Experience as reflected in the poetry of Sir Walter Raleigh

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Authors Vickers, Martha Huxtable, 1915-

Publisher The University of Arizona.

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Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/553541 EXPERIENCE AS REFLECTED IN THE POETRY OF SIR WALTER RALEGH

by

Martha Huxtable Vickers

A Thesis

submitted to

the Faculty of the Department of English

In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree

Master of Arts

in the Graduate College

University of Arizona 1940

Approved: C. % * ____ H 1 V ^ * Major Professor Date

%7 Crtl. 2—

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter Page

INTRODUCTION ...... 1

I. THE COURTIER, AN AMBITIOUS POET...... 1

II. THE LOVER, A CONVENTIONAL POET...... 30

III. THE TRANSITION...... 46

IV. THE PRISONER, A SERIOUS "OFT...... 63

CONCLUSION...... 82

? BIBLIOGRAPHY...... 83

13U73li IHTRODUGTIOH

The greatest Influenee shaping Ralegh’s poetry was his experience. The literary significance of Ralegh's poetry lies in his representation of the change from Renaissance love poetry to Jacobean metaphysical poetry* My purpose in making a study of Ralegh as a poet is to reveal the circum­ stances which caused the change in M s poems.

This thesis purposes to show that Ralegh* s experience#

Influenced the character of his poems. While a favorite in

Elizabeth’s court, his struggle for favor induced him to use poetry for a self-seeking end. Hie career as a poet in the

Renaissance age Influenced him to write his poems according to conventional forms. Later in life, his bitter experiences during the reign of James produced a change in his attitude which resulted in a new poetry— a serious, meditative poetry.

The first chapter summarizes the political and economic background of the period, emphasizing Elizabeth’s strength as a monarch. By engaging qualities Ralegh attracted the Queen and by his achievements as a soldier and colonizer he gained her favor* He wrote .the early poem Cynthia during a period of disgrace to flatter the Queen and to regain her favor.

The second chapter is an examination of the Renaissance poetry that prevailed at Elizabeth’s court and a study of tl

Ralegh’s love poems, written while he was Elizabeth’s favor­ ite. We observe that the literary age led Ralegh to conform to the conventional patterns of the day in his poems.

The third chapter deals with the last years of Elizabeth* s reign and Ralegh’s turbulent fortunes during this period* prose works Indicate a growing seriousness of mind, which is reflected in the poems of this transitional period.

The fourth chapter reviews the story of Ralegh’s fall and Imprisonment under James* Bitter experiences Imbue hie late poems with an Intellectuality and a seriousness that is quite foreign to hie earlier poetry.

For the background of the age and for biographical data on Ralegh I have used numerous histories and contemporary re­ ports, all of which are included in the footnotes and biblio­ graphy, I found In William Oldy’s "Life of Ralegh," which Is

in his edition of .The Works of Sir Walter Ralegh.^ the most detailed study and in William Stebbing'o Sir Walter Ralegh2 a most reliable and discriminating authority. For the text

and dating of Ralegh’s poems I have used exclusively Agnes

Latham’s anthology, The foems ofSirWalter Ralegh.3

1% WilliamOldys."The ^Ife of Ralegh." The Works ofSir Walter Ralereh (William Oldys and Thomas Birch, editors, Oxford: University Press, 1829). 2, William Stebblna. Sir Walter Ralegh: A Biography (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1891). 3. Agnes Latham, The Poems of Sir Walter Ralegh (London: Constable & do., Ltd., 1929). Ill

In my reading I have not found available any study of the topic of this thesis. Hiss Latham devotes her intro­ duction to a technical criticism of Ralegh's poems; vrillia®

Stabbing's Sir Walter Ralegh. Irvin Anthony's Ralegh and His

World,4 and Milton'Wridman* s Sir Walter Ralegh^ are primari­ ly biographies, I have found useful material on Ralegh* a atheism in M.C, Bradbrook's The School of Night.6 Q. E.

Hado*7 and Frank Mersey® have collected and printed antholo­ gies of Ralegh* a poems.

My thesis endeavors to supply a study of Ralegh1 s poet­ ry, early and late, In relation to his experiences. The value of this study Is that it provides a key to a more sym­ pathetic understanding of Ralegh*s poetry.

(N ew Yor k: Charle s71 Irvin Anthony, ______(New York: Charles71 Scribner's Sons, 1934). 5. Milton Waldman. Sir Walter Ralegh (Hew York: Harper & Bros., 1928). 6. M. C, Bradbrook, Ihe School of Night (London: Cambridge University Press, 1936), 7. Q. E. HadOT, editor. S l r K a ^ e r Raleigh i^geleot^on^ from His "Hletorie of t EBBSaieaQBiBE ^ere, Clarendon Press, 1926). 8. Frank Mersey, editor, Sir Walter Ralegh; of the Ocean (Hew York: CHAPTER I

THE COURTIER* AH AMBITIOUS POET

That Ralegh perceived in hie conventional love poems a means for personal advancement, a way to flatter the sus­ ceptible , middle-aged Queeri Is understandable If vre realize the absolute monarchical authority vested In Elizabeth, her encouragement of Individual ability among her courtiers, and

Ralegh's struggle for her favor by services In sundry fields.

The present chapter first undertakes to summarise the political and economic background of the Elizabethan period.

My purpose is, first, to show how Elizabeth strengthened her position as a monarch so that all who sought position in Eng­

land must necessarily secure her favor to secure their for­ tunes and, second, to show how she encouraged the rise of In­ dividualism in the oourt so that every man was extended the

opportunity to advance his estate by his ability and achieve­ ments. Competition for Elisabeth*o favor became a very ar­ duous career.

The second part of the chapter presents Ralegh as the

courtier who won the Queen's attention and reviews the story

of Ralegh's struggle to maintain Elizabeth's favor by his

achievements. Ralegh strove to please his Queen by engaging

in colonization, exploration, privateering, and Industry. The third seetton Is devoted to a study of Ralegh* s poems and the part that poetry played in his struggle for favor. Ralegh, It seems highly probable, wrote his poems as another means to flatter the Queen*s feminine vanity and to provide the adoration that she craved from her favorites.

