WITHER, HERRICK, AND QUARLES.
George Wither, born in 1588, therefore about the same age as Giles
Fletcher, was a very different sort of writer indeed. There could hardly
be a greater contrast. Fancy, and all her motley train, were scarcely
known to Wither, save by the hearing of the ears.
He became an eager Puritan towards the close of his life, but his poetry
chiefly belongs to the earlier part of it. Throughout it is distinguished
by a certain straightforward simplicity of good English thought and
English word. His hymns remind me, in the form of their speech, of
Gascoigne. I shall quote but little; for, although there is a sweet calm
and a great justice of reflection and feeling, there is hardly anything
of that warming glow, that rousing force, that impressive weight in his
verse, which is the chief virtue of the lofty rhyme.
The best in a volume of ninety _Hymns and Songs of the Church_, is, I
think, _The Author's Hymn_ at the close, of which I give three stanzas.
They manifest the simplicity and truth of the man, reflecting in their
very tone his faithful, contented, trustful nature.
By thy grace, those passions, troubles,
And those wants that me opprest,
Have appeared as water-bubbles,
Or as dreams, and things in jest:
For, thy leisure still attending,
I with pleasure saw their ending.
Those afflictions and those terrors,
Which to others grim appear,
Did but show me where my errors
And my imperfections were;
But distrustful could not make me
Of thy love, nor fright nor shake me.
Those base hopes that would possess me,
And those thoughts of vain repute
Which do now and then oppress me,
Do not, Lord, to me impute;
And though part they will not from me,
Let them never overcome me.
He has written another similar volume, but much larger, and of a somewhat
extraordinary character. It consists of no fewer than two hundred and
thirty-three hymns, mostly long, upon an incredible variety of subjects,
comprehending one for every season of nature and of the church, and one
for every occurrence in life of which the author could think as likely to
confront man or woman. Of these subjects I quote a few of the more
remarkable, but even from them my reader can have little conception of
the variety in the book: _A Hymn whilst we are washing_; _In a clear
starry Night_; _A Hymn for a House-warming_; _After a great Frost or
Snow_; _For one whose Beauty is much praised_; _For one upbraided with
Deformity_; _For a Widower or a Widow delivered from a troublesome
Yokefellow_; _For a Cripple_; _For a Jailor_; _For a Poet_.
Here is a portion of one which I hope may be helpful to some of my
readers.
WHEN WE CANNOT SLEEP.
What ails my heart, that in my breast
It thus unquiet lies;
And that it now of needful rest
Deprives my tiréd eyes?
Let not vain hopes, griefs, doubts, or fears,
Distemper so my mind;
But cast on God thy thoughtful cares,
And comfort thou shalt find.
In vain that soul attempteth ought,
And spends her thoughts in vain,
Who by or in herself hath sought
Desiréd peace to gain.
On thee, O Lord, on thee therefore,
My musings now I place;
Thy free remission I implore,
And thy refreshing grace.
Forgive thou me, that when my mind
Oppressed began to be,
I sought elsewhere my peace to find,
Before I came to thee.
And, gracious God, vouchsafe to grant,
Unworthy though I am,
The needful rest which now I want,
That I may praise thy name.
Before examining the volume, one would say that no man could write so
many hymns without frequent and signal failure. But the marvel here is,
that the hymns are all so very far from bad. He can never have written in
other than a gentle mood. There must have been a fine harmony in his
nature, that _kept_ him, as it were. This peacefulness makes him
interesting in spite of his comparative flatness. I must restrain remark,
however, and give five out of twelve stanzas of another of his hymns.
A ROCKING HYMN.
Sweet baby, sleep; what ails my dear?
What ails my darling thus to cry?
Be still, my child, and lend thine ear
To hear me sing thy lullaby.
My pretty lamb, forbear to weep;
Be still, my dear; sweet baby, sleep.
Whilst thus thy lullaby I sing,
For thee great blessings ripening be;
Thine eldest brother is a king,
And hath a kingdom bought for thee.
Sweet baby, then forbear to weep;
Be still, my babe; sweet baby, sleep.
A little infant once was he,
And strength in weakness then was laid
Upon his virgin mother's knee,
That power to thee might be conveyed.
Sweet baby, then forbear to weep;
Be still, my babe; sweet baby, sleep.
