accompte he maketh, your selfe shall hereafter perceive, by hys paynefull and dutifull verses of your selfe. Thus much was written at Westminster yesternight; but comming this morning, beeyng the sixteenth of October [1579] to Mystresse Kerkes, to have it delivered to the carrier, I receyved youre letter, sente me the laste weeke; whereby I perceive you other whiles continue your old exercise of versifying in English; whych glorie I had now thought shoulde have bene onely ours heere at London, and the Court. Truste me, your verses I like passingly well, and envye your hidden paines in this kinde, or rather maligne and grudge at your selfe, that woulde not once imparte so muche to me. But, once or twice, you make a breache in Maister Drant's rules: quod tamen condonabimus tanto Poëtæ, tuæq ipsius maximæ in his rebus autoritati. You shall see, when we meete in London, (whiche, when it shall be, certifye us) howe fast I have followed after you in that course: beware, leaste in time I overtake you, Veruntamen te solùm sequar, (ut sæpenumerò sum professus,) nunquam sané assequar, dum vivam. And nowe requite I you with the like, not with the verye beste, but with the verye shortest, namely, with a fewe Iambickes. I dare warrant, they be precisely perfect, for the feete, (as you can easily iudge) and varie not one inch from the rule, I will imparte yours to Maister Sidney, and Maister Dyer, at my nexte going to the courte. I praye you, keepe mine close to your selfe, or your verie entire friendes, Maister Preston, Maister Still, and the reste. Iambicum Trimetrum. ■ Unhappie Verse! the witnesse of my unhappie state, Thought, and fly forth unto my Love whersoever she be: Whether lying reastlesse in heavy bedde, or else If in bed; tell hir, that my eyes can take no reste: If at hir virginals; tel hir, I can heare no mirth. Asked why? say, Waking love suffereth no sleepe: Say, that lamenting love marreth the musicall. Tell hir, that hir pleasures were wonte to lull me asleepe : Tell hir, that hir beautie was wonte to feede mine eyes: Now doe I nightly waste, wanting my kindely reste: And if I waste, who will bewaile my heavy chaunce? I thought once agayne here to have made an ende, with a heartie Vale, of the best fashion: * Among the many publications by Drant, I have not discovered these Rules; which may be a subject of deep lamentation to English hexametrists, and pentametrists, atque id genus omne, unless they have been more fortunate in their search! Tanner's list of his publications is copious. Drant was of St. John's College, Cambridge, afterwards prebendary of Chichester and archdeacon of Lewes. See his character in Warton's Hist. of Eng. Poetry, vol. iii. p. 429. Preston, first of King's College, Cambridge, afterwards Master of Trinity Hall, was the author of "A Lamentable Tragedy mixed ful of pleasant mirth, conteyning the life of Cambises king of Percia, &c." which is said to have rendered the author an object of ridicule. He wrote also "A geliflower or swete marygolde, wherein the frutes of teranny you may beholde." See the Biographia Dramatica, Art. Preston, (Thomas) and Cambyses. See also Bibliograph. Poetica. 2 Still, who was afterwards bishop of Bath and Wells, is believed to be the author of Gammer Gurtons Needle, the earliest exhibition of what "looks like a regular comedy" in our language. See Biograph. Dram. Art. Still, (John) and Malone's Hist. Acc. of the Eng. Stage. "His breeding," says Sir John Harington, "was from his childhood in good Jitterature, and partly in musick, which was counted in those days a preparative to divinitie.-To conclude of this bishop, without flatterie, I hold him a rare man for preaching, for arguing, for learning, for living." Briefe View of the State of the Church of England in Q. Eliz. time, &c. edit. 1653. 