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The Fuller Worthies' Library.

THE
COMPLETE WORKS OF RICHARD CRASHAW.
IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. I.

MEMORIAL-INTRODUCTION.
STEPS TO THE TEMPLE. CARMEN DEO NOSTRO.
THE DELIGHTS OF THE MUSES. AIRELLES.

LONDON:
ROBSON AND SONS, PRINTERS, PANCRAS ROAD, N.W.

The Fuller Worthies' Library.

THE COMPLETE WORKS
OF
RICHARD CRASHAW.

FOR THE FIRST TIME COLLECTED
AND COLLATED WITH THE ORIGINAL AND EARLY EDITIONS,
AND MUCH ENLARGED WITH

I. Hitherto unprinted and inedited Poems from Archbishop Sancroft's mss. &c. &c.
II. Translation of the whole of the Poemata et Epigrammata.
III. Memorial-Introduction, Essay on Life and Poetry, and Notes.
IV. In Quarto, reproduction in facsimile of the Author's own Illustrations of 1652, with others specially prepared.

EDITED BY THE

REV. ALEXANDER B. GROSART,

ST. GEORGE'S, BLACKBURN, LANCASHIRE.

IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. I.

PRINTED FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION.
1872.

156 copies printed.

TO

THE VERY REVEREND

JOHN HENRY NEWMAN, D.D.

AS AN EXPRESSION OF GRATITUDE FOR

FUNDAMENTAL INTELLECTUAL AND SPIRITUAL

QUICKENING AND NURTURE

FOUND IN AND SUSTAINED BY HIS WRITINGS

EARLIER AND LATEST,

THIS EDITION

OF A POET HE LOVES AS ENGLISHMAN AND CATHOLIC

IS DEDICATED BY

ALEXANDER B. GROSART.

CONTENTS.

Those marked [*] are printed for the first time from mss.; those marked [†] have additions for the first time given in their places.

Illustrations, in the illustrated Quarto only: Vol. I.

Nos. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14 are reproduced in facsimile from the author's own designs of 1652, by Pouncey of Dorchester, expressly for our edition of Crashaw. Besides the above there are a number of head- and tail-pieces by W.J. Linton, Esq.

PREFACE.

I have at last the pleasure of seeing half-fulfilled a long-cherished wish and intention, by the issue of the present Volume, being Vol. I. of the first really worthy edition of the complete Poetry of Richard Crashaw, while Vol. II. is so well advanced that it may be counted on for Midsummer (Deo favente).

This Volume contains the whole of the previously-published English Poems, with the exception of the Epigrams scattered among the others, which more fittingly find their place in Vol. II., along with the Latin and Greek originals, and our translation of all hitherto untranslated. Here also will be found important, and peculiarly interesting as characteristic, additions of unprinted and inedited poems by Crashaw from Archbishop Sancroft's mss., among the Tanner mss. in the Bodleian. These I have named 'Airelles,' after the little Alpine flowers that are dug out beneath the mountain masses of snow and ice, with abiding touches of beauty and perfume, as though they had been sheltered within walls and glass. The formerly printed Poems have been collated and recollated anxiously with the original and other early and authoritative editions, the results of which are shown in Notes and Illustrations at the close of each poem. Many of the various readings are of rare interest, and collation has revealed successive additions and revisions altogether unrecorded by modern editors. In their places I have pointed out the flagrant carelessness of the last Editor, W.B. Turnbull, Esq., in Smith's 'Library of Old Authors.'

As was meet, I have adhered to the first titles of 'Steps to the Temple' and 'The Delights of the Muses,' the former embracing the Sacred, and the latter the Secular Poems. The original Editor (whoever he was), not the Author, gave these titles. In the Preface to 'the learned Reader,' he says, 'we stile his sacred Poems, Steps to the Temple.' At one time I was disposed to assign the editorship of the volumes of 1646 and 1648 to Sancroft; but inasmuch as both contained Bp. Rainbow's verses prefixed to Isaacson's 'Chronologie,' while the piece is not in the Sancroft ms., it seems he could not have been the editor. His pathetic closing words reveal much love: 'I will conclude all that I have impartially writ of this learned young Gent. (now dead to us) as hee himselfe doth, with the last line of his poem upon Bishop Andrewes' picture before his Sermons, Verte paginas—Look on his following leaves, and see him breath.'

I would now give an account of previous editions of our Worthy, and our use of them. The earliest of his publications—excluding minor pieces in University Collections as recorded in our Essay—was a volume of Latin Epigrams published at Cambridge in 1634 in a small 8vo. The name of Crashaw nowhere appears, but his initials R.C. are appended to the Dedication to his friend Laney. The title-page was as follows: 'Epigrammatum Sacrorum Liber. Cantabrigiæ, ex Academiæ celeberrimæ typographo, 1634.' Besides the Epigrams, this now rare volume contained certain of his 'Poemata' before the Epigrams. A second edition was published in 1670 with a few additional Epigrams, and those in Greek. A third edition appeared in 1674. Fuller details, with collation of each, are given in Vol. II. in their places.

Nothing more of any considerableness was published until 1646, two years after the Poet's ejection. Then appeared a small volume of Poems, chiefly English, arranged in two distinct classes, Sacred and Secular, the latter with a separate title-page. In the Note which follows this Preface, the title-pages of the volume will be found, along with those of the subsequent editions of 1648 and 1670. With reference to the volume of 1646, a mistake in the printing was thus pointed out: 'Reader, there was a sudden mistake ('tis too late to recover it): thou wilt quickly find it out, and I hope as soone passe it over; some of the humane Poems are misplaced amongst the Divine.' These 'humane' poems, that belonged not to the 'Steps' but the 'Delights of the Muses,' were fifteen in all. They were assigned their own places in the new edition of 1648. With two exceptions, we have adhered to the classification of the 1648 edition: the exceptions are, that we have placed 'Vexilla Regis' immediately after the 'Office of the Holy Crosse,' as belonging properly to that composition; and the 'Apologie' for the Hymn to Teresa after the first, not after the second Hymn, seeing the 'Apologie' is only for the first. The new edition bore on its title-page the announcement: 'The second Edition, wherein are added divers pieces not before extant.' Our contents of the present Volume (immediately following our Dedication) shows these additions, which were important and precious; viz. twenty-nine new English Poems and eighteen new Latin Poems.

