Part 7

Rise, thou best and brightest morning! Rosy with a double red; With thine own blush thy cheeks adorning, And the dear drops this day were shed.

All the purple pride, that laces The crimson curtains of thy bed, Guilds thee not with so sweet graces, Nor setts thee in so rich a red.

Of all the fair-cheek't flowrs that fill thee, None so fair thy bosom strowes, As this modest maiden lilly Our sins haue sham'd into a rose.

Bid thy golden god, the sun, Burnisht in his best beames rise, Put all his red-ey'd rubies on; These rubies shall putt out their eyes.

Let him make poor the purple East, Search what the world's close cabinets keep, Rob the rich births of each bright nest That flaming in their fair beds sleep.

Let him embraue his own bright tresses With a new morning made of gemmes; And wear, in those his wealthy dresses, Another day of diadems.

When he hath done all he may To make himselfe rich in his rise, All will be darknes to the day That breakes from one of these bright eyes.

And soon this sweet truth shall appear, Dear Babe, ere many dayes be done; The Morn shall come to meet Thee here, And leaue her own neglected sun.

Here are beautyes shall bereaue him Of all his eastern paramours. His Persian louers all shall leaue him, And swear faith to Thy sweeter powres; Nor while they leave him shall they lose the sun, But in Thy fairest eyes find two for one.

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

St. ii. line 1,

'All the purple pride that laces;'

the reference is to the empurpled lighter and lace- (or gauze-) like clouds of the morning. The heavier clouds are the 'crimson curtains,' the 'purple laces' the fleecy, lace-like, and empurpled streakings of the lighter and dissolving clouds, which the Poet likens to the lace that edged the coverlet, and possibly other parts of the bed and bedstead. SHAKESPEARE describes a similar appearance with the same word, but uses it in the sense of inter or cross lacing, when he makes Juliet say (iii. 5),

'look, love, what envious streaks Do _lace_ the severing clouds in yonder East.'

So too in stanza v. 'each sparkling nest,' the flame-coloured clouds are intended. 'Nest,' like 'bud,' is a favourite word with CRASHAW, and he uses it freely. In 1648 edition, st. iii. line 2 reads 'showes;' stanza v. line 2, 'cabinets;' stanza viii. line 5, 'and meet;' stanza ix. 'paramours' = lovers, wooers, _not_ as now signifying loose love. G.

IN THE GLORIOVS EPIPHANIE OF OVR LORD GOD:

A HYMN SVNG AS BY THE THREE KINGS.[38]

_1 Kinge._ Bright Babe! Whose awfull beautyes make 1 The morn incurr a sweet mistake;

_2 Kinge._ For Whom the officious Heauns deuise To disinheritt the sun's rise:

_3 Kinge._ Delicately to displace 5 The day, and plant it fairer in Thy face.

_1 Kinge._ O Thou born King of loues!

_2 Kinge._ Of lights!

_3 Kinge._ Of ioyes!

_Chorus._ Look vp, sweet Babe, look vp and see 10 For loue of Thee, Thus farr from home The East is come To seek her self in Thy sweet eyes.

_1 Kinge._ We, who strangely went astray, 15 Lost in a bright Meridian night.

_2 Kinge._ A darknes made of too much day.

_3 Kinge._ Becken'd from farr By Thy fair starr, 20 Lo, at last haue found our way.

_Chorus._ To Thee, Thou Day of Night! Thou East of West! Lo, we at last haue found the way To Thee, the World's great vniuersal East, The generall and indifferent Day. 25

_1 Kinge._ All-circling point! all-centring sphear! The World's one, round, æternall year:

_2 Kinge._ Whose full and all-vnwrinkled face Nor sinks nor swells with time or place;

_3 Kinge._ But euery where and euery while 30 Is one consistent, solid smile:

_1 Kinge._ Not vext and tost

_2 Kinge._ 'Twixt Spring and frost;

_3 Kinge._ Nor by alternate shredds of light, Sordidly shifting hands with shades and Night. 35

_Chorus._ O little all! in Thy embrace The World lyes warm, and likes his place; Nor does his full globe fail to be Kist on both his cheeks by Thee. Time is too narrow for Thy year, 40 Nor makes the whole World Thy half-sphear.

_1 Kinge._ To Thee, to Thee From him we flee.