12mo. p. 119. Admitted into Davison's Poetical Rapsodie, edit. 1611. And since reprinted in Warton's Observations on the Faerie Queene, in Waldron's Literary Museum, and in Neve's Cursory Remarks on the English Poets. but loe! an ylfavoured mischaunce. My last farewell, whereof I made great accompt, and much marvelled you shoulde make no mention thereof, I am nowe tolde, (in the Divels name) was thorough one man's negligence quite forgotten, but shoulde nowe undoubtedly have beene sent, whether I hadde come, or no. Seing it can now be no otherwise, I pray you take all togither, wyth all their faultes: and nowe I hope you will vouchsafe mee an answeare of the largest size, or else I tell you true, you shall bee verye deepe in my debte; notwythstandyng thys other sweete, but shorte letter, and fine, but fewe verses. But I woulde rather I might yet see youre owne good selfe, and receive a reciprocall farewell from your owne sweete mouth. Ad Ornatissimum virum, multis jam diu nominibus Clarissimum, G. H., Immerito sui, mox in Gallias Navigaturi, Εντυχεῖν. Sio malus egregium, sic non inimicus amicum, Cuncta vijs sic apta meis; ego solus ineptus. Nam mihi nescio quo mens saucia vulnere, dudum Fluctuat ancipiti pelago, dum navita proram Quàm levis est Amor, & tamen haud levis est amor omnf>! Præq; sacro sanctâ splendoris imagine, tanti Quæq; placent oculis, Formas, Spectacula, Amores, Conculcare soles ut humum, & ludibria sensûs; Digna meo certe Harveio, sententia digna Stoica formidet veterum sapientia, vinclis Sancire æternis; sapor haud tamen omnibus idem. Quamlibet ignoti jactata per æquora cœli, Inq; procelloso longum exsul gurgite, ponto Præ tamen amplexu lachrymosæ conjugis, ortus Cælestes, divûmq; thoros sprevisse beatos: Tantúm Amor, & Mulier, vel amore potentior, Illum; Tu tamen illudis (tua Magnificentia tanta est, Nec tu, (pace tuâ,) nostri Cato maxime sécli, Nec serò Dominam venientem in vota, nec aurum, Linque, viris miseris miseranda sophismata, quondam Nec sectare nimis; res utraq; crimine plena. Hoc bene qui callet (si quis tamen hoc bene callet) Vis facit una pios; justos facit altera, & alt'ra Dij mihi dulce diu dederant, verùm utile nunquam ; Frugibus & vacuas speratis cernere spicas. Ibimus ergò statim; (quis eunti fausta precetur?) Et pede clivosas fesso calcabimus Alpes. Quis dabit intereà conditas rore Britanno, Quis tibi Litterulas, quis carmen amore petulcum! Ipse suos; & sæpe animo verbisq; benignis Fausta precaretur, Deus illum aliquando reducat! &c. Plura vellem per Charites, sed non licet per Musas. Vale, Vale plurimùm, Mi amabilissime Harveie, meo cordi, meorum omnium longè charissime. I was minded also to have sent you some English verses, or rymes, for a farewell; but, by my troth, I have no spare time in the world, to thinke on such toyes, that you knowe will demaund a freer head than mine is presently. I beseeche you by all your curtesies and graces, let me be answered, ere I goe: which will be, (I hope, I feare, I thinke) the next weeke, if I can be dispatched of my Lorde. I goe thither, as sent by him, and maintained most-what of him : and there am to employ my time, my body, my minde, to his honours service. Thus, with many superhartie commendations and recommendations to your selfe, and all my friendes with you, I ende my last farewell, not thinking any more to write to you before I goe: and with all com mitting to your faithfull credence the eternall memorie of our everlasting friendship; the inviolable memorie of our unspotted friendshippe; the sacred memorie of our vowed friendship; which I beseech you continue with usuall writings, as you may; and of all things let me heare some newes from you. As gentle M. Sidney, I thanke his good worship, hath required of me, and so promised to doe againe. Qui monet, ut facias, quod jam facis; you knowe the rest See the quotation, however, presently cited from Harvey's answer to this Letter. You may alwayes send them most safely to me by Mistresse Kerke, and by none other. So once againe, and yet once more, farewell most hartily, mine owne good Master H. and love me, as I love you, and thinke upon poore Immerito, as he thinketh uppon you. Leycester House, this 16 of October, 1579 ⚫. Per mare, per terras, Virus mortuusq; Tuus IMMERITO." In Harvey's answer to this Letter, dated " Trinitie Hall, 23. Octob. 