Tixall Poetry/Notes to the Poems Collected by the Right Honourable Lady Aston
Notes
to the poems collected by
The Right Honourable Lady Aston.
It is remarkable, that the first poem in this Third Division, like that in the First, is on the sorrows of Mary Magdalen.
Mrs Catherine Gage, to whom it is addressed, was the daughter of Sir Thomas Gage, Bart, of Firle, co. Suff., and second wife to Walter, third Lord Aston. At this time, young unmarried ladies of quality were always stiled Mrs; when that was disused, and they came to be called Miss, I do not know.—In the 'Guardian,' published 1713, the young ladies of the Lizard family are stiled Mrs Jane, Mrs Mary, Mrs Betty.
P. 112. I have found this song, in a curious little miscellany, entitled, "Westminster Drollery, or a choice collection of the newest songs and poems, both at court, and the theatres. By a person of quality. London 1671:" but it is very different from the copy in this collection, and much inferior to it. In the next page of the same miscellany are the following charming lines:
A Song at The Duke's House.
Bequeath to thee a legacy;
That thou maist say, when I am gone,
None had my heart but thou alone!
Had I as many hearts as hairs,
As many lives as lover's fears,
As many lives as years have hours,
They all and onely should be yours.
Dearest, before you condescend
To entertain a bosom friend,
Before your liberty you sell,
Be sure you know your servant well:
For love's a fire in young and old,
'Tis sometimes hot, and sometimes cold;
And men you know that when they please,
They can be sick of love's disease.
Then wisely chuse a friend that may
Last for an age, and not a day:
Who loves thee not for lip or eye,
But for thy mutual sympathie.
Let such a friend thy heart engage,
For he will comfort thee in age:
And kiss thy furrowed wrinkled brow
With as much joy as I do now.
P. 114.Love surfeits with reward, his nurse is scorne.
Sir John Suckling says,
And surfeits when it comes to grosser fare.
'Tis petty jealousies, and little fears,
Hopes joined with doubts, and joys with April tears,
That crown our love with pleasures; these are gone
When once we come to full fruition.
P. 117. This song is in a miscellany, entitled, "Mock Songs and Joking Poems, all novel; consisting of Mocks to several late Songs about the Town. With other New Songs, and Ingenious Pieces, much in use at Court, and both Theatres. Never before printed. By the author of Westminster Drollery. London, printed for W. Birch, at the Peacock, in the Poultry, near Old-Jury, 1675."
Thus Virgil:
Immemor herbarum, quos est mirata juvenca,
Certantes, quorum stupefactæ carmine lynces,
Et mutata suos requierunt flumina cursus.
Eclog. viii.
And Milton in Cornus:
The huddling brook to hear his madrigal.
P. 122. These fine moral stanzas were first printed at the end of a play, called "The Contention of Ajax and Ulysses," by James Shirley; a deservedly admired dramatic author; who died immediately after the great fire in London in 1666, in consequence, as is supposed, of the fright occasioned by that calamity. His wife died the same day, it is said, from the same cause. This song is both in Percy's "Reliques," and Ellis's "Specimens," but with some slight variations. In the MS. over the word actions, in the last line but one, is written ashes, which is perhaps an improvement.
Rejoicing in the east.
P. 132. This "Dirge" appears to be the love-song of some Ophelia, or distracted maiden, whose lover was drowned. There is a pathetic simplicity of sentiment, and a sweetness of numbers in it, which remind one of some of the little songs, in the plays of Shakespeare.
P. 134. XXI. These lines, though with considerable variations, are to be found in Beaumont and Fletcher's tragedy of "Valentinian." Not being aware of this, till this part of the Tixall Poetry was printed, I had endeavoured to supply both the sense and the rhymes, which were wanting in the original MS., by the lines in italics.
P. 137. XXIV. These stanzas are in Headley's Work, but very different from the copy given here.
P. 140.Like a deer that is wounded I bleeding run on, &c.
This poetical simile, (whoever was the original author of it,) seems to have been taken, in this instance, from Virgil:
Urbe furens; qualis conjectâ cerva sagittâ,
Quam procul incautam, nemora inter Cressia fixit
Pastor agens telis, liquitque volatile ferrum,
Nescius; ilia frugâ silvas saltusque peragrat
Dictæos, hæret lateri lethalis arundo.
P. 142. l. 15. I lost him too soone, and I loved him too late.
A sweet line.
P. 143. Among the poems of Cartwright, who flourished in the reign of Charles I. there is one which begins in the same spirited manner as this. I have transcribed the two first stanzas, on account of the singularity of the subject.
No Platonique Love.
And hearts exchanged for hearts;
That spirits spirits meet, as winds do winds,
And mix their subtlest parts:
That two unbodied essences may kiss
And then, like angels twist, and feel one bliss.
To practise this thin love;
I climbed from sex to soul, from soul to thought;
But thinking there to move,
Headlong I rowled from thought to soul, and then,
From soul I lighted at the sex agen.
P. 144. This Song, of the Witches, was composed by Sir William Davenant, and introduced into his alteration of the tragedy of "Macbeth," in 1674. I have left it among these poems chiefly on account of that strange line,
To some old saier bardy shrine.
