Part 17
Or though I warily conceal The charms her looks and soul possess; 10 Should I her cruelty express, And say she smiles at all the pains we feel;
Among such suppliants as implore Pity, distributing her hate, Inexorable as their fate, Who will not guess the beauty I adore?
[_Song._] Stanley was less _impar congressus_ with Voiture than with Ronsard, and this is well done. The stanza is well framed and is different from the French ('Je me tais et me sens brûler', Chanson LIV, _[Oe]uvres_ de Voiture, ed. Ubicini, Paris, 1855, ii. 336).]
_Drawn for Valentine by the L. D. S._
Though 'gainst me Love and Destiny conspire, Though I must waste in an unpitied fire, By the same Deity, severe as fair, Commanded adoration and despair; Though I am mark'd for sacrifice, to tell The growing age what dangerous glories dwell In this bright dawn, who, when she spreads her rays, Will challenge every heart, and every praise; Yet she who to all hope forbids my claim, By Fortune's taught indulgence to my flame. 10 Great Queen of Chance! unjustly we exclude Thy power an interest in beatitude, Who, with mysterious judgement, dost dispense The bounties of unerring Providence, Whilst we, to whom the causes are unknown, Would style that blindness thine, which is our own; As kind in justice to thyself as me, Thou hast redeem'd thy name and votary; Nor will I prize this less for being thine, Nor longer at my destiny repine: 20 Counsel and choice are things below thy state; Fortune relieves the cruelties of Fate.
_The Modest Wish._
BARCLAY.
Reach incense, boy! thou pious Flamen, pray! To genial Deities these rites we pay. Fly far from hence, such as are only taught To fear the Gods by guilt of crime or thought! This is my suit; grant it, Celestial Powers, If what my will affects, oppose not yours. First, pure before your altars may I stand, And practise studiously what you command; My parents' faith devoutly let me prize, Nor what my ancestors esteem'd, despise; 10 Let me not vex'd inquire (when thriving ill Depresseth good) why thunder is so still? No such ambitious knowledge trouble me; Those curious thoughts advance not Piety: Peaceful my house, in wife and children bless'd, Nor these beyond my fortunes be increas'd: None cozen me with Friendship's specious gloss; None dearly buy my friendship with their loss: To suits nor wars my quiet be betray'd; My quiet, to the Muses justly paid: 20 Want never force me court the rich with lies, And intermix my suit with flatteries: Let my sure friends deceive the tedious light, And my sound sleeps, with debts not broke, the night: Cheerful my board, my smiles shar'd by my wife, O Gods! yet mindful still of human life, To die nor let me wish nor fear; among My joys mix griefs, griefs that not last too long: My age be happy; and when Fate shall claim My thread of life, let me survive in fame. 30 Enough: the gods are pleas'd; the flames aspire, And crackling laurel triumphs in the fire.
_E Catalectis Vet[erum] Poet[arum]_
A small well-gotten stock and country seat I have, yet my content makes both seem great. My quiet soul to fears is not inur'd, And from the sins of Idleness secur'd. Others may seek the camp, others the town, And fool themselves with pleasure or renown; Let me, unminded in the common crowd, Live master of the time that I'm allow'd.
_On the Edition of Mr. Fletcher's Works._
Fletcher (whose fame no age can ever waste; Envy of ours, and glory of the last) Is now alive again; and with his name His sacred ashes wak'd into a flame; Such as before did by a secret charm The wildest heart subdue, the coldest warm, And lend the ladies' eyes a power more bright, Dispensing thus to either, heat and light. He to a sympathy those souls betray'd, Whom Love or Beauty never could persuade; 10 And in each mov'd spectator could beget A real passion by a counterfeit: When first Bellario bled, what lady there Did not for every drop let fall a tear? And when Aspasia wept, not any eye But seem'd to wear the same sad livery. By him inspir'd, the feign'd Lucina drew More streams of melting sorrow than the true; But then the Scornful Lady did beguile Their easy griefs, and teach them all to smile. 20 Thus he affections could or raise or lay; Love, Grief, and Mirth thus did his charms obey: He Nature taught her passions to outdo, How to refine the old, and create new; Which such a happy likeness seem'd to bear, As if that Nature Art, Art Nature were. Yet all had nothing been, obscurely kept In the same urn wherein his dust hath slept, Nor had he ris' the Delphic wreath to claim, Had not the dying scene expir'd his name. 30 Oh the indulgent justice of this age, To grant the Press, what it denies the Stage! Despair our joy hath doubled; he is come Twice welcome by this _post-liminium_; His loss preserv'd him; they that silenc'd wit Are now the authors to eternize it: Thus poets are in spite of Fate reviv'd, And plays, by intermission, longer liv'd.
