Of his personal appearance
at this time we have no description. The portrait of him prefixed to the
original edition of his works belongs to a much later moment. Whether or
not the bovine features in Marshall's engraving are a libel on the poet,
it is to be regretted that oblivion has not laid its erasing finger on
that singularly unpleasant counterfeit presentment. It is interesting to
note that this same Marshall engraved the head of Milton for the
first collection of his miscellaneous poems--the precious 1645 volume
containing Il Penseroso, Lycidas, Comus, etc. The plate gave great
offense to the serious-minded young Milton, not only because it
represented him as an elderly person, but because of certain minute
figures of peasant lads and lassies who are very indistinctly seen
dancing frivolously under the trees in the background. Herrick had more
reason to protest. The aggressive face bestowed upon him by the artist
lends a tone of veracity to the tradition that the vicar occasionally
hurled the manuscript of his sermon at the heads of his drowsy
parishioners, accompanying the missive with pregnant remarks.
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