BISHOP KEN.
(Vol. vii., p. 526.)
By converting a noun into a surname, Dodsley has led J. J. J. into a natural, but somewhat amusing mistake. The lines quoted are in Horace Walpole's well-known epistle, from Florence, addressed to his college friend T[homas] A[shton,] tutor of the Earl of P[lymouth].
In Walpole's Fugitive Pieces, printed at Strawberry Hill, 1758 (the copy of which, now before me, was given by Walpole to Cole in 1762, and contains several notes by the latter), the passage stands correctly thus:
"Or, with wise ken, judiciously define,
When Pius marks the honorary coin,
Of Carnealla, or of Antonine."
Your correspondent refers to an edition of the Collection of Poems of 1758. In a much later edition of that work, viz. 1782, the line is again printed—
"Or with wise KEN," &c.
It is strange that the mistake was not corrected, at the instance of Walpole himself, during this long interval.
Turning to Bishop Ken, I would observe that in his excellent Life of this prelate, Mr. Anderdon has given the three well-known hymns "word for word," as first penned. These, Mr. A. tells us, are found, for the first time, in a copy of the Manual of Prayers For the Use of the Winchester Scholars, printed in 1700. The bishop's versions vary so very materially from those to which we have been accustomed from childhood, that these original copies are very interesting. Indeed, within five years after their first appearance, and during the author's life, material changes were made, several of which are retained to the present hour. It must be admitted that some of the stanzas, as they first came from the bishop's pen, are singularly rugged and inharmonious, almost justifying the request made by the lady to Byrom (as I have stated elsewhere[[1]]), "to revise and polish the bishop's poems." How came these hymns, so far the most popular of his poetical works, to be omitted by Hawkins in the collected edition of the poems, printed in 4 vols., 1721?
My present object is, to call your attention to a "Midnight Hymn," by Sir Thomas Browne, which will be found in his works (vol. ii. p. 113., edit. Wilkin). Can there be question that to it Ken is indebted for some of the thoughts and expressions in two of his own hymns?
The good bishop's fame will not be lessened by his adopting what was good in the works of the learned physician. He doubtless thought far more of the benefit which he could render to the youthful Wykehamists, than of either the originality or smoothness of his own verses.
Sir Thomas Browne.
"While I do rest, my soul advance;
Make my sleep a holy trance:
That I may, my rest being wrought,
Awake into some holy thought,
And with as active vigour run
My course as doth the nimble sun.
"Sleep is a death: O make me try,
By sleeping, what it is to die!
And as gently lay my head
On my grave, as now my bed.
"These are my drowsy days; in vain
I do now wake to sleep again.
O come that hour when I shall never
Sleep again, but wake for ever!
"Guard me 'gainst those watchful foes,
Whose eyes are open while mine close;
Let no dreams my head infest,
But such as Jacob's temples blest."
Bishop Ken.
"Awake, my soul, and with the sun
Thy daily stage of duty run.
"Teach me to live that I may dread
The grave as little as my bed.
"O when shall I in endless day
For ever chase dark sleep away,
And endless praise with th' Heavenly choir,
Incessant sing and never tire.
"You, my blest Guardian, whilst I sleep,
Close to my bed your vigils keep;
Divine love into me instil,
Stop all the avenues of ill.
"Thought to thought, with my soul converse
Celestial joys to me rehearse;
And in my stead, all the night long,
Sing to my God a grateful song."
In the work referred to—one of the most valuable and best edited of modern days—Mr. Wilkin, when speaking of a fine passage on music in the Religio Medici (vol. ii. p. 106.), asks whether it may not have suggested to Addison the beautiful conclusion of his Hymn on the Glories of Creation:
"What tho' in solemn silence, all," &c.
This passage in Sir Thomas Browne appears forcibly to have struck the gifted author of Confessions of an English Opium-eater (see p. 106. of that work).
J. H. Markland.
Footnote 1:[(return)]
Sketch of Bishop Ken's Life, p. 107.