Part 14
Thou, whose sole name all passions doth comprise, Youngest and oldest of the Deities; Born without parents, whose unbounded reign Moves the firm earth, fixeth the floating main, Inverts the course of heaven; and from the deep Awakes those souls that in dark Lethe sleep, By thy mysterious chains seeking t' unite, Once more, the long-since torn Hermaphrodite. He, who thy willing pris'ner long was vow'd, And uncompell'd beneath thy sceptre bow'd, 10 Returns at last in thy soft fetters bound, With victory, though not with freedom crown'd: And, of his dangers pass'd a grateful sign, Suspends this tablet at thy numerous shrine.
[_The Dedication._ In 1647 printed at p. 49 with the title 'Conclusion, to Love', and obviously intended to end that collection, but a number of unpaged leaves were subsequently added containing the complimentary verses addressed to Fletcher and others. The following variants occur: 11 'by thy kind power unbound'. 12 'At least with freedom, though not conquest crown'd'. 14 'Suspends these papers'. Stanley also appended a list of Greek quotations justifying the cento. There is an intrinsic interest attaching to them in that they _may_ have suggested a similar process to Gray. A further comparison-contrast may also interest some as to the lines themselves--that of the famous and magnificent opening of Mr. Swinburne's _Tristram of Lyonesse_.
The notes annotate the following phrases:--1 '(_a_) all passions', 2 '(_b_) Youngest and (_c_) oldest', 3 '(_d_) Born', 4 '(_e_) Moves', 7 '(_f_) By thy mysterious ...' The Greek has been slightly corrected in spelling and accents.
(_a_) Alexis apud Athenaeum:
[Greek: synenênegmenos Pantachothen en heni topô poll' eidê pherôn, Hê tolma men gar andros, hê de deilia Gynaikos], &c.
Sophocles:
[Greek: Kypris ou Kypris monon, All' esti pantôn onomatôn epônymos].
(_b_) Plato, _Sympos._: [Greek: Phêmi neôtaton auton einai theôn, kai aei neon.]
(_c_. _d_) Plato: [Greek: To gar en tois presbytatois einai tôn theôn timion. Tekmêrion de toutou: goneis gar erôtos out' eisin, oute legontai hyp' oudenos oute idiôtou oute poiêtou.]
(_e_) Oppian. _Cyneg._ 2:
[Greek: Gaia pelei statherê, beleessi de soisi doneitai Astatos epleto pontos, atar sy ge kai ton epêxas; Êlythes eis aithêr', oiden de se makros Olympos. Deimainei de se panta, kai ouranos eurys hyperthe Gaiês hossa t' enerthe kai ethnea lygra kamontôn Hoi lêthês men aphyssan hypo stoma nêpathes hydôr.]
(_f_) Plato: [Greek: Prôton men gar tria ên ta genê ta tôn anthrôpôn (sc. [Greek: arren, thêly, kai androgynon]). Mox addit, [Greek: Esti dê oun ek tosou ho erôs emphytos allêlôn tois anthrôpois kai tês archaias physeôs synagôgeus kai epicheirôn poiêsai hen ek duoin, <kai> iasasthai tên physin tên anthrôpinên.] Phil. Jud. [Greek: peri tês kosmopoiias. Epei de eplasthê hê gynê theasamenos adelphon eidos kai syngenê morphên êsmenise tê thea erôs de epiginomenos kathaper henos zôon ditta tmêmata diestêkota synagôgôn eis tauton harmottetai.] ]
POEMS
_The Glow-worm._
Stay, fairest Chariessa, stay and mark This animated gem, whose fainter spark Of fading light its birth had from the dark.
A Star thought by the erring passenger, Which falling from its native orb dropt here, And makes the earth (its centre) now its sphere.
Should many of these sparks together be, He that the unknown light far off should see, Would think it a terrestrial Galaxy.
Take 't up, fair Saint; see how it mocks thy fright! 10 The paler flame doth not yield heat, though light, Which thus deceives thy reason, through thy sight.
