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Transcriber's note:
The ligatures oe and OE are indicated by [oe] and [OE].
The carat (^) indicates a superscript in the original. One
carat indicates that the following single letter is
superscript. A pair of carats indicates that the enclosed
letters are superscript; for example the abbreviations
8^vo^ and 12^mo^ are used for the printer's page sizes
octavo and duodecimo respectively.
In the poem "In Etesiam Lachrymantem" (Page 221) the
initial letter of the final line is missing in all extant
editions; either "C" or "D" seems possible.
In the Boethius translation Lib. IV. Metrum VI. (page 230),
the letter 'y' has been added to make line 9/10 read
"...though they/See other stars..." although it is missing
in all available editions.
At many points a period, comma or hyphen seems to be
omitted in the original. Obvious typographical errors have
been corrected, but where missing punctuation is not clearly
an error, or the omission is harmless to the sense, the text
remains as in the original.
Footnotes in the original appear on the page where they are
referenced and are numbered from 1 on each page. Here
footnotes are numbered consecutively throughout the book and
are grouped following each chapter or poem to which they
refer. To locate footnote 17 (for example) search for [17].
Another search for [17] returns to the point of reference.
POEMS OF HENRY VAUGHAN
SILURIST.
VOL. II.
The Muses' Library
POEMS OF HENRY VAUGHAN
SILURIST
Edited by E. K. Chambers
With an Introduction by Canon Beeching
VOL. II.
London:
George Routledge & Sons, Limited
New York: E. P. Dutton & Co.
CONTENTS OF VOL. II.
PAGE
TABLE OF CONTENTS vii
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE xv
BIBLIOGRAPHY OF HENRY VAUGHAN'S WORKS lvii
POEMS WITH THE TENTH SATIRE OF JUVENAL ENGLISHED, 1646 1
To all Ingenious Lovers of Poesy 3
To my Ingenuous Friend, R. W. 5
Les Amours 8
To Amoret. The Sigh 10
To his Friend, Being in Love 11
Song: [Amyntas go, thou art Undone] 12
To Amoret. Walking in a Starry Evening 13
To Amoret Gone from him 15
A Song to Amoret 16
An Elegy 17
A Rhapsodis 18
To Amoret, of the Difference 'twixt him and other Lovers, 21
and what True Love is
To Amoret Weeping 23
Upon the Priory Grove, his Usual Retirement 26
Juvenal's Tenth Satire Translated 28
OLOR ISCANUS. 1651.
Ad Posteros 51
To the ... Lord Kildare Digby 53
The Publisher to the Reader 55
Upon the Most Ingenious Pair of Twins, Eugenius 57
Philalethes and the Author of those Poems [by T. Powell,
Oxoniensis]
To my Friend the Author upon these his Poems [by I. 58
Rowlandson, Oxoniensis]
Upon the following Poems [by Eugenius Philalethes, 59
Oxoniensis]
Olor Iscanus. To the River Isca 61
The Charnel-House 65
In Amicum Foeneratorem 68
To his Friend ---- 70
To his Retired Friend, An Invitation to Brecknock 73
Monsieur Gombauld 77
An Elegy on the Death of Mr. R. W., Slain in the late 79
Unfortunate Differences at Routon Heath, near Chester,
1645
Upon a Cloak lent him by Mr. J. Ridsley 83
Upon Mr. Fletcher's Plays, Published 1647 87
Upon the Poems and Plays of the Ever-Memorable Mr. William 90
Cartwright
To the Best and Most Accomplished Couple ---- 92
An Elegy on the Death of Mr. R. Hall, Slain at Pontefract, 94
1648
To my Learned Friend, Mr. T. Powell, upon his Translation 97
of Malvezzi's Christian Politician
To my Worthy Friend, Master T. Lewes 99
To the Most Excellently Accomplished Mrs. K. Philips 100
An Epitaph upon the Lady Elizabeth, Second Daughter to his 102
Late Majesty
To Sir William Davenant upon his Gondibert 104
TRANSLATIONS FROM OVID.
To his Fellow Poets at Rome, upon the Birthday of Bacchus 106
To his Friends--after his Many Solicitations--Refusing to 109
Petition Caesar for his Releasement
To his Inconstant Friend, Translated for the Use of all 112
the Judases of this Touchstone Age
To his Wife at Rome, when he was Sick 115
Ausonii. Idyll vi. Cupido [Cruci Affixus] 119
[Translations from Boethius] 125
[Translations from Casimirus] 144
The Praise of a Religious Life of Mathias Casimirus. In 152
Answer to that Ode of Horace, Beatus Ille Qui Procul
Negotiis.
Ad Fluvium Iscam 157
Venerabili Viro, Praeceptori Suo Olim Et Semper 158
Colendissimo Magistro Mathaeo Herbert
Praestantissimo Viro, Thomae Poello In Suum De Elementis 159
Opticae Libellum
Ad Echum 160
THALIA REDIVIVA. 1678.
To ... Henry Lord Marquis and Earl of Worcester, &c. 163
[by J. W.]
To the Reader [by I. W.] 167
To Mr. Henry Vaughan, the Silurist: upon These and his 169
Former Poems. [By Orinda]
Upon the Ingenious Poems of his Learned Friend, Mr. Henry 171
Vaughan, the Silurist. [By Tho. Powell, D.D.]
To the Ingenious Author of Thalia Rediviva [By N. W., 172
Jes. Coll., Oxon.]
To my Worthy Friend Mr. Henry Vaughan, the Silurist. 175
[by I. W., A.M., Oxon.]
CHOICE POEMS ON SEVERAL OCCASIONS.