_2 Kinge._ From him, whom by a more illustrious ly, The blindnes of the World did call the eye. 45

_3 Kinge._ To Him, Who by these mortall clouds hast made Thyself our sun, though Thine Own shade.

_1 Kinge._ Farewell, the World's false light! Farewell, the white Ægypt; a long farewell to thee 50 Bright idol, black idolatry: The dire face of inferior darknes, kis't And courted in the pompus mask of a more specious mist.

_2 Kinge._ Farewell, farewell The proud and misplac't gates of Hell, 55 Pertch't in the Morning's way _perched._ And double-guilded as the doores of Day: The deep hypocrisy of Death and Night More desperately dark, because more bright.

_3 Kinge._ Welcome, the World's sure way! 60 Heavn's wholsom ray.

_Chorus._ Wellcome to vs; and we (Sweet!) to our selues, in Thee.

_1 Kinge._ The deathles Heir of all Thy Father's day!

_2 Kinge._ Decently born! 65 Embosom'd in a much more rosy Morn: The blushes of Thy all-vnblemisht mother.

_3 Kinge._ No more that other Aurora shall sett ope Her ruby casements, or hereafter hope 70 From mortall eyes To meet religious welcomes at her rise.

_Chorus._ We (pretious ones!) in you haue won A gentler Morn, a iuster sun.

_1 Kinge._ His superficiall beames sun-burn't our skin; 75

_2 Kinge._ But left within

_3 Kinge._ The Night and Winter still of Death and Sin.

_Chorus._ Thy softer yet more certaine darts Spare our eyes, but peirce our harts:

_1 Kinge._ Therfore with his proud Persian spoiles 80

_2 Kinge._ We court Thy more concerning smiles.

_3 Kinge._ Therfore with his disgrace We guild the humble cheek of this chast place;

_Chorus._ And at Thy feet powr forth his face.

_1 Kinge._ The doating Nations now no more 85 Shall any day but Thine adore.

_2 Kinge._ Nor--much lesse--shall they leaue these eyes For cheap Ægyptian deityes.

_3 Kinge._ In whatsoe're more sacred shape Of ram, he-goat, or reuerend ape; 90 Those beauteous rauishers opprest so sore The too-hard-tempted nations.

_1 Kinge._ Neuer more By wanton heyfer shall be worn

_2 Kinge._ A garland, or a guilded horn: 95 The altar-stall'd ox, fatt Osyris now With his fair sister cow

_3 Kinge._ Shall kick the clouds no more; but lean and tame,

_Chorus._ See His horn'd face, and dy for shame: And Mithra now shall be no name. 100

_1 Kinge._ No longer shall the immodest lust Of adulterous godles dust

_2 Kinge._ Fly in the face of Heau'n; as if it were The poor World's fault that He is fair. 105

_3 Kinge._ Nor with peruerse loues and religious rapes Reuenge Thy bountyes in their beauteous shapes; And punish best things worst; because they stood Guilty of being much for them too good.

_1 Kinge._ Proud sons of Death! that durst compell 110 Heau'n it self to find them Hell:

_2 Kinge._ And by strange witt of madnes wrest From this World's East the other's West.

_3 Kinge._ All-idolizing wormes! that thus could crowd And vrge their sun into Thy cloud; 115 Forcing His sometimes eclips'd face to be A long deliquium to the light of Thee.

_Chorus._ Alas! with how much heauyer shade The shamefac't lamp hung down his head For that one eclipse he made, 120 Then all those he suffered!

_1 Kinge._ For this he look't so bigg; and euery morn With a red face confes't his scorn. Or hiding his vex't cheeks in a hir'd mist Kept them from being so vnkindly kis't. 125

_2 Kinge._ It was for this the Day did rise So oft with blubber'd eyes: For this the Evening wept; and we ne're knew But call'd it deaw.

_3 Kinge._ This dayly wrong 130 Silenc't the morning-sons, and damp't their song:

_Chorus._ Nor was't our deafnes, but our sins, that thus Long made th' harmonious orbes all mute to vs.

_1 Kinge._ Time has a day in store When this so proudly poor 135 And self-oppressèd spark, that has so long By the loue-sick World bin made Not so much their sun as shade: Weary of this glorious wrong From them and from himself shall flee 140 For shelter to the shadow of Thy tree:

_Chorus._ Proud to haue gain'd this pretious losse And chang'd his false crown for Thy crosse.

