — 
 
 Love's not so pure and abstract as they use 
 
 To say, which have no mistress but their muse ; 
 
 But as all else, being elemented too. 
 
 Love sometimes would contemplate, sometimes do ; ^ 
 
 and in his Loves Alchemy he avows the pro- 
 foundest scepticism of that hidden mystery of 
 love, first adumbrated by Plato : 
 
 Some that have deeper digg'd love's mine than I, 
 Say, where his centric happiness doth lie. 
 
 I have loved, and got, and told. 
 But should I love, get, tell, till I were old, 
 I should not find that hidden mystery. 
 
 O ! 'tis imposture all ; 
 And as no chemic yet th' elixir got, 
 
 But glorifies his pregnant pot. 
 
 If by the way to him befall 
 Some odoriferous thing, or medicinal. 
 
 So lovers dream a rich and long delight. 
 
 But get a winter-seeming summer's night. 
 
 Our ease, our thrift, our honour, and our day, 
 Shall we for this vain bubble's shadow pay ? 
 Ends love in this, that my man 
 
 ^ Poe?ns, ed. Chambers, i. 34. 
 175 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 Can be as happy as I can, if he can 
 
 Endure the short scorn of a bridegroom's play ? 
 
 That loving wretch that swears 
 'Tis not the bodies marry, but the minds, 
 
 Which he in her angelic finds, 
 
 Would swear as justly, that he hears 
 In that day's rude, hoarse minstrelsy the spheres. 
 
 Hope not for mind in women ; at their best 
 
 Sweetness and wit they are ; but mummy, possess'd.^ 
 
 If love is without spiritual mystery, woman is 
 without constancy : 
 
 If thou be'st born to strange sights, 
 
 Things invisible to see. 
 Ride ten thousand days and nights, 
 
 Till age show white hairs on thee ; 
 Thou, when thou return'st, wilt tell me. 
 All strange wonders that befell thee. 
 And swear, 
 No where 
 Lives a woman true and fair. 
 
 If thou find'st one let me know ; 
 
 Such a pilgrimage were sweet. 
 Yet do not, I would not go. 
 
 Though at next door we might meet. 
 Though she were true when you met her, 
 And last till you write your letter, 
 Yet she 
 Will be 
 False, ere I come, to two or three. ^ 
 
 And if he finds women inconstant, he makes 
 no boast of constancy in himself: 
 
 * Poems, ed. Chambers, i. p. 41. ^ -Son^y Ibid., i. p. 4. 
 
 176 
 
Lyric of the English Renaissance 
 
 I can love both fair and brown ; 
 
 Her whom abundance melts, and her whom want betrays ; 
 
 Her who loves loneness best, and her who masks and plays ; 
 
 Her whom the country form'd and whom the town ; 
 
 Her who beUeves, and her who tries ; 
 
 Her who still weeps with spongy eyes, 
 
 And her who is dry cork, and never cries. 
 
 I can love her, and her, and you, and you ; 
 
 I can love any, so she be not true.^ 
 
 The tone of these verses Is unmistakable ; 
 the philosophy of love is brought down from 
 heaven to earth, and the senses are glorified at 
 the expense of the soul. In many of his later 
 poems Donne reveals a mystic temperament and 
 indulges in flights of transcendental fancy ; but at 
 this early stage realism is all in all to him. His 
 attitude towards love and woman is not that of 
 the cynic, for he was too passionate to be 
 cynical ; it is the effrontery of youthful arrogance 
 in a poet whose independent nature made him 
 intolerant of subjection to conventional modes of 
 thought. .He saw the unreality of the Petrarchan 
 school of poetry, and he turned contemptuously 
 away from the pleasant fictions and mellifluous 
 verse of the pastoralists. Shepherds and 
 shepherdesses found no favour in his eyes, and 
 his rebel genius refused to fleet the time carelessly 
 in the bowers of a dreamy Arcadia. He took 
 up arms, too, not only against the spirit of 
 Elizabethan poetry, but also against its forms 
 
 1 The Indifferent^ i. p. 9. 
 M 177 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 and modes of expression. Scorning the sonnet 
 
 and all its kindred forms, he pours forth his 
 
 emotion into moulds of his own fashioning, the 
 
 nietrical lawlessness of which has been the 
 
 despair of most of his critics from Jonson 
 
 onwards. His imagery is not drawn from the 
 
 time-honoured stories of classic fable, but from 
 
 the arts and sciences and the prosaic realities of 
 
 His own generation. The audade, the dawn-song 
 
 oTthe awakening lovers, with its allusions to the 
 
 lark and nightingale, was one of the most 
 
 beautiful, but also one of the most conventional, 
 
 forms of Provencal lyric, and is enshrined for^ 
 
 ever in our memories through the use which 
 
 Shakespeare makes of it in Romeo and Juliet. 
 
 Donne also has his mtbade : how far it is like 
 
 that of Shakespeare, or that of the medieval 
 
 troubadours, may be judged from the following 
 
 verses : - ^^^^"^ > ^'^ .^a^ 
 
 ^- Busy oldjool, unruly Sun, / •"" *! . 
 
 \ Why 'dost thou thus, ^^^^^ cLd^^y^ 
 
 Through windows^and through quj-fains, call oifi us ? 
 Must to thy motions lovers' seasons run ? 
 Saucy, pedantic wretch, go chide 
 ■ Late ^hool-boys and sour prentices, 
 
 Go tell court-huntsmen that the king will ride. 
 Call country ants to harvest offices ; 
 Love, all alike, no season knows nor clime, 
 Nor hours, days, months, which are the rags of time.^ 
 
 ^The reactionary temper of Donne is seen 
 again in the stamp of individuality impressed 
 
 ^ T^e Sun-Risings i. p. 7. 
 
 178 
 
I 
 
 Lyric of the English Renaissance 
 
 upon his poems. As we have already noticed, 
 the impress of a salient, distinct personality is 
 rarely met with in the lyrics of the Elizabethan 
 miscellanies ; and the same is true of most, though 
 not all, of the sonnet-sequence. Conformity 
 to type is the general rule, and the difference 
 between one lyrist and another is that of quality 
 rather than of kind. With Donne all this is 
 changed. His forceful personality is revealed in 
 every line he writes ; so far from wrapping 
 himself in the robes of convention, he likes 
 nothing better than to stand naked and un- 
 abashed before his audience, displaying the work- 
 ing of every sinew, the flexure of every joint. 
 His thoughts and emotions, his diction and his 
 verse, are part of himself, and can never be 
 mistaken for those of any other poet, either of 
 his own or of another day. 
 
 The intellectuality of Donne, which so pro- 
 foundly colours his style, and concerning which 
 so much has been written, is only another aspect 
 of his individuality and a further indication of his 
 reactionary temper. The Elizabethan lyric is 
 rarely packed with thought, rarely obscure. It 
 often affects euphuistic phrases, but their meaning 
 and relation to the main body of thought are gener- 
 ally apparent, and they have nothing in common 
 with the ingenuity, the cramped and tortured 
 style of Donne, when he is, as Coleridge puts it, 
 
 wreathing '' iron pokers into true-love-knots." 
 
 179 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 The ** wit" of Donne, the love of paradox and 
 hyperbole, and all the discordia concors brought 
 about by a perverse and restless ingenuity, are the 
 qualities of Donne's poetry which have chiefly 
 impressed both his disciples and his critics, and 
 for this very reason it is unnecessary to dwell 
 upon them here. 
 
 To what extent, and in what directions, was 
 the influence of Donne's lyric poetry felt by the 
 next generation of poets ? In attempting to 
 answer this question, we must first of all bear in 
 mind the circumstances under which his lyrics 
 came to light. They were first published in 
 1633, two years after his death, but we have 
 abundant evidence that they circulated widely in 
 manuscript copies during his lifetime.^ Jonson's 
 conversations with Drummond in 1619, and 
 Carew's Elegy on the Death of Doctor Domie, 
 assure us that Donne was a power in the land 
 long before he passed to his grave, in an odour of 
 austere sanctity, within the crypt of old St Paul's. 
 Of his influence as a stylist, of his leadership of 
 the " metaphysical " school of poets, it is un- 
 necessary to add anything to what Dr Johnson 
 and many later critics have said. Mr Gosse 
 has traced the influence of this side of his genius 
 upon Henry King, Herbert, Crashaw, and other 
 poets of a later generation, and has characterised 
 it as ** remarkably wide and deep, though almost 
 
 1 See Mr Gosse's Life of John Donne^ vol. i. p. 79, vol. ii. p. 336 
 
 180 
 
I 
 
 Lyric of the English Renaissance 
 
 entirely malign." ^ But his influence reached far 
 deeper than points of style. The lyrists of the 
 generation which followed Donne differ from 
 those of the Elizabethan era in nothing so much 
 as in the impress of personality which is re- 
 vealed in their writings. The Elizabethan lyric, 
 as already noticed, is curiously lacking in this 
 personal touch, but the contrary is true of that 
 which followed. The Caroline poets, whether 
 they pay homage to the sacred or the secular 
 muse, are always individual. Carew, Suckling, 
 and Lovelace, Herbert, Crashaw and Vaughan, 
 have all left upon their verses the indelible mark 
 of their own personality ; we touch these men to 
 the quick whenever we read them. The gay 
 dalliance of the courtiers, their loves and their 
 hates, and the spiritual struggles and religious 
 ecstasies of the churchmen, are never concealed 
 from view. And it was Donne who, breaking 
 away from Elizabethan conventions, first im- 
 parted to the lyric this note of individuality, this 
 lyrical cry of an intense and passion-swept soul. 
 The influence of Donne is seen again, though 
 here it blends with another influence soon to be 
 considered, in the changed attitude of seven- 
 teenth century lyrists towards love and woman- 
 hood. The Petrarchan ideals, it is true, died 
 hard. The Spenserian school of poets remained, 
 on the whole, true to them ; they come to light 
 
 ^ Life of Don7iey ii. 329. 
 181 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 again in the Castara lyrics of Habington, and 
 
 appear, chilled and sere, in the Mistress poems of 
 
 Cowley : but we look for them in vain in the 
 
 great body of cavalier-lyrics. When Suckling 
 
 writes : 
 
 Out upon it, I have loved 
 
 Three whole days together ; 
 And am like to love three more, 
 If it prove fair weather ; 
 
 or when Wither asks : 
 
 Shall I, wasting in despair, 
 
 Die because a woman's fair ? 
 Or make pale my cheeks with care 
 
 'Cause another's rosy are ? 
 
 we are at once reminded of the Songs and 
 Sonnets of Donne. Even the gentle-hearted 
 Browne, with all his loyalty to Spenser and the 
 pastoral tradition, comes under the influence of 
 the new lyric in the following verses : 
 
 Love who will, for I'll love none, 
 There's fools enough beside me ; 
 
 Yet if each woman have not one, 
 Come to me where I hide me ; 
 
 And if she can the place attain, 
 
 For once I'll be her fool again. 
 
 Potent and all-pervasive as the influence of 
 
 Donne was upon the lyrists of the seventeenth 
 
 century, it was not the only influence which 
 
 made itself felt. Side by side with it, we can 
 
 trace another influence, sometimes blending with 
 
 182 
 
f 
 
 I 
 
 Lyric of the English Renaissance 
 
 it, but more often opposed to it — that of Ben 
 Jonson, and through Ben Jonson, that of the 
 lyrists of Greece and Rome. 
 
 Until the end of the sixteenth century is 
 reached, the direct influence of the classical 
 lyric upon English poetry remained subordinate 
 to that exerted by the Italian ; and the Italian 
 lyric, although it delighted in allusions to classic 
 fable, and took on at times a certain classic colour- 
 ing, is in spirit and expression different from that of 
 Greece or Rome. The Italian lyric, at least as 
 far as it was understood and imitated in England, 
 was permeated with the spirit of Petrarch ; and 
 between the sonetti and canzoni of Petrarch and 
 the carmina of Catullus or the odes of Horace 
 or Anacreon — to mention by name the three 
 lyrists whose influence was chiefly felt in Re- 
 naissance England — there was very little in 
 common. And when, with Jonson, a lyric 
 framed on classical models arose in England, it 
 was regarded, just as much as the realistic lyric 
 of Donne, as a protest against the Petrarchan 
 school of poetry. Jonson, so Drummond tells 
 us, ** cursed Petrarch for redacting verses to 
 sonnets ; which, he said, were like that Tirrant's 
 bed, where some who were too short were racked ; 
 others, too long, cut short." ^ 
 
 Until the advent of Jonson, the attempts to 
 fashion a lyric upon classical models had been 
 
 ^ Conversations with Drutnmondy ed. Laing, p. 4. 
 
 183 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 fitful and uncertain ; and some at least of the 
 energy expended In this direction might with 
 advantage have been otherwise applied. At a 
 time when the study of the classics was leading 
 to an imitation of classic measures, we find 
 attempts being made to write English lyrics in 
 sapphic or anacreontic verse, wherein rhyme is 
 ignored, and accent is made more or less sub- 
 servient to quantity. Thus Barnabe Barnes 
 includes in his Parthenophil and Parthenope 
 (1593) two lyrics, both without rhyme, and 
 written, the one in sapphics, and the other in 
 anacreontics. Another lyric in sapphic verse 
 appears in Davison's Poetical Rhapsody (1602), 
 and one or two more among the lyric collections 
 of Campion. Campion, whose attack upon the 
 ** vulgar and artificial custom of rhyming," in his 
 Observations in the Art of English Poesie, is well 
 known, is a singularly interesting figure in the 
 history of the English lyric. His greatest 
 triumphs are won in those songs in which he 
 keeps most closely to the romantic Elizabethan 
 manner ; and in such lyrics as '* There is a 
 garden in her face," or the less known but almost 
 equally beautiful, ** Where she her sacred bower 
 adorns," we still seem very far away from 
 Donne or Jonson. Yet, side by side with these 
 lyrics, we find others in which the classic style 
 and the seventeenth century touch are un- 
 mistakable. And in this connection it must be 
 
 184 
 
I 
 
 Lyric of the English Renaissance 
 
 borne in mind that Campion was a good classic 
 scholar, and able to write Latin epigrams and 
 lyrics with ease and fluency. Among his Books 
 of Airs, too, appear free renderings of Horace's 
 Integer vitce, and Catullus's Vivamus, mea Lesbia, 
 while yet another lyric, " When the god of merry 
 love," recalls the manner of Anacreon. 
 
 It is a mark of Jonson's sanity of taste that, 
 with all his classical bias, he never succumbed to 
 the heresy of those who tried to substitute 
 quantitative measures for the native principles of 
 accent ; nor did he ever attempt to dispense with 
 rhyme in lyric poetry. His conversations with 
 Drummond inform us that, on this rhyming 
 controversy, he had written "a Discourse of 
 Poesie both against Campion and Daniel, 
 especially this last, where he proves couplets to 
 be the bravest sort of verses, especially when 
 they are broken, like Hexameters." One or two 
 of his lyrics, it is true, have a certain formal 
 resemblance to those of classical poetry ; they 
 keep, however, strictly to the accentual principle 
 and admit of rhyme. Thus he furnishes us with 
 an example, the first of its kind in English, of 
 the Pindaric Ode, which Cowley would have 
 done well to follow. It has the regular arrange- 
 ment of strophe, antistrophe and epode, and was 
 written in memory of "that noble pair," Sir 
 Lucius Cary and Sir H. Morrison. Again, in 
 the poem entitled Euphemey he fashions a stanza 
 
 i8s 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 which bears a certain resemblance to the famous 
 sapphic verse, and in his translations of some of 
 Horace's Odes he keeps as near to the rhythm 
 of the originals as good sense and loyalty to 
 native metrical traditions will allow him. 
 
 But the classicism of Jonson strikes much 
 deeper than the metrical structure of verse ; it 
 consists, first of all, in imbuing his lyric verse 
 with a certain classical colour, and secondly, in 
 maintaining, in opposition to the romanticism 
 of the earlier Elizabethans, a certain classical 
 restraint, and a purity and precision of style. 
 The classical colouring is most noticeable in the 
 Masques, where Olympian gods and goddesses, 
 together with Pan and his attendant Satyrs, 
 occupy the stage, and pay graceful compliments 
 to the British Solomon, his queen, and his 
 courtiers. The popular song is here reserved 
 for the comic antimasque ; ^ the lyrics of the 
 masque proper are invariably art-lyrics, full of 
 allusions to ancient fable, and subject to the 
 artistic canons of antiquity. Such, for instance, 
 are the songs of Nature and Prometheus in 
 Mercury Vindicated, the song of Pallas in The 
 
 1 See the Ballad of John Urson in the Masque of Augurs : 
 
 Though it may seem rude 
 For me to intrude, 
 
 With these my bears, by chance-a ; 
 'Twere sport for a king, 
 If they could sing 
 
 As well as they can dance-a. 
 i86 
 
r. 
 
 Lyric of the English Renaissance 
 
 Golden Age Restored, the song of the Muses' 
 priests in Love freed from Folly, or the echo- 
 song in The Masque of Beauty, where the alkisions 
 to classic fable are, after Jonson's somewhat 
 pedantic fashion, carefully explained in footnotes. 
 We miss in these lyrics the charm of spontaneity 
 and the simple melody of the earlier dramatic 
 song, but we cannot overlook the subtle effects 
 of rhythm and the classic colour attained by 
 the lyrist in such a song as the following : — 
 
 Apollo. Prince of thy peace, see what it is to love 
 The powers above ! 
 Jove hath commanded me 
 
 To visit thee ; 
 And in thine honour with my music rear 
 
 A college here, 
 Of tuneful Augurs, whose divining skill 
 
 Shall wait thee still, 
 And be the heralds of his highest will. 
 
 The work is done, 
 And I have made their president thy son ; 
 Great Mars, too, on these nights 
 Hath added Salian rites ; 
 Yond, yond afar. 
 They closed in their temples are. 
 And each one guided by a star. 
 Chorus. Haste, haste to meet them, and, as they advance, 
 'Twixt every dance, 
 Let us interpret their prophetic trance.^ 
 
 A certain classic feeling is unmistakable, too, 
 in Jonson's love-lyrics. There are not many 
 
 ^ Song of Apollo in Masqtte of Augurs. 
 
 187 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 of these, and in the first of the Forest poems 
 he furnishes us with his reasons, " why I write 
 not of love." But on the few occasions where 
 love is his theme — for instance, the two songs 
 to Celia in the Forest and the ten lyric pieces, 
 entitled, *' A Celebration of Charis," in the 
 Underwoods — we recognise that he is breaking 
 away from the romantic pastoral manner of the 
 Italian love-lyric, and drawing very near to that of 
 the Carfnina of Catullus or the Odes of Anacreon. 
 The Celia songs, particularly the first and most 
 famous of them, *' Come, my Celia, let us 
 prove," is directly based on the Vivamus, mea 
 Lesbia of Catullus, and is a salient example of 
 the change which came over the love-lyric in 
 the seventeenth century. The Petrarchan senti- 
 ment, with its spiritual exaltation of womanhood, 
 is no more present here than in the lyrics of 
 Donne : in its stead we find, what Donne did 
 not supply, the gallantry of Rome. The Charis 
 lyrics are in the Anacreontic manner, but the 
 general tone of the love-sentiment is the 
 same : 
 
 For love's sake, kiss me once again ; 
 I long, and should not beg in vain ; 
 
 Here's none to spy or see. 
 
 Why do you doubt or stay ? 
 
 I'll taste as lightly as the bee. 
 That doth but touch his flower, and flies away.^ 
 
 i88 
 
fLy 
 
 Lyric of the English Renaissance 
 
 Jonson's classicism manifests itself, finally, 
 in the artistic structure of his lyrics, and in the 
 precision and lucidity of his style. '' What 
 vexed Jonson in the writing of the earlier 
 Elizabethans," says a Quarterly Review essayist, 
 ** was its apparent amateurishness, its preference 
 of ornament to proportion, its sins against the 
 canons of antiquity."^ He found the lyrics of 
 the song -books and miscellanies diffuse in 
 utterance and often deficient in organic unity, 
 while the popular song, as practised by the 
 dramatists, seemed to him crude and lawless. 
 The abiding purpose of his lyric genius was to 
 substitute for this older lyric, whether popular 
 or Italian in origin, a new lyric, modelled on that 
 of the ancients, fastidiously pure in style, and 
 true to the highest principles of structural art. 
 To illustrate the differences of style and structure 
 between the lyrics of Jonson and those of most 
 of his predecessors, we need hardly do more 
 than quote the echo-song from Cynthia s Revels 
 — probably the first lyric that he ever wrote : 
 
 Slow, slow, fresh fount, keep time with my salt tears ; 
 
 Yet slower, yet ; O faintly, gentle springs ; 
 List to the heavy part the music bears, 
 
 Woe weeps out her division when she sings. 
 Droop herbs and flowers ; 
 Fall grief in showers, 
 Our beauties are not ours : 
 
 * The Elizabethan Lyric {Quarterly Review^ October, 1902). 
 189 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 O, I could still, 
 Like melting snow upon some craggy hill, 
 
 Drop, drop, drop, drop. 
 Since nature's pride is now a withered daffodil. 
 
 If we compare this with any of the songs of 
 Shakespeare, we must at once be conscious of the 
 entire difference of aim on the part of the rival 
 lyrists. Shakespeare places his whole trust in 
 the tunefulness and spontaneity of utterance, and 
 in the unmistakable wilding flavour, of the popular 
 song, all of which Jonson is willing to sacrifice to 
 his artistic conscience, and for the sake of formal 
 excellence. The theme and the language of his 
 lyric are alike simple, but it is the simplicity of 
 the highest art — the art that conceals art. His 
 song is a masterpiece of rhythmic subtlety, and 
 though the conditions of the stage demanded 
 that it should be sung, and set to a musical 
 accompaniment, we feel that it is complete in 
 itself, and that something of its verbal music 
 must have been lost in the setting. 
 
 Other qualities of his classic style appear in the 
 page's song from The Silent Wofnan ^ : 
 
 Still to be neat, still to be drest, 
 
 As you were going to a feast ; 
 
 Still to be powdered, still perfumed ; 
 
 ^ This lyric is, however, no more original than " Come, my Celia, 
 let us prove," or " Drink to me only with thine eyes ;" it is based 
 upon a Latin poem by the sixteenth-century French poet, Jean 
 Bonnefons. 
 
 190 
 
Lyric of the English Renaissance 
 
 Lady, it is to be presumed, 
 
 Though art's hid causes are not found, 
 
 All is not sweet, all is not sound. 
 
 Give me a look, give me a face, 
 That makes simplicity a grace ; 
 Robes loosely flowing, hair as free : 
 Such sweet neglect more taketh me 
 Than all the adulteries of art ; 
 They strike my eyes, but not my heart. 
 
 Here, in accordance with the theme, Jonson 
 chooses a less elaborate rhythm, yet the studied 
 effects of art are no less apparent. The lucidity 
 and precision of the words, the perfect balance of 
 the one stanza with the other, and the epi- 
 grammatic close of the lyric, are all qualities dear 
 to the poet's heart, and in perfect accord with his 
 classical taste. In all that pertains to lucidity of 
 style Jonson found himself opposed, not only to 
 the Italianate ornamentation of the earlier art- 
 lyric, but also to the metaphysical wit of his con- 
 temporary, Donne. Drummond has preserved for 
 us his views on Donne's obscurity and his "not 
 keeping of accent," and even the harshest of 
 Jonson's critics must allow that he furnished in his 
 Forest and Underwoods a wholesome corrective to 
 the lawlessness of the author of the Songs and 
 Sonnets. And as the century advances, it is in- 
 teresting to note the clash of these two influences. 
 The religious lyrists are, in the main, on the side 
 
 of the metaphysical Donne, while the secular 
 
 191 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 lyrists, above all Herrick, are chiefly on the side 
 of Jonson ; but Carew, the greatest of these next 
 to Herrick, is somewhat uncertain in his allegi- 
 ance. His best songs have the courtly grace and 
 perfect finish of Jonson, as, for instance, that 
 beginning : 
 
 Ask me no more where Jove bestows, 
 When June is past, the fading rose ; 
 For in your beauty's orient deep. 
 These flowers, as in their causes, sleep. 
 
 But at other times the masterful sway of 
 Donne seizes hold of him, and it is a fitting 
 homage to that great lyrist that he comes nearest 
 to his manner in the elegy with wliich he laments 
 his death. 
 
 In the end it was Jonson who triumphed.' 
 The Restoration lyric — the songs of Sedley, 
 Etherege, Rochester and Dryden — is the final 
 expression of those principles of classicism which 
 Jonson taught and practised. It is a lyric 
 painfully limited in its range, and devoid of the 
 imaginative power and genuine emotion which 
 are essential elements in all great lyric poetry : but 
 in its sense of design, the evenness of its structure, 
 the avoidance of tortured phrase and harsh in- 
 version, and, finally, in the purity and precision of 
 its vocabulary, it remains true to the pattern set 
 by that great contemporary of Shakespeare, who 
 
 wrought the same revolution in the temper and 
 
 192 
 
f Ly 
 
 Lyric of the English Renaissance 
 
 form of our English lyric that Malherbe wrought 
 in that of France. 
 
 It is unnecessary to carry this review of the 
 Renaissance lyric any farther into the seventeenth 
 century. Carew, Suckling, Lovelace, Cartwright, 
 and their fellows, together with most of the 
 religious lyrists, were junior to Herrick in point 
 of birth ; and if some of them saw their works 
 pass through the press before the appearance of 
 the Hesperides in 1 648, they were not before him 
 in their courtship of the muse. Although akin 
 to many of them in sympathy of taste, and 
 pursuing with them a like end in poetry, he 
 seems never to have come under their direct 
 influence, and there is indeed no evidence that he 
 knew either them or their works. In his lyrics 
 he renders, as we have seen, full and frequent 
 homage to Jonson, and writes a glowing eulogy 
 on ''Master Fletcher's incomparable Playes": at 
 a later period, too, we find him on friendly terms 
 with the younger generation of poets, including 
 Denham, the younger Cotton, and John Hall of 
 Durham. But there is no mention of the 
 Cavalier lyrists of Charles I.'s time, and the 
 silence is doubtless to be explained by the fact 
 that, from 1629 onwards, Herrick, in the seclusion 
 of his Devonshire parsonage, was out of reach of 
 the Court and the courtly singers. 
 
 Before bringing this chapter to a close, it will 
 
 be well to retrace our steps a little, and take up 
 N 193 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 again the history of the various forms of song-lyric 
 and reflective lyric which we have followed as far 
 as the end of the sixteenth century. The popular 
 song was, as we have seen, driven from its last 
 stronghold, the drama, by the reforming spirit of 
 Ben Jonson very early in the new century. In 
 the plays of Fletcher, Middleton and Brome, we 
 occasionally meet with songs which preserve the 
 traditions of the folk-song, but the great body of 
 seventeenth century dramatists followed the 
 example of Jonson, and substituted for it an art- 
 lyric more or less classical in spirit and style. 
 Yet the seventeenth century had not proceeded 
 very far before a revival of interest in the popular 
 song began. In 1609, Thomas Ravenscroft 
 published his Pammelia^ a collection of rounds or 
 catches, set to music, and distinctly popular in 
 character. Here, for instance, we find such songs 
 as ''Joan, come kiss me now," "The white hen 
 she cackles," and " Blow thy horn, thou jolly 
 hunter." The collection was well received, and 
 was followed in the same year by another, 
 entitled D enter omelia, and consisting of " pleasant 
 Roundelaies, King Harry's mirth or freemen's 
 songs and such delightfull catches." Two years 
 later appeared Ravenscroft's third collection, 
 Melismata, described as *' Musicall Phantasies, 
 fitting the Court, Citie and Countrey," and includ- 
 ing such popular airs as " There were three 
 
 ravens sat on a tree," and ** The frog he would 
 
 194 
 
Lyric of the English Renaissance 
 
 a- wooing ride." How far this revival of interest 
 in popular song proved creative, and how far it 
 remained merely antiquarian, is, on the evidence 
 before us, difficult to decide ; but the vast number 
 of songs, of a more or less popular character, 
 contained in the Pepys, Bagford and Roxburghe 
 collections, bear witness to the fact that the 
 popular song regained in the seventeenth century 
 some of the popularity which it had enjoyed 
 before the coming to England of the Italian song- 
 lyric. 
 
 The Elizabethan madrigal, in spite of the 
 presence of a new rival, lived on into the seven- 
 teenth century and retained a good deal of 
 popularity for the space of nearly forty years. 
 Michael East's seven collections of madrigals 
 range between 1604 ^^id 1638, and in literary 
 quality rank above most of the sixteenth century 
 collections. But the classical taste of the age has 
 left its influence upon many of these seventeenth 
 century madrigals. The Tetrarchan mood 
 gradually gives way to gallantry, or to the note 
 of rebellion heard in the lyrics of Donne : at the 
 same time we miss the Italianate graces of the 
 earlier madrigal ; instead of these we meet with 
 a greater directness of expression and a growing 
 taste for epigram. This fondness for epigram- 
 matic point is the extreme expression of that 
 concision of style which is a feature of the 
 Renaissance lyric from the time of Jonson 
 
 195 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 onwards ; and it calls to mind the fact that many 
 of the lyrists of the time — Sir John Davies, Ben 
 Jonson, Herrick and others — were also writers 
 of epigrams. The following madrigals will serve 
 as illustrations of the new manner : 
 
 Your shining eyes and golden hair, 
 Your lily-rosed lips so fair ; 
 Your various beauties which excel, 
 Men cannot choose but like them well : 
 But when for them they say they'll die, 
 Believe them not, — they do but lie.^ 
 
 Crowned with flowers I saw fair Amaryllis 
 
 By Thyrsis sit, hard by a fount of crystal, 
 And with her hand, more white than snow or lilies. 
 On sand she wrote : My faith shall be immortal ; 
 And suddenly a storm of wind and weather 
 Blew all her faith and sand away together.^ 
 
 Madrigals of this sort have much more in 
 common with some of the epigrammatic 
 verses of the Greek anthologists than with 
 the kind of madrigal which William Byrd was 
 setting to music twenty years earlier ; and we 
 are therefore scarcely surprised to find in Orlando 
 Gibbons' First Set of Madrigals (1612) the 
 following adaptation of the famous dedicatory 
 
 ^ From Thomas Bateson's First Set of English Madrigals^ 
 1604 ; quoted by Bullen, Lyrics from Elizabethan Song-Books^ 
 
 p. 45. 
 
 2 From William Byrd's Psalms^ Songs and So?inets^ 161 1 ; ibid.^ 
 p. 72. 
 
 196 
 
pLy 
 
 Lyric of the English Renaissance 
 
 epigram from the Anthologia GrcBca, formerly 
 attributed to Plato : 
 
 Lais, now old, that erst all-tempting lass, 
 To Goddess Venus consecrates her glass ; 
 For she herself hath now no use of one, 
 No dimpled cheeks hath she to gaze upon : 
 She cannot see her springtide damask grace. 
 Nor dare she look upon her winter face. 
 
 The approximation of the madrigal to the 
 manner of the Greek and Roman epigram may 
 possibly be due to the fact that, as a pure lyric, it 
 had to submit, during the later period of its 
 existence, to the rivalry of the air or solo-song, 
 which reached England from Italy just before 
 the end of the sixteenth century. The air 
 differed from the madrigal in several respects: 
 the music was no longer polyphonic, but intro- 
 duced a definite melody ; this, in its turn, led to 
 the division of the theme into stanzas, the 
 melody being repeated with each stanza after the 
 manner of the popular song ; finally, the song 
 was accompanied by music, the favourite 
 instrument being the lute. This musical change 
 brought with it a change in the character of the 
 words set to music ; these no longer remained of 
 secondary interest, but became once more, in 
 Pindar's phrase, * 'lords of the lyre" — or the 
 lute. The sole object of these composers of 
 solo-songs, writes Sir Hubert Parry, ''seems to 
 
 have b^en to supply a kind of music which 
 
 197 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 would enable people with no voices worth 
 considering to recite poems in a melodious semi- 
 recitative, spaced out into periods in conformity 
 with the length of the lines or the literary 
 phrases." 1 The first collection of lute-accompanied 
 songs was that of John Dowland, published in 
 1597. Many beautiful lyrics are found in this 
 collection, including the familiar ** His golden 
 locks Time hath to silver turned," and their 
 literary quality is fully on a level with that of 
 the miscellany-lyrics of the same date. Three 
 years later, with the appearance of the First 
 Book of Airs of Thomas Campion and Philip 
 Rossiter, and Robert Jones's Fir^st Book of 
 Songs and Airs, the solo-song won for itself an 
 assured place in the musical world of the time. 
 Books of ** Songs and Airs" appeared in rapid 
 succession during the succeeding years, and the 
 popularity of the solo-song was no doubt 
 enhanced by the fact that it found a place in the 
 masques of the court. The masque-songs of 
 Jonson, to which reference has already been 
 made, together with those of other masque- 
 writers, were almost invariably of this character, 
 and were sung to a musical accompaniment. As the 
 century advanced, the old composers — Campion, 
 Dowland, Jones, Ferrabosco — passed away, but 
 their places were taken by a younger race, who 
 
 ^ The Music of the Sevetiteenth Century (Oxford History of 
 Music), p. 209. 
 
 198 
 
r 
 
 Lyric of the English Renaissance 
 
 followed in the main the same traditions, and 
 included among whom were Henry and William 
 Lawes, Nicholas Laniere, John Wilson, John 
 Gamble and John Playford. This later genera- 
 tion of composers turned naturally to the songs 
 of the Cavalier lyrists in their search for words 
 to which to set their melodies. The extent to 
 which the songs of Herrick received a musical 
 setting has been indicated in an earlier chapter ; 
 and, side by side with lyrics from the Hesperides, 
 we find, in the song-books of the period, fre- 
 quent borrowings from the published works of 
 Carew, Lovelace, Waller, Cartwright, Davenant, 
 Randolph, Thomas Stanley, Katherine Phillips, 
 "the matchless Orinda," and even Francis 
 Quarles. The Cavalier lyrist who was most 
 fortunate in securing a musical setting for his 
 songs was Thomas Stanley. In 1656, John 
 Gamble, the composer, published a collection of 
 songs, entitled *' Ayres and Dialogues to be 
 sung to the Theorbo- Lute or Base- Viol" ; this 
 consisted of eighty-four songs and two dialogues, 
 the words of all of which were furnished by 
 Stanley. Mention has been made of these facts 
 in order to correct the statement, sometimes 
 made by historians of our lyric poetry, that the 
 seventeenth century lyric was far less closely 
 associated with music than that of the Elizabethan 
 age. It is true that the Caroline era produced 
 
 no Campion capable of setting his own songs to 
 
 199 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 music, but an examination of the song-books of 
 the two periods shows that the lyrics of Carew, 
 Lovelace, Herrick or Stanley, stood as fair a 
 chance of being set to music as those of Marlowe, 
 Breton, Greene or Barnfield. 
 
 Turning, in the last place, to the lyrics which 
 were written to be read, we notice, before all else, 
 the rapid decline of the sonnet after the turn of 
 the century. This has already been alluded to, 
 and attempts have been made to explain the 
 decline; the sonnet, alike in its temper and its 
 form, was out of harmony with the spirit of the 
 age, and it seems to have lacked the power 
 of altering its character in the way that the 
 madrigal did. Sonnets, and even sonnet- 
 sequences, were written in the seventeenth 
 century, but with the exception of those of 
 Drummond of Hawthornden, who lived in a 
 country which the flood-tide of the Renaissance 
 reached very late, and those of Milton, which 
 are a thing apart, they were the productions of 
 obscure poets, content to keep to the backwaters 
 of literary life. The last of the Renaissance 
 sonneteers was Philip Ayres, who published a 
 volume of ** Lyric Poems, made in imitation of 
 the Italians," as late as 1687. I^ his preface 
 he finds it necessary to apologise for writing such 
 obsolete forms of lyric poetry as sonnets, can- 
 zones, and madrigals ; he is aware that ** none 
 
 of our great men, either Mr Waller, Mr Cowley 
 
 200 
 
Lyric of the English Renaissance 
 
 or Mr Dryden, whom it was most proper to 
 have followed, have ever stoop'd to anything of 
 this sort," and that the success of Spenser, 
 Sidney, and Milton as sonneteers is a thing 
 which ''cannot much be boasted of" (!) ; but he 
 has followed the old manner because his genius 
 has prompted him to do so.^ The quality of this 
 derelict collection of Petrarchan love-lyrics is, as 
 may be supposed, not high. 
 
 With the decline of the sonnet-sequences pro- 
 ceeded, though in a less marked degree, that of 
 the miscellanies. This, however, furnishes us 
 with no evidence whatever of the decadence of 
 this kind of lyric poetry. The poets of the 
 seventeenth century were less willing to cast 
 their verses to the winds than those of the pre- 
 ceding generation ; they preferred to keep them 
 by them until the harvest was large enough to in- 
 duce them to court publicity through the ordinary 
 channels. And at the same time it is a mistake 
 to suppose that the production of anthologies of 
 lyrics by various poets ceased with the appear- 
 ance of Davison's Poetical Rhapsody in 1602. 
 Collections of lyrics and epigrams, hailing from 
 various sources, appeared from time to time 
 throughout the seventeenth century ; and among 
 the most important of these were Wit's Recrea- 
 tions (1640) and Musarum Delicics (1655), which 
 contained some of Herrick's jewelled lines, and 
 
 ^ Saintsbury, Caroline Poets, vol. ii., p. 269. 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 the editing of which was in the hands of such 
 distinguished persons as Sir John Mennes, the 
 Commander of the King's Navy, and Dr James 
 Smith, the divine. 
 