Within a manger lodged thy Lord,
Where oxen lay, and asses fed;
Warm rooms we do to thee afford,
An easy cradle or a bed.
Sweet baby, then forbear to weep;
Be still, my babe; sweet baby, sleep.
Thou hast, yet more to perfect this,
A promise and an earnest got,
Of gaining everlasting bliss,
Though thou, my babe, perceiv'st it not.
Sweet baby, then forbear to weep;
Be still, my babe; sweet baby, sleep.
I think George Wither's verses will grow upon the reader of them, tame as
they are sure to appear at first. His _Hallelujah, or Britain's Second
Remembrancer_, from which I have been quoting, is well worth possessing,
and can be procured without difficulty.
We now come to a new sort, both of man and poet--still a clergyman. It is
an especial pleasure to write the name of Robert Herrick amongst the
poets of religion, for the very act records that the jolly, careless
Anacreon of the church, with his head and heart crowded with pleasures,
threw down at length his wine-cup, tore the roses from his head, and
knelt in the dust.
Nothing bears Herrick's name so unrefined as the things Dr. Donne wrote
in his youth; but the impression made by his earlier poems is of a man of
far shallower nature, and greatly more absorbed in the delights of the
passing hour. In the year 1648, when he was fifty-seven years of age,
being prominent as a Royalist, he was ejected from his living by the
dominant Puritans; and in that same year he published his poems, of which
the latter part and later written is his _Noble Numbers_, or religious
poems. We may wonder at his publishing the _Hesperides_ along with them,
but we must not forget that, while the manners of a time are never to be
taken as a justification of what is wrong, the judgment of men concerning
what is wrong will be greatly influenced by those manners--not
necessarily on the side of laxity. It is but fair to receive his own
testimony concerning himself, offered in these two lines printed at the
close of his _Hesperides_:
To his book's end this last line he'd have placed:
_Jocund his muse was, but his life was chaste_.
We find the same artist in the _Noble Numbers_ as in the _Hesperides_,
but hardly the same man. However far he may have been from the model of a
clergyman in the earlier period of his history, partly no doubt from the
society to which his power of song made him acceptable, I cannot believe
that these later poems are the results of mood, still less the results of
mere professional bias, or even sense of professional duty.
In a good many of his poems he touches the heart of truth; in others,
even those of epigrammatic form, he must be allowed to fail in point as
well as in meaning. As to his art-forms, he is guilty of great offences,
the result of the same passion for lawless figures and similitudes which
Dr. Donne so freely indulged. But his verses are brightened by a certain
almost childishly quaint and innocent humour; while the tenderness of
some of them rises on the reader like the aurora of the coming sun of
George Herbert. I do not forget that, even if some of his poems were
printed in 1639, years before that George Herbert had done his work and
gone home: my figure stands in relation to the order I have adopted.
Some of his verse is homelier than even George Herbert's homeliest. One
of its most remarkable traits is a quaint thanksgiving for the commonest
things by name--not the less real that it is sometimes even queer. For
instance:
God gives not only corn for need,
But likewise superabundant seed;
Bread for our service, bread for show;
Meat for our meals, and fragments too:
He gives not poorly, taking some
Between the finger and the thumb,
But for our glut, and for our store,
Fine flour pressed down, and running o'er.
Here is another, delightful in its oddity. We can fancy the merry yet
gracious poet chuckling over the vision of the child and the fancy of his
words.
A GRACE FOR A CHILD.
Here a little child I stand,
Heaving up my either hand;
Cold as paddocks though they be, _frogs._
Here I lift them up to thee,
For a benison to fall
On our meat, and on us all. _Amen_.
I shall now give two or three of his longer poems, which are not long,
and then a few of his short ones. The best known is the following, but it
is not so well known that I must therefore omit it.
HIS LITANY TO THE HOLY SPIRIT.
In the hour of my distress,
When temptations me oppress,
And when I my sins confess,
Sweet Spirit, comfort me.
When I lie within my bed,
Sick in heart, and sick in head,
And with doubts discomforted,
Sweet Spirit, comfort me.
When the house doth sigh and weep,
And the world is drowned in sleep,
Yet mine eyes the watch do keep,
Sweet Spirit, comfort me.
