Poems certainly or almost certainly Cleveland's but not included in 1653 or 1677.
Poems, &c. I have been exceedingly chary of admission under this head, for there seems to me to be no reasonable via media between such severity and the complete reprinting of 1687—with perhaps the known larcenies in that and its originals left out. Thus, of eleven poems given—but as 'not in 1677'—by Mr. Berdan I have kept but three, besides one or two which, though not in 1677, are in 1653, and so appear above. Of these the Jonson Elegy from Jonsonus Virbius is signed, and as well authenticated as anything can be; News from Newcastle is quoted by Johnson and therefore of importance to students of the Lives. The Elegy upon Charles I is in 1654 among the poems which that collection adds to 1653, is very like him, and relieves Cleveland partly, if not wholly, from the charge of being wanting to the greatest occasion of his life and calling.
Poems certainly or almost certainly Cleveland's
but not included in 1653 or 1677.
An Elegy on Ben Jonson.
Who first reformed our stage with justest laws,
And was the first best judge in his own cause;
Who, when his actors trembled for applause,
Could (with a noble confidence) prefer
His own, by right, to a whole theatre;
From principles which he knew could not err:
Who to his fable did his persons fit,
With all the properties of art and wit,
And above all that could be acted, writ:
10Who public follies did to covert drive,
Which he again could cunningly retrive,
Leaving them no ground to rest on and thrive:
Here JONSON lies, whom, had I named before,
In that one word alone I had paid more
Than can be now, when plenty makes me poor.
J. Cl.
An Elegy, &c. Although this appears neither in 1653 nor in 1677, it is included, with some corruptions not worth noting, in some editions both before and after the latter. Gifford ascribed to Cleveland another unsigned Elegy in Jonsonus Virbius and one of the Odes to Ben Jonson on his own Ode to himself, 'Come, quit the loathèd stage'. There is no authority for the ascription in either case, and the styles of both pieces are as unlike as possible to Cleveland's.
2 Orig., by a slip, 'your own cause'. Cleveland may have meant to address the poet throughout, or till the last verse; but, if so, he evidently changed his mind.
News from Newcastle:
Upon the Coal-pits about Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
England 's a perfect world, has Indies too;
Correct your maps, Newcastle is Peru!
Let th' haughty Spaniard triumph till 'tis told
Our sooty min'rals purify his gold.
This will sublime and hatch the abortive ore,
When the sun tires and stars can do no more.
No! mines are current, unrefined, and gross;
Coals make the sterling, Nature but the dross.
For metals, Bacchus-like, two births approve;
10Heaven's heat 's the Semele, and ours the Jove.
Thus Art doth polish Nature; 'tis her trade:
So every madam has her chambermaid.
Who'd dote on gold? A thing so strange and odd,
'Tis most contemptible when made a god!
All sins and mischiefs thence have rise and swell;
One Indies more would make another Hell.
Our mines are innocent, nor will the North
Tempt poor mortality with too much worth.
Th' are not so precious; rich enough to fire
20A lover, yet make none idolater.
The moderate value of our guiltless ore
Makes no man atheist, nor no woman whore.
Yet why should hallowed Vesta's glowing shrine
Deserve more honour than a flaming mine?
These pregnant wombs of heat would fitter be,
Than a few embers, for a deity.
Had he our pits, the Persian would admire
No sun, but warm 's devotion at our fire.
He'd leave the trotting Whipster, and prefer
30This profound Vulcan 'bove that Wagoner.
For wants he heat, or light? would he have store
Of both? 'Tis here. And what can suns give more?
Nay, what 's that sun but, in a different name,
A coal-pit rampant, or a mine on flame?
Then let this truth reciprocally run,
The sun 's Heaven's coalery, and coals our sun;
A sun that scorches not, locked up i' th' deep;
The bandog 's chained, the lion is asleep.
That tyrant fire, which uncontrolled doth rage,
40Here 's calm and hushed, like Bajazet i' th' cage.
For in each coal-pit there doth couchant dwell
A muzzled Etna, or an innocent Hell.
Kindle the cloud, you'll lightning then descry;
Then will a day break from the gloomy sky;
Then you'll unbutton though December blow,
And sweat i' th' midst of icicles and snow;
The dog-days then at Christmas. Thus is all
The year made June and equinoctial.
If heat offend, our pits afford us shade,
50Thus summer 's winter, winter 's summer made.
What need we baths, what need we bower or grove?
A coal-pit's both a ventiduct and stove.