 What conclusion, then, can be arrived at as to 
 the relation of the seventeenth century lyric to 
 that of the Elizabethan age, and what reply can 
 be made to those who bring against the later 
 lyric the charge of decadence ? It is true that 
 we have yet to consider the work of the greatest 
 and most versatile of Caroline lyrics, but we are, 
 nevertheless, in a position to state that the lyric 
 of the first half of the seventeenth century is not 
 inferior to that of the second half of the six- 
 teenth, but different from it. It is true that the 
 later period has nothing to show like the great 
 Elizabethan sonnet-sequences, and it is also true 
 that, when we pass from Marlowe, Shakespeare, 
 Breton, and Campion to the next generation 
 of lyrists, we find an undoubted falling off in 
 spontaneity and pure songfulness. But in the 
 seventeenth century we have, instead of the 
 sonnet, the great outburst of religious lyric 
 poetry associated with the names of Herbert, 
 Crashaw, Vaughan, and Traherne, and in no 
 way inferior to the sonnet in soaring exaltation 
 or mystic rapture, though the love which inspires 
 these lyrics is directed towards Heaven and not 
 
 towards woman. And if in the secular song\ 
 
 202 » 
 
r 
 
 Lyric of the English Renaissance 
 
 there is a loss of spontaneity, tunefulness, and 
 at times of idyllic beauty, there is an immense 
 gain in all that pertains to art. A sense of 
 form and of structure manifests itself; and the 
 lyric, sacrificing romantic charm, wins instead a 
 certain classic grace. Lastly, the seventeenth 
 century brought to lyric poetry the sense of 
 individuality, the personal note, the lyrical cry 
 of a human soul amid its pleasures and its pains, 
 its hopes and its fears. This was a new thing 
 in our poetry, and it gives to the work of these 
 Caroline lyrists a touch of modernity, a kinship 
 with ourselves, which the Elizabethan lyric 
 rarely possesses. 
 
 203 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 THE LYRICAL POEMS OF THE HESPERIDES 
 
 THE preceding chapter has been con- 
 cerned with the main Hne of develop- 
 ment taken by the secular lyric in 
 England during the period of the 
 Renaissance ; and before coming to a study of 
 Herrick's individual poems, it is necessary to 
 determine the general relationship which the 
 poet bears to the tendencies of his age. We 
 have to ask ourselves, What was his attitude 
 towards the popular song, and towards the vari- 
 ous forms of art-lyric which flourished under 
 Elizabeth ? To what extent did he feel the 
 spell exercised by the masterful genius of 
 Donne, and how far did he conform to the 
 classical traditions revived by Ben Jonson? 
 Sealed as he was of the ''tribe of Ben," we may 
 well expect to find in his verses some trace of 
 that reform of lyric art begun by Jonson, and 
 continued by other members of the '' tribe." Nor 
 are our expectations disappointed ; of all Jon- 
 son's disciples none accepted the lessons which 
 he taught so completely as Herrick. The class- 
 icism of Jonson, consisting as it does in the 
 
 204 
 
The Lyrical Poems of the Hesperldes 
 
 expression of sound sense in pure language, 
 and also in the absorption of much of the 
 colour and atmosphere of Greek and Roman 
 poetry, is from first to last the classicism of 
 Herrick. And though the disciple was doubt- 
 less poorer than his master in the wealth of 
 classical scholarship, we nevertheless feel that 
 he moves among the great shadows of the 
 ancient world, and arrays himself in their 
 apparel, with more ease and grace. There is 
 at times a touch of pedantry in Jonson, which 
 suggests that he obtained his Roman citizen- 
 ship with a great sum, whereas Herrick was 
 undoubtedly free-born. 
 
 The classical qualities of Herrick's style must 
 be reserved for later consideration ; what we are 
 concerned with here is his indebtedness to Greek 
 and Roman poets for ideas and lyric themes, 
 and the readiness with which he enters into the 
 spirit of classical poetry. And, at the outset, it 
 may be stated that his classicism is, in the main, 
 Roman and not Greek. He gives us, it is true, 
 in his lyric entitled The Cruel Maid (159) 
 a free rendering of a portion of Theocritus 's 
 twenty-third Idyll, and, as we shall see presently, 
 he shows an intimate acquaintance with the Odes 
 of Anacreon, and with sorne. of the poems of the 
 Greek Anthology ; but he borrows much more 
 freely from Roman authors, and, what is still 
 
 more important, the classic colour in which his 
 
 205 
 
 \^-V-JL 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 lyrics are so often steeped, and the paganism 
 which at times informs his verses, is that of 
 Rome, and not that of Athens or Alexandria. 
 The paganism of Herrick is one of his peculiar 
 qualities. Jonson loved beyond all things to 
 introduce into his lyrics some reference to 
 ancient customs and ceremonial, to talk of 
 Lares and Penates, or to call to mind some 
 forgotten rite in the religious life of ancient 
 Rome ; yet we are never tempted to forget 
 that he was an Englishman of the Elizabethan 
 and Jacobean age, who satirised beneath classic 
 masks the humours of London life, and engaged 
 in wit-combats with Shakespeare at the Mermaid 
 Tavern in Bread Street. But with Herrick the 
 case is different. We feel that there are times 
 when, poring over the pages of the Roman 
 lyrists and elegists in the seclusion of his 
 Devonshire cell, he shakes off the fetters of 
 time and place, and stands before us as a 
 habitant of that city which clung for so long 
 to "the religion of Numa," and found a peculiar 
 gratification in presenting its offerings of " holy 
 meal and spirting salt " before the images of its 
 household Lares and Penates. Herrick's al- 
 lusions to these ceremonial rites are so simple 
 and so intimate that they give to his verses 
 something more than a merely antiquarian 
 colour. His Hymns to the Lares (see 
 
 Nos. 324, 2)1'}^, 674) and To the Genius of 
 
 206 
 
The Lyrical Poems of the Hespertdes 
 
 his House (723) do not read like literary ex- 
 ercises, but like true expressions of his genuine 
 faith. Some of these poems, moreover, were 
 written in his graver moments, and at critical 
 junctures in his life. When the call comes to 
 him to leave Dean Prior, he seizes the occasion 
 to address a poem To Lar {^ioZ) • 
 
 No more shall I, since I am driven hence. 
 
 Devote to thee my grains of frankincense : 
 
 No more shall I from mantle-trees hang down. 
 
 To honour thee, my little parsley crown ; 
 
 No more shall I (I fear me) to thee bring 
 
 My chives of garlic for an offering ; 
 
 No more shall I from henceforth hear a choir 
 
 Of merry crickets by my country fire. 
 
 Go where I will, thou lucky Lar, stay here, 
 
 Warm by a glitt'ring chimney all the year. 
 
 gain, it is impossible to doubt that the verses 
 which he wrote after paying a visit to his father's 
 grave are both reverent and sincere ; yet what 
 other poet could, with propriety, have introduced 
 on such an occasion the mortuary ceremonial of 
 ancient Rome, in the way that Herrick has done 
 in the opening verses of this poem ? 
 
 That for seven lusters I did never come 
 To do the rites to thy religious tomb ; 
 That neither hair was cut, or true tears shed 
 By me, o'er thee, as justments to the dead, 
 Forgive, forgive me ; since I did not know 
 Whether thy bones had here their rest or no. 
 207 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 But now 'tis known, behold ! behold ! I bring 
 Unto thy ghost th' effused offering : 
 And look what smallage, night-shade, cypress, yew, 
 Unto the shades have been, or now are due, 
 Here I devote.^ 
 
 Poems such as these bring home to us the con- 
 viction that there was in Herrick a curious strain 
 of paganism, which accords none too well with 
 his duties as a Christian priest, but which gives 
 to his lyrics a classical flavour not met with else- 
 where in English poetry. 
 
 But it is time to pass from this, and to come 
 to a consideration of his indebtedness to the 
 great classic masters of lyric poetry. Of the 
 lyric poets of antiquity none made a deeper 
 impression upon Herrick than that school of 
 Alexandrian singers whose Odes are falsely 
 ascribed to the Teian poet, Anacreon. Refer- 
 ence has already been made to the popularity 
 with which the so-called Odes of Anacreon were 
 received by Elizabethan madrigalists, by mis- 
 cellany lyrists, and by Ben Jonson in those 
 love- lyrics entitled A Celebratio7i of Charis ; and 
 this popularity increased rather than diminished 
 in the Caroline age. It is uncertain whether 
 Herrick read his Anacreon in the original 
 Greek, or in the Latin version of the French 
 humanist, Henri Estienne ; and except that it 
 would be interesting to know whether he had a 
 
 * To the Reverend Shade of his Religious Father (82). 
 208 
 
I 
 
 I 
 
 The Lyrical Poems of the Hesperides 
 
 knowledge of Greek, the point Is not of great 
 importance. But between the Anacreon of the 
 Odes and the Caroline poet in his lighter moods 
 there was undoubtedly a remarkable affinity of 
 temperament. The gaiety and frank hedonism 
 of Anacreon, his picturesque and dainty fanciful- 
 ness, and his fondness for self-portraiture,, are 
 all qualities equally characteristic of Herrick. 
 There are several references to Anacreon in the 
 Hesperides, and in the poem entitled The Appari- 
 tion of his Mistress calling him to Elysitim (575), 
 Herrick definitely recognises that between him- 
 self and the Greek lyrist there was a close bond 
 of union : 
 
 And that done, 
 I'll bring thee, Herrick, to Anacreon, 
 Quaffing his full-crown'd bowls of burning wine. 
 And in his raptures speaking lines of thine. 
 Like to his subject \ and as his frantic 
 Looks show him truly Bacchanalian-like, 
 Besmear'd with grapes, welcome he shall thee thither, 
 Where both may rage, both drink and dance together. 
 
 The vision of an Elysium where Anacreon 
 quotes Herrick, and Herrick Anacreon, is one 
 which it is pleasant to linger over. 
 
 Among the Hesperides there are some six or 
 seven poems which are fairly close translations 
 of Anacreon,^ together with others which, partly 
 
 ^See, in particular, The Cheat of Cupid {2>i\ The Wounded 
 Cupid {ly^, and those lines On Hi7nselfi beginning " Born I was 
 to meet with age" (519). 
 
 O 209 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 because of the mood which they reveal, and 
 partly because of the short trochaic verse in 
 which they are written, he entitles " Anacreontic 
 Verses." But the influence of the Greek lyrist 
 is by no means confined to these ; we feel it 
 again and again in his sensuous love-lyrics 
 to Julia, Electra, and his other mistresses, 
 and in the voluptuous dream-fancies, such as 
 The Vision (142) and The Vision to Electra 
 (56), which are modelled on certain Odes of 
 Anacreon, similar in conception and expres- 
 sion. Still keeping to lyrics of which love 
 is the theme, we cannot fail to recognise 
 that such a poem as that entitled Upon the 
 Loss of his Mistresses (39), in which he tells 
 the number of those conquests of which Time 
 has robbed him, bears something more than an 
 accidental resemblance to the thirty-second Ode 
 of Anacreon, in which that lyrist relates what 
 spoils he has won in the lists of love at Athens, 
 Corinth, and amongst Carian and Ionian dames. 
 Or again, if wine be his theme, it is still 
 Anacreon that inspires the strain ; his Hymn to 
 Bacchus (304) and his Canticle to Bacchus (415) 
 recall, both by their sentiment and their light 
 trochaic verse, the manner of the Greek : 
 
 To Bacchus : A Canticle. 
 
 Whither dost thou whorry me, 
 Bacchus, being full of thee ? 
 
The Lyrical Poems of the Hesperides 
 
 This way, that way, that way, this, 
 Here and there a fresh love is. 
 That doth Hke me, this doth please ; 
 Thus a thousand mistresses 
 I have now ; yet I alone, 
 Having all, enjoy not one. 
 
 Herrick delighted equally in that fanciful side 
 of Anacreon's genius which fashioned cameo-like 
 pictures of Cupid stung by a bee, or drawing his 
 arrow upon the poet who has given him warmth 
 and shelter. Not only did he translate these 
 odes, but he contrived others similar to them in 
 manner, and rivalling them in the dainty grace 
 of the workmanship : 
 
 The Bag of the Bee. 
 
 About the sweet bag of a bee 
 
 Two Cupids fell at odds, 
 And whose the pretty prize should be 
 
 They vow'd to ask the gods. 
 
 Which Venus hearing, thither came, 
 And for their boldness stripp'd them. 
 
 And taking thence from each his flame. 
 With rods of myrtle whipp'd them. 
 
 Which done, to still their wanton cries. 
 When quiet grown she'd seen them, 
 
 She kiss'd, and wip'd their dove-like eyes, 
 And gave the bag between them.^ 
 
 Finally, it seems to have been mainly from 
 Anacreon, though the practice reappears also in 
 
 1 No. 92. 
 
 2H 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 Catullus, that Herrick drew the idea of addressing 
 poems " To Himself," in which, exactly in the 
 manner of the Greek poet, he lightly discourses 
 of his hopes and fears, his sensuous delight in the 
 gay pleasures of life, or his presentiment of gray 
 hairs and advancing years. How intensely Ana- 
 creontic, for instance, is the following : 
 
 I fear no earthly powers. 
 But care for crowns of flowers ; 
 And love to have my beard 
 With wine and oil besmear'd. 
 This day I'll drown all sorrow : 
 Who knows to live to-morrow ? ^ 
 
 But while recognising the indebtedness of 
 Herrick to Anacreon, it is important not to 
 exaggerate it. It is in his shortest, lightest, 
 and most sensuous lyrics that this influence is 
 chiefly felt ; in his nobler and more sustained 
 flights of song, he soars to heights where the 
 Greek lyrist was unable to lend him guidance : 
 the truth is that the whole of Anacreon is summed 
 up in Herrick, but not the whole of Herrick in 
 Anacreon. 
 
 Of the Roman lyric poets, it is Catullus and 
 Horace that have left the deepest impression 
 upon him ; he was undoubtedly familiar with their 
 works, and translates from both of them. Lowell 
 has called Herrick '' the most Catullian of poets 
 since Catullus," ^ and it is incumbent on us to see 
 
 1 No. 170. ^ "Essay on Lessing." 
 
 212 
 
I 
 
 The Lyrical Poems of the Hesperides 
 
 what truth there is in the statement. In that 
 spirited poem, To Live Merrily and Trust to 
 Good Verses (201), he empties his goblet in honour 
 of Catullus, and refers to him as follows : 
 
 Then this immensive cup 
 
 Of aromatic wine, 
 Catullus, I quaff up 
 
 To that terse muse of thine. 
 
 His song To Anthea (74) is reminiscent in 
 places of the most passionate of Catullus's love 
 lyrics to Lesbia, Vivamtis, mea Lesbia^ at que 
 amemus ; and his elegy Upon the Death of his 
 Sparrow (256), though different in presentment, 
 was undoubtedly suggested by the familiar Luctus 
 in Morte Passeris of the Veronese lyrist. But 
 the actual borrowings from Catullus are much 
 slighter than those from Martial, Ovid, Horace, 
 or Seneca, and indicate little more than that 
 Herrick had read the Car7nina and remembered 
 them. Yet the relationship which the English 
 poet bears to the Roman goes deeper than mere 
 reminiscence of phrase. In the first place, it 
 should be borne in mind that the Hesperides 
 bear a striking superficial resemblance to the 
 Carrnina of Catullus in their apparently dis- 
 orderly arrangement — an arrangement which 
 ignores chronological order, and brings the 
 loftiest strains of lyric song into close proximity 
 
 with the coarsest epigrams. Penetrating beneath 
 
 213 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 the surface, we notice the strlkingr sincerity of 
 utterance which characterises either poet ; both 
 of them lay bare their personal tastes, their 
 loves and their hatreds, with absolute frankness. 
 Herrick shares, too, Catullus's sympathetic 
 nature, and his tender regard for friends and 
 relations ; either poet is ready at all times to 
 devote his muse to the service of his friends, 
 and is keenly alive to the sense of bereavement. 
 Herrick's lament for the death of his brother 
 William (i86) falls, in passionate intensity, little 
 short of the immortal lines in which Catullus 
 bewails the death of his brother in the Troad.^ 
 There is, too, a resemblance between their 
 poems on the side of style. Herrick shows 
 his critical faculty in attaching to Catullus the 
 epithet ''terse," and the terseness of the Car- 
 mina, the directness of appeal, the avoidance of 
 surplusage and of mannerisms, find their counter- 
 part in the Hesperides. 
 
 But it is as love poets that Catullus and 
 Herrick have usually been compared, and here, it 
 must be confessed, the difference between them 
 is great. In his love-poems to Julia, Corinna and 
 the other mistresses, Herrick only on rare occa- 
 sions glows with the same fiery passion which 
 enkindles the Veronese poet's songs to Lesbia. 
 The absence of passion on Herrick's part may 
 be accounted for by the belief that he is singing 
 
 ^ Carmina^ Ixviii. 
 214 
 
The Lyrical Poems of the Hesperides 
 
 only of imaginary mistresses, whereas we know 
 that Catullus's Lesbia was luridly real ; but, how- 
 ever explained, this lack of the genuine fire of 
 love makes Herrick's verses seem very different 
 from those of the Roman poet. We have only 
 to compare the lines to Anthea with the fifth of 
 the Carmina, on which, as already stated, they 
 are based, in order to realise the difference 
 between the love of the two poets. Herrick 
 reproduces the somewhat fanciful lines — 
 
 Da mi basia mille, deinde centum ; 
 Dein mille altera, dein secunda centum ; 
 Dein usque altera mille, deinde centum — 
 
 cleverly enough : 
 
 Give me a kiss, and to that kiss a score ; 
 Then to that twenty add a hundred more; 
 A thousand to that hundred ; so kiss on, 
 To make that thousand up a milHon.^ 
 
 But, unmoved by the passion and poignancy of 
 the foreofoinor verses — 
 
 Soles occidere et redire possunt : 
 Nobis, quum semel occidit brevis lux, 
 Nox est perpetua una dormienda — 
 
 he substitutes for them some of his grossest 
 lines. 
 
 Peculiarly interesting is the attitude of Herrick 
 to Horace. What is probably the first poem he 
 
 ^ No. 74. 
 215 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 ever wrote, A Country Life to Thomas Herrick, 
 is singularly full of Horatian echoes, and shows 
 the same delight in the associations of country 
 life which we meet with in the Odes. A few years 
 later, he translated the ninth Ode of Book III. 
 — the dialogue between Horace and Lydia — and 
 had it set to music. Throughout the Hesperides, 
 too, and especially in the poems of a sententious 
 character, we come upon passages, and sometimes 
 short poems, which are little more than free trans- 
 lations of Horace. Thus he loves to round off 
 poems by a passage taken from the Roman 
 master, and generally acknowledges the debt by 
 italics. For instance, the bold figure of the last 
 line of The Bad Season makes the Poet Sad 
 (612): 
 
 And once more yet ere I am laid out dead, 
 Knock at a star with my exalted head — 
 
 is an exact translation of the close of the first Ode 
 of Book I. : 
 
 Quodsi me lyricis vatibus inseres, 
 Sublimi feriam sidera vertice. 
 
 Similarly, the concluding couplet of the poem, 
 To the Earl of Westmorland (459) : 
 
 Virtue conceal'd, with Horace you'll confess, 
 
 Differs not much from drowsy slothfulness — 
 
 216 
 
The Lyrical Poems of the Hesperides 
 
 is an acknowledged translation of the following : 
 
 Paulum sepultse distat inertise 
 Celata virtus.^ 
 
 It is worthy of notice that Herrick turns to 
 Horace for inspiration in his graver moments. 
 The Hesperides bear witness to the fact that 
 their author knew his Horace too well to fall 
 into the common error that the Augustan poet 
 was a mere seeker after pleasure, the bard of 
 love and song and wine, who bids his readers 
 enjoy the fleeting hours of present existence, 
 taking no thought for the morrow. And it is 
 significant that, when in the very highest spirits he 
 writes To Live Merrily and Trust to Good Verses 
 (201), and pledges in a bumper of wine the 
 memory of Homer, Virgil, Ovid, Catullus, Pro- 
 pertius, and Tibullus, he makes no mention of 
 Horace. In his Bacchanalian lyrics he looks not 
 to Horace, but to Anacreon ; and when he cele- 
 brates in verse one of his many mistresses, he 
 has in mind, not the love-lyrics which Horace 
 devotes to his Lycjia, or Glycera, but the Lesbia 
 poems of Catullus, the elegies of Ovid, or again, 
 the sensuous odes of Anacreon. To Horace he 
 turns, as also to Seneca, in his graver moods, to 
 furnish him with some sententious apophthegm, 
 or to inculcate some of the more practical lessons 
 of philosophy — mastery of self and a life of modera- 
 tion. Such poems as His Wish (153), Purposes 
 
 1 IV. Ode ix. 29. 
 217 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 (615), or that entitled Men mind no State in Sick- 
 ness (696), are clearly reminiscent of Horace, as is 
 also that entitled His Age, dedicated to his friend 
 John Weekes (336). In this last it is Horace's 
 famous Eheu fugaces that inspires the song, 
 together with the allied in spirit and equally- 
 famous i9^^^^^r^ nives of Book IV. Nor can it, 
 I think, be doubted that the noble poem, The 
 Christian Militant (323), which is not unworthy 
 of comparison with Words worth's //i:?//j Warrior, 
 is in its philosophy more nearly akin to the 
 blended Stoicism and Epicureanism that we meet 
 with in the maturer poems of Horace than to the 
 ethics of Christianity. 
 
 If there was a kinship between Herrick and 
 Horace in respect of their philosophy of life, 
 there was also a kinship of tastes. Horace on 
 his Sabine farm, and Herrick tilling his acres of 
 glebe at Dean Prior, come near to one another in 
 their surroundings and habits of life. Both had 
 known the life of the court and the city, and both 
 had followed up this life by one of comparative 
 seclusion in the country, and had found in the 
 activities and recreations of rustic life, and in the 
 ever-changing face of Nature, matter for song. 
 In the place of his seclusion Horace was more 
 fortunate than Herrick ; at such times as he 
 felt the monotony and tedium of the Sabine farm 
 steal over him, he could escape to Rome, or to 
 
 fashionable Tibur or Baia^, and there mingle 
 
 218 
 
The Lyrical Poems of the Hesperides 
 
 freely in the society of the literati and the 
 courtiers. But Herrick, far away from London, 
 and held fast by parochial duties, could not so 
 readily pass from the one life to the other ; and 
 as a result of this we find, instead of the affec- 
 tionate terms in which Horace always refers to 
 his country life, those occasional outbursts of 
 spleen against Dean Prior, of which we have 
 already taken count. 
 
 But the point at which Horace and Herrick 
 come nearest to one another is in the feeling that 
 the work which they are doing, the monument 
 which they are raising, is one which will outlive 
 them. This faith in the immortality of poetry 
 was, as literary historians have shown, common to 
 most of the poets of the Renaissance. But it 
 was in a very special sense the faith of Herrick, 
 a faith to which he clung with a tenacity which 
 no neglect could shake. The same faith was, of 
 course, in Horace : it is the theme of the proud 
 ode which closes the second book, and of the 
 still prouder one at the end of the third. In 
 his sure belief in the immortality of the Hesperides 
 Herrick had Horace in mind, and the thought 
 of that poet's fame, veiled for something like a 
 thousand years beneath a cloud, and then 
 effulgent in the stirring days of the Renais- 
 sance, when the dead came to life again, and old 
 things were made new, may well have cheered 
 
 the Caroline lyrist amid his work. The very 
 
 219 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 language in which he assures himself of this im- 
 mortality is a clear echo of Horace's Non omnis 
 moriar and Exegi monumentum aere perennius : 
 
 Thou shalt not all die ; for, while love's fire shines 
 Upon his altar, men shall read thy lines, 
 And learned musicians shall, to honour Herrick's 
 Fame and his name, both set and sing his lyrics.^ 
 
 Behold this living stone 
 
 I rear for me, 
 
 Ne'er to be thrown 
 Down, envious Time, by thee. 
 
 Pillars let some set up 
 
 If so they please : 
 
 Here is my hope 
 And my Pyramides.^ 
 
 Space does not permit us to investigate further 
 the indebtedness of Herrick to the writers of the 
 classic world. A large number of lines taken 
 direct from the works of Ovid show his diligent 
 study of that poet, and here and there we come 
 upon verses which recall Virgil and the great 
 Roman elegists, Tibullus and Propertius. There 
 are, too, throughout the Hesperides, frequent 
 reminiscences of both the tragedies and the prose 
 works of Seneca, as well as of the historical 
 writings of Tacitus. Indeed, the more carefully 
 the Hesperides are studied, the more do they 
 
 1 Up07t Hi?nself {^66). 
 
 2 His Poetry his Pillar (211). 
 
 220 
 
The Lyrical Poems of the Hesperides 
 
 reveal the fact that Herrick carried with him to his 
 vicarage at Dean Prior the best works of the great 
 Roman authors, and that during the long winter 
 evenings which he spent there, he pored over 
 their writings with the eyes of a scholar and a 
 lover. 
 
 His acquaintance with the lyric poetry of the 
 Renaissance age was less profound. There is 
 nothing to show that he had any acquaintance 
 with the Petrarchan school of Italian lyrists who 
 had inspired the poets of Elizabethan England. 
 The reaction against the Petrarchists, begun by 
 Jonson and Donne, was continued by Herrick. 
 He has left us nothing in the nature of sonnet 
 or canzone, nor is there much resemblance 
 between his love lyrics and those of Renaissance 
 Italy. Nor, again, can we trace in his works the 
 influence of French lyric poetry ; the lustrous 
 names of the poets of La Pleiade seem to have 
 been unknown to him. It would be pleasant to 
 think that he had read Remy Belleau, and that 
 the Petites hiventions, the lyrics and idylls of La 
 Bergerie and Les Amours et N ouveaux Eschanges 
 des Pierres Precieuses found a place on his shelves 
 side by side with the Odes of Anacreon. There 
 was in fact much that was common to the two 
 poets : both were lovers and imitators of 
 Anacreon, who inspired both of them to write of 
 love and of '' times trans-shifting," and to weave 
 delicate fancies round the minute creations 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 of Nature. Herrick would have found pure 
 delight in Belleau's beautiful song, Avril: 
 
 Avril, I'honneur et des bois, 
 
 Et des mois : 
 Avril, la douce esperance 
 Des fruicts qui sous le coton 
 
 Du bouton 
 Nourrissent leur jeune enfance. . . . ^ 
 
 And the poet who sang of the hock-cart would 
 have found a kindred soul in the author of Les 
 Vendangeurs. W^xx\q}^s> Description of a Woman, 
 again, is strikingly like Belleau's Portrait de sa 
 Maistresse, but there is no reason for suggesting 
 imitation ; either poet found his model in the 
 twenty-eighth ode of Anacreon. 
 ,«i^ J Herrick's attitude as a master of lyric poetry 
 -^ to the lyrists of Elizabethan England and those 
 of his own generation is very interesting and calls 
 for closest study.) His classical sympathies and 
 his sturdy allegiance to Ben Jonson made 
 him turn aside from the dreamy mysticism 
 of the sonneteers, nor could his mundane tem- 
 perament appreciate the Platonic idealism of 
 Spenser. jBut there was an undoubted strain of 
 romance in Herrick's geniusj while his long as- 
 sociation with English rural life, and his 
 intense delight in all the pagan ritual of the 
 country-side, brought him into touch with the 
 simple idyllic poetry of England's Helicony and, 
 
 ^ Belleau, (Euvres Poetiques^ ed. Marty-Lavaux, i. p. 201. 
 222 
 
The Lyrical Poems of the Hesperidcs 
 
 in spite of his artistic tastes and classical bias, 
 with the ruder minstrelsy of the popular song. 
 Among the Hesperides are several songs of a 
 distinctly popular character, and others which, 
 if savouring more of the artist, keep, nevertheless, 
 to the rhythm of popular song. 
 
 There were in the seventeenth century several 
 songs which attained popularity, the hero of 
 which was the roving, mirth-loving tinker. A 
 song, entitled ''The Jovial Tinker," is contained 
 in the Pepys Collection, and akin to it is that 
 beginning — 
 
 There was a jovial tinker, 
 
 Dwelt in the land of Turvey — 
 
 preserved in the First part of Merry Drollery 
 Complete (1670). In the spirit of these songs 
 Herrick wrote his Tinker's Song (1051), the 
 popular accent of which is unmistakable : 
 
 Along, come along, 
 Let's meet in a throng 
 
 Here of tinkers : 
 And quaff up a bowl 
 As big as a cowl 
 
 To beer drinkers. 
 
 The pole of the hop 
 Place in the aleshop 
 
 To bethwack us. 
 If ever we think 
 So much as to drink 
 
 Unto Bacchus. 
 223 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 Who frolic will be 
 For little cost, he 
 
 Must not vary 
 From beer-broth at all, 
 So much as to call 
 
 For Canary. 
 
 The rhythm of this song, with its ahernating 
 iambs and anapaests, recurs in a good number of 
 the songs of the Hesperides, most of which have 
 a certain popular ring in them. We meet with 
 it, or something very Hke it, in Up Tails -A II 
 (727), which is also a version of another extremely 
 popular song of the time, in Tke Hag is Astride 
 (643), The Peter- Penny (762), Ceremonies for 
 Christmas (784), Draw-Gloves (243), The May- 
 pole is up (695), and in Twelfth- Night, or King 
 and Queen (1035). The use of this rhythm 
 for popular airs is fairly common in the seven- 
 teenth century, a good example being The 
 Encounter, published among the Rump-Songs 
 in 1662. 
 
 Again, Herrick's charm-songs have a distinctly 
 popular flavour about them, and may be compared 
 with those primitive charm-songs, "Against 
 Stitch," ** Against a Swarm of Bees," etc., which 
 are among the earliest pieces of verse in English 
 literature. In his charms he is content to ignore 
 art, and to set forth the superstitions which he 
 gathered in the chimney-corners of Dean Prior 
 
 in the simplest possible manner : 
 
 224 
 
The Lyrical Poems of the Hesperides 
 
 If ye fear to be affrighted, 
 When ye are by chance benighted, 
 In your pocket for a trust, 
 Carry nothing but a crust j 
 For that holy piece of bread 
 Charms the danger and the dread.^ 
 
 This I'll tell ye by the way, 
 Maidens, when ye leavens lay ; 
 Cross your dough, and your dispatch 
 Will be better for your batch. ^ 
 
 Herrick never wrote anything quite like the 
 songs with recurring refrain which we meet with 
 in the plays of Shakespeare and Dekker, and 
 which approximate so closely to the manner of 
 primitive folk-song ; but his charms, his may- 
 pole songs and wassail-songs, and his lyrics for 
 Christmas and Candlemas ceremonies, come very 
 near the folk-lore rhymes of the English country- 
 side, and offer a pleasing contrast to those art- 
 lyrics of his, in which the chief inspiration is 
 drawn from classic sources. 
 
 When we turn from the popular song, and 
 its allies, to the more formal art-lyric of the 
 Elizabethan period, it is not easy to say 
 precisely at what points Herrick came under 
 the influence of the earlier masters. I It may 
 be taken for granted that he was fairly well 
 aquainted with the collections of madrigals and 
 miscellany-lyrics ; and when the authors of these 
 
 1 A Charm (1065). 2 ^ Charm (1063). 
 
 p 225 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 sing of country life and country festivities, they 
 come very near to Herrick. But the more 
 artificial kinds of art-lyric, above all the sonnet 
 and its kindred forms, were foreign to the taste 
 of Ben Jonson's disciple, though the lyric of 
 pastoralism, especially if written in amoebean 
 form, was practised by him, as also by most of 
 the secular lyrists of the time. It is significant, 
 too, that whereas he makes frequent mention in 
 his verses of the great lyrists of classical antiquity, 
 and of Ben Jonson among the moderns, he does 
 not once refer to Marlowe, Sidney, Spenser, 
 Greene, Breton, Campion, Shakespeare, or any 
 other of the Elizabethan masters of lyric song. 
 Thus the reaction against the Petrarchan tradition 
 of lyric poetry, begun by Donne and Jonson, is 
 fully maintained in the Hesperides. Now and 
 again, it is true, we overhear in that collection of 
 verses echoes of the older music. Like many 
 another lyrist of the time, he takes up the 
 beautiful strain of Marlowe's '' Copie live with me 
 and be my love " in his song. To Phyllis, to love 
 and live with him (521), and rivals the earlier 
 master in the idyllic beauty of the rustic associa- 
 tions which he recalls. Again, Campion's 
 matchless lyric, '' There is a garden in her face," 
 with its refrain, ''Till 'Cherry ripe' themselves 
 do cry," is echoed in the familiar " Cherry Ripe " ; 
 and it is impossible to read Herrick's haunting 
 
 '* Mad Maid's Song " without thinking of Ophelia. 
 
 226 
 
r 
 
 The Lyrical Poems of the Hesperides 
 
 There is, further, a certain kinship between some 
 of the lighter lyrics of the Hesperides and some 
 of the madrigal-songs, especially those which 
 break away from the Italian manner and set forth 
 homely themes in simple and homely words. 
 Some of Morley's canzonets and ballets on May- 
 day rejoicings, or on the rustic game of barley- 
 break, come, in spirit and expression, very near 
 to Herrick's treatment of the same themes,^ and 
 what is frequently regarded as the most perfect 
 of all his idyllic songs, Corinndls going a-Maying 
 (178), seems to have owed its inspiration to the 
 following song from Thomas Bateson's First Set 
 of English Madrigals ( 1 604) : 
 
 Sister, awake ! close not your eyes ! 
 
 The day her light discloses, 
 And the bright morning doth arise 
 
 Out of her bed of roses. 
 
 See, the clear sun, the world's bright eye, 
 
 In at our window peeping : 
 Lo ! how he blusheth to espy 
 
 Us idle wenches sleeping. 
 
 Therefore awake ! make haste, I say, 
 
 And let us, without staying, 
 All in our gowns of green so gay 
 
 Into the park a-maying.^ 
 
 Compare the barley-break song in Morley's Canzonets or Little 
 Short Aers (1597) (Bolle. p. 125), with Herrick's " Barley- Break " 
 (loi). 
 2 BuUen, Lyrics from Elizabethan Song-Books^ p. 198. 
 
 227 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 It would be interesting to have heard Herrick's 
 opinions on the poetic genius of Donne, with 
 whose lyrics he was certainly acquainted, and 
 concerning whom, we may readily believe, he 
 exchanged opinions with his master, Ben Jonson, 
 during their hours together in the London 
 tavern. The direct influence of Donne upon 
 Herrick may be hard to determine, and in many 
 respects their poetic tastes ran in opposite direc- 
 tions ; yet it must, I think, be admitted that the 
 ever-present personal note of the author of the 
 Hesperides, the individuality and direct manner 
 of his lyrics, were all qualities which Donne had 
 been the first to introduce into the Elizabethan 
 lyric, and that without the example of Donne 
 before him, Herrick would somehow have written 
 differently. In this quality of self- revelation the 
 Hesperides have much more in common with 
 the Songs and Sonnets of Donne than with the 
 Forest or the Underwoods of Jonson. At the 
 same time, it is not easy to single out poems of 
 Herrick which directly recall those of Donne,^ 
 and it must be confessed that the qualities which 
 are most frequently regarded as characteristic 
 of Donne's genius — his obscurity, his perversa 
 ingenuity and met^physic wit, his cramped, 
 diction and harsh rhythms — are directly opposed _ 
 
 ^ Exception must perhaps be made in the case of No Loath- 
 omeness in Love (21), which recalls Donne's The Indifferent', it is 
 also probable that Herrick's Litany to the Holy Spirit (N.N. 41) 
 was suggested by the Litany of Donne. 
 
 228 
 
'he Lyrical Poems of the Hesperides 
 
 to the lucidity and fluid melody of the vicar of 
 EJean Prior. 
 
 Of English lyric poets, the only one that can 
 be compared with the great lyrists of antiquity, 
 in respect of the influence exerted upon the 
 author of the Hesperides^ was the one whom he 
 so often and so loyally acclaimed as master — Ben 
 Jonson. We can well believe that it was^l 
 Jonson's precept and example that led Herrick 
 to the study and imitation of the Greek and 
 Roman lyric, that taught him structural form 
 and precision of style, and that inspired him 
 with his fastidious sense of artistic treatment. 
 The classicism of Herrick is that of Anacreon, 
 Catullus and Horace, but it is also that of 
 Jonson, who overthrew the Petrarchan traditions 
 and replaced them by those of antiquity. More- 
 over, it was allegiance to Jonson, reinforced, 
 it is true, by innate sanity of genius, which kept 
 Herrick free from all the extravagances of the 
 fantastic school of English lyrists that was grow- 
 ing up around him. And in this respect it is 
 to be noticed that what is almost Herrick s 
 only mannerism of style — a certain love of in- 
 version — is one which he shares with his master. 
 Many a chance phrase scattered through the 
 Hesperides is reminiscent of the Forest, the 
 Underwoods and the Masques of Ben Jonson, 
 and now and again we find him reproducing 
 
 the music of his verse. Thus the rhythm — 
 
 229 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 and something more than the rhythm — of one 
 of Herrick's most perfect lyrics, The Night Piece 
 to Julia (619), inevitably recalls the Song of 
 the Patrico in Gipsies Metamorphosed. Jonson's 
 song begins as follows : 
 
 The faery beams upon you, 
 The stars to glister on you ; 
 
 A moon of light, 
 
 In the noon of night. 
 Till the fire-drake hath o'ergone you ; 
 
 and this is the first stanza of Herrick's : 
 
 Her eyes the glow-worm lend thee, 
 The shooting stars attend thee ; 
 
 And the elves also, 
 
 Whose little eyes glow 
 Like the sparks of fire, befriend thee. 
 
