POEMS OF LORD HERBERT, THE POEMS OF LORD HERBERT OF CHERBURY EDITED WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY JOHN CHURTON COLLINS LONDON CHATTO AND WINDUS, PICCADILLY 1881 ^f%/£ LONDON : PRINTED BY STRANGEWAYS AND SONS, TOWER STREET, UPPER ST. martin's LANK, W.C. 93^../, I INSCRIBE THIS LITTLE VOLUME TO MY FRIEND WILLIAM BAPTISTE SCOONES, AN IMPERFECT EXPRESSION OF ESTEEM AND AFFECTION. PREFACE. TX7HETHER the Poems, which are here for the firft time prefented in a modern drefs, be of intrinfic value the reader will Joon determine for him/elf. I have at leaf brought Herbert before the Court ; and I have, I hope, Jecured him a fair hearing. Henceforth he will not be condemned un- heard. With regard to the text, I have adhered with fcrupulous fidelity to that of the original edition ; and I have collated the only two copies to which I could obtain accefs — the copy in the Britifo Mufeum, and the copy in the Bodleian Library at Oxford — with- out, however, difcovering any variety of readings. My principal difficulty has been with the pun^uation, on which, of courfe, the Jenfe of pajfages frequently depends ; and for this I have often had no guidance vlli Preface, from the original^ which teems with palpable errors. 'The JpelUng has aljo been carefully revifed^ and though it has been for the mofi part modernifed, I have thought it well to retain, in fome cafes, the older forms, fo as to preferve the flavour of archaifm. Obvious mifprints have been filently corretied. In two paffages only I have ventured to alter the text, and they both occur in ' The Idea! In the feventh line the original reads ^ bear^ which, as it makes no fenfe, and breaks the rhyme, I alter into ' bar! Again, in the laft line, ' whence ' is fubfiituted for ' when! And for this reafon. Herbert is alluding to the Platonic do^rine of ideas, and it is much more natural to fuppofe that he would /peak of an idea whence the form began than of an idea when the form began. Though he is miftaken in Juppoftng that the Platonic ideas admit of application to par- ticular individuals, he was evidently acquainted with the ' Timaus ' and with the ' Republic! J. CHURTON COLLINS. 5 Kin^s Bench Walk, Temple. C O N T E N T S. I NTROD LECTION ..... ORIGINAL TITLE ..... ORIGINAL PREFACE .... TO HIS WATCH WHEN HE COULD NOT SLEEP DITTY A DESCRIPTION TO HER FACE TO HER BODY TO HE?v MIND UPON COMBING HER HAIR DITTY IN IMITATION OF THE SPANISH ENTRE TANTOQUE EL'AVRIL .... THE STATE PROGRESS OF ILL SATYRA SECUNDA OF TRAVELLETvS FROM PARIS ' I MUST DEPAR.T, BUT LIKE TO HIS LAST BREATH MADRIGAL . , ANOTHER b PACE XV XXXV xxxvii I 3 6 7 8 TO 12 20 24 25 2/ Contents. TO HIS FRIEND BEN JOHNSON, OF HIS HORACE MADE ENGLISH ...... EPITAPH C^CIL BOULFER QU^ POST LANGUESCEN TEM MORBUM NON SINE INQUIETUDINE SPIRITUS b'c, CONSCIENil^ OBIIT . EPITAPH GULI. HERBERT DE SWANSEY QUI SINE PROLE OBIIT, AUG. 1609 IN A GLASS WINDOW FOR INCONSTANCY ELEGY FOR THE PRINCE EPITAPH OF KING JAMES . . . A VISION. A LADY COMBING HER HAIR TEARS FLOW NO MORE .... DITTY TO THE TUNE OF ' A CHE EL QUANTO MIO OF PESARINO .... DITTY EPITAPH OF A STINKING POET A DITTY TO THE TUNE OF ' COSE FERITE,' MADE BY LORENZO ALLEGRE TO ONE SLEEPING [To be Jung) EPITAPH ON SIR EDWARD SACKVILLe's CHILD, WHO DIED IN HIS BIRTH KISSING ...... DITTY ELEGY OVER A TOMB .... Contents, XI EPITAPH ON SIR FRANCIS VERE TO MRS. DIANA CECYLL TO HER EYES TO HER HAIR SONNET OF BLACK BEAUTY . ANOTHER SONNET TO BLACK IT SELF THE FIRST MEETING A MERRY RIME, SENT TO THE LADY WROTH UPON MY L. OF Pembroke's child, born in the spring THE THOUGHT ....... TO A LADY WHO DID SING EXCELLENTLY MELANDER, SUPPOSED TO LOVE SUSAN, BUT DID LOVE ANN . ECHO TO A ROCK ....... ECHO IN A CHURCH ...... TO HIS MISTRESS FOR HER TRUE PICTURE EPITAPH ON SIR PHILIP SIDNEY, LYING IN ST. PAUL's WITHOUT A MONUMENT, TO BE FASTENED UPON THE CHURCH DOOR EPITAPH FOR HIMSELF SONNET TO THE C. OF D. . DITTY ELEGY FOR DOCTOR DUNN 51 52 54 56 58 59 60 64 65 67 69 70 72 74 80 81 82 83 84 86 xii Contents. PAGE THE BROWN BEAUTY QO AN ODE UPON A QUESTION MOVED WHETHER LOVE SHOULD CONTINUE FOR EVER . . . .92 THE GREEN-SICKNESS BEAUTY . . . .99 THE GREEN-SICKNESS BEAUTY . . . .101 LA GRALLETTA GALLANTE ; OR, THE SUN-BURN'd EXOTIQUE BEAUTY 102 PLATONICK LOVE IO4 PLATONICK LOVE . . . . . . . I06 THE IDEA MADE OF ALNWICK IN HIS EXPEDITION TO SCOTLAND WITH THE ARMY, 1639 . . IO9 PLATONICK LOVE . . . . . . . II4 A MEDITATION UPON HIS WAX- CANDLE BURNING OUT I 1 9 OCTOBER 14, 1664 .... . . 122 IN STATU AM LIGNEAM OVERBURII . . . I 24 DE C. DE S. EPITAPHIUM IN ANAGRAMMA NOMINIS SUI RED- DOR UT HERB.^ EPITAPH. IN SE ROM.^ FACTUM 1615 IN TUMULUM DOMINI FRANCISCI VERE IN DIEM NATALITIUM, VIZ. 3 MAR. FOR A DYAL .... . 125 . 125 . 126 . 127 . 