Part 1

Transcriber's Note:

In this etext the following are represented by:--

Italics > _underscore_ Macron > [=r] Superscript > ^ oe ligature > [oe] ornate font > $

Greek language is shown in phonetics.

* * * * *

Early English Poets.

SIR JOHN DAVIES.

PRINTED BY ROBERT ROBERTS, BOSTON.

Early English Poets.

THE

COMPLETE POEMS

OF

SIR JOHN DAVIES.

EDITED,

WITH

Memorial-Introduction and Notes,

BY THE

REV. ALEXANDER B. GROSART.

_IN TWO VOLUMES.--VOL. I._

London: CHATTO AND WINDUS, PICCADILLY. 1876.

To THE RIGHT HONOURABLE W. EWART GLADSTONE, M.P., &c., &c.

SIR,

I had the honour to place in your hands the complete Poems of SIR JOHN DAVIES in the Fuller Worthies' Library. In now publishing these Poems for a wider circle of readers and students, I re-dedicate them to you.

That I should have wished (and wish) to inscribe the Works of a man famous as a prescient and practical Statesman, as a philosophic Thinker, as an Orator, as a Lawyer, and as a Poet, to you, is extremely natural; for in you, Sir,--in common with all Great Britain and Europe, and America,--I recognize his equal, and England's foremost living name, in nearly every department wherein the elder distinguished himself; while transfiguring and ennobling all, is your conscience-ruled and stainless Christian life. That you gave me permission so to do, with appreciative and kindly words, adds to my pleasure. Trusting that my fresh 'labour of love' (for which 'love of labour' has been necessary) on this Worthy may meet your continued approval,

I am, Sir, With high regard and gratitude, Yours faithfully and truly, ALEXANDER B. GROSART.

_Preface._

My edition of the Complete Poems of Sir John Davies in the Fuller Worthies' Library in 1869; since being followed up with a similarly complete collection of his much more extensive Prose, as Volumes II. and III. of his entire Works--met with so instant a Welcome, that very speedily I had to return the answer of 'out of print' to numerous applicants. Accordingly it was with no common satisfaction I agreed to the request of the Publishers that Sir John Davies' complete Poems should succeed Giles Fletcher's in their Early English Poets.

In the preparation of this new edition I have carefully re-collated the whole of the original and early editions, with the same advantage and for the same reasons, as in Giles Fletcher's. I have likewise been enabled to make some interesting additions, as will appear in the respective places.

I wish very cordially to re-thank various friends for their continued helpfulness. Several I must specify: To Dr. Brinsley Nicholson I am indebted for many suggestions, and spontaneous research towards elucidating the Poems. I would specially thank B. H. Beedham, Esq., Ashfield House, Kimbolton, for not only making a transcript of the holograph copy of the "Twelve Wonders" in Downing College Library, Cambridge, and of the Lines to the King in All Souls' College, Oxford--both Colleges readily allowing this--but for his old-fashioned enthusiasm and carefulness of scrutiny of every available source, far and near. Biographical results will be utilized more fully elsewhere, viz. in the Memorial-Introduction to be prefixed to the Prose in the complete Works; but meantime and here I cannot sufficiently acknowledge Mr. Beedham's kindness or my obligation to him. To Colonel Chester, of Bermondsey, for ready and most useful help in family-Wills, &c., I am as often deeply obliged. His Grace the Duke of Northumberland, was good enough to allow me the leisurely use of his MS. of "Nosce Teipsum" at Alnwick Castle. Dr. David Laing, of Edinburgh, again entrusted me his Davies MSS. (See Note, Vol. II., p. 119.)

The Poetry of Sir John Davies, weighty and imperishable though it be, bears so small a proportion to his entire works and activities in many departments, that it would be out of keeping to give a lengthened Life herein. Still, in the present Memorial-Introduction will be found very much more of accurate detail than hitherto, and corrections of long-transmitted and accepted mistakes.

The discovery of extremely important MSS.--including State-Papers, and official and private Letters--in H.M. Public Record Office, the Bodleian, Oxford, the British Museum, etc., delays my completion of the Prose Works and the full Life; but within this year it is my hope and expectation to issue the whole to my constituents of the Fuller Worthies' Library. _En passant_--for the sake of others it may be stated that the complete Works (Verse and Prose: 3 vols.) will be readily accessible in all the leading public Libraries of the Kingdom, and of the United States.

I send forth this new edition of a great Poet assured that he has not yet gathered half his destined renown:--

"Ah! weak and foolish men are they Who lightly deem of Poet's lay, That turns e'en winter months to May, And makes the whole year warm: 'Tis this that brings back Paradise, Reveals its bowers by Art's device, Instructs the fool, delights the wise, And gives to Life its charm.

(STEPHEN JENNER.)

