Part 9

What busy motions, what wild engines stand On tiptoe in their giddy braynes! th' have fire Already in their bosomes, and their hand Already reaches at a sword; they hire Poysons to speed thee; yet through all the Land What one comes to reveale what they conspire? Goe now, make much of these; wage still their wars And bring home on thy brest, more thanklesse scarrs.

LVII.

Why did I spend my life, and spill my blood, That thy firme hand for ever might sustaine A well-pois'd scepter? does it now seeme good Thy brother's blood be spilt, life spent in vaine? 'Gainst thy owne sons and brothers thou hast stood In armes, when lesser cause was to complaine: And now crosse Fates a watch about thee keepe, Can'st thou be carelesse now? now can'st thou sleep?

LVIII.

Where art thou man? what cowardly mistake Of thy great selfe, hath stolne king Herod from thee? O call thy selfe home to thy self, wake, wake, And fence the hanging sword Heav'n throws upon thee. Redeeme a worthy wrath, rouse thee, and shake Thy selfe into a shape that may become thee. Be Herod, and thou shalt not misse from mee Immortall stings to thy great thoughts, and thee.

LIX.

So said, her richest snake, which to her wrist For a beseeming bracelet she had ty'd (A speciall worme it was as ever kist The foamy lips of Cerberus) she apply'd To the king's heart: the snake no sooner hist, But Vertue heard it, and away she hy'd: Dire flames diffuse themselves through every veine: This done, home to her Hell she hy'd amaine.

LX.

He wakes, and with him (ne're to sleepe) new feares: His sweat-bedewed bed hath now betraid him To a vast field of thornes; ten thousand speares All pointed in his heart seem'd to invade him: So mighty were th' amazing characters With which his feeling dreame had thus dismay'd him, He his owne fancy-framèd foes defies: In rage, My armes, give me my armes, he cryes.

LXI.

As when a pile of food-preparing fire, The breath of artificiall lungs embraves, The caldron-prison'd waters streight conspire And beat the hot brasse with rebellious waves; He murmurs, and rebukes their bold desire; Th' impatient liquor frets, and foames, and raves, Till his o're-flowing pride suppresse the flame Whence all his high spirits and hot courage came.

LXII.

So boyles the firèd Herod's blood-swolne brest, Not to be slak't but by a sea of blood: His faithlesse crowne he feeles loose on his crest, Which a false tyrant's head ne're firmely stood. The worme of jealous envy and unrest To which his gnaw'd heart is the growing food, Makes him, impatient of the lingring light, Hate the sweet peace of all-composing Night.

LXIII.

A thousand prophecies that talke strange things Had sowne of old these doubts in his deepe brest. And now of late came tributary kings, Bringing him nothing but new feares from th' East, More deepe suspicions, and more deadly stings, With which his feav'rous cares their cold increast. And now his dream (Hel's fireband) still more bright, Shew'd him his feares, and kill'd him with the sight.

LXIV.

No sooner therefore shall the Morning see (Night hangs yet heavy on the lids of Day) But all the counsellours must summon'd bee, To meet their troubled lord: without delay Heralds and messengers immediately Are sent about, who poasting every way To th' heads and officers of every band, Declare who sends, and what is his command.

LXV.

Why art thou troubled, Herod? what vaine feare Thy blood-revolving brest to rage doth move? Heaven's King, Who doffs Himselfe weak flesh to weare, Comes not to rule in wrath, but serve in love. Nor would He this thy fear'd crown from thee teare, But give thee a better with Himselfe above. Poor jealousie! why should He wish to prey Vpon thy crowne, Who gives His owne away?

LXVI.

Make to thy reason, man, and mock thy doubts, Looke how below thy feares their causes are; Thou art a souldier, Herod; send thy scouts, See how Hee's furnish't for so fear'd a warre? What armour does He weare? A few thin clouts. His trumpets? tender cries; His men to dare So much? rude shepheards: what His steeds? alas Poore beasts! a slow oxe and a simple asse.