127 IN ANSWER TO THE VERSES OF GUIET FOR THE PUCELLE d'oRLEANS, QUASI EXTEMPORE . . I28 124 Contents. xiii PAG£ IN ANSWER TO TILENUS WHEN I HAD THAT FATAL DEFLUXION IN MY HAND . , . . 1 29 DE HUGONE GROTIO, ARCA INCLUSO ET A CARCERE LIEERATO . . . . . . .129 PRO LALTREATO POETA ...... I30 AD SERENISS. REGEM GUSTAVUM, A.D. 163I . . I32 EURYALE MCERENS 1 34 MENSA LUSORIA ; OR, A SHOVEL-BOARD TABLE TO MR. MASTER . . . . . . -135 CHARISSIMO, DOCTISSIMO JUCUNDISSIMOqUE JUX- TIM AMICO THOMtE MASTER . . . . I36 INTRODUCTION. T ORD HERBERT of Cherbury Is one of the mod "^-^ interefling, and in many refpe6ls one of the moft eflentially original chara6lers, in our Literary Hi (lory. At once a philofopher and a politician, a man of the world and a man of letters, it was his lot to flourifh at a crifis of no ordinary importance in philofophy, in politics, in literature. His youth was pafTed in the world of Hooker, Sydney, and Spenfer. Before he died Hobbes had written the Elementa Philofophica de Give, Barclay had publifhed his Jrgcnisy and Butler was colIe6ling materials for Hudibras. He was a child of eight when Elizabeth addrelTed the foldiers at Tilbury Fort, and he lived to fee Charles the Firft betrayed by the Scots to the Englifh Commiffioners. He was the friend of Donne and Ben Jonfon ; he was the correfpondent of Grotius and Gaflendi. He thus ftood midway between two great eras, moving in both. In temper he belonged to the era of the Renaiflance, in intellect he belonged to the era of Des Cartes and Hobbes. His own fervices to literature xvi Introduction. were important. His De Ver'itate^ if it did not do much for the advancement of metaphyfical philofophy, was the work of a fearlefs, vigorous, and independent thinker ; a work v/hich exercifed cdnfiderable influence on the pro- grefs of Free Enquiry, and was the firft attempt made, in this country at leaft, to reduce Deifm to a fyftem. His Life and Reign of Henry VIII. is an admirable piece of hiftorical compofition. His Expeditlo Buckinghami Duels in Ream Infulam is the beft account we have of that unh.ippy adventure ; and his Autobiography is, if ever autobiography was, a treafure tor all time. Thus interefting by his furroundings, thus important in himfelf, we are the more attracted towards him becaufe of the fulnefs with which we are acquainted with the incidents of his perfonal hiftory. We know him as we know no other man of that age. Never fince Jerome Cardan laid bare for the world's infpecStion the innermoft fecrets of his being, never fince Cellini told the ftory of his ftrange viciffitudes, never fmce Montaigne took Europe into his confidence, had fuch a record as Herbert has left us been committed to paper. Whether he in- tended his fmgular confeflions for publication may well be doubted. He tells us himfelf that they were written for the inftru61:ion of his ^efcendents, and to enable him to review his pafl: career, that he might reform what was amifs if fuch reformation were poffible, that IntrodiiBion, xvii he might comfort himfelf with the memory of what- ever virtuous actions he might have done, and that he might make his peace with God. In the courfe of this review he not only narrates the adventures which he had encountered on his way through life, but he enters into minute particulars relating to his writings and fpeculations — his druggies with his palTions, his ftruggles with his reafon : he gives us his opinions on education, on the conduft of life, on religion. And he is to all appear- ance unreferved. His frailties are not concealed, and they are many ; but we feel that he has, on the whole, gained rather than loft by a fcrutiny which few, indeed, of our erring race could court with impunity. Nor is this all. It is the portrait of a man with features eminently ftriking and peculiar, whofe ways were never the ways of common men, whofe thoughts were not the thoughts either of his predeceiTors or contemporaries. Nothing, therefore, which Herbert has left us can be without im- portance ; for, whatever be its intrinfic value, it is the product of an original mind developing itfelf under ex- ceptionally interefting hiftorical conditions. The world has long done juftice to his profe writings. It is the obje6l of the prefent volume to vindicate his title to a place among Englifh poets. I have certainly no wifh to be numbered among thofe gentlemen whofe in- difcriminating induftry coatinues year after year to load xviii IntroduBion, our libraries with treafures better hidden. I have no wifh to rob ObHvion of its legitimate prey. Some of Lord Herbert's poems are, I freely admit, not worth refufcitation, but many of them, or portions at leafl of many of them, feem to me authentic poetry. In almoft all of them we find