I.
Rise, royall Sion! rise and sing
Thy soul's kind shepheard, thy hart's King.
Stretch all thy powres; call if you can
Harpes of heaun to hands of man.
This soueraign subject sitts aboue
The best ambition of thy loue.
II.
Lo, the Bread of Life, this day's
incites Triumphant text, prouokes thy prayse:
The liuing and life-giuing bread
To the great twelue distributed;
When Life, Himself, at point to dy
Of loue, was His Own legacy.
III.
Come, Loue! and let vs work a song
Lowd and pleasant, sweet and long;
Let lippes and hearts lift high the noise
Of so iust and solemn ioyes,
Which on His white browes this bright day
Shall hence for euer bear away.
IV.
Lo, the new law of a new Lord,
With a new Lamb blesses the board:
The agèd Pascha pleads not yeares
But spyes Loue's dawn, and disappeares.
Types yield to truthes; shades shrink away;
And their Night dyes into our Day.
V.
But lest that dy too, we are bid
Euer to doe what He once did:
And by a mindfull, mystick breath
That we may liue, reuiue His death;
With a well-bles't bread and wine,
Transsum'd and taught to turn diuine.
VI.
The Heaun-instructed house of Faith
Here a holy dictate hath,
That they but lend their form and face;—
Themselues with reuerence leaue their place,
Nature, and name, to be made good,
By a nobler bread, more needfull blood.
VII.
Where Nature's lawes no leaue will giue,
Bold Faith takes heart, and dares beleiue
In different species: name not things,
Himself to me my Saviovr brings;
As meat in that, as drink in this,
But still in both one Christ He is.
VIII.
The receiuing mouth here makes
Nor wound nor breach in what he takes.
Let one, or one thovsand be
Here diuiders, single he
Beares home no lesse, all they no more,
Nor leaue they both lesse then before.
IX.
Though in it self this soverain Feast
Be all the same to euery guest,
Yet on the same (life-meaning) Bread
The child of death eates himself dead:
Nor is't Loue's fault, but Sin's dire skill
That thus from Life can death distill.
X.
When the blest signes thou broke shalt see
Hold but thy faith intire as He
Who, howsoe're clad, cannot come
Lesse then whole Christ in euery crumme.
In broken formes a stable Faith
Vntouch't her precious totall hath.
XI.
So the life-food of angells then
Bow'd to the lowly mouths of men!
The children's Bread, the Bridegroom's Wine;
Not to be cast to dogges, or swine.
XII.
Lo, the full, finall Sacrifice
On which all figures fix't their eyes:
The ransom'd Isack, and his ramme;
The manna, and the paschal lamb.
XIII.
Iesv Master, iust and true!
Our food, and faithfull Shephard too!
O by Thy self vouchsafe to keep,
As with Thy selfe Thou feed'st Thy sheep.
XIV.
O let that loue which thus makes Thee
Mix with our low mortality,
Lift our lean soules, and sett vs vp
Con-victors of Thine Own full cup,
Coheirs of saints. That so all may
Drink the same wine; and the same way:
Nor change the pastvre, but the place,
To feed of Thee, in Thine Own face. Amen.
NOTES.
In 1648, line 3 has 'thou' for 'you:' line 4 'and' for 'to:' line 6, 'ambitious:' line 19, 'Lord' is misprinted 'Law:' line 39, 'names:' line 42 spells 'one' as 'on:' line 55, our text (1652) misprints 'shall:' line 75, 1648 reads 'mean' for 'lean.' G.
PRAYER:
AN ODE WHICH WAS PRÆFIXED TO A LITTLE PRAYER-BOOK GIVEN TO A YOUNG GENTLE-WOMAN.[44]
Lo here a little volume, but great book!1
(Feare it not, sweet,
It is no hipocrit)
Much larger in itselfe then in its looke.
A nest of new-born sweets;5
Whose natiue fires disdaining
To ly thus folded, and complaining
Of these ignoble sheets,
Affect more comly bands
(Fair one) from thy kind hands;10
And confidently look
To find the rest
Of a rich binding in your brest.
It is, in one choise handfull, Heauvn; and all
Heaun's royall host; incampt thus small15
To proue that true, Schooles vse to tell,
Ten thousand angels in one point can dwell.
It is Loue's great artillery
Which here contracts it self, and comes to ly19
Close-couch't in your white bosom; and from thence
As from a snowy fortresse of defence,
Against the ghostly foes to take your part,
And fortify the hold of your chast heart.
It is an armory of light;
Let constant vse but keep it bright,25
You'l find it yields
To holy hands and humble hearts
More swords and sheilds
Then sin hath snares, or Hell hath darts.
Only be sure30
The hands be pure
That hold these weapons; and the eyes,
Those of turtles, chast and true;
Wakefull and wise:
Here is a freind shall fight for you;35
Hold but this book before your heart,
Let prayer alone to play his part;
But O the heart
That studyes this high art
Must be a sure house-keeper:40
And yet no sleeper.
Dear soul, be strong!
Mercy will come e're long
And bring his bosome fraught with blessings,
Flowers of neuer-fading graces45
To make immortall dressings
For worthy soules, whose wise embraces
Store vp themselues for Him, Who is alone
The Spovse of virgins and the virgin's Son.
