Beware such hap, as to the Fryer was chancing:
Who preaching in a Pulpit old and rotten,
Among some notes, most fit to be forgotten:
Vnto his Auditory thus he vaunts,
To make all Saints after his pype to dance:
It speaking, which as he himselfe aduances,
To act his speech with gestures, lo, it chances,
Downe fals the Pulpit, sore the man is brusèd,
Neuer was Fryer and Pulpit more abusèd.
Then beare with me, though yet to you a stranger,
To warne you of the like, nay greater danger.
For though none feare the falling of those sparkes,
(And when they fall, t'will be good catching Larkes)
Yet this may fall, that while you dance and skip,
With female Planets, sore your foote may trip,
That in your lofty Caprioll and turne
Their motion may make your dimension burne."
(Epigrams, Book II. 67.)
I am tempted to further critical examination of this very remarkable
Poetry; but feel constrained by already transgressed limits to withhold
them for the present. But I must say something on the Epigrams
and Minor Poems. I have 'compunctious visitings' in re-publishing
them, even though they have been included by Dyce and by Colonel
Cunningham in their successive editions of Marlowe. In my Note (Vol.
II., pp. 3-6), I give bibliographical and other details concerning
these Epigrams; and I correct a mis-assignation of certain by Dyce
to Davies that belong to Henry Hutton. It must be conceded that the
Epigrams have dashes of the roughness, even coarseness, of the age.
They self-drevealingly belong to the wild-oats sowing of the Poet's
youthful period. Nevertheless, I have ventured their reproduction in
integrity for four reasons:--
(_a_) These Epigrams, from their subjects and style, are valuable, as
expressing the _tone_ of society at the time.
(_b_) It would be _suppressio veri_ to withhold them, toward an
accurate estimate of their Author. They furnish elements of judgment.
(_c_) They were what gained the Poet 'a name': even when tartly spoken
of by Guilpin he is called the 'English Martial' from them.
(_d_) These Epigrams belong to a section of our early Literature
that contemporaneously was abundant; and it were advantageous if
characteristics of particular periods were more recognised in literary
criticism.
Besides Guilpin, a very rare volume of early Verse by Ashmore,
furnishes a hitherto overlooked Epigram, wherein "Nosce Teipsum" and
the Epigrams, are noticed with well-put praise. I am fortunate enough
to be able to give it, which I do in its English form only, the Latin
being poor and inaccurate. It is inscribed "Ad D. Io. Davies, Milite
Iudicem Itinerium" and thus runs:--
"If Plato lived and saw those heaven-breathed Lines
Where thou the Essence of the Soule confines;
Or merry Martiale read thy Epigrammes,
Where sportingly, these looser times thou blames:
Though both excel, yet (in their severall wayes)
They both ore-come, would yeeld to thee the Prise."[51]
[Footnote 51: Ashmore (J). Certain Selected Odes of Horace Englished,
with Poems of divers Subiects translated. Whereunto are added, both
in Latin and English, sundry new Epigrammes, Anagrammes, Epitaphes.
1621 sm. 4^{o}. As this Volume is seldom to be met with, I take the
opportunity of adding here the Anagram to Bacon, which does not appear
to have been known to his Editors or Biographers.
To the Right Honourable, Sir Francis Bacone, Knight, Lord High
Chancelor of England.
Anagr { Bacone
{ Beacon
Thy Vertuous Name and Office, joyne with Fate,
To make thee the bright Beacon of the State.
I just observe, as my book passes through the Press, that ANTHONY
A-WOOD quotes (probably) above, without naming the author.]
His name-sake, John Davies of Hereford similarly saluted him. His
'Lines' with others, will appear more fitly in the fuller 'Life.'
Meanwhile, as carrying within it, perhaps the most memorable
circumstance appertaining to these 'Epigrams,' I must ask attention
here, to one of Wordsworth's finest minor poems--his
"POWER OF MUSIC.
