Shee sits in such a throne as this,
Can doe nought but smile,
Nor beleeves she Sadnesse is:
Gladnesse it selfe would be more glad,65
To bee made soe sweetly sad.
XII.
XIII.
(Weeping is the ease of Woe):
Softly let them creep,75
Sad that they are vanquish't so.
They, though to others no releife,
Balsom may be for their own greife.
XIV.
Golden Tagus murmures though.80
Were his way by thee,
Content and quiet he would goe;
Soe much more rich would he esteem
Thy syluer, then his golden stream.
XV.
Smiling in thy cheeks, confesse
The April in thine eyes;
Mutuall sweetnesse they expresse.
No April ere lent kinder showres,
Nor May return'd more faithfull flowres.90
XVI.
XVII.
With loues; of teares with smiles disputing!
O fair and freindly foes,
Each other kissing and confuting!100
While rain and sunshine, cheekes and eyes
Close in kind contrarietyes.
XVIII.
Freinds with the bosom-fires that fill thee!
Can so great flames agree105
Æternal teares should thus distill thee!
O flouds! O fires! O suns! O showres!
Mixt and made freinds by Loue's sweet powres.
XIX.
That digg'd these wells, and drest this wine;110
And taught the wounded heart
The way into these weeping eyn.
Vain loues auant! bold hands forbear!
The Lamb hath dipp't His white foot here.
XX.
XXI.
In thy so rich and rare expenses,
Euen when He show'd most poor
He might prouoke the wealth of princes.
What prince's wanton'st pride e'er could125
Wash with syluer, wipe with gold?
XXII.
Who calls 't His crown, to be call'd thine,
That thus can boast to be
Waited on by a wandring mine,130
A voluntary mint, that strowes
Warm, syluer showres wher're He goes?
XXIII.
XXIV.
Still thy teares doe fall and fall.140
Does Day close his eyes?
Still the fountain weeps for all.
Let Night or Day doe what they will,
Thou hast thy task: thou weepest still.
XXV.
Thy falling teares keep faithfull time.
Does thy sweet-breath'd praire
Vp in clouds of incense climb?
Still at each sigh, that is, each stop,
A bead, that is, a tear, does drop.150
XXVI.
(Watching their watry motion),
Each wingèd moment waits:
Takes his tear, and gets him gone.
By thine ey's tinct enobled thus,155
Time layes him vp; he's pretious.
XXVII.
XXVIII.
Shall thy tomb report of thee;
But, 'so long she grieuèd:'165
Thus must we date thy memory.
Others by moments, months, and yeares
Measure their ages; thou, by teares.
XXIX.
So sigh tormented sweets, opprest170
With proud vnpittying fire.
Such teares the suffring rose, that's vext
With vngentle flames, does shed,
Sweating in a too warm bed.
XXX.
The fugitiue sons of those fair eyes,
Your fruitfull mothers!
What make you here? what hopes can 'tice
You to be born? what cause can borrow
You from those nests of noble sorrow?180
XXXI.
XXXII.
The darlings of Aurora's bed,
The rose's modest cheek,
Nor the violet's humble head.190
Though the feild's eyes too Weepers be,
Because they want such teares as we.
XXXIII.
The fortune of inferior gemmes,
Preferr'd to some proud face,195
Or pertch't vpon fear'd diadems:
Crown'd heads are toyes. We goe to meet
A worthy object, our Lord's feet.
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
With some shortcomings—superficial rather than substantive—'The Weeper' is a lovely poem, and well deserves its place of honour at the commencement of the 'Steps to the Temple,' as in editions of 1646, 1648, and 1670. Accordingly we have spent the utmost pains on our text of it, taking for basis that of 1652. The various readings of the different editions and of the Sancroft ms. are given below for the capable student of the ultimate perfected form. I have not hesitated to correct several misprints of the text of 1652 from the earlier editions.
The present poem appears very imperfectly in the first edition (1646), consisting there of only twenty-three stanzas instead of thirty-three (and so too in 1670 edition). The stanzas that are not given therein are xvi. to xxix. (on the last see onward). But on the other hand, exclusive of interesting variations, the text of 1646 supplies two entire stanzas (xi. and xxvii.) dropped out in the editions of 1648 and 1652, though both are in 1670 edition and in the Sancroft ms. Moreover I accept the succession of the stanzas in 1646, so far as it goes, confirmed as it is by the Sancroft ms. A third stanza in 1652 edition (st. xi. there) as also in 1648 edition, I omit, as it belongs self-revealingly to 'The Teare,' and interrupts the metaphor in 'The Weeper.' Another stanza (xxix.) might seem to demand excision also, as it is in part repeated in 'The Teare;' but the new lines are dainty and would be a loss to 'The Weeper.' Our text therefore is that of 1652, as before, with restorations from 1646.