Such pits and caves were palaces of old;
Poor inns, God wot, yet in an age of gold;
And what would now be thought a strange design,
To build a house was then to undermine.
People lived under ground, and happy dwellers
Whose jovial habitations were all cellars!
These primitive times were innocent, for then
60Man, who turned after fox, but made his den.
But see a fleet of rivals trim and fine,
To court the rich infanta of our mine;
Hundreds of grim Leanders dare confront,
For this loved Hero, the loud Hellespont.
'Tis an armado royal doth engage
For some new Helen with this equipage;
Prepared too, should we their addresses bar,
To force their mistress with a ten years' war,
But that our mine 's a common good, a joy
70Made not to ruin but enrich our Troy.
Thus went those gallant heroes of old Greece,
The Argonauts, in quest o' th' Golden Fleece.
But oh! these bring it with 'em and conspire
To pawn that idol for our smoke and fire.
Silver 's but ballast; this they bring ashore
That they may treasure up our better ore.
For this they venter rocks and storms, defy
All the extremities of sea and sky.
For the glad purchase of this precious mould,
80Cowards dare pirates, misers part with gold.
Hence 'tis that when the doubtful ship sets forth
The knowing needle still directs it north,
And Nature's secret wonder, to attest
Our Indies' worth, discards both east and west.
For 'tis not only fire commends this spring,
A coal-pit is a mine of everything.
We sink a jack-of-all-trades shop, and sound
An inversed Burse, an Exchange under ground.
This Proteus earth converts to what you'd ha' 't:
90Now you may weave 't to silk, then coin 't to plate,
And, what 's a metamorphosis more dear,
Dissolve it and 'twill melt to London beer.
For whatsoe'er that gaudy city boasts,
Each month derives to these attractive coasts.
We shall exhaust their chamber and devour
Their treasures of Guildhall, the Mint, the Tower.
Our staiths their mortgaged streets will soon divide,
Blathon owe Cornhill, Stella share Cheapside.
Thus will our coal-pits' charity and pity
100At distance undermine and fire the City.
Should we exact, they'd pawn their wives and treat
To swap those coolers for our sovereign heat.
'Bove kisses and embraces fire controls;
No Venus heightens like a peck of coals.
Medea was the drudge of some old sire
And Aeson's bath a lusty sea-coal fire.
Chimneys are old men's mistresses, their inns,
A modern dalliance with their measled shins.
To all defects the coal-heap brings a cure,
110Gives life to age and raiment to the poor.
Pride first wore clothes; Nature disdains attire;
She made us naked 'cause she gave us fire.
Full wharfs are wardrobes, and the tailor's charm
Belongs to th' collier; he must keep us warm.
The quilted alderman with all 's array
Finds but cold comfort on a frosty day;
Girt, wrapped, and muffled, yet with all that stir
Scarce warm when smoth'red in his drowsy fur;
Not proof against keen Winter's batteries
120Should he himself wear all 's own liveries,
But chilblains under silver spurs bewails
And in embroid'red buckskins blows his nails.
Rich meadows and full crops are elsewhere found:
We can reap harvest from our barren ground.
The bald parched hills that circumscribe our Tyne
Are no less fruitful in their hungry mine.
Their unfledged tops so well content our palates,
We envy none their nosegays and their sallets.
A gay rank soil like a young gallant grows
130And spends itself that it may wear fine clothes,
Whilst all its worth is to its back confined.
Our wear 's plain outside, but is richly lined;
Winter 's above, 'tis summer underneath,
A trusty morglay in a rusty sheath.
As precious sables sometimes interlace
A wretched serge or grogram cassock case.
Rocks own no spring, are pregnant with no showers,
Crystals and gems grow there instead of flowers;
Instead of roses, beds of rubies sweat
140And emeralds recompense the violet.
Dame Nature not, like other madams, wears,
Where she is bare, pearls on her breasts or ears.
What though our fields present a naked sight?
A paradise should be an adamite.
The northern lad his bonny lass throws down
And gives her a black bag for a green gown.
News from Newcastle, if not Cleveland's, is infinitely more of a Clevelandism than any other attributed piece, either in the untrustworthy (or rather upside-down-trustworthy) Cleaveland Revived or elsewhere. It first appeared as a quarto pamphlet, 'London. Printed in the year 1651. By William Ellis', and with a headline to the poem 'Upon the Coalpits about Newcastle-upon-Tyne'. This quarto furnishes the only sound text. It was reprinted very corruptly in Cleaveland Revived, 1660, and thence in the editions of 1662, 1668, 1687, and later. A collation of 1660 is given. Title in 1660 'News from Newcastle, Or, Newcastle Coal-pits'. MS. Rawlinson Poet, 65 of the Bodleian has a version agreeing in the main with 1660.
