George Herbert
Metaphysical poetry | |
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Notable works |
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George Herbert (3 April 1593 – 1 March 1633)
After the death of King James, Herbert renewed his interest in ordination. He gave up his secular ambitions in his mid-thirties and took holy orders in the Church of England, spending the rest of his life as the rector of the rural parish of Fugglestone St Peter, just outside Salisbury. He was noted for unfailing care for his parishioners, bringing the sacraments to them when they were ill and providing food and clothing for those in need. Henry Vaughan called him "a most glorious saint and seer".[4] He was never a healthy man and died of consumption at age 39.
Biography
Early life and education
George Herbert was born 3 April 1593 in
Herbert's eldest brother
Herbert entered Westminster School at or around the age of 12 as a day pupil,[10] although later he became a residential scholar. He was admitted on a scholarship to Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1609, and graduated first with a Bachelor's and then with a Master's degree in 1616 at the age of 23.[11] Subsequently, Herbert was elected a major fellow of his college and then appointed Reader in Rhetoric. In 1620 he stressed his fluency in Greek and Latin and attained election to the post of the University's Public Orator, a position he held until 1627.[12]
In 1624, supported by his kinsman the
Herbert was presented with the prebend of Leighton Bromswold in the Diocese of Lincoln in 1626, whilst he was still a don at Trinity College, Cambridge, but not yet ordained. He was not present at his institution as prebend, and it is recorded that Peter Walker, his clerk, stood in as his proxy. In the same year his close Cambridge friend Nicholas Ferrar was ordained Deacon in Westminster Abbey by Bishop Laud on Trinity Sunday 1626 and went to Little Gidding, two miles down the road from Leighton Bromswold, to found a small community. Herbert raised money (and contributed his own) to restore the neglected church building at Leighton.
Marriage
In 1628 or 1629, Herbert lodged at
Priesthood
In 1629, Herbert decided to enter the priesthood and the next year was appointed rector of the rural parish of Fugglestone St Peter with Bemerton, near Salisbury in Wiltshire, about 75 miles south-west of London.[16] He was responsible for two small churches: the 13th-century parish church of St Peter at Fugglestone, near Wilton, and the 14th-century chapel of St Andrew at Bemerton, closer to Salisbury at the other end of the parish. Here he lived, preached and wrote poetry; he also helped to rebuild the Bemerton church and adjacent rectory out of his own funds.[17] His appointment may have again been assisted by the Earl of Pembroke, whose family seat at Wilton House lay close to Fugglestone church.[18]
While at Bemerton, Herbert revised and added to his collection of poems entitled The Temple. He also wrote a guide to rural ministry, entitled A Priest to the Temple or, The County Parson His Character and Rule of Holy Life, which he himself described as "a Mark to aim at", and which has remained influential to the present day. Having married shortly before taking up his post, he and his wife gave a home to three orphaned nieces. Together with their servants, they crossed the lane for services in the small St Andrew's church twice every day.[19] Twice a week Herbert made the short journey into Salisbury to attend services at the cathedral, and afterwards would make music with the cathedral musicians.[20]
Death
Herbert's time at Bemerton was short. Having suffered for most of his life from poor health, in 1633 he died of consumption, only three years after taking holy orders.[21] Jane died in 1661.[1]
Poetry
Herbert wrote poetry in English, Latin and Greek. Shortly before his death, he sent a literary manuscript to his friend Nicholas Ferrar, reportedly telling him to publish the poems if he thought they might "turn to the advantage of any dejected poor soul", otherwise to burn them. In 1633 all of his English poems were published in The Temple: Sacred Poems and Private Ejaculations, with a preface by Ferrar.[22] The book went through eight editions by 1690.[23] According to Izaak Walton, when Herbert sent the manuscript to Ferrar, he said that "he shall find in it a picture of the many spiritual conflicts that have passed between God and my soul, before I could subject mine to the will of Jesus, my Master".[19] In this Herbert used the format of the poems to reinforce the theme he was trying to portray. Beginning with "The Church Porch", they proceed via "The Altar" to "The Sacrifice", and so onwards through the collection.