But see how quickly it (ta'en up) doth fade, To shine in darkness only being made, By th' brightness of thy light turn'd to a shade;
And burnt to ashes by thy flaming eyes, On the chaste altar of thy hand it dies, As to thy greater light a sacrifice.
[_The Glow-worm._] Sir Egerton Brydges thought that 'A stile of poetry so full of quaint and far-fetched conceits cannot be commended as the most chaste and classical'; but that, 'among trifles of this kind, _The Glow-worm_ is singularly elegant and happy'. Perhaps a later judgement, while waiving the indispensableness, or even pre-eminence, of chastity and classicality in verse, may doubt whether _The Glow-worm_ itself is not rather too 'elegant' to be as 'happy' as some other things even of its author's. The last verse redeems it, though, to some extent.]
[Line: 2 _1647_ 'This living star of earth'. I suppose Stanley did not like the recurrence of 'star', or he may have thought that the same sound (-_ar_) recurred still more excessively in the rhymes. In itself the earlier reading is certainly the better.]
[Line: 4 erring] deceiv'd _1647_.]
[Line: 12 'Which doth deceive' _1647_.]
[Line: 15 thy] the _1647_.]
_The Breath._
Favonius the milder breath o' th' Spring, When proudly bearing on his softer wing Rich odours, which from the Panchean groves He steals, as by the Phoenix' pyre he moves, Profusely doth his sweeter theft dispense To the next rose's blushing innocence, But from the grateful flower, a richer scent He back receives than he unto it lent. Then laden with his odours' richest store, He to thy breath hastes; to which these are poor! 10 Which whilst the amorous wind to steal essays, He like a wanton Lover 'bout thee plays, And sometimes cooling thy soft cheek doth lie, And sometimes burning at thy flaming eye: Drawn in at last by that breath we implore, He now returns far sweeter than before, And rich by being robb'd, in thee he finds The burning sweets of Pyres, the cool of Winds.
[_The Breath._] This appears in all three editions, _1656_ following _1647_ in the following variants: l. 8 'He doth receive'; l. 11 'while he sportively'; l. 16 'back' for 'now'.]
_Desiring her to burn his Verses._
These papers, Chariessa, let thy breath Condemn; thy hand unto the flames bequeath; 'Tis fit, who gave them life, should give them death.
And whilst in curled flames to Heaven they rise, Each trembling sheet shall as it upwards flies, Present itself to thee a sacrifice.
Then when about its native orb it came, And reach'd the lesser lights o' th' sky, this flame Contracted to a star should wear thy name.
Or falling down on earth from its bright sphere, 10 Shall in a diamond's shape its lustre bear, And trouble (as it did before) thine ear.
But thou wilt cruel even in mercy be, Unequal in thy justice, who dost free Things without sense from flames, and yet not Me.
[_Desiring her to burn his Verses._] _Title_, _1647_ 'To Chariessa, desiring', &c.]
[Line: 4 whilst] as _1647_.]
[Line: 7 about] above _1647_.]
[Line: 14 who] that _1647_.]
_The Night._
A DIALOGUE.
_Chariessa._
What if Night Should betray us, and reveal To the light All the pleasures that we steal?
_Philocharis._
Fairest, we Safely may this fear despise; How can She See our actions who wants eyes?
_Chariessa._
Each dim star And the clearer lights, we know, 10 Night's eyes are; They were blind that thought her so!
_Philocharis._
Those pale fires Only burn to yield a light T' our desires, And though blind, to give us sight.
_Chariessa._
By this shade That surrounds us might our flame Be betray'd, And the day disclose its name. 20
_Philocharis._
Dearest Fair, These dark witnesses we find Silent are; Night is dumb as well as blind.