An Orpheus! an Orpheus! yes, Faith may grow bold,
And take to herself all the wonders of old;--
Near the stately Pantheon you'll meet with the same,
In the street that from Oxford hath borrowed its name.
His station is there; and he works on the crowd,
He sways them with harmony merry and loud;
He fills with his power all their hearts to the brim--
Was aught ever heard like his fiddle and him?
What an eager assembly! what an empire is this!
The weary have life, and the hungry have bliss;
The mourner is cheered, and the anxious have rest;
And the guilt-burthened soul is no longer opprest.
As the Moon brightens round her the clouds of the night,
So He, where he stands, is a centre of light;
It gleams on the face, there, of the dusky-browed Jack,
And the pale-visaged Baker's, with basket on back.
That errand-bound 'Prentice was passing in haste--
What matter! he's caught--and his time runs to waste;
The Newsman is stopped, though he stops on the fret;
And the half-breathless Lamp-lighter--he's in the net!
The Porter sits down on the weight which he bore;
The Lass with her barrow wheels hither her store;--
If a thief could be here he might pilfer at ease;
She sees the Musician, 'tis all that she sees!
He stands, backed by the wall; he abates not his din;
His hat gives him vigour, with boons dropping in,
From the old and the young, from the poorest; and there!
The one-pennied Boy has his penny to spare.
O blest are the hearers, and proud be the hand
Of the pleasure it spreads through so thankful a band;
I am glad for him, blind as he is!--all the while
If they speak 'tis to praise, and they praise with a smile.
That tall Man, a giant in bulk and in height,
Not an inch of his body is free from delight;
Can he keep himself still, if he would? oh, not he!
The music stirs in him like wind through a tree.
Mark that Cripple who leans on his crutch; like a tower
That long has leaned forward, leans hour after hour!--
That Mother, whose spirit in fetters is bound,
While she dandles the Babe in her arms to the sound.
Now, coaches and chariots! roar on like a stream;
Here are twenty souls happy as souls in a dream:
They are deaf to your murmurs--they care not for you,
Nor what ye are flying, nor what ye pursue!
What is this but a glorified version of a portion of Epigram 38? Here
it is:--
"As doth the Ballad-singer's auditory,
Which hath at Temple-barre his standing chose,
And to the vulgar sings an Ale-house story:
First stands a Porter: then, an Oyster-wife
Doth stint her cry, and stay her steps to heare him;
Then comes a Cut-purse ready with a knife,
And then a Countrey-clyent passeth neare him;
There stands the Constable, there stands the whore,
And, listening to the Song, heed not each other;
There by the Serjeant stands the debitor,
And doth no more mistrust him than his brother:
Thus Orpheus to such hearers giveth musick
And Philo to such patients giveth physic."
Any charge of plagiarism were an outrage on Genius: but the coincidence
is remarkable. It is just possible that the later Poet may have found
the 'Epigrams' in his bookish friend SOUTHEY'S library,
and that the rough lines lingered semi-unconsciously in his memory.
The earlier is to the later, as a photograph of the actual coarse
street-group to the idealizations of the Artist: nevertheless it has
its own interest and value, neither are the Characters ill-chosen, nor
without humour.
But on the other hand Davies, in his 47th Epigram, was no doubt
influenced by a remembrance of Sidney's 30th Stella sonnet. The
likeness as to the countries mentioned is remarkable.[52]
[Footnote 52: See my edition of Sidney, Vol. I.]
One flagrant appropriater of Davies' Epigrams must be nailed-up, in
the person of William Winstanley in his "The Muses Cabinet stored with
variety of Poems, both pleasant and profitable. London 1655." Thus we
read "On Rembombo":--
"Rembombo having spent all his estate
Went to the wars to prove more fortunate.