 Reference has already been made (see page 
 32) to the relationship which the poem, entitled 
 A Country Life : to his Brother, M. Tho. 
 Herrick (106), bears to Jonson's Epistle to 
 Sir Robert Wroth, and there is an equally close 
 relationship between Herrick's Panegyric to 
 Sir L. Pemberton ^Zll^ ^^^ Jonson's Penshurst. 
 Both poems describe the hospitality of a seven- 
 teenth century country-house, and many of the 
 ideas introduced into the earlier poem reappear 
 in the later. It would be necessary to 
 quote the poems in full in order to bring 
 
 out all the points in common, but a few 
 
 230 
 
The Lyrical Poems of the Hesperides J 
 
 verses will suffice to show the dependence of 
 the one poet upon the other. Jonson praises, 
 amongst other things, the generous table kept 
 at Penshurst : 
 
 &-. 
 
 Whose liberal board doth flow 
 With all that hospitality doth know ; 
 Where comes no guest but is allow'd to eat, 
 Without his fear, and of thy lord's own meat : 
 Where the same beer and bread, and self-same wine 
 That is his lordship's, shall be also mine. 
 Here no man tells my cups, nor, standing by, 
 A waiter doth my gluttony envy : 
 But gives me what I call, and lets me eat ; 
 He knows, below, he shall find plenty of meat. 
 
 Herrick takes up this thought and expands it at 
 some length : 
 
 The wholesome savour of thy mighty chines 
 
 Invites to supper him who dines ; 
 Where laden spits, warp'd with large ribs of beef. 
 
 Not represent but give relief 
 To the lank stranger and the sour swain. 
 
 Where both may feed and come again : 
 For no black-bearded vigil from thy door 
 
 Beats with a button'd staff the poor . . . 
 Thus, like a Roman tribune, thou thy gate 
 
 Early sets ope to feast and late ; 
 Keeping no currish waiter to affright 
 
 With blasting eye the appetite. 
 Which fain would waste upon thy cates, but that 
 
 The trencher-creature marketh what 
 Best and more suppling piece he cuts, and by 
 
 Some private pinch tells danger's nigh, 
 231 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 A hand too desp'rate, or a knife that bites 
 
 Skin-deep into the pork, or lights 
 Upon some part of kid, as if mistook, 
 
 When checked by the butler's look.^ 
 
 Herrlck's dependence upon his master is un- 
 mistakable, but it is only fair to notice the 
 greater vividness and animation of his picture, 
 and the way in which he has allowed his humour 
 to play upon the scene. 
 
 I Again, we may observe the connection between 
 Jonson's famous song, '' Still to be Neat," 
 and Herrick's Delight in Disorder (^'^, where 
 the younger poet, taking to heart the instruc- 
 tions of his elder, expresses his delight in 
 the "wild civility" and ''sweet disorder" of 
 women's attire, and grows lyrical over tempestuous 
 petticoats and ribbons that flow confusedly. But 
 the dependence of Herrick upon Jonson is not to 
 be pinned down to particular poems : it finds ex- 
 pression not so much in these as in the general 
 tenor of his work. And when full recognition 
 is made of his debt to the earlier lyrist, it is fair 
 to add that at every point the disciple transcends 
 the master. His range is wider, his taste surer; 
 and whereas in Jonson we feel that we are in the 
 presence of the intellectual artist and the verse- 
 reformer, we invariably recognise in Herrick a 
 quality higher than these — the genuine lyric 
 
 * The inspiration of both Jonson's and Herrick's poem comes 
 from the fifty-eighth epigram of Martial's third Book. 
 
 232 
 
The Lyrical Poems of the Hesperides 
 
 gift of one who sings because he must. Mr 
 Swinburne, no mean admirer of Jonson's genius, 
 has expressed this superiority of the pupil to the 
 teacher in words which admit of no compromise : 
 ** As we turn from Gray to Collins, as we turn 
 from Wordsworth to Coleridge, as we turn from 
 Byron to Shelley, so do we turn from Jonson 
 to Herrick ; and so do we recognise the lyric 
 poet as distinguished from the writer who may 
 or may not have every gift but one in higher 
 development of excellence and in fuller perfection 
 of power, but who is utterly and absolutely 
 transcended and shone down by his probably 
 unconscious competitor on the proper and 
 peculiar ground of pure and simple poetry." ^ 
 
 /The secular lyrics of Herrick are mainly 
 concerned with what have been, in all stages of 
 the world's history, the most cherished themes 
 of the lyre — love and ^song and wine. In close 
 association with these are his festival lyrics, 
 written to honour the marriage ceremonies of 
 some friend or patron, or in celebration of some 
 village revel. Lastly, there are his nature-lyrics, 
 inspired by the beauty and fragrance of flowers, 
 or by the joy which possesses him when the 
 dark winter is over, and spring returns to 
 gladden the face of the earth.1 
 
 Love is the supreme theme of the Hesperides, as 
 of the Cavalier lyric generally, and to its pleasures 
 
 ^ A Study of Ben Jonson, p. 98. 
 233 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 /"derrick devotes some of his most perfect songs. 
 ( Love is the theme of youth, but Herrick, if 
 1 certain statements made by him in his verses 
 <f are to be beheved, remained constant to the 
 master-passion until gray hairs were his portion 
 and he had become a *' dry, decrepit man." 
 Marriage, as he tells us more than once, was 
 never his goal, but in an age when gallantry was 
 only too often a cloak for cynicism, he re- 
 mained singularly loyal to womanhood. On rare 
 occasions, and when governed by a fit of spleen, 
 he gibes at the sex, but his habitual attitude is 
 that which finds expression in the verses en- 
 titled In Praise of Women (739) : — 
 
 O Jupiter, should I speak ill 
 Of woman-kind, first die I will ; 
 Since that I know, 'mong all the rest 
 Of creatures, woman is the best. 
 
 His loyalty and devotion, however, rarely 
 attain to a very exalted level, and love is only 
 too often mere amorous dalliance. If the tone 
 of his love-lyrics is higher than that of Suckling 
 and Carew, it is generally lower than that of 
 Lovelace, whose songs are often inspired by a 
 chivalrous regard of which Herrick remained 
 throughout his life unconscious. 
 
 In his amours Herrick is a butterfly of not too 
 fastidious taste. His mistresses are many, and 
 he professes the same ardour for them all, and 
 
 234 
 
The Lyrical Poems of the Hesperides 
 
 woes them all in the same language of cavalier 
 gallantry. Love, he declares, dislikes nothing, 
 and he elaborates this thought at some length in 
 a leash of triplet verses : 
 
 Whatsoever thing I see, 
 Rich or poor although it be, 
 'Tis a mistress unto me. 
 
 Be my girl or fair or brown, 
 Does she smile or does she frown. 
 Still I write a sweetheart down. 
 
 Be she rough or smooth of skin, 
 When I touch I then begin 
 For to let affection in. 
 
 Be she bald, or does she wear 
 Locks incurl'd of other hair, 
 I shall find enchantment there. 
 
 Be she whole, or be she rent. 
 So my fancy be content, 
 She's to me most excellent. 
 
 Be she fat, or be she lean. 
 Be she sluttish, be she clean, 
 Fm the man for ev'ry scene.^ 
 
 The universality of Herrick's affections carries 
 its own nemesis with it : with all his protestations 
 of love, he remains heart-whole. Love, he con- 
 fesses on one occasion, has scorched his finger, but 
 has spared the burning of his heart. Thanks to 
 
 ^ Love dislikes Nothing (750). 
 235 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 the delicate grace of his sentiments, the match- 
 less lilt of his verses, and at times the idyllic 
 beauty which suffuses his lyrics, Herrick occupies 
 an exalted position among English love-poets ; 
 but his lack of genuine passion places him on an 
 altogether lower level than that of Burns. For 
 the chivalry of Burns's '' O wert thou in the 
 cauld, cauld blast," Herrick can offer only gal- 
 lantry, and for the desolating passion of '' Ae 
 Fond Kiss," with its cadence of scalding tears — 
 
 Had we never loved sae kindly, 
 Had we never loved sae blindly, 
 Never met, or never parted. 
 We had ne'er been broken-hearted — 
 
 he can offer nothing at all. 
 
 /Most of Herrick's love-poems are associated 
 
 with the names of his many mistresses, of whose 
 
 fictitious nature much has been said earlier in 
 
 this book. Somewhat vague and shadowy as 
 
 the Julia, Anthea, Electra, Perenna and the rest 
 
 of the galaxy are when considered individually, 
 
 they nevertheless conform to a type which is 
 
 distinct enough. The mistress of the poet's 
 
 imagination is a stately figure inclining to fulness, 
 
 with red lips, sloe-black eyes, a clear voice, easy 
 
 manners, and not too rigorous morals. She comes 
 
 before us with her loose ringlets of hair flowing 
 
 in the wind ; there is a '* sweet disorder " in her 
 
 dress, and, as she passes, she leaves behind her 
 
 236 
 
The Lyrical Poems of the Hesperides 
 
 a fragrance exhaled from all the perfumes of 
 Arabia. The Herrick-mistress is Milton's Dalila, 
 bearing down upon us like a stately ship of 
 Tarsus : 
 
 With all her bravery on, and tackle trim, 
 
 Sails filled, and streamers waving, 
 
 Courted by all the winds that hold them play ; 
 
 An amber scent of odorous perfume 
 
 Her harbinger, a damsel train behind. 
 
 The language in which he addresses his 
 mistresses is often frankly sensuous, and some- 
 times gross. But this is by no means aWays 
 the case; there are occasions when, purged of 
 all grossness, it acquires a delicacy and refine- 
 ment rarely met with in the school of Cavalier 
 lyrists. In such poems as the familiar Cherry 
 Ripe (53), or The Parliament of Roses to Julia 
 (11), or, again, The Rock of Rubies and the 
 Quarry of Pearls {75), we still feel ourselves in 
 the presence of the courtier, tendering the 
 homage of gallantry, but how infinitely gracious 
 is the tendering : 
 
 Some ask'd me where the rubies grew, 
 
 And nothing I did say : 
 But with my finger pointed to 
 
 The lips of Julia. 
 Some ask'd how pearls did grow, and where ; 
 
 Then spoke I to my girl, 
 To part her lips and show them there 
 
 The quarrelets of pearl. 
 237 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 Gallantry, again, is the motive of the beautiful 
 
 song To the Western Wind (255), written in 
 
 honour of Perenna, no less than of that To the 
 
 Rose (238), which associates Herrick with 
 
 Waller, as his Cherry Ripe links him to 
 
 Campion : 
 
 Go, happy rose, and interwove 
 With other flowers, bind my love. 
 Tell her, too, she must not be 
 Longer flowing, longer free, 
 That so oft has fetter'd me. 
 
 Say, if she's fretful, I have bands 
 Of pearl and gold to bind her hands. 
 Tell her, if she struggle still, 
 I have myrtle rods at will. 
 For to tame, though not to kill. 
 
 Take thou my blessing thus, and go 
 And tell her this, — but do not so ! — 
 Lest a handsome anger fly, 
 Like a lightning from her eye, 
 And burn thee up, as well as L 
 
 But there are occasions when gallantry, even of 
 the most refined and exalted nature, fails to satisfy 
 the poet. Once or twice in the course of the 
 period during which the Hesperides were written, 
 the fire of love, no longer content with scorching 
 his finger, comes perilously near his heart, and 
 then there breaks from him no felicitous compli- 
 ment, but the passionate utterance of true 
 
 devotion. In moments such as these he wrote 
 
 238 
 
The Lyrical Poems of the Hesperides "^i2 
 
 his famous song To Afithea (267), the last 
 stanza of which strikes deeper than anything else 
 in Herrick : 
 
 Thou art my life, my love, my heart, 
 
 The very eyes of me ; 
 And hast command of every part, 
 
 To live and die for thee — 
 
 and the scarcely less perfect Night Piece, to 
 Julia (619) : 
 
 Her eyes the glow-worm lend thee ; 
 The shooting stars attend thee ; 
 
 And the elves also. 
 
 Whose little eyes glow 
 Like the sparks of fire, befriend thee. 
 
 No Will-o'-th'-Wisp mislight thee ; 
 Nor snake or slow-worm bite thee ; 
 
 But on, on thy way, 
 
 Not making a stay, 
 Since ghost there's none to affright thee. 
 
 Let not the dark thee cumber ; 
 What though the moon does slumber ? 
 
 The stars of the night 
 
 Shall lend thee their light, 
 Like tapers clear without number. 
 
 Then, Julia, let me woo thee, 
 Thus, thus to come unto me. 
 
 And when I shall meet 
 
 Thy silvery feet, 
 My soul I'll pour into thee. 
 
 Not infrequently, too, and in poems which 
 one is disposed to associate with Dean Prior, 
 
 239 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 he introduces into his lyrics, somewhat in the 
 manner of Spenser and Campion, a certain idyllic 
 element. He paints for us pictures of country 
 life, and places his mistresses against a back- 
 ground of spring flowers and rustic merri- 
 ment. Most of his mistresses seem town-bred, 
 frequenters of the court or the city, but in these 
 idyllic lyrics they harmonise well with their 
 surroundings, and appear never to have strayed 
 beyond the parish-bounds of Dean Prior. The 
 consummate example of this kind of lyric, and 
 one of the most perfect things in our literature, 
 is CorinncHs going a- Maying (178), to which re- 
 ference will be made hereafter ; and something 
 of the same happy blending of lyric emotion 
 and idyllic colour is met with in The Wake, 
 addressed to Anthea(76i), and in the Marlow- 
 esque To Phillis, to love and live with him (521). 
 This is too long to quote entirely, and the open- 
 ing verses will suffice to give an impression of 
 the charm and virginal purity which characterise 
 it: 
 
 Live, live with me, and thou shalt see 
 The pleasures I'll prepare for thee. 
 What sweets the country can afford 
 Shall bless thy bed and bless thy board. 
 The soft, sweet moss shall be thy bed, 
 With crawling woodbine overspread ; 
 By which the silver-shedding streams 
 Shall gently melt thee into dreams. 
 Thy clothing, next, shall be a gown 
 Made of the fleece's purest down. 
 240 
 
The Lyrical Poems of the Hesperides 
 
 The tongues of kids shall be thy meat, 
 Their milk thy drink, and thou shalt eat 
 The paste of filberts for thy bread, 
 With cream of cowslips buttered. 
 Thy feasting-tables shall be hills 
 With daisies spread and daffodils, 
 Where thou shalt sit, and red-breast by, 
 For meat, shall give thee melody. 
 I'll give thee chains and carcanets 
 Of primroses and violets. 
 A bag and bottle thou shalt have. 
 That richly wrought, and this as brave ; 
 So that as either shall express 
 The wearer's no mean shepherdess. 
 
 The poems written by Raleigh and Donne on 
 the model of Marlowe's famous " Come live with 
 me and be my love " have each a strain of 
 disillusionment in them ; but of this there is 
 nothing in Herrick, who in this lyric to Phillis 
 reverts to the early Elizabethan manner more 
 completely than anywhere else in his poems. 
 The picture which he paints is undoubtedly ideal, 
 but it does not borrow its graces from an unreal 
 Arcadian landscape ; the scene in all its details is 
 true to an English country-side. 
 
 There is in Herrick scarcely a trace of the 
 introspectiveness and love-casuistry of the Eliza- 
 bethan sonneteers or the seventeenth century 
 romance- writers. He does not reason with his 
 love or diagnose it ; knowing nothing of the 
 carte du pays de Tendre, he never encounters in 
 all his voyagings the lake of Indifference, or finds 
 
 Q 241 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 himself stranded upon the reefs of Danger, j All 
 is smooth sailing in the wide ocean of his lovej 
 and it is death alone that bids him cast anchor. 
 jThe thought of death frequently enters his mind 
 when writing his love-poems, and he makes no 
 attempt to put it aside l so far from shrinking 
 from the inevitable, he meets it like a voluptuary. 
 He imprints his ''supremest kiss " upon the lips 
 of Perilla, bids Julia embalm him with the myrrh 
 and spikenard of her breath, calls on Anthea 
 to bury him beneath " the holy-oak or gospel- 
 tree," and on Perilla to let fall tears and primroses 
 upon his grave. He pursues these fancies even 
 beyond death, and in his verses, To his lovely 
 Mistresses (634), he bids them all come, on the 
 anniversary of his decease, to his graveside, 
 and pour forth their libations : 
 
 One night i' th' year, my dearest beauties, come 
 And bring those due drink-offerings to my tomb. 
 When thence ye see my reverend ghost to rise, 
 And there to hck th' effused sacrifice : 
 Though paleness be the Hvery that I wear. 
 Look ye not wan or colourless for fear. 
 Trust me, I will not hurt ye, or once show 
 The least grim look, or cast a frown on you : 
 Nor shall the tapers when I'm there burn blue. 
 This I may do, perhaps, as I glide by. 
 Cast on my girls a glance and loving eye. 
 Or fold mine arms and sigh, because I've lost 
 The world so soon, and in it you the most. 
 Than these, no fears more on your fancies fall, 
 Though then I smile and speak no words at all. 
 242 
 
The Lyrical Poems of the Hesperides 
 
 The bulk of Herrick's love-lyrics are of a 
 personal character, and, in his fondness for self- 
 revelation, he shows himself a true child of his 
 age. But, scattered through the Hesperides^ are 
 a few lyrics of an impersonal nature, and one 
 to which may be applied the term, dramatic 
 lyric. Following the fashion of the age, he 
 wrote several lyrics in dialogue form, and be- 
 decked them with the accepted graces of 
 pastoralism. These are scarcely his happiest or 
 most characteristic effusions, though they are 
 superior to most of the amoebean verse that 
 came from the pens of the Cavalier lyrists, and 
 were set to music by Court musicians. The 
 best of them is one which was intended for 
 the royal ear, and in which the shepherds 
 Montano, Silvio, and Mirtillo lament the loss of 
 the shepherdess, Amarillis : 
 
 Miriillo. This way she came, and this way, too, she went ; 
 How each thing smells divinely redolent ! 
 Like to a field of beans when newly blown, 
 Or like a meadow being lately mown. 
 
 Montano. A sweet-sad passion — 
 
 Mir. In dewy mornings, when she came this way, 
 Sweet bents would bow to give my love the day ; 
 And when at night she folded had her sheep, 
 Daisies would shut, and, closing, sigh and weep. 
 Besides (ay me !) since she went hence to dwell, 
 The voices' daughter ne'er spake syllable. 
 But she is gone, 
 
 Silvio. Mirtillo, tell us whither. 
 
 Mir. Where she and I shall never meet together.^ 
 ^ A Pastoral sung to the King {^21). 
 243 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 The pathetic fallacy of some of these lines is 
 in keeping with the general tenor of the pastoral 
 dialogue, but the beauty and the grace are 
 Herrick's own. 
 
 The finest example of the impersonal lyric in 
 the Hesperides is The Mad Maids Song (412), 
 and it illustrates, amongst other things, his unerr- 
 ing taste. The mad maid had become an all too 
 familiar figure in our literature from the time 
 when Shakespeare had shown in his Ophelia the 
 tragic pathos of such a character. Even so 
 great a master of pathos as Fletcher had failed, 
 in his conception of the mad gaoler's daughter 
 in The Two Noble Kinsmen, to exercise that 
 restraint without which the pathetic element in 
 madness loses its dignity and panders to a de- 
 graded comic taste. In Herrick's verses we feel 
 this restraint exercised throughout, and the 
 poem, in its limpid simplicity and subdued but 
 haunting tragic power, is the harbinger of 
 Blake : 
 
 Good morrow to the day so fair; 
 
 Good morrow, sir, to you ; 
 Good morrow to mine own torn hair, 
 
 Bedabbled with the dew. 
 
 Good morrow to this primrose too ; 
 
 Good morrow to each maid ; 
 That will with flowers the tomb bestrew 
 
 Wherein my love is laid. 
 244 
 
The Lyrical Poems of the Hesperides 
 
 Ah ! woe is me, woe, woe is me, 
 
 Alack and well-a-day ! 
 For pity, sir, find out that bee 
 
 Which bore my love away. 
 
 I'll seek him in your bonnet brave, 
 
 I'll seek him in your eyes ; 
 Nay, now I think they've made his grave 
 
 I' th' bed of strawberries. 
 
 I'll seek him there ; I know, ere this 
 The cold, cold earth doth shake him ; 
 
 But I will go, or send a kiss 
 By you, sir, to awake him. 
 
 Pray, hurt him not ; though he be dead, 
 He knows well who do love him ; 
 
 And who with green turfs rear his head 
 And who do rudely move him. 
 
 He's soft and tender (pray take heed) ; 
 
 With bands of cowslips bind him, 
 And bring him home ; — but 'tis decreed, 
 
 That I shall never find him. 
 
 Whether Herrick, if the circumstances ot his 
 life had been different, would have achieved 
 success as a dramatist, may be open to doubt, 
 but the dramatic power of this lyric is undeniable. 
 To the pleasures of the wine-cup, Herrick, 
 ** the music of a feast," rendered, at one period of 
 his life at least, unstinted homage. Bacchanalian 
 revelry, one imagines, was not often his portion 
 at Dean Prior, and we are, therefore, probably 
 right In associating his Farewell and Welcome 
 
 245 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 to Sack with his tavern-Hfe in London at the 
 feet of Ben Jonson. His drinking-songs are 
 written with all the high spirits and abandon of 
 youth, and in his lines, To live merrily and 
 trust to good verses (201), he makes us feel 
 that the wine-god is a ministering spirit to the 
 muses. After drinking a health to Homer, 
 Virgil and the Roman lyrists and elegists, he 
 bids his hearers put their trust in poetry as the 
 one power which shall outline the pyramids : 
 
 Trust to good verses, then ; 
 
 They only will aspire, 
 When men, as pyramids, 
 
 Are lost i' th' funeral fire. 
 
 His drinking-songs rise from the level of the 
 ale-house catch to that of the ode. At one end 
 of the scale we meet with such a lyric as that 
 entitled The Tinkers Song (see page 223); at 
 a higher elevation we come upon those hymns 
 and canticles to Bacchus inspired by Anacreon 
 and the epigrammatists of the Greek anthology, 
 of which the following is a good example : — 
 
 Bacchus, let me drink no more ; 
 Wild are seas that want a shore. 
 When our drinking has no stint, 
 There is no one pleasure in't. 
 I have drank up, for to please 
 Thee, that great cup, Hercules. 
 Urge no more, and there shall be 
 Daffodils given up to thee.^ 
 
 A Hy77in to Bacchus (304). 
 246 
 
The Lyrical Poems of the Hesperides 
 
 Highest of all stand the great Farewell to 
 Sack (128) and Welcome to Sack (197), in which 
 his genius takes a bolder sweep of pinion and 
 soars to the exalted regions of the ode : — 
 
 O thou, the drink of gods and angels ! wine, 
 That scatter'st spirit and lust, whose purest shine 
 More radiant than the summer's sunbeams shows ; 
 Each way illustrious, brave, and like to those 
 Comets we see by night, whose shagg'd portents 
 Foretell the coming of some dire events. 
 Or some full flame which with a pride aspires, 
 Throwing about his wild and active fires ; 
 'Tis thou, above nectar, O divinest soul ! 
 Eternal in thyself, that canst control 
 That which subverts whole nature, grief and care. 
 Vexation of the mind and damn'd despair. 
 'Tis thou alone who, with thy mystic fan, 
 Work'st more than wisdom, art, or nature can 
 To rouse the sacred madness and awake 
 The frost-bound blood and spirits, and to make 
 Them frantic with thy raptures, flashing through 
 The soul like lightning, and as active too. 
 'Tis not Apollo can, or those thrice three 
 Castahan sisters, sing, if wanting thee. 
 Horace, Anacreon, both had lost their fame, 
 Hadst thou not fill'd them with thy fire and flame. 
 Phcebean splendour ! and thou, Thespian spring ! 
 Of which sweet swans must drink before they sing 
 Their true-pac'd numbers and their holy lays. 
 Which makes them worthy cedar and the bays.^ 
 
 There is nothing elsewhere in Herrick to 
 surpass the sustained force and dithyrambic 
 grandeur of this ode. It is not the utterance 
 
 ^ Farewell to Sack (128). 
 247 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 of some reveller, staggering homewards at dawn 
 from an Eastcheap tavern, but that of a myrtle- 
 garlanded priest of lacchus, son of Zeus and 
 Demeter, chanting his paean of praise in the 
 solemn Eleusinian mysteries. 
 
 That Herrick, whose ear for the harmonies of 
 verse was so acute, should feel and acknowledge 
 the spell of music is scarcely a matter for wonder. 
 He wrote several poems in praise of the art, 
 and in extolling the charms of his mistresses, he 
 esteems the lute and voice of *' choice Myrrha " 
 as highly as the wit of Corinna. He has little 
 sense of the elevating power of music ; it is for 
 him a "care-charming spell," which calms his 
 fever, and, coming to him in the form of soft 
 Lydian airs, eases his heart of all pain. There 
 is much beauty in his song, To Music (254) : — 
 
 Music, thou queen of heaven, care-charming spell, 
 
 That strik'st a stillness into hell : 
 Thou that tam'st tigers, and fierce storms that rise, 
 
 With thy soul-melting lullabies. 
 Fall down, down, down from those thy chiming spheres. 
 To charm our souls, as thou enchant'st our ears ; 
 
 but the most perfect of his lyrics in praise of this 
 " queen of heaven " is that entitled To Music ^ to 
 becalm his Fever {227) : — 
 
 Charm me asleep and melt me so 
 
 With thy delicious numbers. 
 That, being ravish'd, hence I go 
 
 Away in easy slumbers. 
 248 
 
The Lyrical Poems of the Hesperides 
 
 Ease my sick head 
 And make my bed, 
 Thou power that canst sever 
 From me this ill ; 
 And quickly still, 
 Though thou not kill, 
 My fever. 
 
 Thou sweetly canst convert the same 
 
 From a consuming fire 
 Into a gentle-licking flame, 
 And make it thus expire. 
 Then make me weep 
 My pains asleep ; 
 And give me such reposes 
 That I, poor I, 
 May think thereby 
 I live and die 
 
 'Mongst roses. 
 
 Fall on me like a silent dew, 
 
 Or like those maiden showers 
 Which, by the peep of day, do strew 
 A baptism o'er the flowers. 
 Melt, melt my pains 
 With thy soft strains, 
 That, having ease me given, 
 With full delight 
 I leave this light. 
 And take my flight 
 For heaven. 
 
 In Herrick's Argument of his Book (i), pre- -y^^ 
 
 fixed to the Hesperides^ the fair things of Nature "^ 
 
 and the associations of a country Hfe hold a 
 
 distinguished place. He begins : — 
 
 249 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 I sing of brooks, of blossoms, birds and bowers, 
 
 Of April, May, of June and July flowers ; 
 
 I sing of May-poles, hock-carts, wassails, wakes, — 
 
 and proceeds to tell of dew and rains, groves 
 and twilights, and — 
 
 How roses first came red and lilies white. 
 
 The prominence given to such things in the 
 ** Argument " is borne out by the verses that 
 follow. While still a London apprentice, he had, 
 in the lines addressed to his brother Thomas, 
 and entitled A Country Life (io6), sung the 
 praises of the ** country's sweet simplicity," and 
 drawn a picture of rural ease such as was in later 
 years to become his own portion : — 
 
 The damask'd meadows and the pebbly streams 
 
 Sweeten and make soft your dreams ; 
 The purling springs, groves, birds and well-weav'd bowers. 
 
 With fields enamelled with flowers, 
 Present their shapes ; while fantasy discloses 
 
 Millions of lilies mix'd with roses. 
 
 In painting this picture, Herrick has Horace's 
 Sabine farm before his mind, but there is no 
 reason to doubt the sincerity of his feelings ; and 
 the charm which he finds at this time in the con- 
 templation of a life of rural seclusion reappears 
 again and again in the poems of later years. 
 Herrick, as we have already seen, had his moods 
 
 of petulance, when the life which he was leading 
 
 250 
 
The Lyrical Poems of the Hesperides 
 
 at Dean Prior provoked vexation of spirit and he 
 yearned with an exile's passionate longings after 
 those splendours of Whitehall which once lay- 
 within his grasp. But the spirit of easy content- 
 ment which was his daily wear, and the unaffected 
 delight which the quiet beauty of Nature and the 
 festivities of the country-side awakened within 
 him, were in the main sufficient to reconcile him 
 for what he had lost. 
 
 His feeling for Nature was strictly limited, but 
 genuine and even intense within its limitations. 
 There is, as Mr Gosse has shown, no background, 
 no sense of distance, in his landscapes. '* He is 
 photographically minute in giving us the features 
 of the brook at our feet, the farmyard and its 
 inmates, the open fireplace and the chimney 
 corner, but there is no trace of anything beyond, 
 and the beautiful distances of Devonshire, the 
 rocky tors, the rugged line of Dartmoor, the 
 glens in the hills — of all these there is not a 
 trace." ^ One might even go farther than this, 
 and say that only very exceptionally does 
 Herrick give us landscapes at all. His usual 
 plan is to single out some one feature in the 
 scene before him and concentrate all his atten- 
 tion upon that, steeping it in airy sentiment and 
 embroidering it with quaint poetic fancies. And 
 when, as in the poem entitled The Country 
 Life (662), addressed to his friend and patron, 
 
 ^ Seventeenth-Century Studies^ Robert Herrick, p. 128. 
 
 2 si 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 Endymion Porter, he spreads a wide vista 
 before us, his method is to call up a suc- 
 cession of small pictures, instead of resolving 
 these into one large, well - ordered landscape. 
 This poem, which is among the most sustained 
 he has left us, deserves to be quoted at some 
 length, partly because of the resemblance which 
 it bears to the contemporaneous L' Allegro of 
 Milton, and partly because we find enumer- 
 ated here most of the features of rustic life 
 and scenery which made the strongest appeal 
 to Herrick's feelings : — 
 
 When now the cock, the ploughman's horn, 
 Calls forth the lily-wristed morn, 
 Then to thy corn-fields thou dost go, 
 Which, though well-soil'd, yet thou dost know 
 That the best compost for the lands 
 Is the wise master's feet and hands. 
 There at the plough thou find'st thy team 
 With a hind whistling there to them ; 
 And cheer'st them up by singing how 
 The kingdom's portion is the plough. 
 This done, then to th' enamelled meads 
 Thou go'st, and as thy foot there treads. 
 Thou see'st a present God-like power 
 Imprinted in each herb and flower ; 
 And smell'st the breath of great-ey'd kine. 
 Sweet as the blossoms of the vine. 
 Here thou behold'st thy large sleek neat 
 Unto the dew-laps up in meat ; 
 And, as thou look'st, the wanton steer, 
 The heifer, cow and ox draw near 
 To make a pleasing pastime there. 
 252 
 
The Lyrical Poems of the Hesperides — 
 
 These seen, thou go'st to view thy flocks 
 Of sheep, safe from the wolf and fox, 
 And find'st their bellies there as full 
 Of short sweet grass as backs with wool, 
 And leav'st them, as they feed and fill, 
 A shepherd piping on a hill. 
 For sports, for pageantry and plays. 
 Thou hast thy eves and holidays ; 
 On which the young men and maids meet 
 To exercise their dancing feet ; 
 Tripping the comely country round, 
 With daffodils and daisies crown'd. 
 Thy wakes, thy quintals here thou hast, 
 Thy May-poles, too, with garlands grac'd ; 
 Thy morris-dance, thy Whitsun ale. 
 Thy shearing feast, which never fail j 
 Thy harvest-home, thy wassail-bowl, 
 That's toss'd up after fox i' th' hole ; 
 Thy mummeries, thy Twelfth-tide kings 
 And queens, thy Christmas revellings, 
 Thy nut-brown mirth, thy russet wit, 
 And no man pays too dear for it. 
 
 The shepherd piping on the hill, and the wolf 
 preying upon the flocks, are the alloy of pastoral- 
 ism ; but apart from this the picture is faithful to 
 English country life as Herrick saw it around 
 him in Devonshire or elsewhere. Like Homer, 
 he looks upon the fields with the eyes of a farmer 
 as well as with those of an artist, and if the 
 couplet — V 
 
 Thou see'st a present God-like power 
 
 Imprinted in each herb and flower — 
 
 is suggestive of Wordsworth and modern pan- 
 theistic poetry, it is probable that what the 
 
 253 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 poet had chiefly in mind was the primitive 
 classic faith in the spirits of field and grove. 
 Eminently characteristic of Herrick, too, is the 
 prominence given to sports and pageantry, May- 
 poles and morris dances, and all the swift 
 succession of holiday festivals without which 
 the country would have seemed to him a dreary 
 place. It is worthy of note that this aspect of 
 country life finds no place in the Horatian verses 
 on the " country's sweet simplicity " which, early 
 m his poetic career, he had addressed to his 
 brother ; and it would be pleasant to think that 
 it was at Dean Prior that he was first initiated 
 into the mysteries of may-pole dances, harvest- 
 homes, and Christmas wassails. But whether 
 it was here or elsewhere, their hold upon his 
 affections was firm and enduring ; and Puritanism, 
 to him an accursed thing in all its shapes and 
 semblances, could never have appeared so 
 malignant as in the warfare which it waged 
 with all this pagan ritual of the villagery. He 
 never tires of referring to these merry-makings 
 in his poems. In a number of short verses he 
 describes with infinite zest the mystic ceremonies 
 associated with Christmas, Twelfth- Night, and 
 Candlemas Day ; but it is the spring and summer 
 festivals, with their open-air delights, which ap- 
 peal to him most. The May-day rejoicings are 
 celebrated in one of the most beautiful of his 
 lyrics, Corinnds going a- Maying (178), a poem 
 
 254 
 
The I^yrical Poems of the Hesperides 
 
 too long and too familiar to be quoted here in 
 full, but from which the following stanzas may be 
 extracted : — 
 
 Come, my Corinna, come ; and, coming, mark 
 How each field turns a street, each street a park, 
 
 Made green and trimm'd with trees ; see how 
 
 Devotion gives each house a bough 
 
 Or branch : each porch, each door ere this 
 
 An ark, a tabernacle is. 
 Made up of white-thorn neatly interwove ; 
 As if here were those cooler shades of love. 
 
 Can such delights be in the street 
 
 And open fields and we not see't ? 
 
 Come, we'll abroad ; and let's obey 
 
 The proclamation made for May : 
 And sin no more, as we have done by staying : 
 But, my Corinna, come, let's go a-Maying. 
 
 There's not a budding boy or girl this day 
 But is got up, and gone to bring in May. 
 
 A deal of youth, ere this is come 
 
 Back, and with white-thorn laden home. 
 
 Some have despatch'd their cakes and cream. 
 
 Before that we have left to dream : 
 And some have wept, and woo'd, and plighted troth. 
 And chose their priest, ere we can cast off sloth : 
 
 Many a green-gown has been given ; 
 
 Many a kiss, both odd and even : 
 
 Many a glance too has been sent 
 
 From out the eye, love's firmament ; 
 Many a jest told of the keys betraying 
 This night, and locks pick'd, yet we're not a-Maying. 
 
 English poets from Chaucer onwards have loved 
 to '' doon observaunce to the month of May," but 
 none has brought the once familiar scene so 
 
 255 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 vividly before us as Herrick. The festival is 
 presented to us in all its fresh grace and merri- 
 ment, and the poet, realising the charm of the 
 actual picture, makes no attempt to bedeck it 
 with the false colours of Arcadian fiction. And 
 when the promise of May has realised itself 
 in the fulfilment of September, he paints for us, 
 in his Hock-Cart or Harvest- Home (250), a 
 picture of equal charm and animation : — 
 
 Come, sons of summer, by whose toil 
 We are the lords of wine and oil : 
 By whose tough labours and rough hands 
 We rip up first, then reap our lands. 
 Crown'd with the ears of corn, now come, 
 And to the pipe sing harvest home. 
 Come forth, my lord, and see the cart 
 Dress'd up with all the country art : 
 See here a maukin, there a sheet, 
 As spotless pure as it is sweet : 
 The horses, mares, and frisking fillies, 
 Clad all in linen white as lilies. 
 The harvest swains and wenches bound 
 For joy, to see the hock-cart crown'd. 
 About the cart, hear how the rout 
 Of rural youngUngs raise the shout ; 
 Pressing before, some coming after. 
 Those with a shout, and these with laughter. 
 Some bless the cart, some kiss the sheaves, 
 Some prank them up with oaken leaves : 
 Some cross the fill-horse, some with great 
 Devotion stroke the home-borne wheat : 
 While other rustics, less attent 
 To prayers than to merriment. 
 Run after with their breeches rent. 
 256 
 
The Lyrical Poems of the Hesperides 
 
 And then there follows a description of the 
 evening feast with its joints of meat, its 
 dishes of custard and frumenty, and its copious 
 draughts of ''stout beer," pledging success to 
 the farmer's life. The poem is dedicated to 
 Mildmay Fane, Earl of Westmorland, and 
 seems to have been written when Herrick was 
 on a visit to one of the country seats of that 
 nobleman. 
 
