Transcriber's Note
General Footnotes have been moved to the end of their relevant
sections.
Most of the poems are followed by explanatory notes and lists of
differences between editions (with Line numbers). These Line Notes
have been kept with the Poems to which they refer.
The List of Contents for Thomas Stanley's Poems has been moved from
the general List of Contents to its logical place after the
Introduction to Thomas Stanley.
The rest of the Transcriber's Note is at the end of the book.
MINOR POETS OF THE CAROLINE PERIOD
VOL. III CONTAINING
JOHN CLEVELAND · THOMAS STANLEY
HENRY KING · THOMAS FLATMAN
NATHANIEL WHITING
EDITED BY
GEORGE SAINTSBURY, M.A.
OXFORD
AT THE CLARENDON PRESS
1921
Oxford University Press
_London Edinburgh Glasgow Copenhagen
New York Toronto Melbourne Cape Town
Bombay Calcutta Madras Shanghai_
Humphrey Milford Publisher to the UNIVERSITY.
PREFATORY NOTE
I am afraid that this third and last volume of _Caroline Poets_ must
reverse the famous apology of the second of the monarchs from whom it
derives its title. It has been an unconscionable time in being born;
though I do not, to speak in character with my authors, know
what hostile divinity bribed Lucina. I cannot blame any one else:
and--though for the first ten years after the appearance of Vol. II
I was certainly very busy, professionally and with other literary
work--I do not think I omitted any opportunity of getting on with the
book. I think I may say that if the time I have actually spent thereon
at spare moments could be put together it would represent a full
year's solid labour, if not more. I make neither complaint nor boast
of this; for it has always been my opinion that a person who holds
such a position as I then held should, if he possibly can, do
something, in unremunerative and unpopular ways, to make the treasure
of English literature more easily accessible. I have thoroughly
enjoyed the work; and I owe the greatest thanks to the authorities of
the Clarendon Press for making it possible.
But no efforts of mine, unless I had been able to reside in Oxford or
London, would have much hastened the completion of the task: for the
materials were hard to select, and, when selected, harder to find in
copies that could be used for printing. Some of them we could not get
hold of in any reasonable time: and the Delegates of the Press were
good enough to have bromide rotographs of the Bodleian copies made for
me. I worked on these as long as I could: but I found at last that the
white print on black ground, crammed and crowded together as it is in
the little books of the time, was not merely troublesome and painful,
but was getting really dangerous, to my extremely weak eyesight.
This necessitated, or almost necessitated, some alterations in the
scheme. One concerned the modernization of spelling, which accordingly
will be found disused in a few later pieces of the volume; another,
and more important one, the revision of the text. This latter was most
kindly undertaken principally by Mr. Percy Simpson, who has had the
benefit of Mr. G. Thorn-Drury's unrivalled knowledge of these minors.
I could not think of cramping the hands of scholars so well versed
as these were in seventeenth-century work: and they have accordingly
bestowed rather more attention than had originally formed part of my
own plan on _apparatus criticus_ and comparison of MSS. The reader
of course gains considerably in yet other respects. I owe these
gentlemen, who may almost be called part-editors of this volume as far
as text is concerned, very sincere thanks; and I have endeavoured as
far as possible to specify their contributions.
When the war came the fortunes of the book inevitably received another
check. The Clarendon Press conducted its operations in many other
places besides Walton Street, and with many other instruments besides
types and paper. Nor had its Home Department much time for such mere
_belles lettres_ as these. Moreover the loss of my own library, and
the difficulties of compensating for that loss in towns less rich
in books than Edinburgh, put further drags on the wheel. So I and my
Carolines had to bide our time still: and even now it has been thought
best to jettison a part of the promised cargo of the ship rather than
keep it longer on the stocks.
The poets whom I had intended to include, and upon whom I had bestowed
more or less labour, but who now suffer exclusion, were Heath,
Flecknoe, Hawkins, Beedome, Prestwich, Lawrence, Pick, Jenkyn, and a
certain 'Philander'. Of these I chiefly regret Heath--the pretty title
of whose _Clarastella_ is not ill-supported by the text, and who
would have 'taken out the taste' of Whiting satisfactorily for some
people--Hawkins, Lawrence, and Jenkyn. Henry Hawkins in _Partheneia
Sacra_ has attained a sort of mystical unction which puts him not so
very far below Crashaw, and perhaps entitles him to rank with that
poet, Southwell, and Chideock Tichborne earlier as the representative
quartette of English Roman Catholic poetry in the major Elizabethan
age. Lawrence's _Arnalte and Lucetida_, not a brilliant thing in
itself, has real literary interest of the historical-comparative kind
as representing a Spanish romance by Diego de San Pedro (best known
as the author of the _Carcel de Amor_) and its French translation by
Herberay, the translator of _Amadis_. But such things remain to be
taken up by some general historian of the 'Heroic' Romance. As for
'Patheryke' [_sic_] Jenkyn he attracted me many years ago by the
agreeable heterography of his name (so far preferable to more recent
sham-Celticizings thereof) and held me by less fantastic merits.
Flecknoe pleaded for a chance against the tyranny of 'glorious John'.
But when it was a question between keeping these and the others with
further delay and letting them go, there could not be much doubt in
which way England expected this man to do his infinitesimal duty.
One instance, not of subtraction but of addition to the original
contents, seems to require slight notice. The eye-weakness just
mentioned having always prevented me from making any regular study of
palaeography, I had originally proposed only to include work already
printed. I was tempted to break my rule in the case of Godolphin: and
made rather a mess of it. An errata list in the present volume (p.
552) will, I believe, repair the blunder. The single censurer of this
(I further believe) single serious lapse of mine was, I remember,
troubled about it as a discredit to the University of Oxford. I
sincerely trust that he was mistaken. None of us can possibly do
credit to our University; we can only derive it from her. To throw any
discredit on her is equally impossible: though of course any member
may achieve such discredit for himself. Let me hope that the balance
against me for indiscreet dealing with perhaps one per cent. of my
fifteen hundred or two thousand pages is not too heavy.
Little need be said of the actual constituents of the volume, which
has however perhaps lost something of its intended 'composition',
in the artistic sense, by losing its tail. A good English edition
of Cleveland has long been wanted: and I think--the thought being
stripped of presumption by the number and valiancy of my helpers--that
we have at last given one. Stanley and King--truer poets than
Cleveland, if less interesting to the general public--also called for
fresh presentation. If anybody demurs to Flatman and still more to
Whiting he must be left to his own opinion. I shall only note here
that on Cleveland I was guilty of injustice to the Library of the
University of Edinburgh (to which I owe much) by saying that
it contained no edition of this reviler of Caledonia. None was
discoverable in my time, the process of overhauling and re-cataloguing
being then incomplete. But my friend and successor, Professor
Grierson, tells me that one has since been found. As to King, I have
recently seen doubts cast on his authorship of 'Tell me no more'. But
I have seen no valid reasons alleged for them, and I do not know of
any one else who has the slightest claim to it.
Of the whole three volumes it is still less necessary to say much. I
have owed special thanks in succession to Mr. Doble, Mr. Milford,
and Mr. Chapman (now Secretary) of the Clarendon Press; to Professors
Firth and Case (indeed, but for the former's generous imparting of
his treasures the whole thing could hardly have been done) for loan
of books as well as answering of questions; and to not a few others,
among whom I may specially mention my friend of many years, the Rev.
William Hunt, D.Litt., Honorary Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford. I
wish the work had done greater credit to all this assistance and to
the generous expenditure of the University and its Press. But such
as it is I can say (speaking no doubt as a fool) that I should myself
have been exceedingly grateful if somebody had done it fifty years
ago: and that I shall be satisfied if only a few people are grateful
for it between now and fifty or five hundred years hence. For there is
stuff in it, though not mine, which will keep as long as the longest
of these periods and longer.[1]
GEORGE SAINTSBURY.
1 _Royal Crescent, Bath.
Oak-Apple Day, 1921_.
[Footnote 1: The tolerably gentle reader will easily understand
that, in a book written, and even printed, at considerable
intervals of time, Time itself will sometimes have affected
statements. There may be a few such cases here. But it seems
unnecessary to burden the thing with possible Corrigenda, as to
the post-war price of the Cross-bath (p. 360), &c.]
CONTENTS
PAGE
JOHN CLEVELAND 1
Introduction 4
Contents 14
To the Discerning Reader, &c. 15
POEMS 19
THOMAS STANLEY 95
Introduction 97
Contents 101
POEMS NOT PRINTED AFTER 1647 101
POEMS PRINTED IN 1647 AND REPRINTED IN 1656
BUT NOT IN 1651 102
1651 POEMS 109
POEMS APPEARING ONLY IN THE EDITION OF 1656 159
HENRY KING 161
Introduction 163
Table of Contents 167
The Publishers to the Author 168
POEMS, ELEGIES, PARADOXES, AND SONNETS 169
THOMAS FLATMAN 275
Introduction 277
Dedication 283
To the Reader 284
Commendatory Poems 285
The Contents 294
POEMS AND SONGS 296
NATHANIEL WHITING 423
Introduction 424
Commendatory Poems 428
THE PLEASING HISTORY OF ALBINO AND BELLAMA 439
To those worthy Heroes of our Age, whose noble
Breasts are wet and water'd with the dew of Helicon 539
Il Insonio Insonnadado 540
POEMS
_BY_
J. C.
With Additions, never
before Printed.
[Illustration]
Printed in the Yeare
1653.
_J. Cleaveland_ Revived:
=POEMS,=
ORATIONS,
EPISTLES,
And other of his Genuine
Incomparable Pieces, never
before publisht.
WITH
Some other Exquisite Remains of
the most eminent Wits of both the
Universities that were his
Contemporaries.
_Non norunt hæc monumenta mori._
_LONDON_,
Printed for _Nathaniel Brook_, at the
Angel in Corn-hill. 1659.
_Clievelandi Vindiciæ_;
OR,
CLIEVELAND'S
Genuine POEMS,
Orations, Epistles, _&c._
Purged from the many
False & Spurious Ones
Which had usurped his Name, and
from innumerable Errours and
Corruptions in the True.
To which are added many never
Printed before.
Published according to the Author's own Copies.
_LONDON_,
Printed for _Nath. Brooke_, at the _Angel_ in _Corne-Hill_
near the _Royal Exchange_, 1677.
INTRODUCTION TO JOHN CLEVELAND.
Almost everybody--an everybody not including many bodies--who
has dealt with Cleveland since the revival of interest in
seventeenth-century writers has of necessity dwelt more or less on the
moral that he points, and the tale that he illustrates, if he does not
exactly adorn it. Moral and tale have been also generally summarized
by referring to the undoubted fact that Cleveland had twenty editions
while Milton's _Minor Poems_ had two. I do not propose myself to dwell
long on this part of the matter. The moral diatribe is not my trade:
and while almost any one who wants such a thing can deduce it from
the facts which will be given, those who are unable to effect the
deduction may as well go without it. What I wish to provide is what
it is not easy for any one to provide, and impossible for any one to
provide 'out of his own head'--that is to say an edition, sufficient
for reading and for all literary purposes, of the most probably
authentic of the heterogeneous poems which have clustered round
Cleveland's name. Such an edition did not exist when this collection
of Caroline poets was planned, nor when it was announced: nor has
it been supplied since in this country. One did appear very shortly
afterwards in America,[1] and it has been of use to me: but it
certainly does not make Cleveland's appearance here superfluous. Had
not Professor Case of Liverpool, who had long made Cleveland a special
study, insisted on my giving him in this collection, and most kindly
provided me with stores of his own material, I should not have
attempted the task: and I still hope that Mr. Case will execute a more
extensive edition with the prose, with the doubtful or even certainly
spurious poems duly annotated, and with apparatus which would be out
of place here. It cannot, however, be out of place to include--in
what is almost a corpus of 'metaphysical' poetry of the less easily
accessible class--one who has been regarded from different, but not
very distant, points of view as at once the metaphysical 'furthest'
and as the metaphysical _reductio ad absurdum_.
Cleveland (the name was also very commonly spelt in his own day
'Cleiveland'[2] and 'Cleaveland', as well as otherwise still) was born
at Loughborough, and christened on June 20, 1613. His father, Thomas,
was curate of the parish and assistant master at the Grammar School.
Eight years later the father was made vicar of Hinckley, also provided
with a grammar school, at which John appears to have been educated
till in 1627 he went to Christ's College, Cambridge--where, of course,
the everlasting comparison with his elder contemporary Milton comes in
again for those who like it. He remained at Christ's for seven years
as usual, performing divers college exercises on public occasions,
occasionally of some importance; took his bachelor's degree (also as
usual) in 1631; and in 1634 was elected to a fellowship at St. John's,
proceeding to his M.A. next year. At the end of his probationary
period he did not take orders, but was admitted as _legista_--perhaps
also, though the statement is uncorroborated officially, to the third
learned faculty of Physic. There is also doubt about his incorporation
at Oxford. He served as Tutor and as Rhetoric Praelector: nor are we
destitute of Orations and Epistles of an official character from his
pen. Like the majority of university men at the time--and indeed
like the majority of men of letters and education--he was a strong
Royalist: and was unlikely to stay in Cambridge when the Roundhead mob
of the town was assisted by a Parliamentary garrison in rabbling the
University. It was natural that he should 'retire to Oxon.', and it is
probable that Oxford was his head-quarters from 1642 to 1645. But he
does not seem to have been actually deprived of his fellowship at St.
John's till the last-named year, when the Earl of Manchester, whom
(especially as Lord Kimbolton) Cleveland had bitterly satirized, had
his opportunity of revenge and took it.
For Cleveland had already been active with his pen in the Royalist
cause, and was now appointed to a post of some importance as 'Judge
Advocate' of Newark. The Governor was Sir Richard Willis, for whom
Cleveland replied to Leven's summons to surrender. They held the town
for the King from November to May, when it was given up on Charles's
own order. Then comes the anecdote--more than a hundred years after
date--of Leven's dismissing him with contemptuous lenity. 'Let the
poor fellow go about his business and sell his ballads.' This, though
accepted by Carlyle, and a smart enough invention, has no contemporary
authority, and is made extremely suspicious by its own addition that
Cleveland was so vexed that he took to strong liquors which hastened
his death. Now Newark fell in 1646 and Cleveland lived till 1658. It
would make an interesting examination question, 'How much must a
man drink in a day in order to hasten his death thereby twelve years
afterwards?' And it must be admitted, if true, to be a strong argument
on the side of the good fellow who pleaded that alcohol was a very
_slow_ poison.
He escaped somehow, however: and we hear nothing of his life for
another decade. Then he is again in trouble, being informed against,
to the Council of State, by some Norwich Roundheads who have, however,
nothing to urge against him but his antecedents, his forgathering with
'papists and delinquents', his 'genteel garb' with 'small and scant
means', and (which is important) his 'great abilitie whence he is able
to do the greater disservice', this last a handsome testimonial to
Cleveland, and a remarkable premium upon imbecility. He was
imprisoned at Yarmouth and wrote a very creditable letter to Cromwell,
maintaining his principles, but asking for release, which seems to
have been granted. Cromwell--to do him justice and to alter a line of
his greatest panegyrist save one in verse on another person--
Never _persecuted_ but for gain,
and he probably did not agree with the officious persons at Norwich
that there was much to be gained by incarcerating a poor Royalist
poet. But Cleveland had been at least three months in prison, and it
is alleged, with something more like _vera causa_ in the allegation,
that he there contracted 'such a weakness and disorder as soon after
brought him to the grave'. A seventeenth-century prison was much
more likely to kill a man in two years than 'strong waters' which had
already been vigorously applied and successfully resisted for ten. He
died in Gray's Inn, of an intermittent fever, on April 29, 1658.
Something will be said presently of the almost hopeless tangle of the
so-called editions of Cleveland's _Poems_. It seems at least probable
that no single one of the twenty--or whatever the number is--can be
justly called authoritative. That he was an extremely popular poet
or rather journalist in verse as well as prose, is absolutely beyond
dispute--the very tangle just referred to proves it--and, though it
may be excessive to call him the most popular poet of his time, he may
fairly be bracketed with Cowley as joint holder of that position. Nor
did his popularity cease as quickly as Cowley's did--the Restoration
indeed was likely to increase rather than diminish it; and the
editions went on till close upon the Revolution itself, while there
were at least two after it, one just on the eve of the eighteenth
century in 1699 and one near its middle in 1742.[3] Considerably
before this, however, the critics had turned against him. 'Grave men',
to quote Edward Phillips and the _Theatrum Poetarum_, 'affirmed him
the best of English poets', but not for long. Fuller, who actually
admired him, admitted that 'Clevelandizing' was dangerous; and Dryden,
who must have admired him at one time, and shows constant traces
of his influence, talks in the _Essay of Dramatic Poesy_ of a
'Catachresis or Clevelandism'. In the eighteenth century he passed
almost out of sight till Johnson brought him up for 'awful exampling'
in the famous Life of Cowley: and he has had few advocates since. Let
us, without borrowing from these advocates or attempting tediously to
confute his enemies, deal with the facts, so far as they are known, of
his life, and with the characteristics of the carefully sifted, but in
no sense 'selected', poetry which will follow.
As for his character as a man, the evidence is entirely in his favour.
He was an honest and consistent politician on his own side, and if
some people think it the wrong side, others are equally positive that
it was the right. If (rather unfairly) we dismiss the encomia on his
character as partisan, there remains the important fact that no one on
the other side says anything definite against it. If he was abusive,
it certainly does not lie with anybody who admires Milton to reproach
him with that. But the fact is, once more, that except in so far as
there is a vague idea that a cavalier, and especially a cavalier poet,
must have been a 'deboshed' person, there is absolutely no evidence
against Cleveland and much in his favour. Also, this is not our
business, which is with him as a poet.
As such he has been subjected to very little really critical
examination.[4] The result of such as I myself have been able to give
him was arrived at somewhat slowly: or rather it flashed upon me,
after reading the poems several times over in different arrangements,
that which gives the serious and satiric pieces higgledy-piggledy as
in the older editions, and that which separates them, as in 1677 and
in Mr. Berdan's American reprint. This result is that I entertain a
very serious doubt whether Cleveland _ever_ wrote 'serious' poetry,
in one sense--he was of course serious enough in his satires--at all.
That, on the other hand, he deliberately set himself to burlesque the
'metaphysical' manner I do not think: or at least (for rather minute
definition is necessary here) I do not think that he executed this
burlesque with any reforming intention or any particular contempt for
the style. Like Butler, whom he in so many ways resembles--who pretty
certainly owed him not a little, and of whom he was, as has often been
pointed out, a sort of rough copy or spoiled draft--he was what he
satirized in the literary way, and he caricatured himself. Of course
if anybody thinks, as the _Retrospective_ Reviewer thought, that
'Fuscara' and 'To the State of Love' are actually and intrinsically
'beautiful specimens of poetic conception', he will scout my notion.
But I do not think that any one who has done me the honour even to
look into these volumes will think me an 'antimetaphysical', and
I must confess that I can see only occasional poetry here--only a
caricature of such methods as may be suggested by Donne's 'Bracelet'
piece, and the best things in Crashaw. It is, for instance, a very
tell-tale thing that there is not, in Cleveland's work, a single one
of the lovely lyrics that enshrine and ennoble the conceits in almost
every one else of the school, from Donne himself to Sherburne.
An American critic, defending Cleveland with the delightful
indiscreetness of most defenders, maintains that these lyrics were
failures--that they were _not_ characteristic of the time. Well, let
us be thankful that almost everybody down to Kynaston and John Hall
'failed' in this way not seldom.
But Cleveland never failed in it: and unfortunately it wants a failure
or two at least of this kind to make a poet. To illustrate what I
mean, let me refer readers to Benlowes--comparison of Cleveland
with whom would not long ago have been impossible except in a large
library. Benlowes is as extravagant as Cleveland, whom (I rather
think) he sometimes copied.[5] But he cannot help this kind of poetic
'failure' from breaking in. Cleveland can, or rather I should say that
he does not try--or has no need to try--to keep it out. In 'Fuscara',
eminently; in 'To the State of Love', perhaps most prettily; in the
'Antiplatonic', most vigorously--in all his poems more or less, he
sets himself to work to accumulate and elaborate conceits for their
own sake. They are not directly suggested by the subject and still
less by each other; they are no spray or froth of passion; they never
suggest (as all the best examples and many not so good in others do)
that indomitable reaching after the infinite which results at least in
an infinite unexpectedness. They are merely card-castles of 'wit' in
its worst sense; mechanical games of extravagant idea-twisting which
simply aim at 'making records'. It is true that people admired them
for being this. It is still truer that similar literary exercises may
be found, and found popular, at the present day. It is even true,
as will be shown later, that it is possible positively to enjoy them
still. But these are different questions.
If Cleveland had little or nothing of the poetry of enthusiastic
thought and feeling, he had not much more of the poetry of
accomplished form, though here also he is exceptionally interesting.
His 'Mark Antony'[6] has been indicated as an early example of
'dactylic' metre. It certainly connects interestingly with some songs
of Dryden's, and has an historical position of its own, but I am by
no means sure (_v. inf._) that it was meant to be dactylic or even
anapaestic.
Cleveland, therefore, was not a great poet, nor even a failure of one:
but he was but just a failure of a very great satirist. Even here, of
course, the Devil's Advocate will find only too much to say against
him. Every one of the pieces requires the editing, polishing, and
criticizing which (we know pretty well) the author never gave to
anything of his. Every one suffers from Cleveland's adoption of the
same method which he used in his purely metaphysical poems, that of
stringing together and heaping up images and observations, instead of
organizing and incorporating them. Every one is a tangled tissue
of temporary allusion, needing endless scholiastry to unravel and
elucidate it. It has been said, and it is true, that we find not a few
reminiscences of Cleveland in Dryden. There is even in the couplet of
the older and smaller poet something of the weight, the impetus,
the _animosity_ of that of the younger and greater. But of Dryden's
_ordonnance_, his generalship, his power of coupling up his couplets
into irresistible column, Cleveland has practically nothing. He has
something of his own 'Rupertismus': but nothing more.
But, for all that, the Satires give us ample reason for understanding
why the Roundheads persecuted Cleveland, and justify their fear of his
'abilities'. He has, though an unequal, an occasional command of
the 'slap-in-the-face' couplet which--as has just been said--not
impossibly taught something to Dryden, or at least awoke something in
him. 'The Rebel Scot', his best thing, does not come so very far short
of the opportunity which the Scots had given: and its most famous
distich
Had Cain been Scot, God would have changed his doom,
Not forced him wander, but confined him home,
was again and again revived till the unpopularity of North with South
Britain flamed out last in Bute's time, a hundred years and more after
Cleveland's. Of course it is only ignorance which thinks that this
form of the couplet was invented by Cleveland, or even in his time. It
may be found in Elizabeth's, and in Cleveland's own day was sporadic;
nor did he himself ever approach such continuous and triumphant use of
it as Dryden achieved only two years after Cleveland's own death. But
there is, so to speak, the 'atmosphere' of it, and that atmosphere
occasionally condenses into very concrete thunderbolts. Unfortunately
he knew no mood but abuse, and such an opportunity as that of the
'Elegy on Laud' is almost entirely lost.
However, such as he is--in measure as full as can with any confidence
be imparted; and omitting of course prose work--he is now before the
reader, who will thus be able at last to form his own judgement on
a writer who, perhaps of all English writers, combines the greatest
popularity in his own time with the greatest inaccessibility in modern
editions.
Nor should any reader be deterred from making the examination by the
strictures which have been given above on Cleveland's purely poetical
methods and merits. These strictures were made as cautions, and as a
kind of antidote to the writer's own undisguised partiality for the
'metaphysical' style. It is true that Cleveland, like Benlowes, has
something of a helot of that style about him: and that his want of
purely lyrical power deprives his readers of much of the solace of
his (if not of their) sin. But those natures must be very morose, very
prosaic, or at best steeled against everything else by abhorrence of
'False Wit' who can withstand a certain tickling of amused enjoyment
at the enormous yet sometimes pretty quaintnesses of 'Fuscara' itself;
and still more at those of the 'To the State of Love', which is
his happiest non-satirical thing. From the preliminary wish to be a
'Shaker' to the final description of Chanticleer as
That Baron Tell-Clock of the night,
the thing is a kind of a carnival of conceit, a fairy-tale of the
fantastic. 'To Julia to expedite her Promise' is somewhat more
laboured and so less happy: and the loss of the lyric form in 'The
Hecatomb to his Mistress' is considerable. The heroic couplet squares
ill with this sort of thing: but the octasyllabic admits it fairly,
and so 'The Antiplatonic' with its greater part, and 'Upon Phillis
walking' with the whole in this metre, are preferable. Yet it must be
acknowledged that one heroic couplet in the former--
Like an ambassador that beds a queen
With the nice caution of a sword between,
is worthy of Dryden. Most of the other _seria_ are but _nugae_: and
the chief interest of the 'Edward King' epicede, besides its contrast
with _Lycidas_, is its pretty certain position as model to Dryden's
'Lord Hastings'. But the two 'Mark Antony' pieces and 'Square-Cap'
demand, both from the point of view of tone and from that of metre,
more attention than was given to them above.
If any one not previously acquainted with the piece or the discussions
about it will turn to the text of 'Mark Antony' and read it either
aloud or to himself, I should say that, in the common phrase, it is
a toss-up what scansion his voice will adopt supposing that he
'commences with the commencement'. The first stanza can run quite
agreeably to the usual metrical arrangements of the time, thus:
When as | the night|ingale | chanted | her vespers
And the | wild for|ester | couched on | the ground,
Venus | invi|ted me | in th' eve|ning whispers
Unto | a fra|grant field | with ros|es crowned,
Where she | before | had sent
My wish|es' com|pliment;
Unto | my heart's | content
Played with | me on | the green.
Never | Mark Ant|ony
Dallied | more wan|tonly
With the fair | Egypt|ian Queen.
or, in technical language, a decasyllabic quatrain, like _Annus
Mirabilis_ or Gray's _Elegy_, but with hypercatalexis or redundance
in the first and third lines and occasional trochees for iambics;
followed by a batch, rhymed _a a a b c c b_, of seven three-foot lines
also iambic. This, which as far as the first quatrain is concerned
is very nearly the exact metre of Emily Brontë's _Remembrance_ and of
Myers's _St. Paul_, suits the second and third stanzas as well as the
first.
When the reader comes to the fourth stanza, or if, like some irregular
spirits, he takes the last first and begins with it, the most
obvious scansion, though the lines are syllabically the same, will be
different.
Mys¦tical | gram¦mar of | am¦orous | glan¦ces;
Feel¦ing of | pul¦ses, the | phy¦sic of | love;
Rhetor¦ical | cour¦tings and | mu¦sical | dan¦ces;
Num¦bering of | kiss¦es a¦rith¦metic | prove;
Eyes ¦ like a|stron¦omy;
Straight-¦limbed ge|om¦etry;
In ¦ her art's | in¦geny
Our wits ¦ were | sharp ¦ and keen.
Ne¦ver Mark | An¦tony
Dal¦lied more | wan¦tonly
With the fair ¦ | Egypt¦ian | Queen.
(Trisyllabic rhythm either dactylic[7] or anapaestic[8] as may be on
general principles preferred.) And this may have occurred to him even
with the first as thus:
When ¦ as the | night¦ingale | chan¦ted her | ves¦pers.
Now which of these is to be preferred? and which did the author mean?
(two questions which are not so identical as they may seem). My own
answer, which I have already given elsewhere,[9] is that both are
uncertain, and that he probably had each of the rhythms in his head,
but confusedly.[10]
'Square Cap' is much less doubtful, or not doubtful at all, and it may
be thought to prove the anapaestic-dactylic scansion, especially the
anapaestic of 'Mark Antony'. For it will be observed that, even from
the first two verses, you can get no iambic run, except of the most
tumbling character, on the line _here_.
Come hith|er, Apoll|o's bounc|ing girl,
And in | a whole hip|pocrene | of sherry
Let 's drink | a round | till our brains | do whirl,
Tu|ning our pipes | to make | ourselves merry.
_A Cam|bridge lass, Ve|nus-like born | of the froth
Of an old | half-filled jug | of bar|ley broth,
She, she | is my mis|tress, her sui|tors are many,
But she'll | have a Square|-cap if e'er | she have any_.
The problem is scarcely one for dogmatic decision, but it is one of
some interest, and of itself entitles Cleveland to attention of the
prosodic kind. For these pieces are quite early--before 1645--and
a third, 'How the Commencement grows new' (q.v.), is undeniably
trisyllabic and meant for some such a tune as the 'Sellenger's Round'
which it mentions.
With such a combination of interests, political, historical, poetical
(as regards school and period), and prosodic, it will hardly be denied
that Cleveland deserves his place here. But I must repeat that I am
here endeavouring to deal with him strictly on the general principles
of this Collection, and am in no way trying to occupy the ground so as
to keep out a more elaborate edition. I have had help from my
friends Professors Firth and Case in information and correction of
contemporary facts; but full comment on Cleveland, from the historical
side, would nearly fill this volume: and the problems of the work
attributed to him would suffice for a very substantial bibliographical
monograph. Neither of these, nor any exhaustive apparatus, even of
the textual kind, do I pretend to supply. I simply endeavour--and have
spent not a little time and trouble in endeavouring--to provide the
student and lover of English literature with an accessible copy,
sufficient in amount and fairly trustworthy in substance, of a curious
and memorable figure in English verse.[11]
[Footnote 1: _Poems of John Cleveland_, by John M. Berdan, New
York, 1903.]
[Footnote 2: It has been said that we ought to adopt
this spelling because of its connexion with a district of
Yorkshire, which, before it was ransacked for iron ore, was
both wild and beautiful. But as everybody now spells _this_
'Cleveland', and as the title derived from it has always been
so spelt, the argument seems an odd one.]
[Footnote 3: I am not certain that I have seen a copy of this,
and its existence has been denied: but I have certainly seen
it catalogued somewhere. It should perhaps be added that
_1699_ is only _1687_ with a fresh title.]
[Footnote 4: The most important treatments besides Johnson's,
treatments usefully separated in date, are contained in the
_Retrospective Review_ (vol. xii), Mr. Gosse's remarks in
_From Shakespeare to Pope_, and Mr. Berdan's in the edition
above mentioned.]
[Footnote 5: They were both St. John's men; and Benlowes must
have been a benefactor of the College (see Evelyn's _Diary_)
while Cleveland was Fellow. Also Cleveland's Poems had been
published, and again and again republished, years before
_Theophila_ appeared.]
[Footnote 6: The _Retrospective_ eulogist was deeply hurt by
Cleveland's parodying this, and of course drags in Milton once
more. 'Could one fancy Milton parodying _Lycidas_?' Now
there is considerable difference between 'Mark Antony' and
_Lycidas_: nor did Cleveland, so far as we know, dream of
parodying his own poem on King. If Milton had had the humour
to parody some of his own work, it would have been much the
better for him and for us. No doubt Cleveland's actual parody
is rather coarse and not extraordinarily witty: but there is
no more objection to it in principle than to Thackeray's two
forms of the 'Willow Song' in _Ottilia_.]
[Footnote 7: Marked by straight bars.]
[Footnote 8: Marked by dotted bars.]
[Footnote 9: _History of English Prosody_ (London, 1906-10),
vol. iii, app. iii.]
[Footnote 10: _Very_ confusedly on the trisyllabic side or
ear: for 'In th' [)e]ven[)i]ng' is a very awkward dactyl, and
'th' [)e]ven[=i]ng wh[=i]sp' not a much cleverer anapaest,
while the same remark applies to 'fr[=a]gr[)a]nt f[)i]eld' and
'w[=i]th r[=o]s[)e]s' and their anapaestic counterparts.]
[Footnote 11: The extraordinary complexity of the editions
of Cleveland has been glanced at above. The following summary
will at least give the reader some idea of the facts, and the
two original Prefaces will extra-illustrate these facts with
some views of causes. It need only be added here that the
principle of the collection now given is, of course, to
exclude everything that is certainly _not_ Cleveland's: and,
in giving what certainly and probably is his, to arrange the
items as far as possible in the order of their publication
in the author's lifetime, though the impossibility of working
with an actually complete collection of all the issues before
one may have occasioned some error here. In the following
abstract only the _Poems_ are referred to, as they alone
concern us.
The original collection is contained in _The Character of a
London Diurnal_ [prose] with several select _Poems_, London,
1647. This was reprinted in the same year and the next so
often that some admit _thirteen_ different issues (of course,
as was usual at the time, sometimes only 'stop-press' batches
with slight changes made in what is practically the same
edition), while no one I think has allowed less than _five_.
There are substantive additions in several of these, but
the singular characteristic of the whole, and indeed of
Cleveland's published _Poems_ generally, is that part of the
matter, even in the very earliest issue, is certainly not his:
and that in very early forms these pieces were coolly headed
'Uncertain Authors'. The extent to which this jumbling and
misattributing went on in the seventeenth century is generally
if not very precisely known from the famous cases of _Sic
Vita_ (_v. inf._, on Bishop King, &c.), and of the epitaph
sometimes assigned to Browne, more usually to Jonson. Another
almost equally strange, though perhaps not so commonly known,
is the assignment of some of the poems of a writer of position
like the dramatist James Shirley to Carew. But Cleveland must
have been rather exceptionally careless of his work during
his life, and he was treated with exceptional impudence (see
Williamson's _Preface_) after his death. The process went on
in 1651, to which two issues are assigned, with three or four
pretty certainly spurious additions, while 1653 and 1654 each
saw two more, the last being printed again in 1656 and 1657.
This last was also the last printed in Cleveland's lifetime.
But he was hardly dead when in 1659 two different issues,
each of them many times reprinted, took the most astounding
liberties with his name. The first foisted in more than thirty
pieces by Robert Fletcher, the translator of Martial. The
other, calling itself _Cleveland Revived_, contains the
remarkable and perfectly frank explanation, given below,
of the principles on which the work of Mr. Williamson was
conducted, and the critical notions which directed his
'virtuous endeavours'.
From the disaster of this singular fashion of building a
poet's monument out of the fragments of other people's work,
Cleveland may be said to have never been entirely relieved.
For though twenty years later, in 1677 _Clievelandi Vindiciae_
(Preface and full title again subjoined) undertook the task
and provided a sort of standard (which may, however, be
over-valued), ten years later still, in 1687, the purged
collection was reissued with all the spurious matter from
previous ones heaped again on it, and this, with a fresh
reissue (new title-paged and with a pasted-on finis[A]) in
1699, appear to be the commonest copies that occur.
In such a tangle it is not easy to know how to proceed, and I
had made and discarded several plans before I fixed upon that
actually adopted. I have taken the edition of 1653, which,
with its reprints almost unaltered to 1657, represents the
latest text current during the author's life and during a full
lustrum of that. The contents of this I have printed, putting
its few _spuria_ in italic, in the order in which they there
appear. Next, I have given a few additions from 1677 (the only
one of the later accessible editions which even pretends
to give Cleveland, the whole Cleveland, and nothing but
Cleveland) and other sources. As was notified above, complete
_apparatus criticus_ is not attempted in a text with such
a history, for this would only suit a complete edition of
Cleveland's whole works: but variants of apparent importance
are supplied. I should add that while I myself have for many
years possessed the _textus quasi-receptus_ of 1677, the
exceeding kindness of Mr. Case left on my shelves--for a time
disgracefully long as far as I am concerned--copies of 1653
itself, 1654, 1659, 1662 (with the 'exquisite remains' of
Dick, Tom, and Harry), 1665, 1668, 1669 (with the letters
added), and the _omnium gatherums_ of 1687 and 1699. The
Bodleian copies of the _Poems_ of 1647, 1651, 1653, 1654,
1657, 1659, 1662, 1668, 1669, 1677, 1687 have also been used
to check the collations; and the stitched quartos of _The
King's Disguise_ (undated, but known to be 1647) and the _News
from Newcastle_, 1651. The British Museum broadside of _The
Scots' Apostasy_ has also been collated. Mr. Berdan's edition
I have already mentioned. I have treated the text, as far as
modernization of spelling goes, on the same principles as in
preceding volumes.[B]
]
[Footnote A: This is apparently peculiar to some, perhaps to
one, copy. The British Museum, Bodleian, &c. copies have it
not.]
[Footnote B: Since the above Introduction was first written
an additional revision of the texts has been made by Mr. Percy
Simpson with assistance from Mr. Thorn-Drury, as referred to
in the General Preface of this volume. There can be no doubt
that their labours, superadded to those of Professor Case,
have enabled me to put forth in this edition a text infinitely
superior to any previous one, though my part of the credit is
the least. Yet, after all, I dare say Cleveland remains, as he
has been impartially described, 'a terrible tangle'.]
CONTENTS
PAGE
Preface of _Cleaveland Revived_ 15
Preface of _Clievelandi Vindiciae_ 17
POEMS FROM THE 1653 EDITION:
To the State of Love 19
The Hecatomb to his Mistress 21
Upon Sir Thomas Martin 24
On the Memory of Mr. Edward King 26
Upon an Hermaphrodite 28
The Author's Hermaphrodite 30
* _To the Hectors upon the unfortunate
death of H. Compton_ 32
Square-Cap 33
Upon Phillis walking in a morning
before sun-rising 35
Upon a Miser that made a great
feast, and the next day died
for grief 36
A Young Man to an Old Woman
courting him 39
To Mrs. K. T. 41
A Fair Nymph scorning a Black
Boy courting her 42
A Dialogue between two Zealots
upon the &c. in the Oath 43
Smectymnuus, or the Club-Divines 45
The Mixed Assembly 49
The King's Disguise 52
The Rebel Scot 56
The Scots' Apostasy 60
Rupertismus 62
Epitaph on the Earl of Strafford 67
An Elegy upon the Archbishop
of Canterbury 68
* _On I. W. A .B. of York_ 69
Mark Antony 71
The Author's Mock Song to
Mark Antony 72
How the Commencement grows new 73
The Hue and Cry after Sir John
Presbyter 75
The Antiplatonic 77
Fuscara, or the Bee Errant 79
* _An Elegy upon Doctor Chad[d]erton,
the first Master of
Emanuel College in Cambridge_ 81
* _Mary's Spikenard_ 82
To Julia to expedite her Promise 83
POEMS IN 1677 BUT NOT IN 1653:
Upon Princess Elizabeth, born
the night before New Year's Day 85
The General Eclipse 85
Upon the King's Return from Scotland 86
POEMS CERTAINLY OR PROBABLY GENUINE,
NOT IN 1653 OR 1677:
An Elegy on Ben Jonson 87
News from Newcastle 88
An Elegy upon King Charles the First 92
As stated above, it has been thought better to follow the
miscellaneous arrangement of _1653_ than the classified but not
strictly chronological one of _1677_. For those, however, who may
desire it, the chronological order of the _political_ poems is here
added: 1637-8, _Princess Elizabeth's Birth_; 1640, _A Dialogue_; 1641,
_Epitaph on Strafford_, _Smectymnuus_, _The King's Return_; 1642,
_Rupertismus_; 1643, _Upon Sir Thomas Martin_, _The Mixed Assembly_;
1643-4, _The Rebel Scot_, _The Scots' Apostasy_; 1645, _The Hue and
Cry_, _Elegy on Laud_, _The General Eclipse_, _The King's Disguise_;
1649, _Elegy on Charles I_.
_Preface of Cleaveland Revived_
To the Discerning Reader.
<Prefixed to _Cleaveland Revived_, 1659[1]>
Worthy Friend, there is a saying, _Once well done, and ever done_;
the wisest men have so considerately acted in their times, as by their
learned works to build their own monuments, such as might eternize
them to future ages: our Jonson named his, Works, when others were
called Plays, though they cost him much of the lamp and oil; yet he
so writ, as to oblige posterity to admire them. Our deceased Hero, Mr.
Cleveland, knew how to difference legitimate births from abortives,
his mighty genius anvilled out what he sent abroad, as his informed
mind knew how to distinguish betwixt writing much and well; a few of
our deceased poet's pages being worth cartloads of the scribblers of
these times. It was my fortune to be in Newark, when it was besieged,
where I saw a few [some] manuscripts of Mr. Cleveland's. Amongst
others I have heard that he writ of the Treaty at Uxbridge, as I have
been informed since by a person I intrusted to speak with one of Mr.
Cleveland's noble friends, who received him courteously, and satisfied
his inquiries; as concerning the papers that were left in his custody,
more particularly of the Treaty at Uxbridge, that it was not finished,
nor any of his other papers fit for the press. They were offered to
the judicious consideration of one of the most accomplished persons
of our age, he refusing to have them in any further examination, as he
did not conceive that they could be published without some injury to
Mr. Cleveland; from which time they have remained sealed and locked
up: neither can I wonder at this obstruction, when I consider the
disturbances our author met with in the time of the siege, how scarce
and bad the paper was, the ink hardly to be discerned on it. The
intimacy I had with Mr. Cleveland before and since these civil wars,
gained most of these papers from him, it being not the least of his
misfortunes, out of the love he had to pleasure his friends, to be
unfurnished with his own manuscripts, as I have heard him say often.
He was not so happy as to have any considerable collection of his own
papers, they being dispersed amongst his friends; some whereof when
he writ for them, he had no other answer, but that they were lost, or
through the often reading, transcribing, or folding of them, worn
to pieces. So that though he knew where he formerly bestowed some of
them, yet they were not to be regained. For which reason, the poems he
had left in his hands being so few, [and] of so inconsiderable [small]
a volume, he could not (though he was often solicited) with honour to
himself give his consent to the publishing of them, though indeed most
of his former printed poems were truly his own, except such as have
been lately added, to make up the volume. At the first some few of
his verses were printed with the[2] character of the London Diurnal, a
stitched pamphlet in quarto. Afterwards, as I have heard Mr. Cleveland
say, the copies of verses that he communicated to his friends, the
book-seller by chance meeting with them, being added to his book,
they sold him another impression; in like manner such small additions
(though but a paper or two of his incomparable verses or prose)
posted off other editions, [whereas this edition hath the happiness
to flourish with the remainder of Mr. Cleveland's last never before
printed pieces.] I acknowledge some few of these papers I received
[many of these last new printed papers] from one of Mr. Cleveland's
near acquaintance, which when I sent to his ever to be honoured friend
of Grays-Inn, he had not at that time the leisure to peruse them; but
for what he had read of them, he told the person I intrusted, that he
did believe them to be Mr. Cleveland's, he having formerly spoken of
such papers of his, that were abroad in the hands of his friends, whom
he could not remember. My intention was to reserve the collection of
these manuscripts for my own private use; but finding many of these
I had in my hands already published in the former poems, not knowing
what further proceedings might attend the forwardness of the press,
I thought myself concerned, not out of any worldly [unworthy] ends of
profit, but out of a true affection to my deceased friend, to publish
these his never [other] before extant pieces in Latin and English and
to make this to be somewhat [like] a volume for the study. Some other
poems are intermixed, such as the reader shall find to be of such
persons as were for the most part Mr. Cleveland's contemporaries; some
of them no less eminently known to the three nations. I hope the world
cannot be so far mistaken in his genuine muse, as not to discern his
pieces from any of the other poems; neither can I believe there are
any persons so unkind, as not candidly to entertain the heroic fancies
of the other gentlemen that are worthily placed to live in this
volume. Some of their poems, contrary to my expectation--I being at
such a distance--I have since heard[3] were before in print, but as
they are excellently good and so few, the [but in this second edition
I have crossed them out, only reserving those that were excellently
good, and never before extant. The] reader (I hope) will the more
freely accept them. Thus having ingenuously satisfied thee in these
particulars, I shall not need to insert more; but that I have, to
prevent surreptitious editions, published this collection; that
by erecting this Pyramid of Honour, I might oblige posterity to
perpetuate their memories, which is the highest ambition of him, who
is,
Newark. Nov. 21, 1658.
Yours in all virtuous endeavours,
E. WILLIAMSON.
[Footnote 1: This singular production is, in the original,
punctuated after a fashion very suitable, in its entire
irrationality, to the sentiments of its writer; but I have
taken the liberty (and no other) of relieving the reader of
an additional burden by at least separating the sentences. The
second edition of 1660 shows some alterations which are given
above in brackets.
Whether Mr. Williamson was one of the most impudent persons
in the world, or merely (which seems more probable) an abject
fool, may be left to the reader to determine. The thing does
not seem to require much, if any, annotation. The author, I
think, is not otherwise known, and the name is common enough.
The well-known Secretary Williamson must have been his
contemporary, and may have had some connexion with our paragon
besides that of Cavalier principles. But _he_ was Joseph.]
[Footnote 2: 'a character' 1662 (third edition).]
[Footnote 3: 'I have since heard' omitted in 1662.]
The Stationer to the Reader.
<Prefixed to _Cleaveland Revived_, 1660>
Courteous Reader, thy free Acceptance of the former edition,
encouraged me so far as to use my best diligence to gain what still
remained in the hands of the Author's friends. I acknowledge myself
to be obliged to Mr. Williamson, whose worthy example Mr. Cleveland's
other honourers have since pursued. I shall not trouble thee, Reader,
with any further Apologies, but only subscribe Mr. W. W. his last
Verses in his following Elegy on Mr. Cleveland.
That Plagiary that can filch but one
Conceit from Him, and keep the Theft unknown,
At Noon from Phoebus, may by the same sleight,
Steal Beams, and make 'em pass for his own light.
<Prefixed to _Clievelandi Vindiciae_, 1677[1]>
To the Right Worshipful and Reverend Francis Turner, D.D., Master of
St. John's College in Cambridge, and to the Worthy Fellows of the same
College.
GENTLEMEN,
That we interrupt your more serious studies with the offer of this
piece, the injury that hath been and is done to the deceased author's
ashes not only pleadeth our excuse, but engageth you (whose once he
was, and within whose walls this standard of wit was first set up) in
the same quarrel with us.
Whilst Randolph and Cowley lie embalmed in their own native wax, how
is the name and memory of Cleveland equally profaned by those that
usurp, and those that blaspheme it?--by those that are ambitious to
lay their cuckoo's eggs in his nest, and those that think to raise up
Ph[oe]nixes of wit by firing his spicy bed about him?
We know you have, not without passionate resentments, beheld the
prostitution of his name in some late editions vended under it,
wherein his orations are murthered over and over in barbarous Latin,
and a more barbarous translation: and wherein is scarce one or other
poem of his own to commute for all the rest. At least every Cuirassier
of his hath a fulsome dragooner behind him, and Venus is again
unequally yoked with a sooty anvil-beater. Cleveland thus revived
dieth another death.
You cannot but have beheld with like zealous indignation how enviously
our late mushroom-wits look up at him because he overdroppeth them,
and snarl at his brightness as dogs at the Moon.
Some of these grand Sophys will not allow him the reputation of wit at
all: yet how many such authors must be creamed and spirited to make
up his Fuscara?[2] And how many of their slight productions may be
gigged[3] out of one of his pregnant words? There perhaps you may find
some leaf-gold, here massy wedges; there some scattered rays, here a
galaxy; there some loose fancy frisking in the air, here Wit's Zodiac.
The quarrel in all this is upbraiding merit, and eminence his crime.
His towering[4] fancy scareth so high a pitch that they fly like
shades below him. The torrent thereof (which riseth far above their
high water mark) drowneth their levels. Usurping upon the State Poetic
of the time, he hath brought in such insolent measures of Wit and
Language that, despairing to imitate, they must study to understand.
That alone is Wit with them to which they are commensurate, and what
exceedeth their scantling[5] is monstrous.
Thus they deifie[6] his Wit and Fancy as the clown the plump oyster
when he could not crack it. And now instead of that strenuous
masculine style which breatheth in this author, we have only an
enervous effeminate froth offered, as if they had taken the salivating
pill before they set pen to paper. You must hold your breath in the
perusal lest the jest vanish by blowing on.
Another blemish in this monster of perfection is the exuberance of his
fancy. His manna lieth so thick upon the ground they loathe it. When
he should only fan, he with hurricanos of wit stormeth the sense, and
doth not so much delight his reader, as oppress and overwhelm him.
To cure this excess, their frugal wit hath reduced the world to a
Lessian Diet.[7] If perhaps they entertain their reader with one good
thought (as these new Dictators affect to speak) he may sit down and
say Grace over it: the rest is words and nothing else.
We will leave them therefore to the most proper vengeance, to humour
themselves with the perusal of their own poems: and leave the barber
to rub their thick skulls with bran[8] until they are fit for musk.
Only we will leave this friendly advice with them; that they have one
eye upon John Tradescant's executor,[9] lest among his other Minims of
Art and Nature he expose their slight conceits: and another upon the
Royal Society, lest they make their poems the counterbalance when they
intend to weigh air.
From these unequal censures we appeal to such competent judges as
yourselves, in whose just value of him Cleveland shall live the wonder
of his own, and the pattern of succeeding ages. And although we might
(upon several accompts) bespeak your affections, yet (abstracting from
these) we submit him to your severer judgements, and doubt not but he
will find that patronage from you which is desired and expected by
Your humble Servants.
J. L. S. D.[10]
[Footnote 1: Here we get into _terra cognita_ as regards
authorship. The editors had been, both of them, Cleveland's
pupils at St. John's. 'J. L.' was John Lake (1624-1689), a
man of great distinction--at this time Vicar of Leeds and
Prebendary of York, later Bishop, first of Sodor and Man and
then of Chichester, who while he held the last-named see
had the double glory of withstanding James II as one of 'the
Seven', and of refusing the Oath to William. 'S. D.' was also
a Yorkshire clergyman--Samuel Drake--who had not only studied
under Cleveland at Cambridge, but fought under him at Newark.
He became Vicar of Pontefract; but (if the _D.N.B._ is right
in assigning his death to the year 1673) his work on the great
vindication of his tutor must have been done some time before
publication. Francis Turner (1638-1700), of a much younger
generation and an Oxford man, though admitted _ad eundem_ at
Cambridge in 1662, had been Master of St. John's College since
1670, and was therefore properly selected as chief dedicatee.
He was destined to be connected with Lake again in the great
actions above noted as Bishop of Ely, and for the last ten
years of his life was an active Jacobite agent.]
[Footnote 2: The description of _Cleaveland Revived_ in the
third paragraph is perfectly just, and 'anvil-beater' is an
obvious echo-gibe at Williamson's own phraseology. It is less
certain what 'grand Sophys' are specially referred to further
on--but Dryden _might_ be one.]
[Footnote 3: A Clevelandish word; _v. infra_, p. 65
(_Rupertismus_, l. 120).]
[Footnote 4: In orig., as often, 'touring', but to print this
nowadays would invite misconception.]
[Footnote 5: 'Scantling' is used in various senses. Either
that of 'rough draft' or, as in Taylor, 'small piece' would
do; but it is at least possible that it is not a noun at all,
but a direct participle from the verb to 'scantle', found in
Drayton, and meaning 'to be deficient', 'come short'. Some,
however, prefer the sense 'dimension' or 'measurement', which
would make it a sort of varied repetition of 'commensurate'.]
[Footnote 6: 'Deifie' is of course wrong. 'Defy' is likeliest,
and in a certain sense (frequent in Elizabethan writers) would
do; but 'decry' seems wanted.]
[Footnote 7: A common phrase for an earlier 'Banting' regime
derived from the _Hygiasticon_ (Antwerp, 1623) of Leonard
Lessius (1554-1624). I owe this information to the kindness
of Dr. Comrie, Lecturer on the History of Medicine in the
University of Edinburgh. The next sentence may, or rather
must, be a reference to (in fact, a fling at) Dryden, _Essay
of Dramatic Poesy_ (vol. i, p. 52, ed. Ker, Oxford, 1900),
who censures Cleveland for not giving 'a _great_ thought' in
'words ... commonly received'. I owe the reminder of this to
Mr. Thorn-Drury.]
[Footnote 8: The use of bran for shampooing is not perhaps so
well known as that for poultices, foot-baths, &c. It is always
a _softener_ as well as a detergent.]
[Footnote 9: Ashmole.]
[Footnote 10: Perhaps I should add a very few words explaining
why I have not made this 'authenticated' edition the base of
mine. I have not done so because the editors, excellent as was
evidently their intention, have after all given us no reasons
for their exclusions and inclusions; because, though they
have corrected some obvious errors, their readings by no means
always intrinsically commend themselves to me; and especially
because the distance between 1647 and 1677 reflects itself,
to no small degree, in a certain definite _modernisation_
of form, grammatical and prosodic. 1653 has much more
_contemporariness_.]
POEMS.
To the State of Love. Or the Senses' Festival.
I saw a vision yesternight,
Enough to sate a Seeker's sight;
I wished myself a Shaker there,
And her quick pants my trembling sphere.
It was a she so glittering bright,
You'd think her soul an Adamite;
A person of so rare a frame,
Her body might be lined with' same.
Beauty's chiefest maid of honour,
You may break Lent with looking on her. 10
Not the fair Abbess of the skies,
With all her nunnery of eyes,
Can show me such a glorious prize!
And yet, because 'tis more renown
To make a shadow shine, she's brown;
A brown for which Heaven would disband
The galaxy, and stars be tanned;
Brown by reflection as her eye
Deals out the summer's livery.
Old dormant windows must confess 20
Her beams; their glimmering spectacles,
Struck with the splendour of her face,
Do th' office of a burning-glass.
Now where such radiant lights have shown,
No wonder if her cheeks be grown
Sunburned, with lustre of her own.
My sight took pay, but (thank my charms!)
I now impale her in mine arms;
(Love's compasses confining you,
Good angels, to a circle too.) 30
Is not the universe strait-laced
When I can clasp it in the waist?
My amorous folds about thee hurled,
With Drake I girdle in the world;
I hoop the firmament, and make
This, my embrace, the zodiac.
How would thy centre take my sense
When admiration doth commence
At the extreme circumference?
Now to the melting kiss that sips 40
The jellied philtre of her lips;
So sweet there is no tongue can praise 't
Till transubstantiate with a taste.
Inspired like Mahomet from above
By th' billing of my heavenly dove,
Love prints his signets in her smacks,
Those ruddy drops of squeezing wax,
Which, wheresoever she imparts,
They're privy seals to take up hearts.
Our mouths encountering at the sport, 50
My slippery soul had quit the fort,
But that she stopped the sally-port.
Next to these sweets, her lips dispense
(As twin conserves of eloquence)
The sweet perfume her breath affords,
Incorporating with her words.
No rosary this vot'ress needs--
Her very syllables are beads;
No sooner 'twixt those rubies born,
But jewels are in ear-rings worn. 60
With what delight her speech doth enter;
It is a kiss o' th' second venter.
And I dissolve at what I hear,
As if another Rosamond were
Couched in the labyrinth of my ear.
Yet that 's but a preludious bliss,
Two souls pickeering in a kiss.
Embraces do but draw the line,
'Tis storming that must take her in.
When bodies join and victory hovers 70
'Twixt the equal fluttering lovers,
This is the game; make stakes, my dear!
Hark, how the sprightly chanticleer
(That Baron Tell-clock of the night)
Sounds boutesel to Cupid's knight.
Then have at all, the pass is got,
For coming off, oh, name it not!
Who would not die upon the spot?
[_To the State of Love, &c._ appeared first _1651_.
The stanzas are not divided in the early editions, but are so
in _1677_. Carew's _Rapture_ may have given some suggestions,
Apuleius and Lucretius also; but not much is required. The
substance is shocking to pure prudery, no doubt; but, as
observed in the introduction, there is perhaps more gusto in
the execution than in _Fuscara_.
A copy of this poem, with many minor variants, is in Bodleian
MS. Tanner 306, fol. 424: it has one noteworthy reading, 'took
sey', i.e. 'say' or 'assay'--the hunting term--in l. 27.]
[Lines: 2, 3 The use of capitals in the seventeenth century is
so erratic that it is dangerous to base much on it. But both
'Seekers' and 'Shakers' (a variant of 'Quakers') were actually
among the countless sects of the time, as well of course as
'Adamites'. _1651_. _1653_, _1654_, and _1657_ have 'tempt'
for _1677_ 'sate'.]
[Line: 4 pants _1677_: 'pulse' _1651_, _1653_, _1654_,
_1657_.]
[Line: 10 'You'd break a Lent' _1651_, _1653_.]
[Lines: 11-13 Benlowes's lines (_v. sup._ i. 356)--
The lady prioress of the cloistered sky, &c.--
are more poetic than these, but may be less original. Even
that, however, is uncertain. Both poets, though Benlowes was
a good deal the elder, were of St. John's, and must, even in
other ways, have known each other: _Theophila_ appeared a year
after the edition in which this poem was first included. But
the indebtedness may be the other way, or common to an earlier
original, or non-existent.]
[Line: 19 Deals out] The earlier texts have 'Dazzle's', but
_1677_ seems here to have introduced the true reading found
also in the _MS._ 'Deals out' is far more poetical: the eye
clothes with its own reflection sky and stars, and earth.]
[Lines: 20-3 The punctuation of all editions, including Mr.
Berdan's, makes these lines either totally unintelligible, or
very confused, by putting a stop at 'spectacles' and none at
'beams'. That adopted in the text makes it quite clear.]
[Line: 30 circle] 'compass' _1651_, _1653_, evidently wrong.]
[Line: 33 It is not impossible that Aphra Behn had these
lines unconsciously in her head when she wrote her own finest
passage. Unconsciously, for the drift is quite different; but
'hurled', 'amorous', and 'world' come close together in both.]
[Line: 34 _1651_, _1653_ again 'compass' for 'girdle'.]
[Line: 37 'would', the reading of _1651_, _1653_, infinitely
better than 'could', that of _1677_.]
[Line: 45 In this pyramidally metaphysical passage Cleveland
does not quite play the game. Mahomet's pigeon did not _kiss_
him. But 'privy seals to take up hearts' is very dear to
fancy, most delicate, and of liberal conceit. So also 'jewels
are in ear-rings worn' below; where the game is played to its
rigour, though the reader may not at first see it.]
[Line: 46 his] 'her' _1651_, _1653_; but it clearly should be
'his', which is in _1677_.]
[Line: 53 _1651_, _1653_ read 'Next to those sweets her lips
dispense', _nescio an melius_.]
[Line: 61 her] 'our,' a variant of one edition (_1665_) is all
wrong.]
[Line: 62 Mr. Berdan has strangely misinterpreted 'venter'.
The phrase is quite a common one--'of the second _marriage_.'
The first kiss comes of lip and lip, the second of lip and
love.]
[Line: 67 pickeering] 'marauding', 'skirmishing in front of an
army'.]
[Line: 70 For 'join' [jine] _1651_, _1653_ and others have
'whine'--suggesting the Latin _gannitus_ frequent in such
contexts. But 'join' must be right. Professor Gordon points
out that the passage is a reminiscence of Donne, in his
_Extasie_:
As 'twixt two equall Armies, Fate
Suspends uncertaine victorie,
Our soules (which to advance their state
Were gone out,) hung 'twixt her, and mee.(13-16.)
This is contrasted with the bodily 'entergrafting' of l. 9,
&c.]
[Line: 74 When 'prose and sense' came in they were very
contemptuous of this Baron Tell-clock. But the image is
complete, congruous, and capable of being championed.]
[Line: 75 'Boutesel' of course = 'boot and saddle', albeit
'boute' does not mean 'boot'.]
The Hecatomb to his Mistress.
Be dumb, you beggars of the rhyming trade,
Geld your loose wits and let your Muse be spayed.
Charge not the parish with the bastard phrase
Of balm, elixir, both the Indias,
Of shrine, saint, sacrilege, and such as these
Expressions common as your mistresses.
Hence, you fantastic postillers in song.
My text defeats your art, ties Nature's tongue,
Scorns all her tinselled metaphors of pelf,
Illustrated by nothing but herself. 10
As spiders travel by their bowels spun
Into a thread, and, when the race is run,
Wind up their journey in a living clew,
So is it with my poetry and you.
From your own essence must I first untwine,
Then twist again each panegyric line.
Reach then a soaring quill that I may write,
As with a Jacob's staff, to take her height.
Suppose an angel, darting through the air,
Should there encounter a religious prayer 20
Mounting to Heaven, that Intelligence
Should for a Sunday-suit thy breath condense
Into a body.--Let me crack a string
In venturing higher; were the note I sing
Above Heaven's Ela, should I then decline,
And with a deep-mouthed gamut sound the line
From pole to pole, I could not reach her worth,
Nor find an epithet to set it forth.
Metals may blazon common beauties; she
Makes pearls and planets humble heraldry. 30
As, then, a purer substance is defined
But by a heap of negatives combined,
Ask what a spirit is, you'll hear them cry
It hath no matter, no mortality:
So can I not define how sweet, how fair;
Only I say she 's not as others are.
For what perfections we to others grant,
It is her sole perfection to want.
All other forms seem in respect of thee
The almanac's misshaped anatomy, 40
Where Aries head and face, Bull neck and throat,
The Scorpion gives the secrets, knees the Goat;
A brief of limbs foul as those beasts, or are
Their namesake signs in their strange character.
As the philosophers to every sense
Marry its object, yet with some dispense,
And grant them a polygamy with all,
And these their common sensibles they call:
So is 't with her who, stinted unto none,
Unites all senses in each action. 50
The same beam heats and lights; to see her well
Is both to hear and feel, to taste and smell.
For, can you want a palate in your eyes,
When each of hers contains a double prize,
Venus's apple? Can your eyes want nose
When from each cheek buds forth a fragrant rose?
Or can your sight be deaf to such a quick
And well-tuned face, such moving rhetoric?
Doth not each look a flash of lightning feel
Which spares the body's sheath, and melts the steel? 60
Thy soul must needs confess, or grant thy sense
Corrupted with the object's excellence.
Sweet magic, which can make five senses lie
Conjured within the circle of an eye!
In whom, since all the five are intermixed,
Oh now that Scaliger would prove his sixt!
Thou man of mouth, that canst not name a she
Unless all Nature pay a subsidy,
Whose language is a tax, whose musk-cat verse
Voids nought but flowers, for thy Muse's hearse 70
Fitter than Celia's looks, who in a trice
Canst state the long disputed Paradise,
And (what Divines hunt with so cold a scent)
Canst in her bosom find it resident;
Now come aloft, come now, and breathe a vein,
And give some vent unto thy daring strain.
Say the astrologer who spells the stars,
In that fair alphabet reads peace and wars,
Mistakes his globe and in her brighter eye
Interprets Heaven's physiognomy. 80
Call her the Metaphysics of her sex,
And say she tortures wits as quartans vex
Physicians; call her the square circle; say
She is the very rule of Algebra.
What e'er thou understand'st not, say 't of her,
For that 's the way to write her character.
Say this and more, and when thou hopest to raise
Thy fancy so as to inclose her praise--
Alas poor Gotham, with thy cuckoo-hedge!
Hyperboles are here but sacrilege. 90
Then roll up, Muse, what thou hast ravelled out,
Some comments clear not, but increase the doubt.
She that affords poor mortals not a glance
Of knowledge, but is known by ignorance;
She that commits a rape on every sense,
Whose breath can countermand a pestilence;
She that can strike the best invention dead
Till baffled poetry hangs down the head--
She, she it is that doth contain all bliss,
And makes the world but her periphrasis. 100
[_The Hecatomb to his Mistress._] (_1651_.) This
poem is perhaps the best text to prove (or endeavour to prove)
that Cleveland's object was really burlesque.]
[Line: 1 you] 'ye' _1651_, _1653_.]
[Line: 2 _1651_, _1653_ read 'the' for 'your', and 'splaid':
'spade' _1677_. 'Spay' or 'splay' to destroy the reproductive
powers of a female.]
[Line: 3 the bastard] _1677_ again alters 'the' to 'your',
which does not seem good.]
[Line: 5 sacrilege] sacrifice _1677_.]
[Line: 6 your] their _1653_, &c.]
[Line: 7 postillers] The word means glossers or commentators
on Scripture, and has acquired in several languages a
contemptuous meaning from the frequently commonplace and
trivial character of such things. 'ye fantastic' _1653_.]
[Line: 9 _1651_, _1653_ have 'his' for 'her', and in the next
line 'his self' for 'herself'. The poem is particularly badly
printed in this group, and I think the _1677_ editors, in
trying to mend it, have mistaken some places. Thus in ...]
[Line: 22 They print 'Would' for 'Should'. This may look
better at first; but I at least can make no real sense of it.
With 'Should' I can make some. The poet starts an extravagant
comparison in 19-21; continues it in '[suppose] that
Intelligence should', &c.; finds it will not do, and breaks
it off with the parenthetical 'Let me' &c. To bring this out
I have inserted the --.]
[Line: 24 _1677_ 'And venture', with a full-stop at 'higher',
not so well; but in ...]
[Line: 25 '_un_decline' _1651_, _1653_, &c. is nonsense;
while in the next line 'sound _agen_' either points to a
complete breakdown or indicates that, on the most recent
Cockney principles, 'again' could be pronounced 'ag_ine_'
and rhymes _à la_ Mrs. Browning. The text is _1677_.]
[Line: 28 set] shadow _1677_.]
[Line: 35 define] describe _1677_.]
[Line: 37 perfections _1651_, _1653_: perfection _1677_.]
[Line: 43 brief = 'list'.]
[Line: 44 name-sak'd _1651_, _1653_.]
[Line: 45 the] your _1677_.]
[Line: 52 _1677_, not nearly so well, 'see and' for 'feel,
to'. You want the list of senses completed and summed up by
such a palate in 'see', which, repeated, spoils all.]
[Line: 54 _1651_, _1653_ have 'his' for 'hers'; but 'a double
prize' is more vivid if less strictly defensible than 'the
beauteous' of _1677_. So in 56 _1677_ opens with 'Seeing each'
instead of 'When from'--much feebler. But in 57-8 The text,
which is _1677_, is better than _1653_:
Or can the sight be deaf _if she but speak_,
A well-tuned face, such moving rhetoric?
which indeed is, if not nonsense, most clumsily expressed,
even if comma at 'face' be deleted.]
[Line: 60 and melts] yet melts _1677_.]
[Line: 66 'sixt' _1651_, _1653_, _1677_.]
[Lines: 70-1 The punctuation of the old texts--no comma at
'flowers' and one at 'hearse'--makes the passage hard to
understand. As I have altered this punctuation, it is clear.]
[Line: 73 what Divines] _1651_, _1653_, &c. 'with Divines'.]
[Line: 75 come now _1677_: come, come _1651_, _1653_.]
[Line: 83 square] squared _1677_. If all this is not burlesque
it is very odd.]
[Line: 85 you undertake not _1651_, _1653_.]
[Line: 91 roll] rouse _1651_, _1653_. ravelled] revealed
_1651_, _1653_.]
[Line: 98 the] her _1651_, _1653_.]
[Line: 100 The hundred lines making the _heca_tomb--and the
metaphysical matter the subject of sacrifice.]
Upon Sir Thomas Martin,
Who subscribed a Warrant thus: 'We the Knights and Gentlemen of the
Committee,' &c. when there was no Knight but himself.
Hang out a flag and gather pence--A piece
Which Afric never bred nor swelling Greece
With stories' tympany, a beast so rare
No lecturer's wrought cap, nor Bartholomew Fair
Can match him; nature's whimsey, that outvies
Tradescant and his ark of novelties;
The Gog and Magog of prodigious sights,
With reverence to your eyes, Sir Thomas Knights.
But is this bigamy of titles due?
Are you Sir Thomas and Sir Martin too? 10
Issachar couchant 'twixt a brace of sirs,
Thou knighthood in a pair of panniers;
Thou, that look'st, wrapped up in thy warlike leather,
Like Valentine and Orson bound together;
Spurs' representative! thou, that art able
To be a voider to King Arthur's table;
Who, in this sacrilegious mass of all,
It seems has swallowed Windsor's Hospital;
Pair-royal-headed Cerberus's cousin.
Hercules' labours were a baker's dozen, 20
Had he but trumped on thee, whose forked neck
Might well have answered at the font for Smec.
But can a knighthood on a knighthood lie?
Metal on metal is ill armory;
And yet the known Godfrey of Bouillon's coat
Shines in exception to the herald's vote.
Great spirits move not by pedantic laws;
Their actions, though eccentric, state the cause,
And Priscian bleeds with honour. Caesar thus
Subscribed two consuls with one Julius. 30
Tom, never oaded squire, scarce yeoman-high,
Is Tom twice dipped, knight of a double dye!
Fond man, whose fate is in his name betrayed!
It is the setting sun doubles his shade.
But it 's no matter, for amphibious he
May have a knight hanged, yet Sir Tom go free!
[_Upon Sir Thomas Martin._] (_1651_.) We here turn
to the other side of Cleveland's work, where jest and earnest
are combined in a very different fashion. Martin was a member
of the Committee of Sequestration appointed under the Act of
April 1, 1643, which, in a more fearless and thoroughgoing
fashion than that of some later legislation, confiscated in
a lump the property of certain bishops and of political
opponents generally. The sequestrators for Cambridge were
this man and two other knights--Sir Dudley North and Sir John
Cutts; with two esquires--a Captain Symonds and Dudley Pope.]
[Line: 1 'pence apiece' _1651_, which makes doubtful sense.
_1653_, _1677_, and all others before me, have 'pence a
piece', which I believe to be careless printing for the
text above. The 'piece' is the same as the 'beast', and the
brackets which follow in the originals are a printer's error.
'Piece', in this sense of 'rare object', is not uncommon.
Cf. Prospero's 'Thy mother was a _piece_ of _virtue_.' 'Pence
apiece' (about the same as the Scotch fishwife's 'pennies
each'), if not, as Mr. Berdan says, 'proverbial', is certainly
a perfectly common expression, still I think existing, but it
is difficult to see how what follows can thus suit it. 'Which'
must have an antecedent.]
[Line: 4 'Bartlemew' _1651_, _1653_: 'Bartholmew' _1654_.
The word was, of course, pronounced 'Bartlemy,' and almost
dissyllabically.]
[Line: 5 that outvies] _1651_, _1653_ 'one that outvies',
perhaps rightly.]
[Line: 6 Tredeskin _1651_, _1653_: Tredescant _1677_.]
[Line: 11 The reference to the animal between two burdens
to whom Issachar is biblically compared (Gen. xlix. 14) is
perhaps meant to be additionally pointed by 'Sir _Martin_',
the latter being one of the story-names of the much-enduring
beast.]
[Line: 16 voider] The servant who clears the table; also, but
here less probably, the tray or basket used for the purpose.]
[Line: 18 The 'Poor Knights of Windsor' having fallen, like
other institutions, into the maw of plebeian and Puritan
plunder.]
[Line: 19 The hyphen at 'Pair-royal', which Mr. Berdan has
dropped, is important, the term being technical in certain
card-games and meaning _three_ cards of the same value--kings,
&c.]
[Line: 21 trumped on thee = turned thee up like a trump.]
[Line: 22 'Smec'--of course--'tymnuus', and used both for the
sake of contempt and as denoting a plurality of person.]
[Line: 24 The principle of this line is of course part of
the A B C of the more modern and dogmatic heraldry: the
application will lie either on sword or spur, the two
characteristic insignia of knighthood and both metallic.
_1677_ changed 'ill armory' to 'false heraldry', and Scott was
probably thinking of this line when he made Prince John and
Wamba between them use the phrase in _Ivanhoe_.]
[Line: 25 Godfrey's arms as King of Jerusalem--five golden
crosses on a silver shield--were commonly quoted, as Cleveland
quotes them, in special exception to the rule. But my friend
Mr. F. P. Barnard, Professor of Mediaeval Archaeology in the
University of Liverpool, to whom I owe the materials of this
note, tells me that he has collected many other cases,
English and foreign. The objection, however, was originally
a practical one, metal on metal and colour on colour being
difficult to distinguish _in the field_. It passed into a
technical rule later.]
[Line: 29 Priscian's head may not have bled here before it was
broken by Butler; but the dates of the _writing_ of _Hudibras_
are quite uncertain.]
[Line: 31 oaded] This singular word is in all the editions I
have seen. _1699_ makes it 'loaded', with no sense that I can
see in this passage. Can it be 'oathèd'--be sworn either to
the commission of the peace or something else that gave the
title 'Esquire'? 'Oad', however, = woad; cf. Minsheu, _Guide
into Tongues_, 1617 'Oade, _an hearbe_. Vide _Woade_'. This
would certainly suit the next line.]
On the memory of Mr. Edward King, drowned in the Irish Seas.
I like not tears in tune, nor do I prize
His artificial grief who scans his eyes.
Mine weep down pious beads, but why should I
Confine them to the Muse's rosary?
I am no poet here; my pen 's the spout
Where the rain-water of mine eyes run out
In pity of that name, whose fate we see
Thus copied out in grief's hydrography.
The Muses are not mermaids, though upon
His death the ocean might turn Helicon. 10
The sea's too rough for verse; who rhymes upon 't
With Xerxes strives to fetter th' Hellespont.
My tears will keep no channel, know no laws
To guide their streams, but (like the waves, their cause)
Run with disturbance, till they swallow me
As a description of his misery.
But can his spacious virtue find a grave
Within th' imposthumed bubble of a wave?
Whose learning if we sound, we must confess
The sea but shallow, and him bottomless. 20
Could not the winds to countermand thy death
With their whole card of lungs redeem thy breath?
Or some new island in thy rescue peep
To heave thy resurrection from the deep,
That so the world might see thy safety wrought
With no less wonder than thyself was thought?
The famous Stagirite (who in his life
Had Nature as familiar as his wife)
Bequeathed his widow to survive with thee,
Queen Dowager of all philosophy. 30
An ominous legacy, that did portend
Thy fate and predecessor's second end.
Some have affirmed that what on earth we find,
The sea can parallel in shape and kind.
Books, arts, and tongues were wanting, but in thee
Neptune hath got an university.
We'll dive no more for pearls; the hope to see
Thy sacred reliques of mortality
Shall welcome storms, and make the seamen prize
His shipwreck now more than his merchandise. 40
He shall embrace the waves, and to thy tomb
As to a Royaller Exchange shall come.
What can we now expect? Water and fire,
Both elements our ruin do conspire.
And that dissolves us which doth us compound:
One Vatican was burnt, another drowned.
We of the gown our libraries must toss
To understand the greatness of our loss;
Be pupils to our grief, and so much grow
In learning, as our sorrows overflow. 50
When we have filled the rundlets of our eyes
We'll issue 't forth and vent such elegies
As that our tears shall seem the Irish Seas,
We floating islands, living Hebrides.
[_On the Memory of Mr. Edward King._] First printed
in the memorial volume of Cambridge verse to King, _1638_;
included in the _Poems_ of _1651_. It is of course easy (and
it may be feared that it has too often been done) to contrast
this disadvantageously with _Lycidas_. A specific or generic
comparison, bringing out the difference of ephemeral and
eternal style in verse, will not be found unprofitable and is
almost as easy to make. No reader of Milton--and any one who
has not read Milton is very unlikely to read this--can need
information on King or on the circumstances of his death.
_1651_ and _1653_ add a spurious duplicate, the last fourteen
lines of W. More's elegy which followed Cleveland's in the
Cambridge volume.
* _On the Same._
Tell me no more of Stoics: canst thou tell
Who 'twas that when the waves began to swell,
The ship to sink, sad passengers to call
'Master, we perish'--slept secure of all?
Remember this, and him that waking kept
A mind as constant as he did that slept.
Canst thou give credit to his zeal and love
That went to Heaven, and to those flames above,
Wrapt in a fiery chariot? Since I heard
Who 'twas, that on his knees the vessel steered
With hands bolt up to Heaven, since I see
As yet no signs of his mortality,--
Pardon me, Reader, if I say he's gone
The self-same journey in a wat'ry one.
]
[Line: 1 do] will _1638_.]
[Line: 2 who] that _1638_.]
[Line: 6 _1651_ 'runs': all other editions (including _1638_)
'run'. The attraction to 'eyes' is one of the commonest of
things.]
[Line: 10 The everlasting confusion of 'mount' and 'fount'
occurs in 'Helicon.']
[Line: 26 wonder] miracle _1638_.]
[Line: 34 _1638_, _1677_, and later editions read, harmlessly
but needlessly, '_for_ shape'.]
[Line: 46 'Vatican' used (as Mr. Berdan justly notes) as =
'library'.
Cleveland's warmest defenders must admit that this epicede
is a triumph of 'frigidity'. And the personal note which
_Lycidas_ itself has been unfairly accused of wanting is here
non-existent to my eyes, though some have discovered it.]
Upon an Hermaphrodite.
Sir, or Madam, choose you whether!
Nature twists you both together
And makes thy soul two garbs confess,
Both petticoat and breeches dress.
Thus we chastise the God of Wine
With water that is feminine,
Until the cooler nymph abate
His wrath, and so concorporate.
Adam, till his rib was lost,
Had both sexes thus engrossed. 10
When Providence our Sire did cleave,
And out of Adam carved Eve,
Then did man 'bout wedlock treat,
To make his body up complete.
Thus matrimony speaks but thee
In a grave solemnity.
For man and wife make but one right
Canonical hermaphrodite.
Ravel thy body, and I find
In every limb a double kind. 20
Who would not think that head a pair
That breeds such factions in the hair?
One half so churlish in the touch
That, rather than endure so much
I would my tender limbs apparel
In Regulus's nailèd barrel:
But the other half so small,
And so amorous withal,
That Cupid thinks each hair doth grow
A string for his invis'ble bow. 30
When I look babies in thine eyes
Here Venus, there Adonis, lies.
And though thy beauty be high noon
Thy orb contains both sun and moon.
How many melting kisses skip
'Twixt thy male and female lip--
Twixt thy upper brush of hair
And thy nether beard's despair?
When thou speak'st (I would not wrong
Thy sweetness with a double tongue) 40
But in every single sound
A perfect dialogue is found.
Thy breasts distinguish one another,
This the sister, that the brother.
When thou join'st hands my ear still fancies
The nuptial sound, 'I, John, take Frances.'
Feel but the difference soft and rough;
This is a gauntlet, that a muff.
Had sly Ulysses, at the sack
Of Troy, brought thee his pedlar's pack, 50
And weapons too, to know Achilles
From King Lycomedes' Phillis,
His plot had failed; this hand would feel
The needle, that the warlike steel.
When music doth thy pace advance,
Thy right leg takes the left to dance.
Nor is 't a galliard danced by one,
But a mixed dance, though alone.
Thus every heteroclite part
Changes gender but thy heart. 60
Nay those, which modesty can mean
But dare not speak, are epicene.
That gamester needs must overcome
That can play both Tib and Tom.
Thus did Nature's mintage vary,
Coining thee a Philip and Mary.
[_Upon an Hermaphrodite._] (_1647_.) This poem
appeared in the 1640 and all subsequent editions of Randolph's
poems and in the 1653 edition of Beaumont's. Beaumont had
preceded Cleveland as a 'dumping-ground' for odds and ends of
all kinds. But see the following poem.]
[Line: 1 _1647_ and _1651_ 'Madam_e_', which is not English,
and which spoils the run of the verse.]
[Line: 2 twists] _1647_, _1651_, _1653_, and others 'twist'd',
which is very like the time.]
[Line: 10 both sexes] _1677_ and later '_the_ sexes'.]
[Line: 13 I do not know whether it is worth while to point out
that catalectic or seven-syllabled lines with trochaic effect
(cf. 9. this, 16, and others), as well as complete trochaic
dimeters (1, 2, &c.), occur more frequently here than in
_The Senses' Festival_, _Fuscara_, &c. This, though of
course Milton has it, was rather more frequent in Randolph's
generation than in Cleveland's.]
[Line: 22 _1647_, _1651_, _1677_, and later 'faction', but
'factions' _1653_.]
[Line: 25 _1651_, _1653_ &c. '_It_ would', which can hardly be
right. On the other hand _1677_ and its follower have '_With_
Regulus his' (l. 26).]
[Line: 31 It can hardly be necessary to interpret this famous
and charming phrase.]
[Line: 48 Line shortened to the trochaic run in _1677_, &c. by
dropping 'is'.]
[Line: 52 'Lycomedes' puzzled the earlier printers, who in
_1647_ and _1651_ make it 'Nicomedes' (corrupted by _1653_ to
'Nichomedes')--a curiously awkward blunder, as it happens.]
[Line: 56 the left _1647_, _1653_: thy left _1651_.]
[Line: 58 The late edition of _1687_, when 'regularity' was
becoming a fetish, inserted 'all' before 'alone', though
_1677_--its standard for the genuine poems--has not got it,
and it is not wanted.]
[Line: 59 heteroclite part] _1677_ and its followers, puzzled
by this, the original, reading, read 'apart' (apostrophating
'Het'roclite'), the sense of which is not clear; while Mr.
Berdan would emend to 'heteroclitic', which is unnecessary.
Cleveland may well have scanned 'heter[=o]clite', which is by
no means an extravagant licence, and has been paralleled by
Longfellow in 'Eur[=o]clydon'. Indeed, since I wrote this
note Mr. Simpson has furnished me with a parallel of
'heter[=o]clite' itself from Harl. MS. 4126, f. 102.]
[Line: 60 but thy heart _1649_: not the heart _1651_, _1653_.]
[Line: 62 'But' _1677_: 'And' in earlier texts.]
The Author's Hermaphrodite.
(Made after Mr. Randolph's death, yet inserted into his Poems.)
Problem of sexes! Must thou likewise be
As disputable in thy pedigree?
Thou twins in one, in whom Dame Nature tries
To throw less than aums ace upon two dice.
Wert thou served up two in one dish, the rather
To split thy sire into a double father?
True, the world's scales are even; what the main
In one place gets, another quits again.
Nature lost one by thee, and therefore must
Slice one in two to keep her number just. 10
Plurality of livings is thy state,
And therefore mine must be impropriate.
For, since the child is mine and yet the claim
Is intercepted by another's name,
Never did steeple carry double truer;
His is the donative and mine the cure.
Then say, my Muse (and without more dispute),
Who 'tis that fame doth superinstitute.
The Theban wittol, when he once descries
Jove is his rival, falls to sacrifice. 20
That name hath tipped his horns; see, on his knees!
A health to Hans-in-kelder Hercules!
Nay, sublunary cuckolds are content
To entertain their fate with compliment;
And shall not he be proud whom Randolph deigns
To quarter with his Muse both arms and brains?
Gramercy Gossip, I rejoice to see
She'th got a leap of such a barbary.
Talk not of horns, horns are the poet's crest;
For, since the Muses left their former nest 30
To found a nunnery in Randolph's quill,
Cuckold Parnassus is a forked hill.
But stay, I've waked his dust, his marble stirs
And brings the worms for his compurgators.
Can ghost have natural sons? Say, Og, is't meet
Penance bear date after the winding sheet?
Were it a Ph[oe]nix (as the double kind
May seem to prove, being there's two combined)
I would disclaim my right, and that it were
The lawful issue of his ashes swear. 40
But was he dead? Did not his soul translate
Herself into a shop of lesser rate;
Or break up house, like an expensive lord
That gives his purse a sob and lives at board?
Let old Pythagoras but play the pimp
And still there's hopes 't may prove his bastard imp.
But I'm profane; for, grant the world had one
With whom he might contract an union,
They two were one, yet like an eagle spread,
I' th' body joined, but parted in the head. 50
For you, my brat, that pose the Porph'ry Chair,
Pope John, or Joan, or whatsoe'er you are,
You are a nephew; grieve not at your state,
For all the world is illegitimate.
Man cannot get a man, unless the sun
Club to the act of generation.
The sun and man get man, thus Tom and I
Are the joint fathers of my poetry.
For since, blest shade, thy verse is male, but mine
O' th' weaker sex, a fancy feminine, 60
We'll part the child, and yet commit no slaughter;
So shall it be thy son, and yet my daughter.
[_The Author's Hermaphrodite._] (_1647_.) The note,
which appears in all editions, seems evidently conclusive as
to this poem. Moreover the quibbles are right Clevelandish.]
[Line: 7 'main' is a little ambiguous, or may appear so from
the recent mention of dice. But that sense will hardly come
in, and Cleveland was probably thinking of the famous passage
in Spenser (Artegall's dispute with the giant, _F. Q._ v. ii)
as to the washing away and washing up of the _sea_. Yet 'main'
_might_ mean 'stock'. The reading of 'gets place' in one
edition (_1662_), rather notable for blunders, cannot be
listened to.]
[Line: 15 steeple] By synecdoche for 'church' or 'parish'.]
[Line: 16 donative] A play on words, as also in 'cure'.]
[Line: 19 Theban wittol] Amphitryon.]
[Line: 22 Hans-in-kelder] = 'unborn'.
[Line: 28 She'th] _1667_ changes to 'Th'hast'. barbary]
'Barbs' or Spanish horses were imported for the stud as early
as Anglo-Saxon times; but before Cleveland's day actual Arabs
had been tried.]
[Line: 34 compurgators] persons who swear in a court of law to
the innocence or the veracity of some other person.]
[Line: 35 I was unable to say why the King of Bashan comes in
here, except that the comparison of the _Dialogue on the &c._,
'Og the great _commissary_', and the put case about 'penance',
suggest some church lawyer of portly presence. But Mr. Simpson
and Mr. Thorn-Drury have traced the thing from this point as
follows:
Cf. _A Dialogue upon the &c._, l. 47 'Og the great
commissary', where the copy in Rawlinson MS. Poet. 26, fol. 94
_b_, has a marginal note 'Roan'. This was Dr. William Roan,
of whom an account is given in the _Catalogue of Prints and
Drawings in the British Museum_, Division 1, 'Political and
Personal Satires', p. 156: 'Dr. Roane was one of the most
eminent doctors who acted in Laud's Ecclesiastical Courts;
he fled from the indignation of the House of Commons, and is
frequently alluded to in pamphlets and broadsides of the time
(see _Times Alteration_, Jan. 8, 1641,... _Old News newly
Revived_, Dec. 21, 1640,...and _The Spirituall Courts
Epitomised_, June 26, 1641).' The pamphlet illustrated in
this note is _A Letter front Rhoan in France Written by Doctor
Roane one of the Doctors of the late Sicke Commons, to his
Fellow Doctor of the Civill Law. Dated 28, of Iune last past.
With an Ellegy written by his oune hand upon the death and
buriall of the said Doctors Commons. Printed in this happy
yeare, 1641_. (Thomason's copy dated June 28.)
Mr. Thorn-Drury supplies the following references bearing
directly on the nickname, and not noticed in the B.M.
Catalogue: _Foure fugitives meeting Or, The Discourse amongst
my Lord Finch, Sir Frances Windebank, Sir John Sucklin, and
Doctor Roane, as they accidentally met in France, with a
detection of their severall pranks in England. Printed In the
Yeare, 1641_. 4^{o}.
Suckling says to Roane, 'Hold there good Doctor _Roane_, and
take me with you, you are to be blamed too, for not bidding
farewell to Sir _Paul Pinder_, (at whose beauteous house, you
have devoured the carkasse of many a cram'd Capon) before you
fled, but I wonder more, why you came hither so unprovided;
methinks some English dyet would have bin good for a weake
stomack: the Church-Wardens of Northhamptonshire promised to
give you a good fee, if you will goe to 'em, and resolve 'em
whether they may lawfully take the oath &c. or no.
'_Wind_. That may very well be, for they have given him a
great Addition, they stile him, Og the great Commissary, they
say he was as briske in discharging the new Canons, as he that
made them.'
Suckling addresses Roane as 'Immense Doctor Roane': so it is
possible that it was his personal appearance which suggested
the name of Og.
Cf. also _Canidia. The Third Part_, p. 150 (1683):
Are you a Smock-Sinner, or so,
Commute soundly, and you shall be let go.
Fee _Ogg_ the great _Commissary_ before and behind,
Then sin on, you know my mind.
]
[Line: 39 _1647_, _1651_, _1653_, &c. '_It_ would', which can
hardly be right.]
[Line: 44 'sob' _1647_, _1651_: _1653_ clearly '_f_ob': 'Sob'
1677. Cf. _Comedy of Errors_ (iv. iii. 22) 'gives a sob'.
'Sob' is literally 'an act on the part of a horse of
recovering its wind after exertion'--hence 'respite'
(_N.E.D._).]
[Line: 51 Porph'ry Chair] The Pope's throne, the myths of
which, as well as of Pope Joan herself, are vulgate. 'Nephew'
carries out the allusion: Popes' sons being called so
Better to preserve the peace.
]
[Line: 59 thy] this _1651_, _1653_.]
[Line: 62 The merit of the style for burlesque use could
hardly be better brought out.]
*_To the Hectors, upon the unfortunate death of H. Compton._
You Hectors! tame professors of the sword,
Who in the chair state duels, whose black word
Bewitches courage, and like Devils too,
Leaves the bewitch'd when 't comes to fight and do.
Who on your errand our best spirits send,
Not to kill swine or cows, but man and friend;
Who are a whole court-martial in your drink,
And dispute honour, when you cannot think,
Not orderly, but prate out valour as
You grow inspired by th' oracle of the glass; 10
Then, like our zeal-drunk presbyters, cry down
All law of Kings and God, but what's their own.
Then y' have the gift of fighting, can discern
Spirits, who 's fit to act, and who to learn,
Who shall be baffled next, who must be beat,
Who killed--that you may drink, and swear, and eat.
Whilst you applaud those murders which you teach
And live upon the wounds your riots preach.
Mere booty-souls! Who bid us fight a prize
To feast the laughter of our enemies, 20
Who shout and clap at wounds, count it pure gain,
Mere Providence to hear a Compton 's slain.
A name they dearly hate, and justly; should
They love 't 'twere worse, their love would taint the blood.
Blood always true, true as their swords and cause,
And never vainly lost, till your wild laws
Scandalled their actions in this person, who
Truly durst more than you dare think to do.
A man made up of graces--every move
Had entertainment in it, and drew love 30
From all but him who killed him, who seeks a grave
And fears a death more shameful than he gave.
Now you dread Hectors! you whom tyrant drink
Drags thrice about the town, what do you think?
(If you be sober) Is it valour, say,
To overcome, and then to run away?
Fie! Fie! your lusts and duels both are one;
Both are repented of as soon as done.
[_To the Hectors_ (_1653_) is struck out in _1677_
and Mr. Berdan does not give it. I asterisk it in text; but as
it might be Cleveland's (though I do not think it is) I do not
exclude it. The Comptons were a good Royalist family in those
days. This Henry (not the Bishop) was killed in 1652 in a duel
by George Brydges, Lord Chandos, who died three years later
(see Professor Firth's _House of Lords during the Civil
War_, p. 223). The fame of the Hectors as predecessors of the
Mohocks and possible objects of Milton's objurgation 'flown
with insolence and wine', &c., is sufficient. But they seem
to have been more methodical maniacs and ruffians than their
successors, and even to have had something of the superior
quality of Sir Lucius O'Trigger and Captain M^{c}Turk about
them, as professors and painful preachers of the necessity and
etiquette of the duel.]
[Line: 2 state duels] Arrange them like the said Captain
M^{c}Turk in _St. Ronan's Well_? word] _1653_ (wrongly for
rhyme, though not necessarily for concord) 'words'.]
[Line: 19 booty-souls] Apparently 'souls interested in nothing
but booty'. The piece would seem to have been addressed to
Hectors in the actual Cavalier camp, or at least party. The
'enemies' are of course the Roundheads, and it will soon be
noticed that there is no apodosis or consequence to all these
'who's', &c. It is literally an 'Address' and no more.]
[Line: 25 their] = 'the Comptons'--nothing to do with 'their'
and 'they' in the preceding lines.]
[Line: 31 Does not run very smoothly: the second 'him' may be
a foist.]
Square-Cap.
Come hither, Apollo's bouncing girl,
And in a whole Hippocrene of sherry
Let 's drink a round till our brains do whirl,
Tuning our pipes to make ourselves merry.
A Cambridge lass, Venus-like, born of the froth
Of an old half-filled jug of barley-broth,
She, she is my mistress, her suitors are many,
But she'll have a Square-cap if e'er she have any.
And first, for the plush-sake, the Monmouth-cap comes,
Shaking his head like an empty bottle; 10
With his new-fangled oath by Jupiter's thumbs,
That to her health he'll begin a pottle.
He tells her that, after the death of his grannam,
He shall have God knows what per annum.
But still she replied, 'Good Sir, la-bee;
If ever I have a man, Square-cap for me!'
Then Calot Leather-cap strongly pleads,
And fain would derive the pedigree of fashion.
The antipodes wear their shoes on their heads,
And why may not we in their imitation? 20
Oh, how this football noddle would please,
If it were but well tossed on S. Thomas his leas!
But still she replied, 'Good sir, la-bee;
If ever I have a man, Square-cap for me!'
Next comes the Puritan in a wrought-cap,
With a long-waisted conscience towards a sister.
And, making a chapel of ease of her lap,
First he said grace and then he kissed her.
'Beloved,' quoth he, 'thou art my text.'
Then falls he to use and application next; 30
But then she replied, 'Your text, sir, I'll be;
For then I'm sure you'll ne'er handle me.'
But see where Satin-cap scouts about,
And fain would this wench in his fellowship marry.
He told her how such a man was not put out
Because his wedding he closely did carry.
He'll purchase induction by simony,
And offers her money her incumbent to be;
But still she replied, 'Good sir, la-bee;
If ever I have a man, Square-cap for me!' 40
The lawyer's a sophister by his round-cap,
Nor in their fallacies are they divided,
The one milks the pocket, the other the tap;
And yet this wench he fain would have brided.
'Come, leave these thread-bare scholars,' quoth he,
'And give me livery and seisin of thee.'
'But peace, John-a-Nokes, and leave your oration,
For I never will be your impropriation;
I pray you therefore, good sir, la-bee;
For if ever I have a man, Square-cap for me!' 50
[_Square-Cap_ (_1647_) is one of the pleasantest
of all Cleveland's poems. Its prosodic puzzle and profit have
been indicated in the Introduction, and it might sometimes run
more easily. But the thorough good-fellowship and _esprit
de corps_ carry it off more than sufficiently. It would be
pleasant to think that Mr. Samuel Pepys sang it on the famous
occasion when he was 'scandalously over-served with drink' as
an undergraduate. It had been printed only three years when he
went up, though no doubt written earlier.]
[Line: 2 Cleveland has got the fount right here.]
[Line: 7 she is] she's _1653_.]
[Line: 9 Monmouth-cap] A soldier.]
[Lines: 13, 14 A most singular blunder in _1677_ (and the
editions that follow it) shows that Cleveland's 'Vindicators'
were by no means always attentive to his sense. It reads
'_her_ grannam' and '_She_ shall have'--the exact effect of
which, as an inducement to marry him, one would like to hear.]
[Line: 15 la-bee] = 'let-a-be', 'let me alone'.]
[Line: 17 One or two editions (but not very good ones) '_Thin_
Calot'. Calot of course = 'calotte', the lawyer's cap or
coif.]
[Line: 18 This is a signal instance of the way in which these
early anapaestic lines break down into heroics. _1677_ and
others read '_his_ pedigree'--not so well.]
[Line: 22 S. Thomas his leas] A decree of Oct. 29, 1632,
ordains that scholars and students of Corpus and Pembroke
shall play football only 'upon St. Thomas Layes', the site
of Downing College later. This decree and the 'S.' of _1651_,
_1653_, would seem to show that _1677_ is wrong in expanding
to 'Sir', though two Cambridge editors ought to have known
the right name. It was also called 'Swinecroft'. (Information
obtained from the late Mr. J. W. Clark's _Memories and
Customs_, Cambridge, 1909, through the kindness of Mr. A. J.
Bartholomew.)]
[Line: 33 Satin-cap] Clerical: cf. Strode's poem on _The Caps_
(_Works_, ed. Dobell, p. 106):]
The Sattin and the Velvet hive
Unto a Bishopric doth drive.
[Line: 36 closely ... carry] = 'disguise', 'conceal'.]
Upon Phillis walking in a morning before sun-rising.
The sluggish morn as yet undressed,
My Phillis brake from out her East,
As if she'd made a match to run
With Venus, usher to the sun.
The trees, like yeomen of her guard,
Serving more for pomp than ward,
Ranked on each side, with loyal duty
Weave branches to enclose her beauty.
The plants, whose luxury was lopped,
Or age with crutches underpropped, 10
Whose wooden carcasses are grown
To be but coffins of their own,
Revive, and at her general dole
Each receives his ancient soul.
The winged choristers began
To chirp their mattins, and the fan
Of whistling winds like organs played,
Until their voluntaries made
The wakened Earth in odours rise
To be her morning sacrifice. 20
The flowers, called out of their beds,
Start and raise up their drowsy heads;
And he that for their colour seeks
May find it vaulting in her cheeks,
Where roses mix--no civil war
Between her York and Lancaster.
The marigold (whose courtier's face
Echoes the sun and doth unlace
Her at his rise--at his full stop
Packs and shuts up her gaudy shop) 30
Mistakes her cue and doth display:
Thus Phillis antedates the day.
These miracles had cramped the sun,
Who, thinking that his kingdom 's won,
Powders with light his frizzled locks
To see what saint his lustre mocks.
The trembling leaves through which he played,
Dappling the walk with light and shade
Like lattice-windows, give the spy
Room but to peep with half an eye; 40
Lest her full orb his sight should dim
And bid us all good-night in him,
Till she should spend a gentle ray
To force us a new-fashioned day.
But what religious palsy 's this
Which makes the boughs divest their bliss,
And, that they might her footsteps straw,
Drop their leaves with shivering awe?
Phillis perceived and (lest her stay
Should wed October unto May, 50
And, as her beauty caused a Spring,
Devotion might an Autumn bring)
Withdrew her beams, yet made no night,
But left the sun her curate-light.
[_Upon Phillis, &c._ (_1647_.) This is perhaps the
prettiest, as _The Senses' Festival_ is the most vigorous and
_Fuscara_ the most laboured, of Cleveland's Clevelandisms.]
[Line: 6 _1677_ &c. insert 'her' between 'serving' and
'more'--doubtless on the principle, noticed before, of
patching lines to supposed 'regularity'.]
[Line: 7 'Ranked' _1647_, _1677_: 'Banked' _1651_, _1653_.
As it happens either will do; and at the same time either, if
original, is likely to have been mistaken for the other.]
[Line: 8 'Weave' _1647_: 'Wave' _1651_, _1653_: 'Weav'd'
_1677_ (the printer unconsciously assimilating it to the
'Ranked' of l. 8). The same remark applies as to the preceding
line.]
[Line: 11 are] were _1677_, _1687_.]
[Line: 18 _1654_ 'Un_to_'.]
[Line: 19 _1677_ &c. 'weaken'd': _putide_.]
[Line: 20 A meeting-point of many pious poems.]
[Line: 24 _1677_ 'vaulting _to_'--hardly an improvement.]
[Line: 26 Dryden may have had Cleveland in mind (as he pretty
often, and most naturally had, seeing that the poems must have
'spent their youth with him') when he wrote some of the latest
and most beautiful of his own lines to the Duchess of Ormond
(Lady Mary Somerset):
O daughter of the Rose whose cheeks unite
The differing titles of the Red and White.
]
[_1677_ '_Divides_ her York and Lancaster'--pretty
palpable emendation to supply the apparent lack of a verb.]
[Lines: 27-30 It has been suggested to me that the sense wants
mechanical aid to clear it up; and I have therefore made a
visible parenthesis of 'whose ... shop', following _1677_.]
[Line: 34 thinking] fearing _1677_.]
[Line: 36 _1653_ &c. 'saints'--a misprint, as _1647_, _1651_
have the singular.]
[Line: 38 Here, for once, Cleveland achieves the really
poetical conceit.]
[Line: 42 _1647_, _1651_, _1653_, &c. 'bids'--again a mere
misprint.]
[Line: 43 _1647_, _1651_, _1653_ 'would'.]
[Line: 47 straw] For 'strew', as in the A. V.]
[Line: 49 _1649_, _1651_, _1653_, 'perceives' (an unconscious
echo of 'leaves' in l. 48).]
Upon a Miser that made a great feast, and the next day died for grief.
Nor 'scapes he so; our dinner was so good
My liquorish Muse cannot but chew the cud,
And what delight she took in th' invitation
Strives to taste o'er again in this relation.
After a tedious grace in Hopkins' rhyme,
Not for devotion but to take up time,
Marched the trained-band of dishes, ushered there
To show their postures and then as they were.
For he invites no teeth; perchance the eye
He will afford the lover's gluttony. 10
Thus is our feast a muster, not a fight,
Our weapons not for service, but for sight.
But are we tantalized? Is all this meat
Cooked by a limner for to view, not eat?
Th' astrologers keep such houses when they sup
On joints of Taurus or their heavenly Tup.
Whatever feasts be made are summed up here,
His table vies not standing with his cheer.
His churchings, christenings, in this meal are all,
And not transcribed but in th' original. 20
Christmas is no feast movable; for lo,
The self-same dinner was ten years ago!
'Twill be immortal if it longer stay,
The gods will eat it for ambrosia.
But stay a while; unless my whinyard fail
Or is enchanted, I'll cut off th' entail.
Saint George for England then! have at the mutton
When the first cut calls me bloodthirsty glutton.
Stout Ajax, with his anger-coddled brain,
Killing a sheep thought Agamemnon slain; 30
The fiction's now proved true; wounding his roast
I lamentably butcher up mine host.
Such sympathy is with his meat, my weapon
Makes him an eunuch when it carves his capon.
Cut a goose leg and the poor soul for moan
Turns cripple too, and after stands on one.
Have you not heard the abominable sport
A Lancaster grand-jury will report?
The soldier with his Morglay watched the mill;
The cats they came to feast, when lusty Will 40
Whips off great puss's leg which (by some charm)
Proves the next day such an old woman's arm.
'Tis so with him whose carcass never 'scapes,
But still we slash him in a thousand shapes.
Our serving-men (like spaniels) range to spring
The fowl which he had clucked under his wing.
Should he on widgeon or on woodcock feed
It were, Thyestes like, on his own breed.
To pork he pleads a superstition due,
But we subscribe neither to Scot nor Jew. 50
[No liquor stirs; call for a cup of wine.
'Tis blood we drink; we pledge thee, Catiline.]
Sauces we should have none, had he his wish.
The oranges i' th' margent of the dish
He with such huckster's care tells o'er and o'er,
The Hesperian dragon never watched them more.
But being eaten now into despair
(Having nought else to do) he falls to prayer.
'As thou didst once put on the form of bull
And turned thine Io to a lovely mull, 60
Defend my rump, great Jove, grant this poor beef
May live to comfort me in all this grief.'
But no Amen was said: see, see it comes!
Draw, boys, let trumpets sound, and strike up drums.
See how his blood doth with the gravy swim,
And every trencher hath a limb of him.
The venison's now in view, our hounds spend deeper.
Strange deer, which in the pasty hath a keeper
Stricter than in the park, making his guest,
(As he had stoln't alive) to steal it drest! 70
The scent was hot, and we, pursuing faster
Than Ovid's pack of dogs e'er chased their master,
A double prey at once may seize upon,
Acteon, and his case of venison.
Thus was he torn alive; to vex him worse
Death serves him up now as a second course.
Should we, like Thracians, our dead bodies eat,
He would have lived only to save his meat.
[Lastly; we did devour that corpse of his
Throughout all Ovid's Metamorphoses.] 80
[_Upon a Miser, &c._ (_1647_.) This juxtaposition
of the serious-sentimental-fanciful with the burlesque-satiric
may not please some readers. But the older editions which give
it seem to me better to represent the ideas of the time than
the later siftings and reclassifications of the age of prose
and sense. And this is one reason why I follow the order of
_1653_ rather than that of _1677_.]
[Line: 2 'Cud' is spelt in _1647_ here and elsewhere in
Cleveland 'cood'.]
[Line: 3 In some copies 'i_mi_tation', of course wrongly.]
[Line: 4 taste] cast _1653_.]
[Line: 5 Cleveland gibed at Sternhold and Hopkins in prose
(_The Character of a London Diurnall_) as well as verse.
_1647_, _1651_ misprint 'rhythm'.]
[Line: 11 The text, from _1677_, is a clear improvement at
first sight on the earlier '_This_ is _a_ feast': though I
would not be too sure that Cleveland did not write it thus.]
[Line: 16 _1677_ '_the_ heavenly'.]
[Line: 17 _1677_ 'he made'.]
[Line: 18 Meaning, apparently, that, as was the custom, the
table between these sham feast-days was moved off its trestles
and cleared away; but the feast was a 'standing' one, kept to
reappear.]
[Line: 20 in th'] i' th' _1647_, _1651_.]
[Line: 26 is] it _1647_, _1651_.]
[Line: 28 _1677_ 'Whe_re_'.]
[Line: 29 Stout] What _1651_, _1653_.]
[Line: 31 _1677_ '_the_ roast'.]
[Line: 34 carves] One edition, of no value (_1665_),
'_se_rves'.]
[Line: 35 soul] fool _1677_.]
[Line: 38 Lancaster, because of the Lancashire witches. See
Heywood, _Lancashire Witches_, Act V.]
[Line: 39 Morglay] The sword of Bevis.]
[Line: 43 'Tis] It's _1677_.]
[Line: 44 'him' _1647_: 'them' _1651_, _1653_.]
[Line: 46 These lines appear with some variants and are not
clear in any text: 'which he had cluck'd under his wing'
_1677_, for the earlier 'when he hath clock't under her wing'
_1647_, _1651_, _1653_. Professor Case suggests 'cloakt' (i.e.
'hidden') for 'clock't'.]
