A book which tempts many to
read a little, will guide some to that more profound and loving study of
which the result is, the full accomplishment of the poet's mission.
read a little, will guide some to that more profound and loving study of
which the result is, the full accomplishment of the poet's mission.
Robert Herrick
The great majority of readers cannot bring either leisure or
taste, or information sufficient to take them through a large mass (at
any rate) of ancient verse, not even if it be Spenser's or Milton's.
Manners and modes of speech, again, have changed; and much that was
admissible centuries since, or at least sought admission, has now, by
a law against which protest is idle, lapsed into the indecorous. Even
unaccustomed forms of spelling are an effort to the eye;--a kind of
friction, which diminishes the ease and enjoyment of the reader.
These hindrances and clogs, of very diverse nature, cannot be
disregarded by Poetry. In common with everything which aims at human
benefit, she must work not only for the 'faithful': she has also the
duty of 'conversion. ' Like a messenger from heaven, it is hers to
inspire, to console, to elevate: to convert the world, in a word, to
herself. Every rough place that slackens her footsteps must be made
smooth; nor, in this Art, need there be fear that the way will ever
be vulgarized by too much ease, nor that she will be loved less by the
elect, for being loved more widely.
Passing from these general considerations, it is true that a selection
framed in conformity with them, especially if one of our older poets be
concerned, parts with a certain portion of the pleasure which poetry may
confer. A writer is most thoroughly to be judged by the whole of what
he printed. A selector inevitably holds too despotic a position over
his author. The frankness of speech which we have abandoned is an
interesting evidence how the tone of manners changes. The poet's own
spelling and punctuation bear, or may bear, a gleam of his personality.
But such last drops of pleasure are the reward of fully-formed taste;
and fully-formed taste cannot be reached without full knowledge.
This, we have noticed, most readers cannot bring. Hence, despite all
drawbacks, an anthology may have its place.
A book which tempts many to
read a little, will guide some to that more profound and loving study of
which the result is, the full accomplishment of the poet's mission.
We have, probably, no poet to whom the reasons here advanced to justify
the invidious task of selection apply more fully and forcibly than to
Herrick. Highly as he is to be rated among our lyrists, no one who reads
through his fourteen hundred pieces can reasonably doubt that whatever
may have been the influences,--wholly unknown to us,--which determined
the contents of his volume, severe taste was not one of them. PECAT
FORTITER:--his exquisite directness and simplicity of speech repeatedly
take such form that the book cannot be offered to a very large number of
those readers who would most enjoy it. The spelling is at once arbitrary
and obsolete. Lastly, the complete reproduction of the original text,
with explanatory notes, edited by Mr Grosart, supplies materials equally
full and interesting for those who may, haply, be allured by this little
book to master one of our most attractive poets in his integrity.
In Herrick's single own edition of HESPERIDES and NOBLE NUMBERS, but
little arrangement is traceable: nor have we more than a few internal
signs of date in composition. It would hence be unwise to attempt
grouping the poems on a strict plan: and the divisions under which they
are here ranged must be regarded rather as progressive aspects of a
landscape than as territorial demarcations. Pieces bearing on the poet
as such are placed first; then, those vaguely definable as of idyllic
character, 'his girls,' epigrams, poems on natural objects, on character
and life; lastly, a few in his religious vein. For the text, although
reference has been made to the original of 1647-8, Mr Grosart's
excellent reprint has been mainly followed. And to that edition this
book is indebted for many valuable exegetical notes, kindly placed at
the Editor's disposal. But for much fuller elucidation both of words
and allusions, and of the persons mentioned, readers are referred to Mr
Grosart's volumes, which (like the same scholar's 'Sidney' and 'Donne'),
for the first time give Herrick a place among books not printed only,
but edited.
Robert Herrick's personal fate is in one point like Shakespeare's.