_2 Kinge._ That dark Day's clear doom shall define Whose is the master Fire, which sun should shine: 145 That sable judgment-seat shall by new lawes Decide and settle the great cause Of controuerted light:

_Chorus._ And Natur's wrongs rejoyce to doe Thee right.

_3 Kinge._ That forfeiture of Noon to Night shall pay 150 All the idolatrous thefts done by this Night of Day; And the great Penitent presse his own pale lipps With an elaborate loue-eclipse: To which the low World's lawes Shall lend no cause, 155

_Chorus._ Saue those domestick which He borrowes From our sins and His Own sorrowes.

_1 Kinge._ Three sad hours' sackcloth then shall show to vs His penance, as our fault, conspicuous:

_2 Kinge._ And He more needfully and nobly proue 160 The Nations' terror now then erst their loue.

_3 Kinge._ Their hated loues changd into wholsom feares:

_Chorus._ The shutting of His eye shall open their's.

_1 Kinge._ As by a fair-ey'd fallacy of Day Miss-ledde, before, they lost their way; 165 So shall they, by the seasonable fright Of an vnseasonable Night, Loosing it once again, stumble on true Light:

_2 Kinge._ And as before His too-bright eye Was their more blind idolatry; 170 So his officious blindnes now shall be Their black, but faithfull perspectiue of Thee:

_3 Kinge._ His new prodigious Night, Their new and admirable light, The supernaturall dawn of Thy pure Day; 175 While wondring they (The happy conuerts now of Him Whom they compell'd before to be their sin) Shall henceforth see To kisse him only as their rod, 180 Whom they so long courted as God.

_Chorus._ And their best vse of him they worship't, be To learn of him at last, to worship Thee.

_1 Kinge._ It was their weaknes woo'd his beauty; But it shall be 185 Their wisdome now, as well as duty, To injoy his blott; and as a large black letter Vse it to spell Thy beautyes better; And make the Night it self their torch to Thee.

_2 Kinge._ By the oblique ambush of this close night 190 Couch't in that conscious shade The right-ey'd Areopagite Shall with a vigorous guesse inuade And catch Thy quick reflex; and sharply see On this dark ground 195 To descant Thee.

_3 Kinge._ O prize of the rich Spirit! with what feirce chase Of his strong soul, shall he Leap at thy lofty face, And seize the swift flash, in rebound 200 From this obsequious cloud, Once call'd a sun, Till dearly thus vndone;

_Chorus._ Till thus triumphantly tam'd (O ye two Twinne svnnes!) and taught now to negotiate you. 205

_1 Kinge._ Thus shall that reuerend child of Light,

_2 Kinge._ By being scholler first of that new Night, Come forth great master of the mystick Day;

_3 Kinge._ And teach obscure mankind a more close way By the frugall negatiue light 210 Of a most wise and well-abusèd Night To read more legible Thine originall ray;

_Chorus._ And make our darknes serue Thy Day: Maintaining 'twixt Thy World and oures A commerce of contrary powres, 215 A mutuall trade 'Twixt sun and shade, By confederat black and white Borrowing Day and lending Night. 219

_1 Kinge._ Thus we, who when with all the noble powres That (at Thy cost) are call'd, not vainly, ours: We vow to make braue way Vpwards, and presse on for the pure intelligentiall prey; _2 Kinge._ At least to play The amorous spyes 225 And peep and proffer at Thy sparkling throne;

_3 Kinge._ In stead of bringing in the blissfull prize And fastening on Thine eyes: Forfeit our own And nothing gain 230 But more ambitious losse at last, of brain;

_Chorus._ Now by abasèd liddes shall learn to be Eagles; and shutt our eyes that we may see.

_The Close._

[_Chorus._] Therfore to Thee and Thine auspitious ray (Dread Sweet!) lo thus 236 At last by vs, The delegated eye of Day Does first his scepter, then himself, in solemne tribute pay. Thus he vndresses 240 His sacred vnshorn tresses; At Thy adorèd feet, thus he layes down

_1 Kinge._ His gorgeous tire Of flame and fire,

_2 Kinge._ His glittering robe. _3 Kinge._ His sparkling crown; 245

_1 Kinge._ His gold: _2 Kinge._ His mirrh: _3 Kinge._ His frankincense.