_Chorus._
Then whilst these black shades conceal us, We will scorn Th' envious Morn, And the Sun that would reveal us. Our flames shall thus their mutual light betray, And night, with these joys crown'd, outshine the day. 30
[_The Night._] Entitled in _1647_ 'Amori Notturni. A Dialogue between Philocharis and Chariessa'.]
[Line: 2 and] or _1647_.]
[Line: 8 who] that _1647_.]
[Line: 18 surrounds] conceals _1647_.]
The metrical arrangement here is very delightful, and the Chorus-adjustment particularly happy.]
_Excuse for wishing her less Fair._
Why thy passion should it move That I wish'd thy beauty less? Fools desire what is above Power of nature to express; And to wish it had been more. Had been to outwish her store!
If the flames within thine eye Did not too great heat inspire, Men might languish yet not die, At thy less ungentle fire; 10 And might on thy weaker light Gaze, and yet not lose their sight.
Nor wouldst thou less fair appear, For detraction adds to thee; If some parts less beauteous were, Others would much fairer be: Nor can any part we know Best be styl'd, when all are so.
Thus this great excess of light, Which now dazzles our weak eyes, 20 Would, eclips'd, appear more bright; And the only way to rise, Or to be more fair, for thee, Celia, is less fair to be.
[_Excuse for wishing her less Fair._] _1647_ prefixes 'To Celia'.]
[Line: 7 the] thy _1647_.]
[Line: 9 yet] and _1647_.]
[Line: 10 less ungentle] then less scorching _1647_.]
[Line: 23 for] _1656_ 'than', which, like much else in this edition, is pure nonsense.
Brydges thought that 'one cannot avoid admiring the ingenuity exercised in this continual play upon words'. But surely
In things like this the play of words became A play of thought, and therefore shames all shame. ]
_Chang'd, yet Constant._
Wrong me no more In thy complaint, Blam'd for inconstancy; I vow'd t' adore The fairest Saint, Nor chang'd whilst thou wert she: But if another thee outshine, Th' inconstancy is only thine.
To be by such Blind fools admir'd, 10 Gives thee but small esteem, By whom as much Thou'dst be desir'd, Didst thou less beauteous seem: Sure why they love they know not well, Who why they should not cannot tell.
Women are by Themselves betray'd, And to their short joys cruel, Who foolishly 20 Themselves persuade Flames can outlast their fuel; None (though Platonic their pretence) With reason love unless by sense.
And He, by whose Command to thee I did my heart resign, Now bids me choose A Deity Diviner far than thine; 30 No power can Love from Beauty sever; I'm still Love's subject, thine was never.
The fairest She Whom none surpass To love hath only right, And such to me Thy beauty was Till one I found more bright; But 'twere as impious to adore Thee now, as not t' have done 't before. 40
Nor is it just By rules of Love Thou shouldst deny to quit A heart that must Another's prove, Ev'n in thy right to it; Must not thy subjects captives be To her who triumphs over Thee?
Cease then in vain To blot my name 50 With forg'd Apostasy, Thine is that stain Who dar'st to claim What others ask of Thee. Of Lovers they are only true Who pay their hearts where they are due.
[_Chang'd, yet Constant._] Here, perhaps for the first time, we get the _fire_ of the period communicating to the verse its own glow and flicker. It is a pity he allowed himself double rhymes in stanza 3, which break the note (those at the end of st. 4 do not). There are no variants; the poem is not in _1647_. But Miss Guiney has proposed to substitute 'hearts' for 'they' in the last line.]
_The Self-deceiver._
MONTALVAN.
Deceiv'd and undeceiv'd to be At once I seek with equal care, Wretched in the discovery, Happy if cozen'd still I were: Yet certain ill of ill hath less Than the mistrust of happiness.
But if when I have reach'd my aim (That which I seek less worthy prove), Yet still my love remains the same, The subject not deserving love; 10 I can no longer be excus'd, Now more in fault as less abus'd.
Then let me flatter my desires, And doubt what I might know too sure, He that to cheat himself conspires, From falsehood doth his faith secure; In love uncertain to believe I am deceiv'd, doth undeceive.
