A History of English Poetry: an Unpublished Continuation Part 2

page 423. Amintae Gaudia. Auth.o.r.e Tho. Watsono. Londinensi. Juris studiosi [sic]. 4.'to. 1592 [This unique pencilled annotation seems to be in Joseph Warton's hand.]

[17] [A note to accompany this Sonnet No. VII has been almost completely destroyed by the excision, unique in the notebook, of what was originally folio 17. The mutilated line ends of the note read thus: "...

nd/ ... on/... omas/... s _Tr._" This note presumably referred to Thomas Watson and cited Section XI of "A Comparative Discourse of our English Poets," in Francis Meres's _Palladis Tamia: Wit's Treasury_ (London, 1598, fol. 280), where among those praised for their Latin verse are Christopher Ocland, Thomas Watson, Thomas Campion, Walter Haddon, and "Thomas Newton with his Leyland."]

[18] Novemb. 19. [1594, not 1595.] Registr. _Station_. B. fol. 315. a.

[19] There is [a] Sonnet by Spenser, never printed with his works, prefixed to Gabriel Harveys "Foure Letters, &c. Lond. 1592." I have much pleasure in drawing this little piece from obscurity, not only as it bears the name of Spenser, but as it is at the same time a natural unaffected effusion of friends.h.i.+p ... [four words illegible]. (See _Observations_ on Spenser's _Fair. Qu._ [II]. [245-247?].)

"_Harvey_, the happy aboue happiest men, I read: that sitting like a looker-on of this worldes stage, doest note with critique pen The sharpe dislikes of each condition; And, as one carelesse of suspition, Ne fawnest for the favour of the great, Ne fearest foolish reprehension of faulty men, which daunger to thee threat; But freely doest, of what thee list, entreat, Like a great lord of peerlesse liberty: Lifting the good vp to high honours seat, And th' euil d.a.m.ning euermore to dy.

For life and death is in thy doomefull writing So thy renowme liues euer by endighting.

_Dublin_ this 18 of July, 1586. _Your devoted Friend during life, Edmund Spencer._"

I avail myself of an opportunity of throwing together a few particulars of the life and writings of this very intimate friend of Spenser, more especially as they will throw general light on the present period. He was born at Saffron-Walden in Ess.e.x, [John] Strype's [_Life of the Learned Sir Thomas] Smith_. [London, 1698] p. 18. He was a fellow of Pembroke-Hall, Spenser's college: and was one of the proctors of the university of Cambridge, in 1583. [Thomas] Fuller's [_History of the University of] Cambridge_, p. 146. [in his] _Ch[urch] Hist[ory of Britain_]. [London, 1655.] Wood says, he was first of Christ's college, and afterwards fellow of Trinity-Hall, _Ath. Oxon._ F[asti, I, col.

755]. But Wood must be mistaken, for in the _Epilogus_ to his _Smithus_, addressed to John Wood Smith's amanuensis, Harvey dates from Pembroke-Hall. _Smithus_, Signat. G. iij. [G4 verso.] [Warton probably did not intend to deny that Harvey was a fellow of Trinity, but evidently felt that Wood was ignorant of the intermediate fellows.h.i.+p at Pembroke.] He was doctorated in jurisprudence at both universities. With his brother Henry, he was much addicted to Astrology. (See supr. [Vol.

IV], p. 23.)

He seems to have been a reader in rhetoric at Cambridge from his _Ciceronia.n.u.s, vel Oratio post reditum habita Cantabrigiae ad suos auditores_. Lond. 1577. 4to. It is dedicated to William Lewin, I suppose of Christ's college. (See Wood, ubi supr.) He published also _Rhetor, vel duorum dierum oratio de natura arte et exercitatione_ rhetorica, Lond. 1577. 4'o. It is dedicated to Bartholomew Clark, the elegant translator of Castilios _Courtier_, who has also prefixed an address to our author's _Rhetor_, dated at Mitcham in Surrey, Cal. Sept. 1577. He published in four books, a set of Latin poems called _Gabrielis Harveii Gratulationum Valdinensium Libri quatuor_, &c. Lond. 1578. 4to. This book he wrote in honour of queen Elisabeth, while she was on a progress at Audley-end in Ess.e.x, "afterwards presenting the same in print to her Highnesse at the wors.h.i.+pfull Maister Capels in Hertfords.h.i.+re." _Notes_ to Spenser's _September_. He mentions a most perfect and elegant delineation or engraving of all England, _perartificiose expressa_, procured by his friend M. Saccoford, to which the queen's effigy, _accuratissime depicta_, was prefixed. Lib. i. p. 13. In his character of an accomplished _Maid of Honour_ of the queen's court, some curious qualifications are recited. One of the first, to make her truly amiable, is what he calls _Affectatio_.