When Ralegh entered the Court, Elizabeth had unified her nation and had set her monarchical principle of govern­ ment on unshakable foundations. She had ascended the Eng­ lish throne twenty-three years before and had found Eng­ land in a desperate state of affaira.^ The strong govern­ ment that had been established by Henry VIII had become disintegrated during the turbulent reigns of Edward VI and

Mary, When Elizabeth came to the throne, the treasury was bankrupt, and the credit of the government was so low that it had to pay 14 per cent for its loans. Domestic trades were stagnant. Vagrancy and pauperism were spreading. The administration itself was disorganized, and England was threatened with a religious civil war. Her military and naval strength being deficient, England's position among nations was critical. With the solution of these urgent problems, the reign of Elizabeth ushered in a period of prosperity for all except the poorest classes and laid the foundations of that commercial and industrial supremacy

T: In studying tne background or the period, I have found Mandell Creighton*o The Age of Elizabeth useful. 3

which England was to enjoy for several centuries among the nations of the world.

The greatest advantage for the young Queen was the poll-

tlcal theory of the Renaissance movement that had reached

England at the beginning of the Tudor reign.2 This was the

concentration of the supreme power of the state In the mon­

arch. Activities centered around and emanated from the

court, while during the Middle Ages authority had been de­

centralized among small castles, each a miniature court com­

plete In itself, Tilth this powerful weapon, Elizabeth set

about to unify her nation and to stabilize It internally.

First, she withdrew England from participation in for­

eign affairs and adopted a temporizing foreign policy. To

destroy dissension within her kingdom, Elizabeth made a

settlement of religious conflicts end renounced tyrannical

religious persecutions that had stained Mary's reign with

blood. The church was once more made English, the Act of

Uniformity in 1559 restoring the second prayer book of Edward VI.3 Having re-established the Church of England,

which she treated very much as a branch of civil service,

Queen Elizabeth assumed supreme authority. With these two

powerful causes of dissension— war with foreign powers and

2. An excellent study of the Renaissance in England will be found In Lewis Einstein'o The Italian Renaissance in Ejiglagd . 3. I have relied, in part, upon H. D. Traill’s Social England. Ill, for the facts of the political and religious re­ organization of England. 4

conflict with the Church— under her control, Elisabeth turned to the problem of developing and extending her country*e in­ dustries.

The first problem to be dealt with was that of the cur­ rency , which was b o depreciated in value that there was little chance of a revival of trade and prosperity, Elizabeth's council called in the whole currency, standardized it, and

issued a new set of coins. After establishing a sound cur­

rency, Elizabeth directed her administration's efforts to­ ward organising, and fostering national industries,*

Elizabeth's government made a great attempt to control manufacturing and agriculture by passing the Statute of Ap­

prentices in 1563, which regulated wages and hours and sanc­

tioned the right to compel laborers to work,5 The Queen's

chief minister succeeded in expanding English manufacture by

encouraging the skilled workmen of the Protestant refugees

from Flanders and France to come into England. As a result,

the manufacture of paper and silk was established by Nether-

landers at Sandwich, the making of "bayes, sayes, assaa,,

mockades, and the like" in Norfolk, the thread industry in

Maidstone, and lace making by the French in Cranfleld, Bed­

fordshire, Oxfordshire, Northamptonshire, and Bucks. An­

other favorite method to stimulate English Industry was the

A specializedstudy on the Industry of England during this period may be. found ip H, de B. Gibblns, The 5. 5

granting of patents and monopolies to those who would spon­ sor them. However, Elizabeth often resorted to this system as a means of enriching her royal favorites or of raising money for the Grown In return for exclusive privileges.

Evidence of the growth of manufacturing Is found In the statement of Ludovico Guicciardini (1525-1589) as to the Eng lish exports to Antwerp:

It is marvelous to think of the vast quantity of drapery sent by the English into the Netherlands, being undoubtedly one year with another above 2009000 pleees of all kinds, which, at the most moderate rate of 25 crowns per piece. Is 5,000,000 crowns, so that these and other merchandise brought by the English to us, or carried from us to them, may make the annual amount to more than 12,000,000 crowns.6

The buildIng of the Royal Exchange in 15667 and the

Government1s securing of a loan In England rather than hav­

ing to apply te foreign capitalists® Indicate that Eliza­ beth’ s England was growing In wealth and expanding In commerce.

Elizabeth's theory of strict governmental control net

only centralized her government, but unified her people. How this spirit of national unity carried over from Industry to the people Is set forth by Archdeacon Cunningham In his

statement:

The attempts made under Elizabeth.,.to control all relations of economic life in the public Interest gave a new character to the morality of Industrial

6. GibbIns, T p . 102. 7. Creighton, 8. Traililll. So rs. and commercial life. It ceased to be entirely concerned with a man*8 personal relations and personal connections, and came to be more a mat­ ter of loyal aooeptanee of the course projected in the public good.9

Increasing national prosperity simultaneously Increas­ ed national spirit, but the ultimate unifying force was the organising of England Into a common national defense against the Spanish Invasion# When Philip of Spain attempted to in­ vade England with hie "most fortunate and invincible Armada*'—

! a fleet of 132 ships, manned by 8,766 sailors, 2,088 galley slaves, and carrying 21,855 soldiers, as well as 300 monks, priests, and officers— England had just 34 ships in the royal navy containing 6,279 men.3-0 However, seaport towns cent out their vessels, noblemen manned their ships and placed them at their country's service, and England met Spain with one mind and one purpose. .

This nationalistic spirit left a decisive Impression on the history of Europe in the defeat of the Invincible Armada.