 When we turn from these scenes of rustic 
 merriment to the pictures of still life, we are 
 again struck by the quickness of his observation, 
 and the charm with which he invests the objects 
 of the natural world in presenting them to our 
 notice. For the grandiose in Nature, the sub- 
 limity of mountain, moor, or sea, he has, as we 
 have seen, no appreciation ; but he observes the 
 ** mites of candied dew in moony nights," and 
 the ''frost-work glittering on the snow," and is 
 keenly alive to all the sweet sounds and luscious 
 scents of Nature, and to the ever-changing effects 
 produced by light and shade. For him, as for 
 most other poets of his age, winter is a season of 
 death and desolation ; his delight is all in what 
 he calls " the succession of the four sweet months" 
 — April, May, June and July — and he hails the 
 return of spring with the simple, heart-felt joy of 
 the mediaeval Minnesinger : — 
 
 Fled are the frosts, and now the fields appear 
 Recloth'd in fresh and verdant diaper. 
 R 257 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 Thaw'd are the snows, and now the lusty spring 
 
 Gives to each mead a neat enamelling. 
 
 The palms put forth their gems, and every tree 
 
 Now swaggers in her leafy gallantry. 
 
 The while the Daulian minstrel sweetly sings, 
 
 With warbling notes, her Terean sufferings. 
 
 What gentle winds perspire ! As if here 
 
 Never had been the northern plunderer 
 
 To strip the trees and fields, to their distress. 
 
 Leaving them to a pitied nakedness. ^ 
 
 Herrick is, however, seldom content with formal 
 description. His instincts are not those of the 
 descriptive poet, but those of the lyrist, and 
 where he paints the face of Nature for us, he 
 charges the scene with personal feeling and gives 
 to it a human interest. Thus the two poems, 
 entitled To Meadows (274) and To Groves (449), 
 do not contain much in the way of natural 
 description, but his imagination peoples these 
 places with processions of fair virgins who have 
 wandered forth into the meadows to fill their 
 wicker-baskets with cowslips, or, like the lovers 
 in Arden, to carve their names upon the bark, 
 and bind fillets about the branches of the trees. 
 
 At other times he draws a veil of symbolism 
 over the objects of Nature, and bids us see in 
 flower, tree, or rainbow, emblems of things 
 spiritual. The laurel tree is for him a symbol of 
 the eternity of his poetic fame, the willow of love 
 
 1 Farewell Frost (642.) 
 
 258 
 
The Lyrical Poems of the Hesperides 
 
 unrequited, while the yew and cypress point 
 towards the grave : — 
 
 Both of you have 
 Relation to the grave : 
 And where 
 The funeral-trump sounds, you are there. 
 
 I shall be made. 
 Ere long, a fleeting shade. 
 Pray, come, 
 And do some honour to my tomb. 
 
 Do not deny 
 My last request ; for I 
 Will be 
 Thankful to you, or friends, for me.^ 
 
 Symbolism of this sort is but one particular form 
 of that larger veil of sentimentalism, without 
 which Herrick seldom cares to look upon the 
 face of Nature, and which becomes specially 
 prominent in the many poems written in honour 
 of some particular flower. He loved flowers with 
 no ordinary love, partly because of the sentiment 
 attached to them, and partly because of the 
 appeal which they made to his love of gay 
 colours and sweet scents. Among the induce- 
 ments which, in his poem, *' To Phillis, to love 
 and live with him," he offers to the fair one are 
 chains and carcanets of primroses and violets, 
 hills with daisies spread and daffodils, and 
 honeysuckle bowers overhanging the stream ; 
 
 ^ To the Yew and Cypress to Grace his Funeral (280). 
 259 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 and among the joys of Elysium which his 
 sensuous imagination conjures up is that of 
 sitting on primrose banks, crowned with endless 
 roses, while 
 
 Naked younglings, handsome striplings, run 
 Their goals for virgins' kisses.^ 
 
 Even in his most riotous moments, when he 
 drowns all sorrow in the pleasures of the wine- 
 cup, he cannot be content unless his head is 
 encircled with a chaplet of flowers. 
 
 The most beautiful of his flower-poems are 
 those in which the note of lyric sentiment is 
 uppermost, and in which the delight in floral 
 beauty is chequered by a feeling of its transience. 
 This is a familiar sentiment with most lyric poets, 
 but none have felt it so poignantly as Herrick. 
 He dwells upon this thought in a number of 
 poems : even the sight of a bed of tulips is sug- 
 gestive to him of mortality, he divines the end 
 of all things in the drooping heads of the daffodils, 
 and reads in the spring primroses, filled with 
 morning dew, this lesson of sadness : 
 
 That things of greatest, so of meanest worth, 
 Conceiv'd with grief are, and with tears brought forth.^ 
 
 The loveliest of his flower-songs is that To 
 Daffodils (316), and here again it is the thought 
 of their transitoriness which fills his mind : — 
 
 The Apparition of his Mistress calling hiin to Elysium (575). 
 To Primroses filled with Morning Dew (257). 
 260 
 
The Lyrical Poems of the Hesperides 
 
 Fair daffodils, we weep to see 
 
 You haste away so soon ; 
 As yet the early-rising sun 
 Has not attain'd his noon. 
 Stay, stay, 
 Until the hasting day 
 
 Has run 
 But to the evensong ; 
 And, having pray'd together, we 
 Will go with you along. 
 
 We have short time to stay, as you, 
 
 We have as short a spring ; 
 As quick a growth to meet decay, 
 As you, or anything. 
 We die 
 As your hours do, and dry 
 
 Away, 
 Like to the summer's rain ; 
 Or as the pearls of morning's dew, 
 Ne'er to be found again. 
 
 Reference has already been made in the 
 
 earlier portion of this book to those odes of 
 
 Herrick which were addressed to such friends as 
 
 Endymion Porter and Sir Clipseby Crew, and 
 
 there is no need to say more about them here ; 
 
 but one or two of his festive odes, in particular 
 
 his Epithalamia, call for attention before this 
 
 chapter is brought to a close. The epithalamium 
 
 is one of the most characteristic forms of 
 
 Renaissance lyric, and one which well suited the 
 
 temper of Herrick's genius. Of classic origin, 
 
 it came into being, lived, and died with the 
 
 261 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 Renaissance, leaving behind a considerable body 
 of verse, ranging from the gross fescinnina locutio 
 of many of the Caroline lyrists to the spiritual 
 ecstasy of Spenser's self-appointed wedding-ode. 
 Herrick's view of marriage, it will readily be 
 granted, was not that of the author of the Hymns 
 to Love and Beauty, and his epithalamia are of the 
 earth earthy. This, however, is partly explained 
 by the lowering of courtly taste since the death 
 of Elizabeth, and it is fair to add that the verses 
 in which he celebrates the marriage of Sir 
 Thomas and Lady Southwell, or that of Sir 
 Clipseby and Lady Crew, are neither more nor 
 less sensuous than those of the official epi- 
 thalamium written by Donne in honour of the 
 marriage of Frederick, Count Palatine of the 
 Rhine, and the Lady Elizabeth, daughter of 
 James L The prototype of most of the Renais- 
 sance epithalamia was Catullus's famous In 
 Nuptias Juliae et Ma?ilit, and in his Epi- 
 thalamy to Sir Thomas Southwell and his 
 Lady (149) Herrick challenges comparison 
 with the great Veronese lyrist. He fails to 
 reproduce the rapture of the Roman poet's 
 refrain : — 
 
 lo Hymen Hymenaee io, 
 lo Hymen Hymenaee — 
 
 but he comes near him in the stately structure of 
 
 his lyric and in the grace of his imagery : — 
 
 262 
 
The Lyrical Poems of the Hesperides --j^ 
 
 On, on devoutly, make no stay ; 
 While Domiduca leads the way, 
 
 And Genius, who attends 
 
 The bed for lucky ends. 
 
 With Juno goes the Hours 
 
 And Graces strewing flowers. 
 
 And the boys with sweet tunes sing : 
 
 Hymen, O Hymen, bring 
 Home the turtles ; Hymen, guide 
 To the bed the bashful bride. 
 
 Behold ! how Hymen's taper-light 
 Shows you how much is spent of night. 
 
 See, see the bridegroom's torch 
 
 Half wasted in the porch. 
 
 And now those tapers five. 
 
 That show the womb shall thrive, 
 
 Their silv'ry flames advance. 
 
 To tell all prosp'rous chance 
 Still shall crown the happy life 
 Of the goodman and the wife. 
 
 Move forward then your rosy feet, 
 
 And make whate'er they touch turn sweet. 
 
 May all, like flowery meads. 
 
 Smell where your soft foot treads. 
 
 And everything assume 
 
 To it the like perfume. 
 
 As Zephyrus when he 'spires 
 
 Through woodbine and sweetbriars. 
 Then, away ; come. Hymen, guide 
 To the bed the bashful bride. 
 
 Like Catullus, too, he loves to dwell upon the 
 
 mystic ritual of the wedding ceremony — the 
 
 anointing of the door-posts, the lifting of the 
 
 263 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 bride over the threshold, the blessing of the 
 sack-posset, and the scramble for the nuts 
 scattered by the bridegroom — Catullus's nee 
 nuces pueris neget. 
 
 Similar to this in general style, and excelling 
 it in beauty of imagery, is the nuptial song 
 in honour of his friend, Sir Clipseby Crew (283), 
 the opening stanzas of which have much of the 
 splendour and sustained harmony of Spenser : — 
 
 What's that we see from far ? the spring of day 
 Bloom'd from the east, or fair enjewell'd May 
 Blown out of April, or some new 
 Star, filled with glory to our view, 
 * Reaching at Heaven, 
 
 To add a nobler planet to the seven ? 
 
 Say, or do we not descry 
 Some goddess in a cloud of tiffany 
 To move, or rather the 
 Emergent Venus from the sea? 
 
 'Tis she ! 'tis she ! or else some more divine 
 Enlighten'd substance, mark how from the shrine 
 Of holy saints she paces on, 
 Treading upon vermilion 
 
 And amber : spic- 
 ing the chaft air with fumes of Paradise. 
 
 Then come on, come on and yield 
 A savour like unto a blessed field, 
 
 When the bedabbled morn 
 Washes the golden ears of corn. 
 
 264 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 THE NON-LYRICAL POEMS OF THE HESPERIDES 
 
 THE line of division between the lyrical 
 poems of the Hesperides and those of 
 a non-lyrical character is exceedingly 
 hard to draw. The term lyric is at 
 best vague, and, in the case of Herrick, the 
 point at which the lyric ceases and the descrip- 
 tive poem or epigram begins is often a vanishing 
 point. Poems like The Hock-Cart — which is 
 more descriptive than lyrical — were brought 
 under consideration in the preceding chapter, 
 because of their close connection with poems 
 the lyrical quality of which is beyond dispute ; 
 and, for the same reason, other poems of the 
 nature of lyrics find a place here. In the case 
 of yet other verses, it is a matter of taste whether 
 we regard them as lyrics or as epigrams ; they 
 are lyrical in that they express personal emotion, 
 but their extreme brevity and lack of song- 
 quality associate them with the epigrams. 
 
 The animation, human interest, and keen sense 
 of observation displayed in some of Herrick's 
 greater lyrics indicate that, had he cared, he 
 
 265 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 might have won success as a narrative poet ; but 
 he chose otherwise, and among the Hesperides 
 he has included nothing in the nature of pure 
 narrative work. In preferring the lyric to the 
 merely descriptive poem, he certainly showed 
 his wisdom ; for mere description, without the 
 thrill of lyric emotion, only too often leaves us 
 cold. At the same time, there is in his collec- 
 tion of secular verse a small group of poems 
 mainly descriptive in character : these are his 
 fairy-poems, and to these our attention must 
 now be turned. 
 
 There Is no absolute certainty as to the period 
 at which Herrick's three chief fairy-poems — 
 The Fairy Temple or Oberons Chapel^ 
 Oberons Feast, and Oberons Palace — 
 were written, but the probability is that they 
 belong to the years which preceded his settle- 
 ment at Dean Prior. An earlier and briefer 
 version of the Feast was published in 1635, 
 in a little volume of fairy-poems, entitled "A 
 Description of the King and Queen of Fairies, 
 Their habit, fare, their abode, pomp and state," 
 and would thus seem to have been the first of 
 Herrick's poems to pass through the printer's 
 hands. This little book of twelve pages also 
 contained a poem entitled *' A Description of 
 the King of Fairies' Clothes, brought to him 
 on New- Year's day in the morning, 1626 [n.s. 
 
 1627]," by that Cambridgeshire knight, Sir 
 
 266 
 
Non-Lyrical Poems of the Hesperides 
 
 Simon Steward, to whom Herrick on one 
 occasion sent a string of verses telling of 
 Christmas sports and Twelfth- Night mirth. 
 Now this poem of Steward's is, in conception 
 and workmanship, singularly like the fairy- 
 poems of Herrick ; and without going as far 
 as Mr W. C. Hazlitt, who would have us 
 regard Steward as the mere copyist and 
 Herrick as the author of the poem in question, 
 we may assume that Steward wrote these 
 verses under his friend's direction, or perhaps 
 with his friend's poems spread out before him. 
 A couplet of Steward's poem — 
 
 About his neck a wreath of pearl 
 Dropped from the eyes of some poor girl — 
 
 is almost certainly a reminiscence of the following 
 verses from Oberons Palace (444) : 
 
 And, all behung with these, pure pearls 
 Dropp'd from the eyes of ravish'd girls ; 
 
 and throughout one may observe a deliberate, 
 though skilful, imitation of Herrick's manner. 
 Steward's poem, then, which must have been 
 written some time before New- Year's day, 1627, 
 helps us to determine the date of Herrick's 
 fairy-poems sufficiently exactly, and more pre- 
 cise evidence is furnished by one of the poems 
 
 themselves. Describing the religion of the 
 
 267 
 
 ,y^. 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 fairies in The Fairy Temple or Oberons Chapel 
 (223), he says — 
 
 They have their ash-pans and their brooms 
 
 To purge the chapel and the rooms ; 
 
 Their many mumbHng mass-priests here, 
 
 And many a dapper chorister, 
 
 Their ush'ring vergers, here Hkewise 
 
 Their canons and their chanteries 
 
 Of cloister-monks they have enow, 
 
 Aye, and their abbey-lubbers too ; 
 
 And if their legend do not lie, 
 
 They much affect the papacy. 
 
 And since the last is dead, there's hope 
 
 Elf Boniface shall next be pope. 
 
 The words which I have itaHcised seem to 
 point to an historic fact — the recent death of one 
 of the Popes ; and unless we refer the composi- 
 tion of this poem to so late a date as 1644, 
 when Urban VIII. died, the Pope in question 
 must be either Paul V., who died in 1621, or his 
 successor, Gregory XV., who died in 1623. 
 
 This question of date has been discussed 
 
 at some length, first because so few of Herrick's 
 
 poems yield any evidence of this sort, and second, 
 
 because the determination of a date between 
 
 1620 and 1630 connects these fairy-poems of the 
 
 Hesperides with a prevailing fashion. Fairy-lore, 
 
 as Joseph Ritson long since pointed out, finds 
 
 a place in English poetry already in medieval 
 
 times, but it was the Elizabethans, and above 
 
 all Shakespeare, who first fully realised its 
 
 268 
 
Non-Lyrical Poems of the Hesperides 
 
 romantic charm. The fairies of Shakespeare 
 differ from those of Herrick in many ways, but 
 especially in this, that although imbued with the 
 warm colours of poetic fancy, they remain true 
 to their popular origin, and are brought into 
 intimate relationship with human affairs. They 
 are the fairies of rustic superstition, diminutive 
 beings who lurk in acorn-cups and hazel-nuts, and 
 who, loving mischief and hating sluttery, gallop 
 through the brains of sleeping lovers, beguile old 
 gossips and bean-fed horses, and pinch as blue 
 as bilberry the maids who have left their fires 
 unraked and their hearths unswept. Thus at 
 every point his fairy- world is made to converge 
 upon that of mortal men. The fairies of Jonson's 
 masques have the same intimate concern with 
 human affairs and the same delight in mischief- 
 making ; but he insists less upon their diminutive 
 stature, and, while keeping the background of 
 rustic superstition, also contrives to introduce 
 a certain amount of classic colouring, and 
 associates his native elves with the fauns and 
 satyrs of ancient mythology. In the next 
 generation this poetic handling of fairy-lore 
 underwent further modification, and between the 
 years 1620 and 1630 there arose a considerable 
 mass of fairy-poetry which, under the forms of 
 epic, lyric, and descriptive verse, attracted the 
 attention not only of young men like Herrick, 
 
 but also of such a veteran as Michael Drayton. 
 
 269 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 Within this decade were written Drayton's 
 Nymphidia and A Fairy Wedding, the three 
 fairy-poems of Herrick, the detailed account of 
 the fairies' feasts and sports in the third book of 
 WilHam Browne's Britannia! s Pastorals, the 
 contributions of Steward and other anonymous 
 writers to the Httle fairy- volume of 1635, together 
 with various other verses of this sort, found 
 among the manuscripts of the period. The fairy- 
 kingdom which is revealed to us in all these 
 poems is the pure creation of ingenious wit, and 
 its inhabitants are, in the words of Mercutio, 
 
 the children of an idle dream, 
 Begot of nothing but pure fantasy. 
 
 The connection between these fairy-poems and 
 popular folk-lore is somewhat slender, and no- 
 where is the fairy-world brought into touch with 
 the lives of men and women. Drawing their 
 inspiration from Shakespeare, above all from 
 Mercutio's description of Queen Mab in Romeo 
 and Juliet, the authors seized upon Shakespeare's 
 representation of the diminutive size of the fairies, 
 and taxed their ingenuity to the utmost in 
 fashioning a fairy-world on a Lilliputian scale, 
 and in observing a nice sense of proportion 
 between the various parts. These poems are 
 almost entirely lacking in those finer elements of 
 romance with which Shakespeare has invested 
 
 his elves, and the complete detachment of this 
 
 270 
 
Non-Lyrical Poems of the Hesperides 
 
 fairy-world from the affairs of mortal men checks 
 at its source the outflow of that delicate humour 
 which, in A Midsummer Nighfs Dream, springs 
 from the contemplation of human life through 
 the eyes of beings who live upon a different 
 plane from that of common mortality. Drayton, 
 it is true, atones, in his Nymphidia, for this lack 
 of humour by the skiful use of the mock-heroic, 
 but in this he stands alone. These fairy-poems 
 are, therefore, triumphs of ingenious fancy, but 
 little else. 
 
 It can readily be imagined that the production 
 of poems of this character proved a congenial task 
 for a man of Herrick's temper. The lightness 
 of his touch enabled him to tread easily along 
 this gossamer track ; and, keeping closely within 
 the bounds of descriptive verse, he threw off 
 fairy-poems which exhibit nimbleness of fancy, 
 sharpness of outline, and a nice sense of propor- 
 tion in miniature. At times, too, nobler qualities 
 reveal themselves, as when, for instance, describ- 
 ing the grove of Oberon, he writes — 
 
 Sweet airs move here, and more divine. 
 Made by the breath of great-eyed kine, 
 Who, as they low, impearl with milk 
 The four-leaved grass, or moss like silk.^ 
 
 Or again, in his description of the altar in 
 Oberon! s Chapel {22 2^) — 
 
 ^ Oberon^ s Palace (444). 
 271 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 The fringe that circumbinds it, too, 
 Is spangle-work of trembling dew ; 
 Which, gently gleaming, makes a show 
 Like frost-work glitt'ring on the snow. 
 
 But full of charm as these Oberon verses are, 
 we must regard them as so many oblations to 
 a passing literary cult, rather than as transcripts 
 of the poet's impressions of rustic superstition 
 and ceremonial. Scattered through the Hes- 
 perides, however, are a number of other poems 
 dealing with fairy- and folk-lore, which bring us 
 much nearer to the life of the time and the 
 imaginings of a rural community. Thus the 
 swift anapaestic verses in which Herrick de- 
 scribes the night-hag stand out in bold contrast 
 to the thin-spun fancies of the fairy-poems : — 
 
 The hag is astride 
 
 This night for to ride, 
 The devil and she together ; 
 
 Through thick and through thin 
 
 Now out and then in. 
 Though ne'er so foul be the weather. 
 
 A thorn or a burr 
 She takes for a spur. 
 With a lash of a bramble she rides now ; 
 Through brakes and through briars. 
 O'er ditches and mires. 
 She follows the spirit that guides now. 
 
 No beast for his food 
 Dare now range the wood, 
 272 
 
Non-Lyrical Poems of the Hesperides 
 
 But hush'd in his lair he lies lurking \ 
 
 While mischiefs, by these, 
 
 On land and on seas, 
 At noon of night are a-working. 
 
 The storm will arise 
 
 And trouble the skies ; 
 This night, and more for the wonder, 
 
 The ghost from the tomb 
 
 Affrighted shall come, 
 Call'd out by the clap of the thunder.^ 
 
 Here we are face to face with the darker and 
 more maHgnant forces of the spirit-world, and 
 Herrick makes us realise the baneful influence 
 of the night-hag, and her league with the powers 
 of darkness, as surely as Shakespeare does in 
 the portrayal of his weird sisters. 
 
 Herrick has left no poems which treat of the 
 famous fairy- or pixy-lore of the Dartmoor 
 villages, but many of his verses recording 
 country superstitions and ceremonies have a 
 close connection with Devonshire customs, and 
 belong, beyond a doubt, to the time of his re- 
 sidence at Dean Prior. There, for instance, 
 must have been written his verses on the 
 Christmas ceremony for the fertilisation of the 
 fruit trees — 
 
 Wassail the trees that they may bear 
 You many a plum and many a pear : 
 For more or less fruits they will bring 
 As you do give them wassailing.^ 
 
 1 The Hag (643). 2 ^ Qharfn (787). 
 
 s 273 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 The ceremony here referred to, that of firing shot 
 from a gun into the branches of the fruit-trees 
 at Christmastide, has lingered on in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Dean Prior down to the present day. 
 Mingling freely with his Devonshire parish- 
 ioners in all the homely details of their lives, 
 Herrick finds an especial delight in the cere- 
 monious ritual with which they propitiated the 
 occult powers of Nature, and has enshrined 
 much of this ritual in his verses. Through 
 these we learn much concerning the customs 
 and ceremonies which were observed on such 
 high festivals as Christmas and Candlemas-eve, 
 Twelfth Night and St Distaffs Day. A certain 
 direct homeliness characterises all these cere- 
 monial verses, and they make us realise that the 
 poet, during his long residence in the west-country 
 village, had sent his roots deep down into the 
 soil of rural England. The following verses 
 written for Saint Distaff's Day, or the Morrow 
 after Twelfth Day (1026) have something of the 
 raciness of Burns's Halloween : — 
 
 Partly work and partly play 
 Ye must on S. Distaffs Day : 
 From the plough soon free your team, 
 Then come home and fodder them. 
 If the maids a-spinning go. 
 Burn the flax and fire the tow ; 
 Scorch their plackets, but beware 
 That ye singe no maidenhair. 
 274 
 
Non-Lyrical Poems of the Hesperides 
 
 Bring in pails of water, then, 
 
 Let the maids bewash the men. 
 
 Give S. Distaff all the right ; 
 
 Then bid Christmas sport good-night ; 
 
 And next morrow every one 
 
 To his own vocation. 
 
 Akin to these ceremonial verses are the charm- 
 poems which lie scattered through the pages of 
 the Hesperides. These not only serve to associate 
 their author with the simple faiths and super- 
 stitions of rural England, but, as stated before, 
 they connect him with one of the most primitive 
 forms of English verse. His charms to allay 
 love (587), to make the bread rise (1063), to 
 bring in the witch (890), or to secure stables 
 against the malice of the night-hag (891), are 
 all of this character, and show that English 
 folk-lore and pagan ritual appealed to him no 
 less strongly than the ceremonial customs of 
 ancient Rome. 
 
 It is the custom to regard Herrick's epigrams 
 as obnoxious tares sown by him in unguarded 
 moments among the good red wheat of his 
 garden ; and Mr Pollard, in his edition of the 
 Hesperides, has seen fit to root up these tares 
 and cast them into an appendix by themselves. 
 If by an epigram is meant simply a distich of 
 scurrilous verse, conceived in the worst manner 
 of Martial, and directed against some hapless 
 wretch who has goaded the poet to sting, it 
 
 275 
 
 r 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 would be desirable to pass by the epigrams of 
 the Hesperides in silence. But if we use the 
 word in the Greek rather than the Roman sense, 
 and consider an epigram as a terse, highly com- 
 pressed and delicately finished poem which does 
 not necessarily aim at satiric point, then, so far 
 from dismissing Herrick's epigrams as garbage, 
 we must regard him as one of the greatest 
 masters of the epigrammatic art, and as the 
 only English poet who can bear comparison with 
 the epigrammatists of the Greek Anthology. 
 
 It can hardly be doubted that Herrick himself 
 used the word epigram in the Roman and 
 modern sense, or that he would have accepted 
 Boileau's definition of it as "un bon mot de 
 deux rimes orne," or, again, that of the English 
 wit who wrote the following : — 
 
 The qualities rare in a bee that we meet 
 
 In an epigram never should fail ; 
 The body should always be little and sweet, 
 
 And a sting should be left in its tail. 
 
 To the titles of many of those verses of his 
 which come under this definition he adds himself 
 the word *' epigram," ^ and fails to add it to those 
 dpigrammes a la grecque which, in number as 
 in poetic quality, far exceed the satiric verses 
 directed against some offending person at Dean 
 
 1 Two instances out of many are Upon Adam Peapes : Epig. 
 (835), and Upon Hanch a Schoolmaster : Epi^. (842). 
 
 276 
 
Non-Lyrical Poems of the Hesperides 
 
 Prior or elsewhere. But this should not prevent 
 us from applying the term to those exquisite 
 cameos of verse — epitaphs, gnomic verses, short 
 complimentary poems, prayers and dedications 
 to pagan deities — which are too brief to be called 
 lyrics, and which, as already stated, conform 
 so closely to the manner of the Greek epigram. 
 
 Before coming to a study of these, it is 
 necessary to say something about epigram- 
 writing in England in the preceding age. The 
 epigram, like many another literary form, sprang 
 into being through the contact of the modern 
 with the ancient world at the time of the 
 Renaissance. Then it was that the Roman 
 epigrammatists, in particular the greatest of 
 them. Martial, came to be read and imitated ; 
 and with them the Greek epigrammatists, whose 
 poems were made accessible through the pub- 
 lication of the Planudean Anthology. This 
 anthology, which had been compiled from the 
 earlier anthology of Cephalas by Maximus 
 Planudes as late as the fourteenth century, was 
 printed at Florence in 1484 by the Greek scholar, 
 Janus Lascaris, and many other editions fol- 
 lowed.^ The composition of Latin epigrams, 
 either after the Greek or the Roman model, 
 thenceforward became the delight of humanists 
 all over Western Europe, the Scotsman, George 
 
 ^ See J. W. Mackail, Select Epigrams froiii the Greek Anthology ^ 
 pp. 21-23. 
 
 277 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 Buchanan, and the Englishman, Sir Thomas 
 More, being among those who practised the 
 art. The first collection of English epigrams 
 is that of John Heywood, published in black 
 letter in 1562.^ He wrote six hundred epigrams 
 in all, but they are such rather in name than in 
 character. A large proportion of them are 
 simply expansions of homely proverbs ; and of 
 the rest, many are nothing more than anecdotes 
 in verse. Scarcely any of them are personal, 
 and although Heywood was, as his transla- 
 tion of Seneca's tragedies shows, a classical 
 scholar, his epigrams give little evidence of 
 the study of Roman models. The epigram 
 is recognised by Puttenham in his Arte of 
 English Poesie (1589), who defines it as a form 
 of poetry "in which every mery conceited man 
 might, without any long studie or tedious ambage, 
 make his frend sport and anger his foe, and give 
 a prettie nip, or shew a sharpe conceit in few 
 verses," ^ and it is interesting to find that, instead 
 of limiting the epigram to purposes of satire, he 
 includes both epitaphs and posies under this 
 term. 
 
 The true satiric epigram in the Roman sense 
 arose in England just at the end of the sixteenth 
 century, and at the same time as the satire 
 proper. In 1598 Thomas Bastard published his 
 
 ^ Republished by the Spenser Society. 
 2 Ed. Arber, p. 68. 
 
 278 
 
Non-Lyrical Poems of the Hesperides 
 
 Ckre staler OS, ^ consisting of nearly three hundred 
 epigrams, arranged in seven books ; and about 
 the same time were written the better known 
 epigrams of Sir John Davies.^ Davies claims to 
 be the direct successor and also the eclipser of 
 Hey wood : — 
 
 Heywood that did in epigrams excel 
 
 Is now put down since my light muse arose ; 
 
 As buckets are put down into a well, 
 
 Or as a schoolboy putteth down his hose.^ 
 
 His epigrams are all conceived in the manner of 
 Martial, and are always satiric, and frequently 
 foul-mouthed. In 1599 appeared John Weever's 
 Epigrammes in the oldest cut and newest fashion^ 
 and with the turn of the century epigram-writing 
 became the fashion in England. There are 
 epigrams among the collected poems of Raleigh, 
 and Donnepractised this formof versebothin Latin 
 and in English. In 16 10 appeared John Heath's 
 Two Centuries of Epigrammes, and the follow- 
 ing year saw the publication of John Davies of 
 Hereford's Scourge of Folly — a collection of two 
 hundred and ninety-three epigrams, all satiric in 
 character. In 161 3 were published no less than 
 three collections of epigrams, namely those of 
 Sir John Harington, many of which were merely 
 translations from Martial, Henry Parrott's 
 
 1 Re-edited by E. V. Utterson, 1842. 
 
 2 Published in Dyce's edition of the Works of Christopher 
 Marlowe. ^ Epigram xxix. 
 
 279 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 Laquei Ridiculosi, or Springes for Wood-cocks and 
 
 William Gamage's Linsi- Woolsie or two Centuries 
 
 of Epigrammes ; these were succeeded in 1614 by 
 
 a collection, entitled Rubbe and a Great Caste, by 
 
 Thomas Freeman, and in 16 16 appeared Ben 
 
 Jonson's Epigrams in the folio edition of his 
 
 works. Side by side with these collections of 
 
 epigrams in the vernacular, others, written in 
 
 Latin verse, were passing through the press. 
 
 Campion had published a series of Latin epigrams 
 
 as early as 1595, but the most famous of Latin 
 
 epigrammatists was the Welsh schoolmaster, 
 
 John Owen, whose verses won a European fame 
 
 and were translated into several languages. His 
 
 first three books of epigrams appeared in 161 2, 
 
 and were followed by others a little later. 
 
 The epigrams of Ben Jonson, which, in the 
 
 letter to the Earl of Pembroke, he calls *' the 
 
 ripest of my studies," are by no means entirely 
 
 satiric. Many of them are, and their grossness, 
 
 which provoked Sir Walter Scott to say that 
 
 their author enjoyed *' using the language of 
 
 scavengers and night-walkers," equals and even 
 
 exceeds the grossness of Herrick. But mingled 
 
 with these are epigrams of a very different 
 
 character. There are, for instance, generous 
 
 tributes of friendship to men like Donne, Camden, 
 
 Francis Beaumont and Edward Alleyn, and 
 
 complimentary verses to great nobles ; included 
 
 amongst them, too, are the touching epitaphs on 
 
 280 
 
Non-Lyrical Poems of the Hesperides 
 
 '* My first Daughter," " My first Son," and that 
 
 on Salathiel Pavy, the chorister. Finally, there 
 
 are gnomic verses " On Death " and '' On 
 
 Life and Death," and epigrams in which the poet 
 
 himself is the theme — " To my Book," '' To my 
 
 Muse." In all this, however, he does not depart 
 
 far from the Roman manner. Complimentary 
 
 verses, tributes to friends, epitaphs, gnomic verses 
 
 and lines addressed to himself and his book, may 
 
 all be found among the epigrams of Martial, 
 
 though their number is small in comparison with 
 
 the satiric verses. Yet, when compared with 
 
 earlier English epigrammatists, Jonson must 
 
 be credited with having widened the range of 
 
 the epigram, and with having relieved the strain 
 
 of scurrilous abuse by verses which appeal to the 
 
 nobler side of man's nature. 
 
 Meanwhile, a knowledge and appreciation of the 
 
 Greek form of epigram was growing in England. 
 
 Salmasius's discovery of the famous Palatine 
 
 Anthology at Heidelberg, in 1606, led to the 
 
 circulation in manuscript of those epigrams not 
 
 contained in the Planudean Anthology, and in 
 
 1629 the classical scholar and friend of Ben 
 
 Jonson, Thomas Farnaby, published in London a 
 
 collection of epigrams from the anthologies, to 
 
 which he also added a Latin translation. Eight 
 
 years later, Abraham Wright, by the publication 
 
 of his Delitiae Delitiarum^ familiarised classical 
 
 students in England with the Latin epigrams, 
 
 281 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 written after the Greek manner, by Italian, 
 French and EngHsh humanists of the fifteenth and 
 sixteenth centuries. And although most of the 
 seventeenth century collections of English epi- 
 grams remained faithful to Martial and the satiric 
 Roman manner, we nevertheless find, scattered 
 through the works of some of the finer spirits of the 
 age, a number of epigrams which recall the great 
 anthologies of ancient Greece. One of the first 
 poets to write epigrams in conformity with the 
 Greek pattern was Drummond of Hawthornden. 
 Among his collected poems, published in 1656, 
 after his death, is a section entitled *' Madrigals 
 and Epigrams," the composition of which in all 
 probability belonged to his youth. The title of 
 the section is significant. As we have already 
 seen, the seventeenth century madrigal aimed at 
 the terseness of the epigram, and in these verses 
 of Drummond it is impossible to say, judging 
 from their literary quality, which are madrigals, 
 and which are epigrams. There is a certain 
 epigrammatic finish in almost all of them, but it 
 is the epigrams of the Greek Anthology, not 
 those of Martial, which serve as model. These 
 verses of Drummond are not personal, and, as a 
 consequence, they do not seek after satiric point ; 
 they may be described as short fanciful poems, 
 which, both in matter and in style, conform to the 
 manner of the countrymen of Meleager and 
 
 Callimachus. Their literary quality is not high, 
 
 282 
 
Non-Lyrical Poems of the Hesperides 
 
 but, as furnishing a contrast to the satiric epigram 
 of the period, they are of some interest. The 
 following will perhaps best illustrate Drummond's 
 workmanship : 
 
 Proteus of Marble 
 
 This is no work of stone, 
 Though it seems breathless, cold, and sense hath none, 
 
 But that false god which keeps 
 The monstrous people of the raging deeps. 
 Now that he doth not change his shape this while, 
 It is thus constant more you to beguile. 
 
 Love Vagabonding 
 
 Sweet nymphs, if as ye stray. 
 
 Ye find the froth-born goddess of the sea, 
 
 All blubber'd, pale, undone, 
 
 Who seeks her giddy son, 
 
 That little god of Jove, 
 Whose golden shafts your chastest bosoms prove, 
 Who, leaving all the heavens, hath run away ; 
 If aught to him who finds him she'll impart, 
 Tell her he nightly lodgeth in my heart. 
 
 In approaching the epigrams of Herrick, we 
 
 may dismiss with a very few words those of a 
 
 satiric character. There is little wit in them to 
 
 relieve the coarseness, and, strewn as they often 
 
 are among the daintiest of his lyrics, they leave 
 
 just the same unpleasant taste in the mouth which 
 
 is produced by the satiric epigrams with which 
 
 Catullus befouls the pages of his Carmtna. The 
 
 most that can be said for them is that they are 
 
 283 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 neither more witless nor more foul than those 
 written by many another epigrammatist of the 
 Renaissance. It would seem, indeed, that coarse 
 scurrility was at this time looked upon as an 
 essential element in the making of a satiric 
 epigram, and in reference to this it is interesting 
 to notice that Campion introduces into his 
 Observations on the Art of English Poesie 
 epigrams quite as coarse as those of Jonson 
 or Herrick, simply as literary exercises, and in 
 order to illustrate the fitness of trochaic verse for 
 this form of poetry. 
 
 The satiric epigrams of Herrick have much in 
 common with those of Martial, but it is only fair 
 to add that the influence of the Roman epigram- 
 matist is by no means limited to verses of this 
 character. There is abundant evidence that the 
 author of the Hesperides had read Martial with 
 the greatest care, and that, while he reproduced 
 much of his indelicacy, he also had an eye for his 
 terse mother-wit and vivacious fancy. One or 
 two of his gnomic epigrams are literal trans- 
 lations from Martial, and he likes nothing better 
 than to introduce one of his felicitous phrases 
 into his verses, ^ or to round off a couplet with 
 some sententious maxim borrowed from the 
 Roman. His epigram On Virtue (298) will 
 illustrate the practice as well as any : — 
 
 1 e.g. : 'Tis sin to throttle wine" (502), a translation of Martial's 
 Scelus estjugulare Falernu?fi" (Book i. 9). 
 
