HERBERT, GEORGE (1593-1633), English poet, was born at Montgomery castle, on April 3, 1593, the fifth son of Sir Richard Herbert and a brother of Lord Herbert of Cherbury. His mother, Lady Magdalen Herbert, a woman of great good sense and sweetness of character, and a friend of John Donne, exercised great influence over her son. Educated privately until 16°5, he was then sent to Westminster and in 1609 he became a scholar of Trinity college, Cambridge, where he was made major fellow in 1616. In 1616 he became reader in rhetoric and in 1619 orator for the university. In this capacity he spent most of his time at court, and was not often at Cambridge except when the king was there. He hoped, indeed, that the post would lead for him, as it had f or his predecessors, to political advancement ; but the death of James I. in 1625 put an end to these hopes and he accepted an appoint ment as prebendary of Layton Ecclesia (Leighton Bromswold), Huntingdon, where he rebuilt the church. In his Cambridge days he had already written some Latin satiric verses in defence of the universities and the English Church in reply to Andrew Melville's Anti-Jami-Cami-Categoria. His friends at this period included Dr. Donne, Sir Henry Wotton, Izaak Walton, Bishop Andrewes and Francis Bacon, who dedicated to him his translation of the Psalms. At Leighton he was within two miles of Little Gidding, and came under the influence of Nicholas Ferrar. There is little doubt that the close friendship with Ferrar had a large share in Herbert's definite adoption of the religious life. We have Herbert's own authority for saying that this period and some space of time after was for him a time of intense religious conflict, out of which eventually came the serenity mirrored in his verse.
In 163o Charles I., at the instance of the earl of Pembroke, whose kinsman Herbert was, presented him to the living of Fuggle stone with Bemerton, near Salisbury, and he was ordained priest in September. A year before, after three days' acquaintance, he had married Jane Danvers, whose father had been set on the marriage for a long time. The story of the poet's life at Bemerton, as told by Walton, is one of the most exquisite pictures in literary biography. He devoted much time to explaining the meaning of various parts of the prayer-book, and held services twice every day, at which many of the parishioners attended, and some "let their plough rest when Mr. Herbert's saints-bell rung to prayers, that they might also offer their devotions to God with him." Next to Christianity itself he loved the English Church. He was passionately fond of music, and his own hymns were written to the accompaniment of his lute or viol. He usually walked once or OA ice a week to attend the cathedral at Salisbury and before re turning home, would "sing and play his part" at a meeting of music lovers. Walton illustrates his kindness to the poor by many touching anecdotes, but he had not been three years at Bemerton when he succumbed to consumption. He was buried beneath the altar of his own church on March 3, 1633.
None of Herbert's English poems was published during his life time. On his death-bed he gave to Nicholas Ferrar a manuscript with the title The Temple; Sacred Poems and Private Ejacula tions, published at Cambridge, apparently for private circulation, almost immediately after Herbert's death. The Temple is a collec tion of religious poems connected by unity of sentiment and inspiration. There is apparent throughout great neatness of exe cution, particularly in the conclusion, which often comes as a sur prise. Herbert was thoroughly imbued with the "metaphysical" tendencies of the age. He was a notable amateur of the "conceit," which, like Donne, he "transplanted" to religious uses. Nothing in his own church at Bemerton was too commonplace to serve as a starting-point for the epigrammatic expression of his piety. The church key reminds him that "it is my sin that locks his handes," and the stones of the floor are patience and humility, while the ce ment that binds them together is love and charity. The same use is made of illustrations from everyday life, and the curious store of medical and chemical information beloved of the time.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.-Nicholas Ferrar's translation (1638) of the Hundred Bibliography.-Nicholas Ferrar's translation (1638) of the Hundred and Ten Considerations . . . of Juan de Valdes contained a letter and notes by Herbert. In 1652 appeared Herbert's Remains; or, Sundry Pieces of that Sweet Singer of the Temple, Mr. George Herbert. This included A Priest to the Temple; or, The Country Parson, his Charac ter, and Rule of Holy Life, in prose; Jacula prudentum, a collection of proverbs with a separate title-page dated 165i, which had appeared in a shorter form as Outlandish Proverbs in 164o; and some miscellane ous matter. The most complete edition of his works is that by Dr. A. B. Grosart in 1874, this edition of the poetical works being reproduced in the "Aldine edition" in 1876. The English Works of George Herbert . . . (3 vols., 1905) were edited in much detail by G. H. Palmer. A contemporary account of Herbert's life by Barnabas Oley was prefixed to the Remains of 1652, but the classic authority is Izaak Walton's Life of Mr. George Herbert, published in 167o, with some letters from Herbert to his mother. See also A. G. Hyde, George Herbert and his Times (1907), and the "Oxford" edition of his poems by A. Waugh (1908).