[Line: 50 Mr. Berdan says, '_Englishmen supposed_ that the
Scotch did not eat pork'. But, until quite recently, it was a
fact; and even now there is much less eaten north than south
of the Tweed. As for Cleveland's day, James the First's
aversion to it was well known and had been celebrated by Ben
Jonson. In _1647_, _1651_, _1653_ 'But not a mouth is muzzled
by the Jew'.]
[Line: 51-2 Not in earlier editions. Added in _1677_.]
[Line: 54 _1677_ 'margin of _his_ dish'.]
[Line: 55 _1647_, _1651_, _1653_, &c. omit 'care' and read
'tells them'.]
[Line: 59 _1677_ 'Thou that didst'.]
[Line: 60 'turned thine' _1677_, _1687_: 'turn'st thy' _1647_,
_1651_, _1653_, &c. mull] Dialectic for 'cow', especially as a
call-name. It seems to be connected with the sense of the word
for 'lips', especially large loose ones.]
[Line: 61 _1677_
allay my grief,
O spare me this, this monumental beef.
]
[Line: 66 'hath' _1677_, _1687_: 'has' _1651_, _1653_ and its
group.]
[Line: 73 'may' _1651_, _1653_, &c.: 'we' _1677_.]
[Lines: 79, 80 Added in _1677_ &c., with very doubtful
advantage.]
A Young Man to an Old Woman courting him.
Peace, Beldam Eve, surcease thy suit;
There 's no temptation in such fruit;
No rotten medlars, whilst there be
Whole orchards in virginity.
Thy stock is too much out of date
For tender plants t' inoculate.
A match with thee thy bridegroom fears
Would be thought interest in his years,
Which, when compared to thine, become
Odd money to thy grandam sum. 10
Can wedlock know so great a curse
As putting husbands out to nurse?
How Pond and Rivers would mistake
And cry new almanacs for our sake.
Time sure hath wheeled about his year,
December meeting Janiveer.
The Egyptian serpent figures Time,
And stripped, returns unto his prime.
If my affection thou wouldst win,
First cast thy hieroglyphic skin. 20
My modern lips know not, alack!
The old religion of thy smack.
I count that primitive embrace
As out of fashion as thy face.
And yet, so long 'tis since thy fall,
Thy fornication 's classical.
Our sports will differ; thou mayst play
Lero, and I Alphonso way.
I'm no translator, have no vein
To turn a woman young again, 30
Unless you'll grant the tailor's due,
To see the fore-bodies be new.
I love to wear clothes that are flush,
Not prefacing old rags with plush,
Like aldermen, or under-shrieves
With canvass backs and velvet sleeves:
And just such discord there would be
Betwixt thy skeleton and me.
Go study salve and treacle, ply
Your tenant's leg or his sore eye. 40
Thus matrons purchase credit, thank
Six pennyworth of mountebank;
Or chew thy cud on some delight
That thou didst taste in 'eighty-eight;
Or be but bed-rid once, and then
Thou'lt dream thy youthful sins again.
But if thou needs wilt be my spouse,
First hearken and attend my vows.
_When Aetna's fires shall undergo_
_The penance of the Alps in snow;_ 50
_When Sol at one blast of his horn_
_Posts from the Crab to Capricorn;_
_When th' heavens shuffle all in one_
_The Torrid with the Frozen Zone;_
_When all these contradictions meet_,
_Then, Sibyl, thou and I will greet._
For all these similes do hold
In my young heat and thy dull cold.
Then, if a fever be so good
A pimp as to inflame thy blood, 60
Hymen shall twist thee and thy page,
The distinct tropics of man's age.
Well, Madam Time, be ever bald.
I'll not thy periwig be called.
I'll never be 'stead of a lover,
An aged chronicle's new cover.
[_A Young Man, &c._ (_1647_.)]
[Line: 8 _1677_, &c. have 'incest', which is rather tempting,
but considering the 'odd money' which follows, not, I think,
absolutely certain.]
[Line: 13 Edward Pond died in 1629; but the almanac, published
by him first in 1601, lasted till 1709. Rivers was probably
Peregrine Rivers, 'Student in Mathematics', writer of one of
the numerous almanacs of the period. There are in the Bodleian
copies of his almanacs for 1629, 1630, 1638, all printed at
Cambridge. (Information supplied to me from Oxford.)]
[Line: 15 Some copies 'this'.]
[Line: 22 Rather a good line.]
[Line: 27 _1651_, _1653_, &c. 'mayst': _1647_, _1677_, &c.
'must'.]
[Line: 35 _1647_ 'Monster Shrieves', _1653_
'Monster-Sheriffs', which can hardly be right.]
[Line: 44 'eighty-eight] The Armada year, often taken as a
standard of remoteness not too remote. This, which is the
later reading, of 1677 _sqq._, seems better than '_Thou takest
in thy_ Eighty Eight' (_1647_, _1651_, _1653_, &c.).]
[Lines: 49-62 The italics of _1653_, though discarded in
_1677_, seem worth keeping, because of the solemn call of
attention to the particulars of the 'Vow'; they extend in the
_1653_ text to l. 60. But _1647_ and _1651_, prefix inverted
commas to ll. 49-56, which seems a more effective ending to
the 'Vow'.]
[Line: 53 Some inferior editions put in 'shall'. _1647_,
_1651_, _1653_, and _1677_ exclude it.]
[Line: 61 twist] In the sense of 'twine', 'unite'. 'page' =
'boy'.]
[Line: 62 _1647_, _1651_ 'Tropicks': _1653_ 'Tropick'; but
both Cancer and Capricorn are wanted.]
To Mrs. K. T.
(Who asked him why he was dumb.)
Stay, should I answer, Lady, then
In vain would be your question:
Should I be dumb, why then again
Your asking me would be in vain.
Silence nor speech, on neither hand,
Can satisfy this strange demand.
Yet, since your will throws me upon
This wished contradiction,
I'll tell you how I did become
So strangely, as you hear me, dumb. 10
Ask but the chap-fallen Puritan;
'Tis zeal that tongue-ties that good man.
(For heat of conscience all men hold
Is th' only way to catch their cold.)
How should Love's zealot then forbear
To be your silenced minister?
Nay, your Religion which doth grant
A worship due to you, my Saint,
Yet counts it that devotion wrong
That does it in the Vulgar Tongue. 20
My ruder words would give offence
To such an hallowed excellence,
As th' English dialect would vary
The goodness of an Ave Mary.
How can I speak that twice am checked
By this and that religious sect?
Still dumb, and in your face I spy
Still cause and still divinity.
As soon as blest with your salute,
My manners taught me to be mute. 30
For, lest they cancel all the bliss
You signed with so divine a kiss,
The lips you seal must needs consent
Unto the tongue's imprisonment.
My tongue in hold, my voice doth rise
With a strange E-la to my eyes,
Where it gets bail, and in that sense
Begins a new-found eloquence.
Oh listen with attentive sight
To what my pratling eyes indite! 40
Or, lady, since 'tis in your choice
To give or to suspend my voice,
With the same key set ope the door
Wherewith you locked it fast before.
Kiss once again, and when you thus
Have doubly been miraculous,
My Muse shall write with handmaid's duty
The Golden Legend of your beauty.
He whom his dumbness now confines
But means to speak the rest by signs. 50
_I. C._
[_To Mrs. K. T., &c._ (_1647_). To this title _1677_
and its followers add 'Written _calente calamo_'. The variant
on _currente_ is of some interest, and the statement may have
been made to excuse the bad opening rhyme.]
[Line: 5 neither] either _1677_.]
[Line: 14 'their cold' _1651_, _1653_: 'that cold' _1647_,
_1677_.]
[Line: 16 silenced] As some Puritans were before Cleveland
wrote, and all, or almost all, Churchmen afterwards.]
[Line: 31 _1677_ 'Lest I should cancel all the bliss'.]
[Line: 37 bail] _1653_ &c. '_h_ail', which is doubtless a
misprint.]
[Line: 40 'prating' _1677_.]
[Line: 47 'handmaid' _1677_.]
[Line: 50 _1677_ '_Intends_ to speak'--an obvious correction
of the 'red-hot pen'. But whether Cleveland's or his
vindicators' who shall say?]
[Line: 51 So _1647_, _1651_, _1653_. The couplet is
meaningless without them.]
A Fair Nymph scorning a Black Boy courting her.
_Nymph._ Stand off, and let me take the air;
Why should the smoke pursue the fair?
_Boy._ My face is smoke, thence may be guessed
What flames within have scorched my breast.
_Nymph._ The flame of love I cannot view
For the dark lantern of thy hue.
_Boy._ And yet this lantern keeps Love's taper
Surer than yours, that's of white paper.
Whatever midnight hath been here,
The moonshine of your light can clear. 10
_Nymph._ My moon of an eclipse is 'fraid,
If thou shouldst interpose thy shade.
_Boy._ Yet one thing, Sweetheart, I will ask;
Take me for a new-fashioned mask.
_Nymph._ Yes, but my bargain shall be this,
I'll throw my mask off when I kiss.
_Boy._ Our curled embraces shall delight
To checker limbs with black and white.
_Nymph._ Thy ink, my paper, make me guess
Our nuptial bed will prove a press, 20
And in our sports, if any came,
They'll read a wanton epigram.
_Boy._ Why should my black thy love impair?
Let the dark shop commend the ware;
Or, if thy love from black forbears,
I'll strive to wash it off with tears.
_Nymph._ Spare fruitless tears, since thou must needs
Still wear about thee mourning weeds.
Tears can no more affection win
Than wash thy Ethiopian skin. 30
[_A Fair Nymph, &c._ (_1647_.)]
[Line: 2 An odd fancy included by Browne among the _Vulgar
Errors_.]
[Line: 5 'Thy flaming love' _1677_ &c.]
[Line: 10 'face will clear' _1677_ &c.]
[Line: 14 _1677_ 'Take me for a new-fashioned mask': _1647_,
_1651_ 'Buy me for a new false mask', varied in _1653_ 'Buy
for me'--apparently a misprint, as the boy does not seem to
wish to disguise himself.]
[Line: 15 Yes] Done _1677_.]
[Line: 20 _1647_, _1651_, _1653_, 'make a press', ill repeated
from above.]
[Line: 24 'the ware' _1677_: _1647_, _1651_, _1653_, not so
well, '_thy_ ware'.]
[Line: 28 _1677_ changed 'thee' to 'thy'.]
[Line: 30 Some inferior copies '_the_ Ethiopian'.]
A Dialogue between two Zealots upon the &c. in the Oath.
Sir Roger, from a zealous piece of frieze
Raised to a vicar of the children's threes;
Whose yearly audit may by strict account
To twenty nobles and his vails amount;
Fed on the common of the female charity
Until the Scots can bring about their parity;
So shotten that his soul, like to himself,
Walks but in cuerpo; this same clergy-elf,
Encountering with a brother of the cloth,
Fell presently to cudgels with the Oath. 10
The quarrel was a strange misshapen monster,
&c., (God bless us) which they conster
The brand upon the buttock of the Beast,
The Dragon's tail tied on a knot, a nest
Of young Apocryphas, the fashion
Of a new mental Reservation.
While Roger thus divides the text, the other
Winks and expounds, saying, 'My pious brother,
Hearken with reverence, for the point is nice.
I never read on 't, but I fasted twice, 20
And so by revelation know it better
Than all the learn'd idolaters o'th' letter.'
With that he swelled, and fell upon the theme
Like great Goliah with his weaver's beam.
'I say to thee, &c., thou li'st!
Thou art the curléd lock of Antichrist;
Rubbish of Babel; for who will not say
Tongues were confounded in &c.?
Who swears &c., swears more oaths at once
Than Cerberus out of his triple sconce. 30
Who views it well, with the same eye beholds
The old half Serpent in his numerous folds.
Accurst &c. thou, for now I scent
What lately the prodigious oysters meant!
Oh Booker! Booker! How camest thou to lack
This sign in thy prophetic almanac?
It 's the dark vault wherein th' infernal plot
Of powder 'gainst the State was first begot.
Peruse the Oath and you shall soon descry it
By all the Father Garnets that stand by it; 40
'Gainst whom the Church, (whereof I am a member,)
Shall keep another Fifth Day of November.
Yet here's not all; I cannot half untruss
&c.--it's so abhominous!
The Trojan nag was not so fully lined;
Unrip &c., and you shall find
Og the great commissary, and (which is worse)
The apparitor upon his skew-bald horse.
Then finally, my babe of grace, forbear,
&c. will be too far to swear, 50
For 'tis (to speak in a familiar style)
A Yorkshire wee bit longer than a mile.'
Here Roger was inspired, and by God's diggers
He'll swear in words at large but not in figures.
Now by this drink, which he takes off, as loath
To leave &c. in his liquid oath.
His brother pledged him, and that bloody wine
He swears shall seal the Synod's Catiline.
So they drunk on, not offering to part
'Till they had quite sworn out th' eleventh quart, 60
While all that saw and heard them jointly pray
They and their tribe were all &c.
[_A Dialogue, &c._ (_1647_.) This occurs also in the
_Rump_ (1662, reprinted London, N. D.). A MS. copy is found in
Rawlinson MS. Poet. 26 of the Bodleian, at fol. 94, with the
title '_A Dialogue between 2. Zelots concerning &c. in the
new Oath_.' 'The Oath' is the famous one formulated in 1640
by Convocation. Fuller, who was proctor for the diocese of
Bristol (and who would have been fined heavily for his part,
'moderate' as he was, if the Puritan Ultras of the Commons
could have had their way), has left much about it. This
oath, to be taken by all the clergy, imported approval of
the doctrine, discipline, and government of the Church, and
disclaimed, twice over, 'Popish' doctrine and the usurpations
of the see of Rome. Unluckily the government of the Church was
defined as 'by archbishops, bishops, deans, and archdeacons,
_&c._', which last was, in the absence of any other handle,
seized by the Puritan party as possibly implying all sorts of
horrors. Cleveland banters them well enough, but hardly with
the force and directness which he was to show later. The
Royalists were then under the fatal error of underrating the
strength of their opponents, and the gullibility of the people
of England.]
[Line: 2 'vicar', _1647_, _1651_, _1653_, _MS._: 'vicarage'
_1677_. 'children' _1651_, _1653_: I have been waiting a
long time to know what 'children's threes' means. It occurs
elsewhere, but to my thinking as an obvious reminiscence of
Cleveland.]
[Line: 7 shotten] 'like a herring that has spawned', 'thin'.]
[Line: 8 in cuerpo] 'in body-clothes', 'cloakless'. _1647_,
_1651_, _1653_ 'Querpo': _MS._ 'Quirpo', with 'cuerpo' written
above it.]
[Line: 12 _1677_ extends '&c.' to 'et caetera'. This is a
mistake, as the actual ampersand occurred in the oath and
gave some slight assistance to the cavillers. Cleveland's
expressions--'tail tied on a knot' (l. 14), 'curled lock' (l.
26), 'numerous folds' (l. 32)--lose their point without the
ampersand. _1677_ also has '_may_ conster', which though
possible enough, seems to me neither necessary nor even much
of an improvement.]
[Line: 17 _1677_, less euphoniously, 'Whil_st_'.]
[Line: 22 A reading of the _Rump_ version, 'Than all the
Idolaters of the letter', though almost certainly a mere
mistaken correction, has some interest.]
[Line: 23 fell] sett _MS._]
[Line: 24 Goliah] This form occurs in all the texts.]
[Line: 25 In this and other lines that follow much of the
quaintness is lost by 'extending' the '&c.' of the older
editions.]
[Line: 28 were] are _1677_, _MS._]
[Line: 32 All editions, I think, before _1677_ (which
substitutes 'false') have 'half'. 'False' is very feeble;
'half' refers picturesquely to the delineation of the Serpent
tempting Eve with a human head, being coiled below like the
curves of the _&c._ 'False' _MS._]
[Line: 33 _1677_, _MS._ 'Accurst Et Caetera! now, now I
scent'.]
[Line: 34 I do not know whether these very Livyish oysters
have been traced. _1677_ and _MS._ omit 'lately' and read
'prodigious bloody oysters'.]
[Line: 35 John Booker (1603-1677), Manchester man,
haberdasher, writing-master, and astrologer, gained a great
deal of credit by interpreting an eclipse after the usual
fashion as portending disaster to kings and princes, the great
Gustavus Adolphus and the unfortunate Frederick, 'Winter'-King
of Bohemia, being complaisant enough to die in accordance.]
[Line: 36 This sign] _1677_, _MS._ 'This _fiend_'--more
energetically.]
[Line: 37 ''Tis the dark vault where the' _MS._]
[Line: 40 The sting of 'the _Father Garnets_ that _stand by_
it' lies in the words immediately preceding the obnoxious
'&c.'--'archbishops, bishops, &c.'--whom the Puritan divine
stigmatizes as Jesuits and traitors to Church and State. As
has been stated, the oath distinctly, in set terms and twice
over, abjured Rome and all things Roman; but the Puritans
of those days, like their descendants, paid no attention to
trifles of this kind. For 'stand' _MS._ reads 'stood'.]
[Line: 43 Yet] Nay _MS._]
[Line: 44 _1647_, _1651_ 'abominous'; _1653_ 'abhominous'.
The 'h' must be kept in 'ab_h_ominous', though not unusual
for 'ab_om_-', because it helps to explain, and perhaps to
justify, _1677_ and _MS._ in reading 'ab_d_ominous'. This,
though something suggestive of a famous Oxford story, derives
some colour from 'untruss' and may be right, especially as I
do not know another example of 'abominous' for 'abominable'.]
[Line: 47 Og] _v. sup._, p. 31. _MS._ has marginal note
'Roan'.]
[Line: 48 'Skew-bald' is not = 'piebald', though most horses
commonly called piebald are skewbalds. 'Pie[magpie]bald' is
_black_ and white; skewbald _brown_ (or some other colour not
black) and white. The Church-courts were much more unpopular,
in these as in mediaeval times, than the Church, and High
Commissioners and commissaries and apparitors were alleged to
lurk under the guileful and dreadful '&c.']
[Line: 49 'babes' _1677_.]
[Line: 52 Blount's _Glossographia_ (1656), a useful book,
shows the ignorance of Northern English then prevailing by
supposing 'we_a_-bit' (the form found in Cleveland originally)
to be '_way_-bit'. It is, of course, 'little bit', the Scotch
'mile and a bittock'.]
[Line: 53 Here] Then _1647_, _1651_, _1653_. God's diggers] =
nails or fingers. Commoner in the corruption 'Ods niggers'.]
[Line: 54 'in words at large' _1647_ ('at length', one issue
of _1647_): 'at words in large' _1651_, _1653_: 'in words at
length, and not in figures' _MS._]
[Line: 58 Edd. 'Cat_a_line', as usual, but _1677_ 'Catiline'.
'He swears he'll be the Synod's' _MS._]
[Line: 59 'Thus they drink on, not offering to depart' _MS._]
[Line: 60 _1677_ omits 'quite'--no doubt for the old syllabic
reason. _MS._ substitutes 'fully'.]
[Line: 62 Perhaps nowhere is the comic surprise of the symbol
more wanted than here, and more of a loss when that symbol is
extended.]
Smectymnuus, or the Club-Divines.
Smectymnuus! The goblin makes me start!
I' th' name of Rabbi Abraham, what art?
Syriac? or Arabic? or Welsh? what skill't?
Ap all the bricklayers that Babel built,
Some conjurer translate and let me know it;
Till then 'tis fit for a West Saxon poet.
But do the brotherhood then play their prizes
Like mummers in religion with disguises,
Out-brave us with a name in rank and file?
A name, which, if 'twere trained, would spread a mile! 10
The saints' monopoly, the zealous cluster
Which like a porcupine presents a muster
And shoots his quills at bishops and their sees,
A devout litter of young Maccabees!
Thus Jack-of-all-trades hath devoutly shown
The Twelve Apostles on a cherry-stone;
Thus faction 's _à la mode_ in treason's fashion,
Now we have heresy by complication.
Like to Don Quixote's rosary of slaves
Strung on a chain; a murnival of knaves 20
Packed in a trick, like gipsies when they ride,
Or like colleagues which sit all of a side.
So the vain satyrists stand all a row
As hollow teeth upon a lute-string show.
Th' Italian monster pregnant with his brother,
Nature's diæresis, half one another,
He, with his little sides-man Lazarus,
Must both give way unto Smectymnuus.
Next Sturbridge Fair is Smec's; for, lo! his side
Into a five-fold lazar's multiplied. 30
Under each arm there 's tucked a double gizzard;
Five faces lurk under one single vizard.
The Whore of Babylon left these brats behind,
Heirs of confusion by gavelkind.
I think Pythagoras' soul is rambled hither
With all the change of raiment on together.
Smec is her general wardrobe; she'll not dare
To think of him as of a thoroughfare.
He stops the gossiping dame; alone he is
The purlieu of a metempsychosis; 40
Like a Scotch mark, where the more modest sense
Checks the loud phrase, and shrinks to thirteen pence:
Like to an ignis fatuus whose flame,
Though sometimes tripartite, joins in the same;
Like to nine tailors, who, if rightly spelled,
Into one man are monosyllabled.
Short-handed zeal in one hath cramped many
Like to the Decalogue in a single penny.
See, see how close the curs hunt under sheet
As if they spent in quire and scanned their feet. 50
One cure and five incumbents leap a truss;
The title sure must be litigious.
The Sadducees would raise a question
Who must be Smec at th' Resurrection.
Who cooped them up together were to blame.
Had they but wire-drawn and spun out their name,
'Twould make another Prentices' Petition
Against the bishops and their superstition.
Robson and French (that count from five to five,
As far as nature fingers did contrive-- 60
She saw they would be 'sessors, that 's the cause
She cleft their hoof into so many claws)
May tire their carrot-bunch, yet ne'er agree
To rate Smectymnuus for poll-money.
Caligula--whose pride was mankind's bail,
As who disdained to murder by retail,
Wishing the world had but one general neck,--
His glutton blade might have found game in Smec.
No echo can improve the author more
Whose lungs pay use on use to half a score. 70
No felon is more lettered, though the brand
Both superscribes his shoulder and his hand.
Some Welshman was his godfather, for he
Wears in his name his genealogy.
The banns are asked, would but the times give way,
Betwixt Smectymnuus and Et Caetera.
The guests, invited by a friendly summons,
Should be the Convocation and the Commons.
The priest to tie the foxes' tails together
Mosely, or Sancta Clara, choose you whether. 80
See what an offspring every one expects,
What strange pluralities of men and sects!
One says he'll get a vestry, but another
Is for a synod; Bet upon the mother.
Faith, cry St. George! Let them go to 't and stickle
Whether a conclave or a conventicle.
Thus might religions caterwaul, and spite
Which uses to divorce, might once unite.
But their cross fortunes interdict their trade;
The groom is rampant but the bride displayed. 90
My task is done, all my he goats are milked.
So many cards i' th' stock, and yet be bilked?
I could by letters now untwist the rabble,
Whip Smec from constable to constable;
But there I leave you to another dressing;
Only kneel down and take your father's blessing.
May the Queen Mother justify your fears
And stretch her patent to your leather ears!
[_Smectymnuus, &c._ (_1647_.) Whether this lively
skit on the five 'reverend men whose friend' Milton was (as
far as he could be proud of being anything but himself) proud
of being was in Milton's own mind when he wrote his _Apology_
for the acrostically named treatise, one cannot say. It is
a lively 'mime' enough, and he seems to throw back that word
with some special meaning. Cleveland's poem may have appeared
in the summer of 1641. Naturally, it is in the _Rump_ poems.]
[Line: 3 All editions 'skilt'. It apparently must be as in
text: 'skill't' for 'skill'st' = 'dost thou [or 'does it']
signify?']
[Line: 4 _1677_, &c. 'Ape', but 'Ap' in the Welsh sense (Welsh
having just been mentioned) does well enough. It would go, not
too roughly for Cleveland's syntax, with 'conjurer'. Let some
wizard, descended from all these, _and therefore knowing all
tongues_, translate.]
[Line: 6 This is rather interesting. Does it refer to Wessex
or Devonshire dialect of the day, or to old West Saxon? Junius
did not edit Cædmon till fourteen years later, but there was
study of Anglo-Saxon from Parker's time at Cambridge.]
[Line: 7 the brotherhood] 'Brother' and 'sister' being
constant sneers at the Puritan.
play their prizes] = 'fight'.]
[Line: 10 Perhaps another sneer at the 'train-bands' of the
City.]
[Line: 15 'distinctly' _1677_.]
[Line: 16 '_in_ a' _1677_.]
[Line: 18 I suppose _à la mode_, which is in _1677_, is right;
but the '_all_-a-mode' of _1647_, _1651_, _1653_ is tempting.]
[Line: 20 'murnival' or 'mournival'. Four aces, kings, &c.,
especially at gleek.]
[Line: 22 _1677_, &c. 'Or like _the College_'.]
[Line: 24 'h_a_llow' _1653_.]
[Line: 25 I knew not this monster, and suspected that he would
not be a delicate monster to know. But Mr. Thorn-Drury has
found him in the _Gentleman's Magazine_, 1777, p. 482. Lazarus
Collondo, a Genoese, had a small brother growing out of his
side, with one leg, two arms, &c., &c.]
[Line: 29 'Smec' will now be an even greater attraction at the
Sturbridge fair at Cambridge. All fairs rejoiced in monsters.]
[Line: 36 '_The_ change', as in _1647_, _1651_, _1653_ and its
group, including the _Rump_ version, is not so good as 'her',
which _1677_ reads.]
[Line: 38 i.e. 'to go on to any _other_ body'.]
[Line: 40 'Purlieu' seems to be used in the sense of
'precinct' or 'province'.]
[Lines: 41-2 These lines are in all the seventeenth-century
editions I have seen, but not in Mr. Berdan's. The Scots pound
was of course only twenty English pence, and so the mark (two
thirds) 'shrank' accordingly.]
[Line: 49 _1647_, _1651_, _1677_ insert 'a' before 'sheet'.
The metaphor is probably as old as hunting. 'Spend', as
Professor Case reminds me, has had already in _The Miser_, l.
67, the sense of 'give tongue'. 'Scanned their feet' for 'kept
pace' is good enough; but why the five should leap a truss,
and why this should be litigious, I again frankly confess
myself to have been ignorant. Mr. Simpson, however, quotes R.
Fletcher in _Ex Otio Negotium_, 1656, p. 202, 'The model of
the new Religion':
How many Queere-religions? clear your throat,
May a man have a penyworth? four a groat?
Or do the _Iuncto_ leap at truss a fayle?
Three tenents clap while five hang on the tayle?
Cleveland seems to have tried in this piece to equal the
mystery of the title of 'Smec' by his own matter, and to have
succeeded very fairly.]
[Line: 54 _1677_, &c. '_shall_ be'. 'at th'' _1647_, _1677_:
'at the' _1651_, _1653_.]
[Line: 55 cooped] cooked _1647_, _1651_.]
[Line: 56 _1677_, &c. '_the_ name'.]
[Line: 57 An absurd, but doubtless in the circumstances
dangerous, document of the kind was actually disseminated, in
which the prentices bold engaged 'to defend his Sacred Majesty
against Popish innovations such as archbishops and bishops
appear to be'.]
[Line: 63 carrot-bunch] Cant for 'fingers'.]
[Line: 70 'pay' _1653_, _1677_: 'pays' _1647_, _1651_. _1677_
'_and_ use'.]
[Line: 75 'Banns' _1677_: 'Banes' in earlier texts. _1653_
'time'.]
[Line: 78 The Convocation which had been guilty of '&c.', and
the Commons who mostly sympathized with 'Smec'.]
[Line: 79 foxes' tails] As at Samson's marriage (Judges xv.
4-7.)]
[Line: 80 Mosel[e]y, Milton's printer; and Sancta Clara, the
Jesuit?]
[Line: 82 _1677_ 'plurality'.]
[Line: 83 'Vestry, but' _1677_: 'Vestery' _1647_, _1651_,
_1653_.]
[Line: 84 _1677_ 'Bets'.]
[Line: 90 The heraldic terms are pretty plain, but _1677_
reads 'is spade' i.e. 'spayed', as in _The Hecatomb to his
Mistress_, l. 2.]
[Line: 94 Rhyme here really badly managed.]
[Line: 95 _1677_ 'another's'.]
[Line: 97 The fear and dislike of Henrietta Maria (whom Mr.
Berdan supposes to be meant) among the disaffected is only too
certain: and the fate of Prynne's ears for his scandal of her
is notorious. But why _at this time_ she should be called a
Queen Mother (it was her proper title afterwards, and she was
one of the very few to whom it was actually given), and what
the last line means, I know not. Nor does Professor Firth,
unless Marie de Médicis (who _was_ Queen Mother in France
and had visited England) had, as he suggests, a share in some
leather patent, and is meant here. Smec's ears are 'vellum' in
_Rupertismus_, 169 (_v. inf._, p. 67).]
The Mixed Assembly.
Flea-Bitten synod, an assembly brewed
Of clerks and elders _ana_, like the rude
Chaos of Presbyt'ry, where laymen guide
With the tame woolpack clergy by their side.
Who asked the banns 'twixt these discoloured mates?
A strange grotesco this; the Church and states,
Most divine tick-tack, in a piebald crew,
To serve as table-men of divers hue!
She, that conceived an Ethiopian heir
By picture, when the parents both were fair, 10
At sight of you had born a dappled son,
You checkering her imagination.
Had Jacob's flock but seen you sit, the dams
Had brought forth speckled and ring-streakéd lambs.
Like an impropriator's motley kind
Whose scarlet coat is with a cassock lined;
Like the lay-thief in a canonic weed,
Sure of his clergy ere he did the deed;
Like Royston crows, who are (as I may say)
Friars of both the Orders, Black and Gray; 20
So mixed they are, one knows not whether 's thicker,
A layer of burgess, or a layer of vicar.
Have they usurped what Royal Judah had,
And now must Levi too part stakes with Gad?
The sceptre and the crosier are the crutches,
Which, if not trusted in their pious clutches,
Will fail the cripple State. And were 't not pity
But both should serve the yardwand of the City?
That Isaac might stroke his beard and sit
Judge of [Greek: eis Haidou] and _elegerit_? 30
Oh that they were in chalk and charcoal drawn!
The miscellany-satyr and the faun
And all th' adulteries of twisted nature
But faintly represent this riddling feature;
Whose members being not tallies, they'll not own
Their fellows at the Resurrection.
Strange scarlet doctors these! They'll pass in story
For sinners half refined in Purgatory,
Or parboiled lobsters, where there jointly rules
The fading sables and the coming gules. 40
The flea that Falstaff damned thus lewdly shows
Tormented in the flames of Bardolph's nose.
Like him that wore the dialogue of cloaks
This shoulder John-a-Stiles, that John-a-Nokes;
Like Jews and Christians in a ship together
With an old neck-verse to distinguish either;
Like their intended discipline to boot,
Or whatsoe'er hath neither head nor foot;
Such may their stript-stuff-hangings seem to be,
Sacrilege matched with codpiece simony. 50
Be sick and dream a little, you may then
Fancy these linsey-woolsey vestry-men.
Forbear, good Pembroke, be not over-daring.
Such company may chance to spoil thy swearing,
And thy drum-major oaths, of bulk unruly,
May dwindle to a feeble 'By my truly'!
He that the noble Percy's blood inherits,
Will he strike up a Hotspur of the spirits?
He'll fright the Obadiahs out of tune
With his uncircumciséd Algernoon; 60
A name so stubborn, 'tis not to be scanned
By him in Gath with the six-fingered hand.
See, they obey the magic of my words!
Presto! they're gone, and now the House of Lords
Looks like the withered face of an old hag,
But with three teeth like to a triple gag.
A jig! a jig! and in this antic dance
Fielding and Doxie Marshall first advance.
Twisse blows the Scotch-pipes, and the loving brace
Puts on the traces and treads cinque-a-pace. 70
Then Saye and Sele must his old hamstrings supple,
And he and rumpled Palmer make a couple.
Palmer 's a fruitful girl if he'll unfold her;
The midwife may find work about her shoulder.
Kimbolton, that rebellious Boanerges,
Must be content to saddle Dr. Burges.
If Burges get a clap, 'tis ne'er the worse,
But the fifth time of his compurgators.
Noll Bowles is coy; good sadness, cannot dance
But in obedience to the ordinance. 80
Here Wharton wheels about till mumping Lidy,
Like the full moon, hath made his lordship giddy.
Pym and the members must their giblets levy
T' encounter Madam Smec, that single bevy.
If they two truck together, 'twill not be
A child-birth, but a gaol-delivery.
Thus every Ghibelline hath got his Guelph
But Selden,--he 's a galliard by himself;
And well may be; there 's more divines in him
Than in all this, their Jewish Sanhedrim: 90
Whose canons in the forge shall then bear date
When mules their cousin-germans generate.
Thus Moses' law is violated now;
The ox and ass go yoked in the same plough.
Resign thy coach-box, Twisse; Brooke's preacher he
Would sort the beasts with more conformity.
Water and earth make but one globe; a Roundhead
Is clergy-lay, party-per-pale compounded.
[_The Mixed Assembly_ (_1647_.) This was the famous
'Westminster' Assembly which met in July, 1643--a hodge-podge
of half a score peers, a score of commoners, and about four
times as many divines as laymen. Tanner MS. 465, of
the Bodleian, has a poor copy of this poem; but some
transpositions and omissions suggest that it preserves an
earlier draft. Lines 63-6 follow 52; 71-8, 81-2, are omitted.]
[Line: 1 Flea-bitten] As of a horse--the laymen appearing like
specks on the body of clergy.]
[Line: 2 _ana_] Usually interpreted in the apothecary's sense,
'in equal quantities', written so in prescriptions and said to
be from the Greek--[Greek: ana] being thus used.]
[Lines: 6, 7 'Church and State's, Most divine' _MS._]
[Line: 19 In a fable a Royston crow (the town being on the way
to Cambridge had probably a bad reputation for fleecing the
guileless undergraduate) advised an innocent of his kind to
drop a shellfish from a height on rocks where the Royston bird
was waiting and secured the meat.]
[Line: 28 _1677_ changes 'But' to 'That'.]
[Line: 29 _1677_ inserts '_go_' before 'stroke'. But Cleveland
probably scanned 'I-sa-ac'. The reference is to Isaac
Pennington: cf. _The Rebel Scot_, l. 79.]
[Line: 30 The phrase is of course Homeric (_sc._ [Greek:
domous]) and with its companion combines the idea of an
ecclesiastical condemnation ('delivering over to Satan') and a
civil execution, a writ of _elegit_.]
[Line: 32 faun] All old editions, I think, and Mr. Berdan,
'fa_w_n'. But the _animal_ (always now indicated by that
spelling) is not of a 'twisted nature', the half-god is.]
[Line: 40 One of those that taught Dryden something.]
[Line: 41 Cleveland, like most Royalists and their master,
was evidently sound on Shakespeare. A copy of _1677_ in
my possession has a manuscript list of references on the
fly-leaf.]
[Line: 46 'neck-verse'] = for benefit of clergy.]
[Line: 49 'Stript', _1647_, _1651_, _1653_, is evidently
'striped', and is printed 'strip'd' in _1677_.]
[Line: 53 Philip Herbert, fourth Earl of Pembroke, though a
patron of literature and the arts, was a man of bad character
and a virulent Roundhead.]
[Line: 55 'thy' _1677_: 'these' _1647_, _1651_, _1653_.
of bulk unruly] if Vulcan rule you _MS._]
[Line: 59 _1647_, _1651_ 'Obadiahs': _1653_ and its group
'Obadiah': _1677_ 'Obadiah's'.]
[Line: 60 Algernon Percy, tenth Earl of Northumberland--who
repented too late of his rebellion and tried to prevent the
consequences--seems to have joined the Roundheads out of pique
(his pride was notorious) at neglect of his suggestions and
interference with his powers as Lord High Admiral. By putting
the fleet into the hands of the Parliament he did the
King perhaps more hurt than any other single person at the
beginning of the war. 'Algernoon' _1647_, _1651_: later texts
spoil the point of the next line by using the conventional
form.]
[Line: 68 Fielding] Basil, the degenerate son of the first
Earl of Denbigh. He actually served in the Parliamentary Army,
but like Northumberland, who did not go that length, repented
too late.
Doxie Marshall] The Stephen Marshall of _Smectymnuus_ and the
'Geneva Bull' of _The Rebel Scot_, l. 21; exactly why
'Doxie' I do not know. Possibly 'prostitute' from his eager
Presbyterianism. It is odd that Anne and Rebecca Marshall, two
famous actresses of the Restoration to whom the term might be
applied with some direct justification, used to be counted his
daughters, though this is now denied.]
[Line: 69 Twisse] William (1578-1646), the Prolocutor of the
Assembly.]
[Line: 71 Saye and Sele] William Fiennes, first Viscount
(1582-1662). Of very bad reputation as a slippery customer.]
[Line: 72 rumpled] Mr. Berdan 'rumbled', on what authority
and with what meaning I do not know. 'Rumpled', which is in
_1647_, _1651_, _1653_, and _1677_, no doubt refers to
the untidy bands, &c. of a slovenly priest. Herbert Palmer
(1604-1647) was a man of good family but a bitter Puritan.
He was first Fellow and then President of Queens' College,
Cambridge, where Cleveland doubtless knew him. The odd
description reads like that of a sort of deformed dwarf.]
[Line: 75 Kimbolton] Edward, Lord (1602-1671), just about to
become the well-known Earl of Manchester of the Rebellion.
Like Northumberland and Denbigh, he repented, but only
after he had been not too politely shelved for Fairfax and
Cromwell.]
[Line: 76 Cleveland would have been delighted had he known the
fate of Cornelius Burges (1589?-1665), of whom he evidently
had a pretty bad idea. Burges, a Wadham and Lincoln man, was
one of the leaders of the Puritans among the London clergy,
and a great favourite with the House of Commons in the Long
Parliament. He wanted to suppress cathedrals; and, being a
practical man and preacher at Wells during the Commonwealth,
did his best by buying the deanery and part of the estates.
Wherefore he was promptly and properly ruined by the
Restoration, and died in well-deserved poverty. He was
vice-president of the Westminster Assembly.]
[Line: 79 Oliver Bowles, a Puritan divine. _1653_ omits the
comma after 'sadness' found in _1651_,--a neat punctuation,
meaning 'in good sadness, he cannot dance'. Phrases like 'in
good truth', 'in good sadnesse' were the utmost licence of
speech which the Puritans permitted themselves.]
[Line: 81 Philip, fourth Lord Wharton (1613-1696) took the
anti-Royalist side very early, but cut a very poor figure at
Edgehill and abandoned active service. He did not figure
under the Commonwealth, but was a zealous Whig after the
Restoration, and a prominent Williamite in the last years of
his long life. Who 'Lidy' (_1653_) or 'Lidie' (_1677_)
was seems unknown. Professor Firth suggests a misprint for
'Sidie,' i.e. Sidrach Simpson (1600?-1655), a busy London
Puritan and member of the Assembly. Another ingenious
suggestion made to me is that 'mumping Lid[d]y' may be one
of the queer dance-names of the period, or actually a woman,
Wharton being no enemy to the sex. But I do not know that
there was such a dance, and as all the other pairs are males,
being members of the Assembly, it would be odd if there were
an exception here. For 'Here' _1647_, _1651_ read 'Her'.]
[Line: 88 The exceptional position of Selden is well hit
off here. His character and his earning were just able to
neutralize, though not to overcome, the curse of Laodicea.]
[Line: 95 'Brooke' is Robert Brooke, second Lord Brooke,
cousin and successor of Fulke Greville--the 'fanatic Brooke'
who had his 'guerdon meet' by being shot in his attack on
Lichfield Cathedral. _Mercurius Anti-Britannicus_, 1645, p.
23, has:
Like my Lord Brooke's _Coachman_
Preaching out of a tub.
(I owe this citation to Mr. Simpson.)]
The King's Disguise.
And why a tenant to this vile disguise
Which who but sees, blasphemes thee with his eyes?
My twins of light within their penthouse shrink,
And hold it their allegiance now to wink.
O, for a state-distinction to arraign
Charles of high treason 'gainst my Sovereign!
What an usurper to his prince is wont,
Cloister and shave him, he himself hath don' 't.
His muffled feature speaks him a recluse--
His ruins prove him a religious house! 10
The sun hath mewed his beams from off his lamp
And majesty defaced the royal stamp.
Is 't not enough thy dignity 's in thrall,
But thou'lt transmute it in thy shape and all,
As if thy blacks were of too faint a dye
Without the tincture of tautology?
Flay an Egyptian for his cassock skin,
Spun of his country's darkness, line 't within
With Presbyterian budge, that drowsy trance,
The Synod's sable, foggy Ignorance; 20
Nor bodily nor ghostly negro could
Roughcast thy figure in a sadder mould.
This privy-chamber of thy shape would be
But the close mourner of thy Royalty.
Then, break the circle of thy tailor's spell,
A pearl within a rugged oyster's shell.
Heaven, which the minster of thy person owns,
Will fine thee for dilapidations.
Like to a martyred abbey's coarser doom,
Devoutly altered to a pigeon-room; 30
Or like a college by the changeling rabble,
Manchester's elves, transformed into a stable;
Or if there be a profanation higher;
Such is the sacrilege of thine attire,
By which thou'rt half deposed.--Thou look'st like one
Whose looks are under sequestration;
Whose renegado form at the first glance
Shows like the Self-denying Ordinance;
Angel of light, and darkness too, (I doubt)
Inspired within and yet possessed without; 40
Majestic twilight in the state of grace,
Yet with an excommunicated face.
Charles and his mask are of a different mint;
A psalm of mercy in a miscreant print.
The sun wears midnight, day is beetle-browed,
And lightning is in kelder of a cloud.
O the accursed stenography of fate!
The princely eagle shrunk into a bat!
What charm, what magic vapour can it be
That checks his rays to this apostasy? 50
It is no subtile film of tiffany air,
No cobweb vizard such as ladies wear,
When they are veiled on purpose to be seen,
Doubling their lustre by their vanquished screen.
No, the false scabbard of a prince is tough
And three-piled darkness, like the smoky slough
Of an imprisoned flame; 'tis Faux in grain;
Dark lantern to our bright meridian.
Hell belched the damp; the Warwick Castle vote
Rang Britain's curfew, so our light went out. 60
[A black offender, should he wear his sin
For penance, could not have a darker skin.]
His visage is not legible; the letters
Like a lord's name writ in fantastic fetters;
Clothes where a Switzer might be buried quick;
Sure they would fit the body politic;
False beard enough to fit a stage's plot
(For that 's the ambush of their wit, God wot),
Nay, all his properties so strange appear,
Y' are not i' th' presence though the King be there. 70
A libel is his dress, a garb uncouth,
Such as the _Hue and Cry_ once purged at mouth.
Scribbling assassinate! Thy lines attest
An earmark due, Cub of the Blatant Beast;
Whose breath, before 'tis syllabled for worse,
Is blasphemy unfledged, a callow curse.
The Laplanders, when they would sell a wind
Wafting to hell, bag up thy phrase and bind
It to the bark, which at the voyage end
Shifts poop and breeds the colic in the Fiend. 80
But I'll not dub thee with a glorious scar
Nor sink thy sculler with a man-of-war.
The black-mouthed _Si quis_ and this slandering suit
Both do alike in picture execute.
But since w' are all called Papists, why not date
Devotion to the rags thus consecrate?
As temples use to have their porches wrought
With sphinxes, creatures of an antic draught,
And puzzling portraitures to show that there
Riddles inhabited; the like is here. 90
But pardon, Sir, since I presume to be
Clerk of this closet to your Majesty.
Methinks in this your dark mysterious dress
I see the Gospel couched in parables.
At my next view my purblind fancy ripes
And shows Religion in its dusky types;
Such a text royal, so obscure a shade
Was Solomon in Proverbs all arrayed.
Come, all the brats of this expounding age
To whom the spirit is in pupilage, 100
You that damn more than ever Samson slew,
And with his engine, the same jaw-bone too!
How is 't he 'scapes your inquisition free
Since bound up in the Bible's livery?
Hence, Cabinet-intruders! Pick-locks, hence!
You, that dim jewels with your Bristol sense:
And characters, like witches, so torment
Till they confess a guilt though innocent!
Keys for this coffer you can never get;
None but St. Peter's opes this cabinet, 110
This cabinet, whose aspect would benight
Critic spectators with redundant light.
A Prince most seen is least. What Scriptures call
The Revelation, is most mystical.
Mount then, thou Shadow Royal, and with haste
Advance thy morning-star, Charles, overcast.
May thy strange journey contradictions twist
And force fair weather from a Scottish mist.
Heaven's confessors are posed, those star-eyed sages,
T' interpret an eclipse thus riding stages. 120
Thus Israel-like he travels with a cloud,
Both as a conduct to him and a shroud.
But oh, he goes to Gibeon and renews
A league with mouldy bread and clouted shoes!
[_The Kings Disguise._] That assumed on the fatal
journey from Oxford to the camp of the Scots. (First printed
as a quarto pamphlet of four leaves; Thomason bought his copy
on 21 January, 1647; reprinted in the 1647 _Poems_. Vaughan
wrote a poem on the same subject about the same time.)]
[Line: 1 a tenant to] so coffin'd in _1677_.]
[Line: 2 Which] That _1677_.]
[Line 4: _1677_ omits 'now', rather to one's surprise, as the
value 'allegi-ance' is of the first rather than of the second
half of the century. It is therefore probably right.]
[Line: 14 transmute] transcribe _1677_. The two
readings obviously pertain to two different senses of
'blacks'--'clothes' and 'ink'.]
[Line: 17 for] from _1647_ (pamphlet).]
[Line: 18 line 't] lin'de _1647_ (pamphlet).]
[Line: 19 The _1677_ 'Vindicators' had forgotten 'budge'
in the sense of 'fur' (perhaps they were too loyal to read
Milton) and made it 'b_a_dge'.]
[Line: 20 _1651_, _1653_ 'Synod', with no hyphen but perhaps
meant for a compound. The genitive is perhaps better. The
comma at 'sable', which Mr. Berdan omits, is important.]
[Lines: 21-2 The error of those who say that such a rhyme
points to the pronunciation of the _l_ in words like 'could'
is sufficiently shown by the fact that 'coud' is frequent.
It is, of course, a mere eye-rhyme, like many of Spenser's
earlier. 'No bodily' _1647_ (pamphlet).]
[Line: 23 shape] garb _1677_.]
[Line: 24 of] to _1677_.]
[Line: 25 'Twill break' _1647_, _1653_. tailor's] jailor's
_1647_, _1651_, _1653_.]
[Line: 29 _1653_, but obviously by a mere misprint,
'co_u_rser'.]
[Line: 31 _1647_, _1651_, _1653_ '_the_ college'. It is said
that the definite article usually at this time designates 'the
College _of Physicians_'. But, as Mr. Berdan well observes,
'the case was unfortunately too common to admit of
identification'. Cleveland's restless wit was not idle
in calling 'Manchester's elves'--the Parliamentary
troops--'changelings'. The soldier ought to be a King's man:
and indeed pretended to be.]
[Line: 32 _1647_ (pamphlet) 'reformed'.]
[Line: 40 This and l. 47 are examples of the Drydenian line
before Dryden, so frequent in Cleveland.]
[Line: 46 = 'The unborn child of a cloud'.]
[Line: 47 Alliteration, and some plausibility of verse,
seduced _1677_ into 'of State', but I think 'fate' is better.]
[Line: 50 checks] shrinks _1647_, _1651_, _1653_.]
[Lines: 55-6 _1647_, _1651_, _1653_ read
_Nor_ the false scabbard of a Princ_e's_ tough
_Metal_ and three-piled darkness like the slough.
Some fight might be made for 'Metal', but 'Nor' is
indefensible. I am half inclined to transfer it above to l. 52
and take 'No' thence. The text, which is _1677_, is I
suppose a correction. Both _1647_ texts mark 'slough' with
an asterisk, and have a marginal note 'A damp in coal-pits
usual'.]
[Line: 57 I cannot understand what Mr. Berdan--who prints
'Fawkes'--means by saying it is not authorized by any edition,
whereas his own apparatus gives 'Faux' in every one. It is
a mere question of spelling. 'Three-piled darkness' equally
surrounds to me his further remark that he 'adopted it as the
only reading approximating sense; _treason in grain_'. The
metaphor of the dark lantern cloaked is surely clear enough;
and this 'in grain' is one of the innumerable passages showing
the rashness of invariably interpreting 'in grain' as = 'with
the grain of the cochineal insect'. Beyond all doubt it has
the simple sense of _penitus_, 'inward'.]
[Line: 58 bright] high _1647_, _1653_.]
[Line: 59 the Warwick Castle vote] The Resolution of the
Commons on May 6, 1646, that the King, after the Scots sold
him, should be lodged in Warwick Castle.]
[Lines: 61-2 Not in _1647_, _1651_, _1653_ and its group, but
added in _1677_.]
[Line: 63 _1647_, _1651_, _1653_ '_Thy_ visage'.]
[Line: 67 _1677_ has the very considerable and not at once
acceptable alteration of 'thatch a poet's plot'. But it may
have been Cleveland.]
[Line: 72 _1647_, _1651_, again give an asterisked note,
'Britanicus', showing the definite, not general, reference of
'Hue and Cry'. It seems that _Mercurius Britannicus_ did issue
a 'Hue and Cry' after the King, for which the editor, Captain
Audley, was put in the Gate-house till he apologized.]
[Line: 75 _1651_ 'wreath', corrupted into 'wrath' in _1653_.]
[Line: 76 Blount stupidly thought 'callow' to mean 'lewd or
wicked', as if 'unfledged' did not ratify the usual sense.]
[Line: 80 breeds] brings _1647_, _1651_.]
[Line: 83 _Si quis_] The first words of a formal inquiry as
to disqualifications in a candidate for orders, &c. It would
apply to the Hue and Cry itself.]
[Line: 85 It being a favourite Puritan trick to identify
'Royalist' with 'Papist'. 'Date' apparently in the sense of
'begin', which it usually has only as neuter.]
[Line: 89 puzzling] _1677_ and its followers 'purling', with
no sense.]
[Line: 95 _1677_ 'The second view' and 'wipes'.]
[Line: 106 Bristol] as of diamonds.]
[Line: 109 coffer] cipher _1677_, &c.]
[Line: 110 opes] ope _1677_.]
[Line: 116 'Charles' _1677_: _1647_, _1651_, _1653,_ by a
clear error 'Charles's'.]
[Line: 120 'T' interpret an' _1647_ (pamphlet): 'To interpret
an' _1647_ (Poems) _1653_, _1677_. _1651_ omits 'To' and reads
the 'an' which seems bad in metre and meaning alike.]
The Rebel Scot.
How, Providence? and yet a Scottish crew?
Then Madam Nature wears black patches too!
What? shall our nation be in bondage thus
Unto a land that truckles under us?
Ring the bells backward! I am all on fire.
Not all the buckets in a country quire
Shall quench my rage. A poet should be feared,
When angry, like a comet's flaming beard.
And where 's the stoic can his wrath appease,
To see his country sick of Pym's disease? 10
By Scotch invasion to be made a prey
To such pigwiggin myrmidons as they?
But that there 's charm in verse, I would not quote
The name of Scot without an antidote;
Unless my head were red, that I might brew
Invention there that might be poison too.
Were I a drowsy judge whose dismal note
Disgorgeth halters as a juggler's throat
Doth ribbons; could I in Sir Emp'ric's tone
Speak pills in phrase and quack destruction; 20
Or roar like Marshall, that Geneva bull,
Hell and damnation a pulpit full;
Yet to express a Scot, to play that prize,
Not all those mouth-grenadoes can suffice.
Before a Scot can properly be curst,
I must like Hocus swallow daggers first.
Come, keen iambics, with your badger's feet
And badger-like bite till your teeth do meet.
Help, ye tart satirists, to imp my rage
With all the scorpions that should whip this age. 30
Scots are like witches; do but whet your pen,
Scratch till the blood come, they'll not hurt you then.
Now, as the martyrs were enforced to take
The shapes of beasts, like hypocrites, at stake,
I'll bait my Scot so, yet not cheat your eyes;
A Scot within a beast is no disguise.
No more let Ireland brag her harmless nation
Fosters no venom since the Scot's plantation:
Nor can ours feigned antiquity maintain;
Since they came in, England hath wolves again. 40
The Scot that kept the Tower might have shown,
Within the grate of his own breast alone,
The leopard and the panther, and engrossed
What all those wild collegiates had cost
The honest high-shoes in their termly fees;
First to the salvage lawyer, next to these.
Nature herself doth Scotchmen beasts confess,
Making their country such a wilderness:
A land that brings in question and suspense
God's omnipresence, but that Charles came thence, 50
But that Montrose and Crawford's loyal band
Atoned their sins and christ'ned half the land.
Nor is it all the nation hath these spots;
There is a Church as well as Kirk of Scots.
As in a picture where the squinting paint
Shows fiend on this side, and on that side saint.
He, that saw Hell in 's melancholy dream
And in the twilight of his fancy's theme,
Scared from his sins, repented in a fright,
Had he viewed Scotland, had turned proselyte. 60
A land where one may pray with cursed intent,
'Oh may they never suffer banishment!'
Had Cain been Scot, God would have changed his doom;
Not forced him wander but confined him home!
Like Jews they spread and as infection fly,
As if the Devil had ubiquity.
Hence 'tis they live at rovers and defy
This or that place, rags of geography.
They're citizens o' th' world; they're all in all;
Scotland's a nation epidemical. 70
And yet they ramble not to learn the mode,
How to be dressed, or how to lisp abroad;
To return knowing in the Spanish shrug,
Or which of the Dutch States a double jug
Resembles most in belly or in beard,
(The card by which the mariners are steered).
No, the Scots-errant fight and fight to eat,
Their Ostrich stomachs make their swords their meat.
Nature with Scots as tooth-drawers hath dealt
Who use to hang their teeth upon their belt. 80
Yet wonder not at this their happy choice,
The serpent 's fatal still to Paradise.
Sure, England hath the hemorrhoids, and these
On the north postern of the patient seize
Like leeches; thus they physically thirst
After our blood, but in the cure shall burst!
Let them not think to make us run o' th' score
To purchase villenage, as once before
When an act passed to stroke them on the head,
Call them good subjects, buy them gingerbread. 90
Not gold, nor acts of grace, 'tis steel must tame
The stubborn Scot; a Prince that would reclaim
Rebels by yielding, doth like him, or worse,
Who saddled his own back to shame his horse.
Was it for this you left your leaner soil,
Thus to lard Israel with Egypt's spoil?
They are the Gospel's life-guard; but for them,
The garrison of New Jerusalem,
What would the brethren do? The Cause! The Cause!
Sack-possets and the fundamental laws! 100
Lord! what a godly thing is want of shirts!
How a Scotch stomach and no meat converts!
They wanted food and raiment, so they took
Religion for their seamstress and their cook.
Unmask them well; their honours and estate,
As well as conscience, are sophisticate.
Shrive but their titles and their money poise,
A laird and twenty pence pronounced with noise,
When construed, but for a plain yeoman go,
And a good sober two-pence; and well so. 110
Hence then, you proud impostors; get you gone,
You Picts in gentry and devotion;
You scandal to the stock of verse, a race
Able to bring the gibbet in disgrace.
Hyperbolus by suffering did traduce
The ostracism and shamed it out of use.
The Indian, that Heaven did forswear
Because he heard some Spaniards were there,
Had he but known what Scots in Hell had been,
He would Erasmus-like have hung between. 120
My Muse hath done. A voider for the nonce!
I wrong the Devil should I pick their bones;
That dish is his; for, when the Scots decease,
Hell, like their nation, feeds on barnacles.
A Scot, when from the gallow-tree got loose,
Drops into Styx and turns a Solan goose.
[_The Rebel Scot._] This famous piece is said to be
the only one of Cleveland's poems which is in every edition.
In _1677_ it is accompanied by a Latin version (of very little
merit, and probably if not certainly by 'another hand')
which I do not give. A poor copy is in Tanner MS. 465 of the
Bodleian, at fol. 92, with the title 'A curse on the Scots'.
The piece is hot enough, and no wonder; but it would no doubt
have been hotter if it had been written later, when Cleveland
was actually gagged by Leven's dismissal of him. It is not
unnoteworthy that the library of the University of Edinburgh
contains not a single one of the numerous seventeenth-century
editions of Cleveland. Years afterwards, when a Douglas had
chequered the disgrace of 'the Dutch in the Medway' by a
brave death, Marvell, who probably knew our poet, composed
for 'Cleveland's Ghost' a half palinode, half continuation,
entitled 'The _Loyal_ Scot'.]
[Line: 10 It would seem that Pym had not yet gone to his
account, as he died on December 6, 1643, after getting
Parliament to accept the Covenant and the Scots to invade
England.]
[Line: 12 The early texts have Drayton's name correctly:
_1677_ makes it 'Pigwidgin'.]
[Line: 15 It seems hardly necessary to remind the reader of
the well-known habit of painting Judas's hair red.]
[Line: 19 could ... tone] or in the Empiric's misty tone
_MS._]
[Line: 21 Stephen Marshall, the 'Smec.' man and a mighty
cushion-thumper (who denounced the 'Curse of Meroz' on all
who came not to destroy those in any degree opposed to the
Parliament), actually preached Pym's funeral sermon.]
[Line: 22 'Damnati-on'. But _MS._ reads 'a whole pulpit
full'.]
[Line: 28 _1653_ has the obvious blunder of 'feet' repeated
for 'teeth'. The first 'feet' is itself less obvious, but I
suppose the strong claw and grip of the badger's are meant.
Some, however, refer it to the supposed lop-sidedness or
inequality of badgers' feet, answering to the [)]-- of the
iamb. I never knew but one badger, who lived in St. Clement's,
Oxford, and belonged (surreptitiously) to Merton College. I
did not notice his feet.]
[Line: 32 The more usual reproach was the other way--that 'the
Scot would not fight _till_ he saw his own blood'.]
[Line: 38 _1677_, less well, '_that_ Scot'.]
[Line: 39 'ours ... maintain' _1647_, _1651_, _1653_: 'our ...
obtain' _1677_.]
[Line: 41 The Scot] Sir William Balfour, a favoured servant of
the King, who deserted to the other side.]
[Line: 44 A difficulty has been made about 'collegiate',
but there is surely none. The word (or 'colleg_ian_') is old
slang, and hardly slang for 'jail-bird'. The double use of
the Tower as a prison and a menagerie should of course be
remembered.]
[Line: 45 high-shoes] Country folk in boots.
termly] = 'when they came up to business'.]
[Line: 51 Crawford] Ludovic, sixteenth Earl, who fought
bravely all through the Rebellion, served after the downfall
in France and Spain, and died, it is not accurately known when
or where, but about 1652.]
[Line: 52 A fine line. _1677_ does not improve it by reading
'_their_ land'.]
[Lines: 63-4 The central and most often quoted couplet.]
[Lines: 65-6 follow 70 in the _MS._]
[Line: 67 at rovers] Common for shooting not at a definite
mark, but at large.]
[Line: 70 epidemical] In the proper sense of 'travelling from
country to country', not doubtless without the transferred one
of a 'travelling _plague_'.]
[Line: 74 States] not the Provinces; but the representative
Hogan Mogans themselves.]
[Line: 78 'Ostrich' in _1677_: _1647_, _1651,_ and _1653_ the
older 'estrich'.]
[Line: 80 hang] string _1677_.]
[Line: 81 'But why should we be made your frantic choice?'
_MS._]
[Line: 82 'England too hath emerods' _MS._]
[Line: 83 _1651_, _1653_ have a middle form between 'emerod'
and 'hemorrhoid'--'Hemeroids'. _1647_ 'Hemerods'.]
[Line: 84 _1647_, _1651_, _1653_ and its group, oddly,
'posture'.]
[Line: 89 The Parliamentary bribe or Danegelt of 1641.]
[Line: 95 'left' _1653_, &c., _1677_: 'gave' _1647_, _1651_.
The _MS._ reads 'But they may justly quit their leaner soil.
'Tis to lard ...']
[Line: 101 _1651_, _1653_ 'goodly', but here, I think, the old
is not the better.]
[Line: 107 'money' _1647_, _1651_, _1653_: 'moneys' _1677_.]
[Line: 108 _1647_, _1653_, &c. 'pound', wrongly. Twenty Scots
pence = not quite two-pence English. Therefore 'well so'.]
[Line: 118 _1641_, _1651_, and _1653_ 'the Spaniards', but
'some' (_1677_) is more pointed.]
[Line: 120 Erasmus] Regarded as neither Papist nor
Protestant?]
[Cleveland never wrote anything else of this force
and fire: and it, or parts of it, were constantly revived when
the occasion presented itself.]
The Scots' Apostasy.
Is 't come to this? What? shall the cheeks of Fame,
Stretched with the breath of learned Loudoun's name,
Be flagged again? And that great piece of sense,
As rich in loyalty as eloquence,
Brought to the test, be found a trick of state?
Like chemists' tinctures, proved adulterate?
The Devil sure such language did achieve
To cheat our unforewarned Grandam Eve,
As this impostor found out to besot
Th' experienced English to believe a Scot! 10
Who reconciled the Covenant's doubtful sense,
The Commons' argument, or the City's pence?
Or did you doubt persistence in one good
Would spoil the fabric of your brotherhood,
Projected first in such a forge of sin,
Was fit for the grand Devil's hammering?
Or was 't ambition that this damned fact
Should tell the world you know the sins you act?
The infamy this super-treason brings
Blasts more than murders of your sixty kings; 20
A crime so black, as being advis'dly done,
Those hold with this no competition.
Kings only suffered then; in this doth lie
Th' assassination of Monarchy.
Beyond this sin no one step can be trod,
If not t' attempt deposing of your God.
Oh, were you so engaged that we might see
Heaven's angry lightning 'bout your ears to flee
Till you were shrivelled to dust, and your cold Land
Parched to a drought beyond the Lybian sand! 30
But 'tis reserved! Till Heaven plague you worse,
Be objects of an epidemic curse.
First, may your brethren, to whose viler ends
Your power hath bawded, cease to count you friends,
And, prompted by the dictate of their reason,
Reproach the traitors though they hug the treason:
And may their jealousies increase and breed
Till they confine your steps beyond the Tweed:
In foreign nations may your loath'd name be
A stigmatizing brand of infamy, 40
Till forced by general hate you cease to roam
The world, and for a plague go live at home;
Till you resume your poverty and be
Reduced to beg where none can be so free
To grant: and may your scabby Land be all
Translated to a general hospital:
Let not the sun afford one gentle ray
To give you comfort of a summer's day;
But, as a guerdon for your traitorous war,
Live cherished only by the Northern Star: 50
No stranger deign to visit your rude coast,
And be to all but banished men as lost:
And such, in heightening of the infliction due,
Let provoked princes send them all to you:
Your State a chaos be where not the Law,
But power, your lives and liberties may awe:
No subject 'mongst you keep a quiet breast,
But each man strive through blood to be the best;
Till, for those miseries on us you've brought,
By your own sword our just revenge be wrought. 60
To sum up all--let your religion be,
As your allegiance, masked hypocrisy,
Until, when Charles shall be composed in dust,
Perfumed with epithets of good and just,
HE saved, incenséd Heaven may have forgot
T' afford one act of mercy to a Scot,
Unless that Scot deny himself and do
(What's easier far) renounce his Nation too.
[_The Scots' Apostasy_ was first printed as a
broadside in _1646_, and assigned at the time to Cleveland by
Thomas Old. It was included in _1651_, but not admitted by the
'Vindicators' in _1677_. But it is in all the central group of
editions except _Cleaveland Revived_, where absence is usually
a strong proof of genuineness; and it is extremely like him.
Mr. Berdan has admitted it, and so do I. Professor Case has
noted a catalogue entry of _The Scot's Constancy, an answer to
J. C's._ [_al._ Or an Answer to Cleveland's] _Scots' Apostasy_
(G. R. Bastick) [_al._ Robin Bostock], London April 1647. The
'J. C's' is of course pertinent.]
[Line: 2 John Campbell (1598-1633), from 1620 Baron Loudoun
in his wife's right, was, after taking a violent part on the
Covenant side in the earlier Scotch-English war, instrumental
in concluding peace; and was made in 1641 Chancellor of
Scotland and Earl of Loudoun.]
[Line: 4 as] 'and' _1653_.]
[Line: 9 'imposture' _1651_, _1653_.]
[Line: 20 The celebrated and grisly collection of Scottish
monarchs in Holyrood was not yet in existence; for its
imaginative creator only painted it in 1684, and there are
106, not sixty. But the remoteness of Scottish pedigrees was
popularly known: and if it be not true that all Scottish kings
were murdered, not a few had been.]
[Line: 24 'Assassination' is valued at six syllables.]
[Line: 28 'to' _1651_, &c.: 'into' _1646_.]
[Line: 31 Till] and tell _1646_, _1651_.]
[Line: 34 'count you' _1646_, _1651_, _1653_, &c.: 'be your'
_1687_. This prayer, at any rate, was heard pretty soon.]
[Line: 38 'steps' _1651_, &c.: 'ships' _1646_.]
[Line: 42 'go', misprinted 'to' in _1653_, &c.]
[Lines: 67-8 Not in _1646_.]
Rupertismus.
O that I could but vote myself a poet,
Or had the legislative knack to do it!
Or, like the doctors militant, could get
Dubbed at adventure Verser Banneret!
Or had I Cacus' trick to make my rhymes
Their own antipodes, and track the times!
'Faces about,' says the remonstrant spirit,
'Allegiance is malignant, treason merit.'
Huntingdon colt, that posed the sage recorder,
Might be a sturgeon now and pass by order. 10
Had I but Elsing's gift (that splay-mouthed brother
That declares one way and yet means another),
Could I thus write asquint, then, Sir, long since
You had been sung a great and glorious Prince!
I had observed the language of these days,
Blasphemed you, and then periwigged the phrase
With humble service and such other fustian,
Bells which ring backward in this great combustion.
I had reviled you, and without offence;
The literal and equitable sense 20
Would make it good. When all fails, that will do 't;
Sure that distinction cleft the Devil's foot!
This were my dialect, would your Highness please
To read me but with Hebrew spectacles;
Interpret counter what is cross rehearsed;
Libels are commendations when reversed.
Just as an optic glass contracts the sight
At one end, but when turned doth multiply 't.
But you're enchanted, Sir, you're doubly free
From the great guns and squibbing poetry, 30
Whom neither bilbo nor invention pierces,
Proof even 'gainst th' artillery of verses.
Strange that the Muses cannot wound your mail!
If not their art, yet let their sex prevail.
At that known leaguer, where the bonny Besses
Supplied the bow-strings with their twisted tresses,
Your spells could ne'er have fenced you, every arrow
Had lanced your noble breast and drunk the marrow.
For beauty, like white powder, makes no noise
And yet the silent hypocrite destroys. 40
Then use the Nuns of Helicon with pity
Lest Wharton tell his gossips of the City
That you kill women too, nay maids, and such
Their general wants militia to touch.
Impotent Essex! Is it not a shame
Our Commonwealth, like to a Turkish dame,
Should have an eunuch guardian? May she be
Ravished by Charles, rather than saved by thee!
But why, my Muse, like a green-sickness girl,
Feed'st thou on coals and dirt? A gelding earl 50
Gives no more relish to thy female palate
Than to that ass did once the thistle sallet.
Then quit the barren theme and all at once,
Thou and thy sisters like bright Amazons,
Give Rupert an alarum. Rupert! one
Whose name is wit's superfetation,
Makes fancy, like eternity's round womb,
Unite all valour, present, past, to come!
He who the old philosophy controls
That voted down plurality of souls! 60
He breathes a Grand Committee; all that were
The wonders of their age constellate here.
And as the elder sisters, Growth and Sense,
Souls paramount themselves, in man commence
But faculties of reasons queen; no more
Are they to him (who was complete before),
Ingredients of his virtue. Thread the beads
Of Caesar's acts, great Pompey's and the Swede's,
And 'tis a bracelet fit for Rupert's hand,
By which that vast triumvirate is spanned. 70
Here, here is palmistry; here you may read
How long the world shall live and when 't shall bleed.
What every man winds up, that Rupert hath,
For Nature raised him of the Public Faith;
Pandora's brother, to make up whose store
The gods were fain to run upon the score.
Such was the painter's brief for Venus' face;
Item, an eye from Jane; a lip from Grace.
Let Isaac and his cits flay off the plate
That tips their antlers, for the calf of state; 80
Let the zeal-twanging nose, that wants a ridge,
Snuffling devoutly, drop his silver bridge;
Yes, and the gossip spoon augment the sum
Although poor Caleb lose his christendom;
Rupert outweighs that in his sterling self
Which their self-want pays in commuting pelf.
Pardon, great Sir, for that ignoble crew
Gains when made bankrupt in the scales with you.
As he, who in his character of Light
Styled it God's shadow, made it far more bright 90
By an eclipse so glorious (light is dim
And a black nothing when compared to Him),
So 'tis illustrious to be Rupert's foil
And a just trophy to be made his spoil.
I'll pin my faith on the Diurnal's sleeve
Hereafter, and the Guildhall creed believe;
The conquests which the Common Council hears
With their wide listening mouth from the great Peers
That ran away in triumph. Such a foe
Can make them victors in their overthrow; 100
Where providence and valour meet in one,
Courage so poised with circumspection
That he revives the quarrel once again
Of the soul's throne; whether in heart, or brain,
And leaves it a drawn match; whose fervour can
Hatch him whom Nature poached but half a man;
His trumpet, like the angel's at the last,
Makes the soul rise by a miraculous blast.
Was the Mount Athos carved in shape of man
As 'twas designed by th' Macedonian 110
(Whose right hand should a populous land contain,
The left should be a channel to the main),
His spirit would inform th' amphibious figure
And, strait-laced, sweat for a dominion bigger.
The terror of whose name can out of seven,
Like Falstaff's buckram men, make fly eleven.
Thus some grow rich by breaking. Vipers thus,
By being slain, are made more numerous.
No wonder they'll confess no loss of men,
For Rupert knocks 'em till they gig again. 120
They fear the giblets of his train, they fear
Even his dog, that four-legged cavalier;
He that devours the scraps that Lunsford makes;
Whose picture feeds upon a child in steaks;
Who, name but Charles, he comes aloft for him,
But holds up his malignant leg at Pym.
'Gainst whom they have these articles in souse:
First, that he barks against the sense o' th' House;
Resolved delinquent, to the Tower straight,
Either to th' Lions' or the Bishop's Grate: 130
Next, for his ceremonious wag o' th' tail.
(But there the sisterhood will be his bail,
At least the Countess will, Lust's Amsterdam,
That lets in all religions of the game.)
Thirdly, he smells intelligence; that 's better
And cheaper too than Pym's from his own letter,
Who 's doubly paid (Fortune or we the blinder!)
For making plots and then for fox the finder:
Lastly, he is a devil without doubt,
For, when he would lie down, he wheels about, 140
Makes circles, and is couchant in a ring;
And therefore score up one for conjuring.
'What canst thou say, thou wretch!' 'O quarter, quarter!
I'm but an instrument, a mere Sir Arthur.
If I must hang, O let not our fates vary,
Whose office 'tis alike to fetch and carry!'
No hopes of a reprieve; the mutinous stir
That strung the Jesuit will dispatch a cur.
'Were I a devil as the rabble fears,
I see the House would try me by my peers!' 150
There, Jowler, there! Ah, Jowler! 'st, 'tis nought!
Whate'er the accusers cry, they're at a fault:
And Glyn and Maynard have no more to say
Than when the glorious Strafford stood at bay.
Thus libels but annexed to him, we see,
Enjoy a copyhold of victory.
Saint Peter's shadow healed; Rupert's is such
'Twould find Saint Peter's work and wound as much.
He gags their guns, defeats their dire intent;
The cannons do but lisp and compliment. 160
Sure, Jove descended in a leaden shower
To get this Perseus; hence the fatal power
Of shot is strangled. Bullets thus allied
Fear to commit an act of parricide.
Go on, brave Prince, and make the world confess
Thou art the greater world and that the less.
Scatter th' accumulative king; untruss
That five-fold fiend, the State's Smectymnuus,
Who place religion in their vellum ears
As in their phylacters the Jews did theirs. 170
England's a paradise (and a modest word)
Since guarded by a cherub's flaming sword.
Your name can scare an atheist to his prayers,
And cure the chincough better than the bears.
Old Sibyl charms the toothache with you; Nurse
Makes you still children; and the ponderous curse
The clowns salute with is derived from you,
'Now, Rupert take thee, rogue, how dost thou do?'
In fine the name of Rupert thunders so,
Kimbolton's but a rumbling wheelbarrow. 180
[_Rupertismus_] '_To P. Rupert_' in the _1647_ texts
(Bodley and Case copies). The odd title _Rupertismus_ was
first given in _1651_. This poem expresses the earlier and
more sanguine Cavalier temper, when things on the whole went
well. Rupert's admirable quality as an officer naturally made
him a sort of Cavalier cynosure and (with his being half a
foreigner) a bugbear to the Roundheads; while neither party
had yet found out his fatal defects as a general. Hence
'Rupertismus' not ill described the humour of both sides. The
dog who figures so largely was a real dog (said of course to
be a familiar spirit), and Professor Firth tells me that he
has a pamphlet (1642) entitled _Observations upon P. R.'s
white dog called Boy, carefully taken by T. B._, with a
picture of the animal. It was replied to by _The Parliament's
Unspotted Bitch_ next year.]
[Lines: 1, 2 The 'legislative knack' to vote oneself everything
good and perfect has always been a gift of Houses of Commons.
It was rather shrewd of Cleveland to formulate it so early and
so well.]
[Line: 4 Bannerets being properly dubbed on the field of
battle. 'Adventure' _1677_: 'Adventures' _1647_, _1651_,
_1687_: 'adventurers' _1653_ and its group.]
[Line: 5 Cacus' trick] of dragging his cattle by the tails.]
[Line: 7 spirit] A word their abuse of which was constantly
thrown in the face of the Puritans till Swift's thrice
rectified vitriol almost destroyed the abuse itself.]
[Line: 8 malignant] in the technical Roundhead sense.]
[Line: 9 The gibe at Huntingdon, clear enough from the
passage, is one of many old local insults. I can remember
when it was a little unsafe, in one of the Channel islands, to
speak of a donkey. This particular jest recurs in Pepys (May
22, 1677), who was in a way a Huntingdon man.]
[Line: 11 Elsing] Clerk to the House of Commons.]
[Line: 13 'thus' _1677_: 'but' _1647_ and the earlier texts.
write] _1653_, 'right'--evidently one of the numerous mistakes
due to dictating copy.]
[Line: 14 '_The_ Prince' was a title which Rupert monopolized
early and kept till his death.]
[Line: 15 'these' _1677_: 'the' _1647_, _1651_, _1653_,
_1687_.]
[Line: 20 _1677_ 'th' equitable'.]
[Line: 24 The rhyme of '-cles' to an _ee_ syllable occurs in
Dryden.]
[Line: 31 'Who' _1653_ and its group.]
[Line: 35 Carthage. Rupert's devotion to ladies was lifelong.]
[Line: 39 'White' or noiseless powder was a constant object of
research.]
[Line: 45 Essex was _twice_ divorced on the ground mentioned,
and his efficiency in the field was not to be much greater
than that in the chamber.]
[Line: 53 _1677_, &c., '_his_ barren theme'.]
[Line: 65 _1654_ 'faculty'. _1677_ 'Reason Queen'. I am not
sure which is right.]
[Lines: 66-7 So punctuated in _1677_. Earlier texts and _1687_
'who were to him complete before. Ingredients of his virtue
thread' ... _1677_ reads 'virtues'.]
[Line: 68 '_the_ Swede': of course Gustavus Adolphus.]
[Line: 73 _1647_, _1651_, _1653_ 'Whatever'.]
[Line: 74 _1677_, apparently alone, 'o_n_ the'].
[Line: 78 _1653_, evidently by slip, '_for_ Jane'.]
[Line: 79 _1647_, _1651_, _1653_ 'Cit'z' (not quite bad for
'_citiz_ens) and 'flea of the place'. 'Flea' for 'flay' is not
uncommon: the rest is absurd. 'Isaac' was Isaac Pennington,
father of that Judith whose obliging disposition Mr. Pepys has
commemorated.]
[Line: 80 'Antl_ets_', which occurs in all, is not impossible
for 'antl_ers_' (the everlastingly ridiculed citizen 'horns').
But _1647_, _1651_, _1653_ forgot the Golden Calf altogether
in their endeavour to provide a rhyme for their own misprint
(l. 79) by reading 'Stace'.]
[Line: 83 'Gossip's' (_1651_, _1677_) is not wanted and hisses
unnecessarily.]
[Line: 86 'self-wants' _1647_, _1651_, _1653_, _1687_. _1677_,
most improbably, 'committee'. The whole passage refers to the
subscriptions of plate and money in lieu of personal service
which Pennington, as Lord Mayor, promised 'on the Public
Faith'. Rupert's self outweighs all this vicarious
performance.]
[Line: 89 'whom' _1653_, _1654._]
[Line: 92 to] with _1677_.]
[Line: 95 Diurnal] Which Cleveland satirized in his first
published (prose) work.]
[Line: 98 As Wharton at Edgehill. 'Mouths' _1647_, _1687_.]
[Line: 100 them] men _1677_.]
[Line: 109 Was the] 'Twas the _1647_, _1651_, _1653_: Was that
_1677_. 'Was' = 'if it were'.]
[Line: 110 designed] _1647_, _1651_, _1653_ 'defin'd', with a
clear _f_, not long _s_.]
[Line: 113 would] _1647_, _1651_, _1653_ might.]
[Line: 114 The text is _1677_, which, however, reads (with the
usual want of strait-lacedness) 'straight'. _1651_, _1653_,
have 'Yet' for 'And', which is corrected in some of their own
group, and 'sweats'.]
[Line: 117 some] Like Mr. Badman a little later.]
[Line: 120 gig] = 'spin like a top'. Dryden uses the word in
the same sense and almost in the same phrase in the Prologue
to _Amphitryon_, l. 21: _v. sup._, p. 17.]
[Line: 121 giblets] Apparently in the sense of 'offal',
'refuse'.]
[Line: 123 Lunsford] Sir Thomas, 1610?-1653. The absurd
legends about this Cavalier's 'child-eating' are referred to
in, originally, _Hudibras_ and in Lacy's _Old Troop_, and at
second-hand (probably from the text also, though it is not
quoted) in the notes to Scott's _Woodstock_. _1651_ and _1653_
have 'which' for second 'that'.]
[Line: 124 steaks] All old editions 'stakes'--a very common
spelling, which Mr. Berdan keeps. As he modernizes the rest,
his readers may be under the impression that the ogre impaled
the infants before devouring them, which was not, I think,
alleged by the most savoury professor on the Roundhead side.]
[Line: 127 souse] = 'pickle'. 'they have these' _1677_:
'they've several' _1647_, _1651_: 'they have several' _1653_.]
[Line: 130 Bishop's] _1677_, _1687_ editions have the
apostrophe. Laud is probably referred to in 'Bishop's'. The
force of all this, and its application to other times, are
admirable.]
[Line: 133 The Countess--pretty clearly Lucy Hay, Countess
of Carlisle (1599-1660)--beauty, wit, harlot, and traitress
(though, too late, she repented). Amsterdam] The religious
indifference of the Dutch being a common reproach.
_1677_ and its followers read 'with' for 'will', which would
alter the sense completely.]
[Line: 134 _1647_, _1651_, _1653_ have 'religious' in the
well-known noun sense, and it is possibly better.]
[Line: 144 Sir Arthur Haselrig (died 1661)--a very busy person
throughout the troubles, but not considered as exactly a prime
mover.]
[Line: 148 _1677_ '_the_ cur'.]
[Line: 149 'rabble' is _1677_ and seems good, though the
earlier 'rebel' might do.]
[Line: 152 a fault] _1677_ default--not so technical.]
[Line: 153 Serjeants John Glyn[ne] (1607-66) and John Maynard
(1602-90) were well-known legal bandogs on the Roundhead side
in the earlier stages; but both trimmed cleverly during
the later, and sold themselves promptly to the Crown at the
Restoration. Glynne died soon. Maynard lived to prosecute the
victims of the Popish Plot, and to turn his coat once more, at
nearly ninety, for William of Orange.]
[Line: 155 _1647_, _1651_, _1653_ 'l_a_bels': _1677_ 'Thus
libels but amount to him we see T' enjoy'.]
[Line: 158 _1677_ 'St. Peter', which looks plausible, though
I am not sure that it is better than the genitive. _1647_,
_1651_, _1653_ have 'yet' for 'and' as in other cases.]
[Line: 167 the accumulative king] Pym? who was nicknamed
'king' Pym, and if not exactly 'accumulative' (for his debts
were paid by Parliament) must have been expensive and was
probably rapacious. Others think it means 'the Committee',
'accumulative' being = 'cumulative' (or rather 'plural'). They
quote, not without force, our poet's prose _Character of
a Country Committee man_, 'a Committee man is a name of
multitude', the phrase 'accumulative treason' occurring in the
context.]
[Line: 175 _1677_ transfers 'the' to before 'Nurse'--a
great loss, the unarticled and familiar 'Nurse' being far
better--and reads 'Sibils charm'.]
[Line: 176 'and' _1653_, 1677: 'nay and' _1647_, _1651_,
_1687._]
[Line: 177 _1677_ 'Clown salutes'.]
Epitaph on the Earl of Strafford.
Here lies wise and valiant dust
Huddled up 'twixt fit and just;
Strafford, who was hurried hence
'Twixt treason and convenience.
He spent his time here in a mist;
A Papist, yet a Calvinist;
His Prince's nearest joy and grief
He had, yet wanted all relief;
The prop and ruin of the State;
The People's violent love and hate; 10
One in extremes loved and abhorred.
Riddles lie here, or in a word,
Here lies blood; and let it lie
Speechless still and never cry.
[_Epitaph, &c._ In the Bodleian copy of _1647_
and in Professor Case's (3rd issue) and in all others except
_Cleaveland Revived_ (_1659_) and _1677_; but in some of
the earliest classed with the work of 'Uncertain Authors'.
Winstanley (no very strong authority, it is true) calls it
Cleveland's and 'excellent'. It is perhaps too much to say
with Mr. Berdan, that it is 'unlike his manner'. There is
certainly in it a manner which he does not often display, but
the pity and the terror of that great tragedy might account
for part of this, and the difficulty (for any Royalist) of
speaking freely of it for more. It is rather fine, I think.]
[Line: 4 The pitiful truth could hardly be better put.]
[Line: 6 Obscure, but not un-Clevelandish.]
[Lines: 7-8 Punctuation altered to get what seems the necessary
sense. A comma which _1653_ has at 'grief' (not to mention a
full stop in the _1647_ texts) obscures this, and a comma at
'wanted', which Mr. Berdan puts, does so even more. The
phrase is once more fatally just and true. He enjoyed all his
master's affection and received all his grief, but 'wanted'
his support and relief. Professor Case, however, would cling
to the stop, at least the comma, at 'grief'.]
[Line: 12 or] Other editions 'and'. For 'Riddles' cf. _The
King's Disguise_, ll. 89-90.]
[Lines: 13-14 For the third time 'he says it', and there is
no more to say.--In _1653_ there follows a Latin Epitaph on
Strafford which has nothing to do with this. It is in some
phrases enigmatic enough to be Cleveland's, but it is not
certainly his, and as it is neither English nor verse we need
hardly give it.]
An Elegy upon the Archbishop of Canterbury.
I need no Muse to give my passion vent,
He brews his tears that studies to lament.
Verse chemically weeps; that pious rain
Distilled with art is but the sweat o' th' brain
Whoever sobbed in numbers? Can a groan
Be quavered out by soft division?
'Tis true for common formal elegies
Not Bushel's Wells can match a poet's eyes
In wanton water-works; he'll tune his tears
From a Geneva jig up to the spheres. 10
But then he mourns at distance, weeps aloof.
Now that the conduit head is our own roof,
Now that the fate is public, we may call
It Britain's vespers, England's funeral.
Who hath a pencil to express the Saint
But he hath eyes too, washing off the paint?
There is no learning but what tears surround,
Like to Seth's pillars in the Deluge drowned.
There is no Church; Religion is grown
So much of late that she 's increased to none, 20
Like an hydropic body, full of rheums,
First swells into a bubble, then consumes.
The Law is dead or cast into a trance,--
And by a law dough-baked, an Ordinance!
The Liturgy, whose doom was voted next,
Died as a comment upon him the text.
There's nothing lives; life is, since he is gone,
But a nocturnal lucubration.
Thus you have seen death's inventory read
In the sum total,--Canterbury's dead; 30
A sight would make a Pagan to baptize
Himself a convert in his bleeding eyes;
Would thaw the rabble, that fierce beast of ours,
(That which hyena-like weeps and devours)
Tears that flow brackish from their souls within,
Not to repent, but pickle up their sin.
Meantime no squalid grief his look defiles.
He gilds his sadder fate with nobler smiles.
Thus the world's eye, with reconciléd streams,
Shines in his showers as if he wept his beams. 40
How could success such villanies applaud?
The State in Strafford fell, the Church in Laud;
The twins of public rage, adjudged to die
For treasons they should act, by prophecy;
The facts were done before the laws were made;
The trump turned up after the game was played.
Be dull, great spirits, and forbear to climb,
For worth is sin and eminence a crime.
No churchman can be innocent and high.
'Tis height makes Grantham steeple stand awry. 50
[_An Elegy, &c._ (_1647_.) If the Strafford
epitaph seemed too serious, as well as too concentrated and
passionate, for Cleveland, this on Strafford's fellow worker
and fellow victim may seem almost a caricature of our author's
more wayward and more fantastic manner. Yet there are fine
lines in it, and perhaps nowhere else do we see the Dryden
fashion of verse (though not of thought) more clearly
foreshadowed. It appears to come under 'Uncertain Authors'
in some _1647_ texts, but _1677_ gives it. Title in _1647_,
_1651_, _1653_ 'On the Archbishop of Canterbury' only.]
[Line: 4 _1677_ '_by_ art'.]
[Line: 6 _1677_ '_in_ soft'.]
[Line: 8 Thomas Bushel[l] or Bushnell (1594-1674) was a page
of Bacon's and afterwards a great 'projector' in mining and
mechanical matters generally. He dabbled largely in fancy
fountains and waterworks--a queer taste of the seventeenth
century in which even the sober Evelyn records his own
participation.]
[Lines: 9-10 Cf. the opening of the elegy on King, 'I like not
tears in tune'.]
[Line: 11 _1647_, _1651_, _1653_, &c. '_when_ he mourns',
which is hardly so good.]
[Line: 18 Seth's pillars] A tradition, preserved in Josephus,
that the race of Seth engraved antediluvian wisdom on two
pillars, one of brick, the other of stone, the latter of which
outlasted the Deluge.]
[Line: 20 _1647_, _1651_, _1653_, &c. '_From_ much'.]
[Line: 34 _1647_, _1651_ misprint '_Agena_-like.]
[Line: 35 _1653_ misprints 'blackish'.]
[Line: 38 _1647_, _1651_, _1653_ 'noble'.]
[Line: 44 _1677_, omitting the comma at 'act', makes something
like nonsense; 'by prophecy' goes, I think, with 'adjudged to
die'.]
[Line: 50 One would expect 'Chesterfield', for Grantham
nowadays does not look very crooked--at least from the
railway. But Fuller in the _Worthies_ quotes this as
a proverb. Some take it as referring to the height and
slenderness of the steeple and an optical illusion. They might
quote 'The high masts _flickered_ as they lay afloat'. But few
travellers had the excuse of Iphigenia.]
*On I. W. A. B. of York.
Say, my young sophister, what think'st of this?
Chimera's real, _Ergo falleris_.
The lamb and tiger, fox and goose agree
And here concorp'rate in one prodigy.
Call an Haruspex quickly: let him get
Sulphur and torches, and a laurel wet,
To purify the place: for sure the harms
This monster will produce transcend his charms.--
'Tis Nature's masterpiece of Error, this,
And redeems whatever she did amiss 10
Before, from wonder and reproach, this last
Legitimateth all her by-blows past.
Lo! here a general Metropolitan,
And arch-prelatic Presbyterian!
Behold his pious garbs, canonic face,
A zealous _Episcopo-mastix_ Grace--
A fair blue-apron'd priest, a Lawn-sleeved brother,
One leg a pulpit holds, a tub the other.
Let 's give him a fit name now if we can,
And make th' Apostate once more Christian. 20
'Proteus' we cannot call him: _he_ put on
His change of shapes by a succession,
Nor 'the Welsh weather-cock', for that we find
At once doth only wait upon the wind.
These speak him not: but if you'll name him right,
Call him Religion's Hermaphrodite.
His head i' the sanctified mould is cast,
Yet sticks th'abominable mitre fast.
He still retains the 'Lordship' and the 'Grace',
And yet hath got a reverend elder's place. 30
Such acts must needs be his, who did devise
By crying altars down to sacrifice
To private malice; where you might have seen
His conscience holocausted to his spleen.
Unhappy Church! the viper that did share
Thy greatest honours, helps to make thee bare,
And void of all thy dignities and store.
Alas! thine own son proves the forest boar,
And, like the dam-destroying cuckoo, he,
When the thick shell of his Welsh pedigree 40
By thy warm fostering bounty did divide
And open--straight thence sprung forth parricide:
As if 'twas just revenge should be dispatched
In thee, by th' monster which thyself hadst hatched.
Despair not though, in Wales there may be got,
As well as Lincolnshire, an antidote
'Gainst the foul'st venom he can spit, though 's head
Were changed from subtle grey to pois'nous red.
Heaven with propitious eyes will look upon
Our party, now the curséd thing is gone; 50
And chastise Rebels who nought else did miss
To fill the measure of their sins, but his--
Whose foul imparalleled apostasy,
Like to his sacred character, shall be
Indelible. When ages, then of late
More happy grown, with most impartial fate
A period to his days and time shall give,
He by such Epitaphs as this shall live.
_Here York's great Metropolitan is laid,
Who God's Anointed, and His Church, betrayed._ 60
[_On I. W. A. B. of York._ (_1647_.) This vigorous
onslaught on the trimmer John Williams, Archbishop of York,
who began public life as a tool of Buckingham's and ended it
as a kind of tolerated half-deserter to the Parliament, was
turned out by the 'Vindicators' in _1677_. There may, however,
have been reasons for this, other than certain spuriousness.
Williams, though driven to doubtful conduct by his enmity
with Laud, never called himself anything but a Royalist, was
imprisoned as such, and is said to have died of grief (perhaps
of compunction) at the King's execution. Also both Lake and
Drake were Yorkshire men. The piece is vigorous, if not quite
Clevelandish in the presence of some enjambment, and the
absence of extravagant conceit.]
[Line: 2 _falleris_] In advancing the general observation that
'twy-natured is no nature'.]
[Line: 10 whatever] Perhaps we should read 'whatsoe'er'.]
[Line: 15 'garb' _1653_.]
[Line: 16 A parody of course on Prynne's _Histrio-mastix_.]
[Line: 21 'he' = Proteus. Williams went right over.]
[Line: 23 Williams was very popular with his fellow
provincials. He took refuge in Wales when the war broke out,
and was made a sort of mediator by the Welsh after Naseby.]
[Line: 26 'Religion's' _1647_; 'Religious' _1651_, _1653_.]
[Line: 27 _1651_, _1653_, 'I' th'': but here, as often, the
apostrophation ruins the verse.]
[Line: 30 'hath' _1653_: 'has' _1647_, _1651_.]
[Line: 32 Williams had been chairman of the Committee 'to
consider innovations' in 1641. His private malice was to
Laud.]
[Line: 46 I am not certain of the meaning. But Lincolnshire
(at least Lindsey) was strongly Royalist early in the war till
Cromwell's successes at Grantham, Lea Moor, and Winceby in
1643.]
[Line: 53 _1647_, _1651_ 'unparalleled'.]
Mark Antony.
When as the nightingale chanted her vespers,
And the wild forester couched on the ground,
Venus invited me in th' evening whispers
Unto a fragrant field with roses crowned,
Where she before had sent
My wishes' compliment;
Unto my heart's content
Played with me on the green.
Never Mark Antony
Dallied more wantonly 10
With the fair Egyptian Queen.
First on her cherry cheeks I mine eyes feasted,
Thence fear of surfeiting made me retire;
Next on her warmer lips, which, when I tasted,
My duller spirits made active as fire.
Then we began to dart,
Each at another's heart,
Arrows that knew no smart,
Sweet lips and smiles between.
Never Mark, &c. 20
Wanting a glass to plait her amber tresses
Which like a bracelet rich deckéd mine arm,
Gaudier than Juno wears when as she graces
Jove with embraces more stately than warm,
Then did she peep in mine
Eyes' humour crystalline;
I in her eyes was seen
As if we one had been.
Never Mark, &c.
Mystical grammar of amorous glances; 30
Feeling of pulses, the physic of love;
Rhetorical courtings and musical dances;
Numbering of kisses arithmetic prove;
Eyes like astronomy;
Straight-limbed geometry;
In her art's ingeny
Our wits were sharp and keen.
Never Mark Antony
Dallied more wantonly
With the fair Egyptian Queen.
[_Mark Antony._ The unusual prosodic interest of
this piece, and its companion, has been explained in the
Introduction. The pair appeared first in 1647 (3rd), where
they follow _The Character of a London Diurnal_ and precede
the _Poems_.]
[Line: 14 'warmer' some copies of _1653_: _1647_, _1651_
'warm'. Cf. 'bluer' in the 'Mock Song', l. 14 (below).]
[Line: 15 _1677_, &c. 'made _me_ active'--a bad blunder.]
[Line: 35 'Straight limb' _1647_.]
[Line: 36 'art's' is _1677_ for 'heart's' in _1647_, _1651_,
_1653_. I rather prefer it, but with some doubts.]
[Line: 37 _1677_, &c. emends by substituting 'were' for
_1647_, _1651_, _1653_ 'are'.]
The Author's Mock Song to Mark Antony.
When as the night-raven sung Pluto's matins
And Cerberus cried three amens at a howl,
When night-wandering witches put on their pattens,
Midnight as dark as their faces are foul;
Then did the furies doom
That the nightmare was come.
Such a misshapen groom
Puts down Su. Pomfret clean.
Never did incubus
Touch such a filthy sus 10
As this foul gypsy quean.
First on her gooseberry cheeks I mine eyes blasted,
Thence fear of vomiting made me retire
Unto her bluer lips, which when I tasted,
My spirits were duller than Dun in the mire.
But then her breath took place
Which went an usher's pace
And made way for her face!
You may guess what I mean.
Never did, &c. 20
Like snakes engendering were platted her tresses,
Or like the slimy streaks of ropy ale;
Uglier than Envy wears, when she confesses
Her head is periwigged with adder's tail.
But as soon as she spake
I heard a harsh mandrake.
Laugh not at my mistake,
Her head is epicene.
Never did, &c.
Mystical magic of conjuring wrinkles; 30
Feeling of pulses, the palmistry of hags;
Scolding out belches for rhetoric twinkles;
With three teeth in her head like to three gags;
Rainbows about her eyes
And her nose, weather-wise;
From them the almanac lies,
Frost, Pond, and Rivers clean.
Never did incubus
Touch such a filthy sus
As this foul gypsy quean. 40
[_The Author's Mock Song._ In _1647_ this runs on as
a continuation of 'Mark Anthony'.]
[Line: 1 _1677_ _putidissime_ 'nightingale', as in the
preceding poem. 'Night-raven' _1647_, _1651_, _1653_ is
certainly right. Mr. Berdan's copy seems to have '_But_ as',
which I rather like; but mine has 'When'.]
[Line: 2 howl] hole _1647_.]
[Line: 16 _1677_ 'when', not impossibly.]
[Line: 21 platted] placed _1647_.]
[Line: 22 _1647_, _1651_ 'the': omitted in _1653_: 'to'
inserted in _1677_.]
[Line: 37 Cf. _A Young Man, &c._, l. 13.]
How the Commencement grows new.
It is no coranto-news I undertake;
New teacher of the town I mean not to make;
No New England voyage my Muse does intend;
No new fleet, no bold fleet, nor bonny fleet send.
But, if you'll be pleased to hear out this ditty,
I'll tell you some news as true and as witty,
_And how the Commencement grows new._
See how the simony doctors abound,
All crowding to throw away forty pound.
They'll now in their wives' stammel petticoats vapour 10
Without any need of an argument draper.
Beholding to none, he neither beseeches
This friend for venison nor t'other for speeches,
_And so the Commencement grows new._
Every twice a day teaching gaffer
Brings up his Easter-book to chaffer;
Nay, some take degrees who never had steeple,--
Whose means, like degrees, comes from placets of people.
They come to the fair and, at the first pluck,
The toll-man Barnaby strikes 'um good luck, 20
_And so the Commencement grows new._
The country parsons come not up
On Tuesday night in their old College to sup;
Their bellies and table-books equally full,
The next lecture-dinner their notes forth to pull;
How bravely the Margaret Professor disputed,
The homilies urged, and the school-men confuted;
_And so the Commencement grows new._
The inceptor brings not his father the clown
To look with his mouth at his grogoram gown; 30
With like admiration to eat roasted beef,
Which invention posed his beyond-Trent belief;
Who should he but hear our organs once sound,
Could scarce keep his hoof from Sellenger's round,
_And so the Commencement grows new._
The gentleman comes not to show us his satin,
To look with some judgment at him that speaks Latin,
To be angry with him that marks not his clothes,
To answer 'O Lord, Sir' and talk play-book oaths,
And at the next bear-baiting (full of his sack) 40
To tell his comrades our discipline's slack;
_And so the Commencement grows new._
We have no prevaricator's wit.
Ay, marry sir, when have you had any yet?
Besides no serious Oxford man comes
To cry down the use of jesting and hums.
Our ballad (believe 't) is no stranger than true;
Mum Salter is sober, and Jack Martin too,
_And so the Commencement grows new._
[_How the Commencement, &c._, belongs to the same
group as the _Mark Antony_ poems and _Square-Cap_, and there
is the same ambiguity between four anapaests and five iambs.
You would certainly take line 1 as it stands in _1677_ with
''Tis' for 'It is', and probably as it stands here, for a
heroic if line 2 did not come to undeceive you. And this line
2 is bad as either.
First printed in _1653_. MS. copies are found in Rawlinson
MS. Poet. 147, pp. 48-9, and Tanner MS. 465, fol. 83, of the
Bodleian. Neither copy is good, but each helps to restore the
text (see ll. 18 and 38). The Tanner MS. also has on fol. 44
an indignant poem 'Upon Mr. Cl. who made a Song against the
DD^{rs}', beginning
Leave off, vain Satirist, and do not think,
To stain our reverend purple with thy ink.
It adds the interesting evidence that the poem became a
popular song at Cambridge:
Must gitterns now and fiddles be made fit,
Be tuned and keyed to sweake [?squeak] a Johnian wit?
Must now thy poems be made fidlers' notes,
Puffed with Tobacco through their sooty throats?
. . . . . . . . . .
Are thy strong lines and mighty cart-rope things
Now spun so small, they'll twist on fiddle strings?
Canst thou prove Ballad-poet of the times?
Can thy proud fancy stoop to penny rimes?
(This latter information, as to MSS., is Mr. Simpson's.)]
[Line: 5 out] but _1653_.]
[Line: 9 forty pound] Still the regular doctorate fee, though
relatively three or four times heavier then than now.]
[Line: 10 stammel] Properly a stuff; but, as generally or
often red in colour, the colour itself.]
[Line: 11 I am not certain of the meaning of this line though
I could conjecture.]
[Line: 13 nor t'other for speeches] _MS._ 'that for his
breeches'.]
[Line: 15 _1677_ inserts 'the' before 'teaching', but the
absence of the article is much more characteristic.]
[Line: 18 The 'Vindicators', in the new bondage of grammar,
'come'.
Placets] both _MSS._: places _1653_: placers _1677_.
'Placets', evidently right, would baffle a non-university
printer; probably the editors of _1677_ attempted to correct
it, but were again baffled by the printer.]
[Line: 22 _1677_ 'they do not come up'--a natural but
unnecessary patching of the line.]
[Line: 23 old] _1677_ own--less well, I think.
Both _MSS._ read in ll. 22-3:
The country parson cometh not up,
Till Tuesday night in his old College to sup.
]
[Line: 26 'Marg_e_ret' _1653_: Marg'ret' _1677_.]
[Line: 29 inceptor] = 'M.A. to be'.]
[Line: 30 'o' of 'grog[o]ram' usually omitted, but both _1653_
and _1677_ have it here.]
[Line: 32 The North usually salting and boiling its beef?]
[Line: 38 Tanner MS. has the metrical punctuation 'To
be'angry' found occasionally in texts of the time: 'marks'
Tanner MS., all the texts have 'makes'.]
[Line: 40 at the next bear-baiting] in his next company
_MSS._]
[Line: 44 _1653_ 'we' for 'you', less pointedly, I think.]
[Line: 45 Cleveland lived to think better of Oxford--at
least to take refuge and be warmly welcomed there. There
has probably been no time at which either University was not
convinced that the other, whatever its merits, could not see a
joke.]
[Line: 48 _1665_ (not a very good edition) and the _MSS._ read
'Mu_n_', which was of course the usual short for Edmund. But
'Mu_m_' in the context is appropriate enough and generally
read.
The intense Cambridge flavour of this seems to require
special comment by a Cambridge man. For the duties of the
'Prevaricator' refer to Peacock's _Observations on the
Statutes of the University of Cambridge_, 1841 (information
kindly furnished by Mr. A. J. Bartholomew).]
The Hue and Cry after Sir John Presbyter.
With hair in characters and lugs in text;
With a splay mouth and a nose circumflexed;
With a set ruff of musket-bore that wears
Like cartridges or linen bandoleers
Exhausted of their sulphurous contents
In pulpit fire-works, which that bomball vents;
The Negative and Covenanting Oath,
Like two mustachoes issuing from his mouth;
The bush upon his chin like a carved story,
In a box-knot cut by the Directory: 10
Madam's confession hanging at his ear,
Wire-drawn through all the questions, how and where;
Each circumstance so in the hearing felt
That when his ears are cropped he'll count them gelt;
The weeping cassock scared into a jump,
A sign the presbyter's worn to the stump,--
The presbyter, though charmed against mischance
With the divine right of an Ordinance!
_If you meet any that do thus attire 'em,
Stop them, they are the tribe of Adoniram._ 20
What zealous frenzy did the Senate seize,
That tare the Rochet to such rags as these?
Episcopacy minced, reforming Tweed
Hath sent us runts even of her Church's breed,
Lay-interlining clergy, a device
That 's nickname to the stuff called lops and lice.
The beast at wrong end branded, you may trace
The Devil's footsteps in his cloven face;
A face of several parishes and sorts,
Like to a sergeant shaved at Inns of Courts. 30
What mean the elders else, those Kirk dragoons,
Made up of ears and ruffs like ducatoons;
That hierarchy of handicrafts begun;
Those New Exchange men of religion?
Sure, they're the antick heads, which placed without
The church, do gape and disembogue a spout.
Like them above the Commons' House, have been
So long without; now both are gotten in.
Then what imperious in the bishop sounds,
The same the Scotch executor rebounds; 40
This stating prelacy the classic rout
That spake it often, ere it spake it out.
(So by an abbey's skeleton of late
I heard an echo supererogate
Through imperfection, and the voice restore,
As if she had the hiccough o'er and o'er.)
'Since they our mixed diocesans combine
Thus to ride double in their discipline,
That Paul's shall to the Consistory call
A Dean and Chapter out of Weavers' Hall, 50
Each at the ordinance for to assist
With the five thumbs of his groat-changing fist.
Down, Dagon-synod, with thy motley ware,
Whilst we do swagger for the Common Prayer
(That dove-like embassy that wings our sense
To Heaven's gate in shape of innocence)
Pray for the mitred authors, and defy
These demicastors of divinity!
For, when Sir John with Jack-of-all-trades joins,
His finger 's thicker than the prelates' loins.' 60
[_The Hue and Cry._ (_1653_.) 1 'in characters' = in
shorthand: _1677_ has 'character', wrongly. 'lugs' = ears. 'in
text' = in capitals.
Cf. _Clievelandi Vindiciae_, 1677, p. 122 (Cleveland's letter
on a Puritan who had deserted to the Royalists. His officer
complained that he had absconded with official money):
'I doubt not, but you will pardon your Man. He hath but
transcribed Rebellion, and copied out that Disloyalty in
Shorthand, which you have committed in Text.']
[Line: 6 bomball] A compound of 'bomb' and 'ball'.]
[Line: 20 Adoniram] Byfield, a clerk of the Westminster
Assembly whose minutes have been published in modern times.
A great ejector of the clergy, who unfortunately did not live
long enough to be ejected himself.]
[Line: 26 This stuff does not by any means sound nice.]
[Line: 32 ducatoons] One would take it that the ducatoon had a
back view of some one's head; but a passage of _Hudibras_, and
Grey's note on it, have complicated the matter with a story
about the Archduke Albert of Austria, which seems to have
little if any relevance _here_.]
[Line: 35 antick heads] = 'gargoyles'.]
[Line: 41 classic] As in Milton. Nor is this the only point
in which the two old Christ's men, now on such opposite sides,
agree in the 'New Forcers of Conscience' and this piece.]
[Line: 52 _1653_ great-changing--a mere misprint.]
