Park View, Blackburn, Lancashire,
March 4, 1873.
P.S. Three small overlooked items bearing on Crashaw having been
recovered from a missing Note-book, I add them here.
(_a_) The 1670 edition of the 'Steps,' &c. (whose title-page is given in
Vol. I. xliv.) was re-issued with an undated title-page as 'The Third
Edition. London, Printed for _Richard Bently_, _Jacob Tonson_, _Francis
Saunders_, and _Tho. Bennett_.' It is from the same type, and identical
in every way except the fresh title-page, with the (so-called) '2d
Edition.'
(_b_) In Thomas Shipman's 'Carolina, or Loyal Poems' (1683) there is a
somewhat scurril piece entitled 'The Plagiary, 1658. Upon S.C.,
Presbyterian Minister and Captain, stealing forty-eight lines from
Crashaw's Poems, to patch-up an Elegy for Mr. F. P[ierpont].' A very
small specimen must suffice:
'Soft, sir,--stand!
You are arraign'd for theft; hold up your hand.
Impudent theft as ever was exprest,
Not to steal jewels only, but the chest;
Not to nib bits of gold from Crashaw's lines,
But swoop whole strikes together from his mynes.'
Another piece, 'The Promise. To F.L. Esq., with Crashaw's Poems (1653),'
has nothing quotable.
(_c_) In Aylett's Poems, 'Peace with her Fowre Gardens,' &c. (1622),
there are three little commendatory poems signed 'R.C.,' and these have
been assigned to Crashaw; but '1622' forbids this, as he was then only
in his 9-10th year. G.