originality and vigour, however fantaftic the con- ception, however rough the execution. But were their merits even lefs than they are, no cultivated man could regard them with indifference. The name of their writer would be a fufEcient paffport to indulgent attention. We treafure the verfes of the authors of the Nico7nachcsan Ethics, and of the Novwrn Organon^ though Ariftotle has no claim to a place among the Pleiad, or Bacon to a place befide Jonfon or Donne. In my eftimate of Lord Herbert's poems I have hitherto ftood alone. His biographers and critics are unanimous in ignoring or condemning them. Antony Wood paffes them by without comment. Horace Walpole merely mentions them in his Catalogue of Herbert's Works. Neither Grainger nor the author of the life in the Biographic Univerfelle have anything to fay for them. Park, in a note on Walpole's Life of Herbert, coldly fpeaks of * Lord Herbert's fcarce volume of metaphyseal love verfes, ingenious but unnatural, platonic in fentiment, but frequently grofs in expreflion, and marked by an eccentricity which pervaded the life and chara6fer of their IntroduBion, xix author;' and thefe remarks have been greedily copied into fucceffive editions of bibliographic manuals, reprints, and the like. Ellis, in his Specimens of EngUJh Poetry^ is ftill lefs favourable in his verdift, boldly obferving that young Herbert *fhov^ed more piety than tafte in publifhing his father's poems.' The author of an article on the Auto- biography in the Retrofpe£iive Review contents himfelf v^^ith remarking that Lord Herbert is often * both rugged and obfcure in his verfes,' and ' was much more fitted to wield the fword than the lyre.' They have no place in the SeleSiions of Headley. Even Campbell, who can find a niche for Heminge and Picke, has no corner for Herbert. M. Charles de Remufat, in his interefting and valuable treatife. Lord Herbert of Cherbury^ fa Vie et fes GEuvres^ exprefles fimilar opinions : ' Ses poefies anglaies, publiees par fon fecond fils, font d'un genre moins ferieux ' — (he has been fpeaking, and fpeaking de- preciatingly, of Herbert's Latin poems) — ' Quelques unes font ingenieufes, la plufpart obfcures ; I'amour en eft le fujet ordinaire, un amour platonique, exprime cependant avec plus de recherche que delicatefle.' It is curious that they fhould have efcaped the notice of SirEgerton Brydges, who has not, fo far as I can difcover, made any allufion to them. And this is the more remarkable, as he was particularly interefted in the hiftory of the Herbert family, and was the firft editor of the poems of William Herbert, XX Introdu5lion. third Earl of Pembroke. When he obferved in the pre- face to his reprint of the Earl's poems that 'to fufFer them to lie longer in oblivion would be to defraud an illuftrious family of its greateft ornaments,' he made a remark which would be far more applicable to the prefent volume. Whatever opinion may be formed of Lord Herbert's merits as a poet, there can be no queftion as to his fuperiority to his kinfman. It is ftrange that in his Autobiography Lord Herbert makes no mention of his Poems, the exiftence of which feems not to have been fufpedled by any of his diftinguifhed contemporaries. They were evidently jotted down in moments of leifure, as occafion offered. Some of them were the work of his youth, fome of his middle age ; the laft was written four years before his death. This we gather from the dates prefixed to many of them, the earlieft date being Auguft 1608, the lateft Oftober 1664. The biographers affure us that many of thefe poems had appeared in print during Herbert's life- time, and are to be found in the poetical colle6lions of the period. For thefe colle6lions I have fearched in vain. I doubt, I muft own, the truth of the ftatement, and fufpecSt that it has been loofely copied, without any attempt to ascertain its correcStnefs, from Antony Wood ; and I am the more inclined to believe this becaufe they have faithfully repeated one grofs blunder of Wood's — a blunder which IntroduBion, xxi would at once have been rectified by confulting the work to which Wood refers. It is this, and it is fignificant : In the third volume of his Jtherne Oxonienfes (edition Blifs, p. 242) Wood fays : ' Other of Lord Herbert's poems I have feen in the books of other authors occa- fionally written, particularly in that of Jofhua Sylvefter, entitled Lacrymce Lacrymarum, 16 13.' This aflertion is repeated by Walpole, by Sir Walter Scott in the Pre- fatory Memoir to Lord Herbert's Autobiography^ pub- lifhed at Edinburgh in 1809, by the editor of Murray's reprint of the L'lfe^ and by all the bibliographers. Now there is not a line of Lord Herbert's to be found in Sylvefter's work. What Wood was thinking of