1579," he desires Spenser to give him "leave to playe the counsaylour a while ;" and he conjures him, "by the contents of the Verses and Rymes enclosed," (viz. Certaine Latin Verses, of the frailtie and mutabilitie of all things, saving onely vertue; written by M. Doctor Norton, paraphrastically varied by M. Doctor Gouldingham, translated by olde Maister Wythepol, and paraphrastically varied in English by Harvey himself;) "and by al the good and bad Spirites that attende upon the Authors themselves, immediately upon the contemplation thereof, to abandon all other fooleries, and honour Vertue, the onely immortall and surviving Accident amongst so manye mortall and ever-perishing Substances." After this judicious advice, he presently notices the English poem which Spenser had sent him: "Your Englishe Trimetra I lyke better than perhappes you will easily believo ; and am to requite them wyth better or worse, at more convenient leysure. Marry, you must pardon me, I finde not your warrant so sufficiently good and substantiall in lawe, that it can persuade me they are all so precisely for the feete, as your selfe over-partially weene and overconfidently avouche;" and he accordingly specifies some errors committed by Spenser in this example of English verse composed according to Latin rules; an attempt, which, however once the favourite employment of our poets in the age of Elizabeth, will be always too repulsive to gain many admirers or imitators; requiring, as it generally requires, a pronunciation most dismal, most unmusical, or most ridiculous; an attempt indeed, which has not escaped the lash of just and indignant satire. From the unprofitable criticism of Harvey I therefore turn to a more important remark in his Letter, in which he appears to have been justified: "As for your speedy and hasty travell, methinks I dare stil wager al the books and writings in my study, which you know I esteeme of greater value than al the golde and silver in my purse or chest, that you wil not, that you shall not, I saye, bee gone over sea, for al your saying, neither the next nor the nexte weeke." And indeed it may justly be doubted whether Spenser was ever employed on this intended com He says in a former part of this letter that it was the sixteenth day of month. See p. xv. The date 5 at this con. clusion, in the original publication, is therefore a mistake. d See bishop Hall's Satires, B. i. Sat. iv. where he rightly calls effusions of this kind, "rhymeless numbers ;" and adds, "Unbid iambics flow from careless head!" And in Sat. vi. having ridiculed those who scorne "the homespun thread of rhymes," he proceeds: "Whoever saw a colt, wanton and wild, See also a judicious observation of Nash, in his Foure Letters confuted, 1592. Sign. G. 3. "The hexamiter verse I graunt to be a gentleman of an auncient house, (so is many an english beggar,) yet this clyme of ours hee cannot thrive in; our speech is too craggy for him to set his plough in; hee goes twitching and hopping in our language like a man running vpon quagmiers vp the hill in one syllable, and down the dale in another; retaining no part of that stately smooth gate, which he vaunts himselfe with amongst the Greeks and Latins." • Dr. Percy, the present bishop of Dromore, possesses, as I have been informed by Mr. Cooper Walker, some books which belonged to Harvey; in which are manuscript notes by this friend of Spenser. I have seen the following pieces, which were also part of Harvey's library, and are now (bound in one volume) in the possession of James Bindley, Esq., in which are several observations written likewise by Harvey, applicable to the subjects of the several pieces; incidentally commending Gascoigne, bishop Watson, Cheke, and Ascham; and shewing a great attachment to Italian literature, the taste indeed of that period. 1. Medea, Tragedia di M. Lodovico Dolce, Venet. 1566. 2. Thieste, Tragedia di M. L. Dolce, Venet. 1566. 3. Hecuba, et Iphigenia in Aulide, Erasmo Roterodamo interprete, &c. 1507. 