"Know when to speak - for many times it brings danger, to give the best advice to kings"
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Advice to power is never just speech; it is a wager. Herrick’s line lands with the quiet menace of court life, where language can be read as loyalty or insubordination depending on a king’s mood, a rival’s whisper, or the day’s politics. The opening imperative, "Know when to speak", isn’t a celebration of eloquence but a survival tactic: discretion as a moral and professional skill.
Herrick’s subtext is bracingly practical. "For many times it brings danger" strips away any comforting fantasy that truth naturally persuades. The danger isn’t only that a king might dislike counsel; it’s that counsel itself implies a limit to royal perfection. Telling a monarch what to do risks sounding like you’re telling him what he failed to do. Even "the best advice" carries an accusation inside it: you could have done better.
The line also reflects the seventeenth-century English reality Herrick lived through, a period when the boundaries of authority were violently contested and proximity to power could turn lethal. Poets, clerics, courtiers - anyone with access - had to master the art of saying something without appearing to say it. Herrick’s seemingly modest guidance doubles as a critique of monarchy’s fragility: a ruler secure in his legitimacy would not make honest speech hazardous.
What makes the couplet work is its compression. It flatters kings by presuming they deserve "best advice", then immediately undercuts that flattery by admitting the cost of giving it. Speech becomes politics by other means.
Herrick’s subtext is bracingly practical. "For many times it brings danger" strips away any comforting fantasy that truth naturally persuades. The danger isn’t only that a king might dislike counsel; it’s that counsel itself implies a limit to royal perfection. Telling a monarch what to do risks sounding like you’re telling him what he failed to do. Even "the best advice" carries an accusation inside it: you could have done better.
The line also reflects the seventeenth-century English reality Herrick lived through, a period when the boundaries of authority were violently contested and proximity to power could turn lethal. Poets, clerics, courtiers - anyone with access - had to master the art of saying something without appearing to say it. Herrick’s seemingly modest guidance doubles as a critique of monarchy’s fragility: a ruler secure in his legitimacy would not make honest speech hazardous.
What makes the couplet work is its compression. It flatters kings by presuming they deserve "best advice", then immediately undercuts that flattery by admitting the cost of giving it. Speech becomes politics by other means.
Quote Details
| Topic | Wisdom |
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