THE ENGLISH WORKS OF
GEORGE HERBERT
IN THREE VOLUMES
VOLUME II
YOKK
.'
Ruins of Montgomery Castle in North Wales, the birthplace of
Herbert. See Vol. /, p. 20.
THE ENGLISH WORKS OF
George Herbert ,:7r.r
NEWLY ARRANGED AND ANNOTATED AND
CONSIDERED IN RELATION TO HIS LIFE
BY GEORGE HERBERT PALMER
VOLUME II
CAMBRIDGE POEMS
*
BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN AND COMPANY
MDCCCCV
COPYRIGHT 1905 BY GEORGE HERBERT PALMER
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Published October 1305
PR
3501
TABLE OF CONTENTS
VOLUME II
GROUP PAGE
I. THE CHURCH -PORCH 1
H. THE RESOLVE . 69
m. THE CHURCH 109
IV. MEDITATION 205
V. THE INNER LIFE 275
VI. THE CRISIS 321
VARIATIONS OF THE MANUSCRIPTS 403
INDEX TO POEMS 427
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
VOLUME II
RUINS OF MONTGOMERY CASTLE FBONTISPIECE
TITLE-PAGE OF FERRAR'S FIRST EDITION PAGE 12
HALL OF WESTMINSTER SCHOOL 68
TITLE-PAGE OF BODLEIAN MANUSCRIPT 108
MONUMENT IN MONTGOMERY CHURCH 200
COURT OF TRINITY COLLEGE 204
EXTERIOR OF LEIGHTON CHURCH . 274
INTERIOR OF LEIGHTON CHURCH 320
EDINGDON CHURCH 402
THE DEDICATION
JLJORD, my -first fruits present themselves to thee.
Yet not mine neither : for from thee they came
And must return. Accept of them and me,
And make us strive who shall sing best thy name.
Turn their eyes hither who shall make a gain.
Theirs who shall hurt themselves or me, refrain.
THE PRINTERS TO THE READER1
f llHE dedication of this work having been made
_L by the Authour to the Divine Majestie onely,
how should we now presume to interest any mortall
man in the patronage of it ? Much lesse think we
it meet to seek the recommendation of the Muses
for that which himself was confident to have been
inspired by a diviner breath then flows from Heli
con. The world therefore shall receive it in that
naked simplicitie with which he left it, without
any addition either of support or ornament more
then is included in it self. We leave it free and
unforestalled to every man's judgement, and to
the benefit that he shall finde by perusall. Onely
for the clearing of some passages, we have thought
it not unfit to make the common Reader privie to
some few particularities of the condition and dispo
sition of the Person.
Being nobly born, and as eminently endued with
gifts of the minde, and having by industrie and
happy education perfected them to that great
height of excellencie whereof his fellowship of
Trinitie Colledge in Cambridge and his Orator-
ship in the Universitie, together with that know-
1 The work of Nicholas Ferrar.
xii THE PRINTERS TO THE READER
ledge which the King's Court had taken of him,
could make relation farre above ordinarie; quit
ting both his deserts and all the opportunities that
he had for worldly preferment, he betook himself
to the Sanctuarie and Temple of God, choosing
rather to serve at God's Altar then to seek the
honour of State-employments. As for those inward
enforcements to this course (for outward there was
none) which many of these ensuing verses bear
witness of, they detract not from the freedome, but
adde to the honour of this resolution in him. As
God had enabled him, so he accounted him meet
not onely to be called, but to be compelled to this
service. Wherein his faithful discharge was such
as may make him justly a companion to the primi
tive Saints, and a pattern or more for the age he
lived in.
To testifie his independencie upon all others,
and to quicken his diligence in this kinde, he used
in his ordinarie speech, when he made mention of
the blessed name of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus
Christ, to adde, My Master.
Next God, he loved that which God himself
hath magnified above all things, that is, his Word :
so as he hath been heard to make solemn protesta
tion that he would not part with one leaf thereof
for the whole world, if it were offered him in ex
change.
His obedience and conformitie to the Church
THE PRINTERS TO THE READER xiii
and the discipline thereof was singularly remark
able. Though he abounded in private devotions,
yet went he every morning and evening with his
familie to the Church; and by his example, ex
hortations, and encouragements drew the greater
part of his parishioners to accompanie him dayly
in the publick celebration of Divine Service.
As for worldly matters, his love and esteem to
them was" so little as no man can more ambitiously
seek then he did earnestly endeavour the resigna
tion of an Ecclesiasticall dignitie, which he was
possessour of. But God permitted not the accom
plishment of this desire, having ordained him his
instrument for re-edifying of the Church belonging
thereunto, that had layen ruinated almost twenty
yeares. The reparation whereof, having been un-
effectually attempted by publick collections, was
in the end by his own and some few others' private
free-will-offerings successfully effected. With the
remembrance whereof, as of an especiall good
work, when a friend went about to comfort him on
his deathbed, he made answer, It is a good work,
if it be sprinkled with the bloud of Christ. Other
wise then in this respect he could finde nothing
to glorie or comfort himself with, neither in this
nor in any other thing.
And these are but a few of many that might be
said, which we have chosen to premise as a glance
to some parts of the ensuing book and for an
xiv THE PRINTERS TO THE READER
example to the Reader. We conclude all with his
own Motto, with which he used to conclude all
things that might seem to tend any way to his own
honour:
Lesse then the least of God's mercies.
I
THE OHUROH-PORCH
PREFACE
rTIHE CHURCH-PORCH bears much the same re-
I lation to Herbert's other poetry as the Jewish
Wisdom books — Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Ecclesi-
asticus, and Wisdom — bear to the Psalms and the
Prophets. There is little religion in it, but shrewd
knowledge of men, manners, and methods of win
ning eminence. It is a collection of wise saws and
modem instances which speak of precedents and
the best social usage. It is written by the friend of
Bacon, by the university courtier, the collector of
proverbs, the lover of a pregnant phrase. Its saga- \
city of thought and expression, though strongly
marked by tfre temper of its time, has, like the
Wisdom of the Jews, held well the esteem of after
ages. Probably few parts of Herbert are less out-—
grown.
Its theme determines its position. Propriety,
beauty, good judgment, familiarity with the best
customs, always of high importance in Herbert's
eyes, are here set forth as the suitable introduction
to religion, which itself lies beyond. This is the sig
nificance of the title, THE CHURCH-PORCH. Good
breeding opens the door of the TEMPLE. Attention
to the refinements of life teaches the youth how to
behave himself in church. The results of Herbert's
4 PREFACE TO
secular experience, which he always professed was
to prepare him for the priesthood, are here offered
to the young reader as his best preparation for the
spiritual fervors which follow. Purified of coarser
faults by good taste, he may become accessible to
the delicacies of divine love.
To this work of purification the enigmatic word
refers which follows the title. Perirrhanterium is
the Greek term for a sprinkling instrument. At
the entrance of the church stands a basin of holy
water, placed there to remind the intending wor
shipper of his need of cleansing (Numbers viii, 7,
and Hebrews x, 22). According to the warning in
SUPERLIMINARE, II, 119, 1. 2, he is fit to enter the
temple itself only after being properly sprinkled
at the entrance.
The style of THE CHURCH-PORCH, no less than
the spiritual conditions displayed in it, connects it
with Herbert's earlier life. It contains no state
ment that its author is a priest, though he is deeply
interested in the priest's work and office. As it is
included in the Williams Manuscript, it must have
been written before 1630. But how greatly its
author valued it, and how steadily he labored on
its improvement, may be read in the multitude of
changes, great and slight, which were introduced
during the Bemerton years. Few of Herbert's
poems show so large a difference between their
earlier and their later forms.
The processes of alteration in THE CHURCH-
THE CHURCH-PORCH 5
PORCH which went on during the last half-dozen
years of Herbert's life are instructive as regards the
original methods of its composition. Probably
written piecemeal and not produced during any sin
gle year, it possesses little organic unity. Its many
themes might be increased, diminished, or trans
posed without injury to the plan. Why should a
single stanza on lying stand between considerable
discussions of swearing and of idleness? Why
should the precepts on eating be parted from those
on drinking ? Or stanzas so similar as the eleventh
and fortieth be widely removed ? Or a single stanza
on conversation be introduced between gambling
and self-restraint, while the general discussion of
the subject follows fourteen stanzas later ? Many
such incongruities occur, a fact the more noticeable
and the more likely to be connected with temporal
causes because Herbert's artistic sense when exer
cised on a small scale usually secures great firmness
of form. That THE CHURCH-PORCH, however,
does not altogether lack plan is remarked by G.
Ryley, who quaintly writes:
"With his Perirrhanteriwn Herbert takes care
to sprinkle handfuls of advice to them that will
go to church. These he throws out under four
heads.
(1) Ethics or personal duties, 1. 1-150.
(2) (Economics or family duties, 1. 151-204.
(3) Politics or Sociable Maxims, 1. 205-384.
(4) Lastly he comes to scatter a handful or
6 PREFACE TO
two of Ecclesiastics or Church Duties, 1. 385-
end." 1
The piece begins with the ruder sins and ad
vances to the niceties of worship, the instructions
about public worship being more coherent than any
other part of the poem. These may have been
written last, when Herbert's long interest in the
priesthood was approaching a decision. In short,
the style and texture of the poem indicate that it
was begun early, that it grew by accretion rather
than construction, and that it never in its author's
mind was altogether finished.
How early it was begun seems hinted in THE
DEDICATION. This solitary stanza stands to THE
CHURCH-PORCH in about the same relation as
the ENVOY to THE CHURCH MILITANT. While not
exactly a part of the poem, the poem would be in
complete without it, and it would be fragmentary
without THE CHURCH-PORCH. It is written to in
troduce something. And while what it introduces
includes more than THE CHURCH-PORCH, it is with
1 This and many subsequent quotations are taken from
a manuscript of four hundred pages, written by a certain
George Ryley in 1714 and now in the Bodleian Library.
Of Ryley's history nothing is known. His volume forms an
elaborate commentary on Herbert's poems, in which they
are all passed in review and expounded with reference to
their religious import. Ryley's aims and my own are so
divergent that I have been able to quote him less often
than I should like, especially as I obtained a copy of his
manuscript only after my notes were practically complete.
THE CHURCH-PORCH 7
this that THE DEDICATION primarily joins itself,
being identical with it in sententious metre. Ac
cordingly, though in the Bodleian Manuscript it is
printed on the title-page, in Ferrar's Edition and
in the Williams Manuscript it stands on a leaf by
itself just before THE CHURCH-PORCH, which it
serves as a kind of antecedent stanza. When this
connection is once recognized, its mention of first
fruits becomes significant.
In 1613 Herbert contributed two Latin poems to
the Cambridge Elegies on the death of Prince
Henry, and in 1620 a Latin poem to the Elegies on
Queen Anne. His ANGLI MUSAE RESPONSORIAE,
or reply to Melville, had long been in circulation. In
1623 he printed his Latin Oration on the return
from Spain of Prince Charles and Buckingham.
Would the phrase first fruits naturally have been
used after so many publications? In my third
Essay I explained how in 1610 Herbert announced
a resolution to consecrate all his abilities in poetry
to God's glory. Between this date and 1613 I think
THE DEDICATION was most probably drawn up,
the metre of THE CHURCH-PORCH selected, and the
poem itself at least begun. The large amount of
secular matter, the borrowed and regular measure,
and the hortatory style — peculiarities absent from
Herbert's other work — suggest an early date.
A comparison of THE CHURCH-PORCH with Her
bert's other long poems, THE CHURCH MILITANT
and THE SACRIFICE, throws light on the character
8 PREFACE TO
of each and fixes the place of each in the collection.
THE CHURCH MILITANT, in both manuscripts and
in Ferrar's original edition, stands at the close, ap
pearing there almost as an independent work. The
preceding poems are separated from it by the word
Finis and a GLORIA. In order not to break the con
tinuity of the lyric verse, I retain this late position
of THE CHURCH MILITANT, though I believe it to
be one of the very earliest of Herbert's poems. Sub
stantially also I keep the positions of the other two
unchanged ; for dissimilar as is THE SACRIFICE
from everything else Herbert wrote, it is not, like
THE CHURCH MILITANT, a detachable piece. In
its elaborate display of the forthgoing love of God
and the averseness of man, it is plainly intended
as the natural presupposition and starting-point
of all the subsequent verse. I respect this inten
tion and keep its priority unchanged. To devise
another position for THE CHURCH-PORCH is obvi
ously impossible.
It may not be fanciful, however, to find the dis
tinctive character of these three poems in their per
sonal pronouns. Each has one peculiar to itself.
That of THE CHURCH MILITANT is the third, he or
it; for this poem alone is descriptive and historical.
The pronoun of THE SACRIFICE is 7, a word which
gives color to nearly all of Herbert's verse, but has
here a unique employment. It is used as the pro
noun of a monologue, of Herbert's single attempt
at sustained dramatic speech. The pronoun of
THE CHURCH-PORCH 9
THE CHURCH-PORCH is announced in its first word,
Thou, this being the only occasion on which Her
bert attempts a piece of instruction. CHARMS AND
KNOTS and CONSTANCIE are similar in substance,
but the form of direct address is not employed.
Thou appears not infrequently in Herbert's other
poems. But elsewhere it marks the address of the
writer to himself or to God. It is a part of that
inner communion so characteristic of THE TEM
PLE, an appeal to the worser self by the better,
and not, as in the case of THE CHURCH-PORCH,
an exhortation addressed to some one stand
ing by.
The metre of THE CHURCH-PORCH is the same as
that used in SINNES ROUND, III, 143, and, with a
peculiar adaptation of the final line, in THE WATER
COURSE, III, 147. The metre was a favorite one
in Herbert's time. It had already been employed
by Sidney in some of the songs of his Arcadia;
by Spenser in Astrophel, The Ruines of Time, and
in two sections of The Shepherd's Calendar ; by
Shakespeare in Venus and Adonis ; and more fre
quently than any other metre by Southwell. It
appears also in Breton, Lord Brooke, Campion,
Donne, Drummond, Lord Herbert, Overbury,
Quarles, and Wither. It generally serves these
writers as a metre of instruction. A stanza from
Southwell's Preparative to Prayer (1595) might
easily be mistaken for one from THE CHURCH-
PORCH :
10 PREFACE TO
" When thou dost talk with God (by prayer I meane)
Lift up pure hands, lay down all Lust's desires,
Fix thoughts on heaven, present a conscience cleane ;
Such holy balme to mercie's throne aspires.
Confesse faults' guilt, crave pardon for thy sinne,
Tread holy paths, call grace to guide therein."
THE CHURCH-PORCH has been imitated in the
same metre by Vaughan in his Rules and Lessons ;
by Christopher Harvey in his Church Yard, Gate,
Walls, and Porch; and was translated into Latin
by William Dillingham in 1678.
At St. John's School, Hurstpierpoint, England,
the statutes direct that every boy shall learn THE
CHURCH-PORCH by heart. Accordingly, in 1867
the Head-Master, E. C. Lowe, D. D., edited a
convenient edition with explanatory notes. Many
of these notes I have adopted and acknowledged.
The topics of THE CHURCH-PORCH and the order
of their discussion appear in the following list :
i. Address to the young Reader.
H-IV. Chastity,
v-ix. Temperance,
x-xii. Oaths,
xiii. Lying.
xiv-xvi. Indolence,
xvii-xrx. Education,
xx-xxi. Constancy.
XXII-XXHI. Gluttony,
xxiv-xxv. Self-discipline.
THE CHURCH-PORCH 11
xxvi-xxx. The use of money,
xxxi-xxxn. Dress,
xxxin-xxxiv. Gaming.
xxxv. Conversation,
xxxvi-xxxviii. Command of temper.
XXXIX-XLII. Mirth.
XLIII-XLV. Behavior to the great.
XLVI. Friendship.
XLVII-XLVIII. Suretyship.
XLIX-LV. Social intercourse.
LVI-LVIII. Magnanimity.
LIX-LXI. Indebtedness to others.
LXII. Personal nicety.
LXIII-LXV. Almsgiving.
LXVI-LXXI. Public prayer.
LXXII-LXXV. Preaching.
LXXVI. Review of the day.
LXXVII. Conclusion.
King James, instructing his son in Basilikon
Doron, Bk. Ill (1599), follows the order of food,
drink, sleep, clothes, language, games, gambling,
companions, passions, magnanimity. Other books
on education which Herbert probably knew are
Castiglione's Courtier in Hoby's translation (1561),
Ascham's Scholemaster (1570), Peacham's Com-
pleat Gentleman (1622), and Brathwaite's Eng
lish Gentleman (1630).
Title-Page of the first edition of Herbert's Poems. See Vol. /,
p. 171.
1 TEMPLE
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CliLATION.S. " WSSS
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THE CHURCH-PORCH
14 THE CHURCH-PORCH
•NOTES:
4. Sidney in his Defence of Poesie says that the poets
" delight to move men to take that goodness in hand
which, without delight, they would fly." Arch
bishop Leighton quotes from Gregory Nazianzen,
TO TtpTTVOV TOV KttXov 7TOIOV/X,€VOI O^TfJfJLd KO.I TV7TOWT€S
6. Sacrifice = something consecrated.
7. " He very properly places lust in the front of all the
rest that he cautions against, following the exam
ple of St. James (i, 15), who makes it the mother of
all. 'When lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth
death:*" G. Ryley.
12. Matthew v, 8.
I. THE CHURCH-PORCH 15
THE CHURCH-PORCH
PERTRBHANTER1UM
THOU whose sweet youth and early hopes inhance
Thy rate and price, and mark thee for a treasure,
Hearken unto a Verser, who may chance
Ryme thee to good, and make a bait of pleasure.
A verse may finde him who a sermon flies, 5
And turn delight into a sacrifice.
II
Beware of lust : it doth pollute and foul
Whom God in Baptisme washt with his own
blood.
It blots thy lesson written in thy soul;
The holy lines cannot be understood. 10
How dare those eyes upon a Bible look,
Much lesse towards God, whose lust is all their
book?
16 THE CHURCH-PORCH
13. In the second edition of 1633 the reading Wholly
abstain appeared, and has since been generally
used; but the Bodleian Manuscript has the read
ing of the text.
18. Rottennesse. Proverbs xii, 4.
21. ImpaVd=z hedged us in. The law of marriage is
grounded in both God's demand and man's need.
24. In order to be perverse. Cf. 1. 395 and THE SIN
NER, II, 295, 1. 7. For the thought, GIDDINESSE,
III, 131, 1. 17.
25. Sir William Temple (1628-1699) writes, in his
Essay upon Health and Long Life : " The first
Glass may pass for Health, the second for good
Humour, the third for Friends ; but the fourth is
for our Enemies."
30. If I go on drinking, passing the bottle round.
I. THE CHURCH-PORCH 17
in
Abstain wholly, or wed. Thy bounteous Lord
Allows thee choise of paths, Take no by-wayes,
But gladly welcome what he doth afford; 15
Not grudging that thy lust hath bounds and
staies.
Continence hath his joy. Weigh both; and so
If rottennesse have more, let Heaven go.
IV
If God had laid all common, certainly
Man would have been th'incloser; but since
now
God hath impal'd us, on the contrarie 21
Man breaks the fence and every ground will
plough.
O what were man might he himself misplace !
Sure, to be crosse, he would shift feet and face.
Drink not the third glasse, which thou canst not
tame 25
When once it is within thee; but before,
Mayst rule it as thou list and poure the shame,
Which it would poure on thee, upon the floore.
It is most just to throw that on the ground 29
Which would throw me there, if I keep the round.
18 THE CHURCH-PORCH
33. "The sin of drunkenness is the root of all sin:"
King James' Counterblast Against Tobacco.
36. He divests himself of every endowment except his
animal nature. So Shakespeare, Othello, ii, 3: "I
have lost the immortal part of myself, and what
remains is bestial."
37. Wine-sprung = strained, cracked, or bent by wine.
38. Cf. THE ROSE, II, 389, 1. 3.
39. His carme=the other man's cup. The word oc
curs again in PROVIDENCE, III, 93, 1. 127. Shake
speare's men drink from cans: "I hate it as an
unfilled can: " Twelfth Night, ii, 3.
41. Thy hold of thy self .
46. Beast, referring to 1. 36.
I. THE CHURCH-PORCH 19
VI
He that is drunken may his mother kill,
Bigge with his sister. He hath lost the reins,
Is outlawd by himself. All kinde of ill
Did with his liquour slide into his veins. 34
The drunkard forfets Man, and doth devest
All worldly right save what he hath by beast.
VII
Shall I, to please another's wine-sprung minde,
Lose all mine own? God hath giv'n me a
measure <
Short of his canne, and bodie, Must I finde 39
A pain in that wherein he findes a pleasure ?
Stay at the third glasse. If thou lose thy hold,
Then thou art modest, and the wine grows bold.
VIII
If reason move not Gallants, quit the room,
(All in a shipwrack shift their severall way,)
Let not a common mine thee intombe. 45
Be not a beast in courtesie. But stay,
Stay at the third cup, or forego the place.
Wine above all things doth God's stamp deface.
20 THE CHURCH-PORCH
50. Philippians iii, 19.
53. Isaiah xlv, 9.
55. Exodus xx, 7.
60. Even if pleasure were my only law, I could dispense
with swearing.
63. Repeated in 1. 235.
64. // there be any ill in the custome thai may be sev
ered from the good, he pares the apple and gives
them the clean to feed on: COUNTRY PARSON,
XXXV.
66. Stake =a post in the ground as a hold-fast. PRO
VIDENCE, III, 93, 1. 123. A maim'd man turns his
staff into a stake: JACULA PRUDENTUM. " Hereby
we forfeit the refuge we might otherwise make use
of in our afflictions, when our help and hope is in
the name of the Lord:" G. Ryley.
I. THE CHURCH-PORCH 21
IX
Yet if thou sinne in wine or wantonnesse,
Boast not thereof nor make thy shame thy glorie.
Frailtie gets pardon by submissivenesse; 51
But he that boasts shuts that out of his storie.
He makes flat warre with God, and doth defie
With his poore clod of earth the spacious sky.
Take not his name, who made thy mouth, in vain :
It gets thee nothing, and hath no excuse. 56
Lust and wine plead a pleasure, avarice gain:
But the cheap swearer through his open sluce
Lets his soul runne for nought, as little fearing.
Were I an Epicure, I could bate swearing. 60
XI
When thou dost tell another's jest, therein
Omit the oathes, which true wit cannot need.
Pick out of tales the mirth, but not the sinne.
He pares his apple that will cleanly feed.
Play not away the vertue of that name 65
Which is thy best stake when griefs make thee tame.
22 THE CHURCH-PORCH
67. Cheapest, cf. 1. 58.
71 . There is no need of seizing occasions so petty. Mat
thew vii, 13.
76. Isaiah Ivii, 20.
79. So King James' short poem, Time, 1. 39: "Flee
idleteth, which is the greatest lett."
80. " Mistressing is dawdling in day-long attendance
and obsequience on a lady-love; but it must be
remembered that a young unmarried yet mar
riageable lady was called 'Mistress,' not 'Miss' as
now, and that mistressing here does not carry its
deteriorated sense:" A. B. Grosart. The line is
quoted from Donne's To Mr. Tilman After He
Had Taken Orders, 1. 30:
"Why doth the foolish world scorn that profession
Whose joys pass speech ? Why do they think unfit
That gentry should joyn families with it?
As if their day were only to be spent
In dressing, mistressing, and compliment."
In THE COUNTRY PARSON, XXXII, Herbert speaks
of the unlawfulness of spending the day in dressing,
Complementing, visiting and sporting.
83. Wings = affections. Do not employ in lazy gal
lantry the endowments which should raise you to
high station.
I. THE CHURCH-PORCH 23
XII
The cheapest sinnes most dearely punisht are,
Because to shun them also is so cheap;
For we have wit to mark them, and to spare.
O crumble not away thy soul's fair heap. 70
If thou wilt die, the gates of hell are broad; ^
Pride and full sinnes have made the way a road.
XIII
Lie not; but let thy heart be true to God,
Thy mouth to it, thy actions to them both.
Cowards tell lies, and those that fear the rod; 75
The stormie working soul spits lies and froth.
Dare to be true. Nothing can need a ly.
A fault which needs it most grows two thereby.
XIV
Flie idlenesse; which yet thou canst not flie
By dressing, mistressing, and complement. 80
If those take up thy day, the sunne will crie
Against thee; for his light was onely lent.
God gave thy soul brave wings; put not those
feathers
Into a bed, to sleep out all ill weathers.
24 THE CHURCH-PORCH
85. Severe = strict, exact. Shakespeare's Justice too has
"eyes severe:" As You Like It, ii. 7. Cf. JACULA
PRUDENTUM: He cannot be virtuous that is not
rigorous.
86. Herbert's idea of scholarship is not the discovery
of fresh truth, but the preservation and readjust
ment of what is already known.
91. The great and nationall sin of this Land he es
teems to be Idlenesse; great in ii selfe and great in
Consequence : COUNTRY PARSON, XXXII.
93. English wool has always been famous.
94. Thy storie=tlie description of you; as in 1. 52, p. 21.
96. Gone to grasse=gone to grazing (cf. 1. 93), as in
Shakespeare, 2 Henry VI, iv, 2: "In Cheapside
shall my palfrey go to grass." Grass is used in a
somewhat similar sense in H. COMMUNION, III, 385,
1. 38. The line would say, This sheeplike people
are devoted to their food, and to nothing else.
98. His family is his best care, to labour Christian
soules and raise them to their height, even to heaven;
to dresse and prune them, and take as much joy in
a straight-growing childe or servant as a Gardiner
doth in a choice tree: COUNTRY PARSON, XXXII.
99. M ark = aim at, fix the sight upon.
100. Send them abroad for the "grand tour," or as colo
nists to America.
101. This ar*=education; cf. 1. 97.
I. THE CHURCH-PORCH 25
xv
Art thou a Magistrate ? Then be severe. 85
If studious, copie fair what time hath blurr'd;
Redeem truth from his jawes. If souldier,
Chase brave employments with a naked sword
Throughout the world. Fool not: for all may
have,
If they dare try, a glorious life or grave. 90
XVI
O England! full of sinne, but most of sloth,
Spit out thy flegme and fill thy brest with
glorie.
Thy Gentrie bleats, as if thy native cloth
Transfus'd a sheepishnesse into thy storie.
Not that they all are so; but that the most 95
Are gone to grasse and in the pasture lost.
XVII
This losse springs chiefly from our education.
Some till their ground, but let weeds choke their
sonne;
Some mark a partridge, never their childe 's fashion ;
Some ship them over, and the thing is done.
Studie this art, make it thy great designe; 101
And if God's image move thee not, let thine.
26 THE CHURCH-PORCH
106. The time of breeding is the time of doing children
good : and not as many who think they have done
fairly if they leave them a good portion after their
decease: Herbert to his brother Henry, 1630.
110. A little with quiet is the only diet. He is rich that
wants nothing : JACULA PRUDENTUM.
117. Stowre or stour, frequently used by Spenser and
others as a substantive, meaning tumult, danger,
conflict, seems here to mean stout, sturdy, firm, —
the quality described at length in CONSTANCIE,
III, 119. B. and W. read sowre, a reading which
is defended by Dr. Grosart, who fails, however, to
quote a passage in Herbert, or in any other writer,
where sour indicates a desirable quality. Herbert
always employs it in an offensive sense, as 1. 211,
and GRIEVE NOT, III, 255, 1. 2.
118. To thrall =to bondage, its regular meaning in
Herbert, cf. 1. 286, and THE SACRIFICE, II, 139,
1. 167; though he also uses thraldome; e. g. HOME,
III, 325, 1. 21.
120. Shelf = a ledge, reef, or shelving coast. Cf. MIS-
ERIE, II, 257, 1. 77. William Browne in Britannia's
Pastorals (1614), Bk. I, Song 1, speaks of "Him
who is shipwrackt on love's hidden shelf e." The
meaning is, What nature intended for swift ser
vice, he makes an engine of destruction.
I. THE CHURCH-PORCH 27
XVIII
Some great estates provide, but doe not breed
A mastering minde; so both are lost thereby.
Or els they breed them tender, make them need
All that they leave; this is flat povertie. 106
For he that needs five thousand pound to live
Is full as poore as he that needs but five.
XIX
The way to make thy sonne rich is to fill 109
His minde with rest before his trunk with riches.
For wealth without contentment climbes a hill
To feel those tempests which fly over ditches.
But if thy sonne can make ten pound his measure,
Then all thou addest may be call'd his treasure.
When thou dost purpose ought, (within thy power,)
Be sure to doe it, though it be but small. 116
Constancie knits the bones and makes us stowre
When wanton pleasures becken us to thrall.
Who breaks his own bond forfeiteth himself.
What nature made a ship he makes a shelf.
28 THE CHURCH-PORCH
123. Simpring. " Smiles of pretended friendship are in
the layman the hypocrisy that pretended holiness is
in the clerk:" E. C. Lowe. Cf. AFFLICTION, II,
343, 1. 44, and THE SEARCH, III, 219, 1. 14.
124. Where thread is wound into a ball, if the end or clue
is pulled, the whole unwinds. So Shakespeare,
All 's Well, i. 3: "You have wound a goodly clue."
The meaning is, Any loose end of character en
dangers the whole.
127. Whatsoever was the father of a disease, an HI diet
was the mother. By suppers more have been killed
than Galen ever cured : JACULA PRUDENTUM. For
Herbert's Rules for Eating, see COUNTRY PARSON,
XXVI.
128. Sconse (Ger. schanz)= fence or protection. So
Shakespeare, Comedy of Errors, ii. 2: "I must get
a sconce for my head and insconce it too."
130. Two, i. e. the host whom he relieves, and the guest
whom he serves. Cf. Swift's Epistle to a Lady:
"We may carve for others thus;
And let others carve for us:
To discourse and to attend,
Is to help yourself and friend.
Conversation is but carving;
Carve for all, yourself is starving.
And that you may have your due,
Let your neighbors carve for you."
I. THE CHURCH-PORCH 29
XXI
Doe all things like a man, not sneakingly. 121
Think the king sees thee still; for his King
does.
Simpring is but a lay-hypocrisie :
Give it a corner, and the clue undoes.
Who fears to do ill, sets himself to task; 125
Who fears to do well, sure should wear a mask.
XXII
Look to thy mouth; diseases enter there.
Thou hast two sconses if thy stomack call:
Carve, or discourse. Do not a famine fear. 129
Who carves, is kind to two; who talks, to all.
Look on meat, think it dirt, then eat a bit;
And say withall, Earth to earth I commit.
30 THE CHURCH-PORCH
133. Sickly healths =" healths" which are drunk, in
ducing sickness.
135. Common-wealths, a favorite word at this time. King
James in the preface to his Counterblast Against
Tobacco says, "All sorts of people are more care
ful for their private ends than for their mother, the
Commonwealth. "
137. Ecliptick=the apparent path of the sun, oblique
with reference to the equator. Referred to again in
OUR LIFE is HID, II, 283, 1. 4.
140. " As soon as the tight hold of circumstances, which
like frost keep a man from falling away, is released,
he drops to pieces under the influence of temptation,
as in a thaw. We call a man who acts under no self-
restraint dissolute; that is, one who has melted away,
as the opposite character is resolute : " E. C. Lowe.
Cf. MORTIFICATION, II, 261, 1. 26.
142. " Under-writes, i. e. subscribes to a law, which law
each parcel or quality of man is thus bound not to
vary from or exceed:" A. B. Grosart.
148. Cf. THE METHOD, III, 197, 1. 10.
149. Good fellows=booii companions. Cf. Donne, Let
ter to Roland Woodward, 1. 28.
"So works retiredness in us; to roam
Giddily and be everywhere but at home,
Such freedom doth a banishment become."
I. THE CHURCH-PORCH 31
XXIII
Slight those who say amidst their sickly healths,
Thou liv'st by rule. What doth not so but man ?
Houses are built by rule, and common-wealths.
Entice the trusty sunne, if that you can, 136
From his Ecliptick line; becken the skie.
Who lives by rule, then, keeps good companie.
XXIV
Who keeps no guard upon himself is slack, /
And rots to nothing at the next great thaw.
Man is a shop of rules, a well truss'd pack, 141
Whose every parcell under-writes a law.
Lose not thy self, nor give thy humours way;
God gave them to thee under lock and key.
xxv
By all means use sometimes to be alone. 145
Salute thy self, see what thy soul doth wear.
Dare to look in thy chest, for 't is thine own,
And tumble up and down what thou find'st
there.
Who cannot rest till hee good fellows finde,
He breaks up house, turns out of doores his
minde. 150
THE CHURCH-PORCH
152. "Riches are for spending; spending for honour
and good actions:" Bacon, Essay XXVIII. In
spending lies the advantage: JACULA PRUDENTUM.
153. Scraper = one whose mind is on petty savings. Cf.
1. 173. In brief, a poor man is an occasion, my coun-
trey is an occasion ,my friend is an occasion, my Table
is an occasion, my apparett is an occasion ; if in all
these I either do nothing, or pinch, and scrape, and
squeeze blood undecently to the station wherein God
hath placed me, I am Covetous: COUNTRY PARSON,
XXVI.
156. Contemptible, accented on the first syllable.
162. Thy last journey.
166. These dangerous contracts between a magician and
a devil may have been suggested to Herbert by
Marlowe's History of Dr. Faustus, printed in 1604.
167. Cf. CHARMS AND KNOTS, II, 211, 1. 5.
I. THE CHURCH-PORCH 33
XXVI
Be thriftie, but not covetous; therefore give
Thy need, thine honour, and thy friend his
due.
Never was scraper brave man. Get to live;
Then live, and use it. Els, it is not true
That thou hast gotten. Surely use alone 155
Makes money not a contemptible stone.
XXVII
Never exceed thy income. Youth may make
Ev'n with the yeare; but age, if it will hit,
Shoots a bow short, and lessens still his stake
As the day lessens, and his life with it. 160
Thy children, kindred, friends upon thee call;
Before thy journey fairly part with all.
XXVIII
Yet in thy thriving still misdoubt some evil;
Lest gaining gain on thee, and make thee
dimme 164
To all things els. Wealth is the conjurer's devil ;
Whom when he thinks he hath, the devil hath
him.
Gold thou mayst safely touch; but if it stick
Unto thy hands, it woundeth to the quick.
34 THE CHURCH-PORCH
170. Luke xvii, 2. Cf. 1. 156.
171. Starres, i. e. treasures in heaven, lofty things, ideals.
Cf. AFFLICTION, II, 339, 1. 11, ARTILLERIE, 11,361,
and THE STARRE, II, 365. He who will possess
ideals can have them, though what they will cost
cannot be precisely known.
174. For one, i. e. for gold. Proverbs xiii, 7.
177. Forty pounds is mentioned, not banteringly as one
hundred and fifty years later by Goldsmith, but
as a large income. In one of Oldham's Satires
(1680) he c/dls "Diet, an horse, and thirty pounds
a year," an enviable salary for a domestic chaplain.
Herbert's income during his student years was prob
ably somewhat short of that named in the poem ;
for his annuity from his father's estate was .£30.
In 1615 there was added the income from his Fel
lowship, and in 1619 the ,£30 of his salary as Orator.
In 1623 the King gave him a sinecure which yielded
,£120 a year. It is improbable that these lines were
written after Herbert had come into the receipt of
something like ,£200 a year.
179. Curious unthrift = the fastidious prodigal.
180. When, on account of the cloth consumed, the suit
has cost more than was intended, the man of plea
sure does not blame himself, but the tailor.
184. " If you have only a dashing exterior to commend
you, you are worth no more than a ship with sails
set and no cargo aboard:" E. C. Lowe.
I. THE CHURCH-PORCH 35
XXIX
What skills it if a bag of stones or gold 169
About thy neck do drown thee ? Raise thy head,
Take_starres for money; starres not to be told
By any art, yet to be purchased.
None is so wastefull as the scraping dame.
She loseth three for one: her soul, rest, fame.
XXX
By no means runne in debt. Take thine own mea
sure. . 175
Who cannot live on twentie pound a yeare
Cannot on fourtie; he's a man of pleasure,
A kinde of thing that's for it self too deare.
The curious unthrift makes his cloth too wide,
And spares himself, but would his taylor chide.
XXXI
Spend not on hopes. They that by pleading clothes
Do fortunes seek, when worth and service fail,
Would have their tale beleeved for their oathes,
And are like empty vessels under sail. 184
Old courtiers know this ; therefore set out so
As all the day thou mayst hold out to go.
36 THE CHURCH-PORCH
187. Inexpensive suitability is the thing to be desired,
has the preeminence. The expression bear the bell
occurs again in THE SEARCH, III, 223, 1. 59. Spen
ser uses it in The Faerie Queene, Bk. VI, 10, 26.
"So farre doth she in beautyfull array
Above all other lasses beare the bell."
Browning, too, has employed it in Herve Riel :
"The fight whence England bore the bell."
Dr. Lowe writes : " Several explanations of this
common expression are offered. The best perhaps
is that in olden days, and in Herbert's time, a bell
was the prize in horse-racing. Some have found its
meaning in bell-wether; the sheep that carries the
bell being the leader of the flock."
189. Not, "This will go well with that lace, and the lace
must accordingly be purchased;" but, "This can
be made beautiful by my good taste."
191. Much curiousnesse^ over-nicety. A long passage
in Bk. I of Castiglione 's Courtier inveighs against
curiousness.
196. He risks his own, his wife's, and his children's for
tunes, the wages due to his servants, and the alms
and obligations due to God.
198. His coat of arms, in the window of the church,
is all which perpetuates his memory; and that also
is neglected. The heravld was a state official whose
duty it was, between 1413 and 1686, to make
"Visitations" throughout England and report upon
the bearing of arms, genealogies, etc.
I. THE CHURCH-PORCH 37
XXXII
In clothes, cheap handsomenesse doth bear the **
bell.
Wisedome's a trimmer thing then shop e're
gave.
Say not then, This with that lace will do well;
But, This with my discretion will be brave.
Much curiousnesse is a perpetuall wooing, 191
Nothing with labour, folly long a doing.
XXXIII
Play not for gain, but sport. Who playes for more V
Then he can lose with pleasure, stakes his
heart;
Perhaps his wive's too, and whom she hath bore;
Servants and churches also play their part. 196
Onely a herauld, who that way doth passe,
Findes his crackt name at length in the church-
glasse.
38 THE CHURCH-PORCH
203. Civil, i. e. domestic, as opposed to foreign. The
Gunpowder Plot in 1605 would give special point
to the illustration.
205. A more natural position for this stanza would be
before stanza xlix.
208. Braverie= excellence, in contrast with boldnesse of
1. 210.
211. Complexion= disposition, which was supposed to
be the result of the mixture of the four physical
humors. So Sir J. Davies, Nosce Teipsum, Pt. II,
1.33:
"Musicians think our souls are harmonies,
Physicians hold that they complexions be."
Cf. 1. 247, and EMPLOYMENT, II, 103, 1. 5.
212. Allay, used, like alloy, for anything which in com
bination abates or allays a predominant quality or
humor. Dryden uses complexion and allay in like
relation: Stanzas on Oliver Cromwell, 1. 25.
214. He that stumbles and falls not, mends his pace :
JACULA PRUDENTUM.
215. He understands the battle of life who himself takes
command of his passions, instead of allowing them
to lead.
I. THE CHURCH-PORCH 39
xxxiv
If yet thou love game at so deere a rate, 199
Learn this, that hath old gamesters deerely cost :
Dost lose ? Rise up. Dost winne ? Rise in that
state.
Who strive to sit out losing hands, are lost.
Game is a civil gunpowder, in peace
Blowing up houses with their whole increase.
XXXV
In conversation boldnesse now bears sway. 205
But know that nothing can so foolish be
As empty boldnesse. Therefore first assay
To stuffe thy minde with solid braverie,
Then march on gallant. Get substantiall worth.
Boldnesse guilds finely and will set it forth.
XXXVI
Be sweet to all. Is thy complexion sowre? 211
Then keep such companie, make them thy allay.
Get a sharp wife, a servant that will lowre.
A stumbler stumbles least in rugged way.
Command thy self in chief. He life's warre
knows 215
Whom all his passions follow as he goes.
40 THE CHURCH-PORCH
218. " You are not a coward for not taking up an affront
that was only hinted; if an affront was meant, he
who was afraid to go beyond the hint is a coward,
not you: " A. B. Grosart.
223. If your reputation is brought to a stand-still by every
trifle, it has no more substance than a floating
spider's web. So pos'd is used in THE CHURCH
MILITANT, III, 363, 1. 51. Cf . Donne, Satire IV, 20 :
"A thing which would have posed Adam to name."
225. Any great soldier. No special one is meant. So
the two, 1. 218; the businesse, 1. 338; the great heart,
THE CHURCH MILITANT, ILL, 363, 1. 67.
227. If persons are rude, you will of course not select
them for friendship. But outside of friendship there
is a considerable field of human intercourse, ruled
by civility; and civilly to avoid a trifler without a
quarrel will always command respect from men of
good breeding. So JACULA PRUDENTUM: Many
friends in general, one in special.
232. Thy amusing remark be counted the more amusing
as involving thyself. For the thought, cf. THE
COUNTRY PARSON, XXVIII: Contempt the Parson
takes in a slighting way, shewing that reproaches
touch him no more then a stone thrown against
heaven, where he is and lives.
233. Do not find merriment in evil. He that lies with
dogs riseth with fleas: JACULA PRUDENTUM.
I. THE CHURCH-PORCH
41
XXXVII
Catch not at quarrels. He that dares not speak
Plainly and home is coward of the two. 218
Think not thy fame at ev'ry twitch will break.
By great deeds shew that thou canst little do,
And do them not. That shall thy wisdome be,
And change thy temperance into braverie.
XXXVIII
If that thy fame with ev'ry toy be pos'd,
'T is a thinne webbe, which poysonous fancies
make. 224
But the great souldier's honour was compos'd
Of thicker stuffe, which would endure a shake.
Wisdome picks friends; civilitie playes the rest.
A toy shunn'd cleanly passeth with the best.
XXXIX
Laugh not too much. The wittie man laughs least ;
For wit is newes onely to ignorance. 230
Lesse at thine own things laugh; lest in the jest
Thy person share, and the conceit advance.
Make not thy sport, abuses; for the fly
That feeds on dung is coloured thereby.
42 THE CHURCH-PORCH
235. This stanza repeats stanza xi, and suggests that
the poem was written piecemeal and over consid
erable intervals of time.
238. I. e. that which is "fined," or refined, — a technical
term in cookery, — by removal of the scum. " The
word is therefore used in a conceitful or double
sense, in contrast with scumme and coarse:" A. B.
Grosart. — Go lesse occurs also in 1. 329.
239. Bigge= pregnant, 1. 32.
242. " ' 'T is the sport to have the engineer hoist with his
own petard,' Hamlet, iii, 4, occurred perhaps to
Herbert's mind as it must to Herbert's reader:"
E. C. Lowe.
246. Like our slang, "a precious fool."
247. For complexion, see 1. 211. A serious and daring dis
position fits a man to lead and to impress himself on
cultivated city circles. The country girl, who laughs
easily, is easily frightened by stories of the Plague
or the blaze of a bonfire. Men are willing to sell the
interest of their discourses for no price sooner then
that of mirth; whither the nature of man, loving
refreshment, gladly betakes ii selfe, even to the losse
of honour: COUNTRY PARSON, XVIII.
251. He, and his in the next line, refer to the discom
fited giggler.
252. It is the serious person who can crow at the end of
the merriment. "He laughs best who laughs last."
I. THE CHURCH-PORCH. 43
XL
Pick out of mirth, like stones out of thy ground,
Profanenesse, filthinesse, abusivenesse. 236
These are the scumme with which course wits
abound.
The fine may spare these well, yet not go lesse.