was no doubt the Elegy for the Prince (fee Poems, page 33), which certainly was publifhed during Herbert's lifetime, but which appeared, not in Sylvefter's Lacryma Lacry- marum, but in a colle6lion entitled Sundry Funeral Elegies on the Untimely Death of the Moji Excellent Prince Henry, compofed by feveral hands, 16 13. However this may be, the poems made their appearance in a colleiled form in 1665, nearly feventeen years after Herbert's death ; and were, as we learn from the Preface, given to the world by Henry Herbert, his youngeft fon. Of thefe poems there appears to have been only one edition. The volume is now extremely rare ; indeed, it is one of the rareft known to bibliographers. xxii IntroduBion, The reader will at once difcoverthat Herbert belongs, like his brother, to that fchool of poets whofe charadler- iftics have been fo admirably analyfed by Johnfon — the Metaphyfical or Phantaftic School. This fingular fecR: firft appeared during the latter years of Elizabeth's reign. Their origin is popularly afcribed to Dr. Donne, though it would in truth be more corre61: to fay that in the poetry of Donne their peculiarities of fentiment and ex- preffion are moft confpicuoufly illuftrated. They owed their origin, indeed, not to the influence of Donne, but to the fpirit of the age. In all eras of great creative energy poetry pafTes neceflarily through two ftages : in the firft ftage, imagination predominates ; in the fecond, refle6lion. In the firft ftage, men feel more than they think ; in the fecond, they think more than they feel. If a literature run its natural courfe, we may predi61: with abfolute certainty that mere rhetoric will ufurp the place of the eloquent language of the paffions, that fancy will be fubftituted for imagination, and that there will ceafe to be any neceflary correfpondence between the emotions and the intelleft. This ftage was not completely attained till the age of Cowley. In the poetry of Donne we find the tranfition between the two ftages marked with fin- gular precifion. Some of his poems remind us of the richeft and freftieft work of the Elizabethan age ; in many of them he out-Cowleys Cowley himfelf. But his IntroduBion, xxiii work was not the work, in any fenfe, of a creator. He contributed no new elements, either to thought or to di£lion. What he did was to unite the vicious pecu- liarities of others, to indulge habitually in what they indulged in only occafionally. He was not, for example, the firft to fubftitute philofophical reflecSlion for poetic feeling, as his contemporaries, Samuel Daniel, Sir John Davies, and Fulke Greville, were fimultaneouily engaged in doing the fame thing. He was not the iirft to indulge in abufe of wit, in fanciful fpeculations, in extravagant imagery, or in grotefque eccentricities of expreffion. But, in addition to uniting thefe vices, he carried them further than any of his predecefTors or contemporaries had done, and, aided by the fpirit of the age, he fucceeded in making them popular. It would not, perhaps, be faying too much to fay that no fmgle author contributed more to the founda- tion of the Metaphyseal School than Jofhua Sylveller, whofe tranflation of Du Bartas preceded the ' meta- physeal ' poems of Donne, and was probably as favourite a work with Donne as it certainly was with moft of the young poets of that age. The ftyle of Donne is, how- ever, marked by certain diftinftive peculiarities which no intelligent critic would be likely to miftake, and his in- fluence on contemporary poetry v^^as unqueftionably con- fiderable. Lord Herbert appears to have been the earlieft of his difciples. Indeed, moft of the poems in Herbert's xxlv Introdu5iion, collejftion in which the influence of Donne is moft per- ceptible, had been written, as the dates fhow, long before the poems of Donne were given to the world. But he was, we know, perfonally acquainted with Donne, and Donne, like many of the poets of that age, was in the habit of circulating copies of his poems among private friends.* His acquaintance with his mafter commenced, no doubt, while he was ftill a ftudent at Univerfity College ; for we learn from Walton's Life of George Herbert that when Mrs. Herbert was living with her fon Edward at Oxford Donne arrived there on a vifit, and became, during her refidence at Oxford, one of her moft valued friends and advifers. His beautiful poem entitled the Autwrnnal was written in honour of Mrs. Herbert. As Herbert was then a youth of eighteen, and Donne a man of upwards of forty, it is not unreafonable to fuppofe that Donne affifted both in moulding the youth's taftes and in direftino; his ftudies. Where Plerbert moft reminds us of Donne is not * Dr. Grofart, in his laborious and inftru6live account of Donne