_Il fine del primo Libro._

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

See our Essay for critical remarks on the original and CRASHAW'S interpretation. These things may be recorded:

St. viii. line 6. '(His shop of flames) he _fries_ himself.' This verb 'fries,' like 'stick' and some others, had not in Elizabethan times and later, that colloquial, and therefore in such a context ludicrous, sound that it has to us. In MARLOWE'S or JONSON'S translation of Ovid's fifteenth elegy (book i.) the two lines which originally ran thus,

'Lofty Lucretius shall live that hour That Nature shall dissolve this earthly bower,'

were afterwards altered by JONSON himself to,

'Then shall Lucretius' lofty numbers die, When earth and seas in fire and flame shall _frie_.'

In another way one of our most ludicrous-serious experiences of printers' errors was in a paper contributed by us to an American religious periodical. The subject was Affliction, and we remarked that God still, as of old with the 'three children' (so-called) permits His people to be put into the furnace of 'fiery trials,' wherein He _tries_ them whether they be ore or dross. To our horror we found the _t_ changed into _f_, and so read sensationally '_fries_'--all the worse that some might think it the author's own word.

St. xxviii. and xxx. The star Lucifer or Phosporos, to whom 'the droves of stars that guild the morn, in charge were given,' can never climb the North or reach the zenith, being conquered by the effulgence of the sun of day. When did the fable of the angel Lucifer, founded on an astronomical appearance, mingle itself as it has done here, and grandly in MILTON, and in the popular mind generally, with the biblical history of Satan?

St. xxxvi. line 2. TURNBULL perpetuates the misprint of 'whose' for 'my' from 1670.

St. li. line 3, 'linage' = 'lineage.' For once 1670 is correct in reading 'linage' for the misprint 'image' of 1646 and 1648. The original is literally as follows:

'Herod the liege of Augustus, a man now agèd, Then ruled over the royal courts of David: Not of the royal _line_ ...'

St. lix. line 3, 'a special worm:' so SHAKESPEARE (Ant. and Cleopatra, v. 2), 'the pretty worm' and 'the worm.'

St. lx. Every one will be reminded of the tent-scene in Richard III.

At end of this translation PEREGRINE PHILLIPS adds 'cetera desunt--heu! heu!'

MARINO and CRASHAW have left proper names in the poem unannotated. They are mostly trite; but these may be noticed: st. xlii. l. 4, Erisichton (see Ovid, _Met._ viii. 814 &c.); he offended Ceres, and was by her punished with continual hunger, so that he devoured his own limbs: line 5, Tantalus the fabled son of Zeus and Pluto, whose doom in the 'lower world,' has been celebrated from Homer (_Od._ xi. 582) onward: ib. Atreus, grandson of Tantalus, immortalised in infamy with his brother Thyestes: ib. Progne = Procne, wife of Tereus, who was metamorphosed into a swallow (Apollod. iii. 14, 8): l. 6, Lycaon, like Tantalus, with his sons changed by Zeus into wolves (Ovid; Paus. viii. 3, § 1): st. xliii. line 2, Medea, most famous of the mythical sorcerers: ib. Jezebel, 2 Kings ix. 10, 36: line 3, Circe, another mythical sorceress: Scylla, daughter of Typho and rival of Circe, who transformed her (Ovid, _Met._ xiv. 1-74); cf. Paradise Lost: line 4, the Paræ = the Fates, ever spinning: st. xliv. lines 7-8, all classic monsters: st. xlv. line 1, 'Diomed's horses' = the fabled 'mares' fed on human flesh (Apollod. ii. 5, § 8): 'Phereus' dogs,' or Fereus of mythical celebrity: line 2, Therodamas or Theromedon, king of Scythia, who fed lions with human blood (Ovid, _Ibis_ 385, _Pont._ i. 2, 121): line 3, Busiris, associated with Osiris of Egypt; but Herodotus denies that the Egyptians ever offered human sacrifices: line 4, Sylla = Sulla: line 5, Lestrigonians, ancient inhabitants of Sicily who fed on human flesh (Ovid, _Met._ xiv. 233, &c.): line 6, Procrustes, _i.e._ the Stretcher, being a surname of the famous robber Damastes (Ovid, _Met._ vii. 438): line 7, Scyron, or Sciron (Ovid, _Met._ vii. 444-447), who threw his captives from the rocks: line 8, Schinis, more accurately Sinis or Sinnis, a celebrated robber, his name being connected with {sinomai}, expressing the manner in which he tore his victims to pieces by tying them to branches of two trees, which he bent together and then let go (Ovid, _Met._ vii. 440); according to some he was surnamed Procrustes, but MARINO and CRASHAW distinguish the two: st. xlvi. line 2, Mezentius, a mythical king of the Etruscans (Virgil, _Æneid_, viii. 480, &c.); he put men to death by tying them to a corpse: ib. Geryon, a fabulous king of Hesperia (Apollod. ii. 5, § 10); under this name the very reverend Dr. J.H. Newman has composed one of his most remarkable poems: line 3, Phalaris, _the_ tyrant of Sicily, whose 'brazen bull' of torture gave point to Cicero's words concerning him, as 'crudelissimus omnium tyrannorum' (in Verr. iv. 33): ib. Ochus = Artaxerxes III. a merciless king of Persia: ib. Ezelinus or Ezzelinus, another wicked tyrant.