But if the noble Bridegroom, when He come,50
Shall find the loytering heart from home;
Leauing her chast aboad
To gadde abroad
Among the gay mates of the god of flyes;
To take her pleasure, and to play55
And keep the deuill's holyday;
To dance in th' sunshine of some smiling
But beguiling
Spheare of sweet and sugred lyes;
Some slippery pair60
Of false, perhaps, as fair,
Flattering but forswearing, eyes;
Doubtlesse some other heart
Will gett the start
Meanwhile, and stepping in before65
Will take possession of that sacred store
Of hidden sweets and holy ioyes;
Words which are not heard with eares
(Those tumultuous shops of noise)
Effectuall whispers, whose still voice70
The soul it selfe more feeles then heares;
Amorous languishments; luminous trances;
Sights which are not seen with eyes;
Spirituall and soul-peircing glances
Whose pure and subtil lightning flyes75
Home to the heart, and setts the house on fire,
And melts it down in sweet desire
Yet doth not stay
To ask the windows' leaue, to passe that way;
Delicious deaths; soft exalations80
Of soul; dear and diuine annihilations;
A thousand vnknown rites
Of ioyes and rarefy'd delights;
A hundred thousand goods, glories, and graces:
And many a mystick thing85
Which the diuine embraces
Of the deare Spouse of spirits, with them will bring,
For which it is no shame
That dull mortality must not know a name.
Of all this hidden store90
Of blessings, and ten thousand more
(If when He come
He find the heart from home)
Doubtlesse He will vnload
Himself some other where,95
And poure abroad
His pretious sweets
On the fair soul whom first He meets.
O fair, O fortunate! O riche! O dear!
O happy and thrice-happy she100
Deare silver-breasted dove
Who ere she be,
Whose early loue
With wingèd vowes
Makes hast to meet her morning Spouse,105
And close with His immortall kisses.
Happy indeed, who neuer misses
To improue that pretious hour,
And euery day
Seize her sweet prey,110
All fresh and fragrant as He rises,
Dropping with a baulmy showr,
A delicious dew of spices;
O let the blissfull heart hold it fast
Her heaunly arm-full; she shall tast115
At once ten thousand paradises;
She shall haue power
To rifle and deflour
The rich and roseall spring of those rare sweets
Which with a swelling bosome there she meets:120
Boundles and infinite ___________
___________ Bottomles treasures
Of pure inebriating pleasures.
Happy proof! she shal discouer
What ioy, what blisse,125
How many heau'ns at once it is
To haue her God become her Lover.
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
The text of 1648 corresponds pretty closely, except in the usual changes of orthography, with our text (1652): and 1670, in like manner, follows that of 1646. 1646 edition furnishes some noticeable variations:
Line 1, 'large' for 'great.'
" 2-4 restored to their place here. Turnbull gives them in a foot-note with this remark: 'So in the Paris edition of 1652. In all the others,
Fear it not, sweet,
It is no hypocrite,
Much larger in itself, than in its book.'
This is a mistake. The only edition that omits the lines (5-13) besides the first (1646) and substitutes these three is that of 1670.
Lines 5-13 not in 1646 edition: first appeared in 1648 edition.
" 14, 'choise' for 'rich.'
" 15, 'hoasts' for 'host.'
" 17, 'Ten thousand.'
" 20. Our text (1652) here and elsewhere misreads 'their:' silently corrected.
Line 22. Our text (1652) misprints 'their' for 'the:' as 'the' is the reading of 1648 and 1670, I have adopted it.
Line 24, 'the' for 'an.'
" 27, 'hand' for 'hands.'
" 37, 1648 edition has 'its' for 'his.'
" 44. Our text (1652) oddly misprints 'besom' for 'bosome:' the latter reading in 1646, 1648 and 1670 vindicates itself. 1646 reads 'her' and 1648 'its' for 'his.'
Line 50, 'comes' for 'come.'
" 51, 'wandring' for 'loytering.'
" 54. The allusion is to one of the names of Satan, viz. Baal-zebub = fly-god, dunghill-god.
Line 55, 'pleasures.'
" 57. Our text (1652) inadvertently drops 'in.' 1648 has 'i' th'.'
Line 59. Our text misprints 'spheares:' 1648 adopts 'spheare' from 1646 edition. 1670 misprints 'spear.'
Line 62, 'forswearing:' a classic word.
" 64, 'git' is the spelling.
" 65. All the editions save our text (1652) omit 'meanwhile.'
Line 66, 'the' for 'that.'
" 69, 'These' for 'Those,' by mistake.
" 78, 'doth' for 'does' I have adopted here.
" 83, 1648, by misprint, has 'O' for 'Of.'
" 84, 'An hundred thousand loves and graces.'
" 90. I have accepted 'hidden' before 'store' from 1646 edition.
Line 101. I have also adopted this characteristic line from 1646 edition. In all the others (except 1670) it is 'Selected dove.'
Line 107, 'soule' for 'indeed.'
" 114, 'that' for 'the.'
" 121-122. In 1648 printed as supra, the lines probably indicating a blank where the ms. was illegible. In our text (1652) we have two lines, but no blank indicated.
Line 124, 'soul' for 'proof.'
" 127, 'a' for 'her.' G.
TO THE SAME PARTY:
COVNCEL CONCERNING HER CHOISE.[45]
Dear, Heaun-designèd sovl!1
Amongst the rest
Of suters that beseige your maiden brest,
Why may not I
My fortune try5
And venture to speak one good word,
Not for my self, alas! but for my dearer Lord?
You have seen allready, in this lower sphear
Of froth and bubbles, what to look for here:
Say, gentle soul, what can you find10
But painted shapes,
Peacocks and apes;
Illustrious flyes,
Guilded dunghills, glorious lyes;
Goodly surmises15
And deep disguises,
Oathes of water, words of wind?
Trvth biddes me say 'tis time you cease to trust
Your soul to any son of dust.
'Tis time you listen to a brauer loue,20
Which from aboue
Calls you vp higher
And biddes you come
And choose your roome
Among His own fair sonnes of fire;25
Where you among
The golden throng
That watches at His palace doores
May passe along,
And follow those fair starres of your's;30
Starrs much too fair and pure to wait vpon
The false smiles of a sublunary sun.
