George Herbert

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The English metaphysical poet and Anglican priest George Herbert (1593-1633) is best known for "The Temple," a monument of brilliant rhetoric whichexpertly combines private experience with a demonstration of the way to salvation.

Descended from soldiers and administrators, George Herbert was born on April 3, 1593, in or near Montgomery Castle on the Welsh border. In 1596 his mother, Magdalen, daughter of a landowner, Sir Richard Newport, was left a widow with 10 children - like Job, as she remarked. She was much admired by John Donne, who later influenced Herbert's poetry. She brought up George in Oxford and then London, where he attended Westminster School. In 1609 she married Sir John Danvers.

In that year Herbert became a scholar of Trinity College, Cambridge, where he earned a bachelor of arts degree in 1613 and a master of arts degree in 1617. Appointed a fellow of Trinity, he taught Latin and Greek grammar until he was made university praelector in rhetoric in 1617. Instead of giving conventional lectures on the classics, he used an oration by James I as his text, thus flattering his way to prospects of a career at court. By lecturing on a modern author, he also identified himself with a progressive academic effort to break the educational stranglehold of Ciceronianism. In addition, he lauded the "New Science" of Francis Bacon. Such bold modernity was typical of this enlightened young aristocrat, who dressed expensively, disdaining the sober university regulations about clothing.

Though committed by his fellowship to enter the priesthood, Herbert wanted to emulate his brothers: the eldest, Edward, Lord Herbert of Cherbury, was an ambassador who became a minor poet and the founder of English deism; another, Henry, was a courtier and parliamentarian who became the master of revels. In 1620 George was elected to "the finest place in the University," that of public orator. As such, he wrote official letters to dignitaries and delivered Latin orations to them when they visited Cambridge.

Doubly moved by conviction and an ambition to become a secretary of state, Herbert supported the peace policy of King James I and denounced the horrors of war in an oration before one of those visitors, Prince Charles, who was eager for war with Spain. The same motives induced Herbert to become a member of Parliament in 1624. But the King's death in the next year put the militarists in power and ended his secular prospects. About 1626 he entered deacon's orders. In 1627 his mother died, and the funeral sermon preached by Donne was published with Latin and Greek poems written by Herbert in her memory. Two years later he resigned his university post and married Anne Danvers. Ordained a priest on Sept. 19, 1630, he officiated for less than 2 1/2 years as rector of Bemerton in Wiltshire, occupying the parsonage with his wife, six servants, and three orphaned nieces. His charity extended to generous donations to repair churches.

At Bemerton, Herbert completed A Priest to the Temple (published in 1652), a prose work on how to be an ideal parson. He also revised and greatly added to some 72 religious poems which he had previously composed. These poems were published posthumously as The Temple: Sacred Poems and Private Ejaculations (1633). This work won high praise in the 17th century, but after the 13th edition (1709) it was not published again for 90 years. Since 1799, however, it has been printed with growing frequency. The Victorians found it uplifting and quaint but were biased by Izaak Walton's charming, inaccurate life of George Herbert (1670), which overconcentrates on his brief priesthood and transforms him into a saintly paragon.

The poems in The Temple are sequentially related. Though superficially simple, they are profoundly complex in art, meaning, and allusiveness, reflecting Herbert's expert knowledge and love of music. They conduct the reader from the Church Porch into the Church, tracing man's spiritual and physical growth as a resistant soul struggling against a God who seeks to establish His temple in the human heart. The volume concludes with a versified history of the Church Militant and an envoi.

Further Reading

The standard edition of Herbert's works is F. E. Hutchinson, ed., The Works of George Herbert (1941). The chief, though misleading, biographical source, Izaak Walton, The Lives of John Donne, Sir Henry Wotton, Richard Hooker, George Herbert and Robert Sanderson (1670; often reprinted), should be read as charming Anglican propaganda. Its fallacies are noted in David Novarr, The Making of Walton's Lives (1958). There is no definitive biography, but Marchette Chute, Two Gentle Men: The Lives of George Herbert and Robert Herrick (1959), is reliable and interesting. The best general study is Joseph H. Summers, George Herbert: His Religion and His Art (1954). See also Margaret Bottrall, George Herbert (1954). More specialized studies are Rosemond Tuve, A Reading of George Herbert (1952), and Mary E. Rickey, Utmost Art: Complexity in the Verse of George Herbert (1966).

Additional Sources

Asals, Heather A. R. (Heather Anne Ross), Equivocal predication: George Herbert's way to God, Toronto; Buffalo: University of Toronto Press, 1981.

Benet, Diana, Secretary of praise: the poetic vocation of George Herbert, Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1984.

Beresford, John, Gossip of the seventeenth and eighteenth centurie, Freeport, N.Y., Books for Libraries Press, 1968.