THE HYMN OF SAINTE THOMAS,

IN ADORATION OF THE BLESSED SACRAMENT.[42]

Ecce panis Angelorum, Adoro te.

With all the powres my poor heart hath 1 Of humble loue and loyall faith, Thus lowe (my hidden life!) I bow to Thee Whom too much loue hath bow'd more low for me. Down, down, proud Sense! discourses dy! 5 Keep close, my soul's inquiring ey! Not touch, nor tast, must look for more But each sitt still in his own dore.

Your ports are all superfluous here, Saue that which lets in Faith, the eare. 10 Faith is my skill: Faith can beleiue As fast as Loue new lawes can giue. Faith is my force: Faith strength affords To keep pace with those powrfull words. And words more sure, more sweet then they, 15 Loue could not think, Truth could not say.

O let Thy wretch find that releife Thou didst afford the faithful theife. Plead for me, Loue! alleage and show That Faith has farther here to goe 20 And lesse to lean on: because than _then_ Though hidd as God, wounds with Thee man: Thomas might touch, none but might see At least the suffring side of Thee; And that too was Thy self which Thee did couer, 25 But here eu'n that's hid too which hides the other.

Sweet, consider then, that I Though allow'd nor hand nor eye To reach at Thy lou'd face; nor can Tast Thee God, or touch Thee man, 30 Both yet beleiue; and witnesse Thee My Lord too and my God, as lowd as he.

Help, Lord, my faith, my hope increase, And fill my portion in Thy peace: Giue loue for life; nor let my dayes 35 Grow, but in new powres to Thy name and praise.

O dear memoriall of that Death Which liues still, and allowes vs breath! Rich, royall food! Bountyfull bread! Whose vse denyes vs to the dead; 40 Whose vitall gust alone can giue The same leaue both to eat and liue; Liue euer bread of loues, and be My life, my soul, my surer-selfe to mee.

O soft self-wounding Pelican! 45 Whose brest weepes balm for wounded man: Ah! this way bend Thy benign floud To a bleeding heart that gaspes for blood. That blood, whose least drops soueraign be To wash my worlds of sins from me. 50

Come Loue! come Lord! and that long day For which I languish, come away. When this dry soul those eyes shall see, And drink the vnseal'd sourse of Thee: When Glory's sun, Faith's shades shall chase, 55 And for Thy veil giue me Thy face. Amen.

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

The original title is 'A Hymne to our Saviour by the Faithfull Receiver of the Sacrament.' As before in the title of 'The Weeper' 'Sainte' is misspelled 'Sanite.'

Line 1 in 1648 reads 'power.'

" 8, 'sitt still in his own dore.'

" 9, 'ports' = openings or gates. So in Edinburgh the 'West-port' = a gate of the city in the old west wall.

Line 21, 'than' = 'then.' See our PHINEAS FLETCHER, as before.

Line 29, TURNBULL leaves undetected the 1670 misprint of 'teach' for 'reach.'

Line 33, 1648 supplies 'my faith,' which in our text is inadvertently dropped; 1670 continues the error, which of course TURNBULL repeated.

Line 36, 1670 edition reads 'Grow, but in new pow'rs to name thy Praise.'

Lines 37-38 are inadvertently omitted in 1648 edition.

Our text, as will be seen, is arranged in stanzas of irregular form. In 1648 edition it is one continuous poem thus printed:

--------------------- --------------------- --------------------- G.

LAVDA SION SALVATOREM:

THE HYMN FOR THE BL. SACRAMENT.[43]

I.