Sweet, let me prophesy that at last t'will proue
Your wary loue
Layes vp his purer and more pretious vowes,35
And meanes them for a farre more worthy Spovse
Then this World of lyes can giue ye:
Eu'n for Him with Whom nor cost,
Nor loue, nor labour can be lost;
Him Who neuer will deceiue ye.40
Let not my Lord, the mighty Louer
Of soules, disdain that I discouer
The hidden art
Of His high stratagem to win your heart:
It was His heaunly art45
Kindly to cross you
In your mistaken loue;
That, at the next remoue
Thence, He might tosse you
And strike your troubled heart50
Home to Himself; to hide it in His brest:
The bright ambrosiall nest
Of Loue, of life, and euerlasting rest.
Happy mystake!
That thus shall wake55
Your wise soul, neuer to be wonne
Now with a loue below the sun.
Your first choyce failes; O when you choose agen
May it not be amongst the sonnes of men.
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
The first line, 'To Mistress M.R.
Dear, Heav'n-designed soul,'
as in 1670, is not to be considered as an unrhymed line, but as the address or superscription, though so contrived as not to interfere with the metre, but to make a five-foot line with the two feet of the true first line of the poem. So Parolles prefaces his verse with
'Dian, the count's a fool and full of gold.'
(All's Well that ends Well, iv. 3.)
and Longaville (Love's Labour Lost) prefixes to his sonnet,
'O sweet Maria, empress of my love.'
In fact, it is the 'Madam' of a poetical epistle brought into metrical harmony with the verse. G.
DESCRIPTION OF A RELIGIOVS HOVSE AND CONDITION OF LIFE.
(OVT OF BARCLAY.)[46]
No roofes of gold o're riotous tables shining1
Whole dayes and suns, deuour'd with endlesse dining.
No sailes of Tyrian sylk, proud pauements sweeping,
Nor iuory couches costlyer slumber keeping;
False lights of flairing gemmes; tumultuous ioyes;5
Halls full of flattering men and frisking boyes;
What'ere false showes of short and slippery good
Mix the mad sons of men in mutuall blood.
But walkes, and vnshorn woods; and soules, iust so
Vnforc't and genuine; but not shady tho.10
Our lodgings hard and homely as our fare,
That chast and cheap, as the few clothes we weare.
Those, course and negligent, as the naturall lockes
Of these loose groues; rough as th' vnpolish't rockes.
A hasty portion of præscribèd sleep;15
Obedient slumbers, that can wake and weep,
And sing, and sigh, and work, and sleep again;
Still rowling a round spear of still-returning pain.
Hands full of harty labours; paines that pay
And prize themselves: doe much, that more they may,20
And work for work, not wages; let to-morrow's
New drops, wash off the sweat of this daye's sorrows.
A long and dayly-dying life, which breaths
A respiration of reuiuing deaths.
But neither are there those ignoble stings25
That nip the blossome of the World's best things,
And lash Earth-labouring souls....
No cruell guard of diligent cares, that keep
Crown'd woes awake, as things too wise for sleep:
But reuerent discipline, and religious fear,30
And soft obedience, find sweet biding here;
Silence, and sacred rest; peace, and pure ioyes;
Kind loues keep house, ly close, make no noise;
And room enough for monarchs, while none swells
Beyond the kingdomes of contentfull cells.35
The self-remembring sovl sweetly recouers
Her kindred with the starrs; not basely houers
Below: but meditates her immortall way
Home to the originall sourse of Light and intellectuall day
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
In 1648 the heading is simply 'Description of a religious house.' The original occurs in Barclay's Argenis, book v. These variations include one important correction of a long-standing blunder:
Line 3, 1648 misprints 'weeping' for 'sweeping.'
" 4, 'costly' for 'costlyer.'
" 6, 'flatt'ring' for 'flattering.'
" 19-20. Our text (1652), followed by 1670, strangely confuses this couplet by printing,
'Hands full of harty labours; doe much, that more they may.'
Turnbull, as usual, unintelligently repeats the blunder. Even in using the text of 1652 exceptionally, if only he found it confirmed by 1670, there was no vigilance. The reading of 1648 puts all right.
Line 23. Our text misspells 'ding.'
" 26. Misprinted 'bosome' in all the editions, and perpetuated by Turnbull. Line 27 that follows is a break (unrhymed).
Line 33. 1648 misreads 'keep no noise.' G.
ON MR. GEORGE HERBERT'S BOOKE INTITULED THE TEMPLE OF SACRED POEMS.
SENT TO A GENTLE-WOMAN.[47]
Know you, faire, on what you looke?1
Divinest love lyes in this booke:
Expecting fier from your faire eyes,
To kindle this his sacrifice.
When your hands untie these strings,5
Think, yo' have an angell by the wings;
One that gladly would be nigh,
To waite upon each morning sigh;
To flutter in the balmy aire
Of your well-perfumèd praier;10
These white plumes of his hee'l lend you,
Which every day to Heaven will send you:
To take acquaintance of each spheare,
And all your smooth-fac'd kindred there.
And though Herbert's name doe owe15
These devotions; fairest, know
While I thus lay them on the shrine
Of your white hand, they are mine.
A HYMN TO THE NAME AND HONOR OF THE ADMIRABLE SAINTE TERESA:
Fovndresse of the Reformation of the discalced Carmelites, both men and women; a Woman for angelicall heigth of speculation, for masculine courage of performance more then a woman: who yet a child, out-ran maturity, and durst plott a Martyrdome;
Misericordias Domini in Æternvm cantabo.
Le Vray portraict de Ste Terese, Fondatrice des Religieuses et Religieux reformez de l'ordre de N. Dame du mont Carmel: Decedee le 4e Octo. 1582. Canonisee le 12e Mars. 1622.[48]
The Hymne.
