University of Virginia Library

Robert Herrick

L. C. Martin, editor of The Poetical Works of Robert Herrick (1956), writing about Herrick's reputation, and having already traced the relatively few notices about him after his death in 1674, noted that "Inquiry in the Gentleman's Magazine (May 1796) had elicited some fresh information about him" (p. xix). What Martin and others have overlooked is two prior notices of Herrick in the GM, the first in 1773 when T. Herne enclosed two poems, "The Invitation to Corinna" (now known as "Corinna's going a Maying") and "The Captived Bee; or Little Filcher," prefacing them with the statement that "The enclosed poems were copied from the leaves of an old book brought from a chandler's shop. If you think them worth preserving, perhaps some of your readers may direct to the author, who seems to have been of the 15th or 16th century, and no contemptible poet" (p. 243). Whoever Herne

was, he knew good poetry. Ten years later "J. B.," in the course of a letter on Milton, quoted Herrick's "To M. Henry Lawes, the excellent Composer of his Lyricks" and added that among Herrick's "pious pieces are the words of a Christmas Caroll, sung to the King, as also the New Yeeres Gift, or Circumcisions song, which were composed by him" (1783, p. 128). J. B. described Herrick as "a Poet little known." And, as Martin and others have noted, in the May 1796 GM, "W. F. I." wished "to procure some information of the following old poets," among whom was Herrick (p. 304). Replies were immediately forthcoming, a full account by John Nichols, writing as Eugenio, one of his pseudonyms (pp. 461-462), and a brief note by "Leviter Eruditus" (p. 463). Nichols printed three poems by Herrick in June of the same year (pp. 509-510). "Leviter Eruditus" had more to say in August (p. 645), while in September (p. 736) "O. D." added a biographical snippet and repeated a tradition that Herrick's poem on the river Dean-bourne was conveyed by oral tradition from father to son. And that there was also the belief that Herrick wrote Poor Robin's Almanac, usually attributed to William Winstanley and others (p. 736).

What is notable, besides full analysis of the GM pieces and the reminder that Eugenio was John Nichols and knew whereof he wrote, is that in the two poems submitted for printing in 1773 there are a number of substantive differences from the received texts. For "Corinna's going a Maying" I give the received text first: l. 6, Dew-be spangling/dew—bespangled; l. 8, you not drest/you're still undrest; l. 19 lacks the "spangled" of 1773; l. 24, on/in; l. 28, once we/we're to; l. 30 grove (2)/street (2); l. 34, a/or; l. 45, is/are. The most interesting differences are in ll. 8, 19, and 30, especially the last. Readers will decide their own preferences, remembering that the poems were "copied." "The captiv'd Bee: or, The little Filcher" is sufficiently short so that I give the received text with the 1773 differences in the margin, so that readers may assess the nature of the differences more readily.

There are, me judice, too many and too extreme differences to warrant the suspicion of errors of transcription, and I must confess I prefer "drown" to "fill" in the last line.