Being return'd, he speaks such warlike words,
No dictionary half the like affords:
He talks of flankers, gabions and scalados,
Of curtneys, parapets & palizados,
Retreats & triumphs & of carnisadoes,
Of sallies, halfe moones & of ambuscadoes:
I to requite the fustian termes he uses,
Reply with words belonging to the Muses;
As Spondes, Dactiles & Hexameters,
Stops, commas, accents, types, tropes, & pentameters,
Madrigalls, Epicediums, elegies,
Satyres, Iambicks, & Apostrophes,
Acrosticks, Aquiuoques, & epigrams:
Thus talking and being understood by neither,
We part wise as when we came together."
(p. 43)
Let the Reader compare this with Davies' Epigram (Vol. II., p. 23-4).
Various others are similarly transmogrified; and John Heath also is
'spoiled' (in a double sense). Yet has Winstanley the impudence to
close his volume bitingly thus:--
"Cease Muse, here comes a criticke, close thy page,
These lines are not strong enough for this age;
The nice new-fangled readers of these times
Will scarcely relish thy plain country rimes."
The Minor Poems, not hitherto collected, will reward critical perusal.
Some of them are noticeable: quaint fancies, glances of wit and
wisdom, felicitous epithet, racy similes, aphoristic sayings, bird-like
notes of genuine music, and now and then, powerful sarcasm, will meet
the studious reader. The HITHERTO UNPUBLISHED MSS., which
include, besides secular poems, his long vainly-sought Metaphrase
of certain Psalms, speak for themselves. And so I leave the Reader
to raise the lid of the casket of gems now put into his hands. It
demands robustness of brain and sensibilities of spirit to appreciate
adequately Sir John Davies as a Poet; but if, in all humility of
receptiveness and open-eyedness, these volumes be read, no one
competent can go away unimpressed. Whether as Thinker or Singer he must
be placed among the rare few who have enriched our highest Literature.
ALEXANDER B. GROSART.
POSTSCRIPT.
MINOR POEMS, ETC.
There are several things relative to the Minor Poems of Sir John Davies
that require statement and elucidation; and I deem it well to give such.
I. The Ten Sonnets to Philomel and Hymn to Music.
II. The Entertainment to Elizabeth at Harefield by the Countess of
Derby.
III. The Poem to King James 1st.
IV. Dacus not Samuel Daniel.
V. Marston and "Orchestra," &c.
VI. Hymnes to Astræa.
_I. The Ten Sonnets to Philomel and Hymn to Music._ In my Fuller
Worthies' Library edition of Davies, I admitted "Canzonet: a Hymne
in praise of Musick" among his Poems (pp. 297-9) because in the
"Rhapsody" it bore his initials I. D. precisely as his other accepted
pieces therein did. But I excluded the 'Ten Sonnets to Philomel' from
their having the signature originally of "Melophilus," and I. D. only
subsequently. I too hastily agreed with Sir Egerton Brydges (in his
edition of the "Rhapsody" 2 Vols., 1826) in assigning them to Dean
Donne. I could not discern Donne's manner in the 'Canzonet,' and so
had no difficulty in rejecting Brydges' alleged 'internal evidence' in
respect of it, initialled as it was. Neither did I find the 'internal
evidence' in the 'Ten Sonnets' for its Donne authorship, but, in
addition to the early signature "Melophilus," there was a note of
"Manuscripts to get" by Davison, from Donne, that has seemed to warrant
the "Ten Sonnets" being regarded as his contribution, and the later I.
D. as representing J[ohn] D[onne], and not Sir John Davies. My friend
Dr. Brinsley Nicholson has satisfied me that Davison's List of MSS.
to be received could not refer to his "Rhapsody," but to some other
intended work or private collection; and so the one point in favour
of Donne falls to the ground. The evidence as communicated to myself,
and since, in a lengthy communication to the _Athenæum_ (January 22d,
1876), may be thus summarized, (1) There is nothing in Davison's
notings which even hints that he was thinking of the "Rhapsody." (2)
The greater number of the MSS. mentioned never appeared even by a
specimen in the "Rhapsody." (3) The second entry is of
"Sports, Masks, and Entertainments to y^{e} { late Queen
{ the King," &c.