England, long weighed down by doubts of her strength as a nation, awoke to a consciousness of her position. The Eng­ lishman* 0 attitude is expressed by the dying Gaunt t . This royal throne of kings, this scepter*d isle, This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars, This other Eden, derai-paradise; This fortress built by Nature for herself -

9% Archdeacon Cunningham, “Early Writings on Politics and Economics .^ Tho Cambridge History of English Lltera-

1Q. CrejLghton;V|he5Age of Elizabeth, p. 181, f

Against infection, and the hand of war; This happy breed of men, this little world, This precious stone set in the silver sea. Which serves it in the office of a wall Or as a moat defensive to a house, Against the envy of less happier lands. This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England.11

With the feeling of nationalism came the rise of in­ dividualism— the belief of man in his own ability* This spirit was encouraged and nurtured by Elizabeth in her

Court. Though her government was an aristocratic monarchy, yet it wra based on individual intelligence and the assured support of far-seeing statesmen, ambitious merchants, learn­ ed professlonallsts. These were chosen as counsellors and were maintained in high place by the personal confidence of the monarch,12

With the breaking down of class distinctions and the

opportunity of royal prtronage for achievement alone, men,

self-confident and adventuresome, were eager for glory and gain. sobility no longer being the sole requirement of gen­ tility, learning and social grace became recognized as stan­ dards for a gentleman* These were requirements attainable by every ambitious courtier. Ken born of gentle parentage,

like Ralegh, were eligible for prestige and power.

What constituted a gentleman and the qualifications IS.*

1 U William Shakespeare, Richard II, 1, 40-50. IS. A. W, Ward, "Some Political and Social Aspects of the Later Elizabethan and Earlier Stewart Period," The g^gbrldge History of English Literature.. V. Part I e

necessary for a courtier were discussed among the vital problems of the age. The debate was centered around ths

respective merits of "nobility by birth" and "mobility by virtue" (virtue meaning ability). Although later Renais­

sance writers recognized the advantage of noble bloodt I For It is a great deale lesoe dispraise for him that Is not borne a gentleman to falle In the antes of vertue, then for a gentleman. If he swerve from the steps of his ancestors, hee stalneth the name of M o famine,13

the tendency was to lean more to the "nobility by virtue"

as an equally vital qualification of a courtier, for he who was noble without virtue, or virtuous without nobility,

could never properly be termed a gentleman.^

As tests of learning, civility, and virtue were ap­

plied more and more to a gentleman, a new conception of

worthiness by personal effort rather than by birth became

recognised. In the court of Elisabeth, this Italian doc­

trine was echoed by William Segar as a challenge for the

individual to rise by his own merits:

I say that the true nobility of man Is virtue, and that he is truly noble that Is virtuous, be he born of high or low parents; and the more highly he be born, the worse reputation he meriteth. If he cannot continue the honor left , him by his ancestors.15 •

We find men in Elizabeth's cabinet who had risen by 151314

13. Baidaosare Castlgllone. *he Courtier.,n. 11. 14. Romel, Courtier* a Academy, as cited In Einstein*a The Italian Renaissance In England. p. 63. 15. William Segar. Book of Honor, as quoted by Einstein, op. cit.. p. 68. 9

their own merits, At the beginning of 1591 there wero suoh able men as Sir Qhrletopher Hatton, Lord C h a m ell or of Eng­ land ; Sir William Cecil, Lord High Treasurer of England*

Charles Howard, Lord Admiral of England; Henry Carey, Lord

Chamberlain; Thomas, Lord ttigh Butler of England; Sir

Francis Knollys, Treasurer of the Queen’s Household; Sir

Thomas Heneage, Vice Chamberlain to the Queen; Mr, John Volley, Chancellor of the Moot Honourable Order of the

Carter; Mr. John Fortescue, Bader Treasurer of the Exehe- q u e r . ^ ■

Elizabeth’s endorsement of individualism was not only shown In her choice of able ministers, but in her use of men for her own purposes, England’s Queen respected th» •

Judgment of the men she had as her advisors, and she rolled upon their intelligence and initiative. Responsibility of the state was placed on such men as her Lord Treasurer,

William Cecil, Lord Burghley, with the following liberal

trust:

I give you this charge that you shall be of my privy council, and content yourself to take pains for me and my realm. This Judgment I have of you, that you will not be corrupted by any man­ ner of gift, and that you will be faithful to the state; and that, without respect to my private will, you will give me that counsel which you think boot, and if you shall know anything necessary to be de­ clared to me of eeoreoy, you shall shew it to my­ self only, and assure yourself I will not fall to keep taciturnity therein, and therefore herewith

1(3. G. B. Harrison. An Ki P« 10

I ©barge you.1? We have seen how Elizabeth organized her nation around her authority and how she set herself at the head of the

Ohuroh and of industry, uniting England and stimulating the growth of a nationalistic spirit. We have observed how

Elizabeth’s encouragement of Individualism and recognition of ability made it possible for young men to attempt great achievements. They were spurred on to develop their poten­ tial power by the opportunities now available in a growing and expanding nation. has been my purpose to show that young men of gentle birth, like Ralegh, were encouraged by the possibility of attaining position and power to develop their ability. So men’s ambitions became boundless as suc­ cess awaited their courage and cleverness.

With the opportunity to gain position before him,

Ralegh entered Elizabeth’s court. He was an engaging per­ son. His appearance, grace, birth, education, diplomacy, cleverness won the Queen’s attention. Ralegh struggled to maintain her favor by his activities in various fields— colonization, exploration, privateering, industry. With a sovereign who could equally appreciate literary, military, diplomatic, and social accomplishments, every kind of merit might hope for recognition. Few men were more qualified in

"virtue* to win the fancy of Elizabeth or more versatile in

17. Frederick Chamberlin, p. 164. 11

their aceompllehmentB to maintain the favor of such a de­ manding monarch than was Ralegh, It is my purpose to show how Ralegh was forced by pressing competition from other ambitious courtiers to excel in many fields and to employ every means to please his ever demanding, ever grasping

Queen, At thirty Ralegh was prepared to make the best of his first appearance at court and to win the Queen’s attention.

