Beschreibung:

HERBERT, George (1593-1633). The Temple. Sacred Poems and Private Ejaculations ... The second Edition . [Edited by Nicholas Ferrar.] Cambridge: T[homas]. Buck and R[oger]. Daniel, 1633. 12° (142 x 78mm). Title with typographical border, typographical and metalcut ornament. (Edges of last five leaves neatly restored with loss to a few letters only, some very occasional staining to upper margin.) 19th-century speckled calf, spine gilt in compartments, gilt turn-ins, gilt edges, marbled endpapers, by F. Bedford (rebacked retaining original backstrip). A fine copy of the second edition of Herbert's Sacred Poems . George Herbert died in 1633, having seen only the publication of various Latin poems contributed to Cambridge collections, and his Oratio quâ auspicatissimum Serenissimi Principis Caroli ex Hispaniis celebrauit Georgius Herbert (Cambridge, 1623). The poetry for which he is remembered was all published posthumously. Herbert, whilst on his death bed, entrusted his neighbour and acquaintance, Nicholas Ferrar, with the publication a small manuscript volume of poetry. The first edition of Herbert's Sacred Poems appeared within a few week of Herbert's death, and the second later the same year. Herbert had often felt the urge to take holy orders, and after a period in which he was unsure about whether he should pursue a life at court or take the cloth, was presented in July 1626 to the prebend of Layton Ecclesia. Part of his care was to a small church on an estate at Leighton Bromswold, in Huntingdonshire, a church which was but two miles from Little Gidding, where Nicholas Ferrar had founded an Anglican community. Their acqaintance dates from 1626: Herbert offered the prebend of Layton Ecclesia to Ferrar, but Ferrar perusaded Herbert to undertake the restoration of the church at Leighton, with Herbert following Ferrar's advice. There grew up an affectionate correspondence between the two men, who addressed each in familiar terms such as 'dear brother' and 'most entire friend'. Ferrar is credited with encouraging Herbert's deepening absorbtion with religious life. On his death bed, Herbert, who was dying of consumption, asked that a manuscript collection of his verse be delivered to Ferrar for publication. Ferrar's application for license to publish the work was only conditionally approved, the vice-chancellor famously objecting to two lines in the 'Church Militant', namely: "Religion stands on tiptoe in our land Ready to pass to the American strand". The initial furore soon passed and the prohibition was lifted. Herbert's poetry was much appreciated by his contemporaries, included Richard Cranshaw, Isaac Walton, Henry Vaughan and Archbishop Leighton. The typographical excellence of the first and second editions was such that Buck and Daniel's text and layout was followed for the next 17 editions, spanning 166 years. STC 13184.5, listing 14 other copies only; variant of Pforzheimer 466; F.E. Hutchinson. "The First Edition of Herbert's Temple ", Oxford Bibliographical Society Proceedings and Papers , vol. V, part III, Oxford: 1939, pp. 189-197; A.F. Allison. Four Metaphysical Poets , (1973), no. 7; J. Hayward, English Poetry , (1950), no. 66.