and his writings, tells us that feveral of Donne's defcrip- tive and fatirical poems were in circulation among friends cer- tainly before 1614, and that fome of his lyrics were in, circula- tion before 161 3. (See his remarks on his edition of Donne, vol. ii., EJJa^ on the Life and Writings of Donne, pp. xxxi. and xxxii.) InfroduBion, xxv (o much in his lyrics as in his poems written in the heroic meafures ; in the two fatires, for example, in the verfes 'To his Miftrefs for her True PicSlure,' in the elegy on Donne himfelf. The poem alfo entitled ' The Idea ' is very much in his friend's vein, as well as written in a meafure which Donne perhaps invented, and which was certainly a favourite with him. The numerous poems dedicated to the praife of dark beauty were perhaps fuggefted by Donne's verfes To a Lady of Dark Com- plexion. In the two poems on Platonic Love we may alfo difcern the prefence of the mafter. It would, of courfe, be abfurd to aflert that the lyric poetry of Donne had no influence on that of Herbert, but its influence was far lefs confiderable than it would at firft fight appear to be. Herbert's rhythm is his own. Where it is mufical its mufic is not the mufic of the older poet, where its note is harfh and diflTonant it is no echo of the difcords of that unequal and moft capricious finger. Many of Donne's favourite meafures he has not employed ; fome of his own meafures, the meafures in which he has been moft fuccefsful, have no prototype in Donne's poems. What he owes in lyric poetry to the leader of the Metaphyfical School is to be found, fo far as form is concerned, rather in what Donne fuggefted than in v/hat he diredly taught. In fpirit he owed, it muft be allowed, much. From I^onne he learned to fport with extravagant fancies, to xxvi IntroduBion, fubftitute the language of the fchools for the language of the heart, to think like the author of the Enneads and to write like the author of Euphues. He has, how- ever, had the good tafte to avoid the grolTer faults of his mafter. He never indulges in prepofterous abfurdities ; he never, if we except one couplet, clothes myfticifm in motley. Herbert's poems are of too mifcellaneous a chara(^er to be exadly clailified. They may be roughly divided into Sonnets, Elegies, Epitaphs, Satires, Mifcellaneous Lyrics, and Occafional Pieces. However unequal thefe com- pofitions may be in point of execution, there are two things which the reader of Herbert may, in the more ambitious poems at leaft, generally promife himfelf — ori- ginality and vigour. The Sonnets need not detain us long. The one ' To his Watch ' (page i ) is well exprelTed. The ftyle is in happy unifon with the fentiment, and the final claufe is folemn and imprellive. The laft verfe of the fonnet ' To her Face ' (page 6), * Sure Adam fmn'd not in that fpotlefs face,' though fomewhat obfcure, is a really fine line. In the fonnet written near Merlou Caftle (page 12), the couplet defcribing the groves on the banks of the ftream, * Embroidering through each glade An airy filver and a funny gold,' Introdii5iion. xxvii prove that Herbert had the eye of a poet. The moft ftrlkingof them is the addrefs 'To Black Itfelf ' (page 59), which is particularly interefting, becaufe it contains the germ of part at leaft of the idea which was afterwards fo magnificently embodied by Blanco White in his famous fonnet. White was moft likely immediately indebted to Sir Thomas Browne, but Browne was no doubt well acquainted with Herbert and his writings. With regard to his Elegies — I am not, of courfe, including among them the lyric elegy on page 49 — I fhall perhaps confult his fame beft by paffing them by without comment. Two or three verfes in the ' Elegy on the Prince ' will no doubt pleafe and ftrike, but there praife muft end, even from an editor. Of the Epitaphs, the moft original is the ' Epitaph upon Himfelf ' (page 8 1), the moft grotefque that on Cecilia Boulfer (page 29), the moft eloquent and pleafing that on William Herbert of Swanfey (page 31). The two fatires are of very unequal rnerit. The fecond, page 20, would difgrace Taylor the Water Poet. The firft, ' The State Progrefs of 111,' though intolerably harfti and barbarous in ftyle, contains fome interefting remarks. Of the Occafional Pieces, thofe which moft nearly re- fembled the poems of which \nq have been fpeakiijg are the verfes entitled ' To her Mind ' (page 8), and ' To his Miftrefs for her True Picture' (page 74), both being in the heroic couplet, and both being in the fame contemplative XXV iii IntroduBlon, vein. To thofe who are fond of tracing refemblances between the works of men of genius who are feparated by many years from each other, it will be interefting to obferve how clofely Herbert fometimes