All of Herbert's surviving English poems are on religious themes and are characterised by directness of expression enlivened by original but apt
Visually too the poems are varied in such a way as to enhance their meaning, with intricate rhyme schemes, stanzas combining different line lengths and other ingenious formal devices. The most obvious examples are
The formal devices employed to convey that meaning are wide in range. In his meditation on the passage "Our life is hid with Christ in God",[29] the capitalised words "MY LIFE IS HID IN HIM THAT IS MY TREASURE" move across successive lines and demonstrate what is spoken of in the text. Opposites are brought together in "Bitter-Sweet" for the same purpose.[30] Echo and variation are also common. The exclamations at the head and foot of each stanza in "Sighs and Grones" are one example.[31] The diminishing truncated rhymes in "Paradise" are another.[32] There is also an echo-dialogue after each line in "Heaven",[33] other examples of which are found in the poetry of his brother Lord Herbert of Cherbury.[34] Alternative rhymes are offered at the end of the stanzas in "The Water-Course",[35] while the "Mary/Army Anagram" is represented in its title.[36] In "The Collar", Joseph Summers argues, Herbert goes so far as to use apparent formlessness as a formal and thematic device: "the poem contains all the elements of order in violent disorder" until the end, when the final four lines' regularity restores the reader's sense of "the necessity of order".[37]
Once the taste for this display of Baroque wit had passed, the satirist John Dryden was to dismiss it as so many means to "torture one poor word ten thousand ways."[38] Though Herbert remained esteemed for his piety, the poetic skill with which he expressed his thought had to wait centuries to be admired again.
Prose
Herbert's only prose work, A Priest to the Temple (usually known as The Country Parson), offers practical advice to rural clergy. In it, he advises that "things of ordinary use" such as ploughs, leaven, or dances, could be made to "serve for lights even of Heavenly Truths". It was first published in 1652 as part of Herbert's Remains, or Sundry Pieces of That Sweet Singer, Mr. George Herbert, edited by Barnabas Oley. The first edition was prefixed with unsigned preface by Oley, which was used as one of the sources for Izaak Walton's biography of Herbert, first published in 1670. The second edition appeared in 1671 as A Priest to the Temple or the Country Parson, with a new preface, this time signed by Oley.
Like many of his literary contemporaries, Herbert was a collector of proverbs. His Outlandish Proverbs
Musical settings
Herbert came from a musical family. His mother Magdalen Herbert was a friend of the composers William Byrd and John Bull, and encouraged her children's musical education; his brother Edward Herbert of Cherbury was a skilled lutenist and composer.[40] George Herbert played the lute and viol, and "sett his own lyricks or sacred poems".[41] Musical pursuits interested him all through his life and his biographer, Izaak Walton, records that he rose to play the lute during his final illness.[42] Walton also gave it as his opinion that he composed "such hymns and anthems as he and the angels now sing in heaven",[19] while Walton's friend Charles Cotton described him as a "soul composed of harmonies".[43]
More than ninety of Herbert's poems have been set for singing over the centuries, some of them multiple times.[44] In his own century, there were settings of "Longing" by Henry Purcell and "And art thou grieved" by John Blow. Some forty were adapted for the Methodist hymnal by the Wesley brothers, among them "Teach me my God and King", which found its place in one version or another in 223 hymnals. Another poem, "Let all the world in every corner sing", was published in 103 hymnals, of which one is a French version.[45] Other languages into which his work has been translated for musical settings include Spanish, Catalan and German.[46]
In the 20th century, "Vertue" alone achieved ten settings, one of them in French. Among leading modern composers who set his work were Edmund Rubbra, who set "Easter" as the first of his Two songs for voice and string trio (op. 2, 1921); Ralph Vaughan Williams, who used four by Herbert in Five Mystical Songs, of which "Easter" was the first and "Antiphon II" the last; Robin Milford, who used the original Fitzwilliam manuscript's setting of the second part of "Easter" for his cantata Easter Morning (1932), set in two parts for soprano soloist and choir of children’s or women's voices; Benjamin Britten and William Walton, both of whom set "Antiphon" too; Ned Rorem who included one in his "10 poems for voice, oboe and strings" (1982); and Judith Weir, whose 2005 choral work Vertue includes three poems by Herbert.