The next edition was published in Paris in 1652. In our Note (as supra) the title-page is given. This volume is an elegant one, and is adorned with twelve dainty engravings after the Author's own designs, though we possess a copy without the engravings, having blanks left. This exceedingly rare book contains most of the Sacred Poems and some of the more serious of the Secular Poems; but as the contents (as supra) show, there were large omissions, notably the Sospetto and Musick's Duel. It was edited by Thomas Car, who prefixes two poems of his own, as follows:

I. Crashawe, the Anagramme 'He was Car.'

Was Car then Crashawe; or was Crashawe Car,1
Since both within one name combinèd are?
Yes, Car's Crashawe, he Car; 'tis loue alone
Which melts two harts, of both composing one.
So Crashaw's still the same: so much desired5
By strongest witts; so honor'd, so admired;
Car was but he that enter'd as a friend
With whom he shar'd his thoughtes, and did commend
(While yet he liu'd) this worke; they lou'd each other:
Sweete Crashawe was his friend; he Crashawe's brother.10
So Car hath title then; 'twas his intent
That what his riches pen'd, poore Car should print;
Nor feares he checke, praysing that happie one
Who was belou'd by all; disprais'd by none:
To witt, being pleas'd with all things, he pleas'd all,15
Nor would he giue, nor take offence; befall
What might, he would possesse himselfe, and liue
As deade (deuoyde of interest) t' all might giue
Desease t' his well-composèd mynd; fore-stal'd
With heauenly riches; which had wholy call'd20
His thoughts from earth, to liue aboue in th' aire
A very bird of paradice. No care
Had he of earthly trashe. What might suffice
To fitt his soule to heauenly exercise
Sufficèd him: and may we guesse his hart25
By what his lipps brings forth, his onely part
Is God and godly thoughtes. Leaues doubt to none
But that to whom one God is all; all's one.
What he might eate or weare he tooke no thought;
His needfull foode he rather found then sought.30
He seekes no downes, no sheetes, his bed's still made;
If he can find a chaire or stoole, he's layd.
When Day peepes in, he quitts his restlesse rest,
And still, poore soule, before he's vp, he's dre'st.
Thus dying did he liue, yet liued to dye35
In th' Virgin's lappe, to whom he did applye
His virgine thoughtes and words, and thence was styld
By foes, the chaplaine of the virgine myld,
While yet he liued without. His modestie
Imparted this to some, and they to me.40
Liue happie then, deare soule! inioy the rest
Eternally by paynes thou purchacedst,
While Car must liue in care, who was thy friend,
Nor cares he how he liue, so in the end
He may inioy his dearest Lord and thee;45
And sitt and singe more skilfull songs eternally.[1]

II. An Epigramme

Vpon the Pictures in the following Poemes, which the Authour first made with his owne hand, admirably well, as may be seene in his Manuscript dedicated to the Right Honourable Lady the L. Denbigh.

'Twixt pen and pensill rose a holy strife1
Which might draw Vertue better to the life:
Best witts gaue votes to that, but painters swore
They neuer saw peeces so sweete before
As thes fruits of pure Nature; where no Art5
Did lead the vntaught pensill, nor had part
In th' worke ...
The hand growne bold, with witt will needes contest:
Doth it preuayle? ah no! say each is best.
This to the eare speakes wonders; that will trye10
To speake the same, yet lowder, to the eye.
Both in their aymes are holy, both conspire
To wound, to burne the hart with heauenly fire.
This then's the doome, to doe both parties right:
This to the eare speakes best; that, to the sight.15

Thomas Car.[2]

It is clear from these lines in the former poem—

'Car was but he that enter'd as a friend
With whom he shar'd his thoughtes, and did commend
(While yet he liu'd) THIS WORKE__________
_______________________________________________
So Car hath title then; 'twas his intent
That what his riches pen'd, poore Car should print'—

that the volume of 1652 carries the authority of Crashaw with it as his own Selection from what he had written. So that I have had no hesitation in accepting its text of the Poems previously published (in 1646 and 1648): understanding that the Selection was regulated by his desire only to offer the Countess of Denbigh those he himself most valued. There are inevitable misprints and a chaos of punctuation; but the text as a whole is a great advance on those preceding, as our Notes and Illustrations to the several poems prove. There are some very valuable additions throughout, entirely overlooked by modern Editors. Our text of all not in 1652 volume is based on that of 1648 collated with 1646.

The engravings celebrated in the Epigram of Car—of whom more, and of the origin and purpose of the Volume, in our Essay—are as follows:

1. 'To the noblest and best of ladyes:' a heart with an emblematical lock. Beneath is printed 'Non Vi' ( = not by force), and the following lines:

'Tis not the work of force but skill
To find the way into man's will.
'Tis loue alone can hearts vnlock:
Who knowes the Word, he needs not knock.

2. 'To the name above every name.' 'Numisma Urbani 6.' A dove under the tiara, surrounded with a glory. The legend is, 'In unitate Deus est.'

3. 'The Holy Nativity.' The Holy Family at Bethlehem. Beneath are these lines in French and Latin:

Ton Créateur te faict voir sa naissance
Deignant souffrir pour toy des son enfance.

Quem vidistis, Pastores, &c.
Natum vidimus, &c.

4. 'The Glorious Epiphanie.' The adoration of the Magi-kings.

5. 'The Office of the Holy Crosse.' Christ on the Cross. Beneath (from the Vulgate),

Tradidit semetipsum pro nobis oblationem et hostiam
Deo in odorem suavitatis.—Ad Ephe. 5.

6. 'The Recommendation.' The ascended Saviour looking down toward the Earth. Above, this line,

Expostulatio Jesu Christi cum mundo ingrato.

Beneath, a Latin poem of thirteen lines, which appears in its place in our Vol. II.

7. 'Sancta Maria Dolorum.' The Virgin Mary under the Cross with the instruments of the Passion, holding the dead Saviour in her arms.

8. 'Hymn of St. Thomas.' A Remonstrance. 'Ecce panis Angelorum.'

9. 'Dies Iræ.' The Last Judgment. 'Dies Iræ, dies illa.'

10. 'O Gloriosa Domina.' The Virgin Mary and Child. Angels hold a crown over her head, surmounted by the Holy Dove. Beneath:

S. Maria Major.
Dilectus meus mihi, et ego illi,
Qui pascitur inter lilia. Cant.

11. 'The Weeper.' A female head, showing beneath, a bleeding and burning heart, surrounded by a glory. This couplet is below:

Lo, where a wounded heart, with bleeding eyes conspire:
Is she a flaming fountaine, or a weeping fire?

12. 'Hymn to St. Teresa.' Portrait: scroll above, inscribed 'Misericors Domini in æternum cantabo.' Beneath, 'La Vray Portraict de Ste. Terese, Fondatrice des Religieuses et Religieux réformez de l'ordre de N. Dame de mont Carmel: Décédée le 4^e Octo. 1582. Canonisée le 12^e Mars 1622.'

Besides these Twelve, I discovered another in illustration of 'O Gloriosa Domina,' substituted for No. 10 in the very fine copy of the volume in the Douce Collection in the Bodleian. I have the satisfaction of furnishing admirable reproductions in fac-simile of Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 12, and by the kindness of the Bodleian Trustees, the unique illustration for No. 10. No. 11 by my friend W.J. Linton, Esq. The whole of these belong exclusively to our illustrated quarto edition, and the impressions taken have been strictly limited thereto, and a very few for my own gift-use.