All things are bigge with jest ; nothing that's plain
But may be wittie if thou hast the vein. 240
XLI
Wit's an unruly engine, wildly striking
Sometimes a friend, sometimes the engineer.
Hast thou the knack ? Pamper it not with liking ;
But if thou want it, buy it not too deere.
Many, affecting wit beyond their power, 245
Have got to be a deare fool for an houre.
XLII -
A sad wise valour is the brave complexion
That leads the van and swallows up the cities.
The gigler is a milk-maid, whom infection
Or a fir'd beacon frighteth from his ditties. 250
Then he's the sport; the mirth then in him rests,
And the sad man is cock of all his jests.
44 THE CHURCH-PORCH
253. Respective. Substantially the same meaning as
respectfutt, which W. reads. He carryes himself
very respectively as to all the Fathers of the Church,
so especially to his Diocesan: COUNTRY PARSON,
XIX. For the thought, compare Herbert's letter to
his brother Henry (1618) : Have a good conceit of
your wit, mark what I say, have a good conceit
of your wit; that is, be proud not with a foolish
vaunting of yourself when there is no cause, but by
setting a just price of your qualities. And it is the
part of a poor spirit to undervalue himself and
blush.
254. Theirs = their due.
255. "Where you are a dependent, care or attention to
your patron is needed ; for in proportion to your
alacrity or your indifference is the making or mar
ring of your fortune: " E. C. Lowe.
258. You go shares with the devil in bringing about the
man's destruction.
260. For the distance, cf. THE PRIESTHOOD, II, 375, 1. 39.
261. Dr. Grosart thinks that the source of Herbert's
phrase was the emblems which represent Envy as
feeding on her own snakes, that issue as hair from
her head. I doubt it. The phrase seems to me to
mean simply do not regard yourself as insignificant.
Cf. GRIEVE NOT, III, 255, 1. 5, and Psalm xxii, 6.
264. The animal nature itself tends toward righteous
ness when its excesses are curbed.
I. THE CHURCH-PORCH 45
XLIII
Towards great persons use respective boldnesse.
That temper gives them theirs, and yet doth
take
Nothing from thine. In service, care or coldnesse
Doth ratably thy fortunes marre or make. 256
Feed no man in his sinnes; for adulation
Doth make thee parcell-devil in damnation.
XLIV
Envie not greatnesse; for thou mak'st thereby
Thy self the worse, and so the distance greater.
Be not thine own worm. Yet such jealousie 261
As hurts not others, but may make thee better,
Is a good spurre. Correct thy passion's spite;
Then may the beasts draw thee to happy light.
46 THE CHURCH-PORCH
266. Its occurs once more in VERTUE, III, 335, 1. 7 (but
W. there reads his), and in JOSEPH'S COAT, III,
301,1. 3.
268. The allusion is probably to 1 Samuel vi, 10, where
the ark is carried to Beth-shemesh by two milch
kine.
270. Arras was the best sort of tapestry, named from the
French town where it was made. The worth of a
state robe is derived rather from the wearer than
from the material. Arras is also mentioned in
DOTAGE, III, 137, 1. 3, and THE FORERUNNERS,
III, 319, 1. 26.
272. StUl= always. The best mirror is an old friend :
JACULA PRUDENTUM.
273. In time of peril you must shed your blood for him.
Dr. Grosart suspects an allusion to Antonio, in
Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice.
276. 1 Samuel xviii, 1, and John xiii, 23.
279. He=my friend. For the thought, cf. JACULA
PRUDENTUM : He that hath children, all his morsels
are not his own.
280. Both=mj friend and I.
281. A father's first obligation is to those he has begotten.
I. THE CHURCH-PORCH 47
XLV
When basenesse is exalted, do not bate 265
The place its honour for the person's sake.
The shrine is that which thou dost venerate,
And not the beast that bears it on his back.
I care not though the cloth of state should be
Not of rich arras, but mean tapestrie. 270
XL VI
Thy friend put in thy bosome; wear his eies
Still in thy heart that he may see what's there.
If cause require, thou art his sacrifice;
Thy drops of bloud must pay down all his fear.
But love is lost, the way of friendship's gone,
Though David had his Jonathan, Christ his
John. 276
XLVII
Yet be not surety if thou be a father.
Love is a personall debt. I cannot give
My children's right, nor ought he take it. Rather
Both friends should die then hinder them to live.
Fathers first enter bonds to nature's ends, 281
And are her sureties ere they are a friend's.
48 THE CHURCH-PORCH
284-288. When, being unmarried, I have devoted myself
to the service of my friend, have brought myself to
thrall (cf. 1. 118), I rightly offer him my single life,
my single estate; but I must not promise to do the
work of two. If in my devotion I make such pro
mises, I shall find, when put to the test, that I can
give not several times myself, but failures by the
score. Cf. also Proverbs vi, 1-4.
290. All suck = all pleasing discourse.
295. To put men to discourse of that wherein they are
most eminent is the most gainfull way of Conversa
tion : COUNTRY PARSON, XXIII.
296. Him—ihe other man. Herbert has a habit of
using Ac as a general indefinite pronoun; cf. 1. 279,
and CONTENT, II, 355, 1. 20.
297. The allusion appears to be to some game in which
the stake — the rest, or remainder — was won
by courage and sagacity in declaring one's hand at
the right moment. Cf. 1. 293. The meaning is,
Many a man misses the information he might ob
tain because he is not willing to confess that he does
not already possess it. On the whole stanza Dr.
Lowe well quotes Bacon, Essay XXXII: "He that
questioneth much shall learn much and content
much; but especially if he apply his questions to the
skill of the person whom he asketh,for he shall give
them occasion to please themselves in speaking,
and himself shall continually gather knowledge."
I. THE CHURCH-PORCH 49
XLVIII
If thou be single, all thy goods and ground
Submit to love; but yet not more then all.
Give one estate, as one life. None is bound 285
To work for two, who brought himself to thrall.
God made me one man; love makes me no more,
Till labour come and make my weaknesse score.
XL1X
In thy discourse, if thou desire to please,
All such is courteous, usefull, new, or wittie.
Usefulnesse comes by labour, wit by ease, 291
Courtesie grows in court, news in the citie.
Get a good stock of these, then draw the card
That suites him best of whom thy speech is
heard.
Entice all neatly to what they know best; 295
For so thou dost thy self and him a pleasure.
But a proud ignorance will lose his rest
Rather then shew his cards. Steal from his trea
sure
What to ask further. Doubts well rais'd do lock
The speaker to thee and preserve thy stock. 300
50 THE CHURCH-PORCH
303. "Let him be sure to leave other men their turns to
speak. Nay, if there be any that would reign and
take up all the time, let him find means to take
them off, and bring others on:" Bacon, Essay
XXXII.
307. Unmoved in arguing and voyd of all contentious-
nesse : COUNTRY PARSON, XXIV. Do not import
personal feeling into argument, as if your opponent
meant by his errors to injure you, or you by your
truth to injure him. You are no more responsible
for his intellectual weaknesses than for those of
his body or estate, — except, indeed, so far as you
can benefit him. Coleridge has the strange note,
"I do not understand this stanza."
313. These lines expand nor wisdome neither of 1. 312.
316. To tire, i. e. to exhaust their adversaries.
317. While your opponent is beclouded with irritation
he will not be able to command truth enough to
damage you. Dr. Grosart quotes Thomas Brooks, a
Puritan writer, who, speaking of the rainbow, calls
it "The Bow of God, to which he has given no
string and furnished with no arrows of vengeance."
For other allusions to the rainbow, see AFFLICTION,
II, 249, 1. 24. On the doctrine of the spheres, see
note on PRAYER, II, 183, 1. 9.
i
I. THE CHURCH-PORCH 51
LI
If thou be Master-gunner, spend not all
That thou canst speak at once; but husband it,
And give men turns of speech. Do not forestall
By lavishnesse thine own and others' wit,
As if thou mad'st thy will. A civil guest 305
Will no more talk all, then eat all, the feast.
LII
Be calm in arguing; for fiercenesse makes V
Errour a fault, and truth discourtesie.
Why should I feel another man's mistakes
More then his sicknesses or povertie ? 310
In love I should; but anger is not love,
Nor wisdome neither. Therefore gently move.
LIII
Calmnesse is great advantage. He that lets
Another chafe may warm him at his fire,
Mark all his wandrings, and enjoy his frets; 315
As cunning fencers suffer heat to tire.
Truth dwels not in the clouds; the bow that's
there
Doth often aim at, never hit the sphere.
52 THE CHURCH-PORCH
320. They are responsive only to their own ideas. An-
gusti est animi aid superbi sua tantum nosse : Her
bert's ORATION ON RETURN OF PRINCE CHARLES.
322. Weigh the good sense of others as carefully as if it
could work your cure.
327. What makes a man to be of consequence in his
neighborhood is a kindly temper, intellectual abil
ity, and high station.
329. There is the emphatic word. — Go /me = are infe
rior. So 1. 238, and CHURCH MILITANT, III, 365,
1. 92. They do not loose or go lesse but gaine by it :
COUNTRY PARSON, XXIX.
334. Means= intends, aims at, as in THE ANSWER, II,
351, 1. 9. / have resolved to set down the Form and
Character of a true Pastour, that 7 may have a Mark
to aim at ; which also 7 will set as high as 7 can,
since hee shoots higher that threatens the Moon then
hee that aims at a Tree : COUNTRY PARSON, The
Authour to the Reader.
335. The same mingling of humility and high-minded-
ness (Aristotle's f4(yaXo\lrv\ia) is commended in
1. 210, 247, 253.
I. THE CHURCH-PORCH 53
LIV
Mark what another sayes; for many are 319
Full of themselves and answer their own notion.
Take all into thee; then with equall care
Ballance each dramme of reason, like a potion.
If truth be with thy friend, be with them both;
Share in the conquest and confesse a troth.
LV
Be usefull where thou livest, that they may 325
Both want and wish thy pleasing presence still.
Kindnesse, good parts, great places are the way
To compasse this. Finde out men's wants and
will,
And meet them there. All worldly joyes go lesse
To the one joy of doing kindnesses. 330
LVI
Pitch thy behaviour low, thy projects high;
So shalt thou humble and magnanimous be.
Sink not in spirit. Who aimeth at the sky
Shoots higher much then he that means a tree.
A grain of glorie mixt with humblenesse 335
Cures both a fever and lethargicknesse.
54 THE CHURCH-PORCH
338. The businesse. We should catch the meaning more
easily if the article the were omitted. The citizen is
at his business before he rises : JACULA PRUDEN-
TUM.
339. Starting with the medical dictum that lack of ex
ercise induces worms, he suggests that purposes
formed and not at once carried out meet a multi
tude of small destroyers.
341. Alone = are the only ones who live.
349. Dr. Grosart quotes from the JACULA PRUDENTUM:
A child's service is little, yet he is no little fool that
despiseth it. But the meaning of the present pas
sage is not merely that one should not neglect gain
from any quarter; but also that, however high the
receiver, love is always a gift. So JACULA PRUDEN
TUM : Love is the true price of love.
352. 1 Samuel xvii, 50.
353. They say it is an ill Mason that refuseth any stone ;
and there is no knowledg but, in a skUfull hand,
serves either positively as it is or else to illustrate
some other knowledge : COUNTRY PARSON, IIII.
I. THE CHURCH-PORCH 55
LVII
Let thy minde still be bent still plotting where,
And when, and how the businesse may be done.
Slacknesse breeds worms; but the sure traveller,
Though he alight sometimes, still goeth on.
Active and stirring spirits live alone. 341
Write on the others, Here lies such a one.
LVIII
Slight not the smallest losse, whether it be
In love or honour, take account of all.
Shine like the sunne in every corner. See 345
Whether thy stock of credit swell or fall.
Who say, I care not, those I give for lost;
And to instruct them, 't will not quit the cost.
LIX
Scorn no man's love, though of a mean degree;
(Love is a present for a mightie king) 350
Much lesse make any one thine enemie.
As gunnes destroy, so may a little sling.
The cunning workman never doth refuse
The meanest tool that he may chance to use.
56 THE CHURCH-PORCH
355. Forrain=ihe wisdom that others can teach, con
trasted with the native good of 1. 361. Herbert was
never out of England. The thought is repeated
from stanzas 1 and liv.
360. Repay with kindness all that you receive. Only
those who do so are free from debt.
361. Be covetous of all good which you see in Frenchmen,
whether it be in knowledge or in fashion or in
words. So shall you play a good merchant, by trans
porting French commodities to your own country :
Herbert to his brother Henry in Paris, 1618.
364. Forfeiteth his witt=loses his individuality.
368. Board. French aborder, to approach, as Herbert
uses the word in THE COUNTRY PARSON, X : The
Parson to his Children shewes more love than terrour,
to his servants more terrour than love ; but an old
good servant boards a child, i. e. approaches it, is
on the border. But he uses the word in the ordi
nary sense in AFFLICTION, II, 247, 1. 11.
369. "The traditional peck of dust which every one has
to swallow, with the sub-thought of the noisome-
nesse of the decaying body in the grave : " A. B.
Grosart.
371. .Hz* = its.
372. The purity of the Parson's mind breaks out and dilates
it selfe even to his body, cloaths, and habitation :
COUNTRY PARSON, III.
I. THE CHURCH-PORCH 57
LX
All forrain wisdome doth amount to this, 355
To take all that is given: whether wealth,
Or love, or language; nothing comes amisse.
A good digestion turneth all to health.
And then as farre as fair behaviour may,
Strike off all scores; none are so cleare as they.
LXI
Keep all thy native good and naturalize 361
All forrain of that name, but scorn their ill:
Embrace their activenesse, not vanities.
Who follows all things forfeiteth his will.
If thou observest strangers in each fit, 365
In time they'l runne thee out of all thy wit.
LXII
Affect in things about thee cleanlinesse,
That all may gladly board thee, as a flowre.
Slovens take up their stock of noisomnesse 369
Beforehand, and anticipate their last houre.
Let thy minde's sweetnesse have his operation \
Upon thy body, clothes, and habitation.
58 THE CHURCH-PORCH
375. M arJcet-money= market rate, lowest price.
378. I. e. be yourself a good poor man.
379. Genesis i, 27.
381. Matthew xxv, 40; Proverbs xix, 17.
382. Great alms-giving lessens no man's living : JACULA
PRUDENTUM.
383. Acts x, 4.
384. "A warning against deathbed charities:" E. C.
Lowe.
386. Malachi iii, 8-10; CHARMS AND KNOTS, II, 213,
1.15.
387. Cf. PRAYER, II, 181, 1. 13.
388. The gentry or nobility of the Parish sometimes make
it a piece of state not to come at the beginning of ser
vice with their poor neighbours, but at mid-prayers,
both to their own loss and of theirs also who gaze
upon them when they come in, and neglect the present
service of God : COUNTRY PARSON, VI.
I. THE CHURCH-PORCH 59
LXIII
In Almes regard thy means and others' merit.
Think heav'n a better bargain then to give
Onely thy single market-money for it. 375
Joyn hands with God to make a man to live.
Give to all something; to a good poore man,
Till thou change names and be where he began.
LXIV
Man is God's image, but a poore man is 379
Christ's stamp to boot; both images regard.
God reckons for him, counts the favour his.
Write, So much giv'n to God; thou shalt be
heard.
Let thy almes go before and keep heav'n's gate
Open for thee, or both may come too late.
LXV
Restore to God his due in tithe and time. 385
A tithe purloin'd cankers the whole estate.
Sundaies observe : think when the bells do chime,
'T is angels' musick; therefore come not late.
God then deals blessings. If a king did so,
Who would not haste, nay give, to see the show ?
60 THE CHURCH-PORCH
391. Having read divine Service twice f idly, and preached
in the morning and catechized in the afternoone, he
thinks he hath in some measure, according to poor
and fraile man, discharged the publick duties of the
Congregation : COUNTRY PARSON, VIII. In 1. 391,
392, Herbert says, Give God his due twice on
Sunday, for all the week thy two (main) meals are
given by Him. Then in 1. 393, 396, he proceeds
to the Holy Communion, from which the phrases
of 1. 393 and 394 get their significance ; and also
the thwart of 1. 395 and fast of 1. 396. "To fast
when God intends you to feast is loss:" A. B.
Grosart.
395. Crosse= contrary, as in 1. 24.
397. In THE COUNTRY PARSON, X, he remarks that
private praying is a more voluntary act in them
then when they are catted to others' prayers.
399. A weight— a weighty influence. Love, the attrac
tion of our fellow men, has weight with our hearts
to carry us on in prayer; the sight of many around
us engaged in the same act suggestively moves us.
401. Do not suppose that the little companies at family
prayers will be a substitute for the church service.
403. Bare = bare-headed.
408. Sins make all equall : COUNTRY PARSON, III.
I. THE CHURCH-PORCH 61
LXVI
Twice on the day his due is understood; 391
For all the week thy food so oft he gave thee.
Thy cheere is mended; bate not of the food
Because 't is better, and perhaps may save thee.
Thwart not th' Almighty God. O be not crosse !
Fast when thou wilt; but then 'tis gain, not
losse. 396
LXVII
Though private prayer be a brave designe,
Yet publick hath more promises, more love ;
And love's a weight to hearts, to eies a signe.
We all are but cold suitours; let us move 400
Where it is warmest. Leave thy six and seven;
Pray with the most : for where most pray is
heaven.
LXVIII
When once thy foot enters the church, be bare.
God is more there then thou : for thou art
there
Onely by his permission. Then beware, 405
And make thy self all reverence and fear.
Kneeling ne're spoiFd silk stocking. Quit thy
state.
All equall are within the churches gate, v
62 THE CHURCH-PORCH
409. "It was the Puritan fashion of Herbert's time and
subsequently to exalt preaching at the expense of
public prayer: " E. C. Lowe.
411. Cf. JACULA PRUDENTUM: When prayers are done,
my lady is ready.
415. Seal or seel (Fr. siller) = to close the eyelids par
tially or entirely by passing a fine thread through
them. This was done to hawks till they became
tractable. Cf. THE PEARL, II, 383, 1. 32, and
Shakespeare, "Come, seeling night:" Macbeth,
iii, 2. For the thought, Proverbs xvii, 24.
419. The danger of allowing attendance at church to
become an occasion of social display was already
in Herbert's mind in the preceding stanza.
423. John ii, 15; 1 Corinthians iii, 17.
426. 2 Corinthians ii, 16. The Parson often tels them
that Sermons are dangerous things, that none goes
oid of Church as he came in, but either better or
worse; that none is careless before his Judg, and that
the word of God shal Judge us : COUNTRY PARSON,
VII.
I. THE CHURCH-PORCH 63
LXIX
Resort to sermons, but to prayers most: 409
Praying's the end of preaching. O be drest, | JL*~-
Stay not for th' other pin. Why thou hast lost
A joy for it worth worlds. Thus hell doth jest
Away thy blessings, and extreamly flout thee ;
Thy clothes being fast, but thy soul loose about
thee.
LXX'
In time of service seal up both thine eies, 415
And send them to thine heart; that spying
sinne,
They may weep out the stains by them did rise.
Those doores being shut, all by the eare comes
in.
Who marks in church-time others' symmetric,
Makes all their beautie his deformitie. 420
LXXI
Let vain or busie thoughts have there no part: •
Bring not thy plough, thy plots, thy pleasures
thither.
Christ purg'd his temple; so must thou thy heart.
All worldly thoughts are but theeves met to
gether
To couzin thee. Look to thy actions well: 425
For churches are either our heav'n or hell.
64 THE CHURCH-PORCH
427. Dr. Grosart thinks that he of this line and the sec
ond him of the next should be referred to God and
printed in capitals. This would make the theology
better and the grammar worse.
429. 1 Corinthians i, 21.
430. 2 Corinthians iv, 7.
435. The ditch=the gutter. The church is at least bet
ter than the alehouse.
440. Him, Herbert's general pronoun, referring here
to a plural substantive.
442. Tarry may mean remain in church; do not go
out, finding the sermon dull; but the connection
rather requires it to mean, Stay thy criticism of the
preacher.
444. Cf 1. 266.
I. THE CHURCH-PORCH 65
LXXII
Judge not the preacher; for he is thy Judge. V
If thou mislike him, thou conceiv'st him not.
God calleth preaching folly. Do not grudge
To pick out treasures from an earthen pot.
The worst speak something good; if all want
sense, 431
God takes a text and preacheth patience.
LXXIII
He that gets patience, and the blessing which
Preachers conclude with, hath not lost his
pains. 434
He that by being at church escapes the ditch,
Which he might fall in by companions, gains.
He that loves God's abode, and to combine
With saints on earth, shall one day with them
shine.
LXXIV
Jest not at preachers' language or expression.
How know'st thou but thy sinnes made him
miscarrie ? 440
Then turn thy faults and his into confession.
God sent him, whatsoe're he be. O tarry,
And love him for his Master. His condition,
Though it be ill, makes him no ill Physician.
66 THE CHURCH-PORCH
449. However God approaches us, whether in awe-in
spiring or familiar ways, we turn away. To the
Jews he announced his law in the thunders of Sinai
(Exodus xix, 16); to us in preaching so homely
that it is often called folly (1. 429) ; and both ap
peals are equally ineffective. Herbert's sonnet on
SINNE, II, 231, is an expansion of 1. 450.
454. Watch. " Just about Herbert's time the manufac
ture of watches was improving greatly. It was
about 1620 that watches of present form became
general, instead of the strange devices of ducks,
Ganymedes, death's heads, etc., in which they had
hitherto been fixed. Malvolio, in his dreams of
greatness, beholds himself a great man; 'I frown
the while, and perchance wind up my watch or
play with some rich jewel:' Twelfth Night, ii,
5. 'He's winding up the watch of his wit; by and
by it will strike:' Tempest, ii, 1:" E. C. Lowe.
Watches are mentioned again in HOPE, III, 203,
1. 1, and clocks in EVEN-SONG, III, 61, 1. 24.
456. Luke xvi, 2.
460. Do not assume that life will be long and that you
have time to trifle.
I. THE CHURCH-PORCH 67
LXXV
None shall in hell such bitter pangs endure, 445
As those who mock at God's way of salvation.
Whom oil and balsames kill, what salve can cure ?
They drink with greedinesse a full damnation.
The Jews refused thunder; and we, folly. 449
Though God do hedge us in, yet who is holy ?
LXXVI
Summe up at night what thou hast done by day;
And in the morning, what thou hast to do.
Dresse and undresse thy soul: mark the decay
And growth of it; if with thy watch, that too
i/ Be down, then winde up both. Since we shall be
Most surely judg'd, make thy accounts agree.
LXXVII
In brief, acquit thee bravely; play the man.
Look not on pleasures as they come, but go.
Deferre not the least vertue. Life's poore span
Make not an ell by trifling in thy wo. 460
If thou do ill, the joy fades, not the pains:
If well, the pain doth fade, the joy remains.
Hall of Westminster School, London, where Herbert was a pupil,
1605-1609. See Vol. I, p. 25.
fl
II
THE RESOLVE
PREFACE
nnHE poems of this fundamental Group an- (
I nounce the resolve of Herbert to become a
poet, and state certain ends which he desires his
poetry to accomplish. He will antagonize the love-
poets of his day, employing against them, however,
all their own vigorous intellectuality, passionate
enthusiasm, and technical resource. All poetry
has the single theme of love, but hitherto poets
have misconceived it. They belittle love by par
celling it out, erroneously confining it to the petty
relations of men and women. It shall be Her
bert's task to set it forth in its native fulness, and
to reveal it as a world-principle, working on an
infinite scale and drawing together God and man.
The conception of love here advocated is sub
stantially that set forth by Plato in his Lysis,
Phaedrus, and Symposium. Adopted by the Neo-
Platonists, it influenced through them many of
the Church Fathers. During the Renaissance it
gained a wider currency through Ficinus* Latin
translations of Plato, through his commentary on
Plato's Symposium, and especially through its elo
quent presentation in the fourth Book of Castigli-
one's Courtier. French poetry became affected by
it. The group of writers who gathered about Sir
72 PREFACE TO
Philip Sidney, and who looked to France and Italy
for inspiration, took it up. Spenser, employing it
to some extent in The Faerie Queene, gave it
magnificent expression in his Hymns in Honour
of Love and Beauty. During the first half of the
seventeenth century Platonism through all its teach
ings entered profoundly into English thought. At
the University, just after Herbert's time, there was
formed a considerable group of Cambridge Plato-
nists, of whom Henry More and Ralph Cudworth
are the best known. One of the later members of
this company, and a successor of Herbert in the
Bemerton Rectory, John Norris, in his Essay on
Love and his translation of Waring's Picture of
Love, gave in beautiful English prose an elaborate
exposition of Platonic love. A copy of this latter
book (4th edition, 1744) is in my possession which
once belonged to R. W. Emerson, and was given
by him to a philosophic friend. It may be, there
fore, that Emerson's Essay on Love, one of the
best modern statements of the Platonic doctrine,
received contributions from Bemerton itself.
In brief, Plato taught that love is our passion for
unity, for wholeness. As Love inspires our search,
so does Beauty make known its end. For wher
ever in nature we catch glimpses of harmonious
adjustment, the wholeness there suggested affects
us as beautiful and prompts us to approach.
Following the clue of Beauty, then, we may say
that Love directs every rational life. Originally
THE RESOLVE 73
one with God, with the universe, and with one
another, we find ourselves now in the present
world detached and fragmentary. Feeling this
fragmentariness, as the wise unceasingly do, we
are horror-stricken and lonely. We long for sup
plementation. We turn to the objects around us,
and especially to one another, to obtain that whole
ness which we feel ourselves to lack. In our eyes
those we love are always beautiful, and we are
restlessly eager to join them. Yet such lesser unions
continually bring disappointment and a new sense
of incompleteness. Their little wholenesses are,
after all, but fragmentary, their function being to
disclose the necessity of the one ultimate and only
adequate wholeness. In reality there can be but
one, that which is found in union with Goodness,
GddTthe Ideal, Heavenly Beauty, that Love which
is the authour of this great frame. Truly to love is
to look through all else to Him.
We must, then, clear away the special conditions
under which Love first appears, if we would rise to
a knowledge of its nature. " The eye of Love," says
Emerson in one of his letters, " falls on some mortal
form, but it rests not a moment there. As every
leaf represents to us all vegetable nature, so Love
looks through that spotted blighted form to the
vast spiritual element of which it was created and
which it represents." When Love is true to itself
as the passion for perfection, it continually super
sedes its lower forms in the interest of what is
74 PREFACE TO
larger. None of these inferior forms is so obscuring,
so little regardful of anything beyond itself, as that
instinctive passion between the sexes which tries
to monopolize the name of Love. Friendship is
more intelligent. Unities of a still wider and firmer
kind are disclosed in the social, artistic, and scien
tific impulses. These are all prompted by Love
and follow increasing grades of Beauty. Religion,
however, alone reveals the full significance of these
struggles toward conjunction ; for God is the only
complete wholeness, and every endeavor to unite
with other things or persons is but a blind seeking
after Him.
Plato's doctrine of love has many aspects, which
variously influenced other English poets. I de
velop here only that quantitative presentation of it
which peculiarly appealed to Herbert's practical
and non-mystical mind. In this Group of poems he
applies the doctrine as he understands it, resolving
to devote himself to abolishing love's blindness.
Like all poets he will sing of love, but not of that
fettering attachment to particular persons which
is miscalled by its great name. Even in his two
youthful sonnets he has discovered the emptiness
and necessary artificiality of this. The theme of
all his verse shall be the striving of the soul after
union with God, who is conceived as a definite
detached person hostile to subordinate manifesta
tions of himself. This all-excluding devotion to
God Herbert carefully expounds in the two sonnets
THE RESOLVE 75
on LOVE; defends it against the love-poets in the
first JORDAN; in the second JORDAN sees that his
own exuberant disposition exposes him to the very
errors he is fighting; calls for divine aid in PRAISE;
acknowledges in THE QUIDDITIE how little he can
effect ; encourages himself in THE ELIXER by
recalling Love's transforming power; in EMPLOY
MENT guards against sluggishness ; and in ANTI-
PHON joins with men and angels in adoration. In
this Group of poems we have, therefore, the an
nouncement of a poetical programme. How long
it remained near Herbert's heart may be read later
in DULNESSE, THE FORERUNNERS, LIFE, and
THE FLOWER; where, feeling death approach, he
reviews his campaign against the love-poets and
mourns that his beautiful weapons must be laid
aside.
Similar protests against the tendency of poetry X
to find love in sexual conditions rather than in / '
rational or divine are not uncommon in the
Jacobean poetry, and even in the later Eliza
bethan. Spenser himself had uttered them in the
Preface to his Hymns in Honour of Heavenly Love
and Beauty. So had Herbert's special master,
Donne, in his Divine Sonnets and elsewhere. Just
after Herbert's death, and partly through his influ
ence, Platonic love became so fashionable as itself
to awaken protest. Herbert, then, cannot be called \n ,
the first to set heavenly love in contrast to earthly. 1
He merely treated the antagonism with peculiar J«
76 PREFACE
precision and persistency, gave it the special turn
which gained acceptance, and used it as did no
other poet to inform the total body of his work.
It may be interesting to notice how different a
conclusion a grave and passionate poet of recent
years, Coventry Patmore, has drawn from the
same Platonic premises. All Patmore's poetry,
like that of Herbert, is a study of love. Love, too,
in his view is not many but one, human loves being
partial embodiments of a single divine principle.
But while Herbert rejects the human loves as par
tial, Patmore, just because they are small embodi
ments, reverences them as our appointed means of
approaching God. If, then, we call the tendency of
Herbert Abstract Monotheism, because it sets in ^
sharp and antagonistic contrast infinite and finite
love, we might name that of Patmore a kind of
Henotheism; since it finds a particular finite object
needful if we would apprehend the universally
divine. From the extreme and desolating conse
quences of his doctrine Herbert is saved by his
rich Elizabethan temperament.
THE RESOLVE
78 TWO SONNETS
INTRODUCTORY :
"This following Letter and Sonnet were in the
first year of his going to Cambridge sent his dear
Mother for a New Year's gift. I fear the heat of
my late Ague hath dried up those springs by which
Scholars say the Muses use to take up their habi
tations. However, I need not their help to reprove
the vanity of those many Love-poems that are daily
writ and consecrated to Venus; nor to bewail that
so few are writ that look towards God and Heaven.
For my own part, my meaning, dear mother, is in
these Sonnets to declare my resolution to be that my
poor Abilities in Poetry shall be all and ever con
secrated to God's glory:" Walton's Life. — Giles
Fletcher in Christ's Victorie over Death, stanza vi
(1610), has a similar attack on the love-poetry
of the time.
"Go giddy brains, whose wits are thought so fresh,
Pluck all the flow'rs that nature forth doth throw,
Go stick them on the cheeks of wanton flesh;
Poor idol (forc't at once to fall and grow)
Of fading roses and of melting snow!
Your songs exceed your matter; this of mine
The matter which it sings shall make divine;
As stars dull puddles guild, in which their beauties shine."
DATE :
As Herbert entered the University in the year 1609,
the "New Year" here mentioned must have been
that of March, 1610, just before he became seven
teen years of age. The style of these sonnets shows
H. THE RESOLVE 79
TWO SONNETS
TO HIS MOTHER
MY God, where is that antient heat towards thee
Wherewith whole shoals of Martyrs once did
burn,
Besides their other flames ? Doth Poetry
Wear Venus' livery, only serve her turn ? 4
Why are not Sonnets made of thee, and layes
Upon thine Altar burnt ? Cannot thy love
Heighten a spirit to sound out thy praise
As well as any she ? Cannot thy Dove
Outstrip their Cupid easily in flight ? 9
Or, since thy ways are deep and still the same,
Will not a verse run smooth that bears thy name ? ^
Why doth that fire, which by thy power and might
Each breast does feel, no braver fuel choose
Than that which one day Worms may chance
refuse ?
80 TWO SONNETS
the influence of Donne, whose friendship his mother
had formed in 1606-7, a grateful letter being ad
dressed to her by Donne in the latter year. These
are the earliest English poems of Herbert of which
we have knowledge. They were not included in
THE TEMPLE.
METRE:
Of seventeen sonnets, eleven — like this — depart
in the third quatrain from the Shakespearian form.
SUBJECT:
True love-poetry should be addressed only to God.
NOTES:
8. The dove is also the bird of Venus; cf. THE INVI
TATION, III, 51, 1. 26.
10. This line is more like Herbert's later style than
any other in these sonnets. It may be compared
with THE BUNCH OF GRAPES, III, 217, 1. 13.
19. By comparing it to a woman's robe.
21. Thy abuse=an. injury done to thee.
22. Cf. VANITIE, II, 357, 1. 3.
24. Fire, i. e. the fire of 1. 12.
28. In the discovery = in the uncovering or disclosure;
the more fully God is known, the greater the beauty.
In King James' Version of the Bible, discover is
used more than thirty times in this sense, only
twice with the modern meaning.
II. THE RESOLVE
81
n
SURE, Lord, there is enough in thee to dry 15
Oceans of Ink; for as the Deluge did
Cover the Earth, so doth thy Majesty;
Each cloud distils thy praise, and doth forbid
Poets to turn it to another use.
\Roses and Lilies speak thee; and to make 20
A pair of Cheeks of them, is thy abuse.
Why should I Women's eyes for Chrystal take ?
Such poor invention burns in their low mind *-
Whose fire is wild, and doth not upward go i
To praise, and on thee, Lord, some ink bestow./
Qpen the bones, and you shall nothing find 26
In the best face but filth; when Lord, in Thee
The beauty lies in the discovery.
LOVE
INTRODUCTORY :
"In the first of these poems he complains of the
diversion of the passion from God. In the second
he prays for the direction of it to him:" G. Ryley.
Two other poems with this title are given, II, 401,
III, 387.
DATE:
Found in W.
METRE :
Of seventeen sonnets, eleven — like this — depart
in the third quatrain from the Shakespearian form.
SUBJECT :
The love that fashions the universe is a greater
inspiration to poetry than woman's love. So
Dante in the last line of the Paradise : "L' amor
che muove 'I sole e 1' altre stelle."
NOTES:
3. Man has made a multitude of loves, while really
there is but one. The phrase occurs again in
DOOMS-DAY, II, 269, 1. 28, and AN OFFERING, II,
393, 1. 17.
4. I. e. on human beings, created out of dust. Genesis
ii, 7; TRINITIE-SUNDAY, II, 161, 1. 1.
5. The title of love.
6. Invention, cf. JORDAN, II, 91, 1. 3.
11. Standing aside, not taking part.
13. Skarf or glove, i. e. those of the mistress.
II. THE RESOLVE
83
LOVE
I
IMMORTALL Love, authour of this great frame,
Sprung from that beautie which can never fade,
How hath man parcel'd out thy glorious name
And thrown it on that dust which thou hast made,
While mortall love doth all the title gain ! 5
Which siding with invention, they together
Bear all the sway, possessing heart and brain,
(Thy workmanship) and give thee share in neither.
Wit fancies beautie, beautie raiseth wit.
The world is theirs ; they two play out the game,
Thou standing by. And though thy glorious
name 11
Wrought our deliverance from th' infernall pit,
Who sings thy praise ? Onely a skarf or glove
Doth warm our hands and make them write of
love.
84 LOVE
20. Pant thee, i. e. pant for thee. Psalm xlii, 1.
21. Invention, 1. 6.
23. Dust, cf. 1. 4.
24. This figure appears repeatedly; cf. FAITH, II, 235,
1. 38; UNGRATEFULNESSE, II, 243, 1. 17; FRAILTIE,
H, 359, 1. 15. Cf., too, JACULA PRUDENTUM: He
that blows in the dust fills his eyes with it.
26. Disseized= dispossessed; cf. SUBMISSION, III, 205,
1. 12. So Donne says (A Litany, 1. 40) that the
Virgin Mary "disseized sin."
II. THE RESOLVE 85
II
IMMORTALL Heat, O let thy greater flame 15
Attract the lesser to it! Let those fires,
Which shall consume the world, first make it
tame,
And kindle in our hearts such true desires
As may consume our lusts and make thee way.
Then shall our hearts pant thee ; then shall our
brain 20
All her invention on thine Altar lay,
And there in hymnes send back thy fire again.
Our eies shall see thee, which before saw dust,
Dust blown by wit till thltt they both were
blinde.
Thou shalt recover all thy goods in kinde, 25
Who wert disseized by usurping lust.
All knees shall bow to thee ; all wit shall rise
And praise him who did make and mend our
eies.
86 JORDAN
INTRODUCTORY :
The Jordan is a meandering stream, running one
hundred and twenty miles to cover sixty. Attack
ing the artificiality and indirectness of the love-
poets, Herbert calls such love-utterances Jordans.
Cf. G. Fletcher's Christ's Victorie after Death,
stanza v :
"Answer me, Jordan, why thy crooked tide
So often wanders from his nearest way,
As though some other way thy stream would slide
And fain salute the place where something lay?"
DATE:
Found in W. In style similar to Two SONNETS,
II, 79.
METRE:
Unique, but differs only in rhyming system from
DECAY, III, 115.
SUBJECT :
Human love makes its poetry labored and artificial;
divine love shall make mine swift and simple.
NOTES:
2. Become = are becoming to.
5. Painted chair: cf. THE TEMPER, II, 313, 1. 9;
THE BRITISH CHURCH, III, 103, 1. 16; CHURCH-
RENTS AND SCHISMES, III, 105, 1. 1. A painted
face is false as compared with the natural face.
So the chair or throne of grace filled by God is
true compared with the painted chairs of the love-
poets.
II. THE RESOLVE
87
JORDAN
WHO sayes that fictions onely and false hair
Become a verse ? Is there in truth no beautie ?
Is all good structure in a winding stair ?
May no lines passe except they do their dutie
Not to a true, but painted chair? -rx-A**- 5
88 JORDAN
9. Though Herbert here sneers at love-poems for
their lack of directness and double meanings, he
acknowledges in the following poem that his verse
is often open to attack on the same grounds.
12. Commenting on Donne, Satire II, 1. 86: "Piece
meal he gets lands, and spends as much time
Wringing each acre, as maids pulling prime," Dr.
Grosart writes: "Prime, in primero, is a winning
hand of different suits (with probably certain limi
tations as to the number of cards, since there were
different primes) different to and of lower value
than a flush or a hand of (four) cards of the same
suit. The game is now unknown; but from such
notices as we have, it would seem that one could
stand on his hands, or, as in ecarte and other games,
discard and take others. From the words of our
text the fresh cards were not dealt by the dealer,
but 'pulled' by the player at hazard." The phrase
is therefore equivalent to making a great fuss over
a small matter. Pull is used in the sense of draw
in THE CHURCH MILITANT, III, 369, 1. 134. — For
me=so far as I am concerned, for all me.
13. Nightingale or spring, i. e. "sweetness of expres
sion or plenitude of matter : " G. Ryley .
14. On this thought of the loss of rhyme, see note at the
end of A TRUE HYMNE, III, 27.
15. ANTIPHON, III, 63, celebrates this phrase, which
occurs again in THE ELIXER, II, 99,1. 1.
i
II. THE RESOLVE
89
Is it no verse except enchanted groves
And sudden arbours shadow course-spunne
lines?
Must purling streams refresh a lover's loves ?
Must all be vail'd, while he that reades divines,
Catching the sense at two removes ? 10
Shepherds are honest people; let them sing,
Riddle who list for me, and pull for Prime.
I envie no man's nightingale or spring;
Nor let them punish me with losse of rvme,
Who plainly say, My God, My King. 15
90 JORDAN
INTRODUCTORY :
In W. this poem is entitled INVENTION. It is strik
ingly similar to Sir Philip Sidney's first sonnet to
Stella. "He deliver 'd his first Sermon after a most
florid manner. But at the close of this Sermon
told them Thai should not be his constant way of
Preaching. For since Almighty God does not intend
to lead men to heaven by hard Questions, he would
not therefore fill their heads with unnecessary No
tions; but that for their sakes his language and his
expressions should be more plain and practical in
his future Sermons:" Walton's Life.
DATE:
Found in W. In style later than the previous JOR
DAN. Line 1 states that many poems had preceded.
METRE:
Unique, but differs only in rhyming system from
THE CHURCH-PORCH, II, 15; JORDAN, II, 87;
CHURCH-MONUMENTS, II, 201 ; AN OFFERING, II,
393; and SINNES ROUND, III, 143.
SUBJECT :
The poet, contriving a gift for his love, offers his
choicest intellectual treasures; but learns that the
only thing desired is love itself.
NOTES:
2. Their, i. e. heavenly joys.
4. Burnish, usually in the sense of polish, as in
Shakespeare's "Burnished sun:" Merchant of
II. THE RESOLVE
91
JORDAN
WHEN first my lines of heav'nly joyes made men
tion,
Such was their lustre, they did so excell,
That I sought out quaint words and trim inven
tion;
My thoughts began to burnish, sprout, and swell,
Curling with metaphors a plain intention, 5
Decking the sense as if it were to sell.
92 JORDAN
Venice, ii, 1; here has the meaning of spread.
Dryden may be using it in this sense in his Pro
logue to Circe, 1. 20 :
"A slender poet must have time to grow,
And spread and burnish as his brothers do."
Dr. Gibson quotes from Fuller's Joseph's Coat:
"We must not all run up in height like a hop-pole,
but also burnish and spread in breadth."
5. Cf. DULNESSE, III, 207, 1. 7.
6. Cf. Shakespeare's Sonnet XXI: "I will not praise
that purpose not to sell. "
8. Sped = supplied, aided on my way.
9. Blotted^ corrected. The editors of the First Folio
of Shakespeare say : " We have scarce received from
him a blot in his papers." The truth of Herbert's
statement is evident in the many alterations of the
poems in the interval between the Williams and
the Bodleian Manuscripts.
10. Quick= vivid. Cf. DULNESSE, III, 207, 1. 3.
13. Work and winde. The same combination in THE
WORLD, II, 227, 1. 13, and with a modification in
BUSINESSE, III, 139, 1. 9.
16. Wide = wide of the mark, far-fetched. — Pretence
here = stretching forth, strain. Cf. Donne, To the
Countess of Bedford, 1. 40:
"So we have dulled our mind, it hath no ends;
Only the body's busy and pretends."
So too UNKINDNESSE, II, 309, 1. 16 ; MAN'S MED
LEY, III, 125, 1. 8; DULNESSE, III, 209, 1. 19.
II. THE RESOLVE 93
Thousands of notions in my brain did nmne,
Off ring their service, if I were not sped.
I often blotted what I had begunne; 9
This was not quick enough, and that was dead.
Nothing could seem too rich to clothe the sunne,
Much lesse those joyes which trample on his
head.
As flames do work and winde when they ascend,
So did I weave my self into the sense.
But while I bustled, I might heare a friend 15
Whisper, How wide is all this long pretence I
There is in love a sweetnesse readie penn'd;
Copie out onely that, and save expense.
94 PRAISE
INTRODUCTORY :
Two other poems with this title are given, II, 397,
and III, 45.
DATE:
Found in W. Line 1 shows him already in the
practice of writing verse.
METRE:
Unique.
SUBJECT:
Without divine aid my poetic work cannot be done.
But I am eager to accept aid, and that is itself a
power — as is seen when men employ wings, slings,
cordials, or stimulating examples.
NOTES:
4. This is the refrain of Donne's Hymn to God the
Father. Herbert has a similar refrain in another
PRAISE, III, 45.
6. The contrast is between flying and going, i. e.
walking; as in Watts' hymn :
"Our souls can neither fly nor go
To reach immortal joys."
12. More than with his short arm alone. 1 Samuel
xvii, 50. Cf. THE CHURCH-PORCH, II, 55, 1. 352.
13. An allusion to the cordials in vogue, distilled from
various herbs. "Grace is such a cordial, lifting
the poor soul to the height of the soul rich in
comfort: " A. B. Grosart. Cf. PROVIDENCE, III,
87, 1. 75, with note.