To his Learned Friend and Loyal Fellow-Prisoner, Thomas 178
Powel of Cant[reff], Doctor of Divinity
The King Disguised 181
The Eagle 184
To Mr. M. L. upon his Reduction of the Psalms into Method 187
To the Pious Memory of C[harles] W[albeoffe] Esquire, Who 189
Finished his Course Here, and Made his Entrance into
Immortality upon the 13 of September, in the Year of
Redemption, 1653
In Zodiacum Marcelli Palingenii 193
To Lysimachus, the Author Being with him in London 195
On Sir Thomas Bodley's Library, the Author Being Then in 197
Oxford
The Importunate Fortune, Written to Dr. Powel, of 200
Cant[reff]
To I. Morgan of Whitehall, Esq., upon his Sudden Journey 204
and Succeeding Marriage
Fida; or, The Country Beauty. To Lysimachus 206
Fida Forsaken 209
To the Editor of the Matchless Orinda 211
Upon Sudden News of the Much-Lamented Death of Judge 213
Trevers
To Etesia (for Timander); The First Sight 214
The Character, to Etesia 217
To Etesia Looking from her Casement at the Full Moon 219
To Etesia Parted from Him, and Looking Back 220
In Etesiam Lachrymantem 221
To Etesia Going Beyond Sea 222
Etesia Absent 223
TRANSLATIONS.
Some Odes of the Excellent and Knowing [Anicius Manlius] 224
Severinus [Boethius], Englished
The Old Man of Verona, out of Claudian 236
The Sphere of Archimedes, out of Claudian 238
The Ph[oe]nix, out of Claudian 239
PIOUS THOUGHTS AND EJACULATIONS.
To his Books 245
Looking Back 247
The Shower 248
Discipline 249
The Eclipse 250
Affliction 251
Retirement 252
The Revival 254
The Day Spring 255
The Recovery 257
The Nativity 259
The True Christmas 261
The Request 263
Jordanis 265
Servilii Fatum, Sive Vindicta Divina 266
De Salmone 267
The World 268
The Bee 272
To Christian Religion 276
Daphnis 278
FRAGMENTS AND TRANSLATIONS. 1641-1661.
From Eucharistica Oxoniensia (1641) 289
From Of the Benefit we may get by our Enemies (1651) 291
From Of the Diseases of the Mind and the Body (1651) 293
From The Mount of Olives (1652) 294
From Man in Glory (1652) 298
From Flores Solitudinis (1654) 299
From Of Temperance and Patience (1654) 300
From Of Life and Death (1654) 305
From Primitive Holiness (1654) 307
From Hermetical Physic (1655) 322
From Cerbyd Fechydwiaeth (1657) 323
From Humane Industry (1661) 324
NOTES TO VOL. II 329
LIST OF FIRST LINES 355
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE.
Recent inquiries into the life of Henry Vaughan have added but little to
the information already contained in the memoirs of Mr. Lyte and Dr.
Grosart. I have, however, been enabled to put together a few notes on
this somewhat obscure subject, which may be taken as supplementary to
Mr. Beeching's _Introduction_ in Vol. I. It will be well to preface them
by reprinting the account of Anthony a Wood, our chief original
authority (_Ath. Oxon._, ed. Bliss, 1817, iv. 425):
"Henry Vaughan, called the _Silurist_ from that part of Wales whose
inhabitants were in ancient times called Silures, brother twin (but
elder)[1] to Eugenius Philalethes, alias Tho. Vaughan ... was born at
Newton S. Briget, lying on the river Isca, commonly called Uske, in
Brecknockshire, educated in grammar learning in his own country for six
years under one Matthew Herbert, a noted schoolmaster of his time, made
his first entry into Jesus College in Mich. term 1638, aged 17 years;
where spending two years or more in logicals under a noted tutor, was
taken thence and designed by his father for the obtaining of some
knowledge in the municipal laws at London. But soon after the civil war
beginning, to the horror of all good men, he was sent for home, followed
the pleasant paths of poetry and philology, became noted for his
ingenuity, and published several specimens thereof, of which his _Olor
Iscanus_ was most valued. Afterwards applying his mind to the study of
physic, became at length eminent in his own country for the practice
thereof, and was esteemed by scholars an ingenious person, but proud and
humorous.... [A list of Vaughan's works follows.] ... He died in the
latter end of April (about the 29th day) in sixteen hundred ninety and
five, and was buried in the parish church of Llansenfreid, about two
miles distant from Brecknock, in Brecknockshire."
Anthony a Wood seems to have had some personal acquaintance with the
poet, for in his account of Thomas Vaughan (_Ath. Oxon._ iii. 725) he
says that "Olor Iscanus sent me a catalogue of his brother's works."
(a) THE VAUGHAN GENEALOGY.
Henry Vaughan's descent from the Vaughans of Tretower, County Brecon,
has been accurately traced by Dr. Grosart and others. Little has been
hitherto known about his immediate family. Theophilus Jones, in his
_History of Brecknockshire_ (1805-9), ii. 544, says: "Henry Vaughan died
in 1695, aged 75,[2] leaving by his first wife two sons and three
daughters, and by his second a daughter Rachel, who married John
Turberville. His grand-daughter, Denys, or Dyenis, a corruption or
abbreviation of Dyonisia, who was the daughter of Jenkin Jones of
Trebinshwn, by Luce his wife, died single in 1780, aged 92, and is
buried in the Priory churchyard.[3] What became of the remainder of his
family, or whether they are extinct, I know not." To this statement Mr.
Lyte added nothing but some errors, and Dr. Grosart nothing but the
following hypothesis:--
"I am inclined to think that William Vaughan, censor of the College of
Physicians, physician to William III^d., was one of the sons of our
worthy mentioned by Mr. Lyte.... William Vaughan's 'age 20' in 1668
represents 1648 as the birth-date, and that fits in with the love-verse
of the Poems of 1646."
Mr. G. T. Clark, in his _Genealogies of Glamorgan_, p. 240, gives the
following account:--
Henry [Vaughan], ob. 1695, aet. 75, father by first wife of (1) a son,
s.p.; (2) Lucy ob. 29 Aug., 1780, aet. 92,[4] m. Jenkin Jones of
Trebinshwn. Their d. Denise Jones, died single, 1780, aet. 92. By second
wife (3) Rachel, m. John Turberville; (4) Edmund; (5) Alexander, ob.
