Chapter 1

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THE LIVES _Of the Most Famous_ _English Poets_.

(1687)

BY _William Winstanley_.

A FACSIMILE REPRODUCTION WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY _William Riley Parker_

GAINESVILLE, FLORIDA SCHOLARS' FACSIMILES & REPRINTS 1963

SCHOLARS' FACSIMILES & REPRINTS 1605 N.W. 14th AVE. GAINESVILLE, FLORIDA, U.S.A.

HARRY R. WARFEL, GENERAL EDITOR

REPRODUCED FROM A COPY OWNED BY HARRY R. WARFEL

L.C. CATALOG CARD NUMBER: 63-7095

MANUFACTURED IN THE U.S.A.

LETTERPRESS BY J.N. ANZEL, INC. PHOTOLITHOGRAPHY BY EDWARDS BROTHERS BINDING BY UNIVERSAL-DIXIE BINDERY

_Introduction_

This book merits more attention and respect from literary historians than thus far have been accorded it. The case must be stated carefully. The work has obvious faults and limitations, which probably account for its never having been reprinted since its appearance in 1687. Almost forty percent of it is largely or entirely derivative. Its author, William Winstanley (1628?-1698), was undoubtedly a compiler and a hack-writer; his attitudes and methods can hardly be termed "scholarly." Nevertheless, this pioneer in biographical and bibliographical research was more nearly a scholar than the man he is usually alleged to have plagiarized; he wanted to _see_ the books that Edward Phillips was often content merely to list by title in his _Theatrum Poetarum_ (1675), and altogether, for his own enjoyment and that of his readers, he quoted from the works of more than sixty poets. Moreover, unlike Phillips, he tried to arrange his authors in chronological order, from Robert of Gloucester to Sir Roger L'Estrange.

Though Winstanley's _Lives_ advertises on its title page accounts "of above Two Hundred" poets, only 147 are actually listed in the catalogue, and only 168 are noted throughout. Of these 168, only 34 had not already been mentioned by Phillips, a dozen years before. Some borrowing was inevitable, and, in fact, Winstanley leaned heavily upon both Phillips and Fuller for information and clues, just as Phillips had leaned heavily upon Bale's _Summarium_ (1548), Camden's _Remains_, Puttenham's _Art of English Poesy_, several Elizabethan miscellanies, and Kirkman's play catalogues. Both men built (as scholars must build) upon the obvious materials available. Both (in the manner of their age) were extremely casual about documentation and acknowledgment. If this leads us to talk unhistorically about "theft," we must say that Phillips "stole" from a half dozen or so people, whereas Winstanley simply appropriated a lot of these stolen goods. For doing so, he alone has been labelled a plagiarist.

Let us be more specific. Of Winstanley's accounts of 168 poets, 34 seem to have come out of the _Theatrum Poetarum_ with nothing new added (10 of these 34 merely named). Of the remaining 134 accounts, 34 are of poets not mentioned by Phillips, 29 are utterly independent of Phillips, 40 are largely independent (that is, they borrow some from Phillips but add more than they borrow), and 31 are largely derivative. We would praise a doctoral dissertation that succeeded in giving so much new data. Winstanley was careless, but he was not lazy, and he had a literary conscience of sorts. Often he went to Phillips' sources and came away with more than Phillips found (most conspicuously in his use of Francis Kirkman's 1671 play catalogue).

Since the groundwork had so recently been laid, Winstanley's problem, far more than that of Phillips, was one of selection. In the _Theatrum Poetarum_ 252 modern British poets are named. Of these Winstanley chose to omit the 16 female and 33 Scottish poets. Of the remaining 203, he dropped 68, and for the student of literary reputation these omissions raise some interesting questions. Undoubtedly a few were inadvertent. About a dozen were authors noted but not dated by Phillips, and it is probable that Winstanley was unable to learn more about them. Fifteen others were English poets who apparently did not write in the vernacular. An additional fifteen were poets dated by Phillips but described as inferior or almost forgotten. Still another fifteen were older or early Renaissance poets whose names probably meant nothing to Winstanley. On the other hand, he omits the following late Renaissance or contemporary poets whose period is plainly indicated in the _Theatrum Poetarum_ and who, we might suppose, would be known to anyone attempting literary history in the year 1687: Richard Barnfield, Thomas Campion, Francis Davison, John Hall of Durham, William Herbert, William Leighton, Thomas Sackville, Henry Vaughan the Silurist, and Samuel Woodford.