[_On [the Edition of Mr.] Fletcher's Works._] The bracketed words omitted in _1647_, when, as the book itself (the first folio of Beaumont and Fletcher) had just appeared, they were unnecessary. The variants are slight: 'could' and 'did' in lines 5 and 11 are changed over; in l. 19, 'doth' (again reflecting the immediate presentation). In l. 29 'rise': the form 'ris'' is recognized by Ben Jonson. In l. 30 Miss Guiney thinks 'not' 'clearly a misprint' for 'with'. But this is clearly a misunderstanding of 'expir'd', which is used with its proper transitive force as in Latin. 'Had not the dying stage [the suppressed and decadent theatre of 1647] expired [uttered with its passing breath] his name, the book would not have been published [and so made him rise and claim the crown].' ll. 31, 32 were omitted in the Beaumont and Fletcher Folio, 1647.
It can hardly be necessary to annotate the well-known characters of 'the twins' that Stanley introduces. Brydges, by printing 'Scornful Lady' without capitals, unnecessarily obscured one of them.]
_To Mr. W. Hammond._
Thou best of friendship, knowledge, and of art! The charm of whose lov'd name preserves my heart From female vanities (thy name, which there, Till Time dissolves the fabric, I must wear), Forgive a crime which long my soul opprest, And crept by chance in my unwary breast, So great, as for thy pardon were unfit, And to forgive were worse than to commit, But that the fault and pain were so much one, The very act did expiate what was done. 10 I, who so often sported with the flame, Play'd with the Boy, and laugh'd at both as tame, Betray'd by Idleness and Beauty, fell At last in love, love, both the sin and hell: No punishment great as my fault esteem'd, But to be that which I so long had seem'd. Behold me such, a face, a voice, a lute, The sentence in a minute execute! I yield; recant; the faith which I before Denied, profess; the power I scorn'd, implore. 20 Alas, in vain! no prayers, no vows can bow Her stubborn heart, who neither will allow. But see how strangely what was meant no less Than torment, prov'd my greatest happiness: Delay, that should have sharpen'd, starv'd Desire, And Cruelty not fann'd, but quench'd my fire; Love bound me: now by kind Disdain set free, I can despise that Love as well as she. That sin to friendship I away have thrown: My heart thou mayst without a rival own, 30 While such as willingly themselves beguile, And sell away their freedoms for a smile, Blush to confess our joys as far above Their hopes, as Friendship's longer liv'd than Love.
[_To Mr. W. Hammond._] In _1647_, as usually, initials only. His relation (see Introduction) and the author of the poems in vol. ii. As in some other cases, this poem shows the _nisus_ of the more or less stopped couplet--the way in which it was communicating energy to writers of the time even when they mainly belong to the older division.]
[Line: 30 _1647_ 'Nor any flame, but what is thine, will own'.]
_On Mr. Shirley's Poems._
When, dearest friend, thy verse doth re-inspire Love's pale decaying torch with brighter fire, Whilst everywhere thou dost dilate thy flame, And to the world spread thy Odelia's name, The justice of all ages must remit To her the prize of Beauty, thee of Wit. Then, like some skilful artist, that to wonder Framing a piece, displeas'd, takes it asunder, Thou Beauty dost depose, her charms deny, And all the mystic chains of Love untie: 10 Thus thy diviner Muse a power 'bove Fate May boast, that can both make and uncreate. Next thou call'st back to life that love-sick boy, To the kind-hearted nymphs less fair than coy, Who, by reflex beams burnt with vain desire, Did, Phoenix-like, in his own flames expire: But should he view his shadow drawn by thee, He with himself once more in love would be. Echo (who though she words pursue, her haste Can only overtake and stop the last) 20 Shall her first speech and human veil obtain To sing thy softer numbers o'er again. Thus, into dying poetry, thy Muse Doth full perfection and new life infuse; Each line deserves a laurel, and thy praise Asks not a garland, but a grove of bays; Nor can ours raise thy lasting trophies higher, Who only reach at merit to admire. But I must chide thee, friend: how canst thou be A patron, yet a foe to poetry? 30 For while thou dost this age to verse restore, Thou dost deprive the next of owning more; And hast so far e'en future aims surpast, That none dare write: thus being first and last, All, their abortive Muses will suppress, And poetry by this increase grow less.