A member of the vast family circles of the Gilberts and

Ohampernouno, he had influential friends and relatives in the Court $ aq undergraduate at Oxford, he was intelligent and Informed and could oope with Elizabeth* s mind and tongue $ an adventurer in France and a military leader in Munster, he was trained and experienced in the art of war; a seaman in the Atlantic, he was able to conquer lends for Elizabeth’s glory and to capture gold for her coffers. He was learned

In many fields and oould meet his opportunity as ably as

Haunton records he does, When he first earn# to court, he appeared at the council table in defense of himself, "where he had much the better in telling of his Tale; and so much that the Qu, and the Lords took no slight mark of the Man and his Parts."18

The woman in Elizabeth could not help but be attracted

to the man, for Ralegh made a very elegant appearance, A©-18

18. Anthony Wood, A; .enaen, I, 4357 12

cording to Anthony Wood, "He had In the outward Man*.,a good presence, In a handsome end well compacted Person, a strong natural Wit, and a better Judgment, with a bold ant plausible Tongue, whereby he could set out M s Parts to the best advantage. "3-9 All were engaging qualities to gain roy­ al favor, especially in a female sovereign. Zucchero1s por­ trait2® (now in the National Gallery of Ireland) of Ralegh before he was middle-aged reveals a tall and well-apportioned frame of a handsome aristocrat. His countenance reveals

"that he was damnable proud."21He had a strong, exceedingly high forehead, a haughty arch of his brows, a piercing glint

in his bluish grey eyes, and a meticulously gVooaed beard.

His garments gleam with a sheen of satin and silver and

pearls, *o ordinary man, but more a prince at homo with magnificence.

Puller says that Ralegh must h ve found, soon after

coming to court, "some hopes of the queen*s favours re­

flecting upon him. This made him write in a glass window,

obvious to the queen* s oye,

'Pain would I climb, yet fear I to fall,1

Her majesty, either espying or being shown it, did under­ write ,

19? Anthony Wood, mses. I. 436. 20. G. E. Hadow, S reprint. 21. John Aubrey, Lives".* TTII, 182. 13

1 If thy heart fails thee, climb-not-avail.?*®?

Evidence of Ralegh1a advancement to Elizabeth*s favor la recorded in Bacon’s Apophthegms in a story of the jealous and sarcastic thrusts of a group of nobles at Ralegh in their coining the name Jack and Upstart for him: . , When Queen Elizabeth had advanced Raleigh, she was one day playing on the virginals, and my Lo. of Oxford and another nobleman stood by. It fell out ■o,--thet the ledge before the jacks was taken away, so as the jacks were seen; my Lo. of Oxford and the other nobleman smiled, and a little whispered, *he queen marked it, and would needs know what the mat­ ter was? My Lo. of Oxford answered; "That they smiled to see that when jacks went up, heads went down."23

Since Elizabeth’s courtiers had great Influence with the Queen, her favorites occasionally had great political power, Ralegh shortly began to be given responsible tasks, those Elizabeth could only trust to the closest and most loyal of her men. With older advisers he was selected to entertain the Duke of Alencon, rejected suitor of Elizabeth, during his stay of four months in England, It was a situa­ tion requiring utmost tact and unfailing loyalty, Ralegh shared in it.24 Further and decisive evidence that Ralegh was being accepted as a statesman of worth is found among

papers of the Irish Correspondence in one entitled The Opin­

ion of &r. Rawlev. upon motions made to him for the means

22. Thomas Fuller, I, 419. 23. The dorksWorks of Francis Bacon, ed. Montagu,Monti I, 107. 24, William Sfcebblng, Sir Welter Ralegh. P* ^3» 14

of subduing the Rebellion In Munster. 25 l‘he sag® Lord Trea­ surer vras considering his counsel. So we see that T^r his qualities Ralegh M d gained, within a year, petition’ end favor in Elizabeth’s court.

The Queen’s favor, however, had not only to be won, but also to be maintained against all rivals. Spenser bit­ terly describes the courtier’s hectic career in hi® Pros®- ponoia: or Mother Hubbards Tale:

Full little knowoat thou that hast not tride. What hell it is, in suing long to bide: To lose good dayes, that might be better spent; To want long nights in pensive discontent; To speed to day, to be put back to morrow; To foed on hope, to pine with feare and sorrow; To fret thy ooule with crosses and with cares; To eat© thy heart through comfortlosso dispaires; To fawne, to ordwohe, to watte, to ride, to roone, To spend, to give, to want, t@ be undonne.27

We shall see in the following material that Ralegh, in order to combat Essex and others seeking recognition, had to use every means to retain and to strengthen his position. The vicious rivalry among the courtiers is portrayed by Spenser in Colin Clouts Gome Homo Agalne:

For, soothe to say, it is no sort of life For ehepheard fit to lead in that same place. Where each one seeks with malice and with strife. To thrust downs other into foul£ disgrace Himeelfe to raise; and he doth soonest rise That best can handle his deceitful wit.20

Irvin Anthony, 26. Stabbing, Sir 1 ilegh..p. 33* 27. Spenser’s Corap: t|^p . 101, 11. 895-906. 28. Ibid., p. 695. 1111. 687' 15

Ralegh dreamed of gaining new territories for Eliza­ beth and England. His yearning for renown was sharpened by reports of explorations. We need only to read Hakluyt1 o accounted of these English explorations to realize that her imperial ambition extended to the South, Southeast, .

North, Northeast, and West* During the prosperous 80fs

England launched on a eareer of colonial expansion.

After studying the Spanish expeditions in the middle and southern shores of.America and knowing of the northern territory of Newfoundland, Ralegh surmised that there were certain vast territories lying in between which were un­ touched by a Christian nation’s flag. He laid his scheme for an expedition to this land before the Queen and Council.

