with a decisive victory for the forces of Parlia-
ment at the battle of Worcester. King Charles I
was beheaded in 1649. A law was passed forbid-
ding his son Charles II from being declared king
of England then, although the Parliament of
Scotland did proclaim him king. Rather than
assume his throne, however, Charles II fled to
France with the final defeat of his forces in
1651, to return to England and the throne only
in 1660 with the Restoration. Between 1651 and
1660 England became first a Commonwealth and
then, in 1653, a Protectorate, ruled by Oliver
Cromwell and then by his son Richard. Revolu-
tionary change was religious as well as political,
since the exclusive power of the Church of Eng-
land was terminated and the religion of England
was during that period an austere Protestant
Puritanism.
The Founding of the Royal Society
The reference to the glowworm in ‘‘The Night
Piece: To Julia’’ is noteworthy for the way Her-
rick easily assumes a knowledge of entomology
in his mistress and his readers. The Royal Soci-
ety of London for the Improvement of Natural
Knowledge, dedicated to the study and advance-
ment of science, was founded in 1660 after the
Restoration of the English monarchy. Its foun-
dation signaled official recognition and sanction
of scientific methodology. Advocates of natural
science, observation, and experimentation—that
is, advocates of scientific methodology as a way
of understanding the natural world—had
already formed secret societies for the dissemi-
nation of the new discoveries in the natural sci-
ences that were being made and recorded
throughout Europe. The reason for early scien-
tific caution resulted from possible conflicts with
theological explanations derived from holy writ
for natural phenomena. The great scientist Gal-
ileo Galilei (1564–1642) was brought before the
Catholic Inquisition and, on pain of death,
forced to recant his telescopic observations that
the earth was not the center of the universe but
traveled around the sun.
Critical Overview.
‘‘‘Trivial’ and ‘pagan’ are the generic epithets
which criticism has habitually hung upon’’ Her-
rick, notes S. Musgrove inThe Universe of Rob-
ert Herrick. Such judgment endured beyond the
COMPARE
&
CONTRAST
1600s:Cavalier poets write lyrics praising a
life of amorous dalliance or lamenting love’s
disappointments, celebrating fashion and
seduction.
Today:Rock stars and rappers write songs
about their experiences of love and rejec-
tion, influence fashion, and project large-
rthan-life personae.
1600s:England is torn by social, religious,
and political discord until civil war erupts
between opposing factions
Today:The social unity of the United King-
dom is disrupted by cultural, religious, and
political differences between longtime residents
and recent immigrants, many from former
English colonies.
1600s:Despite the objections and disdain of
people who believe that religious authority
alone can explain the phenomena of nature,
scientific societies develop to explore and
disseminate the work of natural scientists.
Today:Although science is well established
as a legitimate mode of inquiry into natural
phenomena, some religious fundamentalists
still offer resistance to scientific research or
to explanations that appear to conflict with
theological explanations.
The Night Piece: To Julia