1 has] hath 1660, MS.
5 'obortive' 1668.
7 1651, later texts, and MS. 'No mines', which has no meaning without a stop or interjection.
8 'nature's' MS.
10 'Heaven heats' 1660. The mine is the womb of Semele warmed by the sun: the furnace the thigh of Jove heated by coal.
11 her] the 1660: its MS.
12 has] hath 1660, MS.
15 'sin and mischief hence' 1660: 'sin and mischief thence' MS.
16 Indies] India 1660.
17 mines] times MS.
19 1660 'so': 1651 'too', unconsciously repeating the 'too much' of l. 18.
20 none] no MS.
22 Simply an adaptation of the earlier conclusion—
'Should make men atheists and not women whores'.
23 Vesta's glowing] Vestals' sacred 1660. shrine] shine MS.
29 trotting Whipster] Phoebus, of course.
30 This] Our 1660, MS.
31 light? would he] light, or would 1660. store] Misprinted 'more' in 1651.
32 suns] Sun MS.
33 that] the 1660.
34 on flame] or flame 1660.
36 coalery] Original and pleasing. 'Collier' is used below.
37 scorches] scorcheth 1660, MS.
38 bandog's] lion's 1660. lion] bandog 1660.
42 or] and MS.
43 the] this MS.
45 'Unbottom,' by evident error, in 1668.
47 Thus] Then MS.
49 'offends' 1660. 'affords' 1660.
60 but made] made but 1660, MS.
61 rivals] vitals 1660.
63 dare] do 1660.
68 their] this 1660, MS.
71-2 Omitted in 1660 and all later texts. 1651 misprints 'Argeuauts'.
73 'em] them 1660, MS.
75 ashore] on shore 1660, MS.
76 better] richer MS.
78 extremities] extremity 1660.
81 'tis that] is it 1660, MS.
82 knowing] naving 1660: knavish MS.
83 wonder] wonders 1660.
84 both] with MS.
85 For 'tis not] For Tyne. Not 1660 (without the period at l. 84), MS.
86 of] for 1660.
87 1651 mispunctuates with a comma at 'sink'; 1660 adds comma at 'jack-of-all-trades' and 'sound': MS. punctuates correctly.
88 inversed] inverse 1660.
89 you'd] you'l 1660.
90 weave 't] wear't 1660. then] now 1660. coin 't] com't 1660.
91 And] Or MS.
92 melt] turn 1660, MS.
93 boasts] boast 1660.
94 derives] doth drive 1660, MS. these] our 1660, MS. coasts] coast 1660.
96 treasures] treasure 1660, MS. the Mint, the] and mint o' th' 1660, MS.
97 staiths] Wooden erections projecting into the river, which were used to store the coal and fitted with spouts for shooting it into the ships. divide] deride 1660.
98 'Blathon their Cornhill, Stella' MS: 'Blazon their Cornhill-stella,' 1660.] Blathon, now Blaydon, the mining district. 'owe' = own. 'Stella' Hall, near Blaydon, was a nunnery before the Dissolution, when it passed into the hands of the Tempests. (Mr. Nichol Smith kindly supplied this information.)
102 swap] swop 1660.
105 drudge] drugge 1660, MS.
109 the] a 1659. brings] gives 1660, MS.
110 life] youth 1660.
113 tailor's] sailor's MS.
115 with] in 1660.
116 on] in 1660, MS.
117 that] this 1660.
119 Not] Nor'st MS. 'proof enough' 1651: 'enough' is omitted in 1660, and deleted by a seventeenth-century corrector in the Bodleian copy of 1651.
121 chilblains] chilblain 1660.
126 fruitful] pregnant 1660.
128 and] or MS.
134 Cleveland has used 'morglay', Bevis's sword, as a common noun elsewhere; but of course an imitator might seize on this.
138 grow] are 1660.
139 sweat] sweet 1668, 1687, MS.
142 on] in 1660. or] and 1660. 'breasts, not ears' MS.
145-6 Or as a modern Newcastle song, more decently but less picturesquely, puts it in the lass's own mouth—
'He sits in his hole,
As black as a coal,
And brings the white money to me—O!'
An Elegy upon King Charles the First,
murdered publicly by his Subjects.
