I read with great pleasure MR. COLLIER'S interesting paper on "William
Basse and his Poems," inserted in your 13th Number. Very little is
known of this once popular poet, but it is very desirable that that
little should be collected together, which cannot be better effected
than through the friendly system of inter-communication established by
your valuable journal.
From my limited researches upon this subject, it appears that there
were two poets of the name of William Basse. Anthony Wood (_Athen.
Oxon._, edit. Bliss. iv. 222.) speaks of one William Basse, of
Moreton, near Thame, in Oxfordshire, who was some time a retainer
of Lord Wenman, of Thame Park, i.e. Richard Viscount Wenman, in the
peerage of Ireland. And I find among my MS. biographical collections
that a William Basse, of Suffolk, was admitted a sizar of Emanuel
College, Cambridge, in 1629. A.B. 1632, and A.M. in 1636. The William
Basse who wrote _Great Brittaines Sunnes-set_ in 1613, was also the
author of the MS. collection of poems entitled _Polyhymnia_, mentioned
by MR. COLLIER. In proof of this it is merely necessary to notice
the dedication of the former "To his Honourable Master, Sir Richard
Wenman, Knight," and the verses and acrostics in the MS. "To the Right
Hon. the Lady Aungier Wenman, Mrs. Jane Wenman, and the truly noble,
vertuous, and learned Lady, the Lady Agnes Wenman." Basse's Poems
were evidently intended for the press, but we may conjecture that the
confusion of the times prevented them from appearing. Thomas Warton,
in his _Life and Literary Remains of Ralph Bathurst, M.D._, has a copy
of verses by the Dr. "To Mr. W. Basse, upon the intended publication
of his Poems, January 13, 1651;" to which the learned editor adds, "I
find no account of this writer or his poems." The whole consists of
forty-four verses, from which I extract the beginning and the end:--
Basse, whose rich mine of wit we here behold
As porcelain earth, more precious, 'cause more old;
Who, like an aged oak, so long hath stood,
And art religion now as well as food:
Though thy grey Muse grew up with elder times,
And our deceased grandsires lisp'd thy rhymes;
Yet we can sing thee too, and make the lays
Which deck thy brow look fresher with thy praise.
* * * * *
Though these, your happy births, have silent past
More years than some abortive wits shall last;
He still writes new, who once so well hath sung:
That Muse can ne'er be old, which ne'er was young."
These verses are valuable as showing that Basse was living in 1651,
and that he was then an aged man. The Emanuelian of the same name, who
took his M.A. degree in 1636, might possibly be his son. At any rate,
the latter was a poet. There are some of his pieces among the MSS. in
the Public Library, Cambridge; and I have a small MS. volume of his
rhymes, scarcely soaring above mediocrity, which was presented to me
by an ancient family residing in Suffolk.
A poem by William Basse is inserted in the _Annalia Dubrensia_, 1636,
in praise of Robert Dover and his revival of the Cotswold Games; but
it is not clear to which of these poets we may ascribe it. Malone
attributes two rare volumes to one or other of these poets. The first,
a translation or paraphrase of Juvenal's tenth satire, entitled _That
which seems Best is Worst_, 12mo., 1617; the second, "A Miscellany of
Merriment," entitled _A Helpe to Discourse_, 2nd edit. 8vo., 1620:
but the former is more probably the work of William Barkstead. I may
mention that a copy of Basse's _Sword and Buckler, or Serving Man's
Defence_, 1602, is among Malone's books in the Bodleian.
Izaac Walton speaks of William Basse, "one that hath made the choice
songs of the _Hunter in His Career_, and of _Tom of Bedlam_, and many
others of note." The ballad mentioned by MR. COLLIER, "Maister Basse
his Career, or the Hunting of the Hare," is undoubtably the one
alluded to by Walton. I may add, that it is printed in _Wit and
Drollery_, edit. 1682. p. 64.; and also in _Old Ballads_, 1725, vol.
iii. p. 196. The tune is contained in the _Shene MS._, a curious
collection of old tunes in the Advocate's Library, Edinburgh; and a
ballad entitled _Hubert's Ghost_, to the tune of _Basse's Carrier_, is
preserved among the Bagford Collection of Old Ballads in the British
Museum. With regard to the second ballad mentioned by Walton, our
knowledge is not so perfect. Sir John Hawkins in a note (_Complete
Angler_, 5th edit. p. 73.) says:--
"This song, beginning--
'Forth from my dark and dismal cell,'
with the music to it, set by Hen. Lawes, is printed in a book,
entitled _Choice Ayres, Songs and Dialogues, to sing to the
Theorbo Lute, and Bass Viol_, folio. 1675, and in Playfield's
_Antidote against Melancholy_, 8vo. 1669, and also in Dr.
Percy's _Reliques of Ancient English Poetry_, vol. ii. p. 350;
but in the latter with a mistake in the last line of the third
stanza, of the word _Pentarchy_ for _Pentateuch_."
A copy of the _Choice Ayres_, 1675, is now before me, but Henry
Lawes's name does not appear to the song in question. Sir John has
evidently made a mistake; the air of _Mad Tom_ was composed by John
Cooper, alias _Giovanni Coperario_, for one of the Masques perfomed
by the Gentlemen of Gray's Inn. (See _The English Dancing Master_,
1651, in the British Museum, and Additional MS. 10,440, in the same
repository.) With regard to the ballad itself, there is an early copy
(of the latter part of the sixteenth century) {266} preserved in the
Harleian MSS., No. 7332, fol. 41. It purports to have been
"Written (i.e. transcribed) be Feargod Barebone, who being
at many times idle and wanting employment, wrote out certain
songs and epigrams, with the idea of mending his hand in
writing."
There is another copy among Malone's MSS. in the Bodleian (No. 16. p.
55.), where it is entitled _A new Tom of Bedlam_. But I contend there
is no evidence to show that this is the ballad alluded to by Walton;
none of the copies having the name of the author. We have two other
songs (probably more) bearing the same title of _Tom of Bedlam_; one
beginning, "From the top of high Caucasus;" the other commencing,
"From the hag and hungry goblin;" either of which are quite as likely
to have been intended as that mentioned above.
It still remains a question, I think, which of the two Basses was
the author of the ballads mentioned by Walton. But I have already
trespassed so long upon your valuable space that I will leave the
further consideration of the subject until a future period: in the
meantime, perhaps some of your correspondents may be enabled to
"illuminate our darkness" upon the various knotty points.