Title: Some Longer Elizabethan Poems
Editor: Thomas Seccombe
Author of introduction, etc.: A. H. Bullen
Release date: February 19, 2017 [eBook #54194]
Language: English
Credits: Produced by David Starner, Jane Robins, and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
file was produced from images generously made available
by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries)
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY
A. H. BULLEN
WESTMINSTER
ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE AND CO., LTD.
1903
PUBLISHERS' NOTE
The texts contained in the present volume are reprinted with very slight alterations from the English Garner issued in eight volumes (1877-1890, London, 8vo) by Professor Arber, whose name is sufficient guarantee for the accurate collation of the texts with the rare originals, the old spelling being in most cases carefully modernised. The contents of the original Garner have been rearranged and now for the first time classified, under the general editorial supervision of Mr. Thomas Seccombe. Certain lacunae have been filled by the interpolation of fresh matter. The Introductions are wholly new and have been written specially for this issue.
Edinburgh: T. and A. Constable, Printers to His Majesty
PAGE | |
Sir John Davies—Orchestra, or A Poem of Dancing, 1596, | 1 |
Sir John Davies—Nosce Teipsum:— | |
} { 1. Of Human Knowledge,{ 2. Of the Soul of Man, 1599, |
41 |
Sir John Davies—Hymns of Astræa, in Acrostic Verse, 1599, | 107 |
Six Idillia, that is six small or petty poems or Æglogues of Theocritus translated into English Verse (Anon), Oxford, 1588, |
123 |
*Richard Barnfield—The Affectionate Shepheard. Containing | |
the Complaint of Daphnis for the love of Ganymede, 1594, | 147 |
*Richard Barnfield—Cynthia. With Certaine Sonnets and the | |
Legend of Cassandra, 1595, | 187 |
*Richard Barnfield—The Encomion of Lady Pecunia: or The Praise of Money, 1598, |
227 |
*Richard Barnfield—The Complaint of Poetrie for the Death of Liberalitie, 1598, |
241 |
*Richard Barnfield—The Combat, betweene Conscience and | |
Covetousnesse in the minde of Man, 1598, | 253 |
*Richard Barnfield—Poems: in divers humors, 1598, | 261 |
Astrophel. A Pastoral Elegy upon the death of the most noble | |
and valorous Knight, Sir Philip Sidney. A group of[vi] | |
elegies by Spenser and other hands printed as an | |
Appendix to Spenser's Colin Clouts come home again, 1595, | 271 |
J. C.—Alcilia: Philoparthen's Loving Folly, 1595, | 319 |
Antony Scoloker—Daiphantus, or The Passions of Love, by | |
An. Sc. Whereunto is added The Passionate Man's | |
Pilgrimage, 1604, | 363 |
Michael Drayton—Odes [drawn from Poems Lyrick and Pastorall, | |
1606, and the later Poems of 1619], | 405 |
*The items indicated by an asterisk are new additions to An English Garner.
As there is no need to adopt a strictly chronological order for the poems included in the present volume, I have begun with the Orchestra and Nosce Teipsum of Sir John Davies (1569-1626), who was undoubtedly one of the most brilliant figures of the Elizabethan Age. Well-born and gently bred, educated at Winchester and at New College, Oxford, Davies was exceptionally fortunate in escaping the pecuniary cares that harassed so many Elizabethan men of letters. From the Middle Temple he was called to the bar in 1595 (at the age of twenty-six). In the previous year Orchestra had been entered in the Stationers' Register, but the poem was first published in 1596. From the dedicatory sonnet to Richard Martin we learn that it was written in fifteen days. There are, however, no signs of haste in the writing, and it may fairly be claimed that this poem in praise of dancing is a graceful monument of ingenious fancy. Lucian composed a valuable and entertaining treatise on dancing, and I suspect that Περὶ ᾽Ορχήσεως gave Davies the idea of writing Orchestra.
In the opening stanzas[1] we are presented with a picturesque description of
lit with a thousand lamps on a festal night when the suitors had assembled, at the queen's invitation, to hear the minstrel Phoemius sing the praises of the heroes who had fought at Troy. With such beauty shone Penelope that the suitors were abashed at their temerity in having dared to woo her. But one 'fresh and jolly knight,' Antinous, so far from being dismayed,
She blushingly declined, and mildly chided him for trying to persuade her to new-fangled follies. Forthwith he launched into a rapturous disquisition on the antiquity of dancing, which began when Love persuaded the jarring elements—fire, air, earth, and water—to cease from conflict and observe true measure. The sun and moon, the fixed and wandering stars, the girdling sea and running streams, all 'yield perfect forms of dancing.' With exuberant fancy, fetching his illustrations from near and far, he pursues his theme through many richly-coloured stanzas. It may be worth while to remark (as his editors have been silent on the subject) that Davies does not scruple to borrow freely from Lucian. Take, for instance, stanza 80:—
Now hear Lucian:—
Here is another example (Stanza 17):—
With this compare Lucian (as Englished by Jasper Mayne): 'First, then, you plainly seem to me not to know that dancing is no new invention or of yesterday's or the other day's growth, or born among our forefathers or their ancestors. But they who most truly derive dancing, say it sprung with the first beginning of the universe, and had a birth equally as ancient as love.' It would be easy to multiply instances. Of course Davies' borrowings from Lucian do not for a moment detract from his poem's merit: indeed they give an added zest.
In the 1596 edition Orchestra ends with a compliment to Queen Elizabeth, and stanzas in praise of Spenser, Daniel, and others. Davies had evidently intended to write a sequel; for, when Orchestra was republished in the[x] collective edition of his poems (1622), it was described on the title-page as 'not finished,' some new stanzas were added, and it ended abruptly in the middle of a simile. The poem is quite long enough as we have it in the 1596 edition, and we need not lament that Davies failed to carry out his intention of continuing it: μηδὲν ἄγαν.
To his youthful days belong the Epigrams, which were bound up with Marlowe's translation of Ovid's Amores (with a Middleburgh imprint): occasionally indecorous, they are seldom wanting in wit and pleasantry.