ALEXANDER B. GROSART.

_St. George's Vestry, Blackburn, Lancashire._

_Contents._

Those marked with [*] are herein printed for the first time, or published for the first time among Davies' Poems.

PAGE

DEDICATION i

PREFACE iii

MEMORIAL-INTRODUCTION--I. BIOGRAPHICAL xi

" " II. CRITICAL lvii

" " III. POSTSCRIPT cvi

NOSCE TEIPSUM 1-118

NOTE 3

ROYAL DEDICATION 9

*DEDICATION OF A GIFT-COPY (IN MS.) IN THE POSSESSION OF HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF NORTHUMBERLAND, AT ALNWICK CASTLE 12

OF HUMANE KNOWLEDGE 15

OF THE SOULE OF MAN AND THE IMMORTALITIE THEREOF 25

What the soule is 29

That the soule is a thing subsisting by it selfe without the body 29

That the soule is more then a perfection or reflection of the sense 35

That the Soule is more then the Temperature of the Humors of the Body 39

That the Soule is a Spirit 41

That it cannot be a Body 42

That the Soule is created immediately by God 45

Erronious opinions of the Creation of Soules 46

Objection:--That the Soule is Extraduce 47

The Answere to the Obiection 49

Reasons drawne from Nature 49

Reasons drawne from Diuinity 52

Why the Soule is United to the Body 60

In what manner the Soule is united to the Body 61

How the Soul doth exercise her Powers in the Body 63

The Vegetatiue or quickening Power 63

The power of Sense 64

Sight 65

Hearing 67

Taste 68

Smelling 69

Feeling 70

The Imagination or Common Sense 70

The Fantasie 71

The Sensitiue Memorie 72

The Passions of Sense 73

The Motion of Life 74

The Locall Motion 74

The intellectuall Powers of the Soule 75

The Wit or Understanding 75

Reason, Vnderstanding 76

Opinion, Judgement 76

The Power of Will 78

The Relations betwixt Wit and Will 78

The Intellectuall Memorie 79

An Acclamation 81

That the Soule is Immortal, and cannot Die 82

Reason I--Drawne from the desire of Knowledge 83

Reason II--Drawn from the Motion of the Soule 85 The Soul compared to a Riuer 85

Reason III--From Contempt of Death in the better Sort of Spirits 90

Reason IV--From the Feare of Death in the Wicked Soules 92

Reason V--From the generall Desire of Immortalitie 93

Reason VI--From the very Doubt and Disputation of Immortalitie 95

That the Soule cannot be destroyed 96

Her Cause ceaseth not 96

She hath no Contrary 96

Shee cannot Die for want of Food 97

Violence cannot destroy her 98

Time cannot destroy her 98

Objections against the Immortalitie of the Soule 99

Objection I 100

Answere 100

Objection II 104

Answere 105

Objection III 106

Answere 106

Objection IV 108

Answere 109

Objection V 110

Answere 110

The Generall Consent of All 111

Three Kinds of Life answerable to the three Powers of the Soule 113

An Acclamation 114

APPENDIX--REMARKS PREFIXED TO NAHUM TATE'S EDITION (1697) OF 'NOSCE TEIPSUM' 118

HYMNES TO ASTRAEA 125

NOTE 127

Of Astraea 129

To Astraea 130

To the Spring 131

To the Moneth of May 132

To the Larke 133

To the Nightingale 134

To the Rose 135

To all the Princes of Europe 136

To Flora 137

To the Moneth of September 138

To the Sunne 139

To her Picture 140

Of her Minde 141

Of the Sun-beames of her Mind 142

Of her Wit 143

Of her Will 144

Of her Memorie 145

Of her Phantasie 146

Of the Organs of her Minde 147

Of the Passions of her Heart 148

Of the innumerable vertues of her Minde 149

Of her Wisdome 150

Of her Justice 151

Of her Magnanimitie 152

Of her Moderation 153

To Enuy 154

ORCHESTRA, OR A POEME OF DAUNCING 155

NOTE 157

DEDICATIONS.--I. TO HIS VERY FRIEND, MA. RICH. MARTIN 159

II. TO THE PRINCE 160

ORCHESTRA, OR A POEME OF DAUNCING 161

_Memorial-Introduction._

I. BIOGRAPHICAL.

As in other instances, the first thing to be done in any Life of our present Worthy, is to distinguish him from other two contemporary Sir John Davieses--non-attention to which has in many biographical and bibliographical works led to no little confusion. There was

I. Sir John Davis (or Davys or Davies) of Pangbourne, Berkshire, who 'sleeps well' under a chalk-stone monument in the parish church there. He was mixed up with the 'Plots' (alleged and semi-real), of the Elizabethan-Essex period. Many of his Letters--various very long and matterful and pathetic--are preserved at Hatfield among the Cecil-Salisbury MSS. The Blue-Book report of the "Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts" (3rd, 1872), makes a strange jumble of our Sir John and this Sir John's Letters (see Index, s. n.). He was Master of the Ordnance 31st January, 1598, and was knighted at Dublin 12th July, 1599. His Will is dated 6th April, 1625, and it was proved at London ... May, 1626. Our Sir John was appointed one of his executors. Arms: _Sable_, a griffin, segt., _or._ He is supposed to have been of Shropshire descent.