1622 [!], s.p.; (6) Catharine, m. Wm. Harris; (7) Mary, m. John
Walbeoffe of Llanhamlach; (8) Elizabeth, m. John Arnold; (9) Frances, m.
Wm. Johns of Cwm Dhu.
Unfortunately Mr. Clark is unable to remember his authority for this
pedigree. I have found another, which differs from it in many ways, and
is exceedingly interesting, inasmuch as it gives, for the first time,
the names of Henry Vaughan's two wives, who appear to have been sisters.
It is in a volume of _Brecknockshire Pedigrees_ collected by the Welsh
Herald, Hugh Thomas, and now amongst the Harleian MSS. Hugh Thomas was
born and lived hard by Llansantffread, and must have known Vaughan and
his family personally.
PEDIGREE OF VAUGHAN OF TRETOWER AND NEWTON.
(From Harl. MS. 2289, f. 81.)
Thomas m. Denis, d. and h. to Gwillims of Newton Skethrog.
|
Henry, of Newton.
|
Henry, of Newton Skethrog, Doctor of Phisick, m.
Catharine, d. to Charles Wise, of Ritsonhall,
Staffordshire, and secondly Elizabeth, her sister.
| |
Lucy, m. Ch. Greenleafe of Grisill, m. Roger Prosser.
Streton-upon-Trent, Staff.
Lucy, m. Jenkin Jones of Trebinshwn.
Catharine, m. Rachel, m. John Turberville
Tho. Vaughan, of Newton of Llangattock.
Skethrog, m. Frances, Henry, Parson of Penderin,
d. to m. Janet, d. of Robert
Walbeoffe of Talyllyn.
It will be observed that neither Mr. Clark's pedigree nor Hugh Thomas'
agrees with the number of children assigned to each marriage by
Theophilus Jones, and that neither of them helps out Dr. Grosart's
hypothesis that Dr. William Vaughan was a son of the poet. Mr. W. B. Rye
(_Genealogist_, iii. 33) has made it appear likely that this Dr.
Vaughan, who married Anne Newton, of Romford in Essex, belonged to a
branch of the Vaughans who had been settled in Romford since 1571.
I now proceed to confirm and illustrate the pedigrees by giving such
further facts concerning Vaughan's immediate family as I have been able
with Miss Morgan's assistance, to glean. I can trace no family of Wises
in Staffordshire so early as the seventeenth century, nor any place in
that county called Ritsonhall. It is possible that the R. W. of the
_Elegy_ (vol. ii., p. 79, _note_) may have been a Wise, and also that
the connection between Vaughan and the Staffordshire Egertons may have
been through this family (vol. ii., p. 294, _note_). Vaughan's first
wife Catharine was probably dead before 1658. Thomas Vaughan, in his
diary (MS. Sloane, 1741, f. 106 (b)), makes mention in that year of
"eyewater made at the Pinner of Wakefield by my dear wife and my Sister
Vaughan, who are both now with God." The second wife, Elizabeth,
survived her husband. Administration of his goods was granted to her as
the widow of an intestate in May, 1695.[5] The fine old manor-house at
Newton was pulled down by a stupid land-agent within the memory of man,
but a stone has been found built into the wall of a house half-a-mile
from the site, bearing the inscription "H^VE, 1689." This may well
stand for H[enry and] E[lizabeth] V[aughan]. Newton probably passed to
the poet's eldest son Thomas and his wife Frances.[6] Of their
descendants, if any, we know nothing. There was a William Vaughan of
Llansantffread who, later than 1714, married Mary Games of Tregaer in
Llanfrynach. But this was probably a Vaughan not of Newton, but of
Scethrog, also in Llansantffread (_cf._ footnote to p. xxv. below.) In
1733 William Vaughan was churchwarden of Llanfrynach. In 1740 William
Vaughan of Tregaer was high sheriff of Brecknock. In 1760 Tregaer had
passed by purchase to a Mr. Phillips. The registers of Llanfrynach from
1695-1756 are now lost. Lucy Greenleafe and her sister Catharine are
quite obscure. One of them may have been the niece who was living with
Thomas Vaughan when news came from the country in 1658 of his father's
death (MS. Sloane, 1741, f. 89 (b)). Of the second family, Henry became
Rector of Penderin in 1684, and vacated the living, probably through
death, in 1713. A tablet to his memory hung during the present century
in the church at Penderin, but when the church was restored the tablets
were taken down and buried under the tiles of the chancel. His wife, a
Walbeoffe of Talyllyn, belonged to the same family as the Walbeoffes of
Llanhamlach (vol. ii., p. 189, _note_). The eldest girl, Grisill,
married Roger Prosser. The Prossers were the younger branch of a
Brecknockshire family who had become sadlers and mercers in Brecon. Many
of their tombs are in the Priory church, but Theophilus Jones states
that by his time they were extinct. Grisill Prosser was married a second
time, in 1709, to Morgan Watkins, an attorney, and was buried on August
21, 1737. The second girl, Lucy, married Jenkin Jones of Trebinshwn, a
cousin of Colonel Jenkin Jones, the local Parliamentary leader. Her
daughter, Denise Jones, died single in 1780, as Theophilus Jones states,
and her tombstone in the Priory church records her descent. The third
girl, Rachel, married John Turberville, one of the Turbervilles of
Llangattock, who claimed kinship with the Elizabethan poet of that name.
The following pedigree shows the descendants of the three daughters of
Henry Vaughan's second marriage, so far as they can be traced.[7]
Henry Vaughan = 2. Elizabeth Wise.
_________________|____________________
| | |
1. Roger =Grisill ...=2. Morgan Lucy=Jenkin Rachel=John
Prosser,| Watkins, |Jones, |Turberville
Mercer. | Attorney. |of Trebinshwn. |of Llangattock.
| | |
_______|___ | Richard = Mary----?
| | | of Llamwyse |
Walter, Elizabeth = Morgan Denise and Glan y |
bapt. 1693. bapt. 1686. | Davies, nat. 1688, rhyd, ob. |
| mercer, o.s.p. 29 1720. |
| ob. 1727. Aug., 1780. |
| |
| John.
