Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VIII.djvu/714

 696 HERREBA Y TORDESILLAS HERRING also engraved on bronze, and was accused of uttering base coin. II. Franciseo de, the younger, youngest son of the preceding, also a painter, born in Seville in 1622, died in 1685. He studied first with his father and then at Rome, and excelled in pictures of still life, flowers, and fish, for the last of which the Italians called him II Spagnuolo del pesci. After his father's death he went to Seville and painted in the churches, but from jealousy of Murillo soon removed to Madrid, where he was ap- pointed painter to the king and superintendent of the royal works. His best pictures are the great altarpiece of the barefooted Carmelites, representing St. Hermendildo; the "Assump- tion of the Virgin," in the convent of Nuestra Sefiora de Atocha; and "St. Anne teaching the Virgin to Read," in the convent of Corpus Christi. HERRERA T TORDESILLAS, Antonio de, a Span- ish historian, born at Cuellar, in the province of Segovia, about 1549, died in Madrid, March 29, 1625. He early went to Italy, where he became secretary to Vespasiano Gonzaga, with whom he subsequently returned to Spain. His patron when dying recommended him to Phil- ip II., who appointed him first historiographer of the Indies and one of the historiographers of Castile, titles which he preserved under Philip III. and Philip IV. His reputation rests on his Historia general de los hechos 'de los Caste- llanos en las islas y tierrafirme del mar Oceano (4 vols., Madrid, 1601-'15). His other works, including Historia general del mundo del tiem- po del senor rey Don Felipe IL desde 1559 hasta su muerte (3 vols., Madrid, 1601-'12), and His- toria de Portugal y conquista de las islas de los Azores (in 5 books, 1591), were, according to Ticknor, all written under the influence of contemporary passions. IIERRICK, Robert, an English poet, born in London, Aug. 20, 1591, died in October, 1674. He studied at Cambridge, and for many years after leaving the university seems to have pur- sued a gay and dissipated career in London. He then took orders, and in 1629 was present- ed by Charles I. to the vicarage of Dean Pri- or, near Totness, in Devonshire. His poems written at this time abound in lively descrip- tions of the charms of a country life, and his fancy revelled in amatory verses, after the fashion of the day, to imaginary beauties, for his small household comprised only himself and his old housemaid Prudence Baldwin. Some of these pieces also contain curious il- lustrations of country customs, manners, and prejudices. From this humble retreat the long parliament ejected him in 1648, and he returned to London, where he gladly resumed the socie- ty of such of his old associates as were living, but led a somewhat precarious existence. In 1647 and 1648 he published his "Noble Num- bers " and " Hesperides, or Works Humane and Divine," which he dedicated to "the most illustrious and most hopeful Prince Charles." On this occasion, in consideration of the class of readers who would peruse his works, he an- nounced himself as " Robert Herrick, Esquire." At the restoration Charles II. reinstated him in his old living, where he passed the remain- der of his days. Herrick was essentially a lyric poet, and the facility with which he wrote is recognized in the multitude of little pieces, amatory, Anacreontic, and pastoral, which his works contain. His frequent indelicacy is the gravest charge which has been brought against him. In that, however, he but followed the fashion of the cavalier poets, and there is much hearty gayety and natural tenderness in his works. His serious pieces are morally unexcep- tionable, but have generally less poetical merit. For nearly a century and a half after Herrick's death his works lay neglected. In 1810 a se- lection from the "Hesperides" was edited by Dr. Nott, and since then several excellent edi- tions have been published in England and America, including one by Prof. Child (2 vols. 12mo, Boston, 1856). A new edition of his poetical works was published in London in 1859. Many of his shorter songs, such as " Cherry Ripe " and " Gather ye rose-buds while ye may," have been set to music. HERRING, the general name of the family clupeidcB of the malacopterous or soft-rayed abdominal fishes. The family has been di- vided by Valenciennes, according to the posi- tion of the teeth, size of the ventrals, length of the anal, and projection of the lower jaw, into 16 genera, of which the best known and most important are clupea (the herring), ha- rengula (the sprat), rogenia (the whitebait), alosa (the shad and pilchard or sardine), and engraulis (the anchovy). The last has been described under ANCHOVY, and, as the oth- ers will be noticed in their regular order, the herrings proper will alone be noticed here. The generic characters of clupea (Cuv.) arc small premaxillary teeth, with very fine ones also on the maxillary and symphysial portion of the lower jaw, larger teeth in a longitudinal band on the vomer and centre of tongue, and a few deciduous ones on the palate bones ; body elongated and compressed, with rounded back, and sharp, keel-like abdominal edge ; scales large, thin, and easily removed ; a single dor- sal fin, and eight branchiostegous rays ; mouth large, and lower jaw the longer; the air blad- der is very large, and the number of long and slender bones among the muscular fibres very great; the branchial openings are wide, and the gills remarkable for the length of their fringes, in consequence of which they live but a short time out of water; indeed they die so soon that "dead as a herring" is a common English say- ing. The herrings do not ascend rivers like the alewife and shad. The common American species, or blue-back, sometimes erroneously called " English herring," is the C. elongata (Lesueur) ; it varies in length from 12 to 15 in. ; the color above i& deep blue, tinged with yellow, with silvery sides and lower parts; opercles brassy, and, like the sides, with me-