 284 
 
Non-Lyrical Poems of the Hesperides 
 
 Each must in virtue strive for to excel ; 
 
 That man lives twice that lives the first life well — 
 
 where the second line is a translation of the 
 following words : — 
 
 hoc est 
 Vivere bis, vita posse priore frui.i 
 
 On other occasions he plays upon the fanciful 
 idea of Martial's epigram, On a Bee enclosed 
 in Amber ; ^ imitates, in his Upon Julia washing 
 herself in the River (939), the twenty-second 
 epigram of Martial's fourth Book ; and trans- 
 fers the elaborate fancy of the epigram Ad 
 Diadumenum (iii. 65) to a graceful complimentary 
 poem addressed to his kinswoman, The most 
 fair and lovely Mistress Anne Soame (375). 
 One of the neatest of Herrick's epigrams is 
 that entitled His wish {938) : — 
 
 Fat be my hind ; unlearned be my wife ; 
 Peaceful my night, my day devoid of strife : 
 To these a comely offspring I desire, 
 Singing about my everlasting fire. 
 
 Here, again, the suggestion comes from Martial's 
 famous epigram to Quintilian (ii. 90), and as 
 already noticed, many of the ideas of the 
 Panegyric on Sir Lewis Pembe7'ton {^^11^ ^^7 
 be traced back, through Jonson's Penshurst, 
 
 1 Epigrafjiniata^ x. 23. 
 
 ' Epigram mata, iv. 32, and compare Herrick, The Amber Bead 
 (817) and Upon a Fly (497). 
 
 285 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 to Martial's description of the country-house of 
 Faustinus (iii. 58). 
 
 But it is in those clear-cut epigrams in which 
 his theme is the fate of his book of poems that 
 Herrick comes nearest to Martial. He enters 
 whole-heartedly into that half-serious and half- 
 humorous mood in which Martial expresses his 
 hopes of winning for himself a fair competence 
 in this life and fame to all eternity. More than 
 once in his epigrams '' To his Book " he is 
 translating the Roman literally, and on many 
 other occasions he is drawing suggestions from 
 him. He reproduces the shrewd humour of 
 Martial in the following epigram : — 
 
 To read my book the virgin shy- 
 May blush while Brutus standeth by ; 
 But when he's gone, read through what's writ, 
 And never stain a cheek for it.^ 
 
 and glances both at him and at Catullus in writ- 
 ing this : — 
 
 Make haste away, and let one be 
 
 A friendly patron unto thee : 
 
 Lest, rapt from hence, I see thee lie 
 
 Torn for the use of pastery : 
 
 Or see thy injur'd leaves serve well 
 
 To make loose gowns for mackerel : 
 
 Or see the grocers in a trice 
 
 Make hoods of thee to serve out spice. ^ 
 
 1 To his Book (4) ; cf. Martial, Epigraminata^ xi. 16. 
 
 2 To his Book (844) ; cf. Martial, iii. 2, and Catullus, Car- 
 mifuiy xcv. 
 
 286 
 
Non-Lyrical Poems of the Hesperides 
 
 But a large proportion of Herrick's epigrams 
 have no connection with Martial, and are not 
 conceived in the Roman manner at all ; in theme 
 and in style they recall the Greek Anthology. 
 The extent of Herrick's acquaintance with the 
 epigrams of that anthology, either in the original 
 Greek or in Latin translations, is hard to 
 determine. Mr Pollard has traced two or three 
 of the epigrams to Greek originals,^ but there is 
 very little of that transference of some fortunate 
 idea or phrase from the anthologists into the 
 verses of the Hesperides^ which we meet with in 
 the case of Martial. The most, perhaps, that 
 can be said is that the manner of the Greek 
 anthologists was in the air, that it makes itself 
 felt in the poems of Drummond and the later 
 madrigalists, and that it reappears again and again 
 in the epigrams of the Hesperides. Whether he 
 is writing on erotic or on gnomic themes, address- 
 ing complimentary verses to the living, or writing 
 epitaphs for the dead, Herrick acquires some- 
 thing of the Greek style. This is especially the 
 case, too, with those prayers and dedicatory vows 
 which he offers up to pagan gods and goddesses. 
 These lack, of course, the element of sincerity 
 which we meet with in similar epigrams of the 
 Anthology, but it is surprising with what success 
 
 1 See his notes to the following poems of the Hesperides^ Nos. 
 
 -?^^y/ 
 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 Herrick feigns an accent of genuine feeling in 
 such verses as the following : — 
 
 Mighty Neptune, may it please 
 Thee, the rector of the seas. 
 That my barque may safely run 
 Through the watery region. 
 And a tunny fish shall be 
 Offered up with thanks, to thee.^ 
 
 Stately goddess, do thou please. 
 Who art chief at marriages, 
 But to dress the bridal bed 
 When my love and I shall wed. 
 And a peacock proud shall be 
 Offered up by us to thee.^ 
 
 Occasionally Herrick's humour peeps out in 
 these prayers to classic deities : — 
 
 Thy sooty godhead I desire 
 Still to be ready with thy fire ; 
 That, should my book despised be. 
 Acceptance it might find of thee.^ 
 
 1 Hymn to Neptune (325). With this we may compare the follow- 
 ing epigram from the Palatine Anthology (vi. 251) : " Phoebus who 
 boldest the sheer steep of Leucas, far seen of mariners and washed 
 by the Ionian sea, receive of sailors this mess of hand-kneaded 
 barley bread and a libation mingled in a little cup, and the gleam 
 of a brief-shining lamp, that drinks with half-saturate mouth from 
 a sparing oil-flask ; in recompense whereof be gracious, and send 
 on their sails a favourable wind to run with them to the harbours 
 of Actium." (Translated by J. W. Mackail, Select Epigrams from 
 the Greek Anthology, p. 126.) 
 
 ' Hymti to Juno (360). 
 
 3 To Vulcan (613). 
 
 288 
 
Non-Lyrical Poems of the Hesperides / 
 
 But in his Hymn to the Muses (657) he grows 
 lyrical in the warmth of his ardour : — 
 
 O you, the virgins nine, 
 That do our souls incline 
 To noble discipline, 
 Nod to this vow of mine. 
 Come then, and now inspire 
 My viol and my lyre 
 With your eternal fire, 
 And make me one entire 
 Composer in your choir. 
 Then I'll your altars strew 
 With roses sweet and new ; 
 And ever live a true 
 Acknowledger of you. 
 
 The epigrams on the theme of love are inferior 
 in quality to his love-lyrics, but through them he 
 often conveys to his many mistresses a well- 
 turned compliment. In The Rosary (45) it is 
 Julia that is the recipient of the compliment : — 
 
 One ask'd me where the roses grew, 
 
 I bade him not go seek, 
 But forthwith bade my Julia show 
 
 A bud in either cheek. 
 
 In the following it is Electra : — 
 
 When out of bed my love doth spring, 
 'Tis but as day a-kindling : 
 But when she's up and fully dress'd 
 'Tis then broad day throughout the east.^ 
 
 ^ Upon Electra (404). 
 T 289 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 ^^ The pleasure which he finds in the sunshine 
 
 of Sappho's smiles is implied in the following : — 
 
 Sappho, I will choose to go 
 Where the northern winds do blow 
 Endless ice and endless snow, 
 Rather than I once would see 
 But a winter's face in thee. 
 To benumb my hopes and me.^ 
 
 And in these lines to Anthea he recalls the 
 fancifulness of the sonneteers : — 
 
 Sick is Anthea, sickly is the spring. 
 
 The primrose sick, and sickly everything ; 
 
 The while my dear Anthea does but droop, 
 
 The tulips, lilies, daffodils do stoop : 
 
 But when again she's got her healthful hour, 
 
 Each, bending then, will rise a proper flower. 2 
 
 Some of his epigrams are concerned with 
 Nature, though there is far less real insight into 
 the forms of natural life shown in his epigrams 
 than in his lyrics. He prefers, instead, to let his 
 fancy play, and to inform us "how lilies came 
 white" (190), *'how roses came red" (706), or 
 " how violets came blue " (260). But his epigram 
 on the daffodil, though inferior to the lyric on 
 the same flower (see page 261), deserves to be 
 quoted here : — 
 
 1 To Sappho (803). 2 xo Anthea (1054)- 
 
 290 
 
Non-Lyrical Poems of the Hesperides 
 
 When a daffodil I see, 
 Hanging down his head towards me, 
 Guess I may what I must be : 
 First, I shall decline my head ; 
 Secondly, I shall be dead : 
 Lastly, safely buried.^ 
 
 One is not often disposed to turn to Herrick 
 in one's search for a philosophy of life, though 
 it must be remembered that he loved to assume 
 the role of feruled preceptor and inculcate some 
 practical lessons of conduct by means of gnomic 
 epigrams. But, except where he is borrowing a 
 thought from Seneca or some other Roman 
 moralist, his philosophy is not much more pro- 
 found than that of Shakespeare's Corin, who 
 knew that *'the property of rain is to wet, and 
 of fire to burn, and that a great cause of the 
 night is lack of the sun." He gravely informs us 
 that "all things decay with time," that health 
 and a gentle disposition are among man's most 
 prized possessions, that work must precede 
 wages, and that victory is possible only after 
 conflict. The faith by which he lived was not 
 unlike that happy blend of Stoicism and Epi- 
 cureanism which we meet with in the odes of 
 Horace. He enjoys to the full the fleshpots of 
 Egypt while they are within his reach, but his 
 easy mind can also rest content with the manna 
 of the wilderness — the pulse and beans of Dean 
 
 ^ Divination by a Daffodil (107). 
 291 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 Prior. Estimating an equal mind and mastery 
 over self at their true worth, he places ** content " 
 above " cates " : — 
 
 *Tis not the food, but the content 
 That makes the table's merriment. 
 Where trouble serves the board, we eat 
 The platters there, as soon as meat. 
 A little pipkin with a bit 
 Of mutton or of veal in it, 
 Set on my table, trouble-free. 
 More than a feast contenteth me.^ 
 
 There is scarcely a trace of distinctively 
 Christian ethics among these gnomic verses. 
 When he feels particularly snug in his Devon- 
 shire home, he offers up a hymn of thanksgiving 
 to his Lares, his 
 
 Chimney-keepers, 
 (I dare not call ye chimney-sweepers) — 
 
 and bedecks their idol brows with crowns of 
 green parsley and garlic chives.^ His purpose 
 is to make the most of this life, uncertain what 
 may follow : — 
 
 Let us now take time and play, 
 Love and live here while we may : 
 Drink rich wine, and make good cheer. 
 While we have our being here ; 
 For once dead and laid i' the grave, 
 No return from thence we have.^ 
 
 1 Content^ not Cates (312). ^ Hyfnn to the Lares (674). 
 3 To Sappho i^dc^i). 
 292 
 
Non-Lyrical Poems of the Hesperides 
 
 Even in the noblest of his gnomic epigrams, 
 that entitled The Christian Militant (323), there 
 is, as already observed, more of the classic 
 Stoicism — in utrumque paratus — than of the 
 Sermon on the Mount : — 
 
 A man prepar'd against all ills to come, 
 
 That dares to dead the fire of martyrdom ; 
 
 That sleeps at home, and sailing there at ease. 
 
 Fears not the fierce sedition of the seas; 
 
 That's counter-proof against the farm's mishaps, 
 
 Undreadful too of courtly thunderclaps ; 
 
 That wears one face, like heaven, and never shows 
 
 A change when fortune either comes or goes ; 
 
 That keeps his own strong guard in the despite 
 
 Of what can hurt by day or harm by night : 
 
 That takes and re-delivers every stroke 
 
 Of chance (as made up all of rock and oak) ; 
 
 That sighs at others' death, smiles at his own 
 
 Most dire and horrid crucifixion. 
 
 Who for true glory suffers thus, we grant 
 
 Him to be here our Christian militant. 
 
 No poet has ever been more ready than 
 Herrick to place his muse at the service of his 
 friends ; having little silver or gold to bestow, 
 he leaves lyrics and epigrams for legacies, and 
 promises the immortality of reflected fame to all 
 whose names are enshrined in his verses. In 
 these occasional poems, most of which are short 
 and epigrammatic, we find him ever prepared to 
 rejoice with those that rejoice, and to weep with 
 those that weep: he is the attendant spirit at 
 
 293 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 christenings and funerals, offering in his graceful, 
 affectionate, but never very profound way, felici- 
 tation or condolence. He is the "music of a 
 feast," and the domiduca of home-coming brides ; 
 he pays compliments to high-born ladies with the 
 easy grace of the practised cavalier, and to the 
 memory of his many friends, kinsmen, and kins- 
 women, he builds a *' college," a '' white temple of 
 my heroes," where, immortalised in verse, they 
 shall dwell to all eternity.^ So many of these 
 complimentary epigrams have been quoted in 
 the first part of this volume, with the object of 
 throwing light upon the poet's friendships, that it 
 is unnecessary to refer to them again ; but space 
 must be found for some study of his epitaphs. 
 The epitaph was regarded as a form of epigram 
 already by Puttenham,^ and epitaph-writing was 
 the fashion of Elizabethan England from Tur- 
 berville to Jonson. Herrick was a master of the 
 art, and many of his epitaphs are, in their simple 
 beauty and exquisite pathos, equal to the best 
 epitaphs of the Alexandrian anthologists. Except 
 in his verses on his dying brother William (No. 
 1 86), his grief has little real intensity, and 
 those epitaphs are accordingly the best where 
 the situation calls for gentle pity rather than 
 the tearless grief of pent-up passion. He wrote 
 epitaphs on men and women who passed away 
 
 * See the poem, To his honoured kinsman^ Sir Richard Stone 
 (496). ^ Arte of English Poesie^ chap, xxviii. 
 
 294 
 
Non-Lyrical Poems of the Hesperides 
 
 full of years, and on mothers dying in childbed ; 
 but his touch is surest where it is lightest — in his 
 epitaphs on little children, or on maidens taken 
 hence in the first bloom of womanhood : — 
 
 Here she lies, a pretty bud, 
 Lately made of flesh and blood. 
 Who as soon fell fast asleep. 
 As her little eyes did peep. 
 Give her strewings, but not stir 
 The earth that lightly covers her.^ 
 
 Here a solemn fast we keep ; 
 While all beauty lies asleep 
 Hush'd be all things — no noise here. 
 But the toning of a tear : 
 Or a sigh of such as bring 
 Cowslips for her covering.^ 
 
 It is characteristic of Herrick that he should 
 write epitaphs on himself. His address To 
 Robin Redbreast (50) reveals that delicate fancy 
 and sureness of artistic touch which are the 
 secret of so many of his best verses : — 
 
 Laid out for dead, let thy last kindness be 
 With leaves and moss-work for to cover me : 
 And while the wood-nymphs my cold corpse inter, 
 Sing thou my dirge, sweet-warbling chorister ! 
 For epitaph, in foliage, next write this : 
 Here, here the tomb of Robin Herrick is. 
 
 1 Up07i a Child that died (310). 
 "^ An Epitaph upon a Virgin (450). 
 295 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 In a rather more serious mood he writes His 
 Own Epitaph (617) : — 
 
 As wearied pilgrims, once possest 
 Of long'd-for lodging, go to rest, 
 So I, now having rid my way, 
 Fix here my button'd staff and stay. 
 Youth, I confess, hath me misled ; 
 But age hath brought me safe to bed. 
 
 From these epitaphs on his own decease we 
 pass, in the last place, to those epigrams — some of 
 them not exceeding the single distich — " On 
 Himself." It was the practice of the Anacreontic 
 poets and of Catullus to write epigrams of this 
 character, but they are seldom met with in English 
 poetry outside of the pages of the Hesperides. 
 Herrick s epigrams "On Himself" display the 
 personal touch of his verses in its purest form. 
 Occasionally there is a certain element of quiet 
 humour in these poems, as for instance in the fol- 
 lowing, written after completing the Hesperides : — 
 
 The work is done ; young men and maidens, set 
 
 Upon my curls the myrtle coronet, 
 
 Wash'd with sweet ointments : thus at last I come 
 
 To suffer in the Muses' martyrdom ; 
 
 But with this comfort, if my blood be shed, 
 
 The Muses will wear blacks when I am dead.^ 
 
 But more often the note is one of wistfulness — 
 regret for the years that have slipped from his 
 
 1 On Himself {V12.Z). 
 296 
 
Non-Lyrical Poems of the Hespertdes 
 
 grasp, or for the loss of the treasured gift of 
 song : — 
 
 Ask me why I do not sing 
 
 To the tension of the string, 
 
 As I did not long ago, 
 
 When my members full did flow ? 
 
 Grief, ay me ! hath struck my lute 
 
 And my tongue, at one time, mute.^ 
 
 A wearied pilgrim, I have wandered here 
 Twice five-and-twenty, bate me but one year ; 
 Long I have lasted in this world, 'tis true, 
 But yet those years that I have lived, but few. 
 Who by his grey hairs doth his lusters tell. 
 Lives not those years, but he that lives them well. 
 One man has reach'd his sixty years, but he 
 Of all those threescore, has not liv'd half three. 
 He lives, who lives to virtue ; men who cast 
 Their ends for pleasure, do not live, but last.^ 
 
 The epigrams of the Hesperides will never 
 win from the reader the same recognition that 
 the lyrics have won, for they are inferior to 
 them in variety of rhythmic effect, in warmth 
 of emotion, and in sustained power. But as 
 master of an art rarely practised in England 
 with much success, Herrick has acquired a new 
 title to fame. And at the same time these epi- 
 grams, by virtue of the resemblance which they 
 bear to those of Greek literature in the Alex- 
 andrian period, deepen our sense of the classical 
 qualities of their author's genius. 
 
 1 On Hi?nself{zy2). 2 q^ Himself {ioZ%). 
 
 297 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE NOBLE NUMBERS 
 
 IT is sometimes stated that the secular 
 poems, in particular the love-lyrics, be- 
 long to Herrick's early years, and the 
 Noble Numbers to the time when he was 
 a priest in orders. We have already seen that 
 the first half of this statement is not entirely 
 correct, but exception can scarcely be taken to 
 the second half of it. It is possible that some 
 of the religious carols which find a place in the 
 Noble Numbers, and which were set to music 
 and sung before the King at Whitehall, were 
 composed while Herrick still lived in the neigh- 
 bourhood of the Court, but the bulk of his 
 religious verses were in all probability written 
 at Dean Prior. In his Farewell to Poetry, 
 written to all appearance at the time when he 
 took orders, he tells us that his mind is now 
 filled with '' sublime respect and conscience unto 
 priesthood," and that henceforth he must part 
 company with that Muse of Helicon with whom 
 
 he has 
 
 outworn 
 The fresh and fairest flourish of the morn 
 With flame and rapture ; 
 298 
 
HES'PE\I'DES: ^ 
 
 THE WORKS 
 
 BOTH 
 
 HUA4ANE& DIVINE 
 
 OF 
 
 Ro BERT HeRRICK Ejq. 
 
 Ovid. 
 
 Ejfugitnt dvidos Carm'ma. nofira Rogos. 
 
 L O ,N 'D O ?C., 
 
 Printed for ^oh^ WilUdms^ :i\\^ Francis I.glcsf.i /•.-/, 
 
 dnd are to be fold by rho: Btint^ Book-lcllcr 
 
 ia Exon, i 6 4 8. 
 
 TITLE-PAGE OF THE FIRST EDITION OF liHSPKRIDES 
 
The Noble Numbers 
 
 but he goes on to say — 
 
 when my diviner muse 
 Shall want a handmaid (as she oft will use), 
 Be ready, thou for me, to wait upon her, 
 Though as a servant, yet a maid of honour.^ 
 
 As we have already seen, the vow to part 
 company with the Muse of Helicon was not 
 kept, but there can be little doubt that we owe 
 the Noble Numbers chiefly to the fact that 
 Herrick was by profession a clergyman. In 
 seeking the help of his diviner muse, whose 
 habitation is not Mount Helicon, but ** the secret 
 place of Oreb or of Sinai," he was also falling 
 into line with the practice of many other poets 
 of the day. The religious lyric of the seventeenth 
 century is in its way as unique a creation as the 
 sonnet-sequences of the Elizabethan age ; inti- 
 mately associated with the High Church move- 
 ment of the Caroline age, its nearest parallel is 
 to be found in the religious lyric of the High 
 Church movement of the early Victorian era. 
 The religious lyric in the age of Elizabeth is 
 of small account. The composition of metrical 
 versions of the Psalms was then in vogue, and 
 among the early Elizabethan song-books — for 
 example, William Byrd's Psalms, Sonets, and 
 Songs of Sadness and Pietie^ (1587), and John 
 Mundy's Songs and Psalmes^ (i594) — we find 
 
 ^ " Poems not included in the Hesperides," ed. Pollard, ii. 267. 
 2 See BoUe, Die gedruckten en^lischeti Liederbilcher bis 1600, p. 2. 
 '^ Ibid,, p. -j-j. 
 
 299 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 a number of the Psalms set to madrigal music, 
 and arranged for part-singing. We also know- 
 that in England, as well as in France, the 
 sonnet came to be used for the expression of 
 religious sentiment. In 1591, Henry Constable 
 published his Spiritual Sonnettes to the Honour 
 of God and His Sayntes'^ ; in 1595, appeared the 
 Divine Centurie of Spirituall Sonnets by Barnabe 
 Barnes, and in 1597, Henry Lok's Sundrie Sonnets 
 of Christian Passions. A year or two later, 
 Gervase Markham published two collections of 
 religious lyrics, written in a six-line stanza and 
 entitled Tears of the Beloved {1600) and Mary 
 Magdalen s Tears (1601) respectively. But the 
 literary quality of these collections of religious 
 verses is exceedingly low, and the only lyrics of 
 a religious character in the Elizabethan age 
 which have the breath of true poetic life in 
 them are those of the Jesuit Father, Robert 
 Southwell, who stands far apart from the main 
 tendencies of the age in which he lived. 
 
 The seventeenth century saw a rapid growth 
 of this kind of lyric poetry. Jonson's Poems 
 of Devotion are too few in number to be taken 
 into account here, but reference may be made 
 to the Divine and Moral Songs of Campion, 
 which appeared side by side with his madrigals 
 and canzonets in 16 13. In his religious, as in 
 his secular, work, Campion is a transitional figure. 
 1 Ed. V^. C. Hazlitt. 
 
 300 
 
The Noble Numbers 
 
 Some of his divine songs are in the manner 
 of the old psalm-lyrics of Byrd or Mundy, 
 but in the following, and in others like it, we 
 discern the first beginnings of a religious lyric, 
 touched with that personal feeling which a few 
 years later was to rise to intensest fervour : — 
 
 View me, Lord, a work of Thine. 
 
 Shall I then lie drown'd in night ? 
 Might Thy grace in me but shine, 
 
 I should seem made all of light. 
 
 But my soul still surfeits so 
 
 On the poison'd baits of sin, 
 That I strange and ugly grow ; 
 
 All is dark and foul within. 
 
 Cleanse me, Lord, that I may kneel 
 
 At Thine altar, pure and white ; 
 They that once Thy mercies feel 
 
 Gaze no more on earth's delight. 
 
 Worldly joys, like shadows, fade, 
 When the heavenly light appears ; 
 
 But the covenants Thou hast made, 
 Endless, know not days nor years. 
 
 In Thy Word, Lord, is my trust, 
 
 To Thy mercies fast I fly ; 
 Though I am but clay and dust, 
 
 Yet Thy grace can lift me high. 
 
 But the true founder of the seventeenth- 
 century religious lyric was Donne, some of whose 
 
 Divine Poems, though not published until 1633, 
 
 301 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 were written before 1607. Donne's influence 
 upon the Caroline religious lyrists — Herbert, 
 Crashaw, and Vaughan — in respect of style has 
 often been alluded to, but it is less generally 
 recognised that he is their master in the art of 
 infusing personal lyric emotion into religious 
 poetry. There is nothing of the metrical 
 psalm in the Holy Sonnets or the Litany of 
 Donne ; running through these poems is the 
 note of poignant individuality, and as we read 
 them, we feel ourselves brought face to face 
 with a human soul in the throes of contrition, 
 or, again, rising to a mood of seraphic ex- 
 altation. We hear the voice of a repentant 
 sinner, lamenting his wasted youth, in his 
 Hymn to Gody the Father-. — 
 
 Wilt Thou forgive that sin where I begun, 
 
 Which was my sin, though it were done before ? 
 Wilt Thou forgive that sin, through which I run. 
 And do run still, though still I do deplore ? 
 When Thou hast done. Thou hast not done, 
 For I have more. 
 
 Wilt Thou forgive that sin which I have won 
 
 Others to sin, and made my sin their door ? 
 Wilt Thou forgive that sin which I did shun 
 A year or two, but wallowed in a score ? 
 When Thou hast done, Thou hast not done, 
 For I have more. 
 
 I have a sin of fear that when I have spun 
 My last thread, I shall perish on the shore ; 
 302 
 
The Noble Numbers 
 
 But swear by Thyself, that at my death Thy Son 
 Shall shine as he shines now, and heretofore ; 
 And having done that, Thou hast done ; 
 I fear no more.i 
 
 Nor is Donne content with mere emotion in his 
 religious lyrics. Here, as in his secular verse, 
 he loves to pack the lines with profound and 
 original thoughts, aiming rather at compression 
 than clearness of utterance. His most sustained 
 religious lyric is his Litany, the following 
 stanzas of which well illustrate this quality of 
 his verse : — 
 
 From being anxious, or secure, 
 Dead clods of sadness, or light squibs of mirth, 
 
 From thinking that great courts immure 
 All, or no happiness, or that this earth 
 Is only for our prison framed, 
 Or that Thou'rt covetous 
 To them whom Thou lov'st, or that they're maim'd 
 From reaching this world's sweet who seek Thee thus, 
 With all their might, good Lord, deliver us. 
 
 From needing danger to be good, 
 From owing Thee yesterday's tears to-day. 
 
 From trusting so much to Thy blood. 
 That in that hope we wound our soul away, 
 
 From bribing Thee with alms, to excuse 
 Some sin more burdenous. 
 From light affecting, in religion, news, 
 From thinking us all soul, neglecting thus 
 Our mutual duties. Lord, deliver us.^ 
 
 ^ Donne's Poems, ed. E. K. Chambers, i. 213. 
 2 Poems, i. 181. 
 
 303 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 From Donne's Divine Poems to George 
 Herbert s Temple (1633), and thence to Crashaw's 
 Steps to the Temple (1646) and the religious 
 lyrics of Vaughan and Traherne, is but an 
 easy step, and with these later publications we 
 reach the full florescence of the seventeenth- 
 century religious lyric. 
 
 Herrick's Noble Numbers have far less in 
 common with the Caroline religious lyric than 
 his secular lyrics have with those of the Cavalier 
 singers, though it must be allowed that, with the 
 publication of the Hesperides in 1648, these 
 two forms of lyric poetry meet and mingle. 
 Of the spiritual wrestlings which are revealed 
 in Herbert's Temple, of the rapt ecstasy of 
 Crashaw, or the mystic soarings of Traherne 
 or Vaughan, Herrick knew nothing at all. 
 \ Among his Noble Numbers are many poems 
 of unquestionable orthodoxy, in which he sets 
 forth the attributes of God, or depicts the war- 
 fare of soul with sense ; and there are others in 
 which he shows his acquaintance with the 
 writings of the great Church Fathers — St 
 Augustine, St Ambrose, St Bernard, " learned 
 Basil,'' and "learned Aquinas." But these 
 orthodox verses disclose very little of the man's 
 rare personality, and show no trace of religious 
 j emotion. And no sooner does his true character 
 appear than his orthodoxy falls from him like a 
 mask, and the pagan Flamen stands revealed to 
 
 304 
 
The Noble Numbers 
 
 our gaze. His Thanksgiving to God for his 
 House (see page 103) is almost identical in 
 spirit with his hymns to the Lares ; and his 
 famous Litany to the Holy Spirit (41), beautiful 
 as it is, is wholly unlike that of Donne, and is 
 distinguished more for its naive humour than for 
 its piety : — 
 
 When the artless doctor sees 
 No one hope, but of his fees, 
 And his skill runs on the lees. 
 
 Sweet Spirit, comfort me I 
 
 When his potion and his pill 
 Has, or none, or little skill. 
 Meet for nothing but to kill, 
 
 Sweet Spirit, comfort me ! 
 
 When the passing bell doth toll, 
 And the furies in a shoal 
 Come to fright a parting soul, 
 
 Sweet Spirit, comfort me ! 
 
 When the tapers now burn blue. 
 And the comforters are few, 
 And that number more than true, 
 Sweet Spirit, comfort me ! 
 
 When the priest his last hath prayed, 
 And I nod to what is said, 
 'Cause my speech is now decayed. 
 Sweet Spirit, comfort me ! 
 
 Nothing was further from Herrick's mind than 
 irreverence when he wrote verses such as these ; 
 u 305 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 the truth is that his conception of reHgion, in 
 spite of his reading of the Fathers, was scarcely 
 more mature than that of a child of eight. His God 
 is neither the stern Taskmaster of the Puritans, 
 nor the ineffable King whom Laud taught his 
 followers to worship in *'the beauty of holiness." 
 He is an amiable Being with whom the poet 
 stands on very intimate terms ; God has given 
 him his bin, his pipkin, his piggin, and his 
 teeming hen, and for these he renders the thanks 
 that are due ; he even invites Him to read his 
 book of verses, assuring Him, with a naweU that 
 almost takes one's breath away, that He will take 
 no harm from their impurities ! — 
 
 Pardon me, God, once more I Thee entreat, 
 That I have placed Thee in so mean a seat ; 
 Where round about Thou seest but all things vain, 
 Uncircumcis'd, unseasoned and profane. 
 But as Heaven's public and immortal eye 
 Looks on the filth, but is not soil'd thereby. 
 So Thou, my God, may'st on this impure look, 
 But take no tincture from my sinful book.i 
 
 In another poem, To God (232), he entreats 
 Him to speak familiarly with him of love, 
 promising, for his own part, to reply 
 
 By way of Epithalamy ; 
 
 and we know what Herrick's epithalamies are 
 like ! The Christ whom he adores is the child 
 
 1 To God {iif,. 
 306 
 
The Noble Numbers 
 
 of Bethlehem, a *' Twelfth-tide King " to be 
 honoured with wassailings, and to whom he bids 
 a child bring childish presents — a flower, a coral 
 and a whistle — after the manner of the Secunda 
 Pastorum of the Wakefield cycle of Mystery- 
 Plays. Or, if he presents to us the Christ of 
 Calvary, it is under the figure of a tragic 
 Roscius : — 
 
 The Cross shall be Thy stage, and Thou shalt there 
 
 The spacious field have for Thy theatre. 
 
 Thou art that Roscius and that marked-out man 
 
 That must this day act the tragedian 
 
 To wonder and affrightment ; Thou art He 
 
 Whom all the flux of nations comes to see, 
 
 Not those poor thieves that act their parts with Thee.^ 
 
 He is conscious of sin, and in one of his 
 quaintest poems he confesses that his heart 
 is an Augean stable : — 
 
 Lord, I confess that Thou alone art able 
 
 To purify this my Augean stable ; 
 
 Be the seas water, and the land all soap, 
 
 Yet if Thy blood not wash me, there's no hope.^ 
 
 But this sense of sin does not disquiet him for 
 long ; he recognises the place of a Saviour in 
 the scheme of redemption, and is as sure of sal- 
 vation as any elect Anabaptist. Hell, he informs 
 us, is 'Hhe place where whipping-cheer abounds," ^ 
 
 ^ Rex tragicus J or, Christ going to His Cross (263). 
 
 2 To his Saviour (73). ^ ^^// ^ j 20). 
 
 307 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 but it has no terrors for him, and he intones 
 his creed with unfaltering voice : — 
 
 I do believe that die I must, 
 
 And be return'd from out my dust : 
 
 I do believe that when I rise, 
 
 Christ I shall see with these same eyes. 
 
 I do believe that I must come, 
 
 With others, to the dreadful doom. 
 
 I do believe the bad must go 
 
 From thence to everlasting woe ; 
 
 I do believe the good, and I, 
 
 Shall live with Him eternally. 
 
 I do believe I shall inherit 
 
 Heaven by Christ's mercies, not my merit. 
 
 I do believe the One in Three, 
 
 And Three in perfect unity : 
 
 Lastly, that Jesus is a deed 
 
 Of gift from God : and here's my creed.^ 
 
 In one of his most beautiful lyrics he describes 
 the joys of that Heaven for which he is bound. 
 The abode of the blessed is a white island where 
 immortal spirits pursue immortal pleasures and 
 where no monstrous fancies intrude : — 
 
 In this world, the isle of dreams, 
 While we sit by sorrow's streams. 
 Tears and terrors are our themes 
 Reciting : 
 
 But when once from hence we fly, 
 More and more approaching nigh 
 Unto young Eternity 
 Uniting : 
 
 "^ His Creed {:]Z\ 
 308 
 
The Noble Numbers 
 
 In that whiter island, where 
 Things are evermore sincere ; 
 Candour here, and lustre there 
 Delighting : 
 
 There no monstrous fancies shall 
 Out of hell an horror call, 
 To create, or cause at all. 
 Affrighting : 
 
 There in calm and cooling sleep 
 We our eyes shall never steep, 
 But eternal watch shall keep, 
 Attending 
 
 Pleasures such as shall pursue 
 Me immortalised, and you ; 
 And fresh joys as never to 
 
 Have ending.^ 
 
 The childlike mind of Herrick, in all that 
 pertains to the Christian faith, is disclosed in 
 poem after poem of the Noble NumberSy and as 
 we contemplate it we wonder what the sermons , 
 were like which he preached to his Devonshire v>>>- 
 parishioners. He turned this childlike mind to 
 good account in his "graces for children," the 
 most familiar of which might have come straight 
 from "■ A Child's Garden of Verses ^ 
 
 Here a little child I stand. 
 Heaving up my either hand : 
 
 1 The White Island; or, Place of the Blest (128). 
 309 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 Cold as paddocks though they be, 
 
 Here I lift them up to thee, 
 
 For a benison to fall 
 
 On our meat and on us all. Amen.^ 
 
 But in the following verses To God, which 
 are not placed on the lips of a child, it is hard to 
 believe that we are listening to a contemporary 
 of George Herbert or Bishop Hall : — 
 
 Lord, do not beat me, 
 Since I do sob and cry, 
 And swoon away to die 
 Ere thou dost threat me. 
 Lord, do not scourge me 
 If I by lies and oaths 
 Have soil'd myself or clothes, 
 But rather purge me.^ 
 
 In the Noble Numbers the epigrams are 
 much more numerous than the lyrics, and many 
 of them are confined to a single distich. Most 
 of them add nothing to Herrick's fame as a 
 poet, but occasionally they convey some new 
 thought, or some old thought set forth in a new 
 and striking way. The following may serve as 
 examples : — 
 
 God, when He takes my goods and chattels hence. 
 
 Gives me a portion, giving patience : 
 
 What is in God is God ; if so it be 
 
 He patience gives. He gives Himself to me.^ 
 
 * Another Grace for a Child {()^). 
 
 2 To God (49). ^ upon God (Sy)- 
 
 310 
 
The Noble Numbers 
 
 There is no evil that we do commit, 
 But hath th' extraction of some good from it : 
 As when we sin, God, the great Chemist, thence 
 Draws out th' elixir of true penitence.^ 
 
 The most sustained of the lyrics in the Noble 
 Numbers are the two dirges — The Dirge of 
 Jephthalis Daughter {^'^ and The Dirge of 
 Dorcas (123). The beauty of the latter is some- 
 what marred by the same kind of materialism 
 which we find in the poet's ''Thanksgiving to God 
 for his House," but the former is quite free from 
 this. It represents the Jewish maidens gathered 
 about the grave of the sacrificed virgin, shedding 
 bitter tears for the sister they have lost, and strew- 
 ing daffodils and other flowers about her tomb. 
 There is at times a curious, but not unseemly, 
 aroma of the bridal-chamber in this funeral 
 dirge, but the tone of it is elegiac throughout, 
 and the concluding stanzas are imbued with all 
 the caressing fancy and exquisite pathos of 
 Herrick's lyric genius : 
 
 Sleep in thy peace, thy bed of spice, 
 
 And make this place all paradise. 
 
 May sweets grow here, and smoke from hence 
 
 Fat frankincense : 
 Let balm and cassia send their scent 
 From out thy maiden-monument. 
 
 May no wolf howl, or screech-owl stir 
 A wing about thy sepulchre ! 
 
 1 Sin (196). 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 No boisterous winds, or storms, come hither 
 
 To starve or wither 
 Thy soft sweet earth ! but, hke a spring, 
 Love keep it ever flourishing. 
 
 May all shy maids, at wonted hours. 
 Come forth to strew thy tomb with flow'rs : 
 May virgins, when they come to mourn, 
 
 Male-incense burn 
 Upon thine altar ! then return. 
 And leave thee sleeping in thy urn. 
 