We have now done with genuine editions; but have yet to notice a wretched medley which bears the name of the '2d edition.' Its title-page is given in our Note (as before). This volume is fairly printed; but whatever was meant by '2d edition,' whether it was so styled from ignorance of the edition of 1648 or copying of its title, or because it was meant for a 2d edition of 1652, it is a deplorable compilation made out of 1646 and 1652. It first reprints 1646 and then 1652, omitting in the second part such poems of 1652 as were in 1646, but without taking the trouble of correcting any, so as to bring them into agreement with the better text. Not to mention well-nigh innumerable misprints and omissions, so blind is it, that it has twice printed two poems which in 1652 had their titles altered, not observing that it had already printed them under the old titles. These were the poems, On the Death of a Young Gentleman, and in Praise of Lessius. It contains only the eight Latin Poems of 1646, and no others. Of this edition Turnbull says, 'In its text [it is] the most inaccurate of all'—and—What then? He reprints it! and leaves undetected its inaccuracies and omissions, and superadds as many more of his own—as our Notes and Illustrations demonstrate, albeit we have left many blunders unrecorded, contenting ourselves with seeing that our own is correct. And yet this Editor got in a rage with a correspondent (Professor M'Carthy) of Notes and Queries, who at the time corrected incidentally a misprinted letter—oblivious of (literally) hundreds infinitely worse.

Peregrine Phillips in 1785 published a very well-printed volume of 'Selections' from Crashaw; but, like Turnbull, he blundered over the (so-called) '2d edition' of 1670, and seems never to have seen those of 1648 and 1652. Of other more recent editions I shall speak in our Essay, and, as already stated in our Memorial-Introduction, notice the University Collections and others, to which our Poet contributed. In its place, at close of the present Volume, see account of a hitherto unused edition of a Verse-Letter to Countess of Denbigh.

Of the Poems now for the first time printed, the present Volume contains no fewer than fifteen or sixteen with important additions: Vol. II. will contain very many more, as well as our Translation of the hitherto untranslated Poems and Epigrams. The source of all these erewhile unprinted Poems is Vol. 465 among the Tanner mss., which is known to be in the handwriting (mainly) of Archbishop Sancroft. The Volume is a collection of contemporary Poetry, but as it now rests in the Bodleian is imperfect, as the Index shows. The following details will probably interest our readers. In the Index is first of all the following, 'Mr. Crashaw's Epigrams, sacra Latina;' but it is erased. Then underneath is written 'Mr. Crashaw's poems transcrib'd frō his own copie, before they were printed; amongst w^ch are some not printed.' 'Latin, On y^e Gospels v p 7. On other Subiects p 39, 95, 229. English Sacred Poems p 111. On other Subiects—39, 162, 164 v 167 v 196. 202 v 206. 223. v Suspetto di Herodi, translated frō Car. Marino p 287 v.' Guided by this Index—for, though to some 'R. Cr.' is prefixed, others printed in 1646 and 1648 are left without name or initials—page 7 to 22 contains Latin Poems and Epigrams still unpublished. On page 22 is a large letter C = Crashaw. The pagination then leaps to p. 39 and goes on to page 64, and consists of Latin Poems and one in Greek 'On other Subjects,' also wholly unpublished. Page 66 is blank, and a blank leaf follows. Then there is a Latin poem by Wallis, and pp. 95-6 contain other Latin poems by Crashaw, in part published. Pages 97-102 are blank, and the pagination again leaps to p. 111, where begin the English Sacred Poems, continuing to page 137, with 'Crashaw' written at end. These pages (111-137) contain mainly Poems and Epigrams before published. On page 130 is a short poem 'On Good Friday' by T. Randolph. On page 135 are two poems by Dr. Alabaster: then, on page 136, Crashaw's poem 'On the Assumption,' and on page 137, a short poem by Wotton. Pages 138-142 are blank, and once more the pagination passes to p. 159, where there is a poem by Giles Fletcher (pp. 159-160)—printed by us in Appendix to Poems of Dr. Giles Fletcher in our Fuller Worthies' Miscellanies. Pages 160-1 have poems by Corbett (erroneously inserted as Herrick's by Hazlitt in his edition of Herrick), and a Song by Wotton. On page 162 'The Faire Ethiopian,' by Crashaw: p. 163, 'Upon Mr. Cl.' [Cleveland?], who made a Song against the D.D.s—The complaint of a woman with child [both anonymous]. Then at page 164 'Upon a gnatt burnt in a candle,' by Crashaw (being entered in Index as supra), and never published. On pages 165-6, Love's Horoscope (published): p. 166, Ad Amicam. T.R. (not by Crashaw, being entered in Index under Randolph): pp. 167-71, Fidicinis et Philomela Bellum Musicum, and Upon Herbert's Temple: pp. 172-3, Upon Isaacson's Frontispiece (the second piece): pp. 173-4, An invitation to faire weather (all published before). Then translations from the Latin Poets with 'R. Cr.' above each, pp. 174-178—all unpublished: pp. 178-9, from Virgil (published). Next on pp. 180-87 are the following: 'On y^e Gunpowder-Treason' (three separate pieces), and 'Upon the King's Coronation' (two pieces). These have never been printed until now in our present Vol., and they are unquestionably Crashaw's, inasmuch as (a) All entered thus 164 v. 167 are by him, and so these being entered under his name in Index as 167 v. 196 must belong to him; (b) 'Upon the King's Coronation' are renderings in part of his own Latin; (c) As shown in our Essay (where also their biographic value is shown) unusual words used by Crashaw occur in them. Pp. 187-90, 'Panegyrick upon the birth of the Duke of York' (published): pp. 190-2, 'Upon the birth of the Princesse Elizabeth' (never before printed). Pages 192-196, poems by Corbett, Wotton, and others. Pages 196-7, Translation from the Latin Ex Euphormione (not before published), and on Lessius (published). Then pp. 197-201, poems by various, in part anonymous: pp. 202-3, An Elegy on Staninough—not having his name or initials, but entered in Index under his name—(never before published): pp. 203-5, In obitum desider. M^ri Chambers (published, but the heading new), and Upon the death of a friend (not before published): p. 205, 'On a cobler' (anonymous): p. 206, In obitum D^r Brooke: Epitaphium Conjug. (published): page 207, poem by Culverwell: p. 208, blank; and then the pagination passes to p. 223. Pages 223-229, poems on Herrys [or Harris] (all published, but with variations): pp. 229-30, Elegie on Dr. Porter (never before published, and entered in Index under Crashaw): from p. 231 to 238, various poems, but none by Crashaw; then the pagination leaps to p. 238, and goes on to p. 255, with various pieces, but again none by Crashaw. On pp. 297-8 are eight of the published English Epigrams. All the other anonymous and avowed poems being entered in the Index separately from Crashaw's, and under either their titles or authors, makes us safe to exclude them from our Volumes. On the other hand, the Index-entries and 'R.C.' together, assure us that rich and virgin as is the treasure-trove of unprinted and unpublished Poems—English and Latin, especially the Latin—it is without a shadow of doubt Richard Crashaw's, and of supreme worth. I have also had the good fortune to discover a Harleian ms. from Lord Somers' Library (6917-18), which furnishes some valuable readings of some of the Poems, as recorded and used by us.

Throughout we have endeavoured with all fidelity to reproduce our Worthy in integrity of text and orthography—diminishing only (slightly) italics and capitals, and as usual giving capitals to all divine Names (nouns and pronouns) and personifications. In Notes and Illustrations all various readings are recorded, and such elucidations and filling-in of names and allusions as are likely to be helpful.

