PATRICK CAREY.
Looking over Evelyn's Diary, edited by Mr. Barry, 4to., 2nd edit., London, 1819, I came upon the following. Evelyn being at Rome, in 1644, says:
"I was especially recommended to Father John, a Benedictine Monk and Superior of the Order for the English College of Douay; a person of singular learning, religion, and humanity; also to Mr. Patrick Cary, an abbot, brother to our learned Lord Falkland, a witty young priest, who afterwards came over to our church."
It immediately occurred to me, that this "witty young priest" might be Sir Walter Scott's protégé, and the author of "Triviall Poems and Triolets, written in obedience to Mrs. Tomkins' commands by Patrick Carey, Aug. 20, 1651," and published for the first time at London in 1820, from a MS. in the possession of the editor.
Sir Walter, in introducing his "forgotten poet," merely informs us that his author "appears to have been a gentleman, a loyalist, a lawyer, and a rigid high churchman, if not a Roman Catholic."
In the first part of this book, which the author calls his "Triviall Poems," the reader will find ample proof that his character would fit the "witty young priest" of Evelyn; as well as the gentle blood, and hatred to the Roundheads of Sir Walter. As a farther proof that Patrick Carey the priest, and Patrick the poet, may be identical, take the following from one of his poems, comparing the old Church with the existing one:
"Our Church still flourishing w' had seene,
If th' holy-writt had euer beene
Kept out of laymen's reach;
But, when 'twas English'd, men halfe-witted,
Nay, woemen too, would be permitted,
T' expound all texts and preach."
The second part of Carey's poetical essays is entitled "I will sing unto the Lord," and contains a few "Triolets;" all of an ascetic savour, and strongly confirmatory of the belief that the author may have taken the monastic vow:
"Worldly designes, feares, hopes, farwell!
Farwell all earthly joyes and cares!
On nobler thoughts my soule shall dwell;
Worldly designes, feares, hopes, farwell!
Att quiett, in my peaceful cell,
I'le thincke on God, free from your snares;
Worldly designes, feares, hopes, farwell!
Farwell all earthly joys and cares.
Pleasure att courts is but in show,
With true content in cells wee meete;
Yes (my deare Lord!) I've found it soe,
Noe joyes but thine are purely sweete!"
The quotation from the Psalms, which forms the title to this second part, is placed above "a helmet and a shield," which Sir Walter has transferred to his title. This "bears what heralds call a cross anchorée, or a cross moline, with a motto, Tant que je puis." With the exception of the rose beneath this, there is no identification here of Patrick Carey with the Falkland family. This cross, placed before religious poems, may however be intended to indicate their subjects, and the writer's profession, rather than his family escutcheon; although that may be pointed at in the rose alluded to, the Falklands bearing "on a bend three roses of the field."
J. O.
["Ah! you do not know Pat Carey, a younger brother of Lord Falkland's," says the disguised Prince Charles to Dr. Albany Rochecliffe in Sir Walter Scott's Woodstock. So completely has the fame of the great Lord Falkland eclipsed that of his brothers, that many are, doubtless, in the same blissful state with good Dr. Rochecliffe, although two editions of the poet's works have been given to the world. In 1771, Mr. John Murray published the poems of Carey, from a collection alleged to be in the hands of a Rev. Pierrepont Cromp, apparently a fictitious name. In 1820, Sir Walter Scott, ignorant, as he confesses himself, at the time of an earlier edition, edited once more the poems, employing an original MS. presented to him by Mr. Murray. In a note in Woodstock, Sir Walter sums up the information he had procured concerning the author, which, scanty as it is, is not without interest. "Of Carey," he says, "the second editor, like the first, only knew the name and the spirit of the verses. He has since been enabled to ascertain that the poetic cavalier was a younger brother of the celebrated Henry Lord Carey, who fell at the battle of Newberry, and escaped the researches of Horace Walpole, to whose list of noble authors he would have been an important addition." The first edition of the poems appeared under the following title, Poems from a Manuscript written in the Time of Oliver Cromwell, 4to. 1771, 1s. 6d.: Murray. It contains only nine pieces, whereas the present edition contains thirty-seven.—Ed.]