Legacy
The earliest portrait of Herbert was engraved long after his death by Robert White[47] for Walton's biography of the poet in 1674. Now in London's National Portrait Gallery, it served as basis for later engravings, such as those by White's apprentice John Sturt and by Henry Hoppner Meyer in 1829.
Among later artistic commemorations is
Most representations of Herbert, however, are in stained glass windows, of which there are several in churches and cathedrals. They include Westminster Abbey,[51] Salisbury Cathedral[52] and All Saints' Church, Cambridge.[52] His own St Andrew's Church in Bemerton installed in 1934 a memorial window, which he shares with Nicholas Ferrar. In addition, there is a statue of Herbert in his canonical robes, based in part on the Robert White portrait, in a niche on the West Front of Salisbury Cathedral.
Veneration
George Herbert | |
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Venerated in | Anglican Communion, Lutheranism |
Feast | 27 February (Anglican), 1 March (Lutheran) |
In the
Our God and King, who called your servant George Herbert from the pursuit of worldly honors to be a pastor of souls, a poet, and a priest in your temple: Give us grace, we pray, joyfully to perform the tasks you give us to do, knowing that nothing is menial or common that is done for your sake ... Amen.[55]
The quote "All may have, if they dare try, a glorious life, or a grave" from Herbert's "The Church Porch" is inscribed on the outer wall of St. John's Church, Waterloo.[56][57]
Works
- 1623: Oratio Qua auspicatissimum Serenissimi Principis Caroli.[58]
- 1627: Memoriae Matris Sacrum, printed with A Sermon of commemoracion of the ladye Danvers by John Donne... with other Commemoracions of her by George Herbert (London: Philemon Stephens and Christopher Meredith).[58]
- 1633: The Temple, Sacred Poems and Private Ejaculations (Cambridge: Printed by Thomas Buck and Roger Daniel).[58]
- 1652: Herbert's Remains, Or, Sundry Pieces Of that sweet Singer of the Temple consisting of his collected writings from A Priest to the Temple, Jacula Prudentum, Sentences, & c., as well as a letter, several prayers, and three Latin poems (London: Printed for Timothy Garthwait).[58]
- The Temple : sacred poems and private ejaculations. London: Jeffery Wale. 1703.
- T. Y. Crowell, ed. (1881). The Works of George Herbert in Prose and Verse: Edited from the Latest Editions, with Memoir, Explanatory Notes, Etc. New York: John Wurtele Lovell.
- Blythe, Ronald, ed. (2003). A Priest to the Temple Or the Country Parson: With Selected Poems. Hymns Ancient and Modern. ISBN 978-1-85311-532-5.
References
Citations
- ^ a b c Wilcox 2004.
- ^ "George Herbert 1593–1633". The Poetry Foundation. Retrieved 11 April 2013..
- ^ Charles 1977, p. 104.
- ^ Vaughan 1652, p. 119.
- ^ Wright 2008.
- ^ Moore 2006.
- ^ Charles 1977, p. 28.
- ^ Black, Connolly & Flint 2016, p. 908.
- ^ Waligore 2012, pp. 181–197.
- ^ Charles 1977, p. 52.
- ^ Charles 1977, p. 71.
- ^ "Herbert, George (HRBT609G)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
- ^ Williams 1895, p. 149.
- ^ Charles 1977, p. 110.
- ^ Drury 2013, p. xlviii et seq.
- ^ Hodgkins 2010, p. 136.
- ^ Charles 1977, p. 154.
- ^ "Church of St. Peter, Fugglestone, Wilton". Wiltshire Community History. Wiltshire Council. Retrieved 25 January 2021.
- ^ a b c Walton 1670.
- ^ Charles 1977, p. 163.
- ^ "Herbert, George (0–1687) (CCEd Person ID 68648)". The Clergy of the Church of England Database 1540–1835. Retrieved 6 October 2017.