It is now my pleasant duty to return right hearty, because heartfelt, thanks to many friends and correspondents who have aided me in a somewhat arduous and difficult work and 'labour of love.' To the venerable and illustrious man whose name by express permission adorns my Dedication, I owe a debt of gratitude for a beautiful, a pathetic, a (to me) sacred Letter, that greatly animated me to go forward. By my admirable friends Revs. J.H. Clark, M.A., of West Dereham, Norfolk, and Thomas Ashe, M.A., Ipswich, my edition (as Vol. II. will evidence) is advantaged in various Translations for the first time of the Latin poems, valuable in themselves, and the more valued for the generous enthusiasm and modesty with which they were offered, not to say how considerably they have lightened my own work in the same field. To Dr. Brinsley Nicholson, who retains in the Army his fine literary culture and acumen; to W. Aldis Wright, Esq., M.A., Trinity College, Cambridge; the very Reverend Dr. F.C. Husenbeth, Cossey, Norwich; the Earl and Countess of Denbigh; Monsignor Stonor, Rome; to Correspondents at Loretto, Douai, Paris, &c.; and to Colonel Chester and Mr. W.T. Brooke, London,—I wish to tender my warmest thanks for various services most pleasantly rendered; all to the enrichment of our edition.

The Illustrations (in the 4to) speak for themselves. I cannot sufficiently express my acknowledgments for the spontaneous and ever-increasing willinghood of my artist-poet friend W.J. Linton, Esq., who from his temporary Transatlantic home has sent me the exquisite head- and tail-pieces in both volumes, besides cunningly interpreting the two original Illustrations drawn for me by Mrs. Hugh Blackburn of Glasgow, and the Poet's 'Weeper.' To Mrs. Blackburn her work is its own abundant reward; but none the less do I appreciate her great kindness to me.

Anything else needing to be said will be found in the Memorial-Introduction and Essay on the Life and Poetry, and Notes and Illustrations. I cannot better close our Preface than with the fine tribute of R. Aris Willmott, in his 'Dream of the Poets,' wherein he catches up the echo of Cowley across two centuries:

Poet and Saint! thy sky was dark
And sad thy lonely vigil here;
But thy meek spirit, like the lark
Still showered music on the ear,
From its own heaven ever clear:
No pining mourner thou! thy strain
Could breathe a slumber upon Pain,
Singing thy tears asleep: not long
To stray by Siloa's brook was thine:
Yet Time hath never dealt thee wrong,
Nor brush'd the sweet bloom from thy line:
Thou hast a home in every song,
In every Christian heart, a shrine.

Alexander B. Grosart.

15 St. Alban's Place, Blackburn, Lancashire,
4th February 1872.

MEMORIAL-INTRODUCTION.

In a Study of the Life and Poetry of our present Worthy, which will be found in our Volume II.—thus postponed in order that the completed Works may be before the student-reader along with it—I venture to hope new light will be shed on both, and his character as a Man and Poet—one of the richest of the minor Poets of England—vindicated and interpreted as never hitherto they have been. Some memories cannot bear the 'cruel light' of close scrutiny, some poetries when tested prove falsetto-noted. Richard Crashaw grows on us the more insight we gain. If he were as well known as George Herbert, he would be equally cherished, while his Poetry would be recognised as perfumed with all his devoutness and of a diviner 'stuff' and woven in a grander loom; in sooth, infinitely deeper and finer in almost every element of true singing as differenced from pious and gracious versifying. In this hurrying-scurrying age, only twos-and-threes take time to hold communion with these ancient Worthies; and hence my Essay, as with the Fletchers and Lord Brooke and Henry Vaughan, may win-back that recognition and love due to Crashaw.

Then, in a much fuller and more adequate Memoir than hitherto furnished of William Crashaw, B.D., father of our Poet—also in our Volume II.—the usually-given ancestral details will appear from new and unused sources. So that here and now I intend to limit myself to a brief statement of the few outward Facts, i.e. reserving their relation to the central thing in Richard Crashaw's life—his passing from Protestantism to Catholicism, and to contemporaries and inner friends, and to his Poetry—to our announced Study.

Willmott in his 'Lives of the English Sacred Poets' (vol. first, 1834, vol. second, 1839), begins his fine-toned little Notice thus: 'After an anxious search in all the accessible sources of information, I am able to tell little of one of whom every lover of poetry must desire to know much. The time of his birth and of his decease is involved in equal mystery.'[3] Our 'all' is still 'little' as compared with what we yearn for; but we do not need to begin so dolorously as our predecessor, for we have discovered both the 'time of his birth and of his decease.' He was born in London in 1612-3; this date being arrived at from the register-entry of his age on admission to the University, viz. 18 in 1630-1 (as hereafter stated). Shakespeare was then retired to his beloved Stratford; Milton was in the sixth year of his cherub-beauty. His father being 'Preacher at the Temple' at the date would have determined London to have been his birthplace; but his admission to Pembroke and his own signature at Peterhouse, 'Richardum Crashaw, Londinensem,' prove it. Who was his mother I have failed to find. The second Mrs. William Crashaw, celebrated in a remarkable contemporary poetical tractate printed (if not published) by her bereaved husband (of which more anon and elsewhere, as supra), could not have been the Poet's mother, as she was not married to Crashaw (pater) until 1619. We should gladly have exchanged the 'Honour of Vertue or the Monument erected by the sorrowfull Husband and the Epitaphs annexed by learned and worthy men, to the immortall memory of that worthy Gentle-woman M^rs. Elizabeth Crashawe. Who dyed in child-birth, and was buried in Whit-Chappel: Octob. 8. 1620. In the 24 yeare of her age'—for a page on the first Mrs. Crashaw. Yet is it pleasant to know the motherless little lad received such a new mother as this tribute pictures. In 1620 he was in his ninth year. Thus twice a broad shadow blackened his father's house and his home. Little more than a year had he his 'second' mother.

Our after-Memoir of the elder Crashaw shows that he was a man of no ordinary force of character and influence. The Epistles-dedicatory to his numerous polemical books are addressed with evident familiarity to the foremost in Church and State: and it is in agreement with this to learn (as we do) that Master Richard gained admission to the great 'Charterhouse' School through Sir Henry Yelverton and Sir Randolph Crew—the former the patron-friend of the saintly Dr. Sibbes, the latter of Herrick, and both of mark. The Register of Charterhouse as now extant begins in 1680. So that we know not the date of young Crashaw's entry on the 'foundation' provided so munificently by Sutton.[4] As we shall find, one of the Teachers—Brooke—is gratefully and characteristically remembered by our Worthy in one of his Latin poems, none the less gratefully that 'the rod' is recalled. He was 'Schoolmaster' from 1627-8 to 1643. The age of admission was 10 to 14: the latter would bring us to 1627-8, or Brooke's first year of office. Probably, however, he entered sooner; but neither Robert Grey (1624-26) nor William Middleton, A.M. (1626-28), nor others of the Masters or celebrities of the famous School are celebrated by him, with the exception of (afterwards) Bishop Laney. Francis Beaumont was Head-Master in June 18, 1624, and I should have liked to have been able to associate Crashaw with the Beaumont family. Probably Dr. Joseph Beaumont of 'Psyche' was a school-fellow.

