Page:Cousins's Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature.djvu/200

188 the whole his is one of the most shining and spirited figures of the time.

Autobiography ed. by S. Lee (1886). Poems ed. by, etc.

 Author:George Herbert (1593-1633) (1593-1633).—Poet, brother of, was ed. at Westminster School and Trinity Coll., Camb., where he took his degree in 1616, and was public orator 1619-27. He became the friend of Sir H. Wotton, Donne, and Bacon, the last of whom is said to have held him in such high esteem as to submit his writings to him before publication. He acquired the favour of James I., who conferred upon him a sinecure worth £120 a year, and having powerful friends, he attached himself for some time to the Court in the hope of preferment. The death of two of his patrons, however, led him to change his views, and coming under the influence of Nicholas Ferrar, the quietist of Little Gidding, and of Laud, he took orders in 1626 and, after serving for a few years as prebendary of Layton Ecclesia, or Leighton Broomswold, he became in 1630 Rector of Bemerton, Wilts, where he passed the remainder of his life, discharging the duties of a parish priest with conscientious assiduity. His health, however, failed, and he d. in his 40th year. His chief works are The Temple, or Sacred Poems and Private Ejaculations (1634), The Country Parson (1652), and Jacula Prudentium, a collection of pithy proverbial sayings, the two last in prose. Not pub. until the year after his death, The Temple had immediate acceptance, 20,000 copies, according to, who was H.'s biographer, having been sold in a few years. Among its admirers were Charles I.,, and. H. wrote some of the most exquisite sacred poetry in the language, although his style, influenced by, is at times characterised by artificiality and conceits. He was an excellent classical scholar, and an accomplished musician.

Works with Life by Izaak Walton, ed. by Coleridge, 1846, etc.

 Author:Thomas Herbert (1606-1682) (1606-1682).—Traveller and historian, belonged to an old Yorkshire family, studied at Oxf. and Camb., and went in connection with an embassy to Persia, of which, and of other Oriental countries, he pub. a description. On the outbreak of the Civil War he was a Parliamentarian, but was afterwards taken into the household of the King, to whom he became much attached, was latterly his only attendant, and was with him on the scaffold. At the Restoration he was made a Baronet, and in 1678 pub. Threnodia Carolina, an account of the last two years of the King's life.

 Author:David Herd (1732-1810).—Scottish anthologist, s. of a farmer in Kincardineshire, was clerk to an accountant in Edin., and devoted his leisure to collecting old Scottish poems and songs, which he first pub. in 1769 as Ancient Scottish Songs, Heroic Ballads, etc. Other and enlarged ed. appeared in 1776 and 1791. made use of his MS. collections in his Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border.

 Author:Robert Herrick (1591-1674).—Poet, b. in London, was apprenticed as a goldsmith to his uncle, Sir William H., with whom