A History of English Literature
A History of English Literature
A History of English Literature
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to survive. From the equally chaotic product <strong>of</strong> Colonel Richard Lovelace<br />
stand out the two well-known bits <strong>of</strong> noble idealism, 'To Lucasta, Going to<br />
the Wars,' and 'To Althea, from Prison.' George Wither (1588-1667), a much<br />
older man than Suckling and Lovelace, may be mentioned with them as the<br />
writer in his youth <strong>of</strong> light-hearted love-poems. But in the Civil War he<br />
took the side <strong>of</strong> Parliament and under Cromwell he rose to the rank <strong>of</strong><br />
major-general. In his later life he wrote a great quantity <strong>of</strong> Puritan<br />
religious verse, largely prosy in spite <strong>of</strong> his fluency.<br />
The last important group among these lyrists is that <strong>of</strong> the more distinctly<br />
religious poets. The chief <strong>of</strong> these, George Herbert (1593-1633), the<br />
subject <strong>of</strong> one <strong>of</strong> the most delightful <strong>of</strong> the short biographies <strong>of</strong> Izaak<br />
Walton, belonged to a distinguished family <strong>of</strong> the Welsh Border, one branch<br />
<strong>of</strong> which held the earldom <strong>of</strong> Pembroke, so that the poet was related to the<br />
young noble who may have been Shakspere's patron. He was also younger<br />
brother <strong>of</strong> Lord Edward Herbert <strong>of</strong> Cherbury, an inveterate duellist and the<br />
father <strong>of</strong> <strong>English</strong> Deism. [Footnote: See below, p. 212.] Destined by his<br />
mother to peaceful pursuits, he wavered from the outset between two forces,<br />
religious devotion and a passion for worldly comfort and distinction. For a<br />
long period the latter had the upper hand, and his life has been described<br />
by his best editor, Pr<strong>of</strong>essor George Herbert Palmer, as twenty-seven years<br />
<strong>of</strong> vacillation and three <strong>of</strong> consecrated service. Appointed Public Orator,<br />
or showman, <strong>of</strong> his university, Cambridge, he spent some years in enjoying<br />
the somewhat trifling elegancies <strong>of</strong> life and in truckling to the great.<br />
Then, on the death <strong>of</strong> his patrons, he passed through a period <strong>of</strong> intense<br />
crisis from which he emerged wholly spiritualized. The three remaining<br />
years <strong>of</strong> his life he spent in the little country parish <strong>of</strong> Bemerton, just<br />
outside <strong>of</strong> Salisbury, as a fervent High Church minister, or as he preferred<br />
to name himself, priest, in the strictest devotion to his pr<strong>of</strong>essional<br />
duties and to the practices <strong>of</strong> an ascetic piety which to the usual American<br />
mind must seem about equally admirable and conventional. His religious<br />
poems, published after his death in a volume called 'The Temple,' show<br />
mainly two things, first his intense and beautiful consecration to his<br />
personal God and Saviour, which, in its earnest sincerity, renders him<br />
distinctly the most representative poet <strong>of</strong> the Church <strong>of</strong> England, and<br />
second the influence <strong>of</strong> Donne, who was a close friend <strong>of</strong> his mother. The<br />
titles <strong>of</strong> most <strong>of</strong> the poems, <strong>of</strong>ten consisting <strong>of</strong> a single word, are<br />
commonly fantastic and symbolical--for example, 'The Collar,' meaning the<br />
yoke <strong>of</strong> submission to God; and his use <strong>of</strong> conceits, though not so pervasive<br />
as with Donne, is equally contorted. To a present-day reader the apparent<br />
affectations may seem at first to throw doubt on Herbert's genuineness; but<br />
in reality he was aiming to dedicate to religious purposes what appeared to<br />
him the highest style <strong>of</strong> poetry. Without question he is, in a true if<br />
special sense, a really great poet.<br />
The second <strong>of</strong> these religious poets, Richard Crashaw, [Footnote: The first<br />
vowel is pronounced as in the noun _crash_.] whose life (1612-1649)<br />
was not quite so short as Herbert's, combined an ascetic devotion with a<br />
glowingly sensuous esthetic nature that seems rather Spanish than <strong>English</strong>.<br />
Born into an extreme Protestant family, but outraged by the wanton<br />
iconoclasm <strong>of</strong> the triumphant Puritans, and deprived by them <strong>of</strong> his<br />
fellowship, at Cambridge, he became a Catholic and died a canon in the<br />
church <strong>of</strong> the miracle-working Lady (Virgin Mary) <strong>of</strong> Loretto in Italy. His<br />
most characteristic poetry is marked by extravagant conceits and by<br />
ecstatic outbursts <strong>of</strong> emotion that have been called more ardent than<br />
anything else in <strong>English</strong>; though he sometimes writes also in a vein <strong>of</strong> calm<br />
and limpid beauty. He was a poetic disciple <strong>of</strong> Herbert, as he avowed by<br />
humbly entitling his volume 'Steps to the Temple.'