but lived and died a bachelor. When first civil troubles and
then civil war cast a shadow over the land, it is not very easy to say
how he viewed the contending parties. He was devoted to Charles and
Henrietta Maria and the young Prince of Wales, and rejoiced at every
Royalist success. Many also of his poems breathe the spirit of
unquestioning loyalty, but in others he is less certain of kingly
wisdom. Something, however, must be allowed for his evident habit of
versifying any phrase or epigram which impressed him, and not all his
poems need be regarded as expressions of his personal opinions. But with
whatever doubts his loyalty was qualified, it was sufficiently obvious
to procure his ejection from his living in 1648; and, making the best of
his loss, he bade farewell to Dean Prior, shook the dust of "loathed
Devonshire" off his feet, and returned gaily to London, where he appears
to have discarded his clerical habit and to have been made abundantly
welcome by his friends.

Free from the cares of his incumbency, and free also from the restraints
it imposed, Herrick's thoughts turned to the publication of his poems.
As we have said, in his old Court-days these had found some circulation
in manuscript, and in 1635 one of his fairy poems was printed, probably
without his leave (see Appendix). In 1639 his poem (575) _The Apparition
of his Mistress calling him to Elysium_ was licensed at Stationers' Hall
under the title of _His Mistress' Shade_, and it was included the next
year in an edition of Shakespeare's Poems (see Notes). On April 29,
1640, "The severall poems written by Master Robert Herrick," were
entered as to be published by Andrew Crook, but no trace of such a
volume has been discovered, and it was only in 1648 that _Hesperides_ at
length appeared. Two years later upwards of eighty of the poems in it
were printed in the 1650 edition of _Witt's Recreations_, but a small
number of these show considerable variations from the _Hesperides_
versions, and it is probable that they were printed from the poet's
manuscript. Compilers of other miscellanies and song books laid Herrick
under contribution, but, with the one exception of his contribution to
the _Lacrymae Musarum_ in 1649, no fresh production of his pen has been
preserved, and we know nothing further of his life save that he returned
to Dean Prior after the Restoration (August 24, 1662), and that
according to the parish register "Robert Herrick, Vicker, was buri