For if my life on doubt depend, And in distrust inconstant steer, 20 If I essay the strife to end (When Ignorance were Wisdom here), All thy attempts how can I blame To work my death? I seek the same.
[_The Self-deceiver._] (On Stanley's translations see Introduction.) Juan Perez de Montalvan (1602-1638) belonged to the best age of Spanish literature, and was, in proportion, almost as prolific in plays and _autos_ as his master Lope. He was accused of 'Gongorism', and this piece is one somewhat of 'conviction'.]
_The Cure._
_Nymph._
What busy cares too timely born (Young Swain!) disturb thy sleep? Thy early sighs awake the Morn, Thy tears teach her to weep.
_Shepherd._
Sorrows, fair Nymph, are full alone; Nor counsel can endure.
_Nymph._
Yet thine disclose, for until known Sickness admits no cure.
_Shepherd._
My griefs are such as but to hear Would poison all thy joys, 10 The pity which thou seem'st to bear My health, thine own destroys.
_Nymph._
How can diseaséd minds infect? Say what thy grief doth move!
_Shepherd._
Call up thy virtue to protect Thy heart, and know 'twas love.
_Nymph._
Fond Swain!
_Shepherd._
By which I have been long Destin'd to meet with hate.
_Nymph._
Fy, Shepherd, fy: thou dost love wrong, To call thy crime thy fate. 20
_Shepherd._
Alas what cunning could decline What force can love repel?
_Nymph._
Yet, there 's a way to unconfine Thy heart.
_Shepherd._
For pity tell.
_Nymph._
Choose one whose love may be allur'd By thine: who ever knew Inveterate diseases cur'd But by receiving new?
_Shepherd._
All will like her my soul perplex.
_Nymph._
Yet try.
_Shepherd._
Oh could there be, 30 But any softness in that sex, I'd wish it were in thee.
_Nymph._
Thy prayer is heard: learn now t' esteem The kindness she hath shown, Who thy lost freedom to redeem Hath forfeited her own.
[_The Cure_. As this appears only in _1651_ there are no variants. The 'common measure' has little of the magic common at the time, and is sometimes banal to eighteenth-century level. But we rise in the next.]
_Celia Singing._
Roses in breathing forth their scent, Or stars their borrowed ornament; Nymphs in the wat'ry sphere that move, Or Angels in their orbs above; The wingéd chariot of the light, Or the slow silent wheels of night; The shade, which from the swifter sun Doth in a circular motion run; Or souls that their eternal rest do keep, Make far more noise than Celia's breath in sleep. 10
But if the Angel, which inspires This subtile flame with active fires, Should mould this breath to words, and those Into a harmony dispose, The music of this heavenly sphere Would steal each soul out at the ear, And into plants and stones infuse A life that Cherubins would choose; And with new powers invert the laws of Fate, Kill those that live, and dead things animate. 20
[_Celia Singing._] _1647_ 'Celia sleeping or singing', and printed without stanza-break.]
[Line: 10 more] Some imp of the press altered 'more' to 'less' in the later 'edition'. _1647_ has 'more', which has been restored in text.]
[Line: 12 _1647_ 'frame'--tempting, but perhaps not certain.]
[Line: 13 _1647_ 'his'--again _nescio an recte_.]
[Line: 19 _1647_ 'power'.]
_A la Mesme._
Belle voix, dont les charmes desrobent mon âme, Et au lieu d'un esprit m'animent d'une flamme, Dont je sens la subtile et la douce chaleur Entrer par mon oreille et glisser dans mon c[oe]ur; Me faisant esprever par cette aimable vie, Nos âmes ne consistent que d'une harmonie; Que la vie m'est douce, la mort m'est sans peine, Puisqu'on les trouve toutes deux dans ton haleine: Ne m'espargne donc pas; satisfais tes rigueurs; Car si tu me souffres de vivre, je me meurs. 10
[_A la Mesme_] _1647_ 'A une Dame qui chantoit'. Stanley does not, like some more modern English writers of French verse, neglect his final _e_'s, but he takes remarkable liberties with the caesura. 'Esprever' (l. 5) is not wrong necessarily.]