[_On Mr. Shirley's Poems._] _1647_ initials (I. S.), as usual. The same remark applies here as to the last piece. Shirley's _Poems_ (which include a reciprocal compliment to our author's) appear at the end of the sixth volume of Dyce's standard edition of his plays, and therefore are not included in this collection. They are, however, interesting, though there is nothing in them so good as the famous 'Glories of our blood and state'. 'Odelia' (a curious and rather suspicious name) appears pretty frequently in them. Shirley was a friend not merely of Stanley, but of Hammond and Prestwich (_v. inf._) and others of the set. Some of the poems usually attributed to Carew appear to be really his. His _Poems_ were published in 1646, a year before Stanley's.--There are some quite unimportant variants between _1647_ and _1651_: 'that' and 'who' in l. 7; 'a' and 'some' in l. 8; 'words' and 'speech' in l. 19; and l. 30 has the absurd reading 'A patron, yet a _friend_ to poesy'. _1647_ omits lines 31 and 32, and reads
Thou hast so far all future times surpassed
in l. 33. Miss Guiney suggests 'voice' for 'veil' in l. 21. But 'veil' is far more poetical as = The _body_ of her disguise and humiliation after her aerial enfranchisement.]
_On Mr. Sherburn's Translation of Seneca's Medea, and Vindication of the Author._
That wise philosopher, who had design'd To life the various passions of the mind, Did wrong'd Medea's jealousy prefer To entertain the Roman theatre; Both to instruct the soul, and please the sight, At once begetting horror and delight. This cruelty thou dost once more express, Though in a strange, no less becoming dress; And her revenge hast robb'd of half its pride, To see itself thus by itself outvied, 10 That boldest ages past may say, our times Can speak, as well as act their highest crimes. Nor was 't enough to do his scene this right, But what thou gav'st to us, with equal light Thou wouldst bestow on him, nor wert more just Unto the author's work, than to his dust; Thou dost make good his title, aid his claim, Both vindicate his poem and his name, So shar'st a double wreath; for all that we Unto the poet owe, he owes to thee. 20 Though change of tongues stol'n praise to some afford, Thy version hath not borrow'd, but restor'd.
[_On Mr. Sherburn's Translation, &c._] Title in _1647_ rather longer, but with initials, 'To Mr. E. S. on his Translation of Medea, with the other Tragedies of Seneca the Philosopher and vindicating of their Author'. Sherburn (afterwards Sir Edward) had the rather capriciously adjudged honour of appearing in Chalmers's _Poets_, which accounts for his absence here.]
[Line: 20 _1647_ reads 'author' for 'poet', an obvious overlooking of the occurrence of the word just before.]
_On Mr. Hall's Essays._
Wits that matur'd by time have courted praise, Shall see their works outdone in these Essays; And blush to know, thy earlier years display A dawning, clearer than their brightest day. Yet I'll not praise thee, for thou hast outgrown The reach of all men's praises, but thine own. Encomiums to their objects are exact; To praise, and not at full, is to detract. And with most justice are the best forgot, For praise is bounded when the theme is not: 10 Since mine is thus confin'd, and far below Thy merit, I forbear it, nor will show How poor the autumnal pride of some appears, To the ripe fruit thy vernal season bears. Yet though I mean no praise, I come t'invite Thy forward aims still to advance their flight; Rise higher yet, what though thy spreading wreath Lessen to their dull sight who stay beneath? To thy full learning how can all allow Just praise, unless that all were learn'd as thou? 20 Go on in spite of such low souls, and may Thy growing worth know age, though not decay, Till thou pay back thy theft; and live to climb As many years as thou hast snatch'd from Time.
[_On Mr. Hall's Essays._] _1647_ 'To Mr. I. H. on his Essays'. These were the much-praised _Horae Vacivae_ (see Introduction to Hall, vol. ii). Besides the slight difference in general title the _1647_ version divides itself. The first division consists of the first four lines only. A second, to Mr. I. H., appears elsewhere, beginning:
_I'll not commend thee_, for thou hast outgrown--
and going on as above, except that 'full' is foisted up from l. 8 to l. 7 ('full objects'), to the destruction of sense and metre.]