Rise, royall Sion! rise and sing Thy soul's kind shepheard, thy hart's King. Stretch all thy powres; call if you can Harpes of heaun to hands of man. This soueraign subject sitts aboue The best ambition of thy loue.

II.

Lo, the Bread of Life, this day's Triumphant text, prouokes thy prayse: _incites_ The liuing and life-giuing bread To the great twelue distributed; When Life, Himself, at point to dy Of loue, was His Own legacy.

III.

Come, Loue! and let vs work a song Lowd and pleasant, sweet and long; Let lippes and hearts lift high the noise Of so iust and solemn ioyes, Which on His white browes this bright day Shall hence for euer bear away.

IV.

Lo, the new law of a new Lord, With a new Lamb blesses the board: The agèd Pascha pleads not yeares But spyes Loue's dawn, and disappeares. Types yield to truthes; shades shrink away; And their Night dyes into our Day.

V.

But lest that dy too, we are bid Euer to doe what He once did: And by a mindfull, mystick breath That we may liue, reuiue His death; With a well-bles't bread and wine, Transsum'd and taught to turn diuine.

VI.

The Heaun-instructed house of Faith Here a holy dictate hath, That they but lend their form and face;-- Themselues with reuerence leaue their place, Nature, and name, to be made good, By a nobler bread, more needfull blood.

VII.

Where Nature's lawes no leaue will giue, Bold Faith takes heart, and dares beleiue In different species: name not things, Himself to me my Saviovr brings; As meat in that, as drink in this, But still in both one Christ He is.

VIII.

The receiuing mouth here makes Nor wound nor breach in what he takes. Let one, or one thovsand be Here diuiders, single he Beares home no lesse, all they no more, Nor leaue they both lesse then before.

IX.

Though in it self this soverain Feast Be all the same to euery guest, Yet on the same (life-meaning) Bread The child of death eates himself dead: Nor is't Loue's fault, but Sin's dire skill That thus from Life can death distill.

X.

When the blest signes thou broke shalt see Hold but thy faith intire as He Who, howsoe're clad, cannot come Lesse then whole Christ in euery crumme. In broken formes a stable Faith Vntouch't her precious totall hath.

XI.

So the life-food of angells then Bow'd to the lowly mouths of men! The children's Bread, the Bridegroom's Wine; Not to be cast to dogges, or swine.

XII.

Lo, the full, finall Sacrifice On which all figures fix't their eyes: The ransom'd Isack, and his ramme; The manna, and the paschal lamb.

XIII.

Iesv Master, iust and true! Our food, and faithfull Shephard too! O by Thy self vouchsafe to keep, As with Thy selfe Thou feed'st Thy sheep.

XIV.

O let that loue which thus makes Thee Mix with our low mortality, Lift our lean soules, and sett vs vp Con-victors of Thine Own full cup, Coheirs of saints. That so all may Drink the same wine; and the same way: Nor change the pastvre, but the place, To feed of Thee, in Thine Own face. Amen.

NOTES.

In 1648, line 3 has 'thou' for 'you:' line 4 'and' for 'to:' line 6, 'ambitious:' line 19, 'Lord' is misprinted 'Law:' line 39, 'names:' line 42 spells 'one' as 'on:' line 55, our text (1652) misprints 'shall:' line 75, 1648 reads 'mean' for 'lean.' G.

PRAYER:

AN ODE WHICH WAS PRÆFIXED TO A LITTLE PRAYER-BOOK GIVEN TO A YOUNG GENTLE-WOMAN.[44]