 Herrick's supremacy over all his contemporaries 
 
 in the field of lyric poetry is partly due to the 
 
 greater volume and variety of his poems, partly 
 
 also to the fact that he was before all things a 
 
 consummate artist. The mob of gentleman who, 
 
 in these cavaliering days, spent idle moments in 
 
 tossing off verses of gallantry to their mistresses, 
 
 prided themselves upon nothing so much as 
 
 the ease and speed with which they wrote. One 
 
 of the most famous of them, ** natural, easy 
 
 Suckling," even brought it as a reproach against 
 
 Carew that — 
 
 the issue of 's brain 
 Was seldom brought forth but with trouble and pain.^ 
 
 But Herrick, spending long years amid the 
 seclusion of his country vicarage, and treasuring 
 his poems with idolatrous affection, thought 
 otherwise. The easy flow of his lyrics gives, 
 
 ^ A Sessions of the Poets. 
 312 
 
The Noble Numbers 
 
 perhaps, the impression that they were written 
 in haste ; but if so, they were corrected at leisure, 
 and not given to the world until they had reached 
 that state of chiselled perfection which satisfied 
 the demands of a poet who was as fastidious as 
 Gray : 
 
 Better 'twere my book were dead, 
 
 Than to live not perfected.^ 
 
 In addition to the authentic text of 1648, we 
 possess, as we have already seen, earlier printed 
 versions of some of the Hesperides poems ; more- 
 over, there are to be found among the Ashmole, 
 Harley, Egerton, and Rawlinson MSS. earlier 
 renderings of some of the most sustained of 
 Herrick's verses, including the Farewell and 
 Welcome to Sack^ some of the fairy poems, 
 and the Nuptial Song on Sir Clipseby Crew. 
 These versions have been carefully collated with 
 those of the 1648 volume by Dr Grosart and 
 Mr Pollard, and furnish us with abundant 
 evidence of the author's unsparing use of the 
 file. The twenty-three stanzas of the Harleian 
 MS. version of the ''Nuptial Song" are reduced 
 in the Hesperides to sixteen, though some of the 
 rejected stanzas seem to our less exacting taste 
 almost faultless. Elsewhere we find single lines, 
 and sometimes whole stanzas, entirely remodelled, 
 and a single illustration will show how much 
 
 ^ His Request to Julia (59). 
 313 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 they gain by the process. The fourteenth stanza 
 of the epistle To Mr John Weekes (336) reads 
 as follows in the Egerton MS. : — 
 
 When the high Helen her fair cheeks 
 Showed to the army of the Greeks. 
 
 At which I'll rise 
 (Blind though as midnight in my eyes), 
 
 And, hearing it, 
 Flutter and crow, and in a fit 
 Of young concupiscence, and feel 
 New flames within the aged steal. 
 
 In the Hesperides it is altered to the following: — 
 
 When the fair Helen from her eyes 
 Shot forth her loving sorceries. 
 
 At which I'll rear 
 Mine aged limbs above my chair, 
 
 And, hearing it. 
 Flutter and crow as in a fit 
 Of fresh concupiscence, and cry : 
 No lust there's like to poetry. 
 
 One of the most radical and most interesting 
 changes introduced by Herrick into the Hesperides 
 is that which we encounter in the poem, entitled 
 The Apparition of his Mistress calling him to 
 Elysium (575). This was first published in 1640, 
 and contained the following lines describing 
 the modern dramatists who sit with Homer, 
 Virgil, ''soft Catullus," '' sharp-fang'd Martial," 
 and other great classic poets in the green 
 meadows of Elysium : 
 
 314 
 
The Noble Numbers 
 
 Among which synod, crown'd with sacred bays 
 And flatt'ring ivy, we'll have, to recite their plays, 
 Shakespeare and Beaumont, swans to whom the spheres 
 Listen while they call back the former years 
 To teach the truth of scenes. 
 
 Eight years later, it seems that Herrick had 
 come round to the common opinion of the age 
 that Fletcher was a greater dramatist than Shake- 
 speare, and so he alters the verses as follows : — 
 
 Among which glories, crown'd with sacred bays 
 And flatt'ring ivy, to recite their plays — 
 Beaumont and Fletcher, swans to whom all ears 
 Listen, while they, like sirens in their spheres, 
 Sing their Evadne. 
 
 We may think what we like of the poet's 
 dramatic taste, but must acknowledge how much 
 the later rendering surpasses the earlier in respect 
 of style and rhythm. Illustrations of the emenda- 
 tions made by the poet might be jurnished_tQ_aay 
 extent, but they all tell the same tale — gain in 
 te'rsene'SS aild~simpIicity ~ot utterance, and7 lik e- 
 WTsertrfpu r i t y_a^ndji^;aniiy: joilrhyth m . 
 
 ^Th e most obv igua-jquality-^ H errick's style 
 is its freedom from the fashionable mannerisms 
 of his day. There is at times a certain quaint^ 
 ness in his diction, and, more rarely, a Jonsoniaij 
 fondness for inversions. Mr Courthope has also 
 drawn attenl;ion to his occasional use of strange 
 words like " carcanet " and "pannicle," and to his 
 
 py ^ 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 fgndness for diminutives like **cherrylet" and 
 **pipkinnet" ; but in the twelve hundred poems 
 of the Hesperides there is scarcely a trace of 
 the strained conceits, the violent comparisons, 
 the" "recondite allusions, and all the rest_.of 
 the metaphysic wit of the fantastic school _pf 
 poetry then in vogue. To the allurements of 
 this seventeenth-century poetic diction even so 
 surejii artist as Milton fell a victim in the early ^ 
 portion of his career, but Herrick, from first^to 
 last, IceptTilmseir free from blemish. At the 
 same tinie,'Tie Ts free from the affectations of the 
 Elizabethans, ^e admits into his verses neither 
 thii^archaisms and provincialisms of Spender, 
 nor the indirectness and over-subtlety of the 
 sonneteers ; and everything in the nature of word- 
 quibbling he regards with just abhorrence^ In 
 the Ashmole MS. version of A Country Life 
 (io6) there occurs the following line : 
 
 Vice is vice-gerent at the court. 
 
 Recognising afterwards that his readers might 
 accuse him of punning, he recasts it thus : — 
 
 Vice rules the most or all at court. 
 
 Xhe- secret of his art consist^^n— the- perfect - 
 
 adjustment of the style to 'the theme. In lyrics 
 
 like The May-pole is up (695), The Hag is astride 
 
 (643) or The Peter-Penny (762), where he is 
 
 316 
 
The Noble Numbers 
 
 imitating the rhythm of the popular song, his 
 diction is also extremely simple. Simplicity 
 is likewise sought in most of his song-lyrics, 
 and the beauty of the song To Anthea (267), 
 The Night-Piece to Julia (619), or The Mad 
 MaicTs Song {/}^\2), is largely^ jdue to the magic 
 effect produced by th^^omely wordsT^ In poems ^S^] 
 of this nature he relies upon monosyllabic words '^ 
 to a greater extent than any other English poet, 
 and it is not at all difficult to find among the 
 Hesperides whole stanzas like the following, where 
 nothing but monosyllables appear : — 
 
 A heart as soft, a heart as kind, 
 
 A heart as sound and free 
 As in the whole world thou canst find, 
 
 That heart I'll give to thee.i 
 
 Again, in the poem His Grange, or Private 
 Wealth (724), which contains one hundred and 
 forty-five words, only fifteen of them run to more 
 than a single syllable. Where, however, he 
 departs most widely from the manner of the song- 
 lyric, as, for instance, in his odes and elegies, his 
 style grows more elaborate. Still pursuing clear- 
 ness and precision of utterance, and avoiding 
 everything in the nature of preciosity, he at the 
 same time manages to introduce high-sounding 
 latinised words, enriches the verses with the 
 treasures of classic story, and makes a bold use 
 
 1 To Anthea (267). 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 of figures of speech. The resuh is that his 
 verses acquire a certain massiveness, a resonance, 
 cR Td'^Sr aug ust, imperial splendour, which place 
 tfiem at a wide distance from the homely strains of 
 his songs*- We meet with this heightened style in 
 his Farewell and Welcome to Sack, and in the 
 lines, entitled The Apparition of his Mistress 
 calling him to Elysium (575). His__styje as a 
 l^ whole is not particularly rich in metaphor, but in 
 some of his more sustained flights of song he 
 uses it with magnificent effect, and in such a 
 stanza as the following, we see him passing from 
 one metaphor to another with the ease and bold- 
 ness of Shakespeare : — 
 
 Alas ! for me, that I have lost 
 
 E'en all almost ; 
 Sunk is my sight, set is my sun, 
 And all the loom of life undone : 
 The staff, the elm, the prop, the sheltering wall 
 
 Whereon my vine did crawl. 
 Now, now blown down ; needs must the old stock fall.^ 
 
 A fondness for classic al allusions is one of the 
 marked characteristics of his style, and gives to 
 it much of its classical colour. These are not 
 the trite references which we meet with in much 
 of the poetry of the Renaissance ; without being 
 recondite or obscure, they bear witness to his 
 sound scholarship, and show, in particular, his 
 curious delight in ancient ritual. These allusions 
 
 ^ An Ode to Endymion Porter upon his Brother's Death (185). 
 
 318 
 
The Noble Numbers 
 
 are most noticeable in that early poem, A 
 Country Life : to his Brother ^ Tho7nas Her rick 
 (io6), and in His Age: To Mr John Wickes 
 (336) ; and again, in his impassioned Farewell 
 to Poetry, from which the following lines are 
 taken : — 
 
 And in that mystic frenzy we have hurled, 
 
 As with a tempest, nature through the world, 
 
 And in a whirlwind twirl'd her home, aghast 
 
 At that which in her ecstasy had past. 
 
 Thus crown'd with rosebuds, sack, thou mad'st me fly 
 
 Like fire-drakes, yet didst me no harm thereby, 
 
 O thou almighty nature, who didst give 
 
 True heat wherewith humanity doth live 
 
 Beyond its stinted circle, giving food. 
 
 While fame and resurrection to the good ; 
 
 Shoring them up 'bove ruin till the doom, 
 
 The general April of the world doth come. 
 
 That makes all equal. Many thousands should, 
 
 Were't not for thee, have crumbled into mould, 
 
 And with their sere-clothes rotted, not to show 
 
 Whether the world such spirits had or no \ 
 
 Whereas by thee those and a million since 
 
 Nor fate, nor envy, can their fames convince. 
 
 Homer, Musaeus, Ovid, Maro, more 
 
 Of those Godful prophets long before 
 
 Held their eternal fires, and ours of late 
 
 (Thy mercy helping) shall resist strong fate. 
 
 Nor stoop to the centre, but survive as long 
 
 As fame or rumour hath or trump or tongue.^ 
 
 Most of the poems describing the rustic 
 festivals of the countryside are as simple as his 
 
 1 " Poems not included in the Hesperides" Pollard, ii. 264. 
 319 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 songs, but even here there are times when 
 reminiscences of the ceremonial rites of a bye- 
 gone age come back to him, and then his 
 imagination glows with a rare incandescence 
 and his style takes on a richer colour. JThus^ 
 many of the stanzas of that limpid poem, 
 Corinna's going a- Maying (178), the theme_of 
 >^HicE~is peculiarly English,_haye an undoubted 
 classic aromaj^jiijthe figurative opening lines 
 jmjght have come sixaight^from Ovid : 
 
 Get up, get up for shame, the blooming morn 
 Upon her wings presents the god unshorn. 
 See how Aurora throws her fair 
 Fresh-quilted colours through the air : 
 Get up, sweet slug-a-bed, and see 
 The dew bespangling herb and tree. 
 
 The grace and purity of Herrick's diction are 
 
 the natural complement to the grace and purity 
 
 of his verse. He lived in an age when lyric 
 
 'poetry was wonderfully plastic in respect of the 
 
 metrical moulds into which it flowed. The 
 
 tyranny of the sonnet-structure was over, and no 
 
 other rigid form of verse had arisen to take its 
 
 place. The seventeenth century poet enjoyed 
 
 perfect freedom in regard to form, and there was 
 
 nothing to impede him in his desire to win for 
 
 his lyric emotion that form which suited it best. 
 
 Occasionally we find the freedom abused. I am 
 
 not aware that any of the poets of this age 
 
 followed the precept and example of Puttenham 
 
 320 
 
The Noble Numbers 
 
 who, in his Arte of English Poesies devised 
 poems in the shape of triangles, cylinders, 
 lozenges, and spheres,^ and declared that though 
 at first there ** wil seeme nothing pleasant to 
 an English eare, time and usage wil make 
 them acceptable inough " ; but George Herbert 
 carves his verses into the shape of altars and 
 '' Easter wings," and even Herrick aspires to 
 a pillar and a cross. ^ But these were only- 
 momentary aberrations, and do not need to be 
 taken into account here. 
 
 Herrick had at his command an immense host 
 of lyric measures, some of them of his own 
 creation, and all of them skilfully adapted to the 
 lyric theme which is being set forth. In his 
 choice of metres, he shows once again that I 
 between him and the Elizabethan lyrists thereil 
 was not much in common. He will have nothing^' 
 to do with the sonnet or canzone, nor do the 
 slow-moving measures of the early Elizabethan 
 lyric — Alexandrine, septenarius, and poulter's 
 measure — which still drag their weary chains 
 through some of the lyrics of Campion, find 
 favour with him. Verses of more than five 
 beats are extremely rare in the Hesperides, and 
 a .striking- feature. of_ H errick's nietrLc._art- is hi§ 
 fondness^ Jbr^ a short line in iambic or trochaic 
 
 ^ See chapter xi., " Of Proportion in Figure." 
 * See The Pillai' of Fame (1129) and The Cross {Noble Numbers^ 
 268). 
 
 X 321 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 f measure. Verses of four, three^ or two accents 
 are extremefy common, and in his poem, Upon 
 his Departure Hence (475), he keeps throughout 
 to a line of a single accent. In his use of the 
 heroic couplet, he seems to have followed the 
 tendency of his age, which was slowly hammer- 
 ing the Augustan distich out of the flowing 
 heroic verse of Chaucer ; the sfructure of his 
 earliest verses in this measure — e.g. the Farewell 
 to Sack — is still free, but in his later poems, such 
 as The Christian Militant, the pause at the end 
 
 ^ of the couplet is rarely missed, and there is a 
 nicer balance of parts. 
 
 The delicacy of his ear and the fineness of his 
 workmanship are best displayed in his strophic 
 poems. Like most of the poets of the time, he 
 keeps chiefly ^to~]anibic and trochaic measures. 
 Dactyls are rarely IrieF^ith in his poems,^ and 
 anapaests are reserved almost entirely for certain 
 song-lyrics in which he is employing the rhythms 
 of popular airs ^ ; but by the use of feminine 
 rhymes, and by bringing into proximity lines of 
 
 1 His most effective use of the dactyl is in his poem To his 
 Mistress (94) : 
 
 Choose me your valentine. 
 
 Next let us marry — 
 Love to the death will pine 
 
 If we long tarry. 
 
 2 Instances are Ceremonies for Christinas (784), 77^*? hag is 
 astride (643). 
 
 322 
 
The Noble Numbers 
 
 different lengths, he attains a wonderful variety 
 of effects. Thus the combination of verses with 
 four accents and verses with two accents gives a 
 delightful rhythm to his Thanksgiving to God 
 for his House {Noble Numbers, 47) : 
 
 Lord, thou hast given me a cell 
 Wherein to dwell ; 
 
 A little house, whose humble roof 
 Is weather-proof, 
 
 Under the spars of which I lie 
 
 Both soft and dry ; . . . 
 
 and equally happy is the union of verses of 
 one, two, and three accents in To keep a Trtie 
 Lent (Noble Numbers, 228) : 
 
 Is this a fast, to keep 
 
 The larder lean ? 
 And clean 
 From fat of veals and sheep ? 
 
 Is it to quit the dish 
 
 Of flesh, yet still 
 To fill 
 The platter high with fish ? 
 
 No j 'tis a fast to dole 
 
 Thy sheaf of wheat, 
 And meat, 
 Unto the hungry soul. 
 
 It is to fast from strife. 
 From old debate, 
 And hate ; 
 To circumcise thy life. 
 323 ' 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 To show a heart grief-rent ; 
 To starve thy sin, 
 Not bin ; 
 And that's to keep thy Lent. 
 
 A Still more signal Illustration of this device of 
 metric art Is to be found, not unfittingly, in one 
 of the several poems written In honour of Ben 
 Jonson, from whom he had learnt so much of 
 the harmonies of verse. Here a swelling effect 
 is produced by the gradual lengthening of the 
 linens the^ stanza advances^the rhythmic waves 
 increasing in volume like the breakers of an in- 
 coming tide : 
 
 Ah Ben ! 
 
 Say how or when 
 Shall we, thy guests. 
 Meet at those lyric feasts 
 Made at the Sun, 
 .^ N> The Dog, the Triple Tun ? 
 
 Where we such clusters had 
 " a/-V\ ^v^" As made us nobly wild not mad ; 
 
 -r^\^ i And yet each verse of thine 
 
 r t^ ^ ^ Out-did the meat, out-did the frolic wine.^ 
 
 ^\ 
 
 e\ 
 
 All his poems are in rhyme, but occasionally he 
 introduces, like Milton in Lycidas, a rhymeless 
 verse Into his more highly- wrought stanzas. 
 This is the case with the first line of His Re- 
 cantation (246) : 
 
 1 A71 Ode for Ben Jonson (911). 
 324 
 
The Noble Numbers 
 
 Love, I recant, 
 And pardon crave 
 That lately I offended ; 
 But 'twas 
 Alas! 
 To make a brave. 
 But no disdain intended. 
 
 Nor is he afraid of placing verses which rhyme 
 
 together at a great distance from one another, 
 
 the deHcacy of his ear assuring him that the 
 
 effect of the rhyme will not be lost. Thus in the 
 
 poem, To Daffodils (316), the rhyme of the 
 
 first verse is not taken up till we reach the ninth, 
 
 and in To Primroses filled with Morning Dew 
 
 (257), the stanza of which is a masterpiece of the 
 
 most cunning craftsmanship, there is the same 
 
 interval : 
 
 Why do ye weep, sweet babes ? Can tears ,'t 
 Speak grief in you, b 
 Who were but born " 
 c Just as the modest morn 
 Teem'd her refreshing dew ? 
 Alas ! you have not known that shower 
 That mars a flower, 
 Nor felt the unkind 
 Breath of a blasting wind ; 
 Nor are ye worn with years, 
 
 Or warp'd as we. 
 Who think it strange to see 
 Such pretty flowers, like to orphans young. 
 To speak by tears before ye have a tongue. 
 
 Thus does one attempt to bring Herrick's lyric 
 raptures to the dissecting table, and lay bare 
 
 325 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 their intricate and finely- wrought structure. But 
 J. in so doing, it must be remembered that it is 
 the prerogative of all high art to defy the last 
 analysis ; we may codify Herrick's rhymes and 
 tabulate his rhythms, but the evanescent, and 
 yet ever-abiding, charm of his verse eludes our 
 search. 
 
 When, finally, we turn from the contemplation 
 of the outward structure of Herrick's lyrics to 
 the spirit which informs them, we are at once 
 impressed by the universality of his genius in all 
 that pertains to lyricism. His consciousness of 
 discipleship, while it attests the humility of his 
 nature, must not be allowed to obscure the fact 
 that he was the supreme master of the lyre in 
 his own generation, and the glorious con- 
 summator of Renaissance song. All the most 
 melodious notes in that loud chorus which made 
 of the England of the Renaissance ''a nest of 
 singing-birds," are heard in the Hesperides. 
 Herrick can attune his lyre to the strains of 
 Marlowe and the earliest melodists of Eliza- 
 bethan song, and, at the same time, he can 
 rival the courtly gallantries of his immediate 
 contemporaries, Carew and Suckling. The 
 varying ply of his genius gives him also the 
 right to sit down, in that Elysium which his 
 poetic fancy wrought, with Anacreon on his 
 right hand, and Catallus and Horace on his left. 
 
 He is at once romantic and classic, learned and 
 
 326 
 
I 
 
 The Noble Numbers 
 
 popular. Nothing is too low for his genius, 
 and nothing too high. He can stoop to the 
 ale-house catch, fashioning it into a thing of 
 beauty ; and he can rise to the full-voiced and 
 intricate harmonies of the classic ode, giving to 
 it fresh power and fresh enchantment. 
 
 In like manner, he is the bard of the town 
 and of the country, of the court and of the 
 meadows. His songs are sung in the thatched 
 cottages of Dean Prior, in the taverns of Temple 
 Bar or Southwark, and beneath the fretted roof 
 of Inigo Jones's banqueting-house at Whitehall. 
 He can render the homage of matchless verse to 
 court-ladies and princes of the blood, to aldermen 
 and city madams, to village youths bringing in 
 the hock-cart, or to maidens in sun-bonnets 
 going a- Maying. He can write epithalamies for 
 wealthy knights, and charms for simple house- 
 wives ; the Countess of Carlisle inspires his muse, 
 and so does Prudence Baldwin. He can weave 
 poetry, as fine as threads of gossamer, out of the 
 fancies of an esoteric fairy-lore, and at the same 
 time he can touch with beauty the crude super- 
 stitions of the country-side. He is both Christian 
 and pagan, and, almost in the same breath, he 
 will present his supplication to God the Father, 
 and invite the protection of his " peculiar Lar." 
 
 The comparison which is sometimes drawn 
 
 between Herrick and the lyrists of a later day 
 
 —Burns, Shelley, Heine — is of singularly little 
 
 327 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 value, for it is like a comparison between youth 
 and age. Civilisation has moved forward 
 since the day on which Herrick published his 
 HesperideSy and advancing years have brought 
 to lyric poetry deeper purposes, intenser emotions, 
 and more obstinate questionings as to the whence 
 and whither, the meaning and worth, of life. 
 The Renaissance song of Marlowe and Breton 
 and Shakespeare and Dekker and Herrick is the 
 song of children in the eager air of a spring 
 morning. Life to them is a perpetual holiday 
 and the world is very new and very wonderful. 
 They are conscious at times that this joy 
 cannot last for ever, and that "youth's a stuff 
 will not endure " ; but the resilience of their 
 natures soon lifts them out of their forebodings, 
 and the thrill of exultation comes back to them 
 with quickened pulse. They know nothing of 
 the heartache of modern lyricism, and their philo- 
 sophy of life is but to seize the day. With 
 Burns and Shelley and Heine all this is changed. 
 In them lyric emotion is adult and self-conscious. 
 Their sweetest songs are only too often those 
 that tell of saddest thought, and about them 
 there gathers an intensity which is sometimes 
 the child of hope, and sometimes of disillusion- 
 ment. The passion of Burns, the alternating 
 moods of hope and dejection which inform the 
 songs of Shelley, the bitter-sweet emotion of 
 Heine — these are almost unknown to Herrick 
 
I 
 
 The Noble Numbers 
 
 and the other masters of Renaissance song. 
 Burns and Shelley and Heine are of necessity- 
 more to us than Herrick can ever be ; for they 
 speak to us in our own language, offering us 
 hope and encouragement, rousing us to finer 
 issues and nobler aspirations, or confirming us in 
 our fears and misgivings. But there are times 
 when, feeling that the world is too much with 
 us, we try to free our minds from the burden of 
 modernity ; and then it is that, in holiday mood, 
 we turn to the Hesperides, and find refreshment 
 of soul in the contemplation of an age that knew 
 little of misgiving or disillusionment, and of a 
 poet in whom, beneath the garb of an Anglican 
 clergyman, there beat the heart of a votary of 
 Apollo, "for ever piping songs for ever new," 
 and bidding us gather rosebuds while we may in 
 the bowered glades of Arcady. 
 
APPENDIX I 
 
 HERRICK'S INDENTURE OF APPRENTICESHP 
 (^September 25, 1607).^ 
 
 THIS indenture witnesseth that Robert Herick 
 the Sonne of Nicholas Herick of London, 
 Goldsmithe, doth put him selfe apprentize to 
 Sir Wm. Herick, knighte, citizen, and gold- 
 smith of London to learne his Arte. And with him 
 (after the manner of Apprentize) to serve from the 
 feaste of St Bartholomew the apostle last past before 
 the date heereof unto the full end and terme of Tenn 
 yeres from thence next following to be full complete 
 and ended. During which terme the said Apprentize 
 his said master faithfully shall serve his secrets keepe 
 his lawfuU commandements every where gladly doe. 
 He shall doe no damage to his said master, nor see to 
 be done of other but that so his power shall lett, or 
 forthwith give warning to his master of the same. He 
 shall not waste the goode of his said master nor lend 
 them unlawfully to any p.son : He shall not commit 
 fornication nor contract matrimony within the said 
 terme. He shall not playe at the cardes, dice, tables or 
 any other unlawfull games whereby his said master may 
 have any losse with his own goode or others during 
 the said terme without licence of his said master; he 
 shall neither beg nor stele : he shall not haunt Tavernes 
 nor absent him selfe from his said master's service daic 
 nor nighte unlawfully. But in all thinges as a faithfuU 
 
 ^ From the Herrick Papers at Beaumanor. 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 Apprentize he shall behave him selfe towards his said 
 master and all his during the said terme. And the 
 said master his said Apprentize in the same Arte which 
 he useth, by the best means he can, shall teach and 
 iustruct with due correction, finding unto his said 
 Apprentize meate, drinke, Apparell, Lodging, and all 
 other necessaries- according to the Custome of the Citty 
 of London during the said terme. And for the true 
 performance of all and singuler the said covenants and 
 agreements either of the saide parties bindeth him selfe 
 unto the other by theis presents. In witness whereof 
 the parties above named to this Indenture interchang- 
 ably have put their hand and seales the xxvth daie of 
 September in the year of our Lord God 1607, and in 
 ffyfte yere of the Raigne of our Soveraigne Lord King 
 James, by the grace of God King of England Scotland 
 ffrance and Ireland, defender of the ffaith etc. 
 
 (Signed) ROBERT Hericke. 
 
APPENDIX II 
 
 THE DIRGE OF ERIC BLOODAXE 
 
 IT is a far cry from the publication of Hesperides 
 back through the centuries to the old Norse 
 Eiriks-Mal, or Dirge of Eric Bloodaxe^ the 
 earliest of all Valhalla songs. But the dirge 
 is so audacious in conception, and so heroic in spirit, 
 that I cannot refrain from reproducing it here in the 
 metre of Morris's Sigurd. The paganism of Robert 
 Herrick was classic and not Teutonic, but he would, I 
 think, have taken pleasure in this story of the apo- 
 theosis of his far-distant ancestor. The poem in the 
 Hesperides^ entitled The Apparition of his Mistress calling 
 him to Elysiuviy is, after its kind, a treatment of the 
 same theme which is set forth in the following poem. 
 Eric Bloodaxe fell at the battle of Stainmoor, in 
 Westmorland, which was fought about the year 954, 
 and tradition informs us that the dirge was composed 
 at the command of his wife Gunhild. It is most 
 unfortunate that the poem is incomplete. The Old 
 Norse text, with a translation into English prose, and 
 fuller details as to the life of Eric Bloodaxe, will be 
 found in the first volume of Magnusson and Powell's 
 Corpus Poeticum Boreale, pp. 259-261. 
 
 Odin. O say, what of dreams is this ? Methought ere 
 the dawn I arose 
 Valhalla's dwellings to garnish for the warriors 
 slain by their foes. 
 333 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 From sleep I awoke the Champions, I bade them 
 
 stir their limbs, 
 The benches with rushes to scatter, the beer-vats 
 
 to fill to the brims ; 
 Bade the Valkyrie bear the wine, as though a king 
 
 were at hand, 
 Or of chieftains, to gladden my heart, a fair and 
 goodly band. 
 Bragi. What uproar is this that I hear ? 'Tis as if a 
 thousand men. 
 Or some great host of warriors, were moving hither 
 
 again. 
 The boarded walls are creaking, as if to Odin's 
 
 hall 
 Balder himself were returning, of the gods the 
 fairest of all. 
 Odin. Of a truth thou speakest fondly, good Bragi, 
 though thou art wise, 
 'Tis for Eric Bloodaxe it thunders, 'tis he who 
 
 comes to the skies. 
 Sigmund, and thou, Sinfiotli, rise in haste the king 
 
 to greet. 
 Bid him in, if it be Eric, give him welcome to this 
 seat. 
 Sigmund. Why lookest thou more for this Eric than 
 
 for kings of other lands ? 
 Odin. Because over many a kingdom he has borne his 
 
 blood-stained brands. 
 Sigmund. Then why didst thou rob him of victory, 
 if thou thought'st him brave 'gainst all 
 odds? 
 Odin. Because who knows when the Grey Wolf shall 
 
 threaten the seats of the gods. 
 Sigmund {meeting Eric). All hail ! to thee, Eric the 
 kingly, thou art welcome within these wards. 
 334 
 
Appendix 
 
 But what kings are these which follow from the 
 clash of the keen-edged swords ? 
 Eric. Kings are they five in number, I will tell thee all 
 their names, 
 
 And I myself am the sixth. . . . 
 
INDEX 
 
 Act of Uniformity, 148-9 
 Aemilia, 47 
 
 Amery, Mr P. F. S., 105 «. 
 Anacreon, 68, 183, 188, 205, 208 
 
 seg., 217, 221, 222, 246, 326 
 Anatomy of Melancholy i The, 172 
 Anthologia Grace a, 197, 205, 287 
 Apollo Chamber, loi, 116 
 Apologie for Poetrie, Sidney's, 167 
 Apparition of his Mistress calling 
 
 him to Elysium^ The, 209, 260, 
 
 314-5 
 Arber, Professor, 26 
 Argument of his Book, The, 249-50 
 Arte of English Poesie, 163, 278, 
 
 321 
 Ashmole MSS., 73, 313, 316 
 Astrophel and Stella, 165 
 Athenae Oxonienses, 135 
 Autobiography of Sir Simonds 
 
 D'Ewes, 35 seq, 
 Ayres, Philip, 200-1 
 Ayres and Dialogues, 65 
 
 B 
 
 Bad Princes pill the People, 128 
 Bad Season makes the Poet Sad, The, 
 
 68, 129, 132, 216 
 Bag of a Bee, The, 211 
 Bagford Ballads, 195 
 Baldwin, Prudence, 55, lOi, 103, 
 
 116, 151 
 Barnes, Barnabe, 183, 300 
 Barnfield, Richard, 200 
 Bastard, Thomas, 27S 
 Bateson, Thomas, 196 «., 227 
 Beaumanor Park, 7, 23, 34 
 Beaumont, Francis, 123 
 Belleau, Remy, 221-2 
 
 Bennett, Sir John, 7, 18 
 
 Berkeley, Sir John, 132 
 
 Boileau, 276 
 
 Boleyn, Anne, i6 
 
 Bolle, Wilhelm, 161 n., 227 «. 
 
 Book of Airs, Campion's, 185 
 
 Bradshaw, Mrs Katherine, 66 
 
 Brantham, 56, 86 
 
 Bray, Mrs, 105 n. 
 
 Breton, Nicholas, 169, 200, 202, 32S 
 
 Britannia' s Pastorals, 270 
 
 Brome, Richard, 194 
 
 Browne, William, 95, 182, 270 
 
 Buchanan, George, 278 
 
 Buckingham, Duke of, 57, 76, 79, 
 
 81 
 Bullen, Mr A. H., 162 «., 196 ;/.,. 
 
 227 n. 
 Burns, Robert, 164, 236, 328 
 Byrd, William, 160-1, 196, 299 
 
 Cambridge, University of, 32 seq. 
 
 Campion, Anne, 15 
 
 — Thomas, 184, 198, 202, 226, 
 
 238, 280, 284, 300, 321 
 Canticle to Bacchus, A, 210 
 Carew, Thomas, 64, 155, 180, 192, 
 
 I99> 234, 312 
 Carlisle, Countess of, 85, 327 
 Carman's Whistle, The, 160 
 Carols, Christmas, 158 
 Cartwright, William, 62, 144 
 Castara, 182 
 Catullus, 71, 140, 183, 188, 2i2J^^.» 
 
 262, 283, 286, 296, 327 
 Celebration of Char is, A, 188, 208 
 Cephalas, 277 
 
 Ceremonies for Christmas, 224 
 Chambers, E. K., 174 
 Charles I., 65, 87, 128 seq.^ 136 
 
 337 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 Charles II., 132, 140, 147 
 Charms, Herrick's, 224-5, 273-5 
 
 — Old EngHsh, 224 
 Charon and Philomel, 145 
 Chaucer, 255 
 
 Cherry Ripe, 226, 237 
 
 Chrestoleros, 279 
 
 Christian Militant, The, 218, 293, 
 
 322 
 Chronologische Anordnung der 
 
 Dichtungen Her ricks, Die, 1 40 
 Civil War, The, 98, 127 seq. 
 Coleridge, S. T., 179 
 Complimentary Poems, Herrick's, 
 
 293 
 Constable, Henry, 300 
 Content, not Gates, 292 
 Corbett, Dr, 49 
 Corinna, 214 
 Corinnas going a- Mayings 69, 144, 
 
 227, 240, 254, 320 
 Corpus Poeticum Boreale, 4 «. , 5 ^^ 
 Cotton, Charles, 64, 193 
 Country Life, to Endyviion Porter, 
 
 The, 251-3 
 
 — to Thomas Herrick, A, 21, 29- 
 32, 216, 230, 250, 316, 319 
 
 Courthope, Mr W. J., 315 
 
 Cowley, Abraham, 144, 182, 185 
 
 Cox, Captain, 159 
 
 Coxe, Richard, 15, 19 
 
 Crabbe, George, 113 
 
 Crashaw, Richard, 143, 171, 202, 
 
 304 
 Crew, Sir Clipseby, 40, 41, 261, 264 
 Crofts, John, 76 
 Cromwell, Oliver, 132 
 Crooke, Andrew, 124 
 Cruel Maid, The, 205 
 Cynthia's Revels, 189 
 
 D 
 
 Daniel, Samuel, 17, 173, 185 
 Dante, 166 
 
 Dartmoor, 92, 105, 251 
 Davies, John, of Hereford, 279 
 
 — Sir John, 167, 196, 279 
 Dean Burn, 93, 94, 133, 150 
 
 — Court, 96, 114 
 
 — Prior, 89, 92 seq., 1 4 1, 149, 224, 
 240, 254, 273, 291 
 
 of 
 
 Dekker, Thomas, 77, 225, 328 
 Delight in Disorder, 232 
 Delitiae Delitiarum, 281 
 Dell, William, 118-20 
 Denham, Sir John, 64, 145 
 Description of a Woman, 221 
 
 — of the King and Queen 
 Fairies, A, 266-7 
 
 Deuteromelia, 194 
 Devil Tavern, The, 104 
 D'Ewes, Sir Simonds, 35, 42 
 Difference between Kings and Sub- 
 jects, The, 128 
 Dirge of Dorcas, The, 311 
 
 — of Jephthah's Daughter, The, 
 
 311 
 Discontents in Devon, 99, 100 
 Divination by a Daffodil, \TJ, 291 
 Divine and Moral Songs, Campion's, 
 
 301 
 
 — 'Poems, Donne's, 301 
 
 Donne, Dr, 71, 170, 174 seq., 184, 
 188, 195, 228, 241, 262, 279, 
 301 seq. 
 
 Dowland, John, 198 
 
 Downes, Andrew, 34, 42 
 
 Drayton, Michael, 173, 269-70 
 
 Drinking Songs, Herrick's, 245 seq. 
 
 Drummond of Hawthornden, 180, 
 183, 185, 191, 200, 282 • 
 
 Dryden, John, 145 
 
 East, Michael, 195 
 
 Eclogue, or Pastoral between Endy- 
 
 niion Porter and Lycidas Herrick^ 
 
 78 
 Egerton MSS., 313, 3^4 
 Electra, 210 
 Elegy on the Death of Dr Donne, 
 
 180 
 Eiriks-Mal, or Dirge of Eric, 4 
 Elizabeth, Queen, 16, 159 
 Encoujtter, The, 224 
 England's Helicon, 168, 222 
 English Garner, An, 26 
 Epigrammes in the Oldest Gut, 279 
 Epigrams, Herrick's, 275 seq. 
 Epigrams, Roman, Greek, and 
 
 English, 275 seq. 
 Epistle to Sir Robert Wroth, 32, 230 
 
 338 
 
Index 
 
 Epitaph on a Virgin, An, 295 
 
 Epitaphs, Herrick's, 293 seq. 
 
 Epithalamia, Herrick's, 261 seq. 
 
 Epithalamium, Spenser's, 262. 
 
 Epithalayny to Sir Thomas South- 
 well, 262 
 
 Eric Bloodaxe, 4, 333 
 
 Eric Hakonsson, 4-5 
 
 Eric, The Forester, 3 
 
 Ericke, Thomas, 6 
 
 Estienne, Henri, 208 
 
 Eupheme, Jonson's, 185 
 
 Exegi monumentum aere perenniiis, 
 220 
 
 Eyrick, John, 6- 11 
 
 — Mary, 6-12 
 
 — Robert, 5, 49 
 
 — Sir William, 5, 6 
 
 Fairfax, General, 131 
 
 Fairy-Poems, Herrick's, 266 seq. 
 