Therefore it was written in or after 1603. But the first edition of
the "Rhapsody" containing the "Hymn to Music" signed I. D., and the
"Ten Sonnets" signed "Melophilus," and in the subsequent editions I.
D., was published in 1602, (4) There is not in the subsequent editions
a single piece by any of these memorandum-noted authors that is not in
the first--so shewing further that the memorandum had no reference to
the "Rhapsody." Of Donne and Constable there are in the editions 1608,
1611, 1621, only those given in 1602, and in no edition at all is there
a single specimen of Ben Jonson, Hodgson, Harington, Joseph Hall, &c.,
&c. There remains thus only (5). The I. D. evidence, e.g.:
1602. 1608. 1611. 1621.
Hymn I. D. I. D. I. D. Unsigned.
Sonnets Melophilus. I. D. I. D. I. D.
12 Wonders } Not John Dauis Sir John Dauis Sir John Davies
Lottery } in I. D. I. D. Sir I. D.
Contention } 1st Jonn Dauis Sir John Unsigned.
} edn. Dauis.
Absence hear this my protestation. Unsigned in all four editions.
That two are unsigned in the 1621 edition is probably due to omission
made during the thorough re-distribution of the pieces into books of
Odes, &c., &c. Further (6) the "Hymn to Music" and the "Ten Sonnets"
follow consecutively, and are the very first among the "pieces by
sundry others." So in editions of 1608 and 1611 the "Twelve Wonders,"
"Lottery," and "Contention" are the first of the new pieces, in
fact, open the book and follow one another successively in a group of
three--John Dauis--I. D.--John Davies. (7) We gather from inspection
of the "Table" that (_a_) the "Lottery," I. D., is John Davies; (_b_)
that Davison put I. D. after the "Lottery," knowing that he had already
appropriated I. D. to the author of the "Hymne;" and what is more, he
chose to put I. D. to the "Lottery" just when he associated the "Ten
Sonnets" with I. D. and John Davies' poems by altering Melophilus to
I. D.; (_c_) at the same time he left "Absence hear," &c., unsigned;
(_d_) what has been said under (5) and (6) suggests that Davies was a
personal friend of Davison's, and this is strengthened by there being
no MS. of Davies noted as "to get." If so, Davison was still less
likely to use ambiguous initials for anything by Davies. Once more (8)
When we add to this that the "Hymne" must go with the "Ten Sonnets" and
that it is clearly by the author of "Orchestra"; and that neither the
"Hymne" nor the "Ten Sonnets" appear in any collection of Donne's poems
printed or in MS. the external evidence in favour of Sir John Davies
as author of the work is as strong as it well can be. Internally the
student of "Orchestra" and the "Hymnes to Astræa" will readily see the
"fine Roman hand" that wrote them in the "Hymne to Music" and related
"Ten Sonnets to Philomel." There is none of the style, or conceits, or
wording, or rhythm of Donne. I add finally (9) If the "Ten Sonnets to
Philomel" were based on real love experiences, we can understand how
at first at any rate the disguise of "Melophilus" might be preferred
to I. D. It does not seem probable that they were addressed to her who
became his wife. In accord with all this both the "Hymne to Music" and
the "Ten Sonnets to Philomel" are now included among Sir John Davies's
Poems (Vol. ii. pp. 96-106.)
II. _The Entertainment to Elizabeth at Harefield by the Countess of
Derby._ In the foot-notes to the "Lottery," (Vol. II., pp. 87-94)
several variations from Manningham's "Diary" are accepted as decided
improvements, especially those in VII., XIX.,
and XXI., which were probably taken from a revised or
autograph MS. That Manningham had full information on the "Lottery"
is proved by the list he gives of the persons to whom the 'lots'
went, viz., I., To hir M^{tie}. III. La[dy]
Scroope. XXVII. La[dy] Scudamore. VI. Lady Francis.
