The Hesperides Noble Numbers: Vol. 1 and 2 | Page 4

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 Mæcenas. 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. He composed the words for two New
Year anthems which were set to music by Henry Lawes, and he was
probably personally known both to the King and Queen. Outside the
Court he reckoned himself one of Ben Jonson's disciples, "Sons of
Ben" as they were called, had friends at the Inns of Court, knew the
organist of Westminster Abbey and his pretty daughters, and had every
temptation to live an amusing and expensive life. His poems were
handed about in manuscript after the fashion of the time, and wherever
music and poetry were loved he was sure to be a welcome guest.
Mr. Hazlitt's conjecture that Herrick at this time may have held some
small post in the Chapel at Whitehall is not unreasonable, but at what
date he took Holy Orders is not known. In 1627 he obtained the post of
chaplain to the unlucky expedition to the Isle of Rhé, and two years
later (September 30, 1629) he was presented by the King to the
Vicarage of Dean Prior, in Devonshire, which the promotion of its
previous incumbent, Dr. Potter, to the Bishopric of Carlisle, had left in
the royal gift. The annual