She is to understand painting her cheeks, to have a collection of good jokes, to dance, draw, write verses, sing, and play on the lute, and furnish her library with some approved recipt-books. She is to be completely skilled in cosmetics. "_Deglabret_, lavet, atque ungat, &c."

Lib. iiii. p. 21. 22. (See supr. ii[i]. [426, n].) Another book of Harvey's Latin poetry is his _Smithus, vel Musarum Lacrymae_, on the death of Seceretary [sic] Sir Thomas Smith, Lond. 1578. 4to. The dedication is to Sir Walter Mildmay. When Smith died, he says, Lord Surrey broke his lyre. _Cant._ v. He wishes on this mournful occasion, that More, Surrey, and Gascoigne, would be silent. _Cant._ vi. Ascham, Carr, Tonge, Bill, Goldwell, Watson, and Wilson, are panegyrised as imitators of Smith. [Nicholas Carr, 1524-1568, was Regius Professor of Greek at Cambridge. William Bill, d. 1561, was Master of Trinity College, Cambridge. Perhaps Tonge is the Barnaby Tonge who matriculated at Christ Church, Cambridge, in 1555. There were two John Goldwell's at Cambridge in Smith's day: one was a fellow at Queen's from 1538 to 1542; the other was named fellow of Trinity in 1546. For Wilson see Warton's discussion earlier in the _History_ (III, 331-344), where this very praise in Harvey's _Smithus_ is quoted.] _Cant._ vii. Signat. D. iij.

See also, Sign. L. i. And C. ij. Wilson, the author of the _Art of Rhetoric_, is again commended. Ibid. Sign. E. ij. Again, Sign. F. i. F.

ij. He thinks it of consequence to remember, that Smith gave a Globe, _mira arte politum_, to Queens College Library at Cambridge. Ibid, Sign.

E. iij. [E4 verso.] He praises Lodovice Dolci's odes, and Ronsard.

_Cant._ ii. Sign. C. i. His iambics are celebrated by his cotemporaries.

See Meres, _Wits Tr._ fol. 280. 282. [283 verso.] (See supr. ii [i].

[401, n].) Nothing can be more uncla.s.sical than Harvey's Latin verse. He is _Hobbinol_ in Spenser's Pastorals. Under that name, he has prefixed two recommendatory poems to the first and second parts of the _Faerie queene_. [There was only one such poem, but in some folio editions it was inadvertently printed twice.] The old annotator on Spenser's Pastorals prefaces his commentary, with an address, dated 1579, "To the most excellent and learned both oratour and poet master _Gabriel Harvey_, &c." In the notes to _September_, he is said to have written many pieces, "partly vnder vnknowne t.i.tles, and partly vnder counterfeit names: as his _Tyrannomastix_, his _old [ode] Natalitia_, his _Rameidos_, and especially that part of _Philomusus_ his divine _Anticosmopolite_, &c." He appears to have been an object of the petty wits & pamphlet-critics of his times. His chief antagonists were Nash and Greene. In the _Foure Letters_ abovementioned, may be seen many anecdotes of his literary squabbles. To these controversies belong his _Pierces supererogation_, Lond. 1593. Sub-Joined, is a _New Letter of notable contents with a strange sound sonnet called_ Gorgon. To this is sometimes added _An Advertis.e.m.e.nt for Pap-Hatchet_ &c. Nash's _Apology of Pierce Penniless_, printed 1593, is well known. Nash also attacks Harvey, as a fortune-teller & ballad maker, in _Have with you to Saffron-Walden_. Nash also wrote a confutation of Harvey's _Foure Letters_, 1592. [_Strange News, of the Intercepting Certaine Letters_, to which Warton evidently refers, is actually the early t.i.tle of the _Apology_.] I pa.s.s over other pieces of the kind. The origin of the dispute seems to have been, that Nash affirmed Harvey's father to have been a rope-maker at Saffron-Walden. Harvey died, aged about 90, at Saffron Walden, in 1630.