Loue, thou art absolute, sole lord1
Of life and death. To proue the word
Wee'l now appeal to none of all
Those thy old souldiers, great and tall,
Ripe men of martyrdom, that could reach down5
With strong armes, their triumphant crown;
Such as could with lusty breath
Speak lowd into the face of death,
Their great Lord's glorious name, to none
Of those whose spatious bosomes spread a throne10
For Love at large to fill; spare blood and sweat:
And see him take a priuate seat,
Making his mansion in the mild
And milky soul of a soft child.
Scarse has she learn't to lisp the name15
Of martyr; yet she thinks it shame
Life should so long play with that breath
Which spent can buy so braue a death.
She neuer vndertook to know
What Death with Loue should haue to doe;20
Nor has she e're yet vnderstood
Why to show loue, she should shed blood,
Yet though she cannot tell you why
She can love, and she can dy.
Scarse has she blood enough to make25
A guilty sword blush for her sake;
Yet has she a heart dares hope to proue
How much lesse strong is Death then Love.
Be Loue but there; let poor six yeares
Be pos'd with the maturest feares30
Man trembles at, you straight shall find
Love knowes no nonage, nor the mind;
'Tis love, not yeares or limbs that can
Make the martyr, or the man.
Love touch't her heart, and lo it beates35
High, and burnes with such braue heates;
Such thirsts to dy, as dares drink vp
A thousand cold deaths in one cup.
Good reason: for she breathes all fire;
Her white brest heaues with strong desire40
Of what she may with fruitles wishes
Seek for amongst her mother's kisses.
Since 'tis not to be had at home
She'l trauail to a martyrdom.
No home for hers confesses she45
But where she may a martyr be.
Moors She'l to the Moores; and trade with them
For this vnualued diadem:
She'l offer them her dearest breath,
With Christ's name in't, in change for death:50
She'l bargain with them; and will giue
Them God; teach them how to liue
In Him: or, if they this deny,
For Him she'l teach them how to dy:
So shall she leaue amongst them sown55
least Her Lord's blood; or at lest her own.
Farewel then, all the World! adieu!
Teresa is no more for you.
Farewell, all pleasures, sports, and ioyes
(Never till now esteemèd toyes)60
Farewell, what ever deare may bee,
Mother's armes or father's knee:
Farewell house, and farewell home!
She's for the Moores, and martyrdom.
Sweet, not so fast! lo thy fair Spouse65
Whom thou seekst with so swift vowes;
Calls thee back, and bidds thee come
T'embrace a milder martyrdom.
Blest powres forbid, thy tender life
Should bleed vpon a barbarous knife:70
Or some base hand haue power to raze
Thy brest's chast cabinet, and vncase
A soul kept there so sweet: O no,
Wise Heaun will neuer have it so.
Thou art Love's victime; and must dy75
A death more mysticall and high:
Into Loue's armes thou shalt let fall
A still-suruiuing funerall.
His is the dart must make the death
Whose stroke shall tast thy hallow'd breath;80
A dart thrice dip't in that rich flame
Which writes thy Spouse's radiant name
Vpon the roof of Heau'n, where ay
It shines; and with a soueraign ray
Beates bright vpon the burning faces85
Of soules which in that Name's sweet graces
Find euerlasting smiles: so rare,
So spirituall, pure, and fair
Must be th' immortall instrument
Vpon whose choice point shall be sent90
A life so lou'd: and that there be
Fitt executioners for thee,
The fair'st and first-born sons of fire
Blest seraphim, shall leaue their quire,
And turn Loue's souldiers, vpon thee95
To exercise their archerie.
O how oft shalt thou complain
Of a sweet and subtle pain:
Of intolerable ioyes:
Of a death, in which who dyes100
Loues his death, and dyes again
And would for euer so be slain.
And liues, and dyes; and knowes not why
To liue, but that he thus may neuer leaue to dy.
How kindly will thy gentle heart105
Kisse the sweetly-killing dart!
And close in his embraces keep
Those delicious wounds, that weep
Balsom to heal themselves with: thus
When these thy deaths, so numerous110
Shall all at last dy into one,
And melt thy soul's sweet mansion;
Like a soft lump of incense, hasted
By too hott a fire, and wasted
Into perfuming clouds, so fast115
Shalt thou exhale to Heaun at last
In a resoluing sigh, and then
O what? Ask not the tongues of men;
Angells cannot tell; suffice
Thy selfe shall feel thine own full ioyes,120
And hold them fast for euer there.
So soon as thou shalt first appear,
The moon of maiden starrs, thy white
Mistresse, attended by such bright
Soules as thy shining self, shall come125
And in her first rankes make thee room;
Where 'mongst her snowy family
Immortall wellcomes wait for thee.
O what delight, when reueal'd Life shall stand,
And teach thy lipps Heaun with His hand;130
On which thou now maist to thy wishes
Heap vp thy consecrated kisses.
What ioyes shall seize thy soul, when she,
Bending her blessed eyes on Thee,
(Those second smiles of Heau'n,) shall dart135
Her mild rayes through Thy melting heart.
Angels, thy old friends, there shall greet thee
Glad at their own home now to meet thee.
All thy good workes which went before
And waited for thee, at the door,140
Shall own thee there; and all in one
Weaue a constellation
Of crowns, with which the King thy Spouse
Shall build vp thy triumphant browes.
All thy old woes shall now smile on thee,145
And thy paines sitt bright vpon thee,
All thy sorrows here shall shine,
All thy svfferings be diuine:
Teares shall take comfort, and turn gemms
And wrongs repent to diademms.150
Eu'n thy death shall liue; and new-
Dresse the soul that erst he slew.
Thy wounds shall blush to such bright scarres
As keep account of the Lamb's warres.
