[547:A] Jervis's Don Quixote, vol. i. chap.
[548:A] The first edition of Palmerin D'Oliva, translated by Anthony
Munday, was published by Charlewood in 1588. Vide Bibliotheca Reediana,
No. 2665; and his version of Palmendos, was printed by J. C. for Simon
Watersonne (1589), 4to. bl. l.
[548:B] In a letter from Mr. Whyte to Sir Robert Sidney, dated
September 1599, it is said, that "the Arcadia is now printed in
Scotland, according to the best edition, which will make them good
cheap, but is very hurtful to Ponsonbie, who held them at a very
high rate: he must sell as others doe, or they will lye upon his
hands."—Vide Zouch's Memoirs of Sir Philip Sidney, p. 361.
[549:A] A second edition of Underdowne's Heliodorus was printed in
1587, and a third in 1605.
[549:B] A complete edition of Sannazaro's Arcadia appeared in 1505.
[550:A] Task, book iv.
[551:A] Among the bulky romances of this prolific lady, who died June
2. 1701, aged 94, it may be worth while to enumerate a few, merely as
instances of her uncommon fecundity, viz. Artamene, ou le Grand Cyrus,
10 vols. 8vo.; Clelie, 10 vols. 8vo.; Almahide ou l'Esclave Reine, 8
vols. 8vo.; Ibrahim ou l'Illustre Bassa, 4 vols. 8vo.
[551:B] Tom of All Trades, or the plaine Pathway to Preferment, &c. By
Thomas Powell. Lond. 1631. 4to. pp. 47, 48.—Vide Warton's History of
English Poetry, vol. iii. p. 425, and 426.
[551:C] Fuller's Worthies, 1662, part ii. p. 75.
[551:D] See his Verses on Saccharissa, the Lady Dorothy Sidney.
[552:A] In his Essay on Poetry.
[552:B] In his Description of Arcadia in Greece, where he tells us that
the Arcadia, "besides its excellent language, rare contrivances, and
delectable stories, hath in it all the strains of poesy, comprehendeth
the universal art of speaking, and to them who can discern and will
observe, affordeth notable rules for demeanor both private and public."
[552:C] Park's edition of Royal and Noble Authors, vol. ii. p. 221. An
excellent defence of the Arcadia against the decision of Lord Orford,
who terms it "a tedious, lamentable, pedantic, pastoral romance," may
be found in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1767, p. 57. See also Sir
Egerton Brydges's edition of Phillip's Theatrum Poetarum, p. 134, et
seq., and Zouch's Memoirs of Sidney, p. 155.
[552:D] Aikin's Annual Review, vol. iv. p. 547.
[553:A] Pennant's London, p. 103.
[554:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xvi. p. 84., and Malone's note.
[554:B] Ibid. vol. xii. p. 213. Act v. sc. 1.
[554:C] Douce's Illustrations, vol. i. p. 472.
[556:A] Nichols's Progresses, vol. i. p. 56., the year 1573.
[556:B] See Comedy of Errors, act iv. sc. 2. Henry IV. Part I. act ii.
sc. 3. Romeo and Juliet, act iii. sc. 1. Love's Labour's Lost, act v.
sc. 2. Taming of the Shrew, act i. sc. 1.
[556:C] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. viii. pp. 124, 125. Act iii. sc. 4.
[557:A] Percy's Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, vol. i. pp. liv.
285. 295.
[558:A] _Wrest_—the key with which the harp is tuned.
[559:A] Nichols's Progresses of Queen Elizabeth, vol. i.
[559:B] Kind Harts Dreame, sig. B. 2.
[560:A] Arte of English Poesie, reprint, p. 69.
[560:B] Chalmers's English Poets, vol. v. p. 273. col. 1. Book iv. sat.
1.
[560:C] Malone's Supplement to Shakspeare's Plays, vol. i. p. 521.
[561:A] See Ritson's Ancient Engleish Metrical Romanceës, vol. i.
Dissertation on Romance and Minstrelsy, p. ccxxiv.
[562:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xii. p. 144. Act iii. sc. 2.
[562:B] Douce's Illustrations, vol. i. p. 465.
[562:C] British Bibliographer, No. II. p. 125.
[563:A] British Bibliographer, No. II. p. 126, 127.
[563:B] _Positions concerning the training up of Children_, London,
1581 and 1587. 4to. chap. xxvi.
[564:A] The original, the _Histoire de Huon de Bordeaux_, was ushered
into the world at the Fair of Troyes in Champagne, in the first century
of printing.
[564:B] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. vi. p. 51. Act ii. sc. 1.
[564:C] Huon of Bourdeaux, chap. xvii.
[564:D] Chap. xlvi. edit. of 1601. Lord Berners's translation underwent
three editions. The original has had the honour of giving birth to
the Chef d'Oeuvre of _Wieland_—"the child of his genius," observe
the Monthly Reviewers, "in moments of its purest converse with the
all-beauteous forms of ideal excellence;—the darling of his fancy,
born in the sweetest of her excursions amid the ambrosial bowers of
fairy-land;—the OBERON,—an epic poem, popular beyond example, yet as
dear to the philosopher as to the multitude; which, during the author's
lifetime, has attained in its native country all the honours of a
sacred book; and to the evolution of the beauties of which, a Professor
in a distinguished university has repeatedly consecrated an entire
course of patronized lectures." New Series, vol. xxiii. p. 576.
The beauties of Oberon are now accessible to the mere English scholar,
through the medium of Mr. Sotheby's version, which, though strictly
faithful to the German, has the spirit and harmony of an original poem.
[565:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xiii. p. 249. Act ii. sc. 3.
[565:B] Chalmers's English Poets, vol. iv. p. 189. col. 1.—Polyolbion,
canto ii.
[566:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xvii. p. 475. Act iii. sc. 4.
[566:B] Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, vol. iii. p. xxiii.
[566:C] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. x. p. 363. Act i. sc. 1.
[566:D] Ibid. p. 367. King John, act i. sc. 1.
[567:A] Vide Ellis's Specimens of Early English Metrical Romances, vol.
ii. p. 201., and Weber's Metrical Romances, vol. i.
[567:B] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xii. p. 502. Act v. sc. 1.
[567:C] Ritson's Ancient Engleish Metrical Romancees, vol. iii. p. 344.
[567:D] Vide Garrick Collection in Beloe's Anecdotes, vol. i. p. 400.
[567:E] Todd's Spenser, vol. v. p. 313. 367.
[567:F] This poet is conjectured to have thrown some ridicule on the
Squire of Low Degree, in his rhyme of _Sir Thopas_; but Ritson remarks,
that this romance "is never mentioned by any one writer before the
sixteenth century; nor is it known to be extant in manuscript; and,
in fact, the Museum copy is the onely one that exists in print."
Romancees, vol. iii. p. 345.
[568:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. v. p. 326. note.
[569:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. ix. p. 5., and Walton's Hist. of
Poetry, vol. iii. p. 294.
[569:B] Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, vol. i. p. 254.
[569:C] See Reed's Shakspeare, vol. ix. pp. 201, 202., and Douce's
Illustrations, vol. i. p. 342.
[569:D] See _Shakspeare Illustrated_, by Mrs. Lennox, 3 vols. 12mo.
1754.
[570:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xi. p. 191. Act i. sc. 2.
[570:B] Jarvis's Don Quixote, vol. i. part i. chap. 1. Sharpe's edit.
p. 3.
[570:C] Vide Bibliotheca Reediana, No. 2661.
[571:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xviii. p. 173. Act iii. sc. 1.
[571:B] British Bibliographer, No. II. p. 148.
[571:C] Douce's Illustrations, vol. ii. p. 240.—Mr. Douce observes,
that the "oldest (edition) we know of is that of 1649, printed by
Robert Ibbitson. In 1586, _The old book of Valentine and Orson_ was
licensed to T. Purfoot." P. 240.
[572:A] British Bibliographer, No. V. p. 469.
[572:B] Ibid. p. 470.
[572:C] Douce's Illustrations, vol. ii. p. 240.
[573:A] Arcadia, book i. p. 29. 7th edit.
[573:B] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. vi. p. 87. Act iii. sc. 2.
[573:C] Book ii. pp. 153, 154. edit. of 1629.
[574:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. v. pp. 305. 307, 308. Act ii. sc. 4.
[576:A] British Bibliographer, No. X. pp. 559, 560. This fragment, says
Mr. Haslewood, "is in black letter, one sheet, and bears signature C."
[576:B] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. iv. p. 60. Act ii. sc. 1.
[576:C] Jacke of Dover, his quest of Inquirie, or his privy Search for
the veriest Foole in England, 4to.—Vide Reed's Shakspeare, vol. iv. p.
60. note 4.
[577:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. v. p. 64. and note by Steevens.
[577:B] Ibid. p. 130. Act iii. sc. 3.
[577:C] Ancient British Drama, vol. ii. p. 219. col. 1. Act iii. sc. 7.
[577:D] Custom of the Country, act i. sc. 1. The Knight of the Burning
Pestle, act v.
[577:E] Anatomy of Melancholy, edit. 1632. p. 576.
[577:F] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. v. p. 131. note 8.
[577:G] Ibid. p. 110.
[578:A] England's Helicon, 3d edit., reprint of 1812. p. 214, 215.
[578:B] Compleat Angler, Bagster's edit. 1808. pp. 147, 148.
[578:C] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. v. p. 293. Act ii. sc. 3.
[579:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. v. pp. 294-297. 299.
[579:B] Ibid. v. p. 296. note by Steevens.
[579:C] Vol. i. p. 220.
[579:D] Reliques, vol. i. p. 220.
[580:A] Percy's Reliques, vol. i. p. 194.
[580:B] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. vi. p. 166.
[580:C] Ibid. p. 166. note.
[580:D] Ibid. vol. vii. p. 51. Act iii. sc. 1.
[580:E] Ibid. p. 82. Act iv. sc. 1.
[580:F] Ibid. vol. viii. p. 119. Act iii. sc. 3.
[580:G] Ibid. p. 144. Act iv. sc. 1.
[581:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. viii. pp. 238-240. Act i. sc. 3.
[581:B] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. ix. p. 131. Act iv. sc. 1.—There
appears to be allusions to two catches in this scene. Grumio exclaims
"_fire, fire; cast on no water_," which Judge Blackstone traces to the
following old catch in three parts:—
"Scotland burneth, Scotland burneth.
Fire, fire;——Fire, fire;
Cast on some more water."
Grumio a little afterwards calls out, "Why, _Jack boy! ho boy!_" the
beginning, as Sir John Hawkins asserts, of an old round in three parts,
of which he has given us the musical notes.
[581:C] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xii. p. 244.
[581:D] Ibid. vol. ix. p. 131. note.
[581:E] Ibid. vol. ix. p. 132. Act iv. sc. 1.
[582:A] Percy's Reliques, vol. i. p. 259.
[582:B] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. ix. p. 328. Act iv. sc. 2.
[582:C] Ibid. p. 346. Act iv. sc. 3.—We shall add, in this note,
in order to complete the catalogue, all the fragments of ancient
minstrelsy that have escaped our enumeration in the text.
In Troilus and Cressida, Pandarus, lamenting the approaching departure
of Cressida, expresses his sorrow by quoting an old song beginning—
"O heart, o heart, o heavy heart,
Why sigh'st thou without breaking."
Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xv. p. 393.
Hamlet, bantering Polonius, quotes part of the first stanza of a ballad
entitled, _Jephtha, Judge of Israel_. This has been published by Dr.
Percy, retrieved, as he relates, from utter oblivion by a lady, who
wrote it down from memory as she had formerly heard it sung by her
father.—Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xviii. p. 142.; and Percy's Reliques,
vol. i. p. 189.
It is probable that Hamlet, who appears to have been well versed in
ballad-lore, has again introduced two morsels from this source, in his
dialogue with Horatio on the conduct of the king at the play: they
strongly mark his triumph in the success of his plan for unmasking the
crimes of his uncle:—
"Why let the strucken deer go weep," &c.
* * * * *
"For thou dost know, O Damon dear," &c.
Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xviii. pp. 212. 214.
Iago in the drunken scene with Cassio, in the view of adding to his
exhilaration, sings a portion of two songs; the first apparently a
chorus,—
"And let me the canakin, clink, clink," &c.
the second,
"King Stephen was a worthy peer,"
from a humorous ballad of Scotch origin, preserved by Percy in his
Reliques, vol. i. p. 204.—Vide Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xix. pp. 334.
336.
In Romeo and Juliet, Mercutio, in the following passage, alludes to two
ballads of considerable notoriety:—
"Young _Adam_ Cupid, he that shot so trim,
When king _Cophetua_ lov'd the _beggar maid_;"
the first line referring to the celebrated ballad of _Adam Bell_, _Clym
of the Clough_, and _William of Cloudesly_, and the second to _King
Cophetua and the Beggar-Maid_; popular pieces which are again the
objects of allusion in _Much Ado about Nothing_, act i.; and in the
Second Part of Henry IV. act v. sc. 3.—Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xx. p.
77.; and Percy's Reliques, vol. i. pp. 154. 198.
The same play will afford us three or four additional references;
Mercutio, ridiculing the old Nurse, gives us a ludicrous fragment
commencing "_An old hare hoar_," vol. xx. p. 116.; and Peter, after
calling for two songs called _Heart's ease_, and _My heart is full of
woe_, attempts to puzzle the musicians by asking for an explanation
of the epithet _silver_ in the first stanza of _A Song to the Lute
in Musicke_, written by Richard Edwards, in the "Paradise of Daintie
Devises," and commencing,
"Where griping griefs the hart would wounde."
Vide Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xx. p. 220. 222.
and Percy's Reliques, vol. i. p. 196.
[584:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. ix. pp. 353-355. Act iv. sc. 3.
[584:B] Ibid. p. 403. Act v. sc. 2.
[585:A] Reliques, vol. i. p. 214.
[585:B] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xii. p. 78.
[585:C] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xii. p. 232. Act v. sc. 3.
