Графични страници
PDF файл
ePub

[15] I trod the Earth, and knew it was my Tomb; And now I die, and now I am but made:

[ocr errors]

The Glass is full, and now my Glass is run;

And now I live, and now my Life is done!

6

[VARIATIONS.-2. 'ioyes'-B.-4. 'goodes'—A.-5. 'fled'—A. (So also Mr. Collier's MS. and MS. Ashm.) In Rel. Wott. and B. 'past'—which occurs directly afterwards.-7. 'My Spring'— A. My tale was heard, & yet it was not told'—B.—8. 'My fruite is falne, & yet my leaues are greene'-B.-9. ‘My youth is spent, & yet I am not old'-B. My youth is past'—A. (The readings of B. in this stanza seem to be supported by the "Answere" quoted above.)—13. 'for death'-A. 'the wombe'-A B.-14. and yet it was'—A.-15. 'I trade the ground'—A.— 16. 'I was but made'-B.-17. 'My glasse is full'-B. ‘and yet'-A.]

[ocr errors]
[graphic][merged small]

[THIS piece, again, is claimed for Raleigh by Sir Egerton Brydges, on the authority of the signature. He remarks,— "If we admit this to be Raleigh's, what shall we say to the foul charge of Atheism, or even Deism, which has been made against him? The second and third stanzas are vigorous and sublime." Fortunately, we have better evidence than this to prove that the charge against Raleigh was hasty and unjust. The piece is retained in the Oxford edition of his works (viii. 707); and received by Mr. Tytler with implicit confidence. "It was probably about the same time," he tells us, referring generally to the period of his long imprisonment," that this fine hymn was composed......Making allowance for their occasional quaintness, the fault not of the writer but of the age, there are few who will not in these small pieces recognise that fiery stamp which marks the true gold of the imagination from its counterfeit." (Life of

Raleigh, p. 287, ed. 1840.)

There is a copy of it, without a signature, in Mr. Collier's MS., but as the variations appeared to be generally for the worse, I did not mark them.]

1.

R

ISE, oh my Soul, with thy desires to
Heaven,

And with Divinest Contemplation use
Thy time, where times eternity is given,
And let vain thoughts no more thy thoughts *

abuse;

But down in darkness let them lie;

So live thy better, let thy worse thoughts die!

And thou, my Soul, inspir'd with holy flame,

View and review, with most regardful Eye,
That holy Cross, whence thy Salvation came,
On which thy Saviour, and thy Sin, did die!
For in that sacred Object is much pleasure,
And in that Saviour is my Life, my
Treasure.

3. To thee (O Jesu!) I derect my Eye[s];

To thee my hands, to thee my humble Knees; To thee my Heart shall offer Sacrifice;

To thee my thoughts, who my thoughts only

sees:

To thee my self,—my self and all I give ;
To thee I die; to thee I only live!

IGNOTO.

* So all the editions, old and new; and I have not marked any variation from the MS. But it can scarcely be correct.-Again, the brevity of the fifth line is not countenanced by the form of the other stanzas.-In the first line of the third stanza, the eds. have 'eie' or ' Eye'-which the rhyme would be sufficient to correct; and in the MS. it is 'myne eyes'—.

[graphic][subsumed][merged small][merged small][merged small]

["THAT his [Raleigh's] faith was no less steadfast in the hopes of a resurrection,* we are as convincingly assured by those verses, which, this last night of his life, he probably wrote also here, in the Gatehouse, they being found there in his Bible; and, according to the most ancient copies I can meet with, penned in these words;" &c. OLDYS."Having finished this [viz. 'An Answer to some things at my Death'] he seems to have drawn up a few additional notes of remembrance, containing heads of the different subjects upon which, if permitted to speak on the scaffold, he meant to address the people; and taking his Bible, he wrote on a blank leaf these few lines:......It may appear singu

* He had just been speaking of Raleigh's Poem called his "Pilgrimage." See Part III. No. ii. in this vol.

lar to some that we find him so employed at such a moment, but from his early youth Raleigh had been accustomed to throw his feelings into numbers. His last thoughts are solemn and full of immortality; and their poetical dress indicates a rare tranquillity of mind." TYTLER.*

It is satisfactory to meet with at least one poem, though a very short one, which can be ascribed to Raleigh without much danger of mistake; but this is the only piece in Rel. Wotton. of which so much can be said with safety. The tradition which assigns it to the night before his execution may in this case be correct. Perhaps it is equally true with regard to the following couplet, which is printed in the various Collections of his Minor writings.

[ocr errors]

ON THE SNUFF OF A CANDLE, THE NIGHT BEFORE HE DIED.
Cowards [may] fear to die; but Courage stout,

Rather than live in Snuff, will be put out."

The story of his "Dying Meditation," which is appended to so many other Poems,-some of which he never wrote at all, seems to have been carelessly transferred to them from one or other of these two short fragments.

The variations are given from three copies, to which many others might have been added; viz.—A=Dr. Birch's copy, Raleigh's Minor Works, ii. 400. (It appears to have been taken from Raleigh's Remains, where the title is, “Sir Walter Raleigh's Verses, Found in his Bible in the Gate-house at Westminster," p. 258, ed. 1661.)-B=Oldys's copy, as above.-C Chetham MS. 8012, p. 162.]

[ocr errors]

Oldys's Life of Ral. p. 556, Oxf. ed. cf. p. 424. Tytler, p. 357, ed. 1840. Tytler found a copy in the state-paper office. p. 356, note.-Brydges mentions one in a Lansd. MS. entitled, "De seipso." Pref. to Browne's Poems, Lee Priory ed. p. 6.-See also D'Israeli's Cur. of Lit. p. 419, ed. 1839. Cayley, ii. 167. Ellis, ii. 224. Raleigh's Works, viii. 729, Oxford ed. A copy was printed on the last leaf of his Prerog. of Parl. 1628, with the title, "The Authours Epitaph, made by himselfe ;" but I believe the lines had been published at a still earlier date.-Another copy is in Winstanley's Worthies, p. 305, 1684.

« ПредишнаНапред »