How long the Charterhouse was attended is unknown; but renewed researches at Cambridge add to as well as correct the usual dates of his attendance there. Willmott states that 'he was elected a scholar of Pembroke Hall, March 26, 1632,' and remarks, 'and yet we find him lamenting the premature death of his friend, William Herrys, a fellow of the same College, which happened in the October of 1631.'[5] He quotes from the Cole mss. The original register in the Admission-book of Pembroke College removes the difficulty, and is otherwise valuable, as will be seen. It is as follows:

'Julij 6. 1631. Richardus Crashawe, Gulielmi presbyteri filius, natus Londini annos habens 18, admissus est ad 2æ mensæ ordinem sub tutela M^ri Tourney.'

He was 'matriculated pensioner of Pembroke, March 26, 1632,' but, as above, his 'admission' preceded. Belonging to Essex, it is not improbable that Crashaw and Harris were school-fellows at the Charterhouse. His 'friendships' and associates, so winsomely 'sung' of, will demand full after-notice. In 1632-3 appeared George Herbert's 'Temple;' an influential event in our Poet's history. He took the degree of B.A. in 1634. In 1634 he published anonymously his volume of Latin Epigrams and other Poems; a very noticeable book from a youth of 20, especially as most must have been composed long previously. He passed from Pembroke to Peterhouse in 1636; and again I have the satisfaction to give, for the first time, the entry in the old College Register. It is as follows:

'Anno Domini millesimo sexcentesimo tricesimo sexto vicesimo die mensis Novembris Richardus Crashaw admissus fuit a Reverendo in Christo Patre ac D^no D^no Francisco Episcopo Elæcisi ad locum sive societatem Magistri Simon Smith legitime vacantem in Collegio sive Domo S^ti Petri, et vicesimo secundo die ejusdem mensis coram Magistro et Sociis ejusdem Collegii personaliter constitutus, juramentum præstitit quod singulis Ordinationibus et Statutis Collegii (quantum in ipso est) reverenter obediret, et specialiter præter hoc de non appellando contra amotionem suam secundum modum et formam statutorum prædictorum et de salvando cistam Magistri Thomæ de Castro Bernardi et Magri Thomæ Holbrooke (quantum in ipso est) indemnum, quo juramento præstito admissus fuit a Magistro Collegii in perpetuum socium ejusdem Collegii et in locum supradictum. Per me Richardum Crashaw Londinensem.' (p. 500.)

He was made Fellow in 1637, and M.A. in 1638; looking forward to becoming a 'Minister' of the Gospel. His Latin Poems in honour of, and in pathetic appeal regarding Peterhouse, are of the rarest interest, and suggest much elucidatory of his great 'change' in religious matters; a change that must have been a sad shock to his ultra-Protestant father, but in which, beyond all gainsaying, conscience ruled, if the heart quivered. While at the University he was called on to contribute to the various 'Collections' issued from 1631 onward; and it certainly is once more noticeable that such a mere youth should have been thus recognised. His Verses—Latin and English—appeared thus with those of Henry More, Joseph Beaumont, Edward King ('Lycidas'), Cowley, and others; and more than hold their own. In 1635 Shelford, 'priest' of Ringsfield, obtained a laudatory poem from him for his 'Five Pious and Learned Discourses.' According to Anthony a-Wood, on the authority of one who knew (not from the Registers), he took a degree in 1641 at Oxford.[6]

Of his inner Life and experiences during these years (twelve at least), and the influences that went to shape his decision and after-course, and his relation to the Countess of Denbigh, I shall speak fully and I trust helpfully in our Essay. We need to get at the Facts and Circumstances to pronounce a righteous verdict. For his great-brained, stout-hearted, iron-willed Father, the stormy period was congenial: but for his son the atmosphere was mephitic; as the Editor's 'Preface to the Learned Reader,' in his 'character' of him, suggests. Signatures were being put unsolemnly to the Solemn League and Covenant,' and as a political not a religious thing, by too many. Richard Crashaw could not do that, and the crash of 'Ejection' came. Here is the rescript from the Register of Peterhouse once more unused hitherto:[7]

'Whereas in pursuite of an ordinance of Parliament for regulating and reforming of the Universitie of Cambridge, I have ejected Mr. Beaumont, Mr. Penniman, Mr. Crashaw, Mr. Holder, Mr. Tyringham, late fellowes of Peterhouse, in Cambridge. And whereas Mr. Charles Hotham, Robert Quarles, Howard Becher, Walter Ellis, Edward Sammes, have been examined and approved by the Assembly of Divines now sitting at Westminster, according to the said Ordinance as fitt to be Fellowes: These are therefore to require you, and every of you, to receive the said Charles Hotham, Robert Quarles, Howard Becher, Walter Ellis, Masters of Arts; and Edward Sammes, Bach^r, as fellowes of your Colledge in room of the said Mr. Beaumont, Mr. Penniman, Mr. Crashaw, Mr. Holder, Mr. Tyringham, formerly ejected, and to give them place according to their seniority in the Universitie, in reference to all those that are or shall hereafter bee putt in by mee accordinge to the Ordinance of Parliament aforesaid. Given under my hand and seale the eleaventh day of June anno 1644.

'Manchester.

'To the Master, President, and Fellowes of Peterhouse, in Cambridge.' (p. 518.)

'The ejection' of 1644, like that larger one of 1662, brought much sorrow and trial to a number of good and true souls. To one so gentle, shy, self-introspective as Crashaw, it must have been as the tearing down of a nest to a poor bird. His fellow-sufferers went hither and thither. Our first glimpse of our Worthy after his 'ejection' is in 1646, when the 'Steps to the Temple' and 'Delights of the Muses' appeared, with its Editor's touching saying at the close of his Preface 'now dead to us.' A second edition, with considerable additions, was published in 1648. Previous to 1646 he had 'gone over' to Catholicism; for in the 'Steps' of that year is 'An Apologie' for his 'Hymn'—'In Memory of the Vertuous and Learned Lady Madre de Teresa, that sought an early Martyrdome.' In 1646 it is headed simply 'An Apologie for the precedent Hymne:' in the 'Carmen Deo Nostro' of 1652 it is more fully inscribed 'An Apologie for the foregoing Hymn, as hauing been writt when the author was yet among the Protestantes.' His two Latin poems, 'Fides quæ sola justificat non est sine spe et dilectione' and 'Baptismus non tollit futura peccata,' were first published in 1648. Turnbull was either ignorant of their existence or intentionally suppressed them.

Our Worthy did not long remain in England. He retired to France; and his little genial poem on sending 'two green apricocks' to Cowley sheds a gleam of light on his residence in Paris. Cowley was in the 'gay city' in 1646 as Secretary to Lord Jermyn; and inasmuch as the volume of that year contained his own alternate-poem on 'Hope,' I like to imagine that he carried over a copy of it to Crashaw, and renewed their old friendship. Cowley, it is told, found our Poet in great poverty: but Car's verses somewhat lighten the gloom. The 'Secretary' of Lord Jermyn introduced his friend to the Queen of Charles I., who was then a fugitive in Paris. So it usually runs: but Crashaw had previously 'sung' of and to her Majesty. From the Queen the Poet obtained letters of recommendation to Italy; and from a contemporary notice, hereafter to be used, we learn he became 'Secretary' at Rome to Cardinal Palotta. He appears to have remained in Rome until 1649-50, and by very 'plain speech' on the moralities, that is immoralities, of certain ecclesiastics, to have drawn down on himself Italian jealousy and threats. His 'good' Cardinal provided a place of shelter in the Lady-chapel of Loretto, of which he was made a Canon. But his abode there was very brief; for, by a document sent me from Loretto, I ascertained that he died of fever after a few weeks' residence only, and was buried within the chapel there, in 1650.[8] Cowley shed 'melodious tears' over his dear friend, in which he turns to fine account his 'fever' end: and with his priceless tribute, of which Dr. Johnson said, 'In these verses there are beauties which common authors may justly think not only above their attainment, but above their ambition,'[9]—I close for the present our Memoir:

On the Death of Mr. Crashaw.