Bloch, Chana, Spelling the word: George Herbert and the Bible, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985.

Bottrall, Margaret (Smith), George Herbert, Folcroft, Pa.: Folcroft Library Editions, 1971; Norwood, Pa.: Norwood Editions, 1975; Philadelphia: R. West, 1977.

Caulkins, Richard Leonard, George Herbert's art of love: his use of the tropes of eros in the poetry of agape, New York: P. Lang, 1996.

Charles, Amy Marie, A life of George Herbert, Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1977.

Clements, Arthur L., Poetry of contemplation: John Donne, George Herbert, Henry Vaughan, and the modern period, Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1990.

Di Cesare, Mario A., A concordance to the complete writings of George Herbert, Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1977.

Dickson, Donald R., The Fountain of living waters: the typology of the waters of life in Herbert, Vaughan, and Traherne, Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1987.

Eliot, T. S. (Thomas Stearns), George Herbert, Plymouth: Northcote House in association with The British Council, 1994, 1962.

Essential articles for the study of George Herbert's poetry, Hamden, Conn.: Archon Books, 1979.

Fish, Stanley Eugene, The living temple: George Herbert and catechizing, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978.

Flesch, William, Generosity and the limits of authority: Shakespeare, Herbert, Milton, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1992.

Freer, Coburn, Music for a king; George Herbert's style and the metrical psalm, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1972.

George Herbert journal, Bridgeport, Conn., s. n. Semiannual.

Harman, Barbara Leah., Costly monuments: representations of the self in George Herbert's poetry, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1982.

Higgins, Dick, George Herbert's pattern poems: in their tradition, West Glover, Vt.: Unpublished Editions, 1977.

Hodgkins, Christopher, Authority, church, and society in George Herbert: return to the middle way, Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1993.

Kumar, Kailash, George Herbert, heart in pilgrimage, Liverpool: Lucas Publications, 1988.

Kyne, Mary Theresa, Country parsons, country poets: George Herbert and Gerard Manley Hopkins as spiritual autobiographers, Greensburg, PA: Eadmer Press, 1992.

Like season'd timber: new essays on George Herbert, New York: P. Lang, 1987.

Lull, Janis., The poem in time: reading George Herbert's revisions of the church, Newark: University of Delaware Press; London: Associated University Presses, 1990.

Mann, Cameron, bp., A concordance to the English poems of George Herbert, Folcroft, Pa.: Folcroft Press, 1970; St. Clair Shores, Mich., Scholarly Press, 1972; Folcroft, Pa.: Folcroft Library Editions, 1977; Norwood, Pa.: Norwood Editions, 1978.

Miller, Edmund, Drudgerie divine: the rhetoric of God and man in George Herbert, Salzburg: Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik, Universität Salzburg, 1979.

Miller, Edmund, George Herbert's kinships: an ahnentafel with annotations, Bowie, Md.: Heritage Books, 1993.

Nuttall, A. D. (Anthony David), Overheard by God: fiction and prayer in Herbert, Milton, Dante, and St. John, London; New York: Methuen, 1980.

Nuttall, A. D. (Anthony David), Overheard by God: fiction and prayer in Herbert, Milton, Dante, and St. John, London; New York: Methuen, 1983, 1980.

Page, Nick., George Herbert: a portrait, Tunbridge Wells England: Monarch, 1993.

Pahlka, William H., Saint Augustine's meter and George Herbert's will, Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 1987.

Ray, Robert H., A George Herbert companion, New York: Garland Pub., 1995.

Roberts, John Richard., George Herbert: an annotated bibliography of modern criticism, 1905-1984, Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1988.

Schoenfeldt, Michael Carl, Prayer and power: George Herbert and Renaissance courtship, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991.

Seelig, Sharon Cadman., The shadow of eternity: belief and structure in Herbert, Vaughan, and Traherne, Lexington, Ky.: University Press of Kentucky, 1981.

Shaw, Robert Burns, The call of God: the theme of vocation in the poetry of Donne and Herbert, Cambridge, MA: Cowley Publications, 1981.

Sherwood, Terry G. (Terry Grey), Herbert's prayerful art, Toronto; Buffalo: University of Toronto Press, 1989.

Singleton, Marion White, God's courtier: configuring a different grace in George Herbert's Temple, Cambridge Cambridgeshire; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1987.

Stein, Arnold Sidney, George Herbert's lyrics, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1968.

Stewart, Stanley, George Herbert, Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1986.

Strier, Richard, Love known: theology and experience in George Herbert's poetry, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983.

Taylor, Mark, The soul in paraphrase; George Herbert's poetic, The Hague, Mouton, 1974.

Thorpe, Douglas, A new earth: the labor of language in Pearl, Herbert's Temple, and Blake's Jerusalem, Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 1991.