[586:A] _Dear_ is here to be remembered in its double sense.—Farmer.
[586:B] _My wife's as all_, that is, as all women are.—Steevens.
[586:C] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xii. pp. 232-236. Act v. sc. 3.
[586:D] Ibid. p. 237.
[586:E] Ibid. p. 241.
[586:F] This play was first printed in the year 1613.
[587:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xvii. p. 366, note.
[588:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xvii. p. 463, and 490, note. This
finely descriptive line, Dr. Percy has interwoven in his ballad of _The
Friar of Orders Gray_.
[588:B] Reed's Shakspeare vol. xvii. p. 472. Act iii. sc. 4.
[588:C] Ibid. p. 478. Act iii. sc. 4.
[588:D] Ibid. p. 484. Act iii. sc. 6.
[588:E] Ibid. p. 485, note by Malone.
[589:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xvii. p. 486.
[589:B] Ibid. vol. xviii. p. 278. note.
[589:C] Ibid. p. 278-280. Act iv. sc. 5.
[590:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xviii. p. 281, 282. Act iv. sc. 5.
[590:B] Ibid. vol. xviii. p. 292. Act iv. sc. 5.
[590:C] Ibid. p. 299. Act iv. sc. 5.
[590:D] Poems, supposed to have been written at Bristol, by Thomas
Rowley, and others. Cambridge edition, 1794, p. 70.
[591:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xviii. p. 293.
[591:B] Ibid. p. 298.
[591:C] Ibid. p. 294. note.
[591:D] Ibid. p. 322, note 4.
[591:E] Warton's Hist. of Eng. Poetry, vol. iii. p. 45.
[592:A] Namely in 1565, 1567, 1569, 1574, 1585, 1587, &c.
[592:B] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. v. p. 27.
[592:C] Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, vol. i. p. 186.
[592:D] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xix. p. 472. Act iv. sc. 3.
[592:E] Vol. i. p. 208.
[593:A] To form a complete enumeration of the songs of the Elizabethan
era, it would be necessary not only to consult _all_ the dramatic
writers of this age, but to acquire a perfect series of the very
numerous _Collections of Madrigals_ which were published during the
same period.
CHAPTER IV.
CURSORY VIEW OF POETRY, WITH THE EXCEPTION OF THE DRAMA, DURING
THE AGE OF SHAKSPEARE.
The space which elapsed between the birth and the death of Shakspeare,
from April 1564 to April 1616, a period of fifty-two years, may be
pronounced, perhaps, the most fertile in our annals, with regard to the
production of poetical literature. Not only were the great outlines of
every branch of poetry chalked out with skill and precision, but many
of its highest departments were filled up and finished in a manner
so masterly as to have bid defiance to all subsequent competition.
Consequently if we take a survey of the various channels through
which the genius of poetry has been accustomed to diffuse itself, it
will be found, that, during this half century, every province had its
cultivators; that poems epic and dramatic, historic and didactic, lyric
and romantic, that satires, pastorals, and sonnets, songs, madrigals,
and epigrams, together with a multitude of translations, brightened and
embellished its progress.
On a subject, however, so productive, and which would fill volumes,
it is necessary, that, in consonancy with the limits and due keeping
of our plan, the utmost solicitude for condensation be observed. In
this chapter, accordingly, which, to a certain extent, is meant to be
introductory to a critical consideration of the miscellaneous poems of
Shakspeare, the dramatic writers are omitted; a future section of the
work being appropriated to a detail of their more peculiar labours for
the stage.
After a few general observations, therefore, on the poetry of this era,
it is our intention to give short critical notices of the principal
bards who flourished during its transit; and with the view of affording
some idea of the extensive culture and diffusion of poetic taste, an
alphabetical table of the minor poets, accompanied by slight memoranda,
will be added. An account of the numerous _Collections_ of Poetry which
reflect so much credit on this age, and a few remarks and inferences,
more particularly with respect to Shakspeare's study of his immediate
predecessors and contemporaries in miscellaneous poetry, will complete
this portion of our subject.
The causes which chiefly contributed to produce this fertility in
poetical genius may, in a great measure, be drawn from what has been
already remarked under the heads of _superstition_, _literature_, and
_romance_.
The sun of philosophy and science, which had just risen with the
most captivating beauty, and which promised a meridian of uncommon
splendour, had not yet fully dissipated those mists that for centuries
had enveloped and darkened the human mind. What remained, however,
of the popular creed, was much less gross and less contradictory to
common experience, than what had vanished from the scroll; these
reliques were, indeed, such, as either appealed powerfully to a warm
and creative imagination, or were intimately connected with those
apprehensions which agitate the breast of man, when speculating on his
destiny in another and higher order of existence.
Under the first of these classes may be included all that sportive,
wild, and terrific imagery which resulted from a partial belief in the
operations of fairies, witches, and magicians, and in the reveries
of the alchemist, the rosicrusian, and the astrologer; and under the
second will be found, what can scarcely be termed superstition in the
customary sense, that awful and mysterious conception of the spiritual
world, which supposes its frequent intervention, through the agency
either of departed spirits, or superhuman beings.
The opinions which prevailed with regard to these topics in the days
of Shakspeare, were such as exactly suited the higher regions of
poetry, without giving any violent shock to the deductions of advancing
philosophy. The national credulity had been, in fact, greatly chastised
through the efforts of enquiry and research, and though it may still
appear great to us, was in perfect accordance with the progress of
civilisation, and certainly much better calculated for poetic purposes
than has been any subsequent though purer creed.
The state of _literature_, too, was precisely of that kind which
favoured, in a very high degree, the nurture of poetical genius.
The vocabulary of our language was rich, beyond all example, both
in natives and exotics; not only in "new grafts of old withered
words[596:A]," but in a multitude of expressive terms borrowed from
the learned languages; and this wealth was used freely and without
restriction, and without the smallest apprehension of censure.
An enthusiastic spirit for literary acquisition had been created
and cherished by the revival, the study, and the translation of the
_ancient classics_; and through this medium an exhaustless mine of
imagery and allusion was laid open to our vernacular poets.
Nor were these advantages blighted or checked by the fastidious canons
of dictatorial _criticism_. Puttenham's was the only _Art of Poetry_
which had made its appearance, and, though a taste for discussion of
this kind was rapidly advancing, the poet was yet left independent of
the critic; at liberty to indulge every flight of imagination, and
every sally of feeling; to pursue his first mode of conception, and to
adopt the free diction of the moment.
The age of _chivalry and romance_, also, had not yet passed away; the
former, it is true, was verging fast towards dissolution, but its tone
was still exalting and heroic, while the latter continued to throw
a rich, though occasionally a fantastic light over every species of
poetic composition. In short, the unrestricted copiousness of our
language, the striking peculiarities of our national superstition, the
wild beauties of Gothic invention, and the playful sallies of Italian
fiction, combined with a plentiful infusion of classic lore, and
operating on native genius, gave origin, not only to an unparalleled
number of great bards, but to a cast of poetry unequalled in this
country for its powers of description and creation, for its simplicity
and energy of diction, and for its wide dominion over the feelings.
If we proceed to consider the _versification_, _economy_, and
_sentiment_ of the Elizabethan poetry, candour must confess, that
considerable defects will be found associated with beauties equally
prominent, especially in the first and second of these departments. We
must be understood, however, as speaking here only of rhymed poetry,
for were the blank verse of our dramatic poets of this epoch included,
there can be no doubt but that in versification likewise the palm must
be awarded to Shakspeare and his contemporaries. Indeed, even in the
construction of rhyme, the inferiority of our ancestors is nearly,
if not altogether, confined to their management of the pentameter
couplet; and here, it must be granted, that, in their best artificers
of this measure, in the pages of Daniel, Drayton, and Browne, great
deficiencies are often perceptible both in harmony and cadence, in
polish and compactness. It has been said by a very pleasing, and, in
general, a very judicious critic, that "the older poets _disdained_
stooping to the character of syllable-mongers; as their conceptions
were vigorous, they trusted to the simple provision of nature for
their equipment; and though often introduced into the world _ragged_,
they were always healthy."[597:A] Now versification is to poetry, what
colouring is to painting, and though by no means among the higher
provinces of the art, yet he who _disdains_ its cultivation, loses one
material hold upon the reader's attention; for, though plainness and
simplicity of garb best accord with vigour, sublimity, or pathos of
conception, _raggedness_ can never coincide in the production of any
grand or pleasing effect.
It is remarkable, however, that, in lyrical composition, the poets of
Elizabeth's reign, so far from being defective in harmony of metre,
frequently possess the most studied modulation; and numbers of their
songs and madrigals, as well as many stanzas of their longer poems
constructed on the model of the Italian _octava rima_, exhibit in their
versification so much high-finishing, and such an exquisite polish,
as must render doubtful, in this province, at least, the assumed
superiority of modern art.
A more striking desideratum in the poetry of this era has arisen
from a want of economy in the use of imagery and ornament, and in
the distribution of parts as relative to a whole. That relief, which
is produced by a judicious management of light and shade, appears to
have been greatly neglected; the eye, after having been fatigued by
an unsubdued splendour and warmth of style, suddenly passes to an
extreme poverty of colouring, without any intermediate tint to blend
and harmonize the parts; in short, to drop the metaphor, after a
prodigal profusion of imagery and description, the exhausted bard sinks
for pages together into a strain remarkable only for its flatness and
imbecillity. To this want of union in style, may be added an equal
defalcation in the disposition, connection, and dependency of the
various portions of an extended whole. These requisites, which are
usually the result of long and elaborate study, have been successfully
cultivated by the moderns, who, since the days of Pope, have paid
a scrupulous attention to the mechanism of versification, to the
consonancy and keeping of style, and to the niceties and economy of
arrangement.
We can ascribe, however, to the poets of Elizabeth's reign the greater
merit of excelling in energy and truth of _sentiment_, in simplicity
of diction, in that artless language of nature which irresistibly
makes its way to the heart. To excite the emotions of sublimity, of
terror, of pity, an appeal to the artificial graces of modern growth
will not be found successful; on the contrary, experience has taught
us, that in the higher walks of poetry, where sensations of grandeur
and astonishment are to be raised, or where the passions in all their
native vigour are to be called forth, we must turn to the earlier
stages of the art, when the poet, unshackled by the overwhelming
influence of venerated models, unawed by the frowns of criticism,
and his flow of thought undiverted by any laborious attention to the
minutiæ of diction and cadence, looked abroad for himself, and drew
fresh from the page of surrounding nature, and from the workings of
his own breast, the imagery, and the feelings, which he was solicitous
to impress. In consequence of this self-dependence, this appeal to
original sources, the poetry of the period under our notice possesses a
strength, a raciness, and verisimilitude which have since very rarely
been attained, and which more than compensate for any subordinate
defects in the ornamental departments of metre, or style.
It is conceivable, indeed, that a poet may arise, who shall happily
combine, even in a long poem of the highest class, the utmost
refinements of recent art, with the originality, strength, and
independency of our elder bards; it is a phenomenon, however, rather
to be wished for than expected, as the excellencies peculiar to these
widely-separated eras appear to be, in their highest degree, nearly
incompatible. Yet is the attempt not to be given up in despair; in
short poems, especially of the lyric species, we know that this
union has been effected among us; for Gray, to very lofty flights of
sublimity, has happily united the utmost splendour of diction, and
the utmost brilliancy of versification; and even in a later and more
extended instance, in "The Pleasures of Hope" by Mr. Campbell, we find
some of the noblest conceptions of poetry clothed in metre exquisitely
sweet and polished, and possessing at the same time great variety of
modulation, and a considerable share of simplicity in its construction.
If, however, upon the large scale, which the highest cast of poetry
demands, the studied harmony of later times be found incapable of
coalescing with effect, there can be no doubt what school we should
adopt; for who would not prefer the sublime though unadorned conception
of Michael Angelo to the glowing colouring even of such an artist as
Titian?
Of the larger poems of the age of Shakspeare, the defects may be
considered as of two kinds, either apparent only, or real; under the
first may be classed that want of high-finishing which is the result,
partly of its incompatibility with greatness of design, and partly as
the effect of a just taste; for much of the minor poetry of the reign
of Elizabeth, as hath been previously observed, is polished even to
excess; while under the second are to be placed the positive defects
of want of union in style, and want of connection and arrangement in
economy; omissions not resulting from necessity, and which are scarcely
to be atoned for by any excellencies, however transcendent.
It is creditable to the present age, that in the higher poetry several
of our bards have in a great degree reverted to the ancient school;
that, in attempting to emulate the genius of their predecessors, they
have judiciously adopted their strength and simplicity of diction,
their freedom and variety of metre, preserving at the same time, and
especially in the disposition of their materials, and the keeping
of their style, whatever of modern refinement can aptly blend with
or heighten the effect of the sublime, though often severely chaste
outline, of the first masters of their art.
That meretricious glare of colouring, that uniform though seductive
polish, and that monotony of versification, which are but too apparent
in the school of Pope, and which have been carried to a disgusting
excess by Darwin and his disciples, not only vitiate and dilute all
developement of intense emotion, but even paralyse that power of
picturesque delineation, which can only subsist under an uncontrolled
freedom of execution, where, both in language and rhythm, the utmost
variety and energy have their full play. He who in sublimity and pathos
has made the nearest approach to our three immortal bards, Spenser,
Shakspeare, and Milton, and who may, therefore, claim the fourth
place in our poetical annals, the lamented Chatterton; and he who,
in the present day, stands unrivalled for his numerous and masterly
sketches of character, and for the truth, locality, and vigour of his
descriptions, the poet of Marmion and of Rokeby; are both well known
to have built their fame upon what may be emphatically termed the old
_English_ school of poesy. The difference between them is, that while
both revert to the costume and imagery of the olden time, one adheres,
in a great measure, to the language of his day, while the other must
be deemed a laborious though not very successful imitator of the
phraseology and extrinsic garb of the remote period to which, for no
very laudable purpose, he has assigned his productions.