In February 1597-8, Davies was disbarred for a breach of discipline. He quarrelled with Richard Martin (afterwards Recorder of London)—to whom he had dedicated Orchestra—and assaulted him at dinner in the Middle Temple Hall, breaking a cudgel over his head. Retiring to Oxford, he engaged in the more peaceful occupation of composing Nosce Teipsum, a poem on the immortality of the soul, which was published in 1599. It was an ambitious task that this young disbarred bencher took in hand, but he acquitted himself ably. Some of his modern admirers have exceeded all reasonable bounds in their praise of the poem. Rejecting these extravagant eulogies, we may claim that Davies, while he was leading the life of an inns-of-court man of fashion, had remained a steadfast lover of learning and letters; that he had stored his mind richly; and that his well-turned quatrains have had an inspiring influence on later poets. Young, in Night Thoughts, was under special obligation to Davies. Matthew Arnold had no enthusiasm for Elizabethan writers; but, unless I am greatly mistaken, he had glanced at Nosce Teipsum. In 'A Southern Night' Arnold wrote—
—a stanza that bears a very suspicious resemblance to Davies' quatrain—
All the arguments for and against the immortality of the soul were threshed out ages ago, and there is little or nothing new to say on the subject. A poet's skill lies in graciously attiring the old commonplaces; in searching out the right persuasive words and uttering them so melodiously that dull 'approved verities'—sparkling with sudden lustre—are transmuted into something rich and strange. It is idle to talk about Davies' 'deep and original thinking.' Many stanzas can be brushed aside as tiresome and uncouth; but something will be left. In his handling of the ten-syllabled quatrain (with alternate rhymes) Davies showed considerable deftness. The metre has weight and dignity, but is apt to become stiff and monotonous. Davies certainly succeeded in securing more freedom and variety than might have been anticipated. Inspired by his example, Davenant chose this metre for Gondibert; and Davenant was followed by Dryden, who in the preface to Annus Mirabilis says all that can be said in favour of the quatrain (which was seen to best advantage in Gray's Elegy).
Though few may be at the pains to read through Nosce Teipsum at a blow, it is a poem that lends itself admirably to quotation. Towards the end there is a cluster of fine stanzas('O ignorant poor man,' etc.) that have found their way into many volumes of selected poetry; and even the arid tracts are dotted with green oases. Tennyson, with somewhat wearisome iteration, pleaded through stanza after stanza of In Memoriam that the longing which most men unquestionably have for immortality must needs be based on a sure foundation:—
Davies sums up pithily in a single line:—
A poet greater than Davies, greater than Tennyson, the august Lucretius, in the noble verses that he pondered through the still nights (seeking to do justice to the doctrine of his Master Epicurus), scathingly checks our vaulting aspirations. If we have enjoyed the banquet of life, why should we not rise content and pass to our dreamless sleep? If our life has been wastefully squandered and is become a weariness to us, why should we hesitate to make an end of it? 'Aufer abhinc lacrimas, balatro, et compesce querellas!'
Astræa, a series of acrostic verses on Queen Elizabeth, is merely a tour de force of courtly ingenuity. Much more interesting is Davies' group of graceful little poems, Twelve Wonders of the World, published in the second edition (1608) of Davison's Poetical Rhapsody.
In 1603 Davies was appointed Solicitor-General for Ireland, and in 1606 Attorney-General. His letters to Cecil give a valuable and vivid account of the state of Ireland;[xiii] and his Discovery of the True Cause why Ireland was never entirely subdued, 1612, is a treatise of the first importance. Davies' political writings wait the attention of a competent editor, who would undoubtedly find absorbing interest in his task.
It was the poet's misfortune to marry a crazy rhapsodical woman (Eleanor Touchet, sister of the notorious Baron Audley), who annoyed him by putting herself into mourning and bidding him 'within three years to expect the mortal blow.' Three days before his death she 'gave him pass to take his long sleep.' He resented these admonitions, and testily exclaimed, 'I pray you weep not while I am alive, and I will give you leave to laugh when I am dead.' On 7th December 1626 he dined with Lord Keeper Coventry, and on the following morning was found dead of apoplexy. It was perhaps fortunate that his life had not been prolonged, for his views of kingly prerogative were high. He had supported the king's demand for a forced loan, and (when 'the mortal blow' really came) was about to succeed Lord Chief Justice Crew, who had been removed from office for refusing to affirm the legality of such loans.
Not much need be said about Six Idillia, 1588, the anonymous translations (pp. 123-146) from Theocritus. It is a performance worthy of George Turberville or 'that painful furtherer of learning' Barnabe Googe. On the verso of the title page is the Horatian inscription:—
Collier, misreading this dedication, claimed the Idillia for Sir Edward Dyer, and his mistake has been followed by[xiv] some later bibliographers. But in the first place there is nothing to show that 'E.D.' was Sir Edward Dyer; and in the second it is perfectly plain that the translations were dedicated to 'E.D.,' not written by him. The rhymed fourteen-syllable lines are somewhat uncouth and do scant justice to the liquid melody of Theocritus' hexameters; but though these Idillia have no great literary value, the hardy pioneer is entitled to some credit for breaking new ground. Only one copy (preserved in the Bodleian Library) of the original edition is known. Some years ago a small edition, for private circulation, was issued from the press of Rev. H.C. Daniel.
Richard Barnfield(1574-1627) had genuine poetical gifts, but seldom displayed them to advantage. Born in 1574 at Norbury, near Newport, Shropshire, he was educated at Brasenose College, Oxford, and is conjectured to have been a member of Gray's Inn. He seems to have spent most of his time in the country, leading the life of a country gentleman. In 1594 he published The Affectionate Shepheard (with a dedication to Lady Penelope Rich), and in 1595 Cynthia. His last work, The Encomion of Lady Pecunia, followed in 1598, a second edition (with changes and additions) appearing in 1605. He died in March 1626-7, leaving a son and a grand-daughter. In his will he is described as of 'Dorlestone, in the Countie of Stafford, Esquire.'[4]
The Affectionate Shepheard was inspired by Virgil's Second Eclogue. Though the choice of subject was not happy, it must be allowed that in describing country contentment and the pastimes of silly shepherds Barnfield shows un-[xv]laboured fluency and grace, with playful touches of quaint extravagance. The passage beginning 'And when th'art wearie of thy keeping Sheepe'(pp. 159, 160) and ending 'Like Lillyes in a bed of roses shed' is a pleasant piece of poetical embroidery. Barnfield doubtless adopted the six-line stanza in imitation of Venus and Adonis, 1593(which had in turn been modelled on Lodge's Glaucus and Scylla, 1589). It has been recently pointed out—by Mr. Charles Crawford in Notes and Queries—that some passages in The Affectionate Shepheard were closely imitated from Marlowe and Nashe's Dido (published in 1594), and that one line has been taken straight out of Marlowe's Edward II. Appended to The Affectionate Shepheard are The Complainte of Chastitie, in imitation of Michael Drayton, and Hellens Rape—a copy of 'English Hexameters' so atrociously bad that one wonders whether it was written to bring contempt on the metre which Gabriel Harvey and others were vainly striving to popularise.