II. THE RESOLVE 95
PRAISE
To write a verse or two is all the praise
That I can raise.
Mend my estate in any wayes,
Thou shalt have more.
I go to Church; help me to wings, and I 5
Will thither flie.
Or, if I mount unto the skie,
I will do more.
Man is all weaknesse; there is no such thing
As Prince or King. 10
J^-"-" His arm is short, yet with a sling
He may do more.
An herb destill'd, and drunk, may dwell next doore
On the same floore
To a brave soul. Exalt the poore, 15
They can do more.
O raise me then ! Poore bees, that work all day,
Sting my delay;
Who have a work as well as they,
And much, much more. 20
96 THE QUIDDITIE
INTRODUCTORY :
W. entitles this POETRY. Quidditie is the school
men's name for the "whatness," the essence of a
thing, that which makes anything to be what it is.
To it Butler refers in Hudibras, I, 1, 150:
"He knew what's what, and that's as high
As metaphysic wit can fly."
This may often be a matter seemingly unimportant,
and so quiddit comes to mean an over-niceness,
e.g. Hamlet, v. 1: "Where be his quiddits now,
his quillets?"
DATE:
Found in W. Like the previous, shows him already
a poet.
SUBJECT :
In the eyes of the world my poetry is a trifle; but
expressing as it does the very essence of my life,
my connection with God, I am justified in giving
it all my care.
METRE:
Used also in the Song of EASTER, II, 155, and in
THE QUIP, III, 33.
NOTES:
12. Most, take all= poetry being all I have, do thou,
the greatest conceivable, accept it. The thought
occurs again in the last line of THE INVITATION,
III, 51.
!
II. THE RESOLVE 97
THE QUIDDITIE
MY God, a verse is not a crown,
No point of honour, or gay suit,
No hawk, or banquet, or renown,
Nor a good sword, nor yet a lute:
It cannot vault, or dance, or play; 5
It never was in France or Spain;
Nor can it entertain the day
With a great stable or demain.
It is no office, art, or news,
Nor the Exchange, or busie Hall. 10
But it is that which while I use
I am with thee; and Most, take all.
98 THE ELIXER
INTRODUCTORY:
The winning of the Grand Elixir, the discovery of
the Philosopher's Stone, the transmutation of the
baser metals into gold, are several designations of
the aims of the alchemists, according as these are
directed toward spiritual, scientific, or material ends.
They refer, however, not to three things, but to
one and the same thing, — and that, too, something
not apprehensible by the senses. In the world of
particular objects, whether material or mental, the
alchemists — like the early Greek philosophers —
seek an ultimate unity. This primal element or
absolute they name variously. When calling it a
stone (1. 21) they attach to it none of the specific
qualities which mark the stone of ordinary life. It
may be solid or liquid, hence the tincture of 1. 15.
It is merely the essence, principle, first cause,
^PX^> °f all things; and out of it, when once found,
all may again be derived. Herbert alludes to the
doctrine elsewhere in EASTER, II, 153, 1. 5 ; NATURE,
II, 303, 1. 7-12; THE PEARL, II, 381, 1. 6; VANI-
TIE, III, 135, 1. 15-21, and less evidently in THE
CHURCH-PORCH, II, 33, 1. 165. But he is usually
too confirmed a dualist, and is accustomed to dis
tinguish too sharply mind from matter, to have any
large sympathy with monistic Alchemy. Ben Jon-
son in his comedy of The Alchemist (1610) brought
before the English public an amusing body of
alchemical learning. John Wesley has rewritten this
poem and made it into a popular hymn.
II. THE RESOLVE
99
THE ELIXER
TEACH me, my God and King,
In all things thee to see;
And what I do in any thing,
To do it as for thee.
Not rudely, as a beast,
To runne into an action;
But still to make thee prepossest,
And give it his perfection.
A man that looks on glasse
On it may stay his eye,
Or if he pleaseth, through it passe,
And then the heav'n espie.
10
100 THE ELIXER
DATE:
Found in W. The many changes show Herbert's
estimate of the great importance of this poem.
METRE:
Unique.
SUBJECT :
Nothing is little in God's service. If it once have
the honour of that Name, it grows great instantly :
COUNTRY PARSON, XIV.
NOTES :
1. My God and King, a favorite combination. Cf.
JORDAN, II, 89, 1. 15, and ANTIPHON, III, 63, 1. 2.
5. Then they labour profanely, when they set themselves
to work like brute beasts, never raising their thoughts
to God, nor sanctifying their labour with daily prayer:
COUNTRY PARSON, XIV.
7. Cf. OBEDIENCE, II, 385, 1. 18. Herbert uses the
word again in THE COUNTRY PARSON, X: The
stomach being prepossessed with flesh. Donne has a
modification of the thought in The Second Anni
versary, 1. 459:
"Who being solicited to any act,
Still heard God pleading his safe precontract."
8. His=its. For the phrase, cf. PRAISE, III, 45,1. 9.
15. In later editions, his is often misprinted this.
20. That=the room.
21. Cf. CORNARO ON TEMPERANCE, I, 350.
24. Told= reckoned, as in "telling beads."
II. THE RESOLVE 101
All may of thee partake:
Nothing can be so mean,
Which with his tincture (for thy sake) 15
Will not grow bright and clean.
A servant with this clause
Makes drudgerie divine:
Who sweeps a room, as for thy laws,
Makes that and th' action fine. 20
This is the famous stone
That turneth all to gold:
For that which God doth touch and own
Cannot for lesse be told.
102 EMPLOYMENT
INTRODUCTORY :
Another poem with this title is given, II, 347.
DATE:
Found in W.
METRE :
Unique. ,
SUBJECT :
Life as action. Active and stirring spirits live alone :
THE CHURCH-PORCH, II, 55, 1. 341.
NOTES:
3. Trade, cf. THE PEARL, II, 381, 1. 12.
4. Furre=the warm garments needed by the inac
tive. Cf . THE CHURCH MILITANT, III, 373, 1. 198.
5. Complexion = disposition. So THE CHURCH-
PORCH, II, 39, 1. 211. "Man being compounded of
the four complexions (whose fathers are the four
elements) although there be a mixture of them all
in all the parts of his body, yet must the divers
parts of our microcosme or little world within our
selves be diversly more inclined, some to one, some
to another complexion, according to the diversitie
of their uses, that of these discords a perfect har
monic may be made up for the maintenance of the
whole body:!' King James' Counterblast Against
Tobacco.
6. No starr e= no fixed and imperishable fire.
9. Faint = fainting, sluggish.
11. Of the four elements out of which God formed all
II. THE RESOLVE
103
EMPLOYMENT
HE that is weary, let him sit.
My soul would stirre
And trade in courtesies and wit,
Quitting the furre
To cold complexions needing it.
Man is no starre, but a quick coal
Of mortall fire;
Who blows it not, nor doth controll
A faint desire,
Lets his own ashes choke his soul.
10
When th' elements did for place contest
With him whose will
Ordain'd the highest to be best,
The earth sat still,
And by the others is opprest. 15
104 EMPLOYMENT
things, fire (here described in the second stanza)
is the highest, earth the lowest, because the most
inert. There is danger that we, through inertia,
find a similarly low place. For the whole doctrine,
see Shakespeare's Sonnets XLTV and XLV.
18. So THE CHURCH-PORCH, II, 55, 1. 345. The sun
is always shining somewhere, while the stars can
appear only during some absence of the sun. Like
the sun we should be perpetual in action, not like
the stars occasional.
21. Because the orange has at the same time both
blossoms and fruit. Cf . MAN, II, 217, 1. 8 ; AF
FLICTION, II, 345, 1. 57; PARADISE, III, 39, 1. 2.
25. Isaiah v, 4.
28. Our wares = our talents, powers.
29. We lie torpid.
II. THE RESOLVE
105
Life is a businesse, not good cheer,
Ever in warres.
The sunne still shineth there or here,
Whereas the starres
Watch an advantage to appeare. 20
Oh that I were an Orenge-tree,
That busie plant!
Then should I ever laden be,
And never want
Some fruit for him that dressed me. 25
But we are still too young or old;
The man is gone
Before we do our wares unfold.
So we freeze on,
Untill the grave increase our cold. 30
106 ANTIPHON
INTRODUCTORY :
In W. this is entitled "ODE." ANTiPHON=a re
sponsive song in which strain answers strain.
DATE:
Found in W. Another poem with this title is given,
III, 63. ^1
METRE:
Unique, and an exquisite case of inwoven rhyme.
The second, fourth, and sixth lines of each stanza
rhyme together; but the fifth of each with the first
and third of the following stanza.
SUBJECT :
Men and angels unite to praise the love of God;
the former having it in prospect, the latter in pos
session.
NOTES :
9. Th* end= these latter days.
23. So THE SEARCH, III, 223, 1. 60.
II. THE RESOLVE
107
ANTIPHON
Chor. PRAISED be the God of love,
Men. Here below,
Angels. And here above.
Cho. Who hath dealt his mercies so,
Ang. To his friend,
Men. And to his foe,
Cho. That both grace and glorie tend
Ang. Us of old,
Men. And us in th' end.
Cho. The great shepherd of the fold
Ang. Us did make,
Men. For us was sold.
10
Cho. He our foes in pieces brake.
Ang. Him we touch,
Men. And him we take.
Cho. Wherefore since that he is such,
Ang. We adore,
Men. And we do crouch.
15
Cho. Lord, thy praises should be more.
Men. We have none, 20
Ang. And we no store.
Cho. Praised be the God alone,
Who hath made of two folds one.
Title-Page of the Bodleian Manuscript of Herbert's Poems.
Vol. I, p. 176.
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THE CHURCH
PREFACE
IN religion Herbert, with most of the devout men
of his time, Anglicans no less than Puritans,
is — as I have already argued — an individualist. •
The relations between God and his own soul are*
what "interest mm. Like Bunyan's Pilgrim, jie
undeHaEeTfT solitary journey to the he^v^nly city,
and concernsTumself little about his fellow men,
except to cry aloud that they too are in danger.
Any notion of dedicating himself to their welfare is »
foreign to him. Perhaps his poem THE WINDOWS •
comes nearest to expressing something like human
responsibility. But such moods are rare. Usually
his responsibility is to God alone; and this, pas
sionately uttered in AARON and THE PRIESTHOOD,
is the farthest point to which his self-centred piety
carries his verse. The mystic forgets himself in
the thought of God ; the philanthropist, in the
thought of human needs. To Herbert — at least
to the poet Herbert — the pgjsnnfl.1 r^ft*»9pgtiip Qf \
the soul to God }R the one matter of consequence. >
In this relationship he finds
the Church. As the home organizes and gives
opportunity of expression to the love of single
persons for one another, so does the Church to the
love of single persons and God. Herbert never
112 PREFACE TO
thinks of the Church in our modern fashion as
the manifestation of God to collective humanity,
progressively enlarging human powers and expand
ing human ideals. Nor does he conceive it as an
august divine institution, venerable in itself, and
rightly subordinating individuals to its own high
ends. It is easy to mistake Herbert for an ecclesi
astic, and to say, as has sometimes been said, that
he cannot be understood by one who is not Episco-
pally born. But such an error is due to careless
reading. He is, indeed, devoted to the Church.
He talks of nothing else. But in his poem SIGN,
as constantly though less explicitly elsewhere, he
explains that the Church, God's Temple, is the
human heart, and that all its frame and fabrick is
within. His book he thus very naturally entitled
THE CHURCH or TEMPLE, and told Ferrar that it
was a picture of the many Conflicts that have past
.betwixt God and my Soul before I could subject
mine to the will of Jesus my Master.
It is not strange, then, that one who has made
the resolve which is set forth in the preceding
Group of poems should become a singer of the
Church and its ordinances as thus conceived. For
\these celebrate the going forth of a loving God to
seek a wayward sinner. They show that sinner
ill at ease so long as he is parted from his exalted
friend, and they indicate the means through which
a heavenly union may be accomplished. But one
who takes love for his theme will find that there
THE CHURCH 113
are three ways of exploring it. He may directly
inspect the yearning moods of the soul, viewing
them as psychological facts of experience ; or he
may consider more abstractly the general relations
involved in love, and treat these as theoretic sub
jects of contemplation; or lastly, he may catalogue
the regularities of love, its habitual modes of ex
pression, the fixed avenues through which the loved
one becomes accessible. And all these ways are as
open to the student of sacred love as to him who
would study the profane.
Herbert adopts them all, sometimes in the same
poem. I believe, however, I can make his work!
more intelligible if I roughly classify and divide
according to this scheme. Those of his Cambridge
poems which predominantly deal with his great
theme in the direct way I accordingly entitle The:
Inner Life. Those which treat it as a subject for
philosophic analysis I call Meditation. And
those which mark out its ordered paths I giv
the special name of The^ Qmrcjj. It is true that
in doing so I unwarrantably narrow Herbert's
comprehensive word. Besides my Group, he covers
with that holy name every stirring of the aspiring
soul and every serious reflection on the life of love.
It is the all-including title of his poems. But I see
no harm in applying it, par excellence and after
this explanation, to the institutional features of
love. Only we must be careful to remember that
these, no less than the poignant cries of separation
114 PREFACE TO
and suffering, derive their meanings from the indi
vidual experience of love.
There are advantages in placing this Group
first, and in bringing the Group on The Inner Life
into close connection with The Crisis. From their
style, too, I suspect that most of these churchly
poems are of earlier date than the majority of
those which follow. That is certainly the case
with the longest and most important, THE SACRI-
FICE; an archaic piece which, with all its compact
power, is likely to prove somewhat repulsive to a
modern taste. In it the suffering of Him who loves
us is anatbmized in elaborate, and perhaps too
calculated, detail. Probably a reader will approach
it most understandingly by comparing it with early
Flemish and German paintings, or with Albert
Diirer's woodcuts. Diirer's Passion and his Life
of the Virgin were widely circulated in the century
before Herbert. One fancies Herbert turning them
over and designing his Altar-piece in their spirit.
In it and them there is elaborate realism in setting
forth an ideal scene, an exaggeration of physical
pain, a forced ingenuity in distressful incident, and
a failure to subordinate detail; while at the same
time there is distributed everywhere a strange
vividness, rich human sympathies, and the im
pression — conveyed, we hardly know how — that
through all the crowded and homely circumstance
the solemnest of world-events is occurring. In
treating so sacred a subject Herbert allows himself
THE CHURCH 115
the smallest possible departure from the words of
Scripture. This peculiarity of the poem I have
tried to exhibit in the notes.
Following THE SACRIFICE, I set a series of festi
val songs, in which analogies of the soul's experi
ence are found in historic events. With these falls
the festival of SUNDAY, a day more frequent,
pompous, and full of human significance than all
other holy days. After it are grouped special modes
of divine communication, — through PRAYER,
SCRIPTURE, BAPTISME, COMMUNION, MUSICK.
The group concludes with the solemn monitions
of stately burial monuments, inciting the beholder
to high aspiration and disentanglement from the
body.
THE CHURCH
118 SUPERLIMINARE
INTRODUCTORY:
In W. the first four lines are headed "Perirrhante-
rium " (a title which is given to the first stanza of
THE CHURCH-PORCH in ed. 1633), and have a page
to themselves; the succeeding four lines, also occu
pying a page, and being headed "Superliminare."
— Superliminare = the lintel or crossbar of the
doorway, a place for an inscription. Cf. Exodus
xii, 22.
DATE:
Found in W. It is intended as an introduction to
a volume of verse.
METRE:
Used also in the Song of GOOD FRIDAY, II, 151.
SUBJECT :
Conditions of entering the Church of God.
NOTES :
I. Former precepts = those of THE CHURCH-PORCH
which in ed. 1633 immediately precede these lines
and refer to outward behavior. L. 1-4 are intended
to be heard ; 1. 5-8 to be read, as an inscription.
5-8. Herbert has in mind the conditions for enter
ing the New Jerusalem, Revelation xxi, 27; He
brews xii, 14. — Avoid = av aunt. So Shakespeare,
Tempest, iv, 1: "Well done, avoid! No more."
In both B. and W. there is no punctuation in the
first line, as there is not in the similar case of
Away despair of THE BAG, III, 157, 1. 1.
I
HI. THE CHURCH
119
SUPERLIMINARE
THOU, whom the former precepts have
Sprinkled and taught how to behave
Thy self in church, approach, and taste
The churches mysticall repast.
AVOID, prof anenesse ! Come not here!
Nothing but holy, pure, and cleare,
Or that which groneth to be so,
May at his perill further go.
120 THE ALTAR
DATE:
Found in W.
METRE :
Unique. — Examples of pillars, pyramids, etc., may
be seen in Puttenham's Art of English Poetry, and
in Sylvester's Dedications before his Translation
of Du Bartas. Such fantastic forms were not un
known to the decadent late Greek poetry. In 1650
Hobbes in his letter to Sir W. Davenant speaks
of him who would "seek glory from a needless
difficulty and contrive verses into the forms of
an organ, a hatchet, an egg, an altar, and a pair of
wings." In 1682 Dryden may have had Herbert
in mind when in Mac Flecknoe he satirically tells
Shadwell:
"Thy genius calls thee not to purchase fame
In keen Iambics, but mild Anagram.
Leave writing plays, and choose for thy command
Some peaceful province in Acrostic Land,
There thou mayst wings display and altars raise,
And torture one poor word ten thousand ways."
SUBJECT:
When the heart is whole it asserts itself, forgetful of
God the author of all its parts. Imitating the sacri
ficial example of Christ, and allowing itself to be
broken by affliction, it may out of its fragments
build an altar and make its pains God's praise.
NOTES :
4. Cf. Exodus xx, 25.
6. Cf. Zechariah vii, 12.
14. Cf. Luke xix, 40.
in. THE CHURCH 121
THE ALTAR
A BROKEN ALTAR, Lord, thy servant reares,
Made of a heart and cemented with teares;
Whose parts are as thy hand did frame;
No workman's tool hath touch'd the same^
A HEART alone 5
Is such a stone
As nothing but
Thy pow'r doth cut.
Wherefore each part
Of my hard heart 10
Meets in this frame
To praise thy name;
That if I chance to hold my peace,
These stones to praise thee may not cease.
O let thy blessed SACRIFICE be mine,
And sanctifie this A L T A R to be thine.
122 THE SACRIFICE
INTRODUCTORY :
THE SACRIFICE was translated into Latin in 1678
by William Dillingham. It is Herbert's only dra
matic monologue, or poem put entirely into the
mouth of another. His other dramatic poems are
the ANTIPHONS, II, 107, and III, 63 ; HEAVEN, II,
273; DIALOGUE, II, 369; LOVE UNKNOWN, III, 179;
A DIALOGUE- ANTHEME, III, 343; LOVE, III, 387.
Herbert's series of twenty-one Latin poems, en
titled PASSIO DISCERPTA, looks like a first sketch of
THE SACRIFICE. In Christ's Victorie (1610) Giles
Fletcher assembles the facts of Christ's death as
fully, though in a very different metre and temper.
DATE:
From the antithetic style, probably one of Herbert's
early pieces. The poem may have been suggested
by Donne's Lamentations of Jeremiah.
METRE:
Unique. Donne often used a three-lined pentameter
stanza. Herbert here adds a refrain, — peculiarly
serviceable in emphasizing the monotony of suffer
ing, — but he has never employed this metre with
out refrain. The other poems where he uses a full
refrain are: GRACE, II, 311; THE PEARL, II, 381;
HOME, III, 325.
SUBJECT:
The death of Christ, as containing in its smallest
incident profound contrasts of outward seeming and
inner reality. 7, who am Truth, turn into truth their
deeds (1. 179).
m. THE CHURCH 123
THE SACRIFICE
OH all ye who passe by, whose eyes and minde
To worldly things are sharp, but to me blinde,
To me who took eyes that I might you finde,
Was ever grief like mine ?
The Princes of my people make a head 5
Against their Maker; they do wish me dead,
Who cannot wish except I give them bread.
Was ever grief like mine ?
Without me each one who doth now me brave
Had to this day been an Egyptian slave. 10
They use that power against me which I gave.
Was ever grief like mine ?
Mine own Apostle, who the bag did beare,
Though he had all I had, did not forbeare
To sell me also and to put me there. 15
Was ever grief, &c.
124 THE SACRIFICE
NOTES :
1. Oh all ye who passe by; cf. Lamentations i, 12;
ii, 15; and Matthew xxvii, 39.
5. Psalm ii, 2.
7. Exodus xvi, 1-16. They dishonour him with those
mouths which he continually fils and feeds : THE
COUNTRY PARSON, XXVIII.
10. Deuteronomy v, 15.
11. This line well summarizes the crime of the Cru
cifixion as here conceived by Herbert.
13. John xii, 6.
17. Matthew xxvi, 15.
18. John xii, 5.
21. Deare treasure, i. e. my heart; genitive of appo
sition.
22. "This is a kind of protest against the Roman Cath
olic rosary and its mechanical use. My blood the
only beads, besides which there is no other : " A. B.
Grosart. Luke xxii, 44.
23. Luke xxii, 42. This whole line is in apposition to
My words.
26. A cure for all mankind, Jews and Gentiles.
29. Matthew xxvi, 40-43.
33. Matthew xxvi, 46-57.
III. THE CHURCH 125
For thirtie pence he did my death devise
Who at three hundred did the ointment prize,
Not half so sweet as my sweet sacrifice.
Was ever grief like mine ?
Therefore my soul melts, and my heart's deare
treasure 21
Drops bloud (the onely beads) my words to mea
sure:
O let this cup passe, if it be thy pleasure.
Was ever grief, &c.
These drops, being temper' d with a sinner's tears,
A Balsome are for both the Hemispheres; 26
Curing all wounds but mine, all but my fears.
Was ever grief, &c.
Yet my Disciples sleep. I cannot gain
One houre of watching; but their drowsie brain
Comforts not me, and doth my doctrine stain. 31
Was ever grief, &c.
Arise, arise! They come. Look, how they runne !
Alas! What haste they make to be undone!
How with their lanterns do they seek the sunne!
Was ever grief, &c. 36
126 THE SACRIFICE
38. John xiv, 6.
41. Luke xxii, 48.
45. For the laying hold of faith, see 1 Timothy vi, 12.
47. Psalm cxvi, 16.
49. Mark xiv, 50.
51. Matthew ii, 1, 2.
53. John xviii, 24.
55. My explanations of their law, they assert, would
destroy its meaning.
III. THE CHURCH 127
With clubs and staves they seek me as a thief
Who am the way of truth, the true relief;
Most true to those who are my greatest grief.
Was ever grief like mine ?
Judas, dost thou betray me with a kisse ? 41
Canst thou finde hell about my lips ? And misse
Of life just at the gates of life and blisse ?
Was ever grief, &c.
See, they lay hold on me not with the hands 45
Of faith, but furie. Yet at their commands
I suffer binding, who have loos'd their bands.
Was ever grief, &c.
All my Disciples flie; fear puts a barre 49
Betwixt my friends and me. They leave the starre
That brought the wise men of the East from farre.
Was ever grief, &c.
Then from one ruler to another bound
They leade me; urging that it was not sound
What I taught. Comments would the text con
found. 55
Was ever grief, &c.
128 THE SACRIFICE
57. The High Priest, Matthew xxvi, 59.
59. Acts viii, 32.
62. John x, 33.
63. Philippians ii, 6.
65. John ii, 19.
66. Raz'd, and raised. Cf. THE TEMPER, II, 313, 1. 7.
71. " Thus Adam, i. e. the offspring of Adam's loins,
returns my grant of breath to him. Genesis ii, 7 : "
A. B. Grosart. Cf. PRAYER, II, 181, 1. 2.
74. Luke xxiii, 11, 12.
75. My enmitie= enmity to me.
III. THE CHURCH 129
The Priest and rulers all false witnesse seek
'Gainst him who seeks not life, but is the meek
And readie Paschal Lambe of this great week.
Was ever grief like mine ?
Then they accuse me of great blasphemie, 61
That I did thrust into the Deitie,
Who never thought that any robberie.
Was ever grief, &c.
Some said that I the Temple to the floore 65
In three dayes raz'd, and raised as before.
Why, he that built the world can do much more.
Was ever grief, &c.
Then they condemne me all with that same breath
Which I do give them daily, unto death. 70
Thus Adam my first breathing rendereth.
Was ever grief, &c.
They binde, and leade me unto Herod. He
Sends me to Pilate. This makes them agree;
But yet their friendship is my enmitie. 75
Was ever grief, &c.
130 THE SACRIFICE
78. Psalm cxliv, 1.
79. Onely= alone. — Isaiah vi, 5.
86. Vying used transit! vely= matching. So Shake
speare, Antony and Cleopatra, v. 2 : "To vie strange
forms with fancy."
90. A similar phrase in 1. 211.
94. Genesis viii, 9. Cf. THE SEARCH, III, 319, 1. 20.
III. THE CHURCH 131
Herod and all his bands do set me light
Who teach all hands to warre, fingers to fight,
And onely am the Lord of hosts and might.
Was ever grief like mine ?
Herod in judgement sits, while I do stand; 81
Examines me with a censorious hand.
I him obey, who all things else command.
Was ever grief, &c.
The Jews accuse me with despitefulnesse, 85
And vying malice with my gentlenesse,
Pick quarrels with their onely happinesse.
Was ever grief, &c.
I answer nothing, but with patience prove
If stonie hearts will melt with gentle love. 90
But who does hawk at eagles with a dove ?
Was ever grief, &c.
My silence rather doth augment their crie;
My dove doth back into my bosome flie,
Because the raging waters still are high. 95
Was ever grief, &c. '
132 THE SACRIFICE
98. Acts xxii, 22. Cf. PRAYER, II, 185, 1. 14.
99. John viii, 58.
102. Luke xxiii, 18.
106. My lifelike taking of my life.
107. Matthew xxvii, 25.
110. John viii, 12.
113. Luke xxiii, 19.
115. It, i.e. murder (1. 113), was naturally approved by
those who killed me.
III. THE CHURCH 133
Heark how they crie aloud still, Crucifie 1
It is not ft he live a day, they crie,
Who cannot live lesse then eternally. 99
Was ever grief like mine ?
Pilate, a stranger, holdeth off; but they,
Mine owne deare people, cry, Away, away!
With noises confused frighting the day.
Was ever grief, &c. 104
Yet still they shout and crie and stop their eares,
Putting my life among their sinnes and fears,
And therefore with my blond on them and theirs.
Was ever grief, &c. 108
See how spite cankers things. These words, aright
Used and wished, are the whole world's light;
But hony is their gall, brightnesse their night.
Was ever grief, &c.
They choose a murderer, and all agree
In him to do themselves a courtesie;
For it was their own cause who killed me. 115
Was ever grief, &c.
134 THE SACRIFICE
118. Isaiah ix, 6; Philippians iv, 7.
119. Doth glasse=doth reflect.
121. John xix, 15.
122. He= their real king, Jehovah, — a very violent
transition. Numbers xx, 8.
125. Matthew xxvii, 26.
127. Their bitterness adds to my grief the mystery of
love repaid by hate. Cf. 1. 11.
129. Mark xiv, 65.
130. Proverbs xxx, 4, and Psalm xcv, 4.
135. John ix, 6.
III. THE CHURCH 135
And a seditious murderer he was,
But I the Prince of peace; peace that doth passe
All understanding, more then heav'n doth glasse.
Was ever grief like mine ?
Why, Cesar is their onely King, not I. 121
He clave the stonie rock when they were drie;
But surely not their hearts, as I well trie.
Was ever grief, &c.
Ah, How they scourge me! Yet my tendernesse
Doubles each lash, and yet their bitternesse 126
Windes up my grief to a mysteriousnesse.
Was ever grief, &c.
They buffet me and box me as they list, 129
Who grasp the earth and heaven with my fist,
And never yet, whom I would punish, miss'd.
Was ever grief, &c.
Behold, they spit on me in scornfull wise
Who by my spittle gave the blinde man eies,
Leaving his blindnesse to mine enemies. 135
Was ever grief, &c.
136 THE SACRIFICE
137. Luke xxii, 64.
138. Exodus xxxiv, 33; 2 Corinthians iii, 13.
139. Either ; either the Law or the Gospel.
142. Matthew xxvi, 68. — Dittie (dictatum)=cry, words
which are usually intended to be set to music, as in
THE BANQUET, III, 57, 1. 50; PROVIDENCE, III,
79, 1. 9; THE FORERUNNERS, III, 317, 1. 11.
149. Luke xxiii, 28.
150. Luke xxii, 44.
153. Matthew xxvii, 27.
155. Matthew xxvi, 53.
III. THE CHURCH 137
My face they cover, though it be divine.
As Moses' face was vailed, so is mine, 138
Lest on their double-dark souls either shine.
Was ever grief like mine ?
Servants and abjects flout me; they are wittie:
Now prophesie who strikes thee, is their dittie.
So they in me denie themselves all pitie.
Was ever grief, &c.
And now I am deliver'd unto death, 145
Which each one cals for so with utmost breath
That he before me well nigh suffereth.
Was ever grief, &c.
Weep not, deare friends, since I for both have wept
When all my tears were bloud, the while you slept.
Your tears for your own fortunes should be kept.
Was ever grief, &c. 152
The souldiers lead me to the common hall;
There they deride me, they abuse me all.
Yet for twelve heav'nly legions I could call. 155
Was ever grief, &c.
138 THE SACRIFICE
157. Matthew xxvii, 28.
158. Shews by its scarlet color.
159. A cordiall is also mentioned in WHITSUNDAY, II,
159, 1. 18, SIGHS AND GRONES, III, 279, 1. 28, and
THE KNELL, III, 393, 1. 17.
163. Isaiah v, 1-7.
165. Genesis iii, 18, and Matthew xxvii, 29.
167. Throll= bondage, as in THE CHURCH-PORCH,
II, 27, 1. 118, and 49, 1. 286.
170. 1 Corinthians x, 4; see also note on LOVE UN
KNOWN, III, 179, 1. 14.
III. THE CHURCH 139
Then with a scarlet robe they me aray;
Which shews my bloud to be the onely way
And cordiall left to repair man's decay. 159
Was ever grief like mine ?
Then on my head a crown of thorns I wear;
For these are all the grapes Sion doth bear,
Though I my vine planted and watred there.
Was ever grief, &c.
So sits the earth's great curse in Adam's fall 165
Upon my head. So I remove it all
From th' earth unto my brows, and bear the
thrall.
Was ever grief, &c.
Then with the reed they gave to me before
They strike my head, the rock from whence all
store 170
Of heav'nly blessings issue evermore.
Was ever grief, &c.
They bow their knees to me and cry, H ail king !
What ever scoffes or scornfulnesse can bring,
I am the floore, the sink, where they it fling. 175
Was ever grief, &c.
140 THE SACRIFICE
178. Weeds, i. e. garments.
179. They intend their Hail King, their sceptres,
crowns, and robes to be false. They prove to be
true.
182. 1 Peter i, 12.
183. Luke x, 24.
185. Rout= rabble, crowd.
186. Luke xxiii, 21.
187. Isaiah Ixiv, 12.
190. Matthew xxvii, 31.
191. Matthew viii, 31. 1
193. Ingrosse —to heap up. So Shakespeare, 2 Henry
IV, iv, 5:
'For this they have engrossd and piled up
The canker'd heaps of strange-achieved gold."
III. THE CHURCH 141
Yet since man's scepters are as frail as reeds,
And thorny all their crowns, bloudie their weeds,
I, who am Truth, turn into truth their deeds.
Was ever grief like mine ?
The souldiers also spit upon that face 181
Which Angels did desire to have the grace,
And Prophets, once to see, but found no place.
Was ever grief, &c.
Thus trimmed, forth they bring me to the rout, 185
Who Crucifie him! crie with one strong shout.
God holds his peace at man, and man cries out.
Was ever grief, &c.
They leade me in once more, and putting then
Mine own clothes on, they leade me out agen. 190
Whom devils flie, thus is he toss'd of men.
Was ever grief, &c.
And now wearie of sport, glad to ingrosse
All spite in one, counting my life their losse,
They carrie me to my most bitter crosse. 195
Was ever grief, &c.
142 THE SACRIFICE
198. Matthew xxvii, 32.
199. Matthew xvi, 24.
202. Fruit, Genesis iii, 3-6.
203. Tree, i. e. the cross. Galatians iii, 13.
206. The two, i. e. the worlds of nature and of sin.
207. Words, Psalm xxxiii, 6.
215. Matthew xxvii, 46. Through stress of feeling the
line is left unfinished. Cf . DENIALL, II, 297, 1. 5.
III. THE CHURCH 143
My crosse I bear my self untill I faint.
Then Simon bears it for me by constraint,
The decreed burden of each mortall Saint. 199
Was ever grief like mine ?
O all ye who passe by, behold and see !
Man stole the fruit, but I must climbe the tree;
The tree of life to all but onely me.
Was ever grief, &c. 204
Lo, here I hang, charg'd with a world of sinne,
The greater world o' th' two; for that came in
By words, but this by sorrow I must win.
Was ever grief, &c.
Such sorrow as, if sinfull man could feel 209
Or feel his part, he would not cease to kneel
Till all were melted, though he were all steel.
Was ever grief, &c.
But, O my God, my God I why leav'st thou me,
The sonne, in whom thou dost delight to be ?
My God, my God 215
Never was grief like mine.
144 THE SACRIFICE
217. Many a wound tears my body.
219. Reproches, perhaps in apposition to shame. Cf.
1. 217, and certainly referring to 1. 221.
221. Luke iv, 23, and Matthew xxvii, 40, 42.
229. Matthew xxvii, 38.
231. Ephesians iv, 8.
233. Matthew xxvii, 37.
235. Isaiah liii, 9.
III. THE CHURCH 145
Shame tears my soul, my bodie many a wound;
Sharp nails pierce this, but sharper that confound ;
Reproches, which are free, while I am bound.
Was ever grief like mine ?
Now heal thy self, Physician, now come down I
Alas! I did so, when I left my crown 222
And father's smile for you, to feel his frown.
Was ever grief, &c.
In healing not my self, there doth consist 225
All that salvation which ye now resist;
Your safetie in my sicknesse doth subsist.
Was ever grief, &c.
Betwixt two theeves I spend my utmost breath,
As he that for some robberie suffereth. 230
Alas ! what have I stollen from you ? Death.
Was ever grief, &c.
A king my title is, prefixt on high;
Yet by my subjects am condemn'd to die
A servile death in servile companie. 235
Was ever grief, &c.
146 THE SACRIFICE
238. Matthew xxvii, 34.
239. Psalm Ixxviii, 24, 25. Manna is mentioned again
in PRAYER, II, 181, 1. 10.
241. Matthew xxvii, 35.
243. Mark v, 27.
245. "That some person may still be speaking, these
two last stanzas are brought in by way of prophecy;
for it had been an absurdity to have introduced
him speaking when he was dead : " G. Ryley.
247. As sinne came, Genesis ii, 21. — Sacraments, John
xix, 34, and Matthew xxvi, 28.
III. THE CHURCH 147
They gave me vineger mingled with gall,
But more with malice. Yet when they did call,
With Manna, Angels' food, I fed them all. 239
Was ever grief like mine ?
They part my garments and by lot dispose
My coat, the type of love, which once cur'd those
Who sought for help, never malicious foes.
Was ever grief, &c.
Nay, after death their spite shall further go; 245
For they will pierce my side, I full well know,
That as sinne came, so Sacraments might flow.
Was ever grief, &c.
.•-•\wVL
But now I die, now all is finished;
My wo, man's weal. And now I bow my head.
Onely let others say, when I am dead, 251
Never was grief like mine.
148 GOOD FRIDAY
DATE:
Found in W. and there entitled THE PASSION.
METRE:
Used with different rhyming system in THE
METHOD, III, 197. The metre of the second
part, beginning at 1. 21, is used in SUPERLIMI-
NARE, II, 119.
SUBJECT:
How many are the sorrows of Christ! They are
as many as are his foes, the stars, the leaves and
fruits of autumn, the hours or sins of a life. If
inscribed on my heart, they would leave no room
for sin.
NOTES:
7. Matthew ii, 9.
8. All = all the stars.
12. John xv, 1.
19. "As the dog knows his medicinable herb; or as the
weasel was said to suck 'rue' before encountering
a mole; or the mingoos its herb when bitten by a
snake, — both erroneous, but the latter, until very
lately, believed to be a well-proved fact:" A. B.
Grosart. Cf. SUNDAY, II, 177, 1. 38.
III. THE CHURCH 149
GOOD FRIDAY
O MY chief good,
How shall I measure out thy bloud ?
How shall I count what thee befell,
And each grief tell ?
Shall I thy woes 5
Number according to thy foes ?
Or, since one starre show'd thy first breath,
Shall all thy death ?
Or shall each leaf
Which falls in Autumne score a grief? 10
Or cannot leaves, but fruit, be signe
Of the true vine ?
Then let each houre
Of my whole life one grief devoure;
That thy distresse through all may runne,
And be my sunne. 16
Or rather let
My severall sinnes their sorrows get;
That as each beast his cure doth know,
Each sinne may so. 20
150 GOOD FRIDAY
21. In W. this second part of GOOD FRIDAY is printed
separately under the title, THE PASSION. I have not
separated the two, partly because B. and ed. 1633
— which are later — combine them, and partly
because Herbert is fond of thus appending a lyrical
passage to a reflective poem. So EASTER, II, 153 ;
CHRISTMAS, II, 167 ; H. COMMUNION, II, 195 ; AN
OFFERING, II, 393.
22. The bloudie fight is the agony of the cross. Bloudie
battell it is called in PRAISE, III, 47, 1. 35. Fight
in this sense of personal agony is strange to us,
but Vaughan employs it in his Faith:
"Then did He shine forth whose sad fall
And bitter fights
Were figur'd in those mystical
And cloudy rites."
23. Store of blood, the fittest ink for such a record.
32. The writings referred to in 1. 21 and 23.
III. THE CHURCH 151
Since bloud is fittest, Lord, to write
Thy sorrows in and bloudie fight;
My heart hath store, write there, where in
One box doth lie both ink and sinne.
That when sinne spies so many foes, 25
Thy whips, thy nails, thy wounds, thy woes,
All come to lodge there, sinne may say,
No room for me, and flie away.
Sinne being gone, oh fill the place
And keep possession with thy grace! 30
Lest sinne take courage and return,
And all the writings blot or burn.
152 EASTER
DATE:
Found in W.
METRE:
Used also in THE STORM, III, 263. The metre of
the song, beginning at 1. 19, is used also in THE
QUIDDITIE, II, 97, and THE QUIP, III, 33.
SUBJECT:
The day of gladness.
NOTES :
5. The reference may be to Colossians ii, 12, —
"Buried with him in baptism;" but probably the
thought is complicated by remembering how a
metal, in order to be rendered pure, is reduced to
ashes.
6. And may make thee much more, i. e. just.
8. After 1. 8 he goes on to explain why each part of the
lute should awake and strive. Hence I follow Dr.
Grosart and punctuate (:), not (.), as is usually
done.
15-18. The common chord consists of three notes, i. e.
any tone with its third and fifth. Herbert conceives
all music to be made up by contrasts and repetitions
of such chords. If, then, in our song only heart and
lute combine, the chord will still be incomplete
without the Spirit's part. Romans viii, 26.
III. THE CHURCH 153
EASTER
RISE, heart, thy Lord is risen. Sing his praise
Without delayes,
Who takes thee by the hand, that thou likewise
With him mayst rise;
That, as his death calcined thee to dust, 5
His life may make thee gold, and much more just.
Awake, my lute, and struggle for thy part
With all thy art:
The crosse taught all wood to resound his name
Who bore the same; 10
His streched sinews taught all strings what key
Is best to celebrate this most high day.
Consort both heart and lute, and twist a song
Pleasant and long.
Or, since all musick is but three parts vied 15
And multiplied,
O let thy blessed Spirit bear a part,
And make up our defects with his sweet art.
154 EASTER
19. Straw thy way. Same phrase in AFFLICTION, II,
341, 1. 21. Cf. Matthew xxi, 8. This is the s&ng
planned in 1. 13, and has, as there proposed, three
stanzas.
26. They would be presumptuous to compare what they
bring with what Easter brings.
29. All the three hundred days of the year (for so in
round numbers we may reckon them) get their
significance from this single day.
III. THE CHURCH 155
I got me flowers to straw thy way,
I got me boughs off many a tree, 20
But thou wast up by break of day,
And brought'st thy sweets along with thee.
The Sunne arising in the East,
Though he give light, and th* East perfume,
If they should offer to contest 25
With thy arising, they presume.
Can there be any day but this,
Though many sunnes to shine endeavour ?
We count three hundred, but we misse;
There is but one, and that one ever. 30
156 WHITSUNDAY
INTRODUCTORY:
" We then celebrate the performance of the promise
which he made to his disciples at or before his
ascension; namely, 'that though he left them, yet
he would send them the Holy Ghost to be their
comforter;' and he did so on that day which the
Church calls Whitsunday:" Walton's Life.
DATE:
Found in W.
METRE:
Unique.
SUBJECT:
A longing for direct enlightenment, such as once
came in tongues of fire. Cf. DECAY, III, 115.
NOTES :
1. The Holy Spirit which first appeared to Jesus as
a dove, Matthew iii, 16, appeared to his disciples
after his death as fire, Acts ii, 3.
1-4. Vaughan imitates this in Disorder and Frailty:
"O yes! But give wings to my fire,
And hatch my soul, until it fly
Up where Thou art, amongst thy tire
Of stars, above infirmity."
3. Hatching = brooding. The heart thought of as an
egg, incapable of motion till the Holy Spirit gives it
. life. Psalm Iv, 6.
7. Whoever wished might come directly to thee.
III. THE CHURCH 157
WHITSUNDAY
LISTEN, sweet Dove, unto my song
And spread thy golden wings in me;
Hatching my tender heart so long,
Till it get wing and flie away with thee.
Where is that fire which once descended 5
On thy Apostles ? Thou didst then
Keep open house, richly attended,
Feasting all comers by twelve chosen men.
Such glorious gifts thou didst bestow
That th' earth did like a heav'n appeare; 10
The starres were coming down to know
If they might mend their wages and serve here.
158 WHITSUNDAY
14. Cf. MISERIE, II, 253, 1. 33.
17. The pipes are the Apostles, the conductors of the
reviving grace of Christ to us (Zechariah iv, 12).
Cf . THE JEWS, III, 109, 1. 3. Since their day direct
manifestations of the Holy Spirit have ceased.
20. Can their be a misprint for his ? It would then
mean that the Apostles were martyred by men who
really dealt themselves a blow in piercing the side
of Christ. Possibly, however, the text is correct,
and it may mean that by stabbing the Apostles
men injured themselves.
23. Braves= bravadoes. So Shakespeare, Taming of
the Shrew, iii, 1: "Sirrah, I will not bear these
braves of thine." Only on special occasions does
God now intervene.
28. Its right of direct access to thee, 1. 7.
III. THE CHURCH 159
The sunne, which once did shine alone,
Hung down his head and wisht for night,
When he beheld twelve sunnes for one 15
Going about the world and giving light.
But since those pipes of gold, which brought
That cordiall water to our ground,
Were cut and martyr'd by the fault
Of those who did themselves through their side
wound, 20
Thou shutt'st the doore and keep'st within,
Scarce a good joy creeps through the chink;
And if the braves of conqu'ring sinne
Did not excite thee, we should wholly sink.
f Lord, though we change, thou art the same; 1
^The same sweet God of love and light. 26 f
Restore this day, for thy great name,
Unto his ancient and miraculous right.
160 TRINITIE-SUNDAY
INTRODUCTORY:
Another poem with this title is given, III, 389.
DATE:
Found in W.
METRE:
Used also in PARADISE, III, 39.