That most of Winstanley's omissions were deliberate, and were prompted by some awareness of literary reputation, is suggested not only by his request for help on a revised edition (which never materialized) but also by the fact that he was able to add to the _Theatrum Poetarum_ thirty-four poets, almost all of whom could have been noted by Phillips. Among these were such recent poets as Thomas Tusser, Giles Fletcher the elder, Sir John Beaumont, Jasper Heywood, Philemon Holland, Sir Thomas Overbury, John Taylor the Water Poet, and the Earl of Rochester. The reader of this volume may want to have the additional names before him; they are: Sir John Birkenhead, Henry Bradshaw, William Chamberlayne, Hugh Crompton, John Dauncey, John Davies (d. 1618), Robert Fabyan, John Gower (fl. 1640), Lewys Griffin, "Havillan," Richard Head, Matthew Heywood, John Higgins, Thomas Jordan, Sir William Killigrew, Sir Roger L'Estrange, Matthew of Paris, John Oldham, Edward Phillips himself, John Quarles, Richard the Hermit, John Studley, John Tatham, Christopher Tye, Sir George Wharton, and William of Ramsey. Mentioned incidentally are John Owen, Laurence Whitaker, and Gawin Douglas.

Among the accounts that are utterly independent of Phillips are those of Churchyard, Chapman, Daniel, Ford, Cower, Lydgate, Lyly, Massinger, Nashe, Quarles, Suckling, Surrey, and Sylvester. Among those that add more than they borrow are the notices of Beaumont and Fletcher, Chaucer, Cleveland, Corbet, Donne, Drayton, Phineas Fletcher, Greene, Greville, Jonson, Lodge, Lovelace, Middleton, More, Randolph, Shakespeare, Sidney, Spenser, Warner, and Withers.

To a modern critic Winstanley may seem devoid of taste, but his acquaintance with English poetry is impressive. Indeed, Winstanley, unlike Phillips, strikes us as a man who really read and enjoyed poetry. Phillips is more the slipshod bibliographer and cataloguer, collecting names and titles; Winstanley is the amateur literary historian, seeking out the verse itself, arranging it in chronological order, and trying, by his dim lights, to pass judgment upon it.

WILLIAM RILEY PARKER _Indiana University_ _12 March 1962_

THE LIVES Of the most Famous English Poets,

OR THE Honour of _PARNASSUS_;

In a Brief ESSAY OF THE WORKS and WRITINGS of above Two Hundred of them, from the Time of K. _WILLIAM_ the Conqueror,

To the Reign of His Present Majesty King JAMES II.

_Marmora_ Mæonij _vincunt Monumenta Libelli_; _Vivitur ingenio, extera Mortis erunt_.

Written by _WILLIAM WINSTANLEY_, Author of the _English Worthies_.

Licensed, _June_ 16, 1685. Rob. Midgley.

_LONDON_,

Printed by _H. Clark_, for Samuel Manship at the Sign of the _Black Bull_ in _Cornhil_, 1687.

* * * * *

TO THE WORSHIPFUL

Francis Bradbury, Esq;

The Judicious Philosopher _Philo-Judæus,_ in his Book _De Plantatione_ Noe, saith; _That when God had made the whole World's Mass, he created Poets to celebrate and set out the Creator himself, and all his Creatures:_ such a high Estimate had he of those Genius of brave Verse. Another saith, that Poets were the first _Politicians_, the first _Philosophers_, and the first _Historiographers_. And although Learning and Poetick Skill were but very rude in this our Island, when it flourished to the height in _Greece_ and _Rome_, yet since hath it made such improvement, that we come not behind any Nation in the World, both in Grandity and Gravity, in Smoothness and Propriety, in Quickness and Briefness; so that for _Skill, Variety, Efficacy_ and _Sweetness_, the four material points required in a Poet, our _English_ Sons of _Apollo,_ and Darlings of the _Delian Deity,_ may compare, if not exceed them

_Whose victorious Rhime,_ _Revenge their Masters Death,_ _and conquer Time_.

And indeed what is it that so masters Oblivion, and causeth the Names of the dead to live, as the divine Strains of sacred Poesie? How are the Names forgotten of those mighty Monarchs, the Founders of the _Egyptian Pyramids_, when that _Ballad-Poet, Thomas Elderton_, who did arm himself with Ale (as old Father _Ennius_ did with Wine) is remembred in Mr. _Cambden's Remains?_ having this made to his Memory,

_Hic situs est sitiens atque ebrius_ Eldertonus, _Quid dico; hic situs est; hic potius sitis est_.