To Cynthia is prefixed a copy of high-flying commendatory verses, from which very little sense can be extracted, by 'T.T.,' possibly Thomas Thorpe, the publisher of Shakespeare's Sonnets. In the address to 'The Curteous Gentlemen Readers' Barnfield claims indulgence for Cynthia on the ground that it was the first 'imitation of the verse of that excellent Poet, Maister Spencer, in his Fayrie Queene.' The poem is a compliment to Queen Elizabeth, who is adjudged by Jove to have merited the golden apple wrongly given by Paris to Venus. When Barnfield mentioned that he borrowed the metre of Cynthia from Spenser, he forgot to add that the matter was drawn from Peele's Arraignment of Paris. To Cynthia succeed twenty sonnets extolling, after the[xvi] fashion of the age, the beauty and virtues of an imaginary youth, Ganymede. In the last sonnet Barnfield introduces compliments to Spenser (Colin) and Drayton (Rowland):—
The 'Ode' that follows the sonnets runs trippingly away in easy trochaics; but Cassandra is laboured and languid.
The Encomion of Lady Pecunia has an 'Address to the Gentlemen Readers,' in which Barnfield states that he had been at much pains to find an unhackneyed subject for his pen. After long consideration he had determined to write the praises of money, a theme both new (for none had ventured upon it before) and pleasing (for money is always in esteem). It was in pursuit of money that Hawkins and Drake had lost their lives. Barnfield wrote a fine epitaph on Hawkins:—
His lines on Drake are not quite so happy:—
The Encomion is smoothly written, and is not without humour. A country gentleman in easy circumstances, Barnfield could dally playfully with a subject that had for him no terrors. His example probably led 'T. A.' (Thomas Acheley?) to write The Massacre of Money, 1602. The Complaint of Poetrie for the Death of Liberalitie seems to be an imitation of Spenser's Teares of the Muses. More interesting are the Poems: in divers humors at the end of the booklet, for among them are the sonnet 'If Musique and sweet Poetrie agree,' and the 'Ode' beginning 'As it fell upon a day,' which were long ascribed erroneously to Shakespeare. In the poem entitled 'A Remembrance of some English Poets' Barnfield praises Spenser, Daniel, Drayton, and Shakespeare. For Sir Philip Sidney he had a deep admiration, but his 'Epitaph' was a poor tribute. The verse with which the tract ends,'A Comparison of the Life of Man,' is distinctly impressive:—
We now reach a group of elegies (pp. 271-318) by various hands on Sir Philip Sidney, printed as an Appendix to Spenser's Colin Clouts Come Home Againe, 1595, with a dedication to Sidney's widow, who by her second marriage had become Countess of Essex. There was no man more generally beloved than Sidney, and none whose loss was more sincerely deplored. Numberless were the tributes paid in verse and prose to his memory. The present[xviii] collection embraces 'Astrophel,' by Spenser; the 'Dolefull Lay of Clorinda,' by Sidney's sister, the Countess of Pembroke; 'The Mourning Muse of Thestylis' and 'A Pastorall Æglogue,' both by Lodowick Bryskett; 'An Elegie, or Friends Passion, for his Astrophel,' by Matthew Roydon; 'An Epitaph,' probably by Sir Walter Ralegh; and 'Another of the same' (i.e. on the same subject), which Malone was inclined to attribute to Sir Edward Dyer, while Charles Lamb ascribed it on internal evidence to Fulke Greville. Although Colin Clouts Come Home Againe was first published in 1595, the dedicatory epistle to Sir Walter Ralegh is dated from Kilcolman, 27th December 1591. All the elegies were doubtless written soon after Sidney's death. Lodowick Bryskett's two poems had been entered in the Stationers' Register on 22nd August 1587, but are not known to have been separately published. Matthew Roydon's elegy had appeared in the Phœnix Nest, 1593, where also are found the 'Epitaph' and 'Another of the Same. Excellently written by a most woorthy gentleman.'
In The Ruines of Time (1591) there are some fine stanzas to Sidney's memory; but if the literary public expected an elaborate elegy from Spenser, 'Astrophel' must have disappointed their hopes. When we recall Moschus' lament over Bion, or Ovid's tribute to Tibullus, or Lycidas, or Adonais, Spenser's elegy on Sidney seems thin and colourless. Scores of poets who had not a tithe of Spenser's genius have left elegies that far transcend 'Astrophel.' Lady Pembroke's sisterly tribute of affection will be read with respect; but however much we may commend the pious intentions of the naturalised Italian[xix] Ludowick Bryskett, it is impossible to find a word of praise for such 'rude rhymes' as
Matthew Roydon's elegy is too diffuse, but has some most happy and memorable stanzas. As we gaze at Isaac Oliver's beautiful miniature of Sidney, in the Windsor Palace collection, those oft-quoted lines of Roydon inevitably leap to the lips:—
The 'Epitaph' beginning, 'To praise thy life, or waile thy worthie death' appears to have been written by Sir Walter Ralegh. Sir John Harington, in the notes appended to the sixteenth book of his translation of Orlando Furioso (1591), refers to 'our English Petrarke, Sir Philip Sidney, or (as Sir Walter Rawleigh in his Epitaph worthily calleth him) the Scipio and the Petrarke of our time' (see the last stanza of the poem). Harington had evidently seen the 'Epitaph' in ms.; and there is not the slightest reason for questioning the accuracy of his ascription, for he was well acquainted with the poets of the time, and curious information may be gathered from his Notes. I find Ralegh's elegy somewhat obscure; pregnant, but harshly worded. Nor can I profess any great admiration for 'Another of the same,' where the vehemence of the writer's grief choked his utterance.