SUBJECT:
On Trinity Sunday the divine life presents itself in
threefold aspects: God as Father, Son, and Holy
Ghost; by creation, redemption, sanctification; in
duces man to be purged, confess, strive; with heart,
mouth, hands; in faith, hope, charity; through
running, rising, resting. With Herbert the subject
usually dictates the form, — here three stanzas of
three lines each.
NOTES:
1. Genesis ii, 7.
5. Score = account, indebtedness, as in THE CHURCH-
PORCH, II, 57, 1. 360.
III. THE CHURCH 161
.W ni
TRINITIE-SUNDAY
LORD, who hast form'd me out of mud,
And hast redeem'd me through thy bloud,
And sanctifi'd me to do good,
Purge all my sinnes done heretofore;
For I confesse my heavie score,
And I will strive to sinne no more.
Enrich my heart, mouth, hands in me,
With faith, with hope, with charitie,
That I may runne, rise, rest with thee.
162 TO ALL ANGELS AND SAINTS
DATE:
Found in W.
METRE:
Unique.
SUBJECT:
We refuse worship to angels and saints not because
they are unworthy, but because worship of them is
uncommanded .
NOTES :
1. "Probably Herbert means according to all your
orders of precedency : nine orders of angels, of
whom seraphim are nighest the throne and Pre
sence ; and among saints — apostles, prophets,
martyrs, etc.:" A. B. Grosart.
5. Revelation iv, 4 and 10. In cathedral sculpture
the saints who have been beheaded often hold in
their hands both head and crown.
12. Alluding to the common belief that gold, being pre
cious as a metal, must be precious also as a medi
cine. So Donne, Elegy xi, 112: "Gold is restora
tive." And Sir T. Browne, Vulgar Errors, Bk. II,
ch. iv.
III. THE CHURCH
TO ALL ANGELS AND SAINTS
OH glorious spirits, who after all your bands
See the smooth face of God without a frown
Or strict commands;
Where ev'ry one is king, and hath his crown
If not upon his head, yet in his hands; 5
Not out of envie or maliciousnesse
Do I forbear to crave your speciall aid.
I would addresse
My vows to thee most gladly, blessed Maid,
And Mother of my God, in my distresse. 10
Thou art the holy mine whence came the gold,
The great restorative for all decay
In young and old.
Thou art the cabinet where the Jewell lay;
Chiefly to thee would I my soul unfold. 15
164 TO ALL ANGELS AND SAINTS
19. Injunction=a command to do; and not, as is
usual with us, a command not to do.
21. Prerogative, an adjective, not a substantive = au
thoritatively prescribed.
23. The last houre=ihe day of judgment.
24. Cf. A WREATH, II, 319, 1. 1.
25. Po5te=bunch of flowers. Cf. THE THANKSGIV
ING, II, 287, 1. 14.
30. Hand = writing, command, authority.
III. THE CHURCH 165
But now (alas!) I dare not, for our King,
Whom we do all joyntly adore and praise,
Bids no such thing;
And where his pleasure no injunction layes,
('T is your own case) ye never move a wing. 20
All worship is prerogative, and a flower
Of his rich crown from whom lyes no appeal
At the last houre.
Therefore we dare not from his garland steal
To make a posie for inferiour power. . 25
Although then others court you, if ye know
What's done on earth, we shall not fare the
worse
Who do not so;
Since we are ever ready to disburse,
If any one our Master's hand can show. 30
166 CHRISTMAS
INTRODUCTORY:
Called in W. CHRISTMAS-DAY.
DATE:
Found in W. He counts himself already a poet,
1. 17.
METRE:
Of seventeen sonnets, six — like this — are in the
Shakespearian form.
SUBJECT:
The thought in this Sonnet is wayward, each phase
successively suggesting some new phase. Its course
is something like this: Tired with my hunt after
pleasure, I turned to whatever offered rest. It
proved to be my Lord's inn. There he was once
born among the beasts, and since he does not dread
what is brutish, let him make of my heart a better
lodging than he ever found at birth or death.
NOTES :
3. The whole pack of my clamorous desires mislead
ing me.
6. Expecting = waiting with confidence. So Hebrews
x, 13.
14. Rack=the hay-rack or manger in which the child
Jesus lay.
III. THE CHURCH 167
CHRISTMAS
ALL after pleasures as I rid one day,
My horse and I both tir'd, bodie and minde,
With full erie of affections quite astray,
I took up in the next inne I could finde.
There when I came, whom found I but my deare,
My dearest Lord, expecting till the grief 6
Of pleasures brought me to him, readie there
To be all passengers' most sweet relief?
O Thou, whose glorious yet contracted light,
Wrapt in night's mantle, stole into a manger,
Since my dark soul and brutish is thy right, 11
To Man of all beasts be not thou a stranger.
Furnish and deck my soul, that thou mayst
have
A better lodging then a rack, or grave.
168 CHRISTMAS
METRE:
Unique.
SUBJECT:
Rivalry of man and nature in praise. But there
is throughout an allegoric meaning too: daylight
signifying the light of God's countenance, and
night the times of its withdrawal.
NOTES :
15. Luke ii. 20.
19. Psalm cxix, 103; and xlvi, 4.
25. JFe=myself and the sun. — He=ihe sun, who,
though called to praise our common Lord, deserts
me when I would out-sing the daylight hours.
31. Our own day = a day made by ourselves, that shall
have no night.
32. By such a responsive song as ANTIPHON, II, 106.
III. THE CHURCH 169
The shepherds sing, and shall I silent be ? 15
My God, no hymne for thee ?
My soul's a shepherd too; a flock it feeds
Of thoughts, and words, and deeds.
The pasture is thy word; the streams, thy grace
Enriching all the place. 20
Shepherd and flock shall sing, and all my powers
Out-sing the day-light houres.
Then we will chide the sunne for letting night
Take up his place and right.
We sing one common Lord; wherefore he should
Himself the candle hold. 26
I will go searching, till I finde a sunne
Shall stay till we have done,
A willing shiner, that shall shine as gladly
As frost-nipt sunnes look sadly. 30
Then we will sing and shine all our own day,
And one another pay.
His beams shall cheer my breast, and both so twine
Till ev'n his beams sing and my musick shine.
170 LENT
DATE:
Found in W.
METRE:
Used also in LIFE, III, 321.
SUBJECT:
The praise of abstinence, as both beneficial to us
and prescribed by the Church.
NOTES :
4. Leviticus xxiii, 14; Matthew vi, 16; Luke v, 35.
6. "I. e., obedience to rules and regulations. Corpora
tion is corporate bodies generally, whether munici
pal or a company : " A. B. Grosart.
10. Things which use hath justly got = matters pro
perly directed by usage.
16. Church authority, which ordinarily prescribes tem
perance on Fast Days, may on occasion set it aside.
The occasions are considered in THE COUNTRY
PARSON, X. Perhaps these qualifying lines were
added with a remembrance of some such experience
on the part of Herbert himself, as he declares in a
begging letter to his stepfather (Cambridge, 1617) :
This Lent I am forbid utterly to eat any fish, so that
I am fain to dyet in my chamber at mine own cost ;
for in our publick halls, you know, is nothing but
fish and white-meats; out of Lent also twice a week,
on Fridayes and Saturdays, I must do so, which yet
sometimes I fast.
23. Dishonest = which do not belong to our nature.
III. THE CHURCH 171
LENT
WELCOME, deare feast of Lent! Who loves not
thee,
He loves not Temperance or Authoritie,
But is compos'd of passion.
The Scriptures bid us fast; the Church sayes, now;
Give to thy Mother what thou wouldst allow 5
To ev'ry Corporation.
The humble soul, compos'd of love and fear,
Begins at home and layes the burden there,
When doctrines disagree.
He sayes, in things which use hath justly got, 10
I am a scandall to the Church, and not
The Church is so to me.
True Christians should be glad of an occasion
To use their temperance, seeking no evasion
When good is seasonable; 15
Unlesse Authoritie, which should increase
The obligation in us, make it lesse,
And Power it self disable.
Besides the cleannesse of sweet abstinence,
Quick thoughts and motions at a small expense,
A face not fearing light; 21
Whereas in fulnesse there are sluttish fumes,
Sowre exhalations, and dishonest rheumes,
Revenging the delight.
172 LENT
19-24. Cornaro, in his Treatise on Temperance, trans
lated by Herbert, describes in these words the
benefits which at the age of eighty-three he experi
ences as the result of his extreme abstinence: "I
am continually in health, and I am so nimble that I
can easily get on horseback without the advantage
of the ground, and sometimes I go up high stairs
and hills on foot. ... By which it is evident that
the life which I live at this age is not a dead, dump
ish and sower life, but chearful, lively, and pleasant.
Neither if I had my wish, would I change age and
constitution with them who follow their youthful
appetites."
25. In the previous verse the profits were mentioned
which come to our body and mind through fasting.
Here we are reminded of religious gains, pendant
on these and adding goodness to wise abstinence,
which arise through following the intimations of the
Christian Year. Possibly there is also in pendant
the suggestion of hanging like fruits.
31. Matthew iv, 2.
35. Matthew v, 48.
46. Let us be bounteous to the wayfarer and not to our
private selves. Isaiah Iviii, 7.
III. THE CHURCH 173
Then those same pendant profits, which the spring
And Easter intimate, enlarge the thing 26
And goodnesse of the deed.
Neither ought other men's abuse of Lent
Spoil the good use, lest by that argument
We forfeit all our Creed. 30
It's true we cannot reach Christ's forti'th day;
Yet to go part of that religious way
Is better then to rest.
We cannot reach our Saviour's puritie;
Yet are we bid, Be holy ev'n as he. 35
In both let's do our best.
Who goeth in the way which Christ hath gone,
Is much more sure to meet with him then one
That travelleth by-wayes.
Perhaps my God, though he be farre before, 40
May turn and take me by the hand, and more
May strengthen my decayes.
Yet Lord instruct us to improve our fast
By starving sinne, and taking such repast
As may our faults controll; 45
That ev'ry man may revell at his doore,
Not in his parlour; banquetting the poore,
And among those his soul.
174 SUNDAY
INTRODUCTORY:
Vaughan's Son-days is a composite of this poem and
PRAYER, II, 183. Here and in the precepts for Sun
day included in THE CHURCH-PORCH (II, 61,63,
65, 67, 1. 391-450) Herbert shows himself no Sabba
tarian. His thoughts are confined to the reverent
observance of public worship. As S. R. Gardiner
observes (History of England, vol. iii, p. 250), Her
bert "celebrates the joys and duties of the great
Christian festival through two whole pages. Of
behaviour out of church he has not a single word
to say." In THE COUNTRY PARSON, VIII, after
detailing the parson's priestly work on Sunday,
he adds, At night he thinks it a very fit time, both
sutable to the joy of the day and without hinderance
to publick duties, either to entertaine some of his
neighbours or to be entertained of them.
DATE:
Found in W.
METRE :
Unique.
SUBJECT :
The pomp and splendor of the Lord's Day.
NOTES:
1. VERTUE, III, 335, has a similar opening.
III. THE CHURCH 175
SUNDAY
O DAY most calm, most bright,
The fruit of this, the next world's bud,
Th' indorsement of supreme delight,
Writ by a friend, and with his bloud;
The couch of time, care's balm and bay, 5
The week were dark but for thy light:
Thy torch doth show the way.
The other dayes and thou
Make up one man, whose face thou art,
Knocking at heaven with thy brow. 10
The worky-daies are the back-part;
The burden of the week lies there,
Making the whole to stoup and bow
Till thy release appeare.
Man had straight forward gone 15
To endlesse death; but thou dost pull
And turn us round to look on one
Whom, if we were not very dull,
We could not choose but look on still;
Since there is no place so alone 20
The which he doth not fill.
176 SUNDAY
5. Care's balm and bay= care's cure (cf. AN OFFER
ING, II, 395, 1. 19, where balsam, the longer form
of balm, is used) and crown (cf . THE COLLAR, III,
211, 1. 14). Or does he in bay refer to the old
superstition that bay-leaves protect against light
ning? — a superstition examined by Sir T. Browne
in his Vulgar Errors, Bk. II, ch. v.
7. Psalm cxix, 105.
12. Figuring the week as one composite person, we
must not allow its overburdened back-part to de
press its upward-turned face.
14. Till the release which thou bringest appear.
26. They= Sundays.
29. Walton says that Herbert sang this stanza the Sun
day before he died.
31. Wife=the Church; cf. Revelation xxi, 9.
37. The Lord's Day has taken the place of the Jewish
Sabbath.
38. Isaiah i, 3. A line almost identical with this occurs
in GOOD FRIDAY, II, 149, 1. 19.
42. Sundays bring healing to those afflicted by sin.
Cf. MAN, II, 219, 1. 23.
III. THE CHURCH
177
Sundaies the pillars are
On which heav'ns palace arched lies:
The other dayes fill up the spare
And hollow room with vanities. 25
They are the fruitfull beds and borders
In God's rich garden; that is bare
Which parts their ranks and orders.
The Sundaies of man's life,
Thredded together on time's string, 30
Make bracelets to adorn the wife
Of the eternall glorious King.
On Sunday heaven's gate stands ope,
Blessings are plentifull and rife,
More plentifull then hope. 35
This day my Saviour rose,
And did inclose this light for his;
That, as each beast his manger knows,
Man might not of his fodder misse.
Christ hath took in this piece of ground, 40
And made a garden there for those
Who want herbs for their wound.
178 SUNDAY
45. Sunday, the day of the rising of our Lord, attended
by the earthquake (Matthew xxvii, 51), sets aside
all the other days employed in creation.
47. Judges xvi, 3. "As Samson took away the gates of
the city, so Christ took away the Judaical rites,
unhinging their Sabbath day : " G. Ryley.
49. Unhinge = carried away from previous uses.
53. Revelation vii, 14.
III. THE CHURCH 179
The rest of our Creation
Our great Redeemer did remove
With the same shake which at his passion 45
Did th' earth and all things with it move.
As Samson bore the doores away,
Christ's hands, though nail'd, wrought our salva
tion
And did unhinge that day.
The brightnesse of that day 50
We sullied by our foul offence;
Wherefore that robe we cast away,
Having a new at his expence
Whose drops of bloud paid the full price
That was requir'd to make us gay, 55
And fit for Paradise.
Thou art a day of mirth;
And where the week-dayes trail on ground,
Thy flight is higher, as thy birth.
O let me take thee at the bound, 60
Leaping with thee from sev'n to sev'n,
Till that we both, being toss'd from earth,
Flie hand in hand to heav'n!
180 PRAYER
DATE:
Found in W.
METRE:
Of seventeen sonnets, eleven — like this — depart
in the third quatrain from the Shakespearian form.
SUBJECT:
Prayer a world power.
NOTES :
1. Churches banquet =vrhai the Church feeds on. —
Angel's age, — Prayer is as old as the angels.
2. To God who gave us breath (Genesis ii, 7), we in
prayer return it.
3. In paraphrase =in epitome. As a man prays, so
is he. — In pilgrimage = moving toward its goal.
5. Engine against th' Almightie, i. e. prayer wrests
from God for our aid power which would otherwise
be directed against us. The three following charac
terizations expand this idea. — Sinner's towre=&
place of both refuge and attack. Psalm xviii, 2.
6. The working of thunder is from heaven to earth;
prayer works from earth to heaven. The former
overwhelms; the latter preserves.
7. It upsets in an hour by its magic that regulated
order which God required six days to establish/
Or, The six-daies-world may be the week-day world.
11. Heaven in ordinarie= heaven in common life.
— Well drest, i. e. the opposite of THE CHURCH-
PORCH, II, 63, 1. 414.
14. Prayer finds in the world an intelligible order.
. THE CHURCH 181
PRAYER
PRAYER the Churches banquet, Angel's age,
God's breath in man returning to his birth,
The soul in paraphrase, heart in pilgrimage,
The Christian plummet sounding heav'n and earth;
Engine against th' Almightie, sinner's towre, 5
Reversed thunder, Christ-side-piercing spear,
The six-daies-world transposing in an houre,
A kinde of tune which all things heare and fear;
Softnesse and peace and joy and love and blisse,
Exalted Manna, gladnesse of the best, 10
Heaven in ordinarie, man well drest,
The milkie way, the bird of Paradise,
Church-bels beyond the starres heard, the soul's
bloud,
The land of spices; something understood.
182 PRAYER
DATE:
Found in W.
METRE :
Unique. Rhyming system changes in the final
stanza.
SUBJECT:
God's accessibility, power, and love, revealed in
prayer, make prayer immeasurably precious.
NOTES:
4. /S£ote=stateliness. — Easinesse, a remembrance of
the " easy to be entreated " of James iii, 17.
9. Herbert uses the word sphere nine times. Once
(CHURCH MILITANT, III, 369, 1. 142) it means a
field of action. Once (MAN, II, 219, 1. 22) it may
possibly mean our earth. In all other cases, e. g.
DIVINITIE, III, 97, 1. 2; VANITIE, III, 133, 1. 2, it
means one of the nine concentric hollow crystal
spheres which in the Ptolemaic astronomy are sup
posed successively to form circumferences for our
globe, and to be the means of carrying the heav
enly bodies through their orbits. When the highest
sphere is referred to (as here, THE CHURCH-PORCH,
II, 51, 1. 318, and THE SEARCH, III, 219, 1. 6), the
sphere of the crystalline Heaven is intended, the
circumference farthest removed from the earth, its
centre.
III. THE CHURCH 183
PRAYER
OF what an easie quick accesse,
My blessed Lord, art thou! How suddenly
May our requests thine eare invade!
To shew that state dislikes not easinesse,
If I but lift mine eyes my suit is made; 5
Thou canst no more not heare then thou canst die.
Of what supreme almightie power
Is thy great arm, which spans the east and west
And tacks the centre to the sphere!
By it do all things live their measur'd houre. 10
We cannot ask the thing which is not there,
Blaming the shallownesse of our request.
184 PRAYER
10. Psalm civ, 19.
11-12. Condensed lines, meaning: The failure of our
prayers can never be due to our having foolishly
asked God for that which is not in his power to
grant.
14. Also in 1. 6, and THE SACRIFICE, II, 133, 1. 99.
17. Our sins previously hindered God from giving us
the blessings He desired to give.
III. THE CHURCH
185
Of what unmeasureable love
Art thou possest who, when thou couldst not die,
Wert fain to take our flesh and curse 15
And for our sakes in person sinne reprove,
That by destroying that which ty'd thy purse,
Thou mightst make way for liberalitie!
Since then these three wait on thy throne,
Ease, Power, and Love; I value prayer so 20
That were I to leave all but one,
Wealth, fame, endowments, vertues, all should go;
I and deare prayer would together dwell,
And quickly gain, for each inch lost, an ell.
186 THE H. SCRIPTURES
INTRODUCTORY :
Cf. Ferrar, The Printers to the Reader, p. xii.
DATE:
Found in W.
METRE:
Of seventeen sonnets, eleven — like this — depart
in the third quatrain from the Shakespearian form.
SUBJECT:
The chief and top of his knowledge consists in the
book of books, the storehouse and magazene of life
and comfort, the holy Scriptures. There he sucks
and lives : COUNTRY PARSON, IIII. The first son
net affirms the worth of all parts of Scripture ;
the second, the worth of these in combination.
NOTES:
2. Hony, Psalm cxix, 103.
4. Honey used medicinally is detersive and balsamic.
7. Wish and take= obtain whatever we desire.
8. ThankfuU= rewarding, beneficial.
10. Indeare=niake dear, raise in price. So Shake
speare, Sonnet XXXI.
11. Lidger is Shakespeare's leiger—a, legate or am
bassador. Cf. Vaughan's Corruption.
13. Handsell= first instalment, earnest of something
more to follow. So Herrick, On Tears:
" Our present tears here, not our present laughter,
Are but the handsells of our joys hereafter."
Flat= accessible.
III. THE CHURCH 187
THE H. SCRIPTURES
OH Book! Infinite sweetnesse! Let my heart
Suck ev'ry letter and a hony gain,
Precious for any grief in any part,
To cleare the breast, to mollifie all pain.
Thou art all health, health thriving till it make
A full eternitie. Thou art a masse 6
Of strange delights, where we may wish and
take.
Ladies, look here. This is the thankfull glasse
That mends the looker's eyes; this is the well
That washes what it shows. Who can indeare
Thy praise too much ? Thou art heav'n's Lidger
here, 11
Working against the states of death and hell.
Thou art joyes handsell. Heav'n lies flat in
thee,
Subject to ev'ry mounter's bended knee.
188 THE H. SCRIPTURES
SUBJECT:
All Truth being consonant to it self, an industrious
and judicious comparing of place with place must
be a singular help for the right understanding of the
Scriptures. To this may be added the consideration
of any text with the coherence thereof, touching what
goes before and what follows after, as also the scope
of the Holy Ghost : COUNTRY PARSON, IIII.
NOTES :
1-4. To emphasize the theme the prefix con- is used
three times in the first four lines.
7. Coleridge suspected an error, and Dr. Willmott
proposed to read match in the sense of compose.
But both manuscripts and the edition of 1633 read
watch. If we retain watch, it must picture the scat
tered herbs of the apothecary as eager to be em
ployed in our service; so MAN, II, 219, 1. 23.
9. Makes good= verifies.
10. Comments on thee= illustrates thy teaching.
13. Throughout this poem runs the allegory of THE
STARRE, II, 365, never far from Herbert's mind.
We have it in 1. 1, 2, 4. 13, 14, probably also in 5,
8, and 9. The closing lines approach most nearly
the physical sense, saying that those who consult
astrology are often misled. Cf . PROVIDENCE, III,
87, 1. 77-80. The Bible gives sure guidance.
III. THE CHURCH 189
n
OH that I knew how all thy lights combine,
And the configurations of their glorie!
Seeing not onely how each verse doth shine,
But all the constellations of the stone.
This verse marks that, and both do make a motion
Unto a third, that ten leaves off doth lie; 6
Then as dispersed herbs do watch a potion,
These three make up some Christian's destinie.
Such are thy secrets, which my life makes good,
And comments on thee; for in ev'ry thing
Thy words do finde me out, and parallels bring,
And in another make me understood. 12
Starres are poore books, and oftentimes do misse :
This book of starres lights to eternall blisse.
190 H. BAPTISME
DATE:
Found in W.
METRE:
Of seventeen sonnets, eleven — like this — depart
in the third quatrain from the Shakespearian form.
SUBJECT:
My true nature, brought about by baptism, is vis
ible beneath the falsifications of sin.
NOTES :
6. John xix, 34. Cf. THE SACRIFICE, II, 147, 1. 246.
Since baptism received its meaning from the death
of Christ, its water is identified with that which
issued from Christ's wounded side. So WHITSUN
DAY, II, 159, 1. 18.
7. Streams. " Baptism is administered to two kinds of
subjects: for the one, i. e. infants, it is a preventive
of the filth of sin by the early washing. Some are
hence early laid hold of and sanctified from the
womb. For the other, i. e. adults, who are required
to make a personal profession of repentance, it
affords tears to drown grown and growing sins:"
G. Ryley.
8. Wide, the same use in THE DISCHARGE, III, 189,
1. 34.
12. Philippians iv, 3; Revelation xiii, 8.
in. THE CHURCH 191
H. BAPTISME
As he that sees a dark and shadie grove
Stayes not, but looks beyond it on the skie;
So when I view my sinnes, mine eyes remove
More backward still, and to that water flie
Which is above the heav'ns, whose spring and
rent 5
Is in my deare Redeemer's pierced side.
O blessed streams! Either ye do prevent
And stop our sinnes from growing thick and wide,
Or else give tears to drown them as they grow.
In you Redemption measures all my time,
And spreads the plaister equall to the crime.
You taught the book of life my name, that so, 12
What ever future sinnes should me miscall,
Your first acquaintance might discredit all.
192 H. BAPTISME
DATE:
Found in W.
METRE:
Unique.
SUBJECT:
The worth of littleness, cf. Vaughan's Retreat:
"Happy those early days when I
Sinned in my angel infancy."
NOTES:
2. Matthew vii, 14.
10. Behither=on this side of. So Oley, in the second
Preface to THE COUNTRY PARSON: "I have not
observed any one thing (behither vice) that hath
occasioned so much contempt of the clergie as
unwillingnesse to take or keep a poor living." Pos
sibly here the preposition takes on a verbal force =
keeping ill at a distance.
13. Bid nothing = demand, ask nothing for bodily
profit (Ger. bitten); as in the phrase, "I bid you
good morning."
15. " So Chrysostom, 'The office of repentance is when
they have been made new, and then become old
through sins, to free them from their oldness and
make them new. But it cannot bring them to their
former brightness; for then the whole world was
good:"' R. A. Willmott. Cf. 1 John ii, 13; VANI-
TIE, II, 357, 1. 15.
HI. THE CHURCH 193
H. BAPTISME
SINCE, Lord, to thee
A narrow way and little gate
Is all the passage, on my infancie
Thou didst lay hold and antedate
My faith in me. 5
O let me still
Write thee great God, and me a childe.
Let me be soft and supple to thy will,
Small to my self, to others milde,
Behither ill. 10
Although by stealth
My flesh get on, yet let her sister,
My soul, bid nothing but preserve her wealth.
The growth of flesh is but a blister;
Childhood is health. 15
194 THE H. COMMUNION
INTRODUCTORY :
The first four stanzas are not in W. The last four
appear there under the title PRAYER. Another
poem with this title is given, III, 383. On the
question of separating the parts, see note on GOOD
FRIDAY, II, 150.
DATE:
Found in W.
METRE :
Unique in both parts.
SUBJECT :
Part I. The subtlety of God's approaches. Part II.
The approach of man to God hindered by sin.
NOTES:
2. Joshua vii, 21.
3. It might seem that from is a misprint for /or, but it
probably is not. It balances to in the next line.
5. If thou hadst come to me in any form of external
riches, thou wouldst have remained always exter
nal. But cf. AFFLICTION, II, 339, 1. 7.
9. Thy way = the nourishment and strength of 1. 7.
16. The sacred elements are not in themselves spiritual,
and cannot be likened to living soldiers, able to
leap over all barriers straight to the life within.
Rather are they, being physical, like engines of
attack, contrived so as by their height to command
the walls which shelter the garrison.
22. Subtile = withdrawn, retired.
23. Those, i. e. the elements which, now spiritualized,
wait at the boundary between soul and flesh, listen
ing for orders from divine grace.
III. THE CHURCH 195
THE H. COMMUNION
NOT in rich furniture or fine aray,
Nor in a wedge of gold,
Thou, who from me wast sold,
To me dost now thy self convey;
For so thou should'st without me still have been, 5
Leaving within me sinne.
But by the way of nourishment and strength
Thou creep'st into my breast,
Making thy way my rest,
And thy small quantities my length; 10
Which spread their forces into every part,
Meeting sinne's force and art.
Yet can these not get over to my soul,
Leaping the wall that parts
Our souls and fleshly hearts; 15
But as th' outworks, they may controll
My rebel-flesh, and carrying thy name,
Affright both sinne and shame.
Onely thy grace, which with these elements comes,
Knoweth the ready way 20
And hath the privie key,
Op'ning the soul's most subtile rooms;
While those to spirits refin'd at doore attend
Dispatches from their friend.
196 THE H. COMMUNION
29. Ezekiel xi, 19.
30. 1 Corinthians v, 7. "He finds his captivated soul
caught up to the third Heaven, and therefore prays
either to be restored to the full use of his faculties
again or to be taken all away, soul and body,
which he fancies such another lift — i. e. the re
doubling of the rapture — might effect : " G. Ryley .
34. Sin did not know how to smother us.
40. Their, used as the general pronoun. I can freely
feed on thy heavenly blood, abandoning earth's
fruits to whoever will take them. Cf . note on THE
CHURCH PORCH, II, 41, 1. 225.
. THE CHURCH 197
Give me my captive soul, or take 25
My bodie also thither.
Another lift like this will make
Them both to be together.
Before that sinne turn'd flesh to stone,
And all our lump to leaven, 30
A fervent sigh might well have blown
Our innocent earth to heaven.
For sure when Adam did not know
To sinne, or sinne to smother,
He might to heav'n from Paradise go 35
As from one room t'another.
Thou hast restored us to this ease
By this thy heav'nly bloud;
Which I can go to when I please,
And leave th' earth to their food. 40
198 CHURCH-MUSICK
INTRODUCTORY :
"He was so great a Lover of Church Musick that he
usually called it Heaven upon earth, and attended
it a few days before his death:" Oley's Preface
to THE COUNTRY PARSON. — "Though he was
a lover of retiredness, yet his love to Musick was
such that he went usually twice every week on
certain appointed days to the Cathedral Church
in Salisbury, and at his return would say: That
his time spent in Prayer and Cathedral Musick ele
vated his Soul and was his Heaven upon Earth:"
Walton's Life. See, too, Herbert's Epigrammata
Apologetica, xxvi, De Musica Sacra.
DATE:
Found in W.
METRE :
In CONTENT, II, 353, and DIVINITIE, III, 97.
SUBJECT :
Music as a refuge.
NOTES:
3. Thence, i. e. away from physical pain.
5. See 1. 2.
8. God help poore Kings, not, as Canon Beeching sup
poses, an allusion to the pitiable plight of Charles I,
but an exclamation of happy persons who find part
of their bliss in contrasting their condition with that
of those conventionally reckoned more fortunate.
9. Comfort, i. e. music.
10. Much more, i. e. besides dying I shall not know the
way to heaven.
III. THE CHURCH 199
CHURCH-MUSICK
SWEETEST of sweets, I thank you ! When displea
sure
Did through my bodie wound my minde,
You took me thence, and in your house of plea
sure
A daintie lodging me assign'd.
Now I in you without a bodie move, 5
Rising and falling with your wings.
We both together sweetly live and love,
Yet say sometimes, God help poore Kings.
Comfort, Fie die; for if you poste from me,
Sure I shall do so, and much more. 10
But if I travell in your companie,
You know the way to heaven's doore.
200 CHURCH-MONUMENTS
INTRODUCTORY :
In Montgomery Church is the magnificent tomb
of Herbert's father and mother, erected by Lady
Herbert herself.
DATE:
Found in W.
METRE:
Unique, though it differs only in rhyming system
from THE CHURCH-PORCH, II, 15; JORDAN, II, 91;
AN OFFERING, II, 393; SINNES ROUND, III, 143.
The same rhyming system is used in MARIE MAG
DALENE, III, 151.
SUBJECT:
" At the sight or visit of a Charnel House, every
Bone, before the day (i. e. the Last Day), rises up in
judgement against fleshly lust and pride : " Oley's
Preface to THE COUNTRY PARSON.
NOTES:
2. Standing before this tomb, my soul uplifts herself
to God; in the dust here inclosed my body perceives
what it is made of.
4. Cf . THE CHURCH-FLOORE, III, 167, 1. 16.
8. His=ita. Genesis iii, 19.
9-11. The dusty family shields above the monuments
suggest that the ancestry of the body can best be
read in the dust into which all dissolves.
12. These=dusl and earth. —Ieat= jet.
Monument of the Herbert family in the parish church at Mont
gomery, Wales.
n 'is use
\
I
. THE CHURCH 201
CHURCH-MONUMENTS
WHILE that my soul repairs to her devotion,
Here I intombe my flesh, that it betimes
May take acquaintance of this heap of dust,
To which the blast of death's incessant motion,
Fed with the exhalation of our crimes, 5
Drives all at last. Therefore I gladly trust
My bodie to this school, that it may learn
To spell his elements, and finde his birth
Written in dustie heraldrie and lines
Which dissolution sure doth best discern, 10
Comparing dust with dust, and earth with
earth.
These laugh at leat and Marble put for signes
202 CHURCH-MONUMENTS
14. Them=jet and marble. "Costly monuments keep
the dust of the body artificially apart from its nat
ural companion, the dust of the earth; but tombs
will at the last day fall and do homage to the dead.
Dust is the head of man's stem or pedigree [so the
CHURCH MILITANT, III, 363, 1. 74]. His life, like
the sand contained in the hour-glass, is destined
in its turn to dust:" F. T. Palgrave.
22. Dust. This is the seventh time the word has been
used in twenty lines.
HI. THE CHURCH 203
To sever the good fellowship of dust,
And spoil the meeting. What shall point out
them,
When they shall bow and kneel and fall down
flat 15
To kisse those heaps which now they have in
trust ?
Deare flesh, while I do pray, learne here thy
stemme
And true descent; that when thou shalt grow
fat
And wanton in thy cravings, thou mayst know
That flesh is but the glasse which holds the dust
That measures all our time; which also shall
Be crumbled into dust. Mark here below 22
How tame these ashes are, how free from lust,
That thou mayst fit thyself against thy fall.
Court of Trinity College, Cambridge, where Herbert was in resi-
dence, 1610-1627.
•vv> ,»\>^\WO ^i'mnT "\o
v\\$\ .a-w^j
IV
MEDITATION
PREFACE
HERE are grouped the most serious studies of
Herbert's Cambridge days, studies of the
natures of God and man, and of the possible rela
tions between the two. A similar set, though longer
and of profounder import, was written at Bemer-
ton, and appears later as Group IX. The poems of
these two Groups have an abstract and impersonal
character distinguishing them from the rest of the
work of this singularly personal writer. In them
Herbert's favorite pronoun, 7, rarely appears;
though of course these, no less than the others,
study the approaches of God and the individual
soul.
The arrangement is as follows : After a few
verses reproducing something of the sententious
wisdom of THE CHURCH-PORCH comes the com
pact poem on MAN, a favorite with R. W. Emer
son and with all readers who love penetrative
thought and daring phrase. THE WORLD depicts
the construction of Man as clumsily managed
by himself. To it succeed discussions of SINNE,
FAITH, and REDEMPTION, themes seldom absent
from Herbert's mind. And then comes a series of
208
PREFACE
what is almost as frequent with him, reflections
on human changeableness; the whole naturally
concluding with some young man's verse about
DEATH and the life beyond.
MEDITATION
210 CHARMS AND KNOTS
INTRODUCTORY :
"That which worketh strongly on the imagination
we call a charm, and that which requires some
difficulty to resolve we call a knot:" G. Ryley. —
This poem was translated into Latin in 1678 by
William Dillingham with the title, Gryphi.
DATE:
Found in W. Similar in style to THE CHURCH-
PORCH.
SUBJECT:
Gain and loss are not to be had where we in our
folly expect them.
NOTES :
1. Proverbs vi, 22.
3. Rod=the riding-stick, with which the rider guides
his horse and defends himself. To direct life as if
one were poor insures both success and security.
5. Proverbs xi, 24. On alms-giving, see THE CHURCH-
PORCH, II, 59, 1. 373-384. Cf. JACULA PRUDEN-
TUM : Giving much to the poor doth enrich a man's
store.
8. The Psalmist says (Psalm cxxxix, 12) that with
God's blessing the night shineth as the day. Her
bert states the converse: deprived of God's bless
ing, the day darkens as the night.
IV. MEDITATION 211
CHARMS AND KNOTS
WHO reade a chapter when they rise,
Shall ne're be troubled with ill eyes.
A poore man's rod, when thou dost ride,
Is both a weapon and a guide.
Who shuts his hand, hath lost his gold;
Who opens it, hath it twice told.
Who goes to bed and doth not pray,
Maketh two nights to ev'ry day.
212 CHARMS AND KNOTS
9. In THE COUNTRY PARSON, XXXVII, Herbert
discusses the rights and wrongs involved in speak
ing of the faults of others.
10. Proverbs x, 18. He thai throws a stone at another
hits himselje : THE COUNTRY PARSON, XXVIII.
14. The powder ignores that out of which it is made.
To perfume ourselves and stake our success in
glory or love on accessory splendor is to make noble
matters wait on ignoble.
15. No loss can come through deducting the parson's
tithe from the income. Cf. THE CHURCH-PORCH,
II, 59, 1. 386, and Proverbs iii, 9, 10. A writer in
Notes and Queries, IV, i, 305, thinks that besides
the manifest meaning there are other intricacies
here, and that Herbert is engaging in his customary
play. He writes: "The cipher or circle is a char
acter signifying ten; the figure placed before it,
whether 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5, simply denotes the number
of tens; thus 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, one ten, two tens,
three tens, four tens, five tens; so that if you take
one from ten the 0 is left, signifying 10 still."
16. One of the two cases in Herbert where still may
have our sense of notwithstanding.
18. Cf. THE CHURCH-PORCH, II, 17, 1. 25.
IV. MEDITATION 213
Who by aspersions throw a stone
At th' head of others, hit their own. 10
Who looks on ground with humble eyes,
Findes himself there, and seeks to rise.
When th' hair is sweet through pride or lust,
The powder doth forget the dust.
Take one from ten, and what remains ? 15
Ten still, if sermons go for gains.
In shallow waters heav'n doth show;
But who drinks on, to hell may go.
214 MAN
DATE:
Found in W.
METRE:
1 Unique. The system of rhyming used in each
stanza is also unique (except in ii and viii), thus
conveying a feeling of complexity suitable to the
subject.
SUBJECT:
Man as everything and more. Psalm cxxxix, 14.
The same thought -ia developed in PROVIDENCE,
III, 79, 1. 9-28.
NOTES:
1. Similar opening to AFFLICTION, II. 247. — On
heard Dr. Grosart has the amusing note: "Prob
ably in some sermon by one of his curates."
2. The thought appears^again in THE WORLD, II, 225,
1.1.
5-6. May mean that for the purpose of sustaining man
all else is properly destroyed, e. g. animals, vege
tables, fruits. Or, better perhaps as linking with
the following lines, that compared with this crea
ture all other things must be conceived as unde
veloped and chaotic.
IV. MEDITATION 215
MAN
MY God, I heard this day
That none doth build a stately habitation
But he that means to dwell therein.
What house more stately hath there been,
Or can be, then is Man ? To whose creation
All things are in decay.
216 MAN
7. The doctrine here announced was common dur
ing the Middle Ages. Mayor, in his Life of Ferrar,
p. 240, cites many passages, e. g. : Propter hoc
homo dicitur minor mundus, quia omnes creaturae
mundi quodammodo inveniuntur in eo : Aquinas,
Summa, 1, qu. 91, art. 1, § 4. Est autem praeter
tres quos narravimus quartus alius mundus, hi
quo et ea omnia inveniuntur quae sunt in reliquis;
hie ipse est homo, qui et propterea, ut Catholici
dicunt doctores, in evangelic omnis creaturae ap-
pelatione censetur: Joann. Pic. Mirandul. Praef.
in Heptap. 8. Cf. also THE PULLEY, III, 149,
1. 4. Donne's verses to Lord Herbert of Cherbury
begin, "Man is a lump where all beasts kneaded
be."
8. The reading of W. has suggested that no of B. and
ed. 1633 is a misprint for mo, at that time a com
mon form for more. That man is more than
everything would then be confirmed by instances
of tree, beast, and bird. But on the whole, I be
lieve that B. represents a later stage of Herbert's
thought than W., and that he altered more to no
deliberately. Man does not attain the fruitfulness
he should possess. In the next line it is hinted
that he also fails in his appropriate superiority to
the beast. Elsewhere Herbert laments that man
falls short of the fruitful tree : EMPLOYMENT, II,
105, 1. 21; and AFFLICTION, II, 345, 1. 57.
IV. MEDITATION 217
For Man is ev'ry thing,
And more. He is a tree, yet bears no fruit;
A beast, yet is, or should be more;
Reason and speech we onely bring. 10
Parrats may thank us if they are not mute,
They go upon the score.
Man is all symmetric,
Full of proportions, one limbe to another,
And all to all the world besides. 15
Each part may call the farthest, brother;
For head with foot hath private amitie,
And both with moons and tides.
218 MAN
10-11. The emphatic words are we and us; the thought
being, — Though we possess all that the beast has,
we, and we only, overtop him in possession of
speech. And if it seems that the parrot, too, is capa
ble of speech, it must be remembered that he can
merely imitate what is set him, and is thus indebted
to man for his words.
18. That the moon greatly influences human affairs,
as it evidently does the tides, has been widely be
lieved. Because excited and quiescent periods of
nervous disease are thought to attend its phases,
insanity is called lunacy. That it is unlucky to see
the new moon over the left shoulder, or to cut the
hair on a waning moon ; that the child conceived
in the first quarter of the moon will be a boy, in the
last a girl ; that it is well to begin all undertakings
at the new moon, — these and many other popu
lar superstitions express the private amitie which
is thought to obtain between the moon and man.
The several parts of man have also special cor
respondences. When the moon is moving through
the zodiacal sign of the Fish, it peculiarly affects
the human feet. Cf. Chaucer's Treatise of the
Astrolabe, I, § 21.
21. Dismount = bring down to earth.
23. A similar turn of thought is in THE PRIESTHOOD,
II, 375, 1. 19-24. In THE COUNTRY PARSON, XXIII,
Herbert recommends the Parson to know what herbs
may be used in stead of drugs of the same nature,
IV. MEDITATION 219
Nothing hath got so farre
But Man hath caught and kept it as his prey. 20
His eyes dismount the highest starre.
He is in little all the sphere.
Herbs gladly cure our flesh, because that they
Finde their acquaintance there.
For us the windes do blow, 25
The earth doth rest, heav'n move, and fountains
flow.
Nothing we see but means our good,
As our delight, or as our treasure;
The whole is either our cupboard of food
Or cabinet of pleasure. 30
220 MAN
and to make the garden the shop. For home-bred
medicines are both more easie for the Parson's purse,
and more familiar for all men's bodyes. G. Ryley
writes : "A salve or medicine made of herbs and
applied to any sore, if proper to it, has particles in
it of the same figure with those of the flesh to which
it is applied; and these adhering to those are
converted into the same substance with the flesh,
and so make up the breaches which occasioned the
sore."
26. The four elements are here intended. Herbert
accepts the Ptolemaic astronomy, with the earth at
the centre. So THE TEMPER, II, 313, 1. 14.
29. So PROVIDENCE, III, 83, 1. 49.
33. Music, i. e. of the birds.
34-36. Things show their kinship (1. 24) and helpfulness
to our bodies through waiting on us here; to our
minds, through their purpose and origin.
39. S. T. Coleridge suggested that distinguished might
mean "marked with an island." Dr. Willmott of
fers a better interpretation drawn from Genesis i,
9-10: "The 'waters distinguished' are the waters
separated from the dry land, which then appears
and becomes the habitation of man. The 'waters
united* [cf. PROVIDENCE, III, 91, 1. 114] are the
gathering together of the waters, which God called
seas. Below, they are our fountains to drink, above,
they are our meat, because ' the husbandman wait-
eth for the early and the latter rain.' Both are our
cleanliness."
IV. MEDITATION 221
The starres have us to bed;
Night draws the curtain, which the sunne with
draws;
Musick and light attend our head.
All things unto our flesh are kinde
In their descent and being; to our minde 35
In their ascent and cause.
Each thing is full of dutie:
Waters united are our navigation;
Distinguished, our habitation;
Below, our drink; above, our meat; 40
Both are our cleanlinesse. Hath one such beautie ?
Then how are all things neat ?
222 MAN
42. Then how subtly complete is all! So THE FAMI-
LIE, III, 185, 1. 8.
. So Donne, Holy Sonnets, XII, 1: "Why are we
by all creatures waited on?" And Giles Fletcher,
Christ's Triumph after Death, stanza xxvi :
Gaze but upon the house where Man embow'rs;
With flow'rs and rushes paved is his way,
Where all the Creatures are his Servitours;
The windes do sweep his chambers every day,
And clouds do wash his rooms; the seeling gay
Starred aloft, the gilded knobs embrave;
If such a house God to another gave,
How shine those glittering courts he for himself will have ? "
48. Thy hands both made us, and also made us Lords of
all thy creatures ; giving us one world in ourselves,
and another to serve us : THE COUNTRY PARSON'S
PRAYER BEFORE SERMON.