Those rare workes where thou shalt leaue writt155
Loue's noble history, with witt
Taught thee by none but Him, while here
They feed our soules, shall clothe thine there.
Each heaunly word, by whose hid flame
Our hard hearts shall strike fire, the same160
Shall flourish on thy browes, and be
Both fire to vs and flame to thee;
Whose light shall liue bright in thy face
By glory, in our hearts by grace.
Thou shalt look round about, and see165
Thousands of crown'd soules throng to be
Themselues thy crown: sons of thy vowes
The virgin-births with which thy soueraign Spouse
Made fruitfull thy fair soul. Goe now
And with them all about thee, bow170
To Him; put on (Hee'l say) put on
(My rosy loue) that thy rich zone
Sparkling with the sacred flames
Of thousand soules, whose happy names
Heau'n keep vpon thy score: (Thy bright175
Life brought them first to kisse the light,
That kindled them to starrs,) and so
Thou with the Lamb, thy Lord, shalt goe,
And whereso'ere He setts His white
Stepps, walk with Him those wayes of light,180
Which who in death would liue to see,
Must learn in life to dy like thee.
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
The original edition (1646) has this title, 'In memory of the Vertuous and Learned Lady Madre de Teresa, that sought an early Martyrdome;' and so also in 1648. 1670 agrees with 1652; only the Latin line above the portrait and the French verses are omitted.
The text of 1646 furnishes a number of variations corrective in part of all the subsequent editions. These are recorded below. 1648 agrees substantially with 1652: but a few unimportant readings peculiar to it are also given in these Notes.
Various readings from 1646 edition.
Line 3, 'Wee need to goe to none of all.'
" 4, 'stout' for 'great.'
" 5, 'ripe and full growne.'
" 8, 'unto' for 'into;' the latter preferable.
" 10, 'Of those whose large breasts built a throne.'
" 11-13,
'For Love their Lord, glorious and great
Weel see Him take a private seat,
And make ...'
I have hesitated whether this ought not to have been adopted as our text; but it is a characteristic of Crashaw to introduce abruptly long and short lines as in our text, and to carry a thought or metaphor through a number of lines.
Line 15, 'had' for 'has,' and 'a' for 'the.'
" 21, 'hath,' and so in 1648 edition.
" 23, our text (1652) misprints 'enough:' I correct from 1648.
" 25, 'had,' 1648 'hath.'
" 27, 1648, 'hath.'
" 31, 'wee' for 'you.'
Line 37, 'thirst' for 'thirsts,' and 'dare' for 'dares.'
" 38 spells 'coled.'
" 40, 'weake' for 'white;' the latter a favourite epithet with Crashaw: 1648 'weake.'
Line 43, 1648 drops 'at' inadvertently.
" 44 spells 'travell:' 1648 has 'for' instead of 'to.'
" 45, 'her,' by misprint for 'her's.'
" 47, 1648 has 'try' for 'trade.'
" 49, 'Shee offers.' 57 spells 'adeiu.'
" 61, this line is by oversight dropped from our text (1652).
Line 70, spelled 'barborous' in our text, but I have adopted 'a' from 1646 and 1648.
Line 71, 'race' for 'raze;' a common contemporary spelling.
" 77, 'hand' for 'armes.'
" 93, 'The fairest, and the first borne Loves of fire.'
" 94, 'Seraphims,' the usual misspelling of the plural of seraph in our English Bible.
Line 104, 'To live, but that he still may dy.'
" 106, our text (1652) misreads 'sweetly-kissing.' I have adopted 'sweetly-killing' from 1646, 1648 and 1670.
Line 108, 1648 has 'thine' for 'his.'
" 118, 'disolving.'
" 123, our text (1652) inadvertently drops 'shalt,' and misreads 'you' for 'thou.' I accept the text of 1646, 1648 and 1670.
Line 129, 'on.'
" 130, 'shee' for 'reueal'd Life;' and in next line 'her' for 'His.' Our text (1652) is preferable, as pointing to Christ the Life, our Life. See under lines 11-13.
Line 133, 'joy.'
" 146, 'set;' a common contemporary spelling.
" 147, this line, dropped inadvertently from our text (1652), is restored from 1646, 1648 and 1670.
Line 148, 'And' for 'All.'
" 151, 'Even thy deaths.'
" 152, 'Dresse the soul that late they slew.'
" 167 misprints 'nowes;' corrected in 1648, but not in 1670.
" 168 drops 'soueraign.' See under lines 11-13.
" 175, 'keeps.'
" 178, 'shall.' Cf. Rev. xiv. 5, as before. G.
AN APOLOGIE FOR THE FOREGOING HYMN,
AS HAUING BEEN WRITT WHEN THE AUTHOR WAS YET AMONG THE PROTESTANTS.[49]
Thus haue I back again to thy bright name1
(Fair floud of holy fires!) transfus'd the flame
I took from reading thee: 'tis to thy wrong
I know, that in my weak and worthlesse song
Thou here art sett to shine where thy full day5
Scarse dawnes. O pardon, if I dare to say
Thine own dear bookes are guilty. For from thence
I learn't to know that Loue is eloquence.
That hopefull maxime gaue me hart to try
If, what to other tongues is tun'd so high,10
Thy praise might not speak English too: forbid
(By all thy mysteryes that here ly hidde)
Forbid it, mighty Loue! let no fond hate
Of names and wordes, so farr præiudicate.
Souls are not Spaniards too: one freindly floud15
Of baptism blends them all into a blood.
Christ's faith makes but one body of all soules,
And Loue's that body's soul; no law controwlls
Our free traffique for Heau'n; we may maintaine
Peace, sure, with piety, though it come from Spain.20
What soul so e're, in any language, can
Speak Heau'n like her's, is my soul's country-man.