[Line: 54 do swagger for] _1677_ most suspiciously improves to
'_are champions_ for'.]
[From l. 43 onwards _1653_ has the whole in italics, and
it is pretty clear that after the first four lines the Echo
speaks to the end. The 'Vindicators' do not seem to have seen
this, though the absence of the quotes above would not prove
it. Professor Case, however, thinks that 'So' refers to what
precedes, and that in l. 47 and onwards the author and Echo
speaks. It is possible.]
The Antiplatonic.
For shame, thou everlasting wooer,
Still saying grace and never falling to her!
Love that 's in contemplation placed
Is Venus drawn but to the waist.
Unless your flame confess its gender,
And your parley cause surrender,
Y' are salamanders of a cold desire
That live untouched amidst the hottest fire.
What though she be a dame of stone,
The widow of Pygmalion, 10
As hard and unrelenting she
As the new-crusted Niobe,
Or (what doth more of statue carry)
A nun of the Platonic quarry?
Love melts the rigour which the rocks have bred--
A flint will break upon a feather-bed.
For shame, you pretty female elves,
Cease for to candy up your selves;
No more, you sectaries of the game,
No more of your calcining flame! 20
Women commence by Cupid's dart
As a king hunting dubs a hart.
Love's votaries enthral each other's soul,
Till both of them live but upon parole.
Virtue's no more in womankind
But the green-sickness of the mind;
Philosophy (their new delight)
A kind of charcoal appetite.
There 's no sophistry prevails
Where all-convincing love assails, 30
But the disputing petticoat will warp,
As skilful gamesters are to seek at sharp.
The soldier, that man of iron,
Whom ribs of horror all environ,
That's strung with wire instead of veins,
In whose embraces you're in chains,
Let a magnetic girl appear,
Straight he turns Cupid's cuirassier.
Love storms his lips, and takes the fortress in,
For all the bristled turnpikes of his chin. 40
Since love's artillery then checks
The breastworks of the firmest sex,
Come, let us in affections riot;
Th' are sickly pleasures keep a diet.
Give me a lover bold and free,
Not eunuched with formality,
Like an ambassador that beds a queen
With the nice caution of a sword between.
[_The Antiplatonic._ (_1653_.) This is a sort of
half-way house between Cleveland's burlesques and his serious
or semi-serious poems like _Fuscara_. It is also nearer to
Suckling and the graceful-graceless school than most of his
things. It is good.]
[Line: 2 The alteration of _1677_ 'and ne'er fall to her' may
be only an example of the tendency to 'regularize' (in this
case by the omission of an extra foot). But I confess it seems
to me better: for the slight irregularity of the construction
replaces that of the line to advantage.]
[Line: 10 I don't know whether the conceit of 'Pygmalion's
_widow_' returning to marble (or ivory) when her
husband-lover's embraces ceased is original with Cleveland. If
it is, I make him my compliment. There is at any rate no hint
of it in Ovid.]
[Line: 18 _1677_ changed the good old '_for_' to 'thus'.]
[Line: 19 sectaries of] = 'heretics in'.]
[Line: 20 This is good: 'calcining flame' is good.]
[Line: 22 'dubs' is said to mean 'stabs', as it certainly
means 'strikes'; but this seems to have little or no
appropriateness here and to ignore the quaint conceit of
'commence' in its academic meaning. 'Women _take their
degrees_ by Cupid's dart: as the fact of being hunted by a
king _ennobles_ a hart.' Cupid = the King of Love.]
[Line: 24 'parole' too has a very delectable double meaning.
This poem is really full of most excellent differences.]
[Lines: 25-9 The lesson of the unregenerate Donne and the
never-regenerate Carew.]
[Line: 32 gamesters] = 'fencers'. to seek at sharp] = 'not
good at sword-play'.]
[Line: 33 'The sol-di-er'. By the way, did Butler borrow this
'iron' and 'environ' rhyme from Cleveland?]
[Line: 43 The apostrophating mania made _1653_ contract to
'let's' and spoil the verse.]
[Line: 44 Th'] here of course = 'they'.]
Fuscara, or the Bee Errant.
Nature's confectioner, the bee
(Whose suckets are moist alchemy,
The still of his refining mould
Minting the garden into gold),
Having rifled all the fields
Of what dainties Flora yields,
Ambitious now to take excise
Of a more fragrant paradise,
At my Fuscara's sleeve arrived
Where all delicious sweets are hived. 10
The airy freebooter distrains
First on the violets of her veins,
Whose tincture, could it be more pure,
His ravenous kiss had made it bluer.
Here did he sit and essence quaff
Till her coy pulse had beat him off;
That pulse which he that feels may know
Whether the world 's long-lived or no.
The next he preys on is her palm,
That alm'ner of transpiring balm; 20
So soft, 'tis air but once removed;
Tender as 'twere a jelly gloved.
Here, while his canting drone-pipe scanned
The mystic figures of her hand,
He tipples palmistry and dines
On all her fortune-telling lines.
He bathes in bliss and finds no odds
Betwixt her nectar and the gods',
He perches now upon her wrist,
A proper hawk for such a fist, 30
Making that flesh his bill of fare
Which hungry cannibals would spare;
Where lilies in a lovely brown
Inoculate carnation.
He _argent_ skin with _or_ so streamed
As if the milky way were creamed.
From hence he to the woodbine bends
That quivers at her fingers' ends,
That runs division on the tree
Like a thick-branching pedigree. 40
So 'tis not her the bee devours,
It is a pretty maze of flowers;
It is the rose that bleeds, when he
Nibbles his nice phlebotomy.
About her finger he doth cling
I' th' fashion of a wedding-ring,
And bids his comrades of the swarm
Crawl as a bracelet 'bout her arm.
Thus when the hovering publican
Had sucked the toll of all her span, 50
Tuning his draughts with drowsy hums
As Danes carouse by kettle-drums,
It was decreed, that posie gleaned,
The small familiar should be weaned.
At this the errant's courage quails;
Yet aided by his native sails
The bold Columbus still designs
To find her undiscovered mines.
To th' Indies of her arm he flies,
Fraught both with east and western prize; 60
Which when he had in vain essayed,
Armed like a dapper lancepresade
With Spanish pike, he broached a pore
And so both made and healed the sore:
For as in gummy trees there 's found
A salve to issue at the wound,
Of this her breach the like was true:
Hence trickled out a balsam, too.
But oh, what wasp was 't that could prove
Ravaillac to my Queen of Love! 70
The King of Bees now 's jealous grown
Lest her beams should melt his throne,
And finding that his tribute slacks,
His burgesses and state of wax
Turned to a hospital, the combs
Built rank-and-file like beadsmen's rooms,
And what they bleed but tart and sour
Matched with my Danae's golden shower,
Live-honey all,--the envious elf
Stung her, 'cause sweeter than himself. 80
Sweetness and she are so allied
The bee committed parricide.
[_Fuscara._ (_1651_.) Cleveland's most famous poem
of the amatory, as _The Rebel Scot_ is of the political, kind.
In _1677_ and since it has been set in the forefront of his
_Poems_, and Johnson draws specially on it for his famous
diatribe against the metaphysicals in the 'Life of Cowley'. It
seems to me inferior both to _The Muses' Festival_ and to
_The Antiplatonic_, and, as was said in the Introduction, it
betrays, to me, something of an intention to fool the lovers
of a fashionable style to the top of their bent. But it has
extremely pretty things in it; and Mr. Addison, who denounced
and scorned 'false wit', never 'fair-sexed it' in half so
poetical a manner.]
[Line: 2 'Suckets' or 'succades' should need interpretation
to no reader of _Robinson Crusoe_: and no one who has not read
_Robinson Crusoe_ deserves to be taken into consideration.]
[Line: 13 tincture] Said to be used here in an alchemical
sense for 'gold'. But the plain meaning is much better.]
[Line: 18 Although the sense is not quite the same as, it is
much akin to, that of Browning's question--
'Who knows but the world may end to night?'
]
[Line: 20 Cleveland of course uses the correct and not the
modern and blundering sense of 'transpire'.]
[Line: 22 This 'jelly gloved' is _not_ like 'mobled queen' or
'calcining flame'.]
[Lines: 25-6 _1653_ and its group have a queer misprint
(carried out so as to rhyme, but hardly possible as a true
reading) of 'dives' and 'lives'. If they had had 'In' instead
of 'On' it would have been on the (metaphysical) cards,
especially with 'bathes' following.]
[Line: 28 _1653_, less well, '_the_ nectar'.]
[Line: 30 Neat, i' faith!]
[Line: 33 'a lovely _brown_' as being _Fuscara_.]
[Line: 35 Here Cleveland dares his 'ill armoury again'; _v.
sup._, p. 25. 'He' _1651_, _1653_: 'Her' _1677_.]
[Line: 48 as] _1677_, unnecessarily, 'like'. Some (baddish)
editions '_on_ a bracelet'.]
[Line: 52 Hardly necessary to notice as another of Cleveland's
Shakespearian touches.]
[Line: 62 The correcter form is 'lancep_e_sade'.]
[Line: 70 '_Ratillias_' _1651_: '_Ratilias_' _1653_: corrected
in _1677_.]
[Line: 71 _1677_, dropping the verb from 'now's', improves the
sense very much.]
*An Elegy upon Doctor Chad[d]erton, the first Master of Emanuel
College in Cambridge, being above an hundred years old when he died.
(_Occasioned by his long-deferred funeral._)
Pardon, dear Saint, that we so late
With lazy sighs bemoan thy fate,
And with an after-shower of verse
And tears, we thus bedew thy hearse.
Till now, alas! we did not weep,
Because we thought thou didst but sleep.
Thou liv'dst so long we did not know
Whether thou couldst now die or no.
We looked still when thou shouldst arise
And ope the casements of thine eyes. 10
Thy feet, which have been used so long
To walk, we thought, must still go on.
Thine ears, after a hundred year,
Might now plead custom for to hear.
Upon thy head that reverend snow
Did dwell some fifty years ago:
And then thy cheeks did seem to have
The sad resemblance of a grave.
Wert thou e'er young? For truth I hold
And do believe thou wert born old. 20
There 's none alive, I'm sure, can say
They knew thee young, but always grey.
And dost thou now, venerable oak,
Decline at Death's unhappy stroke?
Tell me, dear son, why didst thou die
And leave 's to write an elegy?
We're young, alas! and know thee not.
Send up old Abram and grave Lot.
Let them write thy Epitaph and tell
The world thy worth; they kenned thee well. 30
When they were boys, they heard thee preach
And thought an angel did them teach.
Awake them then: and let them come
And score thy virtues on thy tomb,
That we at those may wonder more
Than at thy many years before.
[_An Elegy, &c._ This and the following piece are
among the disputed poems, but as they occur in _1653_ I give
them, with warning and asterisked. The _D.N.B._ allows (with
a ?) 104 years (1536?-1640) to Chadderton. As the first Master
of the House of pure Emmanuel he might be supposed unlikely
to extract a tear from Cleveland. But he had resigned his
Mastership nearly twenty years before his death, and that
death occurred before the troubles became _insanabile vulnus_.
There is nothing to require special annotation in it, or
indeed in either, though in _Doctor Chadderton_, l. 23, one
may safely guess that either 'thou' or 'now' is an intrusion;
in l. 25 of the same that 'son' should be 'sir', 'sire',
'saint', &c.; and in l. 29 that 'th' Epitaph' is likelier.]
*Mary's Spikenard.
Shall I presume,
Without perfume,
My Christ to meet
That is all sweet?
No! I'll make most pleasant posies,
Catch the breath of new-blown roses,
Top the pretty merry flowers,
Which laugh in the fairest bowers,
Whose sweetness Heaven likes so well,
It stoops each morn to take a smell. 10
Then I'll fetch from the Ph[oe]nix' nest
The richest spices and the best,
Precious ointments I will make;
Holy Myrrh and aloes take,
Yea, costly Spikenard in whose smell
The sweetness of all odours dwell.
I'll get a box to keep it in,
Pure as his alabaster skin:
And then to him I'll nimbly fly
Before one sickly minute die. 20
This box I'll break, and on his head
This precious ointment will I spread,
Till ev'ry lock and ev'ry hair
For sweetness with his breath compare:
But sure the odour of his skin
Smells sweeter than the spice I bring.
Then with bended knee I'll greet
His holy and belovéd feet;
I'll wash them with a weeping eye,
And then my lips shall kiss them dry; 30
Or for a towel he shall have
My hair--such flax as nature gave.
But if my wanton locks be bold,
And on Thy sacred feet take hold,
And curl themselves about, as though
They were loath to let thee go,
O chide them not, and bid away,
For then for grief they will grow grey.
[_Mary's Spikenard_ (_1652_) of course suggests
Crashaw; and yet when one reads it the thought must surely
occur, 'How differently Crashaw would have done it!' I do
not think either is Cleveland's, though the odd string of
unrelated conceits in the Chadderton piece is not unlike him.
In the other there is nothing like his usual style; but it is
very pretty, and I will not say he could not have done it as
an exception. But in that case it is a pity he did not make it
a rule.]
To Julia to expedite her Promise.
Since 'tis my doom, Love's undershrieve,
Why this reprieve?
Why doth my she-advowson fly
Incumbency?
Panting expectance makes us prove
The antics of benighted love,
And withered mates when wedlock joins,
They're Hymen's monkeys, which he ties by th' loins
To play, alas! but at rebated foins.
To sell thyself dost thou intend 10
By candle end,
And hold the contract thus in doubt,
Life's taper out?
Think but how soon the market fails;
Your sex lives faster than the males;
As if, to measure age's span,
The sober Julian were th' account of man,
Whilst you live by the fleet Gregorian.
Now since you bear a date so short,
Live double for 't. 20
How can thy fortress ever stand
If 't be not manned?
The siege so gains upon the place
Thou'lt find the trenches in thy face.
Pity thyself then if not me,
And hold not out, lest like Ostend thou be
Nothing but rubbish at delivery.
The candidates of Peter's chair
Must plead grey hair,
And use the simony of a cough 30
To help them off.
But when I woo, thus old and spent,
I'll wed by will and testament.
No, let us love while crisped and curled;
The greatest honours, on the agéd hurled,
Are but gay furloughs for another world.
To-morrow what thou tenderest me
Is legacy.
Not one of all those ravenous hours
But thee devours. 40
And though thou still recruited be,
Like Pelops, with soft ivory,
Though thou consume but to renew,
Yet Love as lord doth claim a heriot due;
That 's the best quick thing I can find of you.
I feel thou art consenting ripe
By that soft gripe,
And those regealing crystal spheres.
I hold thy tears
Pledges of more distilling sweets, 50
The bath that ushers in the sheets.
Else pious Julia, angel-wise,
Moves the Bethesda of her trickling eyes
To cure the spital world of maladies.
[_To Julia, &c._ Johnson singled out the opening
verse of this as a special example of 'bringing remote ideas
together'.]
[Line: 1 'Shrieve' of course = 'Sheriff'.]
[Lines: 3-4 'advowson' (again of course, but these things get
curiously mistaken nowadays) = '_right_ of presenting to or
enjoying a benefice'. 'Incumbency' = 'the actual _occupation_
or enjoyment'. Cf. _Square-Cap_, ll. 37-8.]
[Line: 9 rebated] The opposite of '_un_bated' in
_Hamlet_--with the button _on_.]
[Line: 11 Mr. Pepys on November 6, 1660, watched this process
(which was specially used in ship-selling) for the first time
and with interest. 'candle' _1653_: 'candle's' _1677_.]
[Lines: 17-18 Not a very happy 'conceiting' of the fact that in
a millennium and a half the Julian reckoning had got ten days
behindhand.]
[Line: 27 The siege of Ostend (1601-4) lasted three years and
seventy-seven days.]
[Line: 34 Did a far greater Cambridge poet think of this in
writing
'When the locks are crisp and curl'd?'
(_The Vision of Sin._)]
[Line: 48 regealing] Cleveland seems to use this unusual word
in the sense of '_un_freezing'.]
[Line: 51 _1677_ spoils sense and verse alike by beginning the
line with 'Than'. The 'tears' _are_ the 'bath'.]
Poems in 1677 but not in 1653.
Upon Princess Elizabeth, born the night before New Year's Day.
Astrologers say Venus, the self-same star,
Is both our Hesperus and Lucifer;
The antitype, this Venus, makes it true;
She shuts the old year and begins the new.
Her brother with a star at noon was born;
She, like a star both of the eve and morn.
Count o'er the stars, fair Queen, in babes, and vie
With every year a new Epiphany.
[_Upon Princess Elizabeth._ Not before _1677_. This
slight thing is inaccurately entitled, for the Princess was
born on December 26, 1638.]
[Line: 1 The rhyme of 'star' and 'Lucif_er_', which occurs
(with 'travell_er_') in Dryden, is--like all Cleveland's
rhymes, I think without exception--perfectly sound on the
general principle then observed, and observed partly at all
times, that _a vowel may, for rhyming purposes, take the sound
that it has in a similar connexion but in another word_.]
[Line: 5 brother] Charles II.]
The General Eclipse.
Ladies that gild the glittering noon,
And by reflection mend his ray,
Whose beauty makes the sprightly sun
To dance as upon Easter-day,
What are you now the Queen 's away?
Courageous Eagles, who have whet
Your eyes upon majestic light,
And thence derived such martial heat
That still your looks maintain the fight,
What are you since the King's good-night? 10
Cavalier-buds, whom Nature teems
As a reserve for England's throne,
Spirits whose double edge redeems
The last Age and adorns your own,
What are you now the Prince is gone?
As an obstructed fountain's head
Cuts the entail off from the streams,
And brooks are disinherited,
Honour and Beauty are mere dreams
Since Charles and Mary lost their beams! 20
Criminal Valours, who commit
Your gallantry, whose paean brings
A psalm of mercy after it,
In this sad solstice of the King's,
Your victory hath mewed her wings!
See, how your soldier wears his cage
Of iron like the captive Turk,
And as the guerdon of his rage!
See, how your glimmering Peers do lurk,
Or at the best, work journey-work! 30
Thus 'tis a general eclipse,
And the whole world is al-a-mort;
Only the House of Commons trips
The stage in a triumphant sort.
Now e'en John Lilburn take 'em for't!
[_The General Eclipse._ The poem is of course a
sort of variation or _scherzo_ on 'You meaner beauties of the
night'.]
[Line: 20 We are so accustomed to the double name 'Henrietta
Maria' that the simple 'Queen Mary' may seem strange. But it
was the Cavalier word at Naseby.]
[Line: 32 al-a-mort] Formerly quite naturalized, especially in
the form all-amort. See _N.E.D._, s.v. 'Alamort'.]
Upon the King's Return from Scotland.
Returned, I'll ne'er believe 't; first prove him hence;
Kings travel by their beams and influence.
Who says the soul gives out her gests, or goes
A flitting progress 'twixt the head and toes?
She rules by omnipresence, and shall we
Deny a prince the same ubiquity?
Or grant he went, and, 'cause the knot was slack,
Girt both the nations with his zodiac,
Yet as the tree at once both upward shoots,
And just as much grows downward to the roots, 10
So at the same time that he posted thither
By counter-stages he rebounded hither.
Hither and hence at once; thus every sphere
Doth by a double motion interfere;
And when his native form inclines him east,
By the first mover he is ravished west.
Have you not seen how the divided dam
Runs to the summons of her hungry lamb;
But when the twin cries halves, she quits the first?
Nature's commendam must be likewise nursed. 20
So were his journeys like the spider spun
Out of his bowels of compassion.
Two realms, like Cacus, so his steps transpose,
His feet still contradict him as he goes.
England 's returned that was a banished soil.
The bullet flying makes the gun recoil.
Death 's but a separation, though endorsed
With spade and javelin; we were thus divorced.
Our soul hath taken wing while we express
The corpse, returning to our principles. 30
But the Crab-tropic must not now prevail;
Islands go back but when you're under sail.
So his retreat hath rectified that wrong;
Backward is forward in the Hebrew tongue.
Now the Church Militant in plenty rests,
Nor fears, like th' Amazon, to lose her breasts.
Her means are safe; not squeezed until the blood
Mix with the milk and choke the tender brood.
She, that hath been the floating ark, is that
She that 's now seated on Mount Ararat. 40
Quits Charles; our souls did guard him northward thus
Now he the counterpart comes south to us.
[_Upon the King's Return, &c._ In 1641--an
ill-omened and unsuccessful journey, which lasted from August
to November. The piece is one of the very few of those in
_Cleaveland Revived_ acknowledged and admitted by _Clievelandi
Vindiciae_.]
[Line: 3 _1659_ 'ghests'; _1662_, _1668_ 'guests'; _1677_
'gests'. See _N.E.D._, s.v. 'gest' _sb._^{4}. which defines
it as 'the various stages of a journey, especially of a royal
progress; the route followed or planned'.]
[Line: 20 commendam] (misprinted '-dum' from _1659_ to
_1677_). A benefice held with another; something additional.]
[Line: 21: 'spider' _1677_; 'spider's' _1659_, _1662_,
_1668_.]
[Line: 25 'banished' _1677_: 'barren' _1659_, _1662_, _1668_.]
[Line: 30 In this very obscure and ultra-Clevelandian
line _1677_ reads 'their'. I think 'our'--the reading of
_Cleaveland Revived_, followed by _1662_ and _1668_--is
better. But the whole poem (one of Cleveland's earliest
political attempts) is weak and pithless.]
[Line: 33 'that' _1687_: 'the' _1659_, _1662_, _1668_.]
[Line: 42 'counterpart' _1677_: 'counterpane' _1659_, _1662_,
_1668_.]
Poems certainly or almost certainly Cleveland's but not included in
1653 or 1677.
[_Poems, &c._ I have been exceedingly chary of
admission under this head, for there seems to me to be no
reasonable _via media_ between such severity and the complete
reprinting of _1687_--with perhaps the _known_ larcenies
in that and its originals left out. Thus, of eleven poems
given--but as 'not in _1677_'--by Mr. Berdan I have kept but
three, besides one or two which, though not in _1677_, are in
_1653_, and so appear above. Of these the Jonson Elegy from
_Jonsonus Virbius_ is signed, and as well authenticated as
anything can be; _News from Newcastle_ is quoted by Johnson
and therefore of importance to students of the _Lives_. The
_Elegy upon Charles I_ is in _1654_ among the poems which
that collection adds to _1653_, is very like him, and relieves
Cleveland partly, if not wholly, from the charge of being
wanting to the greatest occasion of his life and calling.]
An Elegy on Ben Jonson.
Who first reformed our stage with justest laws,
And was the first best judge in his own cause;
Who, when his actors trembled for applause,
Could (with a noble confidence) prefer
His own, by right, to a whole theatre;
From principles which he knew could not err:
Who to his fable did his persons fit,
With all the properties of art and wit,
And above all that could be acted, writ:
Who public follies did to covert drive, 10
Which he again could cunningly retrive,
Leaving them no ground to rest on and thrive:
Here JONSON lies, whom, had I named before,
In that one word alone I had paid more
Than can be now, when plenty makes me poor.
J. CL.
[_An Elegy, &c._ Although this appears neither in
_1653_ nor in _1677_, it is included, with some corruptions
not worth noting, in some editions both before and after the
latter. Gifford ascribed to Cleveland another unsigned Elegy
in _Jonsonus Virbius_ and one of the Odes to Ben Jonson on his
own Ode to himself, 'Come, quit the loathèd stage'. There is
no authority for the ascription in either case, and the styles
of both pieces are as unlike as possible to Cleveland's.]
[Line: 2 Orig., by a slip, '_your_ own cause'. Cleveland may
have meant to address the poet throughout, or till the last
verse; but, if so, he evidently changed his mind.]
News from Newcastle:
Upon the Coal-pits about Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
England 's a perfect world, has Indies too;
Correct your maps, Newcastle is Peru!
Let th' haughty Spaniard triumph till 'tis told
Our sooty min'rals purify his gold.
This will sublime and hatch the abortive ore,
When the sun tires and stars can do no more.
No! mines are current, unrefined, and gross;
Coals make the sterling, Nature but the dross.
For metals, Bacchus-like, two births approve;
Heaven's heat 's the Semele, and ours the Jove. 10
Thus Art doth polish Nature; 'tis her trade:
So every madam has her chambermaid.
Who'd dote on gold? A thing so strange and odd,
'Tis most contemptible when made a god!
All sins and mischiefs thence have rise and swell;
One Indies more would make another Hell.
Our mines are innocent, nor will the North
Tempt poor mortality with too much worth.
Th' are not so precious; rich enough to fire
A lover, yet make none idolater. 20
The moderate value of our guiltless ore
Makes no man atheist, nor no woman whore.
Yet why should hallowed Vesta's glowing shrine
Deserve more honour than a flaming mine?
These pregnant wombs of heat would fitter be,
Than a few embers, for a deity.
Had he our pits, the Persian would admire
No sun, but warm 's devotion at our fire.
He'd leave the trotting Whipster, and prefer
This profound Vulcan 'bove that Wagoner. 30
For wants he heat, or light? would he have store
Of both? 'Tis here. And what can suns give more?
Nay, what 's that sun but, in a different name,
A coal-pit rampant, or a mine on flame?
Then let this truth reciprocally run,
The sun 's Heaven's coalery, and coals our sun;
A sun that scorches not, locked up i' th' deep;
The bandog 's chained, the lion is asleep.
That tyrant fire, which uncontrolled doth rage,
Here 's calm and hushed, like Bajazet i' th' cage. 40
For in each coal-pit there doth couchant dwell
A muzzled Etna, or an innocent Hell.
Kindle the cloud, you'll lightning then descry;
Then will a day break from the gloomy sky;
Then you'll unbutton though December blow,
And sweat i' th' midst of icicles and snow;
The dog-days then at Christmas. Thus is all
The year made June and equinoctial.
If heat offend, our pits afford us shade,
Thus summer 's winter, winter 's summer made. 50
What need we baths, what need we bower or grove?
A coal-pit's both a ventiduct and stove.
Such pits and caves were palaces of old;
Poor inns, God wot, yet in an age of gold;
And what would now be thought a strange design,
To build a house was then to undermine.
People lived under ground, and happy dwellers
Whose jovial habitations were all cellars!
These primitive times were innocent, for then
Man, who turned after fox, but made his den. 60
But see a fleet of rivals trim and fine,
To court the rich infanta of our mine;
Hundreds of grim Leanders dare confront,
For this loved Hero, the loud Hellespont.
'Tis an armado royal doth engage
For some new Helen with this equipage;
Prepared too, should we their addresses bar,
To force their mistress with a ten years' war,
But that our mine 's a common good, a joy
Made not to ruin but enrich our Troy. 70
Thus went those gallant heroes of old Greece,
The Argonauts, in quest o' th' Golden Fleece.
But oh! these bring it with 'em and conspire
To pawn that idol for our smoke and fire.
Silver 's but ballast; this they bring ashore
That they may treasure up our better ore.
For this they venter rocks and storms, defy
All the extremities of sea and sky.
For the glad purchase of this precious mould,
Cowards dare pirates, misers part with gold. 80
Hence 'tis that when the doubtful ship sets forth
The knowing needle still directs it north,
And Nature's secret wonder, to attest
Our Indies' worth, discards both east and west.
For 'tis not only fire commends this spring,
A coal-pit is a mine of everything.
We sink a jack-of-all-trades shop, and sound
An inversed Burse, an Exchange under ground.
This Proteus earth converts to what you'd ha' 't:
Now you may weave 't to silk, then coin 't to plate, 90
And, what 's a metamorphosis more dear,
Dissolve it and 'twill melt to London beer.
For whatsoe'er that gaudy city boasts,
Each month derives to these attractive coasts.
We shall exhaust their chamber and devour
Their treasures of Guildhall, the Mint, the Tower.
Our staiths their mortgaged streets will soon divide,
Blathon owe Cornhill, Stella share Cheapside.
Thus will our coal-pits' charity and pity
At distance undermine and fire the City. 100
Should we exact, they'd pawn their wives and treat
To swap those coolers for our sovereign heat.
'Bove kisses and embraces fire controls;
No Venus heightens like a peck of coals.
Medea was the drudge of some old sire
And Aeson's bath a lusty sea-coal fire.
Chimneys are old men's mistresses, their inns,
A modern dalliance with their measled shins.
To all defects the coal-heap brings a cure,
Gives life to age and raiment to the poor. 110
Pride first wore clothes; Nature disdains attire;
She made us naked 'cause she gave us fire.
Full wharfs are wardrobes, and the tailor's charm
Belongs to th' collier; he must keep us warm.
The quilted alderman with all 's array
Finds but cold comfort on a frosty day;
Girt, wrapped, and muffled, yet with all that stir
Scarce warm when smoth'red in his drowsy fur;
Not proof against keen Winter's batteries
Should he himself wear all 's own liveries, 120
But chilblains under silver spurs bewails
And in embroid'red buckskins blows his nails.
Rich meadows and full crops are elsewhere found:
We can reap harvest from our barren ground.
The bald parched hills that circumscribe our Tyne
Are no less fruitful in their hungry mine.
Their unfledged tops so well content our palates,
We envy none their nosegays and their sallets.
A gay rank soil like a young gallant grows
And spends itself that it may wear fine clothes, 130
Whilst all its worth is to its back confined.
Our wear 's plain outside, but is richly lined;
Winter 's above, 'tis summer underneath,
A trusty morglay in a rusty sheath.
As precious sables sometimes interlace
A wretched serge or grogram cassock case.
Rocks own no spring, are pregnant with no showers,
Crystals and gems grow there instead of flowers;
Instead of roses, beds of rubies sweat
And emeralds recompense the violet. 140
Dame Nature not, like other madams, wears,
Where she is bare, pearls on her breasts or ears.
What though our fields present a naked sight?
A paradise should be an adamite.
The northern lad his bonny lass throws down
And gives her a black bag for a green gown.
[_News from Newcastle_, if not Cleveland's, is
infinitely more of a Clevelandism than any other
attributed piece, either in the untrustworthy (or rather
upside-down-trustworthy) _Cleaveland Revived_ or elsewhere. It
first appeared as a quarto pamphlet, 'London. Printed in the
year 1651. By William Ellis', and with a headline to the poem
'Upon the Coalpits about Newcastle-upon-Tyne'. This quarto
furnishes the only sound text. It was reprinted very corruptly
in _Cleaveland Revived_, _1660_, and thence in the editions
of _1662_, _1668_, _1687_, and later. A collation of _1660_
is given. Title in _1660_ 'News from Newcastle, Or, Newcastle
Coal-pits'. MS. Rawlinson Poet, 65 of the Bodleian has a
version agreeing in the main with _1660_.]
[Line: 1 has] hath _1660_, _MS._]
[Line: 5 'obortive' _1668_.]
[Line: 7 _1651_, later texts, and _MS._ 'No mines', which has
no meaning without a stop or interjection.]
[Line: 8 'nature's' _MS._]
[Line: 10 'Heaven heats' _1660_. The mine is the womb of
Semele warmed by the sun: the furnace the thigh of Jove heated
by coal.]
[Line: 11 her] the _1660_: its _MS._]
[Line: 12 has] hath _1660_, _MS._]
[Line: 15 'sin and mischief hence' _1660_: 'sin and mischief
thence' _MS._]
[Line: 16 Indies] India _1660._]
[Line: 17 mines] times _MS._]
[Line: 19 _1660_ 'so': _1651_ 'too', unconsciously repeating
the 'too much' of l. 18.]
[Line: 20 none] no _MS._]
[Line: 22 Simply an adaptation of the earlier conclusion--
'Should make men atheists and not women whores'.
]
[Line: 23 Vesta's glowing] Vestals' sacred _1660_. shrine]
shine _MS._]
[Line: 29 trotting Whipster] Phoebus, of course.]
[Line: 30 This] Our _1660_, _MS._]
[Line: 31 light? would he] light, or would _1660_. store]
Misprinted 'more' in _1651_.]
[Line: 32 suns] Sun _MS._]
[Line: 33 that] the _1660_.]
[Line: 34 on flame] or flame _1660_.]
[Line: 36 coalery] Original and pleasing. 'Collier' is used
below.]
[Line: 37 scorches] scorcheth _1660_, _MS._]
[Line: 38 bandog's] lion's _1660_. lion] bandog _1660_.]
[Line: 42 or] and _MS._]
[Line: 43 the] this _MS._]
[Line: 45 'Un_bottom_,' by evident error, in _1668_.]
[Line: 47 Thus] Then _MS._]
[Line: 49 'offends' _1660_. 'affords' _1660_.]
[Line: 60 but made] made but _1660_, _MS._]
[Line: 61 rivals] vitals _1660_.]
[Line: 63 dare] do _1660_.]
[Line: 68 their] this _1660_, _MS._]
[Lines: 71-2 Omitted in _1660_ and all later texts. _1651_
misprints 'Argeuauts'.]
[Line: 73 'em] them _1660_, _MS._]
[Line: 75 ashore] on shore _1660_, _MS._]
[Line: 76 better] richer _MS._]
[Line: 78 extremities] extremity _1660_.]
[Line: 81 'tis that] is it _1660_, _MS._]
[Line: 82 knowing] naving _1660_: knavish _MS._]
[Line: 83 wonder] wonders _1660_.]
[Line: 84 both] with _MS._]
[Line: 85 For 'tis not] For Tyne. Not _1660_ (without the
period at l. 84), _MS._]
[Line: 86 of] for _1660_.]
[Line: 87 _1651_ mispunctuates with a comma at 'sink';
_1660_ adds comma at 'jack-of-all-trades' and 'sound': _MS._
punctuates correctly.]
[Line: 88 inversed] inverse _1660_.]
[Line: 89 you'd] you'l _1660_.]
[Line: 90 weave 't] wear't _1660_. then] now _1660_. coin 't]
com't _1660_.]
[Line: 91 And] Or _MS._]
[Line: 92 melt] turn _1660_, _MS._]
[Line: 93 boasts] boast _1660_.]
[Line: 94 derives] doth drive _1660_, _MS._ these] our _1660_,
_MS._ coasts] coast _1660_.]
[Line: 96 treasures] treasure _1660_, _MS._ the Mint, the] and
mint o' th' _1660_, _MS._]
[Line: 97 staiths] Wooden erections projecting into the river,
which were used to store the coal and fitted with spouts for
shooting it into the ships. divide] deride _1660_.]
[Line: 98 'Blathon their Cornhill, Stella' _MS_: 'Blazon their
Cornhill-stella,' _1660_.] Blathon, now Blaydon, the mining
district. 'owe' = own. 'Stella' Hall, near Blaydon, was a
nunnery before the Dissolution, when it passed into the
hands of the Tempests. (Mr. Nichol Smith kindly supplied this
information.)]
[Line: 102 swap] swop _1660_.]
[Line: 105 drudge] drugge _1660_, _MS._]
[Line: 109 the] a _1659_. brings] gives _1660_, _MS._]
[Line: 110 life] youth _1660_.]
[Line: 113 tailor's] sailor's _MS._]
[Line: 115 with] in _1660_.]
[Line: 116 on] in _1660_, _MS._]
[Line: 117 that] this _1660_.]
[Line: 119 Not] Nor'st _MS._ 'proof enough' _1651_: 'enough'
is omitted in _1660_, and deleted by a seventeenth-century
corrector in the Bodleian copy of _1651_.]
[Line: 121 chilblains] chilblain _1660_.]
[Line: 126 fruitful] pregnant _1660_.]
[Line: 128 and] or _MS._]
[Line: 134 Cleveland has used 'morglay', Bevis's sword, as a
common noun elsewhere; but of course an imitator might seize
on this.]
[Line: 138 grow] are _1660_.]
[Line: 139 sweat] sweet _1668_, _1687_, _MS._]
[Line: 142 on] in _1660_. or] and _1660_. 'breasts, not ears'
_MS._]
[Lines: 145-6 Or as a modern Newcastle song, more decently but
less picturesquely, puts it in the lass's own mouth--
'He sits in his hole,
As black as a coal,
And brings the white money to me--O!'
]
An Elegy upon King Charles the First, murdered publicly by his
Subjects.
Were not my faith buoyed up by sacred blood,
It might be drowned in this prodigious flood;
Which reason's highest ground doth so exceed,
It leaves my soul no anch'rage but my creed;
Where my faith, resting on th' original,
Supports itself in this, the copy's fall.
So while my faith floats on that bloody wood,
My reason 's cast away in this red flood
Which near o'erflows us all. Those showers past
Made but land-floods, which did some valleys waste. 10
This stroke hath cut the only neck of land
Which between us and this red sea did stand,
That covers now our world which curséd lies
At once with two of Egypt's prodigies
(O'ercast with darkness and with blood o'errun),
And justly since our hearts have theirs outdone.
Th' enchanter led them to a less known ill
To act his sin, than 'twas their king to kill;
Which crime hath widowed our whole nation,
Voided all forms, left but privation 20
In Church and State; inverting every right;
Brought in Hell's state of fire without light.
No wonder then if all good eyes look red,
Washing their loyal hearts from blood so shed;
The which deserves each pore should turn an eye
To weep out even a bloody agony.
Let nought then pass for music but sad cries,
For beauty bloodless cheeks and blood-shot eyes.
All colours soil but black; all odours have
Ill scent but myrrh, incens'd upon this grave. 30
It notes a Jew not to believe us much
The cleaner made by a religious touch
Of this dead body, whom to judge to die
Seems the Judaical impiety.
To kill the King, the Spirit Legion paints
His rage with law, the Temple and the saints.
But the truth is, he feared and did repine
To be cast out and back into the swine.
And the case holds, in that the Spirit bends
His malice in this act against his ends; 40
For it is like the sooner he'll be sent
Out of that body he would still torment.
Let Christians then use otherwise this blood;
Detest the act, yet turn it to their good;
Thinking how like a King of Death he dies
We easily may the world and death despise.
Death had no sting for him and its sharp arm,
Only of all the troop, meant him no harm.
And so he looked upon the axe as one
Weapon yet left to guard him to his throne. 50
In his great name then may his subjects cry,
'Death, thou art swallowed up in victory.'
If this, our loss, a comfort can admit,
'Tis that his narrowed crown is grown unfit
For his enlargéd head, since his distress
Had greatened this, as it made that the less.
His crown was fallen unto too low a thing
For him who was become so great a king.
So the same hands enthroned him in that crown
They had exalted from him, not pulled down. 60
And thus God's truth by them hath rendered more
Than e'er man's falsehood promised to restore;
Which, since by death alone he could attain,
Was yet exempt from weakness and from pain.
Death was enjoined by God to touch a part,
Might make his passage quick, ne'er move his heart,
Which even expiring was so far from death
It seemed but to command away his breath.
And thus his soul, of this her triumph proud,
Broke like a flash of lightning through the cloud 70
Of flesh and blood; and from the highest line
Of human virtue, passed to be divine.
Nor is 't much less his virtues to relate
Than the high glories of his present state.
Since both, then, pass all acts but of belief,
Silence may praise the one, the other grief.
And since upon the diamond no less
Than diamonds will serve us to impress,
I'll only wish that for his elegy
This our Josias had a Jeremy. 80
[_An Elegy, &c._ See above. First printed in
_Monumentum Regale_, _1649,_ p. 49; then in the _1654_ edition
of Cleveland.]
[Line: 3 _1654_, _1657_, _1669_ 'doth'. Other (it is true
inferior) texts, such as _1659_, _1665,_ and the successors of
_1677_, 'do': which any one who has ever read his Pepys must
know to be possible in the singular.]
[Line: 33 'this' _1649_: 'their' _1653_ and later editions.]
[Line: 35 paints = 'tries to disguise'.]
[Since these sheets were last revised, and when they
were ready for press, Mr. Simpson discovered and communicated
to me some variants (from Bodley MSS.) of Cleveland's pieces
on Chadderton (_v. sup._ p. 81) and Williams (p. 69). His note
is as follows:
"There is a version of the _Elegy upon Doctor Chadderton_
(page 81) in Ashmole MS. 36-7, fol. 263. After l. 14 four
lines are inserted:
We thought, for so we would it have,
Thou hadst outlived death and the grave,
Hadst been past dying, and by thine own
Brave virtue been immortal grown.
Not very brilliant, but no one would have any motive for
interpolating such lines. Further, ll. 17-18 are omitted.
25 'dear S^{nt}.' i.e. as conjectured in the note, 'Saint.'
30 'Kend' written in a larger hand, with a view to emphasis.
Query, a favourite word of Chadderton?
In the same MS. is a version of the poem on Archbishop
Williams (p. 69). Most readings are bad, but the following are
noteworthy:
4 concorporate one.
11 And vindicate whate'er.
55 when happier ages (which of late
The viper cherish'd) with unpartial fate."
]
* * *
* * * * *
POEMS
AND
TRANSLATIONS.
BY
_THOMAS STANLEY_ Esquire.
_Quæ mea culpa tamen, nisi si lusisse vocari
Culpa potest: nisi culpa potest & amasse, vocari?_
Tout vient a poinct qui peut attendre.
Printed for the Author, and his Friends, 1647.
POEMS,
BY
_THOMAS STANLEY_ ESQUIRE.
_Quæ mea culpa tamen, nisi si lusisse vocari
Culpa potest: nisi culpa potest & amasse, vocari?_
[Illustration]
Printed in the Year,
1651.
INTRODUCTION TO THOMAS STANLEY
Thomas Stanley, poet, scholar, translator, and historian of
philosophy, occupies a position in literary history, and in the
general knowledge of fairly instructed people, which is less
unenviable than that of Cleveland, almost equally curious, but more
distinctly accidental. In a way--in more ways than one--he cannot be
said to be exactly unknown. Everybody who has received the once usual
'liberal education', if not directly acquainted with his work on
classical literature, has seen his _History of Philosophy_ referred to
in later histories; and his notes on Aeschylus quoted, and sometimes
fought over, in later editions. His translations have attained a place
in that private-adventure Valhalla of English translations--Bohn's
Library. A few at least of his poems are in all or most of the
anthologies. Not many writers have such an anchor with four flukes,
lodged in the general memory, as this. And yet there are probably few
people who have any very distinct knowledge or idea of his work as a
whole; his _Poems_ (until a time subsequent to the original promise of
them in this Collection) had never been issued since his own day save
in one of the few-copied reprints of the indefatigable Sir Egerton
Brydges; and he makes small figure in most literary histories.
The reasons of this, however, are not very far to seek. For a very
considerable time during the later seventeenth and the whole of the
eighteenth century, if not later, Stanley was a recognized authority
on history and scholarship: but during this time a philosopher and a
scholar would have been usually thought to derogate, strangely and not
quite pardonably, by writing and translating love poetry in a style
of 'false wit' the most contrary to the precepts of Mr. Addison.
We cannot even be sure that Stanley himself would not have been
short-sighted enough to feel a certain shame at his harmless
_fredaines_ in verse, for he certainly never published or fully
collected them at all after he was six and twenty, though he lived to
double that age. He seems, moreover, though most forward to help other
men of letters, to have been in all other ways a decidedly retiring
person--a man of books rather than of affairs. Though an unquestioned
Royalist, and not accused of any dishonourable compliance, he seems to
have been quite undisturbed during the Civil War, no doubt because
of his observation of the precept [Greek: lathe biôsas]. In short, he
took no trouble to keep himself before any public except the public
of letters, and the public of letters chose to keep him only in his
capacity as scholar.
If, however, he put himself not forward it was not for want of means
and opportunity to do so. After some mistakes about his genealogy,
it has been made certain that he was descended, though with the bend
sinister, from the great house that bears the same name, and through a
branch which enriched itself by commerce and settled in Hertfordshire
and Essex. His mother was a Hammond of the family which has been
referred to in dealing with his uncle the poet (vol. ii), and he was
also connected with Sandys, Lovelace, and Sherburne, all of whom were
his intimate friends, as were John Hall and Shirley the dramatist.
He seems always to have been a man of means: and used them liberally,
though less thoughtlessly than Benlowes, in assisting brother men of
letters. He is not said to have been at any of the great schools,
but his private tutor William Fairfax (son of Edward of Tasso fame)
appears to have grounded him thoroughly in scholarship. At thirteen he
went to Pembroke College (then Hall), Cambridge, entering in June 1639
and matriculating in December. He is said to have entered at Oxford
next year. He was co-opted at Cambridge in 1642 as (apparently) a
gentleman pensioner or commoner. He married early, his wife's name
being Dorothy Enyon, and they had several children, of whom
four survived him when he died, in 1678, at Suffolk Street, St.
Martin's-in-the-Fields.
There is a tendency--which is perhaps rather slightly unfair than
positively unjust--to suspect a poet who is specially given to
translation: and not exactly to discard the suspicion in the ratio of
his excellence as a translator. The reason behind this is sufficient,
as has been said, to free it from the charge of positive injustice as
a general rule, for it may be plausibly contended that a true poet,
with nature and his own soul to draw upon, will not experience any
great necessity to go to some one else for matter. But these general
rules are always dangerous in particular application, and therefore
it has been said that the notion is not quite fair. In fact, if it
is examined as it does apply to individuals, it becomes clear that
it will not do as a general rule at all--that like some other general
rules it is practically useless. That Chaucer was _grant translateur_
may be said to be neither here nor there in the circumstances. But
Spenser did not disdain translation; Dryden evidently did it for
love as well as for money, though the latter may have been its chief
attraction for Pope; and a poet such as Shelley, who was very nearly
_the_ poet, by no means despised it.
When, however, we come to examine Stanley's work we may perhaps
discover something in the very excellence of his translations which
connects itself usefully with his original poems. These translations
are excellent because he has almost unerringly selected writers who
are suitable to the poetical style of his own day, and has transposed
them into English verse of that style. But in his original poems
there is perhaps a little too much suggestion of something not wholly
dissimilar. They are (pretty as they almost always are, and beautiful
as they sometimes are) a little devoid of the spontaneity and _élan_
which distinguish the best things of the time from Carew and Crashaw
down to Kynaston and John Hall. There is a very little of the
_exercise_ about them. Moreover, not quite as a necessary consequence
of this, there is a want of decided character. Stanley is much more a
typical minor Caroline poet than he is Stanley, and so much must
needs be said critically in these volumes on the type that it seems
unnecessary to repeat it on an individual who gives that type with
little idiosyncrasy, even while giving it in some abundance and with
real charm. Only let it be added that we could not have a better foil
to Cleveland, who, though unpolished, is always 'Manly, Sir, manly!'
than this scholarly and graceful but somewhat epicene poet.
There are, however, some peculiarities about his work which made
me slow to make up my mind about the fashion of presenting it. His
translations are numerous: but this collection was not originally
intended to include translations unless they were inextricably
connected with issues of original work, or where, as in Godolphin's
case, there was a special reason. Further, the translations, which are
from a large number of authors, ancient and modern, sometimes
include prose as well as verse. Thirdly, even the original poems were
cross-issued in widely different arrangements. In short, the thing
was rather a muddle, and though no one has occupied me in my various
visits to the British Museum and the Bodleian during the past ten
or twelve years oftener than Stanley, I postponed him from volume
to volume. At last, and very recently a feasible plan suggested
itself--to give the edition of 1651 as Brydges had done, this being
after all the only one which at once represents revision and definite
literary purpose, and to let the translations in this represent--as
the poet seems himself to have selected them to do--his translating
habits and studies. Before these I have printed the original poems of
the first or 1647 edition, and after them the few which he seems to
have allowed to be added to the set versions in Gamble's _Airs and
Dialogues_ ten years later. I think this will put Stanley on a
fair level with the rest of our flock. Those who want his
classical translations from Anacreon, Ausonius, the Idylls, and the
_Pervigilium_, as well as from Johannes Secundus, will not have much
difficulty in finding them; and I did not see my way to load
this volume with Preti's _Oronta_, Montalvan's _Aurora_, &c. The
bibliography of these things is rather complicated, and I do not
pretend to have followed it out exhaustively. In fact this is
certainly the case as far as my own collations of 1647, made at the
British Museum, and those furnished me from the Bodleian copy are
concerned.[1] But the differences are rarely of importance. 1647, a
private issue, was reprinted in 1650 and 1651: while Gamble's
_Airs and Dialogues_ appeared in 1656 and was reissued with a fresh
title-page in 1657. In the latter year Stanley furnished another
composer--John Wilson, Professor of Music at Oxford--with the
letterpress of _Psalterium Carolinum_, the King's devotions from the
_Eikon_ versified. His _History of Philosophy_ appeared in 1655: his
_Aeschylus_ in 1663.
Some years ago (London, 1893) a beautiful illustrated edition of his
_Anacreon_ appeared, and more recently--but, as I have noted, after
the announcement of this collection--a carefully arranged and collated
edition of the original _Lyrics_ with a few selected translations
(Tutin, Hull, 1907), edited by Miss L. Imogen Guiney. I have not found
Miss Guiney's work useless, and if I have occasionally had to question
her emendations that is only a matter of course.
[Footnote 1: I am informed by three subsequent collators more
experienced in such work than myself--Mr. Percy Simpson, Mr.
Thorn-Drury, and a Clarendon Press reader--that they have not
found some differences which my own comparison-notes of some
years ago seemed to show between the British Museum and the
Bodleian copies of 1647. No doubt they are right. Some of the
dates given above have also been corrected by them.]
CONTENTS
PAGE
THOMAS STANLEY 95
Introduction 97
POEMS NOT PRINTED AFTER 1647 101
Despair 101
The Picture 101
Opinion 101
POEMS PRINTED IN 1647 AND REPRINTED IN 1656
BUT NOT IN 1651 102
The Dream 102
To Chariessa, beholding herself in a Glass 102
The Blush 103
The Cold Kiss 103
The Idolater 104
The Magnet 104
On a Violet in her Breast 105
Song: 'Foolish lover, go and seek' 105
The Parting 106
Counsel 106
Expostulation with Love in Despair 107
Song: 'Faith, 'tis not worth thy pains and care' 108
Expectation 108
1651 POEMS 109
The Dedication: To Love 109
The Glow-worm 110
The Breath 111
Desiring her to burn his Verses 111
The Night 112
Excuse for wishing her less Fair 113
Chang'd, yet Constant 113
The Self-deceiver (_Montalvan_) 115
The Cure 115
Celia Singing 117
A la Mesme 117
The Return 118
Song: 'When I lie burning in thine eye' 119
The Sick Lover (_Guarini_) 119
Song: 'Celinda, by what potent art' 120
Song: 'Fool, take up thy shaft again' 120
Delay 121
Commanded by his Mistress to woo for her
(_Marina_) 121
The Repulse 122
The Tomb 123
The Enjoyment (_St.-Amant_) 124
To Celia Pleading Want of Merit 126
The Bracelet (_Tristan_) 127
The Kiss 128
Apollo and Daphne (_Garcilasso Marino_) 128
Speaking and Kissing 129
The Snow-ball 129
The Deposition 130
To his Mistress in Absence (_Tasso_) 130
Love's Heretic 130
La Belle Confidente 132
La Belle Ennemie 132
The Dream (_Lope de Vega_) 133
To the Lady D. 133
Love Deposed 134
The Divorce 134
Time Recovered (_Casone_) 135
The Bracelet 135
The Farewell 136
Claim to Love (_Guarini_) 137
To his Mistress, who dreamed he was wounded
(_Guarini_) 137
The Exchange 138
Unaltered by Sickness 138
On his Mistress's Death (_Petrarch_) 139
The Exequies 139
The Silkworm 140
A Lady Weeping (_Montalvan_) 140
Ambition 141
Song: 'When, dearest beauty, thou shall pay' 141
The Revenge 142
Song: 'I will not trust thy tempting graces' 142
Song: 'No, I will sooner trust the wind' 143
To a Blind Man in Love (_Marino_) 143
Answer 143
Song: 'I prithee let my heart alone' 144
The Loss 144
The Self-Cruel 145
Song (_by M. W. M._):
'Wert thou yet fairer than thou art' 145
Answer 146
The Relapse 146
To the Countess of S. with the Holy Court 147
Song (_De Voiture_):
'I languish in a silent flame' 147
Drawn for Valentine by the L. D. S. 148
The Modest Wish (_Barclay_) 148
E Catalectis Veterum Poetarum 149
On the Edition of Mr. Fletcher's Works 149
To Mr. W. Hammond 150
On Mr. Shirley's Poems 151
On Mr. Sherburn's Translation of Seneca's _Medea_,
and Vindication of the Author 152
On Mr. Hall's Essays 153
On Sir John Suckling his Picture and Poems 154
The Union (_by Mr. William Fairfax_) 154
The Answer 154
Pythagoras his Moral Rules 155
POEMS APPEARING ONLY IN THE EDITION OF 1656 159
'On this swelling bank, once proud' 159
'Dear, fold me once more in thine arms!' 160
'The lazy hours move slow' 160
POEMS NOT PRINTED AFTER 1647
_Despair._
No, no, poor blasted Hope!
Since I (with thee) have lost the scope
Of all my joys, I will no more
Vainly implore
The unrelenting Destinies:
He that can equally sustain
The strong assaults of joy or pain,
May safely laugh at their decrees.
Despair, to thee I bow,
Whose constancy disdains t' allow 10
Those childish passions that destroy
Our fickle joy;
How cruel Fates so e'er appear,
Their harmless anger I despise,
And fix'd, can neither fall nor rise,
Thrown below hope, but rais'd 'bove fear.
[_Despair._] Note here the skill and success of the
use of the short--almost 'bob'--lines, and the _In Memoriam_
arrangement of rhyme in the last half of each stanza.]
_The Picture._
Thou that both feel'st and dost admire
The flames shot from a painted fire,
Know Celia's image thou dost see:
Not to herself more like is she.
He that should both together view
Would judge both pictures, or both true.
But thus they differ: the best part
Of Nature this is; that of Art.
[_The Picture._] The conceit wraps up the point of
the epigram.]
_Opinion._
Whence took the diamond worth? the borrow'd rays
That crystal wears, whence had they first their praise?
Why should rude feet contemn the snow's chaste white,
Which from the sun receives a sparkling light,
Brighter than diamonds far, and by its birth
Decks the green garment of the richer earth?
Rivers than crystal clearer, when to ice
Congeal'd, why do weak judgements so despise?
Which, melting, show that to impartial sight
Weeping than smiling crystal is more bright. 10
But Fancy those first priz'd, and these did scorn,
Taking their praise the other to adorn.
Thus blind is human sight: opinion gave
To their esteem a birth, to theirs a grave;
Nor can our judgements with these clouds dispense,
Since reason sees but with the eyes of sense.
[_Opinion._] As in _The Dream_, distinctly nervous
stopped couplet.]
POEMS PRINTED IN 1647 AND REPRINTED IN 1656 BUT NOT IN 1651
_The Dream._
That I might ever dream thus! that some power
To my eternal sleep would join this hour!
So, willingly deceiv'd, I might possess
In seeming joys a real happiness.
Haste not away: oh do not dissipate
A pleasure thou so lately didst create!
Stay, welcome Sleep; be ever here confin'd;
Or if thou wilt away, leave her behind.
[_The Dream._] Closed couplets, already of
considerable accomplishment. Reprinted in _1656_ in an
enlarged form; after ll. 1-4 the poem continued:--
Death, I would gladly bow beneath thy charms,
If thou couldst bring my Doris to my arms,
That thus at last made happy I might prove
In life the hell, in death the heaven of love.
Haste not away so soon, mock not my joy,
With the delusive sight or empty noise
Of happiness; oh do not dissipate
A pleasure thou so lately didst create!
Shadows of life or death do such bliss give,
That 'tis an equal curse to wake or live.
Stay then, kind Sleep; be ever here confin'd;
Or if thou wilt away, leave her behind.
]
_To Chariessa, beholding herself in a Glass._
Cast, Chariessa, cast that glass away,
Nor in its crystal face thine own survey.
What can be free from Love's imperious laws
When painted shadows real flames can cause?
The fires may burn thee from this mirror rise
By the reflected beams of thine own eyes;
And thus at last, fallen with thyself in love,
Thou wilt my rival, thine own martyr prove.
But if thou dost desire thy form to view,
Look in my heart where Love thy picture drew; 10
And then, if pleased with thine own shape thou be,
Learn how to love thyself in loving me.
[_To Chariessa &c._] ]
[Line: 12 _1656_ 'by loving'.]
_The Blush._
So fair Aurora doth herself discover
(Asham'd o' th' aged bed of her cold lover)
In modest blushes, whilst the treacherous light
Betrays her early shame to the world's sight.
Such a bright colour doth the morning rose
Diffuse, when she her soft self doth disclose
Half drown'd in dew, whilst on each leaf a tear
Of night doth like a dissolv'd pearl appear;
Yet 'twere in vain a colour out to seek
To parallel my Chariessa's cheek; 10
Less are conferr'd with greater, and these seem
To blush like her, not she to blush like them.
But whence, fair soul, this passion? what pretence
Had guilt to stain thy spotless innocence?
Those only this feel who have guilty been,
Not any blushes know, but who know sin.
Then blush no more; but let thy chaster flame,
That knows no cause, know no effects of shame.
[_The Blush._] Interesting to compare prosodically
with _The Dream_ and _Opinion_. A much older fashion of
couplet, here and there overlapped and breathless, but
pointing towards the newer. In l. 11 Miss Guiney has
unfortunately altered 'conferr'd' (_confero_ = 'to set side
by side') to 'compar'd'. In l. 15, _1647_ has the common 'bin'
and l. 16 'knows' for the second 'know'.]
_The Cold Kiss._
Such icy kisses, anchorites that live
Secluded from the world, to dead skulls give;
And those cold maids on whom Love never spent
His flame, nor know what by desire is meant,
To their expiring fathers such bequeath,
Snatching their fleeting spirits in that breath:
The timorous priest doth with such fear and nice
Devotion touch the Holy Sacrifice.
Fie, Chariessa! whence so chang'd of late,
As to become in love a reprobate? 10
Quit, quit this dullness, Fairest, and make known
A flame unto me equal with mine own.
Shake off this frost, for shame, that dwells upon
Thy lips; or if it will not so be gone,
Let 's once more join our lips, and thou shalt see
That by the flame of mine 'twill melted be.
[_The Cold Kiss._] There are some very trifling
alterations, all for the worse, in _1656_ (Gamble).]
_The Idolater._
Think not, pale lover, he who dies,
Burnt in the flames of Celia's eyes,
Is unto Love a sacrifice;
Or, by the merit of this pain,
Thou shalt the crown of martyrs gain!
Those hopes are, as thy passion, vain.
For when, by death, from these flames free,
To greater thou condemn'd shalt be,
And punish'd for idolatry,
Since thou (Love's votary before 10
Whilst He was kind) dost him no more,
But, in his shrine, Disdain adore.
Nor will this fire (the gods prepare
To punish scorn) that cruel Fair,
(Though now from flames exempted) spare;
But as together both shall die,
Both burnt alike in flames shall lie,
She in thy breast, thou in her eye.
[_The Idolater._] ]
[Line: 11 'He' altered in _1656_ to 'she', which Miss Guiney
adopts. But of course 'He' is Love.]
[Line: 18 breast _1647_: later, much worse, 'heart'.]
_The Magnet._
Ask the empress of the night
How the Hand which guides her sphere,
Constant in unconstant light,
Taught the waves her yoke to bear,
And did thus by loving force
Curb or tame the rude sea's course.
Ask the female palm how she
First did woo her husband's love;
And the magnet, ask how he
Doth th' obsequious iron move; 10
Waters, plants, and stones know this:
That they love; not what Love is.
Be not then less kind than these,
Or from Love exempt alone!
Let us twine like amorous trees,
And like rivers melt in one.
Or, if thou more cruel prove,
Learn of steel and stones to love.
[_The Magnet._] ]
[Line: 9 'he' _1647_, altered to 'she' in _1656_. One would
expect 'he' to avoid identical rhyme, but Stanley was a
scholar and the Greek is [Greek: hê Magnêtis lithos], and the
other things to be 'asked' are feminine.]
[In l. 13 'then' became 'thou', neither for better nor for
worse.]
_On a Violet in her Breast._
See how this violet, which before
Hung sullenly her drooping head,
As angry at the ground that bore
The purple treasure which she spread,
Doth smilingly erected grow,
Transplanted to those hills of snow.
And whilst the pillows of thy breast
Do her reclining head sustain,
She swells with pride to be so blest,
And doth all other flowers disdain; 10
Yet weeps that dew which kissed her last,
To see her odours so surpass'd.
Poor flower! how far deceiv'd thou wert,
To think the riches of the morn,
Or all the sweets she can impart,
Could these or sweeten or adorn,
Since thou from them dost borrow scent,
And they to thee lend ornament!
[_On a Violet in her Breast._]
[Line: 6 'hills of snow' is probably as old as the Garden of
Eden (if there was snow there). But Stanley must have known
the exquisite second verse of 'Take, oh take those lips away'
in _The Bloody Brother_. I would ask any one who despises
this as a mere commonplace love-poem to note--if he can--the
splendid swell of the verse to the fourth line, and then the
'turn' of the final couplet. With Stanley and his generation
that swell and turn passed--never to reappear till William
Blake revived it nearly a century and a half afterwards.]
_Song._
Foolish Lover, go and seek
For the damask of the rose,
And the lilies white dispose
To adorn thy mistress' cheek;
Steal some star out of the sky,
Rob the phoenix, and the east
Of her wealthy sweets divest,
To enrich her breath or eye!
We thy borrow'd pride despise:
For this wine, to which we are 10
Votaries, is richer far
Than her cheek, or breath, or eyes.
And should that coy fair one view
These diviner beauties, she
In this flame would rival thee,
And be taught to love thee too.
Come, then, break thy wanton chain,
That when this brisk wine hath spread
On thy paler cheek a red,
Thou, like us, mayst Love disdain. 20
Love, thy power must yield to wine!
And whilst thus ourselves we arm,
Boldly we defy thy charm:
For these flames extinguish thine.
[_Song._] A Donne-inspired one, doubtless, but not
ill justified. 'Distinguish' in the last line is one of the
numerous misprints of _1656_.]
_The Parting._
I go, dear Saint, away,
Snatch'd from thy arms
By far less pleasing charms,
Than those I did obey;
But when hereafter thou shall know
That grief hath slain me, come,
And on my tomb
Drop, drop a tear or two;
Break with thy sighs the silence of my sleep,
And I shall smile in death to see thee weep. 10
Thy tears may have the power
To reinspire
My ashes with new fire,
Or change me to some flower,
Which, planted 'twixt thy breasts, shall grow:
Veil'd in this shape, I will
Dwell with thee still,
Court, kiss, enjoy thee too:
Securely we'll contemn all envious force,
And thus united be by death's divorce. 20
[_The Parting._] ]
[Line: 19 contemn _1647_: contain _1656_.]
_Counsel._
When deceitful lovers lay
At thy feet their suppliant hearts,
And their snares spread to betray
Thy best treasure with their arts,
Credit not their flatt'ring vows:
Love such perjury allows.
When they with the choicest wealth
Nature boasts of, have possess'd thee;
When with flowers (their verses' stealth),
Stars, or jewels they invest thee, 10
Trust not to their borrow'd store:
'Tis but lent to make thee poor.
When with poems they invade thee,
Sing thy praises or disdain;
When they weep, and would persuade thee
That their flames beget that rain;
Let thy breast no baits let in:
Mercy 's only here a sin!
Let no tears or offerings move thee,
All those cunning charms avoid; 20
For that wealth for which they love thee,
They would slight if once enjoy'd.
Who would keep another's heart
With her own must never part.
[_Counsel._]
[Line: 7 'the' altered in _1656_ to 'their', which is clearly
wrong. But the untrustworthiness of Gamble's text is still
better illustrated by l. 10, which he twists into--
Stars _to_ jewels they _di_vest thee.
The copy was probably dictated to a very careless, ignorant,
or stupid workman.]
[Lines: 23-4. This pointed if cynical conclusion was changed in
_1657_ to the much feebler
Guard thy unrelenting mind;
None are cruel but the kind.
]
_Expostulation with Love in Despair._
Love, with what strange tyrannic laws must they
Comply, which are subjected to thy sway!
How far all justice thy commands decline,
Which though they hope forbid, yet love enjoin!
Must all are to thy hell condemn'd sustain
A double torture of despair and pain?
Is 't not enough vainly to hope and woo,
That thou shouldst thus deny that vain hope too?
It were some joy, Ixion-like, to fold
The empty air, or feed on hopes as cold; 10
But if thou to my passion this deny,
Thou mayst be starv'd to death as well as I;
For how can thy pale sickly flame burn clear
When death and cold despair inhabit near?
Rule in my breast alone, or thence retire;
Dissolve this frost, or let that quench thy fire.
Or let me not desire, or else possess!
Neither, or both, are equal happiness.
[_Expostulation, &c._] The texts of _1647_ and
_1656_ differ considerably here, and Miss Guiney has attempted
a 'composite text'--a thing for which I have small fancy.
That given above is from _1647_: _1656_ runs as follows in the
first quatrain:
Love, what tyrannic laws must they obey
Who bow beneath thy uncontrolled sway;
Or how unjust will that harsh empire prove
Forbids to hope, and yet commands to love.
and reads in l. 9 'hope' for 'joy'; l. 10 'thought that's
cold'; l. 14 'old' and 'here' for 'cold' and 'near'; l. 15
(entirely different)
Then let thy dim heat warm, or else expire.
l. 16 'the' for 'thy'; and in the closing distich '_Thus_ let
me not' and '_Either_ or both'. The interest of this piece is
almost wholly centred on the penultimate line, which, being an
evident and intended contradiction to
Amare liceat si potiri non licet,
gives us at once the connexion, in Stanley's mind, with that
strange, Mrs. Grundy-shocking, but 'insolent and passionate'
piece which is attributed, credibly enough, to Apuleius, but
rather less credibly as a latinizing of Menander's [Greek:
_Anechomenos_]. The contrast of the sensuous fire of this
with Stanley's rather vapid and languid metaphysicalities is a
notable one.]
_Song._
Faith, 'tis not worth thy pains and care
To seek t' ensnare
A heart so poor as mine:
Some fools there be
Hate liberty,
Whom with more ease thou mayst confine.
Alas! when with much charge thou hast
Brought it at last
Beneath thy power to bow,
It will adore 10
Some twenty more,
And that, perhaps, you'll not allow.
No, Chloris, I no more will prove
The curse of love,
And now can boast a heart
Hath learn'd of thee
Inconstancy,
And cozen'd women of their art.
[_Song._]
[Lines: 2, 3. The quality and value of _1656_ are again well
illustrated by its readings of 'inspire' for 'ensnare' and
'pure' for 'poor'.]
_Expectation._
Chide, chide no more away
The fleeting daughters of the day,
Nor with impatient thoughts outrun
The lazy sun,
Or think the hours do move too slow;
Delay is kind,
And we too soon shall find
That which we seek, yet fear to know.
The mystic dark decrees
Unfold not of the Destinies, 10
Nor boldly seek to antedate
The laws of Fate;
Thy anxious search awhile forbear,
Suppress thy haste,
And know that Time at last
Will crown thy hope or fix thy fear.
[_Expectation._] There is a suggestion here of John
Hall's beautiful _Call_ ('Romira, stay'), and the two pieces
appeared so close together that it is difficult to say which
may have been the first. Perhaps the resemblance was what made
Stanley omit it in _1651_. In l. 5 _1656_ reads '_N_or'.]
1651 POEMS
THE DEDICATION
_To Love._
Thou, whose sole name all passions doth comprise,
Youngest and oldest of the Deities;
Born without parents, whose unbounded reign
Moves the firm earth, fixeth the floating main,
Inverts the course of heaven; and from the deep
Awakes those souls that in dark Lethe sleep,
By thy mysterious chains seeking t' unite,
Once more, the long-since torn Hermaphrodite.
He, who thy willing pris'ner long was vow'd,
And uncompell'd beneath thy sceptre bow'd, 10
Returns at last in thy soft fetters bound,
With victory, though not with freedom crown'd:
And, of his dangers pass'd a grateful sign,
Suspends this tablet at thy numerous shrine.
[_The Dedication._ In 1647 printed at p. 49 with
the title 'Conclusion, to Love', and obviously intended to
end that collection, but a number of unpaged leaves were
subsequently added containing the complimentary verses
addressed to Fletcher and others. The following variants
occur: 11 'by thy kind power unbound'. 12 'At least with
freedom, though not conquest crown'd'. 14 'Suspends these
papers'. Stanley also appended a list of Greek quotations
justifying the cento. There is an intrinsic interest attaching
to them in that they _may_ have suggested a similar process to
Gray. A further comparison-contrast may also interest some as
to the lines themselves--that of the famous and magnificent
opening of Mr. Swinburne's _Tristram of Lyonesse_.
The notes annotate the following phrases:--1 '(_a_) all
passions', 2 '(_b_) Youngest and (_c_) oldest', 3 '(_d_)
Born', 4 '(_e_) Moves', 7 '(_f_) By thy mysterious ...' The
Greek has been slightly corrected in spelling and accents.
(_a_) Alexis apud Athenaeum:
[Greek: synenênegmenos
Pantachothen en heni topô poll' eidê pherôn,
Hê tolma men gar andros, hê de deilia
Gynaikos], &c.
Sophocles:
[Greek: Kypris ou Kypris monon,
All' esti pantôn onomatôn epônymos].
(_b_) Plato, _Sympos._: [Greek: Phêmi neôtaton auton einai
theôn, kai aei neon.]
(_c_. _d_) Plato: [Greek: To gar en tois presbytatois einai
tôn theôn timion. Tekmêrion de toutou: goneis gar erôtos out'
eisin, oute legontai hyp' oudenos oute idiôtou oute poiêtou.]
(_e_) Oppian. _Cyneg._ 2:
[Greek: Gaia pelei statherê, beleessi de soisi doneitai
Astatos epleto pontos, atar sy ge kai ton epêxas;
Êlythes eis aithêr', oiden de se makros Olympos.
Deimainei de se panta, kai ouranos eurys hyperthe
Gaiês hossa t' enerthe kai ethnea lygra kamontôn
Hoi lêthês men aphyssan hypo stoma nêpathes hydôr.]
(_f_) Plato: [Greek: Prôton men gar tria ên ta genê ta tôn
anthrôpôn (sc. [Greek: arren, thêly, kai androgynon]). Mox
addit, [Greek: Esti dê oun ek tosou ho erôs emphytos allêlôn
tois anthrôpois kai tês archaias physeôs synagôgeus kai
epicheirôn poiêsai hen ek duoin, <kai> iasasthai tên physin tên
anthrôpinên.] Phil. Jud. [Greek: peri tês kosmopoiias. Epei
de eplasthê hê gynê theasamenos adelphon eidos kai syngenê
morphên êsmenise tê thea erôs de epiginomenos kathaper
henos zôon ditta tmêmata diestêkota synagôgôn eis tauton
harmottetai.] ]
POEMS
_The Glow-worm._
Stay, fairest Chariessa, stay and mark
This animated gem, whose fainter spark
Of fading light its birth had from the dark.
A Star thought by the erring passenger,
Which falling from its native orb dropt here,
And makes the earth (its centre) now its sphere.
Should many of these sparks together be,
He that the unknown light far off should see,
Would think it a terrestrial Galaxy.
Take 't up, fair Saint; see how it mocks thy fright! 10
The paler flame doth not yield heat, though light,
Which thus deceives thy reason, through thy sight.
But see how quickly it (ta'en up) doth fade,
To shine in darkness only being made,
By th' brightness of thy light turn'd to a shade;
And burnt to ashes by thy flaming eyes,
On the chaste altar of thy hand it dies,
As to thy greater light a sacrifice.
[_The Glow-worm._] Sir Egerton Brydges thought that
'A stile of poetry so full of quaint and far-fetched conceits
cannot be commended as the most chaste and classical';
but that, 'among trifles of this kind, _The Glow-worm_ is
singularly elegant and happy'. Perhaps a later judgement,
while waiving the indispensableness, or even pre-eminence,
of chastity and classicality in verse, may doubt whether _The
Glow-worm_ itself is not rather too 'elegant' to be as 'happy'
as some other things even of its author's. The last verse
redeems it, though, to some extent.]
[Line: 2 _1647_ 'This living star of earth'. I suppose Stanley
did not like the recurrence of 'star', or he may have thought
that the same sound (-_ar_) recurred still more excessively
in the rhymes. In itself the earlier reading is certainly the
better.]
[Line: 4 erring] deceiv'd _1647_.]
[Line: 12 'Which doth deceive' _1647_.]
[Line: 15 thy] the _1647_.]
_The Breath._
Favonius the milder breath o' th' Spring,
When proudly bearing on his softer wing
Rich odours, which from the Panchean groves
He steals, as by the Phoenix' pyre he moves,
Profusely doth his sweeter theft dispense
To the next rose's blushing innocence,
But from the grateful flower, a richer scent
He back receives than he unto it lent.
Then laden with his odours' richest store,
He to thy breath hastes; to which these are poor! 10
Which whilst the amorous wind to steal essays,
He like a wanton Lover 'bout thee plays,
And sometimes cooling thy soft cheek doth lie,
And sometimes burning at thy flaming eye:
Drawn in at last by that breath we implore,
He now returns far sweeter than before,
And rich by being robb'd, in thee he finds
The burning sweets of Pyres, the cool of Winds.
[_The Breath._] This appears in all three editions,
_1656_ following _1647_ in the following variants: l. 8 'He
doth receive'; l. 11 'while he sportively'; l. 16 'back' for
'now'.]
_Desiring her to burn his Verses._
These papers, Chariessa, let thy breath
Condemn; thy hand unto the flames bequeath;
'Tis fit, who gave them life, should give them death.
And whilst in curled flames to Heaven they rise,
Each trembling sheet shall as it upwards flies,
Present itself to thee a sacrifice.
Then when about its native orb it came,
And reach'd the lesser lights o' th' sky, this flame
Contracted to a star should wear thy name.
Or falling down on earth from its bright sphere, 10
Shall in a diamond's shape its lustre bear,
And trouble (as it did before) thine ear.
But thou wilt cruel even in mercy be,
Unequal in thy justice, who dost free
Things without sense from flames, and yet not Me.
[_Desiring her to burn his Verses._] _Title_, _1647_
'To Chariessa, desiring', &c.]
[Line: 4 whilst] as _1647_.]
[Line: 7 about] above _1647_.]
[Line: 14 who] that _1647_.]
_The Night._
A DIALOGUE.
_Chariessa._
What if Night
Should betray us, and reveal
To the light
All the pleasures that we steal?
_Philocharis._
Fairest, we
Safely may this fear despise;
How can She
See our actions who wants eyes?
_Chariessa._
Each dim star
And the clearer lights, we know, 10
Night's eyes are;
They were blind that thought her so!
_Philocharis._
Those pale fires
Only burn to yield a light
T' our desires,
And though blind, to give us sight.
_Chariessa._
By this shade
That surrounds us might our flame
Be betray'd,
And the day disclose its name. 20
_Philocharis._
Dearest Fair,
These dark witnesses we find
Silent are;
Night is dumb as well as blind.
_Chorus._
Then whilst these black shades conceal us,
We will scorn
Th' envious Morn,
And the Sun that would reveal us.
Our flames shall thus their mutual light betray,
And night, with these joys crown'd, outshine the day. 30
[_The Night._] Entitled in _1647_ 'Amori Notturni. A
Dialogue between Philocharis and Chariessa'.]
[Line: 2 and] or _1647_.]
[Line: 8 who] that _1647_.]
[Line: 18 surrounds] conceals _1647_.]
The metrical arrangement here is very delightful, and
the Chorus-adjustment particularly happy.]
_Excuse for wishing her less Fair._
Why thy passion should it move
That I wish'd thy beauty less?
Fools desire what is above
Power of nature to express;
And to wish it had been more.
Had been to outwish her store!
If the flames within thine eye
Did not too great heat inspire,
Men might languish yet not die,
At thy less ungentle fire; 10
And might on thy weaker light
Gaze, and yet not lose their sight.
Nor wouldst thou less fair appear,
For detraction adds to thee;
If some parts less beauteous were,
Others would much fairer be:
Nor can any part we know
Best be styl'd, when all are so.
Thus this great excess of light,
Which now dazzles our weak eyes, 20
Would, eclips'd, appear more bright;
And the only way to rise,
Or to be more fair, for thee,
Celia, is less fair to be.
[_Excuse for wishing her less Fair._] _1647_
prefixes 'To Celia'.]
[Line: 7 the] thy _1647_.]
[Line: 9 yet] and _1647_.]
[Line: 10 less ungentle] then less scorching _1647_.]
[Line: 23 for] _1656_ 'than', which, like much else in this
edition, is pure nonsense.
Brydges thought that 'one cannot avoid admiring the ingenuity
exercised in this continual play upon words'. But surely
In things like this the play of words became
A play of thought, and therefore shames all shame.
]
_Chang'd, yet Constant._
Wrong me no more
In thy complaint,
Blam'd for inconstancy;
I vow'd t' adore
The fairest Saint,
Nor chang'd whilst thou wert she:
But if another thee outshine,
Th' inconstancy is only thine.
To be by such
Blind fools admir'd, 10
Gives thee but small esteem,
By whom as much
Thou'dst be desir'd,
Didst thou less beauteous seem:
Sure why they love they know not well,
Who why they should not cannot tell.
Women are by
Themselves betray'd,
And to their short joys cruel,
Who foolishly 20
Themselves persuade
Flames can outlast their fuel;
None (though Platonic their pretence)
With reason love unless by sense.
And He, by whose
Command to thee
I did my heart resign,
Now bids me choose
A Deity
Diviner far than thine; 30
No power can Love from Beauty sever;
I'm still Love's subject, thine was never.
The fairest She
Whom none surpass
To love hath only right,
And such to me
Thy beauty was
Till one I found more bright;
But 'twere as impious to adore
Thee now, as not t' have done 't before. 40
Nor is it just
By rules of Love
Thou shouldst deny to quit
A heart that must
Another's prove,
Ev'n in thy right to it;
Must not thy subjects captives be
To her who triumphs over Thee?
Cease then in vain
To blot my name 50
With forg'd Apostasy,
Thine is that stain
Who dar'st to claim
What others ask of Thee.
Of Lovers they are only true
Who pay their hearts where they are due.
[_Chang'd, yet Constant._] Here, perhaps for the
first time, we get the _fire_ of the period communicating to
the verse its own glow and flicker. It is a pity he allowed
himself double rhymes in stanza 3, which break the note (those
at the end of st. 4 do not). There are no variants; the poem
is not in _1647_. But Miss Guiney has proposed to substitute
'hearts' for 'they' in the last line.]
_The Self-deceiver._
MONTALVAN.
Deceiv'd and undeceiv'd to be
At once I seek with equal care,
Wretched in the discovery,
Happy if cozen'd still I were:
Yet certain ill of ill hath less
Than the mistrust of happiness.
But if when I have reach'd my aim
(That which I seek less worthy prove),
Yet still my love remains the same,
The subject not deserving love; 10
I can no longer be excus'd,
Now more in fault as less abus'd.
Then let me flatter my desires,
And doubt what I might know too sure,
He that to cheat himself conspires,
From falsehood doth his faith secure;
In love uncertain to believe
I am deceiv'd, doth undeceive.
For if my life on doubt depend,
And in distrust inconstant steer, 20
If I essay the strife to end
(When Ignorance were Wisdom here),
All thy attempts how can I blame
To work my death? I seek the same.
[_The Self-deceiver._] (On Stanley's translations
see Introduction.) Juan Perez de Montalvan (1602-1638)
belonged to the best age of Spanish literature, and was, in
proportion, almost as prolific in plays and _autos_ as his
master Lope. He was accused of 'Gongorism', and this piece is
one somewhat of 'conviction'.]
_The Cure._
_Nymph._
What busy cares too timely born
(Young Swain!) disturb thy sleep?
Thy early sighs awake the Morn,
Thy tears teach her to weep.
_Shepherd._
Sorrows, fair Nymph, are full alone;
Nor counsel can endure.
_Nymph._
Yet thine disclose, for until known
Sickness admits no cure.
_Shepherd._
My griefs are such as but to hear
Would poison all thy joys, 10
The pity which thou seem'st to bear
My health, thine own destroys.
_Nymph._
How can diseaséd minds infect?
Say what thy grief doth move!
_Shepherd._
Call up thy virtue to protect
Thy heart, and know 'twas love.
_Nymph._
Fond Swain!
_Shepherd._
By which I have been long
Destin'd to meet with hate.
_Nymph._
Fy, Shepherd, fy: thou dost love wrong,
To call thy crime thy fate. 20
_Shepherd._
Alas what cunning could decline
What force can love repel?
_Nymph._
Yet, there 's a way to unconfine
Thy heart.
_Shepherd._
For pity tell.
_Nymph._
Choose one whose love may be allur'd
By thine: who ever knew
Inveterate diseases cur'd
But by receiving new?
_Shepherd._
All will like her my soul perplex.
_Nymph._
Yet try.
_Shepherd._
Oh could there be, 30
But any softness in that sex,
I'd wish it were in thee.
_Nymph._
Thy prayer is heard: learn now t' esteem
The kindness she hath shown,
Who thy lost freedom to redeem
Hath forfeited her own.
[_The Cure_. As this appears only in _1651_ there
are no variants. The 'common measure' has little of the
magic common at the time, and is sometimes banal to
eighteenth-century level. But we rise in the next.]
_Celia Singing._
Roses in breathing forth their scent,
Or stars their borrowed ornament;
Nymphs in the wat'ry sphere that move,
Or Angels in their orbs above;
The wingéd chariot of the light,
Or the slow silent wheels of night;
The shade, which from the swifter sun
Doth in a circular motion run;
Or souls that their eternal rest do keep,
Make far more noise than Celia's breath in sleep. 10
But if the Angel, which inspires
This subtile flame with active fires,
Should mould this breath to words, and those
Into a harmony dispose,
The music of this heavenly sphere
Would steal each soul out at the ear,
And into plants and stones infuse
A life that Cherubins would choose;
And with new powers invert the laws of Fate,
Kill those that live, and dead things animate. 20
[_Celia Singing._] _1647_ 'Celia sleeping or
singing', and printed without stanza-break.]
[Line: 10 more] Some imp of the press altered 'more' to 'less'
in the later 'edition'. _1647_ has 'more', which has been
restored in text.]
[Line: 12 _1647_ 'frame'--tempting, but perhaps not certain.]
[Line: 13 _1647_ 'his'--again _nescio an recte_.]
[Line: 19 _1647_ 'power'.]
_A la Mesme._
Belle voix, dont les charmes desrobent mon âme,
Et au lieu d'un esprit m'animent d'une flamme,
Dont je sens la subtile et la douce chaleur
Entrer par mon oreille et glisser dans mon c[oe]ur;
Me faisant esprever par cette aimable vie,
Nos âmes ne consistent que d'une harmonie;
Que la vie m'est douce, la mort m'est sans peine,
Puisqu'on les trouve toutes deux dans ton haleine:
Ne m'espargne donc pas; satisfais tes rigueurs;
Car si tu me souffres de vivre, je me meurs. 10
[_A la Mesme_] _1647_ 'A une Dame qui chantoit'.
Stanley does not, like some more modern English writers of
French verse, neglect his final _e_'s, but he takes remarkable
liberties with the caesura. 'Esprever' (l. 5) is not wrong
necessarily.]
_The Return._
Beauty, whose soft magnetic chains
_Beauty, thy harsh imperious chains_
Nor time nor absence can untie,
_As a scorned weight I here untie_,
Thy power the narrow bounds disdains
_Since thy proud empire those disdains_
Of Nature or philosophy,
_Of reason or philosophy_,
That canst by unconfinéd laws
_That wouldst within tyrannic laws_
A motion, though at distance, cause.
_Confine the power of each free cause._
Drawn by the sacred influence
_Forced by the potent influence_
Of thy bright eyes, I back return;
_Of thy disdain I back return_,
And since I nowhere can dispense
_Thus with those flames I do dispense_,
With flames that do in absence burn, 10
_Which, though they would not light, did burn;_
I rather choose 'midst them t' expire
_And rather will through cold expire_
Than languish by a hidden fire.
_Than languish at a frozen fire._
But if thou the insulting pride
_But whilst I the insulting pride_
Of vulgar Beauties dost despise,
_Of thy vain beauty do despise_,
Who by vain triumphs deified,
_Who gladly wouldst be deified_,
Their votaries do sacrifice,
_By making me thy sacrifice;_
Then let those flames, whose magic charm
_May love thy heart, which to his charm_
At distance scorch'd, approach'd but warm.
_Approached seemed cold, at distance warm._
[_The Return--(Palinode.)_] The _1647_ edition
contains _two_ poems, _The Return_ and _Palinode_, which stand
to each other in a curious relation. In _1651_ _Palinode_ has
disappeared. I have thought it best to print them together.
The lines in roman type are those of _The Return_, those in
italic belong to _Palinode_. The latter reappeared in _1657_,
with slight alterations as below. In _Pal._ 5 Miss Guiney
reads 'would' for 'wouldst', evidently not quite understanding
the sense or the grammar of the time. The second person
connects itself with the vocative in 'Beauty' and the 'thou'
twice implied in 'thy'.]
[In _Palinode_, l. 7, _1657_ reads 'powerful' for
'potent'; l. 12 'in' for 'at'.]
[In _The Return_, l. 2, _1651_ 'unite'--an obvious
misprint; l. 3, _1647_ 'bound'; l. 5, _1647_ 'That', _1651_
'Thou'; l. 10, _1657_ 'which' for 'that'; l. 11, 'twixt'--not
so well; l. 13, 'the' is dropped by mere accident in
_1651_--'the', not 'th',' is required.]
_Song._
When I lie burning in thine eye.
Or freezing in thy breast,
What Martyrs, in wish'd flames that die,
Are half so pleas'd or blest?
When thy soft accents through mine ear
Into my soul do fly,
What Angel would not quit his sphere,
To hear such harmony?
Or when the kiss thou gav'st me last
My soul stole in its breath, 10
What life would sooner be embrac'd
Than so desir'd a death?
[When I commanded am by thee,
Or by thine eye or hand,
What monarch would not prouder be
To serve than to command?]
Then think no freedom I desire,
Or would my fetters leave,
Since Phoenix-like I from this fire
Both life and youth receive. 20
[_Song._] Sir Egerton thought this (which, by the
way, Lovelace may have seen, or _vice versa_) 'a very elegant
little song, with all the harmony of _modern_ rhythm'.
One might perhaps substitute 'with more of the harmony of
_contemporary_ rhythm than Stanley always attains'. It is
certainly much better than _The Cure_. The bracketed stanza
was dropped in _1651_, but it seemed better to restore it
thus in text than to degrade it hither. One or two extremely
unimportant misprints occur in one or other version, but are
not worth noting.]
_The Sick Lover._
GUARINI.
My sickly breath
Wastes in a double flame;
Whilst Love and Death
To my poor life lay claim;
The fever, in whose heat I melt,
By her that causeth it not felt.
Thou who alone
Canst, yet wilt grant no ease,
Why slight'st thou one
To feed a new disease? 10
Unequal fair! the heart is thine;
Ah, why then should the pain be mine?
[_The Sick Lover._] Not a great thing. In l. 6, Miss
Guiney thinks 'it', which is in all texts, should be 'is'. But
'it' is wanted and 'is' is not. 'The fever not [_being_] felt'
is no excessively 'absolute' construction.]
_Song._
Celinda, by what potent art
Or unresisted charm,
Dost thou thine ear and frozen heart
Against my passion arm?
Or by what hidden influence
Of powers in one combin'd,
Dost thou rob Love of either sense,
Made deaf as well as blind?
Sure thou, as friends, united hast
Two distant Deities; 10
And scorn within thy heart hast plac'd,
And love within thine eyes.
Or those soft fetters of thy hair,
A bondage that disdains
All liberty, do guard thine ear
Free from all other chains.
Then my complaint how canst thou hear,
Or I this passion fly,
Since thou imprison'd hast thine ear,
And not confin'd thine eye? 20
[_Song--Celinda, &c._] Again, mere commonplace
common measure. '_Those_ soft fetters of thy hair' (l. 13) is
at least as good as 'mobled queen', but otherwise the phrase
rather sinks to the measure. 'friends' (l. 9) is misprinted
'friend' in _1647_, and Sir Egerton has mispunctuated 'friends
united'.]
_Song._
Fool, take up thy shaft again;
If thy store
Thou profusely spend in vain,
Who can furnish thee with more?
Throw not then away thy darts
On impenetrable hearts.
Think not thy pale flame can warm
Into tears,
Or dissolve the snowy charm
Which her frozen bosom wears, 10
That expos'd, unmelted lies
To the bright suns of her eyes.
But since thou thy power hast lost,
Nor canst fire
Kindle in that breast, whose frost
Doth these flames in mine inspire,
Not to thee but her I'll sue,
That disdains both me and you.
[_Song--Fool, &c._] An extremely pretty measure,
not ill-parted with phrase and imagery. The 'Take, oh! take'
motive reappears.]
_Delay._
Delay! Alas, there cannot be
To Love a greater tyranny:
Those cruel beauties that have slain
Their votaries by their disdain,
Or studied torments, sharp and witty,
Will be recorded for their pity,
And after-ages be misled
To think them kind, when this is spread.
Of deaths the speediest is despair,
Delays the slowest tortures are; 10
Thy cruelty at once destroys,
But Expectation starves my joys.
Time and Delay may bring me past
The power of Love to cure, at last;
And shouldst thou wish to ease my pain,
Thy pity might be lent in vain;
Or if thou hast decreed, that I
Must fall beneath thy cruelty,
O kill me soon! Thou wilt express
More mercy, ev'n in showing less. 20
_Commanded by his Mistress to woo for her._
MARINO.
Strange kind of love! that knows no president,
A faith so firm as passeth Faith's extent,
By a tyrannic beauty long subdu'd,
I now must sue for her to whom I su'd,
Unhappy Orator! who, though I move
For pity, pity cannot hope to prove:
Employing thus against myself my breath,
And in another's life begging my death.
But if such moving powers my accents have,
Why first my own redress do I not crave? 10
What hopes that I to pity should incline
Another's breast, who can move none in thine?
Or how can the griev'd patient look for ease,
When the physician suffers the disease?
If thy sharp wounds from me expect their cure,
'Tis fit those first be heal'd that I endure.
Ungentle fair one! why dost thou dispense
Unequally thy sacred influence?
Why pining me, offer'st the precious food
To one by whom nor priz'd, nor understood; 20
So some clear brook to the full main, to pay
Her needless crystal tribute hastes away,
Profusely foolish; whilst her niggard tide
Starves the poor flowers that grow along her side.
Thou who my glories art design'd to own,
Come then, and reap the joys that I have sown:
Yet in thy pride acknowledge, though thou bear
The happy prize away, the palm I wear.
Nor the obedience of my flame accuse,
That what I sought, myself conspir'd to lose: 30
The hapless state where I am fix'd is such,
To love I seem not, 'cause I love too much.
[_Commanded by his Mistress, &c._] Marino[i]'s name
is so frequent in books on literature, and his work so
little known to the ordinary reader, that this example may
be welcome. The rather snip-snap antithesis, and the somewhat
obvious conceit, show the famous Italian really at his worst.
'President' (l. 1), though not impossible, is probably for
'pre_ce_dent'. The whole piece has a special interest as
showing how this 'conceit' and 'false wit' actually encouraged
the growth of the stopped antithetic couplet which was to be
turned against both.]
_The Repulse._
Not that by this disdain
I am releas'd,
And freed from thy tyrannic chain,
Do I myself think bless'd;
Nor that thy flame shall burn
No more; for know
That I shall into ashes turn,
Before this fire doth so.
Nor yet that unconfin'd
I now may rove, 10
And with new beauties please my mind,
But that thou ne'er didst love:
For since thou hast no part
Felt of this flame,
I only from thy tyrant heart
Repuls'd, not banish'd am.
To lose what once was mine
Would grieve me more
Than those inconstant sweets of thine
Had pleas'd my soul before. 20
Now I have not lost the bliss
I ne'er possest;
And spite of fate am blest in this,
That I was never blest.
[_The Repulse._] In the third line of this rather
fine poem _1656_ reads 'romantic' for 'tyrannic', and Miss
Guiney adopts it. To me it seems quite inappropriate, and one
of the errors of dictation so common in that 'edition'.]
[Line: 21 _1647_ reads '_that_ bliss'.]
_The Tomb._
When, cruel fair one, I am slain
By thy disdain,
And, as a trophy of thy scorn,
To some old tomb am borne,
Thy fetters must their power bequeath
To those of Death;
Nor can thy flame immortal burn,
Like monumental fires within an urn;
Thus freed from thy proud empire, I shall prove
There is more liberty in Death than Love. 10
And when forsaken Lovers come,
To see my tomb,
Take heed thou mix not with the crowd
And (as a Victor) proud
To view the spoils thy beauty made
Press near my shade,
Lest thy too cruel breath or name
Should fan my ashes back into a flame,
And thou, devour'd by this revengeful fire,
His sacrifice, who died as thine, expire. 20
[Or should my dust thy pity move
That could not love,
Thy sighs might wake me, and thy tears
Renew my life and years.
Or should thy proud insulting scorn
Laugh at my urn,
Kindly deceived by thy disdain,
I might be smil'd into new life again.
Then come not near, since both thy love and hate
Have equal power to love or animate.] 30
But if cold earth, or marble, must
Conceal my dust,
Whilst hid in some dark ruins, I
Dumb and forgotten lie,
The pride of all thy victory
Will sleep with me;
And they who should attest thy glory,
Will, or forget, or not believe this story.
Then to increase thy triumph, let me rest,
Since by thine eye slain, buried in thy breast. 40
[_The Tomb._] Brydges, though thinking the end of
this poem 'a feeble conceit', admits that 'there are passages
in it that are more than pretty'. It is certainly one of
Stanley's best, and he seems to have taken some trouble
with it. In _1651_ he dropped the bracketed stanza 3 and
substituted the text for the last couplet of stanza 2, which
reads in _1647_:
And (thou in this fire sacrificed to me)
We might each other's mutual martyr be.
In the last line of the omitted stanza 'love' is certainly
wrong, and Miss Guiney's suggestion of 'kill' is almost
_certissima_. But she seems to have had a different copy of
_1647_ before her from that which I collated, for she does not
notice a variant, or set of variants, in ll. 37-9:
And they _that_ should _this triumph know_
Will or forget or not believe _it so_,
Then to increase thy _glories_, &c.
In l. 5 _1647_ reads 'thy power'.]
_The Enjoyment._
ST.-AMANT.
Far from the court's ambitious noise
Retir'd, to those more harmless joys
Which the sweet country, pleasant fields,
And my own court, a cottage, yields;
I liv'd from all disturbance free,
Though prisoner (Sylvia) unto thee;
Secur'd from fears, which others prove,
Of the inconstancy of Love;
A life, in my esteem, more blest,
Than e'er yet stoop'd to Death's arrest. 10
My senses and desires agreed,
With joint delight each other feed:
A bliss, I reach'd, as far above
Words, as her beauty, or my love;
Such as compar'd with which, the joys
Of the most happy seem but toys:
Affection I receive and pay,
My pleasures knew not Grief's allay:
The more I tasted I desir'd,
The more I quench'd my thirst was fir'd. 20
Now, in some place where Nature shows
Her naked beauty, we repose;
Where she allures the wand'ring eye
With colours, which faint art outvie;
Pearls scatter'd by the weeping morn,
Each where the glitt'ring flowers adorn;
The mistress of the youthful year
(To whom kind Zephyrus doth bear
His amorous vows and frequent prayer)
Decks with these gems her neck and hair. 30
Hither, to quicken Time with sport,
The little sprightly Loves resort,
And dancing o'er the enamel'd mead,
Their mistresses the Graces lead;
Then to refresh themselves, repair
To the soft bosom of my fair;
Where from the kisses they bestow
Upon each other, such sweets flow
As carry in their mixéd breath
A mutual power of life and death. 40
Next in an elm's dilated shade
We see a rugged Satyr laid,
Teaching his reed, in a soft strain,
Of his sweet anguish to complain;
Then to a lonely grove retreat,
Where day can no admittance get,
To visit peaceful solitude;
Whom seeing by repose pursu'd,
All busy cares, for fear to spoil
Their calmer courtship, we exile. 50
There underneath a myrtle, thought
By Fairies sacred, where was wrought
By Venus' hand Love's mysteries,
And all the trophies of her eyes,
Our solemn prayers to Heaven we send,
That our firm love might know no end;
Nor time its vigour e'er impair:
Then to the wingéd God we sware,
And grav'd the oath in its smooth rind,
Which in our hearts we deeper find. 60
Then to my dear (as if afraid
To try her doubted faith) I said,
'Would in thy soul my form as clear,
As in thy eyes I see it, were.'
She kindly angry saith, 'Thou art
Drawn more at large within my heart;
These figures in my eye appear
But small, because they are not near,
Thou through these glasses seest thy face,
As pictures through their crystal case.' 70
Now with delight transported, I
My wreathéd arms about her tie;
The flattering Ivy never holds
Her husband Elm in stricter folds:
To cool my fervent thirst, I sip
Delicious nectar from her lip.
She pledges, and so often past
This amorous health, till Love at last
Our souls did with these pleasures sate,
And equally inebriate. 80
Awhile, our senses stol'n away,
Lost in this ecstasy we lay,
Till both together rais'd to life,
We re-engage in this kind strife.
Cythaera with her Syrian boy
Could never reach our meanest joy.
The childish God of Love ne'er tried
So much of love with his cold bride,
As we in one embrace include,
Contesting each to be subdu'd. 90
[_The Enjoyment._] _La Jouissance_, one of
Saint-Amant's early lyric pieces, which is here translated,
was not so famous as his _Solitude_, which will be found
(Englished by the matchless Orinda a little after Stanley's
time) in vol. i, p. 601, of this collection; but it
was popular and much imitated. Stanley has cut it down
considerably, for the original has nineteen stanzas--some of
them, I suppose, too 'warm' for the translator's modest muse.]
[Line: 59 Brydges misprints '_k_ind']
_To Celia Pleading Want of Merit._
Dear, urge no more that killing cause
Of our divorce;
Love is not fetter'd by such laws,
Nor bows to any force:
Though thou deniest I should be thine,
Yet say not thou deserv'st not to be mine.
Oh rather frown away my breath
With thy disdain,
Or flatter me with smiles to death;
By joy or sorrow slain, 10
'Tis less crime to be kill'd by thee,
Than I thus cause of mine own death should be.
Thyself of beauty to divest,
And me of love,
Or from the worth of thine own breast
Thus to detract, would prove
In us a blindness, and in thee
At best a sacrilegious modesty.
But, Celia, if thou wilt despise
What all admire, 20
Nor rate thyself at the just price
Of beauty or desire,
Yet meet my flames, and thou shalt see
That equal love knows no disparity.
[_To Celia Pleading, &c._] _1647_ has in title 'To
_One that Pleaded her own_', and 'Dearest' for 'Celia' in l.
19.]
_Love's Innocence._
See how this Ivy strives to twine
Her wanton arms about the Vine,
And her coy lover thus restrains,
Entangled in her amorous chains;
See how these neighb'ring Palms do bend
Their heads, and mutual murmurs send,
As whispering with a jealous fear
Their loves, into each other's ear.
Then blush not such a flame to own,
As like thyself no crime hath known; 10
Led by these harmless guides, we may
Embrace and kiss as well as they.
And like those blesséd souls above,
Whose life is harmony and love,
Let us our mutual thoughts betray,
And in our wills our minds display;
This silent speech is swifter far
Than the ears' lazy species are;
And the expression it affords,
As our desires, 'bove reach of words. 20
Thus we, my dear, of these may learn
A passion others not discern;
Nor can it shame or blushes move,
Like plants to live, like Angels love:
Since all excuse with equal innocence,
What above reason is, or beneath sense.
[_Love's Innocence._] In _1647_ the following
differences occur: Title, 'The Innocence of Love'; l. 1,
'(Dear) doth twine' for 'strives to twine'; l. 7, 'To one
another whispering there'; ll. 9-10, 'Then blush not, _Fair,
that_ flame to _show, Which_ like thyself no crime _can
know_'; ll. 11-12, '_Thus led by those chaste_ guides, we
may Embrace and kiss as _free_ as they'; l. 20, 'As _are our
flames_'; l. 21, 'Thus, _Doris, we_'.]
_The Bracelet._
TRISTAN.
Now Love be prais'd! that cruel fair,
Who my poor heart restrains
Under so many chains,
Hath weav'd a new one for it of her hair.
These threads of amber us'd to play
With every courtly wind;
And never were confin'd;
But in a thousand curls allow'd to stray.
Cruel each part of her is grown;
Nor less unkind than she 10
These fetters are to me,
Which to restrain my freedom, lose their own.
[_The Bracelet._] Little survives, even in literary
memories, of François Tristan l'Hermite (1601-1655), except
the success of his _Marianne_ (Maria_m_ne), 1636, one of the
most famous French tragedies of the period outside Corneille.
M. Ed. Fournier gave him a niche in Crépet's _Poètes Français_
(Paris, 1861), ii. 539-52, but did not include the original
of this piece. The _In Memoriam_ rhyme-order, though the line
lengths are different, is interesting. Stanley had perhaps
borrowed, before translating it, the 'soft fetters of her
hair', noted above, though the fancy is of course primaeval
and perennial.]
_The Kiss._
When on thy lip my soul I breathe,
Which there meets thine,
Freed from their fetters by this death
Our subtle forms combine;
Thus without bonds of sense they move,
And like two Cherubins converse by love.
Spirits, to chains of earth confin'd,
Discourse by sense;
But ours, that are by flames refin'd,
With those weak ties dispense. 10
Let such in words their minds display;
We in a kiss our mutual thoughts convey.
But since my soul from me doth fly,
To thee retir'd,
Thou canst not both retain: for I
Must be with one inspir'd.
Then, dearest, either justly mine
Restore, or in exchange let me have thine.
Yet, if thou dost return mine own,
Oh tak't again! 20
For 'tis this pleasing death alone
Gives ease unto my pain.
Kill me once more, or I shall find
Thy pity, than thy cruelty, less kind.
[_The Kiss._] Title in _1647_ 'The _killing_ Kiss',
and several other variants. An answer to this poem appears in
Jordan's _Claraphi and Clarinda_.]
[Line: 4 _1647_ 'They both unite and join'. But Miss Guiney's
suspicion that 'forms' may be a misprint obviously shows
forgetfulness of the philosophical sense of the word =
'ideas', 'immortal parts'. Cf. Spenser, 'For soul is _form_'.]
[Line: 6 by] _1647_ 'and'--perhaps better.]
[Line: 12 _1647_ 'Our lips, not tongues, each other's thoughts
betray'. (Miss Guiney's copy seems to have '_our_ tongues',
which cannot be right.)]
[Line: 15 for I] and I _1647_.]
[Line: 17 dearest] _1647_ 'Doris'. This is the second time
(_v. sup._, p. 126) that poor Doris has been disestablished.]
_Apollo and Daphne._
GARCILASSO MARINO.
When Phoebus saw a rugged bark beguile
His love, and his embraces intercept,
The leaves, instructed by his grief to smile,
Taking fresh growth and verdure as he wept:
'How can', saith he, 'my woes expect release,
When tears the subject of my tears increase!'
His chang'd, yet scorn-retaining Fair he kiss'd,
From the lov'd trunk plucking a little bough;
And though the conquest which he sought he miss'd,
With that triumphant spoil adorns his brow. 10
Thus this disdainful maid his aim deceives:
Where he expected fruit he gathers leaves.
[_Apollo and Daphne._] Why Garcilasso I do not know.
Marini's name was Giambattista.]
[Line: 6 The first 'tears' certainly looks odd, and Miss
Guiney conjectures 'leaves'. But the ways of Marinism are not
thus. Apollo's tears _watered_ the laurel and so made it
grow. His tears increased their subject, the vapid vegetable
substitute for Daphne's flesh and blood.]
_Speaking and Kissing._
The air, which thy smooth voice doth break,
Into my soul like lightning flies;
My life retires whilst thou dost speak,
And thy soft breath its room supplies.
Lost in this pleasing ecstasy,
I join my trembling lips to thine;
And back receive that life from thee,
Which I so gladly did resign.
Forbear, Platonic fools, t' inquire
What numbers do the soul compose!
No harmony can life inspire,
But that which from these accents flows.
[_Speaking and Kissing._] This is _smarter_ than
Stanley's usual style.]
_The Snow-ball._
Doris, I that could repel
All those darts about thee dwell,
And had wisely learn'd to fear,
'Cause I saw a foe so near;
I that my deaf ear did arm
'Gainst thy voice's powerful charm,
And the lightning of thine eye
Durst (by closing mine) defy,
Cannot this cold snow withstand
From the whiter of thy hand. 10
Thy deceit hath thus done more
Than thy open force before:
For who could suspect or fear
Treason in a face so clear;
Or the hidden fires descry
Wrapt in this cold outside lie?
Flames might thus involv'd in ice
The deceiv'd world sacrifice;
Nature, ignorant of this
Strange antiperistasis, 20
Would her falling frame admire,
That by snow were set on fire.
[_The Snow-ball._] Doris maintains here the place
she lost above. The tripping seventeenth-century 'sevens' are
well spent on her. In l. 10 Miss Guiney thinks that 'whiter',
the sole reading, must be 'winter'. [Greek: hêkista]: that
Stanley meant 'the whiter _snow_' is, to me, certain.]
[Line: 20 'Antiperistasis' = 'reaction' or 'topsyturvyfication'
(Thackeray).]