When the artless doctor sees _without skill._
No one hope, but of his fees,
And his skill runs on the lees,
Sweet Spirit, comfort me.
When his potion and his pill,
His or none or little skill,
Meet for nothing but to kill,
Sweet Spirit, comfort me.
When the passing-bell doth toll,
And the furies in a shoal
Come to fright a parting soul,
Sweet Spirit, comfort me.
When the tapers now burn blue,
And the comforters are few,
And that number more than true,
Sweet Spirit, comfort me.
When the priest his last hath prayed,
And I nod to what is said,
'Cause my speech is now decayed,
Sweet Spirit, comfort me.
When God knows I'm tossed about,
Either with despair or doubt,
Yet, before the glass be out,
Sweet Spirit, comfort me.
When the tempter me pursu'th
With the sins of all my youth,
And half damns me with untruth,
Sweet Spirit, comfort me.
When the flames and hellish cries
Fright mine ears and fright mine eyes,
And all terrors me surprise,
Sweet Spirit, comfort me.
When the judgment is revealed,
And that opened which was sealed;
When to thee I have appealed,
Sweet Spirit, comfort me.
THE WHITE ISLAND, OR PLACE OF THE BLEST.
In this world, the Isle of Dreams,
While we sit by sorrow's streams,
Tears and terrors are our themes,
Reciting;
But when once from hence we fly,
More and more approaching nigh
Unto young eternity,
Uniting;
In that whiter island, where
Things are evermore sincere;
Candour here and lustre there,
Delighting:
There no monstrous fancies shall
Out of hell an horror call,
To create, or cause at all,
Affrighting.
There, in calm and cooling sleep
We our eyes shall never steep,
But eternal watch shall keep,
Attending
Pleasures such as shall pursue
Me immortalized and you;
And fresh joys, as never too
Have ending.
TO DEATH.
Thou bid'st me come away;
And I'll no longer stay
Than for to shed some tears
For faults of former years;
And to repent some crimes
Done in the present times;
And next, to take a bit
Of bread, and wine with it;
To don my robes of love,
Fit for the place above;
To gird my loins about
With charity throughout,
And so to travel hence
With feet of innocence:
These done, I'll only cry,
"God, mercy!" and so die.
ETERNITY.
O years and age, farewell!
Behold I go
Where I do know
Infinity to dwell.
And these mine eyes shall see
All times, how they
Are lost i' th' sea
Of vast eternity,
Where never moon shall sway
The stars; but she
And night shall be
Drowned in one endless day.
THE GOODNESS OF HIS GOD.
When winds and seas do rage,
And threaten to undo me,
Thou dost their wrath assuage,
If I but call unto thee.
A mighty storm last night
Did seek my soul to swallow;
But by the peep of light
A gentle calm did follow.
What need I then despair
Though ills stand round about me;
Since mischiefs neither dare
To bark or bite without thee?
TO GOD.
Lord, I am like to mistletoe,
Which has no root, and cannot grow
Or prosper, but by that same tree
It clings about: so I by thee.
What need I then to fear at all
So long as I about thee crawl?
But if that tree should fall and die,
Tumble shall heaven, and down will I.
Here are now a few chosen from many that--to borrow a term from
Crashaw--might be called
DIVINE EPIGRAMS.
God, when he's angry here with any one,
His wrath is free from perturbation;
And when we think his looks are sour and grim,
The alteration is in us, not him.
* * * * *
God can't be wrathful; but we may conclude
Wrathful he may be by similitude:
God's wrathful said to be when he doth do
That without wrath, which wrath doth force us to.
* * * * *
'Tis hard to find God; but to comprehend
Him as he is, is labour without end.
* * * * *
God's rod doth watch while men do sleep, and then
The rod doth sleep while vigilant are men.
* * * * *
A man's trangression God does then remit,
When man he makes a penitent for it.
* * * * *
God, when he takes my goods and chattels hence,
Gives me a portion, giving patience:
What is in God is God: if so it be
He patience gives, he gives himself to me.
* * * * *
Humble we must be, if to heaven we go;
High is the roof there, but the gate is low.
* * * * *
God who's in heaven, will hear from thence,
If not to the sound, yet to the sense.
* * * * *
The same who crowns the conqueror, will be
A coadjutor in the agony.