_The Return._
Beauty, whose soft magnetic chains _Beauty, thy harsh imperious chains_ Nor time nor absence can untie, _As a scorned weight I here untie_, Thy power the narrow bounds disdains _Since thy proud empire those disdains_ Of Nature or philosophy, _Of reason or philosophy_, That canst by unconfinéd laws _That wouldst within tyrannic laws_ A motion, though at distance, cause. _Confine the power of each free cause._
Drawn by the sacred influence _Forced by the potent influence_ Of thy bright eyes, I back return; _Of thy disdain I back return_, And since I nowhere can dispense _Thus with those flames I do dispense_, With flames that do in absence burn, 10 _Which, though they would not light, did burn;_ I rather choose 'midst them t' expire _And rather will through cold expire_ Than languish by a hidden fire. _Than languish at a frozen fire._
But if thou the insulting pride _But whilst I the insulting pride_ Of vulgar Beauties dost despise, _Of thy vain beauty do despise_, Who by vain triumphs deified, _Who gladly wouldst be deified_, Their votaries do sacrifice, _By making me thy sacrifice;_ Then let those flames, whose magic charm _May love thy heart, which to his charm_ At distance scorch'd, approach'd but warm. _Approached seemed cold, at distance warm._
[_The Return--(Palinode.)_] The _1647_ edition contains _two_ poems, _The Return_ and _Palinode_, which stand to each other in a curious relation. In _1651_ _Palinode_ has disappeared. I have thought it best to print them together. The lines in roman type are those of _The Return_, those in italic belong to _Palinode_. The latter reappeared in _1657_, with slight alterations as below. In _Pal._ 5 Miss Guiney reads 'would' for 'wouldst', evidently not quite understanding the sense or the grammar of the time. The second person connects itself with the vocative in 'Beauty' and the 'thou' twice implied in 'thy'.]
[In _Palinode_, l. 7, _1657_ reads 'powerful' for 'potent'; l. 12 'in' for 'at'.]
[In _The Return_, l. 2, _1651_ 'unite'--an obvious misprint; l. 3, _1647_ 'bound'; l. 5, _1647_ 'That', _1651_ 'Thou'; l. 10, _1657_ 'which' for 'that'; l. 11, 'twixt'--not so well; l. 13, 'the' is dropped by mere accident in _1651_--'the', not 'th',' is required.]
_Song._
When I lie burning in thine eye. Or freezing in thy breast, What Martyrs, in wish'd flames that die, Are half so pleas'd or blest?
When thy soft accents through mine ear Into my soul do fly, What Angel would not quit his sphere, To hear such harmony?
Or when the kiss thou gav'st me last My soul stole in its breath, 10 What life would sooner be embrac'd Than so desir'd a death?
[When I commanded am by thee, Or by thine eye or hand, What monarch would not prouder be To serve than to command?]
Then think no freedom I desire, Or would my fetters leave, Since Phoenix-like I from this fire Both life and youth receive. 20
[_Song._] Sir Egerton thought this (which, by the way, Lovelace may have seen, or _vice versa_) 'a very elegant little song, with all the harmony of _modern_ rhythm'. One might perhaps substitute 'with more of the harmony of _contemporary_ rhythm than Stanley always attains'. It is certainly much better than _The Cure_. The bracketed stanza was dropped in _1651_, but it seemed better to restore it thus in text than to degrade it hither. One or two extremely unimportant misprints occur in one or other version, but are not worth noting.]
_The Sick Lover._
GUARINI.
My sickly breath Wastes in a double flame; Whilst Love and Death To my poor life lay claim; The fever, in whose heat I melt, By her that causeth it not felt.