VII. Earle of Darby's countes. VIII. Lady Southwell,
II. Countess of Darby dowager: [the Lord Keeper's wife].
XII. Countess of Kildare. XIII. La[dy] Effingham.
XIX. La[dy] Newton. XXI. Not named. XXII.
La[dy] Warwike. XXV. La[dy] Dorothy. XXXIII. La[dy]
Susan ... XXXII. La[dy] Kidderminster. XXXI. Blank.
But there remains an interesting question to be settled, viz., the
date of this "Lottery." Nichols, apparently on the sole authority of
the "Rhapsody," gives it to a visit to the Lord Keeper's town-house
[York House] in 1601; and assigns it to York House because Sir Thomas
Egerton did not buy Harefield till 1602, and clearly by the speeches
in the "Entertainment" the Queen had never been there before August,
1602. But the "Rhapsody" date is a slip of Davison's pen or of his
printer for 1602, and the "Lottery" took place at Harefield as part of
the "Entertainment." Notices in the "Lottery" itself guide us to this
conclusion, e.g., it was about August, for in Lot 22 we read:--
"'Tis Summer yet,...
But 'twill be winter one day, doubt you not."
and the visit to Harefield was in August. Then there is this to
be noted that the masquer is "A Mariner ... supposed to come from
the Carrick." Let 'the' be marked '_the_ Carrick.' The allusion is
historical. The Queen sent out Sir Richard Levison (or Lawson) and Sir
William Morrison on 19th and 26th March, 1602 to intercept the plate
fleet and do any other damage along the Spanish coast. They did not
get the Fleet and were wholly unsuccessful till 1st June, when they
came upon an immense 'carrick' from the East Indies of 1,600 tons
flanked on one side by a castle and on the other by eleven Spanish and
Portugese galleys. On the 2nd the admirals with five men of war and
two merchantmen Easterlings, beat the gallies and silenced the castle,
and on the 3rd the carrick surrendered with a cargo estimated by the
Portugese at a million of ducats. Our killed in this brilliant exploit
was six seamen (see Camden's Annals and Monson's Naval Tracts). This
proves that the Verses were _vers d'occasion_. We have '_the_ carrick'
and Cynthia who sent forth Fortune to the sea, and many a "jewel and a
gem" brought, and Fortune so commanded
------"as makes me now to sing
There is no fishing to the sea, no service to the King."
Further, the Queen writing to Lord Mountjoy (Deputy to Ireland) 15th
July 1602 says "... first to assure you that we have sent a fleet
to the coast of Spain, notwithstanding our former fleet returned
with the Carrick," which shows two things (1) That Lawson and Monson
had returned prior to the 15th of July (2) that the Queen had sent
out another fleet at once; and thus Davies' verses were the more
appropriate as being not only a remembrance of good luck but an
anticipation of continued good fortune.
These proofs of date which require no confirmation are confirmed by
this, that Manningham after the "Lottery," and on the same leaf,
gives a "dialogue betweene the bayly and a dairy mayd" before "her
Mtis coming to the house," quoting a sentence from it as found in the
"Entertainment." This leads me to state why I have given the entire
"Entertainment" to Sir John Davies. It certainly is contrary to natural
expectation that the "Lottery" verses are not introduced into the
"Entertainment," and but for other considerations the inference might
have been that only the "Lottery" was by Davies, and the rest by some
other. But there is this explanation of the absence of the "Lottery"
verses, that evidently they formed part of the amusement of one of
the rainy days--for it was a wet S^{t}. Swithin--when the speeches
and other things of the "Entertainment" took place without doors,
and distinct from the "Lottery." Then on reading the "Entertainment"
itself, there are manifold marks that the whole came from one pen,
and that pen Davies's; for throughout there is likeness of style and
thought to his avowed writings. Take these few examples: (1) "If thou
knewest the cause, thou wouldst not wonder; for I stay to entertaine
the Wonder of this time," &c. ("Entertainment," &c., Vol. II., pp.