Were not my faith buoyed up by sacred blood,
It might be drowned in this prodigious flood;
Which reason's highest ground doth so exceed,
It leaves my soul no anch'rage but my creed;
Where my faith, resting on th' original,
Supports itself in this, the copy's fall.
So while my faith floats on that bloody wood,
My reason 's cast away in this red flood
Which near o'erflows us all. Those showers past
10Made but land-floods, which did some valleys waste.
This stroke hath cut the only neck of land
Which between us and this red sea did stand,
That covers now our world which curséd lies
At once with two of Egypt's prodigies
(O'ercast with darkness and with blood o'errun),
And justly since our hearts have theirs outdone.
Th' enchanter led them to a less known ill
To act his sin, than 'twas their king to kill;
Which crime hath widowed our whole nation,
20Voided all forms, left but privation
In Church and State; inverting every right;
Brought in Hell's state of fire without light.
No wonder then if all good eyes look red,
Washing their loyal hearts from blood so shed;
The which deserves each pore should turn an eye
To weep out even a bloody agony.
Let nought then pass for music but sad cries,
For beauty bloodless cheeks and blood-shot eyes.
All colours soil but black; all odours have
30Ill scent but myrrh, incens'd upon this grave.
It notes a Jew not to believe us much
The cleaner made by a religious touch
Of this dead body, whom to judge to die
Seems the Judaical impiety.
To kill the King, the Spirit Legion paints
His rage with law, the Temple and the saints.
But the truth is, he feared and did repine
To be cast out and back into the swine.
And the case holds, in that the Spirit bends
40His malice in this act against his ends;
For it is like the sooner he'll be sent
Out of that body he would still torment.
Let Christians then use otherwise this blood;
Detest the act, yet turn it to their good;
Thinking how like a King of Death he dies
We easily may the world and death despise.
Death had no sting for him and its sharp arm,
Only of all the troop, meant him no harm.
And so he looked upon the axe as one
50Weapon yet left to guard him to his throne.
In his great name then may his subjects cry,
'Death, thou art swallowed up in victory.'
If this, our loss, a comfort can admit,
'Tis that his narrowed crown is grown unfit
For his enlargéd head, since his distress
Had greatened this, as it made that the less.
His crown was fallen unto too low a thing
For him who was become so great a king.
So the same hands enthroned him in that crown
60They had exalted from him, not pulled down.
And thus God's truth by them hath rendered more
Than e'er man's falsehood promised to restore;
Which, since by death alone he could attain,
Was yet exempt from weakness and from pain.
Death was enjoined by God to touch a part,
Might make his passage quick, ne'er move his heart,
Which even expiring was so far from death
It seemed but to command away his breath.
And thus his soul, of this her triumph proud,
70Broke like a flash of lightning through the cloud
Of flesh and blood; and from the highest line
Of human virtue, passed to be divine.
Nor is 't much less his virtues to relate
Than the high glories of his present state.
Since both, then, pass all acts but of belief,
Silence may praise the one, the other grief.
And since upon the diamond no less
Than diamonds will serve us to impress,
I'll only wish that for his elegy
80This our Josias had a Jeremy.
An Elegy, &c. See above. First printed in Monumentum Regale, 1649, p. 49; then in the 1654 edition of Cleveland.
3 1654, 1657, 1669 'doth'. Other (it is true inferior) texts, such as 1659, 1665, and the successors of 1677, 'do': which any one who has ever read his Pepys must know to be possible in the singular.
33 'this' 1649: 'their' 1653 and later editions.
35: paints = 'tries to disguise'.
Since these sheets were last revised, and when they were ready for press, Mr. Simpson discovered and communicated to me some variants (from Bodley MSS.) of Cleveland's pieces on [Chadderton] (v. sup. p. 81) and [Williams] (p. 69). His note is as follows:
"There is a version of the Elegy upon Doctor Chadderton (page 81) in Ashmole MS. 36-7, fol. 263. After l. 14 four lines are inserted:
We thought, for so we would it have,
Thou hadst outlived death and the grave,
Hadst been past dying, and by thine own
Brave virtue been immortal grown.
Not very brilliant, but no one would have any motive for interpolating such lines. Further, ll. 17-18 are omitted.
25 'dear Snt.' i.e. as conjectured in the note, 'Saint.'
30 'Kend' written in a larger hand, with a view to emphasis. Query, a favourite word of Chadderton?
In the same MS. is a version of the poem on Archbishop Williams (p. 69). Most readings are bad, but the following are noteworthy:
4 concorporate one.
11 And vindicate whate'er.
55 when happier ages (which of late
The viper cherish'd) with unpartial fate."
***