[20] Sonn. xliii.

[21] Sonn. xv.

[22] Except in in [sic] such a pa.s.sage as when he calls this favourite by "The master-mistress of my pa.s.sion," _Sonn._ 20. And in a few others, where the expressions literally shew the writer to be a man. [Warton of course wanted to preserve Shakespeare's sonnets from the charge of h.o.m.os.e.xuality. In the eighteenth century the distaste for conceits and an acute sensitivity to the suspicion of h.o.m.os.e.xuality made the _Sonnets_ so unpopular that they were omitted from the editions of Shakespeare by, among others, Rowe, Pope, Theobald, Warburton, Capell, and Johnson.]

[23] The last of these is that which begins, "O thou, my lovely Boy."

_Sonn._ 126.

[24] "When _absent_ from thee".

[25] _Sonn._ 97.

[26] They were _sweet_ indeed, but they wanted animation; and, in appearance, they were nothing more than beautiful resemblances or copies of you.

[27] _Sonn._ 98.

[28] _Sonn._ 99.

[29] [Warton originally wrote "1609," but immediately scored it out and replaced it with "1599."]

[30] In 16mo. With vignettes. Never entered in the Register of the Stationers. [Possibly Warton saw a volume registered by Eleazer Edgar on 3 January 1599/1600 as "A booke called _Amours_ by J. D. with certen oy'r sonnetes by W. S. vj'd" (Arber's _Stationers Register_, III, 153).

This entry may indicate that Edgar held ma.n.u.scripts of some of Shakespeare's sonnets, and some copies of the book so registered may have been published. However, if Warton had seen this hypothetical volume he should have correctly identified it: he had already (III, 402, n.) printed the Edgar entry from the Stationers Register.

If this volume which Warton mentions ever actually existed, it cannot now be located. Concerning Warton's statement Mr. G. B. Oldham, Princ.i.p.al Keeper of Printed Books, British Museum, wrote as follows: "I have examined the sale catalogue which contains books from the library of the Reverend William Thomson of Queens College, Oxford, but have failed to find anything at all corresponding with the volume which Warton describes. There are not, in fact, many really scarce books in this catalogue and it rather looks as though the rarer items in Thomson's collection were otherwise disposed of. In any case I think there is a strong presumption that Warton's memory betrayed him."

Thus, in the absence of any evidence concerning a 1599 edition of the _Sonnets_ and in the light of Thorpe's claim in 1609 that they were "Never before Imprinted," it seems probable that what Warton was vaguely recalling was actually a copy of Shakespeare's _Pa.s.sionate Pilgrim_.

This book, printed for Jaggard in 1599, my have misled Warton by its separate t.i.tle page, _Sonnets to Sundry Notes of Musicke_. Such a volume as Warton describes was, it seems evident from surviving copies, frequently bound up to contain _The Pa.s.sionate Pilgrim_, _Venus and Adonis_, and other small collections of poetry. The fact that Warton recollected the book as a l6mo. does not argue much against this identification. Though _The Pa.s.sionate Pilgrim_ is actually an octavo, surviving copies measure about 4-1/2 by 3-1/4 inches, and as late as 1911 William Jaggard, in his _Shakespeare Bibliography_ (p. 429), described it as a 16mo.

