The Oxford Companion to English Literature | Herrick, Robert
Herrick, Robert
(
1591
–
1674
), seventh child of
Nicholas
Herrick
, a prosperous goldsmith who migrated to London from Leicester, and of
Julian
, daughter of a London mercer,
William
Stone
, whom
Nicholas
married in
1582
. In
Nov.
1592
, 16 months after
Robert's
birth, and two days after making his will, Herrick's father fell to his death from a fourth-floor window in his London house. Suicide was suspected, but being ‘moved with charity’ the queen's almoner did not confiscate the Herrick estate for the Crown, as was usual with suicides. There is no record of Robert attending school, but the family was wealthy and the classical bent of his poetry makes it likely he had a grammar-school education. In
1607
he was apprenticed to his uncle Sir William Herrick, goldsmith, a man of mark who was MP for Leicester, owned land in 13 counties, and had been knighted in
1605
. Herrick's earliest datable poem was written about...
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