Todd, Richard, The opacity of signs: acts of interpretation in George Herbert's "The Temple", Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1986.

Toliver, Harold E., George Herbert's Christian narrative, University Park, Pa.: Pennsylvania State University, 1993.

"Too rich to clothe the Sunne": essays on George Herbert, Pittsburgh, Pa.: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1980.

Tuve, Rosemond, A reading of George Herbert, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982.

Veith, Gene Edward, Reformation spirituality: the religion of George Herbert, Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press; London: Associated University Presses, 1985.

Vendler, Helen Hennessy., The poetry of George Herbert, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1975.

Wall, John N., Transformations of the word: Spenser, Herbert, Vaughan, Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1988.

Westerweel, Bart, Patterns and patterning: a study of four poems by George Herbert, Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1984.

White, James Boyd, This book of starres: learning to read George Herbert, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1994.

Herbert, George (1593-1633). Poet. Grounded in classics at Westminster School, then graduate of Trinity College, Cambridge, Herbert obtained the post of university orator (held 1620-7) as a preliminary to public service. But by 1625 his ‘Court-hopes’ had faded with his patrons’ deaths, so he turned to the church, finally being ordained in 1630 and inducted at Bemerton, near Salisbury. Herbert concentrated his remaining years on the parish and church repair—‘Holy Mr Herbert’ was a contemporary assessment. He is best known for his sacred poetry (The Temple, posthumously 1633), portraying his spiritual conflicts.

Quotes:

"He that is not handsome at 20, nor strong at 30, nor rich at 40, nor wise at 50, will never be handsome, strong, rich or wise."

"Storms make the oak grow deeper roots."

"Deceive not thy physician, confessor, nor lawyer."

"He that knows nothing doubts nothing."

"Be thrifty, but not covetous."

"One enemy is too much."

See more famous quotes by George Herbert

For other persons named George Herbert, see George Herbert (disambiguation).

George Herbert
Portrait by Robert White in 1674 (National Portrait Gallery)
Born	3 April 1593(1593-04-03) Montgomery, Wales
Died	1 March 1633 (aged 39) Bemerton, Wiltshire, England
Occupation	Poet, orator, priest

Anglicanism portal

George Herbert (3 April 1593 – 1 March 1633) was a Welsh poet, orator and Anglican priest. Being born into an artistic and wealthy family, he received a good education which led to his holding prominent positions at Cambridge University and Parliament. As a student at Trinity College, Cambridge, England, George Herbert excelled in languages and music. He went to college with the intention of becoming a priest, but his scholarship attracted the attention of King James I. Herbert served in parliament for two years. After the death of King James and at the urging of a friend, Herbert's interest in ordained ministry was renewed. In 1630, in his late thirties he gave up his secular ambitions and took holy orders in the Church of England, spending the rest of his life as a rector of the little parish of Fugglestone St Peter with Bemerton St Andrew, near Salisbury. He was noted for unfailing care for his parishioners, bringing the sacraments to them when they were ill, and providing food and clothing for those in need. Throughout his life he wrote religious poems characterized by a precision of language, a metrical versatility, and an ingenious use of imagery or conceits that was favoured by the metaphysical school of poets.^[1] He is best remembered as a writer of poems and the hymn "Come, My Way, My Truth, My Life."

Contents 1 Early life 2 Priesthood 3 Works 4 Commemorations 5 References 6 External links

Early life

Herbert was born in Montgomery in Wales. His family was wealthy, eminent, intellectual and fond of the arts. His mother Magdalen was a patron and friend of John Donne and other poets; his older brother Edward, later Lord Herbert of Cherbury, was an important poet and philosopher, often referred to as "the father of English deism". Herbert's father Richard Herbert, Lord of Cherbury died when George was three, leaving a widow and ten children.^[2]

Herbert entered Westminster School at or around the age of 12 where he became a day student.^[2] Though sometime after he was elevated to the level of scholar. Herbert later was admitted on scholarship to Trinity College, Cambridge in 1609 where he graduated first with a Bachelors and then with a masters degree in 1613 at the age of 20.^[2] After graduating from Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge (where he achieved degrees with distinction), Herbert was elected a major fellow of his college. In 1618 he was appointed Reader in Rhetoric at Cambridge and in 1620 he was elected to the post of Cambridge University orator, whose duties would be served by poetic skill. He held this position until 1628.^[3]

In 1624 he became a Member of Parliament, representing Montgomeryshire.^[2] While these positions were suited to a career at court, and James I had shown him favour, circumstances worked against him: the King died in 1625, and two influential patrons of Herbert died later in the decade. However George Herbert's only service to parliament may have already ended in 1624 since, although a Mr Herbert is mentioned as a committee member, there is no record in the Commons Journal for 1625 of Mr. George Herbert (a distinction carefully made in the records of the preceding parliament).^[2]

Priesthood

He took up his duties in Bemerton, a rural parish in Wiltshire, about 75 miles southwest of London in 1630. Here he preached and wrote poetry; also helping to rebuild the church out of his own funds^[2].