Of the first edition of Alcilia: Philoparthen's Loving Folly, 1595 (pp. 319-362), only one copy is known, preserved in the public library at Hamburgh. On the last page are subscribed the author's initials 'J.C.', which have been altered in ink to 'J.G.' in the Hamburgh copy. The poem was reprinted in London in 1613, 1619, and 1628, being accompanied by Marston's Pygmalion's Image and Samuel Page's Amos and Laura. Who 'J.C.' may have been is unknown; for the wild conjecture that he was John Chalkhill, author of Thealma and Clearchus and friend of Izaak Walton, is chronologically untenable. For the space of two years the unknown poet had pressed his attentions upon the lady whom he called Alcilia. She finally rejected his addresses, and young 'J.C.' was not sorry to escape from bondage. Hardly a trace of genuine passion can be found in Alcilia, which is merely (as the author freely admits) a collection of odds and ends written 'at divers times and upon divers occasions.' It is somewhat surprising that there was a demand for new editions. 'J.C.' wrote with elegance and facility, but the note of originality is wanting. Had the poem appeared a few years earlier, it would have been entitled to more consideration; but the achievements of Greene, Lodge, and others had made it possible in the closing years of the sixteenth century for any young writer of respectable talents to compose such verse as we find in Alcilia.
Daiphantus, or The Passions of Love, 1604 (pp. 363-404), is described on the title-page as 'By An. Sc. Gentleman,' assumed to stand for Antony Scoloker. In the days of Henry VIII there was an Antony Scoloker, a printer and translator, with whom 'An. Sc.' was doubtless connected[xxi] In the humorous prose address there is an interesting reference to Shakespeare:—'It should be like the never-too-well-read Arcadia where the Prose and Verse, Matter and Words, are like his Mistress eyes, one still excelling another and without corrival; or to come home to the Vulgar's element, like friendly Shake-speare's Tragedies, where the Comedian rides when the Tragedian stands on tiptoe. Faith it should please all like Prince Hamlet. But, in sadness, then it were to be feared he would run mad. In sooth I will not be moonsick to please, nor out of my wits though I displease all. What? Poet, are you in passion or out of Love? This is as strange as true.' In the poem itself there is another reference to 'mad Hamlet,' though Scoloker there seems to be glancing at the older play on the subject of Hamlet. For the reader's guidance an 'Argument' is obligingly prefixed, but it is to be feared that even with the help of this Argument he will not find the poem very intelligible or of engrossing interest. Daiphantus, of which only one copy (in the Douce Collection) is known, was perhaps intended merely for circulation among the author's friends, who may have been able to read between the lines. Appended is the fine poem, 'The Passionate Man's Pilgrimage,' beginning:—
Possibly the publisher tacked on these verses without Scoloker's knowledge. It is quite certain that they were not written by the author of Daiphantus, and there are[xxii] good reasons for assigning them to Sir Walter Ralegh (see Hannah's edition of Ralegh's Poems, 1885).
The 'Odes' of Michael Drayton (pp. 405-441), drawn from Poems Lyrick and Pastorall (1606?), and the later collection of 1619, contain some of his best writing. There is no need to praise the glorious 'Ballad of Agincourt,' but it may be noted that Drayton spent considerable pains over the revision of this poem. It was fine in its original form, but every change found in the later version was a clear improvement. No signs of the file are visible, and we should certainly judge—unless we had evidence to the contrary—that this imperishable 'ballad' had been thrown off at a white heat. Only inferior to 'Agincourt' is the stirring ode 'To the Virginian Voyage.' Professor Arber, a high authority, is of opinion that it was composed some time before 12th August 1606, on which day the Plymouth Company despatched Captain Henry Challons' ship to North Virginia. In this valedictory address Drayton writes:—
Captain Challons sailed to Madeira, St. Lucia, Porto Rico,[xxiii] and thence towards North Virginia. His little ship of fifty-five tons, with a crew of twenty-nine Englishmen (and two native Virginians), had the ill-luck on 10th November to fall in with the Spanish fleet of eight ships returning from Havanna. It was captured by the Spaniards and the crew were taken prisoners to Spain.
In a lighter vein, the ode beginning 'Maidens, why spare ye,' was worthy to have been set to music by Robert Jones. The seventh ode was written from the Peak in winter—
where Charles Cotton afterwards resided. Drayton's statement in the ninth ode—
will draw a smile from any reader who has ever seriously attempted to grapple with his multitudinous works. But in these odes, and in the other 'lyric poesies' added in the 1619 edition, he was careful to curb his tendency to diffuseness. He employed a variety of metres, and his experiments were not always happy. Ode 5, 'An Amouret Anacreontic,' cannot be unreservedly commended, and Ode 9, 'A Skeltoniad,' could be spared. One of the most attractive poems is the address 'To his Rival,' a capital piece of good-natured raillery. In his early work Drayton frequently taxes the reader's patience by his disregard for grammatical proprieties, and some of these maturer Odes are so ineptly harsh that one has to grope for the writer's meaning (while one bans the punctuation of old printers and modern editors alike). Hence it is particularly pleasant to meet[xxiv] such a poem as 'To his Rival,' which never swerves awry, but runs on blithely without an encountering obstacle. The 'Hymn to his Lady's Birthplace' is a polished compliment, and very charming is the canzonet 'To his Coy Love.' I end with expressing a hope that the extracts here given from Michael Drayton may induce the reader to make further acquaintance[8] with the writings of one of the most lovable of our elder poets.
A.H. BULLEN.
Judicially proving the true
observation of Time and
Measure, in the authentical
and laudable
use of Dancing.
Ovid, Art. Aman. lib. I.
Si vox est, canta: si mollia brachia, salta:
Et quacunque potes dote placere, place.
At London,
Printed by J. Robarts for N. Ling.
1596.
[The following entries at Stationers' Hall prove that this Poem, composed in fifteen days, was written not later than June, 1594; though it did not come to the press till November, 1596.
25 Junif [1594]. | |
---|---|
Master Harrison. | Entred for his copie in Court holden this day/ a |
Senior. | booke entituled, Orchestra, or a poeme of Daunsing. |
vjd. | |
Transcript &c. ii. 655. Ed. 1875. |
xxj° Die Novembris [1596]. | |
---|---|
Nicholas Lyng/ | Entered for his copie under th[e h]andes of Master Jackson and master Warden Dawson, a booke called Orchestra, or a poeme of Dauncinge. vjd. |
Transcript &c. iii. 74. Ed. 1876.] |
[The following Dedication was substituted in the edition of 1622.
