HERBERT, George, English religious poet: b. at the Castle of Montgomery, Wales, 3 April 1593; d. Bemerton, March 1633. His father, Richard Herbert, came of an illustrious Welsh family; his mother, Margaret Newport, also of excellent family, is more remembered for her own noble character. Between her and her poet son was rare sympathy; she guided his life in all things and early destined him to the saintly career in which he came slowly to find his happiness. Upon her hus band's death in 1597, the care of her 10 children fell to her. The eldest son was Edward, Baron Herbert of Cherbury (q.v.). The family went to Oxford in 1595, where George Herbert was brought up until 1605, when he entered Westminster School. From the first he distinguished himself, partly by his learning, partly by his daring, which showed itself in his attack in Latin epigrams upon Andrew Melville, the noted Presbyterian. In 1609 he was elected scholar of Trinity College, Cambridge, where three years later he took his degree. In 1614 he became a Fellow of Trinity, and won his Master's Degree in 1616. In 1619 he was elected Public Orator, an office he filled until 1627.
Until this election Herbert had looked to ward a worldly career. Pride of family and ambition were strong in him; the influence of his relatives and friends at court was great; he knew his own powers. But all that the court favor bestowed upon him was the lay rectorship of Whitford (1623), a sinecure post which Sir Philip Sidney had held; and shortly afterward the death of his most powerful friends darkened the promise of worldly advancement, and aided his mother's effort to turn him to the Church. In July 1626, while yet a layman, he became prebendary of Layton Ecclesia, in the diocese of Lincoln. With the help of his mother and others, he restored the ruined church building__ an act more expressive perhaps of the beauty loving courtier than of the future parish priest.
His mother had married Sir John Danvers in 1609. Her death in 1627 called forth Dr. Donne's famous funeral sermon and her son's 'Parentalia.' This sorrow marks the begin
ning of George Herbert's nobler life. Shattered in health, and threatened with consumption, he resigned his oratorship and spent the next three years in London and Essex and Wiltshire. In 1629 he married Jane Danvers, a relative of his stepfather, and the next year he -was pre sented to the living of Bemerton, with which his name is remembered. The short of his life was remarkably active. In these years he wrote most of his poems and the best of them, and also the 'Character of the Coun try He died of consumption. Liter in the same year his famous book of poems, 'The Temple,' was published in Cambridge.
His extreme saintliness took no strange out ward form, as did the piety of his friend i Nicholas Ferrar, nor did it mar his writing with eccentricities of fervor or mysticism; his genius is entirely sane. In no English poet, religious or secular, do the small common-places of life count for more. In such poems as 'The Elixir,' with its famous praise of 'Drudgery Divine,' he insists on that kind of aspiration which scorns no humble or routine task; and his long est poem, 'The Church Porch)—a series of wise maxims for the familiar discipline of the soul — sums up the moral and religious tradi tions of the English race, though in his indi vidual way. His genius is for common sense ennobled by lofty faith and passionate devotion. It is this normal quality in him, this quickness to find inspiration along the highway, rather than his frequent reference to ecclesiastical customs and offices, that makes him, as Cole ridge said, the representative poet of the Eng lish Church.
The best editions are by George•Herbert Palmer; Grosart, in the 'Ful ler's Worthies Library' and in the Aldine edi tion; the Pickering edition, with the by Isaak Walton. For criticism, consult 'Intro ductions' to the above, especially to Palmer's edition; also, for a charming study, consult the `essay on Lady Danvers in Louise Imogen Guiney, 'A Little English Gallery.'