The Hesperides Noble Numbers: Vol. 1 and 2 | Page 3

to Aix is a far more popular, more generally
admired and accredited specimen of Mr. Browning's work than "The
Last Ride Together"--and "The Lost Leader" than "The Lost Mistress".
Yet the superiority of the less-popular poem is in either case beyond all
question or comparison: in depth and in glow of spirit and of harmony,
in truth and charm of thought and word, undeniable and indescribable.
No two men of genius were ever more unlike than the authors of
"Paracelsus" and "Hesperides": and yet it is as true of Herrick as of
Browning that his best is not always his best-known work. Everyone
knows the song, "Gather ye rosebuds while ye may"; few, I fear, by
comparison, know the yet sweeter and better song, "Ye have been fresh
and green". The general monotony of style and motive which fatigues
and irritates his too-persevering reader is here and there relieved by a
change of key which anticipates the note of a later and very different
lyric school. The brilliant simplicity and pointed grace of the three
stanzas to [OE]none ("What conscience, say, is it in thee") recall the
lyrists of the Restoration in their cleanlier and happier mood. And in
the very fine epigram headed by the words "Devotion makes the Deity"
he has expressed for once a really high and deep thought in words of

really noble and severe propriety. His "Mad Maid's Song," again, can
only be compared with Blake's; which has more of passionate
imagination, if less of pathetic sincerity.
0. C. SWINBURNE.
LIFE OF HERRICK.
Of the lives of many poets we know too much; of some few too little.
Lovers of Herrick are almost ideally fortunate. Just such a bare outline
of his life has come down to us as is sufficient to explain the allusions
in his poems, and, on the other hand, there is no temptation to substitute
chatter about his relations with Julia and Dianeme for enjoyment of his
delightful verse. The recital of the bare outline need detain us but a few
minutes: only the least imaginative of readers will have any difficulty
in filling it in from the poems themselves.
From early in the fourteenth century onwards we hear of the family of
Eyrick or Herrick at Stretton, in Leicestershire. At the beginning of the
sixteenth century we find a branch of it settled in Leicester itself, where
John Eyrick, the poet's grandfather, was admitted a freeman in 1535,
and afterwards acted as Mayor. This John's second son, Nicholas,
migrated to London, became a goldsmith in Wood Street, Cheapside,
and, according to a licence issued by the Bishop of London, December
8, 1582, married Julian, daughter of William Stone, sister of Anne, wife
of Sir Stephen Soame, Lord Mayor of London in 1598. The marriage
was not unfruitful. A William[A] Herrick was baptized at St. Vedast's,
Foster Lane, November 24, 1585; Martha, January 22, 1586; Mercy,
December 22, 1586; Thomas, May 7, 1588; Nicholas, April 22, 1589;
Anne, July 26, 1590; and Robert himself, August 24, 1591.
[A] A second William is said to have been born, posthumously, in
"Harry Campion's house at Hampton," in 1593.
Fifteen months after the poet's birth, on November 7, 1592, Nicholas
Herrick made his will, estimating his property as worth £3000, and
devising it, as to one-third to his wife, and as to the other two-thirds to
his children in equal shares. In the will he described himself as "of
perfect memorye in sowle, but sicke in bodye". Two days after its

execution he was buried, having died, not from disease, but from a fall
from an upper window. His death had so much the appearance of
self-destruction that £220 had to be paid to the High Almoner, Dr.
Fletcher, Bishop of Bristol, in satisfaction of his official claim to the
goods and chattels of suicides. Herrick's biographers have not failed to
vituperate the Bishop for his avarice, but dues allowed by law are
hardly to be abandoned because a baby of fifteen months is destined to
become a brilliant poet, and no other exceptional circumstances are
alleged. The estate of Nicholas Herrick could the better afford the fine
inasmuch as it realized £2000 more than was expected.
By the will Robert and William Herrick were appointed "overseers," or
trustees for the children. The former was the poet's godfather, and in his
will of 1617 left him £5. 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