A Paper

Knock yourself out.

Robert Herrick: A Hypocrite

Robert Herrick's poems about marriage served a higher purpose than mere entertainment . By urging women to marry, Herrick supported not only social but also the political standards of his time. Marriage was supposed to ensure the stability of the society. But even though he sings about women, in some poems it is clear that his opinion of women is not very high and that just might have been the reason why he never married himself. He had double standards when it came to marriage: women were bound to marry, but men were not.

Being a priest made it easy for Herrick to reach many people through his sermons. In addition to that, he wrote poems in which he spoke in favor of marriage, as he said it himself in «The Argument of His Book»:

I sing of May-poles, hock-carts, wassails, wakes

Of bridegrooms, brides, and of their bridal-cakes

I write of youth, of love, and have access

By these to sing of cleanly wantoness.

In his poems women were the ones who are reluctant to get married. «Like the promiscuous woman, the unmarried woman was perceived to endanger the social hierarchy of early modern England.» (Swann) Therefore, it was most important for women to marry in order to keep the stability of the society and «Herrick places great importance on the control of women within marriage» (Swann). Also, it was preferred for women to marry young, as he suggests in «To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time», probably so they can be submitted to the will of their husbands before they develop a character and will of their own:

The age is best which is the first

When youth and blood are warmer (…)

Then be not coy, but use your time,

And while ye may go marry;

Women had to be controlled either by their fathers or their husbands: «Women were socially constructed as sexually voracious creatures who must be controlled by fathers and husbands.» (Swann) because they were seductive, lying creatures who were not to be trusted. In «Upon Some Women» Herrick describes women as badly done pieces of work whose sole purpose is to mislead men:

False in legs, and false in thighs;

False in breast, teeth, hair, and eyes;

False in head and false enough;

Only true in shreds and stuff.

Seeing how he saw women, it is no wonder he never married. He praised marriage for others but said for himself in «Upon Himself (VII):

I could never love indeed;

Never see my own heart bleed;

Never crucify my life;

Or for widow, maid, or wife.

He saw marriage as a prison, suitable for women for they had to be repressed, but not for men, (or at least not for him) as he clearly states in «His Answer to a Question»:

Some would know

Why I so

Long still do tarry,

(…) and not marry.

(…) What man would be here

Slave to thrall

If at all

He could live free here?

He confirms his point of view in «No Spouse but a Sister» where he shows that he is determined to die a bachelor:

A bachelor I will

Live as I have liv'd still

And never take a wife

To crucify my life.

because to him love and marriage (because one goes with another) is a burden and in «Another» he says «it best likes me/To have my neck from love's yoke free.»

He could easily be described as a hypocrite. In one hand, he praises marriage in the service of society, whereas in fact he refuses to marry himself. In «Upon Himself» he even compares marriage to death: «I should think that marriage might,
Rather than mend, put out the light.» Basically, he contradicts himself.

Robert Herrick was a loyal royalist who supported the Monarch by praising the values of the society of that time, such as marriage and repression of women, in his poems. However, it is obvious in his poems that underneath the pro-marriage surface lies a man who was in fact against it. Herrick never married and while praising marriage on one side, he clearly expressed his despise for it when it came to him. He compared it to a yolk, to slavery, to crucifying, and to death. His double standards make him a hypocrite and it casts a shadow on some of his truly beautiful lines and raises a question whether he meant any of it at all.

Works cited:

Herrick, Robert. «Another». «His Answer to a Question». «No Spouse but a Sister». «The Argument of His Book». «To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time». «Upon Himself». «Upon Himself (VII)». «Upon Some Women.» Luminarium: Anthology of English Literature. 13 January 2008

Swann, Marjorie. Marriage, celibacy, and ritual in Robert Herrick's 'Hesperides.'

01 January 1997. 13 January 2008.