4. An Italian Grammar, written in Latin by Scipio Lentulo a Neapelitar and turned into English by H. G 1575, mission; which, some of his biographers have asserted, constituted him Agent for the Earl of Leicester in France and other foreign countries. For, by the date of Spenser's next Letter to Harvey, we find him still in London; and an interval of less than six months onely had elapsed, since his mention of an appointment; a period hardly sufficient to have allowed him the exercise of such an appointment, even in a small degree; in regard to which we have also no further memorial. Before I present the reader with Spenser's next Letter to Harvey, it is necessary to observe that his first Letter, already given, affects the credibility of his' pretended introduction to Phisip Sidney, on account of his presentation to him of the ninth Canto of the first Book of the Faerie Queene; for it shews that he was known to Sidney previously to the publication of the Shepheards Calender in 1579. This incontrovertible fact refutes the opinion also of a very elegant writer, and of others less known to fame that "the Dedication of the Shepheards Calender seems to have procured Spenser his first introduction to Sir Philp Sidney." In Spenser's second Letter to Harvey, some interesting remarks concerning his works occur. "To my long approoved and singular good frende, Master G. H. Good Master H. I doubt not but you have some great important matter in hande, which al this while restraineth youre penne, and wonted readinesse in provoking me unto that, wherein your selfe now faulte. If there bee any such thing in hatching, I pray you hartily, lette us knowe, before al the worlde see it. But if happly you dwell altogither in Justinians courte, and give your selfe to be devoured of secreate studies, as of likely hood you doe: yet at least imparte some your olde, or newe, Latine, or Englishe, eloquent and gallant poesies to us, from whose eyes, you saye, you keepe in a manner nothing hidden. "Little newes is here stirred; but that olde greate matter still depending. His Honoure never better. I thinke the Earthquake was also there wyth you, (which I would gladly learne,) as it was here with us; overthrowing divers old buildings, and peeces of churches. Sure very straunge to be hearde of in these countries, and yet I heare some saye, (I know not howe truely) that they have knowne the like before in their dayes. Sed quid robis videtur magnis Philosophis? "I like your late Englishe Hexameters so exceedingly well, that I also enure my penne sometime in that kinde: whyche I fynd indeede, as I have heard you often defende in worde, neither so harde nor so harshe, that it will easily and fairely yeelde it selfe to oure moother tongue. For the onely, or chiefest hardnesse, whyche seemeth, is in the accente; whyche sometime gapeth, and as it were yawneth ilfavouredly; comming shorte of that it should, and sometime exceeding the measure of the number, as in Carpenter, the middle sillable being used shorte in speache, when it shall be read long in verse, seemeth like a lame gosling, that draweth one legge after hir: and Heaven, beeing used shorte as one sillable when it is in verse, stretched out with a diastole, is like a lame dogge that holdes up one legge. But it is to be wonne with custome, and rough words must be subdued with use. For, why a God's name may not we, as I else the Greekes, have the kingdome of our owne language, and measure our accentes by the sounde, reserving the quantitie to the verse?-Loe here I let you see my olde use of toying in rymes, turned into your artificial straightnesse of verse by this Tetrasticon. I beseech you tell me your fancie, without parcialitie. See yee the blindefoulded pretie god, that feathered archer, I should have omitted the preceding paragraph, for the same reason as I have omitted Harvey's criticism, if I had thought it justifiable to withold from the reader any poetical fragment of Spenser; for to the name of poetry these English hexameters and pentameters, by Life of Spenser, prefixed to the folio edition of his Works in 1679; and Hughes's Life of Spenser, prefixed to both his editions of the Works. Ellis's Specimens of the early Engiish Poets, Art. Spenser. The Earl of Leicester. i Else is perhaps a misprint for als or also. |