Apparently, Her Majesty was pleased and considered it a ra­ tional and practical undertaking, because on March 25, 1584,

she granted Ralegh full power to proceed with his plan of discoveries by potent:

To all people greeting. Know ye that out of our special grace we grant to our trusty and well- beloved servant Walter Ralegh.,.free liberty to discover such remote heathen and barbarous lands not actually possessed by any Christian prince, nor Inhabited by Christian people.30

Ralegh lost no time In giving Instructions for an Ameri­

can voyage. By April,a couple of ships were well supplied *

•297 Richard Aakluvt. The Principal Navigations, Voyages. " 30. Williai/Oldys*. "The Life of Ralegh.^ Theorks^ of ^Ir Walter Ralegh. 1, 52. 16

with provlsiono and crewed with men c?t hie own expense.

May 10, they arrived at tho Canaries, and, a month later, .

reached the West Indies. Hakluyt has a record of the ex­

pedition:

In the beginning of uuly they were saluted with S most fragrant gale from the land they were seeking, and soon after arrived upon the coast...where they saw vines laden with grapes In vast abundance, climbing up the tall cedars, and spreading so lux­ uriantly along the sandy shore, th^t the sea often overflowed them. un the thirteenth of July they took possession In right of the queen, and after­ wards delivered the country over to Ralegh1a us#.... But they remained upon the borders of Wocoken two days before.they beheld a human creature. On the third, they saw a boat rowing towards them with three of the natives; one of them landed, and walked up the shore near their ship, for they were then on board; then the two captains, with some others, took their boat and rowed to land, and by their courteous carriage soon prevailed on the native to return with them on board, where they clothed him, and gave him victuals, wine, and several little toys or utensils, which won the simple creature’s heart....wherewith the English left them, after having learnt as much of the situation, state, and product of the country, as was at this time convenient.31

Ralegh presented these reports of this rich and beau­

tiful land, laying the credit for the successful possession

of the virgin territory to the auspices of a virgin queen*

She was pleased, so pleased that she named It Virginia*

Honors were showered upon Ralegh. He was knighted and

received about this time a patent for wine licences through­

out the kingdom* A year after, he was granted a monopoly 31

31. Hakluyt' 6 - Voyages, as cited in Old vs* a ,bLlfe of Ralegh.* I, 55-57. . to export woolen broadcloths for a year, which licence wao renewed in 1585, 1587, and 1589. By moans of this income he was better able to sustain hlo endeavors to plant the

English flag in foreign worlds. He persevered in developing

Virginia until he was forced to give it up after suffering a loss of "no less than 40,000 poundo."52 Nevertheless,

Ralegh "will always be esteemed the true parent of North

American colonization."^ • While colonizing, Ralegh laid the foundation for a great industry which was to result in a considerable mone­ tary benefit to England that greatly pleased Elizabeth* Up­ on the Virginian colony's return, they brought the famous

American plant, tobacco* %be popularizing of smoking to­ bacco is generally ascribed to Ralegh himself. H© made it a fashionable vogue, teaching the courtiers to smoke in pipes with silver bowls* Aubrey writes:

He was the first that brought tobacco into Eng­ land....Sir W.R*, standing in a stand at Sir Robert Poyntz* park© at Acton, took© a pipe of tobacco, which made the ladies qultt it till he had donne,...Within these 35 years •twas scan- , daldus for a divine to take tobacco....Mr. Michael Weekes of the Royall Societie assures me, out of , the oustome-house bookes, th?t the custome of tobacco over all England is 400,000 li. por annum,34

Elizabeth was, no doubt, delighted, for James Howell in one

32% Oldys, "Life of Ralegh," I, ll?.

II n ; 181. 1#

of hlo epistles on tobacco mention# that Elizabeth once re­ marked "many labourer# in the fire she had heard of .who turned their gold into smoke, but Ralegh was the first who had turned smoke into gold."35

Ralegh also soothed the itching palm of Elizabeth by enriching her treasury with Spanish cargoes. During hi# colonizing expeditions, he carried on a private war with

Spain, capturing treasure# of great value. Once Ralegh and eleven adventurers equipped at, the cost of 8,000 pounds brought home prizes worth 31,150 pounds, out of which the Queen took her share,36 Ralegh boosted that he had spent the best part of his fortune in abating the tyrannous pros- : . : V ' - . ' ' ! ' parity of Spain and increasing the wealth of England’s royal treasury. During Elizabeth* s reign, it was necessary for

Ralegh to spend most of the years fighting for new.lands

or for gold or against the Spaniard# in order to secure

Elizabeth’s position in the world and thereby secure his

position with Elizabeth,

We have seen how Ralegh won the Queen*s attention, how

he struggled to maintain her favor by his endeavors.in many

fields, and how he was impelled to excell in more and more

fields to satisfy the every increasing demands of Elizabeth, *36

35. James Howell, ___m m es. III, as quoted in S t e ^ M n ^ s Sir Walter Ralegh, p , 36, See Stebbing*B~Slr Walter Ralegh for Information on Elizabeth’s share of spoils, p. 99. 19

We may now turn to the use Ralegh made of poetry as another means to further his position with his Queen. '

Unlike our modern age of specialization, this was an age In which an Individual was expected to be accomplished in many fields. The more In which he excelled, the better chance he had to outshine his rivals. Elizabeth expected much. As we have seen, Ralegh had rendered valuable ser­ vice to England and to his Queen by securing her position against Spain, extending her flag to foreign lands, and In­ creasing her wealth. But this was not enough to satisfy

Elizabeth.

Being a woman, she craved worship and was Intensely

jealous of her courtiers* attentions. It was most unfor­ tunate for any favorite to place his heart elsewhere. She resented the marriage of Essex to Sidney*s widow and was

"fiercely Incensed" at Ralegh1s Imprudent marriage to her

maid of honor, imprisoning Ralegh and M s bride for several

months In the Tower. To keep the favor of so fickle and

exacting a mletrees was a perilous career.

It shall be my purpose to show In the following pages

that Ralegh used his poems as another field in which to

gain his Queen’s favor.