Now, Sir, all my Ambition, that I address these _Lines_ unto you, is, that you will pardon the Defects I have committed herein, as having done my good will in so short an _Epitome_ to lay a _Ground-work_, on which may be built a _sumptuous Structure_; a Work well worthy the Pen of a second _Plutarch_; since Poetical Devices have been well esteemed. even amongst them who have been ignorant of what they are; as the judicious Mr. _Cambden_ reports of _Sieur Gauland_, who, when he heard a Gentleman express that he was at a Supper, where they had not only good Company and good Chear, but also savoury _Epigrams_, and fine _Anagrams_; he returning home, rated and belowted his _Cook_, as an ignorant _Scullion_, that never dressed or served up to him either _Epigrams_ or _Anagrams_.

But, _Sir_, I intrench upon your Patience, and shall no further; only subscribing my self,

_Your Worship's ever_ _to be Commanded_,

William Winstanley.

* * * * *

THE PREFACE TO THE READER.

As we account those Books best written which mix Profit with Delight, so, in my opinion, none more profitable nor delightful than those of Lives, especially them of Poets, who have laid out themselves for the publick Good; and under the Notion of Fables, delivered unto us the highest Mysteries of Learning. These are the Men who in their Heroick Poems have made mens Fames live to eternity; therefore it were pity (faith _Plutarch_) that those who write to Eternity, should not live so too. Now above all Remembrances by which men have endeavoured even in despight of Death, to give unto their Fames eternity, for Worthiness and Continuance, Books, and Writings, have ever had the Preheminence; which made _Ovid_ to give an endless Date to himself, and to his _Metamorphosis_, in these Words;

_Famque Opus exegi, &c._

Thus Englished by the incomparable Mr. _Sandys_.

_And now the Work is ended, which_ Jove's _Rage,_ _Nor Fire, nor Sword, shall raze, nor eating Age,_ _Come when it will, my Death's uncertain hour_ _Which only of my Body hath a power;_ _Yet shall my better Part transcend the Sky,_ _And my immortal Name shall never dy:_ _For wherefoe're the_ Roman _Eagles spread_ _Their conquering Wings, I shall of all be read._ _And if we Prophets truly can divine,_ _I in my living Fame shall ever shine_.

With the same Confidence of Immortality, the Renowned Poet _Horace_ thus concludes the Third Book of his _Lyrick_ Poesie.

_Exegi Monumentum ære perennius._ _Regalique situ, &c_.

_A Monument than Brass more lasting, I, Than Princely Pyramids in site more high Have finished, which neither fretting Showrs, Nor blustring Winds, nor flight of Years, and Hours, Though numberless, can raze; I shall not die Wholly; nor shall my best part buried lie Within my Grave_.

And _Martial_, Lib. 10. Ep. 2. thus speaks of his Writings;

----_My Books are read in every place, And when_ Licinius, _and_ Messala's _high Rich Marble Towers in ruin'd Dust shall lie, I shall be read, and Strangers every where, Shall to their farthest Homes my Verses bear_.

Also _Lucan_, Lib. 9. of his own Verse, and _Cæsar's_ Victory at _Pharsalia_, writeth thus;

_O great and sacred Work of Poesie! Thou freest from Fate, and giv'st Eternity To mortal Wights; but_ Cæsar _envy not Their living Names; if_ Roman _Muses ought May promise thee, whilst_ Homer's _honoured, By future Times shalt Thou and I be read; No Age shall us with dark Oblivion stain, But our_ Pharsalia _ever shall remain._

But this Ambition, or (give it a more moderate Title), Desire of Fame, is naturally addicted to most men; The Triumph of _Miltiades_ would not let _Themistocles_ sleep; For what was it that _Alexander_ made such a Bustle in the world, but only to purchase an immortal Fame? To what purpose were erected those stupendious Structures, entituled _The Wonders of the World, viz._ The walls of _Babylon_, the _Rhodian Colossus_, the Pyramids of _Egypt_, the Tomb of _Mausolus, Diana's_ Temple at _Ephesus_, the _Pharoes_ Watch-Tower, and the Statue of _Jupiter_ in Achaya, were they not all to purchase an immortal Fame thereby? Nay, how soon was this Ambition bred in the heart of man? for we read in _Genesis_ the 11th. how that presently after the Flood, the People journeying from the _East_, they said among themselves, _Go to, let us build us a City, and a tower, whose Top may reach unto Heaven; and let us make us a Name_. Here you see the intent of their Building was to make them a Name, though God made it a Confusion; as all such other lofty Buildings built in Blood and Tyranny, of which nothing now remains but the Name; which is excellently exprest by _Ovid_ in the Fifteenth Book of his _Metamorphosis_.