[i.e., Charles, Prince of Wales.]
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[See duplicate ending from this point on the next pages.]
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FINIS.
[In later editions a different ending of the poem was substituted for the above, from after Stanza 126, thus:
** * * *
Here are wanting some stanzas describing Queen
Elizabeth.
Then follow these:
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This Oracle expounded in two
Elegies.
1. Of Human Knowledge.
2. Of the Soul of Man, and the Immortality thereof.
LONDON:
Printed by Richard Field, for John Standish.
1599.
[This work was thus registered for publication at Stationers' Hall: 10 Aprilis [1599].
John Standyshe | Entred for his copie A booke called Nosce Teipsum The oracle expounded in two Elegies. 1. of human kno[w]ledge. 2. of the soule of Man and th[e] immortality thereof. |
Master Ponsonbyes [the junior Warden at the time] hand is to yt. | This is aucthorised vnder the hand of the L[ord] Bysshop of London Provyed that yt must not be printed without his L[ordships] hand to yt again. |
Transcript &c. iii. 142. Ed. 1876. |
FINIS.
Of Astræa.
To Astræa.
To the Spring.
To the month of May.
To the Lark.
To the Nightingale.
To the Rose.
To all the Princes of Europe.
To Flora.
To the Month of September.
To the Sun.
To her Picture.
Of her Mind.
Of the Sunbeams of her Mind.
Of her Wit.
Of her Will.
Of her Memory.
Of her Phantasy.
Of the Organs of her Mind.
Of the Passions of her Heart.
Of the innumerable Virtues of her Mind.
Of her Wisdom.
Of her Justice.
Of her Magnanimity.
Of her Moderation.
FINIS.
Dum defluat amnis.
PRINTED
At Oxford by IOSEPH BARNES.
1588.
E. D.
Libenter hic, et omnis exantlabitur
Labor, in tuæ spem gratiæ.
[Horace, Epodes i. 23-24.]
chosen out of the famous Sicilian Poet
THEOCRITUS,
and translated into English verse.
THE EIGHTH IDILLION.
Argument.
Menalcas a Shepherd and Daphnis a Neatherd, two Sicilian Lads, contending who should sing best, pawn their Whistles; and choose a Goatherd to be their Judge: who giveth sentence on Daphnis his side. The thing is imagined to be done in the Isle of Sicily, by the sea-shore. Of whose singing, this Idillion is called Bucoliastæ, that is, "Singers of a Neatherd's Song."
BUCOLIASTÆ.
Daphnis, Menalcas, Goatherd.
Argument.
Theocritus wrote this Idillion to Nicias a learned Physician: wherein he sheweth—by the example of Polyphemus a giant in Sicily, of the race of the Cyclops, who loved the Water Nymph Galatea—that there is no medicine so sovereign against Love as is Poetry. Of whose Love Song, as this Idillion, is termed Cyclops; so he was called Cyclops, because he had but one eye, that stood like a circle in the midst of his forehead.
Polyphem's Emblem.
Ubi Dictamum inventiam?
Argument.
The style of this Poem is more lofty than any of the rest, and Theocritus wrote it to Hiero, King of Syracuse in Sicily. Wherein he reproveth the nigardise of Princes and Great Men towards the Learned, and namely [especially] Poets: in whose power it is to make men famous to all posterity. Towards the end, he praiseth Hiero; and prayeth that Sicily may be delivered by his prowess from the invasions of the Carthaginians. This Idillion is named Hiero in respect of the person to whom it was written; or Charites, that is, "Graces," in respect of the matter whereof it treateth.
Emblem.
Si nihil attuleris, ibis Homere foras.
Argument.
Twelve noble Spartan Virgins are brought in singing, in the evening, at the chamber door of Menelaus and Helena on their Wedding Day. And first they prettily jest with the Bridegroom, then they praise Helena, last they wish them both joy of their marriage. Therefore this Idillion is entitled Helen's Epithalamion that is "Helen's Wedding Song."
Emblem.
Usque adeo latet utilitas.
Argument.
A Neatherd is brought chafing that Eunica, a Maid of the city, disdained to kiss him. Whereby it is thought that Theocritus seemeth to check them that think this kind of writing in Poetry to be too base and rustical. And therefore this Poem is termed Neatherd.
Argument
The conceit of this Idillion is very delicate. Wherein it is imagined how Venus did send for the Boar who in hunting slew Adonis, a dainty youth whom she loved: and how the Boar answering for himself that he slew him against his will, as being enamoured on him, and thinking only to kiss his naked thigh; she forgave him. The Poet's drift is to shew the power of Love, not only in men, but also in brute beasts: although in the last two verses, by the burning of the Boar's amorous teeth, he intimateth that extravagant and unorderly passions are to be restrained by reason.
FINIS.
Containing the Complaint of Daphnis for
the loue of Ganymede.
Amor plus mellis, quam fellis, est.
LONDON,
Printed by Iohn Danter for T.G. and E.N.
and are to bee sold in Saint Dunstones
Church-yeard in Fleetstreet,
1594.
OR
The Complaint of Daphnis for the Loue
of Ganimede.
FINIS.
Written upon Occasion of the
former Subject.
FINIS.
Briefely touching the cause of the
death of Matilda Fitzwalters an English
Ladie; sometime loued of King Iohn,
after poysoned. The Storie is at large
written by Michael Dreyton.
OR
A light Lanthorne for light Ladies.
Written in English Hexameters.
Quod cupio nequeo.
At London,
Printed for Humfrey
Lownes, and are to bee
sold at the VVest doore
of Paules. 1595.
Ight Honorable, the dutifull affection I beare to your
manie vertues, is cause, that to manifest my loue to
your Lordship, I am constrained to shew my simplenes
to the world. Many are they that admire your
worth, of the which number, I (though the meanest in abilitie, yet
with the formost in affection) am one that most desire to serue, and
onely to serue your Honour.