These few remarks on the poetry of our ancestors being premised, the
critical notices to which we have alluded, may with propriety commence;
and in executing this part of the subject, as well as in the tabular
form which follows, an alphabetical arrangement will be observed.
1. BEAUMONT, SIR JOHN. Though the poems of this author were not
published, yet were they written, during the age of Shakspeare, and
consequently demand our notice in this chapter. He was the elder
brother of Francis the dramatic poet, and was born at Grace-dieu, in
Leicestershire, in 1582. He very early attached himself to poetical
studies, and all his productions in this way were the amusements of
his youthful days. Of these, the most elaborate is entitled "Bosworth
Field," a very animated, and often a very poetical detail of the
circumstances which are supposed immediately to precede and accompany
this celebrated struggle. The versification merits peculiar praise;
there is an ease, a vigour, and a harmony in it, not equalled, perhaps,
by any other poet of his time; many of the couplets, indeed, are such
as would be distinguished for the beauty of their construction, even in
the writings of Pope. An encomium so strong as this may require some
proofs for its support, and among the number which might be brought
forward, three shall be adduced as specimens not only of finished
versification, but of the energy and heroism of the sentiments which
pervade this striking poem.
"There he beholds a high and glorious throne,
Where sits a king by lawrell garlands knowne,
Like bright Apollo in the Muses' quires,
His radiant eyes are watchfull heavenly fires;
Beneath his feete pale Envie bites her chaine,
And snaky Discord whets her sting in vaine."
Ferrers, addressing Richard, exclaims,—
"I will obtaine to-day, alive or dead,
The crownes that grace a faithfull souldiers head.
'Blest be thy tongue,' replies the king, 'in thee
The strength of all thine ancestors I see,
Extending warlike armes for England's good,
By thee their heire, in valour as in blood.'"
On the flight of Catesby, who advises Richard to embrace a similar mode
of securing his personal safety, the King indignantly answers,
"Let cowards trust their horses' nimble feete,
And in their course with new destruction meete;
Gaine thou some houres to draw thy fearefull breath:
To me ignoble flight is worse than death."
Of the conclusion of Bosworth Field, Mr. Chalmers has justly observed,
that "the lines describing the death of the tyrant may be submitted
with confidence to the admirers of Shakspeare."[602:A]
The translations and miscellaneous poems of Sir John include several
pieces of considerable merit. We would particularly point out
Claudian's Epigram on the Old Man of Verona, and the verses on his
"dear sonne Gervase Beaumont."
Sir John died in the winter of 1628, aged forty-six.
2. BRETON, NICHOLAS. Of this prolific poet few authenticated facts
are known. His first publication, entitled, "A small handfull of
fragrant flowers," was printed in 1575; if we therefore allow him
to have reached the age of twenty-one before he commenced a writer,
the date of his birth may, with some probability, be assigned to
the year 1554. The number of his productions was so great, that a
character in Beaumont and Fletcher's _Scornful Lady_, declares that
he had undertaken "with labour and experience the collection of those
thousand pieces—of that our honour'd Englishman, Nich. Breton."[602:B]
Ritson has given a catalogue of twenty-nine, independent of his
contributions to the "Phœnix Nest" and "England's Helicon," and five
more are recorded by Mr. Park in the Censura Literaria.[603:A] Most
of these are poetical, some a mixed composition of rhyme and prose,
and a few entirely prose; they are all extremely scarce, certainly not
the consequence of mediocrity or want of notice, for they have been
praised by Puttenham[603:B], Meres[603:C], and Phillips; and one of
his most beautiful ballads is inserted in "The Muse's Library," 1740.
After a lapse of twenty-five years, Dr. Percy recalled the attention of
the public to our author by inserting in his Reliques the same piece
which Mrs. Cowper had previously chosen[603:D]; in 1801 Mr. Ellis
favoured us with eight specimens, from his pamphlets and "England's
Helicon[603:E]," and Mr. Park has since added two very valuable
extracts to the number.[603:F] These induce us to wish for a more
copious selection, and at the same time enable us to declare, that as a
lyric and pastoral poet he possessed, if not a splendid, yet a pleasing
and elegant flow of fancy, together with great sweetness and simplicity
of expression, and a more than common portion of metrical harmony.
He is supposed, on the authority of an epitaph in the church of
Norton, a village in Northamptonshire, to have died on the 22d of June
1624.[603:G]
3. BROWNE, WILLIAM, was born at Tavistock, in Devonshire, in 1590, and,
there is reason to suppose, began very early to cultivate his poetical
talents; for in the first book of his _Britannias Pastorals_, which
were published in folio, in 1613, when in his twenty-third year, he
speaks of himself, "as weake in yeares as skill[603:H]," an expression
which leads to the supposition that his earlier pastorals were written
before he had attained the age of twenty. Indeed all his poetry appears
to have been written previous to his thirtieth year. In 1614, he
printed in octavo, _The Shepherds Pipe_, in seven eclogues; in 1616,
the second part of his _Britannias Pastorals_ was given to the public,
and in 1620, his _Inner Temple Mask_ is supposed to have been first
exhibited.
Browne enjoyed a large share of popularity during his life-time;
numerous commendatory poems are prefixed to the first edition of his
pastorals; and, in a copy of the second impression of 1625, in the
possession of Mr. Beloe, and which seems to have been a presentation
copy to Exeter College, Oxford, of which Browne was a member and
Master of Arts, there are thirteen adulatory addresses to the poet,
from different students of this society, and in the hand-writing
of each.[604:A] Among his earliest eulogists are found the great
characters Selden, Drayton, and Jonson, by whom he was highly respected
both as a poet and as a man; and as a still more imperishable honour,
we must not forget to mention, that he was a favourite with our divine
Milton.
Until lately, however, he has been under little obligation to
subsequent times; nearly one hundred and fifty years elapsed before a
third edition of his poems employed the press; this came out in 1772,
under the auspices of Mr. Thomas Davies, and, with the exception of
some extracts in Hayward's British Muse, this long interval passed
without any attempt to revive his fame, by any judicious specimens of
his genius.[604:B] A more propitious era followed the republication
of Davies; in 1787, Mr. Headley obliged us with some striking proofs
of, and some excellent remarks on, his beauties; in 1792, his whole
works were incorporated in the edition of the poets, by Dr. Anderson;
in 1801, Mr. Ellis gave further extension to his fame by additional
examples, and in 1810 his productions again became a component part
of a body of English poetry in the very elaborate and comprehensive
edition of the English Poets, by Mr. Chalmers.
Still it appears to us, that sufficient justice has not, since the era
of Milton, been paid to his talents; for, though it be true, as Mr.
Headley has observed, that puerilities, forced allusions, and conceits,
have frequently debased his materials; yet are these amply atoned for
by some of the highest excellencies of his art; by an imagination
ardent and fertile, and sometimes sublime; by a vivid personification
of passion; by a minute and truly faithful delineation of rural
scenery; by a peculiar vein of tenderness which runs through the
whole of his pastorals, and by a versification uncommonly varied and
melodious. With these are combined a species of romantic extravagancy
which sometimes heightens, but more frequently degrades, the effect of
his pictures. Had he exhibited greater judgment in the selection of his
imagery, and greater simplicity in his style, his claim on posterity
had been valid, had been general and undisputed. Browne is conjectured
by Wood to have died in the winter of 1645.[605:A]
4. CHALKHILL, JOHN. This poet was the intimate friend of Spenser, a
gentleman, a scholar, and, to complete the encomium, a man of strict
moral character. He was the author of a pastoral history, entitled,
_Thealma and Clearchus_; but "he died," relates Mrs. Cooper, "before
he could perfect even the Fable of his poem, and, by many passages
in it, I half believe, he had not given the last hand to what he has
left behind him. However, to do both him and his editor justice,
if my opinion can be of any weight, 'tis great pity so beautiful a
relique should be lost; and the quotations I have extracted from it
will sufficiently evidence a fine vein of imagination, a taste far from
being indelicate, and both language and numbers uncommonly harmonious
and polite."[606:A]
The editor alluded to by Mrs. Cooper was the amiable Isaac Walton, who
published this elegant fragment in 8vo. in 1683, when he was ninety
years old, and who has likewise inserted two songs by Chalkhill in his
"Complete Angler."[606:B]
The pastoral strains of Chalkhill merit the eulogium of their female
critic; the versification, more especially, demands our notice, and may
be described, in many instances, as possessing the spirit, variety,
and harmony of Dryden. To verify this assertion, let us listen to the
following passages; describing the Golden age, he informs us,
"Their sheep found cloathing, earth provided food,
And Labour drest it as their wills thought good:
On unbought delicates their hunger fed,
And for their drink the swelling clusters bled:
The vallies rang with their delicious strains,
And Pleasure revell'd on those happy plains."
How beautifully versified is the opening of his picture of the Temple
of Diana!
"Within a little silent grove hard by,
Upon a small ascent, he might espy
A stately chapel, richly gilt without,
Beset with shady sycamores about:
And, ever and anon, he might well hear
A sound of music steal in at his ear
As the wind gave it Being: so sweet an air
Would strike a Syren mute and ravish her."
Pourtraying the cell of an Enchantress, he says,
"About the walls lascivious pictures hung,
Such as whereof loose Ovid sometimes sung.
On either side a crew of dwarfish Elves,
Held waxen tapers taller than themselves:
Yet so well shap'd unto their little stature,
So angel-like in face, so sweet in feature;
Their rich attire so diff'ring, yet so well
Becoming her that wore it, none could tell
Which was the fairest——."[607:A]
Mr. Beloe, in the first volume of his Anecdotes, p. 70., has given
us a Latin epitaph on a John Chalkhill, copied from Warton's History
of Winchester. This inscription tells us, that the person whom it
commemorates died a Fellow of Winchester College, on the 20th of
May, 1679, aged eighty; and yet Mr. Beloe, merely from similarity of
name and character, contends that this personage must have been the
Chalkhill of Isaac Walton; a supposition which a slight retrospection
as to dates, would have proved impossible. Walton, in the title-page
of Thealma and Clearchus, describes Chalkhill as an acquaintant and
friend of Edmund Spenser; now as Spenser died in January, 1598, and the
subject of this epitaph, aged 80, in 1679, the latter must consequently
have been born in 1599, the year after Spenser's death! The coincidence
of character and name is certainly remarkable, but by no means
improbable or unexampled.
5. CHAPMAN, GEORGE, who was born in 1557 and died in 1634, aged
seventy-seven, is here introduced as the principal translator of his
age; to him we are indebted for Homer, Musæus, and part of Hesiod. His
first published attempt on Homer appeared in 1592[607:B], under the
title of "Seaven Bookes of the Shades of Homere, Prince of Poets;" and
shortly after the accession of James the First, the entire Iliad was
completed and entitled, "The Iliads of Homer, Prince of Poets. Never
before in any language truly translated. With a comment upon some of
his chief places: done according to the Greeke."
This version, which was highly prized by his contemporaries, is
executed in rhymed couplets, each line containing fourteen syllables;
a species of versification singularly cumbrous and void of harmony;
and, notwithstanding this protracted metre, fidelity is, by no means,
the characteristic of Chapman. He is not only often very paraphrastic,
but takes the liberty of omitting, without notice, what he could not
comprehend. It has been asserted by Pope, that a daring fiery spirit,
something like what we might imagine Homer himself to have written
before he arrived to years of discretion, animates his translation,
and covers his defects[608:A]; an opinion which seems rather the
result of partiality than unbiassed judgment; for though Chapman is
certainly superior to his successor Hobbes, and occasionally exhibits
some splendid passages, he must be considered by every critic of the
present day as, in general, coarse, bombastic, and often disgusting; a
violator, indeed, in almost every page, of the dignity and simplicity
of his original.
The magnitude and novelty of the undertaking, however, deserved and met
with encouragement, and Chapman was induced, in 1614, to present the
world with a version of the Odyssey. This is in the pentameter couplet;
inferior in vigour to his Iliad, but in diction and versification more
chaste and natural. Of his Musæus and his Georgics of Hesiod, we shall
only remark that the former was printed in 1616, the latter in 1618,
and that the first, which we have alone seen, does not much exceed the
character of mediocrity. As an original writer, we shall have to notice
Chapman under the dramatic department, and shall merely add now, that
he was, in a moral light, a very estimable character, and the friend of
Spenser, Shakspeare, Marlowe, Daniel, and Drayton.
6. CHURCHYARD, THOMAS. This author merits notice rather for the
quantity than the quality of his productions, though a few of his
pieces deserve to be rescued from utter oblivion. He commenced a
writer, according to his own account[609:A], in the reign of King
Edward the Sixth, and as Wood informs us that at the age of seventeen
he went to seek his fortune at court, and lived four years with Howard
Earl of Surry, who died 1546, it is probable that he was born about
1524. Shrewsbury had the honour of producing him, and he continued
publishing poetical tracts until the accession of James the First.
Ritson has given us a catalogue, which might be enlarged, of seventeen
of his publications, with dates, from 1558 to 1599, independent of
a variety of scattered pieces; some of these are of such bulk as to
include from twelve to twenty subjects, and in framing their titles
the old bard seems to have been very partial to alliteration; for
we have _Churchyards Chippes_, 1575; _Churchyards Choice_, 1579;
_Churchyards Charge_, 1580; _Churchyards Change_; _Churchyards Chance_,
1580; _Churchyards Challenge_, 1593; and _Churchyards Charity_,
1595.[609:B] In the "Mirror for Magistrates," first published in 1559,
he contributed "_The Legend of Jane Shore_," which he afterwards
augmented in his "Challenge," by the addition of twenty-one stanzas;
this is perhaps the best of his poetical labours, and contains several
good stanzas. His "_Worthiness of Wales_," also, first published in
1587, and reprinted a few years ago, is entitled to preservation. This
pains-taking author, as Ritson aptly terms him, died poor on April 4th,
1604, after a daily exertion of his pen, in the service of the Muses,
for nearly sixty years.