The form of the stanza in the editions of 1646, 1648 and 1670 is thus:
_______________________________
__________________________
_______________________________
____________________________________
____________________________________
In 1652 from stanza xv. (there) to end,
_______________________________
_______________________________
_______________________________
____________________________________
____________________________________
but I have made all uniform, and agreeably to above of 1652.
I would now submit variations, illustrations and corrections, under the successive stanzas and lines.
Couplet on the engraving of 'The Weeper.' In 1652 'Sainte' is misprinted 'Sanite,' one of a number that remind us that the volume was printed in Paris, not London. In all the other editions the heading 'Sainte Mary Magdalene' is omitted.
St. i. line 2. 1646, 1648 and 1670 editions read 'silver-forded.' Were it only for the reading of the text of 1652 'silver-footed,' I should have been thankful for it; and I accept it the more readily in that the Sancroft ms. from Crashaw's own copy, also reads 'silver-footed.' The Homeric compound epithet occurs in Herrick contemporarily in his Hesperides,
To thee, my silver-footed Thamasis'
[that is, the river Thames]. William Browne earlier, has 'faire silver-footed Thetis' (Works by Hazlitt, i. p. 188). Cf. also the first line of the Elegy on Dr. Porter in our 'Airelles'—printed for the first time by us: 'Stay silver-footed Came.'
With reference to the long-accepted reading 'silver-forded,' the epithet is loosely used not for in the state of being forded, but for in a state to be forded, or fordable, and hence shallow. The thought is not quite the same as that intended to be conveyed by such a phrase as 'silver stream of Thames,' but pictures the bright, pellucid, silvery whiteness of a clear mountain rill. As silver-shallow—a meaning which, as has been said, cannot be fairly obtained from it—can it alone be taken as a double epithet. In any other sense the hyphen is only an attempt to connect two qualities which refuse to be connected. All difficulty and obscurity are removed by 'silver-footed.'
St. iii. line 1. The. 'we'' may be = wee, as printed in 1646, but in 1648 it is 'we are,' and in 1670 'we're,' and in the last, line 2, 'they're.' The Sancroft ms. in line 2, reads 'they are indeed' for 'indeed they are.'
St. iv. line 4, 1646 and 1670 have 'crawles' and 'crawls' respectively, for 'floates,' as in 1648 and our text. The Sancroft ms. also reads 'crawles.' In line 3, 1646 and 1670 'meet' is inadvertently substituted for 'creep.'
Lines 5 and 6, 1646 and 1670 read
Heaven the christall ocean is.'
So too the Sancroft ms., save that for 'this' it has 'these.'
St. v. line 2. 'Brisk' is = active, nimble. So—and something more—Shakespeare: 'he made me mad, to see him shine so brisk' (1 Henry IV. 3).
Line 3. 1646, 1670 and Sancroft ms. read 'soft' for 'sacred' of 1652 and 1648.
Line 6, 'Breakfast.' See our Essay on this and similar homely words, with parallels. 1648 reads 'his' for 'this breakfast.'
St. vi. line 4, 'violls' = 'phials' or small bottles. The reading in 1646 and 1670 is 'Angels with their bottles come.' So also in the Sancroft ms.
St. vii. line 4. 'Nuzzeld' = nestled or nourished. In quaint old Dr. Worship's Sermons, we have 'dew cruzzle on his cheek' (p. 91).
Lines 1 and 3, 'deaw' = 'dew.' This was the contemporary spelling, as it was long before in Sir John Davies, the Fletchers and others in our Fuller Worthies' Library, s.v.
Lines 5 and 6. 1646, 1670 and Sancroft ms. read
And leave them both to bee thy teare.'
1648 is as our text (1652).
St. ix. A hasty reader may judge this stanza to have been displaced by the xith, but a closer examination reveals a new vein (so-to-say) of the thought. It is characteristic of Crashaw to give a first-sketch, and afterwards fill in other details to complete the scene or portraiture.
St. xi. Restored from 1646.
St. xii. line 1. 1646, 1648 and 1670 read 'There is.'
Line 4, 'med'cinable teares.' So Shakespeare (nearly): 'their medicinal gum' (Othello, v. 2).