Poetry was specified as a courtier-llke accomplish­

ment In the great conduct book of the Renaissance, The

Courtier, by Baldassare Oaetlgllone. 20

Let him much exercise him selfe in Poets...and also in writing both rime and prose, and espe­ cially in this our vulgar tongue. For beside the oontentation that hee shall receive thereby him selfe, hee shall by this means@ never want plea­ sant Intsrtalneaents with women which ordinarily love such matters.37

As Petrarch had celebrated the ©harms of Laura and

Sidney had sung of Stella,"so Ralegh wrote elaborate praises

to Elizabeth, ©ailing her Cynthia, His poetry was. Miss lAtham writes,

essentially intimate and private. It was con­ nected with his fantastic courtship of the Queen, a way in which she encouraged him to de­ vote his energies to her service. If he played with lover-lifce phrases, a little preciously, with a gallant, secretive air, or poured out prayers and reproaches with a suppressed and bitter passion, neither was for the public ear* ...Ralegh1s verses were a personal appeal, a part of that strange charm with which he won the Queen1s favour, a spiritual adornment, a manifestation of riches and beauty, litee his pale satins and the pearl eardrops he wore in his ears.38

; That Ralegh was conscious of the value of poetic ac­

complishment as a means to please Elizabeth is evidenced %

his literary relationship with Sponsor* In 1589 Ralegh had

been driven into temporary exile from the court by Eliza­

beth’s new favorite, Essex, Ralegh’s detested rival,39 Here

in Ireland close to Ralegh’s estate lived Edmund Spenser,

During his sojourn in Ireland, Ralegh called upon the poet.

daetiglione,_ P # 71. 38l Agnes Latham, "Introduction,"S; The Poems of Sir Walter ■ " U P. 12. 39. Lng, Sir Walter Ralegh. P. 69. 21

and a companionship developed. Spenser showed Ralegh part of his Faerie Queene. as is recorded in Colin Clouts Gome

Home Agalne* ,

•One day,1 quoth he, 11 oat (as was my trade) Under the foote of Mole, that mountains hore. Keeping my Bheepe amongst the cooly shade Of the greens alders by the Mullaes shore. There a straunge shepheard ehaunat to find me out, Whether allured with my pipes delight, Whose pleasing sound yehrilled far about, Or thither led by ohaunce, I know not right* Whom when I asked free what place he came, And how he hlght, himselfe he did ycleepe The Shepheard of the Ooesn by name. And said he came far from the main-sea deeps. He, sitting me beside in that same shade. Provoked me to plaie some pleasant fit. And when he heard the musicke which I made. He found himselfe full greatly pleasd at it.40

Ralegh was captivated with the allegory. According to

Ben Jonson, Spenser delivered to Sir Walter "the meaning of the Allegory in papers."*1 Elizabeth1e courtier realized that here was poetry for the ear of the Queen. she would be entranced, for Spenser flattered her pride. He took Spenser to court, hoping that his sponsoring of a poem that so pro­ fusely praised Her Majesty might induce Elizabeth to restore him to her favor* This visit to eourt Spenser reports in

Colin Clouts Come Home Agalne*

He gan to cast great lyking to my lore. And great dislyklng to my lucklesse lot, That banieht had my selfe, like wight forlore, Into that waste', where 1 was quite forgot.

11.56-76. 41: I g g 22

The which to leave, thenceforth he counseld mee, Unmefet for man In whom was ought regardful!» And vend with him, his Cynthia to see, .„ Whose graee was great, and bounty most reward full.4243 44

As patron, Ralegh penned the following dedicatory lines to appear with the

Methought I saw the graue, whore Laura lay, - Within that Temple, where the vestall flame Was wont to burn®* and passing by that way. To see that burled dust of llulng fame. Whose tumbe falre loue, and fairer rertue kept. All suddelnly I saw the Faery Queeno: At whose approeh the eoule of Petrarke wept. And from thenceforth toiose graces were not seen®. For they this Queene attended, in whose steed Obiluion laid him downs on Lauras herse: Hereat the hardest stones were seene to bleed, And gronos of buried ghostes the heuens did perse. Where Homers spricrht did tremble all for grief#,. And ©ursi th* access© of that oelestlall thelfe.4^

That Ralegh set about writing his Cynthia to Elizabeth while he was exiled in Ireland is mentioned by Spenser

In Colin Clouts Come Home Again©! His song was all a lamentable lay, Of great unklndnesse, and of usage hard. Of Cynthia, the Ladle of the Sea, Which from her presence faultlease him debard• And ever and anon, with singulfs rife, He erred out, to moke his undersong: "Ahi My loves queene, and goddesoe of ray life, Who shall me pittle, when thou doest me wrong?*

The only surviving portions of the poem are The 11: th and last book# of the Ocean to Selnthla and a fragment fol­ lowing It headed. The> end of the boookes. of the Oceana

W Z Spenser1s Complete Works, n. 689. 11.181-192. 43. A-Vision Vpon this Conoelpt of the Faery Qveene. The Poems of »lr Woiter Raicgh.ed. Latham, o. 30. 44. Spenser's Complete Works, p. m o l 11. 163-171. 23

love to Solnthla, and the beg Inn Inge of the lg 'boock. en­ treat Inge of Sorrow* By Spenser* a evident# we hpve seen that Ralegh started writing M o long poee In 1589. There

Is contention among authorities when the surviving portion# were written. Kiss Latham placed the date of these last verses at 1592* when Ralegh was In disfavor because of his secret marriage.^5 For my purpose, it Is Inconsequential

In which period of dlsfrvor Ralegh finished his Cynthia.

It is necessary to know that he wrote it at a time when be was estranged from Elizabeth. We know that he started his poem during his exile in Ireland while under a slight cloud of disfavor, That he probably finished it at a later date does not lessen the poedfe value in this study as long as the date of completion was also during a period of disgrace.

In studying Ralegh1 s poem Cynthia, we find that Ralegh tries to flatter Elizabeth by praises of her person and seeks to gain her sympathy by complaining of her unklndnoss. He is the loyal lover who is forsaken by the fickle Cynthia.