_The Deposition._
Though when I lov'd thee thou wert fair,
Thou art no longer so;
Those glories all the pride they wear
Unto opinion owe;
Beauties, like stars, in borrow'd lustre shine;
And 'twas my love that gave thee thine.
The flames that dwelt within thine eye
Do now, with mine, expire;
Thy brightest graces fade and die
At once with my desire; 10
Love's fires thus mutual influence return;
Thine cease to shine, when mine to burn.
Then, proud Celinda, hope no more
To be implor'd or woo'd,
Since by thy scorn thou dost restore
The wealth my love bestow'd;
And thy despis'd disdain too late shall find
That none are fair but who are kind.
[_The Deposition._] In _1647_ '_A_ Deposition _from
Beauty_'. Also l. 3, 'do' for 'all'; l. 9, 'glories' for
'graces'; l. 16, 'That' for 'The' and 'which' for 'my'.]
_To his Mistress in Absence._
TASSO.
Far from thy dearest self, the scope
Of all my aims,
I waste in secret flames;
And only live because I hope.
Oh, when will Fate restore
The joys, in whose bright fire
My expectation shall expire,
That I may live because I hope no more!
_Love's Heretic._
He whose active thoughts disdain
To be captive to one foe,
And would break his single chain,
Or else more would undergo;
Let him learn the art of me,
By new bondage to be free!
What tyrannic mistress dare
To one beauty love confine,
Who, unbounded as the air,
All may court but none decline? 10
Why should we the heart deny
As many objects as the eye?
Wheresoe'er I turn or move,
A new passion doth detain me:
Those kind beauties that do love,
Or those proud ones that disdain me;
This frown melts, and that smile burns me;
This to tears, that ashes turns me.
Soft fresh Virgins, not full blown,
With their youthful sweetness take me; 20
Sober Matrons, that have known
Long since what these prove, awake me;
Here staid coldness I admire;
There the lively active fire.
She that doth by skill dispense
Every favour she bestows,
Or the harmless innocence,
Which nor court nor city knows,
Both alike my soul enflame,
That wild Beauty, and this tame. 30
She that wisely can adorn
Nature with the wealth of Art,
Or whose rural sweets do scorn
Borrow'd helps to take a heart,
The vain care of that's my pleasure,
Poverty of this my treasure.
Both the wanton and the coy,
Me with equal pleasures move;
She whom I by force enjoy,
Or who forceth me to love: 40
This, because she'll not confess,
That not hide, her happiness.
She whose loosely flowing hair,
Scatter'd like the beams o' th' morn,
Playing with the sportive air,
Hides the sweets it doth adorn,
Captive in that net restrains me,
In those golden fetters chains me.
Nor doth she with power less bright
My divided heart invade, 50
Whose soft tresses spread like night
O'er her shoulders a black shade;
For the starlight of her eyes
Brighter shines through those dark skies.
Black, or fair, or tall, or low,
I alike with all can sport;
The bold sprightly Thais woo,
Or the frozen Vestal court;
Every Beauty takes my mind,
Tied to all, to none confin'd. 60
[_Love's Heretic._] This, for Stanley, longish piece
has few _vv. ll._ But _1647_ reads in l. 34 'that' instead
of 'to', and the singular 'pleasure' in l. 38. The piece is
rather in the Suckling vein; but Stanley did not play the
light-o'-love quite successfully.]
_La Belle Confidente._
You earthly souls that court a wanton flame,
Whose pale weak influence
Can rise no higher than the humble name,
And narrow laws of sense,
Learn by our friendship to create
An immaterial fire,
Whose brightness Angels may admire,
But cannot emulate.
Sickness may fright the roses from her cheek,
Or make the lilies fade; 10
But all the subtile ways that Death doth seek,
Cannot my love invade.
Flames that are kindled by the eye,
Through time and age expire;
But ours, that boast a reach far higher,
Can nor decay nor die.
For when we must resign our vital breath,
Our loves by Fate benighted,
We by this friendship shall survive in death,
Even in divorce united. 20
Weak Love, through fortune or distrust,
In time forgets to burn,
But this pursues us to the urn,
And marries either's dust.
[_La Belle Confidente._] On this Sir Egerton:
'However far-fetched these ideas may be, there is uncommon
elegance and ingenuity in the expression, and polish in the
versification.' There is also something more than polish--a
_concerted_ effect which 'elegance and ingenuity' do not often
reach. In l. 16, 'Cannot' appears in _1647_ for 'Can nor';
'And' for 'For' in l. 17; and ll. 18, 20 are changed over and
run:
Even in divorce delighted,
. . . . . .
Still in the grave united.
]
_La Belle Ennemie._
I yield, dear enemy, nor know
How to resist so fair a foe!
Who would not thy soft yoke sustain,
And bow beneath thy easy chain,
That with a bondage bless'd might be,
Which far transcends all liberty?
But since I freely have resign'd
At first assault my willing mind,
Insult not o'er my captiv'd heart
With too much tyranny and art, 10
Lest by thy scorn thou lose the prize
Gain'd by the power of thy bright eyes,
And thou this conquest thus shalt prove,
Though got by Beauty, kept by Love!
_The Dream._
LOPE DE VEGA.
To set my jealous soul at strife,
All things maliciously agree,
Though sleep of Death the image be,
Dreams are the portraiture of life.
I saw, when last I clos'd my eyes,
Celinda stoop t' another's will;
If specious Apprehension kill,
What would the truth without disguise?
The joys which I should call mine own,
Methought this rival did possess: 10
Like dreams is all my happiness;
Yet dreams themselves allow me none.
[_The Dream._] The actual and full _In Memoriam_
arrangement is the point of interest here. Stanley, however,
is even less successful than the few other seventeenth-century
practitioners in getting the full rhythmical sweep of the form
into operation. He breaks the circle and so loses the charm.]
_To the Lady D._
MADAM,
The blushes I betray,
When at your feet I humbly lay
These papers, beg you would excuse
Th' obedience of a bashful Muse,
Who, bowing to your strict command,
Trusts her own errors to your hand,
Hasty abortives, which, laid by,
She meant, ere they were born should die:
But since the soft power of your breath
Hath call'd them back again from Death, 10
To your sharp judgement now made known,
She dares for hers no longer own;
The worst she must not, these resign'd
She hath to th' fire, and where you find
Those your kind Charity admir'd,
She writ but what your eyes inspir'd.
[_To the Lady D._] This in _1647_ is the Dedication
'To my most honour'd Aunt the Lady Dormer'. She was a daughter
of Sir William Hammond and wife of Sir Robert Dormer, Knight,
of Chearsley, Bucks. In _1647_ Stanley added to the poem
'_Madam, Your Ladyships Greatest admirer and most humble
Servant_, THO. STANLEY'.]
_Love Deposed._
You that unto your mistress' eyes
Your hearts do sacrifice,
And offer sighs or tears at Love's rich shrine,
Renounce with me
Th' idolatry,
Nor this infernal Power esteem divine.
The brand, the quiver, and the bow,
Which we did first bestow,
And he as tribute wears from every lover,
I back again 10
From him have ta'en,
And the impostor, now unveil'd, discover.
I can the feeble child disarm,
Untie his mystic charm,
Divest him of his wings, and break his arrow;
We will obey
No more his sway,
Nor live confin'd to laws or bounds so narrow.
And you, bright Beauties, that inspire
The Boy's pale torch with fire, 20
We safely now your subtle power despise,
And unscorch'd may
Like atoms play,
And wanton in the sunshine of your eyes.
Nor think hereafter by new arts
You can bewitch our hearts,
Or raise this devil by your pleasing charm;
We will no more
His power implore,
Unless, like Indians, that he do no harm. 30
_The Divorce._
Dear, back my wounded heart restore,
And turn away thy powerful eyes;
Flatter my willing soul no more!
Love must not hope what Fate denies.
Take, take away thy smiles and kisses!
Thy love wounds deeper than disdain;
For he that sees the heaven he misses,
Sustains two hells, of loss and pain.
Shouldst thou some other's suit prefer,
I might return thy scorn to thee, 10
And learn apostasy of her,
Who taught me first idolatry.
Or in thy unrelenting breast
Should I disdain or coyness move,
He by thy hate might be releas'd,
Who now is prisoner to thy love.
Since then unkind Fate will divorce
Those whom Affection long united,
Be thou as cruel as this force,
And I in death shall be delighted. 20
Thus while so many suppliants woo.
And beg they may thy pity prove,
I only for thy scorn do sue:
'Tis charity here not to love.
[_The Divorce._] A rise from one or two preceding
pieces.]
[Line: 12 Who] That _1647_.]
[Line: 14 I] cold _1647_.]
[Line: 15 He] I _1647_.]
[Line: 16 is] am _1647_.]
[Line: 21 while] whilst _1647_. woo] do _1647_.]
[Line: 22 'Implore thy pity they may prove' _1647_.]
_Time Recovered._
CASONE.
Come, my dear, whilst youth conspires
With the warmth of our desires;
Envious Time about thee watches,
And some grace each minute snatches;
Now a spirit, now a ray,
From thy eye he steals away;
Now he blasts some blooming rose,
Which upon thy fresh cheek grows;
Gold now plunders in a hair;
Now the rubies doth impair 10
Of thy lips; and with sure haste
All thy wealth will take at last;
Only that of which thou mak'st
Use in time, from time thou tak'st.
[_Time Recovered._] This 'very light and good'
version is from Guido Casoni (so more usually), a poet of the
Trevisan March (1587-1640), and founder of the Academy of
the _Incogniti_ at Venice, to the Transactions of which he
contributed most of his work.]
_The Bracelet._
Rebellious fools that scorn to bow
Beneath Love's easy sway,
Whose stubborn wills no laws allow,
Disdaining to obey,
Mark but this wreath of hair, and you shall see,
None that might wear such fetters would be free!
I once could boast a soul like you,
As unconfin'd as air;
But mine, which force could not subdue,
Was caught within this snare; 10
And, by myself betray'd, I, for this gold,
A heart that many storms withstood, have sold.
No longer now wise Art inquire,
With this vain search delighted,
How souls, that human breasts inspire,
Are to their frames united;
Material chains such spirits well may bind,
When this soft braid can tie both arm and mind
Now, Beauties, I defy your charm,
Rul'd by more powerful art: 20
This mystic wreath which crowns my arm,
Defends my vanquish'd heart;
And I, subdu'd by one more fair, shall be
Secur'd from Conquest by Captivity.
[_The Bracelet._] Almost certainly suggested by
Donne. If so the suggestion was very rashly taken, but the
result might have been worse.]
[Line: 7 soul] heart _1647_. l. 12 is an alteration--as Miss
Guiney very rightly says to its detriment--of _1647_, which
reads--
Have to mine enemy my freedom sold.
]
[Line: 15 _1647_ 'that do our life inspire'.]
[Line: 22 _1647_ 'Guards and defends my heart'.]
_The Farewell._
Since Fate commands me hence, and I
Must leave my soul with thee, and die,
Dear, spare one sigh, or else let fall
A tear to crown my funeral,
That I may tell my grievéd heart,
Thou art unwilling we should part,
And Martyrs, that embrace the fire,
Shall with less joy than I expire.
With this last kiss I will bequeath
My soul transfus'd into thy breath, 10
Whose active heat shall gently slide
Into thy breast, and there reside,
And be in spite of Fate, thus bless'd
By this sad death, of Heaven possess'd.
Then prove but kind, and thou shalt see
Love hath more power than Destiny.
[_The Farewell._] In lines 13 and 14 of this all
editions vary slightly. _1647_ has 'may' for 'be', which
latter word opens the next line, turning out 'sad'. The text
is _1651_, _1656_, keeping l. 13 of _1647_, has for l. 14 the
text of _1651_.]
_Claim to Love._
GUARINI.
Alas! alas! thou turn'st in vain
Thy beauteous face away,
Which, like young sorcerers, rais'd a pain
Above its power to lay.
Love moves not, as thou turn'st thy look,
But here doth firmly rest;
He long ago thy eyes forsook,
To revel in my breast.
Thy power on him why hop'st thou more
Than his on me should be? 10
The claim thou lay'st to him is poor,
To that he owns from me.
His substance in my heart excels
His shadow in thy sight;
Fire, where it burns, more truly dwells,
Than where it scatters light.
_To his Mistress, who dreamed he was wounded._
GUARINI.
Thine eyes, bright Saint, disclose,
And thou shalt find
Dreams have not with illusive shows
Deceiv'd thy mind:
What sleep presented to thy view,
Awake, and thou shalt find is true.
Those mortal wounds I bear,
From thee begin,
Which though they outward not appear,
Yet bleed within. 10
Love's flame like active lightning flies,
Wounding the heart, but not the eyes.
But now I yield to die
Thy sacrifice,
Nor more in vain will hope to fly
From thy bright eyes:
Their killing power cannot be shunn'd,
Open or closed alike they wound.
[_To his Mistress, &c._] _1647_ 'To Doris dreaming
he was wounded'. Guarini is not there mentioned.]
_The Exchange._
DIALOGUE.
_Phil._
That kiss, which last thou gav'st me, stole
My fainting life away,
Yet, though to thy breast fled, my soul
Still in mine own doth stay;
_Char._
And with the same warm breath did mine
Into thy bosom slide;
There dwell contracted unto thine,
Yet still with me reside.
_Chor._
Both souls thus in desire are one,
And each is two in skill; 10
Doubled in intellect alone,
United in the will.
Weak Nature no such power doth know:
Love only can these wonders show.
[_The Exchange._] _1647_ 'Exchange of Souls'. In
editions other than _1651_ there is a refrain after each
stanza-speech:
Weak Nature no such power doth know,
Love only can these wonders show.
]
_Unaltered by Sickness._
Sickness, in vain thou dost invade
A Beauty that can never fade!
Could all thy malice but impair
One of the sweets which crown this fair,
Or steal the spirits from her eye,
Or kiss into a paler dye
The blushing roses of her cheek,
Our drooping hopes might justly seek
Redress from thee, and thou might'st save
Thousands of lovers from the grave: 10
But such assaults are vain, for she
Is too divine to stoop to thee;
Blest with a form as much too high
For any change, as Destiny,
Which no attempt can violate;
For what's her Beauty, is our Fate.
[_Unaltered by Sickness._] Lines 1 and 2 are
expanded in _1656_ to:
Pale, envious Sickness, hence! no more
Possess our breast, too cold before.
In vain, alas! thou dost invade
Those beauties which can never fade.
]
[Line: 4 'On those sweets which crown the fair' _1656_.]
[Line: 7 blushing] blooming _1657_.]
[Line: 8 drooping] dropping _1647_: suffering _1656_.]
[Line: 14 For any] _1656_ _But_ any--nonsensically.]
_On his Mistress's Death._
PETRARCH.
Love the ripe harvest of my toils
Began to cherish with his smiles,
Preparing me to be indued
With all the joys I long pursued,
When my fresh hopes, fair and full blown,
Death blasts, ere I could call my own.
Malicious Death! why with rude force
Dost thou my Fair from me divorce?
False Life! why in this loathéd chain
Me from my Fair dost thou detain? 10
In whom assistance shall I find?
Alike are Life and Death unkind.
Pardon me, Love; thy power outshines,
And laughs at their infirm designs.
She is not wedded to a tomb,
Nor I to sorrow in her room.
They, what thou join'st, can ne'er divide
She lives in me, in her I died.
_The Exequies._
Draw near,
You Lovers that complain
Of Fortune or Disdain,
And to my ashes lend a tear;
Melt the hard marble with your groans,
And soften the relentless stones,
Whose cold embraces the sad subject hide,
Of all Love's cruelties, and Beauty's pride!
No verse,
No epicedium bring, 10
Nor peaceful requiem sing,
To charm the terrors of my hearse;
No profane numbers must flow near
The sacred silence that dwells here.
Vast griefs are dumb; softly, oh! softly mourn,
Lest you disturb the peace attends my urn.
Yet strew
Upon my dismal grave
Such offerings as you have,
Forsaken cypress and sad yew; 20
For kinder flowers can take no birth,
Or growth, from such unhappy earth.
Weep only o'er my dust, and say, Here lies
To Love and Fate an equal sacrifice.
[_The Exequies._] A very good stanza, the rhythm
rising and swelling admirably. In the final couplet of the
first, _1647_ reads--
do a victim hide,
That, paid to Beauty, on Love's altar died.
]
_The Silkworm._
This silkworm, to long sleep retir'd,
The early year hath re-inspir'd,
Who now to pay to thee prepares
The tribute of her pleasing cares;
And hastens with industrious toil
To make thy ornament, her spoil:
See with what pains she spins for thee
The thread of her own destiny;
Then growing proud in Death, to know
That all her curious labours thou 10
Wilt, as in triumph, deign to wear,
Retires to her soft sepulchre.
Such, dearest, is that hapless state,
To which I am design'd by Fate,
Who by thee, willingly, o'ercome,
Work mine own fetters and my tomb.
[_The Silkworm._] ]
[Line: 1 This] The _1647_.]
[Line: 6 Miss Guiney insists, in the teeth of all texts, upon
changing over 'thy' and 'her', saying that 'facts and the
context force' the reversal. I am afraid that the genius of
seventeenth-century poetry did not care much for facts or
context at any time. But here no violence is done to either.
Nine men out of ten wishing to say 'to make out of the spoil
of herself an ornament for thee' would have probably put it in
the same way, especially if they wanted the rhyme 'spoil'.]
[Line: 10 'That _her rich work and_ labours' _1647_.]
[Line: 14 'I destined am' _1647_.]
_A Lady Weeping._
MONTALVAN.
As when some brook flies from itself away,
The murmuring crystal loosely runs astray;
And as about the verdant plain it winds,
The meadows with a silver riband binds,
Printing a kiss on every flower she meets,
Losing herself to fill them with new sweets,
To scatter frost upon the lily's head,
And scarlet on the gilliflower to spread;
So melting sorrow, in the fair disguise
Of humid stars, flow'd from bright Cloris' eyes, 10
Which wat'ring every flower her cheek discloses,
Melt into jasmines here, there into roses.
[_A Lady Weeping._] Few people, I think, will accept
Miss Guiney's suggestion of 'tears' for 'stars' in l. 10,
especially after 'humid'. The shooting star, which dissolved
on reaching earth into dew or 'jelly', is very common with
Carolines.]
_Ambition._
I must no longer now admire
The coldness which possess'd
Thy snowy breast,
That can by other flames be set on fire.
Poor Love, to harsh Disdain betray'd,
Is by Ambition thus out-weigh'd.
Hadst thou but known the vast extent
Of constant faith, how far
'Bove all that are
Born slaves to Wealth, or Honour's vain ascent; 10
No richer treasure couldst thou find
Than hearts with mutual chains combin'd.
But Love is too despis'd a name,
And must not hope to rise
Above these ties;
Honour and Wealth outshine his paler flame;
These unite souls, whilst true desire
Unpitied dies in its own fire.
Yet, cruel fair one, I did aim
With no less justice too, 20
Than those that sue
For other hopes, and thy proud fortunes claim.
Wealth honours, honours wealth approve,
But Beauty's only meant for Love.
[_Ambition._] ]
[Line: 16 Miss Guiney thinks that the singular 'Honour',
though in all texts, is obviously wrong. I should say that
the plural would be more obviously wronger. The mistake, of
course, comes from importing a modern distinction.]
_Song._
When, dearest beauty, thou shalt pay
Thy faith and my vain hope away
To some dull soul that cannot know
The worth of that thou dost bestow;
Lest with my sighs and tears I might
Disturb thy unconfin'd delight,
To some dark shade I will retire,
And there, forgot by all, expire.
Thus, whilst the difference thou shalt prove
Betwixt a feign'd and real love, 10
Whilst he, more happy, but less true,
Shall reap those joys I did pursue,
And with those pleasures crownéd be
By Fate, which Love design'd for me,
Then thou, perhaps, thyself wilt find
Cruel too long, or too soon kind.
[_Song._] Not one of Stanley's worst.]
_The Revenge._
RONSARD.
Fair Rebel to thyself and Time,
Who laugh'st at all my tears,
When thou hast lost thy youthful prime,
And Age his trophy rears,
Weighing thy inconsiderate pride
Thou shalt in vain accuse it,
Why beauty am I now denied,
Or knew not then to use it?
Then shall I wish, ungentle fair,
Thou in like flames mayst burn; 10
Venus, if just, will hear my prayer,
And I shall laugh my turn.
[_The Revenge._] Not one of his best, even as a
translation. The suspicion of _flatness_ which occurs too
often in him could not be more fatal than in connexion
with Ronsard's famous and beautiful sonnet. But Stanley has
handicapped himself almost inconceivably. He has thrown away
the half-sad, half-scornful burst of the opening 'Quand vous
serez bien vieille'--the vivid picture of the crone half
boasting, half regretting her love and her disdain, by the
flicker of fire and candle, to the listening handmaiden,
and the final touch as to the use of life. In fact I have
sometimes wondered whether he really meant this masterpiece.]
_Song._
I will not trust thy tempting graces,
Or thy deceitful charms;
Nor pris'ner be to thy embraces,
Or fetter'd in thy arms;
No, Celia, no, not all thy art
Can wound or captivate my heart.
I will not gaze upon thy eyes,
Or wanton with thy hair,
Lest those should burn me by surprise,
Or these my soul ensnare; 10
Nor with those smiling dangers play,
Or fool my liberty away.
Since then my wary heart is free,
And unconfin'd as thine,
If thou wouldst mine should captiv'd be,
Thou must thine own resign,
And gratitude may thus move more
Than Love or Beauty could before.
[_Song._] Another capital stanza-mould, especially
in 1. The next is even better.
This Song is also in _Select Airs and Dialogues, set by Mr.
Jeremy Savill_, _1659_.]
_Song._
No, I will sooner trust the wind,
When falsely kind
It courts the pregnant sails into a storm,
And when the smiling waves persuade,
Be willingly betray'd,
Than thy deceitful vows or form.
Go, and beguile some easy heart
With thy vain art;
Thy smiles and kisses on those fools bestow,
Who only see the calms that sleep 10
On this smooth flatt'ring deep,
But not the hidden dangers know.
They that like me thy falsehood prove,
Will scorn thy love.
Some may, deceiv'd at first, adore thy shrine;
But he that, as thy sacrifice,
Doth willingly fall twice,
Dies his own martyr, and not thine.
[_Song._]
[Line: 12 the] thy _1647_.]
_To a Blind Man in Love._
MARINO.
Lover, than Love more blind, whose bold thoughts dare
Fix on a woman is both young and fair!
If Argus, with a hundred eyes, not one
Could guard, hop'st thou to keep thine, who hast none?
[_To a Blind Man in Love._] 2 The ellipsis of 'who'
before 'is' is one of the few grammatical licences which are
really awkward in poetry. In _Oronta 1647_, where this poem
also appeared with two other translations from Marino, the
reading is 'woman that is young'; and in 7 'Senses too'.]
_Answer._
I'm blind, 'tis true, but, in Love's rules, defect
Of sense is aided by the intellect;
And senses by each other are supplied:
The touch enjoys what's to the sight denied.
_Song._
I Prithee let my heart alone,
Since now 'tis rais'd above thee,
Not all the beauty thou dost own,
Again can make me love thee:
He that was shipwreck'd once before
By such a Syren's call,
And yet neglects to shun that shore,
Deserves his second fall.
Each flatt'ring kiss, each tempting smile,
Thou dost in vain bestow, 10
Some other lovers might beguile,
Who not thy falsehood know.
But I am proof against all art.
No vows shall e'er persuade me
Twice to present a wounded heart
To her that hath betray'd me.
Could I again be brought to love
Thy form, though more divine,
I might thy scorn as justly move,
As now thou sufferest mine. 20
[_Song._] Pretty, and the double rhymes in stanzas 1
and 4 well brought off.]
[Line: 7 _1656_ '_the_ shore'.]
_The Loss._
Yet ere I go,
Disdainful Beauty, thou shall be
So wretched, as to know
What joys thou fling'st away with me.
A faith so bright,
As Time or Fortune could not rust;
So firm, that lovers might
Have read thy story in my dust,
And crown'd thy name
With laurel verdant as thy youth, 10
Whilst the shrill voice of Fame
Spread wide thy beauty and my truth.
This thou hast lost;
For all true lovers, when they find
That my just aims were crost,
Will speak thee lighter than the wind.
And none will lay
Any oblation on thy shrine,
But such as would betray
Thy faith, to faiths as false as thine. 20
Yet, if thou choose
On such thy freedom to bestow,
Affection may excuse,
For love from sympathy doth flow.
[_The Loss._] Still good. But I have once more to
demur to Miss Guiney's opinion that 'Thy' in l. 20, though
found in all texts, should 'almost certainly' be 'Their'.
In the first place, conjectural emendations in the teeth
of text-agreement are never to be made without absolute
necessity. In the second, the hackneyed observation about
the less obvious reading is never so true as of the Caroline
poets. In the third, this particular correction, if obvious
in one sense, is but specious in another, and '_Their_ faith'
will be found on examination to make less, not more, sense
than 'Thy'. The meaning is, 'Such faith as thou mightest
repose in them after being false to me', i.e. 'They would
leave thee for other light-o'-loves'.]
_The Self-Cruel._
Cast off, for shame, ungentle Maid,
That misbecoming joy thou wear'st;
For in my death, though long delay'd,
Unwisely cruel thou appear'st.
Insult o'er captives with disdain,
Thou canst not triumph o'er the slain.
No, I am now no longer thine,
Nor canst thou take delight to see
Him whom thy love did once confine,
Set, though by Death, at liberty; 10
For if my fall a smile beget,
Thou gloriest in thy own defeat.
Behold how thy unthrifty pride
Hath murder'd him that did maintain it!
And wary souls, who never tried
Thy tyrant beauty, will disdain it:
But I am softer, and that me
Thou wouldst not pity, pity thee.
[_The Self-Cruel._] Merely 'Song' in _1647_.
The observations in the preceding note apply to Miss Guiney's
supposition that 'that' in the penultimate line is a misprint
for 'though'. 'I pity thee _in_ (or 'for') that thou wouldst
not pity me.']
_Song._
BY M. W. M.
Wert thou yet fairer than thou art,
Which lies not in the power of Art;
Or hadst thou in thine eyes more darts
Than ever Cupid shot at hearts;
Yet if they were not thrown at me,
I would not cast a thought on thee,
I'd rather marry a disease,
Than court the thing I cannot please;
She that will cherish my desires,
Must meet my flames with equal fires. 10
What pleasure is there in a kiss
To him that doubts the heart's not his?
I love thee not because th' art fair,
Softer than down, smoother than air;
Nor for the Cupids that do lie
In either corner of thine eye:
Wouldst thou then know what it might be?
'Tis I love you, 'cause you love me.
[_Song._] In _1647_ the song itself is not given,
and the title of Stanley's piece is '_In Answer to a Song_,
Wert thou much fairer than thou art, &c.' I do not know
who Master W. M. was--possibly Walter Montagu, Abbé de
Saint-Martin, whom we have met once or twice in commendatory
poems, and who was of the Cavalier literary set.]
_Answer._
Wert thou by all affections sought,
And fairer than thou wouldst be thought;
Or had thine eyes as many darts
As thou believ'st they shoot at hearts;
Yet if thy love were paid to me,
I would not offer mine to thee.
I'd sooner court a fever's heat,
Than her that owns a flame as great;
She that my love will entertain,
Must meet it with no less disdain; 10
For mutual fires themselves destroy,
And willing kisses yield no joy.
I love thee not because alone
Thou canst all beauty call thine own
Nor doth my passion fuel seek
In thy bright eye or softer cheek:
Then, fairest, if thou wouldst know why
I love thee, 'cause thou canst deny.
_The Relapse._
Oh, turn away those cruel eyes,
The stars of my undoing!
Or Death, in such a bright disguise,
May tempt a second wooing.
Punish their blindly impious pride,
Who dare contemn thy glory;
It was my fall that deified
Thy name, and seal'd thy story.
Yet no new sufferings can prepare
A higher praise to crown thee; 10
Though my first Death proclaim thee fair,
My second will unthrone thee.
Lovers will doubt thou canst entice
No other for thy fuel,
And if thou burn one victim twice,
Both think thee poor and cruel.
[_The Relapse._] One of the author's best. Double
rhymes often brought him luck. It was reprinted in Lawes's
_Airs and Dialogues, the Second Book_, 1655, p. 7, with the
heading 'He would not be tempted'. In _1647_ called 'Song'
only. This edition also reads in l. 5 'blind and impious', and
in l. 7 'thy name' for 'my fall'. This last, which doubtless
is a slip, seems to occur in some copies of _1651_, but
Brydges prints it correctly.]
_To the Countess of S. with the Holy Court._
MADAM,
Since every place you bless, the name
This book assumes may justlier claim,
(What more a court than where you shine?
And where your soul, what more divine?)
You may, perhaps, doubt at first sight,
That it usurps upon your right;
And praising virtues, that belong
To you, in others, doth yours wrong;
No; 'tis yourself you read, in all
Perfections earlier ages call 10
Their own; all glories they e'er knew
Were but faint prophecies of you.
You then have here sole interest whom 'tis meant
As well to entertain, as represent.
[_To the Countess of S._] This lady has been
supposed, probably enough, to be Dorothy Sidney or Spencer,
Countess of Sunderland, and Waller's 'Sacharissa'. _The
Holy Court_ was a manual of devotion by the Jesuit Caussin,
translated into English as early as 1626.]
_Song._
DE VOITURE.
I languish in a silent flame;
For she, to whom my vows incline,
Doth own perfections so divine,
That but to speak were to disclose her name
If I should say that she the store
Of Nature's graces doth comprise,
The love and wonder of all eyes,
Who will not guess the beauty I adore?
Or though I warily conceal
The charms her looks and soul possess; 10
Should I her cruelty express,
And say she smiles at all the pains we feel;
Among such suppliants as implore
Pity, distributing her hate,
Inexorable as their fate,
Who will not guess the beauty I adore?
[_Song._] Stanley was less _impar congressus_ with
Voiture than with Ronsard, and this is well done. The stanza
is well framed and is different from the French ('Je me tais
et me sens brûler', Chanson LIV, _[Oe]uvres_ de Voiture, ed.
Ubicini, Paris, 1855, ii. 336).]
_Drawn for Valentine by the L. D. S._
Though 'gainst me Love and Destiny conspire,
Though I must waste in an unpitied fire,
By the same Deity, severe as fair,
Commanded adoration and despair;
Though I am mark'd for sacrifice, to tell
The growing age what dangerous glories dwell
In this bright dawn, who, when she spreads her rays,
Will challenge every heart, and every praise;
Yet she who to all hope forbids my claim,
By Fortune's taught indulgence to my flame. 10
Great Queen of Chance! unjustly we exclude
Thy power an interest in beatitude,
Who, with mysterious judgement, dost dispense
The bounties of unerring Providence,
Whilst we, to whom the causes are unknown,
Would style that blindness thine, which is our own;
As kind in justice to thyself as me,
Thou hast redeem'd thy name and votary;
Nor will I prize this less for being thine,
Nor longer at my destiny repine: 20
Counsel and choice are things below thy state;
Fortune relieves the cruelties of Fate.
_The Modest Wish._
BARCLAY.
Reach incense, boy! thou pious Flamen, pray!
To genial Deities these rites we pay.
Fly far from hence, such as are only taught
To fear the Gods by guilt of crime or thought!
This is my suit; grant it, Celestial Powers,
If what my will affects, oppose not yours.
First, pure before your altars may I stand,
And practise studiously what you command;
My parents' faith devoutly let me prize,
Nor what my ancestors esteem'd, despise; 10
Let me not vex'd inquire (when thriving ill
Depresseth good) why thunder is so still?
No such ambitious knowledge trouble me;
Those curious thoughts advance not Piety:
Peaceful my house, in wife and children bless'd,
Nor these beyond my fortunes be increas'd:
None cozen me with Friendship's specious gloss;
None dearly buy my friendship with their loss:
To suits nor wars my quiet be betray'd;
My quiet, to the Muses justly paid: 20
Want never force me court the rich with lies,
And intermix my suit with flatteries:
Let my sure friends deceive the tedious light,
And my sound sleeps, with debts not broke, the night:
Cheerful my board, my smiles shar'd by my wife,
O Gods! yet mindful still of human life,
To die nor let me wish nor fear; among
My joys mix griefs, griefs that not last too long:
My age be happy; and when Fate shall claim
My thread of life, let me survive in fame. 30
Enough: the gods are pleas'd; the flames aspire,
And crackling laurel triumphs in the fire.
_E Catalectis Vet[erum] Poet[arum]_
A small well-gotten stock and country seat
I have, yet my content makes both seem great.
My quiet soul to fears is not inur'd,
And from the sins of Idleness secur'd.
Others may seek the camp, others the town,
And fool themselves with pleasure or renown;
Let me, unminded in the common crowd,
Live master of the time that I'm allow'd.
_On the Edition of Mr. Fletcher's Works._
Fletcher (whose fame no age can ever waste;
Envy of ours, and glory of the last)
Is now alive again; and with his name
His sacred ashes wak'd into a flame;
Such as before did by a secret charm
The wildest heart subdue, the coldest warm,
And lend the ladies' eyes a power more bright,
Dispensing thus to either, heat and light.
He to a sympathy those souls betray'd,
Whom Love or Beauty never could persuade; 10
And in each mov'd spectator could beget
A real passion by a counterfeit:
When first Bellario bled, what lady there
Did not for every drop let fall a tear?
And when Aspasia wept, not any eye
But seem'd to wear the same sad livery.
By him inspir'd, the feign'd Lucina drew
More streams of melting sorrow than the true;
But then the Scornful Lady did beguile
Their easy griefs, and teach them all to smile. 20
Thus he affections could or raise or lay;
Love, Grief, and Mirth thus did his charms obey:
He Nature taught her passions to outdo,
How to refine the old, and create new;
Which such a happy likeness seem'd to bear,
As if that Nature Art, Art Nature were.
Yet all had nothing been, obscurely kept
In the same urn wherein his dust hath slept,
Nor had he ris' the Delphic wreath to claim,
Had not the dying scene expir'd his name. 30
Oh the indulgent justice of this age,
To grant the Press, what it denies the Stage!
Despair our joy hath doubled; he is come
Twice welcome by this _post-liminium_;
His loss preserv'd him; they that silenc'd wit
Are now the authors to eternize it:
Thus poets are in spite of Fate reviv'd,
And plays, by intermission, longer liv'd.
[_On [the Edition of Mr.] Fletcher's Works._] The
bracketed words omitted in _1647_, when, as the book itself
(the first folio of Beaumont and Fletcher) had just appeared,
they were unnecessary. The variants are slight: 'could' and
'did' in lines 5 and 11 are changed over; in l. 19, 'doth'
(again reflecting the immediate presentation). In l. 29
'rise': the form 'ris'' is recognized by Ben Jonson. In l. 30
Miss Guiney thinks 'not' 'clearly a misprint' for 'with'. But
this is clearly a misunderstanding of 'expir'd', which is used
with its proper transitive force as in Latin. 'Had not the
dying stage [the suppressed and decadent theatre of 1647]
expired [uttered with its passing breath] his name, the book
would not have been published [and so made him rise and claim
the crown].' ll. 31, 32 were omitted in the Beaumont and
Fletcher Folio, 1647.
It can hardly be necessary to annotate the well-known
characters of 'the twins' that Stanley introduces. Brydges,
by printing 'Scornful Lady' without capitals, unnecessarily
obscured one of them.]
_To Mr. W. Hammond._
Thou best of friendship, knowledge, and of art!
The charm of whose lov'd name preserves my heart
From female vanities (thy name, which there,
Till Time dissolves the fabric, I must wear),
Forgive a crime which long my soul opprest,
And crept by chance in my unwary breast,
So great, as for thy pardon were unfit,
And to forgive were worse than to commit,
But that the fault and pain were so much one,
The very act did expiate what was done. 10
I, who so often sported with the flame,
Play'd with the Boy, and laugh'd at both as tame,
Betray'd by Idleness and Beauty, fell
At last in love, love, both the sin and hell:
No punishment great as my fault esteem'd,
But to be that which I so long had seem'd.
Behold me such, a face, a voice, a lute,
The sentence in a minute execute!
I yield; recant; the faith which I before
Denied, profess; the power I scorn'd, implore. 20
Alas, in vain! no prayers, no vows can bow
Her stubborn heart, who neither will allow.
But see how strangely what was meant no less
Than torment, prov'd my greatest happiness:
Delay, that should have sharpen'd, starv'd Desire,
And Cruelty not fann'd, but quench'd my fire;
Love bound me: now by kind Disdain set free,
I can despise that Love as well as she.
That sin to friendship I away have thrown:
My heart thou mayst without a rival own, 30
While such as willingly themselves beguile,
And sell away their freedoms for a smile,
Blush to confess our joys as far above
Their hopes, as Friendship's longer liv'd than Love.
[_To Mr. W. Hammond._] In _1647_, as usually,
initials only. His relation (see Introduction) and the author
of the poems in vol. ii. As in some other cases, this poem
shows the _nisus_ of the more or less stopped couplet--the way
in which it was communicating energy to writers of the time
even when they mainly belong to the older division.]
[Line: 30 _1647_ 'Nor any flame, but what is thine, will
own'.]
_On Mr. Shirley's Poems._
When, dearest friend, thy verse doth re-inspire
Love's pale decaying torch with brighter fire,
Whilst everywhere thou dost dilate thy flame,
And to the world spread thy Odelia's name,
The justice of all ages must remit
To her the prize of Beauty, thee of Wit.
Then, like some skilful artist, that to wonder
Framing a piece, displeas'd, takes it asunder,
Thou Beauty dost depose, her charms deny,
And all the mystic chains of Love untie: 10
Thus thy diviner Muse a power 'bove Fate
May boast, that can both make and uncreate.
Next thou call'st back to life that love-sick boy,
To the kind-hearted nymphs less fair than coy,
Who, by reflex beams burnt with vain desire,
Did, Phoenix-like, in his own flames expire:
But should he view his shadow drawn by thee,
He with himself once more in love would be.
Echo (who though she words pursue, her haste
Can only overtake and stop the last) 20
Shall her first speech and human veil obtain
To sing thy softer numbers o'er again.
Thus, into dying poetry, thy Muse
Doth full perfection and new life infuse;
Each line deserves a laurel, and thy praise
Asks not a garland, but a grove of bays;
Nor can ours raise thy lasting trophies higher,
Who only reach at merit to admire.
But I must chide thee, friend: how canst thou be
A patron, yet a foe to poetry? 30
For while thou dost this age to verse restore,
Thou dost deprive the next of owning more;
And hast so far e'en future aims surpast,
That none dare write: thus being first and last,
All, their abortive Muses will suppress,
And poetry by this increase grow less.
[_On Mr. Shirley's Poems._] _1647_ initials (I. S.),
as usual. The same remark applies here as to the last piece.
Shirley's _Poems_ (which include a reciprocal compliment to
our author's) appear at the end of the sixth volume of Dyce's
standard edition of his plays, and therefore are not included
in this collection. They are, however, interesting, though
there is nothing in them so good as the famous 'Glories of our
blood and state'. 'Odelia' (a curious and rather suspicious
name) appears pretty frequently in them. Shirley was a friend
not merely of Stanley, but of Hammond and Prestwich (_v.
inf._) and others of the set. Some of the poems usually
attributed to Carew appear to be really his. His _Poems_ were
published in 1646, a year before Stanley's.--There are some
quite unimportant variants between _1647_ and _1651_: 'that'
and 'who' in l. 7; 'a' and 'some' in l. 8; 'words' and
'speech' in l. 19; and l. 30 has the absurd reading 'A patron,
yet a _friend_ to poesy'. _1647_ omits lines 31 and 32, and
reads
Thou hast so far all future times surpassed
in l. 33. Miss Guiney suggests 'voice' for 'veil' in l.
21. But 'veil' is far more poetical as = The _body_ of her
disguise and humiliation after her aerial enfranchisement.]
_On Mr. Sherburn's Translation of Seneca's Medea,
and Vindication of the Author._
That wise philosopher, who had design'd
To life the various passions of the mind,
Did wrong'd Medea's jealousy prefer
To entertain the Roman theatre;
Both to instruct the soul, and please the sight,
At once begetting horror and delight.
This cruelty thou dost once more express,
Though in a strange, no less becoming dress;
And her revenge hast robb'd of half its pride,
To see itself thus by itself outvied, 10
That boldest ages past may say, our times
Can speak, as well as act their highest crimes.
Nor was 't enough to do his scene this right,
But what thou gav'st to us, with equal light
Thou wouldst bestow on him, nor wert more just
Unto the author's work, than to his dust;
Thou dost make good his title, aid his claim,
Both vindicate his poem and his name,
So shar'st a double wreath; for all that we
Unto the poet owe, he owes to thee. 20
Though change of tongues stol'n praise to some afford,
Thy version hath not borrow'd, but restor'd.
[_On Mr. Sherburn's Translation, &c._] Title in
_1647_ rather longer, but with initials, 'To Mr. E. S. on his
Translation of Medea, with the other Tragedies of Seneca
the Philosopher and vindicating of their Author'. Sherburn
(afterwards Sir Edward) had the rather capriciously adjudged
honour of appearing in Chalmers's _Poets_, which accounts for
his absence here.]
[Line: 20 _1647_ reads 'author' for 'poet', an obvious
overlooking of the occurrence of the word just before.]
_On Mr. Hall's Essays._
Wits that matur'd by time have courted praise,
Shall see their works outdone in these Essays;
And blush to know, thy earlier years display
A dawning, clearer than their brightest day.
Yet I'll not praise thee, for thou hast outgrown
The reach of all men's praises, but thine own.
Encomiums to their objects are exact;
To praise, and not at full, is to detract.
And with most justice are the best forgot,
For praise is bounded when the theme is not: 10
Since mine is thus confin'd, and far below
Thy merit, I forbear it, nor will show
How poor the autumnal pride of some appears,
To the ripe fruit thy vernal season bears.
Yet though I mean no praise, I come t'invite
Thy forward aims still to advance their flight;
Rise higher yet, what though thy spreading wreath
Lessen to their dull sight who stay beneath?
To thy full learning how can all allow
Just praise, unless that all were learn'd as thou? 20
Go on in spite of such low souls, and may
Thy growing worth know age, though not decay,
Till thou pay back thy theft; and live to climb
As many years as thou hast snatch'd from Time.
[_On Mr. Hall's Essays._] _1647_ 'To Mr. I. H. on
his Essays'. These were the much-praised _Horae Vacivae_ (see
Introduction to Hall, vol. ii). Besides the slight difference
in general title the _1647_ version divides itself. The first
division consists of the first four lines only. A second, to
Mr. I. H., appears elsewhere, beginning:
_I'll not commend thee_, for thou hast outgrown--
and going on as above, except that 'full' is foisted up from
l. 8 to l. 7 ('full objects'), to the destruction of sense and
metre.]
[Line: 3 earlier] early _1647_.]
[Line: 13 'The pride of others' autumns poor appears' _1647_.]
_On S[ir] J[ohn] S[uckling], his Picture and Poems._
Suckling, whose numbers could invite
Alike to wonder and delight,
And with new spirit did inspire
The Thespian scene and Delphic lyre,
Is thus express'd in either part,
Above the humble reach of Art.
Drawn by the pencil, here you find
His form, by his own pen, his mind.
[_On Sir John Suckling, his Picture and Poems._]
Initials only in original titles. These poems were the
_Fragmenta Aurea_ of 1646.]
_The Union._
[Greek: Mia psychê duo sômata.]
BY MR. WILLIAM FAIRFAX.
As in the crystal centre of the sight,
Two subtle beams make but one cone of light,
Or when one flame twin'd with another is,
They both ascend in one bright pyramis;
Our spirits thus into each other flow,
One in our being, one in what we know,
In what we will, desire, dislike, approve,
In what we love, and one is that pure love,
As in a burning glass th' aërial flame,
With the producing ray, is still the same: 10
We to Love's purest quintessence refin'd,
Do both become one undefilèd mind.
This sacred fire into itself converts
Our yielding spirits, and our melting hearts,
Till both our souls into one spirit run,
So several lines are in their centre one.
And when thy fair idea is imprest
In the soft tablet of my easier breast,
The sweet reflection brings such sympathy,
That I my better self behold in thee; 20
And all perfections that in thee combine,
By this resultance are entirely mine;
Thy rays disperse my shades, who only live
Bright in the lustre thou art pleas'd to give.
[_The Union_]
]
[Line: 12 undefiled] undivided _1647_.]
[Line: 18 tablet] table _1647_.]
_Answer._
If we are one, dear friend! why shouldst thou be
At once unequal to thyself and me?
By thy release thou swell'st my debt the more,
And dost but rob thyself to make me poor.
What part can I have in thy luminous cone?
What flame, since my love's thine, can call my own?
The palest star is less the son of night,
Who, but thy borrow'd, know no native light:
Was 't not enough thou freely didst bestow
The Muse, but thou wouldst give the laurel too? 10
And twice my aims by thy assistance raise,
Conferring first the merit, then the praise?
But I should do thee greater injury,
Did I believe this praise were meant to me,
Or thought, though thou hast worth enough to spare,
T' enrich another soul, that mine should share.
Thy Muse, seeming to lend, calls home her fame,
And her due wreath doth in renouncing claim.
[_Answer._] In l. 10 of the 'Answer' _1647_ has
'must'. At the end of the poem in _1647_ is the couplet
[Greek: Dysmore thêlymanôn glyky mê lege kentron erôtôn;
Mounos TAS MOUSAS olbios esti THELÔN.]
]
_Pythagoras, his Moral Rules._
First to immortal God thy duty pay,
Observe thy vow, honour the saints: obey
Thy prince and rulers, nor their laws despise:
Thy parents reverence, and near allies:
Him that is first in virtue make thy friend;
And with observance his kind speech attend:
Nor, to thy power, for light faults cast him by;
Thy power is neighbour to necessity.
These know, and with intentive care pursue;
But Anger, Sloth, and Luxury subdue. 10
In sight of others, or thyself, forbear
What 's ill; but of thyself stand most in fear.
Let Justice all thy words and actions sway,
Nor from the even course of reason stray;
For know that all men are to die ordain'd,
And riches are as quickly lost as gain'd.
Crosses that happen by divine decree,
If such thy lot, bear not impatiently.
Yet seek to remedy with all thy care,
And think the just have not the greatest share. 20
'Mongst men discourses good and bad are spread,
Despise not those, nor be by these misled.
If any some notorious falsehood say,
Thou the report with equal judgement weigh.
Let not men's smoother promises invite,
Nor rougher threats from just resolves thee fright.
If ought thou wouldst attempt, first ponder it,
Fools only inconsiderate acts commit.
Nor do what afterward thou mayst repent,
First learn to know the thing on which th'art bent. 30
Thus thou a life shalt lead with joy replete.
Nor must thou care of outward health forget;
Such temperance use in exercise and diet,
As may preserve thee in a settled quiet.
Meats unprohibited, not curious, choose,
Decline what any other may accuse:
The rash expense of vanity detest,
And sordidness: a mean in all is best.
Hurt not thyself; act nought thou dost not weigh;
And every business of the following day 40
As soon as by the morn awak'd, dispose;
Nor suffer sleep at night thy eyes to close,
Till thrice that diary thou hast o'errun;
How slipt? what deeds, what duty left undone?
Thus thy account summ'd up from first to last,
Grieve for the ill, joy for what good hath past.
These, if thou study, practise, and affect,
To sacred Virtue will thy steps direct.
Nature's eternal fountain I attest,
Who did the soul with fourfold power invest. 50
Ere thou begin, pray well thy work may end,
Then shall thy knowledge to all things extend,
Divine and human; where enlarg'd, restrain'd;
How Nature is by general likeness chain'd.
Vain Hope nor Ignorance shall dim thy sight:
Then shalt thou see that hapless men invite
Their ills; to good, though present, deaf and blind;
And few the cure of their misfortunes find:
This only is the fate that harms, and rolls,
Through miseries successive, human souls. 60
Within is a continual hidden fight,
Which we to shun must study, not excite:
Good God! how little trouble should we know,
If thou to all men wouldst their genius show!
But fear not thou; men come of heav'nly race,
Taught by diviner Nature what t' embrace;
Which, if pursued, thou all I nam'd shalt gain,
And keep thy soul clear from thy body's stain:
In time of prayer and cleansing meats denied
Abstain from; thy mind's reins let reason guide: 70
Then rais'd to Heaven, thou from thy body free,
A deathless saint, no more shalt mortal be.
[_Pythagoras, his Moral Rules._] Stanley's three
vocations of poet, translator, and philosopher come well
together in this closing piece, and the prose commentary
completes the exposition in little.]
The common received opinion that _Pythagoras_ is not the author of
these verses, seems to be defended by _Chrysippus_ in _Agellius_,
_Plutarch_, _Laertius_, and _Iamblichus_, who affirm that the rules
and sense only were his, digested into verse by some of his scholars.
But it is not improbable that they did no more than collect the
verses, and so gave occasion to the mistake; for _Laertius_ confesseth
that _Pythagoras_ used to deliver his precepts to his disciples in
verse, one of which was
[Greek: Pê parebên? ti d' erexa? ti moi deon ouk etelesthê?]
_How slipt? what deeds, what duty left undone?_
Of this opinion I believe _Clemens Alexandrinus_, who cites one of
these lines under his name, and _Proclus_, when he calls him [Greek:
tôn chrysôn epôn patera], _the father of the golden verses_.
[_thy duty pay_]
[Greek: Nomô hôs diakeitai]; though _Hierocles_ in another sense read
[Greek: diakeintai].
[_thy vow_]
[Greek: Horkos]. _Hierocles_, [Greek: têrêsis tôn theiôn nomôn],
_observance of religious rules_.
[_honour the saints_]
[Greek: Hêrôas]. _Laertius_ on these words explains _souls whereof the
air is full. Hierocles, angels, the sons of God, &c._
[_Thy prince and rulers_]
[Greek: Katachthonious daimonas], _Hierocles_, [Greek: Tous epi gês
politeuesthai dynamenous]; _capable of government_.
[_nor their laws despise_]
[Greek: Ennoma rhezein]. _Hierocles_ [Greek: Peithesthai hois
apoleloipasin hêmin parangelmasi]; _to obey their commands_.
[_with observance_]
[Greek: Erga epôphelima], _that is_, [Greek: euergesia, therapeia]:
_yet, Hierocles otherwise_.
[_Thy power is neighbour to necessity_]
Whatsoever necessity can force thee to bear, it is in thy power to
bear voluntarily. If thy friend have wronged thee, how canst thou
say, thou art not able to endure his company, when imprisonment might
constrain thee to it? See _Hierocles_.
[_'Mongst men discourses good and bad are spread;_
_Despise not these,[1] nor be by those misled._]
So _Hierocles_; _Marcilius_ reads [Greek: ôn] (that is, [Greek: oun])
for [Greek: hôn] which best agrees with this sense.
[_what any other may accuse_]
[Greek: phthonon]. _Hierocles_ interprets [Greek: mempsin], _invidia_,
so taken sometimes by _Cicero_, _Marcell._
[_And every business of the following day
As soon as by the morn awak'd, dispose_]
These two lines I have inserted upon the authority of _Porphyrius_,
[Greek: Pro men oun tou hypnou tauta heautô ta epê epadein hekaston.
Mêd' hypnon malakoisin], &c.
[Greek: Pro de tês exanastaseôs ekeina:
Prôta men ex hypnoio meliphronos exypanistas
Eu mala poipneuein hos' en hêmati erga telessei].
_He advised every one before he slept to repeat these verses to himself,
Nor suffer sleep at night, &c.
And before he rose these,
And every business, &c._
How much this confirms _Pythagoras_ the author, and his scholars but
disposers of the verses (who, as it appears, forgot these two), is
evident enough. The main argument they insist upon, who labour to
prove the contrary, is derived from these words,
[_Nature's eternal fountain I attest,
Who did the soul with fourfold power invest_]
Where _Marcilius_ expounds [Greek: paradonta tetrakên][2] _illum a
quo scientiam_ [Greek: tetraktyos], _acceperant, is autem doctor eorum
Pythagoras_, as if it were
_Him who the Tetrad to our souls exprest,
(Nature's eternal fountain) I attest;_
And then takes pains to show that his scholars used to swear by him.
But [Greek: paradidonai psychê mathêtôn] for [Greek: didaskein] is
not without a little violence to [Greek: hametera psycha] (which makes
_Iamblic[h]us_ read [Greek: hameteras sophias]) _Marcilius_ in this
being the less excusable for confessing immediately, _Animae vero
nostrae dixerunt Pythagorei quoniam quaternarius animae numerus est_,
an explanation inconsistent with the other, but (as I conceive) truer;
_Macrobius_ expressly agreeth with it; _Iuro tibi per eum qui dat
animae nostrae quaternarium numerum_; or, as others,
_Per qui nostrae animae numerum dedit ipse quaternum._
_By him who gave us life--God._ In which sense, [Greek: pagan aennaou
physeôs] much more easily will follow [Greek: paradonta] than [Greek:
tetrakên]. The four powers of the soul are, _mens_, _scientia_,
_opinio_, _sensus_, which _Aristotle_ calls _the four instruments of
judgement_, _Hierocles_, [Greek: kritikas dynameis]. The _mind_ is
compared to a unit, in that of many singulars it makes one. _Science_
to the number _two_ (which amongst the Pythagoreans is _numerus
infinitatis_), because it proceeds from things certain and granted to
uncertain and infinite. _Opinion_ to _three_, a number of indefinite
variety. _Sense_ to _four_, as furnishing the other three. In this
exposition I am the more easily persuaded to dissent from _Plutarch_,
_Hierocles_, _Iamblichus_, and other interpreters, since they differ
no less amongst themselves.
[_Within is a continual hidden fight_]
Betwixt Reason and Appetite.
[_how little trouble_]
As _Marcilius_ reads, [Greek: Ê pollôn], &c.
[_their genius_]
[Greek: Hoiô daimoni], _Hierocles_ expounds [Greek: hoia psychê].
_Genius_ includes both.
[_what t' embrace_]
_Hierocles_ [Greek: panta ta deonta], _all that they ought to do._
[_from the[3] body's stain_]
_Hierocles from the infection of the body._
[_In times[3] of prayer_]
[Greek: En te lysei psychês], _Meditation_. See _Plato in Phaedone_.
[_and cleansing_]
Which extended (saith _Hierocles_) [Greek: heôs sitiôn kai potôn kai
tês holês diaitês tou thnêtou hêmôn sômatos] _to meat and drink_, &c.
[_meats denied_]
What they were is expressed by _Laertius_, _Suidas_, _Hierocles_,
_Agellius_, &c. _Hierocles_ affirms that in these words [Greek: hôn
eipomen], he cites his _sacred Apothegms_: [Greek: ta de epi merous
en tois hierois apophthegmasin, en aporrhêtô paredidoito], _Concerning
meat is particularly delivered in his holy Apothegms, that which was
not lawful to make known to every one._ Which is a great testimony
that _Pythagoras_, and not any of his disciples, writ these verses;
for if the author had cited him before in the third person (as they
argue from [Greek: paradonta tetrakên][4]), he would have cited him
now in the first.
[Footnote 1: 'These' and 'those' are originally 'crossed over'
in text and note.]
[Footnote 2: [Greek: tetrakên] should, as indeed the context
proclaims, be [Greek: tetraktyn].]
[Footnote 3: Slight alteration of text in notes again
original.]
[Footnote 4: See above. The mistake is an odd one because
the original oath is in hexameters and [Greek: tetraktyn] is
absolutely necessary as the last word.]
FINIS.
POEMS APPEARING ONLY IN THE EDITION OF 1656
On this swelling bank, once proud
Of its burden, Doris lay:
Here she smil'd, and did uncloud
Those bright suns eclipse the day;
Here we sat, and with kind art
She about me twin'd her arms,
Clasp'd in hers my hand and heart,
Fetter'd in those pleasing charms.
Here my love and joys she crown'd,
Whilst the hours stood still before me, 10
With a killing glance did wound,
And a melting kiss restore me.
On the down of either breast,
Whilst with joy my soul retir'd,
My reclining head did rest,
Till her lips new life inspir'd.
Thus, renewing of these sights
Doth with grief and pleasure fill me,
And the thought of these delights
Both at once revive and kill me! 20
Dear, fold me once more in thine arms!
And let me know
Before I go
There is no bliss but in those charms.
By thy fair self I swear
That here, and only here,
I would for ever, ever stay:
But cruel Fate calls me away.
How swiftly the light minutes slide!
The hours that haste 10
Away thus fast
By envious flight my stay do chide.
Yet, Dear, since I must go,
By this last kiss I vow,
By all that sweetness which dwells with thee,
Time shall move slow, till next I see thee.
The lazy hours move slow,
The minutes stay;
Old Time with leaden feet doth go,
And his light wings hath cast away.
The slow-pac'd spheres above
Have sure releas'd
Their guardians, and without help move,
Whilst that the very angels rest.
The number'd sands that slide
Through this small glass, 10
And into minutes Time divide,
Too slow each other do displace;
The tedious wheels of light
No faster chime,
Than that dull shade which waits on night:
For Expectation outruns Time.
How long, Lord, must I stay?
How long dwell here?
O free me from this loathèd clay!
Let me no more these fetters wear! 20
With far more joy
Shall I resign my breath,
For, to my griev'd soul, not to die
Is every minute a new death.
[The three pieces which appear in _1656_ only have
no great character, and were very likely written for Gamble
_to_ tunes--seldom a very satisfactory process.]
* * *
* * * * *
POEMS,
ELEGIES,
PARADOXES,
and
SONNETS.
_LONDON_.
Printed by _J. G._ for _Rich: Marriot_
and _Hen: Herringman_, and sold in
St. _Dunstans_ Churchyard _Fleet-street_,
and at the _New-Exchange_.
1657.
INTRODUCTION TO HENRY KING.
Among the numerous possible extensions of that practice of writing
_Dialogues of the Dead_ which has been, at various times, rather
unusually justified of its practitioners, not the least tempting would
be one which should embody the expectations and the disappointment of
the pious Bishop who held the see of Chichester in Fuller's Bad and
Better Times--long afterwards, between 1843 and 1888. In the former
year, as most students of English poetry know, the late Archdeacon
Hannah, then a young Fellow of Lincoln College, published a most
admirable edition of part of King's _Poems_; and announced that the
rest must be left for a separate volume 'which will be published
without delay'. He lived forty-five years longer, and 'the rest'
was by no means an extensive one; but, whatever may have been the
reason,[1] the second volume never appeared, while, to complete the
misfortune, King's one famous thing, the beautiful
Tell me no more how fair she is--
is not in the first. Nor has any one since attempted to supply the
deficiency,[2] though that benefactor of the lovers of Caroline
poetry, Mr. J. R. Tutin, included a fifteen-page selection of King's
poems, with Donne and Walton, in one of his 'Orinda Booklets'
(Hull, 1904) some little time after the plan of this collection was
announced, and when its first volume was passing through the press.
There must have been many readers who, like the present writer long
enough ago, have felt a sensation of mingled amazement and chagrin on
buying Dr. Hannah's book and _not_ finding 'Tell me no more' in it.
For that poem, though in certain 'strange and high' qualities it is
the inferior of the best jets of the Caroline genius, is one of the
most faultless and perfect things in this or indeed in any period of
English poetry, and may be said to impart the Caroline essence in a
form that can be (in the medical sense) 'borne' by all who have any
feeling for poetry at all, as hardly anything else does. It enlists,
with unerring art, the peculiar virtue of the metre--that of
expressing settled but not violent hopelessness--which Cowper
afterwards utilized, more terribly but hardly more skilfully, in
'The Castaway'. It has the 'metaphysical' fancifulness of thought and
diction, tempered to a reasonable but not an excessive degree 'below
proof' and so fit for general consumption. No one who possesses
literary 'curiosity'--in the good old sense, not the degenerate modern
one--can be indifferent to seeing what else the author of this could
do.
It may be frankly and at once admitted that he has nothing exactly to
match it. The once even more famous--and still perhaps not much less
famous--_Sic Vita_, is not certainly his; and, though a fine thing,
is very distinctly open to the metaphysical reproach of _playing
with_ its subject too much--of that almost wilfully mechanical and
factory-like conceit-mongering which reaches its extreme in Cleveland.
If it is King's, 'The Dirge' is a sort of extended handling of
it--less epigrammatic but more poetical, and brought down again to
that _via media_ of metaphysicality which is King's special path. He
is, in fact, a sort of Longfellow of this particular style and school
of poetry--from the other side; a sort of Donne _in usum vulgi_. 'The
Exequy' and 'The Elegy', 'Silence' and 'Brave Flowers', are all in
this middle way; and perhaps his treading of it may be a reason why he
has been comparatively neglected--the great vulgar not being grateful
for poetry which never can fully please it, and the small wanting
something more concentrated and '_above_ proof'. But even if he had
not lacked complete presentment so long, such a collection as this
would be manifestly incomplete without him. It has not, however, been
thought necessary to include his verse translations of the Psalms,
which form a separate volume, not much more successful than most of
the attempts at that impossible task. With the admirable English
of the Authorized or the Prayer-Book Versions at choice, and the
admirable Latin of the Vulgate to fall back upon, nobody can want
stuff like
Earth is the Lord's with her increase,
And all that there have place:
He founded it upon the Seas,
And made the floods her base.[3]
Henry King's private and public history (for he had more to do with
public affairs than can have been at all comfortable to himself)
had no very obvious connexion with poetry, except in so far as
circumstances fed what was clearly a special taste of his for elegiac
writing. He was born in 1592 at Worminghall in Bucks., for some time
the abode of a family which, whether its tracing to 'the ancient Kings
[by function, not name merely] of Devonshire' was fiction or fact,
was, and had been for generations, highly respectable. The Kings
had recently addicted themselves very specially to education at
Westminster and Christ Church (there are said to have been five of the
same family on the books of the House at one time) and to the
clerical profession. The poet-bishop was the eldest son of John
King, Prebendary of St. Paul's and Chaplain to the Queen, himself a
verse-writer, and after having been Dean of Christ Church, Bishop of
London from 1611 to 1621. The son--if not without some nepotism yet
with results which fully justified it--became himself Prebendary of
St. Paul's (as did a brother, who was still younger, in the same
year) when he was only four-and-twenty; and successively received the
archdeaconry of Colchester (1617); a canonry at Christ Church (1624);
and the deanery of Rochester (1639). He had then the good and evil
luck to be one of the large batch of Bishops made or translated by
Charles on the very eve of the Rebellion. He never sat in the House of
Lords before its suppression; and he had taken possession of his see
but a short time when he was rabbled out of his palace at Chichester
and plundered of his property, contrary to the terms of surrender
of the City, by Waller's soldiers. He was also ousted from the rich
living of Petworth, usually held _in commendam_ with the (poor)
bishopric of Chichester, by that particularly pestilent Puritan,
Francis Cheynell. He seems to have passed great part of the
Interregnum with the Salters of Richkings, near Langley in Bucks.
(a house well famed for hospitality at different times and under
different owners and names[4]), and at the Restoration he recovered
his preferments, Edmund Calamy _tertius_ having the extraordinary
impudence to state that Cheynell was 'put out to make room for King'.
And he held them for nearly a decade longer, dying in 1669. He left
children and also grandchildren, one of whom, Elizabeth, seems to have
married Isaac Houblon, Pepys's 'handsome man'.
Despite King's persecutions by the Puritans he was accused of a
leaning to Puritanism, as his father had been before him,[5] but
seemingly without much foundation. He appears to have been a sound
Churchman, and a very good man in every way, though with a slight
tendency (not to be too harshly judged by those who have lived in
quieter times) to 'grizzle', as it is familiarly called, over his
tribulations. He was also what was termed at the time 'a painful
preacher' and a popular one. Pepys, it is true, did not like him when
he first heard him, and afterwards thought a sermon of his 'mean'.
But between these two he describes a third as 'good and eloquent'; and
Samuel's judgements on such matters, always unliterary, were also much
conditioned by circumstances, and by the curious remnant of Puritan
leaven which always remained in that very far from pure lump.
King's poems must, from various signs, have been much handed about in
manuscript; but how they came to be collected and published in 1657
is quite unknown. They were at first attributed by some to his brother
Philip; and a reprint, or perhaps merely the remainder with a fresh
title-page, in 1700 actually attributed them to Ben Jonson, which
was going far even in a period which had seen Kirkman and was to see
Curll.[6] One or two pieces besides _Sic Vita_ are doubtful, and one
or two more certainly not his; but on the whole the collection seems
to be fairly trustworthy, from Dr. Hannah's comparison of it with MS.
copies. And it rarely offers _cruces_ of interpretation.
As to the origin and general character of the pieces there is nothing
surprising about it either. King belonged to a time when, fortunately,
churchmanship, scholarship, and literature were almost inseparably
connected; and by accident or preference he seems, all his life, to
have been thrown or drawn into the society of men of letters. He was
a friend if not a 'son' of Ben Jonson; he was an intimate of Donne's,
and one of the recipients of the famous blood-stone seals; he was
for more than forty years (as he has himself recorded in a letter to
Walton) a friend of 'honest Isaac' [_sic_]. And if his middle days
were politically unhappy, they, and still more his earlier, were
poetically fortunate. How, and in what degree, he caught the wind
as it blew has been partly indicated above: the text should show the
rest.[7]
[Footnote 1: I have suggested below that some slight scruples
of pudibundity may have had their influence; but if they had
been serious the Archdeacon would hardly have promised this
rest.]
[Footnote 2: Until quite recently, and after this present
edition had been long printed, one appeared in America (Yale
University Press, 1914) by Lawrence Mason, Ph.D.]
[Footnote 3: I think this will justify the critic (whoever
he was) whose sentence--'quaint mediocrity and inappropriate
metre'--offended Hannah's editorial chivalry as 'very
unjust'. Indeed, I should make it stronger and say 'irritating
inadequacy alike in metre and phrase'.]
[Footnote 4: Especially that of Percy Lodge in the eighteenth
century, when it was the Dowager Duchess of Somerset's: see
Shenstone, Lady Luxborough, and Southey's _Doctor_, chaps. 107
and 108. Between the times it had belonged to Bathurst, and
was then also a home of men of letters.]
[Footnote 5: With the complementary and not unusual libel that
he died a Romanist.]
[Footnote 6: Between the two dates there had been a fresh
_issue_ in 1664, with four new elegies. But it has been
doubted whether even this was a new _edition_.]
[Footnote 7: The text of the following poems will be found, as
far as Hannah's edition goes, to differ not greatly from his;
but it has been collated with the originals in print and MS.
by myself and, more carefully still, by Mr. Percy Simpson. The
remaining poems (including the fourth or 'King Charles' Elegy
added in 1664, which Hannah did not give) are adapted in
the same way from direct photographic copies of the
originals--collated where necessary. The variants of _Sic
Vita_ which the Archdeacon collected are of such interest and
so characteristic of seventeenth-century poetry that it seemed
desirable to reproduce them.
It may perhaps be added that the 1657 text is very carefully
and well printed, requiring so little modernization
as practically to justify the standard adopted in this
collection. To modernize Chaucer or Chatterton has always
seemed to me, though from slightly different points of view, a
grievous error or worse. But to show how close, when scholarly
writing met careful printing, the result even before the
Restoration was to what it would have been to-day, I have
printed the opening poem exactly as it originally stood,
and have drawn attention in a note to the fewness of the
differences. Because other typographers, not deacons in their
craft, and confronted perhaps with copy as bad as, say,
mine, _plus_ the eccentric _ethelorthography_ of the period,
lavished italics and capitals and superfluous _e_'s, and
strappadoed the spelling, I cannot see why the eyes of a
present-day reader should be unnecessarily vexed.--Hannah's
edition, as far as it goes, can hardly be too well spoken
of by any one who does not think that, in order to magnify
himself, it is necessary to belittle his predecessors. One
cannot but regret that he did not (as he might most easily
have done, even in the single volume) complete his work. As it
is, I am deeply indebted to him. I have, however, restored
the order of the original, which he altered partly to get
chronological sequence in the Elegies, &c., and partly to
make subject-heads for his groups--a proceeding which to me is
rarely satisfactory. But I have borrowed his useful datings of
the individual pieces under their titles.]
Table of Contents.
Page
1. Sonnet. The Double Rock 169
2. The Vow-Breaker 169
3. Upon a Table-Book presented to a Lady 170
4. To the same Lady upon Mr. Burton's _Melancholy_ 170
5. The Farewell 170
6. A Blackmoor Maid wooing a fair Boy:
sent to the Author by Mr. Hen. Rainolds 171
7. The Boy's Answer to the Blackmoor 171
8. To a Friend upon Overbury's Wife given to her 172
9. Upon the same 172
10. To A. R. upon the same 172
11. An Epitaph on Niobe turned to Stone 172
12. Upon a Braid of Hair in a Heart sent by Mrs. E. H. 173
13. Sonnet. 'Tell me no more how fair she is' 173
14. Sonnet. 'Were thy heart soft as thou art fair' 174
15. Sonnet. 'Go, thou that vainly' 174
16. Sonnet. To Patience 174
17. Silence. A Sonnet 175
18. Love's Harvest 175
19. The Forlorn Hope 176
20. The Retreat 176
21. Sonnet. 'Tell me, you stars' 177
22. Sonnet. 'I prithee turn that face away' 177
23. Sonnet. 'Dry those fair', &c. 177
24. Sonnet. 'When I entreat', &c. 178
25. To a Lady who sent me a copy of verses at my going
to bed 178
26. [The Pink. Omitted: not King's.]
27. To his Friends of Christ Church, &c. 179
28. The Surrender 180
29. The Legacy 181
30. The Short Wooing 182
31. St. Valentine's Day 183
32. To his unconstant Friend 184
33. Madam Gabrina, Or the Ill-favour'd Choice 185
34. The Defence 187
35. To One demanding why Wine sparkles 188
36. By occasion of the Young Prince his happy Birth 188
37. Upon the King's happy return from Scotland 190
38. To the Queen at Oxford 192
39. A Salutation of His Majesty's ship the _Sovereign_ 193
40. An Epitaph on his most honoured friend, Richard,
Earl of Dorset 194
41. The Exequy 195
42. The Anniverse. An Elegy 198
43. On Two Children, &c. 198
44. A Letter 199
45. An Acknowledgement 201
46. The Acquittance 202
47. The Forfeiture 202
48. The Departure. An Elegy 203
49. Paradox. That it is best for a young Maid to marry
an Old Man 204
50. Paradox. That Fruition destroys Love 206
51. The Change 209
52. To my sister Anne King, &c. 210
53. An Elegy upon the immature loss of the most virtuous
Lady Anne Rich 210
54. An Elegy upon Mrs. Kirk, unfortunately drowned
in Thames 212
55. An Elegy upon the death of Mr. Edward Holt 213
56. To my dead friend Ben Jonson 214
57. An Elegy upon Prince Henry's death 216
58. An Elegy upon S. W. R. 217
59. An Elegy upon the Lord Bishop of London, John King 217
60. Upon the death of my ever desired friend,
Doctor Donne, Dean of Paul's 218
61. An Elegy upon the most victorious King of Sweden,
Gustavus Adolphus 220
62. To my noble and judicious friend Sir Henry Blount
upon his Voyage 223
63. To my honoured friend Mr. George Sandys 226
64. The Woes of Esay 230
65. An Essay on Death and a Prison 232
66. The Labyrinth 234
67. Being waked out of my sleep 235
68. Sic Vita 236
69. My Midnight Meditation 238
70. A Penitential Hymn 238
71. An Elegy occasioned by Sickness 239
72. The Dirge 241
73. An Elegy occasioned by the loss of the most
incomparable Lady Stanhope, &c. 242
POEMS NOT INCLUDED IN THE EDITION OF 1657 BUT IN THAT OF 1664:
74. An Elegy upon my best friend, L. K. C. 244
75. On the Earl of Essex 245
76. An Elegy on Sir Charles Lucas and Sir George Lisle 246
77. An Elegy upon the most incomparable King
Charles the First 255
POEMS IN MANUSCRIPT:
78. A Second Elegy on the Countess of Leinster 267
79. Epigram. From Petronius Arbiter, c. 14 267
80. Epigram. From Martial, i. 14 268
81. Epigram. From Petronius Arbiter, c. 83 268
82. Epigram. From Petronius Arbiter 268
83. Epigram. _Pro captu_, &c. 268
84. Upon the Untimely Death of J. K., first born of H. K. 269
85. The Complaint 269
86. On his Shadow 270
87. Wishes to my Son, John 272
88. A Contemplation upon Flowers 273
The Publishers to the Author.
SIR,
It is the common fashion to make some address to the Readers, but we
are bold to direct ours to you, who will look on this publication with
anger, which others must welcome into the world with joy.
The Lord Verulam comparing ingenious authors to those who had orchards
ill neighboured, advised them to publish their own labours, lest
others might steal the fruit: Had you followed his example, or liked
the advice, we had not thus trespassed against your consent, or been
forced to an apology, which cannot but imply a fault committed. The
best we can say for ourselves is, that if we have injured you, it is
merely in your own defence, preventing the present attempts of others,
who to their theft would (by their false copies of these Poems) have
added violence, and some way have wounded your reputation.
Having been long engaged on better contemplations, you may, perhaps,
look down on these _Juvenilia_ (most of them the issues of your
youthful Muse) with some disdain; and yet the courteous reader may
tell you with thanks, that they are not to be despised, being far
from abortive, nor to be disowned, because they are both modest and
legitimate. And thus if we have offered you a view of your younger
face, our hope is you will behold it with an unwrinkled brow, though
we have presented the mirror against your will.
We confess our design hath been set forward by friends that honour
you, who, lest the ill publishing might disfigure these things from
whence you never expected addition to your credit (sundry times
endeavoured and by them defeated) furnished us with some papers
which they thought authentic; we may not turn their favour into an
accusation, and therefore give no intimation of their names, but
wholly take the blame of this hasty and immethodical impression upon
ourselves, being persons at a distance, who are fitter to bear it than
those who are nearer related. In hope of your pardon we remain,
Your most devoted servants,
RICH. MARRIOT.
HEN. HERRINGMAN.
POEMS
Printed in 1657.
_Sonnet. The Double Rock._
Since thou hast view'd some Gorgon, and art grown
A solid stone:
To bring again to softness thy hard heart
Is past my art.
Ice may relent to water in a thaw;
But stone made flesh Loves Chymistry ne're saw.
Therefore by thinking on thy hardness, I
Will petrify;
And so within our double Quarryes Wombe,
Dig our Loves Tombe. 10
Thus strangely will our difference agree;
And, with our selves, amaze the world, to see
How both Revenge and Sympathy consent
To make two Rocks each others Monument.
[_The Double Rock._] In this very typical
metaphysicality of a good _second_ water (see note on
Introduction), it will be observed that there is nothing
archaic or irregular in the spelling except the usual
'ne'_re_' for 'ne'_er_', the insertion of the three
superfluous _e_'s in lines 9, 10, and at most two or three
gratuitous capitals with, if anybody pleases, the omission
of the apostrophe for the possessive in ll. 6, 9, 10, and
14. 'Chymistry' I should have kept, of course, even if I had
altered these others.]
_The Vow-Breaker._
When first the magic of thine eye,
Usurp'd upon my liberty,
Triumphing in my heart's spoil, thou
Didst lock up thine in such a vow;
_When I prove false, may the bright day_
_Be governed by the Moon's pale ray!_
(As I too well remember.) This
Thou said'st, and seal'dst it with a kiss.
O Heavens! and could so soon that tie
Relent in slack apostacy? 10
Could all thy oaths, and mortgag'd trust,
Vanish? like letters form'd in dust
Which the next wind scatters. Take heed,
Take heed, Revolter; know this deed
Hath wrong'd the world, which will fare worse
By thy example than thy curse.
Hide that false brow in mists. Thy shame
Ne'er see light more, but the dim flame
Of funeral lamps. Thus sit and moan,
And learn to keep thy guilt at home. 20
Give it no vent; for if again
Thy Love or Vows betray more men,
At length (I fear) thy perjur'd breath
Will blow out day, and waken Death.
[Line: 9 Orig. 'Ty', no doubt on the Spenserian principle of
eye-rhyme. This and some others of the shorter poems which
follow have been found by Mr. Thorn-Drury in miscellanies of
the period, not merely well-known ones like _Wits'
Recreations_ (1641), but more obscure collections such as
_Parnassus Biceps_, 1651, and _Wits' Interpreter_, 1655. The
usual variants occur; but they are seldom, if ever, _me
judice_ of interest. One or two I have borrowed with
acknowledgement.]
_Upon a Table-Book presented to a Lady._
When your fair hand receives this little book
You must not there for prose or verses look.
Those empty regions which within you see,
May by yourself planted and peopled be:
And though we scarce allow your sex to prove
Writers (unless the argument be Love);
Yet without crime or envy you have room
Here, both the scribe and author to become.
[_Upon a Table-Book, &c._] The title in one of
Hannah's MS. copies has '_Noble_ Lady'. The person addressed
does not seem to have been identified.]
_To the same Lady upon Mr. Burton's Melancholy._
If in this Glass of Humours you do find
The passions or diseases of your mind,
Here without pain, you safely may endure,
Though not to suffer, yet to read your cure.
But if you nothing meet you can apply,
Then, ere you need, you have a remedy.
And I do wish you never may have cause
To be adjudg'd by these fantastic laws;
But that this book's example may be known,
By others' Melancholy, not your own. 10
[Line: 6 _MS._ '_before_ you need'--perhaps better. The lady
to whom the _Anatomy_ was likely to be congenial must have
been worth knowing.]
_The Farewell._
_Splendidis longùm valedico nugis._
Farewell, fond Love, under whose childish whip,
I have serv'd out a weary prenti'ship;
Thou that hast made me thy scorn'd property,
To doat on rocks, but yielding loves to fly:
Go, bane of my dear quiet and content,
Now practise on some other patient.
Farewell, false Hope, that fann'd my warm desire
Till it had rais'd a wild unruly fire,
Which nor sighs cool, nor tears extinguish can,
Although my eyes out-flow'd the Ocean: 10
Forth of my thoughts for ever, Thing of Air,
Begun in error, finish'd in despair.
Farewell, vain World, upon whose restless stage
'Twixt Love and Hope I have fool'd out my age;
Henceforth, ere sue to thee for my redress,
I'll woo the wind, or court the wilderness;
And buried from the day's discovery,
Study a slow yet certain way to die.
My woful monument shall be a cell,
The murmur of the purling brook my knell; 20
My lasting epitaph the rock shall groan:
Thus when sad lovers ask the weeping stone,
What wretched thing does in that centre lie?
The hollow Echo will reply, 'twas I.
[_The Farewell._] The following are the variants of
Malone MS. 22:
Lines: 4-6
To doat on those that lov'd not and to fly
Love that woo'd me. Go, bane of my content,
And practise ...
]
[Line: 21
And for an epitaph the rock shall groan
Eternally: if any ask the stone.
]
[Line: 23 centre] compass.]
_A Blackmoor Maid wooing a fair Boy: sent to the Author by
Mr. Hen. Rainolds._
Stay, lovely boy, why fly'st thou me
That languish in these flames for thee?
I'm black, 'tis true: why so is Night,
And Love doth in dark shades delight.
The whole world, do but close thine eye,
Will seem to thee as black as I;
Or ope 't, and see what a black shade
Is by thine own fair body made,
That follows thee where'er thou go;
(O who, allow'd, would not do so?) 10
Let me for ever dwell so nigh,
And thou shall need no other shade than I.
_Mr. Hen. Rainolds._
_The Boy's Answer to the Blackmoor._
Black maid, complain not that I fly,
When Fate commands antipathy:
Prodigious might that union prove,
Where Night and Day together move,
And the conjunction of our lips
Not kisses make, but an eclipse;
In which the mixed black and white
Portends more terror than delight.
Yet if my shadow thou wilt be,
Enjoy thy dearest wish: but see 10
Thou take my shadow's property,
That hastes away when I come nigh:
Else stay till death hath blinded me,
And then I will bequeath myself to thee.
[_A Blackmoor Maid_, and _Answer._] I do not know
whether the exact connexion between these two poems and
Cleveland's 'Fair Nymph scorning a Black Boy' (_v. sup._, p.
42) has ever been discussed. But if 'Mr. Hen. Rainolds' is
Drayton's friend, the verses printed above must have the
priority, for nothing seems to be known of him after 1632.
In Rawlinson MS. 1092, fol. 271, there are curious versions
of these poems (the first is ascribed to William Strode),
inverting the parts 'A black boy in love with a fair maid',
and 'The fair maid's answer'.]
_To a Friend upon Overbury's Wife given to her._
I know no fitter subject for your view
Than this, a meditation ripe for you,
As you for it. Which, when you read, you'll see
What kind of wife yourself will one day be:
Which happy day be near you, and may this
Remain with you as earnest of my wish;
When you so far love any, that you dare
Venture your whole affection on his care,
May he for whom you change your virgin-life
Prove good to you, and perfect as this Wife. 10
[_To a Friend upon Overbury's Wife, &c._] King
seems to have been fond of giving this popular production as
a present, for the first of the three poems is certainly
not addressed to the recipient of the others, and it seems
probable that 2 and 3 are also independent. Hannah, without
giving any reason, save the initials, suggests that 'A. R.'
was Lady Anne Rich (_v. inf._).]
_Upon the same._
Madam, who understands you well would swear,
That you the Life, and this your Copy were.
_To A. R. upon the same._
Not that I would instruct or tutor you
What is a wife's behest, or husband's due,
Give I this Widow-Wife. Your early date
Of knowledge makes such precepts slow and late.
This book is but your glass, where you shall see
What yourself are, what other wives should be.
[_To A. R._]
[Line: 3 Widow-] Overbury himself being dead.]
_An Epitaph on Niobe turned to Stone._
This pile thou seest built out of flesh, not stone,
Contains no shroud within, nor mould'ring bone.
This bloodless trunk is destitute of tomb
Which may the soul-fled mansion enwomb.
This seeming sepulchre (to tell the troth)
Is neither tomb nor body, and yet both.
_Upon a Braid of Hair in a Heart sent by Mrs. E. H._
In this small character is sent
My Love's eternal monument.
Whilst we shall live, know this chain'd heart
Is our affection's counterpart.
And if we never meet, think I
Bequeath'd it as my legacy.
[_Upon a Braid of Hair, &c._] There is something
rather out of the common way about this little piece. King
married early and his wife died after a few years. How he
loved her _The Exequy_ and _The Anniverse_ will tell in a few
pages. But her initials were A. B. (Anne Berkeley) not E.
H. On the other hand, his sister _E_lizabeth married Edward
_H_olt, groom of the bedchamber to Charles I, who died in
attendance on his master (see Elegy on him, _inf._). The
verses might be fraternal, and are certainly sincere.]
_Sonnet._
Tell me no more how fair she is,
I have no mind to hear
The story of that distant bliss
I never shall come near:
By sad experience I have found
That her perfection is my wound.
And tell me not how fond I am
To tempt a daring Fate,
From whence no triumph ever came,
But to repent too late: 10
There is some hope ere long I may
In silence dote myself away.
I ask no pity, Love, from thee,
Nor will thy justice blame,
So that thou wilt not envy me
The glory of my flame:
Which crowns my heart whene'er it dies,
In that it falls her sacrifice.
[_Tell me no more, &c._] The heading of this famous
thing as 'Sonnet' has, of course, nothing surprising in it: in
fact, the successive attachment of the title to five poems in
a batch here and to four more a little lower down--no one
of which is a quatorzain, and hardly two of which agree in
form--is a capital example of the looseness with which that
title was used. MS. copies appear to have 'Sonnet' with _no_
particular addition in some cases.
On 'Tell me no more' itself see Introduction. The last two
lines are, as they should be, the finest part--with the
fullness of contrasted vowel-sound in 'crowns', 'heart',
'e'er', and 'dies', and the emphasis of 'her'.]
_Sonnet._
Were thy heart soft as thou art fair,
Thou wer't a wonder past compare:
But frozen Love and fierce disdain
By their extremes thy graces stain.
Cold coyness quenches the still fires
Which glow in lovers' warm desires;
And scorn, like the quick lightning's blaze,
Darts death against affections gaze.
O Heavens, what prodigy is this
When Love in Beauty buried is! 10
Or that dead pity thus should be
Tomb'd in a living cruelty.
[_Were thy heart, &c._] This is not much inferior
except as concerns the metre.]
_Sonnet._
Go, thou that vainly dost mine eyes invite
To taste the softer comforts of the night,
And bid'st me cool the fever of my brain
In those sweet balmy dews which slumber pain;
Enjoy thine own peace in untroubled sleep,
Whilst my sad thoughts eternal vigils keep.
O couldst thou for a time change breasts with me,
Thou in that broken glass shouldst plainly see
A heart which wastes in the slow smoth'ring fire
Blown by Despair, and fed by false Desire, 10
Can only reap such sleeps as sea-men have,
When fierce winds rock them on the foaming wave.
[_Go, thou that, &c._] What made the excellent
Archdeacon-to-be select this in preference to 'Tell me no
more' as a specimen of King's presumed 'juvenile productions'
it is difficult to discover. But
Blown by Despair, and fed by false Desire
is certainly a fine line.]
_Sonnet. To Patience._
Down, stormy passions, down; no more
Let your rude waves invade the shore
Where blushing reason sits, and hides
Her from the fury of your tides.
Fit only 'tis, where you bear sway,
That fools or frantics do obey;
Since judgement, if it not resists,
Will lose itself in your blind mists.
Fall easy, Patience, fall like rest
Whose soft spells charm a troubled breast: 10
And where those rebels you espy,
O in your silken cordage tie
Their malice up! so shall I raise
Altars to thank your power, and praise
The sovereign vertue of your balm,
Which cures a tempest by a calm.
[_To Patience._] So also he gave this very
commonplace 'production' and the next, which is a little
better.]
_Silence. A Sonnet._
Peace, my heart's blab, be ever dumb,
Sorrows speak loud without a tongue:
And, my perplexed thoughts, forbear
To breathe yourselves in any ear:
'Tis scarce a true or manly grief,
Which gads abroad to find relief.
Was ever stomach that lack'd meat
Nourish'd by what another eat?
Can I bestow it, or will woe
Forsake me, when I bid it go? 10
Then I'll believe a wounded breast
May heal by shrift, and purchase rest.
But if, imparting it, I do
Not ease myself, but trouble two,
'Tis better I alone possess
My treasure of unhappiness:
Engrossing that which is my own
No longer than it is unknown.
If silence be a kind of death,
He kindles grief who gives it breath; 20
But let it rak'd in embers lie,
On thine own hearth 'twill quickly die:
And spite of fate, that very womb
Which carries it, shall prove its tomb.
_Love's Harvest._
Fond Lunatic forbear, why dost thou sue
For thy affection's pay ere it is due?
Love's fruits are legal use; and therefore may
Be only taken on the marriage day.
Who for this interest too early call,
By that exaction lose the principal.
Then gather not those immature delights,
Until their riper autumn thee invites.
He that abortive corn cuts off his ground,
No husband but a ravisher is found: 10
So those that reap their love before they wed,
Do in effect but cuckold their own bed.
[_Love's Harvest._]
[Lines: 11, 12, Malone MS. 22 has the singular: 'So he', &c.]
_The Forlorn Hope._
How long, vain Hope, dost thou my joys suspend?
Say! must my expectation know no end?
Thou wast more kind unto the wand'ring Greek
Who did ten years his wife and country seek:
Ten lazy winters in my glass are run,
Yet my thought's travail seems but new begun.
Smooth quicksand which the easy world beguiles,
Thou shall not bury me in thy false smiles.
They that in hunting shadows pleasure take,
May benefit of thy illusion make. 10
Since thou hast banish'd me from my content
I here pronounce thy final banishment.
Farewell, thou dream of nothing! thou mere voice!
Get thee to fools that can feed fat with noise:
Bid wretches mark'd for death look for reprieve,
Or men broke on the wheel persuade to live.
Henceforth my comfort and best hope shall be,
By scorning Hope, ne'er to rely on thee.
[_The Forlorn Hope._]
[Line: 10 _MS._ 'illusions'--perhaps better.]
[Line: 14 can] _MS._ 'will'.]
_The Retreat._
Pursue no more (my thoughts!) that false unkind,
You may as soon imprison the North-wind;
Or catch the lightning as it leaps; or reach
The leading billow first ran down the breach;
Or undertake the flying clouds to track
In the same path they yesterday did rack.
Then, like a torch turn'd downward, let the same
Desire which nourish'd it, put out your flame.
Lo! thus I do divorce thee from my breast,
False to thy vow, and traitor to my rest! 10
Henceforth thy tears shall be (though thou repent)
Like pardons after execution sent.
Nor shalt thou ever my love's story read,
But as some epitaph of what is dead.
So may my hope on future blessings dwell,
As 'tis my firm resolve and last farewell.
[_The Retreat._]
[Line: 4 'first' of course = 'that first'. One naturally asks
'beach'? but perhaps unreasonably.]
[Line: 6 'rack' as a verb in this sense is interesting, and
certainly not common.]
_Sonnet._
Tell me, you stars that our affections move,
Why made ye me that cruel one to love?
Why burns my heart her scorned sacrifice,
Whose breast is hard as crystal, cold as ice?
God of Desire! if all thy votaries
Thou thus repay, succession will grow wise;
No sighs for incense at thy shrine shall smoke,
Thy rites will be despis'd, thy altars broke.
O! or give her my flame to melt that snow
Which yet unthaw'd does on her bosom grow; 10
Or make me ice, and with her crystal chains
Bind up all love within my frozen veins.
[_Tell me, &c._]
[Line: 6 succession] = 'those who come after us'.]
_Sonnet._
I prithee turn that face away
Whose splendour but benights my day.
Sad eyes like mine, and wounded hearts
Shun the bright rays which beauty darts.
Unwelcome is the Sun that pries
Into those shades where sorrow lies.
Go, shine on happy things. To me
That blessing is a misery:
Whom thy fierce Sun not warms, but burns,
Like that the sooty Indian turns. 10
I'll serve the night, and there confin'd
Wish thee less fair, or else more kind.
[_I prithee, &c._] Part of this is very neat and
good, but it tails off.]
_Sonnet._
Dry those fair, those crystal eyes,
Which like growing fountains rise
To drown their banks. Grief's sullen brooks
Would better flow in furrow'd looks.
Thy lovely face was never meant
To be the shore of discontent.
Then clear those wat'rish stars again
Which else portend a lasting rain;
Lest the clouds which settle there
Prolong my winter all the year: 10
And the example others make
In love with sorrow for thy sake.
[_Dry those fair, &c._] This piece is also claimed
for Lord Pembroke (see _Preface_ to this volume). It might be
his, King's, or the work of almost any lyrical poet in this
collection and of many outside of it.]
_Sonnet._
When I entreat, either thou wilt not hear,
Or else my suit arriving at thy ear
Cools and dies there. A strange extremity!
To freeze i' th' Sun, and in the shade to fry.
Whilst all my blasted hopes decline so soon,
'Tis evening with me, though at high noon.
For pity to thyself, if not to me,
Think time will ravish, what I lose, from thee.
If my scorch'd heart wither through thy delay,
Thy beauty withers too. And swift decay 10
Arrests thy youth. So thou whilst I am slighted
Wilt be too soon with age or sorrow nighted.
[_When I entreat, &c._]
[Line: 6 'E-ven-ing'.]
_To a Lady who sent me a copy of verses at my going to bed._
Lady, your art or wit could ne'er devise
To shame me more than in this night's surprise.
Why, I am quite unready, and my eye
Now winking like my candle, doth deny
To guide my hand, if it had aught to write;
Nor can I make my drowsy sense indite
Which by your verses' music (as a spell
Sent from the Sybellean Oracle)
Is charm'd and bound in wonder and delight,
Faster than all the leaden chains of night. 10
What pity is it then you should so ill
Employ the bounty of your flowing quill,
As to expend on him your bedward thought,
Who can acknowledge that large love in nought
But this lean wish; that fate soon send you those
Who may requite your rhymes with midnight prose?
Meantime, may all delights and pleasing themes
Like masquers revel in your maiden dreams,
Whilst dull to write, and to do more unmeet,
I, as the night invites me, fall asleep. 20
[_To a Lady._] Malone MS. 22, at fol. 34, has a
first draft of this poem, in which ll. 1-10 appear thus:
Doubtless the Thespian Spring doth overflow
His learned bank: else how should ladies grow
Such poets as to court th' unknowing time
In verse, and entertain their friends in rhyme?
Or you some Sybil are, sent to untie
The knotty riddles of all poetry,
Whilst your smooth numbers such perfections tell
As prove yourself a modern oracle.
ll. 11-20 follow as in the text.]
[Line: 8 'Sybellean', though an incorrect, is a rather pretty
form and good to keep. It will be remembered that as a girl's
name 'Syb_e_lla' or 'Sib_e_lla' is not unknown, beside 'Sybilla'
and 'Sybil'.]
[Line: 20 This outrageous assonance may have been meant in
character--the poet being too much 'in the arms of Porpus' to
notice it.]
[There follows in the original a piece called _The Pink_,
but in the Errata acknowledgement is made that King did
not write it. It is therefore omitted here.]
_To his Friends of Christ Church upon the mislike of the
Marriage of the Arts acted at Woodstock._
But is it true, the Court mislik'd the play,
That Christ Church and the Arts have lost the day;
That _Ignoramus_ should so far excel,
Their hobby-horse from ours hath born the bell?
Troth! you are justly serv'd, that would present
Ought unto them, but shallow merriment;
Or to your marriage-table did admit
Guests that are stronger far in smell than wit.
Had some quaint bawdry larded ev'ry scene,
Some fawning sycophant, or courted quean; 10
Had there appear'd some sharp cross-garter'd man
Whom their loud laugh might nickname Puritan,
Cas'd up in factious breeches and small ruff,
That hates the surplice, and defies the cuff:
Then sure they would have given applause to crown
That which their ignorance did now cry down.
Let me advise, when next you do bestow
Your pains on men that do but little know,
You do no Chorus nor a comment lack,
Which may expound and construe ev'ry Act: 20
That it be short and slight; for if 't be good
Tis long, and neither lik'd nor understood.
Know 'tis Court fashion still to discommend
All that which they want brain to comprehend.
[_To his Friends of Christ Church._] The occasion of
this piece was one of those 'sorrowful chances' which befall
those who endeavour to please kings, whatever their name. 'The
play' was Barton Holyday's _Technogamia_, and the 'misliking'
(James actually 'offered' to go away twice, though, being
a good-natured person, he was persuaded to sit it out) is
chronicled by Antony Wood under the author's name. It had
been acted with great applause in the House itself, and two
of King's younger brothers were among the performers. Also the
'frost' was made more unkind by the success at Cambridge of
Ruggles's _Ignoramus_. So King's spleen, if unwise, was not
quite unmotived. The date was August, 1621.]
[Line: 14 There is no probable reference to Malvolio, despite
the association of 'cross-garter'd' and 'Puritan'; but the
tone of the passage enables one to some extent to understand
why the Puritan party conceived themselves to be deserted by
King.]
_The Surrender._
My once dear Love! hapless that I no more
Must call thee so; the rich affection's store
That fed our hopes, lies now exhaust and spent,
Like sums of treasure unto bankrupts lent.
We, that did nothing study but the way
To love each other, with which thoughts the day
Rose with delight to us, and with them, set,
Must learn the hateful art, how to forget.
We, that did nothing wish that Heav'n could give,
Beyond ourselves, nor did desire to live 10
Beyond that wish, all these now cancel must,
As if not writ in faith, but words and dust.
Yet witness those clear vows which lovers make,
Witness the chaste desires that never brake
Into unruly heats; witness that breast
Which in thy bosom anchor'd his whole rest,
'Tis no default in us; I dare acquite
Thy maiden faith, thy purpose fair and white,
As thy pure self. Cross planets did envy
Us to each other, and Heaven did untie 20
Faster than vows could bind. O that the stars,
When lovers meet, should stand oppos'd in wars!
Since then some higher Destinies command,
Let us not strive nor labour to withstand
What is past help. The longest date of grief
Can never yield a hope of our relief;
And though we waste ourselves in moist laments,
Tears may drown us, but not our discontents.
Fold back our arms, take home our fruitless loves,
That must new fortunes try, like turtle-doves 30
Dislodged from their haunts. We must in tears
Unwind a love knit up in many years.
In this last kiss I here surrender thee
Back to thyself, so thou again art free.
Thou in another, sad as that, resend
The truest heart that lover ere did lend.
Now turn from each. So fare our sever'd hearts,
As the divorc'd soul from her body parts.
[_The Surrender._] Title 'An Elegy' in Malone MS.
22.]
[Line: 13 Yet] _MS._ 'But'.]
[Line: 17 'acquite' may be for rhyme only; but if 'requite',
why not?]
[Line: 34 so] _MS._ 'lo'.]
[This piece and the next must be interpreted as each reader
chooses. They are not without touches of sincerity, but might
as well be exercises in the school of King's great friend and
master, Donne.]
_The Legacy._
My dearest Love! when thou and I must part,
And th' icy hand of death shall seize that heart
Which is all thine; within some spacious will
I'll leave no blanks for legacies to fill:
'Tis my ambition to die one of those,
Who, but himself, hath nothing to dispose.
And since that is already thine, what need
I to re-give it by some newer deed?
Yet take it once again. Free circumstance
Does oft the value of mean things advance: 10
Who thus repeats what he bequeath'd before,
Proclaims his bounty richer than his store.
But let me not upon my love bestow
What is not worth the giving. I do owe
Somewhat to dust: my body's pamper'd care,
Hungry corruption and the worm will share.
That mould'ring relic which in earth must lie,
Would prove a gift of horror to thine eye.
With this cast rag of my mortality,
Let all my faults and errors buried be. 20
And as my cere-cloth rots, so may kind fate
Those worst acts of my life incinerate.
He shall in story fill a glorious room,
Whose ashes and whose sins sleep in one tomb.
If now to my cold hearse thou deign to bring
Some melting sighs as thy last offering,
My peaceful exequies are crown'd. Nor shall
I ask more honour at my funeral.
Thou wilt more richly balm me with thy tears,
Than all the nard fragrant Arabia bears. 30
And as the Paphian Queen by her grief's show'r
Brought up her dead Love's spirit in a flow'r:
So by those precious drops rain'd from thine eyes,
Out of my dust, O may some virtue rise!
And like thy better Genius thee attend,
Till thou in my dark period shall end.
Lastly, my constant truth let me commend
To him thou choosest next to be thy friend.
For (witness all things good) I would not have
Thy youth and beauty married to my grave, 40
'T would show thou didst repent the style of wife,
Shouldst thou relapse into a single life.
They with preposterous grief the world delude,
Who mourn for their lost mates in solitude;
Since widowhood more strongly doth enforce
The much lamented lot of their divorce.
Themselves then of their losses guilty are,
Who may, yet will not, suffer a repair.
Those were barbarian wives, that did invent
Weeping to death at th' husband's monument; 50
But in more civil rites she doth approve
Her first, who ventures on a second love;
For else it may be thought, if she refrain,
She sped so ill, she durst not try again.
Up then, my Love, and choose some worthier one,
Who may supply my room when I am gone;
So will the stock of our affection thrive
No less in death, than were I still alive.
And in my urn I shall rejoice, that I
Am both testator thus and legacy. 60
[_The Legacy._] The remark made above applies
especially to _The Legacy_, for there are no known or likely
circumstances in King's life corresponding to it; while at the
same time it might be the fancy of a young lover-husband. The
first six stanzas have something of the 'yew-and-roses' charm
of their great originals: the last four justify the ancients
in holding that extravagance too often comports frigidity.]
_The Short Wooing._
Like an oblation set before a shrine,
Fair one! I offer up this heart of mine.
Whether the Saint accept my gift or no,
I'll neither fear nor doubt before I know.
For he whose faint distrust prevents reply,
Doth his own suit's denial prophesy.
Your will the sentence is; who free as Fate
Can bid my love proceed, or else retreat.
And from short views that verdict is decreed
Which seldom doth one audience exceed. 10
Love asks no dull probation, but like light
Conveys his nimble influence at first sight.
I need not therefore importune or press;
This were t' extort unwilling happiness:
And much against affection might I sin:
To tire and weary what I seek to win.
Towns which by ling'ring siege enforced be
Oft make both sides repent the victory.
Be Mistress of yourself: and let me thrive
Or suffer by your own prerogative. 20
Yet stay, since you are Judge, who in one breath
Bear uncontrolled power of Life and Death,
Remember (Sweet) pity doth best become
Those lips which must pronounce a suitor's doom.
If I find that, my spark of chaste desire
Shall kindle into Hymen's holy fire:
Else like sad flowers will these verses prove,
To stick the coffin of rejected Love.
[_The Short Wooing._] A fair average
metaphysicality.]
_St. Valentine's Day_
Now that each feather'd chorister doth sing
The glad approaches of the welcome Spring:
Now Ph[oe]bus darts forth his more early beam
And dips it later in the curled stream,
I should to custom prove a retrograde
Did I still dote upon my sullen shade.
Oft have the seasons finish'd and begun;
Days into months, those into years have run,
Since my cross stars and inauspicious fate
Doom'd me to linger here without my mate 10
Whose loss ere since befrosting my desire,
Left me an Altar without gift or fire.
I therefore could have wish'd for your own sake
That Fortune had design'd a nobler stake
For you to draw, than one whose fading day
Like to a dedicated taper lay
Within a tomb, and long burnt out in vain,
Since nothing there saw better by the flame.
Yet since you like your chance, I must not try
To mar it through my incapacity. 20
I here make title to it, and proclaim
How much you honour me to wear my name;
Who can no form of gratitude devise,
But offer up myself your sacrifice.
Hail, then, my worthy lot! and may each morn
Successive springs of joy to you be born:
May your content ne'er wane until my heart
Grown bankrupt, wants good wishes to impart.
Henceforth I need not make the dust my shrine,
Nor search the grave for my lost Valentine. 30
[_St. Valentine's Day._] I suppose, though I do
not remember an instance, that in the good days before the
prettiest of English customs succumbed--partly to the growth
of Vulgarity and partly to the competition of the much less
interesting Christmas Card--some one, or more than one, must
have made a collection of _literary_ Valentines. In that case
this should have figured. It has a good deal of 'Henry King,
his mark'--good taste, freedom from mawkishness, melody, and
enough poetical essence to save it from the merely mediocre.
The coincidence of l. 24 with the more passionate close
of 'Tell me no more' should not escape notice.--I have not
altered '_ere_ since' to '_e'er_ since' in text, because the
emendation, though almost, is not quite certain.]
_To his unconstant Friend._
But say, thou very woman, why to me
This fit of weakness and inconstancy?
What forfeit have I made of word or vow,
That I am rack'd on thy displeasure now?
If I have done a fault, I do not shame
To cite it from thy lips, give it a name:
I ask the banes, stand forth, and tell me why
We should not in our wonted loves comply?
Did thy cloy'd appetite urge thee to try
If any other man could love as I? 10
I see friends are like clothes, laid up whilst new,
But after wearing cast, though ne'er so true.
Or did thy fierce ambition long to make
Some lover turn a martyr for thy sake?
Thinking thy beauty had deserv'd no name
Unless someone do perish in that flame:
Upon whose loving dust this sentence lies,
Here 's one was murther'd by his mistress' eyes.
Or was't because my love to thee was such,
I could not choose but blab it? swear how much 20
I was thy slave, and doting let thee know,
I better could myself than thee forgo.
Hearken! ye men that e'er shall love like me,
I'll give you counsel gratis: if you be
Possess'd of what you like, let your fair friend
Lodge in your bosom, but no secrets send
To seek their lodging in a female breast;
For so much is abated of your rest.
The steed that comes to understand his strength
Grows wild, and casts his manager at length: 30
And that tame lover who unlocks his heart
Unto his mistress, teaches her an art
To plague himself; shows her the secret way
How she may tyrannize another day.
And now, my fair Unkindness, thus to thee;
Mark how wise Passion and I agree:
Hear and be sorry for't. I will not die
To expiate thy crime of levity:
I walk (not cross-arm'd neither), eat, and live,
Yea live to pity thy neglect, not grieve 40
That thou art from thy faith and promise gone,
Nor envy him who by my loss hath won.
Thou shalt perceive thy changing Moon-like fits
Have not infected me, or turn'd my wits
To lunacy. I do not mean to weep
When I should eat, or sigh when I should sleep;
I will not fall upon my pointed quill,
Bleed ink and poems, or invention spill
To contrive ballads, or weave elegies
For nurses' wearing when the infant cries. 50
Nor like th' enamour'd Tristrams of the time,
Despair in prose and hang myself in rhyme.
Nor thither run upon my verses' feet,
Where I shall none but fools or madmen meet,
Who midst the silent shades, and myrtle walks,
Pule and do penance for their mistress' faults.
I'm none of those poetic malcontents
Born to make paper dear with my laments:
Or wild Orlando that will rail and vex,
And for thy sake fall out with all the sex. 60
No, I will love again, and seek a prize
That shall redeem me from thy poor despise.
I'll court my fortune now in such a shape
That will no faint dye, nor starv'd colour take.
Thus launch I off with triumph from thy shore,
To which my last farewell; for never more
Will I touch there. I put to sea again
Blown with the churlish wind of thy disdain.
