rably picturesque,* and many amatory songs of great elegance. Of these, a very pleasing little volume might be made, and I have un

*Few lines can be produced more impressively descriptive than those marked by Italics in the following passage; speaking of his Muse he observes,

Her divine skill taught me this,
That from every thing I saw,
I could some invention draw:
And raise pleasure to her height,
Through the meanest objects sight.
By the murmur of a spring,
Or the least bough's rustling.
By a Daisy whose leaves spread,
Shut when Tytan goes to bed;
Or a shady bush or tree,
She could more infuse in me,
Than all Nature's beauties can,
In some other wiser man.
By her help I also now,

Make this churlish place allow

Some things that may sweeten gladness
In the very gall of sadness.

The dull loneness, the black shade,

That these hanging vaults have made,
The strange Music of the waves,
Beating on these hollow caves,
This black Den which Rocks emboss
Over-grown with eldest Moss.
The rude Portals that give light,
More to Terror than Delight.
This my chamber of Neglect,
Wall'd about with disrespect.
From all these and this dull air
A fit object for Despair,

'derstood it is the intention of Mr. Southey, to present such a selection to the public. Shirley, having been principally known as a dramatic poet,* his smaller pieces, which were printed in 1646, were comparatively little noticed; they merit republication.

She hath taught me by her might,

To draw comfort and delight.

The Shepherd's Hunting Eglogue iv.

He published thirty-nine plays between 1629 and 1660. I give the following as a specimen of the poetry of Shirley.

To ODELIA.

1.

Health to my fair Odelia, some that know

How many months are past

Since I beheld thy lovely brow
Would count an age at least ;
But unto me,

Whose thoughts are still on thee,

I vow

By thy black eyes, 'tis but an hour ago.

2.

The Mistress I pronounce but poor in bliss,

That, when her Servant parts,

Gives not as much with her last kiss

As will maintain two hearts,

Till both do meet

To taste what else is sweet,

Is't fit

Time measure Love, or our Affection it?

The metre of this little ode, though singular, is not

*

If Wither and Shirley, however, may be said to have been unjustly neglected,, the charge will apply, with much greater truth, to the productions of Robert Herrick, a poet scarce even known by name, and of whom, until very lately, the brief notices of Phillips, Anthony Wood, and Grainger,+ were all that preserved his existence from oblivion. It was in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1796 and 1797, § that the greater part of the lovers of poetry of the present age first learnt, that our bard had ever written; here are given some additional events and anecdotes of his life, and in the "Specimens of the Early English Poets," are four extracts from his volume of poems.||

This includes all which has been hitherto done, toward rendering this forgotten poet

unpleasing. There is, however, a quaintness in its construction, very commonly to be found in the poets of the seventeenth century.

*Theatrum Poetarum.

+ Athenæ Oxonienses, vol. ii. page 122.

Grainger's Biographical History, vol. ii. page 399.

Vol. Ixvi. part i, page 461.-Part ii. page 645 and 736. Vol. lxvii. part i. page 102.

Vol. iii, page 281.

the justice he deserves.* The perusal of his worm-eaten book, which was lately placed in my hands by a very estimable and ingenious friend, has induced me to come forward, with the view of presenting to the public such specimens of his poetical powers, as will probably excite no little curiosity as to the means, by which merit, so decided, in the departments he embraced, could, for such a length of time, be merged in the deepest obscurity. After premising, therefore, what is known of the life of our author, I shall annex some general observations on his Writings and Genius, which, I trust, will be fully confirmed, by the many beautiful lines his volume will enable me to produce.

ROBERT HERRICK, though of a family of some consequence and antiquity in Leicestershire, was born in London, being the fourth son of Nicholas Herrick, of St. Vedast, Foster-Lane, by Julia Stone, his wife.

I should have observed that Winstanley has also mentioned Herrick in his Lives of the Poets, but he has servilely and even literally copied Phillips.

+ Dr. Henry Reeve.

1

The poet himself, indeed, has recorded his birth-place, and the christian name of his mother.

The golden Cheapside, where the earth
Of Julia Herrick gave me birth.*.

He was baptized August 24th, 1591, but of what College he became a member, whether of Oxford or Cambridge, remains somewhat doubtful. Anthony Wood says he was elected Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, from that of St. John's, in the year 1628, but a correspondent in the Gentle-man's Magazine for 1797, whose initials are J. N. affirms Wood to have been mistaken; there was, indeed, he observes, a Robert Herrick, of St. John's, at Oxford, who was a Lieutenant in the army, and died at Wesel, in 1639; but Robert, the poet, he attempts to prove, was a Fellow-commoner of St. John's College, Cambridge, from 1615 to 1617; in corroboration of which assertion, he produces a note of hand and two

*

Hesperides, page 375.

Mr. Ellis has unaccountably placed the birth of Herrick in the year 1623. See his Chronological List of Poets.