reminds us of Mr. Browning. In the verfes, for example, ' To her Mind,' there is a pafTage which might excufably be miftaken for the work of the great philofophical poet of our day : — * Thus ends my Love, but this doth grieve me moll That fo it ends ; but that ends too ; this yet, Befide the wilhes, hopes and time I loll. Troubles my mind awhile, that I am fet Free, worfe than deny'd : I can neither boall Choice nor fuccefs, as my cafe is, nor get Pardon from myfelf, that I loved not A better millrefs, or her worfe. This debt Only 's her due. Hill that Ihe be forgot Ere chang'd, left I love none ; this done, the taint Of foul inconftancy is cleared at leaft In me ; there only refts but to unpaint Her form in my mind, that fo difpolTelT'd, It be a temple, but without a faint.' — the fame elliptical mode of expreffion, the fame intermixture of fentiment and logic, the fame curious refinements of fpeculative meditation. The verfes ' To his Miftrefs for her True Pi6lure ' will not find, and they certainly do not deferve, many admirers. It may be IntroduBion, xxix queftioned whether Platonifm has ever clothed itfelf in fuch grotefque language as in the laft couplet of this ftrange poem : * Hear from my body's prifon this my call. Who from my mouth-grate and eye-window bawl.' The lyric pieces are of very unequal merit. But in making out a cafe for Herbert my bufmefs is only with his beft work ; and if we judge him by his beft work, he is certainly entitled to no mean place among the lyrifts of the Metaphyfical School, His mufic is, it muft be owned, full of difcords — his verfes will fometimes not even fcan, and yet he poflefled not only a fine ear for rhythmic effect, but his rhythm is of great compafs and variety. Occafionally his verfe has a weight, a fullnefs and dignity, not unworthy of Dryden ; for example, two ftanzas like thefe (pages lo and ii) : * Nay, thou art greater, too ! More deftiny Depends on thee than on her influence. No hair thy fatal hand doth now difpenfe But to fome one a thread of life muft be. * But ftay ! methinks new beauties do arife While fhe withdraws thefe glories which were fpread. Wonder of Beauties ! fet thy radiant head. And ftrike out Day from thy yet fairer eyes.* XXX Introdu5iion. Nor can we refufe the gift of lyric melody to the writer of a ftanza like this : — ' Then think each minute that you lofe a day. The longeft youth is fhort. The fhorteft age is long : Time flies away. And makes us but his fport. And that which is not Youth's is Age's prey.' Or to the writer of fuch poems as we find on page 56, and on page 46. But Herbert's greateft metrical triumph is that he was the firft to difcover the harmony of that ftanza with which the moft celebrated poet of our own day has familiarifed us. The glory of having invented it belongs indeed to another, but the glory of having pafied it almoft perfe6l into Mr. Tennyfon's hands belongs unqueftion- ably to Herbert. And it is due alfo to Herbert to fay that he not only revealed its fweetnefs and beauty, but that he anticipated fome of its moft exquifite effe6ls and variations. Take, for example, the following ftanza^ where the paufe occurs at the end of the fecond line : — * For where affeflion once is fhown. No longer can the World beguile ; Who fees his penance all the while He holds a torch to make her known,' — Z)///y, page 42. Introdu6iion. xxxi Or thefe lines, where the paufe is made at the end of the fir ft line : — * Elfe fhould our fouls in vain ele6l. And vainer yet were Heaven's laws When to an everlafting caufe They give a perifhing eiFe6l.' — Page 96. Or again : — * Nay, I proteft ; though Death with his Worft counfel lliould divide us here ;' — Page 94. where the paufe occurs at the end of the fourth fyllable. An analytical examination of the metre of In Memoriam will fhow that on alternations and interchanges of thofe paufes the poet has not only relied for varying his har- mony, but for producing fome of his moft pleafmg efFe6ls. Indeed, in Herbert's two poems we find anticipated the exa6l cadence, the exa6l note of the modern poet. I queftion, for example, whether the niceft ear could dis- tinguifh lines like thefe from the Laureate's : — * Were not our fouls immortal made, Our equal loves can make them fuch.' * As one another's myftery. Each Ihall be both, yet both but one.* ' Who fees his penance all the while He holds a torch to make her known.