We know or seem to know them both, through their works, with singular
intimacy. But with this our knowledge substantially ends. No private
letter of Shakespeare, no record of his conversation, no account of the
circumstances in which his writings were published, remains: hardly
any statement how his greatest contemporaries ranked him.
taste, or information sufficient to take them through a large mass (at
any rate) of ancient verse, not even if it be Spenser's or Milton's.
Manners and modes of speech, again, have changed; and much that was
admissible centuries since, or at least sought admission, has now, by
a law against which protest is idle, lapsed into the indecorous. Even
unaccustomed forms of spelling are an effort to the eye;--a kind of
friction, which diminishes the ease and enjoyment of the reader.
These hindrances and clogs, of very diverse nature, cannot be
disregarded by Poetry. In common with everything which aims at human
benefit, she must work not only for the 'faithful': she has also the
duty of 'conversion. ' Like a messenger from heaven, it is hers to
inspire, to console, to elevate: to convert the world, in a word, to
herself. Every rough place that slackens her footsteps must be made
smooth; nor, in this Art, need there be fear that the way will ever
be vulgarized by too much ease, nor that she will be loved less by the
elect, for being loved more widely.
Passing from these general considerations, it is true that a selection
framed in conformity with them, especially if one of our older poets be
concerned, parts with a certain portion of the pleasure which poetry may
confer. A writer is most thoroughly to be judged by the whole of what
he printed. A selector inevitably holds too despotic a position over
his author. The frankness of speech which we have abandoned is an
interesting evidence how the tone of manners changes. The poet's own
spelling and punctuation bear, or may bear, a gleam of his personality.
But such last drops of pleasure are the reward of fully-formed taste;
and fully-formed taste cannot be reached without full knowledge.
This, we have noticed, most readers cannot bring. Hence, despite all
drawbacks, an anthology may have its place.
A book which tempts many to
read a little, will guide some to that more profound and loving study of
which the result is, the full accomplishment of the poet's mission.
We have, probably, no poet to whom the reasons here advanced to justify
the invidious task of selection apply more fully and forcibly than to
Herrick. Highly as he is to be rated among our lyrists, no one who reads
through his fourteen hundred pieces can reasonably doubt that whatever
may have been the influences,--wholly unknown to us,--which determined
the contents of his volume, severe taste was not one of them. PECAT
FORTITER:--his exquisite directness and simplicity of speech repeatedly
take such form that the book cannot be offered to a very large number of
those readers who would most enjoy it. The spelling is at once arbitrary
and obsolete. Lastly, the complete reproduction of the original text,
with explanatory notes, edited by Mr Grosart, supplies materials equally
full and interesting for those who may, haply, be allured by this little
book to master one of our most attractive poets in his integrity.
In Herrick's single own edition of HESPERIDES and NOBLE NUMBERS, but
little arrangement is traceable: nor have we more than a few internal
signs of date in composition. It would hence be unwise to attempt
grouping the poems on a strict plan: and the divisions under which they
are here ranged must be regarded rather as progressive aspects of a
landscape than as territorial demarcations. Pieces bearing on the poet
as such are placed first; then, those vaguely definable as of idyllic
character, 'his girls,' epigrams, poems on natural objects, on character
and life; lastly, a few in his religious vein. For the text, although
reference has been made to the original of 1647-8, Mr Grosart's
excellent reprint has been mainly followed. And to that edition this
book is indebted for many valuable exegetical notes, kindly placed at
the Editor's disposal. But for much fuller elucidation both of words
and allusions, and of the persons mentioned, readers are referred to Mr
Grosart's volumes, which (like the same scholar's 'Sidney' and 'Donne'),
for the first time give Herrick a place among books not printed only,
but edited.
Robert Herrick's personal fate is in one point like Shakespeare's.
We know or seem to know them both, through their works, with singular
intimacy. But with this our knowledge substantially ends. No private
letter of Shakespeare, no record of his conversation, no account of the
circumstances in which his writings were published, remains: hardly
any statement how his greatest contemporaries ranked him.