7. CONSTABLE, HENRY, of whom little more is personally known, than
that he took his degree of Bachelor of Arts at St. John's College,
Cambridge, in 1579[609:C]; that he was compelled to leave his native
country from a zealous attachment to the Roman Catholic religion, and
that, venturing to return, he was imprisoned in the Tower of London,
but released towards the close of 1604.[610:A] Constable possessed
unrivalled reputation with his contemporaries as a writer of sonnets;
Jonson terms his muse "ambrosiack[610:B];" in _The Return from
Parnassus_, 1606, we are told that
"Sweet Constable doth take the wondring ear
And lays it up in willing prisonment;"[610:C]
and Bolton calls him "a great master in English tongue," and adds,
"nor had any gentleman of our nation a more pure, quick, or higher
delivery of conceit; witness among all other, that Sonnet of his
before his Majesty's Lepanto."[610:D] In consequence of these encomia
more modern authors have prolonged the note of praise; Wood describes
him as "a noted English poet[610:E];" Hawkins, as the "first, or
principal sonnetteer of his time[610:F]," and Warton, as "a noted
sonnet-writer."[610:G]
To justify the reputation thus acquired, we have two collections of
his sonnets still existing; one published in 1594, under the title of
"Diana, or the excellent conceitful sonnets of H. C. augmented with
divers quatorzains of honorable and learned personages, devided into
viij Decads;" and the other a manuscript in the possession of Mr. Todd,
consisting of sonnets divided into three parts, each part containing
three several arguments, and every argument seven sonnets.[610:H]
From the specimens which we have seen of his Diana, and from the sonnet
extracted by Mr. Todd from the manuscript collection, there can be
little hesitation in declaring, that the reputation which Constable
once enjoyed, was built upon no stable foundation, and that mediocrity
is all which the utmost indulgence of the present age can allow him.
8. DANIEL, SAMUEL, a poet and historian of no small repute, was born
near Taunton, in Somersetshire, in 1562. Having received a classical
education at Magdalen Hall, Oxford, and being afterwards enabled to
pursue his studies under the patronage of the Earl of Pembroke's
family, he became the most correct poet of his age. He commenced author
as early as 1585, by a translation of Paulus Jovius's Discourse of
rare Inventions; but his first published poems appear to have been his
Delia, a collection of Sonnets, with the complaint of Rosamond, 1592.
He continued to write until nearly the close of his life, for the
Second Part of his History of England was published in 1618, and he
died on the 14th of October 1619.
Of the poetry of Daniel, omitting for the present all notice of his
dramatic works, the most important are his _Sonnets to Delia_, the
_History of the Civil War_, the _Complaint of Rosamond_ and the
_Letter from Octavia to Marcus Antonius_; the remainder consisting
of occasional pieces, and principally of Epistles to his friends and
patrons.
The Sonnets are not generally constructed on the legitimate or
Petrarcan model; but they present us with some beautiful versification
and much pleasing imagery. The "Civil Wars between the two houses of
Lancaster and York," the first four books of which were published
in 1595, and the eighth and last in 1609, form the _magnum opus_
of Daniel, and to which he looked for fame with posterity. That he
has been disappointed, must be attributed to his having too rigidly
adhered to the truth of history; for aspiring rather at the correctness
of the annalist than the fancy of the poet, he rarely attempts the
elevation of his subject by any flight of imagination, or digressional
ornaments. Sound morality, prudential wisdom, and occasional touches
of the pathetic, delivered in a style of then unequalled chastity
and perspicuity, will be recognised throughout his work; but neither
warmth, passion, nor sublimity, nor the most distant trace of
enthusiasm can be found to animate the mass. In the _Complaint of
Rosamond_, and in the _Letter from Octavia_, he has copied the manner
of Ovid, though with more tenderness and pathos than are usually found
in the pages of the Roman.
In short, purity of language, elegance of style, and harmony of
versification, together with an almost perfect freedom from pedantry
and affectation, and a continual flow of good sense and just
reflection, form the merits of Daniel, and resting on these qualities
he is entitled to distinguished notice, as an improver of our diction
and taste; but to the higher requisites of his art, to the fire and
invention of the creative bard, he has few pretensions.
Daniel was the intimate friend of Shakspeare, Marlowe, Chapman,
Camden, and Cowel; and was so highly esteemed by the accomplished
Anne, Countess of Pembroke, that she not only erected a monument to
his memory in Beckington church, Somersetshire, but in a full length
of herself, at Appleby Castle in Cumberland, had a small portrait of
her favourite poet introduced.[612:A] This partiality seems to have
sprung from a connection not often productive of attachment; Daniel
had been her tutor when she was only thirteen years old, and in his
poems he addresses an epistle to her at this early age, which, as Mr.
Park has justly said, "deserves entire perusal for its dignified vein
of delicate admonition."[612:B] Dissatisfied with the opinions of his
contemporaries as to his poetical merit, which appears to have been
similar to the estimate that we have just given[612:C], he relinquished
the busy world, and spent the closing years of his life in the
cultivation of a farm.
9. DAVIES, SIR JOHN, was born at Chisgrove in Wiltshire in 1570.
Though a lawyer of great eminence, he is chiefly known to posterity
through the medium of his poetical works. His _Nosce Teipsum_,
or poem on the Immortality of the Soul, on which fame rests, was
published in 1599, and not only secured him the admiration of his
learned contemporaries, among whom may be recorded the great names of
Camden, Harrington, Jonson, Selden, and Corbet, but accelerated his
professional honours; for being introduced to James in Scotland, in
order to congratulate him on his accession to the throne of England,
the king, on hearing his name, enquired "if he was _Nosce Teipsum_? and
being answered in the affirmative, graciously embraced him, and took
him into such favour, that he soon made him his Solicitor, and then
Attorney-General in Ireland."[613:A]
Beside this philosophical poem, the earliest of which our language
can boast, Sir John printed, in 1596, a series of Epigrams, which
were published at Middleburg, at the close of Marlowe's translation
of Ovid's Epistles, and in the same year the first edition of his
"Orchestra, or a poeme of dauncing;" these, with twenty-six acrostics
on the words Elizabetha Regina, printed in 1599, and entitled "Hymns of
Astræa," complete the list of his publications.
His "Nosce Teipsum" is a piece of close reasoning in verse, peculiarly
harmonious for the period in which it appeared. It possesses, also,
wit, ingenuity, vigour and condensation of thought, but exhibits few
efforts of imagination, and nothing that is either pathetic or sublime.
In point of argument, metaphysical acuteness and legitimate deduction,
the English poet is, in every respect, superior to his classical model
Lucretius; but how greatly does he fall beneath the fervid genius and
creative fancy of the Latian bard!
Sir John died suddenly on the 7th of December 1626, in the
fifty-seventh year of his age.
10. DAVORS, JOHN. Of this poet little more is known, than that he
published, in 1613, the following work: "The Secrets of Angling:
teaching the choicest Tooles, Baits, and Seasons, for the taking of
any Fish, in Pond or River: practised and familiarly opened in three
Bookes." 12mo.
Upon a subject so technical and didactic, few opportunities for
poetical imagery might naturally be expected; but Davors has most
happily availed himself of those which occurred, and has rendered his
poem, in many places, highly interesting by beauty of sentiment, and
warmth of description. A lovely specimen of his powers may be found
in the "Complete Angler" of Isaac Walton[614:A], and the following
invocation, from the opening of the First Book, shall be given as a
further proof of the genuineness of his inspiration, and with this
additional remark, that his versification is throughout singularly
harmonious:—
"You Nimphs that in the springs and waters sweet,
Your dwelling have, of every hill and dale,
And oft amidst the meadows green do meet
To sport and play, and hear the nightingale,
And in the rivers fresh do wash you feet,
While Progne's sister tels her wofull tale:
Such ayd and power unto my verses lend,
As may suffice this little worke to end.
And thou, sweet Boyd, that with thy wat'ry sway
Dost wash the Cliffes of Deignton and of Week,
And through their rocks with crooked winding way,
Thy mother Avon runnest soft to seek;
In whose fair streams, the speckled trout doth play,
The roch, the dace, the gudgin, and the bleike:
Teach me the skill with slender line and hook
To take each fish of river, pond, and brook."
A second edition of "The Secrets of Angling," "augmented with many
approved experiments," by W. Lawson, was printed in 1652, and a third
would be acceptable even in the present day.
11. DONNE, JOHN, D.D. The greater part of the poetry of this prelate,
though not published, was written, according to Ben Jonson, before he
was twenty-five years of age; and as he was born in London in 1573, he
must consequently be ranked as a bard of the sixteenth century. His
poems consist of elegies, satires, letters, epigrams, divine poems, and
miscellaneous pieces, and procured for him, among his contemporaries,
through private circulation and with the public when printed, during
the greater part of the seventeenth century, an extraordinary share of
reputation. A more refined age, however, and a more chastised taste,
have very justly consigned his poetical labours to the shelf of the
philologer. A total want of harmony in versification, and a total want
of simplicity both in thought and expression, are the vital defects
of Donne. Wit he has in abundance, and even erudition, but they are
miserably misplaced; and even his amatory pieces exhibit little else
than cold conceits and metaphysical subtleties. He may be considered
as one of the principal establishers of a school of poetry founded on
the worst Italian model, commencing towards the close of Elizabeth's
reign, continued to the decease of Charles the Second, and including
among its most brilliant cultivators the once popular names of Crashaw,
Cleveland, Cowley, and Sprat.
Dr. Donne died in March 1631, and the first edition of his poems was
published by his son two years after that event.
12. DRAYTON, MICHAEL, of an ancient family in Leicestershire, was born
in the village of Harshul, in the parish of Atherston, in Warwickshire,
in 1563. This voluminous and once highly-popular poet has gradually
sunk into a state of undeserved oblivion, from which he can alone be
extricated by a judicious selection from his numerous Works. These
may be classed under the heads of _historical_, _topographical_,
_epistolary_, _pastoral_, and _miscellaneous_ poetry. The first
includes his _Barons Warres_, first published in 1596 under the title
of "Mortimeriades; the lamentable Civil Warres of Edward the Second,
and the Barons;" his _Legends_, written before 1598 and printed in an
octavo edition of his poems in 1613, and his _Battle of Agincourt_. It
cannot be denied that in these pieces there are occasional gleams of
imagination, many just reflections, and many laboured descriptions,
delivered in perspicuous language, and generally in smooth
versification; but they do not interest the heart or elevate the fancy;
they are tediously and minutely historical, void of passion, and, for
the most part, languid and prosaic. The second department exhibits
the work on which he rested his hopes of immortality, the elaborate
and highly-finished _Poly-olbion_, of which the first eighteen songs
made their appearance in 1612, accompanied by the very erudite notes
of Selden, and the whole was completed in thirty parts in 1622. The
chief defect in this singular poem results from its plan; to describe
the woods, mountains, vallies, and rivers of a country, with all their
associations, traditionary, historical, and antiquarian, forms a task
which no genius, however exalted, could mould into an interesting
whole, and the attempt to enliven it by continued personification has
only proved an expedient which still further taxes the patience of
the reader. It possesses, however, many beauties which are poetically
great; numerous delineations which are graphically correct, and a
fidelity with regard to its materials so unquestioned, as to have
merited the reference of Hearne and Wood, and the praise of Gough, who
tells us that the Poly-olbion has preserved many circumstances which
even Camden has omitted. It is a poem, in short, which will always be
consulted rather for the information that it conveys, than for the
pleasure that it produces.
To _England's Heroical Epistles_, which constitute the third class,
not much praise can now be allotted, notwithstanding they were once
the most admired of the author's works. Occasional passages may, it is
true, be selected, which merit approbation for novelty of imagery and
beauty of expression; but nothing can atone for their wanting what,
from the nature of the subjects chosen, should have been their leading
characteristic—pathos.
It is chiefly as a _pastoral_ poet that Drayton will live in the memory
of his countrymen. The shepherd's reed was an early favourite; for
in 1593 he published his "Idea: the Shepherd's Garland, fashioned in
nine Eglogs: and Rowland's Sacrifice to the nine Muses," which were
reprinted under the title of Pastorals, and with the addition of a
tenth eclogue. His attachment to rural imagery was nearly as durable
as his existence; for the year previous to his death he brought
forward another collection of pastorals, under the title of _The
Muses Elisium_. Of these publications, the first is in every respect
superior, and gives the author a very high rank among rural bards; his
descriptions are evidently drawn from nature; they often possess a
decided originality, and are couched in language pure and unaffected,
and of the most captivating simplicity.
The _miscellaneous_ productions of Drayton include a vast variety of
pieces; odes, elegies, sonnets, religions effusions, &c. &c. To specify
the individual merit of these would be useless; but among them are two
which, from their peculiar value, call for appropriate notice. A most
playful and luxuriant imagination is displayed to much advantage in the
_Nymphidia_, or _The Court of Fairy_, and an equal degree of judgment,
together with a large share of interest, in the poem addressed to his
loved friend Henry Reynolds, _On Poets and Poesy_. These, with the
first collection of pastorals, part of the second, and some well-chosen
extracts from his bulkier works, would form a most fascinating
little volume. Drayton died on December 23. 1631, and was buried in
Westminster Abbey.
13. DRUMMOND, WILLIAM. The birth of this truly elegant poet is placed
at Hawthornden in Scotland, on the 13th of December, 1585, and the
publication of the first portion of his Sonnets, in 1616, entitles him
to due notice among these critical sketches.
A disappointment of the most afflictive nature, for death snatched
from him the object of his affection almost immediately after she had
consented to be his, has given a peculiar and very pathetic interest
to the greater part of his poetical compositions, which are endeared
to the reader of sensibility by the charm resulting from a sincere and
never-dying regret for the memory of his earliest love.
His poetry, which has never yet been properly arranged, consists
principally of poems of a lyrical cast, including sonnets, madrigals,
epigrams, epitaphs, miscellanies, and divine poems.