_________________|_________________ |
| | | |
Thomas Morgan, Elizabeth, |
bapt. 8 July, bapt. 4 April, |
1720, 1725, |
sep. 20 Nov., sep. 6 July, |
1737. 1730. Margaret,
o.s.p. 1765.
It will be seen that I can give no evidence of the existence of any
living descendants of Henry Vaughan.
Henry's grandfather, Thomas Vaughan, a younger son of Charles Vaughan of
Tretower, seems to have come into the possession of Newton through his
marriage with an heiress of the family of Gwillims or Williams. Newton,
or in Welsh Trenewydd, is a farm of about 200 acres in the manor or
lordship, and near the village of Scethrog, both being in the parish of
Llansantffread and hundred of Penkelley. Williams is a common name in
Breconshire, and I cannot trace the descent of Thomas Vaughan's wife. In
the sixteenth century Newton belonged to a family who finally settled on
the name of Howel, ap Howell or Powell.[8] The last of these is
described on his tombstone in Llansantffread Church as "David Morgan
David Howel, who married ... William of Llanhamoloch: and they had issue
one daughter called Denys. He died 2nd June, 1598." Perhaps Newton
passed in some way from David Morgan David Howel to his wife's family,
and so to Thomas Vaughan, who married Denise Gwillims. Theophilus Jones
(ii. 538) records that at a later date other Williams's, also
apparently connected with Llanhamlach, were succeeded by other Vaughans
at Scethrog, hard by Newton. His account is that David Williams,
youngest brother of Sir Thomas Williams of Eltham, married a daughter of
John Walbeoffe of Llanhamlach (_cf._ pedigree in vol. ii., p. 189,
_note_), and bought Scethrog. Their son Charles died without issue, and
the property passed to his wife Mary (Anne in Harl. MS., 2289, t. 39;
_cf._ vol. ii., p. 204, _note_), the daughter of Morgan John of
Wenallt.... She afterwards married Hugh Powell, clerk, parson of
Llansanffread and precentor of St. David's, and her daughter Margaret
married Charles Vaughan, son to Vaughan Morgan of Tretower.[9]
A trace of Thomas Vaughan is probably preserved in a window-head from
the old church of Llansantffread, now destroyed, which has the
inscription:--
1626. E. G. T. V. W. T.
W. F. I. [bold reversed 'D'].
T. V. may stand for T[homas] V[aughan].[10]
Of Henry Vaughan, the poet's father, very little is known. His name
appears in a list of Breconshire magistrates for 1620. And we learn from
Thomas Vaughan's diary in Sloane MS. 1741, f. 89 (b), that he died in
August 1658.
The only additional definite fact which I can here record of the poet
himself is that in 1691 he entered a caveat against any institution to
the vicarage of Llandevalley, he claiming the next presentation under a
grant from William Winter, Esq.[11] Mr. Rye has shown that the specimen
of handwriting facsimiled by Dr. Grosart in his edition of Henry
Vaughan's _Works_ cannot possibly be the poet's. The signatures,
however, on the margin of a copy of _Olor Iscanus_, once in the library
of Lady Isham, might be genuine.
(b) VAUGHAN AND JESUS COLLEGE, OXFORD.
Anthony a Wood's statement as to Vaughan's residence at Jesus College,
Oxford, has been generally accepted, but I venture to doubt it on the
following grounds:--
(1) Vaughan's name does not occur in the University Matriculation
Register, although his brother Thomas Vaughan is duly entered as
matriculating from Jesus on 14th December, 1638. The only College
records which help us are the Battel-books for 1638 and 1640. That for
1639 is unfortunately missing. The Rev. Llewellyn Thomas kindly informs
me that he can only trace one undergraduate Vaughan in the two books in
question. The Christian name is not given, but I think that we must
assume it to be Thomas.
(2) Vaughan does not describe himself on any title-page as of Jesus
College; nor does he ever speak of himself as an Oxford man. This
omission is the more noticeable as he would naturally have done so in
the lines _Ad Posteros_ (vol. ii., p. 51), and might well have done so
in those _On Sir Thomas Bodley's Library, the Author being then in
Oxford_ (vol. ii., p. 197).
(3) Anthony a Wood cannot be depended on. He describes Thomas Carew, for
instance, as of C.C.C., whereas he was a most certainly of Merton. And
there was another Henry Vaughan of Jesus, who may have been confused
with the poet. This Henry Vaughan, a son of John Vaughan of Cathlin,
Merionethshire, matriculated at Oriel on July 4, 1634. He afterwards
became a Scholar and Fellow of Jesus, taking his B.A. in 1637 and his
M.A. in 1639. In 1643 he became vicar of Penteg, co. Monmouth, and died
at Abergavenny in 1661. (Wood, _Ath. Oxon._, iii. 531; Foster, _Alumni
Oxon._)
(4) The only confirmation of Anthony a Wood's statement is the poem
(vol. ii., p. 289) taken by Dr. Grosart from the _Eucharistica
Oxoniensia_ (1641), and signed "H. Vaughan, Jes. Col." If I am right,
this may be by Vaughan's namesake. He has indeed another poem in that
volume signed "Hen. Vaugh., Jes. Soc." but that is in Latin, and it is
not unexampled for one man to contribute more than one poem, especially
in different tongues, to such collections. Or it may be by Herbert
Vaughan, who was a Gentleman-commoner of the College in 1641, and has,
with Henry Vaughan the Fellow, verses in the [Greek: proteleia] _Anglo
Batava_ of the same year.
(c) VAUGHAN IN THE CIVIL WAR.
There are several passages which make it probable that Vaughan, like his
brother Thomas, bore arms on the King's side in the Civil War. The most
important is in the poem _To Mr. Ridsley_ (vol. ii., p. 83), where he
speaks of the time
"when this juggling fate
Of soldiery first seiz'd me."