[Line: 3 earlier] early _1647_.]
[Line: 13 'The pride of others' autumns poor appears' _1647_.]
_On S[ir] J[ohn] S[uckling], his Picture and Poems._
Suckling, whose numbers could invite Alike to wonder and delight, And with new spirit did inspire The Thespian scene and Delphic lyre, Is thus express'd in either part, Above the humble reach of Art. Drawn by the pencil, here you find His form, by his own pen, his mind.
[_On Sir John Suckling, his Picture and Poems._] Initials only in original titles. These poems were the _Fragmenta Aurea_ of 1646.]
_The Union._
[Greek: Mia psychê duo sômata.]
BY MR. WILLIAM FAIRFAX.
As in the crystal centre of the sight, Two subtle beams make but one cone of light, Or when one flame twin'd with another is, They both ascend in one bright pyramis; Our spirits thus into each other flow, One in our being, one in what we know, In what we will, desire, dislike, approve, In what we love, and one is that pure love, As in a burning glass th' aërial flame, With the producing ray, is still the same: 10 We to Love's purest quintessence refin'd, Do both become one undefilèd mind. This sacred fire into itself converts Our yielding spirits, and our melting hearts, Till both our souls into one spirit run, So several lines are in their centre one. And when thy fair idea is imprest In the soft tablet of my easier breast, The sweet reflection brings such sympathy, That I my better self behold in thee; 20 And all perfections that in thee combine, By this resultance are entirely mine; Thy rays disperse my shades, who only live Bright in the lustre thou art pleas'd to give.
[_The Union_] ]
[Line: 12 undefiled] undivided _1647_.]
[Line: 18 tablet] table _1647_.]
_Answer._
If we are one, dear friend! why shouldst thou be At once unequal to thyself and me? By thy release thou swell'st my debt the more, And dost but rob thyself to make me poor. What part can I have in thy luminous cone? What flame, since my love's thine, can call my own? The palest star is less the son of night, Who, but thy borrow'd, know no native light: Was 't not enough thou freely didst bestow The Muse, but thou wouldst give the laurel too? 10 And twice my aims by thy assistance raise, Conferring first the merit, then the praise? But I should do thee greater injury, Did I believe this praise were meant to me, Or thought, though thou hast worth enough to spare, T' enrich another soul, that mine should share. Thy Muse, seeming to lend, calls home her fame, And her due wreath doth in renouncing claim.
[_Answer._] In l. 10 of the 'Answer' _1647_ has 'must'. At the end of the poem in _1647_ is the couplet
[Greek: Dysmore thêlymanôn glyky mê lege kentron erôtôn; Mounos TAS MOUSAS olbios esti THELÔN.] ]
_Pythagoras, his Moral Rules._
First to immortal God thy duty pay, Observe thy vow, honour the saints: obey Thy prince and rulers, nor their laws despise: Thy parents reverence, and near allies: Him that is first in virtue make thy friend; And with observance his kind speech attend: Nor, to thy power, for light faults cast him by; Thy power is neighbour to necessity. These know, and with intentive care pursue; But Anger, Sloth, and Luxury subdue. 10 In sight of others, or thyself, forbear What 's ill; but of thyself stand most in fear. Let Justice all thy words and actions sway, Nor from the even course of reason stray; For know that all men are to die ordain'd, And riches are as quickly lost as gain'd. Crosses that happen by divine decree, If such thy lot, bear not impatiently. Yet seek to remedy with all thy care, And think the just have not the greatest share. 20 'Mongst men discourses good and bad are spread, Despise not those, nor be by these misled. If any some notorious falsehood say, Thou the report with equal judgement weigh. Let not men's smoother promises invite, Nor rougher threats from just resolves thee fright. If ought thou wouldst attempt, first ponder it, Fools only inconsiderate acts commit. Nor do what afterward thou mayst repent, First learn to know the thing on which th'art bent. 30 Thus thou a life shalt lead with joy replete. Nor must thou care of outward health forget; Such temperance use in exercise and diet, As may preserve thee in a settled quiet. Meats unprohibited, not curious, choose, Decline what any other may accuse: The rash expense of vanity detest, And sordidness: a mean in all is best. Hurt not thyself; act nought thou dost not weigh; And every business of the following day 40 As soon as by the morn awak'd, dispose; Nor suffer sleep at night thy eyes to close, Till thrice that diary thou hast o'errun; How slipt? what deeds, what duty left undone? Thus thy account summ'd up from first to last, Grieve for the ill, joy for what good hath past. These, if thou study, practise, and affect, To sacred Virtue will thy steps direct. Nature's eternal fountain I attest, Who did the soul with fourfold power invest. 50 Ere thou begin, pray well thy work may end, Then shall thy knowledge to all things extend, Divine and human; where enlarg'd, restrain'd; How Nature is by general likeness chain'd. Vain Hope nor Ignorance shall dim thy sight: Then shalt thou see that hapless men invite Their ills; to good, though present, deaf and blind; And few the cure of their misfortunes find: This only is the fate that harms, and rolls, Through miseries successive, human souls. 60 Within is a continual hidden fight, Which we to shun must study, not excite: Good God! how little trouble should we know, If thou to all men wouldst their genius show! But fear not thou; men come of heav'nly race, Taught by diviner Nature what t' embrace; Which, if pursued, thou all I nam'd shalt gain, And keep thy soul clear from thy body's stain: In time of prayer and cleansing meats denied Abstain from; thy mind's reins let reason guide: 70 Then rais'd to Heaven, thou from thy body free, A deathless saint, no more shalt mortal be.
