Hesperides

A reproduction of Herrick's only publication during his lifetime, seen through the press by the author himself in 1648. The book contains more than a thousand poems by one of the great lyric poets of the Caroline era, many of whose poems were set to music by William Lawes and other luminaries of the London musical scene. This edition reproduces the original spelling, in all its quirkiness, and copies the layout, albeit in a larger page-size.

Hesperides, was published in 1648, and seems to have been the author’s attempt to codify all of the work that he wished to preserve. Herrick was unusual in assembling his own work for publication, as most gentlemen poets of the era circulated their works anonymously, and in manuscript. Herrick’s master, Ben Jonson, had preceded him in publishing his own work, and, no doubt that example figured large in his thinking when preparing Hesperides for the press. This was a large collection of lyrics and odes, coupled with a book of religious poems (His Noble Numbers) within the same covers, but it would seem that his work was already somewhat unfashionable by 1648 and the edition took some time to sell out. Herrick’s reputation recovered in the 19th century, and then decisively in the 20th, when he was finally recognised as one of the great lyric poets of the Caroline era, an era, moreover, when England was more than well supplied with fine poets – Herrick’s contemporaries include Jonson, Marvell, Donne, Herbert, Vaughan, Lovelace, Suckling and Carew, to name but a few. Many of his lyrics were set to music by the greatest song composers of the day, such as William Lawes.