 Fairy Temple, The, 266, 268, 271 
 
 Fane, Mildmay, Earl of Westmor- 
 land, 58, 76, III, 136, 257 
 
 Farewell Frost, 257-8 
 
 Farewell to Sack^ 117, 245, 247-8, 
 322 
 
 Farnaby, Thomas, 281 
 
 Ferrabosco, A., 198 
 
 Field, Barron, 107-8 
 
 Fitzwilliam Virginal Book, 160 
 
 Fletcher, John, 122, 123, 193, 315 
 
 Fcedera, Rymer's, 88 
 
 Folk-Lore Poems, Herrick's, 272 
 seq. 
 
 Folk-Song, 158 
 
 Forest, The, Jonson's, 187, 191, 228 
 
 Four Prentices of London, The, 24-5 
 
 Freeman, Thomas, 28c 
 
 Fuller, Thomas, 133 
 
 Gamage, William, 280 
 
 Gamble, John, 199 
 
 Gardiner, S. R,, 83, 130 «., 132 «. 
 
 Gibbons, Orlando, 196 
 
 Giles, Sir Edward, 87, 96, 113 
 
 Gipsies Metamorphosed, The, 230 
 
 Gnomic Verses, Herrick's, 291 
 Good Thoughts in Bad Times, 133 
 Golden Age Restored, The, 187 
 Gondibert, 144 
 Gosse, Mr Edmund, 69, 72, 143, 
 
 174, 180, 251 
 Graces for Children, Herrick's, 309 
 Greene, Robert, 34 
 Grosart, Dr, 19, 30, 39, 52, 89, 
 
 138, 140, 314 
 Gwyn, Owen, 34 
 
 H 
 
 Habington, William, 182 
 
 Hagis Astride, The, 224, 272-3, 316 
 
 Hale, Dr E. E., 140 
 
 — John, 193 
 Hall, Joseph, 112 
 Hampton (Middlesex), 15 
 
 — Court, 16-18, 136 
 
 — Court Conference, 17-18 
 Happy Warrior, The, 218 
 Harington, Sir John, 279 
 Harlean MSS., 313 
 Hastings, Lord, 145 
 
 Hazlitt, Mr W. Carew, 79, 267 
 Heath, John, 279 
 Heine, 328 
 
 Hele, Sir Thomas, 112 
 Henrietta Maria, Queen, 69, 128-9, 
 130 
 
 — Princess, 130 
 
 Herbert, George, 103, 181, 202, 
 
 304, 321 
 Herric, Ivo de, 5 
 Herrick ; see also Eric, Ericke, 
 
 Eyrick, Herric 
 
 — Elizabeth, 125-6 
 
 — Julian, 8-15, 56, 86 
 
 — Mary, 7, 17 
 
 — Nicholas (senior), 6-14 
 
 — Nicholas (junior), ii, 14, 22, 86, 
 136 
 
 — Richard, 146-7 
 
 — Robert : ancestry, i seq. ; birth 
 and early years, 1 1 seq. ; at Hamp- 
 ton, 15-19; school, 19-21; ap- 
 prenticeship, 22, 331; first poems, 
 28-32 ; at Cambridge, 32 seq. ; 
 letters from Cambridge, 34 seq.\ 
 college friendships, 39 ; course of 
 
 339 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 Herrick, Robert — contimied. 
 
 study, 41 ; graduation, 52 ; life 
 in London, 55 seq. ; London 
 friends, 60 ; poems of the London 
 period, 63 ; his mistress-poems, 
 ()6 seq.', his patrons, 76-81; mili- 
 tary chaplaincy, 82 ; expedition to 
 the Isle of Rhe, 82 ; character of 
 his London life, 83; vicar of Dean 
 Prior, 87 ; ^x\\.t%His Farewell unto 
 Poetry, 89 ; at Dean Prior, 92 seq. ; 
 his parishioners, 95 ; his attituae 
 towards his life in Devon, 97 seq.:, 
 poems of the Dean Prior period, 
 105 seq. ; posthumous fame at 
 Dean Prior, 107; visit to London, 
 118; first appearance of his poems 
 in print, 122-4 ; return to Dean 
 Prior, 125 ; his royalist sym- 
 pathies, 128; poems on the Civil 
 War, 129 seq. ; ejection from Dean 
 Prior, 133; visits John Weekes, 
 134; in London, 135; publica- 
 tion oi Hesperides, 137; reception 
 of his poems, 142 ; writes The 
 New Charon, 145 ; life under the 
 Commonwealth, 145-7 ; restored 
 to Dean Prior, 149 ; death and 
 burial, 150; the lyrical poems of 
 the Hesperides, 204 seq. ; Herrick's 
 debt to classical authors, 205 seq. ; 
 his classic paganism, 205-8 ; in- 
 debtedness to Anacreon, 208-12 ; 
 to Catullus, 212-5 ; to Horace, 
 215-20; relation to Belleau, 
 221-2; to the Elizabethan lyrists, 
 222 seq. ; relation to Donne, 228 ; 
 to Jonson, 229 seq. ; his love- 
 lyrics, 233-45 ; his drinking- 
 songs, 245-8 ; songs in praise of 
 music, 248 ; his Nature-lyrics 
 and lyrics of country life, 249- 
 61; his epithalamia, 261-4; iiis 
 non-lyrical poems, 265 seq.; fairy- 
 Doems, 266-72; folk-lore poems, 
 272-5; epigrams, 275 seq.; his 
 debt to Martial, 284-6 ; his ^pi- 
 grammes a la grecque, 287-91 ; 
 gnomic verses, 291-3 ; occasional 
 verses and epitaphs, 293-7 > the 
 Noble Numbers, 298 seq. ; his 
 religion, 304 seq. ; Herrick as an 
 artist, 312 seq. ; his diction, 312- 
 
 Herrick, Robert — continued. 
 
 20 ; his verse, 320-6 ; his lyrical 
 range, 326 ; comparison with later 
 lyrists, 327-9 », ; „ .r. 
 
 — Robert (uncle of poet), 6, 14 | { 
 
 — Sir William, 7, 14, 22-7, 33 seq., 
 56, 146 
 
 — Susannah, 61 w. 
 
 — Thomas, ii, 14, 22, 29 
 
 — William, 86, 126, 214, 294 
 Hesperides, passim. 
 Pleywood, John, 278-9 
 
 — Thomas, 24 
 
 His Age: to Mr John Weekes, 84, 
 
 218, 314, 319 
 His Cha7-ge to Jtilia at his Death, 
 
 n 
 
 His Content in the Country, 10 
 
 His Creed, 308 
 
 His Daughter's Dowry, 70,|73 
 
 His Farewell to Poetry, 59, 89, 1 10, 
 298-9, 319 
 
 His Grange, 102, 317 
 
 His Lachrymae, 63, 99, IIO 
 
 His last Request to Julia, 127 
 
 His Mistress Shade, 123 
 
 His own Epitaph, 296 
 
 His Parting from Mistress Dorothy 
 Keneday, 72 
 
 His Poetry his Pillar, 220 
 
 His Request to Julia, 313 
 
 His Return to London, 97, 135 
 
 His Sailing fro?n Julia, 8 1 
 
 His Tears for Thamasis, 20 
 
 His Winding Sheet, 127 
 
 His Wish, 217, 285 
 
 Historical Manuscripts Commission, 
 Report of, 53-4 
 
 History of St John's College, Cam- 
 bridge, 33 n. 
 
 Hock- Cart, or Harvest-Home, The, 
 256-7, 265 
 
 Holy Sonnets, Donne's, 302 
 
 Homer, 253 
 
 Hopton, Lord, 130 
 
 Horace, 30-2, 93, 183, 185, 215 
 seq., 250, 291, 327 
 
 Howell, James, 58. 83 
 
 Hunt, Thomas, 109, 142 
 
 Hutton, Dr I^L, 57 
 
 Hymn to Bacchus, A, 2lo, 246 
 
 — to God, Donne's, 302 
 
 — to Juno, 2S8 
 
 340 
 
Index 
 
 Hymn to Neptune, 288 
 
 — to Sir Clipseby Crewe, A, 41 
 
 — to the Muses, 289 
 Hymns to the Lares, 206, 292 
 
 I 
 
 Ignoramus, 47 
 
 Imelmann, Dr R., 159 n. 
 
 In Nuptias Juliae et Manlii, 262 
 
 In Praise of Wometi, 234 
 
 Indifferent, The, Donne's, 177 
 
 Integer Vitce, Horace's, 185 
 
 J 
 
 James I., 17, 45-8 
 
 Johnson, Dr, 180 
 
 Jones, Robert, 198 
 
 Jonson, Ben, 32, 62-4, no, 11 1-2, 
 123, 155, 183 seq., 196, 204, 206, 
 208, 226, 229 seq., 269, 280 
 
 /onsonus Virbius, 63 
 
 Jovial Tinker, The, 223 
 » Julia, 26, 69, 70, 71, 210, 214, 
 236 
 
 Julia's Churching, 71 
 
 Juvenal, 31 
 
 Keneday, Dorothy, 68 
 King, Dorothy, 107-8 
 Kingston, 21 
 
 Knight oj the Burning Pestle, The, 
 25 
 
 V Allegro, 252 
 
 La Bergerie, Belleau's, 22 1 
 
 La Pleiade, 221 
 
 Laniere, Nicholas, 65, 199 
 
 Laquei Ridiculosi, 280 
 
 Lascaris, Janus, 277 
 
 Laud, Archbishop, 118, 120, 306 
 
 Lawes, Henry, 65, 199 
 
 — William, 65, 199 
 
 Leges Conviviales, 62 
 
 Les Vendangeurs, Belleau's, 221 
 
 Lesbia, Catullus's, 71, 214-5, 217 
 
 Linsi-Woolsie, 280 
 
 Litany, Donne's, 303 
 
 Litany to the Holy Spirit, 107-8, 
 
 150, 305 
 Lok, Henry, 300 
 Love- Lyrics, Herrick's, 233 seq. 
 Love Dislikes Nothing, 235 
 
 — Freed from Folly, 1 86 
 
 — Vagabonding, 283 
 Lovers Alchemy, 175 
 
 — Growth, 175 
 
 — Labour's Lost, 168 
 Lovelace, Richard, 144, 181, 199 
 Lowell, J. R., 212 
 
 Lowman, Bridget, 115 
 Luctus in Morte Passeris, 213 
 Lyly, John, 157, 164 
 Lyrics in the Elizabethan Drama, 
 163 seq., 194 
 
 M 
 
 Mackail, Mr J. W., 277, 288 n. 
 Mad MaicTs Song, The, 144, 226, 
 
 244-5» 317 
 Madrigals, English, 160 seq., 195, 
 
 225 
 Malherbe, 193 
 Map, Walter, 158 
 Markham, Gervase, 300 
 Marlowe, 157, 169, 170, 172, 200, 
 
 202, 241 
 Marshall, William, 141 
 Martial, 31, 232 «., 277, 284 seq. 
 Mary Magdalen^ s Tears, 300 
 Masque of Augurs^ 186 
 
 — of Beauty, 186 
 Masques, Jonson's, 186, 229 
 Meadow Verse, The, 115 
 Metis mata, 194 
 
 Mennes, Sir John, 76, 117, 202 
 Mercury Vindicated, 186 
 Merry Drollery Complete, 223 
 Midsum??ier Night^s Dream, A, 
 
 271 
 Milton, John, 150, 156, 200, 237, 
 
 252 
 Miscellany-lyrics, 162, 168,225 
 Moderation, 128 
 More, Sir Thomas, 278 
 Morley, Henry, 139 
 
 — Thomas, 160-1, 227 
 Mullinger, Mr J. B., 42 n., 43, 
 
 46 n., 47«-> 53 »• 
 Mundy, John, 299 
 
 341 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 Musarum Deliciae, ii6, 201 
 Musica Transalpina, 160 
 
 N 
 
 Nature-Poems, Herrick's, 249 seq. 
 
 New Charon, The, 145 
 
 New Yearns Gift to Sir Simon 
 
 Steward, A, 74. 
 Nice Valour, Fletcher's, 122 
 Nichols, John, i n.,io n., 45«., 60 
 Night-Piece to Julia, The, 230, 239, 
 
 317 
 No Spouse but a Sister, 125 
 Noble Nu77ibers, 298 seq., et passim 
 Non omnis mortar, 220 
 Non-lyrical poems, Herrick's, 265 
 
 seq. 
 Norgate, Edward, 76 
 Northleigh, Henry, 114 
 Nuptial Song ojt Sir Clipsehy Crew, 
 
 264, 313 
 Nymphidia, 270-1 
 
 Obedience in Subjects, 128 
 Oberon^s Chapel, see Fairy Temple, 
 
 The 
 Oberon's Feast, 122 
 Oberon's Palace, 266, 267, 271 
 Observations on the Art of English 
 
 Poesie, Campion's, 184, 284 
 OdeforBenJonson, 62, 63, 324 
 — to Endymion Porter, An, 318 
 Olor Jscamis, 144 
 On a Bee enclosed in Amber, 285 
 On Himself, 125, 296, 297 
 On Virtue, 284 
 Ophelia, 226 
 Orlando di Lasso, 160 
 Otia Sacra, 136 
 Overbury, Sir Thomas, 75. 
 Ovid, 98, 120, 217, 220, 320 
 Owen, John, 280 
 
 Palatine Anthology, The, 281, 
 
 288 «. 
 Pammelia, 194 
 Panegyric to Sir Lewis Pemberton, 
 
 75, 230, 285 
 
 Parliament of Roses to Julia, The^ 
 
 237 
 Parrott, Henry, 279 
 Parry, Sir Hubert, 197 
 
 — Sir George, 112 
 Parsons, Dorothy, 67, 119 
 
 — Thomasin, 118, 119 
 Parthenophil and Parthenope, 183 
 Parting Verse, The, 73, 81 
 Passionate Pilgri?n, The, 168 
 Pastoral Dialogues, Herrick's, 243 
 Pastoral Song to the King, A, 243 
 Pemberton, Sir Lewis, 75 
 Penshurst, Jonson's, 230-1, 285 
 Pepys, Samuel, 144, 147-8 
 
 — Ballads, 223 
 
 Petrarch, 160, 166, 183, 195, 221, 
 226 
 
 Philip, Earl of Pembroke, 76 
 
 Pierrepont, Robert, Viscount New- 
 ark, 76, III, 136 
 
 Pindar, 197 
 
 Planudean Anthology, 277, 281 
 
 Plato, 171, 175 
 
 Playford, John, 65-6, 199 
 
 Plunder, The, 136 
 
 Poems of Devotion, Jonson's, 300 
 
 Poems on Music, Herrick's, 248 seq. 
 
 Poetical Rhapsody, Davison's, 184, 
 201 
 
 Pollard, Mr A. W., 20, 119,275, 
 287, 314 
 
 Porter, Endymion, 58, 76-8, ill, 
 136, 261 
 
 — Thomas, ill 
 
 Portrait de sa Maistresse, Belleau's, 
 
 222 
 Posting to Printing, 121 
 Potter, Amy, 67 
 
 — Dr, 87-8 
 
 Prayer to Ben Jonson, 64 
 Propertius, 217, 220 
 Proteus of Marble, 283 
 Puttenham, George, 163, 278, 294^ 
 
 320 
 Pyggott, Edmund, 15, 19 
 
 Quarles, Francis, 199 
 Quarterly Review, 107, 189 
 Queen Mab, Shakespeare's, 270 
 Quintilian, 41 
 
 342 
 
Index 
 
 I 
 
 R 
 
 Raleigh, Sir Walter, 241, 279 
 Ramsay, Robert, 65 
 Ramus, Peter, 41 
 Randolph, Thomas, 62, 64 
 Ravenscroft, Thomas, 194 
 Rawlinson MSS., 313 
 Eestoration Lyrists, The, 192 
 Rex Tragicus, 307 
 Rhe, Isle of, 58, 70, 81-3 
 Riley, Mr H. T., 54 
 Ritson, Joseph, 268 
 Rock of Rubies, The, 237 
 Rosary, The, 289 
 Rossiter, Philip, 198 
 Rowton Heath, 132 
 Roxburghe Ballads, 195 
 Rubbe and a Great Caste, 280 
 Ruggle, George, 47 
 Rump-Songs, 224 
 
 Saint Distaff's Day, 274 
 Saintsbury, Professor, 201 n. 
 Salmasius, 281 
 Schelling, Professor, 156 
 Scott, Sir Walter, i, 23, 280 
 Scotirge of Folly, The, 279 
 Semple, Lord, of Beltreis, 16-7 
 Seneca, 217, 291 
 Sessions of the Poets, A, 312 n. 
 Severall Poems, The, etc. , 1 24 
 Shakespeare, 31, 72, 123, 164, 173, 
 
 178, 190, 202, 225, 269, 315 
 Shelley, 328 
 
 Short Hymn to Neptune, A, 82 
 Sidney, Sir Philip, 156, 165, 167 
 Silent Woman, The, 190 
 Silex Scintillans, 144 
 Sin, 311 
 
 Smith, James, 201 
 Soame, Anne, 8, 18 
 
 — Sir Stephen, 8 
 
 — Sir Thomas, 60 
 
 — Sir William, 60 
 
 Solemn League and Covenant, The, 
 
 133 
 
 Songs and Sonnets, Donne's, 174 
 
 seq., 191 
 Songs for the Circumcision, 80 
 Sonnet, The Elizabethan, 165, 200-1 
 
 Sonnets, Shakespeare's, 173 
 Southwell, Sir Thomas, 262 
 Spenser, 156, 166, 173, 222,262,264 
 St John's College, Cambridge, 32 
 
 seq. 
 Stanley, Thomas, 144, 199 
 State Papers, Domestic, 87, 118 
 Stationers' Register, The, 122-3, ^24 
 Steps to the Temple, 143, 304 
 Steward, Sir Simon, 74, 122, 267, 
 
 270 
 " Still to be Neat," 190, 232 
 Stuart, Lord Bernard, 132 
 Study of Ben Jonso7t, ^,233 
 Suckling, Sir John, 62, 64, 155, 
 
 181, 234, 312 
 Sufferings of the Clergy, Walker's^ 
 
 134 
 Sun- Rising, The, 178 
 Surrey, Lord, 1551 
 Swinburne, A. C, 157, 233 
 Syms, John, 98, 133, 148 
 
 Tears of the Beloved, 300 
 
 Temple, The, 304 
 
 Thanksgiving to God for His House ^ 
 
 A, 103, 305, 323 
 Theocritus, 205 
 Tibullus, 217, 220 
 Tinkers Song, The, 223, 246 
 To Anthea, 213, 215, 239, 317 
 To Daffodils, 325 
 To Dean Burn, 97 
 To Dr IVeekes, 117 
 To Groves, 258 
 
 To his Book, 74, 137 ;/., 139, 286 
 To his Household Gods, 97 
 'To his Lovely Mistresses, 242 
 To his Maid Prew, 116 
 To his Mistress, 322 
 To his Saviour, 307 
 To his Tombmaker, 120 
 To keep a true Lent, 323 
 To Lar, 99, 207 
 To Live Merrily and trust to Gcod 
 
 Verses, 63, 213, 217, 246 
 To Meadows, 258 
 To Music, 248 
 To Phillis, to love and live with hiin^ 
 
 240, 259 
 
 343 
 
Robert Herrick 
 
 To Primroses filled with Dew, 260, 
 
 325 
 
 To Robin Redbreast, 127, 295 
 
 To Sappho, 290, 292 
 
 To the Earl of Westmorland, 2 16 
 
 To the Genius of his House, 206 
 
 To the King, 137 
 
 To the King and Queen, 129 
 
 To the King upon his Cofning into 
 the West, 130 
 
 To the Reverend Shade of his re- 
 ligious Father, 14, 207-8 
 
 To the Rose, 238 
 
 To the Western Wind, 238 
 
 To the Yew and Cypress, 259 
 
 To Vulcan, 288 
 
 Totnes, 131 
 
 Traherne, Thomas, 202, 304 
 
 Trinity Hall, Cambridge, 48, 49, 
 54 
 
 Twelfth Night, 165 
 
 Two Centuries of Epigrammes , 279 
 
 Two Noble Kinsmen, The, 244 
 
 U 
 
 Underwoods, Jonson's, 140, 191, 
 
 228 
 Upon a Black Twist rounding the 
 
 Arm of the Countess of Carlisle, 
 
 86 
 Upon a Child that died, 295 
 Upon Electra, 289 
 Upon God, 310 
 Upon HijHself, 220 
 Upon his Departure hence, 322 
 Upon Julia washing herself in a 
 
 River, 285 
 Upon the Death of his Sparrow, 
 
 213 
 Upon the Loss of his Mistresses^ 
 
 67, 210 
 Upon the Troublous Times ^ 129 
 
 Vaughan, Henry, 144, 171, 18] 
 202, 304 
 
 View of Devonshire, Westcote's, 
 
 96 
 Virgil, 217, 220 
 Vision, The, 210 
 Vision to Electra, The, 210 
 Vision of the Twelve Goddesses, 
 
 The, 17 
 Visitation of Suffolk, Metcalfe's, 
 
 28 
 Vivanus, mea Lesbia, 185, 188, 213 
 Vow to Mars, A, 83 
 
 W 
 
 Wake, The, 240 
 Wakefield Plays, The, 307 
 Walker, Mr E., 161 
 
 — John, 134 n., 135 
 Waller, Edmund, 62, 199, 238 
 Warmestry, Gervase, 77 
 Weekes, John, 40, 78-9, 84, 112-3, 
 
 117, 123-4, 134 
 Weever, John, 279 
 Welcofue to Sack, 43, 1 17, 245, 247 
 W^endell, Professor, 156 
 Westminster, 20, 118, 121, 135 
 
 — School, 19 
 Wheeler, Elizabeth, 61, 67 
 White Island, The, 309 
 Whitehall, loi 
 
 Wilbye, John, 160, 162 
 
 Wilson, John, 199 
 
 Wingfield, Mercy, nie Herrick, 28, 
 
 86, 146 
 Wither, George, 182 
 Wit's Recreations, 201 
 Wood, Anthony a, 79, 134, 135 
 Worde, Wynkyn de, 159 
 Wordsworth, 218, 253 
 Worthies of Devon, Prince's, 96 
 Wright, Abraham, 281 
 Wyatt, Sir Thomas, 155 
 
 Yarde, Elizabeth, 114 
 — Lettice, 114 
 Yonge, Nicholas, 160 
 
MEMORIES OF SIXTY YEARS AT ETON, 
 
 CAMBRIDGE AND ELSEWHERE. By 
 
 Oscar Browning, M.A., University Lecturer in 
 
 History, Senior Fellow and sometime History 
 
 Tutor at King's College, Cambridge, and formerly 
 
 Assistant Master at Eton College. Illustrated. 
 
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 With upwards of half a century to draw upon, Mr Browning 
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SIMON BOLIVAR, " EL LIBERTADOR." A Life 
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 M.A., Rector of Parracombe, Devon, with 5 full- 
 page Illustrations. Demy 8vo, (9 x 5J inches.) 
 I OS. 6d. net. 
 
 *:^* This account of the life and persecutions of a Country 
 Town Parson during the Stuart Period is drawn from a MS. 
 autobiography and original letters and papers. Blake was one 
 of the moderate men of the period, who clung to his Church and 
 sought to conform, as far as conscience would allow, to the violent 
 changes in religious and social life, forced on men by those in 
 authority for the time, yet against his will was involved in 
 the troubles and per seditions. It gives a picture of religious, 
 family and municipal life in a country town among the middle 
 classes in the Seventeenth Century, and contains much of genea- 
 logical interest. The illustrations are taken from contemporary 
 pictures and monuments. 
 
LADY CHARLOTTE SCHREIBER'S JOURNALS : 
 Confidences of a Collector of Ceramics and Antiques 
 throughout Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, 
 Holland, Belgium, Switzerland and Turkey. From 
 the Year 1869 to 1885. Edited by Montague 
 Guest, with Annotations by Egan Mew. With 
 upwards of 100 Illustrations, including some in 
 colour. Royal 8vo. 2 Vols. 42s. net. 
 
 *#* Mr Montague Guest had long been at work upon these 
 two volumes when his death took place suddenly at Sandnngham 
 last year. The journals from Lady Charlotte Schreiber's own 
 hand describe her many tours from the year 1869 to 1885 in 
 search^ especially, of those examples of English eighteenth-century 
 porcelains which now form so splendid a feature of the Victoria 
 and A Ibert Museum at S. Kensington. In these " notes ceramic,' ' 
 as Lady Charlotte called her diary, she tells of many amusing 
 traf^cs and discoveries ; the prices — wonderfully small, judged 
 by modern standards — the names of dealers ; and addresses of 
 private collectors ; and a thousand other interesting details. 
 As with all of Lady Charlotte's undertakings, she followed the 
 art of collecting with immense vigour and enthusiasm, and neither 
 she nor the late Mr Charles Schreiber spared themselves in their 
 desire to gather together a perfect collection. Like other collectors 
 they often strayed from the strict pursuit of china ware, with 
 the result that hundreds, one might say thousands, of other 
 objects of art fell to their active and accomplished chase, many 
 of which are illustrated in these volumes for the first time. Apart 
 from the interest which this work possesses for the collector of 
 ceramics and antiques, the life of the period and many more 
 historical characters are drawn with a vivid and lively pen. 
 Mr Guest has prepared a short introduction, telling something 
 of his mother's remarkable gifts and character, and experiences, 
 and Mr Egan Mew has added some notes which explain and give 
 an added interest to the text. 
 
 LETTERS AND JOURNALS OF SAMUEL 
 GRIDLEY HOWE: Edited by his Daughter, 
 Laura E. Richards. With Notes by F. B. 
 Sanborn. Demy 8vo. (9 x 5J inches.) 16s. 
 net. 
 
THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE NINETEENTH 
 CENTURY. By Houston Stewart Chamber- 
 lain. A translation from the German by John 
 Lees, M.A., D.Litt. (Edin.). With an Introduction 
 by Lord Redesdale. 2 Vols. Demy 8vo. (9 x 5! 
 inches.) 32s. net. 
 
 *^* This is beyond question one of the most stimulating and 
 important hooks written during the last twenty years. Its 
 phenomenal success in the German original — it has gone through 
 eight large editions in ten years — is a strong testimonial to its 
 merits. To understand the present^ we must, in Mr Chamber- 
 lain's opinion, see it growing out of the past, and so, when seek- 
 ing to reveal the foundations upon which the nineteenth century 
 rests, he has to pass in review the preceding centuries of our era. 
 But the work is not merely a history, or a history of culture : 
 only that past is treated of which is still a living and mould- 
 ing force. With the brilliant comprehensiveness of an artistic 
 mind, Mr Chamberlain shows us what we owe to Hellenic Art 
 and Philosophy, to Roman Law and to the Advent of Christ : 
 this is followed by a striking picture of the Chaos of Peoples 
 in the dying Roman Empire and the Entry of the Jews into the 
 Western History. Mr Chamberlain then proceeds in an in- 
 teresting chapter, entitled Religion, to reveal the historical 
 growth, and to estimate the importance, of our Christian beliefs. 
 The second part of the book is devoted to the period 1200 to 1800, 
 and bears the title, " The Rise of a New World." In seven 
 sections — Discovery, Science, Industry, Economics, Politics and 
 the Church, Philosophy and Religion, Art — he discusses the 
 great movements, ideas and creations that have exercised an 
 influence upon the age in which we live. He has something 
 new to say on such subjects as the Renaissance, the meaning of 
 religion, evolution, the question of race, the importance of nations 
 and the role played by the Teutonic peoples in the history of the 
 world. Mr Chamberlain writes modestly "as a layman to 
 laymen," hut even the most learned must admire his enthusiasm, 
 the extent of his reading, his intellectual grasp of the great facts 
 and forces and the artistic presentation of them. 
 
 THE STARLIT MIRE : Epigrams by James Bertram 
 and Russell Wilkinson. With 10 Drawings by 
 Austin Osman Spare. Small 4to. 7s. 6d. net. 
 
 SELF-LOVE: THE BOOK OF PLEASURE. By 
 Austin O. Spare. A Series of Thirty Plates. 
 Uniform with " A Book of Satyrs." Large Folio. 
 2 IS. net. 
 
 A BOOK OF SATYRS. By Austin Osman Spare. 
 Large Folio. (17-J x 13J inches.) 21s.net. 
 
THE WAR IN WEXFORD. An Account of the 
 Rebellion in the South of Ireland in 1798, told from Original 
 Documents. By H. F. B. Wheeler and A. M. Broadley, 
 Authors of "Napoleon and the Invasion of England." With 
 numerous Reproductions of contemporary Portraits and En- 
 gravings. Demy 8vo. (9 x 5I inches.) 12s.6d.net. 
 *:^* This volume is based on recently discovered documents 
 which throw new light on the terrible Rebellion of 1798 from its 
 inception to the coming of the French and its final suppression. 
 The material at the command of the authors includes the inter- 
 esting and hitherto unpublished correspondence of Arthur, first 
 Earl of Mount Norris ; the Detail book of the Camolin Cavalry, 
 which played an important part in the South of Ireland, where 
 the conflict raged fiercest; and the unpublished Diary of Mrs 
 Brownrigg, who had the misfortune to be at Wexford while the 
 town was in the hands of the rebels. A few extracts from the 
 Diary were printed by Sir Richard Musgrave in his " Memoirs 
 of the different Rebellions in Ireland," and he refers to the writer 
 as " a very amiable and respectable lady," her name being 
 " concealed at her own desire." Mrs Brownrigg went through 
 many heart-rending experiences which are related at length and 
 in grim detail. She was imprisoned for a time on the ship 
 commanded by the notorious Captain Dixon, witnessed the 
 massacre on Wexford Bridge, and was present in the town until 
 it was relieved by Moore's troops, after spending " twenty-six 
 days and nights of the most exquisite misery." The works of 
 contemporary writers and historians have also been utilised and 
 their discrepancies noted, while an attempt is made to arrive at 
 a just verdict in the case of Loyalist v. Rebel. 
 
 AIRSHIPS IN PEACE AND WAR: Being the 
 
 second edition of "Aerial Warfare." By R. P. Hearne, 
 with an Introduction by Sir HiRAM S. Maxim, and upwards 
 of seventy Illustrations. Demy 8vo. (9 x 5I inches. ) 
 7s. 6d. net. 
 *5,t* Great success attended the publication of " Aerial War fare " 
 in England, Germany, the United States and other countries. 
 The book was written at a time when aerial vessels had no im- 
 mediate purpose beyond being employed for warlike require- 
 ments. But so great has been the development during 1909, 
 that it has been thought advisable to widen the scope of the work, 
 and treat of the sporting, commercial and other uses to which 
 aerial vessels can be put in time of peace. The entire book has 
 been thoroughly revised and brought up to date, and a number of 
 new chapters have been added dealing with the commercial 
 uses of airships, etc. There are also full results of the aeroplane 
 races of the year, new tables of records, and bringing out several 
 interesting points in connection with aerial traffic. A chapter 
 is devoted to the details of the principal aeroplanes of the year ; 
 another chapter deals with the recent progress of dirigible 
 balloons, and there is also a table of the airships of the world, 
 together with much other useful information. "Airships in 
 Peace and War " may now be said to cover the whole subject in 
 a novel and interesting manner ; and as it has a full list of re- 
 cords up to November 1909, it is one of the few works which 
 deals fully with the events of this wonderful year. 
 
UNMUSICAL NEW YORK: A Brief Criticism of 
 Triumphs, Failures and Abuses. By Hermann 
 Klein. Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d. net. 
 
 *^* This is a revision and enlargement of the manuscript 
 of a lecture delivered by the author at Bechstein Hall, London, 
 on October 2$th, under the title of " The Truth about Music in 
 America." The original subject matter referred so essentially 
 to New York, rather than the United States as a whole, that it 
 has been thought only fair to modify the title of the book accord- 
 ingly. The question — To what extent can New York really 
 claim to be a musical city — has often been put, but never very 
 definitely answered. Even Mr Klein, who is a musical authority 
 and has lived in the Empire City seven or eight years, may be 
 said to conclude his criticism with a note of interrogation. But 
 at any rate he sets forth the actual state of affairs with a lucidity 
 and candour which it has not hitherto been vouchsafed, and will 
 enable the reader to form a pretty accurate opinion upon this 
 interesting topic. 
 
 WALKS AND PEOPLE IN TUSCANY. By Sir 
 Francis Vane, Bart. With numerous Illustra- 
 tions by Stephen Haweis and S. Garstin 
 Harvey. Crown 8vo. 5s. net. 
 
 *^* This book treats of many walks and cycle rides, practically 
 describing, if not covering, the whole of Tuscany. It has been 
 written with the especial object of setting before the reader not 
 only the characteristics of the landscape, but no less the inhabi- 
 tants of all classes, whom the author eyicountered. Not only, 
 however, does he describe the people and the scenery, but he has 
 placed on record his thoughts about them in a frank and bold 
 manner. The author has also a considerable acquaintance with 
 history, heraldry and genealogy, which prove useful to him in 
 dealing with the social system of Italy in the past and of to-day. 
 The general scheme of the author has been to take the two centres, 
 Florence, the capital, and the summer resort, Bagni di Lucca, 
 and he has made his expeditions from these, consequently cover- 
 ing, with an effective network of raids, the mountains and valleys 
 between. 
 
 STAINED GLASS TOURS IN ENGLAND. By 
 C. H. Sherrill, Author of " Stained Glass Tours 
 in France." With 16 full-page Illustrations and 
 5 Maps. Demy 8vo. (9 x 5f inches.) Second 
 Edition. 7s. 6d. net. 
 
INDIAN BIRDS: Being a Key to the Common 
 Birds of the Plains of India. By Douglas Dewar, 
 Author of " Bombay Ducks," " Birds of the Plains," 
 "The Making of Species" (with Frank Finn). 
 Demy 8vo. (9 x 5I inches.) 6s. net. 
 
 *** The object of this hook is to enable people interested in 
 Indian birds to identify at sight those they are likely to meet 
 with in their compounds and in their excursions into the jungle. 
 The existi7ig works on ornithology make it necessary to have the 
 bird in the hand, which means to kill it before identification, a 
 proceeding obnoxious to real bird lovers. Mr Dewar's volume 
 is a key to everyday birds of the plains of India, a dictionary of 
 birds so arranged that the budding ornithologist is able to turn 
 up any particular bird in a few minutes. 
 
 THE MAKING OF SPECIES. By Douglas Dewar, 
 F.C.S., F.Z.S., B.A. (Cantab.), and Frank Finn, 
 F.Z.S., M.B.O.U., B.A. (Oxon.). With 15 Illustra- 
 tions. Demy 8vo. (9 x 5J inches.) 7s. 6d. net. 
 
 LAKE VICTORIA TO KHARTOUM WITH 
 RIFLE AND CAMERA. By Captain F. A. 
 Dickinson, D.C.L.I. With an Introduction by 
 the Rt. Hon. Winston Spencer Churchill, M.P. 
 With numerous Illustrations taken by the Author. 
 Uniform with " Big Game Shooting in the Equator." 
 Demy 8vo. (9 x 5 J inches.) 12s. 6d. net. 
 
 THE ISLE OF MAN. By Agnes Herbert, Author 
 of " Two Dianas in Somaliland " and " Two Dianas 
 in Alaska " (in collaboration with a Shikari). With 
 32 full-page Illustrations in colour by Donald 
 Maxwell. Demy 8vo. (9 x 5I inches.) los. 6d. 
 net. 
 
 JOHN LANE: THE BODLEY HEAD, VIGO ST.. LONDON, W. 
 
?ipTICE 
 
 Those who possess old letters, documents, corre- 
 spondence, MSS., scraps of autobiography, and 
 also miniatures and portraits, relating to persons 
 and matters historical, literary, political and social ^ 
 should communicate with Mr. John Lane, The 
 Bodley Head, Vigo Street, London, W.^ who will 
 at all times be pleased to give his advice and 
 assistance, either as to their preservation or 
 publication, 
 
 Mr. Lane also undertakes the planning and 
 printing of family papers, histories and pedigrees » 
 
LIVING MASTERS OF MUSIC. 
 
 An Illustrated Series of Monographs dealing with 
 
 Contemporary Musical Life, and including 
 
 Representatives of all Branches of the Art. 
 
 Edited by ROSA NEWMARCH. 
 
 Crown 8vo. Cloth. Price 2/6 net. 
 
 HENRY J. WOOD. By Rosa Newmarch. 
 SIR EDWARD ELGAR. By R. J. Buckley. 
 JOSEPH JOACHIM. By J. A. Fuller 
 
 Maitland. 
 EDWARD A. MACDOWELL. By Lawrence 
 
 Oilman. 
 THEODOR LESCHETIZKY. By Annette 
 
 Hull AH. 
 ALFRED BRUNEAU By Arthur Hervey. 
 GIACOMO PUCCINI. By Wakeling Dry. 
 IGNAZ PADEREWSKI. By E. A. Baughan. 
 CLAUDE DEBUSSY. By Mrs. Franz Liebich. 
 RICHARD STRAUSS. By Ernest Newman. 
 
 STARS OF THE STAGE. 
 
 A Series of Illustrated Biographies of the 
 Leading Actors, Actresses, and Dramatists. 
 
 Edited by J. T. GREIN. 
 
 Crown 8vo. Price 2/6 each net. 
 
 ELLEN TERRY. By Christopher St. John. 
 SIR HERBERT BEERBOHM TREE. By Mrs. 
 