As a striking instance, how the words, and sense of an author may be corrupted, and destroyed, by an ignorant, or careless copier; the true reading is,
'To some old saw, or bardish rhyme!'
Had the former been the only reading known, and the latter supplied by some ingenious commentator, it might have been considered, as one of the happiest emendations of conjectural criticism.
P. 152. XXXV. "By Sir Charles Sedley, in Sir George Etherege's comedy of The Man of Mode." Ritson, "Songs," v. i. 177.
[Mr Nichols, in his collection, gives this 'from the French of Madame de la Suze,' by Sir Car Scrope.]—Park.
P. 158. I have found this short description of a storm, in a little miscellany, entitled, "New Court-Songs, and Poems. By R. V. Gent. London, printed for R. Paslac at the Stationer's Arms and Ink-Bottle in Lumbard Street, 1672."
The line in italics was added by the editor for the sake of the rhyme.
P. 159. This poem alludes, I imagine, to the abdication of James II. in 1688. Albina, is Albion, or England, and Albanius the king, who, before he ascended the throne, was Duke of York in England, and Albany, in Scotland; the titles of his present majesty's second son.
I grieve to loose my pleasing paine
And call my wishes back again.
So Gray, in those well-known pathetic lines:
This pleasing anxious being e'er resign'd;
Left the warm precincts of the cheerful day
Nor cast one longing, ling'ringlook behind?
Ere ide a thought or wish obtain
That honour thinks amiss.
Thus Dido, in that most beautiful passage of the fourth book of the Æneid:
Vel pater omnipotens adigat me fulmine ad umbras,
Pallentes umbras Erebi, noctemque profundam,
Ante, Pudor! quam te violo, aut tua jura resolvo.
P. 164. These solemn stanzas, which commemorate one of the most memorable and tragical events of Roman history, the death of Pompey the Great, were written by the most deservedly admired Mrs Katherine Phillips, the matchless Orinda, as she is stiled in the title-page of her poems, printed in 1667. She translated the Pompée of Corneille, which was published with the following advertisement:
The Printer to The Reader.
"I hope you expect no eloquence from a printer, nor regularity in a preface which hath nothing to say to you, but that Pompey being a translation out of the French of Mr Corneille, the hand that did it, is responsible for nothing but the English, and the songs between the acts, which were added only to lengthen the Play, and make it fitter for the stage, when those that could not be refused, were resolved to have it acted."
After the Third Act, "to Cornelia asleep on a couch," Pompey's ghost sings these stanzas in recitative air.
After this, a military dance as the continuation of her dream, and then Cor nelia starts up as awakened in amazement, saying,
How great the vision! and how quickly done!
Yet if in dreams we future things can see,
There's still some joy laid up in Fate for me.—[Exit.
P. 166. This poem, though exceedingly different from what is here published, is to be found in the first act of Lee's "Theodosius." St Chrisostome was archbishop of Constantinople, in the 4th century. Gibbon has given the following account of the subject of this poem: "From a motive either of prudence or religion, she, (Pulcheria) embraced a life of celibacy; and this resolution, which she communicated to her sisters Arcadia and Marina, was celebrated by the Christian world, as the sublimest effort of heroic piety. In the presence of the clergy and people, the three daughters of Arcadius dedicated their virginity to God; and the obligation of their solemn vow was inscribed on a tablet of gold and gems, which they publickly offered in the great church of Constantinople. Their palace was converted into a monastery; and all males, except the guides of their conscience, were scrupulously excluded from the holy threshold. Pulcheria, her two sisters, and a chosen train of favoured damsels, formed a religious community; they renounced the vanity of dress, interrupted by frequent fasts their simple and frugal diet, allotted a portion of their time to works of embroidery, and devoted several hours of the day and night to the exercise of prayer and psalmody." The reader will be struck with the resemblance of this poem to that celebrated song, by Dr Percy, "Say, Nanny, wilt thou gang with me."
P. 172. This lively ballad I have discovered, in a little volume, entitled "Westminster Drollery, the Second Part; being a complete Collection of all the newest and choicest Songs, and Poems, at Court, and both the Theatres. By the authors of the First Part, never printed before. London, 1672." I have corrected from it, my MS. copy, which was very faulty. In the printed miscellany, it is called "The Rural Dance about the May-Pole."
In the second volume of that learned and useful work, Beloe's "Anecdotes of Literature, and scarce Books," there is a specimen of songs, which occur in various rare plays, in the Garrick Collection. Among them, is the following, from "Actæon and Diana," by Robert Cox. No date.
Song.
With your musique, dance and song,
Bring your lasses in your hands,
For 'tis that which Love commands;
Then to the May-pole come away,
For it is now a holiday.
For the violets now appear;
Now the rose receives its birth,
And pretty primrose decks the earth.
Then, &c.
One that will not faith abuse;
Nor repay with coy disdain,
Love that should be loved again.
Then, &c.
What kisses you your sweethearts gave,
Take them all again, and more,
It will never make them poor.
