ABSTRACT
While the attitudes represented by Addison were hardening into dogma, lesser figures continued to read Herbert even as they articulated their increasing disquiet over his ‘obscurity’. The best evidence in this respect is provided by George Ryley, about whom nothing is known beyond the elaborate annotations he compiled on ‘The Temple’ midway through the second decade of the eighteenth century. As the ensuing representative selections from his considerable manuscript attest, Herbert’s ethical aspects were not questioned but his actual meaning was deemed to require explication in depth. See further above, p. 18.
Source: Ryley, ‘Mr Herbert’s Temple & Church Militant Explained & Improved By A Discourse upon Each Poem Critical & Practical’, in Bodleian MS Rawlinson D.199, fols 22–3 33–4, 69, 71–2, 164–5, 187–9, 244–6; selections reprinted (with minor adjustments) from Köppl, pp. 85, 104–6, 114–15, 128, 129–31, 140–1, 148–9.