O 'tis not Spanish, but 'tis Heau'n she speaks!
'Tis Heau'n that lyes in ambush there, and breaks
From thence into the wondring reader's brest;25
Who feels his warm heart hatcht into a nest
Of little eagles and young loues, whose high
Flights scorn the lazy dust, and things that dy.
There are enow whose draughts (as deep as Hell)
Drink vp all Spain in sack. Let my soul swell30
With the strong wine of Loue: let others swimme
In puddles; we will pledge this seraphim
Bowles full of richer blood then blush of grape
Was euer guilty of. Change we our shape
(My soul) some drink from men to beasts, O then35
Drink we till we proue more, not lesse, then men,
And turn not beasts but angels. Let the King
Me euer into these His cellars bring,
Where flowes such wine as we can haue of none
But Him Who trod the wine-presse all alone:40
Wine of youth, life, and the sweet deaths of Loue;
Wine of immortall mixture; which can proue
Its tincture from the rosy nectar; wine
That can exalt weak earth; and so refine
Our dust, that at one draught, Mortality45
May drink it self vp, and forget to dy.
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
The title in 1646 'Steps' is 'An Apologie for the precedent Hymne:' in 1648 the 'Flaming Heart' also precedes the 'Apologie,' and its title, 'Hymnes on Teresa,' is added. 1670 has 'was yet a Protestant.'
Various readings from 1646.
Line 2, 'sea.'
" 9, 'heavenly.'
" 12, 'there' for 'here.'
" 14, 'prejudicate.'
" 16, 'one' for 'a:' 1670 has 'one.'
" 18, 1648 spells 'comptrolls.'
" 20, 'dwell in' for 'come from.'
" 21, 'soever.'
" 26, 'finds' for 'feels:' our text (1652) drops 'hatcht,' which we have restored after 1646 and 1648; 1670 reads 'hatch,' and Turnbull follows blindly.
Line 29, our text (1652) misreads 'now:' we restore 'enow,' after the editions as in No. 9.
Line 34, our text misreads 'too' after 'we:' I omit it, as in 1646 and 1670. 1648 has 'to.'
Line 41, 'Wine of youth's Life.'
" 45, 'in' for 'at.' As the 'Apologie' refers only to the Hymn preceding, and not to what follows, I have placed it after the former, not (as in 1648) the latter, which would make it refer to both. G.
THE FLAMING HEART:
VPON THE BOOK AND PICTURE OF THE SERAPHICAL SAINT TERESA, AS SHE IS VSVALLY EXPRESSED WITH A SERAPHIM BISIDE HER.[50]
Wel-meaning readers! you that come as freinds1
And catch the pretious name this peice pretends;
Make not too much hast to admire
That fair-cheek't fallacy of fire.
That is a seraphim, they say5
And this the great Teresia.
Readers, be rul'd by me; and make
Here a well-plact and wise mistake:
You must transpose the picture quite,
And spell it wrong to read it right;10
Read him for her, and her for him,
And call the saint the seraphim.
Painter, what didst thou vnderstand
To put her dart into his hand?
See, euen the yeares and size of him15
Showes this the mother seraphim.
This is the mistresse flame; and duteous he
Her happy fire-works here, comes down to see.
O most poor-spirited of men!
Had thy cold pencil kist her pen,20
Thou couldst not so vnkindly err
To show vs this faint shade for her.
Why, man, this speakes pure mortall frame;
And mockes with female frost Loue's manly flame.
One would suspect thou meant'st to paint25
Some weak, inferiour, woman-saint.
But had thy pale-fac't purple took
Fire from the burning cheeks of that bright booke,
Thou wouldst on her haue heap't vp all
That could be found seraphicall;30
What e're this youth of fire, weares fair,
Rosy fingers, radiant hair,
Glowing cheek, and glistering wings,
All those fair and fragrant things
But before all, that fiery dart35
Had fill'd the hand of this great heart.
Doe then, as equall right requires,
Since his the blushes be, and her's the fires,
Resume and rectify thy rude design,
Vndresse thy seraphim into mine;40
Redeem this iniury of thy art,
Giue him the vail, giue her the dart.
Giue him the vail; that he may couer
The red cheeks of a riuall'd louer.
Asham'd that our world now can show45
Nests of new seraphims here below.
Giue her the dart, for it is she
(Fair youth) shootes both thy shaft, and thee;
Say, all ye wise and well-peirc't hearts
That liue and dy amidst her darts,50
What is't your tastfull spirits doe proue
In that rare life of her, and Loue?
Say, and bear witnes. Sends she not
A seraphim at euery shott?
What magazins of immortall armes there shine!55
Heaun's great artillery in each loue-spun line.
Giue then the dart to her who giues the flame;
Giue him the veil, who giues the shame.
But if it be the frequent fate
Of worst faults to be fortunate;60
If all's præscription; and proud wrong
Hearkens not to an humble song;
For all the gallantry of him,
Giue me the suffring seraphim.
His be the brauery of all those bright things,65
The glowing cheekes, the glistering wings;
The rosy hand, the radiant dart;
Leaue her alone the flaming heart.
Leaue her that; and thou shalt leaue her
Not one loose shaft but Loue's whole quiver.70
For in Loue's feild was neuer found
A nobler weapon then a wovnd.
Loue's passiues are his actiu'st part,
The wounded is the wounding heart.
O heart! the æquall poise of Loue's both parts75
Bigge alike with wound and darts.
Liue in these conquering leaues; liue all the same,
And walk through all tongues one triumphant flame.
Liue here, great heart; and loue and dy and kill;
And bleed and wound; and yeild and conquer still.80
Let this immortall life wherere it comes
Walk in a crowd of loues and martyrdomes.
Let mystick deaths wait on't; and wise soules be
The loue-slain wittnesses of this life of thee.