St. xiii. line 2. 1646 and 1670 unhappily misprint 'case;' and Turnbull passed the deplorable blunder and perpetuated it.
Line 5. Our text (1652) misprints 'draw' for 'deaw' = dew, as before.
Line 6. 1646 and 1670 read 'May balsame.'
St. xiv. line 3. 1646 and 1670 read
Turnbull misses the rhythmical play in the first and second 'though,' and punctuates the second so as to read with next line. I make a full-stop as in the Sancroft ms.
Line 4, ib. read
So the Sancroft ms.
Line 5, ib. read
So the Sancroft ms.
St. xv. lines 5 and 6, ib. read
Nor May returned fairer flowers.'
'Faithful' looks deeper: but the Sancroft ms. agrees with '46 and '70.
St. xvii. line 2, in 1648 misreads
Turnbull, without the slightest authority, seeing not even in 1670 are the readings found, has thus printed lines 2 and 4, 'With loves, of tears with smiles disporting' ... 'Each other kissing and comforting'!!
St. xviii. line 2 in 1648 misreads
The 'balsome' is an evident misprint, but 'thee' is preferable to 'fill you' of our text (1652), and hence I have adopted it.
Line 3 in 1648 reads
St. xix. line 3, 1648, reads 'that' for 'the.'
Line 4, ib. 'those' for 'these.'
Line 6. cf. Revelations xiv. 5, 'These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth.'
St. xxi. line 6. 'wipe with gold,' refers to Mary Magdalene's golden tresses, as also in st. xxii. 'a voluntary mint.'
Line 4. 'prouoke' = challenge.
St. xxii. line 2. Curiously enough, 1648 edition leaves a blank where we read 'calls 't' as in our text (1652). Turnbull prints 'call'st,' but that makes nonsense. It is calls't as = calls it. So too the Sancroft ms. Probably the copy for 1648 was illegible.
St. xxiv. line 1. 1646 and 1670 read
Line 2. Our text (1652) misprints 'starres' for 'teares' of 1646, 1648 and 1670.
Line 3. 1646 and 1670 read
The Sancroft ms. reads line 139 'Does the Night arise?' and line 141, 'Does Niget loose her eyes?'
St. xxv. line 2. 1646 and 1670 read
So the Sancroft ms.
Line 3. Our text (1652) misprints 'paire' for 'praire.' 'Sweet-breath'd' should probably be pronounced as the adjectival of the substantive, not as the participle of the verb.
Line 6. 1646, 1648 and 1670 read 'doth' for 'does.'
St. xxvi. lines 1 and 2. 1646 and 1670 read
Into a weeping motion.
Each minute waiteth heere.'
So the Sancroft ms.
St. xxvii. Restored from 1646 edition. The Sancroft ms. in line 168 miswrites 'teares.'
St. xxviii. line 5. reads in 1646 and 1670
So also the Sancroft ms., wherein this st. follows our st. xv.
St. xxix. line 3. Our text (1652) misprints 'fires' for 'fire' of 1648.
St. xxx. line 1. Our text (1652) misprints 'Say the bright brothers.' 1646 and 1670 read 'Say watry Brothers.' So Sancroft ms. 1648 gives 'ye,' which I have adopted. The misprint of 'the' in 1652 originated doubtless in the printer's reading 'ye,' the usual mode of writing 'the.'
Line 2. 1646 and 1670 read
So the Sancroft ms.
Line 3, ib. 'fertile' for 'fruitfull.'
Line 4, ib. 'What hath our world that can entice.' So the Sancroft ms.
Lines 5 and 6, ib.
You from her eyes, swolne wombes of sorrow.'
So the Sancroft ms.
St. xxxi. line 2. 1646 and 1670 read
and I accept 'sluttish' for 'sordid,' which is also confirmed by Sancroft ms.
Line 4, ib. 'your' for 'their;' and as this is also the reading of 1648 and Sancroft ms., I have accepted it.
Line 5. 1646 and 1670 omit 'Sweet.'
Line 6, ib. read 'yee' for 'you.'
St. xxxii. and xxxiii. In 1646 and 1670 these two stanzas are thrown into one, viz. 23 (there), which consists of the first four lines of xxxii. and the two closing lines of xxxiii. as follows,
A worthier object, our Lords feet.'
In the Sancroft ms. also, and reads as last line 'A worthy object, our Lord Jesus feet.' On the closing lines of st. xxxii. cf. Sospetto d'Herode, st. xlviii.