II. Sir John Davies (or Davys or Davis) Knight-Marshal of Connaught and Thomond: temp. Elizabeth. He had large grants of lands in Roscommon. He is now represented by the family of Clonshanville (or Loyle) in Roscommon, who are of Shropshire descent (see Archdall's Peerage of Ireland.) His Will is dated 14th February, 1625. He died 13th April, 1626. His Will was not proved (at Dublin) until 17th November, 1628. Arms: Sable, on a chevron, argent, three trefoils slipped, _vert._: crest; a dragon's head erased, _vert._

According to Mr. J. Payne Collier, the following entry is found in the register of S. Mary, Aldermanbury: "Buried Sir John Davyes, Knight, May 28, 1624." (Bibliographical Account of Early English Literature, i., 193). If there be no mistake here, we have another contemporary Sir John Davies. Certainly it was not ours, and as certainly neither of the two preceding.[1]

[Footnote 1: Through B. H. Beedham, Esq., as before, I have many details on the two contemporary Sir John Davieses from Sir Bernard Burke Ulster King at Arms, &c., &c., and J. N. C. Atkinson Davis, Esqr., Dublin; and the same acknowledgment has to be made on many points in the Life.]

The spelling of the family name, which is now Davies, varies very much. I have found it as Dyve, Dayves, Davyes, Dauis, Davis, and Davies. Usually our Worthy signs 'Dauyes;' but in his books changes, e.g., in 'Nosce Teipsum' of 1599, to the verse-dedication to Elizabeth, it is 'Dauies;' in 1602 'Dauys,' and in 1608 'Davis,' and so diversely in his Prose.

Among the Carte Papers in the Bodleian are rough jottings by the Historian for a Memoir of our Sir John Davies, wherein it is stated that the family came originally from South Wales to Tisbury, Wiltshire. The words are: "His family had continued several generations in y^{e} place, though descended from a family of that name in South Wales: but planted heere in England Temp. Hen. 7: accompanying at that time y^{e} Earle of Pembrooke out of Wales.[2]

[Footnote 2: Carte Papers, folios 330-334: Vol. XII. The particular MS. is headed "Notes of the life of Sr John Dauys. May 2d. 1674." These Notes are not very accurate. To begin with, the father's name is mistakenly given as Edward instead of John.]

The 'estate' of the Davieses at Tisbury was named Chicksgrove (sometimes spelled Chisgrove.) Only a small fragment of the Manor-house remains "unto this day." The Tisbury parish registers, however, yield abundant entries of the family-names under the wonted three-fold 'Baptisms,' 'Marriages,' 'Burials;' and the church itself, in tablets and communion plate, and other memorials, possesses various evidences of their influential position for many generations, and in many lines of descent and local intermarriage. It must suffice here briefly to summarize the Pedigree, and to extract the entries immediately bearing on our present Life.

Confirming the Carte statement of a Welsh descent, one John Davys, of ... wyn, in Shropshire, temp. Henry VIII., recorded by Carney (1606) in the Visitation of Dublin in Ulster Office, and according to Chalmers settled at Tisbury, temp. Edward VI., came from Wales with the Earl of Pembroke, and was living in 1517 and 1541.[3] This John Davys married Matilda, daughter of ... Bridemore, who was buried as "Maud, Master Davys widow, 18 May, 1570." There was a numerous family of sons and daughters from this union.[4] We have only now to do with their eighth, and youngest son, John, who was living in 1517 and 1541.[5] He was of 'New Inn,' London; and thus, like his more famous son, was brought up to the study of the Law. This will appear authoritatively onward; but at this point it is needful to correct and explain a long-continued error, originated by ANTHONY à-WOOD "Athenæ," by Dr. Bliss, Vol. ii., p. 400) apparently, viz. that the father was "a wealthy tanner," and so Sir John, of "low extraction," etc., etc. I do not know that there should have been reason for shame had the paternal Davies been a 'tanner,' wealthy or otherwise, if otherwise he was that Christian gentleman which all reports represent. But the matter-of-fact is that through the premature deaths of his elder brothers, John Davyes, of Chisgrove, seems to have inherited the family possessions and wealth, and to have been in the front rank of the country gentry. The explanation of the mistake as to his having been a 'tanner,' is unexpectedly found in the Will of Thomas Bennett, brother (as we shall see) of Sir John Davies' mother. Among other things he leaves "a certain mess, or tent, in West Hatch now (1591) in the use of Edward Scannell, and all lands thereto belonging, [to] be held by John Bennett my son, Thomas Rose and Nicholas Graye as trustees to my own use for life, and after my decease to the use and behoof" of various relatives, of whom one is described as "Edward Davys of Tyssebury, _tanner_." This Edward Davys, tanner, was no doubt of the Chisgrove family; and hence the confusion. In all probability he was one of the younger sons, and so brother of our Sir John. When he came to make his Will (now before me), though engaged in trade, he asserts his gentility by styling himself 'gentleman.' So much in correction of a second important biographical mistake.