Poet and Saint! to thee alone are giv'n
The two most sacred names of Earth and Heav'n,
The hardest, rarest union which can be
Next that of godhead with humanity.
Long did the Muses banish'd slaves abide,
And built vain pyramids to mortal pride;
Like Moses thou (tho' spells and charms withstand)
Hast brought them nobly home, back to their Holy Land.

Ah, wretched we, Poets of Earth! but thou
Wert living, the same Poet which thou'rt now;
Whilst angels sing to thee their ayres divine,
And joy in an applause so great as thine.
Equal society with them to hold,
Thou need'st not make new songs, but say the old;
And they (kind spirits!) shall all rejoice to see,
How little less than they, exalted man may be.

Still the old heathen gods in numbers dwell,
The heav'nliest thing on Earth still keeps up Hell:
Nor have we yet quite purg'd the Christian land;
Still idols here, like calves at Bethel stand.
And tho' Pan's death long since all or'cles broke,
Yet still in rhyme the fiend Apollo spoke;
Nay, with the worst of heathen dotage, we
(Vain men!) the monster woman deifie;
Find stars, and tie our fates there in a face,
And Paradise in them, by whom we lost it, place.
What diff'rent faults corrupt our Muses thus?
Wanton as girls, as old wives, fabulous.

Thy spotless Muse, like Mary, did contain
The boundless Godhead; she did well disdain
That her eternal verse employ'd should be
On a less subject than eternity;
And for a sacred mistress scorn'd to take
But her whom God Himself scorn'd not His spouse to make:
It (in a kind) her miracle did do,
A fruitful mother was, and virgin too.

How well (blest Swan) did Fate contrive thy death,
And made thee render up thy tuneful breath
In thy great mistress's arms! Thou most divine,
And richest off'ring of Loretto's shrine!
Where, like some holy sacrifice t' expire,
A fever burns thee, and Love lights the fire.
Angels (they say) brought the fam'd chappel there,
And bore the sacred load in triumph thro' the air:
'Tis surer much they brought thee there; and they,
And thou, their charge, went singing all the way.

Pardon, my Mother-Church, if I consent
That angels led him, when from thee he went;
For ev'n in error, sure no danger is,
When join'd with so much piety as his.
Ah! mighty God, with shame I speak't, and grief;
Ah! that our greatest faults were in belief!
And our weak reason were ev'n weaker yet,
Rather than thus, our wills too strong for it.
His faith, perhaps, in some nice tenets might
Be wrong; his life, I'm sure, was in the right:
And I, myself, a Catholick will be;
So far at least, great Saint! to pray to thee.

Hail, Bard triumphant! and some care bestow
On us, the Poets militant below:
Oppos'd by our old enemy, adverse Chance,
Attack'd by Envy and by Ignorance;
Enchain'd by Beauty, tortur'd by desires,
Expos'd by tyrant-love, to savage beasts and fires.
Thou from low Earth in nobler flames didst rise,
And like Elijah, mount alive the skies.
Elisha-like (but with a wish much less,
More fit thy greatness and my littleness;)
Lo here I beg (I whom thou once didst prove
So humble to esteem, so good to love)
Not that thy sp'rit might on me doubled be,
I ask but half thy mighty sp'rit for me:
And when my Muse soars with so strong a wing,
'Twill learn of things divine, and first of thee to sing.[10]

Alexander B. Grosart.

THE
WORKS OF RICHARD CRASHAW.

VOL. I.

ENGLISH POETRY.

NOTE.

The title-pages, with collation, of the original and early editions of 'Steps to the Temple' and 'The Delights of the Muses' (1646 to 1670) are here given successively:

1st edition, 1646. (1)

STEPS
TO THE
TEMPLE.

Sacred Poems,

With other Delights of the
Muses.

By Richard Crashaw, sometimes
of Pembroke Hall, and
late Fellow of S. Peters Coll.
in Cambridge.

Printed and Published according to Order.

LONDON,
Printed by T.W. for Humphrey Moseley, and
are to be sold at his shop at the Princes
Armes in S^t Pauls Church-yard.
1646.

(2)

THE
DELIGHTS
OF THE
MUSES.
OR,
Other Poems written on
severall occasions.

By Richard Crashaw, sometimes of Pembroke
Hall, and late Fellow of S^t. Peters
Colledge in Cambridge.

Mart. Dic mihi quid melius desidiosus agas.

London,
Printed by T.W. for H. Moseley, at
the Princes Armes in S. Pauls
Churchyard, 1646. [12^o]

Collation: Title-page; the Preface to the Reader, pp. 6; the Author's Motto and short Note to Reader, pp. 2 [all unpaged]; 'Steps to the Temple,' pp. 99; title-page of 'Delights,' as supra, and pp. 103-138; the Table, pp. 4.

2d edition, 1648.

STEPS
TO THE
TEMPLE,
Sacred Poems.

With

The Delights of the Muses.

By Richard Crashaw, sometimes
of Pembroke Hall, and
late fellow of S. Peters Coll.
in Cambridge.

The second Edition wherein are added divers
pieces not before extant.

London,

Printed for Humphrey Moseley, and are to be
sold at his Shop at the Princes Armes
in S^t. Pauls Church-yard.
1648. [12^o]

The title-page to the 'Delights of the Muses' is exactly the same with that of 1646, except the date '1648.' Collation: Engraved title-page; title-page (printed); the Preface to the Reader and the Author's Motto, pp. 6; 'Steps,' pp. 110; the Table, pp. 4; the 'Delights;' title-page; the Table, pp. 3; Poems, pp. 71.

3d edition, 1652.

CARMEN
DEO NOSTRO,

Te Decet Hymnvs

Sacred Poems,

Collected,
Corrected,
Avgmented,
Most humbly Presented.
To
My Lady
The Covntesse of
Denbigh
By
Her most deuoted Seruant.
R.C.

In heaty [sic] acknowledgment of his immortall
obligation to her Goodnes & Charity.

At Paris

By Peter Targa, Printer to the Archbishope
ef [sic] Paris, in S. Victors streete at
the golden sunne.

M.DC.LII. [8^vo]

Collation: Title-page; Verses by Car, pp. 3; Verse-Letter to Countess of Denbigh, pp. 3 [all unpaged]; the Poems, pp. 131. (See our Preface for more on this and preceding and succeeding volumes, and for notice of a separate edition of the Verse-Letter to the Countess of Denbigh.)

4th edition, erroneously designated 2d edition, 1670.