I have not thought it needful, either in these Notes or hereafter, to record the somewhat arbitrary variations of mere orthography in the different editions, as 'haile' for 'hail,' 'syluer' for 'silver,' 'hee' for 'he,' and the like. But I trust it will be found that no different wording has escaped record. G.
SANCTA MARIA DOLORVM, OR THE MOTHER OF SORROWS
A patheticall Descant vpon the deuout Plainsong of Stabat Mater Dolorosa.[23]
I.
Stood dolefull shee.
Ah she! now by none other
Name to be known, alas, but Sorrow's Mother.
Before her eyes,5
Her's, and the whole World's ioyes,
Hanging all torn she sees; and in His woes
And paines, her pangs and throes:
Each wound of His, from euery part,
All, more at home in her one heart.10
II.
Is that cold man
Who can look on and see,
Nor keep such noble sorrowes company?
Sure eu'en from you15
(My flints) some drops are due,
To see so many unkind swords contest
So fast for one soft brest:
While with a faithfull, mutuall floud,
Her eyes bleed teares, His wounds weep blood.20
III.
Of deaths, and worse—
Diuided loues. While Son and mother
Discourse alternate wounds to one another,
Quick deaths that grow25
And gather, as they come and goe:
His nailes write swords in her, which soon her heart
Payes back, with more then their own smart.
Her swords, still growing with His pain,
Turn speares, and straight come home again.30
IV.
V.
Soft sourse of loue!
That these dry lidds might borrow
Somthing from thy full seas of sorrow!
O in that brest45
Of thine (the noblest nest
Both of Loue's fires and flouds) might I recline
This hard, cold heart of mine!
The chill lump would relent, and proue
Soft subject for the seige of Loue.50
VI.
In me; me, so to read
This book of loues, thus writ
In lines of death, my life may coppy it
With loyall cares.55
O let me, here, claim shares!
Yeild somthing in thy sad prærogatiue
(Great queen of greifes), and giue
Me, too, my teares; who, though all stone,
Think much that thou shouldst mourn alone.60
VII.
Fix here with thee,
And at the humble foot
Of this fair tree, take our eternall root.
That so we may65
At least be in Loue's way;
And in these chast warres, while the wing'd wounds flee
So fast 'twixt Him and thee,
My brest may catch the kisse of some kind dart,
Though as at second hand, from either heart.70
VIII.
Dear, dolefull hearts!
Hail! and strike home, and make me see
That wounded bosomes their own weapons be.
Come wounds! come darts!75
Nail'd hands! and peircèd hearts!
Come your whole selues, Sorrow's great Son and mother!
Nor grudge a yonger brother
Of greifes his portion, who (had all their due)
One single wound should not haue left for you.80
IX.
So deep a share
(Dear wounds), and onely now
In sorrows draw no diuidend with you?
O be more wise,85
If not more soft, mine eyes!
Flow, tardy founts! and into decent showres
Dissolue my dayes and howres.
And if thou yet (faint soul!) desert
To bleed with Him, fail not to weep with her.90
X.
At least an almes of greif
To' a heart who by sad right of sin
Could proue the whole summe (too sure) due to him.
By all those stings95
Of Loue, sweet-bitter things,
Which these torn hands transcrib'd on thy true heart;
O teach mine too the art
To study Him so, till we mix
Wounds, and become one crucifix.100
XI.
So long of this chast Vine,
Till drunk of the dear wounds, I be
A lost thing to the world, as it to me.
O faithfull friend105
Of me and of my end!
Fold vp my life in loue; and lay't beneath
My dear Lord's vitall death.
Lo, heart, thy hope's whole plea! her pretious breath
Pour'd out in prayrs for thee; thy Lord's in death.110
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
St. i. line 10. In 1648 the reading is
In 1670. 'All, more at home in her own heart.' I think 'all' and 'one' of our text (1652) preferable. There is a world of pathos in the latter. Cf. st. ii. line 8.
St. ii. line 1. On the change of orthography for rhyme, see our Phineas Fletcher, vol. ii. 206; and our Lord Brooke, Vaughan, &c. &c., show 'then' and 'than' used as in Crashaw.
St. vi. line 3. In 1648 the reading is 'love;' 1670 as our text (1652). The plural includes the twofold love of Son and mother.
Line 7, ib. 'to' for 'in.'
Line 9, ib. 'Oh give' at commencement. 1670, 'to' for 'too.'
St. vii. and viii. These two stanzas do not appear in 1648 edition, but appear in 1670.