* Other points of refemblance, into which there is no xxxii Introdudiion, neceflity for entering here, can fcarcely fail to fuggeft themfelves to thoughtful readers. It is curious that we fliould be able to point — and to point, I venture to think, without at all ftraining analogy — to two poems of this forgotten poet which recall fo exactly the work of the author of In Memoriam and the work of the author of Sordello. If the circumftance prove little elfe, it proves at leaft the verfatility of Herbert's powers. The beft of Herbert's lyrics is the poem of which we have juft been fpeaking — the 'Ode upon a Queftion moved whether Love fhould Continue for Ever.' It is a little prolix, and it is occafionally obfcure ; but the fineft flanzas in it are exquifitely beautiful. Next would come, in the eftimation of many perhaps, the verfes ' Upon combing her Hair ' (page lo), which are fmgularly vigorous and pi6lurefque. We feel, however, that their founding rhetoric is fomewhat out of place — the ftyle is too elevated for the theme, a common fault with poets of the fecond order. Among other lyrics of a ferious caft the ' Elegy over a Tomb ' (page 49) and the verfes ' To her Hair ' Cpage 56) deferve mention. Of the lighter lyrics the ' Ditty in Imitation of the Spanifh ' will probably be read with much pleafure. The Platonic Love poems, though not without intereft and even merit, cannot be faid to hold a very high rank among poems of the clafs to which they belong. With one exception — the ode on page 92, IntroduBion, xxxili to which I have already referred — they are little calculated either to pleafe or to ftrike. They have all the frigidity and pedantic ingenuity of Petrarch and Bembo w^ithout thofe beauties of expreffion which ftill attra6t us in the Sonnetti and Canzoni. ' The Idea ' is, however, well worth attentive perufal. Rarely have the doctrines of pure Platonifm been more fkilfully applied, rarely have philofophy and fentiment been more ingenioufly blended. Herbert's moft confpicuous defeats, both in thefe and in his other poems, are want of iinifh and exceilive obfcurity. He feldom does juftice to his conceptions. He had evidently no love for the labour of the file, and he has paid, like Donne and Fulke Greville, the juft penalty for his careleflhefs. The Latin poems of Herbert are fcarcely likely to find favour in the eyes of modern fcholars. Their dic- tion is, as a rule, involved and obfcure ; they teem with forced and unclaffical expreffions. His hendecafyllabics are intolerably harfli, and violate almoft every metrical canon. His Elegiacs are not more fuccefsfulj indeed, the only tolerable copy among the poemata are the verfes on a Dial, for the epigrams are below contempt. In his hexameters he fucceeds better. The ' Menfa Luforia^ is ingenious and not inelegant, and the ^ Pro Laureate Poeta,' though unnecefTarily obfcure, is, like the epiftle to Guftavus, extremely fpirited. But even at his beft he xxxiv Introdudiion. cannot for an inftant be compared v/ith his contem- poraries, Owen, Milton, Cowley, or May, who wrote Latin, nor indeed with the purity of the poets of the Italian Renaiflance, but with wonderful fluency and vigour. Befide the Latin poems appearing in this volume, Herbert was the author of three others, entitled refpec- tively * Hsredibus ac Nepotibus fuis Praecepta,' which is in elegiacs, ' De Vita Humana Philofophica Difquifitio,' and ' De Vita Coelefli ex ejufdem principiis Conje(Slura,' which are in hexameters. They are to be found among certain tra6ls appended to the De Caufis Errorum^ printed in 1645.* The two laft appear alfo in the Autobiography^ and they are by far the beft. But as thefe poems are not likely to intereft readers in our day, and pofTefs little or no value in themfelves, we have refrained from adding them, even by way of appendix, to the prefent volume. * The exa6l title of the volume is, De Caujis Errorum, una cum tra6latu De Religione Laid et Appendice ad Saccrdotes^ necnon quibufdam poematibus. Londini, 1 645 ( Walpole fays, erroneoufly, .647). OCCASIONAL VERSES OF EDWARD LORD HERBERT BARON OF CHERBURY and CASTLE-ISLAND. Deceafed in Auguji 1648. LONDON: Printed by T. R. for THOMAS DRING, At The George in Fleet Street, near Clifford's Inn. 1665. Right Hon. Edward Lord Herbert, Baron of Cherbery in England and Castle Island in Ireland. My Lord, This CoUe5fion of Jome of the fcattered Copes of Verjes, compofed in various and perplexed times, by Edward Lord Herbert, your late Grand- father, belongs of double right to your Lordfhip, as Heir and Executor ; and had it been in his power to have bequeathed his Learning by Will, as his Library and Perfonal Eftate, it may be prejumed he would have given it to you as the beft Legacy. But Learning being not of our Gift, though of our Acquifttion, nor of the Parapharnalia of a Lady's Chamber, nor of the cajual and fortunate Goods of the World.