IV. MEDITATION 223
More servants wait on Man
Then he'l take notice of; in ev'ry path 44
He treads down that which doth befriend him
When sicknesse makes him pale and wan.
Oh mightie love ! Man is one world, and hath
Another to attend him.
Since then, my God, thou hast
So brave a Palace built, O dwell in it, 50
That it may dwell with thee at last!
Till then afford us so much wit
That as the world serves us we may serve thee,
And both thy servants be.
224 THE WORLD
DATE:
Found in W.
METRE :
Unique.
SUBJECT :
The lords of life are, Love, Wisdom, Law, Grace,
and Glory. Fortune, Pleasure, Sin, and Death have
but momentary power.
NOTES :
1. Love = divine love. Cf. LOVE, 11,83, 1. 1, and MAN,
II, 215, 1. 4 and 5.
5. The fool says there is no God, fancying that our
foundation and preservation are due to fortune.
But such defacement of our stalely house is brushed
away by Wisdom.
6. Pleasure seeks to build the world over for her pur-
7. Balcones. Since about 1825 the accent has been
drawn back to the first syllable. So Tennyson,
Mariana in the South, 1. 88, and Shelley, Cenci,
IV. 1. 3, 47. But Cowper, John Gilpin, 1. 142, still
accents like Herbert, on the second syllable.
IV. MEDITATION 225
THE WORLD
LOVE built a stately house ; where Fortune came,
And spinning phansies she was heard to say
That her fine cobwebs did support the frame,
Whereas they were supported by the same.
But Wisdome quickly swept them all away. 5
Then Pleasure came, who liking not the fashion,
Began to make Balcones, Terraces,
Till she had weakned all by alteration;
But rev'rend laws and many a proclamation
Reformed all at length with menaces. 10
226 THE WORLD
11. The sycamore — perhaps through a false ety
mology — was often confused with the fig-tree; and
this in Greek opinion was early identified with
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gene
sis iii, 3-7) which tempted Adam and Eve to sin.
With fig leaves they tried to shield themselves.
13. Working and winding. The same combination in
JORDAN, II, 93, 1. 13; BUSINESSE, III, 139, 1. 9;
CONFESSION, III, 259, 1. 8. A vine or tree getting
a lodgment in the foundations of a house, and
then increasing in size, presses against the walls
and timbers and throws them out of position.
14. Sommers (Fr. sommiers), the principal beams or
girders of a house. So Wotton's Remains, p. 11:
"Oak may be better trusted for summers, girding
or binding beams, as they term them."
15. <S^or'd= propped, supported. — These = ihe walls.
— That = the sycamore.
IV. MEDITATION 227
Then enter'd Sinne, and with that Sycomore,
Whose leaves first sheltred man from drought
and dew,
Working and winding slily evermore, 13
The inward walls and Sommers cleft and tore;
But Grace shor'd these, and cut that as it grew.
Then Sinne combin'd with Death in a firm band
To rase the building to the very floore;
Which they effected, none could them withstand.
But Love and Grace took Glorie by the hand
And built a braver Palace then before. 20
228 SINNE
DATE:
Found in W.
METRE:
Unique.
SUBJECT :
The hideousness of sin.
NOTES :
6. Than to allow us to see a sin, 1. 1.
10. Perspective^^, combination of glasses which, like
our kaleidoscope, by an illusion give order and
wholeness to objects in themselves detached and
fragmentary. In a letter (1650) to Davenant,
prefixed to his poem Gondibert, Hobbes de
scribes the instrument : " You have seen a curious
kind of perspective where he that looks through
a short hollow pipe upon a picture containing
divers figures sees none of those that are there
painted, but some one person made up of their
parts, conveyed to the eye by the artificial cutting
of a glass." So Shakespeare, Richard II, ii, 2:
"Like perspectives, which, rightly gazed upon,
Show nothing but confusion; eyed awry,
Distinguish form."
The meaning is : A man in his senses (1. 8) cannot
look straight at sin. It is chaotic and lacks being
(1. 5). Death itself we view only as a picture in a
dream. So sin can be seen but indirectly and where
there is some good (1. 3), i. e. in devils, where our
sins are personified and given unity.
IV. MEDITATION 229
SINNE
0 THAT I could a sinne once see!
fWe paint the devil foul, yet he
1 Hath some good in him, all agree.
Sinne is flat opposite to th' Almighty, seeing
It wants the good of vertue and of being. 5
But God more care of us hath had:
If apparitions make us sad,
By sight of sinne we should grow mad.
Yet as in sleep we see foul death and live;
So devils are our sinnes in perspective. 10
230 SINNE
INTRODUCTORY :
"A sonnet equally admirable for the weight, num
ber, and expression of the thoughts, and for the
simple dignity of the language:" S. T. Coleridge,
Biog. Lit. XIX.
DATE:
Found in W.
METRE:
Of seventeen sonnets, six — like this — are in the
Shakespearian form.
SUBJECT :
The abundant dissuasions from sin. Cf. THE
CHURCH-PORCH, II, 67, 1. 450, and R. W. Emer
son's Grace. In the first quatrain our protec
tions are chiefly those which arise from human
guardianship; in the second, from divine appoint
ment; and in the third, from the social sanction.
NOTES :
3. They = the schoolmasters, after having taught us
the nature of law.
5. Dogging. The word occurs again in THE CHURCH
MILITANT, III, 379, 1. 260.
6. Sorted = every variety of.
9. Not only are pains awarded to sin, but joy to
righteousness.
11. Our shame, i. e. the disgrace which sin causes.
13. Isaiah v, 1 and 2.
IV. MEDITATION 231
SINNE
LORD, with what care hast thou begirt us round !
Parents first season us; then schoolmasters
Deliver us to laws; they send us bound
To rules of reason, holy messengers,
Pulpits and Sunday es, sorrow dogging sinne, 5
Afflictions sorted, anguish of all sizes,
Fine nets and strategems to catch us in.
Bibles laid open, millions of surprises,
Blessings beforehand, tyes of gratefulnesse,
The sound of glorie ringing in our eares; 10
Without, our shame; within, our consciences;
Angels and grace, eternall hopes and fears.
Yet all these fences and their whole aray
One cunning bosome-sinne blows quite away.
232 FAITH
DATE:
Found in W.
METRE:
Used also in THE REPRISALL, II, 293.
SUBJECT:
The substance of things hoped for. Hebrews xi, 1.
NOTES:
6. The feast of the body and blood of Christ. John
vi, 55.
8. The welcome guest forms the subject of LOVE,
II, 401.
9. Cf . AN OFFERING, II, 395, 1. 19. Possibly he is here
thinking of the snake root, "a most certaine and
present remedy against the venome of the rattle
snake : — 'As soon as any is bitten by that creature,
they take of this herbe and chew it in their mouthes
and swallow downe the juice thereof, and also
apply of the herbe to the wound or bitten place,
which instantly cureth them : ' " Parkinson, Theatr.
Botan., quoted by Dr. Grosart. The allusion to
protection against the snake is rendered probable
by 1. 11. The serpent of Genesis iii, 15, has "bruised
his heel."
12. Wett neare=we\[ nigh.
20. His glorie=the glory of the Second Adam, Ro
mans v, 12-21.
IV. MEDITATION 233
FAITH
LORD, how couldst thou so much appease
Thy wrath for sinne, as when man's sight was
dimme
And could see little, to regard his ease
And bring by Faith all things to him ?
Hungrie I was and had no meat. 5
I did conceit a most delicious feast;
I had it straight, and did as truly eat
As ever did a welcome guest.
There is a rare outlandish root 9
Which, when I could not get, I thought it here;
That apprehension cur'd so well my foot
That I can walk to heav'n well neare.
I owed thousands and much more.
I did beleeve that I did nothing owe
And liv'd accordingly; my creditor 15
Beleeves so too, and lets me go.
Faith makes me any thing, or all
That I beleeve is in the sacred stone.
And where sinne placeth me in Adam's fall,
Faith sets me higher in his glorie. 20
234 FAITH
21. Lower, i. e. in contrast with the higher of the pre
vious line, and perhaps with suggestion of a time
later than that of Adam.
27. The meaning of this is expanded in the next stanza.
Cf. also PRAISE, II, 95, 1. 11, and THE TEMPER,
II, 317, 1. 13.
32. Uneven nature, i. e. the inequalities of nature which
divide the peasant from the scholar.
34. As the rising sun imparts to objects whatever vis
ibility they possess, so is it the coming of Christ
which has brought life and immortality to light.
38. The strange expression pricking the eie occurs
again in FRAILTIE, II, 359, 1. 16.
44. The resurrection of the body.
IV. MEDITATION 235
If I go lower in the book,
What can be lower then the common manger ?
Faith puts me there with him who sweetly .took
Our flesh and frailtie, death and danger.
If blisse had lien in art or strength, 25
None but the wise or strong had gained it,
Where now by Faith all arms are of a length;
One size doth all conditions fit.
A peasant may beleeve as much 29
As a great Clerk, and reach the highest stature.
Thus dost thou make proud knowledge bend
and crouch
While grace fills up uneven nature.
When creatures had no reall light
Inherent in them, thou didst make the sunne
Impute a lustre and allow them bright, 35
And in this shew what Christ hath done.
That which before was darkned clean
With bushie groves, pricking the looker's eie,
Vanisht away when Faith did change the scene ;
And then appear'd a glorious skie. 40
What though my bodie runne to dust ?
Faith cleaves unto it, counting evr'y grain
With an exact and most particular trust,
Reserving all for flesh again.
236 REDEMPTION
INTRODUCTORY :
In W. this poem is entitled THE PASSION.
DATE:
Found in W.
METRE:
Of seventeen sonnets, eleven — like this — depart
in the third quatrain from the Shakespearian form.
SUBJECT:
Seeking for a new habitation, I found that he who
must give it had already given it at his own cost.
NOTES :
3. What is the suit ? Is it a petition to be released
from the Law, and come under Grace according
to the two covenants ? Galatians iv. 24. Or is it a
request for one of the many mansions in Paradise ?
Luke xxiii, 43. The figure of the tenant is again
employed in LOVE UNKNOWN, III, 179, 1. 4.
IV. MEDITATION 237
REDEMPTION
HAVING been tenant long to a rich Lord,
Not thriving, I resolved to be bold,
And make a suit unto him to afford
A new small-rented lease and cancell th' old.
In heaven at his manour I him sought. 5
They told me there that he was lately gone
About some land which he had dearly bought
Long since on earth, to take possession.
I straight return'd, and knowing his great birth,
Sought him accordingly in great resorts, 10
In cities, theatres, gardens, parks, and courts.
At length I heard .a ragged noise and mirth
Of theeves and murderers ; there I him espied,
Who straight, Your suit is granted, said, and died.
238 HUMILITIE
INTRODUCTORY :
This poem seems like a reminiscence of Donne's
The Will, especially of its second stanza. In one
of the songs in the third Book of Sidney's Arcadia
the beasts in similar fashion bring their special
gifts to Jove. The dangers of division again ap
pear in CHURCH-RENTS AND SCHISMES, III, 105.
DATE:
Found in W.
METRE:
Unique.
SUBJECT:
Spiritual forces, attempting to control brutal ones,
need harmony among themselves. The course of
the quaint aDegory is as follows : The united Virtues
dominated the Evil Passions (the beasts) while
guided by Humility. But when Pride awoke and
bade each claim worldly splendor (the peacock's
train) as proper to his place, the Evil Passions
would have conquered them thus divided, had not
Humility by her tears destr6yed the lustre of what
they desired and brought them once more to unity.
NOTES :
2. Azure. The color blue regularly signifies wisdom.
See note on THE BAG, III, 157, 1. 15. Holy beings
are again placed in several ranks in ALL ANGELS
AND SAINTS, II, 163, 1. 1.
IV. MEDITATION 239
HUMILITIE
I SAW the Verities sitting hand in hand
In sev'rall ranks upon an azure throne,
Where all the beasts and fowls by their command
Presented tokens of submission.
Humilitie, who sat the lowest there 5
To execute their call,
When by the beasts the presents tendred were,
Gave them about to all.
The angrie Lion did present his paw, 9
Which by consent was giv'n to Mansuetude.
The fearfull Hare her eares, which by their law
Humilitie did reach to Fortitude.
The jealous Turkic brought his corall-chain ;
That went to Temperance.
On Justice was bestow'd the Foxes brain, 15
Kill'd in the way by chance.
240 HUMILITIE
3. Beasts=\he passions (THE CHURCH-PORCH, II, 45,
1. 264): Each passion is fitted to make a contribu
tion of real worth to some virtue, if accepted with
humility.
10. Mansuetude= gentleness. Cf. THE CHURCH-
PORCH, II, 53, 1. 335.
11. Their law = the law of supplementation.
13. By the corall-chain is intended the red flesh which
hangs by the turkey's bill. As indicating jealousy
it is put in charge of self-restraint.
16. Accident baffles wit.
18. £Te=the peacock, who would not humble himself
by bringing it.
20. Each virtue felt itself supplemented by pride.
23. If they had possessed the fox's brain, 1. 16.
25. Humilitie, who held the plume, see 1. 8. Though it
properly belonged to her, she is the only one ready
to abandon it.
29. Joyntly bandying = according to Dr. Willmott, con
tending together. But the connection would seem to
call for the very opposite meaning, something like
composing differences, making bandying equivalent
to banding together (Fr. se bander) , as, indeed, it is
spelled in B. Herbert uses the word again, possibly
with this same meaning, in THE ANSWER, II, 351,
1. 3. Shakespeare has it in Romeo and Juliet, iii,
1: "The prince expressly hath forbidden bandying
in Verona Streets."
IV. MEDITATION 241
At length the Crow bringing the Peacock's plume,
(For he would not,) as they beheld the grace
Of that brave gift, each one began to fume,
And challenge it as proper to his place, 20
Till they fell out; which when the beasts espied,
They leapt upon the throne;
And if the Fox had liv'd to rule their side,
They ha4 depos'd each one.
Humilitie, who held the plume, at this 25
Did weep so fast that the tears trickling down
Spoil'd all the train; then saying, Here it is
For which ye wrangle, made them turn their
frown
Against the beasts. So joyntly bandying,
They drive them soon away, 30
And then amerc'd them double gifts to bring
At the next Session-day.
242 UNGRATEFULNESSE
DATE:
Found in W.
METRE :
Unique. The rhyming system — as in PRAYER,
II, 183 — changes in the final stanza.
SUBJECT :
The gifts of God, expressive of himself and de
signed to draw us to Him, are met by no answering
gift.
NOTES:
7. Cabinets have already been mentioned twice : To
ALL ANGELS AND SAINTS, II, 163, 1. 14, and MAN,
II, 219, 1. 30.
18. " This may be by way of miraculous contrast with
the ordinary effect of dust blown into the eyes;
but it may refer to the blowing of powders, sugar
of lead, sugar, etc., into the eyes of horses and dogs,
when their eyes are dimmed by a film or partial
opacity:" A. B. Grosart. The same figure appears
in FRAILTIE, II, 359, 1. 15, and in LOVE, II, 85,
1.24.
IV. MEDITATION 243
UNGRATEFULNESSE
LORD, with what bountie and rare clemencie
Hast thou redeem'd us from the grave!
If thou hadst let us runne,
Gladly had man ador'd the sunne,
And thought his god most brave; 5
Where now we shall be better gods then he.
Thou hast but two rare cabinets full of treasure,
The Trinitie and Incarnation.
Thou hast unlockt them both,
And made them jewels to betroth 10
The work of thy creation
Unto thy self in everlasting pleasure.
The statelier cabinet is the Trinitie,
Whose sparkling light accesse denies.
Therefore thou dost not show 15
This fully to us till death blow
The dust into our eyes;
For by that powder thou wilt make us see.
244 UNGRATEFULNESSE
19. Spring is called a box where sweets compacted lie,
in VERTUE, III, 337, 1. 10.
23. This &oa;=the Incarnation, i. e. Christ's body; cf.
1. 28.
26. Proverbs xxiii, 26.
29. Cf. CONFESSION, III, 259, 1. 2-5.
30. The Trinitie and the Incarnation are given for a
mere heart.
IV. MEDITATION 245
But all thy sweets are packt up in the other,
Thy mercies thither flock and flow; 20
That as the first affrights,
This may allure us with delights,
Because this box we know,
For we have all of us just such another.
But man is close, reserved, and dark to thee. 25
When thou demandest but a heart,
He cavils instantly.
In his poore cabinet of bone
Sinnes have their box apart,
Defrauding thee, who gavest two for one. 30
246 AFFLICTION
INTRODUCTORY :
Four other poems with this title are given, II, 339,
III, 269, 271, 273. This poem may be regarded
as a preliminary sketch for the great AFFLICTION
of II, 339.
DATE:
Found in W.
METRE :
Used also in ASSURANCE, III, 225.
SUBJECT :
Support in affliction. In the first stanza, Noah's
Ark, with its seeming instability guarded by God,
is taken as a type of the Christian, whose disturbed
yet steadfast existence is then described.
NOTES:
2. Planted, Genesis ii, 8.
7. So stanzas iii and iv of AFFLICTION, II, 341. The
rhyme occurs again in CHURCH-MUSICK, II, 199,
1. 1.
12. As we at first tasted of thy joys, so now dost thou
of our griefs.
IV. MEDITATION 247
AFFLICTION
MY God, I read this day
That planted Paradise was not so firm
As was and is thy floting Ark; whose stay
And anchor thou art onely, to confirm
And strengthen it in ev'ry age, 5
When waves do rise and tempests rage.
At first we liv'd in pleasure,
Thine own delights thou didst to us impart.
When we grew wanton, thou didst use dis
pleasure
To make us thine; yet that we might not part,
As we at first did board with thee, 11
Now thou wouldst taste our miserie.
248 AFFLICTION
15. Is the emphasis on our, and does the line mean that
joys are for angels, griefs for us ? Or should we
emphasize relief and mean that certain messengers
of God have brought us joy; but that when de
liverance from sin is needed, grief comes? Line
14 hints at the latter; line 19, and perhaps PRAISE,
III, 47, 1. 21, at the former.
17. The bait of pleasure appears again in THE CHURCH-
PORCH, II, 15, 1. 4. Cf . AFFLICTION, II, 339, 1. 4-7.
21. Cf. the daintie bowre made in the tree of MISERIE,
II, 255, 1. 55.
22. Store= luxuriance; cf. PROVIDENCE, III, 89, 1. 95.
24. The bow, an object ordinarily threatening, appears
in bright colors after a storm as a thing of delight.
It is here suggested by the Ark (1. 3). The rain
bow is again mentioned in THE CHURCH-PORCH,
II, 51, 1. 317 ; PEACE, II, 377, 1. 7 ; THE BAG, III,
157, 1. 14.
IV. MEDITATION 249
There is but joy and grief;
If either will convert us, we are thine.
Some Angels us'd the first; if our relief 15
Take up the second, then thy double line
And sev'rall baits in either kinde
Furnish thy table to thy minde.
Affliction then is ours. 19
We are the trees whom shaking fastens more,
While blustring windes destroy the wanton
bowres,
And ruffle all their curious knots and store.
My God, so temper joy and wo
That thy bright beams may tame thy bow.
250 MISERIE
INTRODUCTORY :
In W. this poem is entitled THE PUBLICAN. It has
been imitated by Vaughan in his Misery.
DATE:
Found in W.
METRE :
Unique.
SUBJECT :
Obstinate blindness the chief mark of man's
wretched condition.
NOTES :
6. Cf. 1 Corinthians xv, 32.
16. The Psalmist knew that God was about his bed
(Psalm cxxxix, 3). Not so the man of to-day.
18. There is not even a moth-hole to be looked through,
says the sinner.
IV. MEDITATION
251
MISERIE
LORD, let the Angels praise thy name.
Man is a foolish thing, a foolish thing,
Folly and Sinne play all his game.
His house still burns, and yet he still doth sing,
Man is but grasse, 5
He knows it, fill the glasse.
How canst thou brook his foolishnesse ?
Why he'l not lose a cup of drink for thee.
Bid him but temper his excesse, 9
Not he; he knows where he can better be,
As he will swear,
Then to serve thee in fear.
What strange pollutions doth he wed,
And make his own! As if none knew but he.
No man shall beat into his head 15
That thou within his curtains drawn canst see.
They are of cloth,
Where never yet came moth.
252 MISEREE
22. In THE CHURCH-PORCH, II, 21, 1. 66, he speaks of
the time when griejs make us tame.
28. The mention in 1. 26 of the covenant of baptism
suggests the figure of the dove to indicate the work
of the Holy Spirit. Besides this use of the dove as a
sign of the Holy Spirit, Herbert also employs it as
the bird of Venus; THE INVITATION, III, 51, 1. 26.
33. Cf. WHITSUNDAY, II, 159, 1. 14.
35. Infection here = a plague-spotted thing; not the
plague itself, as in THE CHURCH-PORCH, II, 43,
1. 249. The plague was at this time so constant and
serious a menace as to be ever present in men's
minds. The plague of 1603 carried off 30,000 per
sons; that of 1625 as many; that of 1636 somewhat
less.
IV. MEDITATION 253
The best of men, turn but thy hand
For one poore minute, stumble at a pinne. 20
They would not have their actions scann'd,
Nor any sorrow tell them that they sinne,
Though it be small,
And measure not their fall. 24
They quarrell thee, and would give over
The bargain made to serve thee; but thy love "
Holds them unto it and doth cover
Their follies with the wing of thy milde Dove,
Not suffering those
Who would, to be thy foes. 30
My God, Man cannot praise thy name.
Thou art all brightnesse, perfect puritie;
The sunne holds down his head for shame,
Dead with eclipses, when we speak of thee.
How shall infection 35
Presume on thy perfection ?
As dirtie hands foul all they touch,
And those things most which are most pure and
fine,
So our clay hearts, ev'n when we crouch
To sing thy praises, make them lesse divine. 40
Yet either this
Or none thy portion is.
254 MISERIE
43-48. The miserable utterances of this stanza are
supposed to be quoted from a despairing and
reckless man.
51. Pull'st the n/<7=drawest up the bed-clothes.
52. Starres = golden glorious things. So THE CHURCH-
PORCH, II, 35, 1. 171, and AFFLICTION, II, 339,
1.11.
55. Bowre in Herbert, as in Milton, is a green shelter
that is natural, not artificial. See AFFLICTION,
H, 249, 1. 21.
55-60. Cf. PROVIDENCE, III, 79, 1. 9-12.
IV. MEDITATION 255
Man cannot serve thee; let him go,
And serve the swine. There, there is his delight.
He doth not like this vertue, no; 45
Give him his dirt to wallow in all night.
These Preachers make
His head to shoot and ake.
Oh foolish man ! Where are thine eyes ?
How hast thou lost them in a croud of cares ? 50
Thou pull'st the rug and wilt not rise,
No, not to purchase the whole pack of starres.
There let them shine,
Thou must go sleep or dine.
The bird that sees a daintie bowre 55
Made in the tree where she was wont to sit,
Wonders and sings, but not his power
Who made the arbour; this exceeds her wit.
But Man doth know
The spring whence all things flow: 60
256 MISERIE
62. Winks = shuts its eyes. So THE COLLAR, III, 213,
1. 26; Acts xvii, 30.
67. Treasure: so in THE CHURCH-PORCH, II, 15, 1. 2.
68. We ordinarily employ shop in the sense of a place
of manufacture or sale. In the two places where
Herbert uses it — here and in THE CHURCH-PORCH,
11,31,1. 141 — he gives it the meaning of a place
of assemblage: as Shakespeare in Cymbeline, v,
5, speaks of his lady as a "shop of all the qualities
that man loves woman for." So Donne, Refusal
to Allow, 1. 34, calls Frenchmen "shops of fashion."
69. Posie : this word sometimes means a bunch of
flowers, a bouquet, as in LIFE, III, 321, 1. 1; and
sometimes, as here, a sentiment, a motto. Cf . THE
POSIE, III, 29.
77. Shelf, — his own means of destruction. See THE
CHURCH-PORCH, II, 27, 1. 120. We still speak of a
shelving shore.
IV. MEDITATION 257
And yet, as though he knew it not,
His knowledge winks and lets his humours reigne.
They make his life a constant blot,
And all the bloud of God to run in vain.
Ah wretch! What verse 65
Can thy strange wayes rehearse ?
Indeed at first Man was a treasure,
A box of jewels, shop of rarities,
A ring whose posie was, My pleasure.
He was a garden in a Paradise. 70
Glorie and grace
Did crown his heart and face.
But sinne hath fooPd him. Now he is
A lump of flesh, without a foot or wing
To raise him to the glimpse of blisse; 75
A sick toss'd vessel, dashing on each thing;
Nay, his own shelf;
My God, I mean my self.
258 MORTIFICATION
INTRODUCTORY :
I praise God that I am not to learn patience now
I stand in such need of it, and that I have practiced
Mortification and endeavored to die daily (l Corin
thians xv, 31) that I might live eternally: Walton's
Life. We still employ the word in connection with
wounds, in the sense of decay.
DATE:
Found in W.
METRE :
Unique.
SUBJECT :
Death in life. In the needs of our five ages —
infancy, childhood, youth, manhood, age — are
prefigured the needs of death, viz. a shroud, a
grave, a bell, a coffin, and a bier. Cf. Southwell:
Upon the Image of Death.
NOTES:
2. Sweets, as usually with Herbert, for the smell. See
CHARMS AND KNOTS, II, 213, 1. 13.
3. Breath, death. This rhyme is kept in every stanza,
enforcing the great antithesis and correspondence
on which the whole poem turns.
4. This line is borrowed from Donne's Elegy on the
Lord Chancellor, 1.1: " Sorrow, who to this house
scarce knew the way."
5. Clouts = pieces of cloth. Jeremiah xxxviii, 11.
IV. MEDITATION 259
MORTIFICATION
How soon doth man decay!
When clothes are taken from a chest of sweets
To swaddle infants, whose young breath
Scarce knows the way,
Those clouts are little winding sheets 5
Which do consigne and send them unto death.
When boyes go first to bed,
They step into their voluntarie graves,
Sleep bindes them fast; onely their breath
Makes them not dead. 10
Successive nights, like rolling waves,
Convey them quickly who are bound for death.
When youth is frank and free,
And calls for musick while his veins do swell,
All day exchanging mirth and breath 15
In companie,
That musick summons to the knell
Which shall befriend him at the house of death.
260 MORTIFICATION
8. Cf. Donne, Obsequies of Lord Harrington, 1. 17:
"Labourers have
Such rest in bed that their last churchyard grave,
Subject to change, will scarce be a type of this."
21. Our panting powers, pressed by the world, wel
come the restrictions of home.
22. Training himself to attend only to what directly
concerns him and his. Perhaps, too, there is a
suggestion that in the home the offending eye —
cf . THE DISCHARGE, III, 187, 1. 3-5 — can most
easily be plucked out. Matthew xviii, 9. Vaughan
repeats the expression in his Miserie:
" I school my eyes and strictly dwell
Within the circle of my cell."
24. Attends = awaits. Cf. JACULAPRUDENTUM: Good is
to be sought out and evil attended.
26. Marking = observing, looking toward.
27. Att=B\l his powers.
IV. MEDITATION 261
When man grows staid and wise,
Getting a house and home where he may move 20
Within the circle of his breath,
Schooling his eyes,
That dumbe inclosure maketh love
Unto the coffin that attends his death.
When age grows low and weak, 25
Marking his grave, and thawing ev'ry yeare,
Till all do melt and drown his breath
When he would speak,
A chair or litter shows the biere 29
Which shall convey him to the house of death.
Man ere he is aware
Hath put together a solemnitie,
And drest his herse while he has breath
As yet to spare.
Yet Lord, instruct us so to die 35
That all these dyings may be life in death.
262 DEATH
DATE:
Found in W.
METRE:
Unique.
SUBJECT:
Grim death grows fair through Christ's accept
ing it.
NOTES:
3. The groans of the last sickness.
5. When we thought thus of thee, we were considering
merely how we should appear a certain number
of years after our death.
9. This side=ttie earthly side.
11. Souls leaving this world are fledglings who have
abandoned their bodily shells. Cf. PROVIDENCE,
III, 85, 1. 64.
IV. MEDITATION
DEATH
DEATH, thou wast once an uncouth hideous thing,
Nothing but bones,
The sad effect of sadder grones;
Thy mouth was open but thou couldst not sing.
For we consider' d thee as at some six
Or ten yeares hence,
After the losse of life and sense,
Flesh being turn'd to dust, and bones to sticks.
We lookt on this side of thee, shooting short;
Where we did finde 10
The shells of fledge souls left behinde,
Dry dust, which sheds no tears but may extort.
264 DEATH
12. Extort tears through grief and possibly through
dust in the eyes, as in DOOMS-DAY, II, 267, 1. 3 and 4.
Herbert hates dust, and his eyes seem to have been
peculiarly sensitive. Cf.LovE, II, 85, 1. 24; FAITH,
II, 235, 1. 38; UNGRATEFULNESSE, II, 243, 1. 16, 17;
FRAILTIE, II, 359, 1. 16.
13-16. For the thought, cf. TIME, III, 341, 1. 13-18.
14. Cf. CHURCH-RENTS AND SCHISMES, III, 107, 1. 13.
18. In contrast to 1. 6.
22. Our bodily half.
24. Down or dust, corresponding with die as
1.21.
IV. MEDITATION
265
But since our Saviour's death did put some bloud
Into thy face,
Thou art grown fair and full of grace^ 15
Much in request, much sought for as a good.
For we do now behold thee gay and glad,
As at dooms-day;
When souls shall wear their new aray,
And all thy bones with beautie shall be clad.
Therefore we can go die as sleep, and trust
Half that we have
Unto an honest faithfull grave,
Making our pillows either down or dust.
21
266 DOOMS-DAY
INTRODUCTORY :
The common subject of sculpture over one of the
western doors of a Cathedral is the rising from the
dead, each member jogging the other. This Herbert
must often have seen.
DATE:
Found in W.
METRE:
Unique.
SUBJECT:
Gather quickly, O Lord, our members from the
dust.
NOTES:
6. Cf. MAN, II, 217, 1. 16.
12. The tarantula spider, common in the Mediterranean
coast-lands, gets its name from Tarentum in Italy.
Its bite was supposed to be deadly, the most prob
able escape being violent action, to which the fren
zied sufferer was already predisposed. Music was
employed and a wild dance induced, a dance re
called in the modern tarentella. As a peculiar
music heals this sting, so must the last trump give
the only notes which can heal the sting of death.
15. Oblige the graves to give up at once what they
possess, or they may refuse altogether.
IV. MEDITATION 267
DOOMS-DAY
COME away,
Make no delay.
Summon all the dust to rise,
Till it stirre and rubbe the eyes,
While this member jogs the other, 5
Each one whispring, Live you brother?
Come away,
Make this the day.
Dust, alas, no musick feels
But thy trumpet, then it kneels; 10
As peculiar notes and strains
Cure Tarantulaes raging pains.
Come away,
O make no stay!
Let the graves make their confession, 15
Lest at length they plead possession.
Fleshes stubbornnesse may have
Read that lesson to the grave.
268 DOOMS-DAY
21-24. The body after death, turning to dust, is driven
about by the wind, or turning to gases (cf. CON
TENT, II, 355, 1. 22), becomes a poison to the living.
So the dead may be said to stray or be scattered.
28. Parcel'd out= divided out, as in LOVE, II, 83, 1. 3.
Vaughan has enlarged this in his Burial:
"Thus crumm'd I stray
In blasts,
Or exhalations and wasts,
Beyond all eyes."
29. Consort = concert. So EASTER, II, 153, 1. 13, and
EMPLOYMENT, II, 349, 1. 23.
IV. MEDITATION 269
Come away,
Thy flock doth stray. 20
Some to windes their bodie lend,
And in them may drown a friend;
Some in noisome vapours grow
To a plague and publick wo.
Come away, 25
Help our decay.
Man is out of order hurl'd,
ParcePd out to all the world.
Lord, thy broken consort raise,
And the musick shall be praise. 30
270 JUDGEMENT
INTRODUCTORY:
Imitated by Vaughan in The Throne.
DATE:
Found in W.
METRE :
Unique, but differs only in rhyming system from
the DISCHARGE, III, 187.
SUBJECT:
Safety is to be found not in my worth, but in thy
love.
NOTES:
5. The special record of each man's life. Revelation
xx, 12.
7. Heare was in 1674 printed here.
13. Luke xxii, 20. Instead of the peculiar book of 1. 5.
IV. MEDITATION 271
JUDGEMENT
ALMIGHTIE Judge, how shall poore wretches brook
Thy dreadfull look,
Able a heart of iron to appall,
When thou shalt call
For ev'ry man's peculiar book ? 5
What others mean to do, I know not well;
Yet I heare tell,
That some will turn thee to some leaves therein
So void of sinne
That they in merit shall excell. 10
But I resolve, when thou shalt call for mine,
That to decline,
And thrust a Testament into thy hand;
Let that be scann'd. 14
There thou shalt finde my faults are thine.
272 HEAVEN
INTRODUCTORY:
Echo-songs were common in the poetry before
Herbert. Sidney has one in Book II of the Arcadia.
Lord Herbert of Cherbury has four.
DATE:
Found in W.
METRE:
Unique.
SUBJECT:
Mortality has echoes of immortality.
NOTES :
5. Leaves = falling, perishing things. But the echo
declares that certain leaves are abiding. Are these
the holy leaves of Scripture ?
11. Revelation xxii, 2. Perhaps a play on holly, an
evergreen.
13. Returning to the question of 1. 1.
IV. MEDITATION 273
HEAVEN
O WHO will show me those delights on high ?
Echo. I.
Thou Echo, thou art mortall, all men know.
Echo. No. 4
Wert thou not born among the trees and leaves ?
Echo. Leaves.
And are there any leaves that still abide ?
Echo. Bide.
What leaves are they ? Impart the matter wholly.
Echo. Holy. 10
Are holy leaves the Echo then of blisse ?
Echo. Yes.
Then tell me, what is that supreme delight ?
Echo. Light.
Light to the minde; what shall the will enjoy ? 15
Echo. Joy.
But are there cares and businesse with the plea
sure?
Echo. Leisure.
Light, joy, and leisure; but shall they persever?
Echo. Ever. 20
Exterior of Leighton Church, Huntingdonshire, rebuilt by Herbert
and Ferrar. See Vol. I, p. 35.
,AvuiAV) »K\yA\>V»>l \o >
<\ .Wl -WK Mv>tSr«l W»
V
THE INNER LIFE
PREFACE
IN the poems to which I have ventured to give
the title of THE INNER LIFE we for the first
time meet the poetic modes most characteristic of
Herbert, modes which I have examined in the third
Introductory Essay. Other poets before Herbert
had written reflective verse, sagaciously instructing
or meditating on the perplexing intricacy of divine
and human things. Southwell, Ralegh, Donne,
were Herbert's predecessors in such holy anatomy.
Southwell largely and other men in single poems
had celebrated the institutions of the Church,
though conceiving them in no such personal way as
Herbert. But the religious love-lyric, which begins
with thig_Grpup and fills alJThe remainder except
Group VIII. was developed by Herbert. Not that
the type did not already exist in the Latin poetry of
the Mediaeval Church. Poets, too, of France and
Germany had again and again put tender com-
munings with God into their vernacular speech.
In England translations of the Psalms were com
mon, and Hymns — the average pious utterance of
a multitude — were just coming into use. Nothing
altogether new ever appears on earth. The most
jpriginal writer creates his novelty out of what
already exists. Yet by bringing tendencies to full
278 PREFACE TO
expression he still genuinely produces. So Herbert
produced a new species of English poetry, a species
so common since his time and through his influence
that we now forget that a Herbert was required
for its production.
The character of this new poetry, having been
already and fully discussed, need here be only
summarized. Herbert's immediate predecessors
had developed the love-lyric to an exquisite and
often artificial perfection. As the mediaeval painter
found a set subject in the Madonna and Child, and
to a subject not his own gave his personal stamp
through small refinements of treatment, so did the
Elizabethan and Jacobean poet find in the lan
guishing lover a subject set to his hand. That the
poets themselves did sometimes veritably languish,
no one will doubt. But whether instructed by expe
rience or engaged in exploiting a theme, they one
and all bring before us the exalted lady with a
heart colder than is nowadays customary, a heart
which when once engaged is easily alienated, and
of whose slightest favor the miserable lover knows
himself to be perpetually unworthy. Through long
sequences of lyrics — sonnets commonly, less fre
quently verse of looser structure — every stage is
worked out in the slow approach of the undeserv
ing to the exalted one. To us moderns, who feel
but slightly the impulse to imaginative construe-^
tion, such detailed exhibits of all the possible!
phases of longing, hope, and despair appear strange
THE INNER LIFE 279
when presented by serious and middle-aged men.
The intellectual fashions of one age are hard for
another to comprehend.
To Herbert these fashions were matters of
course. From them he was able to detach himself
only sufficiently to condemn the objects loved, but
not to change the methods of representing love
itself. A literary artist through and through,
rejoicing in refinements, feeling no antagonism
between cool study and vivid emotion, ever ready
to note whatever shade of feeling a situation de
manded and to develop it from germs of his own,
Herbert brings over into the religious field the
heart-searchings, the sighs, and the self-accusaJ
tions which hitherto had belonged to secular love.|
Yet he is no trifler. Over-intellectualism is always
his danger. He merely undertakes to treat as liter
ary material the dealings of God and his own heart;
and in this new field of love he follows the beauti
ful shimmering methods which Shakespeare had
taught him in his devotion to the lovely youth, or
Spenser in his service of the nameless lady. During
the interval, too, which parts the second Stuart
from Elizabeth, the national temper had changed
and grown profoundly introspective and grave.
Herbert is contrasted with Breton and Campion as
Browning with Burns.
Grouped together here, then, — so far as these
can be parted from the similarly minded verses of
preceding sections, — are all the poems which
280 PREFACE
Herbert wrote at Cambridge in which his changing
moods of mind are studied and heightened for the
purpose of reflecting vicissitudes in his love of
God. Beginning with a few glad notes, he quickly
perceives in THE THANKSGIVING and THE RE-
PRISALL how incompetent he is at his best to make
gifts worthy of Him whom he adores. In THE SIN
NER, DENIALL, and CHURCH-LOCK AND KEY, he
acknowledges that the failure of God to smile upon
him is due to radical faults in himself; faults which
in NATURE and REPENTANCE seem to connect
themselves with specific acts of wrong-doing which
in the Bemerton days the third stanza of THE
PILGRIMAGE recalls. The poems which follow are
akin to these in their lamentations of instability. At
the close I have hung that wreathed garland which
he hopes may even in his crooked, winding wayes
express his tender reverence.
THE INNER LIFE
282
OUR LIFE IS HID
INTRODUCTORY :
Aubrey, writing of Herbert's Church at Bemerton,
says: "In the chancel are many apt sentences of
Scripture. At his wife's seat, 'My life is hid with
Christ in God.'" As this poem occurs in W., the
verse is shown to have been a favorite with Herbert
before he became a priest.
DATE:
Found in W.
METRE
Unique.
SUBJECT:
The two tendencies of life. Accordingly both the
words and thoughts of the poem are double. Out
wardly it shows a straight form and significance;
but hidden within is another of deeper import which
obliquely bends from start to finish.
NOTES:
2-4. Sir T. Browne, Vulgar Errors, Bk. VI, ch. v, dis
cusses these two motions of the sun in the Ptolemaic
astronomy as "that from East to West, whereby
it makes the day [so diurnall, 1. 3], and likewise
from West to East, whereby the year is computed."
V. THE INNER LIFE 283
OUR LIFE IS HID WITH CHRIST IN
GOD
(COLOSSIANS III, 3)
MY words and thoughts do both expresse this
notion,
That Life hath with the sun a double motion;
The first Is straight, and our diurnall friend,
The other Hid, and doth obliquely bend.
One life is wrapt In flesh, and tends to earth; 5
The other winds towards Him whose happie birth
Taught me to live here so That still one eye
Should aim and shoot at that which Is on high,
Quitting with daily labour all My pleasure,
To gain at harvest an eternall Treasure. 10
284
MATTENS
DATE:
Found in W.
METRE :
Unique.
SUBJECT:
God wakes us each morning not to the world but
to himself.
NOTES :
4. Make a match=come to an agreement.
8. The thought is repeated from MAN, II, 217, 1. 7.
10. So, i. e. as in 1. 2. Psalm viii, 4.
13. "Herbert has been saying how marvellous it is that
the Creator should care for the homage of each
single creature, as He clearly does from the pains
He spends upon it; whereas it is man who ought
to devote himself to the Creator. Instead, however,
of doing so, man attends to God's world with as
much care as if it were his own. In the last verse
the poet decides that it is possible so to study the
world as not to miss God:" H. C. Beeching.
20. The ending is the same as that of THE PEARL,
II, 383.
V. THE INNER LIFE 285
MATTENS
I CANNOT ope mine eyes
But thou art ready there to catch
My morning-soul and sacrifice;
Then we must needs for that day make a match.
My God, what is a heart ? 5
Silver, or gold, or precious stone,
Or starre, or rainbow, or a part
Of all these things, or all of them in one ?
My God, what is a heart, 9
That thou shouldst it so eye and wooe,
Powring upon it all thy art,
As if that thou hadst nothing els to do ?
Indeed man's whole estate
Amounts (and richly) to serve thee. 14
He did not heav'n and earth create,
Yet studies them, not him by whom they be.
Teach me thy love to know,
That this new light, which now I see,
May both the work and workman
show.
Then by a sunne-beam I will climbe to thee. 20
286 THE THANKSGIVING
DATE:
Found in W. An early poem both in style and
matter, looking to the future. His plan, however,
of being a poet is already completely formed (1. 39-
47). Cf., too, 1. 23.
METKE :
Unique.
SUBJECT :
The mode of thanksgiving appropriate to the
Christian is to vie with his Master, and still to
acknowledge himself surpassed.
NOTES :
4. Prevented =goest before, as in Psalm xxi, 3.
6. In 1679 doore was misprinted gore, and the error
has been reproduced in most subsequent editions.
7. Flouted. Cf. HOME, III, 327, 1.46. — Boxed= struck
with the fist, as in THE SACRIFICE, II, 135, 1. 129.
8. T is but to repeat what thou hast suffered.
9. The whole line is the subject of was. Matthew xxvii,
46. Again in THE SACRIFICE, II, 143, 1. 213.
11. Skipping = neglecting, as W. reads.
14. Posie does not here mean a motto, as in the poem
of that title, III, 29, but a bunch of flowers, as in
ALL ANGELS AND SAINTS, II, 165, 1. 25, possibly
with a suggestion, too, of Aaron's rod.
V. THE INNER LIFE 287
THE THANKSGIVING
OH King of grief! (A title strange, yet true,
To thee of all kings onely due.)
Oh King of wounds ! How shall I grieve for thee,
Who in all grief preventest me ?
Shall I weep bloud ? Why thou hast wept such
store 5
That all thy body was one doore.
Shall I be scourged, flouted, boxed, sold ?
'T is but to tell the tale is told.
My God, my God, why dost thou part from me ?
Was such a grief as cannot be. 10
Shall I then sing, skipping thy dolefull storie,
And side with thy triumphant glorie ?
Shall thy strokes be my stroking? Thorns, my
flower ?
Thy rod, my posie ? Crosse, my bower ?
288 THE THANKSGIVING
15-19. Since in these outward matters I am precluded
from rivalry, I will try to rival thy love.
20. By=by means of. Proverbs xix, 17.
23. It is improbable that this was written after his
marriage (1629).
25-26. Dr. Grosart thinks these lines refer to Lord
Edward Herbert of Cherbury, George Herbert's
eldest brother, and one of the founders of Eng
lish Deism. But the reference is improbable, for
(1) Edward Herbert was never the bosom friend of
his brother George, being ten years older than he,
and always separated from him in residence after
George's eleventh year. (2) There is no other hint
either in THE TEMPLE or THE COUNTRY PAR
SON of aversion to the teaching of the De Veritate.
