Condemnation by a great poet has lasting impact, while the effects of
praise seldom endure; Shadwell remains MacFlecknoe in our minds,
Shaftesbury Achitophel, but Anne Killigrew, "A _Grace_ for Beauty, and
a _Muse_ for Wit," is virtually forgotten. Her book of verses is known
essentially because of John Dryden's commendatory Ode. Yet we may
justify a study of her own poems. Dryden's piece is not a generalised
encomium; obviously he had read her verses, and his analysis of her art
is firmly based. Our understanding of this famous poem, then, depends
to some degree on our knowledge of Anne Killigrew's output.[1] Her
verses deserve attention on their own merits--Dryden may well be
thought more gallant than scrupulous, but undeniably the poems have an
appealing wit, a picturesque imagination and a touching personal
candour.
The facts of Anne Killigrew's short life are succinctly and elegantly
related by Anthony Wood.[2] She was born about 1660, the daughter of
Dr. Henry Killigrew, Royalist, theologian and sometime dramatist, and
related through his family to the other theatrical Killigrews--Thomas,
the author of _The Parson's Wedding_, and Sir William, her uncles; and
Thomas, the author of _Chit-Chat_, and Charles, Master of the Revels,
her cousins. Dr. Killigrew became Chaplain to the Duke of York and in
1663 Master of the Savoy. Anne Killigrew grew up to join the household
of the doleful Mary of Modena, Duchess of York, as Maid of Honour. A
companion in this office was Anne Finch, Countess of Winchelsea.
Mistress Killigrew's poems reflect some of the sparkle of Restoration
court life, but more of the sorrow produced by Mary of Modena's
consistent unpopularity. After a short battle with the smallpox, Anne
Killigrew died on 16 June, 1685, to the "unspeakable Reluctancy" of her
many loving relations and friends.
[1] The most recent study of Dryden's poem is David M. Vieth's "Irony
in Dryden's Ode to Anne Killigrew," _Studies in Philology_, LXII
(January, 1965), pp. 91-100, which lists earlier criticism. Professor
Vieth refers to Anne Killigrew's poems several times to illustrate his
theory of Dryden's intentions.
[2] Anthony Wood, _Athenae Oxonienses_ (1721), c. 1036. Biographical
and critical comment is also to be found in George Ballard, _Memoirs of
Several Ladies_ (1752), pp. 337-45; T. Cibber, _Lives of the Poets_
(1753), II, 224-6; Ellen Creathorne Clayton, _English Female Artists_
(1876), I, 59-70 and _The Poems of Anne Countess of Winchelsea_, edited
by Myra Reynolds (1903), pp. xxiii-xxiv.
After her untimely death, Dr. Killigrew worked to produce a memorial
edition of her papers, and invited Dryden to write the prefatory poem.
The publication was swift: less than three months after her death the
volume was licensed to be printed (30 September, 1685) and listed in
the Stationers' Register (2 October). It was listed in the Term
Catalogue for November, and advertised in _The Observator_ on 2
November, 1685.[3] The date of 1686 on the title page must have been
anticipated by actual publication.
[3] A bibliographical analysis of the volume is given by Hugh
Macdonald, _John Dryden a Bibliography_ (1939), pp. 42-43.
The poetry in the volume can be described in Dryden's terms:
Art she had none, yet wanted none:
For Nature did that Want supply.
Anne Killigrew lacked the artistry which comes from discipline and
practice (which Anne Finch had time to develop), but she felt that the
prompting of passion outweighed the niceties of form:
Here take no Care, take here no Care, my _Muse_,
Nor ought of Art or Labour use....
The ruggeder my Measures run when read,
They'l livelier paint th' unequal Paths fond Mortals tread, (p. 51)
Her verses belong to the generalising conventions of strong-minded
Denham and limpid Waller:
Such Noble Vigour did her Verse adorn,
That it seem'd borrow'd.
Yet to judge from her lively objections (pp. 44-47), the attempt to
class her as a plagiarist was unjustified. Court poetry in the age was
so uniform that apparent echoes are a matter of course. We may compare
her
The bloody Wolf, the Wolf does not pursue;
The Boar, though fierce, his Tusk will not embrue
In his own Kind, Bares, not on Bares do prey:
Then art thou, Man, more savage far than they, (p. 37)
with Rochester's _Satyr against Mankind_:
_Birds_, feed on _Birds_, _Beasts_, on each other prey,
But Savage _Man_ alone, does _Man_ betray,
or Waller on the death of Lady Rich, "But savage beasts, or men as wild
as they!" Anne Killigrew's use of stock epithets and polite locutions
mark a conventionality which inevitably borders on the derivative. But
at her best, as for example "On the Birth-Day of Queen _Katherine_," p.
47, she is able to move effectively beyond the conventional. The
conflict between the formal occasion and the dismal weather becomes a
surprising symbol of paradox, and the dream and scriptural consolation
come to have an intensity more metaphysical than courtly. Similarly, in
the unfinished "Ode," p. 82, or in parts of the "Pastoral Dialogue,"
p. 63, she produces some forceful and startling images.
The individuality of her works lies in their firm, evangelical moral
tone, which is clearly distinguishable from the genteel piety of her
contemporaries. Dryden's comment:
So cold herself, whilst she such Warmth exprest,
'Twas _Cupid_ bathing in _Diana's_ Stream,
is an apt description of, say, her "Pastoral Dialogue," pp. 63-75. Anne
Killigrew's interest in poetic theory is notable; her early
"Alexandreis" prays for the "frozen style" to be warmed with a
"Poetique fire," and her "Love, the Soul of Poetry," contrasts the
flatness of commonplace verse with the rapture and heat produced by a
subject which "Enlarg'd his Fancy, and set free his Muse." The poem "To
My Lord Colrane" meditates on her slothful muse and its awakening of
life. Throughout her writings she keeps the poet's didactic end in view
and has a high regard for the nature of her art. Something of the
severity of the York household is reflected in the writings of the Maid
of Honour.
The present text is reproduced, by kind permission, from the beautiful
copy in the Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington. This volume,
originally in Dr. Philip Bliss's collection, is listed in the _Huth
Catalogue_ (1913), p. 1207, and described by W. C. Hazlitt, _Second
Series of Bibliographical Collections and Notes_ (1882), p. 328. It
contains on the flyleaf a MS poem by E. E., transcribed below. The Rev.
Joseph Hunter, British Museum Add. MSS. 24492, Vol. VI, p. 100,
suggests that E. E. was Edmund Elys,[4] the learned and contentious
author of occasional poems (_Verses on Several Occasions_, 1699) and
theological pamphlets (for example, _Epistola ad Sam. Parkerum S.T.P._,
1680). The generally vivacious style of the verse and the reference to
the debate with Dr. Parker suggest that the identification is just, but
the relationship between Mrs. Elys and the Killigrews is not known.
Pages 72 and 73 are skipped, and pages 68 and 69 are misnumbered 60 and
61.
[4] On Elys's life see Anthony Wood, _Athenae Oxonienses_ (1721), c.
943-44.
The self-portrait of Anne Killigrew prefixed to the _Poems_ and printed
herein as the frontispiece shows that she was a competent if
conventional artist. Her descriptions of her paintings, pp. 27-29,
suggest that here too moral and scriptural topics predominated over
courtly affairs. E. E., Dryden and the writer of the Epitaph agree on
Anne Killigrew's sanctity and gravity of mind. The modern reader may
gain from her book of verse a moving insight into the thoughts and
preoccupations of a young lady at court in the declining years of the
Stuarts.