Nor will I stop this course till I have found
A coast that yields safe harbour, and firm ground. 70
Smile, ye Love-Stars; wing'd with desire I fly,
To make my wishes' full discovery:
Nor doubt I but for one that proves like you,
I shall find ten as fair, and yet more true.
[_To his unconstant Friend._]
[Line: 7 I have thought it better to keep the form 'ban_e_',
which was not uncommon (and, if I am not mistaken, was sometimes
made to carry a pun with it), instead of the now usual, and even
then authoritative, 'ban_n_'.]
[Line: 11 laid] Orig. 'lad'--an evident misprint.]
[Line: 16 had perisht _Malone MS. 22._]
[Line: 57 Orig., as often, 'mal_e_contents'.
This piece is one of King's few attempts to play the 'dog'.
It is, as one would expect, not very happy, but it might be
worse.]
_Madam Gabrina, Or the Ill-favour'd Choice._
_Con mala Muger el remedio_
_Mucha Tierra por el medio._
I have oft wond'red why thou didst elect
Thy mistress of a stuff none could affect,
That wore his eyes in the right place. A thing
Made up, when Nature's powers lay slumbering.
One, where all pregnant imperfections met
To make her sex's scandal: Teeth of jet,
Hair dy'd in orp'ment, from whose fretful hue
Canidia her highest witchcrafts drew.
A lip most thin and pale, but such a mouth
Which like the poles is stretched North and South 10
A face so colour'd, and of such a form,
As might defiance bid unto a storm:
And the complexion of her sallow hide
Like a wrack'd body wash'd up by the tide:
Eyes small: a nose so to her vizard glued
As if 'twould take a Planet's altitude.
Last for her breath, 'tis somewhat like the smell
That does in Ember weeks on Fish-street dwell;
Or as a man should fasting scent the Rose
Which in the savoury Bear-garden grows. 20
If a Fox cures the paralytical,
Hadst thou ten palsies, she'd outstink them all.
But I have found thy plot: sure thou didst try
To put thyself past hope of jealousy:
And whilst unlearned fools the senses please,
Thou cur'st thy appetite by a disease;
As many use, to kill an itch withal,
Quicksilver or some biting mineral.
Dote upon handsome things each common man
With little study and less labour can; 30
But to make love to a deformity,
Only commends thy great ability,
Who from hard-favour'd objects draw'st content,
As estriches from iron nutriment.
Well, take her, and like mounted George, in bed
Boldly achieve thy Dragon's maiden-head:
Where (though scarce sleep) thou mayst rest confident
None dares beguile thee of thy punishment:
The sin were not more foul that he should commit,
Than is that She with whom he acted it. 40
Yet take this comfort: when old age shall raze,
Or sickness ruin many a good face,
Thy choice cannot impair; no cunning curse
Can mend that night-piece, that is, make her worse.
[_Madam Gabrina_]
[Line: 7 'Orp[i]ment' = yellow arsenic--then, and to some
extent still, used as a gold-dye.]
[Line: 39 Malone MS. 22 omits _that_.]
[Line: 41 It is curious that King, who has elsewhere followed
Spenser in the matter of eye-rhyme pretty closely, did not
spell 'raze', 'race', which was a very usual form and perhaps,
as in 'race-ship', the commoner pronunciation.--The whole poem
is one of his most disappointing. His Spanish distich--which
(adopting Mr. Browning's use of 'fix') might be paraphrased:
If a bad woman once has fix'd you,
Put many a mile of ground betwixt you--
says nothing about mere _ugliness_; while, on the other hand,
King does not utilize the prescription of absence as the only
cure for ill-placed love. He has at first sight simply added
(though, as one would expect, not in the most offensive form)
another to the far too numerous dull and loathsome imitations
of one of Horace's rare betrayals of the fact that he was not
a gentleman. But see on next.]
_The Defence._
_Piensan los Enamorados_
_Que tienen los otros los ojos quebrantados._
Why slightest thou what I approve?
Thou art no Peer to try my love,
Nor canst discern where her form lies,
Unless thou saw'st her with my eyes.
Say she were foul and blacker than
The Night, or sunburnt African,
If lik'd by me, 'tis I alone
Can make a beauty where was none;
For rated in my fancy, she
Is so as she appears to me. 10
But 'tis not feature, or a face,
That does my free election grace,
Nor is my liking only led
By a well-temper'd white and red;
Could I enamour'd grow on those,
The Lily and the blushing Rose
United in one stalk might be
As dear unto my thoughts as she.
But I look farther, and do find
A richer beauty in her mind; 20
Where something is so lasting fair,
As time or age cannot impair.
Hadst thou a perspective so clear,
Thou couldst behold my object there;
When thou her virtues shouldst espy,
They'd force thee to confess that I
Had cause to like her, and learn thence
To love by judgement, not by sense.
[_The Defence._] This is very much better, though we
need not have had to wade through the other poem to get to it.
It has neither the conciseness nor the finish of Ausonius's
triumphant confession to Crispa, but is good enough. The
Spanish heading here, which in the original has an unnecessary
comma at _otros_ and an unnecessary divorce of space between
_quebranta_ and _dos_, may be roughly rendered:
For it is still the lover's mind
That all, except himself, are blind.
The piece is also assigned to Rudyard. Mr. Thorn-Drury notes a
variant at ll. 23-8 of some interest from _Parnassus Biceps_,
where the title is 'A Lover to one dispraising his Mistress':
so clear
That thou couldst view my object there;
When thou her virtues didst espy,
Thou 'ldst wonder and confess that I
Had cause to like; and learn from hence
To love.
]
_To One demanding why Wine sparkles._
So diamonds sparkle, and thy mistress' eyes;
When 'tis not fire but light in either flies.
Beauty not thaw'd by lustful flames will show
Like a fair mountain of unmelted snow:
Nor can the tasted vine more danger bring
Than water taken from the crystal spring,
Whose end is to refresh and cool that heat
Which unallay'd becomes foul vice's seat:
Unless thy boiling veins, mad with desire
Of drink, convert the liquor into fire. 10
For then thou quaff'st down fevers, thy full bowls
Carouse the burning draughts of Portia's coals.
If it do leap and sparkle in the cup,
'Twill sink thy cares, and help invention up.
There never yet was Muse or Poet known
Not dipt or drenched in this Helicon.
But Tom! take heed thou use it with such care
As witches deal with their familiar.
For if thy virtue's circle not confine
And guard thee from the Furies rais'd by wine, 20
'Tis ten to one this dancing spirit may
A Devil prove to bear thy wits away;
And make thy glowing nose a map of Hell
Where Bacchus' purple fumes like meteors dwell.
Now think not these sage morals thee invite
To prove Carthusian or strict Rechabite;
Let fool's be mad, wise people may be free,
Though not to license turn their liberty.
He that drinks wine for health, not for excess,
Nor drowns his temper in a drunkenness, 30
Shall feel no more the grape's unruly fate,
Then if he took some chilling opiate.
[_To One demanding, &c._] If not exactly Poetry,
this is at least sense, as was once remarked (or in words to
that effect), with 'Latin' for 'Poetry', by the late Professor
Nettleship, with regard to a composition not in verse.
Malone MS. 22, fol. 24, has an earlier draft of this poem,
commencing:
We do not give the wine a sparkling name,
As if we meant those sparks implied a flame;
The flame lies in our blood: and 'tis desire
Fed by loose appetite sets us on fire,
and concluding with lines 29-32.]
_By occasion of the Young Prince his happy Birth._
[Charles II. Born May 29, 1630.]
At this glad triumph, when most poets use
Their quill, I did not bridle up my Muse
For sloth or less devotion. I am one
That can well keep my Holy-days at home;
That can the blessings of my King and State
Better in pray'r than poems gratulate;
And in their fortunes bear a loyal part,
Though I no bonfires light but in my heart.
Truth is, when I receiv'd the first report
Of a new star risen and seen at Court; 10
Though I felt joy enough to give a tongue
Unto a mute, yet duty strook me dumb:
And thus surpris'd by rumour, at first sight
I held it some allegiance not to write.
For howe'er children, unto those that look
Their pedigree in God's, not the Church book,
Fair pledges are of that eternity
Which Christians possess not till they die;
Yet they appear, view'd in that perspective
Through which we look on men long since alive, 20
Like succours in a Camp, sent to make good
Their place that last upon the watches stood.
So that in age, or fate, each following birth
Doth set the parent so much nearer earth:
And by this grammar we our heirs may call
The smiling Preface to our funeral.
This sadded my soft sense, to think that he
Who now makes laws, should by a bold decree
Be summon'd hence, to make another room,
And change his royal palace for a tomb. 30
For none ere truly lov'd the present light,
But griev'd to see it rivall'd by the night:
And if 't be sin to wish that light extinct,
Sorrow may make it treason but to think't.
I know each malcontent or giddy man,
In his religion, with the Persian
Adores the rising Sun; and his false view
Best likes, not what is best, but what is new.
O that we could these gangrenes so prevent
(For our own blessing, and their punishment), 40
That all such might, who for wild changes thirst,
Rack'd on a hopeless expectation, burst,
To see us fetter time, and by his stay
To a consistence fix the flying day;
And in a Solstice by our prayers made,
Rescue our Sun from death or envy's shade.
But here we dally with fate, and in this
Stern Destiny mocks and controls our wish;
Informing us, if fathers should remain
For ever here, children were born in vain; 50
And we in vain were Christians, should we
In this world dream of perpetuity.
Decay is Nature's Kalendar; nor can
It hurt the King to think he is a man;
Nor grieve, but comfort him, to hear us say
That his own children must his sceptre sway.
Why slack I then to contribute a vote,
Large as the kingdom's joy, free as my thought?
Long live the Prince! and in that title bear
The world long witness that the King is here: 60
May he grow up, till all that good he reach
Which we can wish, or his Great Father teach:
Let him shine long, a mark to land and main,
Like that bright spark plac'd nearest to Charles' Wain,
And, like him, lead succession's golden team,
Which may possess the British diadem.
But in the mean space, let his Royal Sire,
Who warms our hopes with true Promethean fire,
So long his course in time and glory run,
Till he estate his virtue on his son. 70
So in his father's days this happy One
Shall crowned be, yet not usurp the Throne;
And Charles reign still, since thus himself will be
Heir to himself, through all posterity.
[_By occasion, &c._]
[Line: 8 Orig. 'bon_e_-fires', as often, the spelling being
accepted by recent authorities as etymological. But bones do
not make good fires: 'ba_n_e-fire', the acknowledged Northern
form, which has been held to support this origin, is a very
likely variant of' ba_l_e-fire', and the obvious '_bon_-fire'
in the holiday sense is by no means so absurd as it has been
represented to be.]
[Line: 10 This 'new star' occurs again and again in courtly
verse throughout Charles's life and at his death, but the
accounts of it are uncomfortably conflicting. Some say that
Venus was visible all day long--a phenomenon of obvious
application; others make it Mercury--whereto also an
application, at which the person concerned would have laughed
very genially, is possible. But neither is a '_new_ star';
and the miracle is perhaps more judiciously put as that of _a_
star, no matter what, shining brightly at noonday.]
[Line: 22 that] _MS._ 'who'.]
[Line: 27 'sadded' has some interest.]
[Line: 47 'But here we with fate dally' _Malone MS. 22._]
[Line: 50 were born] _MS._ 'would live'--not so well.]
[Line: 57 vote] In the sense of _votum_ = 'wish'.]
[Line: 60 long] _MS._ 'glad'.]
[Line: 63 long] _MS._ 'forth'.]
[Line: 70 _MS._ 'virtues'.]
_Upon the King's happy return from Scotland._
So breaks the day, when the returning Sun
Hath newly through his winter tropic run,
As You (Great Sir!) in this regress come forth
From the remoter climate of the North.
To tell You now what cares, what fears we past,
What clouds of sorrow did the land o'er-cast,
Were lost, but unto such as have been there,
Where the absented Sun benights the year:
Or have those countries travel'd, which ne'er feel
The warmth and virtue of his flaming wheel. 10
How happy yet were we! that when You went,
You left within Your Kingdom's firmament
A Partner-light, whose lustre may despise
The nightly glimm'ring tapers of the skies,
Your peerless Queen; and at each hand a Star,
Whose hopeful beams from You enkindled are.
Though (to say truth) the light, which they could bring,
Serv'd but to lengthen out our evening.
Heaven's greater lamps illumine it; each spark
Adds only this, to make the sky less dark. 20
Nay, She, who is the glory of her sex,
Did sadly droop for lack of Your reflex:
Oft did She her fair brow in loneness shroud,
And dimly shone, like Venus in a cloud.
Now are those gloomy mists dry'd up by You,
As the world's eye scatters the ev'ning dew:
And You bring home that blessing to the land,
Which absence made us rightly understand.
Here may You henceforth stay! there need no charms
To hold You, but the circle of her arms, 30
Whose fruitful love yields You a rich increase,
Seals of Your joy, and of the kingdom's peace.
O may those precious pledges fix You here,
And You grow old within that crystal sphere!
Pardon this bold detention. Else our love
Will merely an officious trouble prove.
Each busy minute tells us, as it flies,
That there are better objects for Your eyes.
To them let us leave You, whilst we go pray,
Raising this triumph to a Holy-day. 40
And may that soul the Church's blessing want,
May his content be short, his comforts scant,
Whose bosom-altar does no incense burn,
In thankful sacrifice for Your return.
[_Upon the King's happy return, &c._] Hannah notes
that this appears with variants, but signed, in MS. Ashm.
38, fol. 51. I have not thought it necessary to collate this
version from a work described by good authorities as 'a bad
MS.'. The piece itself, however, with others of King's, may
well have been in Dryden's mind when he composed his own batch
of Restoration welcome-poems to Charles II and Clarendon,
within three or four years of the publication of these. There
is no plagiarism: Heaven forbid that I should take part in
plagiarism-hunting. But there is a sort of resemblance in
form and tone (especially in the use of 'You' and 'Your'
as pivots), and (though with great improvement) in
versification.--The capital Y's here are almost complete in
the original, and I have completed them.]
_To the Queen at Oxford._
Great Lady! that thus, quite against our use,
We speak your welcome by an English Muse,
And in a vulgar tongue our zeals contrive,
Is to confess your large prerogative,
Who have the pow'rful freedom to dispense
With our strict Rules, or Custom's difference.
'Tis fit, when such a Star deigns to appear,
And shine within the academic sphere,
That ev'ry college, grac'd by your resort,
Should only speak the language of your Court; 10
As if Apollo's learned quire, but You,
No other Queen of the Ascendent knew.
Let those that list invoke the Delphian name,
To light their verse, and quench their doting flame;
In Helicon it were high treason now,
Did any to a feign'd Minerva bow;
When You are present, whose chaste virtues stain
The vaunted glories of her maiden brain.
I would not flatter. May that diet feed
Deform'd and vicious souls; they only need 20
Such physic, who, grown sick of their decays,
Are only cur'd with surfeits of false praise;
Like those, who, fall'n from youth or beauty's grace,
Lay colours on, which more belie the face.
Be You still what You are; a glorious theme
For Truth to crown. So when that diadem
Which circles Your fair brow drops off, and time
Shall lift You to that pitch our prayers climb;
Posterity will plait a nobler wreath,
To crown Your fame and memory in death. 30
This is sad truth and plain, which I might fear
Would scarce prove welcome to a Prince's ear;
And hardly may you think that writer wise,
Who preaches there where he should poetize;
Yet where so rich a bank of goodness is,
Triumphs and Feasts admit such thoughts as this,
Nor will your virtue from her client turn,
Although he bring his tribute in an urn.
Enough of this: who knows not when to end
Needs must, by tedious diligence, offend. 40
Tis not a poet's office to advance
The precious value of allegiance.
And least of all the rest do I affect
To word my duty in this dialect.
My service lies a better way, whose tone
Is spirited by full devotion.
Thus, whilst I mention _You_, _Your Royal Mate_,
And _Those_ which your blest line perpetuate,
I shall such votes of happiness rehearse,
Whose softest accents will out-tongue my verse. 50
[_To the Queen at Oxford._] This poem was omitted
in Hannah's MS., and it is in no way clear to what visit it
refers. The absence of any reference to politics shows that
it cannot have been Henrietta's residence at Merton during the
Rebellion.]
[Line: 29 plait] Orig 'plat'.]
_A Salutation of His Majesty's ship The Sovereign._
Move on, thou floating trophy built to Fame!
And bid her trump spread thy majestic name;
That the blue Tritons, and those petty Gods
Which sport themselves upon the dancing floods,
May bow, as to their Neptune, when they feel
The awful pressure of thy potent keel.
Great wonder of the time! whose form unites
In one aspect two warring opposites,
Delight and horror; and in them portends
Diff'ring events both to thy foes and friends; 10
To these thy radiant brow, Peace's bright shrine,
Doth like that golden constellation shine,
Which guides the seaman with auspicious beams,
Safe and unshipwrack'd through the troubled streams.
But, as a blazing meteor, to those
It doth ostents of blood and death disclose.
For thy rich decks lighten like Heaven's fires,
To usher forth the thunder of thy tires.
O never may cross wind, or swelling wave,
Conspire to make the treach'rous sands thy grave: 20
Nor envious rocks, in their white foamy laugh,
Rejoice to wear thy loss's Epitaph.
But may the smoothest, most successful gales
Distend thy sheet, and wing thy flying sails:
That all designs which must on thee embark,
May be securely plac'd, as in the Ark.
May'st thou, where'er thy streamers shall display,
Enforce the bold disputers to obey:
That they, whose pens are sharper than their swords,
May yield in fact, what they denied in words. 30
Thus when th' amazed world our seas shall see
Shut from usurpers, to their own Lord free,
Thou may'st, returning from the conquered main,
With thine own triumphs be crown'd _Sovereign_.
[_A Salutation, &c._] The _Sovereign_, _Sovereign of
the Seas_, or _Royal Sovereign_ (I am not sure what name she
bore during the Rebellion) is one of the famous _literary_
ships of the English Navy. She was built in 1637 at Woolwich
by Phineas and Peter Pett out of a whole year's ship-money;
and if the means for raising her cost (£80,000) were
unpopular, a great deal of pride was taken in the ship
herself. Thomas Heywood wrote an account of her which has
been frequently quoted. See, for instance, Mr. David Hannay's
_Short History of the Royal Navy_, i. 172, 173. She was of
1637 tons burthen; was pierced for 98 great guns with many
smaller murdering-pieces and chasers; and was most elaborately
decorated, with carved stern, galleries, black and gold
angels, trophies and emblems of all sorts--besides a baker's
dozen of allegorical, mythological, and historical statues
of personages from Cupid to King Edgar on horseback, as
figureheads and elsewhere. She fought all through the
Dutch wars; escaped the disgraceful disaster in the Medway;
distinguished herself at La Hogue, where a great part is
assigned to her by some accounts in chasing Tourville's
_Soleil Royal_ ashore; and was burnt by accident, not long
after, at Chatham in 1696--her sixtieth year.]
[Line: 11 The 'radiant brow' is of course the gilded
figurehead group. There was no actual 'Peace' among the
allegories, but the Cupid, a 'child bridling a lion', might
perhaps stand for her.]
[Line: 18 'Tire' is of course 'tier': the _Sovereign_ was a
three-decker. Professor Skeat approves the spelling, which
occurs in Milton and elsewhere. But some would have a special
word 'tire', not for the _row_ but the actual 'fire' or
'shooting' (_tir_) of the guns--which would do well enough
here.]
[Lines: 19-22 King's own age would, after the event, have
instanced this as an example of Fate granting prayers to the
letter yet evading them in the spirit. The _Sovereign_ did
escape wind and wave, sand and rock, as well as the enemy, but
only to perish otherwise.]
[Line: 24 'Sheets' in plural in Hannah's MS. Another in
the Ashmolean collection 'clo[a]th[e]s'--a good naval
technicality.]
[Lines: 27-34 Referring to the _Mare Clausum_ dispute and the
English insistence on the lowering of foreign flags.]
_An Epitaph on his most honoured friend, Richard, Earl of Dorset._
[Died March 28, 1624.]
Let no profane ignoble foot tread near
This hallow'd piece of earth: _Dorset lies here_.
A small sad relique of a noble spirit,
Free as the air, and ample as his merit;
Whose least perfection was large, and great
Enough to make a common man complete.
A soul refin'd and cull'd from many men,
That reconcil'd the sword unto the pen,
Using both well. No proud forgetting Lord,
But mindful of mean names, and of his word. 10
One that did love for honour, not for ends,
And had the noblest way of making friends
By loving first. One that did know the Court,
Yet understood it better by report
Than practice, for he nothing took from thence
But the king's favour for his recompense.
One for religion, or his country's good,
That valu'd not his fortune, nor his blood.
One high in fair opinion, rich in praise,
And full of all we could have wish'd, but days. 20
He that is warn'd of this, and shall forbear
To vent a sigh for him, or lend a tear;
May he live long and scorn'd, unpitied fall,
And want a mourner at his funeral.
[_An Epitaph._] This Dorset was the third earl,
Richard. As a very young man he married the famous Lady Anne
Clifford, whose ill-luck in husbands may have been partly
caused, but must have been somewhat compensated, by her
masterful temper. Dorset, who died young, was both a libertine
and a spendthrift; but King seems to have thought well enough
of him not only to write this epitaph, but to lend him, or
guarantee for him, a thousand pounds (quite £3,000 to-day),
which he had at any rate not got back thirty years afterwards.
The present piece appears, with variants, in Corbet's _Poems_,
but King seems to have the better claim. Hannah gives a
considerable body of various readings from the Corbet version
and one in the Ashmole MS. 38, but it hardly seems worth while
to burden the page-foot with them, for the epitaph is mere
'common-form' and of no special interest.]
_The Exequy._
Accept, thou Shrine of my dead Saint,
Instead of dirges this complaint;
And for sweet flowers to crown thy hearse,
Receive a strew of weeping verse
From thy griev'd friend, whom thou might'st see
Quite melted into tears for thee.
Dear loss! since thy untimely fate,
My task hath been to meditate
On thee, on thee: thou art the book,
The library, whereon I look, 10
Though almost blind. For thee (lov'd clay)
I languish out, not live, the day,
Using no other exercise
But what I practise with mine eyes:
By which wet glasses, I find out
How lazily time creeps about
To one that mourns; this, only this,
My exercise and bus'ness is:
So I compute the weary hours
With sighs dissolved into showers. 20
Nor wonder, if my time go thus
Backward and most preposterous;
Thou hast benighted me; thy set
This eve of blackness did beget,
Who wast my day (though overcast,
Before thou hadst thy noon-tide past),
And I remember must in tears,
Thou scarce hadst seen so many years
As day tells hours. By thy clear Sun,
My love and fortune first did run; 30
But thou wilt never more appear
Folded within my hemisphere,
Since both thy light and motion
Like a fled star is fall'n and gone,
And 'twixt me and my soul's dear wish
The earth now interposed is,
Which such a strange eclipse doth make,
As ne'er was read in almanac.
I could allow thee, for a time,
To darken me and my sad clime, 40
Were it a month, a year, or ten,
I would thy exile live till then;
And all that space my mirth adjourn,
So thou wouldst promise to return;
And putting off thy ashy shroud,
At length disperse this sorrow's cloud.
But woe is me! the longest date
Too narrow is to calculate
These empty hopes: never shall I
Be so much blest as to descry 50
A glimpse of thee, till that day come,
Which shall the earth to cinders doom,
And a fierce fever must calcine
The body of this world, like thine,
My Little World! That fit of fire
Once off, our bodies shall aspire
To our souls' bliss: then we shall rise,
And view ourselves with clearer eyes
In that calm region, where no night
Can hide us from each other's sight. 60
Meantime, thou hast her, Earth; much good
May my harm do thee. Since it stood
With Heaven's will, I might not call
Her longer mine, I give thee all
My short-liv'd right and interest
In her, whom living I lov'd best:
With a most free and bounteous grief,
I give thee, what I could not keep.
Be kind to her, and prithee look
Thou write into thy Dooms-day book 70
Each parcel of this rarity,
Which in thy casket shrin'd doth lie:
See that thou make thy reck'ning straight,
And yield her back again by weight;
For thou must audit on thy trust
Each grain and atom of this dust,
As thou wilt answer _Him_ that lent,
Not gave thee, my dear monument.
So close the ground, and 'bout her shade
Black curtains draw;--my Bride is laid. 80
Sleep on, my Love, in thy cold bed,
Never to be disquieted!
My last good night! Thou wilt not wake,
Till I thy fate shall overtake:
Till age, or grief, or sickness, must
Marry my body to that dust
It so much loves; and fill the room
My heart keeps empty in thy tomb.
Stay for me there; I will not fail
To meet thee in that hollow vale: 90
And think not much of my delay;
I am already on the way,
And follow thee with all the speed
Desire can make, or sorrows breed.
Each minute is a short degree,
And ev'ry hour a step towards thee.
At night, when I betake to rest,
Next morn I rise nearer my West
Of life, almost by eight hours' sail
Than when sleep breath'd his drowsy gale. 100
Thus from the Sun my bottom steers,
And my day's compass downward bears:
Nor labour I to stem the tide,
Through which to _Thee_ I swiftly glide.
'Tis true, with shame and grief I yield,
Thou, like the van, first took'st the field,
And gotten hast the victory,
In thus adventuring to die
Before me, whose more years might crave
A just precedence in the grave. 110
But heark! My pulse, like a soft drum,
Beats my approach, tells _Thee_ I come;
And slow howe'er my marches be,
I shall at last sit down by _Thee_.
The thought of this bids me go on,
And wait my dissolution
With hope and comfort. Dear (forgive
The crime), I am content to live
Divided, with but half a heart,
Till we shall meet and never part. 120
[_The Exequy._] This beautiful poem (which bore in
Hannah's MS. the sub-title, itself not unmemorable, 'To his
Matchless never-to-be forgotten Friend') makes, with 'Tell
me no more', King's chief claim to poetic rank. It is not--he
never is--splendid, or strange, or soul-shaking; but for
simplicity, sincerity, tenderness, and grace--nay, as the time
went, nature--it has, in its modest way, not many superiors.
Versions are found in Ashmole MS. 36, fol. 253, and Rawlinson
Poet. MS. 160. fol. 41 verso.]
[Line: 36 The] All three MSS. read 'An', which, considering
the obvious double meaning of 'earth', is perhaps better.]
[Lines: 67-8 Assonance, though not elsewhere unknown, is not
common in King.]
[Line: 81 seq. If the last paragraph has seemed to any to
approach 'False Wit' this ought to make amends. And so with
the conclusion.]
_The Anniverse. An Elegy._
So soon grown old! hast thou been six years dead?
Poor earth, once by my Love inhabited!
And must I live to calculate the time
To which thy blooming youth could never climb,
But fell in the ascent! yet have not I
Studied enough thy loss's history.
How happy were mankind, if Death's strict laws
Consum'd our lamentations like the cause!
Or that our grief, turning to dust, might end
With the dissolved body of a friend! 10
But sacred Heaven! O, how just thou art
In stamping death's impression on that heart,
Which through thy favours would grow insolent,
Were it not physic'd by sharp discontent.
If, then, it stand resolv'd in thy decree,
That still I must doom'd to a desert be,
Sprung out of my lone thoughts, which know no path
But what my own misfortune beaten hath;--
If thou wilt bind me living to a corse,
And I must slowly waste; I then of force 20
Stoop to thy great appointment, and obey
That will which nought avails me to gainsay.
For whilst in sorrow's maze I wander on,
I do but follow life's vocation.
Sure we were made to grieve: at our first birth,
With cries we took possession of the earth;
And though the lucky man reputed be
Fortune's adopted son, yet only he
Is Nature's true-born child, who sums his years
(Like me) with no arithmetic but tears. 30
[_The Anniverse._] Not quite so good as _The
Exequy_, but not bad. The Hannah-Pickering MS. had a few
variants, not worth entering here in most cases.]
[Line: 19 corse] This word had odd luck in a well-printed
book, and a generally well-written MS., for it shows in the
one as 'coarse', in the other as 'course'--both errors not
infrequent at the time.]
[Line: 22 avails] This is the MS. reading: the book has
'avail'.]
[Line: 26 took] _MS._ 'take'.]
_On Two Children, dying of one disease, and buried in one grave._
Brought forth in sorrow, and bred up in care,
Two tender children here entombed are:
One place, one sire, one womb their being gave,
They had one mortal sickness, and one grave.
And though they cannot number many years
In their account, yet with their parent's tears
This comfort mingles; Though their days were few,
They scarcely sin, but never sorrow knew;
So that they well might boast, they carried hence
What riper ages lose, their innocence. 10
You pretty losses, that revive the fate,
Which, in your mother, death did antedate,
O let my high-swoln grief distil on you
The saddest drops of a parental dew:
You ask no other dower than what my eyes
Lay out on your untimely exequies:
When once I have discharg'd that mournful score,
Heav'n hath decreed you ne'er shall cost me more,
Since you release and quit my borrow'd trust,
By taking this inheritance of dust. 20
[_On Two Children, &c._] The number of King's
children is uncertain, but as the eldest certainly died
_before_ the mother, and his sons lived, one nearly as long as
the Bishop, the other a little longer, Hannah seems justified
in arguing from this piece that there were five.]
_A Letter._
I ne'er was dress'd in forms; nor can I bend
My pen to flatter any, nor commend,
Unless desert or honour do present
Unto my verse a worthy argument.
You are my friend, and in that word to me
Stand blazon'd in your noblest heraldry;
That style presents you full, and does relate
The bounty of your love, and my own fate,
Both which conspir'd to make me yours. A choice,
Which needs must, in the giddy people's voice, 10
That only judge the outside, and, like apes,
Play with our names, and comment on our shapes,
Appear too light: but it lies you upon,
To justify the disproportion.
Truth be my record, I durst not presume
To seek to you, 'twas you that did assume
Me to your bosom. Wherein you subdu'd
One that can serve you, though ne'er could intrude
Upon great titles; nor knows how t' invade
Acquaintance: Like such as are only paid 20
With great men's smiles; if that the passant Lord
Let fall a forc'd salute, or but afford
The nod regardant. It was test enough
For me, you ne'er did find such servile stuff
Couch'd in my temper; I can freely say,
I do not love you in that common way
For which Great Ones are lov'd in this false time:
I have no wish to gain, nor will to climb;
I cannot pawn my freedom, nor outlive
My liberty, for all that you can give. 30
And sure you may retain good cheap such friends,
Who not your fortune make, but you, their ends.
I speak not this to vaunt in my own story,
All these additions are unto your glory;
Who, counter to the world, use to elect,
Not to take up on trust, what you affect.
Indeed 'tis seldom seen that such as you
Adopt a friend, or for acquaintance sue;
Yet you did this vouchsafe, you did descend
Below yourself to raise an humble friend, 40
And fix him in your love: where I will stand
The constant subject of your free command.
Had I no airy thoughts, sure you would teach
Me higher than my own dull sphere to reach:
And, by reflex, instruct me to appear
Something (though coarse and plain) fit for your wear.
Know, best of friends, however wild report
May justly say, I am unapt to sort
With your opinion or society
(Which truth would shame me, did I it deny), 50
There 's something in me says, I dare make good,
When honour calls me, all I want in blood.
Put off your giant titles, then I can
Stand in your judgement's blank an equal man.
Though hills advanced are above the plain,
They are but higher earth, nor must disdain
Alliance with the vale: we see a spade
Can level them, and make a mount a glade.
Howe'er we differ in the Heralds' book,
He that mankind's extraction shall look 60
In Nature's rolls, must grant we all agree
In our best part's immortal pedigree:
You must by that perspective only view
My service, else 'twill ne'er show worthy you.
You see I court you bluntly, like a friend,
Not like a mistress; my Muse is not penn'd
For smooth and oily flights: and I indent
To use more honesty than compliment.
But I have done; in lieu of all you give,
Receive his thankful tribute, who must live 70
Your vow'd observer, and devotes a heart
Which will in death seal the bold counterpart.
[_A Letter._] I do not know any clue to the object
of this epistle. King, like most churchmen of distinction
at the time, was on familiar terms with divers 'persons of
quality'. But it _might_ be a mere literary exercise--a 'copy
of verses'.]
[Line: 23 'Nod regardant' is good. It shows, with 'passant'
just before that his own reference to heraldry was still
floating in King's mind.]
[Line: 54 Either of two of the numerous senses of 'blank'
would come in here. One is _tabula rasa_, the judgement
being obscured by no prepossession; the other 'bull's-eye' or
'target'.]
[Line: 59 Orig. as usual, 'Heralds', with no apostrophe to
make case or number. If anybody prefers 'herald's' I have no
objection.]
[Line: 67 indent] In the sense of 'contract', 'engage'.]
_An Acknowledgement._
My best of friends! what needs a chain to tie
One by your merit bound a votary?
Think you I have some plot upon my peace,
I would this bondage change for a release?
Since 'twas my fate your prisoner to be,
Heav'n knows I nothing fear, but liberty.
Yet you do well, that study to prevent,
After so rich a stock of favour spent
On one so worthless, lest my memory
Should let so dear an obligation die 10
Without record. This made my precious Friend
Her token, as an antidote, to send,
Against forgetful poisons; That as they
Who Vespers late, and early Mattins say
Upon their beads, so on this linked score
In golden numbers I might reckon o'er
Your virtues and my debt, which does surmount
The trivial laws of popular account:
For that, within this emblematic knot,
Your beauteous mind, and my own fate, is wrote. 20
The sparkling constellation which combines
The lock, is your dear self, whose worth outshines
Most of your sex; so solid and so clear
You like a perfect diamond appear;
Casting, from your example, fuller light
Than those dim sparks which glaze the brow of night,
And gladding all your friends, as doth the ray
Of that East-star which wakes the cheerful day.
But the black map of death and discontent
Behind that adamantine firmament, 30
That luckless figure, which, like Calvary,
Stands strew'd and copied out in skulls, is I:
Whose life your absence clouds, and makes my time
Move blindfold in the dark ecliptic line.
Then wonder not, if my removed Sun
So low within the western tropic run;
My eyes no day in this horizon see,
Since where You are not, all is night to me.
Lastly, the anchor which enfast'ned lies
Upon a pair of deaths, sadly applies 40
That Monument of Rest, which harbour must
Our ship-wrackt fortunes in a road of dust.
So then, how late soe'er my joyless life
Be tired out in this affection's strife:
Though my tempestuous fancy, like the sky,
Travail with storms, and through my wat'ry eye,
Sorrow's high-going waves spring many a leak;
Though sighs blow loud, till my heart's cordage break;
Though Faith, and all my wishes prove untrue,
Yet Death shall fix and anchor Me with You. 50
'Tis some poor comfort, that this mortal scope
Will period, though never crown, my Hope.
[_An Acknowledgement._] This is evidently of the
same class as the last poem, if not as evidently addressed
to the same person. The recipient of the _Letter_ might be of
either sex, for 'mistress' in l. 66 (_v. sup._) is not quite
decisive in the context. This 'precious Friend' is definitely
feminine. Nineteenth--I do not know about twentieth--century
man would have been a little uncomfortable about receiving
from a lady a gold chain with a grouped diamond pendant,
welcome as the enclosed 'lock' might be. But, as Scott and
others have long ago remarked, there was none of this false
pride in the seventeenth, and you might even take money from
the beloved. The combination of death's heads, equally of the
time, is more of all time.]
_The Acquittance._
Not knowing who should my acquittance take,
I know as little what discharge to make.
The favour is so great, that it outgoes
All forms of thankfulness I can propose.
Those grateful levies which my pen would raise,
Are stricken dumb, or buried in amaze.
Therefore, as once in Athens there was shown
An Altar built unto the God Unknown,
My ignorant devotions must by guess
This blind return of gratitude address, 10
Till you vouchsafe to show me where and how
I may to this revealed Goddess bow.
[_The Acquittance._] This group of poems is so
obviously a group that Hannah's principles of selection in
rejecting the present piece and admitting the others may seem
unreasonably 'undulating and diverse'. I suppose he thought
it rather profane for a bishop even _in futuro_, and perhaps
rather ambiguous in other ways. But though King became a
bishop there is no chance of my becoming an archdeacon, and I
think the piece rather pretty.]
_The Forfeiture._
My Dearest, To let you or the world know
What debt of service I do truly owe
To your unpattern'd self, were to require
A language only form'd in the desire
Of him that writes. It is the common fate
Of greatest duties, to evaporate
In silent meaning, as we often see
Fires by their too much fuel smother'd be:
Small obligations may find vent, and speak,
When greater the unable debtor break. 10
And such are mine to you, whose favour's store
Hath made me poorer then I was before;
For I want words and language to declare
How strict my bond, or large your bounties are.
Since nothing in my desp'rate fortune found,
Can payment make, nor yet the sum compound;
You must lose all, or else of force accept
The body of a bankrupt for your debt.
Then, Love, your bond to execution sue,
And take myself, as forfeited to you. 20
[_The Forfeiture._] This piece, which Hannah did
not find in his MS., is almost certainly connected with the
preceding, and, I think, with _An Acknowledgement_ and
_The Departure_, if not also with _A Letter_. The suggested
unreality in this _Letter_ disappears to a large extent in
them, which is not unnatural.]
[Lines: 9-10 An ingenious adaptation of _Curae leves_, &c.]
_The Departure. An Elegy._
Were I to leave no more than a good friend,
Or but to hear the summons to my end,
(Which I have long'd for) I could then with ease
Attire my grief in words, and so appease
That passion in my bosom, which outgrows
The language of strict verse or largest prose.
But here I am quite lost; writing to you,
All that I pen or think is forc'd and new.
My faculties run cross, and prove as weak
T' indite this melancholy task, as speak: 10
Indeed all words are vain; well might I spare
This rend'ring of my tortur'd thoughts in air,
Or sighing paper. My infectious grief
Strikes inward, and affords me no relief,
But still a deeper wound, to lose a sight
More lov'd than health, and dearer than the light.
But all of us were not at the same time
Brought forth, nor are we billeted in one clime.
Nature hath pitch'd mankind at several rates,
Making our places diverse as our fates. 20
Unto that universal law I bow,
Though with unwilling knee, and do allow
Her cruel justice, which dispos'd us so
That we must counter to our wishes go.
'Twas part of man's first curse, which order'd well,
We should not alway with our likings dwell.
'Tis only the Triumphant Church where we
Shall in unsever'd neighbourhood agree.
Go then, best soul, and, where You must appear,
Restore the day to that dull hemisphere. 30
Ne'er may the hapless night You leave behind
Darken the comforts of Your purer mind.
May all the blessings wishes can invent
Enrich your days, and crown them with content.
And though You travel down into the West,
May Your life's Sun stand fixed in the East,
Far from the weeping set; nor may my ear
Take in that killing whisper, _You once were._
Thus kiss I Your fair hands, taking my leave,
As prisoners at the bar their doom receive. 40
All joys go with You: let sweet peace attend
You on the way, and wait Your journey's end.
But let Your discontents and sourer fate
Remain with me, borne off in my retrait.
Might all your crosses, in that sheet of lead
Which folds my heavy heart, lie buried:
'Tis the last service I would do You, and the best
My wishes ever meant, or tongue profest.
Once more I take my leave. And once for all,
Our parting shows so like a funeral, 50
It strikes my soul, which hath most right to be
Chief Mourner at this sad solemnity.
And think not, Dearest, 'cause this parting knell
Is rung in verses, that at Your farewell
I only mourn in poetry and ink:
No, my pen's melancholy plummets sink
So low, they dive where th' hid affections sit,
Blotting that paper where my mirth was writ.
Believe 't, that sorrow truest is, which lies
Deep in the breast, not floating in the eyes: 60
And he with saddest circumstance doth part,
Who seals his farewell with a bleeding heart.
[_The Departure._] The special title of this poem
was not in Hannah's MS.]
[Line: 6 largest] _MS._ 'larg_er_'.]
[Line: 47 An irregular line of this kind (for it is
practically an Alexandrine) is so very rare in King that one
suspects an error, but Hannah notes no MS. variant. Many,
perhaps most, contemporary poets would not have hesitated at
'serv'ce', which with 'I'd' adjusts the thing; but our Bishop
is seldom rough and still seldomer licentious.]
[Line: 53 this] _MS._ 'the'.]
[Line: 56 Orig. 'plommets'.]
_Paradox._
_That it is best for a Young Maid to marry an Old Man._
Fair one, why cannot you an old man love?
He may as useful, and more constant prove.
Experience shows you that maturer years
Are a security against those fears
Youth will expose you to; whose wild desire
As it is hot, so 'tis as rash as fire.
Mark how the blaze extinct in ashes lies,
Leaving no brand nor embers when it dies
Which might the flame renew: thus soon consumes
Youth's wand'ring heat, and vanishes in fumes. 10
When age's riper love unapt to stray
Through loose and giddy change of objects, may
In your warm bosom like a cinder lie,
Quick'ned and kindled by your sparkling eye.
'Tis not deni'd, there are extremes in both
Which may the fancy move to like or loathe:
Yet of the two you better shall endure
To marry with the cramp than calenture.
Who would in wisdom choose the Torrid Zone
Therein to settle a plantation? 20
Merchants can tell you, those hot climes were made
But at the longest for a three years' trade:
And though the Indies cast the sweeter smell,
Yet health and plenty do more Northward dwell;
For where the raging sunbeams burn the earth,
Her scorched mantle withers into dearth;
Yet when that drought becomes the harvest's curse,
Snow doth the tender corn most kindly nurse:
Why now then woo you not some snowy head
To take you in mere pity to his bed? 30
I doubt the harder task were to persuade
Him to love you: for if what I have said
In virgins as in vegetals holds true,
He'll prove the better nurse to cherish you.
Some men we know renown'd for wisdom grown
By old records and antique medals shown;
Why ought not women then be held most wise
Who can produce living antiquities?
Besides if care of that main happiness
Your sex triumphs in, doth your thoughts possess, 40
I mean your beauty from decay to keep;
No wash nor mask is like an old man's sleep.
Young wives need never to be sunburnt fear,
Who their old husbands for umbrellas wear:
How russet looks an orchard on the hill
To one that 's water'd by some neighb'ring drill?
Are not the floated meadows ever seen
To flourish soonest, and hold longest green?
You may be sure no moist'ning lacks that bride,
Who lies with winter thawing by her side. 50
She should be fruitful too as fields that join
Unto the melting waste of Apennine.
Whilst the cold morning-drops bedew the rose,
It doth nor leaf, nor smell, nor colour lose;
Then doubt not, Sweet! Age hath supplies of wet
To keep You like that flower in water set.
Dripping catarrhs and fontinells are things
Will make You think You grew betwixt two springs.
And should You not think so, You scarce allow
The force or merit of Your marriage-vow; 60
Where maids a new creed learn, and must from thence
Believe against their own or others' sense.
Else love will nothing differ from neglect,
Which turns not to a virtue each defect.
I'll say no more but this; you women make
Your children's reck'ning by the almanac.
I like it well, so you contented are,
To choose their fathers by that kalendar.
Turn then, old _Erra Pater_, and there see
According to life's posture and degree, 70
What age or what complexion is most fit
To make an English maid happy by it;
And You shall find, if You will choose a man,
Set justly for Your own meridian,
Though You perhaps let _One and Twenty_ woo,
Your elevation is for _Fifty-Two_.
[_Paradox. That it is best, &c._] After Hannah's
omission of _The Acquittance_ it is not surprising that he
did not give this or the next--though a greater excess of
prudishness appears in the exclusion of _The Change_, and one
begins to think that something more than accident, indolence,
or business prevented the appearance of the promised second
volume. But if there is some nastiness there is very little
naughtiness in them.]
[Line: 33 Some have thought 'vegetal', which was not uncommon
in the seventeenth century, a better form than 'vegetable',
though this latter has prevailed. It is the French word,
and though in Latin there is no 'vegetalis' and there is
'vegetabilis', yet this latter has quite a different sense.]
[Line: 44 Orig. has 'umbrell_ae_s', not 'umbrell_o_s' (or
-oes), which seems to be the older form.]
[Line: 46 It would be pardonable to suppose 'drill' an error
for 'rill'. But the word is unquestionably used in the sense
by Sandys and Jeremy Taylor, and seems to be the same as the
slightly older 'trill' in the sense of 'trickle'.]
_Paradox._
_That Fruition destroys Love._
Love is our Reason's Paradox, which still
Against the judgement doth maintain the will:
And governs by such arbitrary laws,
It only makes the act our liking's cause:
We have no brave revenge, but to forgo
Our full desires, and starve the tyrant so.
They whom the rising blood tempts not to taste,
Preserve a stock of love can never waste;
When easy people who their wish enjoy,
Like prodigals at once their wealth destroy. 10
Adam till now had stay'd in Paradise
Had his desires been bounded by his eyes.
When he did more than look, that made th' offence,
And forfeited his state of innocence.
Fruition therefore is the bane t' undo
Both our affection and the subject too.
'Tis Love into worse language to translate,
And make it into Lust degenerate:
'Tis to dethrone, and thrust it from the heart,
To seat it grossly in the sensual part. 20
Seek for the star that 's shot upon the ground,
And nought but a dim jelly there is found.
Thus foul and dark our female stars appear,
If fall'n or loos'ned once from Virtue's Sphere.
Glow-worms shine only look'd on, and let lie,
But handled crawl into deformity:
So beauty is no longer fair and bright,
Than whilst unstained by the appetite:
And then it withers like a blasted flower,
Some pois'nous worm or spider hath crept o'er. 30
Pygmalion's dotage on the carved stone,
Shows amorists their strong illusion.
Whilst he to gaze and court it was content,
He serv'd as priest at Beauty's monument:
But when by looser fires t' embraces led,
It prov'd a cold hard statue in his bed.
Irregular affects, like madmen's dreams
Presented by false lights and broken beams,
So long content us, as no near address
Shows the weak sense our painted happiness. 40
But when those pleasing shadows us forsake,
Or of the substance we a trial make,
Like him, deluded by the fancy's mock,
We shipwrack 'gainst an alabaster rock.
What though thy mistress far from marble be?
Her softness will transform and harden thee.
Lust is a snake, and Guilt the Gorgon's head,
Which Conscience turns to stone, and Joys to lead.
Turtles themselves will blush, if put to name
The act, whereby they quench their am'rous flame. 50
Who then that 's wise or virtuous, would not fear
To catch at pleasures which forbidden were,
When those which we count lawful, cannot be
Requir'd without some loss of modesty?
Ev'n in the marriage-bed, where soft delights
Are customary and authoriz'd rites;
What are those tributes to the wanton sense,
But toleration of Incontinence?
For properly you cannot call that Love
Which does not from the soul, but humour move. 60
Thus they who worship'd Pan or Isis' Shrine,
By the fair front judg'd all within divine:
Though ent'ring, found 'twas but a goat or cow
To which before their ignorance did bow.
Such temples and such goddesses are these
Which foolish lovers and admirers please:
Who if they chance within the shrine to pry,
Find that a beast they thought a Deity.
Nor makes it only our opinion less
Of what we lik'd before, and now possess; 70
But robs the fuel, and corrupts the spice
Which sweetens and inflames Love's sacrifice,
After fruition once, what is Desire
But ashes kept warm by a dying fire?
This is (if any) the Philosopher's Stone
Which still miscarries at projection.
For when the Heat _ad Octo_ intermits,
It poorly takes us like Third Ague fits,
Or must on embers as dull drugs infuse,
Which we for med'cine not for pleasure use. 80
Since lovers' joys then leave so sick a taste,
And soon as relish'd by the sense are past;
They are but riddles sure, lost if possest,
And therefore only in reversion best.
For bate them expectation and delay,
You take the most delightful scenes away.
These two such rule within the fancy keep,
As banquets apprehended in our sleep;
After which pleasing trance next morn we wake
Empty and angry at the night's mistake. 90
Give me long dreams and visions of content,
Rather than pleasures in a minute spent.
And since I know before, the shedding rose
In that same instant doth her sweetness lose,
Upon the virgin-stock still let her dwell
For me, to feast my longings with her smell.
Those are but counterfeits of joy at best,
Which languish soon as brought unto the test.
Nor can I hold it worth his pains who tries
To in that harvest which by reaping dies. 100
Resolve me now what spirit hath delight,
If by full feed you kill the appetite?
That stomach healthi'st is, that ne'er was cloy'd,
Why not that Love the best then, ne'er enjoy'd?
Since nat'rally the blood, when tam'd or sated,
Will cool so fast it leaves the object hated.
Pleasures, like wonders, quickly lose their price
When Reason or Experience makes us wise.
To close my argument then. I dare say
(And without Paradox) as well we may 110
Enjoy our Love and yet preserve Desire,
As warm our hands by putting out the fire.
[_Paradox. That Fruition, &c._] Put less tersely but
perhaps better by Dryden's most original heroine, Doralice,
in _Marriage à la Mode_, 'The only way to keep us true to
each other is never to enjoy'. The notion is old enough, and
several other seventeenth-century poets have treated it.]
[Line: 22 Nobody has ever assigned a (to me, at least)
plausible reason for this universal fancy of the seventeenth
century about the jellification of shooting-stars. It is
curious, but not inexplicable, that Browne does not touch it.]
[Line: 31 King has very coolly turned the Pygmalion story
upside down to suit his thesis.]
[Line: 50 The talking and blushing turtle (i.e. dove) is
another remarkable poetical licence.]
[Line: 77 Heat _ad Octo_] An obviously alchemical phrase which
I have not interpreted.]
[Line: 100 in] Orig. 'inne' = 'get in'. Cf. _All's Well that
Ends Well_, 1. iii, 'to in the crop'.]
_The Change._
_El sabio muda conscio: El loco persevera._
We lov'd as friends now twenty years and more:
Is't time or reason, think you, to give o'er?
When, though two prenti'ships set Jacob free,
I have not held my Rachel dear at three.
Yet will I not your levity accuse;
Continuance sometimes is the worse abuse.
In judgement I might rather hold it strange,
If, like the fleeting world, you did not change:
Be it your wisdom therefore to retract,
When perseverance oft is folly's act. 10
In pity I can think, that what you do
Hath Justice in't, and some Religion too;
For of all virtues Moral or Divine,
We know, but Love, none must in Heaven shine:
Well did you the presumption then foresee
Of counterfeiting immortality:
Since had you kept our loves too long alive,
We might invade Heaven's prerogative;
Or in our progress, like the Jews, comprise
The Legend of an earthly Paradise. 20
Live happy, and more prosperous in the next.
You have discharg'd your old friend by the text.
Farewell, fair Shadow of a female faith,
And let this be our friendship's Epitaph:
Affection shares the frailty of our fate,
When (like ourselves) 'tis old and out of date:
'Tis just all human loves their period have,
When friends are frail and dropping to the grave.
[_The Change._] This poem is almost less of
a commonplace than any of King's, and the expression is
vigorous. The nearest parallel I know to it is Crabbe's
'Natural Death of Love', and like that it has a curious, if
not cheerful, ring of actuality. But the case is more unusual.
The Spanish motto (rather dog-Spanish in original) means: 'The
wise man changes consciously: the fool [or, rather, madman]
perseveres.']
[Line: 22 by the text] = 'formally'? as it were, 'by the
card'. Or perhaps with direct reference to the motto.]
_To my Sister Anne King, who chid me in verse for being angry._
Dear Nan, I would not have thy counsel lost,
Though I last night had twice so much been crost;
Well is a passion to the market brought,
When such a treasure of advice is bought
With so much dross. And couldst thou me assure,
Each vice of mine should meet with such a cure,
I would sin oft, and on my guilty brow
Wear every misperfection that I owe,
Open and visible; I should not hide
But bring my faults abroad: to hear thee chide 10
In such a note, and with a quill so sage,
It passion tunes, and calms a tempest's rage.
Well, I am charm'd, and promise to redress
What, without shrift, my follies do confess
Against myself: wherefore let me entreat,
When I fly out in that distemper'd heat
Which frets me into fasts, thou wilt reprove
That froward spleen in poetry and love:
So though I lose my reason in such fits
Thou'lt rhyme me back again into my wits. 20
[_To my Sister, &c._] Anne King, afterwards Mrs.
Dutton and Lady Howe. Howell, the epistoler, admitted her (in
rather execrable verse) to that Tenth Museship which has had
so many fair incumbents. Izaak Walton left her a ring and
called her 'a most generose and ingenious Lady'. The verses
assigned to her, which may be found in Hannah's notes, are not
of the worst Tenth Muse quality.]
[Line: 2 It has been observed, once or twice, that a placid
and philosophical temper does not seem to have been one of the
Bishop's gifts, and he here acknowledges the fact.]
[Line: 8 'Owe', as so often noted, = 'own'.]
[Line: 17 And seems to have done due penance for it.]
_An Elegy upon the immature loss of the most vertuous Lady Anne Rich._
[Died August 24, 1638.]
I envy not thy mortal triumphs, Death
(Thou enemy to Virtue, as to breath),
Nor do I wonder much, nor yet complain
The weekly numbers by thy arrow slain.
The whole world is thy factory, and we,
Like traffic, driven and retail'd by Thee:
And where the springs of life fill up so fast,
Some of the waters needs must run to waste.
It is confess'd, yet must our griefs dispute
That which thine own conclusion doth refute, 10
Ere we begin. Hearken! for if thy ear
Be to thy throat proportion'd, thou canst hear.
Is there no order in the work of Fate?
Nor rule, but blindly to anticipate
Our growing seasons? or think'st thou 'tis just,
To sprinkle our fresh blossoms with thy dust,
Till by abortive funerals, thou bring
That to an Autumn, Nature meant a Spring?
Is't not enough for thee, that wither'd age
Lies the unpitied subject of thy rage; 20
But like an ugly amorist, thy crest
Must be with spoils of Youth and Beauty drest?
In other camps, those which sat down to-day
March first to-morrow, and they longest stay,
Who last came to the service: but in thine,
Only confusion stands for discipline.
We fall in such promiscuous heaps, none can
Put any diff'rence 'twixt thy rear or van;
Since oft the youngest lead thy files. For this,
The grieved world here thy accuser is, 30
And I a plaintiff, 'mongst those many ones,
Who wet this Lady's urn with zealous moans;
As if her ashes, quick'ning into years,
Might be again embodied by our tears.
But all in vain; the moisture we bestow
Shall make as soon her curled marble grow,
As render heat or motion to that blood,
Which through her veins branch't like an azure flood;
Whose now still current in the grave is lost,
Lock'd up, and fetter'd by eternal frost. 40
Desist from hence, doting Astrology!
To search for hidden wonders in the sky;
Or from the concourse of malignant stars,
Foretell diseases, gen'ral as our wars:
What barren droughts, forerunners of lean dearth,
Threaten to starve the plenty of the earth:
What horrid forms of darkness must affright
The sickly world, hast'ning to that long night
Where it must end. If there no portents are,
No black eclipses for the Kalendar, 50
Our times sad annals will rememb'red be
I' th' loss of bright Northumberland and Thee:
Two stars of Court, who in one fatal year
By most untimely set drop'd from their sphere.
She in the winter took her flight, and soon
As her perfections reach'd the point of noon,
Wrapt in a cloud, contracted her wish'd stay
Unto the measure of a short-liv'd day.
But _Thou_ in Summer, like an early rose,
By Death's cold hand nipp'd as _Thou_ didst disclose, 60
Took'st a long day to run that narrow stage,
Which in two gasping minutes summ'd thy age.
And, as the fading rose, when the leaves shed,
Lies in its native sweetness buried,
_Thou_ in thy virtues bedded and inhearst,
Sleep'st with those odours thy pure fame disperst,
Where till that Rising Morn thou must remain,
In which thy wither'd flowers shall spring again,
And greater beauties thy wak'd body vest,
Than were at thy departure here possest. 70
So with full eyes we close thy vault. Content
(With what thy loss bequeaths us) to lament,
And make that use of thy griev'd funeral,
As of a crystal broken in the fall;
Whose pitied fractures, gather'd up, and set,
May smaller mirrors for thy sex beget;
There let them view themselves, until they see
The end of all their glories shown in _Thee_.
Whilst in the truth of this sad tribute, I
Thus strive to canonize thy memory. 80
[_Elegy on Lady Anne Rich._] Properly Lady Rich,
who had been Lady Anne Cavendish. Her brother Charles was that
leader of the 'Ca'ndishers' in Lincolnshire whose defeat and
death at Gainsborough, after repeated victories in the spring
and summer of 1643, was one of the first and most serious
blows to the Royal cause. Waller wrote epitaphs both on him
and on his sister, but the best on her is Sidney Godolphin's
(_v. sup._, vol. ii, p. 248). She is one of the candidates
for the personage of Waller's 'Amoret', and was not impossibly
King's 'A. R.' (_v. sup._, p. 172).]
[Line: 4 _MS._ 'arrows'.]
[Line: 38 Which] _MS._ 'Once'.]
[Line: 48 _MS._ 'hasting'.]
[Line: 52 Northumberland] Lady Anne Cecil, first wife of
Algernon Percy, tenth Earl.]
[Line: 55 winter] December 6, 1637.]
_An Elegy upon Mrs. Kirk, unfortunately drowned in Thames._
For all the shipwracks, and the liquid graves
Lost men have gain'd within the furrow'd waves,
The Sea hath fin'd, and for our wrongs paid use,
When its wrought foam a Venus did produce.
But what repair wilt thou, unhappy Thames,
Afford our loss? thy dull unactive streams
Can no new beauty raise, nor yet restore
Her who by thee was ravish'd from our shore:
Whose death hath stain'd the glory of thy flood,
And mix'd the guilty channel with her blood. 10
O Neptune! was thy favour only writ
In that loose element where thou dost sit?
That, after all this time, thou shouldst repent
Thy fairest blessing to the continent?
Say, what could urge this Fate? is Thetis dead,
Or Amphitrite from thy wet arms fled?
Wast thou so poor in Nymphs, that thy moist love
Must be maintain'd with pensions from above?
If none of these, but that, whilst thou didst sleep
Upon thy sandy pillow in the deep, 20
This mischief stole upon us; may our grief
Waken thy just revenge on that sly thief,
Who, in thy fluid empire, without leave,
And unsuspected, durst her life bereave.
Henceforth, invert thy order, and provide
In gentlest floods a pilot for our guide.
Let rugged seas be lov'd, but the brook's smile
Shunn'd like the courtship of a crocodile;
And where the current doth most smoothly pass,
Think for her sake, that stream Death's looking-glass, 30
To show us our destruction is most near,
When pleasure hath begot least sense of fear.
Else break thy forked sceptre 'gainst some rock,
If thou endure a flatt'ring calm to mock
Thy far-fam'd pow'r, and violate that law
Which keeps the angry Ocean in awe.
Thy trident will grow useless, which doth still
Wild tempests, if thou let tame rivers kill.
Meantime, we owe thee nothing. Our first debt
Lies cancell'd in thy wat'ry cabinet. 40
We have for Her thou sent'st us from the main,
Return'd a Venus back to thee again.
[_An Elegy upon Mrs. Kirk, &c._] This and the
following were not in Hannah's MS. He, perhaps not quite
accurately, regards this as King's _only_ indulgence in what
he also regarded as 'the frigid and artificial style popular
among his contemporaries'. But he thought it better than the
companion piece in Heath's _Clarastella_ (_v. inf._). From
this latter we learn that Mrs. Kirk was one of the numerous
victims of 'shooting the bridge'. The piece is frigid enough
certainly, but rather from want of 'conceit' than because
of it. (Mr. Thorn-Drury has reminded me of Glapthorne's two
elegies on the same subject. They form the last contents of
the 1874 reprint and give more detail in their title, 'On the
noble and much to be lamented Mrs. Anne Kirk, wife to Mr. Geo.
Kirk, Gent. of the Robes and of his Majesty's Bed Chamber,
who was unfortunately drowned passing London Bridge, July 6.
1641'.)]
[Line: 3 fin'd] = '_paid_ fine', as often.]
_An Elegy upon the death of Mr. Edward Holt_.
Whether thy father's, or disease's rage,
More mortal prov'd to thy unhappy age,
Our sorrow needs not question; since the first
Is known for length and sharpness much the worst.
Thy fever yet was kind; which the ninth day
For thy misfortunes made an easy way.
When th' other barbarous and hectic fit,
In nineteen winters did not intermit.
I therefore vainly now not ask thee why
Thou didst so soon in thy youth's mid-way die: 10
But in my sense the greater wonder make,
Thy long oppressed heart no sooner brake.
Of force must the neglected blossom fall,
When the tough root becomes unnatural,
And to his branches doth that sap deny,
Which them with life and verdure should supply.
For parents' shame, let it forgotten be,
And may the sad example die with thee.
It is not now thy grieved friend's intent
To render thee dull Pity's argument. 20
Thou hast a bolder title unto fame,
And at Edge Hill thou didst make good the claim;
When, in thy Royal Master's cause and war,
Thy ventur'd life brought off a noble scar.
Nor did thy faithful services desist,
Till death untimely strook thee from the list.
Though in that prouder vault, then, which doth tomb
Thy ancestors, thy body find not room,
Thine own deserts have purchas'd thee a place,
Which more renowned is than all thy race; 30
For in this earth thou dost ennobled lie
With marks of valour and of loyalty.
[_Mr. Edward Holt._] Holt was King's brother-in-law,
having married his sister Elizabeth (_v. sup._, p. 173). He
died at Oxford in 1643 while attending the King as Groom of
the Bedchamber, and was buried in the Cathedral. His father,
who outlived him, was a Baronet, and is again abused by
King in his will as having been 'implacable'; but the Bishop
apparently thought better of his nephew Sir Robert, who was
a stout Royalist and churchman both before and after the
Restoration. Walton dedicated his _Life of Donne_ to this Sir
Robert Holt. His much-abused grandfather had at any rate set
the example of loyalty, and is said to have been plundered or
extortioned by Parliamentary 'contributions' or 'compositions'
to the amount of about £20,000.]
_To my dead friend Ben. Jonson._
[Died August 6, 1637.]
I see that wreath, which doth the wearer arm
'Gainst the quick strokes of thunder, is no charm
To keep off Death's pale dart. For, Jonson, then
Thou hadst been number'd still with living men.
Time's scythe had fear'd thy laurel to invade,
Nor thee this subject of our sorrow made.
Amongst those many votaries who come
To offer up their garlands at thy tomb;
Whilst some more lofty pens, in their bright verse
(Like glorious tapers flaming on thy hearse), 10
Shall light the dull and thankless world to see,
How great a maim it suffers, wanting thee;
Let not thy learned shadow scorn, that I
Pay meaner rites unto thy memory;
And since I nought can add but in desire,
Restore some sparks which leap'd from thine own fire.
What ends soever others' quills invite,
I can protest, it was no itch to write,
Nor any vain ambition to be read,
But merely love and justice to the dead, 20
Which rais'd my fameless Muse; and caus'd her bring
These drops, as tribute thrown into that spring,
To whose most rich and fruitful bead we owe
The purest streams of language which can flow.
For 'tis but truth, thou taught'st the ruder age
To speak by grammar, and reform'dst the stage:
Thy comic sock induc'd such purged sense,
A Lucrece might have heard without offence.
Amongst those soaring wits that did dilate
Our English, and advance it to the rate 30
And value it now holds, thyself was one
Help'd lift it up to such proportion;
That thus refin'd and rob'd, it shall not spare
With the full Greek or Latin to compare.
For what tongue ever durst, but ours, translate
Great Tully's eloquence, or Homer's state?
Both which in their unblemish'd lustre shine,
From Chapman's pen, and from thy _Catiline_.
All I would ask for thee, in recompense
Of thy successful toil and time's expense, 40
Is only this poor boon; that those who can
Perhaps read French, or talk Italian,
Or do the lofty Spaniard affect,
To show their skill in foreign dialect,
Prove not themselves so unnaturally wise,
They therefore should their mother-tongue despise
(As if her poets, both for style and wit,
Not equall'd, or not pass'd, their best that writ),
Until by studying Jonson they have known
The height and strength and plenty of their own. 50
Thus in what low earth or neglected room
Soe'er thou sleep'st, thy book shall be thy tomb.
Thou wilt go down a happy corse, bestrew'd
With thine own flowers; and feel thyself renew'd,
Whilst thy immortal, never-with'ring bays
Shall yearly flourish in thy readers' praise.
And when more spreading titles are forgot,
Or spite of all their lead and cere-cloth rot,
Thou wrapp'd and shrin'd in thine own sheets wilt lie,
A relic fam'd by all posterity. 60
[_Ben. Jonson._] In orig., as so often, 'Jo_h_nson'.
A contribution to _Jonsonus Virbius_, which, printed nearly
twenty years before these _Poems_, has one slight variant =
'that' for 'who' in l. 7.]
[Line: 5 scythe] Orig. 'sithe', which some great ones
(including even the other Johnson) will have to be the proper
spelling, and which is certainly usual in Middle English.
But 'scythe' is consecrated by the only Sainte Ampoule of
orthography--usage; 'sithe' also means 'a path' and 'a
sigh', and may be mistaken for 'since', while 'scythe' is
unmistakable. And for my part, if I may not have 'scythe' I
stickle for 'sigðe'--the undoubted original.]
[Line: 38 It was a little dangerous, in Ben's lifetime, to
praise others in company with him. But King here corroborates
Drummond's _Conversations_, in which Ben is made to speak well
of Chapman on several occasions, and (more particularly) to
declare his _Iliad_, or part of it, 'well done'.]
[Line: 42 It is rather curious that Drummond (in one of
those _Marginalia_ in which he relieves his feelings somewhat
subacidly) declares that his robustious guest 'neither
understood French nor Italian'.]
_An Elegy upon Prince Henry's death_
[Died Nov. 6, 1612.]
Keep station, Nature, and rest, Heaven, sure
On thy supporters' shoulders, lest, past cure,
Thou dash'd in ruin fall, by a grief's weight
Will make thy basis shrink, and lay thy height
Low as the centre. Hark! and feel it read
Through the astonish'd Kingdom, Henry's dead.
It is enough; who seeks to aggravate
One strain beyond this, prove[s] more sharp his fate
Than sad our doom. The world dares not survive
To parallel this woe's superlative. 10
O killing Rhetoric of Death! two words
Breathe stronger terrors than plague, fire, or swords
Ere conquer'd. This were epitaph and verse,
Worthy to be prefix'd in Nature's hearse,
Or Earth's sad dissolution; whose fall
Will be less grievous, though more general:
For all the woe ruin e'er buried
Sounds in these fatal accents, Henry's dead.
Cease then, unable Poetry; thy phrase
Is weak and dull to strike us with amaze 20
Worthy thy vaster subject. Let none dare
To copy this sad hap, but with despair
Hanging at his quill's point. For not a stream
Of ink can write, much less improve, this theme.
Invention highest wrought by grief or wit
Must sink with him, and on his tombstone split;
Who, like the dying Sun, tells us the light
And glory of our Day set in his Night.
[_Prince Henry._] Besides composing these English
verses King contributed two Latin sets to _Justa Oxoniensium_,
one of several Oxford _tombeaux_ for the Prince who was taken
away from the evil to come. The present poem appears to me
(though, of course, the high-strung character of the mourning
seems to have been both general and sincere) to be much more
'frigid and artificial' than the _Mrs. Anne Kirk_. Hannah
gives several variants, not merely from his usual MS. but from
Malone 21. I have taken those which seem to have some point.]
[Lines: 5-6 For 'Hark ... dead.' the Malone reading is:
Death and horror wed
To vent their teeming mischief: Henry's dead.
The other MS., for l. 6, has:
Through the astonisht _world_, Henry _is_ dead.
]
[Line: 11 Malone MS. '_Compendious Eloquence_ of Death', &c.]
[Line: 18 For the first half, Malone MS. 'lies in this narrow
compass'; the other, 'throngs' for 'lies'.]
_An Elegy upon S. W. R._
[Sir W. Raleigh? Executed Oct. 29, 1618.]
I will not weep, for 'twere as great a sin
To shed a tear for thee, as to have bin
An actor in thy death. Thy life and age
Was but a various scene on fortune's stage,
With whom thou tugg'st and strov'st ev'n out of breath
In thy long toil: ne'er master'd till thy death;
And then, despite of trains and cruel wit,
Thou didst at once subdue malice and it.
I dare not then so blast thy memory
As say I do lament or pity thee. 10
Were I to choose a subject to bestow
My pity on, he should be one as low
In spirit as desert;--that durst not die,
But rather were content by slavery
To purchase life: or I would pity those,
Thy most industrious and friendly foes;
Who, when they thought to make thee scandal's story,
Lent thee a swifter flight to Heav'n and glory;--
That thought, by cutting off some wither'd days
(Which thou couldst spare them), to eclipse thy praise; 20
Yet gave it brighter foil, made thy ag'd fame
Appear more white and fair, than foul their shame:
And did promote an execution
Which (but for them) Nature and Age had done.
Such worthless things as these were only born
To live on Pity's alms (too mean for scorn).
Thou diedst an envious wonder, whose high fate
The world must still admire, scarce imitate.
[_S. W. R._] The initials are not in _MS._, and the
identification, though almost certain, is a conjecture of
Hannah's. Almost every line fits Raleigh.]
[Line: 27 envious] Spenser has this sense, to which in some
cases the original 'invidious' comes very close.]
_An Elegy upon the L. Bishop of London, John King._
[Died on Good Friday, 1621.]
Sad relic of a blessed soul! whose trust
We sealed up in this religious dust:
O do not thy low exequies suspect,
As the cheap arguments of our neglect.
'Twas a commanded duty, that thy grave
As little pride as thou thyself should have.
Therefore thy covering is an humble stone,
And but a word for thy inscription.
When those that in the same earth neighbour thee,
Have each his chronicle and pedigree: 10
They have their waving pennons and their flags
(Of matches and alliance formal brags),
When thou (although from ancestors thou came,
Old as the Heptarchy, great as thy name,)
Sleep'st there inshrin'd in thy admired parts,
And hast no heraldry but thy deserts.
Yet let not them their prouder marbles boast,
For they rest with less honour, though more cost.
Go, search the world, and with your mattocks wound
The groaning bosom of the patient ground: 20
Dig from the hidden veins of her dark womb
All that is rare and precious for a tomb;
Yet when much treasure, and more time, is spent,
You must grant his the nobler monument,
Whose Faith stands o'er him for a hearse, and hath
The Resurrection for his epitaph.
[_John King._] Hannah thought this piece in bad
taste, and a neglect of the dead Bishop's wishes. As epitaphs
go this seems rather severe.]
[Line: 8 but a word] _Resurgam_. Orig. note.]
[Line: 9 neighbour] In St. Paul's.]
[Line: 13 ancestors] The Kings of Devonshire referred to in
Introduction.]
_Upon the death of my ever desired friend, Doctor Donne, Dean of
Paul's._
[Died March 31, 1631.]
To have lived eminent, in a degree
Beyond our loftiest flights, that is, like thee;
Or t' have had too much merit is not safe;
For such excesses find no epitaph.
At common graves, we have poetic eyes,
Can melt themselves in easy elegies;
Each quill can drop his tributary verse,
And pin it, with the hatchments, to the hearse:
But at thine, poem or inscription
(Rich soul of wit and language!) we have none; 10
Indeed a silence does that tomb befit,
Where is no herald left to blazon it.
Widow'd invention justly doth forbear
To come abroad, knowing thou art not here,
Late her great patron; whose prerogative
Maintain'd and cloth'd her so, as none alive
Must now presume to keep her at thy rate,
Though he the Indies for her dower estate:
Or else that awful fire, which once did burn
In thy clear brain, now fall'n into thy urn, 20
Lives there to fright rude empirics from thence,
Which might profane thee by their ignorance.
Who ever writes of thee, and in a style
Unworthy such a theme, does but revile
Thy precious dust, and wake a learned spirit
Which may revenge his rapes upon thy merit.
For all a low-pitch'd fancy can devise,
Will prove, at best, but hallow'd injuries.
Thou, like the dying swan, didst lately sing
Thy mournful dirge in audience of the king; 30
When pale looks, and faint accents of thy breath,
Presented so to life that piece of death,
That it was fear'd and prophesied by all
Thou thither cam'st to preach thy funeral.
O! hadst thou in an elegiac knell
Rung out unto the world thine own farewell;
And in thy high victorious numbers beat
The solemn measure of thy griev'd retreat,
Thou might'st the poet's service now have miss'd,
As well as then thou didst prevent the priest: 40
And never to the world beholden be
So much as for an epitaph for thee.
I do not like the office. Nor is 't fit,
Thou, who didst lend our age such sums of wit,
Shouldst now reborrow from her bankrupt mine
That ore to bury thee, which once was thine.
Rather still leave us in thy debt; and know
(Exalted soul!) more glory 'tis to owe
Unto thy hearse what we can never pay,
Than with embased coin those rites defray. 50
Commit we then thee to thyself: nor blame
Our drooping loves, which thus to thine own fame
Leave thee executor; since, but thy own,
No pen could do thee justice, nor bays crown
Thy vast desert; save that, we nothing can
Depute to be thy ashes' guardian.
So jewellers no art or metal trust
To form the diamond, but the diamond's dust.
[_Dr. Donne._] This is also found in some editions
of Donne's _Poems_ and in Walton's _Life_, and Hannah took
repeated pains to record the variants. I have borrowed those
which seemed of importance. King's friendship with Donne
(whose executor he was) was peculiarly intimate, as Walton, a
friend of both, elaborately testifies. But the greatest of the
many great Deans of St. Paul's was certainly 'beyond' King's
'loftiest flights' (or, as Walton read, 'thoughts'), and the
Bishop is here below even these.]
[Line: 8 pin it] This was literally done.]
[Line: 30 Refers to Donne's last sermon at Court, to his long
illness, and to the ghastly pallor perpetuated by the famous
picture of him in his shroud.]
[Line: 37 'High victorious numbers' is not bad, and the whole
passage does bare justice to Donne's mastery of the graver
epicede, which equalled Jonson's of the lighter.]
[Line: 41 beholden] Some versions have the common form
'behold_ing_'.]
[Line: 44 'Wit'--in that seventeenth-century sense of which
Sir Henry Craik has so well defined the object--'not to excite
laughter but to compel attention'--was regarded, and rightly,
as Donne's special glory, and the best thing written on his
death was Carew's
A king who ruled as he thought fit
The universal monarchy of Wit.
]
[Line: 49 For 'Unto thy hearse' the Walton version reads 'Thy
memory'.]
_An Elegy upon the most victorious King of Sweden, Gustavus Adolphus._
[Killed at the battle of Lützen, Nov. 6, 1632.]
Like a cold fatal sweat which ushers death,
My thoughts hang on me, and my lab'ring breath
Stopp'd up with sighs, my fancy, big with woes,
Feels two twinn'd mountains struggle in her throes,--
Of boundless sorrow one,--t' other of sin;--
For less let no one rate it, to begin
Where honour ends.--In great Gustavus' flame,
That style burnt out, and wasted to a name,
Does barely live with us. As when the stuff
That fed it, fails, the taper turns to snuff, 10
With this poor snuff, this airy shadow, we
Of Fame and Honour must contented be;
Since from the vain grasp of our wishes fled
Their glorious substance is, now He is dead.
Speak it again, and louder, louder yet;
Else, whilst we hear the sound, we shall forget
What it delivers. Let hoarse rumour cry,
Till she so many echoes multiply,
Those may like num'rous witnesses confute
Our unbelieving souls, that would dispute 20
And doubt this truth for ever. This one way
Is left our incredulity to sway;
To waken our deaf sense, and make our ears
As open and dilated as our fears;
That we may feel the blow, and feeling, grieve,
At what we would not fain, but must believe.
And in that horrid faith, behold the world
From her proud height of expectation hurl'd,
Stooping with him, as if she strove to have
No lower centre now than Sweden's grave. 30
O could not all thy purchas'd victories
Like to thy fame thy flesh immortalize?
Were not thy virtue nor thy valour charms
To guard thy body from those outward harms
Which could not reach thy soul? could not thy spirit
Lend somewhat which thy frailty might inherit
From thy diviner part, that Death, nor Hate,
Nor Envy's bullets e'er could penetrate?
Could not thy early trophies in stern fight
Torn from the Dane, the Pole, the Moscovite? 40
Which were thy triumph's seeds, as pledges sown,
That when thy honour's harvest was ripe grown,
With full-summ'd wing thou falcon-like wouldst fly,
And cuff the Eagle in the German sky:
Forcing his iron beak and feathers feel
They were not proof 'gainst thy victorious steel.
Could not all these protect thee? or prevail
To fright that coward Death, who oft grew pale
To look thee and thy battles in the face?
Alas! they could not: Destiny gives place 50
To none; nor is it seen that princes' lives
Can saved be by their prerogatives.
No more was thine; who, clos'd in thy cold lead,
Dost from thyself a mournful lecture read
Of man's short-dated glory: learn, you kings,
You are, like him, but penetrable things;
Though you from demi-gods derive your birth
You are at best but honourable earth:
And howe'er sifted from that coarser bran,
Which does compound and knead the common man, 60
Nothing's immortal, or from earth refin'd
About you, but your office and your mind.
Here then break your false glasses, which present
You greater than your Maker ever meant:
Make truth your mirror now, since you find all
That flatter you, confuted by his fall.
Yet, since it was decreed, thy life's bright Sun
Must be eclips'd ere thy full course was run,
Be proud thou didst, in thy black obsequies,
With greater glory set, than others rise. 70
For in thy death, as life, thou heldest one
Most just and regular proportion.
Look how the circles drawn by compass meet
Indivisibly joined, head to feet,
And by continued points which them unite,
Grow at once circular and infinite:
So did thy Fate and Honour now contend
To match thy brave beginning with thy end.
Therefore thou hadst, instead of passing bells,
The drums' and cannons' thunder for thy knells; 80
And in the field thou didst triumphing die,
Closing thy eyelids with a victory:
That so by thousands who there lost their breath,
King-like thou might'st be waited on in death.
Lived Plutarch now, and would of Caesar tell,
He could make none but Thee his parallel;
Whose tide of glory, swelling to the brim,
Needs borrow no addition from him. 90
When did great Julius, in any clime,
Achieve so much, and in so small a time?
Or if he did, yet shalt Thou in that land
Single, for him, and unexampled stand.
When o'er the Germans first his Eagle towr'd,
What saw the legions which on them he pour'd?
But massy bodies, made their swords to try,
Subjects, not for his fight, but slavery.
In that so vast expanded piece of ground
(Now Sweden's theatre and tomb), he found 100
Nothing worth Caesar's valour or his fear,
No conqu'ring army, nor a Tilly there,
Whose strength, nor wiles, nor practice in the war
Might the fierce torrent of thy triumphs bar,
But that thy winged sword twice made him yield,
Both from his trenches beat, and from the field.
Besides, the Roman thought he had done much,
Did he the bank of Rhenus only touch.
But though his march was bounded by the Rhine,
Not Oder nor the Danube thee confine; 110
And, but thy frailty did thy fame prevent,
Thou hadst thy conquests stretch'd to such extent,
Thou might'st Vienna reach, and after span
From Mulda to the Baltic Ocean.
But death hath spann'd thee: nor must we divine
What heir thou leav'st to finish thy design,
Or who shall thee succeed, as champion
For liberty and for religion.
Thy task is done; as in a watch, the spring,
Wound to the height, relaxes with the string: 120
So thy steel nerves of conquest, from their steep
Ascent declin'd, lie slack'd in thy last sleep.
Rest then, triumphant soul! for ever rest!
And, like the Ph[oe]nix in her spicy nest,
Embalm'd with thine own merit, upward fly,
Born in a cloud of perfume to the sky.
Whilst as in deathless urns, each noble mind
Treasures thy ashes which are left behind.
And if perhaps no Cassiopeian spark
(Which in the North did thy first rising mark) 130
Shine o'er thy hearse; the breath of our just praise
Shall to the firmament thy virtues raise;
Then fix, and kindle them into a star,
Whose influence may crown thy glorious war.
_----O Famâ ingens, ingentior armis,
Rex Gustave, quibus Coelo te laudibus aequem?_
Virgil. _Aeneid. lib. 2._ [11?]
[_Gustavus Adolphus._] This piece had been
previously printed in the _Swedish Intelligencer_, 1633, with
other elegies on the subject, one of which (in Malone MS. 21)
is also ascribed to King, but without any other evidence, and
(as Hannah seems to be right in thinking) very improbably. He
gives some variants, only two of which seem to me important
enough to reproduce. There are also versions in Rawlinson
Poetic MS. 26, fol. 51, and 160, fol. 39.]
[Line: 4 throes] Orig. 'thro_w_s'.]
[Lines: 6-7 Hannah in his note, though in his text he
had followed _1657_, as above, prefers the reading of the
_Intelligencer_--a full-stop at 'it', and 'To begin', which
is to a certain extent supported by a capitalized 'To' in his
MS., though there is not a full-stop. He has two notes on the
subject, and for a moment I was perplexed. But I feel certain
that the _1657_ text is right. Hannah's parallel from King's
prose, 'I begin there where all must end', is specious, but
not convincing. On the other hand, 'To begin, &c.' is wanted
to complete 'for less' and to explain 'sin'. Honour, as the
next sentence further tells us, perished with Gustavus, and it
is a solecism to attempt to continue it in verse. This is,
in the Archdeacon's words elsewhere, 'frigid and artificial'
enough; but it is also sufficiently 'metaphysical'.]
[Line: 10 Orig. has full-stop at 'snuff', but this (which
Hannah keeps and does not comment on) leaves nothing to
complete 'as'.]
[Line: 11 airy] For the 'ayerie' of edition and Malone MS.,
the _Intelligencer_, and Rawlinson MS. 160 have 'fiery'--I
think, in the context, better.]
[Line: 96. Orig. note. _Magis triumphati quam victi_. Tacit.
_de Mor. Ger._]
[Lines: 135-7 The end quotation (from _Aen._ xi. 124-5) is not
in MS.]
_To my Noble and Judicious Friend Sir Henry Blount upon his Voyage._
Sir, I must ever own myself to be
Possess'd with human curiosity
Of seeing all that might the sense invite
By those two baits of profit and delight:
And since I had the wit to understand
The terms of native or of foreign land;
I have had strong and oft desires to tread
Some of those voyages which I have read.
Yet still so fruitless have my wishes prov'd,
That from my Country's smoke I never mov'd: 10
Nor ever had the fortune (though design'd)
To satisfy the wand'rings of my mind.
Therefore at last I did with some content,
Beguile myself in time, which others spent;
Whose art to provinces small lines allots,
And represents large kingdoms but in spots.
Thus by Ortelius and Mercator's aid
Through most of the discover'd world I stray'd.
I could with ease double the Southern Cape,
And in my passage Afric's wonders take: 20
Then with a speed proportion'd to the scale
Northward again, as high as Zemla sail.
Oft hath the travel of my eye outrun
(Though I sat still) the journey of the Sun:
Yet made an end, ere his declining beams
Did nightly quench themselves in Thetis' streams.
Oft have I gone through Egypt in a day,
Not hinder'd by the droughts of Lybia;
In which, for lack of water, tides of sand
By a dry deluge overflow the land. 30
There I the Pyramids and Cairo see,
Still famous for the wars of Tomombee,
And its own greatness; whose immured sense
Takes forty miles in the circumference.
Then without guide, or stronger caravan
Which might secure the wild Arabian,
Back through the scorched deserts pass, to seek
Once the world's Lord, now the beslaved Greek,
Made by a Turkish yoke and fortune's hate
In language as in mind, degenerate. 40
And here all wrapp'd in pity and amaze
I stand, whilst I upon the Sultan gaze;
To think how he with pride and rapine fir'd
So vast a territory hath acquir'd;
And by what daring steps he did become
The Asian fear, and scourge of Christendom:
How he achiev'd, and kept, and by what arts
He did concentre those divided parts;
And how he holds that monstrous bulk in awe,
By settled rules of tyranny, not Law: 50
So rivers large and rapid streams began,
Swelling from drops into an Ocean.
Sure who e'er shall the just extraction bring
Of this gigantic power from the spring;
Must there confess a higher Ordinance
Did it for terror to the earth advance.
For mark how 'mongst a lawless straggling crew,
Made up of Arab, Saracen, and Jew,
The world's disturber, faithless Mahomet
Did by impostures an opinion get: 60
O'er whom he first usurps as Prince, and than
As prophet does obtrude his Alcoran.
Next, how fierce Ottoman his claim made good
From that unblest religion, by blood;
Whilst he the Eastern kingdoms did deface,
To make their ruin his proud Empire's base.
Then like a comet blazing in the skies,
How death-portending Amurath did rise,
When he his horned crescents did display
Upon the fatal plains of Servia; 70
And farther still his sanguine tresses spread,
Till Croya life and conquests limited.
Lastly, how Mahomet thence styl'd the Great,
Made Constantine's his own Imperial seat;
After that he in one victorious bond
Two Empires grasp'd, of Greece and Trebizond.
This, and much more than this, I gladly read,
Where my relators it had storyed;
Besides that people's manners and their rites,
Their warlike discipline and order'd fights; 80
Their desp'rate valour, hard'ned by the sense
Of unavoided Fate and Providence:
Their habit, and their houses, who confer
Less cost on them than on their sepulchre:
Their frequent washings, and the several bath
Each Meschit to itself annexed hath:
What honour they unto the Mufty give,
What to the Sovereign under whom they live:
What quarter Christians have; how just and free
To inoffensive travellers they be: 90
Though I confess, like stomachs fed with news,
I took them in for wonder, not for use,
Till your experienc'd and authentic pen
Taught me to know the places and the men;
And made all those suspected truths become
Undoubted now, and clear as axiom.
Sir, for this work more than my thanks is due;
I am at once inform'd and cur'd by you.
So that, were I assur'd I should live o'er
My periods of time run out before; 100
Ne'er needed my erratic wish transport
Me from my native lists to that resort,
Where many at outlandish marts unlade
Ingenuous manners, and do only trade
For vices and the language. By your eyes
I here have made my full discoveries;
And all your countries so exactly seen,
As in the voyage I had sharer been.
By this you make me so; and the whole land
Your debtor: which can only understand 110
How much she owes you, when her sons shall try
The solid depths of your rare history,
Which looks above our gadders' trivial reach,
The commonplace of travellers, who teach
But table-talk; and seldomly aspire
Beyond the country's diet or attire;
Whereas your piercing judgement does relate
The policy and manage of each State.
And since she must here without envy grant
That you have further journey'd the Levant 120
Than any noble spirit by her bred
Hath in your way as yet adventured;
I cannot less in justice from her look,
Than that she henceforth canonize your book
A rule to all her travellers, and you
The brave example; from whose equal view
Each knowing reader may himself direct,
How he may go abroad to some effect,
And not for form: what distance and what trust
In those remoter parts observe he must: 130
How he with jealous people may converse,
Yet take no hurt himself by that commerce.
So when he shall embark'd in dangers be,
Which wit and wary caution not foresee;
If he partake your valour and your brain,
He may perhaps come safely off again,
As you have done; though not so richly fraught
As this return hath to our staple brought.
I know your modesty shuns vulgar praise,
And I have none to bring; but only raise 140
This monument of Honour and of Love,
Which your long known deserts so far improve,
They leave me doubtful in what style to end,
Whether more your admirer or your friend.
[_Sir Henry Blount, &c._] Blount (1602-82) was of
Trinity College, Oxford, published his _Voyage to the Levant_
in 1636, and was knighted four years later. He was a good
Royalist in the early days of the Rebellion, but something of
a renegade later. His book has been variously judged, but was
very popular, and was translated into more than one foreign
language.]
[Line: 61 'Than' for 'then' as often.]
[Line: 76 Orig. 'Tr_a_b_e_zond', which at any rate keeps closer
than the usual form to Trapezus.]
[Line: 86 'Meschit' = of course 'mosque'. The form seems to be
nearest to the Spanish _mezquita_.]
[Line: 102 lists] Here in the sense (akin to the flannelly
one) of boundary, as in _Hamlet_, IV. v. 99, 'The ocean,
overpeering of his _list_', and several other Shakespearian
places.]
[Lines: 124-5 canonize ... rule] A play of words.]
_To my honoured Friend Mr. George Sandys._
It is, Sir, a confess'd intrusion here
That I before your labours do appear,
Which no loud herald need, that may proclaim
Or seek acceptance, but the Author's fame.
Much less that should this happy work commend,
Whose subject is its licence, and doth send
It to the world to be receiv'd and read,
Far as the glorious beams of truth are spread.
Nor let it be imagin'd that I look
Only with custom's eye upon your book; 10
Or in this service that 'twas my intent
T' exclude your person from your argument:
I shall profess, much of the love I owe,
Doth from the root of our extraction grow;
To which though I can little contribute,
Yet with a natural joy I must impute
To our tribe's honour, what by you is done
Worthy the title of a Prelate's son.
And scarcely have two brothers farther borne
A father's name, or with more value worn 20
Their own, than two of you; whose pens and feet
Have made the distant points of Heav'n to meet;
He by exact discoveries of the West,
Yourself by painful travels in the East
Some more like you might pow'rfully confute
Th' opposers of Priests' marriage by the fruit.
And (since 'tis known for all their straight vow'd life,
They like the sex in any style but wife)
Cause them to change their cloister for that state
Which keeps men chaste by vows legitimate: 30
Nor shame to father their relations,
Or under nephews' names disguise their sons.
This child of yours, born without spurious blot,
And fairly midwiv'd as it was begot,
Doth so much of the parent's goodness wear,
You may be proud to own it for your heir.
Whose choice acquits you from the common sin
Of such, who finish worse than they begin:
You mend upon yourself, and your last strain
Does of your first the start in judgement gain; 40
Since what in curious travel was begun,
You here conclude in a devotion.
Where in delightful raptures we descry
As in a map, Sion's chorography
Laid out in so direct and smooth a line,
Men need not go about through Palestine:
Who seek Christ here will the straight road prefer,
As nearer much than by the Sepulchre.
For not a limb grows here, but is a path;
Which in God's City the blest centre hath: 50
And doth so sweetly on each passion strike,
The most fantastic taste will somewhat like.
To the unquiet soul Job still from hence
Pleads in th' example of his patience.
The mortified may hear the wise King preach,
When his repentance made him fit to teach.
Nor shall the singing Sisters be content
To chant at home the Act of Parliament,
Turn'd out of reason into rhyme by one
Free of his trade, though not of Helicon, 60
Who did in his poetic zeal contend
Others' edition by a worse to mend.
Here are choice Hymns and Carols for the glad,
With melancholy Dirges for the sad:
And David (as he could his skill transfer)
Speaks like himself by an interpreter.
Your Muse rekindled hath the Prophet's fire,
And tun'd the strings of his neglected lyre;
Making the note and ditty so agree,
They now become a perfect harmony. 70
I must confess, I have long wish'd to see
The Psalms reduc'd to this conformity:
Grieving the songs of Sion should be sung
In phrase not diff'ring from a barbarous tongue.
As if, by custom warranted, we may
Sing that to God we would be loath to say.
Far be it from my purpose to upbraid
Their honest meaning, who first offer made
That book in metre to compile, which you
Have mended in the form, and built anew: 80
And it was well, considering the time,
Which hardly could distinguish verse and rhyme.
But now the language, like the Church, hath won
More lustre since the Reformation;
None can condemn the wish or labour spent
Good matter in good words to represent.
Yet in this jealous age some such there be,
So without cause afraid of novelty,
They would not (were it in their pow'r to choose)
An old ill practice for a better lose. 90
Men who a rustic plainness so affect,
They think God served best by their neglect.
Holding the cause would be profan'd by it,
Were they at charge of learning or of wit.
And therefore bluntly (what comes next) they bring
Coarse and unstudied stuffs for offering;
Which like th' old Tabernacle's cov'ring are,
Made up of badgers' skins, and of goat's hair.
But these are paradoxes they must use
Their sloth and bolder ignorance t'excuse. 100
Who would not laugh at one will naked go,
'Cause in old hangings truth is pictur'd so?
Though plainness be reputed honour's note,
They mantles use to beautify the coat;
So that a curious (unaffected) dress
Adds much unto the body's comeliness:
And wheresoe'er the subject's best, the sense
Is better'd by the speaker's eloquence.
But, Sir, to you I shall no trophy raise
From other men's detraction or dispraise: 110
That jewel never had inherent worth,
Which ask'd such foils as these to set it forth.
If any quarrel your attempt or style,
Forgive them; their own folly they revile.
Since, 'gainst themselves, their factious envy shall
Allow this work of yours canonical.
Nor may you fear the Poet's common lot,
Read, and commended, and then quite forgot:
The brazen mines and marble rocks shall waste,
When your foundation will unshaken last. 120
'Tis Fame's best pay, that you your labours see
By their immortal subject crowned be.
For ne'er was writer in oblivion hid
Who firm'd his name on such a Pyramid.
[_Mr. George Sandys._] These verses appeared as
commendatory to Sandys' well-known _Paraphrase upon the Divine
Psalms_, 1648. Sandys was not only a friend of King (as of all
his group), but, according to l. 14 of this piece, a relation:
the exact connexion, however, was unknown to Hannah and
Hooper, and is to me. Indeed, l. 18 might be taken to mean
that we were not to look further for 'extraction' than to the
fact that they were both sons of bishops. Hannah saw this, but
drew the inference somewhat too positively.
Mr. Percy Simpson has found the following variants in Sandys'
own book:]
[Line: 25 might] would.]
[Line: 27 straight vow'd] strait-vow'd.]
[Lines: 57-62 _absent_.]
[Line: 64 With] And skill] Art.]
[Line: 89 They would by no means (had they power to choose).
[Line: 90 practice] Custom.]
[Line: 96 stuffs] stuff.]
[Line: 116 Allow] Confess.]
[Line: King may have retouched the piece.]
[Line: 23 Orig. note: [Sir Edwin Sandys' survey of Religion in
the West] More properly entitled _Europae Speculum_ (1559).]
[Line: 53 seq. In the original there are side-notes: 'Job',
'Ecclesiastes', 'The Act of Parliament for Public Thanksgiving
on the fifth of November, set to a tune by H. Dod a tradesman
of London, at the end of his Psalms, which stole from the
Press Anno Domini 1620'; 'Hymns', 'Lamentations', 'Psalms',
referring to other Paraphrases of Sandys on the various books
named, and (in the third place) on certain Songs selected from
other parts of the Bible. The unfortunate 'H. Dod a tradesman'
may have had his Manes refreshed by a notice in the _D.N.B._]
[Line: 70 It was too early for King to recognize, as has been
done since, the reason of the 'perfect harmony' he relished
as a fact in Sandys. That poet was one of the earliest after
Fairfax, and probably before Beaumont or Waller, to master
(though not always to practise) the stopped antithetic couplet
which was conquering, and to conquer, public favour.]
[Line: 71 It were much to be desired (though Hannah did not
think so) that King had allowed his wishes to be satisfied by
Sandys' performance, without attempting competition.]
[Line: 79 The reference is, of course, to the universally
heard of, but perhaps by extremely few read, 'Sternhold and
Hopkins'. The actual terms of King's criticism are not very
happy, but nobody then knew, or easily could know, much
about literary history. It was a fifteenth- rather than a
sixteenth-century fault 'hardly to distinguish _verse_ and
_rhyme_'. Where Sternhold and Hopkins--in common with much
greater men, from Wyatt to Gascoigne--sometimes went wrong,
was in their inability to attain anything but a 'butterwoman's
rank to market'--a sing-song and soulless uniformity of
cadence, and (a sin more specially their own) in the hopeless
dullness and drabness of their diction.]
_The Woes of Esay._
Woe to the worldly men, whose covetous
Ambition labours to join house to house,
Lay field to field, till their enclosures edge
The plain, girdling a country with one hedge:
That leave no place unbought, no piece of earth
Which they will not engross, making a dearth
Of all inhabitants, until they stand
Unneighbour'd, as unblest, within their land.
This sin cries in God's ear, who hath decreed
The ground they sow shall not return the seed. 10
They that unpeopled countries to create
Themselves sole Lords,--made many desolate
To build up their own house,--shall find at last
Ruin and fearful desolation cast
Upon themselves. Their mansion shall become
A desert, and their palace prove a tomb.
Their vines shall barren be, their land yield tares;
Their house shall have no dwellers, they no heirs.
Woe unto those, that with the morning Sun
Rise to drink wine, and sit till he have run 20
His weary course; not ceasing until night
Have quench'd their understanding with the light:
Whose raging thirst, like fire, will not be tam'd,
The more they pour, the more they are inflam'd.
Woe unto them that only mighty are
To wage with wine; in which unhappy war
They who the glory of the day have won,
Must yield them foil'd and vanquish'd by the tun.
Men that live thus, as if they liv'd in jest,
Fooling their time with music and a feast; 30
That did exile all sounds from their soft ear
But of the harp, must this sad discord hear
Compos'd in threats. The feet which measures tread
Shall in captivity be fettered:
Famine shall scourge them for their vast excess;
And Hell revenge their monstrous drunkenness;
Which hath enlarg'd itself to swallow such,
Whose throats ne'er knew enough, though still too much.
Woe unto those that countenance a sin,
Siding with vice, that it may credit win 40
By their unhallow'd vote: that do benight
The truth with error, putting dark for light,
And light for dark; that call an evil good,
And would by vice have virtue understood:
That with their frown can sour an honest cause,
Or sweeten any bad by their applause.
That justify the wicked for reward;
And, void of moral goodness or regard,
Plot with detraction to traduce the fame
Of him whose merit hath enroll'd his name 50
Among the just. Therefore God's vengeful ire
Glows on his people, and becomes a fire,
Whose greedy and exalted flame shall burn,
Till they like straw or chaff to nothing turn.
Because they have rebell'd against the right,
To God and Law perversely opposite,
As plants which Sun nor showers did ever bless,
So shall their root convert to rottenness;
And their succession's bud, in which they trust,
Shall (like Gomorrah's fruit) moulder to dust. 60
Woe unto those that, drunk with self-conceit,
Value their own designs at such a rate
Which human wisdom cannot reach; that sit
Enthron'd, as sole monopolists of wit;
That outlook reason, and suppose the eye
Of Nature blind to their discovery,
Whilst they a title make to understand
Whatever secret's bosom'd in the land.
But God shall imp their pride, and let them see
They are but fools in a sublime degree: 70
He shall bring down and humble those proud eyes,
In which false glasses only they look'd wise;
That all the world may laugh, and learn by it,
There is no folly to pretended wit.
Woe unto those that draw iniquity
With cords, and by a vain security
Lengthen the sinful trace, till their own chain
Of many links, form'd by laborious pain,
Do pull them into Hell; that, as with lines
And cart-ropes, drag on their unwilling crimes: 80
Who, rather than they will commit no sin,
Tempt all occasions to let it in.
As if there were no God, who must exact
The strict account for every vicious fact;
Nor judgement after death. If any be,
Let him make speed (say they), that we may see.
Why is his work retarded by delay?
Why doth himself thus linger on the way?
If there be any judge, or future doom,
Let It and Him with speed together come. 90
Unhappy men, that challenge and defy
The coming of that dreadful Majesty!
Better by much for you, he did reverse
His purposed sentence on the Universe;
Or that the creeping minutes might adjourn
Those flames in which you, with the earth, must burn;
That time's revolting hand could lag the year,
And so put back his day which is too near.
Behold his signs advanc'd like colours fly,
To tell the world that his approach is nigh; 100
And in a furious march, he's coming on
Swift as the raging inundation,
To scour the sinful world; 'gainst which is bent
Artillery that never can be spent:
Bows strung with vengeance, and flame-feather'd darts
Headed with death, to wound transgressing hearts;
His chariot wheels wrapp'd in the whirlwind's gyre,
His horses hoov'd with flint, and shod with fire:
In which amaze, where'er they fix their eye,
Or on the melting earth, or up on high, 110
To seek Heaven's shrunk lights, nothing shall appear,
But night and horror in their hemisphere:
Nor shall th' affrighted sense more objects know
Than dark'ned skies above, and Hell below.
[_The Woes of Esay._] It may seem strange that a man
of poetical velleities, with the magnificent range of choice
open to him in the Book of Isaiah, should choose these 'Woes'
for verse-paraphrase. But the fact is interesting as combining
with others, which have been pointed out here and there
already, to show that King, at one time of his life, _had_
leanings to that Puritan-popular temper which, from the
days of Langland downwards, had shown itself in England. The
couplet verse has some vigour.]
[Line: 84 The original apostrophation (kept by Hannah) of
'every' is 'e'ry'--interesting to compare with the common
forms of 'e're' for 'ever' and 'ne're' for 'never'. _N. E.
D._ traces it to the fifteenth century, and notes an
eighteenth-century extension to 'e'ery'.]
_An Essay on Death and a Prison._
A prison is in all things like a grave,
Where we no better privileges have
Than dead men, nor so good. The soul once fled
Lives freer now, than when she was cloistered
In walls of flesh; and though she organs want
To act her swift designs, yet all will grant
Her faculties more clear, now separate,
Than if the same conjunction, which of late
Did marry her to earth, had stood in force,
Uncapable of death, or of divorce: 10
But an imprison'd mind, though living, dies,
And at one time feels two captivities;
A narrow dungeon which her body holds,
But narrower body which herself enfolds.
Whilst I in prison lie, nothing is free,
Nothing enlarg'd, but thought and misery;
Though every chink be stopp'd, the doors close barr'd,
Despite of walls and locks, through every ward
These have their issues forth; may take the air,
Though not for health, but only to compare 20
How wretched those men are who freedom want,
By such as never suffer'd a restraint.
In which unquiet travel could I find
Aught that might settle my distemper'd mind,
Or of some comfort make discovery,
It were a voyage well employ'd: but I,
Like our raw travellers that cross the seas
To fetch home fashions, or some worse disease,
Instead of quiet, a new torture bring
Home t' afflict me, malice and murmuring. 30
What is't I envy not? no dog nor fly
But my desires prefer, and wish were I;
For they are free, or, if they were like me,
They had no sense to know calamity.
But in the grave no sparks of envy live,
No hot comparisons that causes give
Of quarrel, or that our affections move
Any condition, save their own, to love.
There are no objects there but shades and night,
And yet that darkness better than the light. 40
There lives a silent harmony; no jar
Or discord can that sweet soft consort mar.
The grave's deaf ear is clos'd against all noise
Save that which rocks must hear, the angel's voice:
Whose trump shall wake the world, and raise up men
Who in earth's bosom slept, bed-rid till then.
What man then would, who on death's pillow slumbers,
Be re-inspired with life, though golden numbers
Of bliss were pour'd into his breast; though he
Were sure in change to gain a monarchy? 50
A monarch's glorious state compar'd with his,
Less safe, less free, less firm, less quiet is.
For ne'er was any Prince advanc'd so high
That he was out of reach of misery:
Never did story yet a law report
To banish fate or sorrow from his Court;
Where ere he moves, by land, or through the main,
These go along, sworn members of his train.
But he whom the kind earth hath entertain'd,
Hath in her womb a sanctuary gain'd, 60
Whose charter and protection arm him so,
That he is privileg'd from future woe.
The coffin 's a safe harbour, where he rides
Land-bound, below cross winds, or churlish tides.
For grief, sprung up with life, was man's half-brother,
Fed by the taste, brought forth by sin, the mother.
And since the first seduction of the wife,
God did decree to grief a lease for life;
Which patent in full force continue must,
Till man that disobey'd revert to dust. 70
So that life's sorrows, ratifi'd by God,
Cannot expire, or find their period,
Until the soul and body disunite,
And by two diff'rent ways from each take flight.
But they dissolved once, our woes disband,
Th' assurance cancell'd by one fatal hand;
Soon as the passing bell proclaims me dead,
My sorrows sink with me, lie buried
In the same heap of dust, the self-same urn
Doth them and me alike to nothing turn. 80
If then of these I might election make
Whether I would refuse, and whether take,
Rather than like a sullen anchorite
I would live cas'd in stone, and learn to write
A _Prisoner's story_, which might steal some tears
From the sad eyes of him that reads or hears;
Give me a peaceful death, and let me meet
My freedom seal'd up in my winding sheet.
Death is the pledge of rest, and with one bail
Two prisons quits, the Body and the Jail. 90
[_An Essay._] This piece stands to some work of
Donne's much as others of King's do to the lyrics of the
greater poet. The couplets are more enjambed than in _The Woes
of Esay_, and the metaphysicality is of the satiric kind. It
should not be needful, but may be well, to say that King had
no actual experience of prisons. On the other side of the
matter the piece might, but by no means need, belong to the
series connected with his wife's death.]
_The Labyrinth._
Life is a crooked labyrinth, and we
Are daily lost in that obliquity.
'Tis a perplexed circle, in whose round
Nothing but sorrows and new sins abound.
How is the faint impression of each good
Drown'd in the vicious channel of our blood?
Whose ebbs and tides by their vicissitude
Both our great Maker and ourselves delude.
O wherefore is the most discerning eye
Unapt to make its own discovery? 10
Why is the clearest and best judging mind
In her own ills' prevention dark and blind?
Dull to advise, to act precipitate,
We scarce think what to do, but when too late.
Or if we think, that fluid thought, like seed,
Rots there to propagate some fouler deed.
Still we repent and sin, sin and repent;
We thaw and freeze, we harden and relent.
Those fires, which cool'd to-day, the morrow's heat
Rekindles. Thus frail nature does repeat 20
What she unlearnt, and still, by learning on,
Perfects her lesson of confusion.
Sick soul! what cure shall I for thee devise,
Whose leprous state corrupts all remedies?
What medicine or what cordial can be got
For thee, who poison'st thy best antidote?
Repentance is thy bane, since thou by it
Only reviv'st the fault thou didst commit.