(3) It is far from certain that these lines were writ
ten after 1624, the date of the publication of the
De Veritate. Since this poem is included in W., it
must have been written before Herbert took orders.
Its style is Herbert's earliest, when he was under
the strong influence of Donne.
27. One half of me, i. e. the bosom friend.
29. See 1. 49. In 1674, and since, thy is misprinted my.
31. The predestination may refer to the ministry of
Jesus, those three years in which he was about his
Father's business. So Herbert hopes that by the
end of three years he may do many good deeds.
33. Public-spirited men then gave money as naturally
for building roads as for building hospitals.
V. THE INNER LIFE 289
But how then shall I imitate thee and 15
Copie thy fair, though bloudie hand ?
Surely I will revenge me on thy love,
And trie who shall victorious prove.
If thou dost give me wealth, I will restore
All back unto thee by the poore. 20
If thou dost give me honour, men shall see
The honour doth belong to thee.
I will not marry; or, if she be mine,
She and her children shall be thine.
My bosome friend if he blaspheme thy name,
I will tear thence his love and fame. 26
One half of me being gone, the rest I give
Unto some Chappell, die or live.
As for thy passion — But of that anon,
When with the other I have done. 30
For thy predestination I'le contrive
That three yeares hence, if I survive,
Fie build a spittle, or mend common wayes,
But mend mine own without delayes.
290 THE THANKSGIVING
37. I will so detach myself from the world that it shall
not be noticed that I am still alive.
39. "The Sunday before his death he rose suddenly
from his bed or couch, called for one of his instru
ments, took it into his hand, and said: My God,
my God, my music shall find Thee, and every string
shall have his attribute to sing :" Walton's Life.
40. His=its. The lute of Herbert's time had a multi
tude of strings, never less than sixteen, sometimes
as many as thirty.
44. Here, in this book of mine, contrasted with Thy book
of 1. 45.
47. Thy art of love, not Ovid's. Dr. Grosart writes : " I
punctuate thee (:) not (,) as usually, because hav
ing so turned back God's love on him, he cries in
accord with 1. 18, his trying who will victorious
prove (Genesis xxxii, 28): O my deare Saviour,
Vidorie! But the cry is premature; there comes
the Passion, and on it the cry of the Conquered:
Alas, my God, I know not what. '
V. THE INNER LIFE 291
Then I will use the works of thy creation 35
As if I us'd them but for fashion.
The world and I will quarrell, and the yeare
Shall not perceive that I am here.
My musick shall finde thee, and ev'ry string
Shall have his attribute to sing, 40
That all together may accord in thee,
And prove one God, one harmonic.
It thou shalt give me wit, it shall appeare;
If thou hast giv'n it me, 't is here. 44
Nay, I will reade thy book and never move
.Till I have found therein thy love,
Thy art of love, which I'le turn back on thee:
O my deare Saviour, Victorie!
Then for thy passion — I will do for that —
Alas, my God, I know not what. 50
292 THE REPRISALL
INTRODUCTORY:
Called in W. THE SECOND THANKSGIVING. A
Reprisal is an attempt to return in kind what has
been received, whether of good or ill.
DATE:
Found in W.
METRE:
Used also in FAITH, II, 233.
SUBJECT:
By conquering him whom thou dost conquer —
myself — I share thy victory. Cf . THE HOLDFAST,
III, 17, and one of the doubtful poems, LOVE, III,
387.
NOTES :
1. It, i. e. rivalling thee, which in the previous poem I
dreamed was possible.
3-8. If I should offer thee my life, I should merely give
what is already forfeited by sin. If I were innocent,
disentangled from sin, I might have something to
present. But now I am able to give thee my life
only because thou hast first given me thine.
13. Cf. CONFESSION, III, 259.
11. Must even my tears for sin have been already shed
by thee ?
15. A similar play of phrase, though in a widely dif
ferent connection, occurs at the close of a letter
from Herbert to R. Naunton, 1620: Deus faveat
tibi, et conceded ut terrestres tui honor es cum coelesti-
bus certent et superentur I
V. THE INNER LIFE 293
THE REPRISALL
I HAVE consider'd it, and finde
There is no dealing with thy mighty passion;
For though I die for thee, I am behinde.
My sinnes deserve the condemnation.
O make me innocent, that I 5
May give a disentangled state and free.
And yet thy wounds still my attempts defie,
For by thy death I die for thee.
Ah, was it not enough that thou
By thy eternall glorie didst outgo me ? 10
Couldst thou not grief's sad conquests me allow,
But in all vict'ries overthrow me ?
Yet by confession will I come
Into the conquest. Though I can do nought
Against thee, in thee I will overcome 15
The man who once against thee fought.
294 THE SINNER
DATE:
Found in W.
METRE :
Of seventeen sonnets, eleven — like this — depart
in the third quatrain from the Shakespearian form.
SUBJECT:
Sin as an erroneous reckoning of values.
NOTES :
1. How I tremble.
3. Dividing myself as time is divided, at least a seventh
should be thine.
5. Ptt'd = accumulated, heaped up, as in MARIE MAG
DALENE, III, 151, 1. 11.
8. Reversing the arrangement of nature, heaven be
comes a hardly palpable point.
9. Aristotle, and perhaps Pythagoras before him,
recognized, in addition to the four elements, —
earth, water, air, fire, — a fifth, ether, subtler than
all the others. It fills the interstellar spaces; it is
the medium of physical motion; and as the con
necting link between body and soul, it is the basis
of life itself. Hence it comes to signify essence in
general, the central principle, the precious part of
anything ; and as the ground of all being, it is
sought after by the Alchemists.
14. Exodus xxiv, 12. Cf, SEPULCHRE, III, 155, 1. 17.
V. THE INNER LIFE 295
THE SINNER
LORD, how I am all ague when I seek
What I have treasur'd in my memorie!
Since if my soul make even with the week,
Each seventh note by right is due to thee.
I finde there quarries of pil'd vanities, 5
But shreds of holinesse, that dare not venture
To shew their face, since crosse to thy decrees.
There the circumference earth is, heav'n the
centre.
In so much dregs the quintessence is small;
The spirit and good extract of my heart 10
Comes to about the many hundredth part.
Yet Lord restore thine image, heare my call;
And though my hard heart scarce to thee can
grone,
Remember that thou once didst write in stone.
296 DENIALL
DATE:
Found in W.
METRE:
Unique.
SUBJECT:
The silent God.
NOTES :
6. Bent thoughts. My thoughts refused to be fixed on
the subject of my prayer. So THE METHOD, III,
197, 1. 15.
8-9. These were the employments of his brothers, —
soldiers and courtiers, — and his own thoughts
went out after them.
14. Psalm ci, 2. LONGING, III, 283, 1. 42.
V. THE INNER LIFE 297
DENIALL
WHEN my devotions could not pierce
Thy silent eares,
Then was my heart broken, as was my verse.
My breast was full of fears
And disorder. 5
My bent thoughts, like a brittle bow,
Did flie asunder.
Each took his way: some would to pleasures go,
Some to the wanes and thunder
Of alarms. 10
As good go any where, they say,
As to benumme
Both knees and heart in crying night and day,
Come, come, my God, O come!
But no hearing. 15
298 DENIALL
26. Tune my breast. The phrase is used again in THE
TEMPER, II, 317, 1. 23, and in the CHURCH MILI
TANT, III, 365, 1. 76.
27. No time=not at all, as in GRIEVE NOT, III, 257,
1.28.
30. Cf. 1. 3. Each preceding stanza has ended in dis
cord. The plan of a final unrhymed line for each
stanza is adopted nowhere else, except in the
refrains of PRAISE, II, 95, and THE SACRIFICE,
II, 123.
V. THE INNER LIFE 299
O that thou shouldst give dust a tongue
To crie to thee,
And then not heare it crying! All day long
My heart was in my knee,
But no hearing. 20
Therefore my soul lay out of sight,
TJntun'd, unstrung.
My feeble spirit, unable to look right,
Like a nipt blossome hung
Discontented. 25
O cheer and tune my heartlesse breast,
Deferre no time.
That so thy favours granting my request,
They and my minde may chime,
And mend my ryme. 30
300 CHURCH-LOCK AND KEY
INTRODUCTORY :
This poem is entitled PRAYER in W. For the
thought of it, compare THE METHOD, III, 197.
The lock and key (here sin and prayer) are men
tioned also in THE CHURCH-PORCH, II, 31, 1. 144.
DATE:
Found in W.
METRE:
Unique.
SUBJECT :
Our inaccessibility to God mistaken for God's in
accessibility to us.
NOTES:
5. Cold hands always find the fire at fault and needing
mending. Cf. JACULA PRUDENTUM: He thai is
warm thinks all so.
11. Sinnes are like stones in a stream, — here, the
stream of God's merciful blood, — which by ob
structing the current give it occasion to assert itself
the more.
V. THE INNER LIFE 301
CHURCH-LOCK AND KEY
I KNOW it is my sinne which locks thine eares
And bindes thy hands,
Out-crying my requests, drowning my tears,
Or else the chilnesse of my faint demands.
But as cold hands are angrie with the fire 5
And mend it still,
So I do lay the want of my desire
Not on my sinnes or coldnesse, but thy will.
Yet heare, O God, onely for his bloud's sake
Which pleads for me; 10
For though sinnes plead too, yet like stones they
make
His bloud's sweet current much more loud to
be.
302 NATURE
DATE:
Found in W. This poem may refer to one of those
many occasions when Herbert inclined to abandon
his plans for the priesthood and become an elegant
man of the world. He understood that such a
course would disintegrate his powers in the way
described in the second stanza. His mother steadied
him. For Walton's account of the struggle, see note
introductory to AFFLICTION, II, 338.
METRE:
Unique.
SUBJECT:
Nature alien to God.
NOTES:
2. Travell, i. e. run away. On fight, or travell, see
note on AFFLICTION, II, 343, 1. 37.
6. 2 Corinthians x. 4.
7. This venome = rebellion, 1. 1.
9. Bubbles— high rebellious thoughts, blown up by
pride. Cf . EVEN-SONG, III, 59, 1. 14, and VANITIE,
H, 357, 1. 18.
10. By &wwfe= according to the nature of bubbles. So
in A TRUE HYMNE, III, 27, 1. 15.
7-12. This verse gives a vivid picture of an acid falling
on a solid substance and turning it into gas.
14. Jeremiah xxxi, 33. Cf. VANITIE, III, 135, 1. 24.
16. Ezekiel xxxvi, 26. The life, or cohesion, of the
stone is gone. The thought of these last three lines
is worked out at length in SEPULCHRE, III, 155.
V. THE INNER LIFE
NATURE
FULL of rebellion, I would die,
Or fight, or travell, or denie
That thou hast ought to do with me.
O tame my heart!
It is thy highest art 5
To captivate strong holds to thee.
If thou shalt let this venome lurk
And in suggestions fume and work,
My soul will turn to bubbles straight,
And thence by kinde 10
Vanish into a winde,
Making thy workmanship deceit.
O smooth my rugged heart, and there
Engrave thy rev'rend law and fear!
Or make a new one, since the old 15
Is saplesse grown,
And a much fitter stone
To hide my dust then thee to hold.
304 REPENTANCE
DATES
Found in W.
METRE :
Unique.
SUBJECT:
The sin of man as rooted in his frailty. The thought
of this poem is more elaborately developed in THE
FLOWER, III, 305.
NOTES :
1. Psalm xxv, 11.
3. Quick in a double sense, i. e. living and rapidly
perishing. Ed. 1633 reads momentany, though B.
and W. both read momentarie. Shakespeare uses
momentany in Midsummer Night's Dream, i, 1,
and Burton in The Anatomy of Melancholy, in his
Democritus to the Reader.
8. Each day allows us but a glance around, for, reck
oned in terms of pleasure, we are active during only
two or three hours of it. But man's age (contrasted
with the Angel's age of PRAYER, II, 181, 1. 1) is
only long and large when reckoned in sorrows,
which have an ancient lineage.
V. THE INNER LIFE 305
REPENTANCE
LORD, I confesse my sinne is great;
Great is my sinne. Oh! gently treat
With thy quick flow'r, thy momentanie bloom,
Whose life still pressing
Is one undressing, 5
A steadie aiming at a tombe.
Man's age is two houres' work, or three.
Each day doth round about us see.
Thus are we to delights ; but we are all
To sorrows old, 10
If life be told
From what life feeleth, Adam's fall.
O let thy height of mercie then
Compassionate short-breathed men! 14
Cut me not off for my most foul transgression.
I do confesse
My f oolishnesse ;
My God, accept of my confession.
306 REPENTANCE
19. Jeremiah ix. 15.
22. Stay, i. e. delay.
27. Psalm cix, 18.
32. Psalm li, 8.
V. THE INNER LIFE 307
Sweeten at length this bitter bowl
Which thou hast pour'd into my soul. 20
Thy wormwood turn to health, windes to fair
weather;
For if thou stay,
I and this day,
As we did rise, we die together.
When thou for sinne rebukest man, 25
Forthwith he waxeth wo and wan.
Bitternesse fills our bowels; all our hearts
Pine and decay,
And drop away,
And carrie with them th' other parts. 30
But thou wilt sinne and grief destroy,
That so the broken bones may joy,
And tune together in a well-set song,
Full of his praises
Who dead men raises. 35
Fractures well cur'd make us more strong.
308 UNKINDNESSE
DATE:
Found in W.
METRE:
Unique.
SUBJECT:
My treatment of my friend, and my treatment of
God. The same subject as UNGRATEFULNESSE,
II, 243, but considered personally, instead of theo
logically.
NOTES:
14. We should more naturally write thee than thou.
16. Pretendeth to=seeketh, stretcheth after. Cf. JOR
DAN, II, 93, 1. 16.
19. The identical rhyme well emphasizes the con
trasted actions.
V. THE INNER LIFE 309
UNKINDNESSE
LORD, make me coy and tender to offend.
In friendship, first I think if that agree
Which I intend
Unto my friend's intent and end.
I would not use a friend as I use Thee. 5
If any touch my friend, or his good name,
It is my honour and my love to free
His blasted fame
From the least spot or thought of blame.
I could not use a friend as I use Thee. 10
My friend may spit upon my curious floore.
Would he have gold? I lend it instantly;
But let the poore,
And thou within them, starve at doore.
I cannot use a friend as I use Thee. 15
When that my friend pretendeth to a place,
I quit my interest and leave it free.
But when thy grace
Sues for my heart, I thee displace,
Nor would I use a friend as I use Thee. 20
Yet can a friend what thou hast done fulfill?
O write in brasse, My God upon a tree
His bloud did spill
Onely to purchase my good-will;
Yet use I not my foes as I use thee. 25
310 GRACE
INTRODUCTORY:
Vaughan imitates this poem in his Love and Dis
cipline.
DATE:
Found in W.
METRE:
Used also in VERTUE, III, 335. Here each stanza
has the same central rhyme.
SUBJECT:
Inert helplessness craving aid. Job xiv, 7-9.
NOTES :
1. Stock = the stem or trunk of anything which grows
(cf. Isaiah xl, 24). Failing to be helped by human
care, this requires divine aid in sun, dew, freedom
from disturbance at the root, at the heart, or else
transplantation. (But see, also, SIGHS AND GRONES,
III, 277, 1. 9.)
10. Dove, i. e. thy Spirit, as in GRIEVE NOT, III,
255, 1. 1.
11. Grasse. Can Herbert have intended this word to
take the place of the grace which appears in the
third line of all the other stanzas except the last ?
The thought is clear: if the dew comes unasked,
shall not thy Spirit when called ?
13. The mole is mentioned again in CONFESSION, III,
261, 1. 14.
V. THE INNER LIFE 311
GRACE
MY stock lies dead, and no increase
Doth my dull husbandrie improve.
O let thy graces without cease
Drop from above!
If still the sunne should hide his face, 5
Thy house would but a dungeon prove,
Thy works night's captives. O let grace
Drop from above!
The dew doth ev'ry morning fall,
And shall the dew out-strip thy dove ? 10
The dew, for which grasse cannot call,
Drop from above.
Death is still working like a mole,
And digs my grave at each remove;
Let grace work too, and on my soul 15
Drop from above.
Sinne is still hammering my heart
Unto a hardnesse void of love;
Let suppling grace, to crosse his art,
Drop from above. 20
O come! For thou dost know the way.
Or if to me thou wilt not move,
Remove me where I need not say,
Drop from above.
312 THE TEMPER
DATE:
Found in W., and there entitled THE CHRISTIAN
TEMPER.
METRE :
Unique. This is Herbert's nearest approach to
Tennyson's In Memoriam metre, which in its com
plete form was used by his brother, Lord Her
bert, in A Ditty and in An Ode on a Question
Whether Love Should Continue Forever.
SUBJECT:
The subject of this and the following poem may
well be summed up in Wordsworth's line from the
Ode to Duty: "I long for a repose that ever is
the same." With these two poems may be classed
THE FLOWER, III, 305.
NOTES:
4. That=my heart.
5. Stands to= abides fixed, according to.
7. Race=T&ze, as in THE SACRIFICE, II, 129, 1. 66, but
spelled with the soft letter for the sake of rhyme. So
Sidney, Sonnet XXXVI: "My forces razed, thy
banners raised within." Herbert plays with the
word differently in THE DAWNING, III, 333, 1. 12.
9. Chair of grace= throne of majesty.
14. Heaven move. So in MAN, II, 219, 1. 26.
16. Standing = constant, 1. 5.
V. THE INNER LIFE 313
THE TEMPER
IT cannot be. Where is that mightie joy
Which just now took up all my heart ?
Lord, if thou must needs use thy dart,
Save that and me, or sin for both destroy.
The grosser world stands to thy word and art ;
But thy diviner world of grace 6
Thou suddenly dost raise and race,
And ev'ry day a new Creatour art.
4
O fix thy chair of grace, that all my powers
May also fix their reverence ; 10
For when thou dost depart from hence,
They grow unruly and sit in thy bowers.
Scatter, or binde them all to bend to thee.
Though elements change and heaven move,
Let not thy higher Court remove, 15
But keep a standing Majestic in me.
314 THE TEMPER
INTRODUCTORY:
In W. the title of this and the following poem is
THE CHRISTIAN TEMPER.
DATE:
Found in W.
METRE :
Unique, but differing only in rhyming system from
EVEN-SONG, III, 391.
SUBJECT:
v Moods.
NOTES :
5. Fourtie is a common round number. There are
about fifty cases of it in the Old Testament, and
a dozen more in the New. In a letter of 1619
Herbert writes : / have forty businesses in my
hands. Crashaw in his poem Against Irresolution
tells how Christ " Breaks thro' all ten heavens to
our embrace;" but he probably has in mind the
ten spheres of Ptolemaic astronomy.
V. THE INNER LIFE 315
THE TEMPER
How should I praise thee, Lord! How should
my rymes
Gladly engrave thy love in steel,
If what my soul doth feel sometimes,
My soul might ever feel! 4
Although there were some fourtie heav'ns, or more,
Sometimes I peere above them all;
Sometimes I hardly reach a score,
Sometimes to hell I fall.
O rack me not to such a vast extent,
Those distances belong to thee. 10
The world's too little for thy tent,
A grave too big for me.
316 THE TEMPER
13. " The allusion is to the refusal of nobles and gentle
men to meet any but their peers in combat. ' Wilt
thou,' says Herbert, — and the conceit is made here
curious and complicated in thought by the refer
ence to stretching as by racking, — ' wilt thou stretch
a crumb of dust so that being made more thy
equal thou mayst contend with him:'" A. B. Gro-
sart. — Perhaps more light is thrown on the phrase
by its use in a varied form in PRAISE, II, 95, 1. 11,
and FAITH, II, 235, 1. 27. While this stanza treats
of stretching, the next begs for contraction.
14. Crumme of dust. Cf. LONGING, III, 283, 1. 41.
18. Nestle. Cf. LONGING, III, 285, 1. 54.
23. Tuning. Cf. CHURCH MILITANT, III, 365, 1. 76.
26. There=m a place made by thy hands.
V. THE INNER LIFE 317
Wilt thou meet arms with man, that thou dost
stretch
A crumme of dust from heav'n to hell ?
Will great God measure with a wretch ? 15
Shall he thy stature spell ?
O let me, when thy roof my soul hath hid,
O let me roost and nestle there;
Then of a sinner thou art rid,
And I of hope and fear. 20
Yet take thy way, for sure thy way is best,
Stretch or contract me thy poore debter.
This is but tuning of my breast,
To make the musick better.
Whether I flie with angels, fall with dust, 25
Thy hands made both, and I am there.
Thy power and love, my love and trust,
Make one place ev'ry where.
318 A WREATH
DATE:
Found in W.
METRE :
Used also in LOVE UNKNOWN, III, 179, and in
GRIEF, III, 323. The first stanza of JUSTICE, III,
253, is partially inwoven. The effect of inweaving
here is increased by Herbert's avoiding too exact
a repetition. Another variety of "link- verse" is
employed in SINNES ROUND, III, 143. Giles
Fletcher has inwoven the last stanza of Christ's
Victorie in similar fashion:
" Impotent words, weak lines, that strive in vain —
In vain, alas, to tell so heavenly sight!
So heavenly sight as none can greater feigne,
Feigne what he can, that seems of greatest might.
Might any yet compare with Infinite ?
Infinite sure those joyes, my words but light;
Light is the palace where she dwells, O blessed wight!"
Vaughan in his Wreath and his Lovesick has
clumsy imitations.
SUBJECT:
One cannot detach a topic for God's praise, so in
volved in one another are the grounds of our grat
itude.
NOTES :
3. Psalm cxxxix, 3.
5. Cf. OUR LIFE is HID, II, 283, 1. 3.
7. The same rhyme in CONSTANCIE, III, 121, 1. 18.
10. Like=\ike Thy ways.
V. THE INNER LIFE 319
A WREATH
A WREATHED garland of deserved praise,
Of praise deserved, unto thee I give,
I give to thee who knowest all my wayes,
My crooked winding wayes, wherein I live.
Wherein I die, not live; for life is straight, 5
Straight as a line, and ever tends to thee,
To thee, who art more farre above deceit
Then deceit seems above simplicitie.
Give me simplicitie, that I may live; 9
So live and like, that I may know, thy wayes,
Know them and practise them. Then shall I give
For this poore wreath, give thee a crown of
praise.
Interior of Leighton Church, showing the two pulpits built, by Her
bert's orders, of equal height and dignity.
. \\oAfe ,A'vwAO «oW\v
VI
THE CRISIS
PREFACE
ANEW period in the life of Herbert now
begins, a period marked by a change of resi
dence and covering approximately the years 1626-
30. During these years the opposing forces of his
nature came into open conflict and brought him
distress of mind and of body.
By birth, temperament, and many circumstances
of his life, Herbert was impelled to a Hfe_o^fashion?
enjoyment, and irresponsible self-cultjir^~"~fie
took content in beauty, wit, musick and pleasant
conversation." He knew the ways of learning,
honor, and pleasure. Easily he answered to the
calls of honour, riches, and fair eyes. Coming of
a noble family, Walton says, "he kept himself at
too great a distance with all his inferiours, and
his cloaths seemd to prove that he put too great
a value on his parts and Parentage." His early
biographer, Oley, despairs of describing "that
person of his, which afforded so unusual a contes-
saration of elegancies and singularities to the be
holder." His eldest brother, Edward, after years
of romantic adventure on the Continent, was
appointed ambassador to the French Court. His
favorite brother, Henry, was Master of the Revels
at the English Court. Three other brothers were
324 PREFACE TO
in the public service. Several powerful noblemen
besides his great kinsman, the Earl of Pembroke,
were his patrons. He was often at Court or with his
uncle, the Earl of Danby. He indulged "a genteel
humour for cloaths and Court-like company, and
seldom look'd towards Cambridge unless the King
were there, but then he never fail'd." In short,
the favor of the great, the glitter of society, the
quick returns of courtesie and wit, and all elegancies
of speech, dress, and living, were congenial to him.
On one side of his nature Herbert was a brilliant
man of the world, a richly endowed child of the
Renaissance.
Such a temperament inevitably induced secu
lar ambition. After a time a bookish life became
repulsive ; for Herbert felt his powers, hated stag- *
nation, and delighted in intellectual activity. In
1617, when he was well under way with his divin
ity studies, he turned aside to seek the Orator-
ship. This office he held for eight years. But he
sought also to become an assistant Secretary of
State. The Oratorship was the natural stepping-
stone. Of the two preceding Orators, Sir Robert
Naunton became Secretary of State, and Sir
Francis Nethersole Secretary to the Queen of
Bohemia. Sir Robert Creighton, who followed
Herbert, became a Bishop. Both predecessor and
successor at Bemerton became Bishops. But in „
1625 Herbert's political hopes approached an end;
for in that year the king died, and within the
THE CRISIS 325
'lhe whole group of nobles, Lord
5acon included, to whom Herbert had looked for
support. A year later came the saddest death of
tcttrtfiat of his mother. Herbert immediately re
signed the Oratorship, and seriously faced the
problems which a disorganized life had induced.
Up to about 1627 he had blindly drifted — under
the guidance of what Walton styles "his natural
elegance of behaviour, tongue, and pen" — toward
social eminence. The liking for stately pleasures
and fashionable distinction had ever a strong, and
hitherto a controlling, influence over him. But the
changed conditions brought about by the death of
his friends set free another force which he had
always felt as profounder and more really authori
tative, the force of religion, — religion to be exer
cised in the service of the Church. From childhood
Herbert knew himself to be a dedicated soul, and
inwardly, even in his most dilatory waywardness,
he approved the dedication. Side by side with his
fashionable tastes he had a veritable genius for
religion. His feeble frame precluded his entering
the army or any hardy profession. Oley says that
"he was dedicated to serve God in his sanctuary
before he was born." In THE GLANCE he himself
tells how in the midst of youth he had felt God's
gracious eye look on him. At Westminster School
questions of religious controversy had engaged
him. In a letter of 1617 he speaks of now setting
foot into Divinity, to lay the platform of my future
326 PREFACE TO
life, and thus of obeying that spirit which hath
guided me hitherto, and of atchieving my holy ends.
In a letter of 1622 to his mother he fears sickness
as something which has made him unable to per
form those offices for which I came into the world
and must yet be Jcept in it. Of the poems printed in
the first five Groups, a majority must have been
written during these very years of courtly aspira
tion. Such incongruities were not exceptional in
men of the later Renaissance, nor is there the least
reason to doubt that underneath all his gay-
nesses he truly loved God. His God — a poet's
God — was highly personal, individual even; but
only in union with Him could Herbert find peace.
His very wealth of nature made him feel the more
keenly the weight of chance desires. Beauty and •
order were in his Platonic soul. He did not wish
to be his own master, but rather through divine
obedience to escape from personal caprice.
Early, too, in his boyhood, through his conse
cration to the priesthood by his pious and master
ful mother, he had formed an inseparable associa- .
tion between being holy and becoming a priest.
Whether this association was wise, we need not ask.
It controlled Herbert's life, and hence is important
to understand. Catholics sometimes speak of the
call "to become a religious;" by which phrase
they intend not merely becoming heavenly minded,
but becoming a monk or nun. The two aims are
in their thought indistinguishable. I have known
THE CRISIS 327
Protestant young persons who thought they must
withhold their hearts from God until they should
be willing to become missionaries, or to meet some
other external standard which in a more or less
arbitrary way had become connected in their minds
with holiness. Entering the priesthood was Her
bert's test, and in his instinctive thought it was
fully identified with allegiance to God. In terms
of it allegiance and faithlessness were estimated.
While he always professedly maintained this ulti
mate purpose, whenever he felt responsibility irk
some and was inclined to drift with the fashiona
ble tide, he found excuses for delaying the great
act. And when he experienced the emptiness of
living by the day and longed for the eternal, the
call to the priesthood became once more impera
tive. Little can be understood in the verse or life
of Herbert unless we bear in mind that in his %
consciousness there was complete identification of
submission to God and acceptance of the priest
hood.
Such, then, are the opposing forces, long at work,
whose fierce and open conflict at a crisis period
Herbert here records. The love of elegant plea-
surej whose issue is secular ambition, contends *
with the love of God, whose embodiment is the
priesthood. Both are alike unforced and genuine
passions. Rightly or wrongly they are regarded by t
Herbert as fundamentally incompatible. He never
doubts which of the two must ultimately win, but
328 PREFACE TO
at any particular moment he dreads the final deci
sion. My soul doth love thee, yet it loves delay. The
man is double-minded. In such a struggle, with
out regard to whether we approve the assumed
antithesis, we must see that there is magnificent
poetic material. Such Herbert found it. As an
artist, in whom feeling is not falsified by represen
tation, he watched every stage of the contest and
recorded it with poignant splendor. Peculiar and
possibly distorted emotions which sprang up in
a single mind under special conditions of time,
family, and belief, he fashioned into pictures of
such universal and perpetual beauty that men of
alien ideals have for three centuries been able
to find in these experiences subtle interpretations
of their own.
Ellis, in his Specimens of English Poetry, re
marks that " nature intended Herbert for a knight-
errant, but disappointed ambition made him a
saint." That is as misleading a half -truth as Fer-
rar's declaration in his Epistle to the Reader that
Herbert was impelled altogether by "inward en
forcements, for outward there was none." While
unquestionably the priesthood was his accepted
aim from childhood, he spent most of the last third
of his Me in trying to avoid it, and it is doubtful
if he would ever have reached it had not events
between 1625 and 1629 obstructed other courses.
His inclination to enter the service of God, how
ever, was just as genuine as was his disposition to
THE CRISIS 329
find excuses for delay. He could not go away nor
persevere. That is his own judgment as expressed
; in his three principal autobiographic poems, —
I AFFLICTION, included in this Group, LOVE UN-
[ KNOWN and THE PILGRIMAGE of Group IX.
In my essay on the Life of Herbert I have gone
over the events of this Crisis period with some care,
and shown how they cooperated to bring about his
final decision for the priesthood. Epitomizing
them here, I may mention the increased interest in
religious things, partly causing and partly caused
by his rebuilding of Leighton Church; the wreck
of his political hopes, brought about by the death of
the King and his own noble patrons ; the reproach
ful loss of his mother, who had been his chief
incitement to the priesthood; the resignation of
the Oratorship, and his withdrawal from the Uni
versity. The mental conflicts attending these
events threw him into serious illness. He went into
retirement. A severe^course^^f Jasting_saved his
life, but left his health shattered. During this
retirement the poems constituting the present
Group, with possibly a few included in earlier
Groups, were written. Near the close of the period,
in March, 1629, at Edingdon Church, he suddenly
married Jane Danvers, a daughter of the cousin
of his stepfather. There is no mention of her in
his verse, unless in one dark line of THE PIL
GRIMAGE.
When, in 1630, the Rectory of Fuggleston-cum-
330 PREFACE TO
Bemerton became vacant, the Earl of Pembroke
induced the King to offer it to George Herbert.
Though Herbert had already " put on a resolution
for the Clergy," a month's hesitation followed.
Then at a friend's persuasion he paid a visit to the
Earl at Wilton House, where at that time the King
and Laud also were. "That night," says Walton,
" the Earl acquainted Dr. Laud with his Kinsman's
irresolution. And the Bishop did the next day
so convince Mr. Herbert that the refusal of it was
a sin, that a Taylor was sent for to come speedily
from Salisbury to Wilton to take measure and make
him Canonical Cloaths against next day; which the
Taylor did ; and Mr. Herbert being so habited,
went with his presentation to the learned Dr. Dav-
enant, who was then Bishop of Salisbury, and he
gave him Institution immediately." This was April
26, 1630. Five months later he received formal
Ordination and came to live at Bemerton. He had
just reached his thirty-eighth year when he began
to carry out his lifelong purpose.
At the beginning of the Group which describes
< this struggle I place EASTER WINGS and the long
\AFFLICTION ; the latter written, I believe, as late
as 1628 and well summarizing the whole period
of turmoil. Three poems follow, expressing politi
cal disappointment and the sense of depression
in being cast aside. In two or three pieces there is
repentance for a particular past sin. Then begins
the debate over taking final Orders, extending
THE CRISIS
331
through half a dozen pieces and culminating in
PEACE, THE PEARL, OBEDIENCE, THE ROSE, and
AN OFFERING. The Series closes with two songs
of gladness and one of tender distrust of his own
desert.
THE CRISIS
334 EASTER WINGS
DATE:
Found in W., and closely connected in subject with
AFFLICTION, II, 339.
METRE:
The form of this poem is not dictated by imitative
considerations merely, but — as usual with Her
bert — is shaped by the subject, in this case decline
and enlargement. Possibly he may here be turning
in a new direction the figure already employed in
CHURCH-MUSICK, II, 199, 1. 6; or THE CHURCH-
PORCH, II, 23, 1. 83. Cf. PRAISE, II, 95, 1. 5. Be
tween any given line of one of these wings and
the corresponding line of the other, there is close
parallelism. In Quarles' Hieroglyphics are some
Pyramids, similar, to these EASTER WINGS, and hav
ing something of the same charm, as the line and
thought enlarge together. I quote Hierog. IX.
"How soon
Our new-born light
Attains to full-eyed noon!
And this how soon to grey-haired night!
We spring, we bud, we blossom, and we blast,
Ere we can count our days — our days that flee so fast."
Drummond of Hawthornden has a similarly ex
panding poem of thirteen lines, and Wither in The
Mistress of Philarete four which swell and shrink
through fourteen lines. Christopher Harvey was
naturally attracted by a form so striking, and imi
tates it in his Schola Cordis, Ode XXXVII, without
any perception, however, of its inner significance.
VI. THE CRISIS
335
EASTER WINGS
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336
EASTER WINGS
SUBJECT:
Cramped by sin and sorrow, in Christ we are set
free. Psalm Iv, 6.
NOTES:
8. The mounting lark is mentioned again in SIGN,
III, 265, 1. 23.
11. Contrasted with the first line of the first stanza.
19. Imp (German impfeii)=to insert, and so to rein
force, to repair. The damaged wing of a hawk is
mended by grafting it with feathers from another
bird. Milton in his sonnet to Fairfax complains
that the Scotch, allying with the English Royalists,
will "imp their serpent wing." Oley uses the word
in his Preface to THE COUNTRY PARSON: "With
fasting, Herbert imped his prayers both private and
public."
VI. THE CRISIS
387
EASTER WINGS
338 AFFLICTION
INTRODUCTORY :
Four other poems with this title are given, II,
247, III, 269,271, 273. — "His Mother would by no
means allow him to leave the University [i. e. his
divinity studies] or to travel. And though he in-
clin'd very much to both, yet he would by no means
satisfie his own desires at so dear a rate as to prove
an undutiful Son to so affectionate a Mother. And
what I have now said may partly appear in a Copy
of Verses in his printed Poems; 'tis one of those
that bears the title of AFFLICTION: " Walton's Life.
DATE:
Found in W. Probably written about 1628. Lines
55-60 show that he had not yet taken orders.
Line 32 seems to point to that series of deaths in
1625-7 which changed the course of his life.
METRE :
Unique.
SUBJECT :
The double-minded man. James i, 8.
NOTES :
1. Cf. THE GLANCE, III, 331, where, nearing his
death, he recalls these early experiences.
4. In the holy life I saw pleasures which I supposed
would make a clear addition to those I already
possessed. So AFFLICTION, II, 247, 1. 7.
10. 'Tice, again in THE SIZE, III, 195, 1. 29.
11. Such = such and such. Stars are Herbert's frequent
name for ideal and glorious ends; cf . THE CHURCH-
PORCH, II, 35, 1. 171, and THE STARRE, II, 365.
VI. THE CRISIS
339
AFFLICTION
WHEN first thou didst entice to thee my heart,
I thought the service brave;
So many joyes I writ down for my part,
Besides what I might have
Out of my stock of naturall delights, 5
Augmented with thy gracious benefits.
I looked on thy furniture so fine,
And made it fine to me;
Thy glorious houshold-stuffe did me entwine,
And 'tice me unto thee. 10
Such starres I counted mine; both heav'n and
earth
Payd me my wages in a world of mirth.
340 AFFLICTION
17. My sudden sold ; cf . Walton's account of Herbert's
marriage and ordination, and his own recogni
tion of his hasty disposition in THE ANSWER,
II, 351, 1. 6.
18. Fiercenesse, as in THE CHURCH-PORCH, II, 51,
1. 307= excitability. "My brother George was not
exempt from passion and choler (being infirmities
to which all our race is subject) but that excepted,
without reproach in his actions:" Lord Herbert's
Autobiography.
24. Made a partie= raised a faction. The idea of a con
test is continued in the next, and also in the eighth
stanza.
25. Began. "Either a misprint or a noticeable idiom of
the word began : yes, and a very beautiful idiom it
is, the first colloquy or address of "the soul:" S. T.
Coleridge. Notes and Queries for September 21,
1850, says the idiom is still in use in Scotland. "You
had better not begin to me," is the first address of
the schoolboy, half angry, half frightened, at the
bullying of a companion.
VL THE CRISIS 341
What pleasures could I want whose King I served ?
Where joyes my fellows were.
Thus argu'd into hopes, my thoughts reserved 15
No place for grief or fear.
Therefore my sudden soul caught at the place,
And made her youth and fiercenesse seek thy face.
At first thou gav'st me milk and sweetnesses;
I had my wish and way. 20
Mydayes were straw'dwithflow'rs and happinesse,
There was no moneth but May.
But with my yeares sorrow did twist and grow,
And made a partie unawares for wo.
My flesh began unto my soul in pain, 25
Sicknesses cleave my bones;
Consuming agues dwell in ev'ry vein,
And tune my breath to grones.
Sorrow was all my soul; I scarce beleeved,
Till grief did tell me roundly, that I lived. 30
AFFLICTION
35. Fence = defence.
37. B. Oley, in his Preface to THE COUNTRY PARSON,
writes of Herbert : " Himself intimates that whereas
his Birth and Spirit prompted him to martiall
Atchievements — The way that takes the town —
and not to sit simpering over a Book, God did often
melt his spirit and entice him with Academick
Honor to be content to wear and wrap himselfe in
a gown so long till he durst not put it off, nor retire
to any other calling." The scholar's life is here,
and in the previous extract from Walton, conceived
as naturally leading to the priesthood. Clerks are
Clerics or Clergymen.
38. The way that takes the town, again in a reading of
W. for 1. 22 of THE CHURCH-PORCH.
44. Simpring=\he smile of one in an inferior position
who is seeking favor; cf. THE CHURCH-PORCH,
II, 29, 1. 123, and THE SEARCH, III, 219, 1. 14. He
alludes to his many unsuccessful attempts at secu
lar preferment.
45. So holding him to university life and the priestly
aim.
47. Till I came neare; when I tried to come to close
quarters with the scholar's life and to content my
self with it, I could not.
VI. THE CRISIS 343
When I got health thou took'st away my life,
And more; for my friends die.
My mirth and edge was lost; a blunted knife
Was of more use then I. 34
Thus thinne and lean, without a fence or friend,
I was blown through with ev'ry storm and winde.
Whereas my birth and spirit rather took
The way that takes the town,
Thou didst betray me to a lingring book
And wrap me in a gown. 40
I was entangled in the world of strife
Before I had the power to change my life.
Yet, for I threatned oft the siege to raise,
Not simpring all mine age,
Thou often didst with Academick praise 45
Melt and dissolve my rage.
I took thy sweetned pill till I came neare;
I could not go away, nor persevere.
344 AFFLICTION
50. Lest I should accustom myself to such hesitations,
illness compelled me to abandon secular hopes.
53. Thy power crosse-bias, i. e. cuts athwart me, against
my natural disposition, as bias is used in CON-
STANCIE, HI, 121, 1. 32. There is another mention
of bowling in PROVIDENCE, III, 85, 1. 60.
55. Here= probably Woodford or Dauntsey.
56. Herbert was a lover of books. In a letter to his step
father (1617), soliciting more money for books, he
writes : // a book of four or five shillings come in my
way, I buy it, though I fast for it ; yea, sometimes
of ten shillings.
57. The same wish is expressed in EMPLOYMENT, II,
105, 1. 21, and suggested in MAN, II, 217, 1. 8.
60. Just; I would keep what was intrusted to me.
61. Each pair of lines in this final stanza represents a
different mood of mind.
66. The resolve of reason checked by love (cf . the close
of THE COLLAR, III, 211) is intentionally para
doxical, but in substance means : I cannot take an
other master; fixed as I am in love to thee, I know
no greater punishment than to be forbidden to love.
Cf. Psalm Ivi, 3. Possibly it is a reminiscence of
Sidney's Sonnet LXXXVII: "I had been vexed
if vexed I had not been."
VI. THE CRISIS
345
Yet lest perchance I should too happie be
In my unhappinesse, 50
Turning my purge to food, thou throwest me
Into more sicknesses.
Thus doth thy power crosse-bias me, not making
Thine own gift good, yet me from my wayes taking.
Now I am here, what thou wilt do with me 55
None of my books will show.
I reade, and sigh, and wish I were a tree,
For sure then I should grow
To fruit or shade. At least some bird would trust
Her houshold to me, and I should be just. 60
Yet, though thou troublest me, I must be meek;
In weaknesse must be stout.
Well, I will change the service and go seek
Some other master out.
Ah my deare God! Though I am clean forgot,
Let me not love thee if I love thee not. 66
346
EMPLOYMENT
INTRODUCTORY :
Another poem with this title is given, II, 103. In
this is expressed a dependence upon God to make
and keep us well employed; in that an obligation
upon ourselves to be so.
DATE:
Found in W. Trying to content himself with failure.
METRE:
Unique.
SUBJECT :
Herbert's frequent lament over inactive powers.
NOTES:
1. This metaphor is worked out more elaborately in
THE FLOWER, III, 305.
2. Extend— unfold, grant opportunity for enlarge
ment. So again 1. 1, and 6.
4. So in DENIALL, II, 299, 1. 24.
5. Cf. SUBMISSION, III, 205, 1. 7.
6. But I too should then have a place among thy
honorable things. Cf. 1. 21.
8. 1. e. DOOMS-DAY, II, 267.
11. In this place and only during this life is enjoy
ment measured out to us. The material for it is
in thy keeping. Bestow!
VI. THE CRISIS 347
EMPLOYMENT
IF as a flowre doth spread and die,
Thou wouldst extend me to some good,
Before I were by frost's extremitie
Nipt in the bud;
The sweetnesse and the praise were thine, 5
But the extension and the room,
Which in thy garland I should fill, were mine
At thy great doom.
For as thou dost impart thy grace,
The greater shall our glorie be. 10
The measure of our joyes is in this place,
The stuffe with thee.
348 EMPLOYMENT
13. Cf. DULNESSE, III, 207, 1. 1.
16. Bui with delaies = though even in coming to its
end life lags.
19. 7Vwrf=honey. These= flowers. Coleridge seems
to have had these lines in mind in his Work With
out Hope :
"And I the while, the sole unbusy thing,
Nor honey make, nor pair, nor build, nor sing."
21. In MAN, II, 215, and in PROVIDENCE, III, 79, Her
bert explains at some length his conception of the
world as a divine organism, in which each part is
linked with every other part. Cf. Drayton, Ec
logues, VII, 184:
"The everlasting chain
Which together all things tied,
And unmoved doth them retain,
And by which they shall abide."
22. Companie=I am as useless to society as a weed,
reversing the thought of THE CHURCH-PORCH, II,
57, 1. 368.— .4 weed, not the flowre of 1. 1 and 19.
Cf. THE CROSSE, III, 233, 1. 30.
VI. THE CRISIS 349
Let me not languish then, and spend
A life as barren to thy praise
As is the dust to which that life doth tend, 15
But with delaies.