O sweet incendiary! shew here thy art,85
Vpon this carcasse of a hard, cold hart;
Let all thy scatter'd shafts of light, that play
Among the leaues of thy larg books of day.
Combin'd against this brest at once break in
And take away from me my self and sin;90
This gratious robbery shall thy bounty be,
And my best fortunes such fair spoiles of me.
O thou vndanted daughter of desires!
By all thy dowr of lights and fires;
By all the eagle in thee, all the doue;95
By all thy liues and deaths of loue;
By thy larg draughts of intellectuall day,
And by thy thirsts of loue more large then they;
By all thy brim-fill'd bowles of feirce desire,
By thy last morning's draught of liquid fire;100
By the full kingdome of that finall kisse
That seiz'd thy parting soul, and seal'd thee His;
By all the Heau'n thou hast in Him
(Fair sister of the seraphim!)
By all of Him we have in thee;105
Leaue nothing of my self in me.
Let me so read thy life, that I
Vnto all life of mine may dy.
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
The title in 1648 omits the words 'the seraphical saint,' and the text there lacks the last twenty-four lines.
Various readings from 1648.
Line 3, 'so' for 'too.'
" 11, 'And' for 'read.'
" 18, 'happier.'
Line 31 misreads 'But e're,' and 'were' for 'weares.'
" 33, 'cheekes.'
" 34 flagrantly misreads 'flagrant' for 'fragrant,' which Turnbull as usual blindly repeats.
Line 48, 'shafts.'
" 58 reads '... kindly tells the shame.' It is a characteristic of Crashaw to vary his measures, else I should have adopted this reading from 1648. The line is somewhat obscure through the conceitful repetition of 'gives.' The sense is, who, being pictured red, shows the blushing shamefacedness of being outdone in his own seraphic nature by an earthly saint. G.
A SONG OF DIVINE LOVE.[51]
Lord, when the sense of Thy sweet grace1
Sends vp my soul to seek Thy face,
Thy blessed eyes breed such desire,
I dy in Loue's delicious fire.
O Loue, I am thy sacrifice!5
Be still triumphant, blessed eyes!
Still shine on me, fair suns! that I
Still may behold, though still I dy.
SECOND PART.
Though still I dy, I liue again;
Still longing so to be still slain;10
So gainfull is such losse of breath,
I dy euen in desire of death.
Still liue in me this longing strife
Of liuing death and dying life;
For while Thou sweetly slayest me15
Dead to my selfe, I liue in Thee.
IN THE GLORIOVS ASSVMPTION OF OVR BLESSED LADY.[52]
The Hymn.
Hark! she is call'd, the parting houre is come;1
Take thy farewell, poor World! Heaun must go home.
A peice of heau'nly earth; purer and brighter
Then the chast starres, whose choise lamps come to light her,
Whil'st through the crystall orbes, clearer then they5
She climbes; and makes a farre more Milkey Way.
She's call'd! Hark, how the dear immortall Doue
Sighes to His syluer mate, 'Rise vp, my loue'!
Rise vp, my fair, my spotlesse one!
The Winter's past, the rain is gone;10
The Spring is come, the flowrs appear,
No sweets, (save thou,) are wanting here.
Come away, my loue!
Come away, my doue!
Cast off delay;15
The court of Heau'n is come
To wait vpon thee home;
Come, come away!
The flowrs appear,
Or quickly would, wert thou once here.20
The Spring is come, or if it stay
'Tis to keep time with thy delay.
The rain is gone, except so much as we
Detain in needfull teares to weep the want of thee.
The Winter's past,25
Or if he make lesse hast,
His answer is, why she does so,
If Sommer come not, how can Winter goe?
Come away, come away!
The shrill winds chide, the waters weep thy stay;30
The fountains murmur, and each loftyest tree
Bowes low'st his leauy top, to look for thee.
Come away, my loue!
Come away, my doue &c.
She's call'd again. And will she goe?35
When Heau'n bidds come, who can say no?
Heau'n calls her, and she must away,
Heau'n will not, and she cannot stay.
Goe then; goe, gloriovs on the golden wings
Of the bright youth of Heau'n, that sings40
Vnder so sweet a burthen. Goe,
Since thy dread Son will haue it so.
And while thou goest, our song and we
Will, as we may, reach after thee.
Hail, holy queen of humble hearts!45
We in thy prayse will haue our parts.
And though thy dearest lookes must now give light
To none but the blest heavens, whose bright
Beholders, lost in sweet delight,
Feed for ever their faire sight50
With those divinest eyes, which we
And our darke world noe more shall see;
Though our poore eyes are parted soe,
Yet shall our lipps never lett goe
Thy gracious name, but to the last55
Our loving song shall hold it fast.
Thy pretious name shall be
Thy self to vs; and we
With holy care will keep it by vs.
We to the last60
Will hold it fast,
And no Assvmption shall deny vs.
All the sweetest showres
Of our fairest flowres
Will we strow vpon it.65
Though our sweets cannot make
It sweeter, they can take
Themselues new sweetness from it.
Maria, men and angels sing,
Maria, mother of our King.70
Live, rosy princesse, live! and may the bright
Crown of a most incomparable light
Embrace thy radiant browes. O may the best
Of euerlasting ioyes bath thy white brest.
Live, our chast loue, the holy mirth75
Of Heau'n; the humble pride of Earth.
Liue, crown of woemen; queen of men;
Liue, mistresse of our song. And when
Our weak desires haue done their best,
Sweet angels come, and sing the rest.80
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
The heading in the Sancroft ms. is 'On the Assumption of the Virgin Marie.' In line 5 it reads 'whil'st,' and so in line 43: line 7, 'againe th' immortal Dove:' line 12, our text (1652) reads 'but;' we prefer 'saue' of 1648 and the ms.: line 30, our text (1652) misprints 'heauy' for 'leavy' of 1648: line 42, the ms. reads 'great:' line 47, 'give' for 'be;' adopted: line 53, 'eyes' for 'ioyes;' adopted: line 57, 'sacred:' line 76, 'bragg:' line 77, 'praise of women, pride of men.'