In explanation of Warton's probable error two extenuating facts should be remembered. First, since Thomson died about 1766, Warton's recollection was at least fifteen years old; and second, only in 1780 did Edmond Malone edit the _Sonnets_ and _The Pa.s.sionate Pilgrim_ as discriminate texts comprising Shakespeare's lyrics. Even then Malone omitted without comment the separate t.i.tle page _Sonnets to Sundry Notes of Musicke_. Previously, except in George Steevens's edition of the _Sonnets_, Shakespeare's poems were lumped together, with lyrics of several other Elizabethan poets, and printed as Shakespeare's _Poems on Several Occasions_. Moreover, Warton was not the first to write of a 1599 edition of the _Sonnets_. His friend Bishop Percy may have helped to create this false impression in Warton's memory. In his interleaved copy of Langbaine's _Account of the English Dramatick Poets_, immediately after Oldys's statement that Shakespeare's _Sonnets_ were not printed until 1609, Percy commented, "But this is a mistake. Lintot republished Shakespeare's Sonnets from an edition in 1599." Malone, in his transcript of Steevens's transcript of Percy, corrected Percy's mistake: "This is a mistake of Dr. Percy's. Lintot republished from old ed's but not from any ed. of 1599, except a very _few_ sonnets called the _Pa.s.sionate Pilgrim_ printed in that year." (Photostat of Bergen Evans's transcript of Bodleian Malone 129-132.) Warton, however, may well have been misled by Percy's comment, for in the winter of 1769 he had borrowed and used Percy's annotated copy of Langbaine. (_The Percy Letters, The Correspondence of Thomas Percy and Thomas Warton_, ed. M.

G. Robinson and Leah Dennis [Baton Rouge, 1951], pp. 135, 137.) It is unfortunate that the matter was not cleared up in discussion with Malone, whom at some time during the 1780's Warton furnished with a copy of the 1596 _Venus and Adonis_ and with whom he corresponded around 1785 concerning sonnets in general and Shakespeare in particular. (William Shakespeare, _Plays and Poems_, ed. Edmond Malone [London, 1790] X, 13, n. 1; and James Prior, _The Life of Edmond Malone_ [London, 1860], pp.

122-123.)]

[31] _Wits Tr._ fol. 281. b. [The brackets in the text are Warton's.]

[32] [Warton was of course much mistaken. Following the 1640 edition of Benson, Gildon had reprinted them under Shakespeare's name in 1709 (dated 1710) and again in 1714. The two Sewell editions appeared in 1725 and 1728. Invariably the poems seem to have been printed under Shakespeare's name, though perhaps not always in a collected edition of his complete poems. See Hyder Rollins's New Variorum edition of the _Sonnets_ (Philadelphia, 1944).]

[33] [See Malone's _Supplement to the Edition of Shakespeare's Plays_ (London, 1780), I, 581.]

[34] See supr. vol. iii. [p. 405].

[35] _Wits Tr._ fol. 284. a. He is again mentioned by Meres for his distich on king James's _Furies_ & _Lepanto_. fol. 284. b. [The distich, printed by Meres, is the final couplet of Barnfield's Sonnet II.]

[36] _Sonn._ xii.

[37] It begins thus.

Nights were short, and daies were long, Blossoms on the hauthorns hong; Philomel, night-musickes kinge, Tolde the comming of the springe, &c.

He does not scruple to insert these lines,

Loue I did the fairest boy, That these fields did ere enioy.

Loue I did faire Ganymed, Venus darling, beauties bed, &c.

This piece was afterwards inserted in _Englands Helicon_.

[38] See supr. vol. iii. p. [292, n.] I [am] now most inclined to think, that these initials mean Henry Constable, and not Henry Chettle. The Sonnets do not justify the applauses paid to Constable, by his contemporaries, Edmond Bolton, Meres, the author of the _Return_ from _Parna.s.sus_, and many others. Some of his sonnets are prefixed to Sydney's _Apology for Poetry_. The initials H. C. often occur in _Englands Helicon_. I take this opportunity of saying that some pieces of Chettle were among Mr. Beauclerc's books. (See supr. iii. [291-292, n.?]) [Indeed the annotations in the Harvard Library copy of the _Bibliotheca Beauclerkiana_ (p. 102) suggest that either Thomas Warton or, more probably, his brother may have purchased the copy of Chettle's _Englands Mourning Garment_ owned by Thomas Warton's former student. It was sold to "Dr. W."]

[39] See supr. iii. [480.] [R. L. was Richard Lynch.]

[40] In 16'mo. With vignettes. They are sixty two in number. The best is that which begins,

Venus, and yong Adonis sitting by her, Vnder a myrtle shade began to woe him She told the yongling, &c. Sonn. iii.

He calls Sleep, "Balme of the brused heart." Sonn. xv.