Troy _rich and powerful, which so proudly stood, That could for ten years spend such streams of Blood, For Buildings, only her old Ruines shows, For Riches, Tombs, which slaughter'd Sires enclose_, Sparta, Mycenæ, _were of_ Greece _the Flowers; So_ Cecrops _City, and_ Amphion's _Towers: Now glorious_ Sparta _lies upon the ground. Lofty_ Mycenæ _hardly to be found. Of_ Oedipus _his_ Thebes _what now remains? Or_ of Pandion's Athens, _but their Names?_

So also _Sylvester_ in his _Du Bartus_.

Thebes, Babel, Rome, _those proud Heaven-daring Wonders, Lo under ground in Dust and Ashes lie, For earthly Kingdoms even as men do die._

By this you may see that frail Paper is more durable than Brass or Marble; and the Works of the Brain more lasting than that of the Hand; so true is that old Verse,

Marmora _Mæonij_ vincunt Monumenta Libelli: Vivitur ingenio, cætera mortis erunt.

_The Muses Works Stone-Monuments outlast. 'Tis Wit keeps Life, all else Death will down cast._

Now though it is the desire of all Writers to purchase to themselves immortal Fame, yet is their Fate far different; some deserve Fame, and have it; others neither have it, nor deserve it; some have it not deserving, and others, though deserving, yet totally miss it, or have it not equall to their Deserts: Thus have I known a well writ Poem, after a double expence of Brain to bring it forth, and of Purse to publish it to the World, condemned to the Drudgery of the _Chandler_ or _Oyl-man_, or, which is worse, to light _Tobacco_. I have read in Dr. _Fuller's Englands Worthies_, that Mr. _Nathanael Carpenter_, that great Scholar for _Logick_, the _Mathematicks, Geography_, and _Divinity_, setting forth a Book of _Opticks_, he found, to his great grief, the Preface thereof in his Printers House, _Casing Christmas-Pies_, and could never after from his scattered Notes recover an Original thereof; thus (saith he) _Pearls_ are no _Pearls_, when _Cocks_ or _Coxcombs_ find them.

There are two things which very much discourage Wit; ignorant Readers, and want of _Mecænasses_ to encourage their Endeavours. For the first, I have read of an eminent Poet, who passing by a company of Bricklayers at work, who were repeating some of his Verses, but in such a manner as quite marred the Sence and Meaning of them; he snatching up a Hammer, fell to breaking their Bricks; and being demanded the reason thereof, he told them, that _they spoiled his Work, and he spoiled theirs_. And for the second; what greater encouragement to Ingenuity than Liberality? Hear what the Poet _Martial_ saith, _Lib. 10. Epig. 11._

_What deathless numbers from my Pen would flow, What Wars would my_ Pierian _Trumpet blow, If, as_ Augustus _now again did live, So_ Rome _to me would a_ Mecænas _give._

The ingenious Mr. _Oldham_, the glory of our late Age, in one of his Satyrs, makes the renowned _Spenser_'s Ghost thus speak to him, disswading him from the Study of Poetry.

_Chuse some old_ English _Hero for thy Theme, Bold_ Arthur, _or great_ Edward_'s greater Son, Or our fifth_ Henry, _matchless to renown; Make_ Agin-Court, _and_ Crescy_-fields out-vie The fam'd_ Laucinan_-shores, and walls of_ Troy; _What_ Scipio, _what_ Mæcenas _wouldst thou find; What_ Sidney _now to thy great project kind?_ Bless me! how great a _Genius_! how each Line Is big with Sense! how glorious a design Does through the whole, and each proportion shine!

How lofty all his Thoughts, and how inspir'd! Pity, such wondrous Parts are not preferr'd: _Cry a gay wealthy Sot, who would not bail, For bare Five Pounds the Author out of Jail, Should he starve there and rot; who, if a Brief Came out the needy Poets to relieve, To the whole Tribe would scarce a Tester give._

But some will say, it is not so much the _Patrons_ as the _Poets_ fault, whose wide Mouths speak nothing but Bladders and Bumbast, treating only of trifles, the Muses Haberdashers of small wares.