All things are busie; onely I
Neither bring hony with the bees,
Nor flowres to make that, nor the husbandrie
To water these. 20
I am no link of thy great chain,
But all my companie is a weed.
Lord place me in thy consort; give one strain
To my poore reed.
350 THE ANSWER
DATE:
Not found in W. Line 7 implies that he is not yet
in the priesthood.
METRE:
Of seventeen sonnets, six — like this — are in the
Shakespearian form.
SUBJECT :
Life passes. My work remains undone. Men call
me dilatory. There has been reason for the delay,
— though what it is, I cannot precisely say.
NOTES:
3. Fierce youth; cf. AFFLICTION, II, 341, 1. 18. Youth
is spoken of as now past. — Bandie may mean toss
to and fro ; or more probably band together, as in
HUMILITIE, II, 241, 1. 29.
6. Probably written after his disappointment at Court.
6. Cf. EVEN-SONG, III, 59, 1. 12.
8. A mist rising from a damp place. Perhaps sug
gested by James iv, 14. Again, in CHURCH-MONU
MENTS, II, 201, 1. 5. Cf. Herbert's letter to Bishop
Andre wes: Ut halitus tenuiores solent, qui primo
colons suasu excitati atque expergefacti, ubi sursum
processerint pa/ido, frigefacti demum relabuntur.
Vaughan imitates in his Shower, Isaac's Marriage,
and Disorder and Frailty.
9. Means=aims at. THE CHURCH-PORCH, II, 53,
1. 334.
10. Pursie= swollen.
13. We say, "Show me off, and set me off."
14. M ore = more fully. The object of know is which.
VI. THE CRISIS
351
THE ANSWER
MY comforts drop and melt away like snow.
I shake my head, and all the thoughts and ends,
Which my fierce youth did bandie, fall and flow
Like leaves about me; or like summer friends,
Flyes of estates and sunne-shine. But to all 5
Who think me eager, hot, and undertaking,
But in my prosecutions slack and small —
As a young exhalation, newly waking,
Scorns his first bed of dirt, and means the sky,
But cooling by the way, grows pursie and slow,
And setling to a cloud, doth live and die 11
In that dark state of tears — to all that so
Show me and set me, I have one reply:
Which they that know the rest, know more then I.
352 CONTENT
INTRODUCTORY :
Ambition, or untimely desire of promotion to an
higher state or place, is a common temptation to men
of any eminency, especially being single men : THE
COUNTRY PARSON, IX. " On the time of his Induc
tion Herbert said to Mr. Woodnot, / now look back
upon my aspiring thoughts and think myself more
happy than if I had attained what then I so am
bitiously thirsted for: " Walton's Life.
DATE:
Found in W. Written when reflecting on baffled
ambition, perhaps his failure to obtain the Secre
taryship of State.
METRE:
Used also in DIVINITIE, III, 97, and CHURCH-
MUSICK, II, 199.
SUBJECT:
The futility of fame.
" Resolve to be thyself ! And know that he
Who finds himself loses his misery."
M. Arnold, Self-Dependence.
NOTES:
8. Over-zealous watchfulness.
15. Let loose £o=aim its arrow at.
16. Take up= accept, accommodate itself to. Herbert
probably has the Emperor Charles V in mind, who
in 1555 abdicated his throne and retired to a clois
ter. The occurrence is referred to by both Walton
and Oley in their Lives of Herbert.
VI. THE CRISIS 353
CONTENT
PEACEjinutt'ring thoughts, and do not grudge to
keep
Within the walls of your own breast.
Who cannot on his own bed sweetly sleep,
Can on another's hardly rest.
Gad not abroad at ev'ry quest and call 5
Of an untrained hope or passion.
To court each place or fortune that doth fall
Is wantonnesse in contemplation.
Mark how the fire in flints doth quiet lie,
Content and warm t' it self alone; 10
But when it would appeare to others' eye,
Without a knock it never shone.
Give me the pliant minde, whose gentle measure
Complies and suits with all estates;
Which can let loose to a crown, and yet with plea
sure 15
Take up within a cloister's gates.
354 CONTENT
20. One who is inwardly contented finds comfort and
freedom from accident everywhere. The rhyme oc
curs again in CONFESSION, III, 261, 1. 22.
21 . Brags = things boasted of. So Milton, Comus, 1. 745,
"Beauty is Nature's brag."
22. Cf. DOOMS-DAY, II, 269, 1. 21. Herbert's disposi
tion to repeat himself is strikingly seen on compar
ing this passage with one in his ORATION ON THE
RETURN OF PRINCE CHARLES FROM SPAIN, de
livered in October, 1623 : In resolutione ilia ultima,
mdla sit distinctio popidi ant principis. Nulla surd
sceptra in dementis, nulli fasces ant secures. Vapores
serviles ad nubes educti, aeque magnum tonitru edent
ac regii.
25. The only difference between thee and men of emi
nence is that no record will be preserved of the
events of thy life. So A DIALOGUE-ANTHEME, III,
343, 1. 3, and Donne's Canonization, 1. 31: "And
if no piece of Chronicle we prove."
28. May not rent=may yield no returns. Rent is not
confined by Herbert to income from lands. Cf.
PROVIDENCE, III, 81, 1. 27.
29. Deeds whose full significance you alone can know.
31. Digestion, in apposition to wit, carries out the figure
already begun in chaw'd and tongue. People will be
able to digest, assimilate, comprehend, your deeds
only if they are themselves intelligent.
32. Nourisht, that to which you gave so much care.
33. Discoursing, probably here used in its early sense
of running to and fro.
VI. THE CRISIS 355
This soul doth span the world, and hang content
From either pole unto the centre;
Where in each room of the well-furnisht tent 19
He lies warm and without adventure.
The brags of life are but a nine dayes* wonder.
And after death the fumes that spring
From private bodies make as big a thunder
As those which rise from a huge King.
Onely thy Chronicle is lost; and yet 25
Better by worms be all once spent
Then to have hellish moths still gnaw and fret
Thy name in books, which may not rent:
When all thy deeds, whose brunt thou feel'st alone,
Are chaw'd by others' pens and tongue;
And as their wit is, their digestion, 31
Thy nourisht fame is weak or strong.
Then cease discoursing, soul. Till thine own
ground,
Do not thy self or friends importune.
He that by seeking hath himself once found 35
Hath ever found a happie fortune.
356
VANITIE
INTRODUCTORY :
Another poem with this title is given, III, 133. In
both cases the word does not carry our meaning of
desire for social esteem, but has its old sense of
emptiness, futile action.
DATE:
Not found in W.
METRE:
Unique.
SUBJECT:
He is enticed by a fair-eyed, money-loving woman
(1. 3, 6, 12); cf. THE CONVERT, III, 397, and THE
PILGRIMAGE, III, 237, 1. 13. The temptation which
Herbert oftenest mentions is that of lust.
NOTES:
3. Cf. SONNETS TO HIS MOTHER, II, 81, 1. 22, and
FRAILTIE, II, 359, 1. 3.
4. Embroyderies ; cf. DOTAGE, III, 137, 1. 5.
15. Cf. last stanza of THE PULLEY, HI, 149.
18. This line suggests that the poem was written early
in life, though it does not appear in W.
VI. THE CRISIS 357
VANITIE
POORE silly soul, whose hope and head lies low,
Whose flat delights on earth do creep and grow,
To whom the starres shine not so fair as eyes,
Nor solid work as false embroyderies ;
Heark and beware, lest what you now do mea
sure 5
And write for sweet, prove a most sowre displea
sure.
O heare betimes, lest thy relenting
May come too late!
To purchase heaven for repenting
Is no hard rate. 10
If souls be made of earthly mold,
Let them love gold;
If born on high,
Let them unto their kindred flie.
For they can never be at rest 15
Till they regain their ancient nest.
Then silly soul take heed, for earthly joy
Is but a bubble and makes thee a boy.
358 FRAILTIE
DATE:
Found in W.
METRE:
Unique.
SUBJECT :
Attracted both by the world and the priesthood,
he sees that the latter, which he has loved from
childhood, may be pushed aside by the former,
which he inwardly despises. Cf . with VANITIE.
NOTES:
1. In my silence =in times of reflection.
6. Deare= costly.
9. Abroad, in contrast with in my silence, 1. 1. — Regi
ments = governments, methods of rule. Hooker uses
the word frequently, e. g. : " Men might have lived
without any public regiment : " Eccl. Pol. I, 10.
11. Sad = serious, sober. Cf. THE CHURCH-PORCH,
II, 43, 1. 247.
13. Weeds= garments; cf. THE SACRIFICE, II, 141,
1. 178.
15. Dust before ; cf . 1. 4, and LOVE, II, 85, 1. 23.
16. Prick= stimulate; so used in FAITH, II, 235, 1. 38,
and Ecclesiasticus xxii, 19.
18. Cf . 1. 7.
19. Affront=be brought into comparison with.
22. It=honour, riches, or fair eyes, 1. 3 and 17.
23. Commodious to = fitted to, with power to do that for
which the Tower of Babel was designed, Genesis
xi, 4. Babel is mentioned again in SINNES ROUND,
III, 145, 1. 15.
VI. THE CRISIS 359
FRAILTIE
LORD, in my silence how do I despise
What upon trust
Is styled honour, riches, or fair eyes,
But is fair dust!
I surname them guilded clay, 5
Deare earth, fine grasse or hay.
In all, I think my foot doth ever tread
Upon their head.
But when I view abroad both Regiments,
The world's and thine; 10
Thine clad with simplenesse and sad events,
The other fine,
Full of glorie and gay weeds,
Brave language, braver deeds; 14
That which was dust before doth quickly rise,
And prick mine eyes.
O brook not this, lest if what even now
My foot did tread,
Affront those joyes wherewith thou didst endow
And long since wed 20
My poore soul, ev'n sick of love,
It may a Babel prove
Commodious to conquer heav'n and thee
Planted in me.
360 ARTILLERIE
INTRODUCTORY :
Cf . the following poem, and THE STORM, III, 263.
DATE:
Not found in W. But he is questioning whether
he shall longer disobey the divine call, and hopes
that God may bless his alien wishes.
METRE:
Unique.
SUBJECT :
The projection upon God of our desires. He has
been observing some meteor shower, and reflects
that as influences pass from heaven to earth, so may
others pass from earth to heaven. A star with Her
bert is always a name for an exalted and divine
impulse, something which has the face of fire, but
ends in rest (1. 8); cf. VANITIE, II, 357, 1. 3 ; THE
BANQUET, HI, 53, 1. 10.
NOTES :
1-3. One of the Latin poems contained in the Williams
Manuscript (Lucus V) is upon the Holy Scriptures.
The opening lines describe the author's mental
agitation, and the poem proceeds:
Numquid pro foribus sedendo nuper
Stettam vespere suxerim vdantem,
Haec aitiem hospitio latere turpi
Proraus neseia, cogitat recessum f
VI. THE CRISIS 361
ARTILLERIE
As I one ev'ning sat before my cell,
Me thoughts a starre did shoot into my lap.
I rose and shook my clothes, as knowing well
\ That from small fires comes oft no small mishap.
When suddenly I heard one say, 5
Do as thou usest, disobey,
Expell good motions from thy breast
Which have the face of fire, but end in rest.
I, who had heard of musick in the spheres, 9
But not of speech in starres, began to muse.
But turning to my God, whose ministers
The starres and all things are, If I refuse,
Dread Lord, said I, so oft my good,
Then I refuse not ev'n with bloud
To wash away my stubborn thought; 15
For I will do or suffer what I ought.
362 ARTILLERIE
9. Possibly there are other allusions to the musick in
the spheres in PROVIDENCE, III, 83, 1. 40, and THE
STORM, III, 263, 1. 13. For full statement of the
doctrine, see Milton's Ode on the Nativity, stanza
xiii, and Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice, v, i,
60.
14-16. My refusal (1. 6) is due to my determination to
bear the penalty of my own sin, and not to allow
thee to wash it away with thy blood.
24. The justification of 1. 19.
27. " Parley and articling (1. 31) are both military
terms; the soul cannot surrender on articles of
capitulation:" A. B. Grosart.
28. Behold my breast, i. e. shoot into me thine arrows
also.
30. So CLASPING OF HANDS, III, 37, 1. 2.
VI. THE CRISIS 363
But I have also starres and shooters too,
Born where thy servants both artilleries use.
My tears and prayers night and day do wooe
And work up to thee, yet thou dost refuse. 20
Not but I am (I must say still)
Much more oblig'd to do thy will
Then thou to grant mine, but because
Thy promise now hath ev'n set thee thy laws.
Then we are shooters both, and thou dost deigne
To enter combate with us and contest 26
With thine own clay. But I would parley fain.
Shunne not my arrows, and behold my breast.
Yet if thou shunnest, I am thine;
I must be so, if I am mine. 30
There is no articling with thee.
I am but finite, yet thine infinitely.
364 THE STARRE
INTRODUCTORY :
Vaughan imitates this poem in his The Star. The
star is a favorite word with Herbert, occurring in
eighteen of his poems. He attaches mystic mean
ings to it, and employs it to indicate more than the
physical object. Perhaps in early life his imagina
tion had been stirred by some striking spectacle
in the heavens. Halley's comet appeared in 1607.
Another notable comet appeared in November,
1618, and was believed by many to prophesy the
death of the Queen. (See S. R. Gardiner, Hist, of
England, III, 298, and Howell's Letters, Bk. I, 2,
VI.) In this strange poem he may connect the nim
bus which he has seen around the head of Christ
in some picture (1. 2 and 22) with the coal of fire
which an angel brought from the altar (Isaiah vi,
5-8) as the call and purification of a prophet for
his work, i. e. in Herbert's case, the priesthood.
DATE:
Not in W. But, like the preceding, it discusses his
divine call.
METRE :
Unique.
SUBJECT:
" They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of
the firmament; and they that turn many to right
eousness as the stars for ever and ever:" Daniel
xii, 3.
NOTES:
12. It=my heart, as in 1. 8.
VI. THE CRISIS 365
THE STARRE
BRIGHT spark, shot from a brighter place,
Where beams surround my Saviour's face,
Canst thou be any where
So well as there ?
Yet if thou wilt from thence depart, 5
Take a bad lodging in my heart;
For thou canst make a debter,
And make it better.
First with thy fire-work burn to dust
Folly, and worse then folly, lust. 10
Then with thy light refine,
And make it shine:
So disengag'd from sinne and sicknesse,
Touch it with thy celestiall quicknesse,
That it may hang and move 15
After thy love.
366 THE STARRE
17. Light of 1. 11.
18. Motion, and heat, 1. 14 and 9.
19. The place described in 1. 2.
26. Winde is a favorite word with Herbert. See THE
WORLD, II, 227, 1. 13; OUR LIFE is HID, II, 283,
1. 6; CONFESSION, III, 259, 1. 8.
30. Cf. EMPLOYMENT, II, 349, 1. 18.
31. Cf. HOME, III, 325, 1. 20.
VI. THE CRISIS
367
Then with our trinitie of light,
Motion, and heat, let's take our flight
Unto the place where thou
Before didst bow. 20
Get me a standing there, and place
Among the beams which crown the face
Of him who dy'd to part
Sinne and my heart.
That so among the rest I may
Glitter, and curie, and winde as they;
That winding is their fashion
Of adoration.
Sure thou wilt joy, by gaining me,
To flie home like a laden bee
Unto that hive of beams
And garland-streams.
25
30
368 DIALOGUE
INTRODUCTORY :
Besides this poem the following have the dialogue
form: HEAVEN, II, 273; LOVE, II, 401; BUSINESSE,
III, 139; LOVE UNKNOWN, III, 179; and A DIA-
LOGUE-ANTHEME, III, 343.
DATE:
Not found in W. Written when debating about
dedicating himself to the priesthood.
METRE :
Unique.
SUBJECT :
Shall my lack of worth keep me from God ? Shall
it not rather draw me to Him ?
NOTES:
4. Waving = wavering; cf. James i, 6.
6. Gains. Cannot make such a wretch profitable to
thee.
12. Treasure, so OBEDIENCE, II, 385, 1. 15.
VI. THE CRISIS
DIALOGUE
SWEETEST Saviour, if my soul
Were but worth the having,
Quickly should I then controll
Any thought of waving.
But when all my care and pains 5
Cannot give the name of gains
To thy wretch so full of stains,
What delight or hope remains ?
What (childe) is the ballance thine,
Thine the poise and measure ? 10
// I say, Thou shalt be mine,
Finger not my treasure.
What the gains in having thee
Do amount to, onely he
Who for man was sold can see, 15
That transferred th' accounts to me.
370
DIALOGUE
20. Savour = knowledge (Fr. savoir).
22. John xiv, 6.
25. 2Vwrf=that disclaimer.
28. Would be as resigned to the divine will as I was.
Isaiah xlv, 9.
31. Philippians ii, 6-8.
32. Here as in THE COLLAR, III, 213, 1. 36, the settle
ment of the controversy is reached through affec
tion.
VI. THE CRISIS 371
But as I can see no merit
Leading to this favour,
So the way to fit me for it
Is beyond my savour. 20
As the reason then is thine,
So the way is none of mine.
I disclaim the whole designe,
Sinne disclaims, and I resigne.
That is all, if that I could 25
Get without repining;
And my day, my creature, would
Follow my resigning.
That as I did freely part
With my glorie and desert, 30
Left all joyes to feel all smart —
Ah, no more ! Thou break'st my heart.
372 THE PRIESTHOOD
INTRODUCTORY :
"He knew full well what he did when he received
Holy orders, as appears by the Poems called PRIEST
HOOD and AARON:" Oley's Life of Herbert.
DATE:
Not found in W. Hesitating over the priesthood.
METRE:
Used only here, but differs merely in rhyming sys
tem from DOTAGE, III, 137.
SUBJECT :
The decision whether he is worthy to enter the
priesthood must be made by God, not by himself.
NOTES:
2. Matthew xvi, 19.
5. Walton tells how Herbert, after he was made rector
of Bemerton, changed his sword and silk clothes
into a canonical coat. Before taking orders as a
priest in 1630 he had accepted the sinecure Rector
ship of Whitford in 1623, and the Prebend of
Leighton Ecclesia in 1626; but in both cases as
deacon only.
10. From a child he was feeble, inclining to fevers,
weak of lungs and digestion. EASTER WINGS, II,
337, 1. 11-15.
16. That earth^poiter's clay. Romans ix, 21. He has
in mind the fire of 1. 7.
VI. THE CRISIS 373
THE PRIESTHOOD
BLEST Order, which in power dost so excell
That with th' one hand thou liftest to the sky,
And with the other throwest down to hell
In thy just censures; fain would I draw nigh,
Fain put thee on, exchanging my lay-sword 5
For that of th' holy word.
But thou art fire, sacred and hallow'd fire,
And I but earth and clay. Should I presume
To wear thy habit, the severe attire
My slender compositions might consume. 10
I am both foul and brittle, much unfit
To deal in holy Writ.
Yet have I often seen, by cunning hand
And force of fire, what curious things are made
Of wretched earth. Where once I scorn'd to stand,
That earth is fitted by the fire and trade 16
Of skilfull artists for the boards of those
Who make the bravest shows.
374 THE PRIESTHOOD
24. Cf. MAN, II, 219, 1. 24.
32. 2 Samuel vi, 6.
39. The distance; cf. THE CHURCH-PORCH, II, 45,
1. 260.
40-42. Proud evil people honor the great by attempt
ing to rival with their own splendor that of their
princes, and still falling short. Good poor people,
who will show no less honor, must do so by fulness
of submission. So may I, submissive in my poverty,
lead God to count me worthy to be his priest.
VI. THE CRISIS 375
But since those great ones, be they ne're so great,
Come from the earth from whence those vessels
come; 20
So that at once both feeder, dish, and meat
Have one beginning and one finall summe;
I do not greatly wonder at the sight,
If earth in earth delight.
But th' holy men of God such vessels are 25
As serve him up who all the world commands.
When God vouchsafeth to become our fare,
Their hands convey him who conveys their
hands.
O what pure things, most pure must those things be,
Who bring my God to me!
Wherefore I dare not, I, put forth my hand 31
To hold the Ark, although it seem to shake
Through th' old sinnes and new doctrines of our
land.
Onely since God doth often vessels make
Of lowly matter for high uses meet, 35
I throw me at his feet.
There will I lie, untill my Maker seek
For some mean stuffe whereon to show his skill.
Then is my time. The distance of the meek 39
Doth flatter power. Lest good come short of ill
In praising might, the poore do by submission
What pride by opposition.
376 PEACE
INTRODUCTORY:
" An admirable specimen of the allegorical style
which, under the first two Stuart kings, took the
place of the pastoral Elizabethan allegory. Few
poets, in C. Lamb's language, are more 'matter-
fur than Herbert, or express their thoughts in
fewer words:" F. T. Palgrave.
DATE:
Not found in W. He reviews the past, and is happy
in thinking of his coming priesthood.
METRE:
Unique, but closely resembles that of THE PIL
GRIMAGE, III, 237. Vaughan has imitated it in his
I Walked the Other Day, and in The Sap.
SUBJECT :
Peace is sought first in solitude, next in beauty, then
in high station, and only at the last in the service
of God. Yet nothing can bring peace except that
bread which came down from heaven.
NOTES :
5. The very emptiness of withdrawal from the world
denies him peace.
12. Beauty proves unsubstantial.
17. So CHURCH-RENTS AND SCHISMES, III, 105, 1. 5.
Envy attends eminence.
VI. THE CRISIS 377
PEACE
SWEET Peace, where dost thou dwell ? I humbly
crave
Let me once know.
I sought thee in a secret cave,
And ask'd if Peace were there.
A hollow winde did seem to answer, No: 5
Go seek elsewhere.
I did, and going did a rainbow note.
Surely, thought I,
This is the lace of Peace's coat,
I will search out the matter. 10
But while I lookt, the clouds immediately
Did break and scatter.
Then went I to a garden and did spy
A gallant flower,
The crown Imperiall. Sure, said I, 15
Peace at the root must dwell.
But when I digg'd, I saw a worm devoure
What show'd so well.
378 PEACE
19. One who had had experiences like my own.
22. Hebrews vii, 2.
23. Salem or Jerusalem, "the home of peace," is
thought of as the chief city in the life of Christ; cf.
Psalm Ixxvi, 2.
28. The twelve Apostles, through whom the bread of
life is given. They appear as twelve suns in WHIT
SUNDAY, II, 159, 1. 15.
35. This final inner secrecy is contrasted with the outer
secrecy at first sought in 1. 3.
37. My garden. Perhaps the rev'rend good old man of
1. 19 is St. Peter. Or may it be the friend of LOVE
UNKNOWN, III, 181, 1. 43, and possibly of THE PIL
GRIMAGE, III, 237, 1. 17 ? A sketch of this poem
appears in AN OFFERING, stanza iv, II, 395.
42. Psalm cxix, 165.
VI. THE CRISIS 379
At length I met a rev'rend good old man,
Whom when for Peace 20
I did demand, he thus began:
There was a Prince of old
At Salem dwelt, who liv'd with good increase
Of flock and fold.
He sweetly liv'd, yet sweetnesse did not save 25
His life from foes.
But after death out of his grave
There sprang twelve stalks of wheat;
Which many wondring at, got some of those
To plant and set. 30
It prospered strangely and did soon disperse
Through all the earth;
For they that taste it do rehearse
That vertue lies therein,
A secret vertue bringing peace and mirth 35
By flight of sinne.
Take of this grain, which in my garden grows
And grows for you,
Make bread of it; and that repose
And peace which ev'rywhere 40
With so much earnestnesse you do pursue
Is onely there.
380
THE PEARL
INTRODUCTORY :
That for which all else should be exchanged. Cf.
the Book of Wisdom vii, 17-23, and Job xxviii, 18.
DATE:
Found in W. He decides on the priesthood.
METRE :
Unique.
SUBJECT:
For Thee, I gladly resign Learning, Honour, and
Pleasure, — whose full significance I know. "For
his unforc'd choice to serve at God's Altar he
seems in THE PEARL to rejoyce:" Walton's Life.
NOTES:
2. "I have a feeling that Herbert intends a quibble
here between the printing press and some other,
such as a wine or olive press. I don't know what
kind of press would be fed by a head (i. e. fount)
and pipes, but there may be some confusion. In
Zechariah's vision the lamps are fed by pipes from
the olive trees:" H. C. Beeching. Conducting-
pipes are mentioned in WHITSUNDAY, II, 159,
1. 17-18, and THE WATER-COURSE, III, 147, 1. 6.
3. The branches of learning successively mentioned
are Mathematics, Ethics, Jurisprudence, Astrology,
The Natural Sciences, Alchemy, Geography.
6. Forc'd. AVARICE, III, 113, 1. 9.
8. "Stock and surplus may be the learning we in
herit, and that which we add to it: " H. C. Beech-
ing.
VI. THE CRISIS 381
THE PEARL
(MATTHEW XIII, 45)
I KNOW the wayes of learning, both the head
And pipes that feed the presse, and make it
runne ;
What reason hath from nature borrowed,
Or of it self, like a good huswife, spunne 4
In laws and policie; what the starres conspire;
What willing nature speaks, what forc'd by fire;
Both th' old discoveries and the new-found seas,
The stock and surplus, cause and historic;
All these stand open, or I have the keyes;
Yet I love thee. 10
I know the wayes of honour, what maintains
The quick returns of courtesie and wit;
In vies of favours whether partie gains
When glorie swells the heart, and moldeth it
To all expressions both of hand and eye, 15
Which on the world a true-love-knot may tie,
And bear the bundle wheresoe're it goes;
How many drammes of spirit there must be
To sell my life unto my friends or foes;
Yet I love thee. 20
THE PEARL
13. Whether = which one of two. "I know how to gauge
by the rules of courtesy who wins in a contest of do
ing favors; when each party is urged by ambition
to do all he can by look or deed to win the world
and bind it on his back : " H. C. Beeching.
19. He sells his life to his friends in such drinking-bouts
as are described in THE CHURCH-PORCH, stanzas
vii and viii; and to his foes in the duel.
25. Twentie, i. e. going back to the beginning of West
ern civilization, to the days of Greece and Rome.
26. Unbridled store = unhampered wealth.
29. A single will is pitted against five senses.
32. Sealed is the technical term for closing the eyes of
a hawk. So THE CHURCH-PORCH, II, 63, 1. 415.
34. " The terms of the exchange, and the nature of the
things exchanged (learning, etc.) are well under
stood by the poet; yet it is not his wisdom, but
God's guidance, that has prompted the surren
der:" H. C. Beeching.
35. Rate and price. The phrase is repeated from THE
CHURCH-PORCH, II, 15, 1. 2.
38. Perhaps an allusion to Ariadne's silken clue by
which Theseus passed the Labyrinth. But classical
allusions are rare in Herbert. A clue is again men
tioned in THE CHURCH-PORCH, II, 29, 1. 124.
40. The same ending as MATTENS, II, 285.
VI. THE CRISIS 383
I know the wayes of pleasure, the sweet strains,
The lullings and the relishes of it;
The propositions of hot bloud and brains;
What mirth and musick mean ; what love and wit
Have done these twentie hundred yeares and more;
I know the projects of unbridled store; 26
My stuffe is flesh, not brasse; my. senses live,
And grumble oft that they have more in me
Then he that curbs them, being but one to five;
Yet I love thee. 30
I know all these and have them in my hand;
Therefore not sealed but with open eyes
I flie to thee, and fully understand
Both the main sale and the commodities;
And at what rate and price I have thy love, 35
With all the circumstances that may move.
Yet through the labyrinths, not my groveling wit,
But thy silk twist let down from heav'n to me
Did both conduct and teach me how by it
To climbe to thee. 40
384 OBEDIENCE
INTRODUCTORY:
The legal character of this poem recalls Donne's
Will, and Quarles' Last Will in his Divine Fancies,
iv, 67. The Elizabethan love-poets often amused
themselves with legal terms. So Shakespeare,
Sonnet LXXXVII and CXXXIV; and Donne,
Satire II, 1. 47-57. Sir John Davies, Gulling Son
nets, VIII, ridicules the fashion.
DATE:
Found in W. This poem marks the formal end
ing of Herbert's long-deferred decision to enter
the priesthood.
METRE:
Unique, though resembling THE SIZE, III, 193.
SUBJECT :
This is the covenant that I will make. Jeremiah
xxxi, 33, and Hebrews x, 16. For Herbert's ac
quaintance with Law, see THE COUNTRY PARSON,
XXIII.
NOTES:
13. T7ws=this deed or conveyance, 1. 10.
17. 2 Thessalonians i, 11.
18. This line has parallels in the second stanza of
THE ELIXER, II, 99, PROVIDENCE, III, 81, 1. 32,
and THE CHURCH MILITANT, III, 359, 1. 8.
VI. THE CRISIS 385
OBEDIENCE
MY God, if writings may
Convey a Lordship any way
Whither the buyer and the seller please,
Let it not thee displease
If this poore paper do as much as they. 5
On it my heart doth bleed
As many lines as there doth need
To passe it self and all it hath to thee;
To which I do agree,
And here present it as my speciall deed. 10
If that hereafter Pleasure
Cavill, and claim her part and measure,
As if this passed with a reservation,
Or some such words in fashion, 14
I here exclude the wrangler from thy treasure.
O let thy sacred will
All thy delight in me fulfill!
Let me not think an action mine own way,
But as thy love shall sway,
Resigning up the rudder to thy skill. 20
386 OBEDIENCE
21. Psalm viii, 4. In this and the preceding stanza, the
legal terminology is for the moment dropped.
22. Cf. MAN, II, 217, 1. 8.
25. The thought is repeated in SUBMISSION, III, 205,
1. 19.
28. So DOTAGE, III, 137, 1. 7.
30. Or if we did attempt to take, might be withstood.
33. Where in the deed, i. e. 1. 10.
34. A line clumsy in rhythm is so rare in Herbert that I
suspect this should read, Of gift or a donation.
40. To both our goods = to the advantage of us both.
41-45. What if some like-minded man, reading my
deed, should put hand and heart to a similar deed
of his own! How blessed to have the angels enter
our covenants in the celestial archives together!
VI. THE CRISIS 387
Lord, what is man to thee,
That thou shouldst minde a rotten tree ?
Yet since thou canst not choose but see my actions,
So great are thy perfections, 24
Thou mayst as well my actions guide, as see.
Besides, thy death and bloud
Show'd a strange love to all our good.
Thy sorrows were in earnest; no faint proffer,
Or superficiall offer 29
Of what we might not take, or be withstood.
Wherefore I all forego.
To one word onely I say, No:
Where in the deed there was an intimation
Of a gift or donation,
Lord, let it now by way of purchase go. 35
He that will passe his land,
As I have mine, may set his hand
And heart unto this deed, when he hath read,
And make the purchase spread
To both our goods, if he to it will stand. 40
How happie were my part
If some kinde man would thrust his heart
Into these lines; till in heav'ns court of rolls
They were by winged souls
Entred for both, farre above their desert! 45
388 THE ROSE
INTRODUCTORY :
" We have had many blessed patterns of a holy life in
the British Church, though now trodden under foot
and branded with the name of Antichristian. I
shall propose but one to you, the most obedient son
that ever his Mother had, and yet a most glorious
true Saint and a seer. Hark how like a busy bee
he hymns it to the flowers, while in a handful of
blossoms gathered by himself he foresees his own
dissolution:" H. Vaughan, Man in Darkness.
DATE:
Not found in W. Herbert's reply to those who con
demned his decision.
METRE :
Used also in THE CALL, III, 9.
SUBJECT:
In alluring objects — pleasures or roses — we
must consider ultimate effects.
NOTES :
2. Sugred lies. The phrase is repeated in DULNESSE,
III, 209, 1. 21.
4. What this is, is explained in THE SIZE, III, 193.
12. Cf. OBEDIENCE, II, 385, 1. 8.
VI. THE CRISIS 389
THE ROSE
PRESSE me not to take more pleasure
In this world of sugred lies,
And to use a larger measure
Then my strict, yet welcome size.
First, there is no pleasure here; 5
Colour' d griefs indeed there are,
Blushing woes, that look as cleare
As if they could beautie spare.
Or if such deceits there be,
Such delights I meant to say, 10
There are no such things to me,
Who have pass'd my right away.
But I will not much oppose
Unto what you now advise,
Onely take this gentle rose, 15
And therein my answer lies.
390 THE ROSE
18. Cf. LIFE, III, 321, 1. 13, and PROVIDENCE, III,
87, 1. 78.
19, 20. Its purgative effect reveals the rose as our beau
tiful enemy and inclines us thereafter to avoid it.
So should the repentance induced by pleasure
cause antipathy (1. 28).
23. It = the summary of all that is sought by lovers of
beauty and fragrance.
29. And therefore I do not take pleasures.
31. Fairly = beautifully, gracefully, with no bitterness.
32. This is the fourth stanza in which rose is rhymed.
VI. THE CRISIS 391
What is fairer then a rose ?
What is sweeter? Yet it purgeth.
Purgings enmitie disclose,
Enmitie forbearance urgeth. 20
If then all that worldlings prize
Be contracted to a rose,
Sweetly there indeed it lies,
But it biteth in the close.
So this flower doth judge and sentence 25
Worldly joyes to be a scourge;
For they all produce repentance,
And repentance is a purge.
But I health, not physick choose.
Onely though I you oppose, 30
Say that fairly I refuse,
For my answer is a rose.
392 AN OFFERING
DATE:
Not found in W. He wonders whether he is whole
hearted enough for the priesthood. There is similar
ity between this and LOVE UNKNOWN, III, 179.
METRE :
Unique, but differs only in rhyming system from
THE CHURCH-PORCH, II, 15; JORDAN, II, 91;
CHURCH-MONUMENTS, II, 201 ; and SINNES ROUND,
III, 143. The metre of the song is unique.
SUBJECT :
A gift should be clean and whole. Only He to whom
I give it can render my heart such.
NOTES:
2. If God gave gifts to us as slowly as we, in our folly,
bring gifts to Him, what would become of us !
7-10. Since thy gifts are many, I could wish that my gift
of a heart were many too. Perhaps it may prove so;
for as a good priest, I may be fruitful and bring thee
many hearts. Cf. OBEDIENCE, II, 387, 1. 42. Pos
sibly Herbert here plays also on the old mathemati
cal opinion which regarded the number one as not
itself a true number, but only the general form or
scheme of unity underlying all numbers. To this
opinion Shakespeare alludes in Sonnet CXXXVI :
"Among a number one is reckoned none." Her
bert urges that under suitable circumstances one
might deserve to be entitled a number.
VI. THE CRISIS 393
AN OFFERING
COME, bring thy gift. If blessings were as slow
As men's returns, what would become of fools ?
What hast thou there ? A heart ? But is it
pure?
Search well and see, for hearts have many holes.
Yet one pure heart is nothing to bestow. 5
In Christ two natures met to be thy cure.
O that within us hearts had propagation,
Since many gifts do challenge many hearts!
Yet one, if good, may title to a number,
And single things grow fruitfull by deserts. 10
In publick judgements one may be a nation
And fence a plague, while others sleep and
slumber.
But all I fear is lest thy heart displease,
As neither good nor one. So oft divisions
Thy lusts have made, and not thy lusts alone;
Thy passions also have their set partitions. 16
These parcell out thy heart. Recover these,
And thou mayst offer many gifts in one.
394
AN OFFERING
11. When publick judgements are about to fall, a single
man may stand for a whole nation, — like Lot or
David, — and while the rest are asleep may save his
people from calamity.
12. The plague or infection was in Herbert's time a
constant menace. In 1630 most of the Cambridge
colleges were closed on account of its ravages. Her
bert alludes to it elsewhere in the CHURCH-PORCH,
II, 43, 1. 249, and perhaps in MISERIE, II, 253, 1. 35.
13. T%=my. He addresses himself.
17. Parcell out. So LOVE, II, 83, 1. 3.
22. Att-heal. " The mistletoe was so called by the
Druids on account of its medicinal qualities:"
H. R. Waller. — The figure is worked out at length
in PEACE, II, 377. Cf. also FAITH, II, 233, 1. 9.
33. Even when purified, the gift is slight.
37, 38. Same rhyme as in DIALOGUE, II, 371, 1. 18, 20.
VI. THE CRISIS 395
There is a balsome, or indeed a bloud,
Dropping from heav'n, which doth both cleanse
and close 20
All sorts of wounds; of such strange force
it is.
Seek out this All-heal, and seek no repose
Untill thou finde and use it to thy good.
Then bring thy gift, and let thy hymne be
this:
Since my sadnesse 25
Into gladnesse
Lord thou dost convert,
O accept
What thou hast kept,
As thy due desert. 30
Had I many,
Had I any,
(For this heart is none)
All were thine
And none of mine, 35
Surely thine alone.
Yet thy favour
May give savour
To this poore oblation;
And it raise 40
To be thy praise,
And be my salvation.
396 PRAISE
INTRODUCTORY :
Two other poems with this title are given, II, 95,
III, 45. This poem has been imitated by Vaughan
in his Praise.
DATE:
Not found in W. Written at a crisis period, per
haps after recovery from his long illness and just
before his marriage.
METRE:
Unique. With the exception of the sixth, the stanzas
have alternate refrains of thee and me.
SUBJECT:
Gladness in being at last accepted by God. In imi
tation of Psalm cxvi.
NOTES:
1. Psalm xxiv, 8; Isaiah ix, 6. Also I/ENVOY, III,
381, 1. 1.
VI. THE CRISIS 397
PRAISE
KING of Glorie, King of Peace,
I will love thee.
And that love may never cease
I will move thee.
Thou hast granted my request, 5
Thou hast heard me.
Thou didst note my working breast,
Thou hast spar'd me.
Wherefore with my utmost art
I will sing thee. 10
And the cream of all my heart
I will bring thee.
Though my sinnes against me cried,
Thou didst cleare me.
And alone, when they replied, 15
Thou didst heare me.
PRAISE
4. lfove=press, urge, as in THE METHOD, III, 197,
1.6.
17. Cf. THE SINNER, II, 295, 1. 3.
19. "'I can give thee a higher place in my affections;'
then the poet, perhaps for rhyme's sake, adds the
irrelevant, * I cannot, of course, give Thee a higher
place in heaven:' " H. C. Beeching.
21. Luke xix. 41.
26. Enrott=pui thee into my pages.
VI. THE CRISIS 399
Sev'n whole dayes, not one in seven,
I will praise thee.
In my heart, though not in heaven,
I can raise thee. 20
Thou grew'st soft and moist with tears,
Thou relentedst;
And when Justice call'd for fears
Thou dissentedst.
Small it is in this poore sort 25
To enroll thee.
Ev'n eternitie is too short
To extoll thee.
400 LOVE
INTRODUCTORY :
Two other poems with this title are given, II, 83,
III, 387.
DATE:
Found in W. Entering God's service, he feels him
self abashed.
METRE:
Unique.
SUBJECT :
Love's welcome to the timid guest.
NOTES:
2. Matthew xxii, 12.
7. 1 lack being a worthy guest.
12. Psalm xciv, 9.
15. 2 Corinthians v. 21.
16. The answer of the guest, as in 1. 9.
VI. THE CRISIS 401
LOVE
LOVE bade me welcome; yet my soul drew back,
Guiltie of dust and sinne.
But quick-ey'd Love, observing me grow slack
From my first entrance in,
Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning 5
If I lack'd any thing.
A guest, I answer'd, worthy to be here.
Love said, You shall be he.
I, the unkinde, ungratefull ? Ah my deare,
I cannot look on thee. 10
Love took my hand and smiling did reply,
Who made the eyes but I ?
Truth Lord, but I have marr'd them; let my
shame
Go where it doth deserve.
And know you not, sayes Love, who bore the
blame ? 15
My deare, then I will serve.
You must sit down, sayes Love, and taste my
meat.
So I did sit and eat.
Edingdon Church, Wiltshire, where in 1629 Herbert married Jane
Danvers. See Vol. /, p. S7.
.
TEXTUAL VARIATIONS OF THE
MANUSCRIPTS
TEXTUAL VARIATIONS
THE CHURCH-PORCH (p. 15) :
2. For Thy rate and price W. reads The price of thee.
Stanzas ii, iii, iv, in W. read as follows:
Beware of Lust (startle not), O beware
It makes thy soule a blott; it is a rodd
Whose twigs are pleasures, and they whip thee bare.
It spoils an Angel: robs thee of thy God.
How dare those eyes upon a bible looke
Much lesse towards God, whose lust is all their book ?
Abstaine or wedd : if thou canst not abstaine
Yet wedding marrs thy fortune, fast and pray :
If this seeme monkish ; think which brings most paine,
Need or Incontinency ; the first way
If thou chuse bravely and rely on God,
Hee'le make thy wife a blessing not a rodd.
Let not each f^n make thee to detest
A Virgin-bed, which hath a special crowne
If it concurr with vertue : doe thy best,
And God will show thee how to take the towne,
And winn thyself e : Compare the joyes and so
If rottennes have more, left Heaven goe.
29, 30. For these two lines W. has lines 35, 36.
33. For Tdnde W. reads kinds.
35, 36. For these two lines W. reads:
He that has all HI, and can have no good
Because no knowledge, is not earth but mudd.
406 TEXTUAL VARIATIONS
56. For hath W. reads has.
57. For avarice W. reads cheating.
64. For apple B. reads apples.
81. For take up W. reads be att.
87. For jawes W. reads chawes.
88. For employments W. reads employment.
90. After this line a new stanza appears in W. :
// thou art nothing, think what thou wouldst bee
He that desires is more than halfe the way.
But if thou coole then take some shame to thee.
Desire and shame, will make thy labour, play.
This is Earth's language, for if Heaven come in,
Thou hast run att thy race, ere thou beginn.
91. For this line W. reads:
O England, futt of att sinn, most of sloth.
106. For Att that they leave W. reads Att that is left.
110. For trunk W. reads trunks.
117. For stowre W. and B. read sowre.
120. For this line W. reads:
And though hee bee a ship, is his owne shelf.
125. For fears W. reads fearest.
128. For Thou hast two sconses W. reads: Tost all, but
feed not.
132. For And W. reads But.
134. For doth W. reads does.
136. For you W. reads thou.
143. For lose B. and W. read loose; as also in lines
194, 201, 202, 297.
TEXTUAL VARIATIONS 407
163. Yet in thy thriving, etc. Instead of this verse W.
reads:
Yet in thy pursing stitt thy self distrust
Least gaining gains on thee, and fill thy hart.
Which if it cleave to coine, one common rust
Will canker both, yett thou alone shattt smart :
One common waight will press downe both, yet so
As that thyself alone to hell shall goe.
179. For cloth W. reads cloths.
186. For As W. reads That.
200. For that W. reads it.
228. For passeth with the best W. reads is fame's interest.
232. For the conceit advance W. reads thou thy mirth
inhance.
253. For respective W. reads respectfull.
265. For basenesse is W. reads base men are.
275. For way W. reads art.
286. For who W. reads that.
292. For in W. reads at.
317. For the bow that's there, etc., W. reads:
that bow doth hitt
No more then passion when shee talks of it.
326. For this line W. reads :
Need, and bee glad, and wish thy presence stitt.
330. For the W. reads that.
336. For lethargicknesse W. reads a drowsiness.
347, 348. For those I give for lost, etc., W. reads:
those I give for gone ;
They dye in holes where glory never shone.
408 TEXTUAL VARIATIONS
348. For 't will B. reads wUl.
350. For mightie W. reads the greatest.
351. For thine W. reads thy.
352. For gunnes destroy W. reads swords cause death ;
and for sling, sting.
367. For this stanza W. reads
Leave not thine owne deere cuntry-deanliness
Far this French sluttery, which so currant goes :
As if none could bee brave, but who profess
First to be slovens, and forsake their nose.
Let thy minds sweetnes have his operation
Upon thy body, cloths, and habitation.