Of these classes, the first and second exhibit numerous instances
of a versification decidedly more polished and elegant than that of
any of his contemporaries, and to this technical merit is frequently
to be added the still more rare and valuable distinctions of beauty
of expression, simplicity of thought, delicacy of sentiment, and
tenderness of feeling. Where he has failed, his faults are to be
attributed to the then prevailing taste for Italian _concetti_; to
the study of Marino, and his French imitators, Bellày and Du Bartas.
These deviations from correct taste are, however, neither frequent nor
flagrant, and are richly atoned for by strains of native genius, and
the felicities of unaffected diction.[618:A]
Drummond was the intimate friend of Drayton, the Earl of Stirling, and
Ben Jonson; the latter holding him in such estimation as to undertake
a journey to Scotland on foot, solely for the purpose of enjoying
his company and conversation. How far this meeting contributed to
enhance their mutual regard, is doubtful; no two characters could be
more opposed, the roughness and asperity of Jonson ill according with
the elegant manners of the Scottish poet, whose manuscript memoranda
relative to this interview plainly intimate his disapprobation of the
disposition and habits of his celebrated guest; but, unfortunately, at
the same time, display a breach of confidence, and a fastidiousness of
temper, which throw a shade over the integrity of his own friendship,
and the rectitude of his own feelings.
This accomplished bard died on the 4th of December 1649, aged
sixty-three, and though his poems were republished by Phillips, the
nephew of Milton, in 1656, with a high encomium on his genius, he
continued so obscure, that in 1675, when the Theatrum Poetarum of the
same critic appeared, he is said to be "utterly disregarded and laid
aside[618:B];" a fate which, strange as it may seem, has, until these
few years, almost completely veiled the merit of one of the first
poets of the sister kingdom.
14. FAIREFAX, EDWARD. The singular beauty of this gentleman's
translation of Tasso, and its influence on English versification,
demand a greater share of notice than is due to any poetical version
preceding that of Pope. He was the son of Sir Thomas Fairefax, of
Denton in Yorkshire, and early cultivating the enjoyment of rural and
domestic life, retired with the object of his affections to Newhall,
in the parish of Fuyistone, in Knaresborough forest, where he usefully
occupied his time in the education of his children, and the indulgence
of literary pursuits. His "Godfrey of Bulloigne," the work which has
immortalised his name, was written whilst he was very young, was
published in 1600, and dedicated to Queen Elizabeth.
This masterly version, which for the last half century has been most
undeservedly neglected, has not hitherto been superseded by any
posterior attempt. Though rendered line by line, and in the octave
stanza of the Italians, it possesses an uncommon share of elegance,
vigour, and spirit, and very frequently exhibits the facility and
raciness of original composition. That it contributed essentially
towards the improvement of our versification, may be proved from the
testimony of Dryden and Waller, the former declaring him superior
in harmony even to Spenser, and the latter confessing that he owed
the melody of his numbers to a studious imitation of his metrical
skill.[619:A]
It is greatly to be regretted that the original poetry of Fairefax,
with the exception of one piece, has been suffered to perish. It
consisted of a poetical history of the Black Prince, and twelve
Eclogues, of which the fourth is preserved by Mrs. Cooper in her Muses'
Library. This lady informs us that the eclogues were all written after
the accession of King James to the throne of England; that they were
occupied by "important subjects relating to the manners, characters,
and incidents of the times he lived in; that they were pointed with
many fine strokes of satire; dignified with wholesome lessons of
morality, and policy, to those of the highest rank; and some modest
hints even to Majesty itself;" and that the learning they contained was
"so various and extensive, that, according to the evidence of his son,
(who has written large Annotations on each,) no man's reading, beside
his own, was sufficient to explain his references effectually."[620:A]
Fairefax died about the year 1632; and, beside his poetical works, was
the author of several controversial pieces, and of a learned essay on
Demonology.
15. FITZGEFFREY, CHARLES, was a native of Cornwall, of a genteel
family, and was entered a commoner of Broadgate's hall, Oxford, in
1592. Having taken his degrees in arts, and assumed the clerical
profession, he finally became rector of St. Dominic in his own county.
In 1596, he published a poem to the memory of Sir Francis Drake,
entitled "Sir Francis Drake his honorable Life's commendation; and his
tragicall Deathe's lamentation;" 12mo. This poem, which possesses no
small portion of merit, is dedicated, in a sonnet, "to the beauteous
and vertuous Lady Elizabeth, late wife unto the highlie renowned Sir
Francis Drake, deceased," and is highly spoken of by Browne and Meres;
the former declaring that he unfolded
"The tragedie of Drake in leaves of gold;"[620:B]
and the latter asserting that "as C. Plinius wrote the life of
Pomponius secundus, so yong Cha. Fitz-Geffray, that high-touring
falcon, hath most gloriously penned the honourable life and death of
worthy Sir Francis Drake."[621:A]
As the poetry of Fitzgeffrey is very little known, we shall give the
Sonnet to Lady Drake as a pleasing specimen of his genius:
"Divorc'd by Death, but wedded still by Love,
For Love by Death can never be divorc'd;
Loe! England's dragon, thy true turtle dove,
To seeke his make is now againe enforc'd.
Like as the sparrow from the kestrel's ire,
Made his asylum in the wise man's fist:
So, he and I, his tongues-man, do require
Thy sanctuary, envie to resist.
So may heroique Drake, whose worth gave wings
Unto my Muse, that nere before could fly,
And taught her tune these harsh discordant strings
A note above her rurall minstrelsy,
Live in himselfe, and I in him may live;
Thine eyes to both vitality shall give."[621:B]
Beside his volume on Drake, Fitzgeffrey was the author of a collection
of Latin epigrams, in three books, under the title of _Affaniæ_,
printed in 8vo., 1601, and of a religious poem, called "The Blessed
Birth-day," 1634, 4to. He lived highly respected both as a poet and
divine, and died at his parsonage-house in 1636-7.
16. FLETCHER, GILES, the elder brother of Phineas Fletcher, was born
in 1588, took the degree of bachelor of divinity at Oxford, and died
at his rectory of Alderton, in Suffolk, in 1623. The production which
has given him a poet's fame, was published in 1610, under the title
of "Christ's Victory and Triumph in Heaven and Earth over and after
Death," Cambridge, 4to. It is written in stanzas of eight lines, and
divided into four parts, under the appellations of _Christs Victory
in Heaven_, his _Triumph on Earth_, his _Triumph over Death_, and his
_Triumph after Death_.
This is a poem which exhibits strong powers of description, and a
great command of language; it is, however, occasionally sullied by
conceits, and by a frequent play upon words, of which the initial
stanza is a striking proof. Our author was an ardent admirer of
Spenser, and has in many instances successfully imitated his
picturesque mode of delineation, though he has avoided following him
in the use of the prosopopeia.
17. FLETCHER, PHINEAS, who surpassed his brother in poetical genius,
took his bachelor's degree at King's College, Cambridge, in 1604, and
his master's degree in 1608. Though his poems were not published until
1633, there is convincing proof that they were written before 1610; for
Giles, at the close of his "Christ's Victory," printed in this year,
thus beautifully alludes not only to his brother's Purple Island, but
to his eclogues, as previous compositions:—
"But let the Kentish lad, that lately taught
His _oaten reed_ the trumpets silver sound,
_Young Thyrsilis_; and for his music brought
The willing spheres from Heav'n, to lead around
The dancing nymphs and swains, that sung, and crown'd
Eclectas Hymen with ten thousand flowers
Of choicest praise, and hung her heav'nly bow'rs
With saffron garlands, dress'd for nuptial paramours:
Let his shrill trumpet, with her silver blast
Of fair Eclecta, and her spousal bed,
Be the sweet pipe, and smooth encomiast:
But my green Muse, hiding her younger head,
Under old Camus's flaggy banks, that spread
Their willow locks abroad, and all the day
With their own wa'try shadows wanton play:
Dares not those high amours, and love-sick songs assay."[622:A]
It is, indeed, highly probable, that they were composed even before
he took his bachelor's degree; for, in the dedication of his "Purple
Island" to his learned friend, Edward Benlowes, Esq., he terms them
"raw essays of my very unripe years, and almost childhood."[622:B]
The "Purple Island" is an allegorical description, in twelve cantos,
of the corporeal and intellectual functions of man. Its interest
and effect have been greatly injured by a too minute investigation
of anatomical facts; the first five cantos being little else than
a lecture in rime, and productive more of disgust than any other
sensation. In the residue of the poem, the bard bursts forth with
unshackled splendour, and the passions and mental powers are
personified with great brilliancy of imagination, and great warmth of
colouring. Like his brother, however, he is defective in taste; the
great charm of composition, simplicity, is too often lost amid the
mazes of quaint conception and meretricious ornament. Yet are there
passages interspersed through this allegory, of exquisite tenderness
and sweetness, alike simple and correct in diction, chaste in creative
power, and melodious in versification.
The "Piscatory Eclogues," to novelty of scenery, add many passages
of genuine and delightful poetry, and the music of the verse is
often highly gratifying to the ear; but many of the same faults are
discernible in these pieces, which we remarked in the "Purple Island;"
pedantry and forced conceits occasionally intrude, and, though the
poet has not injured the effect of his delineations by coarseness, or
rusticity of expression, he has sometimes forgotten the simple elegance
which should designate the pastoral muse.
Our author was presented to the living of Hilgay, in Norfolk, in 1621,
and died there about the year 1650.
18. GASCOIGNE, GEORGE, the son of Sir John Gascoigne, was descended
from an ancient family in Essex, and, after a private education under
the care of Stephen Nevinson, L.L.D. he was sent to Cambridge, and from
thence to Gray's Inn, for the purpose of studying the law. Like many
men, however, of warm passions and strong imagination, he neglected
his profession for the amusements and dissipation of a court, and
having exhausted his paternal property, he found himself under the
necessity of seeking abroad, in a military capacity, that support which
he had failed to acquire at home. He accordingly accepted a Captain's
commission in Holland, in 1572, under William Prince of Orange, and
having signalised his courage at the siege of Middleburg, had the
misfortune to be captured by the Spaniards near Leyden, and, after four
month's imprisonment, revisited his native country.
He now resumed his profession and his apartments at Gray's Inn; but in
1575, on his return from accompanying Queen Elizabeth in her progress
to Kenelworth Castle, he fixed his residence at his "poore house," at
Walthamstow, where he employed himself in collecting and publishing
his poems. He was not long destined, however, to enjoy this literary
leisure; for, according to George Whetstone, who was "an eye-witness
of his godly and charitable end in this world[624:A]," he expired at
Stamford, in Lincolnshire, on the 7th of October, 1577, when he was
probably under forty years of age.[624:B]
The poetry of Gascoigne was twice collected during his life-time;
firstly, in 1572, in a quarto volume, entitled, "A Hundreth sundrie
Flowres bounde up in one small Poesie. Gathered partely (by
translation) in the fyne outlandish Gardins of Euripides, Ovid,
Petrarke, Ariosto, and others: and partly by invention, out of our
owne fruitefull Orchardes in Englande: Yielding sundrie sweet savors
of Tragical, Comical, and Morall Discourses, both pleasaunt and
profitable to the well smellyng noses of learned Readers. Meritum
petere, grave. At London, Imprinted for Richarde Smith;" and secondly
in 1575, with the title of "The Posies of George Gascoigne Esquire.
Corrected, perfected and augmented by the Authour. _Tam Marti, quam
Mercurio._ Imprinted at London by H. Bynneman for Richard Smith."
The edition is divided into three parts, under the appellation of
_Flowers_, _Hearbes_, and _Weedes_, to which are annexed "Certayne
notes of Instruction concerning the making of verse or ryme in English,
written at the request of Master Edouardo Donati."
Besides these collections, Gascoigne published separately, "The Glasse
of Government. A Tragical Comedie," 1575. "The Steele Glas. A Satyre,"
1576. "The Princely Pleasures, at the Court at Kenelworth," 1576; and
"A Delicate Diet for daintie mouthde Drunkards," a prose tract, 1576.
After his death appeared, in 1586, his tract, entitled, "The Droome of
Doomes Day;" and in 1587, was given to the world, a complete edition of
his works, in small quarto, black letter.
Gascoigne, though patronised by several illustrious characters, among
whom may be enumerated, Lord Grey of Wilton, the Earl of Bedford,
and Sir Walter Raleigh, appears to have suffered so much from the
envy and malignity of his critics, as to induce him to intimate, that
the disease of which he died, was occasioned by the irritability of
mind resulting from these attacks; and yet, as far as we have an
opportunity of judging, his contemporaries seem to have done justice
to his talents; at least Gabriel Harvey[625:A] and Arthur Hall[625:B],
Nash[625:C], Webbe[625:D], and Puttenham[625:E], have together praised
him for his wit, his imagination, and his metre; and in the Glosse
to Spenser's Calender, he is styled "the very chief of our late
rymers."[626:A]
The poetry of our author has not, in modern times, met with all the
attention which it deserves; specimens, it is true, have been selected
by Cooper, Percy, Warton, Headley, Ellis, Brydges, and Haslewood; but,
with the exception of the re-impression of 1810, in Mr. Chalmers's
English Poets, no edition of his works has been published since
1587. This is the more extraordinary, for, as the ingenious editor
just mentioned has remarked, "there are three respects in which his
claims to originality require to be noticed as æras in a history of
poetry. His Steele Glass is among the first specimens of blank verse
in our language; his Jocasta is the second theatrical piece written
in that measure; and his Supposes is the first comedy written in
prose."[626:B] Warton has pronounced him to have "much exceeded all the
poets of his age in smoothness and harmony of versification[626:C],"
an encomium which peculiarly applies to the lyrical portion of his
works, which is indeed exquisitely polished, though not altogether free
from affectation and antithesis. Among these pieces, too, is to be
discovered a considerable range of fancy, much tenderness and glow of
sentiment, and a frequent felicity of expression. In moral and didactic
poetry, he has likewise afforded us proofs approaching to excellence,
and his satire entitled "The Steele Glass," includes a curious and
minute picture of the manners and customs of the age.