Nor griev'st thou for the past, but art in pain,
For fear thou mayst not act it o'er again. 30
So that thy tears, like water spilt on lime,
Serve not to quench, but to advance the crime.
My blessed Saviour! unto thee I fly
For help against this homebred tyranny.
Thou canst true sorrows in my soul imprint,
And draw contrition from a breast of flint.
Thou canst reverse this labyrinth of sin,
My wild affects and actions wander in.
O guide my faith! and, by thy grace's clew,
Teach me to hunt that kingdom at the view 40
Where true joys reign, which like their day shall last;
Those never clouded, nor that overcast.
[_The Labyrinth._] 12 her] our _Malone MS. 22._]
[Line: 26 Orig. 'anti_dot_', on the eye-[and ear]-system as
before.]
_Being waked out of my sleep by a snuff of candle which offended me,
I thus thought._
Perhaps 'twas but conceit. Erroneous sense!
Thou art thine own distemper and offence.
Imagine then, that sick unwholesome steam
Was thy corruption breath'd into a dream.
Nor is it strange, when we in charnels dwell,
That all our thoughts of earth and frailty smell.
Man is a Candle, whose unhappy light
Burns in the day, and smothers in the night.
And as you see the dying taper waste, 10
By such degrees does he to darkness haste.
Here is the diff'rence: When our bodies' lamps
Blinded by age, or chok'd with mortal damps,
Now faint, and dim, and sickly 'gin to wink,
And in their hollow sockets lowly sink;
When all our vital fires ceasing to burn,
Leave nought but snuff and ashes in our urn:
God will restore those fallen lights again,
And kindle them to an eternal flame.
_Sic Vita._
KING AND BEAUMONT.
[I.]
Like to the falling of a star;
Or as the flights of eagles are;
Or like the fresh springs gaudy hue;
Or silver drops of morning dew;
Or like a wind that chafes the flood;
Or bubbles which on water stood;
Even such is man, whose borrow'd light
Is straight call'd in, and paid to night.
The wind blows out; the bubble dies;
The Spring entomb'd in Autumn lies; 10
The dew dries up; the star is shot;
The flight is past; and man forgot.
WASTELL.
[II.]
Like as the damask rose you see;
Or like the blossom on the tree;
Or like the dainty flower of May;
Or like the morning to the day;
Or like the Sun; or like the shade;
Or like the gourd which Jonas had;
Even such is man, whose thread is spun,
Drawn out, and cut, and so is done.
The rose withers; the blossom blasteth;
The flower fades; the morning hasteth;
The sun sets; the shadow flies;
The gourd consumes; and man he dies.
[III.]
Like to the Grass that's newly sprung;
Or like a tale that's new begun;
Or like the bird that's here to-day;
Or like the pearled dew of May;
Or like an hour; or like a span;
Or like the singing of a swan;
Even such is man, who lives by breath,
Is here, now there, in life, and death.
The grass withers; the tale is ended;
The bird is flown; the dew's ascended;
The hour is short; the span not long;
The swan's near death; man's life is done.
[IV.]
Like to the bubble in the brook;
Or, in a glass, much like a look;
Or like a shuttle in weaver's hand;
Or like the writing on the sand;
Or like a thought; or like a dream;
Or like the gliding of the stream;
Even such is man, who lives by breath,
Is here, now there, in life, and death.
The bubble's cut; the look's forgot;
The shuttle's flung; the writing's blot;
The thought is past; the dream is gone;
The water glides; man's life is done.
[V.]
Like to an arrow from the bow;
Or like swift course of watery flow;
Or like the time twixt flood and ebb;
Or like the spider's tender web;
Or like a race; or like a goal;
Or like the dealing of a dole;
Even such is man whose brittle state
Is always subject unto fate.
The arrow's shot; the flood soon spent;
The time no time; the web soon rent;
The race soon run; the goal soon won;
The dole soon dealt; man's life first done.
[VI.]
Like to the lightning from the sky;
Or like a post that quick doth hie;
Or like a quaver in short song;
Or like a journey three days long;
Or like the snow when summer's come;
Or like the pear; or like the plum;
Even such is man, who heaps up sorrow,
Lives but this day, and dies to-morrow,
The lightning's past; the post must go;
The song is short; the journey's so;
The pear doth rot; the plum doth fall;
The snow dissolves; and so must all.
QUARLES.
Like to the damask Rose you see, &c.
[VII.]
Like to the blaze of fond delight;
Or like a morning clear and bright;
Or like a post; or like a shower;
Or like the pride of Babel's Tower;
Or like the hour that guides the time;
Or like to beauty in her prime;
Even such is man, whose glory lends
His life a blaze or two, and ends.
Delights vanish; the morn o'er casteth;
The frost breaks; the shower hasteth;
The Tower falls; the hour spends;
The beauty fades; and man's life ends.
BROWNE.
[VIII.]
Like to a silkworm of one year;
Or like a wronged lover's tear;
Or on the waves a rudder's dint;
Or like the sparkles of a flint:
Or like to little cakes perfum'd;
Or fireworks made to be consum'd;
Even such is man, and all that trust
In weak and animated dust.
The silkworm droops; the tear's soon shed;
The ship's way lost; the sparkle dead;
The cake is burnt; the firework done;
And man as these as quickly gone.
STRODE.
[IX.]
Like to the rolling of an eye:
Or like a star shot from the sky;
Or like a hand upon a clock;
Or like a wave upon a rock;
Or like a wind; or like a flame;
Or like false news which people frame;
Even such is man, of equal stay
Whose very growth leads to decay.
The eye is turned; the star down bendeth;
The hand doth steal; the wave descendeth;
The wind is spent; the flame unfir'd;
The news disprov'd; man's life expir'd.
[X.]
Like to an eye which sleep doth chain;
Or like a star whose fall we faine [ = feign];
Or like a shade on A[t]haz' watch:
Or like a wave which gulfs do snatch;
Or like a wind or flame that's past;
Or smother'd news confirm'd at last;
Even so man's life, pawn'd in the grave,
Waits for a rising it must have
The eye still sees; the star still blazeth;
The shade goes back; the wave escapeth;
The wind is turn'd, the flame reviv'd,
The news renew'd; and man new liv'd.
[_Sic Vita._] On this famous piece see Introduction.
Only the first form is attributed to King and appears in
his _Poems_; but it also appears not merely in the singular
higgledy-piggledy called the poems of Francis Beaumont, 1653,
but in the earlier and better edition of 1640. Simon Wastell
was a schoolmaster who had been at Queen's College, Oxford;
and who in 1629 appended these sets of verses to a book then
entitled _Microbiblion_. The first is claimed by Quarles, who
also wrote another in the form. William Browne's version was
not published till 1815, and the authors of the two from the
Malone MS. are unknown. The group is probably the palmary
example in English of that coterie-and school-verse which
distinguished the seventeenth century. The King-Beaumont form
is certainly the best and probably the original. (It will be
observed that X is _palinodic_ to the others. It is, _with_
IX, attributed as a single piece to Strode and entitled
'On Death and Resurrection' in MS. Malone 16, fol. 35, and
Dobell's _Poetical Works of W. Strode_).
_My Midnight Meditation._
Ill busi'd man! why shouldst thou take such care
To lengthen out thy life's short kalendar?
When every spectacle thou look'st upon
Presents and acts thy execution.
Each drooping season and each flower doth cry,
Fool! as I fade and wither, thou must die.
The beating of thy pulse (when thou art well)
Is just the tolling of thy passing bell:
Night is thy hearse, whose sable canopy
Covers alike deceased day and thee. 10
And all those weeping dews which nightly fall,
Are but the tears shed for thy funeral.
[_My Midnight Meditation._] 11 which] _MS._ 'that'.
In _Parnassus Biceps_, p. 80, with title 'On Man': ll. 9-10
are absent from this version. Mr. Thorn-Drury thinks that this
is Dr. _John_ King's (so ascribed in Malone MS. 21, fol. 2_b_,
and Mr. Dobell's MS. of Strode).]
_A Penitential Hymn._
Hearken, O God, unto a wretch's cries,
Who low dejected at thy footstool lies.
Let not the clamour of my heinous sin
Drown my requests, which strive to enter in
At those bright gates, which always open stand
To such as beg remission at thy hand.
Too well I know, if thou in rigour deal,
I can nor pardon ask, nor yet appeal:
To my hoarse voice, heaven will no audience grant,
But deaf as brass, and hard as adamant 10
Beat back my words; therefore I bring to thee
A gracious Advocate to plead for me.
What though my leprous soul no Jordan can
Recure, nor floods of the lav'd Ocean
Make clean? yet from my Saviour's bleeding side
Two large and medicinable rivers glide.
Lord, wash me where those streams of life abound,
And new Bethesdas flow from ev'ry wound.
If I this precious lather may obtain,
I shall not then despair for any stain; 20
I need no Gilead's balm, nor oil, nor shall
I for the purifying hyssop call:
My spots will vanish in His purple flood,
And crimson there turn white, though wash'd with blood.
See, Lord! with broken heart and bended knee,
How I address my humble suit to Thee;
O give that suit admittance to Thy ears,
Which floats to Thee, not in my words, but tears:
And let my sinful soul this mercy crave,
Before I fall into the silent grave. 30
[_A Penitential Hymn._] This piece is referred to by
Anthony Wood as one of several 'anthems'. It was, he tells us,
intended for Lenten use, and set by Dr. John Wilson, gentleman
of the Chapel Royal. To this Dr. Wilson, Hannah thought that
his collated MS. copy of King's _Poems_, which bears the name,
had belonged, additional evidence being found in the curious
fact that the Hymn appears in that copy out of order, and
first.]
_An Elegy occasioned by Sickness._
Well did the Prophet ask, _Lord, what is Man?_
Implying by the question none can
But God resolve the doubt, much less define
What elements this child of dust combine.
Man is a stranger to himself, and knows
Nothing so naturally as his woes.
He loves to travel countries, and confer
The sides of Heaven's vast diameter:
Delights to sit in Nile or Bætis' lap,
Before he hath sail'd over his own map; 10
By which means he returns, his travel spent,
Less knowing of himself than when he went.
Who knowledge hunt kept under foreign locks,
May bring home wit to hold a paradox,
Yet be fools still. Therefore, might I advise,
I would inform the soul before the eyes:
Make man into his proper optics look,
And so become the student and the book.
With his conception, his first leaf, begin;
What is he there but complicated sin? 20
When riper time, and the approaching birth
Ranks him among the creatures of the earth,
His wailing mother sends him forth to greet
The light, wrapp'd in a bloody winding sheet;
As if he came into the world to crave
No place to dwell in, but bespeak a grave.
Thus like a red and tempest-boding morn
His dawning is: for being newly born
He hails th' ensuing storm with shrieks and cries,
And fines for his admission with wet eyes. 30
How should that plant, whose leaf is bath'd in tears,
Bear but a bitter fruit in elder years?
Just such is this, and his maturer age
Teems with event more sad than the presage.
For view him higher, when his childhood's span
Is raised up to youth's meridian;
When he goes proudly laden with the fruit
Which health, or strength, or beauty contribute;
Yet,--as the mounted cannon batters down
The towers and goodly structures of a town,-- 40
So one short sickness will his force defeat,
And his frail citadel to rubbish beat.
How does a dropsy melt him to a flood,
Making each vein run water more than blood?
A colic wracks him like a northern gust,
And raging fevers crumble him to dust.
In which unhappy state he is made worse
By his diseases than his Maker's curse.
God said in _toil and sweat_ he should earn bread,
And without labour not be nourished: 50
There, though like ropes of falling dew, his sweat
Hangs on his lab'ring brow, he cannot eat.
Thus are his sins scourg'd in opposed themes,
And luxuries reveng'd by their extremes.
He who in health could never be content
With rarities fetch'd from each element,
Is now much more afflicted to delight
His tasteless palate, and lost appetite.
Besides, though God ordain'd, that with the light
Man should begin his work, yet he made night 60
For his repose, in which the weary sense
Repairs itself by rest's soft recompense.
But now his watchful nights and troubled days
Confused heaps of fear and fancy raise.
His chamber seems a loose and trembling mine;
His pillow quilted with a porcupine;
Pain makes his downy couch sharp thorns appear,
And ev'ry feather prick him like a spear.
Thus, when all forms of death about him keep,
He copies death in any form, but sleep. 70
Poor walking-clay! hast thou a mind to know
To what unblest beginnings thou dost owe
Thy wretched self? fall sick a while, and than
Thou wilt conceive the pedigree of Man.
Learn shalt thou from thine own anatomy,
That earth his mother, worms his sisters be.
That he's a short-liv'd vapour upward wrought,
And by corruption unto nothing brought.
A stagg'ring meteor by cross planets beat,
Which often reels and falls before his set; 80
A tree which withers faster than it grows;
A torch puff'd out by ev'ry wind that blows;
A web of forty weeks spun forth in pain,
And in a moment ravell'd out again.
This is the model of frail man: then say
That his duration's only for a day:
And in that day more fits of changes pass,
Than atoms run in the turn'd hour-glass.
So that th' incessant cares which life invade
Might for strong truth their heresy persuade, 90
Who did maintain that human souls are sent
Into the body for their punishment:
At least with that Greek sage still make us cry,
Not to be born, or, being born, to die.
But Faith steers up to a more glorious scope,
Which sweetens our sharp passage; and firm hope
Anchors our torn barks on a blessed shore,
Beyond the Dead Sea we here ferry o'er.
To this, Death is our pilot, and disease
The agent which solicits our release. 100
Though crosses then pour on my restless head,
Or ling'ring sickness nail me to my bed:
Let this my thought's eternal comfort be,
That my clos'd eyes a better light shall see.
And when by fortune's or by nature's stroke
My body's earthen pitcher must be broke,
My soul, like Gideon's lamp, from her crack'd urn
Shall Death's black night to endless lustre turn.
[_An Elegy, &c._] It is always well to placate
Nemesis before finding fault with a fellow-creature's
complaints. But this piece, like some others, does rather
illustrate that 'tendency to _grizzle_' which has been noticed
in the Introduction. It was no doubt natural to King, and was
probably confirmed in him by his wife's early death. It
is worth noticing that--a thing rare in his time--he never
remarried.]
[Line: 33 this] _MS._ 'his'.]
[Line: 73 'Than' for 'then' is much rarer than the converse,
though we have it once _supra_. It is odd too here, for 'then'
would have done just as well.]
[Line: 90 'Their' = Origen and the Priscillianists.]
[Line: 93 Posidippus? But the thing was a commonplace.]
[Line: 94 Side-note in orig.: _Non nasci, aut quam citissime
mori._]
_The Dirge._
What is th' existence of Man's life
But open war, or slumber'd strife?
Where sickness to his sense presents
The combat of the elements;
And never feels a perfect peace,
Till Death's cold hand signs his release.
It is a storm, where the hot blood
Outvies in rage the boiling flood;
And each loud passion of the mind
Is like a furious gust of wind, 10
Which beats his bark with many a wave,
Till he casts anchor in the grave.
It is a flower, which buds and grows,
And withers as the leaves disclose;
Whose spring and fall faint seasons keep,
Like fits of waking before sleep:
Then shrinks into that fatal mould,
Where its first being was enroll'd.
It is a dream, whose seeming truth
Is moraliz'd in age and youth: 20
Where all the comforts he can share
As wand'ring as his fancies are;
Till in a mist of dark decay
The dreamer vanish quite away.
It is a dial, which points out
The sun-set as it moves about:
And shadows out in lines of night
The subtile stages of Time's flight,
Till all obscuring earth hath laid
The body in perpetual shade. 30
It is a weary interlude
Which doth short joys, long woes include.
The World the stage, the Prologue tears,
The Acts vain hope, and varied fears;
The Scene shuts up with loss of breath,
And leaves no Epilogue but Death.
[_The Dirge._] An obvious extension-variation of _Sic
Vita_.]
[Line: 8 _MS._ 'Vies rages with'--rather well.]
[Line: 12 _MS._ 'cast'--perhaps better.]
[Line: 26 _MS._ 'His sun-set'.]
[Lines: 27-8 These run in _MS._:
Whilst it demonstrates Time's swift flight
In the black lines of shady night.
]
[Line: 30 The] _MS._ 'His'.]
[Line: 35 _MS._ '_in_ loss'.]
_An Elegy, occasioned by the loss of the most incomparable Lady
Stanhope, daughter to the Earl of Northumberland._
[Died November 29, 1654.]
Light'ned by that dim torch our sorrow bears,
We sadly trace thy coffin with our tears;
And though the ceremonious rites are past
Since thy fair body into earth was cast,
Though all thy hatchments into rags are torn,
Thy funeral robes and ornaments outworn;
We still thy mourners, without show or art,
With solemn blacks hung round about our heart,
Thus constantly the obsequies renew,
Which to thy precious memory are due. 10
Yet think not that we rudely would invade
The dark recess of thine untroubled shade,
Or give disturbance to that happy peace,
Which thou enjoy'st at full since thy release:
Much less in sullen murmurs do complain
Of His decree who took thee back again,
And did, ere Fame had spread thy virtue's light,
Eclipse and fold thee up in endless night.
This, like an act of envy, not of grief,
Might doubt thy bliss, and shake our own belief, 20
Whose studied wishes no proportion bear
With joys which crown thee now in glory's sphere.
Know then, blest Soul! we for ourselves, not thee,
Seal our woe's dictate by this elegy:
Wherein our tears, united in one stream,
Shall to succeeding times convey this theme,
Worth all men's pity, who discern, how rare
Such early growths of fame and goodness are.
Of these, part must thy sex's loss bewail,
Maim'd in her noblest patterns through thy fail; 30
For 'twould require a double term of life
To match thee as a daughter or a wife;
Both which Northumberland's dear loss improve,
And make his sorrow equal to his love.
The rest fall for ourselves, who, cast behind,
Cannot yet reach the peace which thou dost find;
But slowly follow thee in that dull stage
Which most untimely posted hence thy age.
Thus, like religious pilgrims, who design
A short salute to their beloved shrine, 40
Most sad and humble votaries we come,
To offer up our sighs upon thy tomb,
And wet thy marble with our dropping eyes,
Which, till the spring which feeds their current dries,
Resolve each falling night and rising day,
This mournful homage at thy grave to pay.
[_An Elegy._] The subject of this was Anne Percy,
daughter of the Northumberland whose personal umbrage or
lukewarm loyalty so grievously affected the Royal cause, and
the wife of that Philip Lord Stanhope who afterwards, and
after her death, seems to have flirted with Lady Elizabeth
Howard before she married Dryden.]
[Line: 28 early] Lady Stanhope was not twenty-one when she
died, and had been married little more than two years.]
Poems not included in the Edition of 1657 but added in reissue of 1664
_An Elegy upon my best friend, L. K. C._
[Countess of Leinster: died June 15, 1657.]
Should we our sorrows in this method range,
Oft as misfortune doth their subjects change,
And to the sev'ral losses which befall,
Pay diff'rent rites at ev'ry funeral;
Like narrow springs, drain'd by dispersed streams,
We must want tears to wail such various themes,
And prove defective in Death's mournful laws,
Not having words proportion'd to each cause.
In your dear loss, my much afflicted sense
Discerns this truth by sad experience, 10
Who never look'd my Verses should survive,
As wet records, That you are not alive;
And less desir'd to make that promise due,
Which pass'd from me in jest, when urg'd by you.
How close and slily doth our frailty work!
How undiscover'd in the body lurk!
That those who this day did salute you well,
Before the next were frighted by your knell.
O wherefore since we must in order rise,
Should we not fall in equal obsequies? 20
But bear th' assaults of an uneven fate,
Like fevers which their hour anticipate;
Had this rule constant been, my long wish'd end
Might render you a mourner for your Friend:
As he for you, whose most deplor'd surprise
Imprints your death on all my faculties;
That hardly my dark phant'sy or discourse
This final duty from the pen enforce.
Such influence hath your eclipsed light,
It doth my reason, like myself, benight. 30
Let me, with luckless gamesters, then think best
(After I have set up and lost my rest),
Grown desp'rate through mischance, to venture last
My whole remaining stock upon a cast,
And flinging from me my now loathed pen,
Resolve for your sake ne'er to write again:
For whilst successive days their light renew,
I must no subject hope to equal you,
In whose heroic breast, as in their Sphere,
All graces of your sex concentred were. 40
Thus take I my long farewell of that art,
Fit only glorious actions to impart;
That art wherewith our crosses we beguile,
And make them in harmonious numbers smile:
Since you are gone, this holds no further use
Whose virtue and desert inspir'd my Muse,
O may she in your ashes buried be,
Whilst I myself become the Elegy.
And as it is observ'd, when Princes die,
In honour of that sad solemnity, 50
The now unoffic'd servants crack their staves,
And throw them down into their masters' graves:
So this last office of my broken verse
I solemnly resign upon your hearse;
And my brain's moisture, all that is unspent,
Shall melt to nothing at the monument.
Thus in moist weather, when the marble weeps,
You'll think it only his tears reck'ning keeps,
Who doth for ever to his thoughts bequeath
The legacy of your lamented death. 60
[_An Elegy upon my best friend._] King's 'best
friend' (or, as a MS. gives it, 'worthiest') was Katharine
Stanhope, daughter of John Lord Stanhope of Harrington. Her
husband, Robert Cholmondeley, successively created an Irish
Viscount, an English Baron (his surname serving as title in
each case), and Earl of Leinster, died very shortly after her
and before the Restoration. There is a MS. sermon on her death
attributed to King, but doubted by Hannah. The poem itself,
unlike the next but like the three which follow that, appears
printed in the 1664 issue. And it is, on the principles of
this collection, not unimportant to notice that in these later
printed pieces the irrational prodigality of capitals which,
as has been noted, is absent from _1657_, reappears. There
could be no stronger evidence that these things have nothing
to do with the author, and are not worth reproducing.]
[Line: 12 The original bestows a capital even upon 'Alive'--a
thing capital in another way as illustrating the utter
unreason of the practice.]
[Lines: 15-18 Absent in _MS._]
[Line: 36 Orig. 'nev'r'--a form unpronounceable but not
uninteresting.]
[Line: 40 your] _MS._ 'the'.]
[Line: 43 crosses] _MS._ 'sorrows'.]
_On the Earl of Essex._
[Died September 14, 1646.]
Essex, twice made unhappy by a wife,
Yet married worse unto the People's strife:
He who, by two divorces, did untie
His bond of wedlock and of loyalty:
Who was by easiness of nature bred,
To lead that tumult which first him misled;
Yet had some glimm'ring sparks of virtue, lent
To see (though late) his error, and repent:
Essex lies here, like an inverted flame,
Hid in the ruins of his house and name; 10
And as he, frailty's sad example, lies,
Warns the survivors in his exequies.
He shows what wretched bubbles great men are,
Through their ambition grown too popular:
For they, built up from weak opinion, stand
On bases false as water, loose as sand.
Essex in differing successes tried
The fury and the falsehood of each side;
Now with applauses deified, and then,
Thrown down with spiteful infamy again:-- 20
Tells them, what arts soever them support,
Their life is merely Time and Fortune's sport,
And that no bladders, blown by common breath,
Shall bear them up amidst the waves of Death:
Tells them, no monstrous birth, with pow'r endu'd,
By that more monstrous beast, the Multitude,--
No State-_Coloss_ (though tall as that bestrid
The Rhodian harbour where their navy rid),
Can hold that ill-proportion'd greatness still,
Beyond his greater, most resistless will, 30
Whose dreadful sentence, written on the Wall,
Did sign the temple-robbing tyrant's fall;
But spite of their vast privilege, which strives
T' exceed the size of ten prerogatives;
Spite of their endless parliament, or grants
(In order to those votes and Covenants,
When, without sense of their black perjury,
They swear with Essex they would live and die),
With their dead General ere long they must
Contracted be into a span of dust. 40
[_On the Earl of Essex._] This and the next two may
be called King's chief, if not his only, political poems:
that they were kept back till after the Restoration is not
surprising. Of Essex--one of the most unfortunate of men, the
son of an unlucky father, the husband of one of the worst of
women, and of another not much better, a half-hearted rebel, a
soldier not less brave than blundering--not much is to be
said here. King had some interest in the first and universally
known divorce (the second, much less notorious, was from
Elizabeth Paulet), for his father had been uncourtly and
honest enough to oppose it strongly.]
[Line: 10 This rather vigorous line was to be prophetic as
well as true at the time, for when, after the Restoration, the
title of Essex was revived it was for the Capels, who still
hold it, not for any Devereux. The vigour just referred to
is by no means absent from the whole poem, and in an
ante-Drydenian piece is really remarkable.]
[Line: 32 temple-robbing tyrant's fall] side-note in orig.:
_Belshasar_, Dan. 5.]
_An Elegy on Sir Charles Lucas and Sir George Lisle._
[Murdered August 28, 1648.]
In measures solemn as the groans that fall
From the hoarse trumpet at some funeral;
With trailing Elegy and mournful verse,
I wait upon two peerless soldiers' hearse:
Though I acknowledge must my sorrow's dress
Ill matched to the cause it should express;
Nor can I, at my best invention's cost,
Sum up the treasure which in them we lost.
Had they, with other worthies of the age,
Who late upon the kingdom's bloody stage, 10
For God, the King, and Laws, their valour tried,
Through War's stern chance in heat of battle died,
We then might save much of our grief's expense,
Reputing it, not duty, but offence.
They need no tears, nor howling exequy,
Who in a glorious undertaking die;
Since all that in the bed of honour fell,
Live their own Monument and Chronicle.
But these, whom horrid danger did not reach,
The wide-mouth'd cannon, nor the wider breach, 20
These, whom, till cruel want and coward fate
Penn'd up like famish'd lions in a grate,
Were for their daring sallies so much fear'd,
Th' assailants fled them like a frighted herd;
Resolving now no more to fight, but lurk
Trench'd in their line, or earth'd within a work.
Where, not like soldiers they, but watchmen, creep,
Arm'd for no other office, but to sleep;
They, whose bold charge whole armies did amaze,
Rend'ring them faint and heartless at the gaze, 30
To see Resolve and Naked Valour charms
Of higher proof than all their massy arms;
They, whose bright swords ruffled the proudest troop
(As fowl unto the tow'ring falcon stoop),
Yet no advantage made of their success,
Which to the conquer'd spake them merciless
(For they, whene'er 'twas begg'd, did safety give,
And oft unasked bid the vanquish'd live);
Ev'n these, not more undaunted in the field,
Than mild and gentle unto such as yield, 40
Were, after all the shocks of battles stood,
(Let me not name it) murder'd in cold blood.
Such poor revenge did the enraged Greek
Against (till then) victorious Hector seek,
Triumphing o'er that body, bound and dead,
From whom, in life, the pow'rs of Argos fled.
Yet might Achilles borrow some excuse
To colour, though not warrant, the abuse:
His dearest friend, in the fierce combat foil'd,
Was by the Trojan's hand of life despoil'd; 50
From whence unruly grief, grown wild with rage,
Beyond the bounds of Honour did engage.
But these, confirm'd in their unmanly hate,
By counsels cruel, yet deliberate,
Did from the stock of bleeding honour hew
Two of the noblest branches ever grew;
And (which our grief and pity must improve)
When brought within their reach with shows of love:
For by a treaty they entangled are,
And rend'ring up to Mercy is the snare; 60
Whence we have learn'd, whene'er their Saintships treat,
The ends are mortal, and the means a cheat;
In which the world may read their black intent,
Drawn out at large in this sad precedent.
Who (though fair promis'd) might no mercy have,
But such as once the faithless Bashaw gave,
When to his trust deluded Bragadine
Himself and Famagosta did resign.
Whose envied valour thus to bonds betray'd,
Was soon the mark of barb'rous slaughter made: 70
So gallant ships, which rocks and storms had past,
Though with torn sails, and spending of their mast,
When newly brought within the sight of land,
Have been suck'd up by some devouring sand.
You wretched agents for a kingdom's fall,
Who yet yourselves the Modell'd Army call;
Who carry on and fashion your design
By Sylla's, Sylla's red proscription's line,
(Rome's Comet once, as you are ours) for shame
Henceforth no more usurp the soldier's name: 80
Let not that title in fair battles gain'd
Be by such abject things as you profan'd;
For what have you achiev'd, the world may guess
You are those Men of Might which you profess?
Where ever durst you strike, if you met foes
Whose valour did your odds in men oppose?
Turn o'er the annals of your vaunted fights,
Which made you late the People's favourites;
Begin your course at Naseby, and from thence
Draw out your marches' full circumference, 90
Bridgwater, Bristol, Dartmouth, with the rest
Of your well-plotted renders in the West;
Then to the angry North your compass bend,
Until your spent career in Scotland end,
(This is the perfect scale of our mishap
Which measures out your conquest by the map),
And tell me he that can, What have you won,
Which long before your progress was not done?
What castle was besieg'd, what Port, what Town,
You were not sure to carry ere sat down? 100
There needed no granadoes, no petard,
To force the passage, or disperse the guard.
No, your good masters sent a Golden Ram
To batter down the gates against you came.
Those blest Reformers, who procur'd the Swede
His armed forces into Denmark lead,
'Mongst them to kindle a sharp war for hire,
Who in mere pity meant to quench our fire,
Could where they pleased, with the King's own coin,
Divert his aids, and strengths at home purloin. 110
Upon sea voyages I sometimes find
Men trade with Lapland witches for a wind,
And by those purchas'd gales, quick as their thought,
To the desired port are safely brought.
We need not here on skilful Hopkins call,
The State's allow'd Witch-finder General.
For (though Rebellion wants no cad nor elf,
But is a perfect witchcraft of itself)
We could with little help of art reveal
Those learn'd magicians with whom you deal: 120
We all your juggles, both for time and place,
From Derby-house to Westminster can trace,
The circle where the factious jangle meet
To trample Law and Gospel under feet;
In which, like bells rung backward, they proclaim
The Kingdom by their wild-fire set on flame,
And, quite perverting their first rules, invent
What mischief may be done by Parliament:
We know your holy flamens, and can tell
What spirits vote within the Oracle; 130
Have found the spells and incantations too,
By whose assistance you such wonders do.
For divers years the credit of your wars
Hath been kept up by these Familiars,
Who, that they may their providence express,
Both find you pay, and purchase your success:
No wonder then you must the garland wear,
Who never fought but with a silver spear.
We grant the war's unhappy consequence,
With all the num'rous plagues which grow from thence, 140
Murders and rapes, threats of disease and dearth,
From you as for the proper Spring take birth;
You may for laws enact the public wrongs,
With all foul violence to them belongs;
May bawl aloud the people's right and pow'r,
Till by your sword you both of them devour
(For this brave liberty by you upcried
Is to all others but yourselves denied),
May with seditious fires the land embroil,
And, in pretence to quench them, take the spoil; 150
You may Religion to your lust subdue,
For these are actions only worthy you:
Yet when your projects, crown'd with wish'd event,
Have made you masters of the ill you meant,
You never must the soldiers' glory share,
Since all your trophies executions are:
Not thinking your successes understood,
Unless recorded and scor'd up in blood.
In which, to gull the people, you pretend,
That Military Justice was your end; 160
As if we still were blind, not knowing this
To all your other virtues suited is;
Who only act by your great grandsires' law,
The butcher Cade, Wat Tyler, and Jack Straw,
Whose principle was murder, and their sport
To cut off those they fear'd might do them hurt:
Nay, in your actions we completed find
What by those Levellers was but design'd,
For now Committees, and your arm'd supplies,
Canton the land in petty tyrannies, 170
And for one King of commons in each shire,
Four hundred Commons rule as tyrants here.
Had you not meant the copies of each deed
Should their originals in ill exceed,
You would not practice sure the Turkish art,
To ship your taken pris'ners for a mart,
Lest if with freedom they at home remain,
They should (which is your terror) fight again.
A thing long since by zealous Rigby moved,
And by the faction like himself approv'd; 180
Though you uncounsell'd can such outrage try,
Scarce sampled from the basest enemy.
Naseby of old, and late St. Fagan's fare,
Of these inhuman truckings witness are;
At which the captiv'd Welsh, in couples led,
Were marketed, like cattle, by the head.
Let it no more in History be told
That Turks their Christian slaves for aspers sold;
When we the Saints selling their brethren see,
Who _had a Call_ (they say) to set them free; 190
And are at last by right of conquest grown
To claim our land of Canaan for their own.
Though luckless Colchester in this outvies
Argiers' or Tunis' shameful merchandise;
Where the starv'd soldier (as th' agreement was)
Might not be suffer'd to their dwelling pass,
Till, led about by some insulting band,
They first were show'd in triumph through the land:
In which, for lack of diet, or of strength,
If any fainted through the march's length, 200
Void of the breasts of men, this murd'rous crew
All those they could drive on no further, slew;
What bloody riddle's this? They mercy give,
Yet those who should enjoy it, must not live.
Indeed we cannot less from such expect,
Who for this work of ruin are elect:
This scum drawn from the worst, who never knew
The fruits which from ingenuous breeding grew;
But take such low commanders on their lists,
As did revolted Jeroboam priests: 210
That 'tis our fate, I fear, to be undone,
Like Egypt once with vermin overrun.
If in the rabble some be more refin'd,
By fair extractions of their birth or mind,
Ev'n these corrupted are by such allays,
That no impression of their virtue stays.
As gold, embased by some mingled dross,
Both in its worth and nature suffers loss.
Else, had that sense of honour still surviv'd
Which Fairfax from his ancestors deriv'd, 220
He ne'er had show'd himself, for hate or fear,
So much degen'rous from renowned Vere
(The title and alliance of whose son
His acts of valour had in Holland won),
As to give up, by his rash dooming breath,
This precious pair of lives to timeless death;
Whom no brave enemy but would esteem,
And, though with hazard of his own, redeem.
For 'tis not vainly by the world surmis'd,
This blood to private spleens was sacrific'd. 230
Half of the guilt stands charg'd on Whalley's score
By Lisle affronted on his guards before;
For which his spite by other hands was shown,
Who never durst dispute it with his own.
Twice guilty coward! first by vote, then eye,
Spectator of the shameful tragedy.
But Lucas elder cause of quarrel knew,
From whence his critical misfortune grew;
Since he from Berkeley Castle with such scorn
Bold Ransborough's first summons did return, 240
Telling him loudly at the parley's beat,
With rogues and rebels he disdain'd to treat.
Some from this hot contest the world persuade
His sleeping vengeance on that ground was laid:
If so, for ever blurr'd with Envy's brand,
His honour gain'd by sea, was lost at land:
Nor could he an impending judgement shun,
Who did to this with so much fervour run,
When late himself, to quit that bloody stain,
Was, 'midst his armed guards, from Pomfret slain. 250
But all in vain we here expostulate
What took them hence, private or public hate:
Knowledge of acted woes small comforts add,
When no repair proportion'd can be had:
And such are ours, which to the kingdom's eyes
Sadly present ensuing miseries,
Foretelling in These Two some greater ill
From those who now a patent have to kill.
Two, whose dear loss leaves us no recompense,
Nor them atonement, which in weight or sense 260
With These shall never into balance come,
Though all the army fell their hecatomb.
Here leave them then; and be 't our last relief
To give their merit value in our grief.
Whose blood however yet neglected must
Without revenge or rites mingle with dust;
Not any falling drop shall ever dry,
Till to a weeping spring it multiply,
Bath'd in whose tears their blasted laurel shall
Grow green, and with fresh garlands crown their fall. 270
From this black region then of Death and Night,
Great Spirits, take your everlasting flight:
And as your valour's mounting fires combine,
May they a brighter constellation shine
Than Gemini, or than the brother-stars,
Castor and Pollux, fortunate to wars;
That all fair soldiers, by your sparkling light,
May find the way to conquer, when they fight,
And by those patterns which from you they take,
Direct their course through Honour's Zodiac: 280
But upon traitors frown with dire aspect,
Which may their perjuries and guilt reflect;
Unto the curse of whose nativity,
Prodigious as the Caput Algol be,
Whose pale and ghastly tresses still portend
Their own despair or hangman for their end.
And that succeeding ages may keep safe
Your lov'd remembrance in some Epitaph,
Upon the ruins of your glorious youth,
Inscribed be this monumental truth: 290
Here lie the valiant Lucas and brave Lisle,
With Amasa betray'd in Joab's smile:
In whom, revenge of Honour taking place,
His great corival 's stabb'd in the embrace.
And as it was the Hebrew Captain's stain,
That he two greater than himself had slain,
_Shedding the blood of War in time of Peace_,
When love pretended was, and arms did cease,
May the foul murderers expect a fate
Like Joab's, blood with blood to expiate; 300
Which, quick as lightning, and as thunder sure,
Preventions wisest arts nor shun, nor cure.
O may it fall on their perfidious head!
That when, with Joab to the Altar fled,
Themselves the sword and reach of vengeance flee,
No Temple may their sanctuary be.
Last, that nor frailty nor devouring time
May ever lose impressions of the crime,
Let loyal Colchester (who too late tried
To check, when highest wrought, the Rebels' pride, 310
Holding them long and doubtful at the bay,
Whilst we, by looking on, gave all away),
Be only nam'd: which, like a Column built,
Shall both enhearse this blood unnobly spilt,
And live, till all her towers in rubbish lie,
The monuments of their base cruelty.
[_Elegy on Sir Charles Lucas, &c._] This, King's
longest poem (except the _King Charles_), shows, like
the preceding, a vigour which might have made him a very
formidable political satirist. If he has not Cleveland's wit
he is free from Cleveland's abuse of it. The subject is again
a well-known one. No impartial authority denies that the
execution of Lucas and Lisle was one of the worst blots on
that side of the record of the Rebellion, and perhaps the only
unforgivable act of Fairfax. Whether he was actuated, as the
Royalists generally believed, by a mean personal spite, or
allowed himself to be the tool of Ireton, matters uncommonly
little; and his own 'Vindication' contains statements
demonstrably false. However, as usual in revolutions, the
curse came home, and the Colchester 'Septemberings' (as
they would actually have been had the New Style prevailed in
England) were undoubtedly as much instrumental as anything,
next to the execution of the King himself, in turning the
national sentiment against the perpetrators. The _bracketed_
notes that follow are, as usual, original.]
[Line: 31 [Sir George Lisle at Newbury charged in his shirt,
and routed them.] This was the _second_ battle of Newbury,
October 27, 1644: he was knighted at Oxford, December 21,
1645.]
[Line: 49 friend] [Patroclus.]]
[Line: 60 Mercy] Fairfax in his own 'Vindication' admits the
'snare'. 'Delivering upon Mercy is to be understood that
some are to suffer, the rest to go free.' In other words, the
garrison might take 'mercy' to mean 'quarter', but Fairfax
took it to mean 'discretion'.]
[Line: 64 Orig. 'President', as often printed, though of
course no scholar like King would deliberately write it.]
[Line: 66 [Famagosta, defended most valiantly by Signior
Bragadino in the time of Selimus II, was upon honourable
terms surrendered to Mustapha the Bashaw, who, observing no
conditions, at his tent murdered the principal commanders,
invited thither under show of love, and flayed Bragadine
alive.] This siege of Famagosta in 1571, which came just
before, and may be said to have been revenged by, Lepanto,
greatly affected the mind of Christendom, and is duly
chronicled in Knolles, the chief English historical writer of
King's day. It is therefore hardly necessary to suppose,
with Hannah, that the note was abridged from George Sandys'
_Travels_, though King and Sandys were certainly friends.]
[Lines: 82, 85 I would have left the capitals for the 'Yous'
in these lines, as I have already done in other places,
because they not improperly further emphasize that emphatic
use of the pronoun in different parts of the line which Dryden
afterwards perfected. But unfortunately they are not uniformly
used, or even in the majority of cases--which shows how
utterly haphazard and irrational this capitalization was.]
[Line: 105 [The Swedes hired anno 1644, to invade the King of
Denmark, provided to assist his nephew, the King of England.]]
[Line: 115 Hopkins] Hannah only knew for a certainty that the
scoundrel Matthew was 'swum' for a wizard, and had to put
a 'probably' as to his being executed. There seems to be
no doubt (see _D.N.B._) that the great and glorious 'Herb
Pantagruelion' had its own, and that Hopkins was hanged in
1647, before the date of this poem. But in that distracted
time King, like his editor, may easily have been unaware of
it.]
[Line: 117 An early literary use of 'cad' for assistant or
understrapper.]
[Line: 142 Instead of 'for' Hannah, who very seldom meddled
with his text, suggested 'from'. The temptation is obvious,
but I think 'for' is possible, and therefore preferable as
_lectio difficilior_.]
[Line: 160 Military Justice] [See the letter sent to Edward
Earl of Manchester, Speaker of the House of Peers, _pro
tempore_, from T. Fairfax, dated August 29, 1648, at Hieth.]
According to Royalist accounts there were, even in Parliament,
speakers bold enough and impartial enough to object to this
letter, and to give voice to the common belief that the
execution was either an act of private vengeance, or a
deliberate affront to the King, or a device to make the
pending negotiations with him impossible. It must be
remembered that it was three months before the 'Purge' had
deprived the Commons of the last remnant of independence or
representative quality.]
[Line: 170 petty tyrannies] [Wat Tyler and his complices'
design was to take away the King and chief men, and to erect
petty tyrannies to themselves in every shire. And already one
Littistar, a dyer, had taken upon him in Norfolk the name of
King of Commons, and Robert Westborn in Suffolk, Richard
II, anno 1381. _Speed._] This note from Speed is not exactly
quoted and Hannah corrected it, but the variations are of no
importance.]
[Line: 176 There is no doubt about the selling of prisoners as
convict-slaves to the West Indies (if not, as Rigby proposed,
to Algiers) by the Roundheads after the second Civil War.
Unluckily James II--born in this and other cases to be the
curse of English Royalism--took the reproach away from the
other side by authorizing the practice after Sedgmoor.]
[Line: 179 The particular bearer of this name of evil repute
in Parliamentary history was Alexander Rigby (1594-1650). He
had a brother, Joseph, whose politics were as bad as his own,
but who survived the Restoration, and seems to have had a
touch of the 'crank' in him. I have not yet come across his
_Drunkard's Prospective_ (1656), but it should be agreeable.]
[Line: 183 The savagery of the two-to-one victors at
Naseby--especially towards the hapless so-called 'Irishwomen'
camp followers--is beyond question, but it does not seem
proved that there was much selling of prisoners then. As for
St. Fagan's in the second Civil War the case is different, and
justifies the following note in the original: 'At St. Fagan's
in Glamorganshire, near Cardiff, the Welsh unarmed were taken
in very great numbers, and sold for twelve pence apiece
to certain merchants, who bought them for slaves to their
plantations.']
[Line: 188 aspers] A Turkish coin of the smallest value: the
120th part of a piastre or dollar.]
[Line: 201 murd'rous crew] [Grimes, now a Captain, formerly
a tinker at St. Albans, with his own hand killed four of the
prisoners, being not able for faintness to go on with the
rest, of which number Lieutenant Woodward was one. Likewise
at Thame, and at Whateley ( = Wheatley), some others were
killed.] This story is backed up by not a few similar ones
in different accounts of the time. And indeed, as King very
cogently goes on to argue, your tinker-captain is capable of
anything.]
[Line: 222 It was Sir Horace Vere (1565-1635), afterwards Lord
Vere of Tilbury, under whom Fairfax served, and whose daughter
Anne he married.]
[Line: 231 Whalley (spelt, as often with the name, Whaley in
printed original) is cleared by others, though he is said
by them as by King to have been present and to have had
some private grudge against Lisle. Lucas had not only thrown
Fairfax's troops into disorder at Marston Moor but is said
by some to have actually wounded him in the face. He had also
held Berkeley Castle against Rans- or Ra_in_sborough till
the outworks were taken, and the guns turned from them on
the Castle itself. Rainsborough, with Whalley and Ireton,
was actually present at the execution--which as a duty could
hardly be incumbent on all three, and with which they were
often reproached; and as a matter of course Rainsborough's
death shortly afterwards was counted as a 'judgement'. His
father had been an officer in the Navy, and the son commanded
both by sea and land.]
[Line: 284 Algol] A star of great but varying brightness, the
name of which--'The _ghoul_'--and its position in the head of
Medusa in the constellation Perseus, explains the text.]
[Line: 311 long and doubtful] Fairfax, to enhance his exploit,
called it 'four months close siege'. It was actually not
quite eleven weeks, but the place yielded to nothing but
starvation.]
_An Elegy upon the most Incomparable King Charles the First._
Call for amazed thoughts, a wounded sense
And bleeding hearts at our intelligence.
Call for that Trump of Death, the Mandrake's groan
Which kills the hearers: this befits alone
Our story which through times vast Calendar,
Must stand without example or repair.
What spouts of melting clouds, what endless springs
Pour'd in the Ocean's lap for offerings,
Shall feed the hungry torrent of our grief,
Too mighty for expression or belief? 10
Though all those moistures which the brain attracts
Ran from our eyes like gushing cataracts,
Or our sad accents could out-tongue the cries
Which did from mournful Hadadrimmon rise,
Since that remembrance of Josiah slain
In our King's murder is reviv'd again.
O pardon me that but from Holy Writ
Our loss allows no parallel to it:
Nor call it bold presumption that I dare
Charles with the best of Judah's Kings compare: 20
The virtues of whose life did I prefer
The text acquits me for no flatterer.
For he like David perfect in his trust,
Was never stain'd like him, with blood or lust.
One who with Solomon in judgement tried,
Was quick to comprehend, wise to decide
(That even his Judges stood amaz'd to hear
A more transcendent mover in their sphere),
Though more religious: for when doting love
Awhile made Solomon apostate prove, 30
Charles ne'er endur'd the Truth which he profest,
To be unfix'd by bosom-interest.
Bold as Jehosaphat, yet forc'd to fight,
And for his own, no unconcerned right.
Should I recount his constant time of pray'r,
Each rising morn and ev'ning regular,
You'd say his practice preach'd, 'They ought not eat
Who by devotion first not earn'd their meat:'
Thus Hezekiah he exceeds in zeal,
Though not (like him) so facile to reveal 40
The treasures of God's House, or His own heart,
To be supplanted by some foreign art.
And that he might in fame with Joash share
When he the ruin'd Temple did repair,
His cost on Paul's late ragged fabric spent
Must (if no other) be His monument.
From this survey the kingdom may conclude
His merits, and her losses' magnitude:
Nor think he flatters or blasphemes, who tells
That Charles exceeds Judea's parallels, 50
[Sidenote:--_Sparguntur in omnes,
In te mista fluunt_--Claudian.]
In whom all virtues we concentred see
Which 'mongst the best of them divided be.
O weak-built glories! which those tempests feel!
To force you from your firmest bases reel,
What from the strokes of Chance shall you secure,
When rocks of Innocence are so unsure?
When the World's only mirror slaughter'd lies,
Envy's and Treason's bleeding sacrifice;
As if His stock of goodness could become
No kalendar, but that of martyrdom. 60
See now, ye cursed mountebanks of State,
Who have eight years for reformations sate;
[Sidenote: _Call'd the Council of Troubles._]
You who dire Alva's counsels did transfer,
To act his scenes on England's theatre;
You who did pawn yourselves in public faith
To slave the Kingdom by your pride and wrath;
Call the whole World to witness now, how just,
How well you are responsive to your trust,
How to your King the promise you perform,
With fasts, and sermons, and long prayers sworn, 70
That you intended Peace and Truth to bring
To make your Charles _Europe's most glorious King_.
[Sidenote: _The form of taking the Covenant_, June 1643.]
Did you for this _Lift up your hands on high_,
To kill the King, and pluck down Monarchy?
These are the fruits by your wild faction sown,
Which not imputed are, but born your own:
For though you wisely seem to wash your hands,
The guilt on every vote and order stands;
So that convinc'd, from all you did before,
Justice must lay the murder at your door. 80
Mark if the body does not bleed anew,
In any circumstance approach'd by You,
From whose each motion we might plain descry
The black ostents of this late tragedy.
For when the King, through storms in Scotland bred,
To his Great Council for his shelter fled,
When in that meeting every error gain'd
Redresses sooner granted than complain'd:
Not all those frank concessions or amends
Did suit the then too powerful faction's ends: 90
No acts of Grace at present would content,
Nor promise of Triennial Parl'ament,
Till by a formal law the King had past
This Session should at Your pleasure last.
So having got the bit, and that 'twas known
No power could dissolve You but Your own,
Your graceless Junto make such use of this,
[Sidenote: _Diodorus Siculus_, lib. 2.]
As once was practis'd by Semiramis;
Who striving by a subtile suit to prove
The largeness of her husband'[s] trust and love, 100
Did from the much abused King obtain
That for three days she might sole empress reign;
Before which time expir'd, the bloody wife
Depriv'd her lord both of his crown and life.
There needs no comment when your deeds apply
The demonstration of her treachery.
Which to effect, by Absolon's foul wile
You of the people's heart your prince beguile;
Urging what eases they might reap by it
Did you their legislative Judges sit. 110
How did you fawn upon, and court the rout,
Whose clamour carried your whole plot about?
How did you thank seditious men that came
To bring petitions which yourselves did frame?
And lest they wanted hands to set them on,
You led the way by throwing the first stone.
For in that libel after midnight born,
Wherewith your faction labour'd till the morn,
[Sidenote: _Remonstrance of the State of the Kingdom_,
Dec. 15, 1641.]
That famous lie, you a Remonstrance name;
Were not reproaches your malicious aim? 120
Was not the King's dishonour your intent,
By slanders to traduce his Government?
All which your spiteful cunning did contrive;
Men must receive through your false perspective,
In which the smallest spots improved were,
And every mote a mountain did appear.
Thus Caesar by th' ungrateful Senate found
His life assaulted through his honour's wound.
And now to make Him hopeless to resist,
[Sidenote: _Ord._ Feb. 29, _Voted_ March 15.]
You guide his sword by vote, which as you list 130
Must strike or spare (for so you did enforce
His hand against His reason to divorce
[Sidenote: _The Navy seiz'd_ Mar. 28, 1642.]
Brave Strafford's life), then wring it quite away
By your usurping each Militia:
[Sidenote: _The London Tumults_, Jan. 10, 1641.]
Then seize His magazines, of which possest
You turn the weapons 'gainst their master's breast.
This done, th' unkennell'd crew of lawless men
Led down by Watkins, Pennington, and Venn,
Did with confused noise the Court invade;
Then all Dissenters in both houses bay'd. 140
At which the King amaz'd is forc'd to fly,
The whilst your mouth's laid on maintain the cry.
The Royal game dislodg'd and under chase,
Your hot pursuit dogs Him from place to place:
Not Saul with greater fury or disdain
Did flying David from Jeshimon's plain
Unto the barren wilderness pursue,
Than cours'd and hunted is the King by you.
The mountain partridge or the chased roe
Might now for emblems of His fortune go, 150
And since all other May-games of the town
(Save those yourselves should make) were voted down,
The clam'rous pulpit hollaes in resort,
Inviting men to your King-catching sport.
Where as the foil grows cold you mend the scent
By crying Privilege of Parliament,
Whose fair pretensions the first sparkles are,
Which by your breath blown up enflame the war,
And Ireland (bleeding by design) the stale
Wherewith for men and money you prevail. 160
Yet doubting that imposture could not last,
When all the Kingdom's mines of treasure waste,
You now tear down Religion's sacred hedge
To carry on the work by sacrilege;
Reputing it Rebellion's fittest pay
To take both God's and Caesar's dues away.
The tenor of which execrable vote
Your over-active zealots so promote,
That neither tomb, nor temple could escape,
Nor dead nor living, your licentious rape. 170
Statues and grave-stones o'er men buried
[Sidenote: * _At Basing-Chapel, sold_ Dec. 29, 1643.]
Robb'd of their brass, the * coffins of their lead;
Not the seventh Henry's gilt and curious screen,
Nor those which 'mongst our rarities were seen,
[Sidenote: * _At Winchester._]
The * chests wherein the Saxon monarchs lay,
But must be basely sold or thrown away.
May in succeeding times forgotten be
Those bold examples of impiety,
Which were the Ages' wonder and discourse,
You have their greatest ills improv'd by worse. 180
[Sidenote: _Lactant._ l. 2, c. 4.]
No more be mention'd Dionysius' theft,
Who of their gold the heathen shrines bereft;
For who with Yours his robberies confer,
Must him repute a petty pilferer.
[Sidenote: _Julian, Praefectus Aegypti. Theodoret_. l. 3, c. 11.]
Nor Julian's scoff, who when he view'd the state
Of Antioch's Church, the ornaments and plate,
Cried, Meaner vessels would serve turn, or none
Might well become the birth of Mary's Son:
[Sidenote: ibid.]
Nor how that spiteful Atheist did in scorn
Piss on God's Table, which so oft had borne 190
The Hallow'd Elements, his death present:
[Sidenote: _Ganguin_. l. 6.]
Nor he that foul'd it with his excrement,
Then turn'd the cloth unto that act of shame,
Which without trembling Christians should not name.
Nor John of Leyden, who the pillag'd quires
Employ'd in Munster for his own attires;
His pranks by Hazlerig exceeded be,
A wretch more wicked and as mad as he,
[Sidenote: _The Carpet belonging to the Communion Table of
Winchester Cathedral_, Dec. 18, 1642. _Adrian Emp._]
Who once in triumph led his sumpter moil
Proudly bedecked with the Altar's spoil. 200
Nor at Bizantium's sack how Mahomet
In St. Sophia's Church his horses set.
Nor how Belshazzar at his drunken feasts
Carous'd in holy vessels to his guests:
Nor he that did the books and anthems tear,
Which in the daily Stations used were.
These were poor essays of imperfect crimes,
Fit for beginners in unlearned times,
Siz'd only for that dull meridian
Which knew no Jesuit nor Puritan 210
(Before whose fatal birth were no such things
As doctrines to depose and murder kings).
But since your prudent care enacted well,
That there should be no King in Israel,
England must write such annals of your reign
Which all records of elder mischiefs stain.
Churches unbuilt by order, others burn'd;
Whilst Paul's and Lincoln are to stables turn'd;
And at God's Table you might horses see
By (those more beasts) their riders manger'd be, 220
[Sidenote: _At Winchcomb in Gloucestershire._]
Some kitchens and some slaughter-houses made,
Communion-boards and cloths for dressers laid:
Some turn'd to loathsome goals, so by you brought
Unto the curse of Baal's house, a draught.
The Common Prayers with the Bibles torn,
The copes in antic Moorish dances worn,
And sometimes, for the wearer's greater mock,
The surplice is converted to a frock,
Some, bringing dogs, the Sacrament revile,
Some, with Copronymus, the Font defile. 230
O God! canst Thou these profanations like?
If not, why is Thy thunder slow to strike
The cursed authors? who dare think that Thou
Dost, when not punish them, their acts allow.
All which outrageous crimes, though your pretence
Would fasten on the soldiers' insolence,
We must believe, that what by them was done
Came licens'd forth by your probation.
For, as yourselves with Athaliah's brood
In strong contention for precedence stood, 240
[Sidenote: _Whitehall, Windsor_, Feb. 3, 1643.]
You robb'd two Royal Chapels of their plate,
Which Kings and Queens to God did dedicate;
Then by a vote more sordid than the stealth,
Melt down and coin it for the Commonwealth,
That is, giv't up to the devouring jaws
Of your great Idol Bel, new styl'd The Cause.
And though this monster you did well devise
To feed by plunder, taxes, loans, excise;
(All which provisions You the people tell
Scarce serve to diet Your Pantagruel). 250
We no strew'd ashes need to trace the cheat,
Who plainly see what mouths the messes eat.
Brave Reformation! and a through one too,
Which to enrich yourselves must all undo.
Pray tell us (those that can), What fruits have grown
From all Your seeds in blood and treasure sown?
What would you mend? when Your projected State
Doth from the best in form degenerate?
Or why should You (of all) attempt the cure,
Whose facts nor Gospel's test nor Law's endure? 260
But like unwholesome exhalations met
From Your conjunction only plagues beget,
And in Your circle, as imposthumes fill
Which by their venom the whole body kill;
For never had You pow'r but to destroy,
Nor will, but where You conquer'd to enjoy.
This was Your master-prize, who did intend
To make both Church and Kingdom's prey Your end.
'Gainst which the King (plac'd in the gap) did strive
By His (till then unquestion'd) negative, 270
Which finding You lack'd reason to persuade,
Your arguments are into weapons made;
So to compel him by main force to yield,
[Sidenote: _E. of Essex Army_, Aug. 1 1642.]
You had a formed army in the field
Before his reared standard could invite
Ten men upon his Righteous Cause to fight:
Yet ere those raised forces did advance,
[Sidenote: _The Standard at Nottingham_, Aug. 25, 1642.]
Your malice struck him dead by Ordinance,
When your Commissions the whole Kingdom swept
With blood and slaughter, _Not the King except_. 280
Now hard'ned in revolt, You next proceed
By pacts to strengthen each rebellious deed,
[Sidenote: June 27, 1643.]
New oaths and vows, and Covenants advance,
All contradicting your allegiance,
Whose sacred knot you plainly did untie,
[Sidenote: _Declaration and Resolution of Parl._, Aug. 15, 1642.]
When you with Essex _swore to live and die_.
These were your calves in Bethel and in Dan,
Which Jeroboam's treason stablish can,
Who by strange pacts and altars did seduce
The people to their laws' and King's abuse; 290
All which but serve like Shibboleth to try
Those who pronounc'd not your conspiracy;
That when your other trains defective are,
Forc'd oaths might bring refusers to the snare.
And lest those men your counsels did pervert,
Might when your fraud was seen the Cause desert,
A fierce decree is through the Kingdom sent,
Which made it death for any to repent.
What strange dilemmas doth Rebellion make?
'Tis mortal to deny, or to partake: 300
Some hang who would not aid your traitorous act,
[Sidenote: _History of English and Scottish Presbytery_, p. 320.]
Others engag'd are hang'd if they retract.
So witches who their contracts have unsworn,
By their own Devils are in pieces torn.
Thus still the raging tempest higher grows,
Which in extremes the King's resolvings throws.
The face of Ruin everywhere appears,
And acts of outrage multiply our fears;
Whilst blind Ambition by successes fed
Hath You beyond the bound of subjects led, 310
Who tasting once the sweet of regal sway,
Resolving now no longer to obey.
For Presbyterian pride contests as high
As doth the Popedom for supremacy.
Needs must you with unskilful Phaeton
Aspire to guide the chariot of the Sun,
Though your ill-govern'd height with lightning be
Thrown headlong from his burning axle-tree.
[Sidenote: _The 19 Propos._]
You will no more petition or debate,
But your desire in Propositions state, 330
Which by such rules and ties the King confine,
They in effect are summons to resign.
Therefore your war is manag'd with such sleight,
'Twas seen you more prevail'd by purse than might;
And those you could not purchase to your will,
You brib'd with sums of money to sit still.
The King by this time hopeless here of peace,
Or to procure His wasted People's ease,
Which He in frequent messages had tried,
By you as oft as shamelessly denied; 330
Wearied by faithless friends and restless foes,
To certain hazard doth His life expose:
[Sidenote: April 27, 1646. May 5, 1646.]
When through your quarters in a mean disguise
He to His countrymen for succour flies,
Who met a brave occasion then to save
Their native King from His untimely grave:
Had he from them such fair reception gain'd,
Wherewith ev'n Achish David entertain'd:
But faith to Him or hospitable laws
In your Confederate Union were no clause, 340
Which back to you their rend'red Master sends
To tell how He was us'd among his friends.
Far be it from my thoughts by this black line
To measure all within that warlike clime;
The still admir'd Montrose some numbers led
In his brave steps of loyalty to tread.
I only tax a furious party there,
Who with our native pests enleagued were.
Then 'twas you follow'd Him with hue and cry,
Made midnight searches in each liberty, 350
[Sidenote: _This Order publish'd by beat of Drum_, May 4, 1646.]
Voting it Death to all without reprieve,
Who should their Master harbour or relieve.
Ev'n in pure pity of both Nations' fame,
I wish that act in story had no name.
When all your mutual stipulations are
Converted at Newcastle to a fair,
Where (like His Lord) the King the mart is made,
Bought with Your money, and by them betrayed;
For both are guilty, they that did contract,
And You that did the fatal bargain act. 360
Which who by equal reason shall peruse,
Must yet conclude, they had the best excuse:
For doubtless they (good men) had never sold,
But that you tempted them with English gold;
And 'tis no wonder if with such a sum
Our brethren's frailty might be overcome.
What though hereafter it may prove their lot
To be compared with Iscariot?
Yet will the World perceive which was most wise,
And who the nobler traitor by the price; 370
For though 'tis true both did themselves undo,
They made the better bargain of the two,
Which all may reckon who can difference
Two hundred thousand pounds from thirty-pence.
However something is in justice due,
Which may be spoken in defence of You;
For in your Master's purchase you gave more,
Than all your Jewish kindred paid before.
And had you wisely us'd what then you bought,
Your act might be a loyal ransom thought, 380
To free from bonds your captive sovereign,
Restoring Him to his lost Crown again.
But You had other plots, your busy hate
Plied all advantage on His fallen state,
And show'd You did not come to bring Him bail,
But to remove Him to a stricter gaol,
To Holmby first, whence taken from His bed,
He by an army was in triumph led;
Till on pretence of safety Cromwell's wile
Had juggl'd Him into the Fatal Isle, 390
Where Hammond for his jailor is decreed,
And murderous Rolf as lieger-hangman fee'd,
Who in one fatal knot two counsels tie,
He must by poison or by pistol die.
Here now denied all comforts due to life,
His friends, His children, and his peerless wife;
From Carisbrook He oft but vainly sends,
And though first wrong'd, seeks to make you amends;
For this He sues, and by His restless pen
Importunes Your deaf ears to treat again. 400
Whilst the proud faction scorning to go less,
[Sidenote: Jan. 3, 1647. Jan. 9, 1647.]
Return those trait'rous votes of Non Address,
Which follow'd were by th' Armies thund[e]ring
To act without and quite against the King.
Yet when that cloud remov'd, and the clear light
Drawn from His weighty reasons, gave You sight
Of Your own dangers, had not their intents
[Sidenote: _Colchester Siege._]
Retarded been by some cross accidents;
Which for a while with fortunate suspense
Check'd or diverted their swoll'n insolence: 410
When the whole Kingdom for a Treaty cried,
Which gave such credit to Your falling side,
[Sidenote: June 30, 1648. _Treaty Voted_, July 28, 1648.]
That you recall'd those votes, and God once more
Your power to save the Kingdom did restore;
Remember how Your peevish Treators sate,
Not to make peace, but to prolong debate;
How You that precious time at first delay'd,
And what ill use of Your advantage made,
As if from Your foul hands God had decreed
Nothing but war and mischief should succeed. 420
For when by easy grants the King's assent
Did your desires in greater things prevent,
When He did yield faster than You entreat,
And more than modesty dares well repeat;
Yet not content with this, without all sense
Or of His honour or His conscience,
Still you press'd on, till you too late descried,
Twas now less safe to stay than be denied:
For like a flood broke loose the armed rout,
Then shut Him closer up, and shut You out, 430
Who by just vengeance are since worried
By those hand-wolves You for his ruin bred.
Thus like two smoking firebrands, You and They
Have in this smother chok'd the Kingdom's day:
And as you rais'd them first, must share the guilt,
With all the blood in those distractions spilt.
For though with Sampson's foxes backward turn'd
(When he Philistia's fruitful harvest burn'd),
The face of your opinions stands averse,
All your conclusions but one fire disperse; 440
And every line which carries your designs,
In the same centre of confusion joins.
Though then the Independents end the work,
'Tis known they took their platform from the Kirk;
Though Pilate Bradshaw with his pack of Jews,
God's High Vice-gerent at the bar accuse;
They but reviv'd the evidence and charge,
Your pois'nous Declarations laid at large;
Though they condemn'd or made his life their spoil,
You were the setters forc'd him to the toil: 450
For you whose fatal hand the warrant writ,
The prisoner did for execution fit;
And if their axe invade the Regal throat,
Remember you first murder'd Him by vote.
Thus they receive your tennis at the bound,
Take off that head which you had first un-crown'd;
Which shows the texture of our mischiefs clew,
If ravell'd to the top, begins in You,
Who have for ever stain'd the brave intents
And credit of our English Parliaments: 460
And in this one caus'd greater ills, and more,
Than all of theirs did good that went before.
Yet have You kept your word against Your will,
Your King is great indeed and glorious still,
And you have made Him so. We must impute
That lustre which His sufferings contribute
To your preposterous wisdoms, who have done
All your good deeds by contradiction:
For as to work His peace you rais'd this strife,
And often shot at Him to save His life; 470
As you took from Him to increase His wealth,
And kept Him pris'ner to secure His health;
So in revenge of your dissembled spite,
In this last wrong you did Him greatest right,
And (cross to all You meant) by plucking down
Lifted Him up to His Eternal Crown.
With this encircled in that radiant sphere,
Where thy black murderers must ne'er appear;
Thou from th' enthroned Martyrs' blood-stain'd line,
Dost in thy virtues bright example shine. 480
And when thy darted beam from the moist sky
Nightly salutes thy grieving people's eye,
Thou like some warning light rais'd by our fears,
Shalt both provoke and still supply our tears,
Till the Great Prophet wak'd from his long sleep,
Again bids Sion for Josiah weep:
That all successions by a firm decree
May teach their children to lament for Thee.
Beyond these mournful rites there is no art
Or cost can Thee preserve. Thy better part 490
Lives in despite of Death, and will endure
Kept safe in thy unpattern'd Portraiture:
Which though in paper drawn by thine own hand,
Shall longer than Corinthian-marble stand,
Or iron sculptures: There thy matchless pen
Speaks Thee the Best of Kings as Best of Men:
Be this Thy Epitaph; for This alone
Deserves to carry Thy Inscription.
And 'tis but modest Truth (so may I thrive
As not to please the best of thine alive, 500
Or flatter my Dead Master, here would I
Pay my last duty in a glorious lie):
In that admired piece the World may read
Thy virtues and misfortunes storied;
Which bear such curious mixture, men must doubt
Whether Thou wiser wert or more devout.
There live, Blest Relic of a saint-like mind,
With honours endless, as Thy peace, enshrin'd;
Whilst we, divided by that bloody cloud,
Whose purple mists Thy murder'd body shroud, 510
Here stay behind at gaze: apt for Thy sake
Unruly murmurs now 'gainst Heav'n to make,
Which binds us to live well, yet gives no fence
To guard her dearest sons from violence.
But he whose trump proclaims, _Revenge is mine_,
Bids us our sorrow by our hope confine,
And reconcile our Reason to our Faith,
Which in thy Ruin such conclusions hath;
It dares conclude, God does not keep His Word
If _Zimri dies in peace that slew his Lord_. 520
From my sad Retirement
March 11, 1648.
CAROLUS STUART REX ANGLIÆ SECURE CAESUS[1]
VITA CESSIT TRICESSIMO IANUARII.
[_An Elegy upon King Charles the First._] I have
thought it desirable to give this Elegy though Hannah did
not, and though I scarcely myself think it to be King's,
first because it is very little known (it was strange even to
Professor Firth when I asked him about it); secondly, because
the 1664 issue or reissue seems worth completing; but thirdly,
and principally, because it is well worth giving. It seems to
me, in fact, rather too good in a certain way to be King's.
He could write, as we have seen, fairly vigorous couplets of
a kind rather later than this date; but I do not know where he
keeps up such continuous and effective 'slogging' as here. The
Colchester piece, which is the natural parallel, is distinctly
inferior in that respect. There are, moreover, in the piece
some things which I suspect King would not, as well as could
not, have written, and which perhaps influenced Hannah in not
giving it. The close and effective Biblical parallels are not
quite in the Bishop's way in verse, and the clear vigorous
summary of the whole rebellion--dates and facts in margin--is
like nothing else of his that I know. But--his or not his--it
is found with his undoubted work; it is good; and so it shall
be given.
But the reader must not suppose that it has never appeared
except in the 1664 King or before that. While reading for the
present edition I had noticed an entry of a very similar title
in Hazlitt, and on looking the book up in the British Museum
I found it, as I expected, to be identical in all important
respects, putting aside some minor variants and a shorter
title, with 1664. The original (in black border at least
an inch deep) adds: 'Persecuted by two implacable factions,
Imprisoned by the one and murthered by the other, January
30th, 1648.' The final prose clause is the same, and I noticed
no various readings, except merest 'literals'--an occasional
capital for lower case, '-or' for '-our', and the like--which
it did not seem necessary to collate or report exactly.]
[_Title_] As usual, 'Charls' in original.]
[Line: 14 Zechariah xii. 11 compared with 2 Kings xxiii. 29
and 2 Chronicles xxxv. 22-4.]
[Line: 27 This line is slightly ambiguous. At first one takes
'Judges' as referring to the regicide tribunal--and of course
not merely the dignity but the unanswerable logic of Charles's
attitude is admitted. But our elegist would hardly admit that
the King moved in the sphere of his rebellious subjects, so
that it may be a reference to the legally constituted bench of
earlier years--'_his_ Judges' in another sense.]
[Line: 40 See 2 Kings xx, 2 Chronicles xxxii, and Isaiah
xxxix.]
[Line: 45 A little prosaic. Old St. Paul's was being
constantly tinkered: indeed, as is well known from Evelyn's
_Diary_, there were plans for very extensive restoration just
before the Fire.]
[Line: 48 Orig. 'losses', which at the time would stand
equally well for singular and plural genitive.]
[Line: 58 Orig. 'sacrifise', to get a complete ear-rhyme.]
[Line: 61 This apostrophe to the 'cursed mountebanks of State'
is uncommonly vigorous, and much straighter 'hitting from the
shoulder' than King usually manages.]
[Line: 100 Orig. 'husband', without 's, and possibly
intended.]
[Line: 124 perspective] As commonly = 'telescope'.]
[Line: 138 Watkins I know not; Pennington we have seen in
Cleveland; Venn (1586-1650) was John Venn, wool-merchant,
M.P., active rebel, and regicide.]
[Line: 142 This (original) may read, 'Your mouths, laid
on, maintain the cry', which seems most probable; or, 'Your
mouth's [_i.e._ is] laid on "Maintain the cry".']
[Line: 146 1 Samuel xxiii 24. Jeshimon seems to have escaped
Alexander the Concordance-smith.]
[Line: 155 foil] The word in this sense had puzzled me; but
the readers of the Clarendon Press put me literally on it by
reference to _N.E.D._ It means the 'scent' or 'track' of a
hunted animal and occurs in the first sense in Turbervile,
and elsewhere, as well as (figuratively used) in as late and
well-known a place as _Tom Jones_.]
[Line: 199 'Moil'--or rather, more commonly, 'moyle'--is very
common for 'mule' in Elizabethan drama, and is said to be
still dialectic, especially in Devon and Cornwall.]
[Line: 223 'Goal' would seem here to be used as = 'jakes',
though it has been suggested that the common sense of 'jail'
will do.]
[Line: 226 Orig. 'Coaps'.]
[Line: 238 'probation' must here = '_ap_probation'.]
[Line: 246 Orig. 'Idol Bel_l_', which may puzzle for a moment.
Of course the Dragon's companion and Nebo's is meant. The poet
seems indeed rather to have mixed up the monster and the false
god.]
[Line: 250 Here again there seems to be a slight confusion
between Pantagruel and his glorious father.]
[Lines: 265-6 Another uncommonly vigorous couplet.]
[Line: 312 The writer either intended to continue the set
of participles or forgot that he had begun it. But if 'For
Presbyterian ... supremacy' be thrown into parenthesis the
anacoluthon will be mended--after a fashion.]
[Lines: 373-4 Good again; and with a fore-echo of Dryden's
'Shimei' rhythm and swashing blow.]
[Line: 392 lieger-hangman] 'Hangman resident',
house-hangman'.]
[Line: 403 Orig. 'Armies', with the usual choice between
singular and plural genitive or (here) nominative plural.]
[Line: 415 I think it well to keep the form 'Treator'.]
[Line: 430 Pointed, if slightly burlesque.]
[Line: 432 hand-wolves] A dog trained and on the leash was
said to be 'in hand'.]
[Line: 438 Philisti_a_] The letter here is slightly 'smashed'
and the word might be 'Philistins' or 'Philistia's'. It looks
more like the former, but the latter is better, and is said to
be clear in Mr. Thorn-Drury's copies.]
[Line: 444 platform] This is interesting.]
[Line: 492 Portraiture] A reference to the [Greek: Eikôn
Basilikê].]
[Footnote: 1 Orig. C_o_esus.]
Poems in Manuscript.
_A Second Elegy on the Countess of Leinster._
Sleep, precious ashes, in thy sacred urn
From Death and Grave till th' last trump sounds return;
Meanwhile embalm'd in Virtues. Joseph's Tomb
Were fitter for thee, than the Earth's dark womb.
Cease, Friends, to weep; she's but asleep, not dead,--
Chang'd from her husband's, to her mother's, bed;
Or from his bosom into Abram's rather,
Where now she rests, Blest Soul, in such a Father.
Thus Death hath done his best, and worst. His best,
In sending Virtue to her place of rest; 10
His worst, in leaving him, as dead, in life
Whose chiefest Joys were in his dearest Wife.
[_A Second Elegy on the Countess of Leinster._] Hannah found
this in the Pickering MS. 'immediately after' the printed
one _v. supra_. On what other grounds he assigned its subject
I do not know; but both, as noted above, have a most
extraordinary efflorescence of capitals.]
_Epigrams._
I.
Quid faciant leges, ubi sola pecunia regnat? &c.--PETRON.
ARBIT.
To what serve Laws, where only Money reigns?
Or where a poor man's cause no right obtains?
Even those that most austerity pretend,
Hire out their tongues, and words for profit lend.
What's Judgement then, but public merchandise?
And the Court sits, but to allow the price.
II.
Casta suo gladium cum traderet Arria Paeto, &c.--MARTIAL.
When Arria to her Paetus had bequeath'd
The sword in her chaste bosom newly sheath'd;
Trust me (quoth she) My own wound feels no smart;
'Tis thine (My Paetus) grieves and kills my heart.
III.
Qui pelago credit, magno se faenore tollit, &c.--PETRON.
ARBIT.
He whose advent'rous keel ploughs the rough seas,
Takes interest of fate for wealth's increase.
He that in battle traffics, and pitch'd fields,
Reaps with his sword rich harvests, which war yields.
Base parasites repose their drunken heads,
Laden with sleep and wine, on Tyrian beds;
And he that melts in Lust's adult'rous fire,
Gets both reward and pleasure for his hire.
But Learning only, midst this wanton heat,
Hath (save itself) nothing to wear or eat;
Faintly exclaiming on the looser Times,
That value Wit and Arts below their crimes.
IV.
Pro captu lectoris habent sua fata libelli.
The fate of books is diverse as man's sense:
Two critics ne'er shar'd one intelligence.
V.
I would not in my love too soon prevail:
An easy conquest makes the purchase stale.[1]
[_Epigrams._] This little bunch of epigrams is of
no particular value, but being so small may be given for
completeness' sake. The first three Hannah found in both
Pickering and Malone 22 MSS., together with V, which, I
suppose, shocked him so that he did not print it. The _Pro
captu lectoris_, which is the best, is in Malone only.]
[Footnote 1: From a copy most kindly made for me by Mr.
Nichol Smith. It is a harmless enough, and rather neat,
translation of Petronius, _Nolo quod cupio, &c._]
The following group of poems has been printed by Mr. Mason,
the first as authentic, the others as doubtful. He points out
that _The Complaint_ and _On his Shadow_ are autograph, and
written on the same sheet of paper as the lines _Upon the
Untimely Death of J. K._ The text here printed has been
supplied by Mr. Percy Simpson from the original MSS., and the
few textual notes are his. In view of the uncertainty of the
bulk of the matter I [G. S.] have not thought it worth while
to add any annotation of the more general kind. In addition,
Mr. Mason prints a translation of a Latin elegy on Dr.
Spenser, President of Corpus Christi College, Oxford; the
Latin text of this in Rawlinson MS. D. 912, fol. 305 verso, is
in King's autograph, but the translation is not, and moreover
it is so tinkered and changed as to suggest the efforts of a
far from facile, if very conscientious, copyist. This has not
been printed, and only the first of the following poems can
with certainty be ascribed to King.
_Upon the Untimely Death of J. K., first born of HK._
Blessed Spirit, thy infant breath,
Fitter for the quire of saints
Than for mortals here beneath,
Warbles joys, but mine complaints--
Plaints that spring from that great loss
Of thy little self, sad cross.
Yet do I still repair thee by desire
Which warms my benumbed sense, but like false fire.
But with such delusive shapes
Still my pensive thoughts are eased, 10
As birds bating at mock grapes
Are with empty error pleased.
Yet I err not, for decay
Hath but seized thy house of clay,
For lo the lively image of each part
Makes deep impression on my waxy heart.
Thus learn I to possess the thing I want;
Having great store of thee, and yet great scant.
Oh let me thus recall thee, ne'er repine,
Since what is thy fate now, must once be mine. 20
[_Upon the Untimely Death of J. K., &c._] The text
is taken from Rawlinson MS. D. 317 of the Bodleian, fol. 175;
the monogram of the title was used by King. An unsigned
copy is in Harleian MS. 6917 of the British Museum, foll. 96
Verso-97: this omits 'but', l. 8.]
_The Complaint._
Fond, hapless man, lost in thy vain desire;
Thy lost desire
May now retire.
She, like a salamander, in thy flame
Sports with Love's name,
And lives the same,
Unsinged, impenetrably cold.
Sure, careless Boy, thou slep'st; and Death, instead
Of thine, conveyed
His dart of lead. 10
This thou unluckily at her hast sent,
Who now is bent
Not to relent,
Though thou spend all thy shafts of gold.
I prithee filch another fatal dart
And pierce my heart;
To ease this smart,
Strike all my senses dull. Thy force devours
Me and my powers
In tedious hours, 20
And thy injustice I'll proclaim
Or use some art to cause her heat return,
Or whilst I burn
Make her my urn,
Where I may bury in a marble chest
All my unrest.
Thus her cold breast,
If it but lodge, will quench, my flame.
[_The Complaint._] The text is taken from Rawlinson
Poet. MS. D. 317, fol. 161, where it is written, without title
or signature, in King's autograph. There is a copy in Harleian
MS. 6917, fol. 97, entitled _The Complaint_.]
[Line: 4 thy] the _Harl. MS._]
[Line: 21 King originally wrote 'And she thy weakness will
proclaim', and then added the text as an afterthought.]
[Line: 28 will] may _Harl._]
_On his Shadow_
Come, my shadow, constant, true,
Stay, and do not fly me:
When I court thee or would sue,
Thou wilt not deny me.
Female loves I find unkind
And devoid of pity;
Therefore I have changed my mind
And to thee frame this ditty.
Child of my body and that flame
From whence our light we borrow, 10
Thou continuest still the same
In my joy or sorrow.
Though thou lov'st the sunshine best
Or enlightened places,
Yet thou dost not fly, but rest,
'Midst my black disgraces.
Thou wouldst have all happy days
When thou art approaching,
No cloud nor night to dim bright rays
By their sad encroaching. 20
Let but glimmering lights appear
To banish night's obscuring,
Thou wilt show thou harbourd'st near,
By my side enduring;
And, when thou art forced away
By the sun's declining,
Thy length is doubled, to repay
Thy absence whilst he's shining.
As I flatter not thee fair,
So thou art not fading; 30
Age nor sickness can impair
Thy hue by fierce invading.
Let the purest varnished clay
Art can show, or Nature,
View the shades they cast; and they
Grow duskish like thy feature.
'Tis thy truth I most commend--
That thou art not fleeting:
For, as I embrace my friend,
So thou giv'st him greeting. 40
If I strike, or keep the peace,
So thou seem'st to threaten,
And single blows by thy increase
Leave my foe double beaten.
As thou findst me walk or sit,
Standing or down lying,
Thou dost all my postures hit,
Most apish in thy prying.
When our actions so consent--
Expressions dumb, but local-- 50
Words are needless complement,
Else I could wish thee vocal.
Hadst thou but a soul, with sense
And reason sympathising,
Earth could match, nor heaven dispense
A mate so far enticing.
Nay, when bedded in the dust,
'Mongst shades I have my biding,
Tapers can see thy posthume trust
Within my vault residing. 60
Had heaven so pliant women made
Or thou their souls couldst marry,
I'd soon resolve to wed my shade;
This love would ne'er miscarry.
But they thy lightness only share;
If shunned, the more they follow,
And to pursuers peevish are
As Daphne to Apollo.
Yet this experience thou hast taught:
A she-friend and an honour 70
Like thee; nor that nor she is caught,
Unless I fall upon her.
[_On his Shadow._] The text is taken from King's
autograph in Rawlinson Poet D. 317, foll. 173-4: it has
neither heading nor signature. At line 25, the last on this
page of the MS., the catchword reads 'Yet when', which is
slightly more appropriate, but the text continues 'And when'.
There is a copy in Harleian MS. 6917, fol. 97 verso-98,
entitled _On his Shadow._ There are the following variants:]
[Line: 8 frame] framed.]
[Line: 11 still _om._]
[Line: 23 harbourd'st] harbour'st.]
[Line: 26 By] At.]
[Line: 49 so] thus.]
[Line: 55 could] could not (but compare l. 31).]
[Line: 64 would] could.]
_Wishes to my Son, John,_
_For this new, and all succeeding years:_
_January 1, 1630._
If wishes may enrich my boy,
My Jack, that art thy father's joy,
They shall be showered upon thy head
As thick as manna, angel's bread;
And bread I wish thee--this short word
Will furnish both thy back and board;
Not Fortunatus' purse or cap
Nor Danae's gold-replenished lap
Can more supply thee: but content
Is a large patrimony, sent 10
From him who did thy soul infuse.
May'st thou this best endowment use
In any state; thy structure is
I see complete--a frontispiece
Promising fair; may it ne'er be
Like Jesuit's volumes, where we see
Virtues and saints adorn the front,
Doctrines of devils follow on't:
May a pure soul inhabit still
This well-mixed clay; and a straight will 20
Biassed by reason, that by grace.
May gems of price maintain their place
In such a casket: in that list
Chaste turquoise, sober amethyst
That sacred breastplate still surround:
Urim and Thummim be there found,
Which for thy wearing I design,
That in thee King and Priest may join,
As 'twas thy grandsire's choice, and mine.
May'st thou attain John the Divine 30
Chief of thy titles, though contempt
Now brand the clergy; be exempt,
I ever wish thee, from each vice
That may that calling scandalize:
Let not thy tongue with court oil flow,
Nor supple language lay thee low
For thy preferment; make God's cause
Thy pulpit's task, not thine applause;
May'st thou both preach by line and life;
That thou live well and chaste, a wife 40
I wish thee, such as is thy sire's,
A lawful help 'gainst lustful fires;
And though promotions often frown
On married brows, yet lie not down
In single baudry; impure monks,
That banish wedlock, license punks.
Peace I do wish thee from those wars
Which gownmen talk out at the bars
Four times a year; I wish thee peace
Of conscience, country, and increase 50
In all that best of men commends,
Favour with God, good men thy friends.
Last, for a lasting legacy
I this bequeath, when thou shalt die,
Heaven's monarch bless mine eyes, to see
My wishes crowned, in crowning thee.
[_Wishes to my Son, John._] This poem is preserved
anonymously in Harleian MS. 6917, foll. 101 verso-102, and Mr.
Mason assigns it to Henry King. Lines 28-9 strongly support
this attribution, but the date at the head of the poem is a
serious difficulty, which can only be met by supposing the
lines to have been addressed in 1630 to the son of a second
marriage: l. 40 refers to a living wife, who could not be
the lady of _The Exequy_. King's authorship must therefore be
regarded as doubtful.]
_A Contemplation upon Flowers._
Brave flowers, that I could gallant it like you
And be as little vain!
You come abroad and make a harmless show,
And to your beds of earth again;
You are not proud, you know your birth,
For your embroidered garments are from earth.
You do obey your months and times, but I
Would have it ever spring;
My fate would know no winter, never die,
Nor think of such a thing. 10
Oh that I could my bed of earth but view,
And smile, and look as cheerfully as you!
Oh teach me to see death and not to fear,
But rather to take truce;
How often have I seen you at a bier,
And there look fresh and spruce.
You fragrant flowers then teach me that my breath
Like yours may sweeten and perfume my death.
[_A Contemplation upon Flowers._] Another very
doubtful poem from Harleian MS. 6917, fol. 105 verso, where it
is attributed to 'H. Kinge'. Mr. Mason points out in support
of the attribution that this MS. contains other poems of King
and documents relating to his family; but the poem can hardly
be regarded as authenticated. It has, however, been quoted as
King's in more than one anthology; and it would probably be
missed if omitted from an edition of King's poems.]
* * *
* * * * *
POEMS
AND
SONGS,
BY
_THOMAS FLATMAN._
The Fourth Edition,
With many Additions and Amendments.
_------Me quoque vatem_
_Dicunt Pastores, sed non Ego credulus illis._ Virgil.
_LONDON_,
Printed for _Benjamin Tooke_, at the Ship in
St. _Paul_'s Church-Yard. 1686.
INTRODUCTION TO THOMAS FLATMAN.
Flatman has been condoled with on his name by Mr. Bullen, one of
the few persons who have done him some justice in recent years.[1]
I should rather myself, for reasons which will be given presently,
condole with him on his date. His father was probably Robert Flatman
of Mendham, Norfolk, and it is supposed that the poet was born in
London. The date of his birth, recorded here for the first time,
was February 21, 1635, about 5.29 in the morning. So his horoscope,
preserved by Ashmole,[2] informs us. When he was elected at Winchester
on Michaelmas Day, 1648, he was stated to be 'eleven years old'--a
slight miscalculation. He himself in _The Retirement_, written in
1665, correctly speaks of his 'thirty years'. He actually entered
Winchester in September, 1649. He was transferred in the usual (when
uninterrupted) course to New College, Oxford; he was admitted as a
probationer on September 11, 1654, but seems not to have matriculated
till July 25, 1655; he became Fellow in 1656.[3] There is no academic
record, it would seem, of his ever having taken his degree, though he
is spoken of as 'A.B. of Oxford' when, by the King's Letters, he was
made M.A. of St. Catherine Hall, Cambridge, in 1666. He went from
Oxford to the Inner Temple, in 1655, and was called to the Bar on May
11, 1662. Oldys has a half-satiric reference to his pleading.[4] He
was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in April, 1668. In 1672 he
married, his wife being favourably spoken of, and gossip--inevitable
whether well founded or not--records that his 'Bachelor's Song' (_v.
inf._) was sung under his windows on the occasion by 'merry friends'.
And he died in London on December 8, 1688. Beyond these meagre
details, and a statement that he had property at Diss (the cure
of Skelton and the home of Maria Jolly), we know little about him
directly or by external evidence. By that of his poems he must have
been a friend of good men--Walton, Cotton, Edward Browne[3] (Sir
Thomas's son), Faithorne the engraver, Oldham, and others. His
miniature portraits are well spoken of;--one is in possession of the
Duke of Buccleuch, seven are in the South Kensington Museum. That,
however, which illustrates his _Poems_ is from a painting by John
Hayls, whom Pepys's Diary has made known to a wider circle than
students of the History of English Painting.
Flatman was evidently a tolerable scholar; and his Latinity, of
which several specimens will be found here, does no discredit to the
Winchester and the New College of the time. When he began English
verse-writing does not seem to be known, but it must have been pretty
early. He does not appear to have hurried his Muse; but collected his
poems first in 1674, issuing augmented editions, to the number of four
in all, up to a time shortly before his death. Of these, the
third (1682) and the fourth (1686) have a claim to be regarded as
authoritative and are the basis of the present text. The 1682
edition, 'With Additions and Amendments', is better printed, and the
1686--which makes a modest attempt to outbid it 'With many Additions
and Amendments'--is valuable for the supplementary poems.[4] His
Pindaric epicedes on public men--Ossory, Rupert, the King, &c.--for
the most part appeared separately in folio; and in the earlier days of
my preparation of this collection I gave myself a good deal of trouble
in looking them up. Except the elegy on Ormond (1688) they were
reprinted in these two editions. The last (1686) edition of the
_Poems_, after some search, was procured for me. It seems to be much
rarer than the third of 1682, which I have long possessed, and is not
in the Bodleian. Additional poems, not included in the texts of 1682
and 1686, are added as a supplement. Three of these are taken from
a transcript in Professor Firth's collection of an autograph MS. of
Flatman which is now in America; the title is 'Miscellanies by Tho.
Flatman, ex Interiori Templo Londini. Sic imperantibus fatis. Nov. 9,
1661, 13º Caroli 2^{di}.' This contains in all twenty-three of
the poems which have been collated for this reprint. An interesting
feature of this manuscript is that it dates a number of the poems.
Besides his poems, some pamphlets and Almanacks[5] have been
attributed to him on extremely doubtful evidence, or none at all.
Except among his friends, it does not seem even in his own time to
have been the fashion to think much of his verse; and a triplet of
Rochester's, dismissing him as an imitator of Cowley, and a bad one,
is usually quoted.[6] Flatman's Pindarics are certainly his weakest
poems. But Rochester, for all his wit and wits, was, though an acute,
a very ill-natured critic; we know that he thought Cowley himself out
of date and (as his representatives in kind, though not in gift, would
say to-day) 'early Caroline'. Besides, to dismiss a Pindaric poet of
the Restoration as an imitator, and a bad imitator, of Cowley is too
obvious to be of much importance. I should certainly admit that the
minor Pindaric--of which I have, for my sins or as part of them,
probably read as much as any one living--is one of the most
dismal departments of English verse. But Flatman's is by no means
exceptionally bad, and is at its best better than that of Oldham, or
of Otway, or of Swift--men with whom he cannot compare as a man of
letters generally. Let us come closer to him and to his work.
Hayls may not have been a great painter; but he certainly seems to
have had the knack of putting character in his portraits. Neither that
of Pepys nor that of his wife is without it: and that of Flatman has
a great deal.[7] It is what would be called, I suppose, by most
superficial judges an 'ugly' face--with a broad _retroussé_ nose, lips
of the kind sometimes called 'sensual', and a heavy (something of a
double) chin. But the forehead is high, the mouth smallish, and above
all there are a pair of somewhat melancholy eyes which entirely rescue
it from any charge of vulgarity, though it is not exactly refined.
It certainly suggests what is called in stock phrase an 'artistic
temperament': and it may not be too fanciful to see in it the kind of
artistic temperament which aims higher than it can hit, begins what it
is unable to finish, and never forgets the yew even among the roses.
This complexion is, of course, in a way reflected in the very titles
of the few things of Flatman known[8] to the few people who do know
him--'Death', 'A Thought of Death', 'A Dooms-day Thought', 'Nudus
Redibo', &c. But it is almost everywhere; and there is no
affectation or _sensiblerie_ about it. Flatman is not, as Longfellow,
picturesquely and perhaps Carlylesquely, remarked of Matthiessen and
Salis, 'a gentleman who walks through life with a fine white cambric
handkerchief pressed to his eyes'. He can write battle-songs and
love-songs and festive _gaillardises_ naturally enough. But the other
vein is also natural, and perhaps more so. The funeral panegyric Odes
which make a considerable feature of his works were, of course, almost
part of the routine business of a professional poet in those times of
patronage: one of his regular sources of revenue, in fives or tens or
hundreds of guineas, according to his rank on Parnassus and the rank
and liberality of his subject in Church or State or City. But Flatman
at his best suffuses them with a grave interest in Death itself--a
touch now of Lucretius (who seems to have been a favourite of his),
now of the Preacher--which is not in the least conventional. In this
curious Second Caroline period of faint survivals of the Renaissance
and complete abandonment of its traditions, Flatman's heritage appears
to have been this sense of Death. A poet might have a worse portion.
In powers of expression he was not equally well apanaged: and it was
unlucky for him that he fell in with the special period of popularity
of that difficult and dangerous thing the Pindaric, and had enough of
the older taste in him to attempt the short metaphysical lyric: 'The
Resolve', 'The Fatigue', 'The Indifferent'. For the first he carried
guns hardly heavy enough; for the second his lyrical craft was hardly
sufficiently swift and handy to catch every puff of spiritual wind.
Yet it is mildly astonishing to find how often he comes near to
success, and how near that approach sometimes is. How many poets have
tried to put the thought of the first line of the first poem in the
complete edition:
No more!--Alas! that bitter word, _No more!_
and how many have put it more simply and passionately? The 'Morning
Hymn' and 'Evening Anthem' have rather strangely missed (owing no
doubt to that superficial connexion with Bishop Ken's which is noticed
below) association with hundreds and thousands of very often inferior
divine poems that have found home in collections. 'The Resolve' begins
quite admirably, and only wanted a little more pains on the poet's
part to go on as well. 'Love's Bravo' and 'The Expectation' and
'Fading Beauty' and 'The Slight' are very far indeed from being
contemptible. The two _gaillardises_, the 'Bachelor' and the 'Cats',
want very little to make them quite capital; and 'The Whim' is in the
same case. 'The Advice' actually deserves that adjective, and not
a few others will be found pointed out in the notes; while even
his Pindarics (at least the earlier ones, for those written after
Rochester's death more fully justify his censure than those he can
have read) have fine lines and even fine passages.
It is no doubt rather unfortunate that Flatman should have left us
so many Horatian translations. For the one thing needful--except in a
very few pieces where Horace outgoes himself in massive splendour, and
so can be outgone further by more of this, as in Dryden's magnificent
version of _Tyrrhena regum_--the one thing needful in translating
Horace is something of his well-known and 'curious' urbane
elegance. And this was the very quality which perhaps no Restoration
poet--certainly not Flatman--could give. The 'dash of vulgarity'[9]
which Mr. Bullen has too truly stigmatized affects nearly all of them
except when transported by passion (which is nowhere in Horace);
or fighting hard in a mood of satiric controversy which is quite
different from his pococurantism; or using a massive rhetoric which is
equally absent from him. The consequence is that what Flatman gives us
is not Horace at all; and is not good Flatman. The 'Canidia' pieces,
as one would expect, are about the best, and they are not very good.
I own, however, and I am duly prepared to take the consequences of
the confession, that Flatman appeals to me, though in a different way,
almost as much as any other of the constituents of this volume, though
certainly not so much as some of those of the other two. He had the
pure misfortune--as the sternest critic must acknowledge it to have
been--of being born too late for one period and too early for another.
He could not give to his most serious things the 'brave translunary'
exaltations and excursions which came naturally to the men of a time
just before his, and he could not correct this want by the order and
the sense, the neatness and the finish, which were born with the next
generation. 'Death' and 'A Thought of Death' and the other things
mentioned unfairly but inevitably remind us that we have left Donne
and Crashaw, Vaughan, and even Herbert, behind us. 'The Mistake' and
'The Whim' and many others remind us that we have not come to Prior.
Yet others--which it were cruel to particularize and which he that
reads will easily find for himself--display a lack of the purely
lyrical power which, among his own contemporaries, Rochester and
Sedley and Aphra Behn, not to mention others, possessed. Nor had he
that gift of recognizing the eclipse of the Moon and utilizing the
opportunities of the Earth, which has made Dryden, to competent and
catholic tastes, all but one of the greatest of English poets. But
still he was a 'child of the Moon' herself; and he has the benefits
which she never withholds from her children, though they may be
accompanied by a disastrous influence. He was no doubt a minor poet
in a time when minor poetry was exposed to special disadvantages. But
with far less wit he was more of a poet than Cleveland; with far less
art he was perhaps as much of a poet as Stanley; and I am not even
sure that, with 'weight for age' in the due sense, he was so very much
less of a poet than King. And if those who think but little of these
others as poets deem this scanty praise let us go further and say that
he _is_ a poet--imperfect, disappointing as well as disappointed,
only half aneled with the sacred unction and houselled with the
divine food--but a poet. Which if any denies he may be 'an excellent
person'--as Praed or Praed's Medora so finally puts it--but he does
not know much, if indeed he knows anything, about poetry.[10]
[Footnote 1: By judicious remarks in the preface to his _Musa
Proterva_ (London, 1889, p. viii), and by specimens both in
that and in its companion, _Speculum Amantis_.]
[Footnote 2: In Ashmole MS. 436, at folio 50. Mr. J. K.
Fotheringham, who has kindly deciphered the horoscope, points
out that there are some inaccuracies in the astrologer's
computation, which 'leave a doubt of a few minutes'.]
[Footnote 3: Mr. Ernest Barker, Librarian of New College,
kindly gave Mr. Simpson access to the College records to test
the above dates and facts.]
[Footnote 4:
Should Flatman for his Client strain the laws
The Painter gives some colour to the cause:
Should Critics censure what the Poet writ,
The Pleader quits him at the Bar of wit.
]
[Footnote 3: Browne's diary (March, 1663-4) contains repeated
mention of 'Mr. Flatman, chirurgeon' of Norwich, who had
been a great traveller. This is additional evidence of the
connexion of the Flatmans with Norfolk.]
[Footnote 4: The publisher was Benjamin Tooke, whom Flatman
in a letter of November 3, 1675, recommended to Sancroft if
he wished to publish his Fifth of November sermon before the
House of Commons (Tanner MS. xlii, fol. 181, in Bodley).]
[Footnote 5: _V. inf._, p. 360.]
[Footnote 6:
Nor that slow drudge in swift Pindaric strains,
Flatman, who Cowley imitates with pains,
And rides a jaded Muse, whipt, with loose reins.
Flatman, who had no bad blood in him, took a magnanimous
revenge (_v. inf._, p. 365).]
[Footnote 7: Four letters of Flatman are published in
_Familiar Letters of Love, Gallantry, And Several Occasions,
By the Wits of the last and present Age_, 1718, vol. i, pp.
249-54. One of these is a letter to an unnamed patron, sending
his own portrait for the patron's collection as 'a foil to the
rest'.]
[Footnote 8: And that chiefly because Pope is supposed to have
borrowed from them.]
[Footnote 9: Flatman, however, is much less 'coarse' than most
of his contemporaries. Putting a very few pieces aside (not
themselves very shocking) he might almost challenge my Lord
Roscommon for those 'unspotted bays' which his own supposed
debtor Pope assigned, and of which we are all so tired.]
[Footnote 10: The Additional Poems (p. 408 sq.) I owe to Mr.
Percy Simpson, who collected them from their various sources,
added variants throughout from the Firth MS., and gave some
hints for correcting my own notes. Mr. G. Thorn-Drury has
again given his valuable help.]
TO HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF ORMOND
_Lord Lieutenant of_ Ireland, _&c._
In humble acknowledgment of
His Princely Favours
These[1] _POEMS_ are with all Dutiful
Respect
DEDICATED
By his GRACE's
Ever Oblig'd, and most
Obedient Servant,
_Thomas Flatman_.
[Footnote 1: So in 1682, where this Dedication first appeared:
1686 with its usual carelessness 'The', which is most
improbable.]
To the Reader.
_When I was prevail'd upon to make a Fourth Publication of these_
Poems _with a great many Additions, it was told me, That without a_
Preface _the Book would be unfashionable; Universal Custom had made it
a Debt, and in this Age the_ Bill of Fare _was as necessary as the_
Entertainment. _To be Civil therefore, and to Comply with Expectation,
instead of an elaborate Harangue in Commendation of the Art in
general, or what, and what Qualifications go to the making up of a_
Poet _in particular, and without such artificial Imbellishments as use
to be the Ornament of Prefaces, as_ Sayings of Philosophers, Ends of
Verses, Greek, Latin, Hungarian, French, Welch, _or_ Italian, _Be it
known unto the Reader, That in my poor Opinion_ Poetry _has a very
near Resemblance to the modern Experiment of the_ Ambling-Saddle;
_It's a good Invention for smoothing the_ Trott of Prose; _That's the
Mechanical use of it. But Physically it gives present Ease to the_
Pains _of the_ Mind, _contracted by violent Surfeit of either good or
bad Usage in the World. To be serious, 'tis an Innocent Help to_ Sham
_a Man's time when it lies on his hands and his Fancy can relish
nothing else. I speak but my own Experience; when any Accident hath
either pleas'd or vex'd me beyond my power of expressing either my
Satisfaction or Indignation in downright_ Prose, _I found it
seasonable for_ Rhiming; _and I believe from what follows it may be
discern'd when 'twas_ Fair Weather, _when_ Changeable, _and when the_
Quicksilver _fell down to_ Storm _and_ Tempest. _As to the Measures
observ'd by me, I always took a peculiar delight in the_ Pindarique
_strain, and that for two Reasons, First, it gave me a liberty now and
then to correct the saucy forwardness of a_ Rhime, _and to lay it
aside till I had a mind to admit it; And secondly, if my Sense fell at
any time too short for my_ Stanza, (_and it will often happen so in
Versifying_) _I had then opportunity to fill it up with a_ Metaphor
_little to the purpose, and (upon occasion) to run that_ Metaphor
_stark mad into an_ Allegory, _a practice very frequent and of
admirable use amongst the_ Moderns, _especially the_ Nobless _of the
Faculty. But in good earnest, as to the_ Subjects, _which came in my
way to write upon, I must declare that I have chosen only such as
might be treated within the Rules of_ Decency, _and without offence
either to_ Religion _or_ good Manners. _The Caution I receiv'd (by
Tradition) from the Incomparable Mr._ Cowley, _and him I must ever
acknowledge but to imitate, if any of the ensuing Copies may deserve
the name of_ Good _or_ Indifferent. _I have not vanity enough to
prescribe how a_ Muse _ought to be Courted, and I want leisure to
borrow from some Treatises I have seen, which look like so many_
Academies _of_ Complements _for that purpose. I have known a man, who
when he was about to write would screw his face into more disguises
than_ Scaramuccio, _or a_ Quaker _at a Meeting when his Turn came to
mount; his breast heav'd, his hair stood on end, his eyes star'd_,
_and the whole man was disorder'd; and truly when he had done, any
body at first reading would conclude that at the time he made them he
was possess'd with an evil Spirit. Another that seem'd like_
Nostradamus _(when the Whim took him in the head to Prophesie,) he
sate upon his_ Divining Tripos, _his elbow on his knee, his Lamp by
his side, all the avenues of light stopp'd, full of expectation when
the_ little faint flames _should steal in through a crevice of the
Shutters; This Gentleman indeed writ extreme_ Melancholy Madrigals. _I
have had the happiness to hear of a Third too, whose whole life was_
Poetical, _he was a_ Walking Poem, _and his way was this; finding that
the fall of the Leaf was already upon him, and prudently foreseeing
that in the Winter of his old Age he might possibly want Fodder, he
carry'd always about him one of_ Raimund Lully's Repositories, _a
piece of_ Mathematical Paper, _and in what Company soever he came,
the_ Spoon _was always ready for the_ Civet-Cat, _nothing scap'd him
that_ fell from a Wit: _At night his custom was to digest all that he
had pirated that Day, under proper Heads; This was his_ Arsenal, _his
inexhaustible_ Magazine; _so that upon occasion he had no more to do,
than to give a snap, or two to his Nails; a rub or two upon the
sutures of his Head, to turn over his_ Hint-Book, _and the Matter was
at hand, his business (after that piece of_ Legerdemain) _was only_
Tacking, _and_ Tagging: _I never saw but One of this Author's
Compositions, and really It troubled me, because It put me in mind,
how much time I had mispent in Coffee-Houses, for there was nothing in
It, but what I could find a Father for There; Nay, (with a little
recollection,) a man might name most of the Birds from whence he had
pluckt his Feathers. Some there are that Beseech, Others that Hector
their_ Muses: _Some that Diet their_ Pegasus, _give him his Heats and
Ayrings for the Course; Others that endeavour to slop up his broken
wind with Medicinal Ale and Bisquet; But these for the most part are
men of_ Industry; _Rhiming is their proper Business, they are fain to
labour hard, and use much Artifice for a poor Livelihood, I wish 'em
good Trading. I profess I never had design to be incorporated into the
Society; my utmost End was merely for Diversion of my self and a few
Friends whom I very well love; and if the question should be ask'd why
these Productions are expos'd, I may truly say, I could not help it;
One unlucky Copy, like a Bell-weather, stole from me in to the Common,
and the rest of the Flock took their opportunity to leave the
Enclosure. If I might be proud of any thing, it should be the first
Copy of the Book, but therein I had the greatest advantage given me
that any Noble Subject could afford. And so much for_ Preface _and_
Poetry, _till some very powerful Star shall over-rule my present
Resolution._
[_To the Reader._] As in some other cases, I have thought
it best to keep the original arrangement of capitals,
type-differences, &c., here. The poems are printed, like the
greater part of the collection, in modern form, but with no
important alterations unnoticed.]
On the Excellent Poems of my most Worthy
Friend, Mr. Thomas Flatman.
You happy issue of a happy wit,
As ever yet in charming numbers writ,
Welcome into the light, and may we be
Worthy so happy a posterity.
We long have wish'd for something excellent;
But ne'er till now knew rightly what it meant:
For though we have been gratified, 'tis true,
From several hands with things both fine and new,
The wits must pardon me, if I profess,
That till this time the over-teeming press 10
Ne'er set out Poesy in so true a dress:
Nor is it all, to have a share of wit,
There must be judgement too to manage it;
For Fancy's like a rough, but ready horse,
Whose mouth is govern'd more by skill than force;
Wherein (my friend) you do a maistry own,
If not particular to you alone;
Yet such at least as to all eyes declares
Your Pegasus the best performs his airs.
Your Muse can humour all her subjects so, 20
That as we read we do both feel and know;
And the most firm impenetrable breast
With the same passion that you write's possest.
