Richard Stanyhurst (1547-1618), born in Dublin but educated at
Oxford, is the first representative of the sixteenth century with
whom we are called upon to deal. He belonged to a family long settled
in or near Dublin and of some note in municipal annals. Under the
direction of the Jesuit martyr, Edmund Campion, Stanyhurst wrote a
_Description_, as well as a portion of the _History_, of Ireland for
Holinshed's _Chronicles_, published in 1577. He also translated
(1582) the first four books of _Virgil his Aeneis_ into quantitative
hexameters, on the unsound pedantic principles which Gabriel Harvey
was at that time trying so hard to establish in English prosody; but
the experiment, which turned out so badly in the master's hands,
fared even worse in those of the disciple, and Stanyhurst's lines
will always stand as a noted specimen of inept translation and
ridiculous versification. Equally inartistic was his version of some
of the Psalms in the same metre. In Latin he wrote a profound
commentary on Porphyry, the Neo-Platonic mystic. Stanyhurst, who was
uncle to James Ussher, the celebrated Protestant archbishop of
Armagh, was himself a convert to Catholicity, and on the death of his
second wife became a priest and wrote in Latin some edifying books of
devotion. Two of his sons joined the Jesuit order. He died at
Brussels in 1618. Stanyhurst viewed Ireland entirely from the English
standpoint, and in his _Description_ and _History_ is, consciously or
unconsciously, greatly biased against the native race.
If we may take it as certain that modern investigation is correct in
asserting that Thomas Campion was a native of Dublin, a notable
addition will have been made to the ranks of Irish-born writers of
English at this period. Thomas Campion (1567-1620), wherever born,
spent most of his life in London. He was a versatile genius, for,
after studying law, he took up medicine, and, although practising as
a physician, he yet found time to write four masques and many lyrics
and to compose a goodly quantity of music. Some of his songs appeared
as early as 1591. Among his works is a treatise entitled
_Observations in the Art of English Poesie_ (1602), in which, strange
to say, he, a born lyrist, advocated unrhymed verse and quantitative
measures, but fortunately his practice did not usually square with
his theory. His masques were written for occasions, such as the
marriage of Lord Hayes (1607), the nuptials of the Princess Elizabeth
and the Elector Palatine (1613), and the ill-starred wedding of
Somerset and the quondam Countess of Essex in the same year. In these
masques are embedded some of his best songs; others of his lyrics
appeared in several _Bookes of Ayres_ between 1601 and 1617. Many of
them were written to music, sometimes music of his composing. Such
dainty things as "Now hath Flora robb'd her bowers" and "Harke, all
you ladies that do sleep" possess the charms of freshness and
spontaneity, and his devotional poetry, especially "Awake, awake,
thou heavy Spright" and "Never weather-beaten Saile more willing bent
to shore", makes almost as wide an appeal.