No More Learning

To William Herrick, then recently knighted
for his services as goldsmith, jeweller, and moneylender to James I. ,
the young Robert was apprenticed for ten years, September 25, 1607. An
allusion to "beloved Westminster," in his _Tears to Thamesis_, has been
taken to refer to Westminster school, and alleged as proof that he was
educated there. Dr. Grosart even presses the mention of Richmond,
Kingston, and Hampton Court to support a conjecture that Herrick may
have travelled up and down to school from Hampton. If so, one wonders
what his headmaster had to say to the "soft-smooth virgins, for our
chaste disport" by whom he was accompanied. But the references in the
poem are surely to his courtier-life in London, and after his father's
death the apprenticeship to his uncle in 1607 is the first fact in his
life of which we can be sure.

In 1607, Herrick was fifteen, and, even if we conjecture that he may
have been allowed to remain at school some little time after his
apprenticeship nominally began, he must have served his uncle for five
or six years. Sir William had himself been bound apprentice in a similar
way to the poet's father, and we have no evidence that he exacted any
premium. At any rate, when in 1614, his nephew, then of age, desired to
leave the business and go to Cambridge, the ten years' apprenticeship
did not stand in his way, and he entered as a Fellow Commoner at St.
John's. His uncle plainly still managed his affairs, for an amusing
series of fourteen letters has been preserved at Beaumanor, until lately
the seat of Sir William's descendants, in which the poet asks sometimes
for payment of a quarterly stipend of ? 10, sometimes for a formal loan,
sometimes for the help of his avuncular Maecenas. It seems a fair
inference from this variety of requests that, since Herrick's share of
his father's property could hardly have yielded a yearly income of ? 40,
he was allowed to draw on his capital for this sum, but that his uncle
and Lady Herrick occasionally made him small presents, which may account
for his tone of dependence.
The quarterly stipend was paid through various booksellers, but
irregularly, so that the poor poet was frequently reduced to great
straits, though ? 40 a-year (? 200 of our money) was no bad allowance.
After two years he migrated from St. John's to Trinity Hall, to study
law and curtail his expenses. He took his Bachelor's degree from there
in January, 1617, and his Master's in 1620. The fourteen letters show
that he had prepared himself for University life by cultivating a very
florid prose style which frequently runs into decasyllabics, perhaps a
result of a study of the dramatists. Sir William Herrick is sometimes
addressed in them as his most "careful" uncle, but at the time of his
migration the poet speaks of his "ebbing estate," and as late as 1629 he
was still ? 10 16s. 9d. in debt to the College Steward. We can thus
hardly imagine that he was possessed of any considerable private income
when he returned to London, to live practically on his wits, and a study
of his poems suggests that, the influence of the careful uncle removed,
whatever capital he possessed was soon likely to vanish. [B] His verses
to the Earl of Pembroke, to Endymion Porter and to others, show that he
was glad of "pay" as well as "praise," but the system of patronage
brought no discredit with it, and though the absence of any poetical
mention of his uncle suggests that the rich goldsmith was not
well-pleased with his nephew, with the rest of his well-to-do relations
Herrick seems to have remained on excellent terms.

[B] Yet in his _Farewell to Poetry_ he distinctly says:--

"I've more to bear my charge than way to go";

the line, however, is a translation from his favourite Seneca, Ep. 77.

Besides patrons, such as Pembroke, Westmoreland, Newark, Buckingham,
Herrick had less distinguished friends at Court, Edward Norgate, Jack
Crofts and others.