In his Ingenious use of the pastoral names that were adopted by the inner circle of the court,^ Ralegh sought to flatter Elizabeth, She was known as Cynthia or the

Shepherdess. Her private name for Ralegh was Water, an ob­ vious pun on his Christian nf&me and his naval prowess. Ralegh

W. Latham. The Poems of sir Walter Ralegh, pp. 172-179. 46. John Lyly1s KndymlonT 24

called himself the "Ocean11 and Elizabeth "Oynthla" In his poem, suggesting the magnetic control of Cynthia.(another name for Diana) # who swayed him as the moon sways the tide.

Ralegh caters to Elizabeth’s vanity by placing Cynthia on a plane far above humanity, He declares thft her beauty is unaltered by material things, such as the "tyme that butt workes onn frayle mortallety•"^7 She ©an the "creeping© age outolyme,"4G

such force her angellike aparanee had to master distance, tyme, or crueltye.49

He speaks of her virtue as being beyond the effect of change', as in the following passages

knowing® shoe oann renew, and conn create green from the g'rovnde, and flouree, yeven out of stcmn, by vertu lastInge over tyme and date,50

Elizabeth’s vanity would be touched by the foot that while her favorite had been away, she had never been out of his memory: •

when I was gonn Ghee sent her memory more strong® then wear® ten thousand shlppe of warr to call me back,51

Ralegh writes that her love has such power over him that the memory of her dispells all gloom:

The Poems of bjr Walter Ralegh, ed, Latham, p, a...Ahis P.anthology M. will hereafter be olted as Poems. •t P* 81 P. 95. P. 79. 25

My weery lymee, her memory imbalmed, my darkest wayes her eyes make clear as day what stermes so great hut Glnthia® beamea apeaeed« what rage so feiroe that loue could not allay.52

Even though Ralegh realizes her love Is fickle, yet her charms hold him In spite of his disillusionment. The

Queen would he delighted to know his love for her was as passionate as evert

my love Is not of tyme, or bound to date my harts Internall heat, and livings fler

would not, or could he quenoht, with suddayn shouree my hound respect was not ponflnde to dayes my vowed fayth net sett to ended houres.53

als clever maneuver to Imply throughout that he had been deserted by Elizabeth because he was growing too eld for her (she was twenty years his senior) no doubt soothed a vulnerable sore. So he mourns his loss of,youth and lore:

With youth, 18 deads the hope of loues return® who lookes not back to hear® our after oryee wher hee is not, hee laughts at thorn that murne whence hee In gonn, hee soornes the mlnde that dyes,

when hee Is absent hee beleueo no words when reason speakes hee careless steppe his ears whom hee h-th left hee never grace affords but bathes his wings In our lamenting® teares.54

Ralegh seeks Elizabeth’s sympathy by writing a tragic

lament, acknowledging the error of his fancy but hoping to

appease her anger by a declaration of hie devotion to her. His Intention to write of his complaint.to her Is found in

E»~ P. 81. *# Pe 87* #, P, 07, 26

the opening lines:

Sufficeth it to ycm my ioyes interred. : _ In simps11 wordee that I my woes eumplayne* *55 .

Ralegh wenvee his eoeplaint around the theme of Cyn­ thia* s fickle love. He accuses her of great unkindness in forsaking her lover who has remained loyal and steadfast in his devotion to her. Wq are told that Elizabeth* s love Is dead in the first lines of the poem:

If to the HuInge weare my muse adressed, or did my mind© her own splrrit still inhold, wear® not my living® passion so repressed, as to the dead, the dead did thea vnfold.56

Sinee she no longer possesses any passion for him,

Elizabeth remains oold to his love and indifferent to his misery. In writing of his dejected state and loneliness

in her absence, Ralegh hopes to impress Elizabeth with her

cruelty in forsaking him:

So my forsaken hart, my withered mlnde widdow of all the ioyes it once possest my hopes clean® out of sight with forced wind to' kyngdomes strange, to lands farr of addrest

Alone, forsaken, frindless onn the shore with many wounds, with deaths cold pangs inebrased writes in the dust as onn that could no more whom love, end tymo, and fortune had defaced.57

Ralegh accuses Elizabeth* a love of being external and

insincere, which, ho declares, are the reasons why her love has waned:

£* P. 77. ,## P* 77# * * P* 80f 27

And though strong reason holde "before myne eyes the Images, and formes of worlds past teachings the cause why all thorn flames that rise from formes externall, @&nm no longer last, then that thos seemInge bewtles hold in pryme Loves grovnd, his essence, and his emperye, all elouee to .mg®, and vassals vnto tyme of which repentance writes the tragedye.58

By contrasting her fickle love to his loyal devotion,

Ralegh hopes to show Elizabeth how unjust has been her Judg­ ment against him. H© tells her that there has never been a truer love than M s $

The minde and vertue never have begotten a firmer love, since love on yearth had pour® a love obeeurde, but cannot be forgotten to great and stronge for tymes lawes to devours,

oontaynlnge such a fayth as ages wound not.59

With the same assurance, he declares that his love will

•endure eternally, thr-t It Is strong enough to withstand for­ tune, age, and sickness. He Is a lover:

who longe in eylenoe served, and obeyed with secret hart, and hydden loyalty®,

which never change to sadd adversely# which never age, or natures overthrow which never sickness, or deformetye which never wastinge care, or weering® wo. The above passage la In direct contrast to Ralegh’s por­ trayal of Elizabeth* a fickle love, whose flames "rise from formes externall” and ”eann no longer last* than "semlnge

P. 83. P. 90* P. 90. 28

’beawtlee* that are M8lauee to age end vassals vnto

Ralegh heighten# the effect of hie sorrow by comparing

Cynthia's external love to nature's beauty which fades with times

But as the felldes clothed with leues and flourea the bancks of roses smellInge pretious sweet haue but ther bewtles date,-and tymely houres and then defeat by winters cold, and sleet,

bo farr as neather frute nor forme of flours stayea for a wlttnes what eueh branches bare butt as tyme gave, tyme did agayno devour© and ehahdge our rising# to falling# car®.