- ^ "George Herbert", Catalogue of English Literary Manuscripts
- ^ Cox 2004, p. 92.
- ^ Herbert 1703, p. 59.
- ^ Bloom & Cornelius 2008, p. 311.
- ^ Hodgkins 2010, p. 47.
- ^ Herbert 1703, p. 18.
- ^ Westerweel 1984, p. 108.
- ^ Luminarium
- ^ Herbert 1703, p. 165.
- ^ Herbert 1703, p. 75.
- ^ Herbert 1703, p. 125.
- ^ Christian Classics
- ^ Nänny 1994, p. 139.
- ^ Herbert 1703, p. 164.
- ^ Herbert 1703, p. 69.
- ^ Summers 1954, pp. 73–94.
- ^ The Spectator. 11 May 1711. p. 73 – via Google books.
- ^ Herbert 1881, pp. 437ff.
- S2CID 253486066.
- ^ Aubrey 1898, p. 310.
- ^ Walton 1670, p. 77.
- ^ Schmidt 1997, p. 171.
- ^ Herbert, G, Hymnary.org.
- ^ "Tout l’univers proclame les exploits" Hymnary.org.
- ^ Author, Lieder Archive.
- ^ Portraits of George Herbert at the National Portrait Gallery, London
- ^ Dyce, William (1860). "George Herbert at Bemerton, Salisbury". Art UK. Guildhall Art Gallery. Retrieved 5 June 2018.
- ^ Herbert 2003, p. xv.
- ^ Cope, Charles West (1872). "George Herbert and His Mother". Art UK. Gallery Oldham. Retrieved 5 June 2018.
- ^ Coe 1895, p. 35.
- ^ a b Comerford, Patrick (4 October 2012). "George Herbert (1593–1633), 'the finest expressions of Anglican piety at its best'". Dead Anglican Theologians' Society. Retrieved 5 June 2018.
- ^ "The Calendar". The Church of England. Retrieved 27 March 2021.
- ISBN 978-1-64065-234-7.
- ^ Kiefer 1999.
- ^ Herbert 1703, p. 4.
- ^ Waterloo Bench (PDF), MSMR Architects[permanent dead link]
- ^ a b c d "George Herbert". Poetry Archive. Retrieved 1 April 2022.
Sources
- Aubrey, John (1898). Clark, Andrew (ed.). 'Brief Lives': Chiefly of Contemporaries. Vol. 1. Oxford: Clarendon Press – via Google books.
- Black, Joseph; Connolly, Leonard; Flint, Kate; et al. (Isobel Grundy, Don LePan, Roy Liuzza, Jerome J. McGann, Anne Lake Prescott, Barry V. Qualls, Claire Waters) (2016). The Broadview Anthology of British Literature. Vol. 2: The Renaissance and the Early Seventeenth Century (3rd ed.). Broadview Press. ISBN 978-1-77048-581-5.
- Bloom, Harold; Cornelius, Michael G. (2008). John Donne and the Metaphysical Poets. New York: Infobase Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4381-1703-4.
- Charles, Amy M. (1977). A Life of George Herbert. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. ISBN 0-8014-1014-2.
- Coe, Fanny E. (1895). Dunton, Larkin (ed.). The World and Its People – Book V: Modern Europe. Young Folks' Library. Vol. IX. Boston: Silver, Burdett & Company.
- Cox, Michael, ed. (2004). The Concise Oxford Chronology of English Literature. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-860634-5.
- ISBN 978-0-14-192988-0.
- Hodgkins, Christopher (2010). George Herbert's Pastoral: New Essays on the Poet and Priest of Bemerton. University of Delaware Press. ISBN 978-0-87413-022-5.
- Kiefer, James E. (1999). "George Herbert, Priest and Poet". Biographical sketches of memorable Christians of the past. Retrieved 5 June 2018 – via Society of Archbishop Justus.
- Moore, Patrick (21 March 2006). "The Roots of Christian Mysticism Session 19". School for Teachers. Archived from the original on 20 November 2008.