In the same poem he mentions
"that day, when we
Left craggy Biston and the fatal Dee."
"Craggy Biston" is clearly Beeston Castle, one of the outlying defences
of Chester, situated on a steep rock not very far east of the Dee. This
castle was besieged on several occasions during the Civil War,
especially during the campaign of 1645, when Chester was also besieged
by the Parliamentarians.[12] Between Beeston and the Dee was fought, on
September 24, 1645, the battle of Rowton Heath, after which Charles the
First, who had hoped to raise the siege of Chester, was obliged to
retreat to Denbigh.[13] The following lines from Vaughan's _Elegy on Mr.
R. W._ (vol. ii., p. 79), who fell in that battle, seem to have been
written by an eye-witness:
"O that day
When like the fathers in the fire and cloud
I miss'd thy face! I might in ev'ry crowd
See arms like thine, and men advance, but none
So near to lightning mov'd, nor so fell on.
Have you observ'd how soon the nimble eye
Brings th' object to conceit, and doth so vie
Performance with the soul, that you would swear
The act and apprehension both lodg'd there?
Just so mov'd he: like shot his active hand
Drew blood, ere well the foe could understand.
But here I lost him."
This appears to me pretty conclusive evidence; against it, however, must
be set the passage on the Civil War in the autobiographical poem _Ad
Posteros_ (vol. ii., p. 51).
Vixi, divisos cum fregerat haeresis Anglos
Inter Tysiphonas presbyteri et populi.
His primum miseris per amoena furentibus arva
Prostravit sanctam vilis avena rosam.
Turbarunt fontes, et fusis pax perit undis,
Moestaque coelestes obruit umbra dies.
Duret ut integritas tamen, et pia gloria, partem
Me nullam in tanta strage fuisse, scias;
Credidimus nempe insonti vocem esse cruori,
Et vires quae post funera flere docent.
Hinc castae, fidaeque pati me more parentis
Commonui, et lachrimis fata levare meis;
Hinc nusquam horrendis violavi sacra procellis,
Nec mihi mens unquam, nec manus atra fuit.
The natural interpretation of this certainly is that Vaughan took no
share in the disturbances of his time, except to grieve over them in
retirement. Yet, in the first place, the lines may have been written
before he took up arms in 1645, and, in the second, they may only mean
that he had no share in _bringing about_ the troubles of England, or in
shedding _innocent_ blood. Similarly when elsewhere, as in _Abel's
Blood_ (vol. i. p. 254), and in the prayer to be quoted below, he
expresses horror of blood-guiltiness, this need not necessarily be taken
as extending to the man who fights in a righteous cause.
Miss Morgan, I may add, suggests that Vaughan was at Rowton Heath, not
as a combatant, but as a physician. The description which he gives of
the battle reads like that of a man who saw it from some commanding
point of view, but was not himself engaged. I think it not improbable
that Vaughan was one of the garrison of Beeston Castle, which is
described to me as "a sort of grand stand for the battle-field." Beeston
Castle was invested by the Parliamentarians in the course of September
1645. On the approach of Charles the troops were drawn off on 19th
September to Chester.[14] Charles no doubt took the opportunity to
strengthen the garrison. After Rowton Heath Beeston Castle was again
besieged, and on November 16th it surrendered. The garrison were allowed
to march across the Dee to Denbigh. I think that this winter ride from
the fallen fortress is the one described by Vaughan in the poem to Mr.
Ridsley. It is the more probable that Vaughan took part in this campaign
of 1645, in that Charles's force was largely recruited from Wales. After
the battle of Naseby on June 14th, the King had marched through Wales,
collecting such levies as he could. He was in Brecon on August 5th.[15]
It is quite possible that Vaughan, whose kinsman Sir William Vaughan was
in command of a brigade, volunteered on this occasion. From Brecon
Charles marched through Radnorshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire,
Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Yorkshire, and so to Oxford. In September
he set out again, and after some delay at Hereford and Raglan, finally
made for Chester.
It is just conceivable that it is to some occasion in this campaign that
Vaughan refers when he calls Dr. Powell his "fellow-prisoner" (vol. ii.,
p. 178). The poet may even have been the Captain Vaughan whose name
appears in the official list of prisoners taken at Rowton Heath.[16]
Powell's name is not there, but then the list does not profess to be
complete. But on the whole I think that Vaughan and Powell were only
fellow-prisoners in the Platonic sense of imprisonment in the flesh, and
even if a literal imprisonment is intended, it may have been due to some
act of persecution which Vaughan had to suffer as a Royalist at a later
date. There is in _The Mount of Olives_ (1652) a _Prayer in Adversity
and Troubles occasioned by our Enemies_ (Grosart, vol. iii., p. 75),
which, if it is to be taken--I think it is not--as autobiographical,
seems to show that, at least for a time, he lost his estate. The prayer
runs: "Thou seest, O God, how furious and implacable mine enemies are:
they have not only robbed me of that portion and provision which Thou
hast graciously given me, but they have also washed their hands in the
blood of my friends, my dearest and nearest relations. I know, O God,
and I am daily taught by that disciple whom Thou didst love, that no
murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. Keep me, therefore, O my
God, from the guilt of blood, and suffer me not to stain my soul with
the thoughts of recompense and vengeance, which is a branch of Thy great
prerogative, and belongs wholly unto Thee. Though they persecute me unto
death, and pant after the very dust upon the heads of Thy poor, though
they have taken the bread out of Thy children's mouth, and have made me
a desolation; yet, Lord, give me Thy grace, and such a measure of
charity as may fully forgive them."
It may have been during some such time of trouble, or imprisonment, if
imprisonment there was, that Vaughan's wife lived with Thomas Vaughan,
as will be seen below, in London.
(d) THOMAS VAUGHAN.
It has not been thought necessary to reprint in this edition of Henry
Vaughan's poems the scanty English and Latin verses of his brother,
Thomas Vaughan. They may be found, together with verses by Virgil and
Campion ascribed to him, in vol. ii. of Dr. Grosart's _Fuller Worthies_
edition. But some account of so curious a person will not be out of
place.
