Herbert and Tears

Abstract

Various attempts have been made to relate poetry of Herbert to literary and devotional practices of Counter-Reformation. The most influential of these is certainly that of Louis Martz in The Poetry of Meditation. Martz relates Herbert's poetry in general to devout humanism of St. Franqois de Sales and correlates specific poems with specific devotional practices: To all Angels and Saints with devotion to Virgin, especially encouraged by Jesuits; Marie Magdalene, Grief, and Praise (III) with of remorse and devotion to tears of Magdalen that accompanied Counter-Reformation.1 Malcolm Mackenzie Ross (working independently of Martz) also found a fascination with Rome in To all Angels and Saints and a lack of Anglican reticence in Praise (III).2 Both of these critics see Herbert as having strongly felt pull of Counter-Reformation devotion. This view has recently been challenged on a number of fronts. Barbara Lewalski has demonstrated a distinctively Protestant tradition of meditation in England in early seventeenth century; William Halewood, while hesitating to claim Herbert for Calvinists has argued for his essentially Protestant concerns.3 At moment, these conflicting views of Herbert's religious affiliations exist side by side. What needs to be done, if emerging picture of a strongly Protestant Herbert is to prevail, is for scholars holding this view to confront and deal in a satisfactory manner with texts to which Martz and Ross have pointed. The ghost of an AngloCatholic Herbert will be laid only if evidence which created spectre is effectively reinterpreted. The essay which follows is an attempt at such reinterpretation in relation to claims about Herbert's contribution to the literature of tears.4