As I want my doubts cleared up on a literary point of some importance, I
thought I could not do better than state them in your "NOTES AND
QUERIES."
I have before me a copy of the not by any means rare volume, called
_Comedies, Tragi-Comedies, with other Poems, by Mr. William Cartwright_,
8vo. 1651, with the portrait by Lombart. Though the book may be called a
common one, I apprehend that my copy of it is in an uncommon state, for
I find in it certain leaves as they were originally printed, and certain
other leaves as they were afterwards substituted. The fact must have
been that after the volume was published by H. Moseley, the bookseller,
it was called in again, and particular passages suppressed and excluded.
These passages are three in number, and occur respectively on pp. 301,
302, and 305; and the two first occur in a poem headed "On the Queen's
Return from the Low Countries," an event which occurred only shortly
before the death of Cartwright, which took place on 23d Dec. 1643.
This poem consists, in my perfect copy, of eight stanzas, but two
stanzas are expunged on the cancelled leaf, viz. the second and the
fifth; the second runs as follows:--
"When greater tempests, than on sea before,
Receiv'd her on the shore,
When she was shot at _for the king's own good_,
By legions hir'd to bloud;
How bravely did she do, how bravely bear!
And shew'd, though they durst rage, she durst not fear."
The queen landed at Burlington on 22nd Feb. 1642, so that Cartwright may
have written what precedes; but how could he have written what follows,
the fifth stanza of the poem, which mentions an event that did not occur
until six or seven years afterwards?
"Look on her enemies, on their Godly lies,
Their holy perjuries,
Their curs'd encrease of much ill gotten wealth,
By rapine or by stealth,
Their crafty friendship knit in equall guilt,
And the Crown-Martyr's bloud so lately spilt."
Hence arises my first question--if Cartwright were not the author of
this poem, who was? Although Izaac Walton, Jasper Mayne, James Howell,
Sir John Birkenhead, and a host of other versifyers, introduce the
volume with "laudatory lays," we are not to suppose that they meant to
vouch for the genuineness of every production therein inserted and
imputed to Cartwright. Was the whole poem "On the Queen's Return"
foisted in, or only the two stanzas above quoted, which were excluded
when the book was called in?
The next poem on which I have any remark to make immediately succeeds
that "on the Queen's Return," and is entitled "Upon the Death of the
Right Valiant Sir Bevill Grenvill, Knight," who, we know from Lord
Clarendon, was killed at Lansdown on 5th July, 1643, only five months
before the death of Cartwright, who is supposed to have celebrated his
fall. This production is incomplete, and the subsequent twelve lines on
p. 305, are omitted in the ordinary copies of Cartwright's _Comedies,
Tragi-Comedies, with other Poems_:--
"You now that boast the spirit, and its sway,
Shew us his second, and wee'l give the day:
We know your politique axiom, _Lurk, or fly_;
Ye cannot conquer, 'cause you dare not dye:
And though you thank God that you lost none there,
'Cause they were such who _liv'd_ not when they were;
Yet your great Generall (who doth rise and fall,
As his successes do, whom you dare call,
As Fame unto you doth reports dispence,
Either a---- or his Excellence)
Howe'r he reigns now by unheard-of laws,
Could wish his fate together with his cause."
It is clear to me, that these lines could not have been written in 1643,
soon after the death of Sir B. Grenvill; and, supposing any part of the
poem to have come from the pen of Cartwright, they must have been
interpolated after the elevation of Cromwell to supreme power.
I have thrown out these points for information, and it is probable that
some of your readers will be able to afford it: if able, I conclude they
will be willing.
It may be an error to fancy that the copy of Cartwright now in my hands,
containing the cancelled and uncancelled leaves, is a rarity; but
although in my time I have inspected at least thirty copies of his
_Comedies, Tragi-Comedies, with other Poems_, I certainly never met with
one before with this peculiarity. On this matter, also, I hope for
enlightenment.
Do the stanzas "on the Queen's Return" and the lines on the Death of Sir
B. Grenvill exist in any of the various collections of State Poems?