The Bibliotheque has been reprinted at Maestricht (fol. 1776), and at the Hague (4 vols. 4to, 1777-99). The latter edition is en- riched with the contributions of Schultens, Reiske, and others. Herbeiot’s other works, none of which have been published, com- prise an Oriental Anthology, and an Arabic, Persian, Turkish, and Latin Dictionary.
HERBERT, George (1593–1633), one of the best of English religious poets, was born near the town of Mont- gomery on the 3d of April 1593. He was a brother of Lord Herbert of Cherbury, noticed below. Educated privately till the age of twelve, he was then sent to West- minster School, and in 1608 he became a student at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was made B.A. in 1611, M.A. and major fellow of the college in 1615, and orator for the university in 1619. In his capacity as orator he was several times brought into contact with King James. About the same time also he appeared as the champion of Anglicanism against Andrew Melville, the famous Scoteh Presbyterian. He numbered among his friends Dr Donne, Sir Henry Wotton, Izaak Walton, Bishop Andrewes, and Francis Bacon, who consulted Herbert about several of his works, and dedicated to him his translation of the Psalms. During bis youth he was a courtier, dancing attendance on King James, and “enjoying his genteel humour for clothes” ; and the king rewarded his attentions by the gift of a sinecure worth £120 a year. The death of his patrons the duke of Richmond, the marquis of Hamilton, and King James, approaching ill-health, and the influence of his mother finally induced him, not without a struggle, to take holy orders. In July 1626 he was appointed prebendary of Layton Ecclesia, in the county of Huntingdon. Shortly before his induction (1630) to the parsonage of Bemerton, near Salisbury, he married Miss Jane Danvers after three days’ acquaintance. Mr Danvers had been set on the mar- riage for a long time, and had often spoken of his daughter Jane to Herbert, and “so much commended Mr Herbert to her, that Jane became so much a Platonic as to fall in love with Mr Herbert unseen.” The story of the poet’s life at Bemarton, as told by Walton, is one of the most exquisite pictures in literary biography. He devoted much time to explaining the meaning of the various parts of the Prayer- Book, and held services twice every day, at which many of the parishioners attended, and some “let their plough rest when Mr Herbert’s saints-bell rung to praise, that they might also offer their devotions to God with him.” Next to Christianity itself he loved the English Church. He was passionately fond of music, and usually went twice a week to attend the cathedral service at Salisbury. Walton illustrates Herbert’s kindness to the poor by many touching anecdotes. He had not been three years in Bemerton when he succumbed to ill-health. He died in 1633.
Herbert’s works are—The Tenyple (1631); a few miscellaneous poems ; a collection of proverbs entitled Jacula Prudentum (1640); and The Country Parson, which did not appear till 1652. The Temple is a collection of religious poems marked by unity of sen- timent and inspiration. The chief faults of the book are obscurity, verbal conceits, and a forced ingenuity which shows itself in grotesque puns, odd metres, and occasional want of taste. In spite of these drawbacks, the quaint beauty of Herbert’s style and his genuine poetical feeling give The Temple a high place in literature. The following poems are the gems of the collection :—‘‘The Church Porch,” “The Agony,” ‘Sin,” “Sunday,” ‘‘ Virtue,” ‘ Man,” “The British Church,” ‘The Quip,” ‘The Collar,” ‘‘The Pulley,” ‘“‘ The Flower,” ‘‘ Aaron,” and ‘‘ The Elixir.” The finest of all is his poem on ‘‘ Man,” which is Miltonic in its sublimity of con- ception, and shows how poets, in their loftier nioods, often anti- cipate the discoveries of science and the most far-reaching specula- tions of philosophy. Herbert and Keble are the pocts of Anglican theology. No book is fuller of devotiou ww the Church of England than The Temple. No poem in our language exhibits more of the split of true Christianity. Every page is marked by transparent sincerity, and reflects the beautiful character of ‘‘holy George Herbert.”
Among recent editions of Herbert’s works the following may be mentioned :— Works in Prose and Verse, with life by Izaak Walton, and notes by S. T. Coleridge, 1846; Gilfillan’s edition, in his ‘* Library of the British Poets,” 1853 ; Willmott’s edition, 1854 ; Professor Nichol’s edition, 1863 ; and the Aldine edition by the Rev. Dr A. B. Grosart. For further information consult Walton’s Life, and England's Antiphon, by George Macdonald, 1871.
HERBERT, Henry William (1807–1858), novelist and writer on sports, son of the Hon. and Rev. William Herbert, dean of Manchester, a son of the first earl of Carnarvon, was born in London, April 7, 1807. He was educated at Eton and at Caius College, Cambridge, where he graduated M.A. in 1828. Having become involved in debt he emigrated to America, and from 1831 to 1839 wus teacher of Greek in a private school in New York. In 1833 he commenced the American Monthly Magazine, which he edited till 1835. In 1834 he published his first novel, The Brothers, a Tule of the Fronde, which was fol- lowed by a number of others, all of them obtaining a certain degree of popularity. He was also successful in a series of historical studies, such as The Cavaliers of England, The Knights of England, France, and Scotland, The Chevaliers of France, and The Captains of the Old World, and wrote numerous contributions to magazines; but he is best known for his works on sporting, published by him under the pseudonym of Frank Forester. These include Zhe Field Sports of the United States and British Provinces (1849), frank Forester and his Friends (1849), The Fish and fishing of the United States (1850), The Young Sports- man's Complete Manual, and The Horse and Horsemanship inthe United States and British Provinces of North America (1858). Herbert was a man of varied accomplishments, but of somewhat dissipated habits. He died by his own hand at New York, May 17, 1858.
HERBERT, Sir Thomas (1606–1682), traveller and author, was born at York in 1606. Several of his ancestors were aldermen and merchants in that city, and they could trace their connexion with the great Herbert family repre- sented by the earl of Pembroke. His grandfather, Alder- man Herbert, who died in 1614, left him real estate of considerable value. He went to Oxford in 1621, and be- came a conimoner of Jesus College, but afterwards removed to Cambridge at the invitation of his mother’s brother, Dr Ambrose Akroyd. Having gone to London, he was intro- duced to the earl of Pembroke, through whose influence he obtained an appointment in the suite of Sir Dodmore Cotton, who was about to leave as ambassador for Persia in company with Sir Robert Shirley. Sailing in March 1627, they visited the Cape, Madagascar, Goa, and Surat ; having landed at Gombroon, they travelled inland to Asharoff, and thence to Cazbeen, where both the chiefs of the expedition died. Herbert reached England again in 1629, and in 1630, to his great disappointment, bis patron the earl of Pembroke died suddenly. After this he travelled on the Continent for more than a year. From his return in 1631 till about two years after his marriage in 1632 he retained his ambition for court favour, but failing in this he retired, probably to his estate of Tintern in Monmouth- shire, till the outbreak of the civil war, when he sided with the parliament. In 1646 he was appointed to attend the king with his other servants. Becoming a devoted royalist, he continued with his majesty during the last two eventful years of his life, and at the Restoration he was rewarded with the title of baronet (1660). He resided at West- minster till the great plague, when he returned to York and bought Petergate House, where he died on tbe lst March 1682.
