Note 1. George Herbert, who was younger brother to Lord Herbert of Cherbury, took a brilliant degree at Cambridge and became Public Orator. For some time he expected court preferment, but his patrons died, and he eventually took orders. His short life at Bemerton is described by Walton as that of a saint. His “Temple” was posthumously printed (1632). Herbert’s poems are, if not the high-water mark of English devotional verse, yet its most characteristic expression, being the work of a scholar and a gentleman as well as a divine. His sense of rhythm was faultless, and his style exquisite. Observe on the one hand the skill with which he develops such an elaborate ode as “The Collar,” and on the other his fine use of the regular metres. His fault was a too great fondness for conceits, by which some of his best poems are marred. A few passages are introduced at the close of the selection from poems which for this or other reasons could not be printed entire. No poet is in such need of a commentator. Edition follows upon edition, but with no effort to clear up for the general reader Herbert’s obscurities. The “Church Porch” is so called as containing rules of common morality and good breeding. [back]