_Chorus._ To which he now has no pretence: For being show'd by this Day's light, how farr He is from sun enough to make Thy starr, His best ambition now is but to be 250 Somthing a brighter shadow, Sweet, of Thee. Or on Heaun's azure forhead high to stand Thy golden index; with a duteous hand Pointing vs home to our own sun The World's and his Hyperion. 255

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

The title in 1648 edition is simply 'A Hymne for the Epiphanie. Sung as by the three Kings.' Except the usual slight changes of orthography, the following are all the variations between the two texts necessary to record: and I give with them certain corrective and explanatory notes:

line 25, 'indifferent' is = impartial, not as now 'unconcerned.'

Line 52, 1648 edition misprints 'his't' for 'kis't.' In the 51st line the 'bright idol' is the sun.

Line 83, ib. reads 'thy' for 'this.'

" 95, 'a guilded horn.' Cf. Juvenal, Satire x.

" 99, ib. is given to 3d King. Throughout we have corrected a number of slips of the Paris printer in his figures.

Line 108, ib. spells 'to' for 'too.'

" 117, '_deliquium_' = swoon, faint. In chemistry = melting.

" 122, 1648 edition reads 'his' for 'this;' and I have adopted it.

Line 143, ib. reads 'deere:' a misprint.

" 155, ib. reads 'domesticks.'

" 180, ib. reads 'the' for 'their.'

" 186, ib. drops 'it.'

" 195, ib. reads 'what' for 'that,' and in next line 'his' for 'this,' of 1652: both adopted.

Line 212, 'legible' is = legibly.

" 224 and onward, in 1648 is printed 'least,' in our text (1652) 'lest.' Except in line 224 it is plainly = last, and so I read it in 231st and 237th.

See our Essay for Miltonic parallels with lines in this remarkable composition. Line 46, 'these mortal clouds,' _i.e._ of infant flesh. Cf. Sosp. d' Herode, stanza xxiii.

'That He whom the sun serves should faintly peep Through _clouds of infant flesh_.'

Line 114, 'And urge their sun into Thy cloud,' _i.e._ into becoming Thy cloud, forcing him to become 'a long deliquium to the light of thee.' Line 189, our text (1652) misprints 'in self.' Line 190, 'By the oblique ambush,' &c. The Kings continuing in the spirit of prophecy, and with words not to be understood till their fulfilment, pass on from the dimming of the sun at the Crucifixion to a second dimming, but this time through the splendour of a brighter light, at the conversion of him who was taken to preach to the Gentiles in the court of the Areopagites. The speaker, or rather CRASHAW, takes the view which at first sight may seem to be implied in the gospel narrative, that the light brighter than midday shone round about SAUL and his companions but not on them, they being couched in the conscious shade of the daylight. Throughout, there is a double allusion to this second dimming of the sun as manifesting Christ to St. Paul and the Gentiles, and to the dimming of the eyes, and the walking in darkness for a time of him who as a light on Earth was to manifest the True Light to the world. Throughout, too, there is a kind of parallelism indicated between the two lesser lights. Both rebellions were to be dimmed and brought into subjection, and then to shine forth 'right-eyed' in renewed and purified splendour as evidences of the Sun of Righteousness. Hence at the close, the chorus calls them 'ye twin-suns,'--and the words, 'Till thus triumphantly tamed' refer equally to both. The punctuation to make this clear should be '... sun, ... undone; ...' 'To negotiate you' (both word and metaphor being rather unhappily chosen) means, to pass you current as the true-stamped image of the Deity. 'O price of the rich Spirit' (line 197) may be made to refer to 'thee [O Christ], price of the rich spirit' of Paul, but 'may be' is almost too strong to apply to such an interpretation. It is far more consonant to the structure and tenor of the whole passage, to read it as an epithet applied to St. Paul: 'O prize of the rich Spirit of grace.' I have also without hesitation changed 'of this strong soul' into 'of _his_ strong soul.' 'Oblique ambush' may refer to the oblique rays of the sun now rays of darkness, but the primary reference is to the indirect manner and 'vigorous guess,' by which St. Paul, mentally glancing from one to the other light, learned through the dimming of the sun to believe in the Deity of Him who spake from out the dimming brightness. The same thought, though with a strained and less successful effort of expression, appears in the song of the third King, 'with that fierce chase,' &c.