As for his brother, our chief authority is Anthony a Wood (_Ath. Oxon._,
iii. 722), who says that he was the son of Thomas Vaughan of
Llansantffread,[17] that he was born in 1621, educated under Matthew
Herbert and at Jesus College, Oxford, of which he became Fellow, took
orders and received [in 1640] the living of Llansanffread from his
kinsman, Sir George Vaughan [of Fallerstone, Wilts]. He lost his living
in the unquiet times of the Civil War, retired to Oxford, and became an
eminent chemist, afterwards moving to London, where he worked under the
patronage of Sir Robert Murray. He was a great admirer of Cornelius
Agrippa, "a great chymist, a noted son of the fire, an experimental
philosopher, a zealous brother of the Rosicrucian fraternity ... neither
papist nor sectary, but a true resolute protestant in the best sense of
the Church of England." In the great plague he fled with Murray from
London to Oxford, and thence went to the house of Samuel Kem at Albury,
where he died on February 27, 1665/6, of mercury accidentally getting
into his nose while he was operating. He was buried at Albury on March
1st. Writing in 1673, Anthony a Wood gives a list of his alchemical and
mystical treatises published between 1650 and 1655. Of these he had
received a list from Olor Iscanus (Henry Vaughan). They all bear the
name of Eugenius Philalethes, except the _Aula Lucis_ (1652), which was
issued as by S. N., _i.e._ [Thoma]S [Vaugha]N. Some of these pamphlets
contain Vaughan's share of a vigorous and scurrilous controversy with
Henry More, the Platonist. Anthony a Wood distinguishes from Vaughan
another Eugenius Philalethes, author of the _Brief Natural History_
(1669), also one Eirenaeus Philalethes, author of _Ripley Redivivus_ and
other works, and Eirenaeus Philoponos Philalethes, author of _The Marrow
of Alchemy_ (1654-5).[18]
A few facts, from well-known sources, may be added to Anthony a Wood's
account. The University Registers show that "Thos. Vaughan, son of
Thomas of Llansanfraid, co. Brecon, pleb., matriculated from Jesus
College on 14 Dec, 1638, aged 16." He took his B.A. on 18 Feb., 1641/2,
but does not appear to have taken his M.A., though he became Fellow of
his College (Foster, _Alumni Oxon._). John Walker (_Sufferings of the
Clergy_ (1714), p. 389) states that he was ejected from his living on
the charges of "drunkenness, immorality, and bearing arms for the
King."[19] This must have been in 1649, under the Act for the
Propagation of the Gospel in Wales. There exists a letter from Thomas
Vaughan to a friend in London, dated from "Newtown, Ash Wednesday,
1653;"[20] and it appears from Jones' _History of Brecknockshire_ (ii.,
542), that at one time he lived with his brother Henry there. The
allusions to Henry More, to Murray, and to the Isis and Thames seem to
show that he is the Daphnis of his brother's _Eclogue_ (vol. ii., p.
278). No trace of his death or burial can however be now found at
Albury. Mr. Gordon Goodwin points out to me that Dr. Samuel Kem was a
somewhat notorious character (_Dict. Nat. Biog._, s.v. _Kem_): perhaps
this friendship, together with the personal confession quoted below,
throws light on the charges which lost Vaughan his living. On the other
hand Anthony a Wood speaks well of him, and the tone of his writings
bears out this more kindly judgment, at any rate so far as his later
years are concerned.
What has been said fairly well exhausted the available information on
Thomas Vaughan until a few years ago, when Mr. A. E. Waite discovered in
Sloane MS. 1741 a valuable manuscript of his, containing amongst other
things a number of autobiographical memoranda. He printed some extracts
from this in the preface to an edition of some of _The Magical Writings
of Thomas Vaughan_ (Redway, 1888), and has been kind enough to furnish
me with a reference to the MS. itself, which I have carefully examined.
It bears the title _Aqua Vitae non Vitis_, and the inscription "Ex
libris Thomas et Rebecca Vaughan, 1651, Sept. 28. Quos Deus coniunxit
quis separabit?" The contents are partly personal jottings and records
of dreams, partly alchemical formulae. They appear to cover the period
1658-1662. We learn from them the following facts:--Vaughan was married
on September 28, 1651, to a lady named Rebecca (f. 106 (b)). With her
and his "Sister Vaughan" he lived and studied alchemy at the Pinner of
Wakefield.[21] He had previously lodged at Mr. Coalman's in Holborn (f.
104 (b)). His wife died on Saturday, April 17, 1658, and was buried at
Mappersall, in Bedfordshire (f. 106 (b)).[22] In 1658 his father and his
brother W. were both dead, and he mentions the news of his father's
death coming to his niece in a letter from the country (f. 89 (b)). On
April 9, 1659, he saw his brother H. in a dream. On 16 July, 1658, he
was living at Wapping (f. 103 (b)), and at an earlier period at
Paddington. There is an inventory of his wife's goods left at Mrs.
Highgate's, and mention of a Mr. Highgate and a Sir John Underhill (f.
107). He names his cousin, Mr. J. Walbeoffe, with whom he had some money
transactions (f. 18), and speaks of "a certain person with whom I had in
former times revelled away my years in drinking" (f. 103). Perhaps this
also was John Walbeoffe, on whom _see_ vol. ii., p. 189, _note_. The
alchemical formulae and receipts are interesting. In one place (f. 12)
Vaughan announces the discovery of the "Extract of Oil of Halcaly,"
which he had previously found in his wife's days and had lost again.
This he calls "the greatest joy I can ever have in this world after her
death." He seems to have regarded it as the key to an universal solvent.
Nearly every receipt is followed by his and his wife's initials in the
form T. R. V. or T. ^V. R., and by some expression of devotion to her or
of religious piety.
