Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 26.djvu/260

 was written at Dean Prior. Wood says that he ‘became much beloved by the gentry in those parts for his florid and witty discourses.’ His household was directed by his devoted maid ‘Prue’ (Prudence Baldwin), whose epitaph he composed. In his ‘Grange or Private Wealth’ he sings of his spaniel ‘Tracy,’ his pet-lamb, his cat, goose, cock, and hen. A tradition survived early in the nineteenth century (Quarterly Review, August 1810) that he had a ‘favourite pig, which he amused himself by teaching to drink out of a tankard.’ Another tradition is that he once threw his sermon at the congregation, cursing them for not paying attention. In one of his poems he describes his parishioners as A people currish; churlish as the seas; And rude almost as rudest savages. Several of his epigrams (more coarse than witty) appear to be directed against obnoxious neighbours. On the other hand, he has poems in praise of Devonshire friends.

In 1647 Herrick, a devoted royalist, was ejected from his living and retired to London. The poem on ‘His returne to London’ expresses his enthusiastic delight at being released from his ‘long and dreary banishment.’ London was the place of his nativity, and he vowed to spend in London the rest of his days. In his ‘Farewell to Dean-Bourn’ he declared that he would not go back to Devonshire until ‘rocks turn to rivers, rivers turn to men.’ Settling in St. Anne's, Westminster, he assumed the lay habit. Walker (Sufferings of the Clergy, p. 253) states that, ‘having no fifths paid to him,’ he ‘was subsisted by charity until the Restoration.’ It is to be noticed that his uncle, at Beaumanor, was still living, that other relatives were well-to-do, and that he had a large circle of wealthy friends.

On 24 Aug. 1662 Herrick was restored to his living; and the church register at Dean Prior records that ‘Robert Herrick, vicker, was buried ye 15th day of October 1674.’ A collateral descendant, W. Perry-Herrick, esq., of Beaumanor Park, erected in 1857 a monument to his memory in Dean Prior Church.

Few contemporary notices of Herrick are found, but there is ample evidence to show that his poetry was appreciated. Many of his poems were published anonymously in the later editions of ‘Witts Recreations’ (1650 and onwards). The compilers of ‘Wits Interpreter,’ ‘The Academy of Compliments,’ ‘The Mysteries of Love and Eloquence,’ and other seventeenth-century miscellanies, laid him under contribution. Several pieces were set to music by eminent composers—Henry Lawes, Lanière, Wilson, and Ramsay. The first of his poems that found its way into print was ‘King Obrons Feast,’ published anonymously in ‘A Description of the King and Queene of Fayries, their habit, fare, their abode, pompe, and state,’ London, 1635, 8vo. On 4 Nov. 1639 was entered in the ‘Stationers' Register’ ‘An addicion of some excellent Poems to Shakespeares Poems by other gentlemen’ (, Transcript, iv. 487), and among these additional pieces is mentioned ‘His Mistris Shade, by R. Herrick,’ which was printed anonymously in Shakespeare's ‘Poems,’ 1640, and was afterwards included, with some curious textual variations, in ‘Hesperides’ (where it is headed ‘The Apparition of his Mistresse calling him to Elizium’). In 1640 ‘The Several Poems written by Robert Herrick’ was entered, but not published. In 1648 appeared a collected edition of his poems: ‘Hesperides: or, The Works both Humane and Divine of Robert Herrick, Esq.,’ 8vo. The divine poems form a separate part, with a fresh title-page dated 1647, ‘His Noble Numbers: or, His Pious Pieces, Wherein (amongst other things) He sings the Birth of his Christ: and sighes for his Saviour suffering on the Crosse.’ The collection was dedicated to Charles, prince of Wales, afterwards Charles II. The edition was issued with Herrick's sanction (though there is no attempt at any arrangement of the poems), and has a portrait of the author by William Marshall. In 1647 Herrick had prefixed commendatory verses (not included in ‘Hesperides’) to the folio of Beaumont and Fletcher; and in 1649 he was one of the contributors to ‘Lacrymæ Musarum,’ a collection of memorial verses on the death of Henry, lord Hastings. He is not known to have published anything after 1649. There is a tradition that he was the original projector of ‘Poor Robin's Almanac;’ but this is a mistake. ‘Poor Robin’ was the nom de plume of Robert Winstanley of Saffron Walden (Notes and Queries, 6th ser. vii. 321–3). Verses of Herrick are occasionally quoted in the almanac; and in ‘Hesperides’ he playfully styled himself ‘Robin’ Herrick. A few—very few—manuscript poems, not included in ‘Hesperides,’ may with some probability be assigned to Herrick; but Mr. Hazlitt (Appendix to Herrick's Works in the ‘Old Authors' Library’) has claimed for him poems that can clearly be shown to belong to other writers.

Herrick was practically forgotten until Nichols in 1796–7 drew attention to his poetry in the ‘Gentleman's Magazine.’ Nichols was followed by Dr. Nathan Drake, who devoted some papers to Herrick in ‘Lite-