Then, &c.
Till the day be past its prime,
To your beds repaire at night,
And dream there of your day's delight.
Then to the May-pole come away,
For it is now a holiday.
Never leades a quiet life,
We gently play with Cate, and Nancy,
Free from all debate and strife.
To tend the homely slighted shepherd's trade,
And strictly meditate the thankless muse?
Were it not belter done, as others use,
To sport with Amaryllis in the shade,
Or with the tangles of Neæra's hair?
Milton's Lycidas.
P. 178. This poem, but with great variations from my MS., is to be found in a book, well known, I believe, to collectors, entitled, "Recreations for ingenious Head-pieces; or a Pleasant Grove for their Wits to walke in, of Epigrams, 700. Epitaphs, 200. Fancies, a number. Fantasticks, abundance. With their Addition, Multiplication, and Division. Mart. Non cuique datur habere nasum. London, printed by M. Simmons, and are to be sold by John Hancock, in Pope's-head Alley. 1650."
Besides this title, there is a very curious frontispiece, with the following engraved title in the middle of it: "Recreations refined and augmented with Ingenious Conceites for the wittie, and Merrie Medicines for the Melancholic."
P. 183. This song is in Dryden's works, and is there entitled "The Fair Stranger;" but it is divided into four stanzas, and is, in other respects, so unlike my copy, as almost to render it a different production. There are also two very different copies of it, in my MS. The Heveninghams, pronounced Henningham, were a Roman Catholic family, and resided at Aston, near Stone, in Staffordshire; now the property of my brother-in-law, Thomas Weld, Esq. of Lulworlh Castle, in Dorsetshire.
P. 184. In the MS. this song is set to music; but a lady, whom I requested to play it, declared she could make little or nothing of it.
P. 185. This song, from Lee's tragedy of "Mithridates," has been ascribed to Sir Car Scrope, one of the mob of gentlemen and wits in Charles's days, who "thought and wrote with ease."
P. 186. LV. I am very much pleased with the structure, and metre, of this little poem, of which I have never met with an example any where else. As a further illustration of its structure, I submit the following composition to the reader, in which I have endeavoured to make the rhymes more exact than those in the text.
To Matilda,
on the Anniversary of Our Marrigae
And dazzling beauty's pride,
Heightened by infant Love's alarms,
The nuptial knot was tied,
Which gave thee to my longing arms,
A blooming, blushing bride:
We hailed each rising sun,
While winged with joy the rosy hours
In ecstacy flew on;
And still we blest the heavenly powers,
Who joined our hearts in one.
Time steals our years away,
Thy mildly-beaming virtues spread
Soft influence o'er life's way;
Insuring to our peaceful shed,
Love's bliss without decay.
One can hardly conceive a harder trial to the feelings, than that of parting with a dearly beloved object, who is about to embark on a long voyage. The frailty of the vessel, the dangers of the ocean, with the difficulty, and uncertainty of future communication, all combine to heighten the distress. This pathetic situation did not escape the tender Otway:
To punish me with everlasting absence?
Why turn'st thou from me? I am alone already;
Methinks I stand upon a naked beach,
Sighing to winds, and to the seas complaining,
Whilst afar off, the vessel sails away,
Where all the treasure of my soul's embarked.
Orphan, Act V.
P. 189. LVII. Ritson gives this to Rochester.
I cannot change as others doe, &c.
Constancy in love, even under scorns and repulses, is much extolled by Lord Surrey, as in the following lines:
Nor of so churlish kinde,
Though it lay in my mighte,
My bondage to unbinde.
٭٭٭٭
The fire it cannot frese;
For it is not his kinde,
Nor true love cannot lese
The constancye of minde:
Yet as soon shall the fire,
Want heate to blaze, and burne,
As I in such desire,
Have once a thought to turne.
P. 193. This poem, I imagine, contains an allusion to the misfortunes and abdication of James II.
That more or less we're all deceived.
The opinion expressed in these lines, is well illustrated by the following passage from Swift: "Those entertainments and pleasures we most value in life, are such as dupe, and play the wag with the senses. For if we Lake an examination of what is generally understood by happiness, as it has respect either to the understanding, or the senses, we shall find all its properties and adjuncts will herd under this short definition: That it is a perpetual possession of being well deceived.[1]
"How fading and insipid do all objects accost us, that are not conveyed in the vehicle of delusion! How shrunk is every thing as it appears in the glass of nature! so that if it were not for the assistance of artificial mediums, false lights, refracted angles, varnish, and tinsel, there would be a mighty level in the felicity, and enjoyments of mortal men."—Tale of a Tub, Sect. IX.
P. 203. l. 15.But kind were the powers, who, our quiet to keepe,
Sent love to relieve us, and lull us asleepe.
So Lord Rochester, in those well-known lines:
The surest refuge innocence can find;
The safe director of unguarded youth,
Fraught with kind wishes, and secured by truth:
That cordial drop heaven in our cup has thrown,
To make the nauseous draught of life go down.
- ↑ Johnson has somewhere defined happiness to be, A perpetual susceptibility of occasional pleasure.