Lo here a little volume, but great book! 1 (Feare it not, sweet, It is no hipocrit) Much larger in itselfe then in its looke. A nest of new-born sweets; 5 Whose natiue fires disdaining To ly thus folded, and complaining Of these ignoble sheets, Affect more comly bands (Fair one) from thy kind hands; 10 And confidently look To find the rest Of a rich binding in your brest. It is, in one choise handfull, Heauvn; and all Heaun's royall host; incampt thus small 15 To proue that true, Schooles vse to tell, Ten thousand angels in one point can dwell. It is Loue's great artillery Which here contracts it self, and comes to ly 19 Close-couch't in your white bosom; and from thence As from a snowy fortresse of defence, Against the ghostly foes to take your part, And fortify the hold of your chast heart. It is an armory of light; Let constant vse but keep it bright, 25 You'l find it yields To holy hands and humble hearts More swords and sheilds Then sin hath snares, or Hell hath darts. Only be sure 30 The hands be pure That hold these weapons; and the eyes, Those of turtles, chast and true; Wakefull and wise: Here is a freind shall fight for you; 35 Hold but this book before your heart, Let prayer alone to play his part; But O the heart That studyes this high art Must be a sure house-keeper: 40 And yet no sleeper. Dear soul, be strong! Mercy will come e're long And bring his bosome fraught with blessings, Flowers of neuer-fading graces 45 To make immortall dressings For worthy soules, whose wise embraces Store vp themselues for Him, Who is alone The Spovse of virgins and the virgin's Son. But if the noble Bridegroom, when He come, 50 Shall find the loytering heart from home; Leauing her chast aboad To gadde abroad Among the gay mates of the god of flyes; To take her pleasure, and to play 55 And keep the deuill's holyday; To dance in th' sunshine of some smiling But beguiling Spheare of sweet and sugred lyes; Some slippery pair 60 Of false, perhaps, as fair, Flattering but forswearing, eyes; Doubtlesse some other heart Will gett the start Meanwhile, and stepping in before 65 Will take possession of that sacred store Of hidden sweets and holy ioyes; Words which are not heard with eares (Those tumultuous shops of noise) Effectuall whispers, whose still voice 70 The soul it selfe more feeles then heares; Amorous languishments; luminous trances; Sights which are not seen with eyes; Spirituall and soul-peircing glances Whose pure and subtil lightning flyes 75 Home to the heart, and setts the house on fire, And melts it down in sweet desire Yet doth not stay To ask the windows' leaue, to passe that way; Delicious deaths; soft exalations 80 Of soul; dear and diuine annihilations; A thousand vnknown rites Of ioyes and rarefy'd delights; A hundred thousand goods, glories, and graces: And many a mystick thing 85 Which the diuine embraces Of the deare Spouse of spirits, with them will bring, For which it is no shame That dull mortality must not know a name. Of all this hidden store 90 Of blessings, and ten thousand more (If when He come He find the heart from home) Doubtlesse He will vnload Himself some other where, 95 And poure abroad His pretious sweets On the fair soul whom first He meets. O fair, O fortunate! O riche! O dear! O happy and thrice-happy she 100 Deare silver-breasted dove Who ere she be, Whose early loue With wingèd vowes Makes hast to meet her morning Spouse, 105 And close with His immortall kisses. Happy indeed, who neuer misses To improue that pretious hour, And euery day Seize her sweet prey, 110 All fresh and fragrant as He rises, Dropping with a baulmy showr, A delicious dew of spices; O let the blissfull heart hold it fast Her heaunly arm-full; she shall tast 115 At once ten thousand paradises; She shall haue power To rifle and deflour The rich and roseall spring of those rare sweets Which with a swelling bosome there she meets: 120 Boundles and infinite ___________ ___________ Bottomles treasures Of pure inebriating pleasures. Happy proof! she shal discouer What ioy, what blisse, 125 How many heau'ns at once it is To haue her God become her Lover.

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

The text of 1648 corresponds pretty closely, except in the usual changes of orthography, with our text (1652): and 1670, in like manner, follows that of 1646. 1646 edition furnishes some noticeable variations:

Line 1, 'large' for 'great.'

" 2-4 restored to their place here. TURNBULL gives them in a foot-note with this remark: 'So in the Paris edition of 1652. In all the others,

Fear it not, sweet, It is no hypocrite, Much larger in itself, than in its book.'

This is a mistake. The only edition that omits the lines (5-13) besides the first (1646) and substitutes these three is that of 1670.

Lines 5-13 not in 1646 edition: first appeared in 1648 edition.

" 14, 'choise' for 'rich.'

" 15, 'hoasts' for 'host.'

" 17, 'Ten thousand.'

" 20. Our text (1652) here and elsewhere misreads 'their:' silently corrected.

Line 22. Our text (1652) misprints 'their' for 'the:' as 'the' is the reading of 1648 and 1670, I have adopted it.

Line 24, 'the' for 'an.'

" 27, 'hand' for 'hands.'

" 37, 1648 edition has 'its' for 'his.'