* * * * *
God is so potent, as his power can _that._
Draw out of bad a sovereign good to man.
* * * * *
Paradise is, as from the learn'd I gather,
A choir of blest souls circling in the Father.
* * * * *
Heaven is not given for our good works here;
Yet it is given to the labourer.
* * * * *
One more for the sake of Martha, smiled at by so many because they are
incapable either of her blame or her sister's praise.
The repetition of the name, made known
No other than Christ's full affection.
And so farewell to the very lovable Robert Herrick.
Francis Quarles was born in 1592. I have not much to say about him,
popular as he was in his own day, for a large portion of his writing
takes the shape of satire, which I consider only an active form of
negation. I doubt much if mere opposition to the false is of any benefit.
Convince a man by argument that the thing he has been taught is false,
and you leave his house empty, swept, and garnished; but the expulsion of
the falsehood is no protection against its re-entrance in another mask,
with seven worse than itself in its company. The right effort of the
teacher is to give the positive--to present, as he may, the vision of
reality, for the perception of which, and not for the discovery of
falsehood, is man created. This will not only cast out the demon, but so
people the house that he will not dare return. If a man might disprove
all the untruths in creation, he would hardly be a hair's breadth nearer
the end of his own making. It is better to hold honestly one fragment of
truth in the midst of immeasurable error, than to sit alone, if that were
possible, in the midst of an absolute vision, clear as the hyaline, but
only repellent of falsehood, not receptive of truth. It is the positive
by which a man shall live. Truth is his life. The refusal of the false is
not the reception of the true. A man may deny himself into a spiritual
lethargy, without denying one truth, simply by spending his strength for
that which is not bread, until he has none left wherewith to search for
the truth, which alone can feed him. Only when subjected to the positive
does the negative find its true vocation.
I am jealous of the living force cast into the slough of satire. No
doubt, either indignant or loving rebuke has its end and does its work,
but I fear that wit, while rousing the admiration of the spiteful or the
like witty, comes in only to destroy its dignity. At the same time, I am
not sure whether there might not be such a judicious combination of the
elements as to render my remarks inapplicable.
At all events, poetry favours the positive, and from the _Emblems_ named
of Quarles I shall choose one in which it fully predominates. There is
something in it remarkably fine.
PHOSPHOR, BRING THE DAY.
Will't ne'er be morning? Will that promised light
Ne'er break, and clear those clouds of night?
Sweet Phosphor, bring the day,
Whose conquering ray
May chase these fogs: sweet Phosphor, bring the day.
How long, how long shall these benighted eyes
Languish in shades, like feeble flies
Expecting spring? How long shall darkness soil
The face of earth, and thus beguile
Our souls of sprightful action? When, when will day
Begin to dawn, whose new-born ray
May gild the weathercocks of our devotion,
And give our unsouled souls new motion?
Sweet Phosphor, bring the day:
The light will fray
These horrid mists: sweet Phosphor, bring the day.
* * * * *
Let those whose eyes, like owls, abhor the light--
Let those have night that love the night:
Sweet Phosphor, bring the day.
How sad delay
Afflicts dull hopes! Sweet Phosphor, bring the day.
Alas! my light-in-vain-expecting eyes
Can find no objects but what rise
From this poor mortal blaze, a dying spark
Of Vulcan's forge, whose flames are dark,--
A dangerous, dull, blue-burning light,
As melancholy as the night:
Here's all the suns that glister in the sphere
Of earth: Ah me! what comfort's here!
Sweet Phosphor, bring the day.
Haste, haste away
Heaven's loitering lamp: sweet Phosphor, bring the day.
Blow, Ignorance. O thou, whose idle knee
Rocks earth into a lethargy,
And with thy sooty fingers hast benight
The world's fair cheeks, blow, blow thy spite;
Since thou hast puffed our greater taper, do
Puff on, and out the lesser too.
If e'er that breath-exiled flame return,
Thou hast not blown as it will burn.
Sweet Phosphor, bring the day:
Light will repay
The wrongs of night: sweet Phosphor, bring the day.
With honoured, thrice honoured George Herbert waiting at the door, I
cannot ask Francis Quarles to remain longer: I can part with him without
regret, worthy man and fair poet as he is.