^ it mufi be acknowledged of a tranfcendency beyond natural things. xxxviii Preface to Original Edition, and a beam of the Divinity, For by the Powers of Knowledge Men are not only difiinguifhed from Men, hut carried above the reach of ordinary Perjons, to give Reajons even of their Belief — not that men believe becauje they know, but know becauje they believe. Faith muft -precede Knowledge ; and yet men are not bound to accept matters of Religion^ though Religion be the object and employment of faith, not of reafoning merely without Reafon and probable Inducements, That the learned Centuries are paft, and Learning in declenfion, is too great a truth, which may in- troduce Atheifme with Ignorance ; for as Ignorance is the Mother of Devotion amongfi the Papifis, Jo 'tis the Mother of Atheifme amongfi the Ignorant, The great and mofi dangerous defign of our Church and National Enemies y is to make us out of Love with Learning, as a Mechanick thing and beneath the Spirits of the Nobility and of Princes : whereas nothing improves and enlightens the under- standings of great Perjons but Learning, and not only ennobles them far above their birth, but enables them to impoj'e on others, and to give rather than take advice. The Learned,^ Generous, and Vertuous Perfon needs no Preface to Original Edition, xxxix Anceftors, And what can Jo properly he calVd ours as what is of our purchaje ? 'Gentiles agunt fub nomine Chrifliano' was an old Reproach upon the Primitive Chriftians ; and now Men out-aot the Gentiles, The Goods of this life are all Hydropick, Quo plus bibuntur, plus fitiuntur. Men are the drier for drinking and the poorer for covetoujnejs : no Jatiety^ no fulnefs, hut in Jpiritual things, 'The way of Vertue appeared to the Heathen to he the only way to Happinejs, and yet they knew not many vertues which are the Glory of Chriflianity ^ as Humility^ Denying of our Jelves, Taking up the Cro/s, for- giving and loving our Enemies^ which the Heathen took for follies rather than Vertues. As for Poetry^ it hears date he fore Proje, and was of Jo great authority with the common People and the wijer Jort of antiquity,, that it was in veneration with their Sacred Writ and Records^ from which they derived their divinity and helief concerning their Godsy and that their Poets, as Orpheus, Linus, and Mujaus, were dejcended of the Gods, and divinely i'njpired, from the extra- xl Preface to Original Edition. ordinary Motions of their Minds, and from the Relations of firange Viftons, Raptures, and Ap- paritions. My Lord, excuje the liberty of this 'Dedication, and believe me. Tour Lordfhip's Uncle and Humble Servant, HENRT HERBERT. March \Wi, i66i .^^^ ■s*' ' >^^ OCCASIONAL VERSES- ro HIS jvjrcH WHEN HE COULD NOT SLEEP. T TNCESSANT Minutes, whiift you move you tell The time that tells our life, which, though it run Never fo faft or far, your nevv^ begun Short fteps fhall overtake ; for though life well May fcape his own Account, it fhall not yours. You are Death's Auditors, that both divide And fum what ere that life infpir'd endures Paft a beginning, and through you we bide The doom of Fate, whofe unrecall'd Decree You date, bring, execute ; making what's new 111, and good old, for as we die in you, You die in Time, Time in Eternity. Dirrr. "r\EEP Sighs, Records of my unpitied Grief, "^"^ Memorials of my true though hopelefs Love, Keep time with my fad thoughts, till wilh'd Relief My long defpairs for vain and cau fiefs prove. Yet if fuch hap never to you befall, I give you leave, break time, break heart, and all. Lord, thus I fm, repent, and fm again, As if Repentance only were in me Leave for new Sin ; thus do I entertain My fhort time, and Thy Grace, abufmg Thee And Thy long fuffering, which, though it be Ne'er overcome by Sin, yet were in vain If tempted oft : thus we our Errors fee Before our Punifhment, and fo remain Without Excufe : and, Lord, in them ^tis true Thy Laws are juft ; but why doft Thou diflrain Ought elfe for life fave life ? That is Thy due, The reft Thou mak'ft us owe, and may'ft to us As well forgive. But, oh ! my fms renew, Whilft I do talk with my Creator thus. 2 * A DESCRIPTION. *T SING her worth and praifes, I, -*■ Of whom a Poet cannot lie. The little World the Great fhall blaze, Sea, Earth, her Body ; Heaven, her Face, Her Hair, Sunbeams, whofe every part Lightens, inflames each Lover's Heart, That thus you prove the *f-Axiom true, Whilft the Sun helped Nature in you. Her Front, the white and azure fky In Light and Glory raifed high, Being o'recaft by a cloudy frown. All Hearts and Eyes deje6teth down ; Her each Brow, a celeftial Bow Which through this Sky her Light doth fhow. Which doubled, if it ftrange appear The Sun's likewife is doubled there ; Her either Cheek, a blufhing Morn, Which, on the Wings of Beauty born. Doth never fet, but only fair Shineth exalted in her hair ; fjiiKpoKotTfxoQ fjiaKpoKoa-jjLog. t So/ et homo generant hominem.