Small is the gift, but great is my good-will; the which, by how
much the lesse I am able to expresse it, by so much the more it is
infinite. Liue long: and inherit your Predecessors vertues, as
you doe their dignitie and estate. This is my wish: the which your
honorable excellent giftes doe promise me to obtaine: and whereof
these few rude and vnpollished lines, are a true (though an vndeseruing)
testimony. If my ability were better, the signes should
be greater; but being as it is, your honour must take me as I am,
not as I should be. My yeares being so young, my perfection cannot
be greater: But howsoeuer it is, yours it is; and I my selfe am
yours; in all humble seruice, most ready to be commaunded.
Richard Barnefeilde.
Entlemen; the last Terme [i.e., November 1594]
there came forth a little toy of mine, intituled,
The affectionate Shepheard: In the which, his
Country Content found such friendly fauor, that it
hath incouraged me to publish my second fruites.
The affectionate Shepheard being the first: howsoeuer undeseruedly
(I protest) I haue beene thought (of some) to haue
beene the authour of two Books heretofore. I neede not to
name them, because they are two-well knowne already: nor
will I deny them, because they are dislik't; but because
they are not mine. This protestation (I hope) will satisfie
th'indifferent: as for them that are maliciously enuious, as
I cannot, so I care not to please. Some there were, that
did interpret The affectionate Shepheard, otherwise then (in
truth) I meant, touching the subiect thereof, to wit, the loue
of a Shepheard to a boy; a fault, the which I will not
excuse, because I neuer made. Onely this, I will vnshaddow
my conceit: being nothing else, but an imitation of Virgill,
in the second Eglogue of Alexis. In one or two places (in
this Booke) I vse the name of Eliza pastorally: wherein,
lest any one should misconster my meaning (as I hope none
will) I haue here briefly discouered my harmeles conceipt as
concerning that name: whereof once (in a simple Shepheards
deuice) I wrot this Epigramme.
Thus, hoping you will beare with my rude conceit of
Cynthia, (if for no other cause, yet, for that it is the first
imitation of the verse of that excellent Poet, Maister
Spencer, in his Fayrie Queene) I will leaue you to the reading
of that, which I so much desire may breed your Delight.
Richard Barnefeild.
The Conclusion.
FINIS.
FINIS.
FINIS.
FINIS.
quærenda pecunia primum est,
Virtus post nummos. Horace.
By Richard Barnfeild, Graduate in Oxford.
LONDON,
Printed by G. S. for Iohn Iaggard, and are
to be sold at his shoppe neere Temple-barre,
at the Signe of the Hand and starre.
1 5 9 8.
Entlemen, being incouraged through your gentle
acceptance of my Cynthia, I haue once more aduentured
on your Curtesies: hoping to finde you
(as I haue done heretofore) friendly. Being
determined to write of somthing, and yet not
resolued of any thing, I considered with my selfe, if one
should write of Loue (they will say) why, euery one writes of
Loue: if of Vertue, why, who regards Vertue? To be short,
I could thinke of nothing, but either it was common, or not at
all in request. At length I bethought my selfe of a Subiect,
both new (as hauing neuer beene written vpon before) and
pleasing (as I thought) because Mans Nature (commonly)
loues to heare that praised, with whose pressence, hee is most
pleased.
Erasmus (the glory of Netherland, and the refiner of the Latin Tongue) wrote a whole Booke, in the prayse of Folly. Then if so excellent a Scholler, writ in praise of Vanity, why may not I write in praise of that which is profitable? There are no two Countreys, where Gold is esteemed, lesse than in India, and more then in England: the reason is, because the Indians are barbarous, and our Nation ciuill.
I have giuen Pecunia the title of a Woman, Both for the termination of the Word, and because (as Women are) shee is lov'd of men. The brauest Voyages in the World, haue beene made for Gold: for it, men haue venterd (by Sea) to the furthest parts of the Earth: In the Pursute whereof, Englands Nestor and Neptune (Haukins and Drake) lost their[230] liues. Vpon the Deathes of the which two, of the first I writ this:
Of the latter this:
The Prætorians (after the death of Pertinax) in the election of a new Emperour, more esteemed the money of Iulianus, then either the vertue of Seuerus, or the Valour of Pessennius. Then of what great estimation and account, this Lady Pecunia, both hath beene in the Worlde, and is at this present, I leaue to your Iudgement. But what speake I so much of her praise in my Epistle, that haue commended her so at large in my Booke? To the reading wherof, (Gentlemen) I referre you.
[Collated with the Bridgwater House copy.]
FINIS.
Viuit post funera virtus.
LONDON,
Printed by G. S. for Iohn Iaggard, and are
to be solde at his shoppe neere Temple-barre,
at the Signe of the Hand and starre.
1 5 9 8.
FINIS.
LONDON,
Printed by G. S. for Iohn Iaggard, and are
to be solde at his shoppe neere Temple-barre,
at the Signe of the Hand and starre.
1 5 9 8.
FINIS.
Trahit sua quemque voluptas. Virgil.
LONDON,
Printed by G. S. for Iohn Iaggard, and are
to be solde at his shoppe neere Temple-barre,
at the Signe of the Hand and starre.
1 5 9 8.
To his friend Maister R. L. In praise of
Musique and Poetrie.
FINIS.
Dedicated
to the most beautiful and virtuous Lady
the Countess of ESSEX.
[By EDMUND SPENSER, the Countess of PEMBROKE, and others.]
[Printed as an Appendix to _COLIN CLOUT's come home again_, first printed in 1595; but the epistle of which is dated "From my house of Kilcolman, the 27 of December, 1591."]
Lycon. Colin.
Lycon.
Written upon the death of the Right
Honourable Sir Philip Sidney,
Knight, Lord Governor
of Flushing.
FINIS.
Non Deus (ut perhibent) amor est, sed
amaror, et error.
AT LONDON.
Printed by R. R. for William Mattes,
dwelling in Fleet street, at the sign of the
Hand and Plough.
1595.
[The only copy of the 1595 edition, at present known, is in the City Library, at Hamburg.
It was recovered, and reprinted in 1875 by Herr Wilhelm Wagner, Ph.D., in Vol. X. of the Deutschen Shakespeare-Gesellschaft Jahrbuch; copies of this particular text being also separately printed.
A limited Subscription edition, of fifty-one copies, was printed by Rev. A. B. Grosart, LL.D., F.S.A., of Blackburn, in 1879: with a fresh collation of the text by B. S. Leeson, Esq., of Hamburg.