To the "Supposes" of Gascoigne, a translation from the Suppotiti of
Ariosto, executed with peculiar neatness and ease, Shakspeare has been
indebted for a part of his plot of the "Taming of the Shrew."[626:D]
19. GREENE, ROBERT. Of this ingenious and prolific writer, we have
already related so many particulars, that nothing more can be wanting
here, than a brief character of his poetical genius. Were his poetry
collected from his various pamphlets and plays, of which nearly fifty
are known to be extant, a most interesting little volume might be
formed. The extreme rarity, however, of his productions, may render
this an object of no easy attainment; but of its effect a pretty
accurate idea may be acquired from what has been done by Mr. Beloe,
who, in his Anecdotes of Literature, has collected many beautiful
specimens from the following pieces of our author. _Tullie's Love_,
1616; _Penelope's Web_, 1601; _Farewell to Follie_, 1617; _Never Too
Late_, 1590; _History of Arbasto_, 1617; _Arcadia, or Menaphon_, 1589;
_Orphanion_, 1599; _Philomela_, 1592.[627:A]
Though most of the productions of Greene were written to supply the
wants of the passing hour, yet the poetical effusions scattered through
his works betray few marks of haste or slovenliness, and many of them,
indeed, may be classed among the most polished and elegant of their
day. To much warmth and fertility of fancy, they add a noble strain
of feeling and enthusiasm, together with many exquisite touches of
the pathetic, and so many impressive lessons of morality, as, in a
great measure, to atone for the licentiousness of several of his prose
tracts.[627:B]
20. HALL, JOSEPH, Bishop of Exeter and Norwich, was born on the
first of July 1574, at Brestow Park, Leicestershire. He was admitted
of Emanuel College, Cambridge, at the age of fifteen, and when
twenty-three years old, published his satires, under the title of
Virgidemiarum, Sixe Bookes. First Three Bookes of Tooth-less Satyrs:
1. Poetical; 2. Academicall; 3. Moral; printed by T. Creede for R.
Dexter 1597. The Three last Bookes of Byting Satyrs, by R. Bradock
for Dexter, 1598. Both parts were reprinted together in 1599, and have
conferred upon their author a just claim to the appellation of one of
our earliest and best satiric poets. Of the legitimate satire, indeed,
he appears to have given us the first example, an honour upon which he
justly prides himself, for, in the opening of his prologue, he tells us
"I first adventure, with fool-hardy might,
To tread the steps of perilous despight:
I first adventure, follow me who list,
And be the _second_ English satirist."
On the re-publication of the Virgidemiarum at Oxford, in 1752, Gray,
in a letter to Dr. Wharton, speaking of these satires, says, "they
are full of spirit and poetry, as much of the first as Dr. Donne, and
far more of the latter[628:A];" and Warton, at the commencement of
an elaborate and extended critique on Hall's poetic genius, in the
Fragment of his fourth volume of the History of English Poetry, gives
the following very discriminative character of these satires. They "are
marked," he observes, "with a classical precision, to which English
poetry had yet rarely attained. They are replete with animation of
style and sentiment. The indignation of the satirist is always the
result of good sense. Nor are the thorns of severe invective unmixed
with the flowers of pure poetry. The characters are delineated in
strong and lively colouring, and their discriminations are touched with
the masterly traces of genuine humour. The versification is equally
energetic and elegant, and the fabric of the couplets approaches
to the modern standard. It is no inconsiderable proof of a genius
predominating over the general taste of an age when every preacher was
a punster, to have written verses, where laughter was to be raised,
and the reader to be entertained with sallies of pleasantry, without
quibbles and conceits. His chief fault is obscurity, arising from a
remote phraseology, constrained combinations, unfamiliar allusions,
elliptical apostrophes, and abruptness of expression. Perhaps some
will think that his manner betrays too much of the laborious exactness
and pedantic anxiety of the scholar and the student. Ariosto in
Italian, and Regnier in French, were now almost the only modern
writers of satire; and I believe there had been an English translation
of Ariosto's Satires. But Hall's acknowledged patterns are Juvenal
and Persius, not without some touches of the urbanity of Horace.
His parodies of these poets, or rather his adaptations of ancient
to modern manners, a mode of imitation not unhappily practised by
Oldham, Rochester, and Pope, discover great facility and dexterity of
invention. The moral gravity and the censorial declamation of Juvenal,
he frequently enlivens with a train of more refined reflection, or
adorns with a novelty and variety of images."[629:A]
The Satires of Hall exhibit a very minute and curious picture of
the literature and manners, the follies and vices of his times, and
numerous quotations in the course of our work will amply prove the wit,
the sagacity, and the elegance of his Muse. Poetry was the occupation
merely of his youth, the vigour and decline of his days being employed
in the composition of professional works, calculated, by their piety,
eloquence, and originality, to promote, in the most powerful manner,
the best interests of morality and religion. This great and good man
died, after a series of persecution from the republican party, at his
little estate at Heigham, near Norwich, on the 8th of September 1656,
and in the eighty-second year of his age.
21. HARINGTON, SIR JOHN. Among the numerous translators of the
Elizabethan period, this gentleman merits peculiar notice, as
having, through the medium of his Ariosto, "enriched our poetry by
a communication of new stores of fiction and imagination, both of
the romantic and comic species, of Gothic machinery and familiar
manners."[629:B] His version of the Orlando Furioso, of which the
first edition was published in 1591, procured him a large share of
celebrity. Stowe, in his Annals, has classed him among those "excellent
poets which worthily flourish, in their own works, and lived together
in Queen Elizabeth's reign[630:A];" and Fuller[630:B], Philips, Dryden,
and others, to the middle of the eighteenth century, have spoken of
him in terms of similar commendation. In point of poetical execution,
however, his translation, whatever might be its incidental operation
on our poetic literature, must now be considered as vulgar, tame, and
inaccurate. Sir John was born at Kelston near Bath, in 1561, and died
there in 1612, aged fifty-one. His "Epigrams," in four Books, were
published after his death; first in 1615, when the fourth book alone
was printed; again in 1618, including the whole collection; and a third
time in 1625, small 8vo.[630:C] The poetical merit of these pieces is
very trifling, but they throw light upon contemporary character and
manners.[630:D]
22. JONSON, BENJAMIN. Of this celebrated poet, the friend and companion
of Shakspeare, a very brief notice, and limited to his minor pieces,
will here be necessary, as his dramatic works and some circumstances of
his life, will hereafter occupy their due share of attention. His poems
were divided by himself into "Epigrams," "The Forest," "Under-woods,"
and a translation of "Horace's Art of Poetrie;" to which his late
editors have added, "Miscellaneous Pieces." The _general_ cast of
these poems is not such as will recommend them to a modern ear; they
are but too often cold and affected; but occasionally, instances of a
description the very reverse of these epithets, are to be found, where
simplicity and beauty of expression constitute the prominent features.
It is chiefly, if not altogether, among his minor pieces in the lyric
measure that we meet with this peculiar neatness and concinnity of
diction: thus, in "The Forest," the lines from Catullus, beginning
"Come, my Celia, let us prove," and the well-known song
"Drink to me only with thine eyes;"
in the "Underwoods," the stanzas commencing
"For Love's sake kisse me once again;"
"Or scorne, or pittie on me take;"
and, among his "Songs," these with the initial lines
"Queene and huntresse, chaste and faire;"
"Still to be neat, still to be drest;"
are striking proofs of these excellencies.
We must also remark that, among his "Epistles" and "Miscellaneous
Pieces," there are discoverable a few very conspicuous examples of the
union of correct and nervous sentiment with singular force and dignity
of elocution. Of this happy combination, the Lines to the Memory of
Shakspeare, an eulogium which will claim our attention in a future
page, may be quoted as a brilliant model.
23. LODGE, THOMAS, M. D. This gentleman, though possessing celebrity,
in his day, as a physician, is chiefly entitled to the attention of
posterity as a poet. He was a native of Lincolnshire, and born about
1556; educated at Oxford, of which he became a member about 1573, and
died of the plague at London, in September 1625. He has the double
honour of being the first who published, in our language, a Collection
of Satires, so named, and of having suggested to Shakspeare the plot of
his AS YOU LIKE IT. Philips, in his Theatrum Poetarum, characterises
him as "one of the writers of those pretty old pastoral songs, which
were very much the strain of those times[632:A];" but has strangely
overlooked his satirical powers; these, however, have been noticed by
Meres, who remarks, that "as Horace, Lucilius, Juvenal, Persius and
Lucullus are the best for Satyre among the Latins, so with us in the
same faculty, these are chiefe: Piers Plowman, LODGE, Hall of Emanuel
Colledge in Cambridge, the author of Pigmalion's Image," &c.[632:B] The
work which gives him precedence, as a writer of professed satires, is
entitled "A FIG FOR MOMUS; containing pleasant Varietie, included in
_Satyrs_, Eclogues, and Epistles, by T. L. of Lincolnes Inne, Gent."
1595.[632:C] It is dedicated to "William, Earle of Darbie," and though
published two years before the appearance of Hall's Satires, possesses
a spirit, ease and harmony, which that more celebrated poet has not
surpassed. Than the following lines, selected from the first satire, we
know few which, in the same department, can establish a better claim to
vigour, truth, and melody:—
"All men are willing with the world to haulte,
But no man takes delight to knowe his faulte—
Tell bleer-eid Linus that his sight is cleere,
Heele pawne himselfe to buy thee bread and beere;—
Find me a niggard that doth want the shift
To call his cursed avarice good thrift;
A rakehell sworne to prodigalitie,
That dares not terme it liberalitie;
A letcher that hath lost both flesh and fame,
That holds not letcherie a pleasant game:—
Thus with the world, the world dissembles still,
And to their own confusions follow will,
Holding it true felicitie to flie,
Not from the sinne, but from the seeing eie."[633:A]
The debt of Shakspeare to our author is to be found in a pamphlet
entitled "Rosalynde: Euphues Golden Legacie, found after his Death in
his Cell at Silexdra, by T. L. Gent." The poetical pieces interspersed
through this tract correspond with the character given of Lodge's
composition by Phillips; for they are truly pastoral, and are finished
in a style of great sweetness, delicacy, and feeling. Want of taste,
or want of intimacy with this production, has induced Mr. Steevens to
give a very improper estimate of it; "Shakspeare," he remarks, "has
followed Lodge's novel more exactly than is his general custom when he
is indebted to such _worthless_ originals; and has sketched some of his
principal characters, and borrowed a few expressions from it."[633:B]
The poetry of Lodge is to be gleaned from his pamphlets; particularly
from the two which we have mentioned, and from the two now to be
enumerated, namely, "Phillis: honoured with pastorall sonnets, elegies
and amorous delights. Where-unto is annexed, the tragicall complaynt
of Elstred," 1593, 4to., and "A most pleasant historie of Glaucus and
Scilla: with many excellent poems, and delectable sonnets," 1610, 4to.
He contributed, likewise, to the Collections termed _The Phœnix Nest_,
1593, and _England's Helicon_, 1600; and in the Preface, by Sir
Egerton Brydges, to the third edition of the latter Miscellany, so just
a tribute is paid to his genius as imperatively demands insertion; more
particularly if we consider the obscurity into which this poet has
fallen. "In ancient writings," observes the critic, "we frequently
meet with beautiful passages; but whole compositions are seldom free
from the most striking inequalities; from inharmonious verses; from
lame, or laboured and quaint expressions; and creeping or obscure
thoughts. In Lodge we find whole pastorals and odes, which have all
the ease, polish, and elegance of a modern author. How natural is
the sentiment, and how sweet the expression of the following in _Old
Damon's Pastoral_:
"Homely hearts do harbour quiet;
Little fear, and mickle solace;
States suspect their bed and diet;
Fear and craft do haunt the palace.
Little would I, little want I,
Where the mind and store agreeth;
Smallest comfort is not scanty;
Least he longs that little seeth.
Time hath been that I have longed.
Foolish I to like of folly,
To converse where honour thronged,
To my pleasures linked wholly:
Now I see, and seeing sorrow
That the day consum'd returns not:
Who dare trust upon to-morrow,
When nor time nor life sojourns not!"
"How charmingly he breaks out in _The Solitary Shepherd's Song_:—
"O shady vale, O fair enriched meads,
O sacred flowers, sweet fields, and rising mountains;
O painted flowers, green herbs where Flora treads,
Refresh'd by wanton winds and watry fountains!"
"Is there one word or even accent obsolete in this picturesque and
truly poetical stanza?
"But if such a tender and moral fancy be ever allowed to trifle, is
there any thing of the same kind in the whole compass of English poetry
more exquisite, more delicately imagined, or expressed with more
finished and happy artifice of language, than Rosalind's Madrigal,
beginning—
"Love in my bosom, like a bee,
Doth suck his sweet:
Now with his wings he plays with me,
Now with his feet.
Within mine eyes he makes his rest;
His bed amidst my tender breast;
My kisses are his daily feast;
And yet he robs me of my rest.
Ah, wanton, will ye?"—
"Compare Dr. Lodge not only with his cotemporaries but his successors,
and who, except Breton, has so happily anticipated the taste,
simplicity, and purity of the most refined age."[635:A]
Beside his miscellaneous poetry, Lodge published two dramatic
pieces[635:B], and may be considered as a voluminous prose writer.
Seven of his prose tracts are described by Mr. Beloe[635:C], and he
translated the works of Josephus and Luc. An. Seneca.[635:D]
24. MARLOW, CHRISTOPHER. As the fame of this poet, though once in high
repute as a dramatic writer, is now supported merely by one of his
miscellaneous pieces, which is, indeed, of exquisite beauty, it has
been thought necessary briefly to introduce him here; a more extended
notice being deferred to a subsequent page. His earliest attempt
appeared in 1587, when he was about twenty-five years of age, in a
Translation of Coluthus's Rape of Helen into English rhyme. This was
followed by "Certaine of Ovid's Elegies," licensed in 1593, but not
printed until 1596. His next and happiest version was given to the
public in 1598, under the title of "The Loves of Hero and Leander,"
being, like the preceding, a posthumous publication; for the author
died prematurely in 1593, leaving this translation, of which the
original is commonly but erroneously ascribed to Musæus, unfinished.