Thou who alone Canst, yet wilt grant no ease, Why slight'st thou one To feed a new disease? 10 Unequal fair! the heart is thine; Ah, why then should the pain be mine?
[_The Sick Lover._] Not a great thing. In l. 6, Miss Guiney thinks 'it', which is in all texts, should be 'is'. But 'it' is wanted and 'is' is not. 'The fever not [_being_] felt' is no excessively 'absolute' construction.]
_Song._
Celinda, by what potent art Or unresisted charm, Dost thou thine ear and frozen heart Against my passion arm?
Or by what hidden influence Of powers in one combin'd, Dost thou rob Love of either sense, Made deaf as well as blind?
Sure thou, as friends, united hast Two distant Deities; 10 And scorn within thy heart hast plac'd, And love within thine eyes.
Or those soft fetters of thy hair, A bondage that disdains All liberty, do guard thine ear Free from all other chains.
Then my complaint how canst thou hear, Or I this passion fly, Since thou imprison'd hast thine ear, And not confin'd thine eye? 20
[_Song--Celinda, &c._] Again, mere commonplace common measure. '_Those_ soft fetters of thy hair' (l. 13) is at least as good as 'mobled queen', but otherwise the phrase rather sinks to the measure. 'friends' (l. 9) is misprinted 'friend' in _1647_, and Sir Egerton has mispunctuated 'friends united'.]
_Song._
Fool, take up thy shaft again; If thy store Thou profusely spend in vain, Who can furnish thee with more? Throw not then away thy darts On impenetrable hearts.
Think not thy pale flame can warm Into tears, Or dissolve the snowy charm Which her frozen bosom wears, 10 That expos'd, unmelted lies To the bright suns of her eyes.
But since thou thy power hast lost, Nor canst fire Kindle in that breast, whose frost Doth these flames in mine inspire, Not to thee but her I'll sue, That disdains both me and you.
[_Song--Fool, &c._] An extremely pretty measure, not ill-parted with phrase and imagery. The 'Take, oh! take' motive reappears.]
_Delay._
Delay! Alas, there cannot be To Love a greater tyranny: Those cruel beauties that have slain Their votaries by their disdain, Or studied torments, sharp and witty, Will be recorded for their pity, And after-ages be misled To think them kind, when this is spread. Of deaths the speediest is despair, Delays the slowest tortures are; 10 Thy cruelty at once destroys, But Expectation starves my joys. Time and Delay may bring me past The power of Love to cure, at last; And shouldst thou wish to ease my pain, Thy pity might be lent in vain; Or if thou hast decreed, that I Must fall beneath thy cruelty, O kill me soon! Thou wilt express More mercy, ev'n in showing less. 20
_Commanded by his Mistress to woo for her._
MARINO.
Strange kind of love! that knows no president, A faith so firm as passeth Faith's extent, By a tyrannic beauty long subdu'd, I now must sue for her to whom I su'd, Unhappy Orator! who, though I move For pity, pity cannot hope to prove: Employing thus against myself my breath, And in another's life begging my death.
But if such moving powers my accents have, Why first my own redress do I not crave? 10 What hopes that I to pity should incline Another's breast, who can move none in thine? Or how can the griev'd patient look for ease, When the physician suffers the disease? If thy sharp wounds from me expect their cure, 'Tis fit those first be heal'd that I endure.
Ungentle fair one! why dost thou dispense Unequally thy sacred influence? Why pining me, offer'st the precious food To one by whom nor priz'd, nor understood; 20 So some clear brook to the full main, to pay Her needless crystal tribute hastes away, Profusely foolish; whilst her niggard tide Starves the poor flowers that grow along her side.
Thou who my glories art design'd to own, Come then, and reap the joys that I have sown: Yet in thy pride acknowledge, though thou bear The happy prize away, the palm I wear. Nor the obedience of my flame accuse, That what I sought, myself conspir'd to lose: 30 The hapless state where I am fix'd is such, To love I seem not, 'cause I love too much.