Your lines are rules, which who shall well observe
Shall even in their errors praise deserve:
The boiling youth, whose blood is all on fire,
Push'd on by vanity, and hot desire,
May learn such conduct here, men may approve
And not excuse, but even applaud his love.
Ovid, who made an art of what to all 30
Is in itself but too too natural,
Had he but read your verse, might then have seen
The style of which his precepts should have been,
And (which it seems he knew not) learnt from thence
To reconcile frailty with innocence.
The love _you_ write virgins and boys may read,
And never be debauch'd but better bred;
For without love, beauty would bear no price,
And dullness, than desire's a greater vice:
Your greater subjects with such force are writ 40
So full of sinewy strength, as well as wit,
That when you are _religious_, our divines
May emulate, but not reprove your lines:
And when you reason, there the learned crew
May learn to speculate, and speak from you.
You no profane, no obscene language use
To smut your paper, or defile your Muse.
Your gayest things, as well express'd as meant,
Are equally both quaint and innocent.
But your Pindaric Odes indeed are such 50
That Pindar's lyre from his own skilful touch
Ne'er yielded such an harmony, nor yet
Verse keep such time on so unequal feet.
So by his own generous confession
Great Tasso by Guarini was outdone:
And (which in copying seldom does befall)
The ectype's better than th' original.
But whilst your fame I labour to send forth,
By the ill-doing it I cloud your worth,
In something all mankind unhappy are, 60
And you as mortal too must have your share;
'Tis your misfortune to have found a friend,
Who hurts and injures where he would commend.
But let this be your comfort, that your bays
Shall flourish green, maugre an ill-couch'd praise.
CHARLES COTTON, Esq.
[_You happy, &c._] 16 Cotton may have had several reasons for
keeping the form 'maistry'--at any rate it should certainly be
kept here, though 'mastery' with or without apostrophated _e_
would fill the verse properly.]
[Line: 50 'Pindari_que_' or 'Pindariqu'' in the original
throughout the Volume.]
[Line: 57 ectype] Not uncommon even later for 'copy'.]
[This piece is in the original about half italics, which, for
the most part, express no kind of emphasis. The next is
almost entirely free from them, and the difference continues
throughout the Commendatory Poems in such a fashion as to show
that they were used on no principle at all. Flatman's own text
has very few, outside of proper names.]
To my Friend Mr Thomas Flatman, upon the
Publication of his Poems.
I.
As when a Prince his standard does erect,
And calls his subjects to the field,
From such as early take his side,
And readily obedience yield,
He is instructed where he may suspect,
And where he safely may confide:
So, mighty friend,
That you may see
A perfect evidence of loyalty,
No business I pretend; 10
From all th' incumbrances of human life,
From nourishing the sinful people's strife,
And the increasing weaknesses of age.
II.
Domestic care, the mind's incurable disease,
I am resolv'd I will forget.
Ah! could I hope the restless pain
Would now entirely cease,
And never more return again,
My thoughts I would in other order set;
By more than protestations I would show, 20
Not the sum total only of the debt,
But the particulars of all I owe.
III.
This I would do: but what will our desire avail
When active heat and vigour fail?
'Tis well thou hast more youthful combatants than I,
Right able to protect thy immortality:
If envy should attack thy spotless name
(And that attacks the best of things
And into rigid censure brings
The most undoubted registers of fame), 30
Their fond artillery let them dispense,
Piercing wit and murd'ring eloquence,
Noble conceit and manly sense,
Charming numbers let 'em shine
And dazzle dead in ev'ry line
The most malicious of thy foes,
Though Hell itself should offer to oppose;
I (thy decrepit subject) only can resign
The little life of art is left, to ransom thine:
Fumbling's as bad in poetry, 40
And as ridiculous, as 'tis in gallantry:
But if a dart I may prevent,
Which at my friend's repute was meant,
Let them then direct at me;
By dying in so just a war,
I possibly may share
In thy infallible eternity.
IV.
But, dearest friend
(Before it be too late),
Let us a while expostulate, 50
What heat of glory call'd you on,
Your learnèd empire to extend
Beyond the limits of your own dominion?
At home, you were already crown'd with bays:
Why foreign trophies do you seek to raise?
Poets arcanas have of government,
And tho' the homagers of your own continent
Out of a sense of duty do submit,
Yet public print a jealousy creates,
And intimates a laid design 60
Unto the neighb'ring potentates.
Now into all your secret arts they pry,
And weigh each hint by rules of policy.
Offensive leagues they twine,
In councils, rotas, and cabals they sit,
Each petty burgess thinks it fit
The Corporation should combine
Against the Universal Monarchy of Wit,
And straight declare for quite abjuring it.
V.
Hence then must you prepare for an invasion: 70
Tho' not from such as are reclaim'd by education;
In the main points all European wits agree,
All allow order, art, and rules of decency,
And to be absolutely perfect, ne'er was yet
A beauty such, or such a wit.
I fear the Pagan and the barbarous,
A nation quite Antipodes to us;
The infidel unletter'd crew (I mean)
Who call that only wit,
Which is indeed but the reverse of it; 80
Creatures in whom civility ne'er shone,
But (unto Nature's contradiction)
It is their glory to be so obscene,
You'd think the legion of th' unclean
Were from the swine (to which they were condemn'd) releas'd,
And had these verier swine (than them) possess'd.
VI.
If these should an advantage take
And on thy fame a depredation make,
You must submit to the unhappiness;
These are the common enemies of our belief and art, 90
And by hostility possess'd
The world's much greater part:
All things with them are measur'd by success:
If the battle be not won;
If the author do not sell;
Into their dull capacities it will not sink,
They cannot with deliberation think
How bravely the commander led them on,
No nor wherein the book was written well:
When ('tis a thing impossible to do) 100
He cannot find his army courage (Sir), nor you
Your readers, learning, wit, and judgement too.
ROBERT THOMPSON, LL.D.
[Line: 103 I have not identified Robert Thompson, LL.D., but
I shall always think of him as author of some of the worst
Pindaric of his time, which is saying a great deal.]
To my Friend Mr. Thomas Flatman, on the
Publishing of these his Poems.
Let not (my friend) th' incredulous sceptic man
Dispute what potent Art and Nature can!
Let him believe, the birds that did bemoan
The loss of Zeuxis' grapes in querulous tone,
Were silenc'd by a painted dragon, found
A _Telesme_ to restrain their chatt'ring sound,
And that one made a mistress could enforce
A neighing sigh, ev'n from a stallion horse!
Let old Timanthes now unveil the face
Of his Atrides, thou'lt give sorrow grace! 10
Now may Parrhasius let his curtain stand!
And great Protogenes take off his hand!
For all that lying Greece and Latium too
Have told us of, thou (only thou) mak'st true.
And all the miracles which they could show,
Remain no longer faith; but science now.
Thou dost those things that no man else durst do,
Thou paint'st the lightning, and the thunder too!
The soul and voice!
Thou'lt make Turks, Jews, with Romanists consent, 20
To break the second great Commandement:
And them persuade an adoration giv'n
In picture, will as grateful be to Heav'n
As one in metre. Th' art is in excess;
But yet thy ingenuity makes it less.
With pen and pencil thou dost all outshine,
In speaking picture, Poesy divine.
Poets, creators are! You made us know
Those are above, and dread those are below;
But 'tis no wonder you such things can dare, 30
That painter, poet, and a prophet are.
The stars themselves think it no scorn to be
Plac'd, and directed in their way by thee.
Thou know'st their virtue, and their situation,
The fate of years, and every great mutation;
With the same kindness let them look on Earth,
As when they gave thee first thy happy birth!
The sober Saturn aspects Cynthia bright,
Resigning hers, to give us thy new light. 40
The gentle Venus rose with Mercury
(Presage of softness in thy Poesy),
And Jove and Mars in amicable Trine
Do still give spirit to thy polish'd line.
Thou mayst do what thou wilt without control:
_Only thyself and Heav'n can paint thy soul._
FRAN. BARNARD, M.D.
[_Let not, &c._] 6 The form _Telesme_, which may be allowed
its italics, reproduces the (late) Greek [Greek: telesma],
instead of the Spanish-Arabic 'talisman'.]
[Line: 22 giv'n] Orig. 'giv'_d_', but correct in previous
(1682) edition.]
[Line: 39 Both editions have a comma at 'aspects', which
obscures the sense. 'Aspect' is made a transitive verb in
the sense of the astrological substantive = 'arranges his
situation in regard to the Moon so as to make her resign', &c.
1686 'To' for 'The', wrongly.]
[Line: 46 It would be a shame to rob Francis Barnard of the
italics which distinguish the entire line in the original.
He died on February 9, 1698, and was buried at St. Botolph's,
Bishopsgate.]
To his esteemed Friend Mr. Thomas Flatman,
Upon the Publishing of his Poems.
Your Poems (friend) come on the public stage
In a debauch'd and a censorious age:
Where nothing now is counted standard wit,
But what's profane, obscene, or's bad as it.
For our great wits, like gallants of the times
(And such they are), court only those loose rhymes,
Which, like their misses, patch'd and painted are;
But scorn what virtuous is and truly fair;
Such as your Muse is, who with careful art
For all but such, hath wisely fram'd a part. 10
One while (methinks) under some gloomy shade,
I see the melancholy lover laid,
Pleasing himself in that his pensive fit
With what you have on such occasion writ.
Another while (methinks) I seem to hear
'Mongst those, who sometimes will unbend their care.
And steal themselves out from the busy throng,
Your pleasant _Songs_ in solemn consort sung.
Again (methinks) I see the grave Divine
Lay by his other books, to look on thine, 20
And from thy serious and divine _Review_
See what our duty is, and his own too.
Yet, worthy friend, you can't but guess what doom
Is like to pass on what you've writ, by some;
But there are others, now your book comes forth,
Who (I am sure) will prize it as 'tis worth,
Who know it fully fraught with staple ware,
Such as the _Works_ of the great Cowley are,
And 'mongst our rarest English poems, thine
Next unto his immortally shall shine. 30
RICH. NEWCOURT.
[_Your Poems, &c._] 14 i.e., no doubt, _The Desperate Lover_
(_v. inf._ p. 336).]
[Line: 18 consort] As so often = 'concert'.]
[Line: 21 divine _Review_] The poem to Sancroft (_inf._, p.
301).]
[Line: 31 Richard Newcourt is discoverable and throws a little
more light on Flatman's circle of acquaintance. He was a
topographer, and drew a map of London published in 1658 by
Faithorne the elder (_v. inf._).]
To my Worthy Friend Mr. Thomas Flatman,
Upon the Publishing of his Poems.
Rude and unpolish'd as my lines can be,
I must start forth into the world with thee.
That which, yet private, did my wonder raise,
Now 'tis made public challenges my praise:
Such miracles thy charming verse can do,
Where'er it goes, it draws me with it too.
This is a kind of birthday to thy Muse!
Transported with delight I cannot choose
But bid her _Welcome to the Light_, and tell,
How much I value what is writ so well; 10
Tho' thou reap'st no advantage by my rhyme,
More than a taper helps the day to shine.
Thus in dull pomp does th' empty coach attend
To pay respect to some departed friend!
The difference of regard in this does lie,
_That_ honours dust, _mine_ that which cannot die:
For what can blast the labours of thy pen,
While wit and virtue are allow'd by men?
Thou entertain'st the world with such a feast,
So cleanly and so elegantly drest, 20
So stor'd with laudable varieties
As may a modest appetite suffice;
Whoever is thy guest is sure to find
Something or other that may please his mind.
Sometimes in pious flames thy Muse aspires
Her bosom warm'd with supernat'ral fires;
In noble flights with Pindar, soars above;
Dallies sometimes with not-indecent love,
Thence down into the grave does humbly creep,
And renders Death desirable as Sleep. 30
The debonair, the melancholy here
Find matter for their mirth, ease for their care.
Since such provision's made for all that come,
He must be squeamish that goes empty home;
If these refections cannot do him good,
'Tis 'cause his stomach's vicious, not the food.
FRANCIS KNOLLYS, Esq.
[_Rude and unpolished, &c._] 4 public] Orig. 'publique'. So
often 'Pindarique', and sometimes '-iq''.]
[Line: 37 This Knollys is again unknown to me.]
To the Author on his excellent Poems.
I.
Strange magic of thy wit and style,
Which to their griefs mankind can reconcile!
Whilst thy Philander's tuneful voice we hear
Condoling our disastrous state,
Touch'd with a sense of our hard fate,
We sigh perhaps, or drop a tear,
But he the mournful song so sweetly sings,
That more of pleasure than regret it brings.
With such becoming grief
The Trojan chief 10
Troy's conflagration did relate,
Whilst ev'n the suffrers in the fire drew near
And with a greedy ear
Devour'd the story of their own subverted state.
II.
Kind Heav'n (as to her darling son) to thee
A double portion did impart,
A gift of Painting and of Poesy:
But for thy rivals in the painter's art,
If well they represent, they can effect
No more, nor can we more expect. 20
But more than this _thy_ happy pencils give;
Thy draughts are more than representative,
For, if we'll credit our own eyes, they _live!_
Ah! worthy friend, couldst thou maintain the state
Of what with so much ease thou dost create,
We might reflect on death with scorn!
But pictures, like th' originals, decay!
Of colours those consist, and these of clay;
Alike compos'd of dust, to dust alike return!
III.
Yet 'tis our happiness to see 30
Oblivion, Death, and adverse Destiny
Encounter'd, vanquish'd, and disarm'd by thee.
For if thy pencils fail,
Change thy artillery
And thou'rt secure of victory.
Employ thy quill and thou shall still prevail.
The Grand Destroyer, greedy Time, reveres
Thy Fancy's imag'ry, and spares
The meanest thing that bears
Th' impression of thy pen; 40
Tho' coarse and cheap their natural metal were,
Stamp'd with thy verse he knows th' are sacred then,
He knows them by that character to be
Predestinate and set apart for immortality.
IV.
If native lustre in thy themes appear,
Improv'd by thee it shines more clear:
Or if thy subject's void of native light,
Thy Fancy need but dart a beam
To gild thy theme,
And make the rude mass beautiful and bright. 50
Thou vary'st oft thy strains, but still
Success attends each strain:
Thy verse is always lofty as the hill,
Or pleasant as the plain.
How well thy Muse the Pastoral Song improves!
Whose nymphs and swains are in their loves
As innocent, and yet as kind as doves.
But most She moves our wonder and delight,
When She performs her loose Pindaric flight,
Oft to their outmost reach She will extend 60
Her tow'ring wings to soar on high,
And then by just degrees descend:
Oft in a swift strait course She glides,
Obliquely oft the air divides,
And oft with wanton play hangs hov'ring in the sky.
V.
Whilst sense of duty into my artless Muse
Th' ambition would infuse
To mingle with those Nymphs that homage pay,
And wait on thine in her triumphant way,
Defect of merit checks her forward pride, 70
And makes her dread t' approach thy chariot side;
For 'twere at least a rude indecency
(If not profane) t' appear
At this solemnity,
Crown'd with no laurel wreath (as others are);
But this we will presume to do,
At distance, to attend the show,
Officious to gather up
The scatter'd bays, if any drop
From others' temples, and with those 80
A plain plebeian coronet compose.
This, as your livery, she'd wear, to hide
Her nakedness, not gratify her pride!
Such was the verdant dress
Which the Offending Pair did frame
Of platted leaves, not to express
Their pride i'th' novel garb, but to conceal their shame.
N. TATE.
[Line: 42 'th'' for 'they' is an instance, good in its
badness, of the uglier apostrophation.]
[Line: 63 strait] So _both_ edd.: but as often for
'strai_gh_t'.]
[Line: 75 'Crown'd with no laurel wreath (as others are)'
should be a comfort to the poetaster. For Nahum had only to
wait less than twenty years and he _was_ crowned in the very
lifetime of the discrowned 'other' Dryden, who wore the wreath
at this time, and who meanwhile had done him the enormous
honour of admitting him to collaboration in _Absalom and
Achitophel_. Tate has other verses addressed to Flatman; see
his _Poems_, p. 67.]
To my dear Friend Mr. Thomas Flatman,
Upon the Publication of his Poems.
PINDARIC ODE.
I.
Within the haunted thicket, where
The feather'd choristers are met to play;
And celebrate with voices clear,
And accents sweet, the praise of May:
The ouzel, thrush, and speckled lark,
And Philomel, that loves the dawn and dark:
These (the inspired throng)
In numbers smooth and strong
Adorn their noble theme with an immortal song,
While woods and vaults, the brook and neighbouring hill, 10
Repeat the varied close and the melodious trill.
II.
Here feast your ears, but let their eye
Wander, and see one of the lesser fry
Under a leaf, or on a dancing twig,
Ruffle his painted feathers, and look big,
Perk up his tail, and hop between
The boughs; by moving, only to be seen,
Perhaps his troubled breast he prunes,
As he doth meditate his tunes:
At last (compos'd) his little head he rears, 20
Towards (what he strives to imitate) the spheres;
And chirping then begins his best,
Falls on to pipe among the rest;
Deeming that all's not worth a rush,
Without his whistle from the bush.
III.
Th' harmonious sound did reach my ear,
That echo'd _thy_ clear name,
Which all must know, who e'er did hear
Of Cowley or Orinda's fame;
I heard the Genius, with surprising grace, 30
Would visit us with his fair offspring, gay
As is the morning spring in May;
But fairer much, and of immortal race.
IV.
Delighted greatly, as I list'ning stood,
The sound came from each corner of the wood;
It both the shrubs and cedars shak'd,
And my drowsy Muse awak'd;
Strange that the sound should be so shrill,
That had its passage through a quill.
Then I resolv'd _thy_ praises to rehearse, 40
The wonders of _thy pen_, among the crowd
Of thy learn'd friends that sing so loud:
But 'twas not to be sung, or reach'd in verse.
By my weak notes, scarce to be heard,
Or if they could, not worth regard;
Desisting therefore I must only send
My very kind well wishes to my friend.
OCTAVIAN PULLEYN.
[_Within the haunted, &c._] 9 theme] So spelt here; 'theam'
elsewhere--a fresh pair of instances from the same book of the
absurdity of keeping bad spelling for its own sake.]
[Line: 48 Octavian Pulleyn was probably the son of Octavian
Pulleyn, warden of the Stationers' Company; he published
Woodford's _Paraphrase of the Psalms_.]
_Commendatory Poems_
The following spirited preface and a prefatory poem were printed only
in the _Poems and Songs_ of 1674; they are worth preserving here.
Advertisement to the Reader.
_By long_ Prescription time out of mind, _the next Leafe to the_ Title
Page _claims an_ EPISTLE to the READER; _I had the Project once in
my own thoughts too: But the Market is so abominably_ forestall'd
_already with all manner of excuses for Printing, that I could not
possibly contrive_ one, _that would look any thing_ New: _And besides
I never found, amongst all the_ Epistles _that I have read, that the
best Rethorick in 'em could perswade me to have a better opinion of
the Books for_ Their _sakes: I am apt to believe the rest of Mankind
much of my humour in this particular, and therefore do here expose
these few Results of my many Idle hours, to the mercy of the wide
World, quite guiltless of_ Address _or_ Ceremony. _And that_
Reader, who will _not believe I had some tolerable Reason for_ This
Publication, _cannot give me much disturbance, because I'me sure he is
not at all acquainted with_
_T. F._
April 10. 1674.
To his Worthy Friend Mr. Thomas Flatman
on the publishing of his Poems.
I.
I think thou art not well advised, my friend,
To bring thy spritely Poems on the stage
Now when the Muses' empire 's at an end
And there 's none left that feel poetic rage,
Now Cowley's dead, the glory of the age,
And all the lesser singing birds are starved i'th' cage.
II.
Nor was it well done to permit my bush,
My holly bush, to hang before thy wine,
For friends' applauses are not worth a rush,
And every fool can get a gilded sign.
In troth I have no faculty at praise;
My bush is very full of thorns, though it seems bays.
III.
When I would praise I cannot find a rhyme,
But if I have a just pretence to rail,
They come in numerous throngs at any time,
Their everlasting fountains never fail,
They come in troops and for employment pray;
If I have any wit, it lies only that way.
IV.
But yet I'll try, if thou wilt rid thy mind
Of thoughts of rhyming and of writing well,
And bend thy studies to another kind--
I mean, in craft and riches to excel;
If thou desert thy friends and better wine,
And pay'st no more attendance on the needy Nine.
V.
Go, and renounce thy wit and thy good parts--
Wit and good parts, great enemies to wealth,--
And barter honesty for more thriving arts,
Prize gold before a good name, ease, and health.
Answer the Dog and Bottle, and maintain
There's great ease in a yoke, and freedom in a chain.
VI.
I'll love thee now when this is done, I'll try
To sing thy praise, and force my honest Muse to lie.
WALTER POPE.
The Contents.
Page
On the Death of the Right
Honourable Thomas Earl of
Ossory. Pindaric Ode 296
To the Memory of the Incomparable
Orinda. Pindaric Ode 298
The review to Dr. W. S. Pindaric Ode 301
To my Worthy Friend Mr. Sam.
Woodford on his Excellent
Version of the Psalms. Pindaric Ode 306
On the Death of the Truly Valiant
George Duke of Albemarle. Pindaric Ode 308
The Retirement. Pindaric Ode,
made in the time of the great
Sickness 1665 312
Translated out of a part of
Petronius Arbiter's Satyricon 314
A Thought of Death. 317
Psalm 39, verses 4 and 5 317
Hymn for the Morning 318
Anthem for the Evening 318
Death. A Song 319
The Happy Man 319
On Mr. Johnson's several Shipwrecks 320
An Explanation of an Emblem
engraven by V. H. 321
For Thoughts 321
Against Thoughts 323
A Dooms-Day Thought 325
Virtus sola manet, caetera mortis erunt 327
Translated 328
Psalm 15. Paraphrased 329
Job 330
Nudus Redibo 330
An Elegy on the Earl of Sandwich 331
An Epitaph on the Earl of Sandwich 332
Pastoral 332
On the Death of Mr. Pelham Humfries,
a Pastoral Song 334
The Mistake 334
The Incredulous 335
Weeping at parting, Song 335
The Desperate Lover 336
The Fatigue, A Song 337
The Resolve, Song 337
Love's Bravo, Song 338
The Expectation, Song 339
Coridon converted, Song 339
The Humourist, Song 340
Fading Beauty, Song 340
A Dialogue, Cloris and Parthenissa 341
A Dialogue, Orpheus and Eurydice 341
The Bachelor's Song 342
The Bachelor's Song, Second part 343
An Appeal to Cats in the business of Love 343
Advice to an Old Man of 63 about
to marry a Girl of 16, Song 343
The Slight, Song 344
The Penitent, Song 345
The Defiance, Song 345
The Surrender, Song 346
The Whim, Song 346
The Renegado, Song 347
Phyllis withdrawn 347
The Malecontent, Song 348
The Indifferent, Song 348
The Harbour, Song 349
The Unconcerned, Song 349
The Immovable, Song 350
The Wish, Song 350
The Cordial made in the year 1637 351
Celadon on Delia singing, Song 351
The Advice, Song 352
To Mr. Sam. Austin of Wadham Coll. Oxon,
on his most unintelligible Poems 353
To my ingenious Friend Mr. William Faithorne
on his Book of Drawing, Etching, and Graving 354
On the Commentaries of Messire Blaize de Montluc,
to the Worthy Translator Charles Cotton, Esq. 355
A Character of a Belly-God. Catius and Horace 356
The Disappointed. Pindaric Ode 359
On Mrs. E. Montague's Blushing
in the Cross-Bath. A Translation 360
Il Infido 361
Il Immaturo, Epitaph 362
On Mrs. Dove, Epitaph 362
Lucretius 362
Paraphrased 362
On Dr. Browne's Travels 363
On Poverty 363
Urania to her Friend Parthenissa. A Dream 364
On the Death of the Earl of Rochester. Pastoral 365
On Dr. Woodford's Paraphrase on the Canticles 366
Laodamia to Protesilaus: One of Ovid's Epistles
Translated 367
To the Excellent Master of Music
Signior Pietro Reggio, on his Book of Songs 371
In the Temple Church. Epitaph on Sir John King 372
On the Death of my dear Brother
Mr. Richard Flatman. Pindaric Ode 373
Coridon on the Death of his dear Alexis 375
A Song on New-years-day before the King 376
On the King's return to Whitehall
after his Summer's Progress, 1684 377
To Mr. Isaac Walton on his publication of Thealma 378
Pastoral Dialogue, Castara and Parthenia 379
Castabella going to Sea, Song 380
On the Death of my Worthy Friend
Mr. John Oldham. Pindaric Pastoral Ode 380
On Sir John Micklethwaite's Monument in
St. Botolphs Aldersgate Church, London 382
Epitaph on Thomas Rock 383
On the Death of the Illustrious
Prince Rupert. Pindaric Ode 384
Poema in obitum illustrissimi principis
Ruperti Latinè redditum 388
On the much Lamented Death of our late
Sovereign Lord King Charles II of
blessed Memory. Pindaric Ode 391
To his Sacred Majesty King James II 394
ODES OF HORACE
Book the Second, Ode 19 395
Book the Third, Ode 8 396
Book the Third, Ode 9 396
Book the Third, Ode 12 397
Book the Third, Ode 17 397
Book the Third, Ode 19 398
Book the Third, Ode 20 398
Book the Third, Ode 21 399
Book the Third, Ode 22 399
Book the Third, Ode 3 400
Book the Fourth, Ode 1 400
Book the Fourth, Ode 10 401
Book the Fourth, Ode 11 401
Epode the Third 402
Epode the Sixth 403
Epode the Tenth 403
Epode the Eleventh 404
Epode the Fifteenth 405
Epode the Seventeenth 405
POEMS NOT INCLUDED IN THE EDITIONS OF 1682 AND 1686.
Upon a Chine of Beef 409
On the Death of Charles Capell 410
From W. Sanderson's _Graphice_:--
On the Picture of the Author 411
On the noble Art of Painting 411
On Mistress S. W. 413
Song ('Oh no, oh no! it cannot be') 414
Epitaph on his eldest Son Thomas 414
Lines to John Northleigh 415
Lines to Archbishop Sancroft 416
On the Death of James, Duke of Ormond.
Pindaric Ode 417
Job, ch. xxvii. Paraphrased 420
POEMS.
_On the Death of the Right Honourable Thomas Earl of Ossory._
PINDARIC ODE.
_Stanza_ I.
No more!--Alas that bitter word, _No more!_
The Great, the Just, the Generous, the Kind;
The universal Darling of Mankind,
The noble OSSORY is now _No more!_
The mighty man is fall'n--
From Glory's lofty pinnacle,
Meanly like one of us, he fell,
Not in the hot pursuit of victory,
As gallant men would choose to die;
But tamely, like a poor plebeian, from his bed 10
To the dark grave a captive led;
Emasculating sighs, and groans around,
His friends in floods of sorrow drown'd;
His awful truncheon and bright arms laid by,
He bow'd his glorious head to Destiny.
II.
Celestial Powers! how unconcern'd you are!
No black eclipse or blazing star
Presag'd the death of this illustrious man,
No deluge, no, nor hurricane;
In her old wonted course Nature went on, 20
As if some common thing were done,
One single victim to Death's altar's come,
And not in Ossory an whole hecatomb.
Yet, when the founder of old Rome expir'd,
When the Pellëan youth resign'd his breath,
And when the great Dictator stoop'd to death,
Nature and all her faculties retir'd:
Amaz'd she started when amaz'd she saw
The breaches of her ancient fundamental law,
Which kept the world in awe: 30
For men less brave than him, her very heart did ache,
The labouring Earth did quake,
And trees their fix'd foundations did forsake;
Nature in some prodigious way
Gave notice of their fatal day:
Those lesser griefs with pain she thus exprest,
This did confound, and overwhelm her breast.
III.
Shrink, ye crown'd heads, that think yourselves secure,
And from your mould'ring thrones look down,
Your greatness cannot long endure, 40
The King of Terrors claims you for his own;
You are but tributaries to his dreadful crown:
Renown'd, Serene, Imperial, most August,
Are only high and mighty epithets for dust.
In vain, in vain so high
Our tow'ring expectations fly,
While th' blossoms of our hopes, so fresh, so gay,
Appear, and promise fruit, then fade away.
From valiant Ossory's ever loyal hands,
What did we not believe! 50
We dream'd of yet unconquer'd lands
He to his Prince could give,
And neighbouring crowns retrieve:
Expected that he would in triumph come
Laden with spoils and Afric banners home,
As if an hero's years
Were as unbounded as our fond desires.
IV.
Lament, lament, you that dare Honour love,
And court her at a noble rate 60
(Your prowess to approve),
That dare religiously upon her wait,
And blush not to grow good, when you grow great,
Such mourners suit _His_ virtue, such _His_ State.
And you, brave souls, who for your country's good
Did wondrous things in fields and seas of blood,
Lament th' undaunted chief that led you on;
Whose exemplary courage could inspire
The most degenerate heart with martial English fire.
Your bleeding wounds who shall hereafter dress 70
With an indulgent tenderness;
Touch'd with a melting sympathy,
Who shall your wants supply,
Since he, your good Samaritan, is gone?
O Charity! thou richest boon of Heaven,
To man in pity given!
(For when well-meaning mortals give,
The poor's and their own bowels they relieve;)
Thou mak'st us with alacrity to die,
Miss'd and bewail'd like thee, large-hearted Ossory. 80
V.
Arise, ye blest inhabitants above,
From your immortal seats arise,
And on our wonder, on our love
Gaze with astonish'd eyes.
Arise! Arise! make room,
Th' exalted Shade is come.
See where he comes! What princely port he bears!
How God-like he appears!
His shining temples round
With wreaths of everlasting laurels bound! 90
As from the bloody field of Mons he came,
Where he outfought th' hyperboles of Fame.
See how the Guardian-Angel of our isle
Receives the deifi'd champion with a smile!
Welcome, the Guardian-Angel says,
Full of songs of joy and praise,
Welcome thou art to me,
And to these regions of serenity!
Welcome, the wingèd choir resounds,
While with loud _Euge's_ all the sacred place abounds. 100
[_On the Death of the Earl of Ossory._] Thomas Butler
(1634-80), by courtesy Earl of Ossory, though not exactly
a Marcellus (for he was forty-six when he died), holds a
distinguished place among those who have died too soon. He
was a soldier, a sailor, a statesman; if not an orator, an
effective speaker; and though no milksop or 'good boy', one
emphatically, 'of the right sort'. The excellent first line
(see Introduction) is well supported by the whole opening
quatrain; and it has been left, typographically, as it appears
in the original. The rest may undergo the usual law. The poem
was first issued in folio in 1681: 'be' was read for 'grow' in
l. 63.]
[Line: 58 The French rhyme, as if 'dés_ir_', is not
uninteresting.]
_To the Memory of the Incomparable Orinda._
PINDARIC ODE.
_Stanza_ I.
A long adieu to all that's bright,
Noble, or brave in woman-kind;
To all the wonders of their wit,
And trophies of their mind:
The glowing heat of th' holy fire is gone:
To th' altar, whence 'twas kindled, flown;
There's nought on earth, but ashes left behind;
E'er since th' amazing sound was spread,
Orinda's dead;
Every soft and fragrant word, 10
All that language could afford;
Every high and lofty thing
That's wont to set the soul on wing,
No longer with this worthless world would stay.
Thus, when the death of the great Pan was told,
Along the shore the dismal tidings roll'd;
The lesser Gods their fanes forsook,
Confounded with the mighty stroke,
They could not overlive that fatal day,
But sigh'd and groan'd their gasping Oracles away. 20
II.
How rigid are the laws of Fate
And how severe that black decree!
No sublunary thing is free,
But all must enter th' adamantine gate:
Sooner or later must we come
To Nature's dark retiring room:
And yet 'tis pity, is it not?
The learned, as the fool should die,
One, full as low, as t'other lie,
Together blended in the general lot! 30
Distinguish'd only from the common crowd
By an hing'd coffin or an holland shroud,
Though Fame and Honour speak them ne'er so loud.
Alas, Orinda! even thou,
Whose happy verse made others live,
And certain immortality could give;
Blasted are all thy blooming glories now,
The laurel withers o'er thy brow:
Methinks it should disturb thee to conceive
That when poor I this artless breath resign, 40
My dust should have as much of Poetry as thine!
III.
Too soon we languish with desire
Of what we never could enough admire.
On th' billows of this world sometimes we rise
So dangerously high,
We are to Heaven too nigh:
When all in rage
(Grown hoary with one minute's age)
The very self-same fickle wave,
Which the entrancing prospect gave, 50
Swoln to a mountain, sinks into a grave.
Too happy mortals, if the Powers above
As merciful would be,
And easy to preserve the thing we love,
As in the giving they are free!
But they too oft delude our wearied eyes,
They fix a flaming sword 'twixt us and Paradise!
A weeping evening blurs a smiling day,
Yet why should heads of gold have feet of clay?
Why should the man that wav'd th' Almighty wand, 60
That led the murmuring crowd
By pillar and by cloud,
Shivering atop of aery Pisgah stand
Only to see, but never, never tread the Promis'd Land?
IV.
Throw your swords and gauntlets by,
You daring Sons of War!
You cannot purchase ere you die
One honourable scar,
Since that fair hand that gilded all your bays;
That in heroic numbers wrote your praise, 70
That you might safely sleep in Honour's bed,
Itself, alas! is wither'd, cold, and dead:
Cold and dead are all those charms
That burnish'd your victorious arms;
Those useless things hereafter must
Blush first in blood, and then in rust:
No oil but that of her smooth words can serve
Weapon and warrior to preserve.
Expect no more from this dull age
But folly or poetic rage, 80
Short-liv'd nothings of the stage,
Vented to-day, and cried to-morrow down;
With her the soul of Poesie is gone,
Gone, while our expectations flew
As high a pitch as she has done,
Exhal'd to Heaven like early dew,
Betimes the little shining drops are flown,
Ere th' drowsy world perceiv'd that manna was come down
V.
You of the sex that would be fair,
Exceeding lovely, hither come, 90
Would you be pure as Angels are,
Come dress you by Orinda's tomb,
And leave your flattering glass at home.
Within that marble mirror see,
How one day such as she
You must, and yet alas! can never be!
Think on the heights of that vast soul,
And then admire, and then condole.
Think on the wonders of her generous pen,
'Twas she made Pompey truly great; 100
Neither the purchase of his sweat
Nor yet Cornelia's kindness made him live again:
With envy think, when to the grave you go,
How very little must be said of you,
Since all that can be said of virtuous woman was her due.
[_To the memory, &c._] For 'Orinda', or Katharine Philips,
see vol. i. This Pindaric was first printed in her _Poems_ of
1667: the chief variants are--58 blurs] crowns.]
[Line: 71 While you securely sleep.]
[Line: 75 Those useless things] Inglorious arms.]
[Line: 77 can] will.]
[Line: 99 generous _om._]
[Line: 101 Neither the expense of blood nor sweat.]
_The Review._
PINDARIC ODE to the Reverend Dr. WILLIAM SANCROFT, now Lord Archbishop
of Canterbury.
_Stanza_ I.
When first I stept into th' alluring maze
To tread this world's mysterious ways,
Alas! I had nor guide, nor clue,
No Ariadne lent her hand,
Not one of Virtue's guards did bid me stand,
Or ask'd me what I meant to do,
Or whither I would go:
This labyrinth so pleasant did appear,
I lost myself with much content,
Infinite hazards underwent, 10
Out-straggled Homer's crafty wanderer,
And ten years more than he in fruitless travels spent;
The one half of my life is gone,
The shadow the meridian past;
Death's dismal evening drawing on,
Which must with damps and mists be overcast,
An evening that will surely come,
'Tis time, high time to give myself the welcome home.
II.
Had I but heartily believ'd
That all the Royal Preacher said was true, 20
When first I ent'red on the stage,
And Vanity so hotly did pursue;
Convinc'd by his experience, not my age,
I had myself long since retriev'd,
I should have let the curtain down,
Before the Fool's part had begun:
But I throughout the tedious play have been
Concern'd in every busy scene;
Too too inquisitive I tried
Now this, anon another face, 30
And then a third, more odd, took place,
Was everything, but what I was.
Such was my Protean folly, such my pride,
Befool'd through all the tragi-comedy,
Where others met with hissing, to expect a _Plaudite_.
III.
I had a mind the Pastoral to prove,
Searching for happiness in Love,
And finding Venus painted with a Dove,
A little naked Boy hard by,
The Dove, which had no gall, 40
The Boy no dangerous arms at all;
They do thee wrong, great Love, said I,
Much wrong, great Love! ----scarce had I spoke
Ere into my unwary bosom came
An inextinguishable flame:
From fair Amira's eyes the lightning broke,
That left me more than thunder-strook;
She carries tempest in that lovely name:
Love's mighty and tumultuous pain
Disorders Nature like an hurricane. 50
Yet couldn't I believe such storms could be,
When I launch'd forth to sea;
Promis'd myself a calm and easy way,
Though I had seen before
Piteous ruins on the shore,
And on the naked beach Leander breathless lay.
IV.
To extricate myself from Love
Which I could ill obey, but worse command,
I took my pencils in my hand,
With that artillery for conquest strove, 60
Like wise Pygmalion then did I
Myself design my deity;
Made my own saint, made my own shrine:
If she did frown, one dash could make her smile,
All bickerings one easy stroke could reconcile,
Plato feign'd no idea so divine:
Thus did I quiet many a froward day,
While in my eyes my soul did play,
Thus did the time, and thus myself beguile;
Till on a day, but then I knew not why, 70
A tear fall'n from my eye,
Wash'd out my saint, my shrine, my deity:
Prophetic chance! the lines are gone,
And I must mourn o'er what I doted on:
I find even Giotto's circle has not all perfection.
V.
To Poetry I then inclin'd;
Verse that emancipates the mind,
Verse that unbends the soul;
That amulet of sickly fame,
Verse that from wind articulates a name; 80
Verse for both fortunes fit, to smile and to condole.
Ere I had long the trial made,
A serious thought made me afraid:
For I had heard Parnassus' sacred hill
Was so prodigiously high,
Its barren top so near the sky;
The ether there
So very pure, so subtil, and so rare,
'Twould a chameleon kill,
The beast that is all lungs, and feeds on air: 90
Poets the higher up that hill they go,
Like pilgrims, share the less of what's below:
Hence 'tis they ever go repining on,
And murmur more than their own Helicon.
I heard them curse their stars in ponderous rhymes,
And in grave numbers grumble at the times;
Yet where th' illustrious Cowley led the way,
I thought it great discretion there to go astray.
VI.
From liberal Arts to the litigious Law,
Obedience, not ambition, did me draw; 100
I look'd at awful quoif and scarlet gown
Through others' optics, not my own:
Untie the Gordian knot that will,
I see no rhetoric at all
In them that learnedly can brawl,
And fill with mercenary breath the spacious hall;
Let me be peaceable, let me be still.
The solitary Tishbite heard the wind,
With strength and violence combin'd,
That rent the mountains, and did make 110
The solid Earth's foundations shake;
He saw the dreadful fire, and heard the horrid noise,
But found what he expected in the _small still voice_.
VII.
Nor here did my unbridled fancy rest,
But I must try
A pitch more high,
To read the starry language of the East;
And with Chaldean curiosity
Presum'd to solve the riddles of the sky;
Impatient till I knew my doom, 120
Dejected till the good direction come,
I ripp'd up Fate's forbidden womb,
Nor would I stay till it brought forth
An easy and a natural birth,
But was solicitous to know
The yet misshapen embryo
(Preposterous crime!)
Without the formal midwif'ry of time:
Fond man, as if too little grief were given
On Earth, draws down inquietudes from Heaven! 130
Permits himself with fear to be unmann'd,
Belshazzar-like, grows wan and pale,
His very heart begins to fail,
Is frighted at that Writing of the Hand,
Which yet nor he, nor all his learn'd magicians understand.
VIII.
And now at last what's the result of all?
Should the strict audit come,
And for th' account too early call;
A num'rous heap of ciphers would be found the total sum.
When incompassionate age shall plow 140
The delicate Amira's brow,
And draw his furrows deep and long,
What hardy youth is he
Will after that a reaper be,
Or sing the harvest song?
And what is verse, but an effeminate vent
Either of lust or discontent?
Colours will starve, and all their glories die,
Invented only to deceive the eye;
And he that wily Law does love 150
Much more of serpent has than dove,
There's nothing in Astrology,
But Delphic ambiguity;
We are misguided in the dark, and thus
Each star becomes an _Ignis fatuus_:
Yet pardon me, ye glorious Lamps of light,
'Twas one of you that led the way,
Dispell'd the gloomy night,
Became a Phosphor to th' Eternal Day,
And show'd the Magi where th' Almighty Infant lay. 160
IX.
At length the doubtful victory's won,
It was a cunning ambuscade
The World for my felicities had laid;
Yet now at length the day's our own,
Now conqueror-like let us new laws set down.
Henceforth let all our love seraphic turn,
The sprightly and the vigorous flame
On th' altar let it ever burn,
And sacrifice its ancient name:
A tablet on my heart next I'll prepare 170
Where I would draw the Holy Sepulchre,
Behind it a soft landskip I would lay
Of melancholy Golgotha!
On th' altar let me all my spoils lay down,
And if I had one, there I'd hang my laurel crown.
Give me the Pandects of the Law Divine,
Such was the Law made Moses' face to shine.
Thus beyond Saturn's heavy orb I'll tower,
And laugh at his malicious power:
Raptur'd in contemplation thus I'll go 180
Above unactive earth, and leave the stars below.
X.
Toss'd on the wings of every wind,
After these hoverings to and fro
(And still the waters higher grow),
Not knowing where a resting-place to find,
Whither for sanctuary should I go
But, Reverend Sir, to you?
You that have triumph'd o'er th' impetuous flood,
That, Noah-like, in bad times durst be good,
And the stiff torrent manfully withstood, 190
Can save me too;
One that have long in fear of drowning bin,
Surrounded by the rolling waves of sin;
Do you but reach out a propitious hand
And charitably take me in,
I will not yet despair to see dry land.
'Tis done;--and I no longer fluctuate,
I've made the Church my Ark, and Sion's Hill my Ararat.
[_The Review._] Dated in the Firth MS. December 17, 1666.
Entered in the Stationers' Register on December 17, 1673,
as 'A poem or copy intituled the Review, To the Reverend
my honored freind Dr. Wm. Sancroft, Deane of St. Paules, A
Pindarique Ode'. Similarly in the Firth MS. 'The Review. A
Pindarique Ode. To the Reverend, my worthy friend, Dr. Wm.
Sandcroft, Dean of St. Paul's': the chief variants only are
recorded. The words 'now Lord Archbishop of Canterbury' are
added in the fourth edition. In the earlier editions--even
that of 1682, when Sancroft had been Primate for four
years--the poem is addressed 'to Dr. W. S.' The piece is
a rather remarkable 'Religio _Laici_' for the time, and as
anticipating Dryden's; and has some, though rather vague,
autobiographic interest. It seems (_v._ Commendatory Poems) to
have attracted some attention as such.]
[Line: 16 must] will _MS._]
[Line: 40 had] has _MS._, _1674-82_.]
[Line: 46 fair] my _MS._]
[Line: 51 couldn't] did not _MS._]
[Line: 56 breathless] shipwrack'd _MS._]
[Line: 64 could] should _MS._]
[Line: 81 fit] apt _MS._]
[Line: 93 ever _added in 1684_.]
[Line: 113 what] whom _MS._]
[Line: 114 seq. It is well known that Astrology maintained its
hold throughout the seventeenth century. Dryden himself
does not seem to have been by any means insensible to its
fascination; and Flatman--who, though a slightly younger man,
represents an older temper--may well have been a disciple of
Lilly.]
[Line: 135 he] we _MS._ his] our _MS._]
[Line: 148 will] must _MS._ starve] In its proper sense of
'perish'. Italic in original; but, as has been pointed out,
this type is used with such utter capriciousness that it
affords no evidence whether the term had any technical vogue
among artists of the time.]
[Line: 159 Eternal] Immortal _MS._]
[Line: 168 let it] shall for _MS._]
[Line: 172 soft] fair _MS._]
[Line: 187 Sir] Friend _1674-82_.]
[Line: 189 A possible but not necessary reminiscence of
Fuller's well-known book, _Good Thoughts for Bad Times_.]
[Line: 193 the rolling waves] a cataclysm _MS._]
_To my Reverend Friend, Dr. Sam. Woodford, On his Excellent Version of
the Psalms._
PINDARIC ODE.
_Stanza_ I.
See (worthy friend) what I would do
(Whom neither Muse nor Art inspire),
That have no friend in all the sacred quire,
To show my kindness for your Book, and you,
Forc'd to disparage what I would admire;
Bold man, that dares attempt Pindaric now,
Since the great Pindar's greatest Son
From the ingrateful age is gone,
Cowley has bid th' ingrateful age adieu;
Apollo's rare Columbus, he 10
Found out new worlds of Poesy:
He, like an eagle, soar'd aloft,
To seize his noble prey;
Yet as a dove's, his soul was soft,
Quiet as Night, but bright as Day:
To Heaven in a fiery chariot he
Ascended by seraphic Poetry;
Yet which of us dull mortals since can find
Any inspiring mantle, that he left behind?
II.
His powerful numbers might have done you right; 20
He could have spar'd you immortality,
Under that Chieftain's banners you might fight
Assur'd of laurels, and of victory
Over devouring Time and sword and fire
And Jove's important ire:
My humble verse would better sing
David the Shepherd, than the King:
And yet methinks 'tis stately to be one
(Though of the meaner sort)
Of them that may approach a Prince's throne, 30
If 'twere but to be seen at Court.
Such, Sir, is my ambition for a name,
Which I shall rather take from you, than give,
For in your Book I cannot miss of fame,
But by contact shall live.
Thus on your chariot wheel shall I
Ride safe, and look as big as Aesop's fly,
Who from th' Olympian Race new come,
And now triumphantly flown home,
To's neighbours of the swarm thus proudly said, 40
_Don't you remember what a dust I made!_
III.
Where'er the Son of Jesse's harp shall sound,
Or Israel's sweetest songs be sung,
(Like Samson's lion sweet and strong)
You and your happy Muse shall be renown'd,
To whose kind hand the Son of Jesse owes
His last deliverance from all his foes.
Blood-thirsty Saul, less barbarous than they,
His person only sought to kill;
These would his deathless poems slay, 50
And sought immortal blood to spill,
To sing whose songs in Babylon would be
A new Captivity:
Deposèd by these rebels, you alone
Restor'd the glorious David to his throne.
Long in disguise the royal Prophet lay,
Long from his own thoughts banishèd,
Ne'er since his death till this illustrious day
Was sceptre in his hand, or crown plac'd on his head:
He seem'd as if at Gath he still had bin 60
As once before proud Achish he appear'd,
His face besmear'd,
With spittle on his sacred beard,
A laughing-stock to the insulting Philistine.
Drest in their rhymes, he look'd as he were mad,
In tissue you, and Tyrian purple have him clad.
[_To Dr. Sam. Woodford._] First printed in _A Paraphrase upon
the Psalms of David_, 1668. A MS. version is in Rawlinson D.
260 (fol. 27) of the Bodleian. Woodford (1636-1700) though
much forgotten now, must have been something more than an
ordinary person. As such he might have been, as he was, a St.
Paul's boy and an Oxford (Wadham) man, a member of the Inner
Temple, an early F.R.S., and later a Canon of Chichester and
Winchester. But as such merely he would hardly have been, in
the Preface to his Paraphrases of the Canticles (_v. inf._,
p. 366), the first, and for a long time the only, 'ingoing'
critic of Milton's blank verse. He does not take quite the
right view of it, but it is noteworthy that he should have
taken any view of an intelligent character.]
[Line: 12 soar'd] tow'red _MS._]
[Line: 16 a _om._ _MS._]
[Line: 18 'But which of us poor mortals' _1668_, _MS._]
[Line: 20, 21, &c. have] ha' _1668_.]
[Line: 25 ire] Dire _MS._, a word of which a unique instance
in the sense of 'dire quality' is quoted in the _N.E.D._ from
Anthony à Wood. The scribe may have misunderstood 'important'
( = 'importunate').]
[Line: 39 flown] got _MS._]
[Line: 41 This quaint anti-climax is one of the not very few
indications which make of Flatman a sort of rough draft of
Prior.]
[Line: 42 seq. Translations of the Psalms have been so
numerous--and so bad--that it is difficult to know whether
Flatman had any particular translator or translators in his
mind while writing the last stanza. It may have been merely
the usual Sternhold and Hopkins. At any rate his own
friend Tate did not join Brady in _lèse-poésie_ (as well as
_lèse-majesté_ against the Son of Jesse) till thirty years
after Woodford wrote and eight after Flatman's own death.]
[Line: 55 Restor'd] Restore _MS._]
[Line: 59 plac'd] set _MS._]
[Line: 63 sacred _om._ _MS._]
_On the Death of the truly valiant George Duke of Albemarle._
PINDARIC ODE.
_Stanza_ I.
Now blush thyself into confusion,
Ridiculous Mortality
With indignation to be trampled on
By them that court Eternity;
Whose generous deeds and prosperous state
Seem poorly set within the reach of Fate,
Whose every trophy, and each laurel wreath
Depends upon a little breath;
Confin'd within the narrow bounds of Time,
And of uncertain age, 10
With doubtful hazards they engage,
Thrown down, while victory bids them higher climb;
Their glories are eclips'd by Death.
Hard circumstances of illustrious men
Whom Nature (like the Scythian Prince) detains
Within the body's chains
(Nature, that rigorous Tamberlain).
Stout Bajazet disdain'd the barbarous rage
Of that insulting conqueror,
Bravely himself usurp'd his own expiring power, 20
By dashing out his brains against his iron cage.
II.
But 'tis indecent to complain,
And wretched mortals curse their stars in vain,
In vain they waste their tears for them that die,
Themselves involv'd in the same destiny,
No more with sorrow let it then be said
The glorious Albemarle is dead.
Let what is said of him triumphant be,
Words as gay, as is his Fame,
And as manly as his name, 30
Words as ample as his praise,
And as verdant as his bays,
An _Epinicion_, not an Elegy.
Yet why shouldst thou, ambitious Muse, believe
Thy gloomy verse can any splendours give,
Or make him one small moment longer live?
Nothing but what is vulgar thou canst say;
Or misbecoming numbers sing;
What tribute to his memory canst thou pay,
Whose virtue say'd a Crown, and could oblige a King? 40
III.
Many a year distressèd Albion lay
By her unnatural offspring torn,
Once the World's terror, then its scorn,
At home a prison, and abroad a prey:
Her valiant Youth, her valiant Youth did kill,
And mutual blood did spill;
Usurpers then, and many a mushroom Peer
Within her palaces did domineer;
There did the vulture build his nest,
There the owls and satyrs rest, 50
By _Zim_ and _Ohim_ all possest;
'Till England's Angel-Guardian, thou,
With pity and with anger mov'd
For Albion thy belov'd
(Olive-chaplets on thy brow),
With bloodless hands upheld'st her drooping head,
And with thy trumpets call'dst her from the dead.
Bright Phosphor to the rising Sun!
That Royal Lamp, by thee did first appear
Usher'd into our happy hemisphere; 60
O may it still shine bright and clear!
No cloud nor night approach it, but a constant noon!
IV.
Nor thus did thy undaunted valour cease,
Or wither with unactive peace:
Scarce were our civil broils allay'd,
While yet the wound of an intestine war
Had left a tender scar,
When of our new prosperities afraid,
Our jealous neighbours fatal arms prepare;
In floating groves the enemy drew near. 70
Loud did the Belgian Lion roar,
Upon our coasts th' Armada did appear,
And boldly durst attempt our native shore,
Till his victorious squadrons check'd their pride,
And did in triumph o'er the Ocean ride.
With thunder, lightning, and with clouds of smoke
He did their insolence restrain,
And gave his dreadful law to all the main,
Whose surly billows trembled when he spoke,
And put their willing necks under his yoke. 80
This the stupendious vanquisher has done,
Whose high prerogative it was alone
To raise a ruin'd, and secure an envied throne.
V.
Then angry Heav'n began to frown,
From Heav'n a dreadful pestilence came down,
On every side did lamentations rise;
Baleful sigh, and heavy groan,
All was plaint, and all was moan!
The pious friend with trembling love,
Scarce had his latest kindness done, 90
In sealing up his dead friend's eyes,
Ere with his own surprising fate he strove,
And wanted one to close his own.
Death's iron sceptre bore the sway
O'er our imperial Golgotha;
Yet he with kind, though unconcernèd eyes,
Durst stay and see those numerous tragedies.
He in the field had seen Death's grisly shape,
Heard him in volleys talk aloud,
Beheld his grandeur in a glittering crowd, 100
And unamaz'd seen him in cannons gape:
Ever unterrified his valour stood
Like some tall rock amidst a sea of blood:
'Twas loyalty from sword and pest kept him alive,
The safest armour and the best preservative.
VI.
The flaming City next implor'd his aid,
And seasonably pray'd
His force against the Fire, whose arms the sea obey'd;
Wide did th' impetuous torrent spread,
Then those goodly fabrics fell, 110
Temples themselves promiscuously there
Dropp'd down, and in the common ruin buried were,
The City turn'd into one Mongibel:
The haughty tyrant shook his curlèd head,
His breath with vengeance black, his face with fury red.
Then every cheek grew wan and pale,
Every heart did yield and fail:
Nought but thy presence could its power suppress,
Whose stronger light put out the less.
As London's noble structures rise, 120
Together shall his memory grow,
To whom that beauteous town so much does owe.
London! joint Favourite with him thou wert;
As both possess'd a room within one heart,
So now with thine indulgent Sovereign join,
Respect his great friend's ashes, for he wept o'er thine.
VII.
Thus did the Duke perform his mighty stage,
Thus did that Atlas of our State
With his prodigious acts amaze the age,
While worlds of wonders on his shoulders sate; 130
Full of glories and of years,
He trod his shining and immortal way,
Whilst Albion, compass'd with new floods of tears,
Besought his longer stay.
Profane that pen that dares describe thy bliss,
Or write thine _Apotheosis!_
Whom Heaven and thy Prince to pleasure prove,
Entrusted with their armies and their love.
In other Courts 'tis dangerous to deserve,
Thou didst a kind and grateful Master serve, 140
Who, to express his gratitude to thee,
Scorn'd those ill-natur'd arts of policy.
Happy had Belisarius bin
(Whose forward fortune was his sin)
By many victories undone,
He had not liv'd neglected, died obscure,
If for thy Prince those battles he had won,
Thy Prince, magnificent above his Emperor.
VIII.
Among the Gods, those Gods that died like thee,
As great as theirs, and full of majesty, 150
Thy sacred dust shall sleep secure,
Thy monument as long as theirs endure:
There, free from envy, thou with them
Shall have thy share of diadem;
Among their badges shall be set
Thy Garter and thy coronet;
Or (which is statelier) thou shalt have
A _Mausoleum_ in thy Prince's breast;
There thine embalmèd name shall rest,
That sanctuary shall thee save 160
From the dishonours of a regal grave:
And every wondrous history,
Read by incredulous Posterity,
That writes of _him_, shall honourably mention _thee_,
Who by an humble loyalty hast shown,
How much sublimer gallantry and renown
'Tis to _restore_, than to _usurp_ a Monarch's Crown.
[_On the Death of the Duke of Albemarle._] First printed
in small folio in 1670. Monk died that year. There are some
important variants, noted below.]
[Line: 40 a Crown] three Realms _1670_.]
[Line: 47 The extreme rapidity of Monk's own transition from
commonerhood to the highest rank in the peerage makes this
allusion to Oliver's mock-lords rather hazardous; but after
all Monk was a gentleman, and had richly deserved it.]
[Line: 49 vulture] bloody vulture _1670_.]
[Line: 51 _Zim_ and _Ohim_ are the original Hebrew for the
'wild beasts of the desert' and the 'doleful creatures' who
accompany owls and satyrs in Isaiah xiii. 21 (A.V.).]
[Line: 61 bright] warm _1670_.]
[After l. 75 ('ride') the following lines appeared in 1670:
Under a gallant Admiral he fought,
York, whose success a taller Muse must sing;
Who so his country loved, that he forgot
He was the Brother of a King;
Whose daring courage might inspire
A meaner soul than his with martial fire.
]
[Line: 80 put] crouch'd.]
[Line: 81 stupendious] These forms are always worth noting,
when they occur.]
[Line: 94 Death's iron sceptre bore the sway] With iron
sceptre Death bore all the sway.]
[Line: 96 unconcerned] undisturbed.]
[Line: 97 tragedies] butcheries.]
[Line: 98 shape] face.]
[Line: 99 volleys] niter.]
[Line: 104 kept] saved.]
[Line: 107 And seasonably pray'd] Successfully it prayed.]
[Line: 113 Mongibel] i.e. Etna.]
[Line: 117 did yield and fail] began to fail.]
[After 117 come the following lines:
And had not our Anointed's flame
(From heaven towards his subjects sent)
Outblazed the furious element,
What could the furious element tame?
]
[Line: 121 His] thy.]
[After 122 ('owe') there is a line which completes the rhyme
with 'rise': 'For its revived tranquillities.']
[Line: 124 possess'd] took up.]
[Line: 133 floods] seas.]
[Line: 135 Profane] Saucy.]
[Line: 137 prove] strove (so also the texts of _1674_, _1676_,
_1682_).]
[Line: 161 a regal] the.]
_The Retirement._
PINDARIC ODE MADE IN THE TIME OF THE GREAT SICKNESS, 1665.
_Stanza_ I.
In the mild close of an hot summer's day,
When a cool breeze had fann'd the air,
And heaven's face look'd smooth and fair;
Lovely as sleeping infants be,
That in their slumber smiling lie
Dandled on their mother's knee,
You hear no cry,
No harsh, nor inharmonious voice,
But all is innocence without a noise:
When every sweet, which the sun's greedy ray 10
So lately from us drew,
Began to trickle down again in dew;
Weary, and faint, and full of thought,
Though for what cause I knew not well,
What I ail'd I could not tell,
I sate me down at an aged poplar's root,
Whose chiding leaves excepted and my breast,
All the impertinently busied world inclin'd to rest.
II.
I list'ned heedfully around,
But not a whisper there was found. 20
The murmuring brook hard by,
As heavy, and as dull as I,
Seem'd drowsily along to creep;
It ran with undiscover'd pace,
And if a pebble stopp'd the lazy race,
'Twas but as if it started in its sleep.
Echo herself, that ever lent an ear
To any piteous moan,
Wont to groan with them that groan,
Echo herself was speechless here. 30
Thrice did I sigh, thrice miserably cry,
Ai me! the Nymph, ai me! would not reply,
Or churlish, or she was asleep for company.
III.
There did I sit and sadly call to mind
Far and near, all I could find
All the pleasures, all the cares,
The jealousies, the fears,
All the incertainties of thirty years,
From that most inauspicious hour
Which gave me breath; 40
To that in which the fair Amira's power
First made me wish for death:
And yet Amira's not unkind;
She never gave me angry word,
Never my mean address abhorr'd;
Beauteous her face, beauteous her mind:
Yet something dreadful in her eyes I saw
Which ever kept my falt'ring tongue in awe,
And gave my panting soul a law.
So have I seen a modest beggar stand, 50
Worn out with age and being oft denied,
On his heart he laid his hand;
And though he look'd as if he would have died
The needy wretch no alms did crave:
He durst not ask for what he fear'd he should not have.
IV.
I thought on every pensive thing,
That might my passion strongly move,
That might the sweetest sadness bring;
Oft did I think on Death, and oft of Love,
The triumphs of the little God, and that same ghastly King. 60
The ghastly King, what has he done?
How his pale territories spread!
Strait scantlings now of consecrated ground
His swelling empire cannot bound,
But every day new colonies of dead
Enhance his conquests, and advance his throne.
The mighty City sav'd from storms of War,
Exempted from the crimson flood,
When all the land o'erflow'd with blood,
Stoops yet once more to a new conqueror: 70
The City which so many rivals bred,
Sackcloth is on her loins, and ashes on her head.
V.
When will the frowning Heav'n begin to smile?
Those pitchy clouds be overblown,
That hide the mighty town,
That I may see the mighty pile!
When will the angry Angel cease to slay,
And turn his brandish'd sword away
From that illustrious Golgotha,
London, the great Aceldama! 80
When will that stately landscape open lie,
The mist withdrawn that intercepts my eye!
That heap of Pyramids appear,
Which, now, too much like those of Egypt are:
Eternal monuments of pride and sin,
Magnificent and tall without, but dead men's bones within.
[_The Retirement._ Exactly dated in the Firth MS., August 17,
1665. Stanza III, found in this MS., was cancelled in _1674_,
_1676_, _1682_, but restored in _1686_. Stanzas IV and V
appear as a separate poem entitled 'Upon the Plague' in Bodley
Rawlinson MS. D. 260, fol. 29 verso.]
[Line: 28 moan] tone _Firth MS._, _1676_, _1682_.]
[Line: 57 strongly] deeply _Firth and Rawlinson MSS._]
[Line: 59 of Love] on Love _MSS._, _1674_, _1676_.]
[Line: 66 advance] exalt _MSS._]
[Line: 71 rivals _MSS._: rival _1682_, _1686_.]
[Line: 73 begin to _om._ _MSS._ _Rawlinson_ reads 'Heavens'.]
[Line: 76 mighty] amazing mighty _Rawlinson_.]
[Line: 77 angry _om._ _Rawlinson_.]
[Line: 85 Eternal] Vast _Rawlinson_.]
_Translated out of a Part of Petronius Arbiter's Satyricon._
I.
After a blust'ring tedious night,
The wind's now hush'd and the black tempest o'er,
Which th' crazy vessel miserably tore,
Behold a lamentable sight!
Rolling far off, upon a briny wave,
Compassionate Philander spied
A floating carcase ride,
That seem'd to beg the kindness of a grave.
II.
Sad and concern'd, Philander then
Weigh'd with himself the frail, uncertain state 10
Of silly, strangely disappointed men,
Whose projects are the sport of Fate.
Perhaps (said he) this poor man's desolate wife,
In a strange country far away,
Expects some happy day
This ghastly thing, the comfort of her life;
III.
His son it may be dreads no harm,
But kindly waits his father's coming home;
Himself secure, he apprehends no storm,
But fancies that he sees him come. 20
Perhaps the good old man, that kiss'd this son,
And left a blessing on his head,
His arms about him spread,
Hopes yet to see him ere his glass be run.
IV.
These are the grand intrigues of Man,
These his huge thoughts, and these his vast desires,
Restless, and swelling like the Ocean
From his birth till he expires.
See where the naked, breathless body lies
To every puff of wind a slave, 30
At the beck of every wave,
That once perhaps was fair, rich, stout, and wise!
V.
While thus Philander pensive said,
Touch'd only with a pity for mankind,
At nearer view, he thought he knew the dead,
And call'd the wretched man to mind:
Alas, said he, art thou that angry thing,
That with thy looks didst threaten death,
Plagues and destruction breath,
But two days since, little beneath a King! 40
VI.
Ai me! where is thy fury now,
Thine insolence, and all thy boundless power,
O most ridiculously dreadful thou!
Expos'd for beasts and fishes to devour.
Go, sottish mortals, let your breasts swell high;
All your designs laid deep as Hell,
A small mischance can quell,
Outwitted by the deeper plots of Destiny.
VII.
This haughty lump a while before
Sooth'd up itself, perhaps with hopes of life, 50
What it would do, when it came safe on shore,
What for its son, what for its wife;
See where the man and all his politics lie.
Ye Gods! what gulfs are set between
What we have and what we ween,
Whilst lull'd in dreams of years to come, we die!
VIII.
Nor are we liable alone
To misadventures on the merciless sea,
A thousand other things our Fate bring on,
And shipwreck'd everywhere we be. 60
One in the tumult of a battle dies
Big with conceit of victory,
And routing th' enemy,
With garlands deck'd, himself the sacrifice.
IX.
Another, while he pays his vows
On bended knees, and Heaven with tears invokes,
With adorations as he humbly bows,
While with gums the altar smokes,
In th' presence of his God, the temple falls:
And thus religious in vain 70
The flatter'd bigot slain,
Breathes out his last within the sacred walls.
X.
Another with gay trophies proud,
From his triumphant chariot overthrown,
Makes pastime for the gazers of the crowd,
That envied him his purchas'd crown.
Some with full meals, and sparkling bowls of wine
(As if it made too long delay),
Spur on their fatal day,
Whilst others (needy souls) at theirs repine. 80
XI.
Consider well, and every place
Offers a ready road to thy long home,
Sometimes with frowns, sometimes with smiling face
Th' embassadors of Death do come.
By open force or secret ambuscade,
By unintelligible ways,
We end our anxious days,
And stock the large plantations of the Dead.
XII.
But (some may say) 'tis very hard
With them, whom heavy chance has cast away, 90
With no solemnities at all interr'd,
To roam unburied on the sea:
No--'tis all one where we receive our doom,
Since, somewhere, 'tis our certain lot
Our carcases must rot,
And they whom heaven covers need no tomb.
[_Petronius Arbiter's Satyricon._] This
translation-amplification of one of the most famous passages
of the _Satyricon_ is the piece referred to by Nahum Tate at
the opening of his commendation (_sup._, p. 290).]
[Line: 39 'breath', as in l. 72, a seventeenth-century form.]
[Line: 88 A good line, if I mistake not. There is no
suggestion even of it in the original, but, as often in
Flatman, much of Sir Thomas Browne.]
_A Thought of Death._
When on my sick bed I languish,
Full of sorrow, full of anguish,
Fainting, gasping, trembling, crying,
Panting, groaning, speechless, dying,
My soul just now about to take her flight
Into the regions of eternal night;
Oh tell me you,
That have been long below,
What shall I do!
What shall I think, when cruel Death appears, 10
That may extenuate my fears!
Methinks I hear some gentle Spirit say,
Be not fearful, come away!
Think with thyself that now thou shall be free,
And find thy long-expected liberty;
Better thou mayst, but worse thou canst not be
Than in this vale of tears and misery.
Like Caesar, with assurance then come on,
And unamaz'd attempt the laurel crown,
That lies on th' other side Death's Rubicon. 20
[_A Thought of Death._] Flatman's best-known, if not his
only known thing to most people--the knowledge being due to
Warton's suggestion of indebtedness to it on Pope's part in
his _Dying Christian._]
_Psalm xxxix. Vers. 4, 5._
_Verse_ IV.
Lord, let me know the period of my age,
The length of this my weary pilgrimage,
How long this miserable life shall last,
This life that stays so long, yet flies so fast!
_Verse_ V.
Thou by a span measur'st these days of mine,
Eternity's the spacious bound of thine:
Who shall compare his little span with thee,
With thine Incomprehensibility.
Man born to trouble leaves this world with pain,
His best estate is altogether vain. 10
_Hymn for the Morning._
Awake, my soul! Awake, mine eyes!
Awake, my drowsy faculties;
Awake, and see the new-born light
Spring from the darksome womb of Night!
Look up and see th' unwearied Sun,
Already hath his race begun:
The pretty lark is mounted high,
And sings her matins in the sky.
Arise, my soul! and thou my voice
In songs of praise, early rejoice! 10
O Great Creator! Heavenly King!
Thy praises let me ever sing!
Thy power has made, Thy goodness kept
This fenceless body while I slept,
Yet one day more hast given me
From all the powers of darkness free:
O keep my heart from sin secure,
My life unblameable and pure,
That when the last of all my days is come,
Cheerful and fearless I may wait my doom. 20
[_Hymn for the Morning._] _This Hymn will of course suggest
Ken's infinitely better-known one to everybody. The facts are
curious and not quite fully given in Mr. Julian's invaluable
_Dictionary of Hymnology_, where it is not mentioned that Ken
and Flatman were both Winchester and New College men of
almost exactly the same age and standing. Moreover, Sir Thomas
Browne--also a Wykehamist and their contemporary, though a
senior--has another very similar composition--one of his rare
exercises in verse--towards the end of _Religio Medici_. The
triple connexion with Winchester, and with Latin hymns known
to be in use there, is pretty striking, though the matter
cannot be followed out here. It is enough to say that the
resemblance is chiefly confined to the opening. In the
_Evening_ hymns of the two this resemblance is still slighter,
though there are passages, naturally enough, that approach
each other. Ken's hymns were not _published_ till 1695; but
in 1674, the very years of Flatman's original issue, they
are palpably referred to in the future bishop's and actual
prebendary's _Manual of Prayers for the use of the Scholars
of Winchester College_. Browne's piece must be at least forty
years older.]
[Line: 6 hath _1676_, _1682_: has _1686_.]
_Anthem for the Evening._
Sleep! downy sleep! come close my eyes,
Tir'd with beholding vanities!
Sweet slumbers come and chase away
The toils and follies of the day:
On your soft bosom will I lie,
Forget the world, and learn to die.
O Israel's watchful Shepherd! spread
Tents of Angels round my bed;
Let not the Spirits of the air,
While I slumber, me ensnare; 10
But save Thy suppliant free from harms,
Clasp'd in Thine everlasting Arms.
Clouds and thick darkness is Thy Throne,
Thy wonderful pavilion:
Oh dart from thence a shining ray,
And then my midnight shall be day!
Thus when the morn in crimson drest,
Breaks through the windows of the East,
My hymns of thankful praises shall arise
Like incense or the morning sacrifice. 20
[_Anthem for the Evening._] 19 arise _1682_; rise _1686_.]
_Death._
_SONG._
Oh the sad day,
When friends shall shake their heads and say
Of miserable me,
Hark how he groans, look how he pants for breath,
See how he struggles with the pangs of Death!
When they shall say of these poor eyes,
How hollow, and how dim they be!
Mark how his breast does swell and rise,
Against his potent Enemy!
When some old friend shall step to my bedside, 10
Touch my chill face, and thence shall gently slide,
And when his next companions say,
How does he do? what hopes? shall turn away,
Answering only with a lift-up hand,
Who can his fate withstand?
Then shall a gasp or two do more
Than e'er my rhetoric could before,
Persuade the peevish world to trouble me no more!
[_Death._] This, in my humble judgement, is finer, as it is
certainly more original, than the earlier 'thought' on the
same subject. The copy in the Firth MS. reads 'dear' for
'poor' (l. 6) and 'hope' (l. 13), omits 'peevish' in l. 18,
and notes that the Song was set to music by Captain Sylvanus
Taylor.]
_The Happy Man._
Peaceful is he, and most secure,
Whose heart and actions all are pure;
How smooth and pleasant is his way,
Whilst Life's Meander slides away.
If a fierce thunderbolt do fly,
This man can unconcernèd lie;
Knows 'tis not levell'd at his head,
So neither noise nor flash can dread:
Though a swift whirlwind tear in sunder
Heav'n above him, or earth under; 10
Though the rocks on heaps do tumble,
Or the world to ashes crumble,
Though the stupendious mountains from on high
Drop down, and in their humble valleys lie;
Should the unruly Ocean roar,
And dash its foam against the shore;
He finds no tempest in his mind,
Fears no billow, feels no wind:
All is serene, all quiet there,
There's not one blast of troubled air, 20
Old stars may fall, or new ones blaze,
Yet none of these his soul amaze;
Such is the man can smile at irksome death,
And with an easy sigh give up his breath.
[_the Happy Man._] In the Firth MS., and dated December 27,
1664.]
[Line: 1 Peaceful] Happy _MS._]
[Line: 2 heart] life _MS._]
[Line: 13 Though] When _MS._]
[Line: 19 all quiet _MS._, _1674_, _1676_, _1682_: and quiet
_1686_.]
[Line: 23 at] on _MS._]
[Line: 24 give up] resign _MS._]
_On Mr. Johnson's Several Shipwrecks._
He that has never yet acquainted been
With cruel Chance, nor Virtue naked seen,
Stripp'd from th' advantages (which vices wear)
Of happy, plausible, successful, fair;
Nor learnt how long the low'ring cloud may last,
Wherewith her beauteous face is overcast,
Till she her native glories does recover,
And shines more bright, after the storm is over;
To be inform'd, he need no further go,
Than this Divine Epitome of woe. 10
In Johnson's Life and Writings he may find,
What Homer in his Odysses design'd,
A virtuous man, by miserable fate,
Rend'red ten thousand ways unfortunate;
Sometimes within a leaking vessel tost,
All hopes of life and the lov'd shore quite lost,
While hidden sands, and every greedy wave
With horror gap'd themselves into a grave:
Sometimes upon a rock with fury thrown,
Moaning himself, where none could hear his moan; 20
Sometimes cast out upon the barren sand,
Expos'd to th' mercy of a barbarous land:
Such was the pious Johnson, till kind Heaven
A blessèd end to all his toils had given:
To show that virtuous men, though they appear
But Fortune's sport, are Providence's care.
[_On Mr. Johnson's several Shipwrecks._] First in _Deus
Nobiscum. A Narrative of a Great Deliverance at Sea,... By
William Johnson, D.D., late Chaplain and Sub-Almoner to His
Sacred Majesty,... The Third Edition, Corrected_, London,
1672, small octavo. These are some minor variants.]
_An Explanation of an Emblem Engraven by V. H._
Seest thou those Rays, the Light 'bove them?
And that gay thing the Diadem?
The Wheel and Balance, which are tied
To th' Gold, black Clouds on either side?
Seest thou the wingèd Trumpeters withal,
That kick the World's blue tottering Ball?
The flying Globe, the Glass thereon,
Those fragments of a Skeleton?
The Bays, the Palms, the Fighting men,
And written Scroll?--Come tell me then, 10
Did thy o'er-curious eye e'er see
An apter scheme of Misery?
What's all that Gold and sparkling Stones
To that bald Skull, to those Cross Bones?
What mean those Blades (whom we adore)
To stain the Earth with purple gore?
Sack stately towns, silk banners spread,
Gallop their coursers o'er the dead?
Far more than this? and all to sway
But till those sands shall glide away. 20
For when the bubble world shall fly
With stretch'd-out plumes, when the brisk eye
Shall close with anguish, sink with tears,
And th' angels' trumpets pierce our ears,
What's haughty man, or those fine things,
Which Heaven calls men, though men style kings?
Vain World, adieu! and farewell, fond renown!
Give me the Glory, that's above the Crown.
[_Emblem engraven by V. H._] V. or W[enceslas] H[ollar], I
suppose.]
[Line: 13 and sparkling _1674-82_: and what those Sparkling
_1686_.]
[Line: 15 Blades _1674-82_: Braves _1686_.]
_For Thoughts._
I.
_Thoughts!_ What are they?
They are my constant friends,
Who, when harsh Fate its dull brow bends,
Uncloud me with a smiling ray,
And in the depth of midnight force a day.
II.
When I retire, and flee
The busy throngs of company
To hug myself in privacy;
O the discourse! the pleasant talk,
'Twixt us (my thoughts) along a lonely walk! 10
III.
You, like the stupefying wine
The dying malefactors sip
With shivering lip,
T' abate the rigour of their doom,
By a less troublous cut to their long home;
Make me slight crosses, though they pil'd up lie,
All by th' enchantments of an ecstasy.
IV.
Do I desire to see
The Throne and Majesty
Of that proud one, 20
_Brother and Uncle to the Stars and Sun?_
Those can conduct me where such toys reside,
And waft me 'cross the main, sans wind and tide.
V.
Would I descry
Those radiant mansions 'bove the sky,
Invisible by mortal eye?
My _Thoughts_, my _Thoughts_ can lay
A shining track thereto,
And nimbly fleeting go:
Through all the eleven orbs can shove a way, 30
These too, like Jacob's Ladder, are
A most Angelic thoroughfare.
VI.
The wealth that shines
In th' Oriental mines;
Those sparkling gems which Nature keeps
Within her cabinets, the deeps;
The verdant fields,
The rarities the rich World yields;
Rare structures, whose each gilded spire
Glimmers like lightning; which, while men admire, 40
They deem the neighbouring sky on fire,--
These can I gaze upon, and glut mine eyes
With myriads of varieties.
As on the front of Pisgah, I
Can th' Holy Land through these my optics spy.
VII.
Contemn we then
The peevish rage of men,
Whose violence ne'er can divorce
Our mutual amity;
Or lay so damn'd a curse 50
As _Non-addresses_, 'twixt my thoughts and me:
For though I sigh in irons, they
Use their old freedom, readily obey;
And when my bosom-friends desert me, stay.
VIII.
Come then, my darlings, I'll embrace
My privilege; make known
The high prerogative I own,
By making all allurements give you place;
Whose sweet society to me
A sanctuary and a shield shall be 60
'Gainst the full quivers of my Destiny.
[_Thoughts._] Dated in the Firth MS. May 13, 1659.]
[Line: 13 shivering] trembling _MS._]
[Line: 17 th' enchantments] the magic _MS._]
[Line: 19 Majesty] awful Majestie _MS._]
[Line: 22 Those] These _MS._]
[Line: 26 by] to _MS._]
[Line: 27 My _Thoughts_, my _Thoughts_ can] My Thoughts can
eas'ly _MS._]
[Line: 29 fleeting] flitting _MS._]
[Line: 30 a way _MS._: 'away' all editions.]
[Line: 31 These too] My Thoughts] _MS._: _1686_ stupidly
misprints 'two'.]
[Line: 38 The] Those _MS._]
[Line: 39 Rare] Huge _MS._ (cf. 'rarities' 38).]
[Line: 40 Glimmers] Glisters _MS._, _1674_, _1676_.]
[Line: 42 gaze ... glut] dwell ... tire _MS._]
[Line: 43 myriads] millions _MS._: fancies _1676_.]
[Line: 48 ne'er can] cannot _MS._]
_Against Thoughts._
I.
Intolerable racks!
Distend my soul no more,
Loud as the billows when they roar,
More dreadful than the hideous thunder-cracks.
Foes inappeasable, that slay
My best contents, around me stand,
Each like a Fury, with a torch in hand;
And fright me from the hopes of one good day.
II.
When I seclude myself, and say
How frolic will I be, 10
Unfetter'd from my company
I'll bathe me in felicity!
In come these guests,
Which Harpy-like defile my feasts:
Oh the damn'd dialogues, the cursèd talk
'Twixt us (my _Thoughts_) along a sullen walk.
III.
You, like the poisonous wine
The gallants quaff
To make 'em laugh,
And yet at last endure 20
From thence the tortures of a calenture,
Fool me with feign'd refections, till I lie
Stark raving in a Bedlam ecstasy.
IV.
Do I dread
The starry Throne and Majesty
Of that high God,
Who batters kingdoms with an iron rod,
And makes the mountains stagger with a nod?
That sits upon the glorious Bow,
Smiling at changes here below. 30
These goad me to his grand tribunal, where
They tell me I with horror must appear,
And antedate amazements by grim fear.
V.
Would I descry
Those happy souls' blest mansions 'bove the sky,
Invisible by mortal eye,
And in a noble speculation trace
A journey to that shining place;
Can I afford a sigh or two,
Or breathe a wish that I might thither go: 40
These clip my plumes, and chill my blazing love
That, O, I cannot, cannot soar above.
VI.
The fire that shines
In subterranean mines,
The crystall'd streams,
The sulphur rocks that glow upon
The torrid banks of Phlegeton;
Those sooty fiends which Nature keeps,
Bolted and barr'd up in the deeps;
Black caves, wide chasms, which who see confess 50
Types of the pit, so deep, so bottomless!
These mysteries, though I fain would not behold,
You to my view unfold:
Like an old Roman criminal, to the high
Tarpeian Hill you force me up, that I
May so be hurried headlong down, and die.
VII.
Mention not then
The strength and faculties of men;
Whose arts cannot expel
These anguishes, this bosom-Hell. 60
When down my aching head I lay,
In hopes to slumber them away;
Perchance I do beguile
The tyranny awhile,
One or two minutes, then they throng again,
And reassault me with a trebled pain:
Nay, though I sob in fetters, they
Spare me not then; perplex me each sad day,
And whom a very Turk would pity, slay.
VIII.
Hence, hence, my Jailors! _Thoughts_ be gone, 70
Let my tranquillities alone.
Shall I embrace
A crocodile, or place
My choice affections on the fatal dart,
That stabs me to the heart?
I hate your curst proximity,
Worse than the venom'd arrows-heads that be
Cramm'd in the quivers of my Destiny.
[_Against Thoughts._] Entitled in the Firth MS. _Thoughts: the
Answer to the other_, and dated May 18, 1659.]
[Line: 2 Distend] O tear _MS._]
[Line: 4 More dreadful than] Less dreadful are _MS._]
[Line: 5 Foes inappeasable] Too cruel enemies _MS._]
[Line: 19 'em] them _MS._]
[Line: 20 Yet thence at last procure _MS._: Yet chance at last
t' endure _1674_.]
[Line: 21 From thence the] The burning _MS._]
[Line: 22 refections] reflections _1674_.]
[Line: 26 high] great _MS._]
[Line: 30 changes here] us poor things _MS._]
[Line: 31 grand _1674-82_, _MS._: great _1686_.]
[Line: 47 torrid] burning _MS._]
[Line: 50 chasms] chasma's _MS._]
[Line: 54 old Roman criminal] adjudged offender _1674_.]
[Line: 56 headlong] headly _1674-82_.]
[Line: 58 and] nor _MS._]
[Line: 59 cannot] ne'er could _MS._]
[Line: 63 do] may _MS._]
[Line: 64 The] Their _MS._]
[Line: 65 throng] swarm _MS._]
[Line: 66 And reassault] Then they assault _MS._]
[Line: 67 sob] groan _MS._]
[Line: 68 each sad] every _MS._]
[Line: 70 _Thoughts_ be] get ye _MS._]
[Line: 75 Directed at my heart _MS._]
[The Firth MS. supplies very interesting evidence of Flatman's
care in revision; in l. 54 there is a curious reversion to the
original, and more effective, reading.]
_A Dooms-Day Thought._
_Anno 1659._
_Judgement!_ two syllables can make
The haughtiest son of Adam shake.
'Tis coming, and 'twill surely come,
The dawning to that Day of Doom;
O th' morning blush of that dread day,
When Heav'n and Earth shall steal away,
Shall in their pristine Chaos hide,
Rather than th' angry Judge abide.
'Tis not far off; methinks I see
Among the stars some dimmer be; 10
Some tremble, as their lamps did fear
A neighbouring extinguisher.
The greater luminaries fail,
Their glories by eclipses veil,
Knowing ere long their borrow'd light
Must sink in th' Universal Night.
When I behold a mist arise,
Straight to the same astonish'd eyes
Th' ascending clouds do represent
A scene of th' smoking firmament. 20
Oft when I hear a blustering wind
With a tempestuous murmur join'd,
I fancy, Nature in this blast
Practises how to breathe her last,
Or sighs for poor Man's misery,
Or pants for fair Eternity.
Go to the dull church-yard and see
Those hillocks of mortality,
Where proudest Man is only found
By a small swelling in the ground. 30
What crowds of carcases are made
Slaves to the pickaxe and the spade!
Dig but a foot, or two, to make
A cold bed, for thy dead friend's sake,
'Tis odds but in that scantling room
Thou robb'st another of his tomb,
Or in thy delving smit'st upon
A shinbone, or a cranion.
When th' prison's full, what next can be
But the Grand Gaol-Delivery? 40
The Great Assize, when the pale clay
Shall gape, and render up its prey;
When from the dungeon of the grave
The meagre throng themselves shall heave,
Shake off their linen chains, and gaze
With wonder, when the world shall blaze.
Then climb the mountains, scale the rocks,
Force op'n the deep's eternal locks,
Beseech the clifts to lend an ear--
Obdurate they, and will not hear. 50
What? ne'er a cavern, ne'er a grot,
To cover from the common lot?
No quite forgotten hold, to lie
Obscur'd, and pass the reck'ning by?
No--There's a quick all-piercing Eye
Can through the Earth's dark centre pry,
Search into th' bowels of the sea,
And comprehend Eternity.
What shall we do then, when the voice
Of the shrill trump with strong fierce noise 60
Shall pierce our ears, and summon all
To th' Universe' wide Judgement Hall?
What shall we do! we cannot hide,
Nor yet that scrutiny abide:
When enlarg'd conscience loudly speaks,
And all our bosom-secrets breaks;
When flames surround, and greedy Hell
Gapes for a booty (_who can dwell
With everlasting Burnings!_), when
Irrevocable words shall pass on men; 70
Poor naked men, who sometimes thought
These frights perhaps would come to nought!
What shall we do! we cannot run
For refuge, or the strict Judge shun.
'Tis too late _then_ to think what course to take;
While we live here, we must provision make.
[_A Dooms-Day Thought._] This, the last of Flatman's three
poems on the _Novissima_, is perhaps not the worst; except
for those who hate 'conceits'. It has a curious _genuineness_,
though in manner it slightly resembles his friend Cotton's
'New Year' poem so highly and rightly praised by Lamb.]
_Virtus sola manet, caetera mortis erunt._
I.
_Nunquam sitivi, quae vehit aureo_
_Pactolus alveo flumina; quo magis_
_Potatur Hermus, tanto avarae_
_Mentis Hydrops sitibundus ardet_.
II.
_Frustrà caduci carceris incola_
_Molirer Arces; quilibet angulus_
_Sat ossa post manes reponet;_
_Exiguum satis est Sepulchrum_.
III.
_Nil stemma penso, nil titulos moror_,
_Cerásve aviti sanguinis indices_, 10
_Sunt ista fatorum, inque Lethes_
_Naufragium patientur undis_.
IV.
_Ergo in quieto pectoris ambitu_
_Quid mens anhelas fulgura gloriae_,
_Laudésque inanes, et loquacem_
_Quae populi sedet ore famam?_
V.
_Letho superstes gloria, somnii_
_Dulcedo vana est, fama malignior_
_Nil tangit umbras, nec feretrum_
_Ingreditur Popularis Aura_. 20
VI.
_Mansura sector, sola sed invidi_
_Expers Sepulchri sidera trajicit_,
_Spernénsque fatorum tumultus_
_Pellit humum generosa Virtus._
VII.
_Praeceps novorum caetera mensium_
_Consumet aetas, seraque temporis_
_Delebit annosi vetustas_
_Utopicae nova Regna Lunae_.
[_Virtus sola manet._] These Alcaics look like a college
exercise, in which kind there have been worse. The third
lines, as usual, are the weakest parts. But the English is
perhaps better. The decasyllabic quatrain, though practised by
Davies, by Davenant, and recently and best of all by Dryden,
in _Annus Mirabilis_, has qualities which it remained for Gray
to bring out fully, but which Flatman has not quite missed
here. I wonder if Gray knew the piece, especially Stanza III?]
_Translated._
I.
I never thirsted for the Golden Flood,
Which o'er Pactolus' wealthy sands does roll,
From whence the covetous mind receives no good,
But rather swells the dropsy of his soul.
II.
On palaces why should I set my mind,
Imprison'd in this body's mould'ring clay?
Ere long to poor six foot of earth confin'd,
Whose bones must crumble at the fatal day.
III.
Titles and pedigrees, what are they to me,
Or honour gain'd by our forefathers' toil, 10
The sport of Fate, whose gaudiest pageantry
Lethe will wash out, dark Oblivion soil?
IV.
Why then, my soul, who fain wouldst be at ease,
Should the World's glory dazzle thy bright eye?
Thyself with vain applause why shouldst thou please,
Or dote on Fame, which fools may take from thee?
V.
Praise after death is but a pleasant dream,
The Dead fare ne'er the worse for ill report;
The Ghosts below know nothing of a name,
Nor ever popular caresses court. 20
VI.
Give me the lasting Good, Virtue, that flies
Above the clouds, that tramples on dull earth,
Exempt from Fate's tumultuous mutinies,
Virtue, that cannot need a second birth.
VII.
All other things must bend their heads to Time,
By age's mighty torrent borne away,
Hereafter no more thought on than my rhyme,
Or faery kingdoms in Utopia.
_Psalm xv. Paraphrased._
Verse I.
Who shall approach the dread Jehovah's Throne
Or dwell within thy courts, O Holy One!
That happy man whose feet shall tread the road
Up Sion's Hill, that holy Hill of God!
Verse II.
He that's devout and strict in all he does,
That through the sinful world uprightly goes,
The desp'rate heights from whence the great ones fall
(Giddy with Fame) turn not his head at all:
Stands firm on Honour's pinnacle, and so
Fears not the dreadful precipice below. 10
Of Conscience, not of Man, he stands in awe,
Just to observe each tittle of the Law!
His words and thoughts bear not a double part,
His breast is open, and he speaks his heart.
Verse III.
He that reviles not, or with cruel words
(Deadly as venom, sharp as two-edg'd swords)
Murthers his friend's repute, nor dares believe
That rumour which his neighbour's soul may grieve:
But with kind words embalms his bleeding Name,
Wipes off the rust, and polishes his fame. 20
Verse IV.
He in whose eyes the bravest sinners be
Extremely vile, though rob'd in majesty;
But if he spies a righteous man (though poor)
Him he can honour, love, admire, adore:
In Israel's humble plains had rather stay,
Than in the tents of Kedar bear the sway:
He that severely keeps his sacred vow,
No mental reservation dares allow,
But what he swears, intends; will rather die,
Lose all he has, than tell a solemn lie. 30
Verse V.
He that extorts not from the needy soul,
When laws his tyranny cannot control;
He whom a thousand empires cannot hire,
Against a guiltless person to conspire.
He that has these perfections, needs no more;
What treasures can be added to his store?
The Pyramids shall turn to dust, to hide
Their own vast bulk, and haughty Founders' pride.
Leviathan shall die within his deep;
The eyes of Heaven close in eternal sleep; 40
Confusion may o'erwhelm both sea and land;
Mountains may tumble down, but he shall stand.
[_Psalm xv._] In the Firth MS.: the chief variant is 'brains'
for 'head' in l. 8.]
_Job._
Few be the days that feeble man must breath,
Yet frequent troubles antedate his death:
Gay like a flow'r he comes, which newly grown,
Fades of itself, or is untimely mown:
Like a thin aery shadow does he fly,
Length'ning and short'ning still until he die.
And does Jehovah think on such a one,
Does he behold him from his mighty Throne?
Will he contend with such a worthless thing,
Or dust and ashes into Judgement bring? 10
Unclean, unclean is man ev'n from the womb,
Unclean he falls into his drowsy tomb.
Surely, he cannot answer God, nor be
Accounted pure, before such purity.
[_Job._] In the Firth MS., which records that it was set by
William Hawes.]
_Nudus Redibo._
Naked I came, when I began to be
A man among the Sons of Misery,
Tender, unarm'd, helpless, and quite forlorn,
E'er since 'twas my hard fortune to be born;
And when the space of a few weary days
Shall be expir'd, then must I go my ways.
Naked I shall return, and nothing have,
Nothing wherewith to bribe my hungry Grave.
Then what's the proudest Monarch's glittering robe,
Or what's he, more than I, that rul'd the globe? 10
Since we must all without distinction die,
And slumber both stark naked, he and I.
[_Nudus Redibo._] In the Firth MS., and dated June 15, 1660.
It was set by William Gregory.]
[Line: 4 hard fortune] misfortune _MS._]
[Line: 7 I shall] shall I _MS._]
[Line: 9 glittering] pearly _MS._]
_An Elegy on the Earl of Sandwich._
If there were aught in Verse at once could raise
Or tender pity or immortal praise,
Thine obsequies, brave Sandwich, would require
Whatever would our nobler thoughts inspire;
But since thou find'st by thy unhappy fate,
What 'tis to be unfortunately great,
And purchase Honour at too dear a rate:
The Muse's best attempt, howe'er design'd,
Cannot but prove impertinently kind,
Thy glorious valour is a theme too high 10
For all the humble arts of Poesy.
To side with chance and kingdoms overrun
Are little things ambitious men have done;
But on a flaming ship thus to despise
That life, which others did so highly prize;
To fight with fire, and struggle with a wave,
And Neptune with unwearied arms outbrave,
Are deeds surpassing fab'lous chronicle,
And which no future age shall parallel;
Leviathan himself's outdone by thee, 20
Thou greater _wonder of the deep_, than he:
Nor could the deep thy mighty ashes hold.
The deep that swallows diamonds and gold;
Fame ev'n thy sacred relics does pursue,
Richer than all the treasures of Peru:
While the kind sea thy breathless body brings
Safe to the bed of honour and of kings.
[_Elegy on the Earl of Sandwich._] Pepys's (the first) Earl,
who perished at the fight of Solebay in 1672. The duplication
(see next piece) looks as if Flatman had had some personal
connexion with him. At any rate there are expressions which
are not the mere conventions of such writing. Line 6, and in
fact the whole vigorous triplet in which it occurs, must be
connected with the nearly certain facts that Sandwich's advice
would have prevented the most unfavourable of the conditions
under which the English fought; that the Duke of York not only
would not listen but hinted at cowardice on Sandwich's part;
and that the Earl in consequence, not only, as Mr. David
Hannay (_A Short History of the Royal Navy_, i. 423) says,
'fought the ship on this the last and most glorious day of his
life, with determined courage', but refused to attempt to save
his life by swimming, when she was grappled by a fireship and
burnt. Moreover, the last lines express the fact that the body
was only recovered after being washed ashore some days after
the battle, when it was duly buried in Westminster Abbey, 'the
bed of honour and of kings'.]
_An Epitaph on the Earl of Sandwich._
Here lies the dust of that illustrious man,
That triumph'd o'er the Ocean;
Who for his country nobly courted Death,
And dearly sold his glorious breath,
Or in a word, in this cold narrow grave
Sandwich the Good, the Great, the Brave
(Oh frail estate of sublunary things!),
Lies equal here with England's greatest kings.
_Pastoral._
I.
At break of day poor Celadon
Hard by his sheepfolds walk'd alone,
His arms across, his head bow'd down,
His oaten pipe beside him thrown,
When Thirsis, hidden in a thicket by,
Thus heard the discontented Shepherd cry.
II.
What is it Celadon has done,
That all his happiness is gone!
The curtains of the dark are drawn,
And cheerful morn begins to dawn, 10
Yet in my breast 'tis ever dead of night,
That can admit no beam of pleasant light.
III.
You pretty lambs may leap and play
To welcome the new-kindled day,
Your shepherd harmless, as are you,
Why is he not as frolic too?
If such disturbance th' innocent attend,
How differs he from them that dare offend!
IV.
Ye Gods! or let me die, or live,
If I must die, why this reprieve? 20
If you would have me live, O why
Is it with me as those that die!
I faint, I gasp, I pant, my eyes are set,
My cheeks are pale, and I am living yet.
V.
Ye Gods! I never did withhold
The fattest lamb of all my fold,
But on your altars laid it down,
And with a garland did it crown.
Is it in vain to make your altar smoke?
Is it all one, to please, and to provoke? 30
VI.
Time was that I could sit and smile,
Or with a dance the time beguile:
My soul like that smooth lake was still,
Bright as the sun behind yon hill,
Like yonder stately mountain clear and high,
Swift, soft, and gay as that same butterfly.
VII.
But now _within_ there's Civil War,
In arms my rebel passions are,
Their old allegiance laid aside,
The traitors now in triumph ride 40
That many-headed monster has thrown down
Its lawful monarch, Reason, from its throne.
VIII.
See, unrelenting Sylvia, see,
All this, and more, is 'long of thee:
For ere I saw that charming face,
Uninterrupted was my peace,
Thy glorious beamy eyes have struck me blind,
To my own soul the way I cannot find.
IX.
Yet is it not thy fault nor mine;
Heav'n is to blame, that did not shine 50
Upon us both with equal rays--
It made thine bright, mine gloomy days;
To Sylvia beauty gave, and riches store;
All Celadon's offence is, he is poor.
X.
Unlucky stars poor shepherds have,
Whose love is fickle Fortune's slave:
Those golden days are out of date,
When every turtle chose his mate:
_Cupid_, that mighty Prince, then uncontroll'd,
Now like a little negro's bought and sold. 60
[_Pastoral._] 36 that _1682_; the _1686_.]
_On the Death of Mr. Pelham Humfries._
_Pastoral Song._
Did you not hear the hideous groan,
The shrieks, and heavy moan
That spread themselves o'er all the pensive plain;
And rent the breast of many a tender swain?
'Twas for Amintas, dead and gone.
Sing, ye forsaken shepherds, sing _His_ praise
In careless melancholy lays,
Lend _Him_ a little doleful breath:
Poor Amintas! cruel Death!
'Twas _Thou_ couldst make dead words to live, 10
Thou that dull numbers couldst inspire
With charming voice and tuneful lyre,
That life to all, but to _Thyself_, couldst give;
Why couldst _Thou_ not _Thy_ wondrous art bequeath?
Poor Amintas! cruel Death!
Sing, pious shepherds, while you may,
Before th' approaches of the Fatal Day:
For you yourselves that sing this mournful song,
Alas! ere it be long,
Shall, like Amintas, breathless be, 20
Though more forgotten in the grave than _He_.
[_On the Death of Mr. Pelham Humfries._] Pelham Humfries or
Humfrey died in the year (1674) of first publication of these
Poems. He was a musician and gentleman of the Chapel Royal.]
[Line: 21 than _1682_; that _1686_.]
_The Mistake._
_SONG._
I heard a young lover in terrible pain,
From whence if he pleas'd, he might soon be releas'd,
He swore, and he vow'd again and again,
He could not outlive the turmoils of his breast;
But, alas, the young lover I found
Knew little how cold Love would prove under ground;
Why should I believe, prithee, Love, tell me why,
Where my own flesh and blood must give me the lie!
Let 'em rant while they will, and their destinies brave,
They'll find their flames vanish on this side the grave; 10
For though all addresses on purpose are made
To be _huddled to bed_,--'tisn't meant, _with a spade!_
_The Incredulous._
_SONG._
I'll ne'er believe for Strephon's sake
That Love (whate'er its fond pretences be),
Is not a slave to mutability.
The Moon and that alike of change partake:
Tears are weak, and cannot bind,
Vows, alas! but empty wind:
The greatest art that Nature gave
To th' amorous hypocrite to make him kind,
Long ere he dies will take its leave.
Had you but seen, as I have done, 10
Strephon's tears, and heard his moan,
How pale his cheek, how dim his eye,
As if with Chloris he resolv'd to die;
And when her spotless soul was fled
Heard his amazing praises of the dead;
Yet in a very little time address
His flame t' another Shepherdess,
In a few days giving his love the lie,
You'd be as great an infidel as I.
_Weeping at Parting._
_SONG._
I.
Go, gentle Oriana, go,
Thou seest the Gods will have it so;
Alas! alas! 'tis much in vain
Of their ill usage to complain,
To curse them when we want relief,
Lessens our courage, not our grief:
Dear Oriana, wipe thine eye,
The time may come that thou and I
Shall meet again, long, long to prove
What vigour absence adds to love. 10
Smile, Oriana, then, and let me see
That look again, which stole my liberty.
II.
But say that Oriana die
(And that sad moment may be nigh),
The Gods that for a year can sever,
If it please them, can part us ever;
They that refresh, can make us weep,
And into Death can lengthen sleep.
Kind Oriana, should I hear
The thing I so extremely fear, 20
'Twill not be strange, if it be said,
After a while, I too am dead.
Weep, Oriana, weep, for who does know
Whether we e'er shall meet again below?
[_Weeping at Parting._] In the Firth MS., entitled 'To Oriana
weeping at parting', and dated December 31, 1664; 'Set by Mr.
Roger Hill.' In l. 3 the MS. reads 'but' for 'much'.]
_The Desperate Lover._
I.
O mighty King of Terrors, come!
Command thy slave to his long home:
Great sanctuary Grave! to thee
In throngs the miserable flee;
Encircled in thy frozen arms,
They bid defiance to their harms,
Regardless of those pond'rous little things
That discompose th' uneasy heads of kings.
II.
In the cold earth the pris'ner lies
Ransom'd from all his miseries; 10
Himself forgotten, he forgets
His cruel creditors, and debts;
And there in everlasting peace
Contentions with their authors cease.
A turf of grass or monument of stone
Umpires the petty competition.
III.
The disappointed lover there,
Breathes not a sigh, nor sheds a tear;
With us (fond fools) he never shares
In sad perplexities and cares; 20
The willow near his tomb that grows
Revives his memory, not his woes;
Or rain, or shine, he is advanc'd above
Th' affronts of Heaven and stratagems of Love.
IV.
Then, mighty King of Terrors, come,
Command thy slave to his long home.
And thou, my friend, that lov'st me best,
Seal up these eyes that brake my rest;
Put out the lights, bespeak my knell,
And then eternally farewell. 30
'Tis all th' amends our wretched Fates can give,
That none can force a desperate man to live.
[_The Desperate Lover._] 28 'brake', if right, must mean 'used
to break' by making me behold 'Love or some other vanity'.]
_The Fatigue._
_A SONG._
Adieu, fond World, and all thy wiles,
Thy haughty frowns, and treacherous smiles,
They that behold thee with my eyes,
Thy double dealing will despise:
From thee, false World, my deadly foe,
Into some desert let me go;
Some gloomy melancholy cave,
Dark and silent as the grave;
Let me withdraw, where I may be
From thine impertinences free:
There when I hear the turtle groan, 10
How sweetly would I make my moan!
Kind Philomel would teach me there
My sorrows pleasantly to bear:
There could I correspond with none
But Heaven, and my own breast alone.
_The Resolve._
_SONG._
I.
Had Phyllis neither charms, nor graces
More than the rest of women wear,
Levell'd by Fate with common faces,
Yet Damon could esteem her fair.
II.
Good-natur'd Love can soon forgive
Those petty injuries of Time,
And all th' affronts of years impute
To her misfortune, not her crime.
III.
Wedlock puts Love upon the rack,
Makes it confess 'tis still the same 10
In icy age, as it appear'd
At first when all was lively flame.
IV.
If Hymen's slaves, whose ears are bored,
Thus constant by compulsion be,
Why should not choice endear us more
Than them their hard necessity?
V.
Phyllis! 'tis true, thy glass does run,
But since mine too keeps equal pace,
My silver hairs may trouble thee,
As much as me thy ruin'd face. 20
VI.
Then let us constant be as Heaven,
Whose laws inviolable are,
Not like those rambling meteors there
That foretell ills, and disappear.
VII.
So shall a pleasing calm attend
Our long uneasy destiny,
So shall our loves and lives expire,
From storms and tempests ever free.
[_The Resolve._] The superiority of the first stanza of this
to the rest, and the reason of that superiority (the double
rhyme 'graces' and 'faces'), are both clear enough. But what
is not clear is why Flatman--who, if no great poet, seems
usually to have been at no loss for verse or rhyme--should
have suddenly run dry of the latter in his first and third
lines. If he had not been so stingy the piece might have been
worth something. It is not quite worthless as it is.]
_Love's Bravo._
_SONG._
Why should we murmur, why repine,
Phyllis, at thy fate, or mine?
Like pris'ners, why do we those fetters shake;
Which neither thou, nor I can break?
There is a better way to baffle Fate,
If mortals would but mind it,
And 'tis not hard to find it:
Who would be happy, must be desperate;
He must despise those stars that fright
Only fools that dread the night; 10
Time and chance he must outbrave,
He that crouches is their slave.
Thus the wise Pagans, ill at ease,
Bravely chastis'd their surly Deities.
_The Expectation._
_SONG._
I.
Why did I ever see those glorious eyes
My famish'd soul to tantalize?
I hop'd for Heav'n, which I had lately seen,
But ne'er perceiv'd the gulf between:
In vain for bliss did my presumptions seek,
My love so strong
I could not hold my tongue,
My heart so feeble that I durst not speak.
II.
Yet why do I my constitution blame,
Since all my heart is out of frame? 10
'Twere better, sure, my passion to appease,
With hope to palliate my disease:
And 'twill be something like tranquillity,
To hope for that
I must not compass yet,
And make a virtue of necessity.
[_The Expectation._] In the Firth MS. entitled 'Song', and
dated July 11, 1671. It was set by Roger Hill. The chief
variants are:--
[Line: 5 presumptions] presumption.]
[Line: 8 that] yet.]
[Line: 14 hope for] think of.]
[Line: 15 must not compass] may not purchase.]
_Coridon Converted._
_SONG._
I.
When Coridon a slave did lie,
Entangled in his Phyllis' eye,
How did he sigh! how did he groan!
How melancholy was his tone!
He told his story to the woods,
And wept his passion by the floods;
Then Phyllis, cruel Phyllis, too to blame,
Regarded not his sufferings, nor his flame.
II.
Then Coridon resolv'd no more
His mistress' mercy to implore; 10
How did he laugh, how did he sing!
How did he make the forest ring!
He told his conquest to the woods,
And drown'd his passion in the floods:
Then Phyllis, gentle Phyllis, less severe,
Would have had him, but he would none of her.
[_Coridon Converted._] In the Firth MS. entitled 'Song', and
dated April 29, 1664. It was set by William Gregory. The MS.
yields some important corrections:--'conquest' and 'passion'
in ll. 13, 14, for the plural of the printed texts; and
'gentle Phyllis' in l. 15 for 'cruel Phyllis'. The plural
'woods' and 'floods' perhaps account for the former variants;
the latter is evidently an attempt to adhere strictly to the
refrain.]
_The Humourist._
_SONG._
I.
Good faith! I never was but once so mad
To dote upon an idle woman's face,
And then, alas! my fortune was so bad
To see another chosen in my place;
And yet I courted her, I'm very sure,
With love as true as his was, and as pure.