By an unaccountable inadvertence, our text (1652) omits lines 47-56. They are restored from 1648: they also appear in 1670. Line 18 in 1648 reads 'Come, come away:' in 1670 it is 'Come away, come away;' but this edition strangely, but characteristically, omits lines 19-34; and Turnbull, following it, though pronounced by himself 'the most inaccurate of all' (Preliminary Observations, p. xi. of his edition), has overlooked them. Confer, for a quaint parallel with these lines (19-34), our Joseph Fletcher. It may also be noted here that Turnbull betrays his habitual use of his self-condemned text of 1670 by misreading in line 12, 'No sweets since thou art wanting here;' so converting the fine compliment into ungrammatical nonsense. Earlier also (line 3) he similarly reads, after the same text, 'light' for 'earth.' So too in line 7 he reads 'She's call'd again; hark! how th' immortall dove:' and line 42, for the favourite 'dread' of our Poet the weaker 'great,' as supra: and the following line 63 omits 'the:' line 64, 'our:' line 65 reads 'We'll:' line 76, 'and' for 'the.' On lines 9-10, cf. Song of Solomon, ii. 10-13. G.
UPON FIVE PIOVS AND LEARNED DISCOURSES:
BY ROBERT SHELFORD.[53]
Rise, then, immortall maid! Religion, rise!1
Put on thy self in thine own looks: t' our eyes
Be what thy beauties, not our blots, have made thee;
Such as (ere our dark sinnes to dust betray'd thee)
Heav'n set thee down new drest; when thy bright birth5
Shot thee like lightning to th' astonisht Earth.
From th' dawn of thy fair eyelids wipe away
Dull mists and melancholy clouds: take Day
And thine own beams about thee: bring the best
Of whatsoe're perfum'd thy Eastern nest.10
Girt all thy glories to thee: then sit down,
Open this book, fair Queen, and take thy crown.
These learnèd leaves shall vindicate to thee
Thy holyest, humblest, handmaid, Charitie;
She'l dresse thee like thy self, set thee on high15
Where thou shalt reach all hearts, command each eye.
Lo! where I see thy altars wake, and rise
From the pale dust of that strange sacrifice
Which they themselves were; each one putting on
A majestie that may beseem thy throne.20
The holy youth of Heav'n, whose golden rings
Girt round thy awfull altars; with bright wings
Fanning thy fair locks, (which the World beleeves
As much as sees) shall with these sacred leaves
Trick their tall plumes, and in that garb shall go25
If not more glorious, more conspicuous tho.
————Be it enacted then,
By the fair laws of thy firm-pointed pen,
God's services no longer shall put on
Pure sluttishnesse for pure religion:30
No longer shall our Churches' frighted stones
Lie scatter'd like the burnt and martyr'd bones
Of dead Devotion; nor faint marbles weep
In their sad ruines; nor Religion keep
A melancholy mansion in those cold35
Urns: Like God's sanctuaries they lookt of old;
Now seem they Temples consecrate to none,
Or to a new god, Desolation.
No more the hypocrite shall th' upright be
Because he's stiffe, and will confesse no knee:40
While others bend their knee, no more shalt thou,
(Disdainfull dust and ashes!) bend thy brow;
Nor on God's altar cast two scorching eyes,
Bak't in hot scorn, for a burnt sacrifice:
But (for a lambe) thy tame and tender heart,45
New struck by Love, still trembling on his dart;
Or (for two turtle-doves) it shall suffice
To bring a pair of meek and humble eyes.
This shall from henceforth be the masculine theme
Pulpits and pennes shall sweat in; to redeem50
Vertue to action, that life-feeding flame
That keeps Religion warm: not swell a name
Of Faith; a mountain-word, made up of aire,
With those deare spoils that wont to dresse the fair
And fruitfull Charitie's full breasts (of old),55
Turning her out to tremble in the cold.
What can the poore hope from us, when we be
Uncharitable ev'n to Charitie?
Nor shall our zealous ones still have a fling
At that most horrible and hornèd thing,60
Forsooth the Pope: by which black name they call
The Turk, the devil, Furies, Hell and all,
And something more. O he is Antichrist:
Doubt this, and doubt (say they) that Christ is Christ:
Why, 'tis a point of Faith. What e're it be,65
I'm sure it is no point of Charitie.
In summe, no longer shall our people hope,
To be a true Protestant's but to hate the Pope.
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
I have taken the text of this poem as it originally appeared, because in all the editions of the Poems wherein it is given the last ten lines are omitted. Turnbull discovered this after his text of the Poems was printed off, and so had to insert them in a Postscript, wherein his genius for blundering describes Shelford's volume as 'Five ... Poems.' These slight variations may be recorded:
The title in all is 'On a Treatise of Charity.'
Line 12, 1648 has 'thy' for 'this.'
" 16, ib. 'shall' for 'shalt.'
" 17, all the editions 'off'rings' for 'altars.'
" 30, ib. 'A' for the first 'pure.'
" 36, our text misprints 'look' for 'look't.'
The poem is signed in Shelford's volume 'Rich. Crashaw, Aul. Pemb. A.B.' It appeared in 'Steps' of 1646 (pp. 86-8), 1648 (pp. 101-2), 1670 (pp. 68-70). G.
DIES IRÆ, DIES ILLA:
THE HYMN OF THE CHVRCH, IN MEDITATION OF THE DAY OF IVDGMENT.[54]