The present modernized text is based on a comparison of the above two reprints of the 1595 edition with the text of the London edition of 1613 in which some headings therein inserted between [ ], on pp. 256, 276, 278) first occur.]
Friend Philoparthen,
N perusing your Loving Folly, and your Declining
from it; I do behold Reason conquering Passion.
The infirmity of loving argueth you are a man;
the firmness thereof, discovereth a good wit and
the best nature: and the falling from it, true virtue. Beauty
was always of force to mislead the wisest; and men of
greatest perfection have had no power to resist Love. The
best are accompanied with vices, to exercise their virtues;
whose glory shineth brightest in resisting motives of pleasure,
and in subduing affections. And though I cannot altogether
excuse your Loving Folly; yet I do the less blame you, in
that you loved such a one as was more to be commended for
her virtue, than beauty: albeit even for that too, she was so
well accomplished with the gifts of Nature as in mine conceit
(which, for good cause, I must submit as inferior to yours)
there was nothing wanting, either in the one or the other,
that might add more to her worth, except it were a more
due and better regard of your love; which she requited not
according to your deserts, nor answerable to herself in her
other parts of perfection. Yet herein it appeareth you have
made good use of Reason; that being heretofore lost in
youthful vanity, have now, by timely discretion, found yourself!
Let me entreat you to suffer these your Passionate Sonnets to be published! which may, peradventure, make others, possessed with the like Humour of Loving, to follow your example, in leaving; and move other Alcilias (if there be any) to embrace deserving love, while they may!
Hereby, also, she shall know, and, it may be, inwardly repent the loss of your love, and see how much her perfections are blemished by ingratitude; which will make your happiness greater by adding to your reputation, than your contentment could have been in enjoying her love. At the least wise, the wiser sort, however in censuring them, they may dislike of your errors; yet they cannot but commend and allow of your reformation: and all others that shall with indifferency read them, may reap thereby some benefit, or contentment.
Thus much I have written as a testimony of the good will I bear you! with whom I do suffer or rejoice according to the quality of your misfortune or good hap. And so I take my leave; resting, as always,
Yours most assured,
Philaretes.
[Vel, Epistola ad Amicam.]
[Compare this, with Gascoigne's poem, Vol. I. p. 63.]
FINIS.
Comical to read,
But Tragical to act:
As full of Wit, as Experience.
By An. Sc. Gentleman.
Fœlix quem faciunt aliena pericula cautum.
Whereunto is added,
The Passionate Man's Pilgrimage.
LONDON:
Printed by T. C. for William Cotton: and are
to be sold at his shop, near Ludgate. 1604.
Aiphantus, a younger brother, very honourably
descended, brought up but not born in Venice;
naturally subject to Courting, but not to Love;
reputed a man rather full of compliment, than of
true courtesy; more desirous to be thought honest, than
so to be wordish beyond discretion; promising more to all,
than friendship could challenge; mutable in all his actions,
but his affections aiming indeed to gain opinion rather than
goodwill; challenging love from greatness, not from merit;
studious to abuse his own wit, by the common sale of his
infirmities; lastly, under the colour of his natural affection
(which indeed was very pleasant and delightful) coveted to
disgrace every other to his own discontent: a scourge to
Beauty, a traitor to Women, and an infidel to Love.
This He, this creature, at length, falls in love with two at one instant; yea, two of his nearest allies: and so indifferently [equally] yet outrageously, as what was commendable in the one, was admirable in the other. By which means, as not despised, not regarded! if not deceived, not pitied! They esteemed him as he was in deed, not words. He protested, they jested! He swore he loved in sadness; they in sooth believed, but seemed to give no credence to him: thinking[366] him so humorous as no resolution could be long good; and holding this his attestation to them of affection in that kind, [no] more than his contesting against it before time.
Thus overcome of that he seemed to conquer, he became a slave to his own fortunes. Laden with much misery, utter mischief seized upon him. He fell in love with another, a wedded Lady. Then with a fourth, named Vitullia. And so far was he imparadised in her beauty (She not recomforting him) that he fell from Love to Passion, so to Distraction, then to Admiration [wonderment] and Contemplation, lastly to Madness. Thus did he act the Tragical scenes, who only penned the Comical: became, if not as brutish as Actæon, as furious as Orlando. Of whose Humours and Passions, I had rather you should read them, than I act them!
In the end, by one, or rather by all, he was recovered. A Voice did mad him; and a Song did recure him! Four in one sent him out of this world; and one with four redeemed him to the world. To whose unusual strains in Music, and emphatical emphasis in Love; I will leave you to turn over a new leaf!
This only I will end with:
N Epistle to the Reader! Why! that must have
his Forehead or first entrance like a Courtier, fair-spoken
and full of expectation; his Middle or centre
like your citizen's warehouse, beautified with enticing
vanities, though the true riches consist of bald commodities;
his Rendezvous or conclusion like the lawyer's case, able
to pocket up any matter; but let good words be your best evidence!
In the General or foundation, he must be like Paul's Church, resolved
to let every Knight and Gull travel upon him: yet his Particulars
or lineaments may be Royal as the Exchange, with ascending
steps, promising new but costly devices and fashions. It must have
Teeth like a Satyr, Eyes like a critic; and yet may your Tongue
speak false Latin, like your panders and bawds of poetry. Your
Genius and Species should march in battle array with our politicians:
yet your Genius ought to live with an honest soul indeed.
It should be like the never-too-well-read Arcadia, where the Prose and Verse, Matter and Words, are like his [Sidney's] Mistress's eyes! one still excelling another, and without corrival! or to come home to the vulgar's element, like friendly Shake-speare's Tragedies, where the Comedian rides, when the Tragedian stands on tiptoe. Faith, it should please all, like Prince Hamlet! But, in sadness, then it were to be feared, he would run mad. In sooth, I will not be moonsick, to please! nor out of my wits, though I displease all! What? Poet! are you in Passion, or out of Love? This is as strange as true!
Well, well! if I seem mystical or tyrannical; whether I be a fool or a Lord's-Ingle; all's one! If you be angry, you are not well advised! I will tell you, it is an Indian humour I have snuffed up from Divine Tobacco! and it is most gentlemanlike, to puff it out at any place or person!
