The Temple. by HERBERT, George - 1635: Sacred Poems and Private Ejaculations. The fourth edition.

Cambridge: Printed by T. Buck, and R. Daniel, printers to the Universitie,, 1635. Contemporary calf Duodecimo (147 x 79 mm). Contemporary calf, old reback with gilt foliate motifs to compartments, covers ruled in gilt, gilt centrepieces to covers bordered by initials "A.A", red edges. Somewhat rubbed, especially to reback, light wear at tips, tiny chip at fore edge of pp. 1/2, contents clean. A very good copy, retaining attractive contemporary covers. Fourth edition, following the first of 1633. The book - all editions were published posthumously - was enormously popular, with six editions by 1641. "Herbert's English poetry, despite its entanglement with his more partisan personal reputation, was enormously popular. The Temple... appealed to a readership spanning the political and ecclesiastical spectrum: Charles I read Herbert's poems when imprisoned in Carisbrooke Castle before his execution, while at the same time The Temple was undoubtedly admired by at least one of the regicides (Herbert's own stepfather) and recommended as devotional reading by the chaplain to Oliver Cromwell, Peter Sterry" (ODNB). Herbert's influence was enduring, including contemporary imitators such as Harvey and Ralph Knevet, and admirers such as Cardell Goodman, Richard Crashaw and Henry Vaughan. The early American poets Edward Taylor and Philip Pain both show his influence. Coleridge's expressed admiration in the Biographia Literaria signalled a revival in the 19th century, and T. S. Eliot championed him in the next. Herbert continued to be a major influence on later 20th-century poets writing in English, including Elizabeth Bishop and Seamus Heaney. ESTC S103995.