II.
But if I ever be so fond again
To undertake the second part of love,
To reassume that most unmanlike pain,
Or after shipwreck do the ocean prove; 10
My mistress must be gentle, kind, and free,
Or I'll be as indifferent as she.
[_The Humourist._]: In the Firth MS. entitled 'Song',
and dated April 29, 1664. It was set by William Gregory. In
the MS. the poem opens 'In faith'.]
_Fading Beauty._
_SONG._
I.
As poor Aurelia sate alone,
Hard by a rivulet's flow'ry side,
Envious at Nature's new-born pride,
Her slighted self she thus reflected on.
II.
Alas! that Nature should revive
These flowers, which after Winter's snow
Spring fresh again, and brighter show,
But for our fairer sex so ill contrive!
III.
Beauty, like theirs a short-liv'd thing,
On us in vain she did bestow, 10
Beauty that only once can grow,
An Autumn has, but knows no second Spring.
_A Dialogue._
CLORIS AND PARTHENISSA.
_C._ Why dost thou all address deny?
Hard-hearted Parthenissa, why?
See how the trembling lovers come,
That from thy lips expect their doom.
_P._ Cloris! I hate them all, they know,
Nay I have often told them so;
Their silly politics abhorr'd:
I scorn to make my slave my lord.
_C._ But Strephon's eyes proclaim his love
Too brave, tyrannical to prove. 10
_P._ Ah, Cloris! when we lose our pow'r
We must obey the conqueror.
_C._ Yet where a gentle Prince bears sway,
It is no bondage to obey.
_P._ But if like Nero, for awhile,
With arts of kindness he beguile;
How shall the tyrant be withstood
When he has writ his laws in blood!
_C._ Love, Parthenissa, all commands:
It fetters Kings in charming bands; 20
Mars yields his arms to Cupid's darts,
And Beauty softens savage hearts.
Chorus.
_If nothing else can pull the Tyrant down,
Kill him with kindness, and the day's your own._
[_A Dialogue._] 22 And] But _1674_.]
_A Dialogue._
ORPHEUS AND EURYDICE.
_Orpheus._
Eurydice, my fair, my fair Eurydice!
My love, my joy, my life, if so thou be
In Pluto's kingdom answer me; appear
And come to thy poor Orpheus.----
_Eur._ Oh, I hear,
I hear, dear Orpheus, but I cannot come
Beyond the bounds of dull Elysium.
I cannot----
_Orph._ And why wilt thou not draw near?
Is there within these courts a shade so dear
As he that calls thee?
_Eur._ No, there cannot be
A thing so lovely in mine eyes as thee. 10
_Orph._ Why comes not then Eurydice?
_Eur._ The Fates,
The Fates forbid, and these eternal gates,
Never unbarr'd to let a pris'ner go,
Deny me passage; nay, grim Cerberus too
Stands at the door----
_Orph. _But cannot then
They that o'er Lethe go, return again?
_Eur._ Never, oh never!----
_Orph._ Sure they may, let's try
If Art can null the Laws of Destiny.
My lays compacted Thebes, made every tree
Loosen its roots to caper; come let's see 20
What thou and I can do.
_Chor._ Perchance the throng
Of Ghosts may be enchanted with a song,
And mov'd to pity.----
_Eur._ Hark! the hinges move,
The gate's unbarr'd. I come, I come, my Love!
_Chorus amborum._
'Twas Music, only Music, could unspell
Helpless, undone Eurydice from Hell.
[_A Dialogue._] Dated in the Firth MS. September 15, 1663; it
was set to music by W. Gregory.]
_The Bachelor's Song._
Like a dog with a bottle, fast ty'd to his tail,
Like vermin in a trap, or a thief in a jail,
Like a Tory in a bog,
Or an ape with a clog:
Such is the man, who when he might go free,
Does his liberty lose
For a Matrimony noose,
And sells himself into captivity.
The dog he does howl, when his bottle does jog,
The vermin, the thief, and the Tory in vain 10
Of the trap, of the jail, of the quagmire complain.
But well fare poor Pug! for he plays with his clog;
And though he would be rid on 't rather than his life,
Yet he lugs it, and he hugs it, as a man does his wife.
[_The Bachelor's Song_]. In the Firth MS. entitled 'Song',
and dated 1670. See Introduction for the rather obvious
legend connected with this profane doggerel. As proof of its
popularity it may be noted that versions of it appear in the
_Windsor Drollery_, 1672, and the _Westminster Drollery_,
1691; in the latter there are also _The Bachelors Satyr
Related_ and _A Reply to The Bachelors Satyr Related_. These
unauthorized versions have a number of minor variants.]
[Line: 3 Like] Or like _1674-82_. 'Tory' in the original, not
the transferred sense, which latter Flatman seems himself to
have well deserved.]
[Line: 5 Such is the] Even such is a _MS._ might go] may be
_MS._]
[Line: 9 his] the _1686_.]
[Line: 10 and] _om. MS._]
[Line: 11 quagmire] bog do _MS._]
_The Second Part._
_SONG._
How happy a thing were a wedding
And a bedding,
If a man might purchase a wife
For a twelvemonth and a day;
But to live with her all a man's life,
For ever and for ay,
Till she grow as grey as a cat,
Good faith, Mr. Parson, I thank you for that.
_An Appeal to Cats in the business of Love._
_A SONG._
Ye cats that at midnight spit love at each other,
Who best feel the pangs of a passionate lover,
I appeal to your scratches and your tattered fur,
If the business of Love be no more than to purr.
Old Lady Grimalkin with her gooseberry eyes,
Knew something when a kitten, for why she was wise;
You find by experience, the love-fit's soon o'er,
_Puss! Puss!_ lasts not long, but turns to _Cat-whore!_
Men ride many miles,
Cats tread many tiles,
Both hazard their necks in the fray;
Only Cats, when they fall
From a house or a wall,
Keep their feet, mount their tails, and away!
[_An appeal to Cats._] Added in _1686_. It is a pity we do not
possess the tune to which Mr. Humfries, or somebody else, most
probably set this lively fantasy. It is quite in the style of
Dr. Blow, Humfries's friend and colleague.]
_Advice to an Old Man of sixty-three, about to Marry a Girl of
sixteen._
_SONG._
I.
Now fie upon him! what is Man,
Whose life at best is but a span?
When to an inch it dwindles down,
Ice in his bones, snow on his crown,
That he within his crazy brain
Kind thoughts of Love should entertain,
That he, when harvest comes, should plow,
And when 'tis time to reap, go sow,
Who, in imagination only strong,
Though twice a child, can never twice grow young. 10
II.
Nature did those design for fools,
That sue for work, yet have no tools.
What fellow-feeling can there be
In such a strange disparity?
Old age mistakes the youthful breast,
Love dwells not there, but Interest:
Alas, good man! take thy repose,
Get ribband for thy thumbs and toes.
Provide thee flannel, and a sheet of lead,--
Think on thy Coffin, not thy Bridal Bed. 20
_The Slight._
_SONG._
I.
I did but crave that I might kiss,
If not her lip, at least her hand,
The coolest Lover's frequent bliss,
And rude is she that will withstand
That inoffensive liberty:
She (would you think it?) in a fume
Turn'd her about and left the room;
Not she, she vow'd, not she.
II.
Well, Chariessa, then said I,
If it must thus for ever be, 10
I can renounce my slavery,
And since you will not, can be free.
Many a time she made me die,
Yet (would you think 't?) I lov'd the more,
But I'll not take 't as heretofore,
Not I, I'll vow, not I.
[_The Slight._]: In the Firth MS., a first draft, dated
August, 1666, and recorded as having been set to music by
Sylvanus Taylor. The variants are important:--]
[Line: 3 frequent] hourly.]
[Lines: 4-5 Which at his wish he may command, Nay, often takes
the liberty. The copy in Rawlinson MS. D. 260 (fol. 27 verso)
has the same readings.]
_The Penitent._
_SONG._
I.
Had I but known some years ago
What wretched lovers undergo,
The tempests and the storms that rise
From their Belovèd's dangerous eyes,
With how much torment they endure
That ague and that calenture;
Long since I had my error seen,
Long since repented of my sin:
Too late the soldier dreads the trumpet's sound
That newly has receiv'd his mortal wound. 10
II.
But so adventurous was I
My fortunes all alone to try,
Needs must I kiss the burning light,
Because it shin'd, because 'twas bright.
My heart with youthful heat on fire,
I thought some God did me inspire;
And that blind zeal embold'ned me
T' attempt Althea's Deity.
Surely those happy Pow'rs that dwell above,
Or never courted, or enjoy'd their love. 20
[_The Penitent._] In the Firth MS. entitled 'Song', and dated
1671. It was set by Roger Hill.]
[Line: 9 dreads: loathes _MS._]
[Line: 15 heart: breast _MS._]
[Line: 18 The reference, if any, to the _classical_ story of
Althea is so confused and muddled that perhaps there is none.
See _The Surrender_, below.]
_The Defiance._
_SONG._
I.
Be not too proud, imperious Dame,
Your charms are transitory things,
May melt, while you at Heaven aim,
Like Icarus's waxen wings;
And you a part in his misfortunes bear,
Drown'd in a briny Ocean of despair.
II.
You think your beauties are above
The Poet's brain and Painter's hand,
As if upon the Throne of Love
You only should the world command: 10
Yet know, though you presume your title true,
There are pretenders that will rival you.
III.
There's an experienc'd rebel, Time,
And in his squadron's Poverty;
There's Age that brings along with him
A terrible artillery:
And if against all these thou keep'st thy crown,
Th' usurper Death will make thee lay it down.
[_The Defiance._] 5 misfortunes _1682_: misfortune _1686_.]
[Line: 14 'squadron's' is not apostrophated in original, but
the practice in this respect is so loose as to be of no value.
The plural would make sense, of course.]
_The Surrender._
_SONG._
I yield, I yield! Divine Althaea, see
How prostrate at thy feet I bow,
Fondly in love with my captivity,
So weak am I, so mighty thou!
Not long ago I could defy,
Arm'd with wine and company,
Beauty's whole artillery:
Quite vanquish'd now by thy miraculous charms,
Here, fair Althaea, take my arms,
For sure he cannot be of human race,
That can resist so bright, so sweet a face.
_The Whim._
_SONG._
I.
Why so serious, why so grave?
Man of business, why so muddy?
Thyself from Chance thou canst not save
With all thy care and study.
Look merrily then, and take thy repose;
For 'tis to no purpose to look so forlorn,
Since the World was as bad before thou wert born,
And when it will mend who knows?
And a thousand year hence 'tis all one,
If thou lay'st on a dunghill, or sat'st on a throne. 10
II.
To be troubled, to be sad,
Carking mortal, 'tis a folly,
For a pound of Pleasure's not so bad
As an ounce of Melancholy:
Since all our lives long we travel towards Death,
Let us rest us sometimes, and bait by the way,
'Tis but dying at last; in our race let us stay,
And we shan't be so soon out of breath.
Sit the comedy out, and that done,
When the play's at an end, let the curtain fall down. 20
_The Renegado._
_SONG._
I.
Remov'd from fair Urania's eyes
Into a village far away:
Fond Astrophil began to say,
Thy charms, Urania, I despise;
Go bid some other shepherd for thee die,
That never understood thy tyranny.
II.
Return'd at length the amorous swain,
Soon as he saw his deity,
Ador'd again, and bow'd his knee,
Became her slave, and wore her chain. 10
The Needle thus that motionless did lie,
Trembles, and moves, when the lov'd Loadstone's nigh.
[_The Renegado._] In the Firth MS. entitled 'Song', and dated
1671. 'Set by Roger Hill.']
_Phyllis withdrawn._
I.
I did but see her, and she's snatch'd away,
I find I did but happy seem;
So small a while did my contentments stay,
As short and pleasant as a dream:
Yet such are all our satisfactions here,
They raise our hopes, and then they disappear.
II.
Ill-natur'd Stars, that evermore conspire
To quench poor Strephon's flame,
To stop the progress of his swift desire,
And leave him but an aëry name; 10
Why art thou doom'd (of no pretences proud)
Ixion-like thus to embrace a cloud?
III.
Yet why should Strephon murmur, why complain,
Or envy Phyllis her delight,
Why should her pleasures be to him a pain,
Easier perhaps out of his sight?
No, Strephon, no! If Phyllis happy be,
Thou shouldst rejoice, whate'er becomes of thee.
IV.
Amidst the charming glories of the spring
In pleasant fields and goodly bowers, 20
Indulgent Nature seems concern'd to bring
All that may bless her innocent hours,
While thy disastrous Fate has tied thee down
To all the noise and tumult of the Town.
V.
Strephon that for himself expects no good
To Phyllis wishes everywhere
A long serenity without a cloud,
Sweet as these smiles of th' infant year.
May Halcyons in her bosom build their nest,
Whatever storms shall discompose my breast. 30
[_Phyllis withdrawn._] The first stanza is a good example of
the purely haphazard character of typographical peculiarities
at the time. There is not a capital in the original, though
in that original elsewhere one would find 'Contentments',
'Dream', 'Satisfactions', and 'Hopes', if not others as well.]
_The Malecontent._
_SONG._
Phyllis, O Phyllis! Thou art fondly vain,
My wavering thoughts thus to molest,
Why should my pleasure be the only pain,
That must torment my easy breast?
If with Prometheus I had stolen fire,
Fire from above,
As scorching, and as bright, as that of Love,
I might deserve Jove's ire,
A vulture then might on my liver feed,
But now eternally I bleed, 10
And yet on Thee, on Thee lies all the blame,
Who freely gav'st the fuel and the flame.
[_The Malecontent._] 5 'Stoll'n' in original, though the
valued 'èn' is indispensable for the metre.]
_The Indifferent._
_SONG._
Prithee confess for my sake and your own,
Am I the man or no?
If I am he, thou canst not do 't too soon,
If not, thou canst not be too slow.
If Woman cannot love, Man's folly's great
Your sex with so much zeal to treat;
But if we freely proffer to pursue
Our tender thoughts and spotless love,
Which nothing shall remove,
And you despise all this, pray what are you?
_The Harbour._
_SONG._
O tedious hopes! when will the storm be o'er!
When will the beaten vessel reach the shore!
Long have I striv'n with blust'ring winds and tides,
Clouds o'er my head, waves on my sides!
Which in my dark adventures high did swell,
While Heaven was black as Hell.
O Love, tempestuous Love, yet, yet at last,
Let me my anchor cast,
And for the troubles I have undergone,
O bring me to a port which I may call my own. 10
_The Unconcerned._
_SONG._
Now that the world is all in amaze,
Drums and trumpets rending heav'ns,
Wounds a-bleeding, mortals dying,
Widows and orphans piteously crying;
Armies marching, towns in a blaze,
Kingdoms and states at sixes and sevens:
What should an honest fellow do,
Whose courage, and fortunes run equally low!
Let him live, say I, till his glass be run,
As easily as he may; 10
Let the wine, and the sand of his glass flow together,
For life's but a winter's day.
Alas! from sun to sun,
The time's very short, very dirty the weather,
And we silently creep away.
Let him nothing do, he could wish undone;
And keep himself safe from the noise of gun.
[_The Unconcerned._] 1 amaze _1674_, _1676_, _1682_: a maze
_1686_.]
_The Immovable._
_SONG_.
I.
What though the sky be clouded o'er,
And Heav'us influence smile no more?
Though tempests rise, and earthquakes make
The giddy World's foundation shake?
A gallant breast contemns the feeble blow
Of angry Gods, and scorns what Fate can do.
II.
What if alarums sounded be,
And we must face our enemy,
If cannons bellow out a death,
Or trumpets woo away our breath! 10
'Tis brave amidst the glittering throng to die.
Nay, Samson-like, to fall with company.
III.
Then let the swordman domineer,
I can nor pike nor musket fear;
Clog me with chains, your envies tire,
For when I will, I can expire;
And when the puling fit of Life is gone,
The worst that cruel man can do, is done.
_The Wish._
_SONG._
I.
Not to the hills where cedars move
Their cloudy head, not to the grove
Of myrtles in th' Elysian shade,
Nor Tempe which the poets made;
Not on the spicy mountains play;
Or travel to Arabia:
I aim not at the careful Throne,
Which Fortune's darlings sit upon;
No, no, the best this fickle world can give,
Has but a little, little time to live. 10
II.
But let me soar, O let me fly
Beyond poor Earth's benighted eye,
Beyond the pitch swift eagles tower,
Above the reach of human power;
Above the stars, above the way,
Whence Phoebus darts his piercing ray.
O let me tread those Courts that are,
So bright, so pure, so blest, so fair,
As neither thou nor I must ever know
On Earth--'tis thither, thither would I go. 20
[_The Wish._] Entitled 'A Wish' in the Firth MS., and dated
September 10, 1659. It was set by Captain Taylor. The chief
variants are 'clouds' for 'stars' in l. 15 and 'the sun' for
'Phoebus' in l. 16.]
_The Cordial. In the year 1657._
_SONG._
I.
Did you hear of the News (O the News) how it thunders!
Do but see, how the block-headed multitude wonders!
One fumes, and stamps, and stares to think upon
What others wish as fast, Confusion.
One swears w' are gone, another just agoing,
While a third sits and cries,
'Till his half-blinded eyes
Call him pitiful rogue for so doing.
Let the tone be what 'twill that the mighty ones utter,
Let the cause be what 'twill why the poorer sort mutter; 10
I care not what your State-confounders do,
Nor what the stout repiners undergo;
I cannot whine at any alterations.
Let the Swede beat the Dane,
Or be beaten again,
What am I in the crowd of the Nations?
II.
What care I if the North and South Poles come together;
If the Turk or the Pope's Antichristian, or neither;
If fine Astraea be (as Naso said)
From mortals in a peevish fancy fled: 20
Rome, when 'twas all on fire, her people mourning,
'Twas an Emperor could stand
With his harp in his hand,
Sing and play, while the city was burning.
_Celadon on Delia singing._
O Delia! for I know 'tis she,
It must be she, for nothing less could move
My tuneless heart, than something from above.
I hate all earthly harmony:
Hark, hark, ye Nymphs, and Satyrs all around!
Hark, how the baffled Echo faints; see how she dies,
Look how the wingèd choir all gasping lies
At the melodious sound;
See, while she sings
How they droop and hang their wings! 10
Angelic Delia, sing no more,
Thy song's too great for mortal ear;
Thy charming notes we can no longer bear:
O then in pity to the World give o'er,
And leave us stupid as we were before.
Fair Delia, take the fatal choice,
Or veil thy beauty, or suppress thy Voice.
His passion thus poor Celadon betray'd,
When first he saw, when first he heard the lovely Maid.
_The Advice._
_SONG._
I.
Poor Celia once was very fair,
A quick bewitching eye she had,
Most neatly look'd her braided hair,
Her dainty cheeks would make you mad,
Upon her lip did all the Graces play,
And on her breasts ten thousand Cupids lay.
II.
Then many a doting lover came
From seventeen till twenty-one,
Each told her of his mighty flame,
But she, forsooth, affected none. 10
One was not handsome, t'other was not fine,
This of tobacco smelt, and that of wine.
III.
But t'other day it was my fate
To walk along that way alone,
I saw no coach before her gate,
But at the door I heard her moan:
She dropt a tear, and sighing, seem'd to say,
Young ladies, marry, marry while you may!
[_The Advice._] In the Firth MS., where it is dated December
22, 1664, and recorded to have been set by Roger Hill; and in
Rawlinson MS. D. 260 (fol. 28) of the Bodleian. The variants
are trivial. Found also in the _Westminster Drollery_, 1671,
and the _Windsor Drollery_, 1672: the latter reads 'lock'd'
for 'look'd' in l. 3. In l. 9 _1682_ reads 'her' for 'his'.]
_To Mr. Sam. Austin of Wadham Coll. Oxon, On his most unintelligible
Poems._
SIR,
In that small inch of time I stole, to look
On th' obscure depths of your mysterious book,
(Heav'n bless my eyesight!) what strains did I see!
What steropegeretic Poetry!
What hieroglyphic words, what [riddles] all,
In letters more than cabalistical!
We with our fingers may your verses scan,
But all our noddles understand them can
No more, than read that dungfork, pothook hand
That in Queen's College Library does stand. 10
The cutting hanger of your Wit I can't see,
For that same scabbard that conceals your Fancy:
Thus a black velvet casket hides a jewel;
And a dark woodhouse, wholesome winter fuel;
Thus John Tradeskin starves our greedy eyes,
By boxing up his new-found rarities;
We dread Actaeon's fate, dare not look on,
When you do scower your skin in Helicon;
We cannot (Lynceus-like) see through the wall
Of your strong-mortar'd Poems; nor can all 20
The small shot of our brains make one hole in
The bulwark of your book, that fort to win.
Open your meaning's door, O do not lock it!
Undo the buttons of your smaller pocket,
And charitably spend those angels there,
Let them enrich and actuate our sphere.
Take off our bongraces, and shine upon us,
Though your resplendent beams should chance to tan us.
Had you but stol'n your verses, then we might
Hope in good time they would have come to light; 30
And felt I not a strange poetic heat
Flaming within, which reading makes me sweat,
Vulcan should take 'em, and I'd not exempt 'em,
Because they're things _Quibus lumen ademptum_.
I thought to have commended something there,
But all exceeds my commendations far:
I can say nothing; but stand still, and stare,
And cry, O wondrous, strange, profound, and rare.
Vast Wits must fathom you better than thus,
You merit more than our praise: as for us 40
The beetles of our rhymes shall drive full fast in,
The wedges of your worth to everlasting,
My much Apocalyptic friend _Sam. Austin_.
[_To Mr. Sam. Austin._] Samuel Austin the younger (his father
of the same name was a respectable divine and a writer of
sacred verse of the preceding generation) was a Wadham man,
a contemporary of Flatman's, and a common Oxford butt for
conceit and affectation. His _Panegyric on the Restoration_
appeared in 1661, and contained a statement that the author
'intended a larger book of poems according as these find
acceptance'. He had taken his degree five years earlier, and
his poetry, probably in MS., had been soon afterwards made
the subject of one of the liveliest and naughtiest of Oxford
skits, _Naps on Parnassus_ (London, 1658), where some of
Austin's own lucubrations, and more parodies and lampoons
on him, appear--side-noted with quaint and scandalous
_adversaria_. Flatman himself contributed, among others, some
kitchen-Latin leonines:
O decus Anglorum! vates famose tuorum
Cujus pars nona facit Oxenford Helicona,
&c., sometimes dropping into a sort of Macaronic, or at least
mongrel dialect:
Haec ratio non est--quid rides?--my meaning's honest.
The elder Samuel Austin, a Cornishman, of Exeter, was a very
serious person who wrote, and after difficulties got published
in 1629, _Austin's Urania, or the Heavenly Muse_, with the
most unreasonable motto _Aut perlegas aut non legas_--rendered
Whate'er thou be whose eye do chance to fall
Upon this Book, read all or none at all.
For a considerable time I obeyed the second part of this
injunction only.
_Naps on Parnassus_ has some important variants and some
corrections of the present text. Omitting minor changes, these
are:--
[Line: 2 obscure] abstruse.
[Line: 5 what all] what riddles? all (Clearly the right text).
After line 16 is the couplet:
There were Philosophers content to be
Renown'd, and famous in obscurity.
Line 18 has a marginal note on 'scower'--'But when he does so,
he verifies the Proverb, viz. Æthiopem lavat.'
Lines 29, 30 read:
O were your verses stol'n, that so we might
Hope in good time to see them come to light.
After line 36 is the couplet:
I hope some wit when he your honour hears,
Will praise your mother's eyes' turpentine tears.
In line 42 is printed 'everlastin' with the note '[g] aufertur
in fine, per Apocopen'.]
[Line: 4 The blessed word 'stero (it should be 'ste_rr_o'
or 'ste_re_o') -pegeretic' (a rather erratic compound from
[Greek: pêgnymi]) is very likely Austin's own for 'strongly
put together'.]
[Line: 10 ['The Devil's handwriting in Queen's College Library
at Oxford.' Note in orig.] This interesting autograph is still
preserved, and a photograph of it may be seen in Mr. Andrew
Clark's Anthony à Wood's _Life and Times_, i. 498 (Oxford
Historical Society).]
[Line: 15 John Tradeskin] John Tradescant the second
(1608-1662), original collector of the Ashmolean Museum.]
[Line: 27 bongraces] Sun-bonnets.]
_To my ingenious Friend Mr. William Faithorne on his Book of Drawing,
Etching, and Graving._
Should I attempt an elogy, or frame
A paper-structure to secure thy name,
The lightning of one censure, one stern frown
Might quickly hazard that, and thy renown.
But this thy book prevents that fruitless pain.
One line speaks purelier thee, than my best strain.
Those mysteries (once like the spiteful mould,
Which bars the greedy Spaniard from his gold)
Thou dost unfold in every friendly page,
Kind to the present, and succeeding age. 10
That hand, whose curious art prolongs the date
Of frail mortality, and baffles Fate
With brass and steel, can surely potent be,
To rear a lasting monument for thee:
For my part I prefer (to guard the dead)
A copper-plate beyond a sheet of lead.
So long as brass, so long as books endure,
So long as neat-wrought pieces, thou'rt secure.
A [_Faithorne sculpsit_] is a charm can save
From dull oblivion, and a gaping grave. 20
[_To my Ingenious Friend Mr. William Faithorne._] The _elder_
Faithorne (_v. sup._, p. 278). The younger, his son and
namesake, was but eighteen when Flatman first published. The
lines first appeared in _The Art of Graveing and Etching ...
Published by Will^{m} Faithorne. And Sold at his Shop next to
y^{e} Signe of y^{e} Drake without Temple Barre, 1662._]
[Line: 1 'elogy' is no doubt here merely an equivalent for
'eulogy', and rather from _éloge_ than _elogium_. But it is a
pity that it has not been kept in English as an equivalent for
the Latin.]
[Line: 5 that fruitless] my slender _1662_. Other important
variants are:-- Lines 9, 10 read:--
Thine ingenuity reveals, and so
By making plain, thou dost illustrious grow.
]
[Line: 14 lasting] stately.
_On the Commentaries of Messire Blaize de Montluc._
To the Worthy Translator,
CHARLES COTTON, Esq.
He that would aptly write of warlike men,
Should make his ink of blood, a sword his pen;
At least he must their memories abuse,
Who writes with less than Maro's mighty Muse:
All, Sir, that I could say of this great theme
(The brave Montluc) would lessen his esteem;
Whose laurels too much native verdure have
To need the praises vulgar chaplets crave:
His own bold hand, what it durst write, durst do,
Grappled with enemies, and oblivion too; 10
Hew'd his own monument, and grav'd thereon
Its deep and durable inscription.
To you, Sir, whom the valiant Author owes
His second life, and conquest o'er his foes--
Ill-natur'd foes, Time and Detraction,--
What is a stranger's contribution!
Who has not such a share of vanity,
To dream that one, who with such industry
Obliges all the world, can be oblig'd by me.
[_On the Commentaries of Messire Blaize de Montluc._] Cotton's
translation of the admirable Gascon appeared in the same year
(1674) with Flatman's _Poems._]
_A Character of a Belly-God._
CATIUS AND HORACE.
HORACE.
_Whence_, _Brother Case_, _and whither bound so fast?_
CA. O, Sir, you must excuse me, I'm in haste.
I dine with my (Lord Mayor) and can't allow
Time for our eating directory now:
Though I must needs confess, I think my rules
Would prove Pythagoras and Plato fools.
HOR. _Grave Sir_, _I must acknowledge_, _'tis a crime_
_To interrupt at such a nick of time_;
_Yet stay a little_, _Sir_, _it is no sin_;
_You're to say Grace ere dinner can begin_; 10
_Since you at food such virtuoso are_,
_Some precepts to an hungry poet spare_.
CA. I grant you, Sir, next pleasure ta'en in eating
Is that (as we do call it) of repeating;
I still have kitchen systems in my mind,
And from my stomach's fumes a brain well lin'd.
HOR. _Whence, pray, Sir, learnt you those ingenuous arts_,
_From one at home, or hir'd from foreign parts_?
CA. No names, Sir (I beseech you), that's foul play,
We ne'er name authors, only what they say. 20
1. 'For eggs choose long, the round are out of fashion,
'Unsavoury and distasteful to the nation:
'E'er since the brooding Rump, they're addle too,
'In the long egg lies Cock-a-doodle-doo.
2. 'Choose coleworts planted on a soil that's dry,
'Even they are _worse for th' wetting_ (verily).
3. 'If friend from far shall come to visit, then
'Say thou wouldst treat the wight with mortal hen,
'Don't thou forthwith pluck off the cackling head,
'And impale corpse on spit as soon as dead; 30
'For so she will be tough beyond all measure,
'And friend shall make a trouble of a pleasure.
'Steep'd in good wine let her her life surrender,
'O then she'll eat most admirably tender.
4. 'Mushrooms that grow in meadows are the best;
'For aught I know, there's poison in the rest.
5. 'He that would many happy summers see,
'Let him eat mulberries fresh off the tree,
'Gather'd before the sun's too high, for these
'Shall hurt his stomach less than Cheshire cheese. 40
6. 'Aufidius (had you done so 't had undone ye)
'Sweet'ned his morning's draughts of sack with honey;
'But he did ill, to empty veins to give
'Corroding potion for a lenitive.
7. 'If any man to drink do thee inveigle in,
'First wet thy whistle with some good metheglin.
8. 'If thou art bound, and in continual doubt,
'Thou shalt get in no more till some get out,
'The mussel or the cockle will unlock
'Thy body's trunk, and give a vent to nock. 50
'Some say that sorrel steep'd in wine will do,
'But to be sure, put in some aloes too.
9. 'All shell-fish (with the growing Moon increast)
'Are ever, when she fills her orb, the best:
'But for brave oysters, Sir, exceeding rare,
'They are not to be met with everywhere.
'Your Wall-fleet oysters no man will prefer
'Before the juicy grass-green Colchester.
'Hungerford crawfish match me, if you can,
'There's no such crawlers in the Ocean. 60
10. 'Next for your suppers, you (it may be) think
'There goes no more to 't, but just eat and drink;
'But let me tell you, Sir, and tell you plain,
'To dress 'em well requires a man of brain:
'His palate must be quick, and smart, and strong,
'For sauce, a very critic in the tongue.
11. 'He that pays dear for fish, nay though the best,
'May please his fishmonger, more than his guest,
'If he be ignorant what sauce is proper;
'There's Machiavel in th' _ménage_ of a supper. 70
12. 'For swines-flesh, give me that of the wild boar,
'Pursu'd and hunted all the forest o'er;
'He to the liberal oak ne'er quits his love,
'And when he finds no acorns, grunts at Jove.
'The Hampshire hog with pease and whey that's fed
'Sty'd up, is neither good alive nor dead.
13. 'The tendrils of the vine are salads good,
'If when they are in season understood.
14. 'If servants to thy board a rabbit bring,
'Be wise, and in the first place carve a wing. 80
15. 'When fish and fowl are right, and at just age,
'A feeder's curiosity t' assuage,
'If any ask, who found the mystery,
'Let him inquire no further, I am he.
16. 'Some fancy bread out of the oven hot:
'Variety's the glutton's happiest lot.
17. 'It's not enough the wine you have be pure,
'But of your oil as well you ought be sure.
18. 'If any fault be in the generous wine,
'Set it abroad all night, and 'twill refine, 90
'But never strain 't, nor let it pass through linen,
'Wine will be worse for that, as well as women.
19. 'The vintner that of Malaga and Sherry
'With damn'd ingredients patcheth up Canary,
'With segregative things, as pigeons' eggs,
'Straight purifies, and takes away the dregs.
20. 'An o'er-charg'd stomach roasted shrimps will ease,
'The cure by lettuce is worse than the disease.
21. 'To quicken appetite it will behove ye
'To feed courageously on good anchovy. 100
22. 'Westphalia ham, and the Bologna sausage,
'For second or third course will clear a passage,
'But lettuce after meals! fie on 't, the glutton
'Had better feed upon Ram-alley mutton.
23. ''Twere worth one's while in palace or in cottage,
'Right well to know the sundry sorts of pottage;
'There is your French pottage, Nativity broth,
'Yet that of Fetter-lane exceeds them both;
'About a limb of a departed tup
'There may you see the green herbs boiling up, 110
'And fat abundance o'er the furnace float,
'Resembling whale-oil in a Greenland boat.
24. 'The Kentish pippin's best, I dare be bold,
'That ever blue-cap costard-monger sold.
25. 'Of grapes, I like the raisins of the sun.
'I was the first immortal glory won,
'By mincing pickled herrings with these raisin
'And apples; 'twas I set the world a-gazing,
'When once they tasted of this _Hogan_ fish,
'Pepper and salt enamelling the dish. 120
26. ''Tis ill to purchase great fish with great matter,
'And then to serve it up in scanty platter;
'Nor is it less unseemly, some believe,
'From boy with greasy fist drink to receive,
'But the cup foul within 's enough to make
'A squeamish creature puke and turn up stomach.
27. 'Then brooms and napkins and the Flanders tile,
'These must be had too, or the feast you spoil,
'Things little thought on, and not very dear,
'And yet how much they cost one in a year! 130
28. 'Wouldst thou rub alabaster with hands sable,
'Or spread a diaper cloth on dirty table?
'_More cost, more worship_: Come: be _à la mode_;
'Embellish treat, as thou would do an ode.'
Hor. _O learnèd Sir_, _how greedily I hear_
_This elegant_ Diatriba _of good cheer!_
_Now by all that's good_, _by all provant you love_,
_By sturdy_ Chine of Beef, _and mighty_ Jove;
_I do conjure thy_ gravity, _let me see_
_The man that made thee this_ Discovery; 140
_For he that sees th'_ Original's _more happy_
_Than him that draws by an ill-favour'd_ Copy.
_O bring me to the man I so admire!_
_The_ Flint _from whence brake forth these sparks of fire_.
_What satisfaction would the Vision bring?_
_If sweet the stream_, _much sweeter is the spring_.
[Line: 3 I had struck out the brackets, but replaced them.
For some obsolete uses of the mark see Mr. Percy Simpson's
_Shakesperian Punctuation_, pp. 94-5.]
[Line: 57 Wall-fleet _1674-82_; Wain-fleet _1686._ Wainfleet
is in Lincolnshire, famous as the birthplace of the founder
of Magdalen College, Oxford. I never heard Wainfleet oysters
specially quoted, but if Walter White in his _Eastern England_
(ii. 10) may be trusted, the place was not so very long ago
excellent for cockles.]
[Line: 60 The ocean 'crawlers' are at any rate bigger than
those of the Kennet.]
[Lines: 75-6 This is a libel.]
[Line: 104 Ram-alley] The constantly cited street of coarse
cook-shops.]
[Line: 107 'Nativity' is no doubt 'Christmas', as in
'Nativity-_pie_'. The reference is to 'plum-broth', the old
Christmas dish, made of beef, prunes, raisins, currants, white
bread, spices, wine, and sugar.]
[Line: 114 It would be a pity not to keep the form
'cost_ard_-monger'.]
[Line: 119 '_Hogan_' of course = 'Dutch'. This, the
only positive _recipe_ in the poem, would be a sort of
salmagundy--not bad, but rather coarse, like most of the
cookery of the time. Flatman, had he cared, might evidently
have anticipated the earlier Dr. (not Bishop) King, who
published his ingenious _Art of Cookery_ in prose and verse
(to be found in the ninth volume of Chalmers) some thirty
years later.]
[Lines: 125-6. If 'within 's' be extended to 'within _is_'
we shall have in 'to-make' a pleasant Hudibrastic rhyme to
'stomach', which otherwise comes in but ill.]
[Line: 127 What the special use of Dutch tiles was I can only
guess. For tankard stands?]
[Lines: 141-2 The plagiarism-hunters may, if they like, accuse
Sam Weller of stealing from Flatman when he observed, 'I'm
very glad I've seen the 'rig'nal, cos it 's a gratifyin' sort
of thing, and eases one's mind so much'.]
_The Disappointed._
PINDARIC ODE.
_Stanza_ I.
Oft have I ponder'd in my pensive heart,
When even from myself I've stol'n away,
And heavily consider'd many a day,
The cause of all my anguish and my smart:
Sometimes besides a shady grove
(As dark as were my thoughts, as close as was my Love),
Dejected have I walk'd alone,
Acquainting scarce myself with my own moan.
Once I resolv'd undauntedly to hear
What 'twas my passions had to say, 10
To find the reason of that uproar there,
And calmly, if I could, to end the fray:
No sooner was my resolution known
But I was all confusion.
Fierce Anger, flattering Hope, and black Despair,
Bloody Revenge, and most ignoble Fear,
Now altogether clamorous were;
My breast a perfect chaos grown,
A mass of nameless things together hurl'd,
Like th' formless embryo of the unborn world, 20
Just as it's rousing from eternal night,
Before the great Creator said, _Let there be Light._
II.
Thrice happy then are beasts, said I,
That underneath these pleasant coverts lie,
They only sleep, and eat, and drink,
They never meditate, nor think;
Or if they do, have not th' unhappy art
To vent the overflowings of their heart;
They without trouble live, without disorder die,
Regardless of Eternity. 30
I said, I would like them be wise,
And not perplex myself in vain,
Nor bite th' uneasy chain,
No, no, said I, I will Philosophise!
And all th' ill-natur'd World despise:
But when I had reflected long,
And with deliberation thought
How few have practis'd what they gravely taught,
(Tho' 'tis but folly to complain)
I judg'd it worth a generous disdain, 40
And brave defiance in Pindaric song.
[_The Disappointed._] In 1674 and in Contents of 1686 _The
Disappointment._]
[Line: 21 as] at _1674_.]
[Line: 27 unhappy] happy _1682_.]
[Line: 29 without disorder die, _1682_.]
_On Mrs. E. Montague's Blushing in the Cross-Bath._
A TRANSLATION.
I.
Amidst the Nymphs (the glory of the flood)
Thus once the beauteous Aegle stood,
So sweet a tincture ere the Sun appears,
The bashful ruddy morning wears:
Thus through a crystal wave the coral glows,
And such a blush sits on the virgin rose.
II.
Ye envied waters that with safety may
Around her snowy bosom play,
Cherish with gentle heat that noble breast
Which so much innocence has blest, 10
Such innocence, as hitherto ne'er knew
What mischief Venus or her son could do.
Then from this hallow'd place
Let the profane and wanton eye withdraw,
For Virtue clad in scarlet strikes an awe
From the tribunal of a lovely face.
[_On Mrs. E. Montague, &c._] This, though I do not know
exactly who the lady was, may be taken with the Sandwich
epicedes as evidence of Flatman's acquaintance with the
Montague family. It is odd that Pepys does not mention him,
especially as he does record buying the 'Montelion' Almanack
for 1661, which has been attributed to our poet. The
Cross-Bath is of course the famous one at Bath itself, which
was then the most fashionable, and was visited and used
by Pepys himself. It is now 'drawn to the dregs of a
democracy'--a cheap public swimming-bath, at a penny entrance
or twopence with towel. Flatman's comparison of a blushing
cheek to a judge on the bench is worthy of Cleveland, or even
of Benlowes. But the extravagance was doubtless, in part at
least, conscious.]
_Il Infido._
I.
I breathe, 'tis true, wretch that I am, 'tis true;
But if to live be only not to die,
If nothing in that bubble, Life, be gay,
But all t' a tear must melt away;
Let fools and Stoics be cajol'd, say I:
Thou that lik'st Ease and Love, like me,
When once the world says, Farewell both, to thee,
What hast thou more to do
Than in disdain to say, Thou foolish world, adieu!
II.
There was a time, fool that I was! when I 10
Believ'd there might be something here below.
A seeming cordial to my drooping heart
That might allay my bitter smart:
I call'd it _Friend_:--but O th' inconstancy
Of human things! I tried it long,
Its love was fervent, and, I fancied, strong:
But now I plainly see,
Or 'tis withdrawn, or else 'twas all hypocrisy.
III.
I saw thy much-estrangèd eyes, I saw,
False Musidore, thy formal alter'd face, 20
When thou betray'dst my seeming happiness,
And coldly took'st my kind address:
But know that I will live; for in thy place
Heaven has provided for me now
A constant friend, that dares not break a vow;
That friend will I embrace,
And never more my overweening love misplace.
_Il Immaturo._
EPITAPH.
Brave Youth, whose too too hasty fate
His glories did anticipate,
Whose active soul had laid the great design
To emulate those Heroes of his line!
He show'd the world how great a man
Might be contracted to a span;
How soon our teeming expectations fail,
How little tears and wishes can prevail:
Could life hold out with these supplies
He'd liv'd still in his parents' eyes, 10
And this cold stone had ne'er said, _Here he lies._
_On Mrs. Dove, Wife to the Reverend Dr. Henry Dove._
EPITAPH.
'Tis thus----and thus farewell to all
Vain mortals do perfection call;
To Beauty, Goodness, Modesty,
Sweet temper, and true Piety.
The rest an Angel's pen must tell:
Long, long, belovèd Dust, farewell.
Those blessings which we highliest prize
Are soonest ravish'd from our eyes.
[_On Mrs. Dove, &c._] Dr. Henry Dove was a divine of some
mark, chaplain (it must have been rather in the Vicar of
Bray line) to Charles, James, _and_ William, Archdeacon
of Richmond, and a strongly recommended candidate for
the Mastership of Trinity, when young John Montague, Lord
Sandwich's son, got it--_iure natalium_, apparently, as he had
previously got his M.A. degree.]
_Lucretius._
_Sed jam nec Domus accipiet te laeta, nec Uxor_
_Optima_, _nec dulces occurrent oscula nati_
_Praeripere_, _et tacita pectus dulcedine tangent_.
_Paraphrased._
When thou shalt leave this miserable life,
Farewell thy house, farewell thy charming wife,
Farewell for ever to thy soul's delight,
Quite blotted out in everlasting night!
No more thy pretty darling babes shall greet thee
By thy kind name, nor strive who first shall meet thee.
Their kisses with a secret pleasure shall not move thee!
For who shall say to thy dead clay, I love thee?
_On the Eminent Dr. Edward Browne's Travels._
Thus from a foreign clime rich merchants come,
And thus unlade their rarities at home:
Thus undergo an acceptable toil,
With treasures to enrich their native soil.
They for themselves, for others you unfold
A cargo swoln with diamonds and gold.
With indefatigable travels, they
The trading world, the learnèd you, survey;
And for renown with great Columbus vie,
In subterranean cosmography. 10
[_On Dr. Edward Browne's Travels._] Edward Browne, Sir
Thomas's eldest son, returned in 1673 from five years'
wandering, and Flatman must have written on some of his
papers. His _Travels_ were first printed in 1682.]
_On Poverty._
I.
O poverty! thou great and wise-man's school!
Mistress of Arts! and scandal to the fool!
Heav'n's sacred badge, which th' heroes heretofore
(Bright caravans of saints and martyrs) wore!
To th' Host Triumphant valiant souls are sent
From those we call the ragged regiment:
Sure guide to everlasting peace above,
Thou dost th' impediments remove;
Th' unnecessary loads of wealth and state,
Which make men swell too big for the strait gate. 10
II.
Thou happy port! where we from storms are free,
And need not fear (false world!) thy piracy.
Hither for ease and shelter did retire
The busy Charles, and wearied Casimire;
Abjur'd their thrones, and made a solemn vow,
Their radiant heads to thee should ever bow.
Why should thy tents so terrible appear
Where monarchs reformadoes were?
Why should men call that state of life forlorn,
Which God approves of, and which kings have borne? 20
III.
Mad Luxury! what do thy vassals reap
From a life's long debauch, but late to weep!
What the curs'd miser, who would fain ape thee,
And wear thy livery, Great Poverty!
The prudent wretch for future ages cares,
And hoards up sins for his impatient heirs!
Full little does he think the time will come
When he is gone to his long home,
The prodigal youth for whom he took such pains
Shall be thy slave, and wear thy loathèd chains. 30
IV.
Fair handmaid to Devotion, by whose aid
Our souls are all disrob'd, all naked laid,
In thy true mirror men themselves do see
Just what they are, not what they seem to be.
The flattering world misrepresents our face,
And cheats us with a magnifying-glass;
Our meanness nothing else does truly show,
But only Death, but only thou,
Who teach our minds above this Earth to fly,
And pant, and breathe for immortality. 40
[_On Poverty._] 14 Charles] Of course Charles the Fifth.
Casimire] John Casimir of Poland, who had abdicated in 1668
and died in 1672.]
[Line: 18 'Reformadoes'] Lit. officers of a disbanded company,
who retained their rank and received half-pay.]
[Lines: 31-40 A stanza added in 1686.]
_Urania to her Friend Parthenissa._
A DREAM.
In a soft vision of the night,
My Fancy represented to my sight
A goodly gentle shade;
Methought it mov'd with a majestic grace,
But the surprising sweetness of its face
Made me amaz'd, made me afraid:
I found a secret shivering in my heart,
Such as friends feel that meet or part:
Approaching nearer with a timorous eye,
Is then my Parthenissa dead, said I? 10
Ah Parthenissa! if thou yet are kind,
As kind as when, like me, thou mortal wert,
When thou and I had equal share in either's heart,
How canst thou bear that I am left behind!
Dear Parthenissa! O those pleasant hours,
That blest our innocent amours!
When in the common treasury of one breast,
All that was thine or mine did rest.
Dear Parthenissa!--Friend! what shall I say?
Ah speak to thy Urania! 20
Oh envious Death! nothing but thee I fear'd,
No other rival could estrange
Her soul from mine or make a change.
Scarce had I spoke my passionate fears,
And overwhelm'd myself in tears:
But Parthenissa smil'd, and then she disappear'd.
_On the Death of the Earl of Rochester._
PASTORAL.
I.
As on his death-bed gasping Strephon lay,
Strephon the wonder of the plains,
The noblest of th' Arcadian swains;
Strephon the bold, the witty, and the gay:
With many a sigh and many a tear he said,
Remember me, ye Shepherds, when I'm dead.
II.
Ye trifling glories of this world, adieu,
And vain applauses of the age;
For when we quit this earthly stage,
Believe me, shepherds, for I tell you true; 10
Those pleasures which from virtuous deeds we have,
Procure the sweetest slumbers in the grave.
III.
Then since your fatal hour must surely come,
Surely your heads lie low as mine,
Your bright meridian sun decline;
Beseech the mighty Pan to guard you home,
If to Elysium you would happy fly,
Live not like Strephon, but like Strephon die.
[_On the Death of the Earl of Rochester._] Flatman, it will be
observed, makes no reference to Burnet's notorious publication
as to Rochester's death-bed repentance. As to the Latin
version, he strains the term 'leonine', which ought properly
to be used only of lines correctly metred, or intended for
metre, but rhymed at middle and end. (He had actually written
such: _v. sup._, p. 353). But these verses, added in 1686,
are not uninteresting examples of Latin, metred on English
principles and rhymed in stanza, of the same class as Sir F.
Kynaston's _Troilus_, though in different form.
MS. versions are in Bodley, in Aubrey MS. 6, fol. 56 (with the
variant 'head' in l. 14), and a worthless copy in MS. Add. B.
105, fol. 19.]
_In obitum illustrissimi ingeniosissimique Joannis, Comitis
Roffensis,_
_Carmen Pastorale Versu Leonino redditum._
I.
_Lecto prostratus Strephon moribundus_,
_Planitierum Strephon decus_,
_Princeps curantium pecus_,
_Audax, facetus, Strephon et jucundus_,
_Lugens pastoribus sic est affatus_,
_Memimini mei cum migratus_.
II.
_Honores mundi futiles valete_,
_Plaudite aevi et fucata_,
_Mortali scenâ nam mutatâ_,
_Fidem veriloquo adhibete_, 10
_Voluptas profluens ex virtute_
_Solâ obdormiscit cum salute_.
III.
_Cum nulla in mortem sit medela_,
_In terram capita cuncta incurvabunt_,
_Soles micantes declinabunt_,
_Pan supplicetor pro tutelâ_
_Beatorum ut recipiant chori:_
_Strephon non doceat vivere sed mori_.
_On Dr. Woodford's Paraphrase on the Canticles._
I.
Well! since it must be, so let it be,
For what do resolutions signify,
When we are urg'd to write by destiny?
II.
I had resolv'd, nay, and I almost swore,
My bedrid Muse should walk abroad no more:
Alas! 'tis more than time that I give o'er.
III.
In the recesses of a private breast
I thought to entertain your charming guest,
And never to have boasted of my feast.
IV.
But see, my friend, when through the world you go, 10
My lackey-verse must shadow-like pursue,
Thin and obscure, to make a foil for you.
V.
'Tis true, you cannot need my feeble praise,
A lasting monument to your name to raise,
Well known in Heav'n by your angelic lays.
VI.
There in indelible characters they are writ,
Where no pretended heights will easy sit,
But those of serious consecrated wit.
VII.
By immaterial defecated Love,
Your soul its heavenly origin does approve, 20
And in least dangerous raptures soars above.
VIII.
How could I wish, dear friend! unsaid agen
(For once I rank'd myself with tuneful men)
Whatever dropp'd from my unhallow'd pen!
IX.
The trifling rage of youthful heat once past,
Who is not troubled for his wit misplac'd!
All pleasant follies breed regret at last.
X.
While reverend Donne's and noble Herbert's flame
A glorious immortality shall claim,
In the most durable records of Fame, 30
XI.
Our modish rhymes, like culinary fire,
Unctuous and earthy, shall in smoke expire;
In odorous clouds your incense shall aspire.
XII.
Let th' Pagan-world your pious verse defy,
Yet shall they envy when they come to die,
Your wiser projects on eternity.
[_On Dr. Woodford's Paraphrase._] See above, p. 306. These
lines appeared before _A Paraphrase upon the Canticles_,
1679, and were headed 'To my dear Old Friend, the Reverend Dr.
Samuel Woodford, On his Sacred Poems'.]
[Line: 21 approve _1679_, _1682_: prove _1686_.]
[Lines: 25-7 Referring to the comic touches noted above.]
_Laodamia to Protesilaus._
ONE OF OVID'S EPISTLES TRANSLATED.
THE ARGUMENT.
_Protesilaus lying windbound at Aulis in the Grecian fleet design'd
for the Trojan war, his wife Laodamia sends this following Epistle to
him._
Health to the gentle man of war, and may
What Laodamia sends the Gods convey.
The wind that still in Aulis holds my dear,
Why was it not so cross to keep him here?
Let the wind raise an hurricane at sea,
Were he but safe and warm ashore with me.
Ten thousand kisses I had more to give him,
Ten thousand cautions, and soft words to leave him:
In haste he left me, summon'd by the wind,
(The wind to barbarous mariners only kind). 10
The seaman's pleasure is the lover's pain,
(Protesilaus from my bosom ta'en!)
As from my faltering tongue half speeches fell,
Scarce could I speak that wounding word _Farewell_,
A merry gale (at sea they call it so)
Fill'd every sail with joy, my breast with woe,
There went my dear Protesilaus----
While I could see thee, full of eager pain,
My greedy eyes epicuris'd on thine,
When thee no more, but thy spread sails I view, 20
I look'd, and look'd, till I had lost them too;
But when nor thee, nor them I could descry,
And all was sea that came within my eye,
They say (for I have quite forgot), they say
I straight grew pale, and fainted quite away;
Compassionate Iphiclus, and the good old man,
My mother too to my assistance ran;
In haste cold water on my face they threw,
And brought me to myself with much ado.
They meant it well, to me it seem'd not so, 30
Much kinder had they been to let me go;
My anguish with my soul together came,
And in my heart burst out the former flame:
Since which, my uncomb'd locks unheeded flow,
Undrest, forlorn, I care not how I go;
Inspir'd with wine, thus Bacchus' frolic rout
Stagger'd of old, and straggled all about.
Put on, put on, the happy ladies say,
Thy royal robes, fair Laodamia.
Alas! before Troy's walls my dear does lie, 40
What pleasure can I take in Tyrian dye?
Shall curls adorn my head, an helmet thine?
I in bright tissues, thou in armour shine?
Rather with studied negligence I'll be
As ill, if not disguisèd worse than thee.
O Paris! rais'd by ruins! mayst thou prove
As fatal in thy war, as in thy love!
O that the Grecian Dame had been less fair,
Or thou less lovely hadst appear'd to her!
O Menelaus! timely cease to strive, 50
With how much blood wilt thou thy loss retrieve?
From me, ye Gods, avert your heavy doom,
And bring my dear, laden with laurels, home:
But my heart fails me, when I think of war,
The sad reflection costs me many a tear:
I tremble when I hear the very name
Of every place where thou shalt fight for fame;
Besides, th' adventurous ravisher well knew
The safest arts his villany to pursue;
In noble dress he did her heart surprise, 60
With gold he dazzled her unguarded eyes,
He back'd his rape with ships and armèd men,
Thus storm'd, thus took the beauteous fortress in.
Against the power of Love and force of arms
There's no security in the brightest charms.
Hector I fear, much do I Hector fear,
A man (they say) experienc'd in war,
My dear, if thou hast any love for me,
Of that same Hector prithee mindful be;
Fly him be sure, and every other foe, 70
Lest each of them should prove an Hector too.
Remember, when for fight thou shalt prepare,
Thy Laodamia charg'd thee, Have a care;
For what wounds thou receiv'st are giv'n to her.
If by thy valour Troy must ruin'd be,
May not the ruin leave one scar on thee;
Sharer in th' honour, from the danger free!
Let Menelaus fight, and force his way
Through the false ravisher's troops t' his Helena.
Great be his victory, as his cause is good. 80
May he swim to her in his enemies' blood.
Thy case is different.--Mayst thou live to see
(Dearest) no other combatant but me!
Ye generous Trojans, turn your swords away
From his dear breast, find out a nobler prey;
Why should you harmless Laodamia slay?
My poor good-natur'd man did never know
What 'tis to fight, or how to face a foe;
Yet in Love's field what wonders can he do!
Great is his prowess and his fortune too; 90
Let them go fight, who know not how to woo.
Now I must own, I fear'd to let thee go,
My trembling lips had almost told thee so.
When from thy father's house thou didst withdraw,
Thy fatal stumble at the door I saw,
I saw it, sigh'd, and pray'd the sign might be
Of thy return a happy prophecy!
I cannot but acquaint thee with my fear,
Be not too brave,--Remember,--Have a care,
And all my dreads will vanish into air. 100
Among the Grecians some one must be found
That first shall set his foot on Trojan ground;
Unhappy she that shall his loss bewail,
Grant, O ye Gods, thy courage then may fail.
Of all the ships be thine the very last,
Thou the last man that lands; there needs no haste
To meet a potent and a treacherous foe;
Thou'lt land I fear too soon, tho' ne'er so slow.
At thy return ply every sail and oar,
And nimbly leap on thy deserted shore. 110
All the day long, and all the lonely night,
Black thoughts of thee my anxious soul affright:
Darkness, to other women's pleasures kind,
Augments, like Hell, the torments of my mind.
I court e'en dreams, on my forsaken bed
False joys must serve, since all my true are fled.
What's that same airy phantom so like thee!
What wailings do I hear, what paleness see?
I wake, and hug myself, 'tis but a dream.--
The Grecian altars know I feed their flame, 120
The want of hallow'd wine my tears supply,
Which make the sacred fire burn bright and high.
When shall I clasp thee in these arms of mine,
These longing arms, and lie dissolv'd in thine?
When shall I have thee by thyself alone,
To learn the wondrous actions thou hast done?
Which when in rapturous words thou hast begun
With many and many a kiss, prithee tell on,
Such interruptions grateful pauses are,
A kiss in story's but an halt in war. 130
But, when I think of Troy, of winds and waves,
I fear the pleasant dream my hope deceives:
Contrary winds in port detain thee too,
In spite of wind and tide why wouldst thou go?
Thus, to thy country thou wouldst hardly come,
In spite of wind and tide thou went'st from home.
To his own city Neptune stops the way,
Revere the omen, and the Gods obey.
Return, ye furious Grecians, homeward fly,
Your stay is not of Chance, but Destiny: 140
How can your arms expect desir'd success,
That thus contend for an adulteress?
But, let not me forespeak you, no,--set sail,
And Heav'n befriend you with a prosperous gale!
Ye Trojans! with regret methinks I see
Your first encounter with your enemy;
I see fair Helen put on all her charms,
To buckle on her lusty bridegroom's arms;
She gives him arms, and kisses she receives,
(I hate the transports each to other gives.) 150
She leads him forth, and she commands him come
Safely victorious, and triumphant home;
And he (no doubt) will make no nice delay,
But diligently do whate'er she say.
Now he returns!--see with what amorous speed
She takes the pond'rous helmet from his head,
And courts the weary champion to her bed.
_We women, too too credulous, alas!_
_Think what we fear will surely come to pass_.
Yet, while before the leaguer thou dost lie, 160
Thy picture is some pleasure to my eye;
That, I caress in words most kind and free,
And lodge it on my breast, as I would thee.
There must be something in it more than Art,
'Twere very thee, could it thy mind impart;
I kiss the pretty Idol, and complain,
As if (like thee) 'twould answer me again.
By thy return, by thy dear self, I swear,
By our Love's vows, which most religious are,
By thy belovèd head, and those gray hairs 170
Which time may on it snow in future years,
I come, where'er thy Fate shall bid thee go,
Eternal partner of thy weal and woe,
So thou but live, tho' all the Gods say No.
Farewell,--but prithee very careful be
Of thy belovèd Self (I mean) of me.
[Line: 129 grateful] graceful _1682_.]
_To the Excellent Master of Music, Signior Pietro Reggio, on His Book
of Songs._
Tho' to advance thy fame, full well I know
How very little my dull pen can do;
Yet, with all deference, I gladly wait,
Enthrong'd amongst th' attendants on thy state:
Thus when Arion, by his friends betray'd,
Upon his understanding Dolphin play'd,
The scaly people their resentments show'd
By pleas'd levoltoes on the wond'ring flood.
Great Artist! thou deserv'st our loudest praise
From th' garland to the meanest branch of bays; 10
For poets can but _Say_, thou mak'st them _Sing_,
And th' embryo-words dost to perfection bring;
By us the Muse conceives, but when that's done,
Thy midwif'ry makes fit to see the Sun;
Our naked lines, drest and adorn'd by thee,
Assume a beauty, pomp, and bravery;
So awful and majestic they appear,
They need not blush to reach a Prince's ear.
Princes, tho' to poor poets seldom kind,
Their numbers turn'd to air with pleasure mind 20
Studied and labour'd tho' our poems be,
Alas! they die unheeded without thee,
Whose art can make our breathless labours live,
Spirit and everlasting vigour give.
Whether we write of _Heroes and of Kings_,
_In Mighty Numbers, Mighty Things_,
Or in a humble Ode express our sense
Of th' happy state of ease and innocence;
A country life where the contented swain
Hugs his dear peace, and does a crown disdain; 30
Thy dext'rous notes with all our thoughts comply,
Can creep on Earth, can up to Heaven fly;
In heights and cadences, so sweet, so strong,
They suit a shepherd's reed, an angel's tongue.
----------------But who can comprehend
The raptures of thy voice, and miracles of thy hand?
[_To Signior Pietro Reggio._] First printed in _Songs of
Signior Pietro Reggio_, folio undated (but issued in 1680);
Shadwell and Ayres also contributed to it. It had an engraved
title-page of Arion on a Dolphin (cf. l. 5), and was dedicated
to the king (cf. l. 18).]
[Line: 8 Levoltoes _1682_: levaltoes _1686_--both variants of
the form 'lavolta'.]
Epitaph on the Incomparable Sir John King in the Temple-Church.
_Heic juxta jacet_
_Johannes King Miles_,
_Serenissimo Carolo Secundo_
_In Legibus Angliae Consultus_,
_Illustrissimo Jacobo Duci Eboracensi_
_Sollicitator Generalis._
_Qualis, Quantusve sis, Lector_,
_Profundum obstupesce;_
_Labia digitis comprime_,
_Oculos lachrymis suffunde_. 10
_En! ad pedes tuos_
_Artis et Naturae suprema Conamina_,
_Fatorum Ludibria!_
_Non ita pridem_
_Erat Iste Pulvis omnifariam Doctus_,
_Musarum Gazophylacium_,
_Eloquentiam calluit, claram, puram, innocuam_,
_Legibus suae Patriae erat instructissimus_,
_Suis charus, Principibus gratus, Omnibus urbanus_,
_Sui saeculi_ 20
_Ornamentum illustre_, _Desiderium irreparabile_.
_Hinc disce Lector_,
_Quantilla Mortalitatis Gloria_
_Splendidissimis decoratae Dotibus_.
_Dulcem soporem agite_
_Dilecti_, _Eruditi_, _Beati Cineres!_
Obiit _Junii 29_, _1677_.
Aetat. 38.
[_Epitaph on the Incomparable Sir John King._] This
'incomparable' was an Etonian and a Cambridge (Queens'
College) man, who became K.C. and Attorney-General to the Duke
of York.
A first draft is in the Ashmole MS. 826 (fol. 50) of the
Bodleian. Ll. 1-6 are at the end of the epitaph, and add
a touch of bathos--'Et Interioris Templi Socius'--and the
date--'Obiit tercio Calendarum Julii, Anno Æræ Christianæ',
1677; Ætatis 38'. In l. 8 the reading is 'obmutesce'. The
1682 has the simple heading 'In the Temple Church', and reads
'decorata' in l. 24.]
_On the Death of my dear Brother Mr. Richard Flatman._
PINDARIC ODE.
_Stanza_ I.
Unhappy Muse! employ'd so oft
On melancholy thoughts of Death,
What hast thou left so tender, and so soft
As thy poor master fain would breath
O'er this lamented hearse?
No usual flight of fancy can become
My sorrows o'er a brother's tomb.
O that I could be elegant in tears,
That with conceptions, not unworthy thee,
Great as thy merit, vigorous as thy years, 10
I might convey thy elegy
To th' grief and envy of posterity!
A gentler youth ne'er crown'd his parents' cares,
Or added ampler joy to their grey hairs:
Kind to his friends, to his relations dear,
Easy to all.--Alas! what is there here
For man to set his heart upon,
Since what we dote on most is soonest gone?
Ai me! I've lost a sweet companion,
A friend, a brother all in one! 20
II.
How did it chill my soul to see thee lie
Struggling with pangs in thy last agony!
When with a manly courage thou didst brave
Approaching Death, and with a steady mind
(Ever averse to be confin'd)
Didst triumph o'er the Grave.
Thou mad'st no womanish moan,
But scorn'dst to give one groan:
He that begs pity is afraid to die,
Only the brave despise their destiny. 30
But, when I call to mind how thy kind eyes
Were passionately fix'd on mine,
How, when thy falt'ring tongue gave o'er
And I could hear thy pleasing voice no more;
How, when I laid my cheek to thine,
Kiss'd thy pale lips, and press'd thy trembling hand,
Thou, in return, smil'dst gently in my face,
And hugg'dst me with a close embrace;
I am amaz'd, I am unmann'd.
Something extremely kind I fain would say, 40
But through the tumult of my breast,
With too officious love opprest,
I find my feeble words can never force their way.
III.
Belovèd youth! What shall I do!
Once my delight, my torment now!
How immaturely art thou snatch'd away!
But Heaven shines on thee with many a glorious ray
Of an unclouded and immortal day,
Whilst I lie grovelling here below
In a dark stormy night. 50
The blust'ring storm of Life with thee is o'er,
For thou art landed on that happy shore,
Where thou canst hope or fear no more;
Thence with compassion thou shall see
The plagues, the wars, the fires, the scarcity,
The devastations of an enemy,
From which thy early fate has set thee free;
For when thou went'st to thy long home,
Thou wert exempt from all the ills to come,
And shall hereafter be 60
Spectator only of the tragedy
Acted on frail mortality.
So some one lucky mariner
From shipwreck sav'd by a propitious star,
Advanc'd upon a neighb'ring rock looks down,
And sees far off his old companions drown.
IV.
There in a state of perfect ease,
Of never interrupted happiness,
Thy large illuminated mind
Shall matter of eternal wonder find; 70
There dost thou clearly see how, and from whence
The stars communicate their influence,
The methods of th' Almighty Architect,
How He consulted with Himself alone
To lay the wondrous corner-stone,
When He this goodly fabric did erect.
There, thou dost understand
The motions of the secret hand,
That guides th' invisible wheel,
Which here, we ne'er shall know, but ever feel; 80
There Providence, the vain man's laughing-stock,
The miserable good-man's stumbling-block,
Unfolds the puzzling riddle to thy eyes,
And its own wise contrivance justifies.
What timorous man wouldn't be pleas'd to die,
To make so noble a discovery?
V.
And must I take my solemn leave
Till time shall be no more!
Can neither sighs, nor tears, nor prayers retrieve
One cheerful hour! 90
Must one unlucky moment sever
Us, and our hopes, us and our joys for ever!--
Is this cold clod of Earth that endear'd Thing
I lately did my Brother call?
Are these the artful fingers that might vie
With all the sons of harmony
And overpower them all!
Is this the studious comprehensive head
With curious arts so richly furnished!
Alas! thou, and thy glories all are gone, 100
Buried in darkness, and oblivion.
'Tis so--and I must follow thee,
Yet but a little while, and I shall see thee,
Yet but a little while I shall be with thee,
Then some kind friend perhaps may drop one tear for me.
[_On the death of Mr. Richard Flatman._] I know nothing
of Richard Flatman. He would seem to have been a younger
brother.]
[Line: 4 breath] Cf. p. 315, note.]
[Line: 19 Ai _1682_--a form found on p. 313, l. 32, and p.
315, l. 41: Ah _1686_]
_Coridon on the death of his dear Alexis, ob. Jan. 28, 1682/3._
PASTORAL SONG. Set by Dr. BLOW.
Alexis! dear Alexis! lovely boy!
O my Damon! O Palaemon! snatch'd away,
To some far distant region gone,
Has left the miserable Coridon
Bereft of all his comforts, all alone!
Have you not seen my gentle lad,
Whom every swain did love,
Cheerful, when every swain was sad,
Beneath the melancholy grove?
His face was beauteous as the dawn of day, 10
Broke through the gloomy shades of night:
O my anguish! my delight!
_Him_ (ye kind shepherds) I bewail,
Till my eyes and heart shall fail.
Tis _He_ that's landed on that distant shore,
And you and I shall see him here no more.
Return, Alexis! O return!
Return, return, in vain I cry;
Poor Coridon shall never cease to mourn
Thy too untimely, cruel destiny. 20
Farewell for ever, charming boy!
And with _Thee_, all the transports of my joy!
Ye powers above, why should I longer live,
To waste a few uncomfortable years,
To drown myself in tears,
For what my sighs and pray'rs can ne'er retrieve?
[_Coridon &c._] This and the following poems (pp. 375-407)
were added in the collected edition of 1686. Alexis is no
doubt the Thomas Flatman whose epitaph, by his father, is
printed on p. 414. This and the following poem were sent to
Sancroft, with the accompanying letter, preserved in Tanner
MS. xxxiv (fol. 235) of the Bodleian:--
My Lord
The first Page of the enclosed Paper is the result of his
Mai^{tie's}, and yo^{r} Grace's Commaunds; & the Second of my
owne uneasy thoughts on the Death of my beloved Child, who
carried yo^{r} Grace's blessing with him into the other World.
The severity of the Wether ha's delay'd Both much longer than
became the bounden Duty of
My Lord
Yo^{r} Grace's most obedient Servant
January 9 & meanest Kinsman
1683/4 THOMAS FLATMAN.
The autograph copies of the two poems are in Tanner MS. 306,
folios 391 and 392. The variants in this poem are:--
[Line: 11 Broke] Sprung.
[Line: 13 _Him_ [ye] 'Tis He.
[Line: 19 shall] can.
After the poem Flatman has quoted 'Immodicis brevis est aetas,
& rara Senectus'.]
_A Song on New-Year's-day before the King, Car. 2._
_Set by_ DR. BLOW 1682/3.
My trembling song! awake! arise!
And early tell thy tuneful tale,
Tell thy great Master, that the Night is gone;
The feeble phantoms disappear,
And now the New-Year's welcome Sun
O'erspreads the eastern skies;
He smiles on every hill, he smiles on every vale.
His glories fill our hemisphere;
Tell Him Apollo greets Him well,
And with his fellow Wanderers agrees 10
To reward all His labours, and lengthen His days,
In spite of the politic follies of Hell,
And vain contrivance of the destinies.
Tell Him, a Crown of Thorns no more
Shall His sacred temples gore,
For all the rigours of His life are o'er.
Wondrous Prince! design'd to show
What noble minds can bravely undergo,
You are our wonder, you our love;
Earth from beneath, Heaven from above, 20
Call loud for songs of triumph and of praise,
Their voices and their souls they raise;
IO PAEAN do we sing,
Long live, long live the King!
Rise, mighty Monarch, and ascend the Throne,
'Tis yet, once more your own,
For Lucifer and all his legions are o'erthrown:
Son of the Morning, first-born Son of Light,
How wert thou tumbled headlong down,
Into the dungeons of eternal night! 30
While th' loyal stars of the celestial quire
Surrounded with immortal beams,
Mingle their unpolluted flames,
Their just Creator to admire.
With awful reverence they adore Him,
Cover their faces, and fall down before Him;
And night and day for ever sing
_Hosannah_, _Hallelujah to th' Almighty King!_
[_A Song._] 10 'Wanderers' after 'Apollo' may give a moment's
pause. Then one translates the English into Greek and the
Greek into English, obtaining 'Planets' and 'Sun'.]
[Line: 13 Not in the early autograph copy sent to Sancroft
(see previous poem).]
[Line: 14 A little risky in its loyalty. Expressions in the
piece suggest the Rye-House Plot and its failure; but this was
in the March _after_ New-Year's Day, 1682/3.]
[Line: 16 all] now _MS._ life] Fate _MS._]
[Line: 23 'And IÖ PAEAN jointly sing' _MS._]
[Line: 32 immortal] augmented _MS._]
_On the King's return to White-hall, after his Summer's Progress,
1684._
_SONG. Set by_ MR. HENRY PURCELL.
From those serene and rapturous joys
A country life alone can give,
Exempt from tumult and from noise,
Where Kings forget the troubles of their reigns,
And are almost as happy as their humble swains,
By feeling that _they_ live:
Behold th' indulgent Prince is come
To view the conquests of His mercy shown
To the new Proselytes of His mighty town,
And men and angels bid Him welcome home. 10
Not with an helmet or a glitt'ring spear
Does He appear;
He boast[s] no trophies of a cruel conqueror,
Brought back in triumph from a bloody war;
But with an olive-branch adorn'd,
As once the long expected Dove return'd.
Welcome as soft refreshing show'rs,
That raise the sickly heads of drooping flow'rs:
Welcome as early beams of light
To the benighted traveller, 20
When he descries bright Phosphorus from afar,
And all his fears are put to flight.
Welcome, more welcome does He come
Than life to Lazarus from his drowsy tomb,
When in his winding-sheet, at his new birth,
The strange surprising word was said--Come forth!
Nor does the Sun more comfort bring,
When he turns Winter into Spring,
Than the blest advent of a peaceful King.
_Chorus._
With trumpets and shouts we receive the World's Wonder, 30
And let the clouds echo His welcome with thunder,
Such a thunder as applauded what mortals had done,
When they fix'd on His brows His Imperial Crown.
_To Mr. Isaac Walton, on his Publication of Thealma_
Long had the bright _Thealma_ lain obscure,
Her beauteous charms that might the world allure,
Lay like rough diamonds, in the mine, unknown,
By all the sons of folly trampled on,
Till your kind hand unveil'd her lovely face,
And gave her vigour to exert her rays:
Happy old man, whose worth all mankind knows,
Except thyself, who charitably shows
The ready road to Virtue and to Praise,
The way to many long and happy days; 10
The noble art of generous Piety,
And how to compass an Euthanasy!
Hence did he learn the skill of living well,
The bright _Thealma_ was his oracle;
Inspir'd by Her, he knows no anxious cares
In near a century of happy years;
Easy he lives, and easy shall he lie
On the soft bosom of Eternity.
As long as Spenser's noble flames shall burn,
And deep devotion shall attend his urn; 20
As long as Chalkhill's venerable name
With humble emulation shall enflame
Posterity, and fill the rolls of fame,
Your memory shall ever be secure,
And long beyond our short-liv'd praise endure;
As Phidias in Minerva's shield did live,
And shar'd that immortality he alone could give.
[_To Mr. Isaac Walton._] For _Thealma_ [_and Clearchus_]
itself, and the problems attending it, see vol. ii.]
[Line: 7 Walton published the poem in his ninetieth year and
died soon after.]
[Line: 19 Chalkhill was, said Izaak, an 'acquaintant' of
Spenser.]
_Pastoral Dialogue._
CASTARA AND PARTHENIA.
_Parthenia._
My dear Castara, t'other day
I heard an ancient shepherd say,
Alas for me! my time draws nigh,
And shortly, shortly I must die!
What meant the man? for lo! apace
Torrents of tears ran down his face.
_Castara._
Poor harmless maid! why wouldst thou know
What, known, must needs create thee woe?
'Twill cloud the sunshine of thy days,
And in thy soul such trouble raise, 10
Thou'lt grieve, and tremble, and complain,
And say that all thy beauty's vain.
_Parthenia._
Ah me! sure 'tis some dreadful thing
That can so great disorder bring,
Yet tell me, prithee tell me, do,
For 'tis some ease the worst to know.
_Castara._
To die, Parthenia, is to quit
The World, and the Sun's glorious light,
To leave our flocks and fields for ever,
To part, and never meet again, O never! 20
After that cruel hideous hour,
Thou and I shall sing no more;
In the cold Earth they will thee lay,
And what thou dot'st on shall be clay.
_Parthenia._
Alas! why will they use me so,
A virgin that no evil do?
_Castara._
Roses wither, turtles die,
Fair, and kind as thou and I.
_Chorus amb._
Then, since 'tis appointed to the dust we must go,
Let us innocently live, and virtuously do; 30
Let us love, let us sing, 'tis no matter, 'tis all one,
If our lamps be extinguish'd at midnight or noon.
_Castabella Going to Sea._
_SONG. Set by_ MR. JAMES HART.
I.
Hark, hark! methinks I hear the seamen call,
The boist'rous seamen say,
Bright Castabella, come away!
The wind sits fair, the vessel's stout and tall,
Bright Castabella, come away!
For Time and Tide can never stay.
II.
Our mighty Master Neptune calls aloud,
The Zephyrs gently blow,
The Tritons cry, You are too slow,
For every Sea-nymph of the glittering crowd 10
Has garlands ready to throw down
When you ascend your wat'ry throne.
III.
See, see! she comes, she comes, and now adieu!
Let's bid adieu to shore,
And to all we fear'd before;
O Castabella! we depend on you,
On you our better fortunes lay,
Whose eyes and voice the winds and seas obey.
[_Castabella Going to Sea._] There was a _Philip_ Hart in the
next generation who was a composer, and perhaps James was his
father; for the less reputed and more professional arts
like music, painting, engraving, dancing, &c. tended to be
hereditary in those days.]
[Line: 17 Byron might have alleged Flatman's practice, in the
same context of sea-piece, for the too-celebrated 'There let
him _lay_'. But the correct use is possible.]
_On the Death of my worthy friend Mr. John Oldham._
PINDARIC PASTORAL ODE.
_Stanza I._
Undoubtedly 'tis thy peculiar fate,
Ah miserable Astragon!
Thou art condemn'd alone
To bear the burthen of a wretched life,
Still in this howling wilderness to roam,
Whilst all thy bosom friends unkindly go,
And leave thee to lament them here below.
Thy dear Alexis wouldn't stay,
Joy of thy life, and pleasure of thine eyes,
Dear Alexis went away, 10
With an invincible surprise;
Th' angelic youth early dislik'd this state,
And innocently yielded to his fate;
Never did soul of a celestial birth
Inform a purer piece of earth:
O! that 'twere not in vain,
To wish what's past might be retriev'd again!
Thy dotage, thy Alexis then
Had answer'd all thy vows and prayers,
And crown'd with pregnant joys thy silver hairs, 20
Lov'd to this day amongst the living sons of men.
II.
And thou, my friend, hast left me too,
Menalcas! poor Menalcas! even thou!
Of whom so loudly Fame has spoke
In the records of her eternal book,
Whose disregarded worth ages to come
Shall wail with indignation o'er thy tomb.
Worthy wert thou to live, as long as Vice
Should need a satire, that the frantic age
Might tremble at the lash of thy poetic rage. 30
Th' untutor'd world in after times
May live uncensur'd for their crimes,
Freed from the dreads of thy reforming pen,
Turn to old Chaos once again.
Of all th' instructive bards, whose more than Theban lyre,
Could salvage souls with manly thoughts inspire,
Menalcas worthy was to live:
Tell me, ye mournful swains,
Say you his fellow-shepherds that survive,
Has my ador'd Menalcas left behind 40
On all these pensive plains
A gentler shepherd with a braver mind?
Which of you all did more majestic show,
Or wore the garland on a sweeter brow?
III.
But wayward Astragon resolves no more
The death of his Menalcas to deplore.
The place to which he wisely is withdrawn
Is altogether blest.
There, no clouds o'erwhelm his breast,
No midnight cares shall break his rest, 50
For all is everlasting cheerful dawn.
The Poets' charming bliss,
Perfect ease and sweet recess,
There shall he long possess.
The treacherous world no more shall him deceive,
Of hope and fortune he has taken leave;
And now in mighty triumph does he reign
O'er the unthinking rabble's spite
(His head adorn'd with beams of light)
And the dull wealthy fool's disdain. 60
Thrice happy he, that dies the Muses' friend;
He needs no obelisk, no pyramid
His sacred dust to hide,
He needs not for his memory to provide,
For well he knows his praise can never end.
[_On the Death of Mr. John Oldham._] Oldham died in 1683.]
[Alexis seems to be Richard Flatman, Oldham Menalcas, the poet
himself Astragon. It is curious that the printers--and
perhaps even the writers--of this time were so besotted with
'apostrophation' as even to use it when the full value is
metrically necessary, as here in 'wouldn't', which must be
'would _not_' to scan.
These lines were first printed before _Remains of Mr. John
Oldham in Verse and Prose_, 1684. The chief variants are:
[Line: 8 wouldn't] would not.
[Line: 12 angelic] Angel-like.
[Line: 13 innocently yielded] cheerfully submitted.
[Line: 29 satire] In original, as often, 'Satyr'.]
[Line: 50 shall] can.]
[Lines 52 and 54 form one long line, followed by 53,
which reads 'soft recess'; lines 58 and 59 are transposed.]
[Line: 65 For well he knows] For he might well foresee.]
On Sir John Micklethwaite's Monument in S. Botolphs-Aldersgate-Church,
London.
M. S.
_Heic juxta spe plenâ resurgendi situm est_
_Depositum mortale_
_JOANNIS MICKLETHWAITE Equitis_,
_Serenissimo Principi Carolo II. a Medicinâ_,
_Qui cum primis solertissimus_, _fidissimus_, _felicissimus_,
_In Collegio Medicorum Londinensium_
_Lustrum integrum et quod excurrit_
_Praesidis Provinciam dignissimè ornavit:_
_Et tandem emenso aetatis tranquillae stadio_, 10
_Pietate sincerâ_,
_Inconcussâ vitae integritate_,
_Benignâ morum suavitate_,
_Sparsâ passim Philanthropiâ_
_Spectabilis_;
_Miserorum Asylum_,
_Maritus optimus_,
_Parens indulgentissimus_,
_Suorum luctus_,
_Bonorum omnium Amor et Deliciae_, 20
_Septuagenarius senex_,
_Coelo maturus_,
_Fato non invitus cessit_
_IV Kal. Augusti Anno salutis MDCLXXXII_.
_Caetera loquantur_
_Languentium deploranda suspiria_,
_Viduarum ac Orphanorum_
_Propter amissum Patronum profundi gemitus_,
_Pauperumque_,
_Nudorum jam, atque esurientium_ 30
_Importuna Viscera_,
_Monumenta, hoc marmore longe perenniora_.
_Maerens posuit pientissima Conjunx_.
[_On Sir John Micklethwaite's Monument_, &c.] Micklethwaite
(1612-82) was President of the College of Physicians 1676-81
(_lustrum integrum_).]
[Line: 8 _Et quod excurrit_ is a technical Latin phrase in
scientific post-classical writers for 'and more', 'above'.]
[Line: 10 _emenso ... stadio_.] The exact threescore years and
ten.]
[Line: 33 _pientissima_.] The usual form for inscriptions,
though _piissimus_ (in spite of Cicero's condemnation) was
used elsewhere.]
M. S.
_Heic juxta jacet_
_THOMAS ROCK Armg. Salopiensis_,
_Vitâ functus Januarii 3. Aetat. 62. 1678_
_En Lector!_
_Cinerem non vulgarem_,
_Virum vere magnum_,
_Si prisca fides, pietasque primaeva_,
_Si amicitiae foedera strictissima_,
_Si pectus candidum, et sincerum_, 10
_Ac integerrima Vita_,
_Virum vere magnum conflare poterint_.
_En hominem Cordatum!_
_Calamitosae Majestatis_
(_Furente nuperâ perduellium rabie_)
_Strenuum assertorem_,
_Obstinatum Vindicem!_
_En animae generosae quantillum Ergastulum!_
_O charum Deo Depositum!_
_Vestrum undequaquam Inopes_, 20
_Vestrum quotcunque Viri praestantiores_,
_Dolorem inconsolabilem_,
_Desiderium, in omne aevum, irreparabile!_
[_Thomas Rock._] I know not Thomas Rock, Esq. His Royalism
(ll. 10-13) was befitting a Salopian.]
_On the Death of the Illustrious Prince Rupert._
PINDARIC ODE.
_Stanza_ I.
MAN surely is not what he seems to be;
Surely ourselves we overrate,
Forgetting that like other creatures, we
Must bend our heads to Fate.
Lord of the whole Creation, MAN
(How big the title shows!)
Trifles away a few uncertain years,
Cheated with hopes, and rack'd with fears,
Through all Life's little span,
Then down to silence and to darkness goes; 10
And when we die, the crowd that trembling stood
Erewhile struck with the terror of a nod,
Shake off their wonted reverence with their chains,
And at their pleasure use our poor remains.
Ah, mighty Prince!
Whom lavish Nature and industrious Art
Had fitted for immortal Fame,
Their utmost bounty could no more impart;
How comes it that thy venerable name
Should be submitted to my theme? 20
Unkindly baulk'd by the prime skilful men,
Abandon'd to be sullied by so mean a pen!
Tell me, ye skilful men, if you have read
In all the fair memorials of the Dead,
A name so formidably great,
So full of wonders, and unenvi'd love,
In which all virtues and all graces strove,
So terrible, and yet so sweet;
Show me a star in Honour's firmament,
(Of the first magnitude let it be) 30
That from the darkness of this World made free,
A brighter lustre to this World has lent.
Ye men of reading, show me one
That shines with such a beam as His.
Rupert's a constellation
Outvies Arcturus, and the Pleïades.
And if the Julian Star of old outshone
The lesser fires, as much as them the Moon,
Posterity perhaps will wonder why
An hero more divine than he 40
Should leave (after his Apotheosis)
No gleam of light in all the Galaxy
Bright as the Sun in the full blaze of noon.
III.
How shall my trembling Muse thy praise rehearse!
Thy praise too lofty ev'n for Pindar's verse!
Whence shall she take her daring flight,
That she may soar aloft
In numbers masculine and soft,
In numbers adequate
To thy renown's celestial height! 50
If from thy noble pedigree
The royal blood that sparkled in thy veins
A low plebeian eulogy disdains,
And he blasphemes that meanly writes of thee;
If from thy martial deeds she boldly rise,
And sing thy valiant infancy,
Rebellious Britain after felt full well,
Thou from thy cradle wert a miracle.
Swaddled in armour, drums appeas'd thy cries,
And the shrill trumpet sung thy lullabies. 60
The babe Alcides thus gave early proof
In the first dawning of his youth,
When with his tender hand the snakes he slew,
What monsters in his riper years he would subdue.
IV.
Great Prince, in whom Mars and Minerva join'd
Their last efforts to frame a mighty mind,
A pattern for brave men to come, design'd:
How did the rebel troops before thee fly!
How of thy genius stand in awe!
When from the sulphurous cloud 70
Thou in thunder gav'st aloud
Thy dreadful law
To the presumptuous enemy.
In vain their traitorous ensigns they display'd,
In vain they fought, in vain they pray'd,
At thy victorious arms dismay'd.
Till Providence for causes yet unknown,
Causes mysterious and deep,
Conniv'd awhile, as if asleep,
And seem'd its dear Anointed to disown; 80
The prosperous villany triumph'd o'er the Crown,
And hurl'd the best of monarchs from his Throne.
O tell it not in Gath, nor Ascalon!
The best of monarchs fell by impious power,
Th' unspotted Victim for the guilty bled.
He bow'd, he fell, there where he bow'd he fell down dead;
Baptiz'd Blest Martyr in his sacred gore.
V.
Nor could those tempests in the giddy State,
O mighty Prince, thy loyalty abate.
Though put to flight, thou fought'st the Parthian way, 90
And still the same appear'dst to be
Among the beasts and scaly fry,
A Behemoth on land and a Leviathan at sea;
Still wert thou brave, still wert thou good,
Still firm to thy allegiance stood
Amidst the foamings of the popular flood.
(Cato with such a constancy of mind,
Espous'd that cause which all his Gods declin'd.)
Till gentler stars amaz'd to see
Thy matchless and undaunted bravery, 100
Blush'd and brought back the murthered Father's Son,
Lest thou shouldst plant him in th' Imperial Throne,
Thou with thy single hand alone.
He that forgets the glories of that day,
When CHARLES the Merciful return'd,
Ne'er felt the transports of glad Sion's Joy,
When she had long in dust and ashes mourn'd:
He never understood with what surprise
She open'd her astonish'd eyes
To see the goodly fabric of the second Temple rise. 110
VI.
When CHARLES the Merciful his entrance made
The day was all around serene,
Not one ill-boding cloud was seen
To cast a gloomy shade
On the triumphal cavalcade.
In that, his first, and happy scene,
The Pow'rs above foretold his halcyon reign,
In which, like them, he evermore should prove
The kindest methods of Almighty Love:
And when black crimes his justice should constrain, 120
His pious breast should share the criminal's pain:
Fierce as the Lion can he be, and gentle as the Dove.
Here stop, my Muse,--the rest let Angels sing,
Some of those Angels, who with constant care
To His Pavilion, near attendants are,
A life-guard giv'n him by th' Omnipotent King,
Th' Omnipotent King, whose character he bears,
Whose diadem on Earth he wears;
And may he wear it long, for many, many years.
VII.
And now (illustrious Ghost!) what shall we say? 130
What tribute to thy precious memory pay?
Thy death confounds, and strikes all sorrows dumb.
Kingdoms and empires make their moan,
Rescu'd by thee from desolation;
In pilgrimage hereafter shall they come,
And make their offerings before thy tomb,
Great Prince, so fear'd abroad, and so ador'd at home
Jove's Bird that durst of late confront the Sun,
And in the wanton German banners play'd,
Now hangs her wing and droops her head, 140
Now recollects the battles thou hast won,
And calls too late to thee for aid.
All Christendom deplores the loss,
Whilst bloody Mahomet like a whirlwind flies,
And insolently braves the ill-befriended cross.
Europe in blood, and in confusion lies,
Thou in an easy good old age,
Remov'd from this tumultuous stage,
Sleep'st unconcern'd at all its rage,
Secure of Fame, and from Detraction free: 150
He that to greater happiness would attain,
Or towards Heav'n would swifter fly,
Must be much more than mortal man,
And never condescend to die.
_Dec. 13, 1682._
[_On the Death of Prince Rupert._] First printed in folio,
1683; there are two trivial changes in the text--'Blest Martyr
baptized', l. 87, and 'Diadems', l. 128. That both the English
and the Latin of these poems are Flatman's, despite the
_Authore Anonymo_ of the latter, is a conclusion which I shall
give up at once on production of any positive evidence to the
contrary, but shall hold meanwhile. Rupert's love for the Arts
would of itself attract Flatman, and he hints at this in ll.
16 and 65.]
[Line: 21 The 'prime skilfulness' may glance at Dryden--there
were few others who were primely skilful at funeral odes or
any other in 1682. But Rupert had kept aloof from Court for
years.]
[Lines: 74-6 Orig. 'displaid' and 'dismaid': but not 'pr_ai_d'.]
[Lines: 90-4 A rather ingenious handling of those adventurous
and almost heroic cruises of Rupert's with the remnant of the
Royalist fleet which some have unkindly (and in strictness
quite unjustifiably) called 'buccaneering' or 'piratical'.]
[Lines: 111-29 One would have expected, instead of the banal
laudation of Charles, something about Rupert's share in the
Dutch wars, and his occupations in chemistry, engraving, &c.
But there was perhaps some ox on Flatman's tongue (for the
Prince had not been fortunate at the last in fight); and,
besides, all these later poems show a want of the spirit and
the verve which is by no means wanting in the earlier. The
words to Woodford (_v. sup._, p. 367) were rather too well
justified.]
Poema in Obitum Illustrissimi Principis Ruperti
Latine Redditum
Non carmine Pindarico (ut illud) sed, (ut vocatur,)
Lapidario
(Quod est medium inter Oratoriam et Poesin)
Vide sis Emanuelem Thesaurum, in Patriarchis.
AUTHORE ANONYMO.
I.
_Proculdubio non sumus quod videmur_,
_Et nosmet ipsos aequo plus aestimamus_,
_Obliti quod_, _veluti Creatis omnibus_,
_Et nobis etiam Fato succumbendum_.
_Homo_, _totius Terrarum Orbis Dominus_,
(_Heu quam superbe_, _quam fastuose sonat!_)
_Paucos et incertos illudit annos_,
_Nunc spe deceptus_, _nunc metu cruciatus_,
_Per angustum Vitae curriculum_,
_Tandem ad taciturnas labitur Tenebras_. 10
_Et quando morimur_, _quam cito Turba tremula_,
_Jamdudum Nutus terrore percita_,
_Venerationem solitam_ (_cum Catenis_) _exuunt_
_Et ad libitum despectas tractant Reliquias_.
_Potentissime Princeps!_
_Quem prodiga Natura_, _et Ars industria_
_Ad celebritatem immortalem adaptâssent_,
_Cui plus addere non valuit ipsius ultima Benignitas_;
_Unde venit quod Nomen tuum Venerandum_
_Themati meo prostitueretur?_ 20
_Per Viros Doctiores ingrate neglectum_,
_Et indoctâ meâ Musâ delineari relictum!_
II.
_Dicite mihi_, _Viri peritiores_, _si legistis_
_In pulchris Mortuorum Catalogis_
_Nomen adeo formidate Magnum_,
_Tantis Mirâclis et inaemulo amore refertum;_
_In quo omnes Charites & Virtutes concertârunt_.
_Adeo terribile_, _et adeo dulce Nomen_.
_Ostendite mihi Stellam in Firmamento Honoris_
(_Sit etiam Primae Magnitudinis_) 30
_Quae a tenebris hujus Mundi erepta_
_Majorem Mundo fulgorem praestitit;_
_O Viri eruditi_, _ostendite mihi unam_,
_Quae tam splendido Radio effulget_.
_Rupertus est Constellatio--_
_Praelucens Arcturum et Pleiades_.
_Et si olim Stella Juliana praefulsit_
_Ignes minores_, _quantum illos Luna_,
_Posteritas forsitan mirabitur_, _quare_
_Hero illo multo Divinior_, 40
_Nullum_ (_post ejus Apotheosin_)
_In Galaxiâ jubar relinqueret_
_Sole clarius Meridionali_.
III.
_Quo pacto Musa mea tremens laudes tuas recitabit?_
_Laudes tuas_, _etiam Pindari Carmine excelsiores!_
_Unde volatum sumet audacem_,
_Ut in altum sublevetur_
_In Numeris Masculis et Blandis_,
_In numeris adaequatis_
_Coelesti Famae tuae sublimitati?_ 50
_Si a Nobili tuâ Genealogiâ_
_Sanguis Regalis in Venis tuis scintillans_
_Humilem et Plebeiam dedignatur Eulogiam_,
(_Nam de Te modice loquens Blasphemat_)
_Si a claris Bellicis facinoribus incipiet_,
_Et Virilia incunabula decantet_,
_Rebellis jamdudum sentivit Britannia_,
_Quantis Mirandis Cunae tuae claruere_,
_Loricis fasciatus_, _Tympana lachrymas demulserunt_,
_Et Tubarum clangores somnum allicierunt:_ 60
_Sic olim Alcides praematurum dedit specimen_
_In primo Infantiae Diluculo_,
_Angues teneris collidens manibus_
_Qualia in aetate provectâ superaret Monstra_.
IV.
_Auguste Princeps_, _in quo Mars et Minerva suas_
_Vires contulere ingentem formare Animum_
_Praeclaris Posteris in Exemplar designatum_,
_Quoties Turmae Rebelles coram te profugerunt_
_Genii tui Numine terrefactae?_
_Cum de Nube Sulphureâ_ 70
_Fulminibus dedisti sonoris_
_Leges tuas tremendas_
_Perduellibus insolentibus_,
_Frustra vexilla explicârunt perfida_,
_Frustra pugnârunt_, _frustra fuderunt preces_,
_Armis tuis Victricibus attonitae._
_Donec Superi_, _causis adhuc incognitis_,
_Causis secretis et profundis_
_Connivêre paulisper_, _quasi obdormientes_,
_Et peramatum Christum suum dereliquisse videbantur_. 80
_In Coronam triumphavit prosperum Nefas_
_Et Regum optimum a Solio deturbavit_,
_Ne annuntietis hoc in Gath aut Ascalon_,
_Monarcharum optimus impiâ vi corruit_,
_Immaculata Victima pro Sontibus fudit sanguinem:_
_Inclinavit se, cecidit_, _ubi inclinaverat cecidit mortuus_
_Martyr beatus in Sacro suo Cruore Baptisatus_.
V.
_Nec valuerunt Turbines in Anarchiâ istâ vertiginosâ_,
_Invicte Princeps_, _fidelitatem tuam vibrare_,
_Nam retrocedens pugnasti more Parthico_, 90
_Et semper Idem remansisti_,
_Inter pecora_, _et pisces squamosas_,
_In terrâ Behemoth_, _in mari Leviathan:_
_Infractus adhuc et adhuc Bonus_
_Fidelitati firmiter perseverasti_
_Inter fremitus Fluctuum Popularium_.
_Sic olim Cato pari animi constantiâ_
_Causam desponsavit_, _quam Dii omnes repudiârunt_.
_Donec Planetae benigniores_, _stupentes aspicere_
_Imparilem et impavidam tuam fortitudinem_, 100
_Erubuerunt_, _et Percussi Patris filium reduxerunt_,
_Ne tu illum in Solio Imperiali collocares_,
_Tu unicâ tuâ manu solus_.
_Qui Solis istius splendores oblitus fuerit_
_Quo Clementissimus redivit Carolus_,
_Nunquam sentivit laetae Sionis gaudia_
_Cum diu pulvere et cineribus lugisset_;
_Nunquam intellexit quali Raptu_
_Oculos extollebat attonitos_
_Templi Secundi Structuram renascentem videns_. 110
VI.
_Cum Carolus Clemens introitum fecit_
_Coelum erat undique serenum_,
_Nulla male-ominosa Nubes apparuit_
_Umbram dare tenebricosam_,
_In Equitatum istum Triumphalem_.
_In illa primâ et felici Scenâ_
_Praedixere Superi Regimen ejus Halcyoneum_
_In quo sicut illi_, _in aeternum probaret_
_Benignissimas Methodos praepotentis Amoris_.
_Et cum magna flagitia Vindictam eius provocarent_, 120
_Pectus ejus humanius Rei compateretur poenas_.
_Ut Leo ferox, mitis ut Columba_.
_Hic sileat Musa--quod reliquum est Angeli praedicent_,
_Angeli isti qui assiduâ curâ_
_Tentorio ejus quam proxime inserviunt_
_Somatophylaces à Rege Omnipotente delegati_,
_A Rege Omnipotente_, _cujus Majestatem praefert_,
_Cujus in terrâ gerit Diadema_
_Et diu gerat per multos, multos annos_.
VII.
_Quid autem_, (_Illustris Anima_) _quid dicemus?_ 130
_Quale Tributum Piae tuae Memoriae solvemus?_
_Mors tua obtundit et mutum reddit Dolorem_.
_Regna et Imperia lugubres planetus faciunt_
_Ab extremâ Ruinâ per te redempta_.
_Posthac è longe Peregrinantes venient_,
_Et ad Tumulum tuum Oblationes tribuent_,
_O Magne Princeps foris verende_, _et domi venerate!_
_Jovis Ales, qui dudum Solem tentare ausus est_,
_Et in mollibus Germanorum lusit vexillis_,
_Nunc alas demittit_, _et caput declinat_, 140
_Nunc repetit Victorias a Te potitas_,
_Et sero nimis tuum implorat auxilium_.
_Orbis Christianus deplorat Damnum_,
_Dum truculentus Mahomet Turbinis instar volat_
_Et impotenter bacchatur in male-sustentatam Crucem_.
_Sanguine et ruinâ volutans Europa jacet_.
_Tu in tranquillâ et plenâ senectute_
_Semotus a tumultuoso Mundi Theatro_
_Rabiosâ eius insaniâ intactus dormis_,
_Famae securus et ab omni obtrectatione liber_. 150
_Qui ampliorem attineret felicitatem_,
_Vel usque ad Coelos ocyus volaret_,
_Oportet esse plusquam Mortalem_,
_Nec unquam prorsus dignari mori_.
[_Poema in Obitum, &c._] Heading: 'Vide sis' = _vide, si
vis._]
[_Emanuel, &c._] Pepys read his 'new _Emanuel Thesaurus_
[_Tesaufro_] _Patriarchae_' on Jan. 23, 1660/1. It was a
genealogy of Christ and a very popular book.]
[Line: 22 _delineari_] _deliniri_ in the text. 'Fidelitati'
in l. 95 should be the ablative. In 63 'teneribus manibus' was
probably a printer's blunder, but the author must be credited
with such erroneous forms as 'sentivit' and 'lugisset'.]
_On the much lamented Death of our late Sovereign Lord King Charles
II. of Blessed Memory._
A PINDARIC ODE.
_Stanza_ I.
Alas! Why are we tempted to complain,
That Heav'n is deaf to all our cries!
Regardless of poor mortals' miseries!
And all our fervent pray'rs devoutly vain!
Tis hard to think th' immortal Powers attend
Human affairs, who ravish from our sight
The Man, on whom such blessings did depend,
Heav'n's and mankind's delight!
The Man! O that opprobrious word, _The Man!_
Whose measure of duration's but a span, 10
Some other name at Babel should have been contriv'd
(By all the vulgar World t' have been receiv'd),
A word as near as could be to Divinity,
Appropriate to Crown'd Heads, who never ought to die;
Some signal word that should imply
All but the scandal of mortality.
'Tis fit, we little lumps of crawling Earth,
Deriv'd from a plebeian birth,
Such as our frail forefathers were,
Should to our primitive dust repair; 20
But Princes (like the wondrous Enoch) should be free
From Death's unbounded tyranny,
And when their godlike race is run,
And nothing glorious left undone,
Never submit to Fate, but only disappear.
II.
But, since th' eternal Law will have it so,
That Monarchs prove at last but finer clay,
What can their humble vassals do?
What reverence, what devotion can we pay,
When these, our earthly Gods, are snatch'd away? 30
Yes, we can mourn, Yes, we can beat our breast,
Yes, we can call to mind those happy days
Of pleasure, and of rest,
When CHARLES the Merciful did reign,
That Golden Age, when void of cares,
All the long summer's day,
We atoms in his beams might sport and play:
Yes, we can teach our children to bewail
His fatal loss, when we shall fail,
And make babes learn in after days 40
The pretty way of stammering out his praise,
His merited praise, which shall in every age
With all advantage flame
In spite of furies or infernal rage,
And imp the wings, and stretch the lungs of Fame.
III.
Excellent Prince, whom every mouth did bless,
And every bended knee adore,
On whom we gaz'd with ecstasy of joy
(A vision which did satisfy, but never cloy)
From whom we dated all our happiness, 50
And from above could ask no more,
Our gladsome cup was fill'd till it ran o'er.
Our land (like Eden) flourish'd in his time,
Defended by an Angel's Sword,
A terror 'twas to those abroad,
But all was Paradise to those within:
Nor could th' Old Serpent's stratagem
Ever supplant his well-watch'd diadem.
Excellent Prince, of whom we once did say
With a triumphant noise, 60
In one united voice,
On that stupendious day,
_Long live, Long live the King!_
And songs of IO PAEAN sing,
How shall we bear this tragical surprise,
Now we must change _Long live_, for _Here he lies_?
IV.
Have you forgot? (but who can him forget?)
You watchful Spirits that preside
O'er sublunary things,
Who, when you look beneath, do oft deride, 70
Not without cause, some other petty Kings;
Have you forgot the greatness of his mind,
The bravery of his elevated soul,
(But he had still a Goshen there)
When darkest cares around his Royal heart did wind,
As waves about a steady rock do roll:
With what disdain he view'd
The fury of the giddy multitude,
And bare the Cross, with more than manly fortitude,
As he had learn'd in sacred lore, 80
His mighty Master had done long before?
And you must ever own
(Or else you very little know
Of what we think below)
That when the hurricanes of th' State were o'er,
When in his noontide blaze he did appear,
His gentle awful brow
Added fresh lustre to th' Imperial Crown,
By birthright, and by virtue, more than once his own.
V.
He was! but what he was, how great, how good, 90
How just, how he delighted not in blood,
How full of pity, and how strangely kind,
How hazardously constant to his friend,
In Peace how glorious, and in War how brave,
Above the charms of life, and terrors of the grave--
When late posterity shall tell:
What he has done shall to a volume swell,
And every line abound with miracle
In that prodigious Chronicle.
Forgive, unbodied Sovereign, forgive, 100
And from your shining mansion cast an eye
To pity our officious blasphemy,
When we have said the best we can conceive.
Here stop, presumptuous Muse! thy daring flight,
Here hide thy baffled head in shades of night,
Thou too obscure, thy dazzling theme too bright,
For what thou shouldst have said, with grief struck dumb,
Will more emphatically be supplied
By the joint groans of melancholy Christendom.
[_On the Death of King Charles II._] First printed in folio in
1685.]
[Line: 25 Browning somewhere in a letter laughs at this line,
in the form 'Kings do not die, they only disappear', which
is neither Flatman's nor Waller's, from whom he borrowed the
notion, nor Oldham's, who has it likewise, though both these
have the 'disappear'. The thought is not foolish: it means,
'their names and works live after them'. But Browning's
knowledge of Flatman, as of other out-of-the-ways, is
interesting. He might have made him a 'Person of Importance'.]
_To His Sacred Majesty King James II._
Dread Prince! whom all the world admires and fears,
By Heav'n design'd to wipe away our tears,
To heal our wounds, and drooping spirits raise,
And to revive our former halcyon days,
Permit us to assure ourselves, that you
Your happy brother's fortune will pursue,
For what great thing is that you dare not do?
Whose long known, unexampled gallantry
So oft has shaken th' Earth, and curb'd the haughty Sea.
And may those Stars, that ever o'er you shone, 10
Double their influence on your peaceful throne.
May you in honourable deeds outshine
The brightest heroes of your Royal line,
That when your enemies shall the sceptre see
Grasp'd in a hand enur'd to victory,
The rebels may like Lucifer fall down,
Or fly like phantoms from the rising Sun.
_Extremum Hunc Arethusa mihi concede Laborem._
Virgil.
ODES OF HORACE
PARAPHRASED BY THOMAS FLATMAN.
BOOK II. ODE XIX.
_Being half foxt he praiseth Bacchus._
In a blind corner jolly Bacchus taught
The Nymphs and Satyrs poetry;
Myself (a thing scarce to be thought)
Was at that time a stander by.
And ever since the whim runs in my head,
With heavenly frenzy I'm on fire;
Dear Bacchus, let me not be punishèd
For raving, when thou didst inspire.
Ecstatically drunk, I now dare sing
Thy bigot Thyades, and the source 10
Whence thy brisk wine, honey, and milk did spring,
Enchannell'd by thy sceptre's force.
Bold as I am, I dare yet higher fly,
And sing bright Ariadne's Crown,
Rejoice to see bold Pentheus' destiny,
And grave Lycurgus tumbled down.
Rivers and seas thine empire all obey,
When thou thy standard dost advance,
Wild mountaineers, thy vassals, trim and gay,
In tune and time stagger and dance. 20
Thou, when great Jove began to fear his throne
(In no small danger then he was),
The mighty Rhoecus thou didst piss upon,
And of that lion mad'st an ass.
'Tis true, thy talent is not war, but mirth;
The fiddle, not the trumpet, thine;
Yet didst thou bravely lay about thee then,
Great Moderator, God of Wine.
And when to Hell in triumph thou didst ride
O'er Cerberus thou didst prevail, 30
The silly cur, thee for his Master own'd,
And like a puppy wagg'd his tail.
[_Odes of Horace._] On Flatman's Horatian versions generally
see Introduction. The notes they call for are few.]
[Line: 14 Crown] Not in the usual vague poetic sense, but the
star _Corona Ariadnes_.]