I now come to the remarkable statements made with respect to Thomas
Vaughan in the _Memoires d'une ex-Palladiste_, now in course of
publication by Miss Diana Vaughan. Miss Vaughan is a lady who has
created a considerable sensation in Paris. Her own account of herself is
that she was brought up as a worshipper of Lucifer, and was for some
years a leading spirit amongst certain androgynous lodges of Freemasons,
in which the worship of Lucifer is largely practised. She has now, owing
to the direct interposition of Joan of Arc, become a Catholic, and has
made it her mission to combat Luciferian Freemasonry in every way. Her
_Memoirs_ are partly a biography, partly an account of this cult.[23]
Miss Vaughan claims to be a great-grand-daughter of Thomas Vaughan's.
She declares him to have been a Luciferian, Grand-master of the
Rosicrucian order, and the founder of modern Freemasonry; and gives an
exhaustive account of his career on the authority of family archives.
The following paragraphs contain the substance of her narrative, the
"legend of Philalethes," as it was told to Miss Vaughan by her father
and her uncle, who were intimate friends of Albert Pike.
The traditional accounts of Thomas Vaughan, says Miss Vaughan, contain
serious errors. The dates of his birth and of his death, and the
pseudonym under which he wrote are all incorrectly stated[24] (p. 110).
He was born in Monmouth in 1612, being two years the elder of his
brother Henry. The two boys were brought up at Oxford, after their
father's death, by their uncle, Robert Vaughan the antiquary,[25] and
entered at Jesus College (p. 114). In 1636, at the age of 24, Thomas
Vaughan went to London, and became the disciple of Robert Fludd, who was
a Rosicrucian (p. 148). The real nature of the Rosicrucians has hitherto
been a mystery. They were in reality Luciferians, and carried on in
secret during the seventeenth century that warfare against Adonai, the
god of the Catholics, out of which had already sprung Wiclif, Luther,
and the Reformation, and out of which was some day to spring, more
deadly and more dangerous still, Freemasonry. The Fraternity of
Rosie-Cross was founded by Faustus Socinus in 1597. He was succeeded as
head of it by Caesar Cremonini (1604-1617), Michael Maier (1617-1622),
Valentin Andreae (1622-1654), and Thomas Vaughan (1654-1678).[26] When
Thomas Vaughan first came to London in 1636, Valentin Andreae was
_Summus Magister_ of the Fraternity, and amongst its leading members
were Robert Fludd and Amos Komenski, or Comenius (pp. 129-148). Robert
Fludd initiated Thomas Vaughan into the lower degrees of the Golden
Cross (p. 148), and sent him to Andreae at Calw, near Stuttgart, with a
letter in which he prophesied for him a miraculous future (p. 163).
After this visit to Germany, Vaughan returned to London, and after
Fludd's death, in 1637, undertook in 1638 his first visit to America. In
many of his writings he speaks as a Christian minister, and at this time
he probably passed as a Nonconformist (p. 164). He was back in London
early in June, 1639 (p. 165), and in the same year visited Denmark, and
made a report to Komenski on the mysterious golden horn found at Tondern
in that country (p. 166). In 1640 Vaughan received from Komenski the
first initiation of the Rosie Cross, and chose the pseudonym of
Eirenaeus Philalethes.[27] He now became exceedingly active, going and
coming upon the face of the earth. When in England, he divided his time
between Oxford and London (p. 167). Between 1640 and 1644 he visited
Hamburg, the Netherlands, Italy and Sweden (pp. 171-174). It was at this
period that he conceived the design of obtaining a far wider circulation
than they had yet met with for the ideas of Faustus Socinus. Some of the
Rosicrucians were already "accepted masons." Vaughan determined to
capture the vast organization of craft masonry by permeating the lodges
with Luciferianism. His associate in this task was Elias Ashmole, with
whose aid, a few years later, he composed the degrees of Apprentice
(1646), Companion (1648), and Master (1649) (pp. 142, 169-175, 197-206).
The Civil War had now approached. Oliver Cromwell was a freemason, a
Rosicrucian, and a friend of Vaughan's (p. 176). With the execution of
Laud came the crisis of Vaughan's life, his initiation into the highest
degree of Rosie Cross by the hands of Lucifer himself. It took place in
this wise. At the last moment Vaughan was substituted for the intended
executioner of Laud.[28] He had prepared a sacramental cloth which he
soaked in the martyr's blood, and on the same night he sacrificed the
relic to Lucifer. The divinity appeared, consecrated Vaughan as
_Magus_, named him as the next _Summus Magister_ of the Fraternity, and
signed a pact, granting him thirty-three years more life, at the end of
which he should be borne away from earth without death (p. 177). In 1645
Vaughan wrote, but did not yet publish, his most important treatise, the
_Introitus Apertus ad Occlusum Regis Palatium_. In 1645, still following
the direct command of Lucifer, he departed for America. Here he met the
apothecary George Starkey, and in his presence performed the alchemical
feat of making gold (p. 179).[29] Here, too, he lived amongst the
Lenni-Lennaps, where he was united to the demon Venus-Astarte in the
form of a beautiful woman, who after eleven days bore him a daughter.
This girl was brought up among the Lenni-Lennaps under the name of Diana
Wulisso-Waghan, and became Miss Diana Vaughan's great-great-grandmother
(p. 181). In 1648 Vaughan returned to England, and after composing the
masonic degree of Master in 1649 (p. 197), he began the publication of
a series of alchemical and, in reality, Luciferian writings. In 1650
appeared the _Anthroposophia Theomagica_ and the _Magia Adamica_, in
1651 the _Lumen de Lumine_; in 1652 the _Aula Lucis_ (p. 211). In 1654
Valentin Andreae died, and Vaughan succeeded him as _Summus Magister_ of
the Rosie Cross, the event being announced to him by the homage of three
demons, Leviathan, Cerberus, and Belphegor (p. 214). In 1655 he
published his _Euphrates_, and in 1656 made his head-quarters at
Amsterdam or Eirenaeopolis. In 1659 came his _Fraternity of R. C._; in
1664 his _Medulla Alchymiae_.[30] In 1666 he exhibited the philosopher's
stone to Helvetius at La Haye and converted him to occultism: in 1667 he
at last resolved to publish his Opus Magnum, the _Introitus Apertus_,
already written in 1645 (p. 215). In 1668 this was followed by the
_Experimenta de Praeparatione Mercurii Sophici_ and the _Tractatus Tres_
(p. 236). The time was now approaching when Vaughan, in fulfilment of
the pact of 1644, must disappear from earth. He named Charles Blount as
his successor (p. 237), and was granted a magical vision of his
grandson, the child of Diana Wulisso-Waghan and a Lenni-Lennap (p. 239).