Line 251. 'Somthing a brighter shadow (Sweet) of Thee.' Apparently a remembrance of a passage which THOMAS HEYWOOD, in his 'Hierarchie of the Angels,' gives from a Latin translation of PLATO, 'Lumen est umbra Dei et Deus est Lumen Luminis.' On which see our Essay. Perhaps the same gave rise to the thought that the sun eclipsed God, or shut Him out as a cloud or shade, or made night, _e.g._

'And urge their sun ... ... eclipse he made:' (lines 115-120). 'Not so much their sun as shade ... by this night of day:' (lines 138-151). G.

TO THE QVEEN'S MAIESTY.[39]

MADAME, 1 'Mongst those long rowes of crownes that guild your race, These royall sages sue for decent place: The day-break of the Nations; their first ray, When the dark World dawn'd into Christian Day, 5 And smil'd i' th' Babe's bright face; the purpling bud And rosy dawn of the right royall blood; Fair first-fruits of the Lamb! sure kings in this, They took a kingdom while they gaue a kisse. But the World's homage, scarse in these well blown, 10 We read in you (rare queen) ripe and full-grown. For from this day's rich seed of diadems Does rise a radiant croppe of royalle stemms, A golden haruest of crown'd heads, that meet And crowd for kisses from the Lamb's white feet: 15 In this illustrious throng, your lofty floud Swells high, fair confluence of all high-born bloud: With your bright head, whole groues of scepters bend Their wealthy tops, and for these feet contend. So swore the Lamb's dread Sire: and so we see't, 20 Crownes, and the heads they kisse, must court these feet. Fix here, fair majesty! May your heart ne're misse To reap new crownes and kingdoms from that kisse; Nor may we misse the ioy to meet in you The aged honors of this day still new. 25 May the great time, in you, still greater be, While all the year is your epiphany; While your each day's deuotion duly brings Three kingdomes to supply this day's three kings.

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

In 1648 the title is 'To the Queene's Majestie upon his dedicating to her the foregoing Hymne, viz. "A Hymne for the Epiphanie,"' which there precedes, but in 1652 follows, the dedicatory lines to the Queen. 1648 furnishes these variations: line 7 misprints 'down' for 'dawn:' line 11 reads 'deare' for 'rare:' line 14 'royall' for 'golden:' line 18 corrects our text's misprint of 'whose' for 'whole,' which I have accepted: line 20 reads 'great' for 'dread.'

In line 3 we read

'Those royall sages sue for decent place.'

We know that the King on Twelfth-day presented gold, frankincense and myrrh, and so perhaps did the Queen. But these gifts were not presented to the magi-kings, and CRASHAW seems to sue on behalf of 'these royall sages.' The explanation doubtless is that this was a verse-letter to the Queen, enclosing as a gift his Epiphany Hymn 'sung as by the three Kings.'

In line 5 'the purpling bud,' &c. requires study. Led by the (erroneous) punctuation (face,) I supposed this clause to refer to the 'Babe.' But would our Poet have said that the 'dawn of the world smiled on the Babe's face,' and in the same breath have called the face a 'rosy dawn'? Looking to this, and his rather profuse employment of 'bud,' I now believe the clause to be another description of the kings, and punctuate (face;). The rhythm of the passage is certainly improved thereby and made more like that of CRASHAW, and the words 'right royall blood,' which may be thought to become difficult, can be thus explained. The races of the heathen kings were not 'royal,' their authority being usurped and falsely derived from false gods, and the kingly blood first became truly royal when the kings recognised the supreme sovereignty of the King of kings and the derivation of their authority from Him, and when they were in turn recognised by Him. Hence the use of the epithet 'purpling,' the Christian or Christ-accepting kings being the first who were truly 'born in the purple,' or '_right_ royall blood.'

In lines 15-18, as punctuated in preceding editions, the Poet is made to arrange his words after a fashion hardly to be called English, and to jumble his metaphors like a poetaster or 4th of July orator in America. But both sense and poetry are restored by taking the (!) after 'blood' as at least equal to (:), and by replacing 'whose' by 'whole,' as in 1648. This seems to us restoration, not change. Even thus read, however, the passage is somewhat cloudy; but the construction is--the groves of sceptres of your high-born ancestors bend with you their wealthy tops, when you bow down your head. Our Poet is fond of inversions, and they are sometimes more obscure than they ought to be. Line 20 = Psalm i., and cf. Philip. ii. 11. G.

VPON EASTER DAY.[40]