THE P RTAL


February 2011


George Herbert 3 April 1593 – 1 March 1633 by Will Burton


Herbert went to


Westminster School as a day student at the age of 12. Sometime aſter this he was elevated to the level of scholar. Herbert later was admitted on scholarship to Trinity College, Cambridge in 1609.


a Bachelor’s, and then with a Master’s in


1613, at the age of


20. Aſter graduation he was elected a fellow of his College. In 1618 he was appointed Reader in Rhetoric at Cambridge and in 1620 was elected to the post of Cambridge University Orator, whose duties would be served by his poetic skill. He held this position until 1628.


King James I His scholarship attracted the attention of King


James I, but aſter the King’s death he retreated from secular interests and took Holy Orders in the Church of England. For the rest of his life, he was rector of the tiny Parishes of Fugglestone St Peter with Bemerton St Andrew, near Salisbury.


He displayed unfailing care for his parishioners, both


spiritually and materially. A contemporary described him as “a most glorious saint and seer”. He was noted for taking the Sacrament to the sick, as well as in caring for those who had fallen on hard times.


Poet A prolific poet, many of his works are used today as


hymns. Among his most popular are: “King of Glory, King of Peace”; “Let All the World in Every Corner Sing”; and “Teach me, my God and King”.


His father died when he was three, leaving his


He graduated first with degree


Page 8


Anglican Luminary


BORN OF WELL-TO-DO Welsh parents, George Herbert was a poet and an Anglican priest. He received a good education and held positions at Cambridge University and in Parliament.


mother a widow with ten children. However, the family was well connected; John Donne was a friend as were many other poets and intellectuals and his father had held the title of


inheritance of


brother. Herbert represented


Montgomeryshire in Parliament, and was well thought of at Court. King James I would have given him high position, but died before being able to carry out these wishes. Tis was the proximate cause of Herbert’s renunciation of secular


career and taking of Holy Orders, a step as significant as it was to be short, since Herbert had always been sickly, even as a child. He was to live only three years aſter ordination, dying of tuberculosis in 1633.


Nicholas Ferrar Herbert was notably a life-long friend of Nicholas


Ferrar of Little Gidding in Huntingdonshire, to whom, on his deathbed, he gave a manuscript of poems telling him to telling him to publish the poems if he thought they might “turn to the advantage of any dejected poor soul”, and otherwise, to burn them.


In modern times his poems have been set to music


by several composers, including Ralph Vaughan Williams, Lennox Berkeley, Benjamin Britten, Judith Weir, Randall Tompson, William Walton and Patrick Larley.


George Herbert (1593-1633) spent the last three


years of his life as rector of the tiny church of St Andrew Bemerton with Fugglestone, where he became known as ‘Holy Mr Herbert’.


Lord Cherbury, an the eldest


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