St. vii. line 4. By 'tree' the Cross is meant. Cf. st. i. line 1.
St. ix. line 1. 1648 edition supplies the two words required by the measure of the other stanzas, 'in sins.' They are dropped inadvertently in 1652 and 1670. Turnbull failed as usual to detect the omission.
Line 4. 1648 spells 'Divident.'
Lines 5 and 6. I have accepted correction of our text (1652) from 1648 edition, in line 6, of 'If' for 'Is,' which is also the reading of 1670. 1648 substitutes 'just' for 'soft;' but 1670 does not adopt it, nor can I.
St. x. line 1. 1648 reads 'Lend, O lend some reliefe.'
Line 9 reads 'To studie thee so.'
St. xi. line 3, ib. reads 'thy' for 'the.'
Line 8, ib. reads 'Thy deare lost vitall death.'
Line 10. I have adopted from 1648 'in thy Lord's death' for 'thy lord's in death' of our text (1652).
Turnbull has some sad misprints in this poem: e.g. st. ii. line 4, 'sorrow's' for 'sorrows;' st. iii. line 2, 'death's' for 'deaths;' st. vi. line 9, 'Me to' for 'Me, too;' st. x. line 2, 'in' for 'an,' and line 3, 'a' mis-inserted before 'sad.' Except in the 'Me to' of st. vi., he had not even the poor excuse of following the text of 1670. G.
THE TEARE.[24]
I.
Sweet Mary, thy faire eyes' expence?
A moist sparke it is,
A watry diamond; from whence
The very tearme, I think, was found,5
The water of a diamond.
II.
'Tis a star about to dropp
From thine eye, its spheare;
The sun will stoope and take it up:10
Proud will his sister be, to weare
This thine eyes' iewell in her eare.
III.
Too true a teare; for no sad eyne,
How sad so 'ere,15
Raine so true a teare, as thine;
Each drop leaving a place so deare,
Weeps for it self; is its owne teare.
IV.
Slipt from Aurora's dewy brest—20
The rose-bud's sweet lipp kisses;
And such the rose it self that's vext
With ungentle flames, does shed,
Sweating in a too warm bed.
V.
VI.
'Cause thou streight must lay thy head
In the dust? O, no!
The dust shall never be thy bed:
A pillow for thee will I bring,35
Stuft with downe of angel's wing.
VII.
(For to Heaven thou must goe),
Sweetly shalt thou lye,
And in soft slumbers bath thy woe,40
Till the singing orbes awake thee,
And one of their bright chorus make thee.
VIII.
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
It is to be re-noted that st. v. is identical in all save 'watry' for 'bridegroom' with st. xi. of 'The Weeper' as given in text of 1652, and that st. iv. has two lines from st. xxix. of the same poem. Neither of these stanzas appear in 'The Weeper' of 1646. As stated in relative foot-note, I have withdrawn the former from 'The Weeper.' We may be sure it was inadvertently inserted in 1652, seeing that the very next stanza closes with the same word 'wine' as in it: a fault which our Poet never could have passed. It is to be noticed too that 'The Teare' did not appear in the edition of 1652. By transferring the stanza to 'The Teare' as in 1646, 1648 and 1670 editions, a blemish is removed from 'The Weeper,' while in 'The Teare' it is a vivid addition. The 'such' of line 1 links it naturally on to st. iv. with its 'such.'
Our text follows that of 1648 except in st. v. line 4, where I adopt the reading of 1652 in 'The Weeper' (there st. xi.) of 'bridegroom' (misprinted 'bridegrooms') for 'watry,' and that I correct in st. vii. line 6, the misprint 'the' for 'thee,'—the latter being found in 1646 and 1670. With reference to st. v. again, in line 5 in 'The Weeper' of 1648 the reading is 'balsome' for 'blossom.' The 'ripe' of line 6 settles (I think) that 'blossom' is the right word, as the ripe blossom is = the grape, to the rich lucent-white drops of which the Weeper's tears are likened. 'Balsome' doesn't make wine. I have adopted from st. xi. of 'The Weeper' of 1652 the reading 'the purpling vine' for 'the wanton Spring' of 1646, 1648 and 1670. The Sancroft ms. in st. i. line 2, reads 'expends' for 'expence;' st. iv. line 4, 'that's' for 'when;' st. v. line 4, 'manly sunne' for 'bridegroome,' and line 5, 'thine' for 'thy;' st. viii. line 6, 'I' th'' for 'In th'.' G.