Phillips, in his character of Marlow, comparing him with Shakspeare,
says, that he resembled him not only in his dramatic circumstances,
"but also because in his begun poem of Hero and Leander, he seems to
have a resemblance of that clean, and unsophisticated wit, which is
natural to that incomparable poet."[636:A] Marlow translated also
"Lucans first booke, line for line," in blank verse, which was licensed
in 1593, and printed in 1600; but the production which has given him a
claim to immortality, and which has retained its popularity even to the
present day, first made its appearance in "England's Helicon," under
the appellation of _The Passionate Shepheard to his Love_. Of an age
distinguished for the excellence of its rural poetry, this is, without
doubt, the most admirable and finished pastoral.
25. MARSTON, JOHN, who has a claim to introduction here, from his
powers as a satirical poet. In 1598, he published "The Metamorphosis,
or Pigmalion's Image. And certaine Satyres." Of these the former is
an elegant and luxurious description of a well-known fable, and to
this sportive effusion Shakspeare seems to allude in his "Measure for
Measure," where Lucio exclaims, "What, is there none of Pygmalion's
images, newly made woman, to be had now?"[636:B] His fame as a satirist
was established the year following, by the appearance of his "Scourge
of Villanie. Three Bookes of Satyres."
A reprint of these pieces was given to the world by Mr. Bowles, in the
year 1764, who terms the author the "_British Persius_," and adds, that
very little is recorded of him with certainty. "Antony a Wood," he
remarks, "who is generally exact in his accounts of men, and much to be
relied upon, is remarkably deficient with respect to him; indeed there
seems to be little reason to think he was of Oxford: it is certain from
his works, that he was of Cambridge, where he was cotemporary with Mr.
Hall, with whom, as it appears from his satyre, called Reactio, and
from the Scourge of Villanie, sat. 10., he had some dispute.—It has
not been generally known who was the author of Pigmalion and the five
satyres: but that they belong to Marston is clear from the sixth and
tenth satyres of the Scourge of Villanie: and to this may be added the
evidence of the collector of England's Parnassus, printed 1600, who
cites the five first lines of the dedication to opinion, prefixed to
Pigmalion by the name of J. Marston, p. 221."
"These satyres," says Mr. Warton, "in his observations on Spenser,
contain many well drawn characters, and several good strokes of
a satyrical genius, but are not, upon the whole, so finished and
classical as Bishop Hall's: the truth is, they were satyrists of a
different cast: Hall turned his pen against his cotemporary writers,
and particularly versifiers; _Marston_ chiefly inveighed against the
growing foibles and vices of the age."[637:A]
There is undoubtedly a want of polish in the satirical muse of
Marston, which seems, notwithstanding, the result rather of design
than inability; for the versification of "Pigmalion's Image," is in
many of its parts highly melodious. Strength, verging upon coarseness,
is, however, the characteristic of the "Scourge of Villanie," and may
warrant the assertion of the author of "The Returne from Parnassus,"
that he was "a ruffian in his stile."[637:B] Yet he is highly
complimented by Fitz-Geoffry, no mean judge of poetical merit, who
declares that he is
—————— "satyrarum proxima primæ,
Primaque, fas primas si numerare duas."[637:C]
26. NICCOLS, RICHARD. This elegant poet was born in 1584, was entered
of Magdalen College, Oxford, 1602, and took his bachelor's degree
in 1606. In 1607, he published "The Cuckow, a Poem," in the couplet
measure, which displays very vivid powers of description. His next
work was a new and enlarged edition of "The Mirror for Magistrates,"
dated 1610, and to which, as a third and last part, he has added,
with a distinct title, "A Winter Night's Vision. Being an Addition
of such Princes, especially famous, who were exempted in the former
Historie. By Richard Niccols, Oxon. Magd. Hall, &c." This supplement
consists of an Epistle to the Reader, a Sonnet to Lord Charles Howard,
an Induction, and the Lives of King Arthur; Edmund Ironside; Prince
Alfred; Godwin, Earl of Kent; Robert Curthose; King Richard the First;
King John; King Edward the Second; the two young Princes murdered in
the Tower, and King Richard the Third; a selection, to which, with
little accordancy, he has subjoined, in the octave stanza, a poem
entitled "England's Eliza: or the victorious and triumphant reigne of
that virgin empresse of sacred memorie, Elizabeth Queene of Englande,
&c." This is preceded by a Sonnet to Lady Elizabeth Clere, an Epistle
to the Reader, and an Induction.
Niccols' addition to this popular series of Legends merits considerable
praise, exhibiting many touches of the pathetic, and several
highly-wrought proofs of a strong and picturesque imagination. In the
Legend of Richard the Third, he appears to have studied with great
effect the Drama of Shakspeare.
In 1615, our author published "Monodia: or, Waltham's Complaint upon
the Death of the most virtuous and noble Lady, late deceased, the Lady
Honor Hay;" and in the subsequent year, an elaborate poem, under the
title of "London's Artillery, briefly containing the noble practise
of that worthie Societie; with the moderne and ancient martiall
exercises, natures of armes, vertue of Magistrates, Antiquitie, Glorie
and Chronography of this honourable Cittie." 4to.[638:A] This work,
dedicated to "the Right Honourable Sir John Jolles, Knight, Lord
Maior," &c. is introduced by two Sonnets, a Preface to the Reader, and
a metrical Induction; it consists of ten cantos, in couplets, with
copious illustrative notes; but, in point of poetical execution, is
greatly inferior to his Cuckow, and Winter Night's Vision. Niccols,
after residing several years at Oxford, left that University for the
capital, where, records Wood, he "obtained an employment suitable to
his faculty."[639:A]
27. RALEIGH, SIR WALTER. Of this great, this high-minded, but
unfortunate man, it will not be expected that, in his military,
naval, or political character, any detail should here be given; it is
only with Sir Walter, as a poet, that we are at present engaged, and
therefore, after stating that he was born in 1552, at Hayes Farm, in
the parish of Budley in Devonshire, and that, to the eternal disgrace
of James the First, he perished on a scaffold in 1618, we proceed to
record the singular circumstance, that, until the year 1813, no lover
of our literature has thought it necessary to collect his poetry.
The task, however, has at length been performed, in a most elegant
and pleasing manner, by Sir Egerton Brydges[639:B], and we have only
to regret that the pieces which he has been able to throw together,
should prove so few. Yet we may be allowed to express some surprise,
that two poems quoted as Sir Walter's in Sir Egerton's edition of
Phillips's "Theatrum Poetarum," should not have found a place in
this collection. Of these, the first is attributed to Raleigh, on
the authority of MSS. in the British Museum, and is entitled, "Sir
Walter Raleigh in the Unquiet Rest of his last Sickness," a production
equally admirable for its sublimity and Christian morality, and for the
strength and concinnity of its expression[639:C]; the second, of which
the closing couplet is quoted by Puttenham[639:D] as our author's, is
given entire by Oldys from a transcript by Lady Isabella Thynne, where
it is designated as "The Excuse written by Sir Walter Raleigh in his
younger years[639:E]," and though vitiated by conceit, appears to be
well authenticated. These, together with two fragments preserved by
Puttenham[640:A], would have proved welcome additions to the volume,
and, with the exception of his "Cynthia," a poem in praise of the
Queen, and now lost, might probably have included all that has been
attributed to the muse of Raleigh.
The poetry of our bard seems to have been highly valued in his own
days; Puttenham says, that "for dittie and amorous ode, I finde Sir
Walter Rawleygh's vayne most loftie, insolent, and passionate[640:B];"
and Bolton affirms, that "the English poems of Sir Walter Raleigh
are not easily to be mended[640:C];" opinions which, even in the
nineteenth century, a perusal of his poems will tend to confirm. Of
vigour of diction, and moral energy of thought, the pieces entitled,
"_A Description of the Country's Recreations_;" a "_Vision upon the
Fairy Queen_;" the "_Farewell_," and the _Lines_ written in "_his last
Sickness_," may be quoted as exemplars: and for amatory sweetness, and
pastoral simplicity, few efforts will be found to surpass the poems
distinguished as "_Phillida's Love-call_;" "_The Shepherd's Description
of Love_;" the "_Answer to Marlow_," and "_The Silent Lover_."
The general estimate of Raleigh as a poet, has been sketched by
Sir E. Brydges with his usual felicity of illustration, and as the
impression with which he has favoured the public is very limited, and
must necessarily soon become extremely scarce, a transcript from this
portion of his introductory matter, will have its due value with the
reader.
"Do I pronounce RALEIGH a poet? Not, perhaps, in the judgment of a
severe criticism. RALEIGH, in his better days, was too much occupied
in action to have cultivated all the powers of a poet, which require
solitude and perpetual meditation, and a refinement of sensibility,
such as intercourse with business and the world deadens!
"But, perhaps, it will be pleaded, that his long years of imprisonment
gave him leisure for meditation, more than enough! It has been
beautifully said by Lovelace, that
"Stone walls do not a prison make,
Nor iron bars a cage,"
so long as the mind is free. But broken spirits, and indescribable
injuries and misfortunes, do not agree with the fervour required by the
Muse. Hope, that 'sings of promised pleasure,' could never visit him
in his dreary bondage; and Ambition, whose lights had hitherto led him
through difficulties and dangers and sufferings, must now have kept
entirely aloof from one, whose fetters disabled him to follow as a
votary in her train. Images of rural beauty, quiet, and freedom might,
perhaps, have added, by the contrast, to the poignancy of his present
painful situation; and he might rather prefer the severity of mental
labour in unravelling the dreary and comfortless records of perplexing
History in remote ages of war and bloodshed, than to quicken his
sensibilities by lingering amid the murmurs of Elysian waterfalls!
"There are times when we dare not stir our feelings or our fancies;
when the only mode of reconciling ourselves to the excruciating
pressure of our sorrows is the encouragement of a dull apathy, which
will allow none but the coarser powers of the intellect to operate.
"The production of an _Heroic Poem_ would have nobly employed this
illustrious Hero's mighty faculties, during the lamentable years of
his unjust incarceration. But how could _He_ delight to dwell on the
tale of Heroes, to whom the result of Heroism had been oppression,
imprisonment, ruin, and condemnation to death?
"We have no proof that RALEIGH possessed the copious, vivid, and
creative powers of Spenser; nor is it probable that any cultivation
would have brought forth from him fruit equally rich. But even in
the careless fragments now presented to the reader, I think we can
perceive some traits of attraction and excellence which, perhaps, even
Spenser wanted. If less diversified than that gifted bard, he would,
I think, have sometimes been more forcible and sublime. His images
would have been more gigantic, and his reflections more daring. With
all his mental attention keenly bent on the busy state of existing
things in political society, the range of his thoughts had been lowered
down to practical wisdom; but other habits of intellectual exercise,
excursions into the ethereal fields of fiction, and converse with the
spirits which inhabit those upper regions, would have given a grasp
and a colour to his conceptions as magnificent as the fortitude of his
soul!"[642:A]
28. SACKVILLE, THOMAS, Lord Buckhurst, was born at Withyam, in Sussex,
in 1527.[642:B] Though a statesman of some celebrity in the reign of
Elizabeth, his fame with posterity rests entirely on his merits as a
poet, and these are of the highest order. He possesses the singular
felicity of being the first writer of a genuine English tragedy, and
the primary inventor of "The Mirrour for Magistrates;" two obligations
conferred upon poetry of incalculable extent.
Of Gorboduc, which was acted in 1561, and surreptitiously printed in
1563, we shall elsewhere have occasion to speak, confining our notice,
in this place, to his celebrated _Induction_ and _Legend of Henry
Duke of Buckingham_, which were first published in the _Second Part_
and _Second Edition of Baldwin's Mirrour for Magistrates_, printed
in 1563. To this collection we are, indeed, most highly indebted, if
the observation of Lord Orford be correct:—"Our historic plays," he
remarks, "are allowed to have been founded on the heroic narratives in
the Mirrour for Magistrates; to that plan, and to the boldness of lord
Buckhurst's new scenes, perhaps we owe SHAKSPEARE!"[642:C]
Our gratitude to this nobleman will be still further enhanced, when
we recollect, that he was more assuredly a model for _Spenser_,
the allegorical pictures in his _Induction_ being, in the opinion
of Warton, "so beautifully drawn, that, in all probability, they
contributed to direct, at least to stimulate, Spenser's imagination."
In fact, whoever reads this noble poem of Lord Buckhurst with attention
must feel convinced, that it awoke into being the allegorical groupes
of Spenser; and that, in force of imagination, in pathos, and in awful
and picturesque delineation, it is not inferior to any canto of the
Fairie Queen. Indeed from the nature of its plan, the scene being laid
in hell, and _Sorrow_ being the conductor of the hapless complainants,
it often assumes a deeper tone and exhibits a more sombre hue than the
muse of Spenser, and more in consonance with the severer intonations of
the harp of Dante. How greatly is it to be lamented that the effusions
of this divine bard are limited to the pieces which we have enumerated,
and that so early in life he deserted the fountains of inspiration,
to embark on a troubled sea of politics. Lord Buckhurst died, full of
honours, at the Council-Table at Whitehall, on April 19th, 1608, aged
eighty-one.
