Editing George Herbert’s Ejaculations

The brief biographical sketch that appears in every anthology of English literature in the past century—including the current edition of the Longman and the Norton—refers to George Herbert’s book of poetry simply as The Temple. When it appeared in print in 1633, however, it was published under the title, The Temple: Sacred Poems and Private Ejaculations. This essay posits that the ejaculations of Herbert’s subtitle register an unstable print culture in the seventeenth century, and a more complex reading of Herbert’s poetry, both of which are compromised when editors erase Herbert’s ejaculations, regardless of their intent.