[Footnote 3: In MS. F 4, 18, Trinity College, Dublin, the same origin is given, but the place beyond ... 'wyn' is illegible in both.]

[Footnote 4: Hoare's Wilts. gives many names; but his pedigrees are rarely trustworthy; as a rule, are exceedingly untrustworthy.]

[Footnote 5: The MSS. of note _supra_.]

John Davyes, of Chisgrove, was married to Mary, daughter of John Bennett (alias Pitt) of Pitt House, Wilts., (Visitation of Wilts., 1563) by Agnes his wife, daughter of ........ Toppe, of Fenny Sutton, in Wilts. Hoare[6] and others, give ample proof of the almost lordly position of the Bennetts. Woolrych observes (1869) "The Bennetts of Pyt, have been well known in our own time. The struggles of Bennet and Astley for the representation of the county are remembered as severe and costly."[7] Thus if Davyes of Chisgrove was of good blood in the county, he certainly advanced himself when he wooed and won a daughter of the house of Bennett (or Benett). They had at least three sons. The first was Matthew, who became D.D., Vicar of Writtle, Essex. Hoare (as before) calls him second son, and states that he died unmarried. Both are inaccuracies. The Tisbury Register shews that he was the eldest not the second son; and the Will of our Sir John remembers his family.[8] The second son was (probably) the Edward who became a "tanner." He was baptized at Tisbury 6th December, 1566. He too is named in our Sir John's Will. The third was the subject of our Memorial-Introduction. The following is his baptismal entry from (_a_) the paper or scroll-copy, (_b_) the parchment or extended register of Tisbury--_literatim_:

[Footnote 6: Wilts., as before, on Davies, Vol. IV. part I., p. 136; on Bennetts, Vol. III., part II., p. 107.]

[Footnote 7: Lives of Eminent Serjeants, 2 vols., 8vo. (1869). By H. William Woolrych, Sergeant-at-Law: Vol. I., p. 187. Considerable industry is shown in this work, but it literally swarms with blunders.]

[Footnote 8: In the fuller Life to be prefixed to the Prose Works, I hope to furnish more details.]

(_a_) Paper MS.: 1569 Aprill xvj. John the sonne of John Dauy was crysten'd.

(_b_) Parchment MS.: Anno dni 1569 Aprill 16 John the sonne of John Davis bapt.[9]

There were two sisters, Edith and Maria. Master John was in his 11th year only when he lost his father, who died in 1580. The Carte MS. "Notes" (as before) tell us: "his father dyed when hee was very young and left him with his 2 brothers to his mother to bee educated. She therefore brought them vpp all to learning." The same "Notes" state "y^{t} Iohn off whom we now write, being designed for a lawyer, neglected his learning, butt being first a scholar in Winchester Colledge, was afterwards removed to New Colledge in Oxford." According to Chalmers (History of Oxford: I. p. 105) he became in Michaelmas term 1585, a Commoner of Queen's College, Oxford. From thence he removed in 1587 (not 1588 as usually stated e.g. by Wood to George Chalmers and Woolrych). The Admission Register of the Middle Temple contains his entry, and it is interesting additionally as establishing that his father was of the New Inn, London, and so of the legal profession:

f. 193 D. Teio Die februarij A^o 1587:

Mr Iohes Davius filius tertius Johis Davis de Tisburie in Com Wiltes gen de nov hospitio gen admissus est in societate medij Templi et obligat^r vna m ' m^r is Lewes et Raynolde et dat p fine--xx^s.[10]

[Footnote 9: In the same I intend to give account of these Registers, and the many Davies entries, &c.]

[Footnote 10: From the original books, as _supra_. See Pearce's Inns of Court, p. 293, where it is stated that the elder Davies was a legal practitioner in Wilts.]

This 'entry' renders null all speculations as to whether by 'New Inn' were not intended 'New Hall' Oxford, &c. &c.; and it is a third correction of important biographical errors hitherto.

It is to be regretted that other Records of New Inn commence only with the year 1674. So that we are without light on the residence in the Middle Temple.