STEPS
TO THE
TEMPLE,

THE
Delights
Of The
Muses,
and
Carmen
Deo Nostro.

By Ric. Crashaw, sometimes Fellow of Pembroke
Hall, and late Fellow of S^t. Peters
Colledge in Cambridge.

The 2^d. Edition.

In the Savoy,

Printed by T.N. for Henry Herringham at the
Blew Anchor in the Lower Walk of the
New Exchange. 1670. [8^vo]

Collation: Engraving of a 'Temple;' title-page; the Preface to the Reader and the Author's Motto, pp. 8; the Table, pp. 6 [all unpaged]; 'Steps,' pp. 77; 'Delights,' pp. 81-137; 'Carmen Deo Nostro, Te Decet Hymnvs,' pp. 141-208. For later editions see our Preface, as before, and for details on all, early and recent, and Manuscripts; and also our Memorial-Introduction and Essay. The 'Preface' of 1646 was reprinted in 1648 without change, save a few slight orthographical differences, and these: p. xlvi. line 3, 'their' for 'its dearest:' p. xlvii. line 1, 'subburd' for 'suburb:' and ibid, line 19, 'then' for 'than:' 1648 our text. It follows this Note in its own place. G.

STEPS TO THE TEMPLE, &c.

THE PREFACE TO THE READER.

Learned Reader,

The Author's friend will not usurpe much upon thy eye: This is onely for those whom the name of our divine Poet hath not yet seized[11] into admiration. I dare undertake that what Jamblicus[12] (in vita Pythagoræ) affirmeth of his Master, at his contemplations, these Poems can, viz. They shall lift thee, Reader, some yards above the ground: and, as in Pythagoras Schoole, every temper was first tuned into a height by severall proportions of Musick, and spiritualiz'd for one of his weighty lectures; so maist thou take a poem hence, and tune thy soule by it, into a heavenly pitch;[13] and thus refined and borne up upon the wings of meditation, in these Poems thou maist talke freely of God, and of that other state.

Here's Herbert's[14] second, but equall, who hath retriv'd Poetry of late, and return'd it up to its primitive use; let it bound back to heaven gates, whence it came. Thinke yee St. Augustine would have steyned his graver learning with a booke of Poetry, had he fancied its dearest end to be the vanity of love-sonnets and epithalamiums? No, no, he thought with this our Poet, that every foot in a high-borne verse, might helpe to measure the soule into that better world. Divine Poetry, I dare hold it in position, against Suarez on the subject, to be the language of the angels; it is the quintessence of phantasie and discourse center'd in Heaven; 'tis the very out-goings of the soule; 'tis what alone our Author is able to tell you, and that in his owne verse.

It were prophane but to mention here in the Preface those under-headed Poets, retainers to seven shares and a halfe;[15] madrigall fellowes, whose onely businesse in verse, is to rime a poore six-penny soule, a suburb-sinner[16] into Hell:—May such arrogant pretenders to Poetry vanish, with their prodigious issue of tumorous[17] heats and flashes of their adulterate braines, and for ever after, may this our Poet fill up the better roome of man. Oh! when the generall arraignment of Poets shall be, to give an accompt of their higher soules, with what a triumphant brow shall our divine Poet sit above, and looke downe upon poore Homer, Virgil, Horace, Claudian, &c.? who had amongst them the ill lucke to talke out a great part of their gallant genius, upon bees, dung, froggs, and gnats, &c., and not as himself here, upon Scriptures, divine graces, martyrs and angels.

Reader, we stile his Sacred Poems, Steps to the Temple, and aptly, for in the Temple of God, under His wing, he led his life, in St. Marie's Church neere St. Peter's Colledge: there he lodged under Tertullian's roofe of angels; there he made his nest more gladly than David's swallow neere the house of God, where like a primitive saint, he offered more prayers in the night than others usually offer in the day; there he penned these Poems, STEPS for happy soules to climbe heaven by. And those other of his pieces, intituled The Delights of the Muses, (though of a more humane mixture) are as sweet as they are innocent.

The praises that follow, are but few of many that might be conferr'd on him: he was excellent in five languages (besides his mother tongue), vid. Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Italian, Spanish, the two last whereof he had little helpe in, they were of his own acquisition.

Amongst his other accomplishments in accademick (as well pious as harmlesse arts) he made his skill in Poetry, Musick, Drawing, Limming, Graving (exercises of his curious invention and sudden fancy) to be but his subservient recreations for vacant houres, not the grand businesse of his soule.

To the former qualifications I might adde that which would crowne them all, his rare moderation in diet (almost Lessian temperance[18]); he never created a Muse out of distempers, nor (with our Canary scribblers[19]) cast any strange mists of surfets before the intellectuall beames of his mind or memory, the latter of which he was so much a master of, that he had there under locke and key in readinesse, the richest treasures of the best Greek and Latine poets, some of which Authors hee had more at his command by heart, than others that onely read their works, to retaine little, and understand lesse.

Enough Reader, I intend not a volume of praises larger than his booke, nor need I longer transport thee to think over his vast perfections: I will conclude all that I have impartially writ of this learned young Gent. (now dead to us) as he himselfe doth, with the last line of his poem upon Bishop Andrews' picture before his Sermons: Verte paginas,

'Look on his following leaves, and see him breath.'[20]

THE AUTHOR'S MOTTO.

Live Iesus, live, and let it bee
My life, to dye for love of Thee.

Sacred Poetry.

I.

STEPS TO THE TEMPLE

(1648),

AND

CARMEN DEO NOSTRO &c.

(1652).

SAINTE MARY MAGDALENE, OR THE WEEPER.[21]

Loe! where a wounded heart with bleeding eyes conspire.
Is she a flaming fountain, or a weeping fire?

THE WEEPER.[22]

I.

Hail, sister springs!1
Parents of syluer-footed rills!
Euer-bubling things!
Thawing crystall! snowy hills
Still spending, neuer spent! I mean5
Thy fair eyes, sweet Magdalene!

II.

Heauens thy fair eyes be;
Heauens of euer-falling starres.
'Tis seed-time still with thee;
And starres thou sow'st, whose haruest dares10
Promise the Earth, to counter-shine
Whateuer makes heaun's forehead fine.

III.

But we' are deceiuèd all:
Starres indeed they are too true;
For they but seem to fall,15
As heaun's other spangles doe:
It is not for our Earth and vs
To shine in things so pretious.

IV.

Vpwards thou dost weep:
Heaun's bosome drinks the gentle stream.20
Where th' milky riuers creep,
Thine floates aboue, and is the cream.
Waters aboue th' heauns, what they be
We' are taught best by thy teares and thee.

V.

Euery morn from hence,25
A brisk cherub something sippes,
Whose sacred influence
Addes sweetnes to his sweetest lippes;
Then to his musick; and his song
Tasts of this breakfast all day long.30

VI.

When some new bright guest
Takes vp among the starres a room,
And Heaun will make a feast:
phials Angels with crystall violls come
And draw from these full eyes of thine,35
Their Master's water, their own wine.

VII.

The deaw no more will weep
The primrose's pale cheek to deck:
The deaw no more will sleep
Nuzzel'd in the lilly's neck;40
Much rather would it be thy tear,
And leaue them both to tremble here.