249-50.) Cf. this with "Orchestra" st. 120, "wonder of posteritie"
(i.e., of her own time): (2) "The Guest that wee are to entertaine doth
fill all places with her divine vertues, as the Sunne fills the World
with the light of his beames." (_Ibid_, p. 250). Cf. Hymnes to Astræa,
XIV., stanza 2:--
"Behold her in her vertues' beames,
Extending sun-like to all realities."
Again, XV., st. 1:--
"Eye of that mind most quicke and cleere,--
Like Heaven's eye, which from his spheare
Into all things prieth;
Sees through all things euery where,
And all their natures trieth."
(3) "Though her selfe shall eclipse her soe much, as to suffer her
brightness to bee shadowed in this obscuere and narrow _Place_, yet the
sunne beames that follow her, the traine I meane that attends vpon her,
must, by the necessitie of this _Place_, be deuided from her." (_Ibid_,
p. 251). Cf. XIX., st. 1:--
"Eclipsed she is, and her bright rayes,
Lie under vailes, yet many wayes
Is her faire forme reuealed."
'Beams' and 'sunbeams' are favourite words with Davies: so too
'mirror.' (4) "Time weare very vngratefull, if it should not euer stand
still, to serue and preserue, cherish and delight her, that is the
glory of her time, and makes the Time happy wherein she liueth" (_Ibid_
p. 251). Cf. II. st. 3, ll. 1-3.
"Right glad am I that now I live:
Even in these days whereto you give
Great happiness and glory."
(5) "What if she make thee a contynewell holy-day, she makes me [Place]
a perpetuall sanctuary" (_Ibid_ p. 251). Cf. IV., st. 1:--
"Each day of time, sweet moneth of May,
Love makes a solemne holy-day."
(6) "Doth not the presence of a Prince make a Cottage a Court, and the
presence of the Gods make euery place Heaven?" (_Ibid_ pp. 251-2). Cf.
Dedication of "Nosce Teipsum":--
"Stay long (sweet spirit) ere thou to Heauen depart,
Which makest each place a heauen wherein thou art."
In the Verse (pp. 253-4) there are abundant parallels. I must content
myself with references. With the 1st stanza
"Beauties rose, and vertues booke, &c."
compare Hymnes to Astræa VII., st. 3: XVII., st. 2-3 and the
"Contention" (_ad. fin._) and XIII. st. 2: XV. st. 2. Also IV. last 2
lines: VII. st. 3. ll. 1-3: X. last 4 lines. Similar results are found
on a comparison of the "Entertainment" with the "Dialogue between a
Gentleman Usher and a Poet" (Fuller Worthies' Library edn. of Davies'
Poems: pp. 15-21.)
I have accordingly given the whole "Entertainment" as belonging to
Sir John Davies. It is to be regretted that the Satyrs Verses are
unaccompanied by the rest of the Masque to which apparently they
belong. Harefield has the further light of glory on it of having been
the scene of Milton's "Arcades" and of the famous elm-aisle celebrated
by him in imperishable verse. The Countess of Derby, afterwards the
Lord Keeper's third wife, was the early friend of Spenser and of
Milton, and of all her eminent literary contemporaries.[53]
[Footnote 53: As for much more I am indebted to Dr. Brinsley Nicholson
(as before) for most of the details of the above statement. He has
likewise favoured me with these additional illustrations of a refrain
in the introduction to the "Lottery." In the Queen's Entertainment at
Cawdray (Lord Montacute's), in 1591, an angler says, "Madame, it is an
olde saying, There is no fishing to the sea nor service to the King:
but it holdes when the sea is calme and the King vertuous" (Nichols'
Progresses). Greene also uses it in his James IV., when the schemer who
has gained by flattering the King, says (I. 2)
"Now may I say as many often sing,
No fishing to the sea nor service to a King."