I'll no Epistle! It were worse than one of Hercules' labours! but will conclude honesty is a man's best virtue. And but for the Lord Mayor and the two Sheriffs, the Inns of Court, and many Gallants elsewhere, this last year might have been burned! As for Momus (carp and bark who will!), if the noble Ass bray not, I am as good a Knight Poet, as Ætatis suæ, Master An. Dom.'s son-in-law.
Let your critic look to the rowels of his spurs, the pad of his saddle, and the jerk of his wand! then let him ride me and my rhymes down, as hotly as he would. I care not! We shall meet and be friends again, with the breaking of a spear or two! and who would do less, for a fair Lady?
There I leave you, where you shall ever find me!
Passionate Daiphantus, your loving subject, Gives you to understand, he is a Man in Print, and it is enough he hath undergone a Pressing, though for your sakes and for Ladies: protesting for this poor infant of his brain, as it was the price of his virginity, born into the world with tears: so (but for a many his dear friends that took much pains for it) it had died, and never been laughed at! and that if Truth have wrote less than Fiction; yet it is better to err in Knowledge than in Judgement! Also, if he have caught up half a line of any other's, it was out of his memory, not of any ignorance!
Why he dedicates it to All, and not to any Particular, as his Mistress or so? His answer is, He is better born, than to creep into women's favours, and ask their leave afterwards.
Also he desireth you to help to correct such errors of the Printer, which (because the Author is dead, or was out of the City) hath been committed. And it was his folly, or the Stationer's, you had not an Epistle to the purpose.
FINIS.
Non Amori sed Virtuti.
Supposed to be written by one at the point of death.
FINIS.
To the Reader.
Des I have called these, the first of my few Poems;
which how happy soever they prove, yet Criticism
itself cannot say, That the name is wrongfully
usurped. For (not to begin with Definitions,
against the Rule of Oratory; nor ab ovo, against
the Prescript of Poetry in a poetical argument: but somewhat
only to season thy palate with a slight description)
an Ode is known to have been properly a Song
moduled to the ancient harp: and neither too short-breathed,
as hastening to the end; nor composed of [the]
longest verses, as unfit for the sudden turns and lofty tricks
with which Apollo used to menage it.
They are, as the Learned say, divers:
Some transcendently lofty; and far more high than the Epic, commonly called the Heroic, Poem—witness those of the inimitable Pindarus consecrated to the glory and renown[406] of such as returned in triumph from [the Games at] Olympus, Elis, Isthmus, or the like.
Others, among the Greeks, are amorous, soft, and made for chambers; as others for theatres: as were Anacreon's, the very delicacies of the Grecian Erato; which Muse seemed to have been the Minion of that Teian old man, which composed them.
Of a mixed kind were Horace's. And [we] may truly therefore call these mixed; whatsoever else are mine: little partaking of the high dialect of the first
nor altogether of Anacreon; the Arguments being amorous, moral, or what else the Muse pleaseth.
To write much in this kind neither know I how it will relish: nor, in so doing, can I but injuriously presuppose ignorance or sloth in thee; or draw censure upon myself for sinning against the decorum of a Preface, by reading a Lecture, where it is enough to sum the points. New they are, and the work of Playing Hours: but what other commendation is theirs, and whether inherent in the subject, must be thine to judge.
But to act the Go-Between of my Poems and thy applause, is neither my modesty nor confidence: that, oftener than once, have acknowledged thee, kind; and do not doubt hereafter to do somewhat in which I shall not fear thee, just. And would, at this time, also gladly let thee understand what I think, above the rest, of the last Ode of the number; or, if thou wilt, Ballad in my book. For both the great Master of Italian rymes Petrarch, and our Chaucer, and others of the Upper House of the Muses, have thought their Canzons honoured in the title of a Ballad: which for that I labour to meet truly therein with the old English garb, I hope as ably to justify as the learned Colin Clout his Roundelay.
Thus requesting thee, in thy better judgment, to correct such faults as have escaped in the printing; I bid thee farewell.
[M. Drayton.]
To Himself, and the Harp.
To the New Year.
[To Cupid.]
To my worthy friend Master John Savage of the Inner Temple.
[An Amouret Anacreontic.]
[Love's Conquest.]
[An Ode written in the Peak.]
[A Skeltoniad.]
[His Defence against the idle Critic.]
To the Virginian Voyage.
To the Cambro-Britans and their Harp, his Ballad of Agincourt.
[Besides this Ballad: Michael Drayton published, in 1627, a much longer Poem upon this celebrated Battle.]
FINIS.
To the worthy Knight, and my noble friend,
Sir Henry Goodere, a Gentleman of
His Majesty's Privy Chamber.
To his Valentine.
A Canzonet.
[Edinburgh: T. and A. Constable, Printers to His Majesty]
[1] Ben Jonson (Conversations with William Drummond of Hawthornden) took exception to the opening lines:—
[2] The passage is thus rendered by Jasper Mayne (Part of Lucian, made English ... in the year 1638):—'Nor were it amiss, having passed through India and Aethiopia, to draw our discourse down to their neighbouring Aegypt. Where the ancient fiction which goes of Proteus, methinks, signifies him only to be a certain dancer and mimic; who could transform and change himself into all shapes, sometimes acting the fluidness of water, sometimes the sharpness of fire, occasioned by the quickness of its aspiring motion, sometimes the fierceness of a lion, and fury of a libbard, and waving of an oak, and whatever he liked.'
[3] Cf. also Arnold's "Obermann once more":—
[4] The poems of Barnfield were not in the original Garner and are now incorporated for the first time.
[5] Prince in his Worthies of Devon(1701) quotes this couplet as an epitaph, by an anonymous writer, on Drake.
[6] There is a better epitaph on Drake in Wit's Recreations(1640):—
[7] On March 31, 1605, Captain George Weymouth started from the Downs with a crew of twenty-nine to discover a North-West Passage to the East Indies. On May 14 he 'descries land in 41° 30' N. in the midst of dangerous rocks and shoals. Upon which he puts to sea, the wind blowing south-south-west and west-south-west many days' (Prince's New England Chronology ap. Garner, ii. 356). Drayton advises the Virginian voyagers to keep the west-by-south course and so avoid misadventures. He had not reckoned on the Spanish fleet.
[8] Several of Drayton's works have been reprinted by the Spenser Society, and an excellent Introduction to them has been written by Professor Oliver Elton (1895).
[9] Diogenes.
[10] Chaucer.
[11] pincers.
[12] In Warwickshire.