Sir Egerton Brydges, speaking of his magnificent seat at Knowle in
West-Kent, tells us, that, "though restored with all the freshness
of modern art, it retains the character and form of its Elizabethan
splendour. The visitor may behold the same walls, and walk in the same
apartments, which witnessed the inspiration of him, who composed _The
Induction_, and _the Legend of the Duke of Buckingham_! He may sit
under the same oaks, and behold, arrayed in all the beauty of art,
the same delightful scenery, which cherished the day-dreams of the
glowing poet! Perchance he may behold the same shadowy beings glancing
through the shades, and exhibiting themselves in all their picturesque
attitudes to his entranced fancy!"[643:A]
29. SOUTHWELL, ROBERT. This amiable but unfortunate Roman Catholic
Priest was born at St. Faith's in Norfolk, 1560; he was educated at
the University of Douay, became a member of the Society of Jesus at
Rome, when but sixteen, and finally prefect in the English college
there. Being sent as a missionary to England, in 1584, he was betrayed
and apprehended in 1592, and after being imprisoned three years, and
racked ten times, he was executed, as an agent for Popery, at Tyburn,
on the 21st of February 1595.
Whatever may have been his religious intemperance or enthusiasm, his
works, as a poet and a moralist, place him in a most favourable light;
and we are unwilling to credit, that he who was thus elevated, just,
and persuasive in his writings, could be materially incorrect in his
conduct. In 1595, appeared his "Saint Peters Complaint, with other
poems:" 4to., which went through a second impression in the same
year, and was followed by "Mœoniæ. Or certaine excellent poems and
spiritual Hymns; omitted in the last impression of Peter's complaint;
being needefull thereunto to be annexed, as being both divine and
wittie," 1595-1596. 4to. These two articles contain his poetical works;
his other publications, under the titles of "Marie Magdalen's Funerall
Tears;" "The Triumphs over Death; or a consolatorie Epistle, for
afflicted minds, in the effects of dying friends," and "Short Rules of
Good Life," being tracts in prose, though interspersed with occasional
pieces of poetry.
The productions of Southwell, notwithstanding the unpopularity of his
religious creed, were formerly in great request; "it is remarkable,"
observes Mr. Ellis, "that the very few copies of his works which are
now known to exist, are the remnant of at least seventeen different
editions, of which eleven were printed between 1593 and 1600."[644:A]
The most ample edition of his labours was printed in 1620 in 16mo., and
exhibits five distinct title-pages to the several pieces which we have
just enumerated.
Bolton in his "Hypercritica," written about 1616, does credit, to
his taste, by remarking that "never must be forgotten St. Peter's
Complaint, and those other serious poems, said to be father
Southwells: the English whereof, as it is most proper, so the
sharpness and light of wit is very rare in them."[645:A] From this
period, however, oblivion seems to have hidden the genius of Southwell
from observation, until Warton, by reproducing the criticism of Bolton,
in the third volume of his History of English Poetry 1781, recalled
attention to the neglected bard. Two years afterwards, Mr. Waldron,
in his notes to Ben Jonson's Sad Shepherd, gave us three specimens of
Southwell's poetry; Mr. Headley reprinted these in 1787[645:B]; Mr.
Ellis extracted an additional piece from the "Mœoniæ" in 1801; in 1802
Ritson presented us with a list of his writings accompanied by the
notes of Mr. Park[645:C]; and lastly, in 1808, Mr. Haslewood favoured
us with an essay on his life and works.[645:D]
Both the poetry and the prose of Southwell possess the most decided
merit; the former, which is almost entirely restricted to moral and
religious subjects, flows in a vein of great harmony, perspicuity, and
elegance, and breathes a fascination resulting from the subject and
the pathetic mode of treating it, which fixes and deeply interests the
reader.
Mr. Haslewood, on concluding his essay on Southwell, remarks, that
"those who 'least love the religion,' still must admire and praise the
author, and regret that neither his simple strains in prose, nor his
'polished metre,' have yet obtained a collected edition of his works
for general readers." The promise of such an edition escaped from
the pen of Mr. Headley; at least it was his intention to re-publish
"the better part of Southwell's poetry;" but death, most unhappily,
precluded the attempt.
30. SPENSER, EDMUND. This great poet, who was born in London in 1553,
has acquired an ever-during reputation in pastoral and epic poetry,
especially in the last. His "Shepheard's Calender: conteining twelve
aeglogues, proportionable to the twelve monethes," was published in
1579; it is a work which has conferred upon him the title of the
Father of the English pastoral, and has almost indissolubly associated
his name with those of Theocritus and Virgil. Yet two great defects
have contributed deeply to injure the popularity of his Calender;
the adoption of a language much too old and obsolete for the age in
which it was written, and the too copious introduction of satire on
ecclesiastical affairs. The consequence of this latter defect, this
incongruous mixture of church polemics, has been, that the aeglogues
for May, July, and September, are any thing but pastorals. Simplicity
of diction is of the very essence of perfection in pastoral poetry; but
vulgar, rugged, and obscure terms, can only be productive of disgust;
a result which was felt and complained of by the contemporaries of the
poet, and which not all the ingenuity of his old commentator, E. K.,
can successfully palliate or defend. The pieces which have been least
injured by this "ragged and rustical rudeness," as the scholiast aptly
terms it, are the pastorals for January, June, October and December,
which are indeed very beautiful, and the genuine offspring of the rural
reed.
It is, however, to the _Fairie Queene_ that we must refer for a
just delineation of this illustrious bard. It appears to have been
commenced about the year 1579; the first three books were printed in
1590, and the fourth, fifth, and sixth, in 1596. Whether the remaining
six books, which were to have completed the design, were finished or
not, continues yet unascertained; Browne, the author of Britannias
Pastorals[646:A], and Sir Aston Cokain[646:B], consider the poem to
have been left nearly in its present unfinished state; while Sir James
Ware asserts[646:C] that the latter books were lost by the carelessness
of the poet's servant whom he had sent before him into England on
the breaking out of the rebellion, and, what seems still more to the
purpose, Sir John Stradling, a contemporary of Spenser, and a highly
respectable character, positively declares that some of his manuscripts
were burnt when his house in Ireland was fired by the rebels.[647:A]
Now, as two cantos of a lost book, entitled _The Legend of Constancy_,
were actually published in 1609 as a part of Spenser's manuscripts
which had escaped the conflagration of his castle, it is highly
probable that the declaration of Sir John Stradling is correct, and
that the poet, if he did not absolutely finish the Fairie Queene, had
made considerable progress in the work, and that his labours perished
with his mansion.
The defects which have vitiated the _Shepheard's Calender_, are not
apparent in the _Fairie Queene_; the charge of obsolete diction, which
has been so generally urged against the latter poem, must have arisen
from the just censure which, in this respect, was bestowed upon the
former, and the transference may be considered as a striking proof of
critical negligence, and of the long-continued influence of opinion,
however erroneous. The language of the Fairie Queene is, in fact, the
language of the era in which it was written, and even in the present
day, with few and trifling exceptions, as intelligible as are the texts
of Shakspeare and Milton.[647:B]
Had Spenser, in this admirable poem, preserved greater unity in the
construction of his fable; had he, following the example of Ariosto,
employed human instead of allegorical heroes, he would undoubtedly
have been at once the noblest and most interesting of poets. But, as
it is, the warmest admirer of his numerous excellencies must confess,
that the Personifications which conduct the business of the poem, and
are consequently exposed to the broad day-light of observation, are
too unsubstantial in their form and texture, too divested of all human
organisation, to become the subjects of attachment or anxiety. They
flit before us, indeed, as mere abstract and metaphysical essences, as
beings neither of this nor any other order of planetary existence. A
witch, a fairy, or a magician, is a creation sufficiently blended with
humanity, to be capable of exciting very powerful emotion; but the
meteor-shades of Holiness or Chastity, personally conducting a long
series of adventures, is a contrivance so very remote from all earthly,
or even what we conceive of supernatural, agency, as to baffle and
revolt the credulities of the reader, however ductile or acquiescent.
Yet, notwithstanding these great and obvious errors in the very
foundation of the structure, the merits of Spenser in every other
respect are of so decided and exalted a nature, as to place him,
in spite of every deduction, in the same class with Homer, Dante,
Shakspeare, and Milton. His versification is, in general, uncommonly
sweet and melodious; his powers of description such, with respect
to beauty, fidelity, and minute finishing, as have not since been
equalled; while in strength, brilliancy, and fertility of imagination,
it will be no hyperbole to assert, that he takes precedence of almost
every poet ancient or modern.
One peculiar and endearing characteristic of the Fairie Queene, is the
exquisite tenderness which pervades the whole poem. It is impossible
indeed to read it without being in love with the author, without being
persuaded that the utmost sweetness of disposition, and the purest
sincerity and goodness of heart distinguished him who thus delighted
to unfold the kindest feelings of our nature, and whose language, by
its singular simplicity and energy, seems to breathe the very stamp and
force of truth. How grateful is it to record, that the personal conduct
of the bard corresponded with the impression resulting from his works;
that gentleness, humility, and piety, were the leading features of his
life, as they still are the most delightful characteristics of his
poetry.[649:A]
Yet amiable and engaging as is the general cast of Spenser's genius, he
has nevertheless exhibited the most marked excellence as a delineator
of those passions and emotions which approach to, or constitute, the
sublime. No where do we find the agitations of fear, astonishment,
terror, and despair, drawn with such bold and masterly relief; they
start in living energy from his pen, and bear awful witness to the
grandeur and elevation of his powers.
It is almost superfluous to add, after what has been already
observed, that the morality of the Fairie Queene is throughout pure
and impressive. It is a poem which, more than any other, inculcates
those mild and passive virtues, that patience, resignation, and
forbearance, which owe their influence to Christian principles. While
vice and intemperance are developed in all their hideous deformity,
those self-denying efforts, those benevolent and social sympathies,
which soften and endear existence, are painted in the most bewitching
colours: it is, in short, a work from the study of which no human being
can rise without feeling fresh incitement to cherish and extend the
charities of life.
Spenser died comparatively, though not actually, indigent, on the 16th
of January, 1598.
31. STIRLING, WILLIAM ALEXANDER, EARL OF. This accomplished nobleman
was born at Menstrie, in the county of Clackmannan, Scotland, 1580,
a descendant of the family of Macdonald. He was a favourite both of
James the First, and of his son Charles, and by the latter was created
Viscount Canada, and subsequently Earl of Stirling. From an early
period he gave promise of more than common genius, and his attachment
to poetry was fostered, as in Drummond, by the sorrows of unrequited
love. To the stimulus of this powerful passion we are indebted for his
"Aurora: containing the first Fancies of the Author's Youth," 4to.,
which was published, together with some other pieces, in 1604. This
elegant production, the solace of a rural retreat, on his return from
a tour on the continent, consists of one hundred and six sonnets, ten
songs or odes, some madrigals, elegies, &c., and places the talents of
the writer in a very favourable point of view: for the versification
is often peculiarly harmonious, and many beauties, both in imagery and
sentiment, are interspersed through the collection, which, though a
juvenile production, must be pronounced the most poetical of his works.
The diction approximates, indeed, so nearly to that of the present
century, that a specimen may be considered as a curiosity, and will
confirm the assertion of Lord Orford, that he "was _greatly superior
to the style of his age_."[650:A] With the exception of a little
quaintness in the second line, the subsequent sonnet will equal the
expectation of the reader:—
SONNET X.
"I SWEARE, Aurora, by thy starrie eyes,
And by those golden lockes whose locke none slips,
And by the corall of thy rosie lippes,
And by the naked snowes which beautie dies;
I sweare by all the jewels of thy mind,
Whose like yet never worldly treasure bought,
Thy solide judgement and thy generous thought,
Which in this darkened age have clearly shin'd:
I sweare by those, and by my spotless love,
And by my secret, yet most fervent fires,
That I have never nurc'd but chast desires,
And such as modestie might well approve.
Then since I love those vertuous parts in thee,
Shouldst thou not love this vertuous mind in me?"[650:B]
The remaining poems of Stirling consist of four tragedies in alternate
rhyme, termed by their author "monarchicke;" namely, Darius, published
in 1603; Crœsus, in 1604; and the Alexandrean Tragedy, and Julius
Cæsar, in 1607. These pieces are not calculated for the stage; but
include some admirable lessons for sovereign power, and several
choruses written with no small share of poetic vigour. With the Aurora
in 1604, appeared his poem entitled, "A Parænesis to the Prince," a
production of great value both in a moral and literary light, and which
must have been highly acceptable to a character so truly noble as was
that of Henry, to whose memory he paid a pleasing tribute, by printing
an "Elegie on his Death," in 1612.
The most elaborate of this nobleman's works was given to the public at
Edinburgh, in 1614, in 4to., and entitled, "Domes-day; or the great
Day of the Lord's Judgment." It is divided into twelve _Houres_ or
_Cantos_, and has an encomium prefixed by Drummond. Piety and sound
morality, expressed often in energetic diction, form the chief merit
of this long poem, for it has little pretension to either sublimity or
pathos. It had excited, however, the attention of Addison; for when the
first two books of Domes-day were re-printed by A. Johnstoun in 1720,
their editor tells us, "that Addison had read the author's whole works
with the greatest satisfaction; and had remarked, that 'the beauties
of our ancient English poets were too slightly passed over by modern
writers, who, out of a peculiar singularity, had rather take pains to
find fault than endeavour to excel.'"[651:A]
Lord Stirling republished the whole of his poetical works, with the
exception of the "Aurora," in 1637, in a folio volume, including a new
but unfinished poem, under the title of _Jonathan_. This impression had
undergone a most assiduous revision, and was the last labour of its
author, who died on the 12th of February, 1640, in his sixtieth year.
32. SYDNEY, SIR PHILIP, one of the most heroic and accomplished
characters in the annals of England, was born at Penshurst[652:A],
in West Kent, on Nov. 29th, 1554, and died at the premature age of
thirty-one, on the 17th of October, 1586, having been mortally wounded
on the 26th of the preceding September, in a desperate engagement
near Zutphen. "As he was returning from the field of battle," records
his friend, Lord Brooke, "pale, languid, and thirsty with excess of
bleeding, he asked for water to quench his thirst. The water was
brought; and had no sooner approached his lips, than he instantly
resigned it to a dying soldier, whose ghastly countenance attracted his
notice—speaking these ever-memorable words; _This_ man's necessity is
still greater than mine."[652:B]