_Whose Wit is but a Tavern-Tympany, The Shavings and the Chips of Poetry._

Indeed such Pedlars to the Muses, whose Verse runs like the Tap, and whose invention ebbs and flows as the Barrel, deserve not the name of Poets, and are justly rejected as the common Scriblers of the times: but for such who fill'd with _Phebean_-fire, deserve to be crowned with a wreath of Stars; for such brave Souls, the darlings of the _Delian_ Deity, for these to be scorn'd, contemn'd, and disregarded, must needs be the fault of the times; I shall only give you one instance of a renowned Poet, out of the same Author.

_On_ Butler_, who can think without just rage, The glory and the scandal of the age, Fair stood his hopes, when first he came to Town, Met every where with welcoms of renown, Courted, and lov'd by all, with wonder read, And promises of Princely favour fed: But what reward for all had he at last, After a life in dull expectance pass'd? The wretch at summing up his mispent days, Found nothing left, but poverty, and praise: Of all his gains by Verse he could not save Enough to purchase Flannel, an

Thus you see though we have had some comparable to _Homer_ for Heroick Poesie, and to _Euripides_ for Tragedy, yet have they died disregarded, and nothing left of them, but that only once there were such Men and Writings in being.

I shall, in the next place, speak something of my Undertakings, in writing the Lives of these Renowned Poets. Two things, I suppose, may be laid to my charge; the one is the omission of some that ought with good reason to have been mentioned; and the other, the mentioning of those which without any injury might have been omitted. For the first, as I have begg'd pardon at the latter end of my Book for their omission, so have I promised, (if God spare me life so long) upon the first opportunity, or second Edition of this Book, to do them right. In the mean time I should think my self much beholding to those persons who would give me any intelligence herein, it being beyond the reading and acquaintance of any one single person to do it of himself.

And yet, let me tell ye, that by the Name of Poet, many more of former times might have been brought in than what I have named, as well as those which I have omitted that are now living, namely, Sir _Walter Rawleigh_, Mr. _John Weever_, Dr. _Heylin_, Dr. _Fuller,_ &c. but the Volume growing as big as the Bookseller at present was willing to have it, we shall reserve them to another time, they having already eternized their Names by the never dying Histories which they have wrote.

Then for the second thing which may be objected against me, That I have incerted some of the meanest rank; I answer, That comparatively, it is a less fault to incert two, than to omit one, most of which in their times were of good esteem, though now grown out of date, even as some learned Works have been at first not at all respected, which afterwards have been had in high estimation; as it is reported of Sir _Walter Rawleigh_, who being Prisoner in the Tower, expecting every hour to be sacrificed to the _Spanish_ cruelty, some few days before he suffered, he sent for Mr. _Walter Burre_, who had formerly printed his first Volume of _the History of the World_, whom, taking by the hand, after some other discourse, he ask'd him, How that Work of his had sold? Mr. _Burre_ returned this answer, That it sold so slowly, that it had undone him. At which words of his, Sir _Walter Rawleigh_ stepping to his Desk, reaches the other part of his History, to Mr. _Burre_, which he had brought down to the times he lived in; clapping his hand on his breast, he took the other unprinted part of his Works into his hand with a sigh, saying, _Ah my Friend, hath the first Part undone thee? The second Volume shall undo no more; this ungrateful World is unworthy of it_; When immediately going to the fire-side he threw it in, and set his foot on it till it was consumed. As great a Loss to Learning as Christendom could have, or owned; for his first Volume after his death sold Thousands.

It may likewise be objected, That some of these Poets here mentioned, have been more famous in other kind of Studies than in Poetry, and therefore do not shine here as in their proper sphere of fame; but what then, shall their general knowledge debar them from a particular notice of their Abilities in this most excellent Art? Nor have we scarce any Poet excellent in all its Species thereof; some addicting themselves most to the _Epick_, some to the _Dramatick_, some to the _Lyrick_, other to the _Elegiack_, the _Epænitick_, the _Bucolick_, or the _Epigram_; under one of which all the whole circuit of _Poetick Design_ is one way or other included.

Besides, should we have mentioned none but those who upon a strict scrutiny the Name of Poet doth belong unto, I fear me our number would fall much short of those which we have written; for as one writes, _There are many that have a Fame deservedly for what they have writ, even in Poetry itself, who, if they come to the test, I question how well they would endure to open their Eagle-eyes against the Sun._ But I shall wade no further in this Discourse, desiring you to accept of what is here written.

I remain

Yours,

_William Winstanley._

* * * * *

The Names of the Poets Mention'd in this Book.