VIII.

Not the soft gold which
Steales from the amber-weeping tree,
Makes Sorrow halfe so rich45
As the drops distil'd from thee.
Sorrowe's best iewels lye in these
Caskets, of which Heaven keeps the keyes.

IX.

When Sorrow would be seen
In her brightest majesty:50
(For she is a Queen):
Then is she drest by none but thee.
Then, and only then, she weares
Her proudest pearles: I mean, thy teares.

X.

Not in the Euening's eyes,55
When they red with weeping are
For the Sun that dyes;
Sitts Sorrow with a face so fair.
Nowhere but here did ever meet
Sweetnesse so sad, sadnesse so sweet.60

XI.

Sadnesse all the while
Shee sits in such a throne as this,
Can doe nought but smile,
Nor beleeves she Sadnesse is:
Gladnesse it selfe would be more glad,65
To bee made soe sweetly sad.

XII.

There's no need at all,
That the balsom-sweating bough
So coyly should let fall
His med'cinable teares; for now70
Nature hath learnt to' extract a deaw
More soueraign and sweet, from you.

XIII.

Yet let the poore drops weep
(Weeping is the ease of Woe):
Softly let them creep,75
Sad that they are vanquish't so.
They, though to others no releife,
Balsom may be for their own greife.

XIV.

Golden though he be,
Golden Tagus murmures though.80
Were his way by thee,
Content and quiet he would goe;
Soe much more rich would he esteem
Thy syluer, then his golden stream.

XV.

Well does the May that lyes85
Smiling in thy cheeks, confesse
The April in thine eyes;
Mutuall sweetnesse they expresse.
No April ere lent kinder showres,
Nor May return'd more faithfull flowres.90

XVI.

O cheeks! Bedds of chast loues,
By your own showres seasonably dash't.
Eyes! Nests of milky doues,
In your own wells decently washt.
O wit of Loue! that thus could place95
Fountain and garden in one face.

XVII.

O sweet contest! of woes
With loues; of teares with smiles disputing!
O fair and freindly foes,
Each other kissing and confuting!100
While rain and sunshine, cheekes and eyes
Close in kind contrarietyes.

XVIII.

But can these fair flouds be
Freinds with the bosom-fires that fill thee!
Can so great flames agree105
Æternal teares should thus distill thee!
O flouds! O fires! O suns! O showres!
Mixt and made freinds by Loue's sweet powres.

XIX.

'Twas his well-pointed dart
That digg'd these wells, and drest this wine;110
And taught the wounded heart
The way into these weeping eyn.
Vain loues auant! bold hands forbear!
The Lamb hath dipp't His white foot here.

XX.

And now where'ere He strayes,115
Among the Galilean mountaines,
Or more vnwellcome wayes;
He's follow'd by two faithfull fountaines;
Two walking baths, two weeping motions,
Portable, and compendious oceans.120

XXI.

O thou, thy Lord's fair store!
In thy so rich and rare expenses,
Euen when He show'd most poor
He might prouoke the wealth of princes.
What prince's wanton'st pride e'er could125
Wash with syluer, wipe with gold?

XXII.

Who is that King, but He
Who calls 't His crown, to be call'd thine,
That thus can boast to be
Waited on by a wandring mine,130
A voluntary mint, that strowes
Warm, syluer showres wher're He goes?

XXIII.

O pretious prodigall!
Fair spend-thrift of thy-self! thy measure
(Mercilesse loue!) is all.135
thesaurus, Latin. Euen to the last pearle in thy threasure:
All places, times, and obiects be
Thy teares' sweet opportunity.

XXIV.

Does the day-starre rise?
Still thy teares doe fall and fall.140
Does Day close his eyes?
Still the fountain weeps for all.
Let Night or Day doe what they will,
Thou hast thy task: thou weepest still.

XXV.

Does thy song lull the air?145
Thy falling teares keep faithfull time.
Does thy sweet-breath'd praire
Vp in clouds of incense climb?
Still at each sigh, that is, each stop,
A bead, that is, a tear, does drop.150

XXVI.

At these thy weeping gates
(Watching their watry motion),
Each wingèd moment waits:
Takes his tear, and gets him gone.
By thine ey's tinct enobled thus,155
Time layes him vp; he's pretious.

XXVII.

Time, as by thee He passes,
Makes thy ever-watry eyes
His hower-glasses.
By them His steps He rectifies.160
The sands He us'd, no longer please,
For His owne sands Hee'l use thy seas.

XXVIII.

Not, 'so long she liuèd,'
Shall thy tomb report of thee;
But, 'so long she grieuèd:'165
Thus must we date thy memory.
Others by moments, months, and yeares
Measure their ages; thou, by teares.

XXIX.

So doe perfumes expire,
So sigh tormented sweets, opprest170
With proud vnpittying fire.
Such teares the suffring rose, that's vext
With vngentle flames, does shed,
Sweating in a too warm bed.

XXX.

Say, ye bright brothers,175
The fugitiue sons of those fair eyes,
Your fruitfull mothers!
What make you here? what hopes can 'tice
You to be born? what cause can borrow
You from those nests of noble sorrow?180

XXXI.

Whither away so fast?
For sure the sluttish earth
Your sweetnes cannot tast,
Nor does the dust deserve your birth.
Sweet, whither hast you then? O say185
Why you trip so fast away?

XXXII.

We goe not to seek
The darlings of Aurora's bed,
The rose's modest cheek,
Nor the violet's humble head.190
Though the feild's eyes too Weepers be,
Because they want such teares as we.

XXXIII.

Much lesse mean we to trace
The fortune of inferior gemmes,
Preferr'd to some proud face,195
Or pertch't vpon fear'd diadems:
Crown'd heads are toyes. We goe to meet
A worthy object, our Lord's feet.

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

With some shortcomings—superficial rather than substantive—'The Weeper' is a lovely poem, and well deserves its place of honour at the commencement of the 'Steps to the Temple,' as in editions of 1646, 1648, and 1670. Accordingly we have spent the utmost pains on our text of it, taking for basis that of 1652. The various readings of the different editions and of the Sancroft ms. are given below for the capable student of the ultimate perfected form. I have not hesitated to correct several misprints of the text of 1652 from the earlier editions.

The present poem appears very imperfectly in the first edition (1646), consisting there of only twenty-three stanzas instead of thirty-three (and so too in 1670 edition). The stanzas that are not given therein are xvi. to xxix. (on the last see onward). But on the other hand, exclusive of interesting variations, the text of 1646 supplies two entire stanzas (xi. and xxvii.) dropped out in the editions of 1648 and 1652, though both are in 1670 edition and in the Sancroft ms. Moreover I accept the succession of the stanzas in 1646, so far as it goes, confirmed as it is by the Sancroft ms. A third stanza in 1652 edition (st. xi. there) as also in 1648 edition, I omit, as it belongs self-revealingly to 'The Teare,' and interrupts the metaphor in 'The Weeper.' Another stanza (xxix.) might seem to demand excision also, as it is in part repeated in 'The Teare;' but the new lines are dainty and would be a loss to 'The Weeper.' Our text therefore is that of 1652, as before, with restorations from 1646.