[_Pythagoras, his Moral Rules._] Stanley's three vocations of poet, translator, and philosopher come well together in this closing piece, and the prose commentary completes the exposition in little.]
The common received opinion that _Pythagoras_ is not the author of these verses, seems to be defended by _Chrysippus_ in _Agellius_, _Plutarch_, _Laertius_, and _Iamblichus_, who affirm that the rules and sense only were his, digested into verse by some of his scholars. But it is not improbable that they did no more than collect the verses, and so gave occasion to the mistake; for _Laertius_ confesseth that _Pythagoras_ used to deliver his precepts to his disciples in verse, one of which was
[Greek: Pê parebên? ti d' erexa? ti moi deon ouk etelesthê?] _How slipt? what deeds, what duty left undone?_
Of this opinion I believe _Clemens Alexandrinus_, who cites one of these lines under his name, and _Proclus_, when he calls him [Greek: tôn chrysôn epôn patera], _the father of the golden verses_.
[_thy duty pay_]
[Greek: Nomô hôs diakeitai]; though _Hierocles_ in another sense read [Greek: diakeintai].
[_thy vow_]
[Greek: Horkos]. _Hierocles_, [Greek: têrêsis tôn theiôn nomôn], _observance of religious rules_.
[_honour the saints_]
[Greek: Hêrôas]. _Laertius_ on these words explains _souls whereof the air is full. Hierocles, angels, the sons of God, &c._
[_Thy prince and rulers_]
[Greek: Katachthonious daimonas], _Hierocles_, [Greek: Tous epi gês politeuesthai dynamenous]; _capable of government_.
[_nor their laws despise_]
[Greek: Ennoma rhezein]. _Hierocles_ [Greek: Peithesthai hois apoleloipasin hêmin parangelmasi]; _to obey their commands_.
[_with observance_]
[Greek: Erga epôphelima], _that is_, [Greek: euergesia, therapeia]: _yet, Hierocles otherwise_.
[_Thy power is neighbour to necessity_]
Whatsoever necessity can force thee to bear, it is in thy power to bear voluntarily. If thy friend have wronged thee, how canst thou say, thou art not able to endure his company, when imprisonment might constrain thee to it? See _Hierocles_.
[_'Mongst men discourses good and bad are spread;_ _Despise not these,[1] nor be by those misled._]
So _Hierocles_; _Marcilius_ reads [Greek: ôn] (that is, [Greek: oun]) for [Greek: hôn] which best agrees with this sense.
[_what any other may accuse_]
[Greek: phthonon]. _Hierocles_ interprets [Greek: mempsin], _invidia_, so taken sometimes by _Cicero_, _Marcell._
[_And every business of the following day As soon as by the morn awak'd, dispose_]
These two lines I have inserted upon the authority of _Porphyrius_,
[Greek: Pro men oun tou hypnou tauta heautô ta epê epadein hekaston. Mêd' hypnon malakoisin], &c.
[Greek: Pro de tês exanastaseôs ekeina: Prôta men ex hypnoio meliphronos exypanistas Eu mala poipneuein hos' en hêmati erga telessei].
_He advised every one before he slept to repeat these verses to himself, Nor suffer sleep at night, &c. And before he rose these, And every business, &c._