George Herbert: An Annotated Bibliography of Modern Criticism, 1905-1974 (review)

George Herbert: An Annotated Bibliography of Modern Criticism, 1905-1974 by John R. Roberts (Columbiaand London: Univ. of Missouri Press, 1978.280pp. $23.00) by Ted-Larry Pebworth In one of his best known essays, Francis Bacon divides books into three categories: "Some are to bee tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to bee chewed and digested." Since one most often turns toa bibliography to find theanswer to a specific question or to search for materials within a circumscribed area of interest, such works as John Roberts' earlier bibliography of John Donne (1973) and his new bibliography of George Herbert seem to slip most easily and naturally into Bacon's first category: "That is, . books to be read only in partes." But both compilations can also legitimately lay claim to entry into the third and most important of the Baconian classifications, rightfully belonging among those "few" books that should "be read wholly and with diligence and attention." In addition to providing accurate and helpful information indexed and cross-referenced for quick and easy use. Roberts' bibliography of Herbert, like its predecessor on Donne, supplies in the aggregate of its entries an important survey of the interest in and the reputation of its subject, as well as an outline of changing literary taste during the twentieth century Moreover, a large number of entries scattered throughout the Herbert bibliography, taken together and in context, serve as useful reminders of some important general issues that the devoted specialist is often prone to forget, to discount, or to ignore The Roberts bibliography of Herbert consists of 800 annotated entries, beginning with George Herbert Palmer's three-volume edition of the English poetry and prose issued in 1 905 and concluding with twenty-three books and essays that appeared in 1974 The items are arranged chronologically by 44 REVIEW: HERBERT BIBLIOGRAPHY year of publication, and within each year the ordering is alphabetical according to author. Roberts includes only published materials: books and portions of books, essays, notes, queries, answers to queries, musical settings of Herbert's poems, poems written on Herbert, and even a sermon preached on Herbert's life and ministry. In addition to excluding unpublished theses and dissertations. Roberts has also omitted brief references to Herbert in literary histories, encyclopedias, and anthologies. Although he warns that "for the most part" he has ignored book reviews (Preface, p. xi), he has in fact included and annotated many informative reviews of important books. He has noted reprints and revisions and has cross-referenced those items that are parts of scholarly or critical exchanges. For ease of use. he has provided three indexes: one to the authors whose works are included, another to subjects mentioned in the annotations , and a third to the individual works of Herbert referred to in the annotations. Although the title suggests that the compilation considers only criticism, Roberts' bibliography of Herbert treats scholarly works as well: biographical, historical, textual, and bibliographical studies, including all modern editions of the primary works "that contain critical discussions and /or notes or that, for one reason oranother, seem to havesome historical interest" (Preface, p. xi). Also, to provide the ever changing context within which the author of The Temple has been studied during the seven decades covered by the bibliography, Roberts has wisely chosen to include over a score of important twentieth-century studies of seventeenth-century poetry that contain no specific treatment of Herbert, works such as Herbert Read's "The Nature of Metaphysical Poetry" (1 923, entry 70); William Keast's "Johnson's Criticism of the Metaphysical Poets" (1950, entry 306); Mario Praz's "The Critical Importance of the Revived Interest in SeventeenthCentury Metaphysical Poetry" (1951 , entry 322); and Joseph Mazzeo's "A Critique of Some Modern Theories of Metaphysical Poetry" (1952, entry 339). In the annotation to each entry of this nature, however. Roberts has clearly stated that the work does not specifically mention Herbert. Roberts' annotations are roughly proportional in size to the length and importance of the works being annotated. 45 Ted-Larry Pebworth Significant books devoted entirely to Herbert, such as those by Rosemond Tuve (1952, entry 344)and Joseph Summers(1954, entry 369), are allotted up...