 George Cran. 
 SIR W. S. GILBERT. By Edith A. Browne. 
 SIR CHARLES WYNDHAM. By Florence 
 
 Teignmouth Shore. 
 
A CATALOGUE OF 
 
 MEMOIRS, "BIOGRAPHIES, ETC. 
 
 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WILLIAM 
 
 COBBETT IN ENGLAND AND AMERICA. By Lewis 
 
 Melville. Author of " William Makepeace Thackeray." With 
 two Photogravures and numerous other Illustrations. 2 vols. 
 Demy 8vo. 32s. net. 
 
 THE LETTER-BAG OF LADY ELIZABETH 
 
 SPENCER STANHOPE. By A. M. W. Stirling. Author 
 of «< Coke of Norfolk," and " Annals of a Yorkshire House." 
 With a Colour Plate, 3 in Photogravure, and 27 other 
 Illustrations. 2 vols. Demy 8vo. 32s. net. 
 
 %* Extracts might be multiplied indefinitely, but we have given enough t« 
 show the richness of the mine. We have nothing but praise for the editor's 
 work, and can conscientiously commend this book equally to the student of 
 manners and the lover of lively anecdote."— S/aKt/or-*/. 
 
 MEMOIRS OF THE COURT OF ENGLAND 
 
 IN 1675. By Marie Catherine Comtesse d'Aulnoy. Trans- 
 lated from the original French by Mrs. William Henry Arthur. 
 Edited, Revised, and with Annotations (including an account of 
 Lucy Walter) by George David Gilbert. With Illustrations. 
 Demy 8vo. 21s. net. 
 
 %* When the Comte de Gramont went back to France and Mr. Pepys 
 decided that to save his eyesight it was essential that he should suspend his 
 Diary, the records of delectable gossip of the ever interesting Restoration Court 
 became, of necessity, sadly curtailed. Indeed, of the second decade of the 
 Golden Days the sedate Lvelyn has hitherto been almost the only source of 
 information available to the public. Though the Memoirs of the Countess 
 d'Aulnoy have always been known to students, they have never received the 
 respect they undoubtedly merit, for until Mr. Gilbert, whose hobby is the social 
 history of this period, took the matter in hand, no-one had succeeded in either 
 deciphering the identity of the leading characters of the Memoirs or of verifying 
 the statements made therein. To achieve this has been for some years his labour 
 of love and an unique contribution to Court and Domestic history is the crown ot 
 his labours. The Memoirs, which have only to be known to rank with the 
 sparkling " Comte de Gramont" (which they much resemble), contain amusing 
 anecdotes and vivid portraits of King Charles II., his son the Duke of Monmouth, 
 Prince Rupert, Buckingham, and other ruffling "Hectors" of those romantic 
 days. Among the ladies we notice the Queen, the Duchess of Norfolk and 
 Richmond, and the lively and vivacious Maids of Honour. The new Nell Gwynn 
 matter is of particular interest. The Memoirs are fully illustrated with portraits, 
 not reproduced before, from the collection of the Duke of Portland and others. 
 
 AUSTRIA: HER PEOPLE AND THEIR 
 
 HOMELANDS. By James Baker, F.R.G.S. With 48 Pictures 
 in Colour by Donald Maxvi^ell. Demy 8vo. 21s. net. 
 
 *** The Empire of Austria with its strangely diversified population of many 
 tongues is but little known to English readers. The Capital and a few famous 
 interesting places, such as Carlsbad, Marienbad, the glorious Tyrol, and such 
 cities as Golden Prague and Innsbruck are known to the English and Americans ; 
 but the remarkable scenery of the Upper Elbe, the Ultava or Moldau and the 
 Danube, the interesting peasantry in their brilliant costumes, the wild mountain 
 gorges, are quite outside the ken of the ordinary traveller. The volume is 
 written by one who since 1873 has continually visited various parts of the Empire 
 and has already written much upon Austria and her people. Mr. Baker was 
 lately decorated! by the Emperor Francis Joseph for his literary work and was 
 also voted the Great Silver Medal by the Prague Senate. The volume is 
 illustrated with 48 beautiful water-colour pictures by Mr. Donald Maxwell, the 
 well-known artist of the Graphic^ who has made several journeys to Austria for 
 studies for this volume. 
 
A CATALOGUE OF 
 
 TAPESTRIES : THEIR ORIGIN, HISTORY, 
 
 AND RENAISSANCE. By George Leland Hunter. With 
 four full-page Plates in Colour, and 147 Half-tone Engravings. 
 Square 8vo. Cloth. i6s. net. 
 
 %* This is a fascinating book on a fascinating subject. It is written by a 
 scholar whose passion for accuracy and original researcli did not prevent him 
 from making a story easy to read. It answers the questions people are always 
 asking as to how tapestries differ from paintings, and good tapestries from bad 
 tapestries. It will interest lovers of paintings and rugs and historj' and fiction, 
 for it shows how tapestries compare with paintings in picture interest, with rugs 
 in texture intei'est, and with historic and other novels in romantic interest; 
 presenting on a magnificent scale the stories of the Iliad and the Odyssey, the 
 ^neid and the Metamorphoses, the Bible and the Saints, Ancient and Medieval 
 History and Romance. In a word, the book is indispensable to lovers ol art and 
 literature in general, as well as to tapestry amateurs, owners and dealers. 
 
 FROM STUDIO TO STAGE. By Weedon 
 
 Grossmith. With 32 full-page Illustrations. Demy 8vo. 
 1 6s. net. 
 
 %* Justly famous as a comedian of unique gifts, Mr. Weedon Grossmith is 
 nevertheless an extremely versatile personality, whose interests are by no means 
 confined to the theatre. These qualities have enabled him to write a most 
 entertaining book. He gives an interesting account of his early ambitions and 
 exploits as an artist, which career he abandoned for that of an actor. He goes on 
 to describe some of his most notable roles, and lets us in to little intimate 
 glimpses "behind the scenes," chats pleasantly about all manner of celebrities in 
 the land of Bohemia and out of it, tells many amusing anecdotes, and like a true 
 comedian is not bashful when the laugh is against himself The book is well 
 supplied with interesting illustrations, some of them reproductions of the 
 author's own work. 
 
 FANNY BURNEY AT THE COURT OF 
 
 QUEEN CHARLOTTE. By Constance Hill. Author of 
 " The House in St. Martin Street," " Juniper Hall," etc. With 
 numerous Illustrations by Ellen G. Hill and reproductions of 
 contemporary Portraits, etc. Demy 8vo. i6s.net. 
 
 %* This book deals with the Court life of Fanny Burney covering the years 
 1786-91, and therefore forms a link between the two former works on Fanny 
 Burney by the same writer, viz. "The House in St. Martin Street," and 
 "Juniper Hall." The writer has been fortunate in obtaining much unpublished 
 material from members of the Burney family as well as interesting contemporary 
 portraits and relics. The scene of action in this work is constantly shifting — 
 now at Windsor, now at Kew, now sea-girt at Weymouth, and now in London ; 
 and the figures that pass before our eyes are endowed with a marvellous vitality 
 by the pen of Fanny Bnrney. When the court was at St. James's the Keeper of 
 the Robes had opportunities of visiting her own family in St. Martin Street, and 
 also of meeting at the house of her friend Mrs. Ord "eveiything delectable in the 
 blue way." Thither Horace Walpole would come in all haste from Strawberry 
 Hill for the sole pleasure of spending an evening in her society. After such a 
 meeting Fanny writes — " he was in high spirits, polite, ingenious, entertaining, 
 quaint and original." A striking account of the King's illness in the winter of 
 1788-9 is given, followed by the widespread rejoicings for his recovery ; when 
 London was ablaze with illuminations that extended for many miles around, and 
 when "even the humblest dwelling exhibited its rush-light." The author and the 
 illustrator of this work have visited the various places, where King George and 
 
 8ueen Charlotte stayed when accompanied by Fanny Burney. Among these are 
 xford, Cheltenham, Worce.ster, Weymouth and Dorchester ; where sketches 
 have been made, or old prints discovered, illustrative of those towns in the late 
 i8th century savours of Georgian days. There the national flag may still be seen 
 as it appeared before the union. 
 
 MEMORIES OF SIXTY YEARS AT ETON, 
 
 CAMBRIDGE AND ELSEWHERE. By Oscar Browning. 
 Illustrated. Demy 8vo. 14s. net. 
 
MEMOIRS, BIOGRAPHIES, Etc 5 
 
 THE STORY OF DON JOHN OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 By Padre Luis Coloma, S.J., of the Real Academia Espaiiola. 
 Translated by Lady Morkton. With Illustrations. Demy 8vo. 
 1 6s. net. 
 
 *^^* "A new type ol book, half novel and half history," as it is very aptly 
 called in a discourse delivered on the occasion of Padre Coloma's election to the 
 Academia de Espana, the story of the heroic son of Charles V. is retold by one of 
 Spain's greatest living writers with a vividness and charm all his own. The 
 childhood of Jeromin, afterwards Don John of Austria reads like a mysterious 
 romance. His meteoric career is traced through the remaining chapters of the 
 book ; first as the attractive youth ; the cynosure of all eyes that were bright and 
 gay at the court of Philip II., which Padre Coloma maintains was less austere 
 than is usually supposea ; then as conqueror of the Moors, culminating as the 
 "man from God" who saved Europe from the terrible peril of a Turkish 
 dominion ; triumphs in Tunis ; glimpses of life in the luxury loving Italy of the 
 day; then the sad story of the war in the Netherlands, when our hero, victim 
 of an infamous conspiracy, is left to die of a broken heart ; his end hastened by 
 fever, and, maybe, by the "broth of Doctor Ramirez,' Perhaps more fully than 
 ever before is laid bate the intrigue which led to the cruel death of the secretary, 
 Escovedo, including the dramatic interview between Philip II. and Antonio 
 Perez, in the lumber room of the Escorial. A minute account of the celebrated 
 auto da fe in Valladolid cannot fail to arrest attention, nor will the details of 
 several of the imposing ceremonies of Old Spain be less welcome than those of 
 more intimate festivities in the Madrid of the sixteenth century, or of everyday 
 life in a Spanish castle. 
 
 %* "This book has all the fascination of a vigorous roman a clef . . . the 
 translation is vigorous and idiomatic."— ilfr. Owen Edwards in Morning Post. 
 
 THIRTEEN YEARS OF A BUSY WOMAN'S 
 
 LIFE. By Mrs. Alec Tweedie. With Nineteen Illustrations. 
 Demy 8vo. i6s. net. Third Edition. 
 
 ^*j^ It is a novel idea for an author to give her reasons for taking up her pen 
 as a journalist and v/riter of books. This Mrs. Atec Tweedie has done in 
 "Thirteen Years of a Busy Woman's Li(e." She tells a dramatic story of youthful 
 happiness, health, wealth, and then contrasts that life with the thirteen years of 
 hard work that followed the loss of her husband, her father, and her income in 
 quick succession in a few weeks. Mrs. Alec Tweedie's books of travel and 
 biography are well-known, and have been through many editions, even to shilling 
 copies for the bookstalls. This is hardly an autobiography, the author is too 
 young for that, but it gives romantic, and tragic peeps into the life of a woman 
 reared in luxury, who suddenly found herself obliged to live on a tiny income 
 with two small children, or work — and work hard — to retain something of her old 
 life and interests. It is a remarkable story with many personal sketches of some 
 of the best-known men and women of the day. 
 
 <f% " One of the gayest and sanest surveys of English society we have read 
 for years."— Pa// Mall Gazette. 
 
 .^% "A pleasant laugh from cover to cover." — Daily Chronicle. 
 
 THE ENGLISH AND FRENCH IN THE 
 
 XVIIth century. By Charles Bastide. With Illustrations. 
 Demy 8vo. 12s. 6d. net. 
 
 ^,% The author of this book of essays on the intercourse between England 
 and France in the seventeenth century has gathered much curious and little- 
 known information. How did the travellers proceed from London to Paris? Did 
 the Frenchmen who came over to Englind learn, and did they ever venture 
 to write English? An almost unqualified admiration for everything French then 
 prevailed : French tailors, milliners, cooks, even fortune-tellers, as well as writers 
 and actresses, reigned supreme. How far did gallomania affect the relations 
 between the two countries ? Among the foreigners who settled in England none 
 exercised such varied influence as the Hu^enots ; students of Shakespeare and 
 Milton can no longer ignore the Hugenot friends of the two poets, historians of 
 the Commonwealth must take into account the "Nouvelles ordinaires de 
 Londres."' the French gazette, issued on the Puritan side, by some enterprising 
 refugee. Is it then possible to determine how deeply the refugees impressed 
 English thought? Such are the main questions to which the book affords an 
 answer. With its numerous hitherto unpublished documents and illustrations, 
 drawn from contemporary soui ces. it cannot fail to interest those to whom a most 
 brilliant and romantic period in English history must necessarily appeal. 
 
A CATALOGUE OF 
 
 THE VAN EYCKS AND THEIR ART. By 
 
 W. H. James Weale, with the co-operation of Maurice 
 Brockwell. With numerous Illustrations. Demy 8vo. 
 
 125. 6d. net. 
 
 ^^*^ The large book on "Hubert and John Van Kyck" which Mr. Weale 
 published in i^ through Mr. John Lane was instantly recognised by the 
 reviewers and critics as an achievement of quite exceptional importance. It is 
 now felt that the time has come for a revised and slightly abridged edition of that 
 which was issued four years ago at ;^5 5s. net. The text has been compressed in 
 some places and extended in others, while certain emendations have been made, 
 and after due reflection, the plan of the book has been materially recast. This 
 renders it of greater assistance to the student. 
 
 The large amount of research work and methodical preparation of a revised 
 text obliged Mr. Weale, through failing health and eyesight, to avail himself of 
 the services of Mr. Brockwell, and Mr. Weale gives it as his opinion in the new 
 Foreword that he doubts whether he could have found a more able collaborator 
 than Mr. Brockwell to edit this volume. 
 
 "The Van Eycks and their Art," so far from being a mere reprint at a popular 
 price of '* Hubert and John Van Eyck," contains several new features, notable 
 among which are the inclusion of an Appendix giving details of all the sales at 
 public auction in any country from i66a to 1912 of pictures reputed to be by the 
 Van Eycks. An entirely new and ample Index has been compiled, while the 
 bibliography, which extends over many pages, and the various component parts 
 of the book have been brought abreast of the most recent criticism. Detailed 
 arguments are given for the first time of a picture attributed to one of the brothers 
 Van Eyck in a private collection in Russia. 
 
 In conclusion it must be pointed out that Mr. Weale has, with characteristic 
 care, read through the proofs and passed the whole book for press 
 
 The use of a smaller /orwa/ and of thinner paper renders the present edition 
 easier to handle as a book of reference. 
 
 COKE OF NORFOLK AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 The Life of Thomas Coke, First Earl of Leicester and of 
 Holkham. By A. M. W. Stirling. New Edition, revised, 
 with some additions. With 19 Illustrations. In one volume. 
 Demy 8vo. 12s. 6d. net. 
 
 THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE. By Joseph 
 
 Turquan. Author of "The Love Affairs of Napoleon," 
 "The Wife of General Bonaparte." Illustrated. Demy 8vo. 
 I2S. 6d. net. 
 
 ^.% "The Empress Josephine" continues and completes the graphically 
 drawn life story begun in " The Wife of General Bonaparte" by the same author, 
 takes us through the brilliant period of the Empire, shows us the gradual 
 development and the execution ot the Emperor's plan to divorce his middle-aged 
 wife, paints in vivid colours the picture of Josephine's existence after her divorce, 
 tells us how she, although now nothing but his friend, still met him occasionally 
 «nd corresponded frequently with him, and how she passed her time in the midst 
 of her minature court. This work enables us to realise the very genuine 
 affection which Napoleon possessed for his first wife, an affection which lasted 
 till death closed her eyes in her lonely hermitage at La Malmaison, and until he 
 went to expiate at Saint Helena his rashness in braving all Europe. Compar- 
 atively little is known of the period covering Josephine s life after her divorce, 
 ancTyet M. Turquan has found much to tell us that is very interesting; for fhe 
 ex- Empress in her two retreats, Navarre and La Malmaison, was visited by many 
 celebrated people, and after the Emperor's downfall was so ill-judged as to 
 welcome and fete several of the vanquished hero's late friends, now his declared 
 enemies. The story of her last illness and death forms one of the most interesting 
 chapters in this most complete work upon Ihe first Empress of the French. 
 
 NAPOLEON IN CARICATURE : 1 795-1 821. By 
 
 A. M. Broadley. With an Introductory Essay on Pictorial Satire 
 as a Factor in Napoleonic History, by J. Holland Rose, Litt. D. 
 (Cantab.). With 24 full-page Illustrations in Colour and upwards 
 of 200 in Black and White from rare and unique originals. 
 2 Vols. Demy 8vo. 42s. net. 
 
 Also an Edition de Luxe. 10 guineas net. 
 
MEMOIRS, BIOGRAPHIES, Etc. 7 
 
 NAPOLEON'S LAST CAMPAIGN IN GER- 
 MANY. By F. LoRAiNE Petre. Author of "Napoleon's 
 Campaign in Poland," " Napoleon's Conquest of Prussia," etc. 
 With 17 Maps and Plans. Demy 8vo. 12s. 6d. net. 
 
 »% In the author's two first histories of Napoleon's campaigns (1806 and 1807) 
 the Emperor is at his greatest as a soldier. The third (1809) showed the 
 commencement of the decay of his genius. Now, in 1813, he has seriously declined. 
 The military judgment of Napoleon, the general, is constantly fettered by the 
 pride and ODStinacy of Napoleon, the Emperor. The military principles which 
 guided him up to 1807 are frequently abandoned ; he aims at secondary objectives, 
 or mere geographical points, instead of solely at the destruction of^the enemy's 
 army ; he hesitates and fails to grasp the true situation in a way that was never 
 known in his earlier campaigns. Yet frequently, as at Bautsen and Dresden, his 
 genius shines with all its old brilliance. 
 
 The campaign of 1813 exhibits the breakdown of his over-centralised system 
 of command, which lelt him without subordinates capable of exercising semi- 
 independent command over portions of armies which had now grown to dimensions 
 approaching those of our own day. 
 
 The autumn campaign is a notable example of the system of interior lines, as 
 opposed to that of strategical envelopment. It marks, too, the real downfall ot 
 Napoleon's power, for, after the fearful destruction of 1813, the desperate struggle 
 of 1814, glorious though it was, could never have any real probability of success. 
 
 FOOTPRINTS OF FAMOUS AMERICANS IN 
 
 PARIS. By John Joseph Conway, M.A. With 32 Full-page 
 Illustrations. With an Introduction by Mrs. John Lane. 
 Demy 8vo. 12s. 6d. net. 
 
 ^f*^^ Franklin, Jefferson, Munroe, Tom Paine, La Fayette, Paul Jones, etc., 
 etc., the most striking figures of a heroic age, working out in the City of Light 
 the great questions for which they stood, are dealt with here. Longlellow the 
 poet of the domestic affections ; matchless Margaret Fuller who wrote so well ol 
 women in the nineteenth century ; Whistler master of American artists ; Saint- 
 Gaudens chief of American sculptors ; Rumford, most picturesque of scientific 
 knight-errants and several others get a chapter each for their lives and 
 achievements in Paris. A new and absorbing interest is opened up to visitors. 
 Their trip to Versailles becomes more pleasurable when they realise what 
 Franklyn did at that brilliant court. The Place de la Bastille becomes a sacred 
 place to Americans realizing that the principles of the young republic brought 
 about the destruction of the vilest old dungeon in the world. The Seine becomes 
 silvery to the American conjuring up that bright summer morning when Robert 
 Fulton started from the Place de la Concorde in the first steamboat. The Louvre 
 takes on a new attraction from the knowledge that it houses the busts of 
 Washington and Franklyn and La Fayette by Houdon. The Luxembourg becomes 
 a greater temple of art to him who knows that it holds Whistler's famous portrait 
 of his mother. Even the weather-beaten bookstalls by the banks of the Seine 
 become beautiful because Hawthorne and his son loitered among them on sunny 
 days sixty years ago. The book has a strong literary flavour. Its history is 
 enlivened with anecdote. It is profusely illustrated. 
 
 MEMORIES OF JAMES McNEILL 
 
 WHISTLER : The Artist. By Thomas R. Way. Author of 
 " The Lithographs of J. M. Whistler," etc. With numerous 
 Illustrations. Demy 4 to. los. 6d. net. 
 
 %* This volume contains about forty illustrations, including an unpublished 
 etching drawn by Whistler and bitten in by Sir Frank Short, A.K..A., an original 
 lithograph sketch, seven lithographs in colour drawn by the Author upon brown 
 paper, and many in black and white. The remainder are facsimiles by photo- 
 lithography. In most cases the originals are drawings and sketches by Whistler 
 which have never been published before, and are closely connected with the 
 matter of the book. The text deals with the Author's memories of nearly twenty 
 year's close association with Whistler, and he endeavours to treat only with the 
 man as an artist, and perhaps, especiallj' as a lithographer. 
 
 *Also an Edition de Luxe on hand-made paper, with the etching 
 printed from the original plate. Limited to 50 copies. 
 *This is Out of Print with the Publisher. 
 
A CATALOGUE OF 
 
 HISTORY OF THE PHILHARMONIC SO- 
 CIETY : A Record of a Hundred Years' Work in the Cause of 
 Music. Compiled by Myles Birket Foster, F.R.A.M., etc. 
 With 1 6 Illustrations. Demy 8vo. los. 6d. net. 
 
 %*As the Philharmonic Society, whose Centenary is now being celebrated, is 
 and has ever been connected, during its long existence, with the history of 
 musical composition and production, not only in this country, but upon the 
 Continent, and as every great name in Europe and America in the last hundred 
 years (within the realm of high-class music), has been associated with it, this 
 volume will, it is believed, prove to be an unique work, not only as a book of 
 reference, but also as a record of the deepest interest to all lovers of good 
 music. It is divided into ten Decades, with a small narrative account of the 
 principal happenings in each, to which are added the full programmes of every 
 concert, and tables showing, at a glance, the number and nationality of the per- 
 formers and composers, with other particulars of interest. The book is made of 
 additional value by means of rare illustrations of MS. works specially composed 
 for the Society, and of letters from Wagner, Berlioz, Brahms, Liszt, etc., etc., 
 written to the Directors and, by their permission, reproduced for the first time, 
 
 IN PORTUGAL. By Aubrey F. G. Bell. 
 
 Author of " The Magic of Spain." Demy 8vo. 7s. 6d. net. 
 
 ^f% The guide-books give full details of the marvellous convents, gorgeous 
 palaces, and solemn temples of Portugal, and no attempt is here made to write 
 complete descriptions of them, the very name of some of them being omitted. 
 But the guide-books too often treat Portugal as a continuation, almost as a province 
 of Spain. It is hoped that this little book may give some idea of the individual 
 character of the country, of the quaintnesses of its cities, and of peasant life in 
 its remoter districts. While the utterly opposed characters of the two peoples 
 must probably render the divorce between Spain and Portugal eternal, and reduce 
 hopes of union to the idle dreams of politicians. Portugal in itself contains an 
 infinite variety. Each of the eight provinces (more especially those of the 
 alcmtejanos, niinhotos and beiroes) preserves many peculiarities of language, 
 customs, and dress ; and each will, in return for hardships endured, give to the 
 traveller many a day of delight and interest. 
 
 A TRAGEDY IN STONE, AND OTHER 
 
 PAPERS. By Lord Redesdale, G.C.V.O., K.C.C., et^,. 
 Demy 8vo. 7s. 6d. net. 
 
 ^% " From the author of ' Tales of Old Japan ' his readers always hope for 
 more about Japan, and in this volume they will find it. The earlier papers, 
 however, are not to be passed over." — Times. 
 
 4f% "Lo'-d Redesdale's present volume consists of scholarly essays on a 
 variety of subjects of historic, literary and artistic appeal."— S/awrfarc^. 
 
 jf% "The author of the classic 'Tales of Old Japan' is assured of welcome, 
 and the more so when he returns to the field in which his literary reputation was 
 made. Charm is never absent from his pages."— Dai/y Chronicle. 
 
 MY LIFE IN PRISON. By Donald Lowrie. 
 
 Crown 8vo. 6s. net. 
 
 ^% This book is absolutely true and vital. Within its pages passes the 
 mynorama of prison life. And within its pages may be found revelations of the 
 divine and the undivine ; of strange humility and stranger arrogance ; of free 
 men brutalized and caged men humanized; of big and little tragedies; of love, 
 cunning, hate, despair, hope. There is humour, too though sometimes the jest is 
 made ironic by its sequel. And there is romance — the romance of the real ; not the 
 romance of Itipling's g.15, but the romance of No. 19,093, and of all the other 
 numbers that made up the arithmetical hell of San Quentin prison. 
 
 Few novels could so absorb interest. It is human utterly. That is the reason. 
 Not only is the very atmosphere of the prison preserved, from the colossal sense 
 of encagement and defencelessness, to the smaller jealousies, exultations and 
 disappointments ; not only is there a succession of characters emerging into the 
 clearest individuality and ^.enuineness, — each with its distinctive contribution 
 and separate value ; but beyond the details and through all the contrasted 
 variety, there is the spell of complete drama,— the drama of life. Here is the 
 underworld in continuous moving pictures, with the overworld watching. True, 
 the stage is a prison; but is not all the world a stage ? 
 
 It is a book that should exercise a profound influence on the lives of the 
 caged, and on the whole attitude of society toward the problems of poverty and 
 criminality. 
 
MEMOIRS, BIOGRAPHIES, Etc. 9 
 
 AN IRISH BEAUTY OF THE REGENCY : By 
 
 Mrs. Warrenne Blake. Author of " Memoirs of a Vanished 
 Generation, i8 13-1855." With a Photogravure Frontispiece and 
 other Illustrations. Demy 8vo. i6s. net. 
 
 %*The Irish Beauty is the Hon. Mrs. Calvert, daughter of Viscount Pery, 
 Speaker of the Irish House of Commons, and wife of Nicholson Calvert, M.P., of 
 Hunsdon. Born in 1767, Mrs. Calvert lived to the aee of ninety-two, and there 
 are many people still living who remember her. in the delightiul journals, now 
 for the first time published, exciting events are described. 
 
 THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE NINETEENTH 
 
 CENTURY. By Stewart Houston Chamberlain. A Translation 
 from the German by John Lees. With an Introduction by 
 Lord Redesdale. Demy 8vo. 2 vols. 25s. net. Second 
 Edition. 
 
 *^* A man who can write such a really beautiful and solemn appreciation of 
 true Christianity, of true acceptance of Christ's teachings and personality, as 
 Mr. Chamberlain has done. . . . represents an influence to be reckoned with 
 and seriously to be taken into account.' —Theodore Roosevelt m the Outlook, New 
 Yotk. 
 
 *:n* ■' It is a masterpiece of really scientific history. It does not make con- 
 fusion, it clears it away. He is a great generalizer of thought, as distinguished 
 from the crowd of mere specialists. It is certain to stir up thought. Whoever 
 has not read it will be rather out ol it in political and sociological discussions for 
 some time to come." — George Bernard Shaw in Fabian Nezvs. 
 
 %* "This is unquestionably one of the rare books that really matter. His 
 judgments of men and things are deeply and indisputably sincere and are based 
 on immense reading . . . But even many well-informed people . . . will be 
 grateful to Lord Redesdale for the biographical details which he gives them in the 
 valuable and illuminating introduction contributed by him to this English 
 translation." — Tttnes. 
 
 THE SPEAKERS OF THE HOUSE OF 
 
 COMMONS from the Earliest Times to the Present Day, with 
 a Topographical Account of Westminster at Various Epochs, 
 Brief Notes on Sittings of Parliament and a Retrospect of 
 the principal Constitutional Changes during Seven Centuries. By 
 Arthur Irwin Dasent, Author of "The Life and Letters of John 
 Delane," "The History of St. James's Square," etc., etc. With 
 numerous Portraits, including two in Photogravure and one in 
 Colour. Demy 8vo. 21s. net. 
 
 ROMANTIC TRIALS OF THREE CENTU- 
 
 RIES. By Hugh Childers With numerous Illustrations. 
 Demy 8vo. 12s. 6d. net. 
 
 %* This volume deals with some famous trials, occurring between the years 
 1650 and 1850, All of them possess some exceptional interest, or introduce 
 historical personages in a fascinating style, peculiarly likely to attract attention. 
 
 The book is written for the general reading public, though in many respects 
 it should be of value to lawyers, who will be especially interested in the trials of 
 the great William Penn and Elizabeth Canning. The latter case is one of the 
 most enthralling interest. 
 
 Twenty-two years later the same kind of excitement was aroused over 
 Elizabeth Chudleigh, alias Duchess of Kingston, who attracted more attention in 
 1776 than the war of American independence. 
 
 Then the history of the fluent Dr. Dodd, a curiously pathetic one, is related, 
 and the inconsistencies of his character very clearly brought out; perhaps now he 
 may have a little more sympathy than he has usually received. Several im- 
 portant letters of his appear here for the first time in print. 
 
 Among other important trials discussed we find the libel action against 
 Disraeli and the story of the Lyons Mail. Our knowledge of the latter is chiefly 
 gathered from the London stage, but there is in it a far greater historical interest 
 than would be suspected by those who have only seen the much altered story 
 enacted before them. 
 
lo A CATALOGUE OF 
 
 THE OLD GARDENS OF ITALY— HOW TO 
 
 VISIT THEM. By Mrs. Aubrey Le Blond. With loo 
 Illustrations from her own Photographs. Crown 8vo. 5 s. net. 
 
 %* Hitherto all books on the old gardens of Italy have been large, costly, and 
 incomplete, and designed for the library rather than for the traveller. Mrs. 
 Aubrey Le Blond, during the course of a series of visits to all parts ot Italy, has 
 compiled a volume that garden lovers can carry with them, enabling them to 
 decide which gardens are worth visiting, where they are situated, how they may 
 be reached, it special permission to see them is required, and how this may be 
 obtained. Though the book is practical and technical, the artistic element is 
 supplied by the illustrations, one at least of which is given lor each of the 71 
 gardens described. Mrs. Aubrey Le Blond was the illustrator of the monumental 
 work by H. Inigo Triggs on "The Art of Garden Design in Italy," and has since 
 taken three special journeys to that country to collect material for her *' The Old 
 Gardens of Italy." 
 
 The illustrations have been beautifully reproduced by a new process which 
 enables them to be printed on a rough lignt paper, instead of the highly glazed 
 and weighty paper necessitated by half-tone blocks. Thus not only are the 
 illustrations delightful to look at, but the book is a pleasure to handle instead of 
 a dead weight. 
 
 DOWN THE MACKENZIE AND UP THE 
 
 YUKON. By E. Stewart. With 30 Illustrations and a Map. 
 Crown 8vo. 5s. net. 
 
 %* Mr. Stewart was former Inspector of Forestry to the Government of 
 Canada, and the experience he thus gained, supplemented by a really remarkable 
 journey, will prove of great value to those who are interested in the commercial 
 growth of Canada. The latter portion ol his book deals with the various peoples, 
 animals, industries, etc., of tne Dominion; while the story of the journey he 
 accomplished provides excellent reading in Part I, Some of the difficulties he 
 encountered appeared insurmountable, and a description of his perilous voyage 
 in a native canoe with Indians is quite haunting. There are many interesting 
 illustrations of the places of which he writes. 
 
 AMERICAN SOCIALISM OF THE PRESENT 
 
 DAY. By Jessie Wallace Hughan. With an Introduction 
 by John Spargo. Crown 8vo. 5s. net. 
 
 %* All who are interested in the multitudinous political problems brought 
 about by the changing conditions of the present day should read this book, 
 irrespective of personal bias. The applications of Socialism throughout the 
 world are so many and varied that the book is of peculiar importance to 
 English Socialists. 
 
 THE STRUGGLE FOR BREAD. By "A 
 
 Rifleman " Crown 8vo. 5s. net. 
 
 *** This book is a reply to Mr. Norman Angell's vrell-known workj^ "The 
 Great Illusion" and also an enquiry into the present economic state of Europe. 
 The author, examining the phenomenon of the high food-prices at present rnling 
 in all great civilized states, proves by statistics that these are caused by a 
 relative decline in the production of food-stuffs as compared with the increase in 
 general commerce ana the production ot manufactured-articles, and that con- 
 sequently there has ensued a rise in the exchange-values ot manufactured-articles, 
 which with our system of society can have no other effect than of producing high 
 food-prices and low wages. The author proves, moreover, that this is no tem- 
 porary fluctuation of prices, but the inevitable outcome of an economic movement, 
 which whilst seen at its fullest development during the last few years has been 
 slowly germinating for the last quarter-century. Therefore, food-prices must 
 continue to rise whilst wages must continue to fall. 
 
 THE LAND OF TECK & ITS SURROUNDINGS. 
 
 By Rev. S. Baring-Gould. With numerous Illustrations (includ- 
 ing several in Colour) reproduced from unique originals. Demy 
 8vo. I OS. 6d. net. 
 
MEMOIRS, BIOGRAPHIES, Etc. ii 
 GATES OF THE DOLOMITES. By L. Marion 
 
 Davidson. With 32 Illustrations from Photographs and a Map. 
 Crown Hvo. Second Edition. 5s. net. 
 
 Whilst many English books have appeared on the Lande Tirol, few have 
 
 lore than a chapter on the fascinating Dolomite Land, and it is in the hope 
 
 of helping other travellers to explore the mountain land with less trouble and 
 
 inconvenience than tell to her lot that the author has penned these attractive 
 pages. The object of this book is not to inform the traveller how to scale the 
 apparently inaccessible peaks of the Dolomites, but rather how to find the roads, 
 and thread the valleys, which lead him to the recesses of this most lovely part of 
 the world's face, and Miss Davidson conveys just the knowledge which is wanted 
 for this purpose; especially will her map be appreciated by those who wish to 
 make their own plans for a tour, as it shows at a glance the geography of the 
 country. 
 
 KNOWLEDGE AND LIFE. By William 
 
 Arkwright. Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d. net. 
 
 *^* This is a remarkably written book— brilliant and vital. Mr. Arkwright 
 illumines a number of subjects with jewelled flashes of word harmony and chisels 
 them all with the keen edge of his wit. Art, Letters, and Religion of different 
 appeals move before the reader in vari-coloured array, like the dazzling phan- 
 tasmagoria of some Eastern dream. 
 
 CHANGING RUSSIA. A Tramp along the Black 
 
 Sea Shore and in the Urals. By Stephen Graham. Author of 
 " Undiscovered Russia," " A Vagabond in the Caucasus," etc. 
 With Illustrations and a Map. Demy 8vo. 7s. 6d. net. 
 
 %* In " Changing Russia," Mr. Stephen Graham describes a journey from 
 Rostof-on-the-Don to Batum and a summer spent on the Ural Mountains. The 
 
 author has traversed all the region which is to be developed by the new railway 
 It is a tramping diary with notes and reflections. 
 The book deals more with the commercial life of Russia than with that of the 
 
 from Novo-rossisk to Poti. It is a tramping 
 he book deals more with the commercial lii 
 jasantry, and there are chapters on the Russia of the hour, the Russian town, 
 
 peasantry, and tnere are chapters on tne Kussia oi the hour, the Kussian town, 
 life among the gold miners of the Urals, the bourgeois, Russian journalism, the 
 intelligentsia, tne election of the fourth Duma. An account is given of Russia at 
 the seaside, and each of the watering places of the Black Sea shore is 
 described in detail. 
 
 ROBERT FULTON ENGINEER AND ARTIST : 
 
 HIS LIFE AND WORK. By H. W. Dickinson, A.M.I.Mech.E. 
 Demy 8vo. los 6d. net. 
 
 *^* No Biography dealing as a whole with the life-work ol the celebrated 
 Robert Fulton has appeared of late years, in spite of the fact that the introduction 
 of steam navigation on a commercial scale, which was his greatest achievement 
 has recently celebrated its centenary. 
 
 The author has been instrumental in bringing to light a mass of documentary 
 matter relative to Fulton, aud has thus been able to present the facts about him in 
 an entirely new light . The interesting but little known episode of his career as 
 an artist is for the first time fully dealt wfth. His sfay in France and his 
 experiments under the Directory and the Empire with the submarine and with 
 the steamboat are elucidated with the aid r.f documents preserved in the Archives 
 Nationaies at Paris. His subsequent withdra»val from France and his 
 employment by the British Cabinet to destroy the Boulogne flotilla that Napoleon 
 had prepared in 1804 to invade England are gone into fully. The latter part of his 
 career in the United States, spent in the introduction of steam navigation and in 
 the construction of the first steam-propelled warship, is of the greatest interest. 
 With the lapse of time facts assume naturally their true perspective. Fulton, 
 instead of being represented, according to the English point of view, as a 
 charlatan and even as a traitor, or from the Americans as a universal genius, is 
 cleared from these charges, and his pretensions critically examined, with the 
 result that he appears as a cosmopolitan, an earnest student, a painstaking 
 experimenter and an enterprising engineer. 
 
 It is believed that practically nothing of moment in Fulton's career has been 
 omitted. The illustrations, which are numerous, are drawn in nearly every case 
 from the original sources. It may confidently be expected, therefore, that this 
 book will take its place as the authoritative biography which everyone interested 
 in the subjects enumerated above will require to possess. 
 
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