- Nänny, Max (1994). "Textual Echoes of Echoes". In Fischer, Andreas (ed.). Repetition. Gunter Narr. ISBN 978-3-8233-4682-1.
- ISBN 978-1-85754-339-1.
- Summers, Joseph H. (1954). George Herbert: His Religion and Art. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
- Vaughan, Henry (1652). The Mount of Olives: or, Solitary devotions. London: William Leake.
- Waligore, Joseph (2012). "The Piety of the English Deists: Their Personal Relationship with an Active God". Intellectual History Review. 22 (2): 181–97. S2CID 170532446.
- Walton, Izaak (1670). The Life of Mr. George Herbert. Thos Newcomb.
- Westerweel, Bart (1984). Patterns and Patterning: A Study of Four Poems by George Herbert. Amsterdam: Rodopi. ISBN 90-6203-945-6.
- Wilcox, Helen (23 September 2004). "Herbert, George". doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/13025. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- Williams, William Retlaw (1895), Parliamentary History of the Principality of Wales, Brecknock: Priv. Print. for the author by E. Davis & Bell
- Wright, Stephen (4 October 2008). "Newport, Richard, first Baron Newport (1587–1651)". doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/20038. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
Further reading
Editions
- 1941: The Works of George Herbert, ed. F. E. Hutchinson.
- 2007: The English Poems of George Herbert, ed. Helen Wilcox. Cambridge University Press
Studies
- Clarke, Elizabeth, Theory and Theology in George Herbert's Poetry: "Divinitie, and Poesie, Met", Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997. ISBN 978-0-19-826398-2
- Falloon, Jane, Heart in Pilgrimage: a study of George Herbert, Milton Keynes: AuthorHouse, 2007. ISBN 978-1-4259-7755-9
- Grant, Patrick, 1974. The Transformation of Sin: Studies in Donne, Herbert, Vaughan, and Traherne. Montreal:McGill-Queen's University Press. ISBN 0-87023158-8
- Lewis-Anthony, Justin, "If You Meet George Herbert on the Road, Kill Him": Radically re-thinking priestly ministry, an exploration of the life of George Herbert as a take-off for a re-evaluation of the ministry within the Church of England. Mowbray, August 2009. ISBN 978-1-906286-17-0
- Sullivan, Ceri, The Rhetoric of the Conscience in Donne, Herbert, and Vaughan. Oxford University Press, 2008.
- Orrick, Jim, A Year with George Herbert: a guide to fifty-two of his best loved poems. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2011.
- ISBN 978-1-85311-948-4
- Oakley, Mark, "My Sour-Sweet Days: George Herbert and the Journey of the Soul". SPCK, 2019.
- Jackson, Simon, George Herbert and Early Modern Musical Culture. Cambridge University Press, 2022. ISBN 978-1009098069
External links
- Dictionary of National Biography. 1885–1900. .
- Portraits of George Herbert at the National Portrait Gallery, London
- The Works of George Herbert, at luminarium.org
- George Herbert and Bemerton – his priesthood and parish, at georgeherbert.org.uk
- The Life of Mr. George Herbert by Izaak Walton (1593–1683), at bartelby.com
- George Herbert at the Cambridge Authors Project, University of Cambridge
- George Herbert at poetseers.org, archived in 2005
- Selected Poetry of George Herbert at Representative Poetry Online, archived in 2006
- Lives of John Donne, Henry Wotton, Richard Hooker, George Herbert, &c, Vol. 2, Project Gutenberg
- A Short introduction to George Herbert's verse, Bijan Omrani
- Works by George Herbert at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
- "The Call" by George Herbert in Ralph Vaughan Williams' arrangement from Five Mystical Songs. YouTube video (2:24 min.)
- "Easterwings" (poem by George Herbert), commentary and images at Christian Classics Ethereal Library
- His poem "My Elixir" as hymn "Teach me, My God and King" at CCEL
- The Remains of that Sweet Singer of The Temple, ed. Barnabas Oley
- Outlandish Proverbs Selected by Mr. G. H.