In 1633 Herbert finished a collection of poems entitled The Temple: Sacred Poems and Private Ejaculations, which imitates the architectural style of churches through both the meaning of the words and their visual layout. The themes of God and love are treated by Herbert as much as psychological forces as metaphysical phenomena.

Suffering from poor health, Herbert died of tuberculosis only three years after taking holy orders. On his deathbed, he reportedly gave the manuscript of The Temple to Nicholas Ferrar, the founder of a semi-monastic Anglican religious community at Little Gidding (a name best known today through the poem Little Gidding by T. S. Eliot), telling him to publish the poems if he thought they might "turn to the advantage of any dejected poor soul", and otherwise, to burn them.

Works

Barnabas Oley edited in 1652 Herbert's Remains, or sundry pieces of that Sweet Singer, Mr. George Herbert, containing A Priest to the Temple, or the countrey parson, Jacula Prudentum, &c. Prefixed was an unsigned preface by Oley. The second edition appeared in 1671 as A Priest to the Temple or the Country Parson, with a new preface, signed Barnabas Oley. These pieces were reprinted in later editions of Herbert's Works. The manuscript of The Country Parson was the property of Herbert's friend, Arthur Wodenoth, who gave it to Oley; the prefaces were a source for Izaak Walton's memoir of Herbert.

All of Herbert's English surviving poems are religious, and some have been used as hymns. They are characterised by directness of expression and some conceits which can appear quaint. Many of the poems have intricate rhyme schemes, and variations of lines within stanzas.

Herbert also wrote A Priest to the Temple (or The Country Parson) offering practical advice to country parsons. In it, he advises that "things of ordinary use" such as ploughs, leaven, or dances, could be made to "serve for lights even of Heavenly Truths".

His Jacula Prudentium (sometimes seen as Jacula Prudentum), a collection of pithy proverbs published in 1651, included many sayings still repeated today, for example "His bark is worse than his bite." Similarly oft quoted is his Outlandish Proverbs published in 1630.

Richard Baxter said, "Herbert speaks to God like one that really believeth a God, and whose business in the world is most with God. Heart-work and heaven-work make up his books". Dame Helen Gardner adds "head-work" because of his "intellectual vivacity".

Herbert influenced his fellow metaphysical poet Henry Vaughan who, in turn, influenced William Wordsworth.

George Herbert's poetry has been set to music by several composers, including Ralph Vaughan Williams, Lennox Berkeley, Judith Weir, Randall Thompson, William Walton and Patrick Larley.

Herbert also wrote poems in Greek and in Latin. The latter mainly concern ceremonial controversy with the Puritans, but include a response to Pope Urban VIII's treatment of the ROMA AMOR anagram.

Commemorations

He is commemorated on 27 February throughout the Anglican Communion and on 1 March of the Calendar of Saints of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

Herbert has a window honouring him in Westminster Abbey.^[4]

Published in August 2009, "If you meet George Herbert on the road, kill him": radically re-thinking priestly ministry, by Justin Lewis-Anthony, is an exploration of the life of George Herbert as a take-off for a re-evaluation of the ministry within the Church of England.

References

1. ^ The Grolier 1996 Multimedia Encyclopedia, Grolier Electronic Publishing, Inc.
2. ^ ^{a b c d e f} Charles, Amy M. (1977). A Life of George Herbert. Cornell University Press. p. 28. 
3. ^ Herbert, George in Venn, J. & J. A., Alumni Cantabrigienses, Cambridge University Press, 10 vols, 1922–1958.
4. ^ Dunton, Larkin (1896). The World and Its People. Silver, Burdett. p. 35. 

Sheldrake, Philip (2009) Heaven in Ordinary: George Herbert and his writings. Canterbury Press ISBN 978-1-85311-948-4

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: George Herbert

Wikisource has original text related to this article: Author:George Herbert

• George Herbert at the Cambridge Authors Project
• George Herbert Bio and Poems
• George Herbert and Bemerton about his priesthood and parish
• Selected Poetry of George Herbert at Representative Poetry Online
• The Life of Mr. George Herbert by Izaak Walton (1593–1683)
• Easterwings (poem by George Herbert) with commentary upon and pics of its modern and 1633 arrangements

Persondata
NAME	Herbert, George
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Welsh poet, priest
DATE OF BIRTH	3 April 1593
PLACE OF BIRTH	Montgomery, Wales
DATE OF DEATH	1 March 1633
PLACE OF DEATH	Bemerton, Wiltshire, England

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