"And Tavy in my rhymes
Challenge a due; let it thy glory be
That famous Drake and I were born by thee."
The First Book of 'Britannia's Pastorals' was written before its author
was twenty, and was published in 1631. The Second Book appeared in 1616,
and both were reprinted in 1625. The Third Book was not published during
Browne's life. The 'Shepherd's Pipe' was published in 1614, and 'The
Inner Temple Masque,' written on the story of Ulysses and Circe, for
representation in 1614, was first published in Thomas Davies's edition
of Browne's works (3 vols., 1772). Two critical editions of value have
been brought out in recent years: one by W. Carew Hazlitt (London,
1868-69); and the other by Gordon Goodwin and A.H. Bullen (1894).
"In the third song of the Second Book," says Mr. Bullen in his
preface,--
"There is a description of a delightful grove, perfumed with
'odoriferous buds and herbs of price,' where fruits hang in
gallant clusters from the trees, and birds tune their notes
to the music of running water; so fair a pleasaunce
'that you are fain
Where you last walked to turn and walk again.'
A generous reader might apply that description to Browne's
poetry; he might urge that the breezes which blew down these
leafy alleys and over those trim parterres were not more
grateful than the fragrance exhaled from the 'Pastorals';
that the brooks and birds babble and twitter in the printed
page not less blithely than in that western Paradise. What so
pleasant as to read of May-games, true-love knots, and
shepherds piping in the shade? of pixies and fairy-circles?
of rustic bridals and junketings? of angling, hunting the
squirrel, nut-gathering? Of such subjects William Browne
treats, singing like the shepherd in the 'Arcadia,' as though
he would never grow old. He was a happy poet. It was his good
fortune to grow up among wholesome surroundings whose
gracious influences sank into his spirit. He loved the hills
and dales round Tavistock, and lovingly described them in his
verse. Frequently he indulges in descriptions of sunrise and
sunset; they leave no vivid impression, but charm the reader
by their quiet beauty. It cannot be denied that his fondness
for simple, homely images sometimes led him into sheer
fatuity; and candid admirers must also admit that, despite
his study of simplicity, he could not refrain from hunting
(as the manner was) after far-fetched outrageous conceits."
Browne is a poet's poet. Drayton, Wither, Herbert, and John Davies of
Hereford, wrote his praises. Mrs. Browning includes him in her 'Vision
of Poets,' where she says:--
"Drayton and Browne,--with smiles they drew
From outward Nature, still kept new
From their own inward nature true."
Milton studied him carefully, and just as his influence is perceived in
the work of Keats, so is it found in 'Comus' and in 'Lycidas.' Browne
acknowledges Spenser and Sidney as his masters, and his work shows that
he loved Chaucer and Shakespeare.