He finished his _Memoirs_, published the _Ripley Revised_[31] and the
_Enarratio Methodica trium Gebri Medicinarum_, left his poems to his
brother Henry, who published them in the next year as the _Thalia
Rediviva_,[32] and on March 25, 1678, disappeared in the company of
_Lucifer Dieu-Bon_ himself (p. 240). This event is vouched for, not only
by a written statement of Henry Vaughan (p. 114), but also by the
existence in a masonic triangle at Valetta of a magical talisman into
which, when properly evoked, the spirit of Philalethes enters and
records his glorious end for the edification of the Luciferians
present[33] (p. 243).
I fear that I have taken Miss Vaughan with undue seriousness. Her
account of Thomas Vaughan is not only unsupported by direct
evidence,[34] but much of it is of a character which we should not be
justified in accepting, even were direct evidence forthcoming. And it is
all discordant with the little that we do happen to know of Thomas
Vaughan from other sources. The whole thing is, in fact, a pretty
obvious romance of very modern fabrication. It appears to have been
compiled from such information as to the alchemical and mystical writers
of the seventeenth century as was within the reach of Albert Pike and
the brothers Vaughan about the year 1870.[35] It is always better to
explain than to refute an error; and the nature of the Luciferian
tradition of Thomas Vaughan is pretty clearly shown by the fact that it
is not corroborated in a single particular by any of the new facts about
him that have come to light since this probable date of its
composition.[36] The fabricator put Thomas Vaughan's birth-place in
Monmouth instead of Brecon, because he had never seen Dr. Grosart's
_Fuller Worthies_ Edition of Henry Vaughan. He makes no mention of any
of the facts contained in Sloane MS. 1741, because that MS. was still
unknown. And, most fatal of all, he puts Thomas Vaughan's birth in 1612
instead of 1621-2, because Foster's _Alumni Oxonienses_ being yet
unpublished, he was ignorant of the record of that date preserved in the
University Registers. But we can go a step further. We can confute him,
not only by pointing to the books he did not use, but by pointing to
those he did. It has already been shown that the ascription to Vaughan
of the English translation of Maier's _Themis Aurea_ is due to a
misunderstanding of a phrase used by Anthony a Wood. The _Athenae
Oxonienses_ then was one source of the compilation. Another was the
_Histoire de la Philosophie Hermetique_, written by Lenglet-Dufresnoy in
1742. Here is the proof. Miss Vaughan supports her statement as to the
birth-date in 1612 by a quotation from the _Introitus Apertus_, in which
the writer states it to have been composed "en l'an 1645 de notre salut,
et le trente-troisieme de mon age." This she professes to translate from
the _editio princeps_ published by Jean Lange in 1667. As a matter of
fact it is taken from the version given in Lenglet-Dufresnoy's book. And
Lenglet-Dufresnoy followed, not the edition of 1667, but the later
edition published by J. M. Faust at Frankfort in 1706. In this the words
are "trigesimo tertio," whereas in the _editio princeps_ they are
"vicesimo tertio," and in W. Cooper's English translation of 1669, "in
the 23rd year of my age," thus bringing the date of the birth of
Eirenaeus Philalethes not to 1612, but to 1622. The "legend of
Philalethes" need detain us no longer. Miss Vaughan's narrative is a
very insufficient basis for regarding the pious minister and mystic
which Thomas Vaughan appears to have been as a secret enemy of
Christianity and a worshipper of Lucifer.
But when the legend is set aside, there still remain certain questions
suggested by it which may be considered without much reference to the
statements of Miss Vaughan. Was Thomas Vaughan a Rosicrucian? And was
he, admittedly the author of a series of tracts under the name of
Eugenius Philalethes, also the author of those which bear the name of
Eirenaeus Philalethes? The first question is, I am afraid, insoluble,
until it has been decided whether the Fraternity of R. C. ever had an
actual existence. Anthony a Wood states that Thomas Vaughan was a
zealous Rosicrucian, but probably Anthony a Wood took the term in the
general sense of mystic and alchemist. On the other hand Vaughan
himself, in his preface to the English translation of the Rosicrucian
manifestoes, seems to disavow any personal acquaintance with the members
of the fraternity. Even this is not conclusive, for the Rosicrucian
rule, as given in the _Laws of the Brotherhood_, published by Sincerus
Renatus in 1710,[37] obliges the members to deny their membership.
There is more material for the discussion of the second question, but I
do not know that it is more possible to come to a definite conclusion.
The personality of the anonymous adept who took the name of Eirenaeus
Philalethes was shrouded in mystery even to his contemporaries. The
fullest account given of him on any of his title-pages is on that of the
_Experimenta de Praeparatione Mercurii Sophici_ (1668), which is said to
be "ex manuscripto Philosophi Americani alias Eyrenaei Philalethis,
natu Angli, habitatione Cosmopolitae."[38] We have also the description
given by George Starkey, or whoever it was, in the _Marrow of Alchemy_
(1654-5), p. 25. Starkey says:--
"His present place in which he doth abide
I know not, for the world he walks about,
Of which he is a citizen; this tide
He is to visit artists and seek out
Antiquities a voyage gone and will
Return when he of travel hath his fill.
"By nation an Englishman, of note
His family is in the place where he
Was born, his fortune's good, and eke his coat
Of arms is of a great antiquity;
His learning rare, his years scarce thirty-three;
Fuller description get you not from me."