384. For both W. reads they.
391. For the W. reads that.
395. For th' Almighty W. reads the mighty.
398. For hath W. reads has.
407. For stocking W. reads stockings.
413. For Away thy blessings W. reads Our blessings from
us.
416. For thine W. reads thy.
419, 420. For others' symmetric, etc., W. reads:
Others comliness
Turns att their beauty to his ugliness.
421. For or W. reads and.
426. For are either W. reads either are.
441. For faults W. reads fault.
447. For balsames W. reads mercies.
451. For by W. reads that.
Two SONNETS (p. 79) :
These sonnets do not appear in W., B., or ed. 1633.
TEXTUAL VARIATIONS 409
They are printed by Walton in his Life of Herbert,
but how he obtained them is unknown.
LOVE (p. 83) :
2. For that W. reads the.
4. For on W. reads in.
5. For doth W. reads does.
25. For goods B. reads good.
JORDAN (p. 87) :
14. For ryme B. reads time.
JORDAN (p. 91) : called INVENTION hi W.
1. For lines W. reads verse.
4. For sprout W. reads spredd.
6. For Decking W. reads Praising.
14. For this line W. reads:
So I bespoke me much insinuation.
16. For long pretence W. reads preparation.
18. For this line W. reads:
Copy out that; there needs no alteration.
PRAISE (p. 95) :
5. For help me to wings, and I, W. reads make me an
angel, I.
7. For mount unto, W. reads steal up to.
9-12. This stanza stands fourth in W.
15. For Exalt the poore, etc., W. reads:
For to a poore
It may doe more.
17-20. This stanza W. reads:
O raise me, then ; for if a spider may
Spin all the day ;
Not flyes, but I, shall be his prey,
Who doe no more.
410 TEXTUAL VARIATIONS
THE QUIDDITIE (p. 97) : called POETRY in W.
3. For No W. reads Nor three times.
8. For a W. and B. read my.
THE ELIXER (p. 99) :
W. has a double title — PERFECTION, THE ELIXIR.
1-4. For these lines W. reads:
Lord, teach mee to referr
All things I doe to thee,
That I not onely may not erre,
Bid attso pleasing bee.
5-8. This stanza is wanting in W.
13. Between this and the following stanza W. inserts
this stanza, but erases it:
He that does ought for thee
Marketh that deed for thine ;
And when the Divel shakes the tree,
Thou saist, this fruit is mine.
14. W. reads lowe, but changes to meane.
16. W. reads to Heaven grow, but changes to grow
bright and clean.
19. W. reads chamber, but changes to roome as.
20. Before the last stanza W. inserts this:
But these are high perfections :
Happy are they that dare
Lett in the light to att their actions
And show them as they are.
But this is then erased.
EMPLOYMENT (p. 103) :
14. For sat W. reads sate.
TEXTUAL VARIATIONS 411
21. For this fifth stanza W. reads:
O that I had the wing and thigh
Of laden Bees;
Then would I mount up instantly
And by degrees
On men dropp blessings as I fly.
26. For still too W. reads ever.
29. For So we freeze on W. reads Thus wee creep on.
ANTIPHON (p. 107) : called ODE in B.
19. For thy praises should be W. reads thou dost de
serve much.
21. For And we W. reads Wee have.
THE ALTAR (p. 121) :
15. For blessed W. reads only, but changes it to blessed.
THE SACRIFICE (p. 123):
38. For of truth W. and B. read and truth.
57. For Priest W. reads priests.
79. For this line W. reads:
To whose power thunder is but weak and light,
which is erased, and the present reading is written
over it.
103. Frighting is in B. misprinted fighting.
119. In W. doth is omitted.
123. For this line W. reads:
But not their harts, as I by proofe do try.
129. For me W. and B. read him, twice.
130. For grasp W. and B. read grasps.
130. For my W. and B. read his.
131. For / W. and B. read he.
412 TEXTUAL VARIATIONS
169. For to me before W. reads mee heretofore.
171. For evermore W. reads to the poore.
174. For or W. and B. read and.
177-8. For these lines W. reads:
Yet since in frailty, cruelty, shrowd turns,
All scepters, Reeds : Cloths, Scarlet : Crowns are Thorns.
179. For deeds W. reads scorns.
181. For that W. reads my.
182. For Which W. reads Whom.
187. For this line W. reads :
With stronger blows strike mee as I come out.
199. For this line W. reads:
The gladsome burden of a mortal saint.
210. For part W. reads share.
214. For dost delight W. reads art wett-pleas'd.
217. For this line W. reads:
My soule is futt of shame, my flesh of wound.
223. For for you, to feel W. reads to feel for you.
226. For ye W. reads you.
GOOD FRIDAY (p. 149):
21,22. W. reads:
Since nothing, Lord, can bee so good
To write thy sorrows in as blood.
22. For fight B. reads sight.
27. For sinne W. reads he.
29. For this stanza W. reads:
Sinn being gone, O, doe thou fill
The Place, and keep possession still :
For by the writings all may see
Thou hast an ancient claime to mee.
TEXTUAL VARIATIONS 413
EASTER (p. 153):
20. For off B. reads of.
19. Another version of the last three verses appears
inW.:
I had prepared many a flowre
To straw thy way and victorie;
But thou wast up, before myne houre
Bringinge thy sweets along with thee.
The Sunn arising in the East,
Though hee bring light and th' other sents
Can not make up so brave a feast
As thy discoverie presents.
Yet though my flowrs be lost, they say
A hart can never come too late ;
Teach it to sing thy praise this day,
And then this day my life shall date.
WHITSUNDAY (p. 157) :
1. For Listen, etc., W. reads:
Come blessed Dove, charm 'd with my song,
Display thy, &c.
4. For it W. reads I.
4. For and W. reads to.
8. For this line W. reads:
With Livery-graces furnishing thy men.
27. Instead of the last four stanzas W. has these three:
But wee are falne from Heaven to Earth,
And if wee can stay there, its well,
He that first fett from his great birth
Without thy help, leads us his way to Hell.
414 TEXTUAL VARIATIONS
Lord, once more shake the Heaven and Earth,
Least want of Graces seem thy thrift ;
For sinn would faine remove the dearth,
And lay it on thy husbandry for shift.
Show that thy brests cannot be dry,
But that from them joyes purle forever,
Melt into blessings all the sky,
So wee may cease to suck; to praise thee, never.
TRINITIE-SUNDAY (p. 161):
1. W. has two forms, the second erased:
Lord, who has rais'd me from the muddt
and
made me living mudd.
To ALL ANGELS AND SAINTS (p. 163):
11. For holy W. reads sacred.
16. For our W. reads my.
20. For a W. reads your.
22. For rich W. reads great.
25. For posie W. reads garland, which is erased and
posie is written over.
CHRISTMAS (p. 167):
1. For as I rid one W. reads riding on a.
13-14. For these two lines W. reads:
Furnish my soule to thee, that being drest,
Of better lodging thou maist be possest.
15-34. This Song is wanting in W.
LENT (p. 171):
3. For composed W. reads a child.
29. For the W. reads our.
TEXTUAL VARIATIONS 415
37. For the B. reads that; W. has the way that.
39. For by-wayes W. reads cross-ways, erased.
45. For our faults W. reads all vice.
SUNDAY (p. 175):
1-7. For this first stanza W. reads:
O day so calme, so bright :
The couch of tyme, the balme of teares,
The indorsment of supreme delight,
The parter of my wrangling feares,
Setting in order what they tumble :
The week were dark, but that thy light
Teaches it not to stumble.
23. For palace arched lies W. has kingdome arch'd doth
stand.
25. For with vanities W. reads on either hand.
26-28. For these three lines W. reads:
They are the rowes of fruitful trees
Parted with alleys or with grass
In God's rich Paradise.
31. For to adorn the W. reads for the spouse and.
32. For eternall glorious W. reads Immortatt onely.
PRAYER (p. 181) :
5. For sinner's towre W. reads sinner's fort.
7. For this line W. reads:
Transposes of the world, wonder's resort.
PRAYER (p. 183) :
2. For this line W. reads:
Art thou, my blessed King I
3. For eare W. reads eares.
10. For measured W. reads sitty.
416 TEXTUAL VARIATIONS
THE H. SCRIPTURES, I (p. 187):
4. For mollifie all W. reads suple outward.
11. For too much W. reads enough.
THE H. SCRIPTURES, II (p. 189) :
4. For the second the B. reads thy.
10. For And comments on thee W. reads And more
then fancy.
13. For poore B. reads poores.
14. For lights to W. reads can spell.
H. BAPTISME (p. 191) :
In W. this sonnet appears as follows:
When backward an my sins I turne mine eyes,
And then beyond them all my Baptisme view,
As he that Heaven beyond much thicket spyes :
I pass the shades and fixe upon the true
Waters above the Heavens ; O sweet streams,
You doe prevent most sins, and for the rest
You give us teares to wash them ; lett those beams,
Which then joined with you, still meet in my brest,
And mend, as rising starrs and rivers doe.
In you Redemption measures all my tyme,
Spredding the plaister equal to the cryme.
You taught the book of life my name, that so
Whatever future sinns should mee miscall,
Your first acquaintance might discreditt all.
H. BAPTISME (p. 193) :
11. For Although W. reads Though that.
13. For preserve her W. reads keep her first.
THE H. COMMUNION (p. 195) :
3. For from B. reads for.
15. For fleshly B. reads fleshy.
27. For lift B. reads life.
TEXTUAL VARIATIONS 417
37-40. For this stanza W. reads:
But wee are strangers grown, O Lord,
Lett Prayer help our Losses :
Since thou hast taught us by thy word
That wee may gaine by crosses.
CHURCH-MUSICK (p. 199) :
9. For poste W. reads part.
9-12. For this stanza W. reads:
O what a state is this which never knew
Sicknes, or shame, or sinn or sorrow ;
Where att my debts are payd, none can accrue,
Which knoweth not what means too morrow.
CHURCH-MONUMENTS (p. 201) :
22. For crumbled W. reads broken.
CHARMS AND KNOTS (p. 211):
2. For ill W. reads sore.
3. For this line and the next W. reads:
A poore mans rod if thou wilt hire,
Thy horse shal never fatt or tire.
7. For doth W. reads does.
8. For this line W. reads:
Doubles the night and trips by day.
10. For head W. reads hart.
11. The order of this and the following couplet is re
versed in W.
14. For doth W. reads does.
16. For this line W. reads:
Ten if a sermon goe for gains.
Before this couplet W. inserts this:
Who turnes a trencher setteth free
A prisoner crusht with gluttonie.
418 TEXTUAL VARIATIONS
And after it these:
The world thinks all things bigg and toll;
Grace turnes the optick, then they jail.
A jailing start has lost his place;
The courtier getts it that has grace.
In small draughts heaven does shine and dwell;
Who dives on further, may find Hell.
MAN (p. 215):
2. For none doth build W. reads no man builds.
8. For no W. reads more.
20. For hath W. reads has.
26. For this line W. reads:
Earth resteth, heaven moveih, fountains flow.
41. For Hath one such W. reads // one have.
53. For serves B. reads serve.
53-54. In W. these lines read:
That as the world to us is kind and free,
So we may bee to Thee.
THE WORLD (p. 225) :
10. For Reformed all at length W. reads Quickly re
formed all.
14. For inward W. reads inner.
19. For Grace took W. reads took Grace and.
SINNE (p. 231) :
7. For strategems W. reads casualties.
13-14. For these two lines W. reads:
Yet att these fences with one bosome sinn,
Are blown away, as if they neer had bin.
TEXTUAL VARIATIONS 419
FAITH (p. 233) :
15-16. For these two lines W. reads:
with no new score
My creditour beleev'd so too.
19. For placeth W. reads places.
24. For this line W. reads :
My nature on him with the danger.
31. For bend W. reads bow.
35. For impute W. reads impart, erased.
36. For And in this shew W. reads This shadows out.
REDEMPTION (p. 237) :
10-11. For these lines W. reads:
Sought him in cities, theatres, resorts,
In grottos, gardens, palaces and courts.
But these lines are then erased and the ordinary
reading substituted.
UNGRATEFULNESSE (p. 243) :
7. For this line W. reads:
Thou hadst but two rich cabinets of treasure.
9. For unlockt them W. reads laid open.
16. For fully to us W. reads to us futty.
18. For that W. reads this.
23. For box B. reads bone.
MISERIE (p. 251):
3. For all W. reads out.
21. For scann'd W. reads stand.
28. For wing W. reads wings.
39. For So our B. reads Some.
420 TEXTUAL VARIATIONS
44. For this and the following lines of this stanza W.
reads :
And feed the swine 'with all his mind and might :
For this he wondrous well doth know
They will be kind, and all his pains requite,
Making him free
Of that good companie.
51. For pidl'st the rug W. reads lyest warme.
65, 66. For these two lines W. reads:
All wretched man,
Who may thy fotties span ?
75. For the W. and B. read a.
MORTIFICATION (p. 259):
1. For doth W. reads does.
30. For house W. reads place.
DEATH (p. 263) :
16. For sought W. reads long'd.
DOOMS-DAY (p. 267) :
21. For bodie W. reads bodies.
HEAVEN (p. 273) :
5. For trees W. reads woods.
7. For that W. reads which.
MATTENS (p. 285):
12. W. omits that.
THE THANKSGIVING (p. 287) :
1. For Oh King of grief W. reads King of all grief.
3. For Oh King of wounds W. reads King of all
wounds.
11. For skipping thy dolefutt W. reads neglecting thy
TEXTUAL VARIATIONS 421
20. For by W. reads in.
22. For The W. reads That.
26. For thence W. reads out.
27. For 7 0we W. reads Pie give.
34. For mine W. reads my.
35. For / will W. reads will I.
45. For
never move
Till I have found therein thy love.
W. reads:
never linn
Till I have found thy love therein.
THE REPRISALL (p. 293) :
2. For dealing W. reads medling.
14. For the W. and B. read thy.
THE SINNER (p. 295) :
11. For hundredth W. and B. read hundred.
DENIALL (p. 297) :
13. For knees and heart in W. reads hart and knees
in a.
20. For But W. reads Yet.
29. For minde W. reads soule.
30. For mend W. reads meet.
CHURCH-LOCK AND KEY (p. 301):
1. For locks W. reads stops.
5. For But W. reads Yet. In W. anew verse is inserted
between the first two here given:
// either Innocence or Fervencie
Did play their part,
Armies of blessings would contend and vye,
Which of them soonest should attaine my heart.
422 TEXTUAL VARIATIONS
6. For And mend W. reads Mending.
9. For this last stanza W. reads:
O make mee wholy guillles, or at least
GuiMes so farr,
That zele and purenes circling my request
May guard if safe beyond the highest starr.
NATURE (p. 303) :
9. For turn W. reads be all, but it is erased.
REPENTANCE (p. 305) :
3. For momentanie B. and W. read momentarie*
9-10. For these two lines W. reads:
Looking on this side and beyond us att ;
We are born old.
28-30. For these three lines W. reads
Melt and consume
To smoke and fume,
Fretting to death our other parts.
UNKINDNESSE (p. 309) :
8. For blasted W. reads darkned.
GRACE (p. 311):
5. For this line W. reads:
// the sunn still should hide his face,
Thy great house would a dungeon prove.
13-16. This stanza is wanting in W.
17. The next stanza, which is cancelled, reads:
What if I say thou seek'st delays,
Wilt thou not then my fault reprove f
Prevent my sin to thine own praise
Drop from above.
TEXTUAL VARIATIONS 423
THE TEMPER (p. 315) :
5. For some fourtie W. reads a hundred.
25. For flie with angels, jail with W. reads angett it or
fall to.
EASTER WINGS (p. 335) :
8. For harmoniously W. reads do by degree.
9. For victories W. reads sacrifice.
10. For the first the W. reads my.
12. For And still W. reads Yet thou.
13. For Thou W. reads Daily.
14. For That W. reads Till. These five readings are
then erased and the ordinary text is given.
18. W. omits this day.
AFFLICTION (p. 339) :
6. For gracious benefits W. reads grace's perquisites.
7. 8. For fine W. reads rich.
9, 10. For entwine, etc., W. reads:
bewitch
Into thy familie.
15. 16. For my thoughts, etc., W. reads:
I was preserved
Before that I could feare.
23. For sorrow W. reads sorrows.
29. For / scarce beleeved W. reads:
7 did not know
That I did live but by a pang of woe.
47. For neare W. reads where. In B. where is also
written above the line.
58. For should B. reads could.
65. For God W. reads King.
424 TEXTUAL VARIATIONS
EMPLOYMENT (p. 347) :
23, 24. For these lines W. reads:
Lord, that 1 may the sunn's perfection gaine
Give mee his speed.
CONTENT (p. 353) :
6. For or W. reads and.
7. For doth W. reads does.
9. For flints W. reads flint.
30. For pens W. reads pen.
FRAILTIE (p. 359) :
6-7. For these two lines W. reads:
Misuse them all the day,
And ever as I walk, my foot doth tredd.
16. For And prick W. reads Troubling, but it is erased.
17. For what even now W. reads that which just now.
ARTILLERIE (p. 361) :
2. For Me thoughts B. reads methought.
THE PEARL (p. 381):
3. For borrowed W. reads purchased.
22. For fallings W. reads gustos, but erased.
25. For twentie W. reads many, but erased.
26. For unbridled B. reads unbundled.
26-29. For these four lines W. reads:
Where both their baskets are with att their store,
The smacks of dainties and their exaltation:
What both the stops and pegs of pleasure bee,
The joyes of company or contemplation.
But the first three lines are then erased.
32. For sealed W. reads seeled.
TEXTUAL VARIATIONS 425
37. For the W. and B. read these.
OBEDIENCE (p. 385) :
7. For there doth W. reads it does.
8. For hath W. reads has^
15. For exclude W. reads shutt out.
38 For hath W. reads doth.
INDEX TO POEMS
TITLES ALPHABETICALLY ARRANGED
*ft.aron, HI, 11. /
Affliction, II, 247, 33< III,
269, 271, 273.
Agonie, III, 153.
To All Angels and Saints, II,
163.
The Altar, II, 121.
Anagram, III, 165.
On an Anchor-Seal, III, 399.
The Answer, H, 351.
Antiphon, II, 107, III, 63.
ArtiUerie, II, 361.
Assurance, III, 225.
Avarice, III, 113.
The Bag, HE, 157.
The Banquet, III, 53.
H. Baptisme, II, 191, 193.
Bitter-Sweet, III, 251.
The British Church, HI, 101.
The Bunch of Grapes, HI, 215.
Businesse, III, 139.
The Call, HI, 9.
Charms and Knots, II, 211.
Christmas, II, 167.
>Church-Floore, HI, 167.
Church-Lock and Key, II, 301 .
The Church Militant, HI,
359.
Church-Monuments, II, 201.
Church-Musick, II, 199.
The Church-Porch, H, 15.
Church-Rents and Schismes,
m, 105.
/Clasping of Hands, III, 37.
VThe Collar, IH, 211.
H. Communion, H, 195, HI,
383.
Complaining, HI, 267.
Confession, HI, 259.
Conscience, HI, 229.
Constancie, HI, 119.
Content, H, 353.
The Convert, HI, 397.
The Crosse, HI, 231.
Lord Danvers, HI, 423.
Sir John Danvers, III, 421.
The Dawning, HI, 333.
Death, II, 263.
Decay, IH, 115.
Dedication, H, ix.
Deniall, II, 297.
Dialogue, II, 369. t
A Dialogue-Antheme, HI, 343.
/The Discharge, HI, 187.
*Discipline, IH, 297.
Divinitie, III, 97.
To John Donne, D. D., HI,
401.
Dooms-Day, H, 267.
Dotage, HI, 137.
Dulnesse, HI, 207.
Easter, H, 153.
faster Wings, II, 335.
The Elixer, II, 99.
Employment, H, 103, 347.
L'Envoy, HI, 381, 431.
Even-Song, HI, 59, 391.
Faith, II, 233.
The Familie, III, 185.
The Flower, III, 305.
The Foil, HI, 123.
The Forerunners, HI, 317.
Frailtie, H, 359.
430
INDEX
Giddinesse, III, 129.
The Glance, III, 331.
The Glimpse, III, 289.
Gloria to Psalm XXIII, III,
419.
Good Friday, II, 149.
Grace, II, 311.
Gratefulnesse, III, 41.
Grief, HI, 323.
Grieve not the Holy Spirit, &c.,
Ill, 255.
Heaven, H, 273.
The Holdfast, HI, 17.
Home, IH, 325.
Hope, HI, 203.
Humilitie, H, 239.
A True Hymne, HI, 27.
Inscription, HI, 75.
The Invitation, HI, 49.
tfesu, III, 303,
The Jews, HI, 109.
Jordan, H, $, 9l.
Joseph's Coat, III, 301.
Judgement, II, 271.
Justice, III, 117, 253.
The Knell, HI, 393.
/Lent, H, 171.
*Life, III, 321.
Longing, III, 281.
Love, H, 83, 401, HI,
Love-Joy, HI, 163.
Love Unknown, III, 179.
Man, II, 215.
Man's Medley, III, 125.
Marie Magdalene, HI, 151.
Mattens, II, 285.
The Method, HI, 197.
Miserie, H, 251.
Mortification, H, 259.
Nature, II, 303.
Obedience, H, 385.
The Odour, III, 23.
An Offering, H, 393.
Our Life is Hid, &c., H,
283.
Paradise, HI, 39.
A Paradox, III, 403.
A Parodie, III, 293.
Peace, II, 377.
The Pearl, II, 381.
Perseverance, III, 395.
The Pilgrimage, HI, 237.
The Posie, III, 29.
Praise, II, 95, 397, IH, 45.
Prayer, H, 181, 183.
The Priesthood, H, 373.
Providence, III, 79.
The 23 Psalme, HI, 19.
Psalms, III, 407, 410, 411,
413, 415.
The Pulley, HI, 149.
Queene of Bohemia, HI, 425.
The Quidditie, II, 97.
The Quip, III, 33.
/Redemption, H, 237.
Repentance, II, 305.
The Reprisall, H, 293.
The Rose, II, 389.
The Sacrifice, II, 123.
Saints, vide Angels.
Schismes, vide Church-Rents.
H. Scriptures, II, 187.
The Search, HI, 219.
Self-Condemnation, HI, 111.
Sepulchre, III, 155.
Sighs and Grones, III, 277.
Sinne, II, 229, 231.
The Sinner, II, 295.
Sinnes Round, III, 143.
Sion, HI, 265.
The Size, HI, 193.
The Sonne, HI, 161.
Sonnets to his Mother, H, 79.
INDEX
431
The Starre, H, 365.
The Storm, III, 263.
Submission, III, 205.
Sunday, II, 175.
Superliminare, II, 119.
The Temper, II, 313, 315.
The Thanksgiving, II, 287.
Time, HI, 339.
Trinitie-Sunday, H, 161, III,
Ungratefulnesse, II, 243.
Unkindnesse, H, 309.
Yanitie, II, 357, m, 133.
SVertue, III, 335.
The Water-Course, HI, 147.
Whitsunday, II, 157.
he Windows, III, 15.
The World, H, 225.
A Wreath, II, 319.
TITLES ARRANGED IN THE TRADI
TIONAL ORDER
The Dedication, II, ix.
The Church-Porch, II, 15.
Superliminare, II, 119.
The Altar, II, 121.
The Thanksgiving, II, 287.
The Reprisall, II, 293.
The Agonie, III, 153.
The Shiner, II, 295.
Good Friday, II, 149.
Redemption, II, 237.
Sepulchre, III, 155.
Easter, II, 153.
Easter Wings, II, 335.
H. Baptisme, II, 191.
Nature, II, 303.
Sinne, H, 229.
Affliction, II, 247.
Repentance, II, 305.
Faith, II, 233.
Prayer, I, 181.
H. Communion, II, 195.
Antiphon, II, 107.
Love, II, 83.
The Temper, II, 313.
The Temper, II, 315.
Employment, II, 103.
H. Scriptures, II, 187.
Whitsunday, II, 157.
Grace, II, 311.
Praise, II, 95.
Affliction, II, 339.
Mattens, II, 285.
Sinne, II, 231.
Even-Song, III, 59.
Church-Monuments, II, 201.
Church-Musick, II, 199.
Church-Lock and Key, II, 301 .
The Church Floore, III, 167.
The Windows, III, 15.
Trinitie-Sunday, II, 161.
Content, II, 353.
The Quidditie, II, 97.
Humilitie, II, 239.
Frailtie, II, 359.
Constancie, III, 119.
Affliction, III, 269.
The Starre, II, 365.
Sunday, II, 175.
Avarice, III, 113.
Anagram, III, 165.
To All Angels and Saints, H,
163.
Employment, II, 347
Deniall, II, 297.
Christmas, H, 167.
Ungratefulnesse, II, 243.
Sighs and Grones, III, 277.
The World, II, 225.
Our Life is Hid, &c., H, 283.
Vanitie, II, 357.
Lent, II, 171.
VejWsBl, 335.
The-Fearl,!!, 381.
Affliction, III, 271.
Man TT 915.
Antiphon, HI, 63.
Unkindnesse, II, 309.
Life, HI, 321.
Submission, III, 205.
Jtostice.ni, 253.
Cnaranrfcnd Knots, H, 211.
Affliction, IH, 273.
Mortification, II, 259.
Decay, III, 115.
434
INDEX
Miserie, H, 251.
Jordan, II, 91.
Prayer, II, 183.
Obedience, II, 385.
Conscience, III, 229.
Sion, III, 265.
Home, III, 325.
The British Church, III, 101.
The Quip, III, 33.
Vanitie, III, 133.
The Dawning, III, 333.
Jesu, III, 303.
Businesse, III, 139.
Dialogue, II, 369.
Dulnesse, III, 207.
Love-Joy, III, 163.
Providence, III, 79.
Hope, III, 203.
Sinnes Round, III, 143.
Time, III, 339.
Gratefulnesse, III, 41.
Peace, II, 377.
Confession, III, 259.
Giddinesse, III, 129.
The Bunch of Grapes, III,
215.
Love Unknown, HI, 179.
Man's Medley, III, 125.
The Storm, III, 263.
Paradise, III, 39.
The Method, III, 197.
Divinitie, III, 97.
Grieve Not the Holy Spirit,
&c., Ill, 255.
The Familie, HI, 185.
The Size, HI, 193.
Artillerie, II, 361.
Church-Rents and Schismes,
III, 105.
Justice, III, 117.
The Pilgrimage, III, 237
The Holdfast, III, 17.
Complaining, III, 267.
The Discharge, III, 187.
Praise, II, 397.
An Offering, II, 393.
Longing, III, 281.
The Bag, HI, 157.
The Jews, III, 109.
The Collar, IH, 211.
The Glimpse, III, 289.
Assurance, IH, 225.
The Call, III, 9.
Clasping of Hands, HI, 37.
Praise, III, 45.
Joseph's Coat, III, 301.
The Pulley, HI, 149.
The Priesthood, II, 373.
The Search, III, 219.
Grief, III, 323.
The Crosse, HI, 231.
The Flower, III, 305.
Dotage, HI, 137.
The Sonne, IH, 161.
A True Hymne, III, 27.
The Answer, H, 351.
A Dialogue -Antheme, HI,
343.
The Water-Course, III, 147.
Self-Condemnation, HI, 111.
Bitter-Sweet, III, 251.
The Glance, III, 331.
The 23 Psalme, HI, 19.
Marie Magdalene, HI, 151.
Aaron, III, 11.
The Odour, III, 23.
The Foil, IH, 123.
The Forerunners, IH, 317.
The Rose, II, 389.
Discipline, HI, 297.
The Invitation, HI, 49.
The Banquet, HI, 53.
The Posie, HI, 29.
A Parodie, III, 293.
The Elixer, II, 99.
A Wreath, II, 319.
Death, II, 263.
Dooms-Day, II, 267.
Judgement, II, 271.
Heaven, H, 273.
Love, H, 401.
The Church Militant, BO.
359.
L'Envoy, HI, 381.
TITLES ARRANGED IN THE ORDER
OF THIS EDITION
Dedication, II, ix.
GROUP I: THE CHURCH-
PORCH.
The Church-Porch, H, 15.
GROUP II: THE RESOLVE.
Two Sonnets to his Mother,
II, 79.
Love, II, 83.
Jordan, II, 87X
Jordan, II, 91/
Praise, II, 95.
The Quidditie, II, 97.
The Elixer, H, 99.
Employment, II, 103.
Antaphon, II, 107.
GROUP HI: THE CHURCH.
Superliminare, II, 119.
The Altar, II, 12ir~
The Sacrifice, II, 123.
Good Friday, II, 149.
Easter, H, 153.
Whitsunday, II, 157.
Trinitie-Sunday, II, 161.
To All Angels and Saints,
H, 163.
Christmas, II, 167.
Lent, H, 171.
Sunday, II, 175.
Prayer, II, 181.
Prayer, H, 183.
The H. Scriptures, II, 187.
H. Baptisme, n, 191.
H. Baptisme, n, 193.
H. Communion, II, 195.
Church-Musick, II, 199.
Church - Monuments, II,
201.
GROUP IV: MEDITATION.
Charms and Knots, II,
211.
Man, H, 215^_
The World, H, 225.
Sinne, H, 229.
Sinne, H, 231.
Faith, H, 233.
Redemption, n, 237.
Humilitie, II, 239.
Ungratefulnesse, II, 243.
Affliction, H, 247.
Miserie, II, 251.
Mortification, II, 259.
Death, II, 263.
Dooms-Day, H, 267.
Judgement, IE, 271.
Heaven, II, 273.
GROUP V: THE INNER LIFE.
Our Life is Hid, &c.. II,
283.
Mattens, II, 285.
The Thanksgiving, II, 287.
The Reprisall, H, 293.
The Sinner, H, 295.
Deniall, II, 297.
Church-Lock and Key, El,
301.
Nature, II, 303.
Repentance, II, 305.
Unkindnesse, II, 309.
Grace, H, 311.
The Temper, H, 313.
436
INDEX
The Temper, II, 315.
A Wreath, H, 319.
GROUP VI: THE CRISIS.
Easter Wings, II, 335.
Affliction, II, 339.
Employment, H, 347.
The Answer, H, 351.
Content, II, 353.
Vanitie, II, 357.
Frailtie, II, 359.
Artillerie, II, 361.
The Starre, II, 365.
Dialogue, II, 369.
The Priesthood, II, 373.
Peace, H, 377.
The Pearl, II, 381.
Obedience, II, 385.
The Rose, II, 389.
An Offering, H, 393.
Praise, II, 397.
Love, II, 401.
GROUP VII: THE HAPPY
PRIEST.
The Call, III, 9.
Aaron, III, 1 !.•=«••
The Windows, III, 15.
The Holdfast, III, 17.
The 23 Psalme, HI, 19.
The Odour, HI, 23.
A True Hymne, HI, 27.
The Posie, III, 29.
The Quip, III, 33.
Clasping of Hands, HI, 37.
Paradise, III, 39.
Gratefulnesse, III, 41.
Praise, III, 45.
The Invitation, III, 49.
The Banquet, III, 53.
Even-Song, III, 59.
Antiphon, III, 63.
GROUP VIH: BEMERTON
STUDY.
To My Successor, III, 75.
Providence, III, 79.
Divinitie, IH, 97.
The British Church, IH,
101.
Church-Rents and Schismes,
III, 105.
The Jews, IH, 109.
Self-Condemnation,HI,lll.
Avarice, HI, 113.
Decay, III, 115.
Justice, III, 117.-——
Constancie, IH, 119.
The Foil, III, 123.
Man's Medley, HI, 125.
Giddinesse, III, 129.
Vanitie, III, 133.
Dotage, IH, 137.
Businesse, HI, 139.
Sinnes Round, III, 143.
The Water-Course, III, 147.
The Pulley, III, 149. '~
Marie Magdalene, III, 151.
The Agonie, III, 153.
Sepulchre, IH, 155.
The Bag, III, 157.
The Sonne, HI, 161.
Love-Joy, IH, 163.
Anagram, III, 165.
The Church -Floore, IIL
167.
GROUP IX : RESTLESSNESS.
Love Unknown, III, 179.
The Familie, III, 185.
The Discharge, III, 187.
The Size, III, 193.
The Method, III, 197.
Hope, III, 203. •
Submission, IH, 205.
Dulnesse, III, 207.
The Collar, III, 211.-
The Bunch of Grapes, III,
215.
The Search, HI, 219.
Assurance, III, 225.
Conscience, HI, 229.
The Crosse, III, 231.
The Pilgrimage, IH, 237. "
INDEX
437
GROUP X : SUFFERING.
Bitter-Sweet, HI, 251.
Justice, HI, 253.
Grieve Not the Holy Spirit,
&c., Ill, 255.
Confession, III, 259.
The Storm, III, 263.
Sion, III, 265.
Complaining, III, 267.
Affliction, III, 269.
Affliction, III, 271.
Affliction, III, 273.
Sighs and Grones, III, 277.
Longing, HI, 281.
The Glimpse, HI, 289.
A Parodie, III, 293.
Discipline, III, 297.—*—*
Joseph's Coat, III, 301.
Jesu, III, 303.
The Flower, HI, 305.
GROUP XI: DEATH.
The Forerunners, III, 317.
Life, III, 321.
Grief, III, 323.
Home, III, 325.
The Glance, HI, 331.
The Dawning, III, 333.
Vertue, HI, 335.
Time, HI, 339.
A Dialogue-Antheme, III,
343.
GROUP XH: ADDITIONAL AND
DOUBTFUL POEMS.
The Church-Militant, HI,
359.
L'Envoy, HI, 381.
H. Communion, HI,
Love, HI, 387.
Trinitie-Sunday, III, 389.
Even-Song, III, 391.
The Knell, HI, 393.
Perseverance, IH, 395.
The Convert, III, 397.
On an Anchor-Seal, HI,
399.
To John Donne, D. D., HI,
401.
A Paradox III, 403.
Psalm II, III, 407.
Psalm III, HI, 410.
Psalm IV, III, 411.
Psalm VI, III, 413.
Psalm VII, III, 415.
Gloria to Psalm XXIII, HI,
419.
On Sir John Danvers, HI,
421.
On Lord Danvers, HI,
423.
To the Queene of Bohemia,
HI, 425.
L'Envoy, HI, 431.
INDEX OF FIRST LINES
A broken Altar, Lord, thy servant reares, II, 121.
Ah my deare angrie Lord, III, 251.
Alas, poore Death, where is thy glorie ? HI, 343.
All after pleasures as I rid one day, II, 167.
Almightie Judge, how shall poore wretches brook, II, 271.
Almightie Lord, who from thy glorious throne, III, 359.
Although the Cross could not Christ here detain, III, 401.
And art thou grieved, sweet and sacred Dove, III, 255.
As he that sees a dark and shadie grove, II, 191.
As I one ev'ning sat before my cell, II, 361.
As men, for fear the starres should sleep and nod, III, 97.
As on a window late I cast my eye, III, 163.
Awake sad heart, whom sorrow ever drowns! HI, 333.
Away despair ! My gracious Lord doth heare, III, 157.
A wreathed garland of deserved praise, II, 319.
Blest be the God of love, HI, 59.
Blest Order, which in power dost so excell, II, 373.
Brave rose, (alas !) where art thou ? In the chair, III, 105.
Bright soule, of whome if any countrey knowne, III, 425.
Bright spark, shot from a brighter place, II, 365.
Broken in pieces all asunder, III, 273.
Busie enquiring heart, what wouldst thou know ? Ill, 187.
But that Thou art my wisdome, Lord, III, 205.
Canst be idle ? Canst thou play, III, 139.
Come away, II, 267.
Come, bring thy gift. If blessings were as slow, II, 393.
Come Lord, my head doth burn, my heart is sick, III, 325.
Come, my Way, my Truth, my Life, III, 9.
Come ye hither all whose taste, HI, 49.
Content thee, greedie heart, III, 193.
Deare Friend, sit down, the tale is long and sad, HI, 179.
Death, thou wast once an uncouth hideous thing, II, 263.
Do not beguile my heart, HI, 267.
False glozing pleasures, casks of happinesse, HI, 137.
Full of rebellion, I would die, II, 303.
Having been tenant long to a rich Lord, II, 237.
440 INDEX
Heark, how the birds do sing, III, 125.
He that is one, III, 389.
He that is weary, let him sit, II, 103.
Holinesse on the head, III, 11.
How are my foes increased, Lord! Ill, 410.
How fresh, O Lord, how sweet and clean, HI, 305.
How should I praise thee, Lord ! How should my rymes, II,
315.
How soon doth man decay ! II, 259.
How sweetly doth My Master sound ! My Master, HI, 23.
How well her name an army doth present, III, 165.
I blesse thee, Lord, because I grow, III, 39.
I cannot ope mine eyes, II, 285.
I cannot skill of these thy wayes, IH, 253.
If as a flowre doth spread and die, II, 347.
If as the windes and waters here below, III, 263.
If ever tears did flow from eyes, III, 397.
If thou chance for to find, III, 75.
If we could see below, III, 123.
I gave to Hope a watch of mine; but he, HI, 203.
I have consider' d it, and finde, II, 293.
I joy, deare Mother, when I view, III, 101.
I know it is my sinne which locks thine eares, II, 301.
I know the wayes of learning, both the head, II, 381.
I made a posie while the day ran by, III, 321.
Immortall Heat, O let thy greater flame, II, 85.
Immortall Love, authour of this great frame, II, 83.
I saw the Vertues sitting hand in hand, II, 239.
I struck the board, and cry'd, No more, III, 211.
It cannot be. Where is that mightie joy, II, 313.
I threatned to observe the strict decree, III, 17.
I travell'd on, seeing the hill where lay, III, 237.
Jesu is in my heart, his sacred name, III, 303.
Joy, I did lock thee up, but some bad man, IH, 215.
Kill me not eVry day, HI, 269.
King of Glorie, King of Peace, II, 397.
King of glorie, King of peace, III, 381.
Let all the world in ev'ry corner sing, III, 63.
Let forrain nations of their language boast, III, 161.
Let wits contest, IH, 29.
Listen, sweet Dove, unto my song, II, 157.
Lord, hear me when I call on Thee, III, 411.
Lord, how can man preach thy eternall word ? HI, 15.
INDEX 441
Lord, how couldst thou so much appease, II, 233.
Lord, how I am all ague when I seek, II, 295.
Lord, I confesse my sinne is great, II, 305.
Lord, in my silence how do I despise, II, 359.
Lord, I will mean and speak thy praise, III, 45.
Lord, let the Angels praise thy name, II, 251.
Lord, make me coy and tender to offend, II, 309.
Lord, my first fruits present themselves to thee, n, ix.
Lord, thou art mine, and I am thine, III, 37.
Lord, who createdst man in wealth and store, II, 335.
Lord, who hast fonn'd me out of mud, II, 161.
Lord, with what bountie and rare clemencie, II, 243.
Lord, with what care hast thou begirt us round! II, 231.
Lord, with what glorie wast thou serv'd of old, III, 265.
Love bade me welcome; yet my soul drew back, II, 401.
Love built a stately house; where Fortune came, II, 225.
Mark you the floore ? That square and speckled stone, HI,
167.
Meeting with Time, slack thing, said I, III, 339.
Money, thou bane of blisse and sourse of wo, III, 113.
My comforts drop and melt away like snow, II, 351.
My God, a verse is not a crown, II, 97.
My God, if writings may, II, 385.
My God, I heard this day, II, 215.
My God, I read this day, II, 247.
My God the poore expressions of my Love, III, 395.
My God, where is that antient heat towards thee, II, 79.
My heart did heave, and there came forth, O God! Ill, 271.
My joy, my life, my crown! Ill, 27.
My stock lies dead, and no increase, II, 311.
My words and thoughts do both expresse this notion, II, 283.
Not in rich furniture or fine array, II, 195.
O blessed bodie! Whither art thou thrown? Ill, 155.
O day most calm, most bright, II, 175.
O do not use me, III, 277.
O dreadfull Justice, what a fright and terrour, III, 117.
Of what an easie quick accesse, II, 183.
O gratious Lord, how shall I know, III, 383.
Oh all ye who passe by, whose eyes and minde, II, 123.
Oh Book! Infinite sweetnesse! Let my heart, II, 187.
Oh glorious spirits, who after all your bands, II, 163.
Oh King of grief ! A title strange, yet true, II, 287.
Oh that I knew how all thy lights combine, II, 189.
Oh, what a thing is man ! How farre from power, III, 129.
442 INDEX
O my chief good, II, 149.
O sacred Providence, who from end to end, III, 79.
O spitefull bitter thought! in, 225.
O that I could a sinne once see! II, 229.
O what a cunning guest, III, 259.
O who will give me tears ? Come all ye springs, III, 323.
O who will show me those delights on high, II, 273.
Passe not by, IH, 421.
Peace mutt' ring thoughts, and do not grudge to keep, U, 353.
Peace pratler, do not lowre ! Ill, 229.
Philosophers have measur'd mountains, III, 153.
Poore heart, lament, III, 197.
Poore nation, whose sweet sap and juice, III, 109.
Poore silly soul, whose hope and head lies low, II, 357.
Praised be the God of love, II, 107.
Prayer the Churches banquet, Angel's age, II, 181.
Presse me not to take more pleasure, II, 389.
Rebuke me not in wrath, O Lord, III, 413.
Rise, heart, thy Lord is risen. Sing his praise, II, 153.
Sacred marble, safely keepe, III, 423.
Save me, my Lord, my God, because, III, 415.
Shine on, Majestick soule, abide, III, 431.
Since, Lord, to thee, II, 193.
Sorrie I am, my God, sorrie I am, III, 143.
Soul's joy, when thou art gone, III, 293.
Sure, Lord, there is enough in thee to dry, II, 81.
Sweet day, so cool, so calm, so bright, III, 335.
Sweetest of sweets, I thank you! When displeasure, II, 199.
Sweetest Saviour, if my soul, II, 369.
Sweet Peace, where dost thou dwell ? I humbly crave, II, 377.
Sweet were the dayes when thou didst lodge with Lot, III, 115.
Teach me, my God and King, II, 99.
The Bell doth tolle, III, 393.
The Day is spent, and hath his will on mee, III, 391.
The fleet Astronomer can bore, III, 133.
The God of love my shepherd is, IIIT19.
The harbingers are come. See, see their mark! Ill, 317.
The merrie world did on a day, III, 33.
Thou art too hard for me in Love, III, 387.
Thou that hast giv*n so much to me, III, 41.
Thou who condemnest Jewish hate, III, 111.
Thou who dost dwell and linger here below, III, 147.
Thou, whom the former precepts have, II, 119.
INDEX 443
Thou whose sweet youth and early hopes inhance, II, 15.
Throw away thy rod, III, 297.
To Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, HI, 419.
To write a verse or two is all the praise, II, 95.
Welcome, deare feast of Lent ! Who loves not thee, II, 171.
Welcome sweet and sacred cheer, III, 53.
What doth this noise of thoughts within my heart, III, 185.
What is this strange and uncouth thing! Ill, 231.
When blessed Marie wip'd her Saviour's feet, HI, 151.
When first my lines of heav'nly ioyes made mention, II, 91.
When first thou didst entice to thee my heart, IE, 339.
When first thy sweet and gracious eye, III, 331.
When God at first made man, III, 149.
When my dear Friend could write no more, III, 399.
When my devotions could not pierce, II, 297.
While that my soul repairs to her devotion, II, 201.
Whither away delight? in, 289.
Whither, O, whither art thou fled, HI, 219.
Who is the honest man, III, 119.
Who reade a chapter when they rise, II, 211.
Who says that fictions onely and false hair, II, 87.
Why are the heathen swell'd with rage, III, 407.
Why do I languish thus, drooping and dull, III, 207.
With sick and famisht eyes, III, 281.
Wounded I sing, tormented I indite, III, 301.
You who admire yourselves because, III, 403
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