So of affection which our youth presented when she® that from the soonn reves poure and light did but decline her beames as discontented converting® sweetest days to saddest night

all droopes, all dyes, all troden rnder dust the person, place, and passages forgotten the hardest steele eaten with softest rust®. r the firm® and sollide tree both rent and rotten.®® # ' Ralegh ends his plaintive tale on the note of his hope­

less situation. He decides that It is useless to seek Elisa­

beth's love, for it is dead:

to seek# for moyeture in th* arabien sand# is butt a loss# of lebor, and of rest the linoks which tyme did break of, harty bands.®'

He wants his Queen to know that there will be no end to

his suffering. Though "her love hath end. my woe must ever last,"64 mourns.

61. An4 t h o u g h Poems, p. 85. P. 93. P. 94. 29

Ralegh had hoped that such extravagant confession® of his love would win Elizabeth1e fancy. He tried to please her by singing praises of her greatness and tried to gain her sympathy by a woeful plea of his forsaken love. It was a tactful way to complain of his banishment and to seek pardon. According to Spenser, Cynthia was induced to abate her displeasure.

And moved to take him to her grace agalne.65

We know that Ralegh was back In the court by 1591 after hie

Irish exile,^ and out of the Tower within six months after hie* marriage, .

The present chapter has undertaken to present the olr- oumstanoes that influenced Ralegh to use hip poems as a means to gain power and position. The next chapter will be devoted to a study of the conventional form of Ralegh’s love poems, a product of his literary experience in Renais­ sance England.

$5. Srnewi**.!. ne. Spenser’s Com- P, 687, 1. 175. alter Ralegh, p. 82. CHAPTER II

THE LOVER, A CONVENTIONAL POET

As a favorite In the court of Elizabeth, Ralegh sang conventional love poems. In the present chapter we shall see that Ralegh followed the traditional themes and atti­ tude that the English courtly poets adopted from Italy af­ ter the Renaissance,

Looking at the literature of the day, we find as the

English court affected a love for Italian learning, music, and art, so it adopted the example of Italy in poetry as well. This Italian Influence on English poetry was, ac­ cording to Lewis Einstein,

of a twofold nature. On the one hand, it taught new forms and stood for precision, balance and polish; it brought in a greater consciousness of the poet's art and dignity, and demanded on his part a deeper learning and scholarship. On the other, it created a fresh atmosphere for the poet's life, The new spirit of the Renaissance in Italy, by removing existing barriers, enriched the life of man, while, hy a similar process, hie nature felt itself freed from a n moral restraints. Italy was thus destined to teaoh measure and art in form, while in spirit it stood for unbridled license and excess. Its aesthetic side taught a new art of verse to English poets; its life created a romantic atmosphere for English dramatists.1

Petrarch furnished the great model and example for the

new poetry. Of Petrarch*e poetry Einstein writes:

T.Lewis Einstein, p. 316. 31

On the one hand the novelty and technical perfec­ tion of him art, on the other the supposed depth of passion, along with Its Platonic ideas, made, him the model for the court poets of Western Eu­ rope.2

It is the English poets1 adoption of this "supposed depth of passion" (referred to as the post1s attitude in this thesis) and Petrarch’s Idea of love (designated as theme or subject matter) that I am tracing through Rale#!*# poems, I wish here to acknowledge the beauty of Petrarch1 s

sonnets and of the Elizabethan lyrics that lias in their

"technical perfection" and In their music. In my discussion

of the oonvent 1 onal character of Ralegh’s poems and of. six­ teenth century poetry, I do not Intend to convey the Impres­

sion that I do not recognize and appreciate the beauty In poems of the sixteenth eentury period.

This new poetry was essentially a literature of a nar­

row circle and not of the people st large. In Italy every

courtier was. a poet. Caetlglione In The Courtier had bade

his mannerly gentleman to "exercise him eelfe in Poets,,,

and also In writing both rime and prose, and especially in

this our vulgar tongue,"5 So it was in England that the

new poetry was to be the literature of the court olrale.

Only a year before Elizabeth became Queen was published

a collection of "Benges and Sonettes," known as Tottel1s

2% Einstein, 1 P* 323. 3, Cast Igl ion# 3%

MlBoellany. containing poemo by Henry, Earl of Surrey, and

Sir Thomas Wyatt« The latter hed travelled into Italy and brought back to England the new Italian poetic forms of the

Renaissance, In this collection were printed poems that had

previously been circulating in the court,

A0 one theme for their love poems, the courtly poets

adopted the traditional Petrarchan lady, who, to quote from

Einstein: '

was to be as beautiful and virtuous as she was ©old and Indifferent to her lover. The type never varied; she possessed no individuality, no life nor movement; she was, in fact, a stationary sun, radiating all happiness yet insensible of her own attraction,^

.In addition to adopting the Petrarchan lady from Ital­

ian poetry, the English poets followed the Italian tradition­

al them® of love* They formalized it into definite patterns

dealing with the suffering of the lover and the permanence

of the lover*s passion. That English poets thus abused the

poetry of Petrarch was apparently recognized. Sidney, in

the poem below, refers to the stock expressions use! by, .

English poets. His poem shows that he realized Italian court

poetry had deteriorated- into conventionalized patterns,

You that do search for every purling spring Which from the ribs of old Parnassus flowo, And every flower, not sweet perhaps, which grows Hear thereabouts Into your poesy wring; You that do dictionary*s method bring Into your rhymes, running in rattling rows; You that poor Petrarch*s long-deceased woes

4, Einstein, P. 334 e 33

With new-horn sigh and denizened wit do sing; You take wrong ways, those far-fet helps he suoh ' As do "bewray a want of inward touch. And sure at length stolen goods do come to light. But if, both for your love and skill, your name You seek to nurse at fullest breasts of Fame, Stella behold, and them begin to endlte.5

The patterns of a lover’s suffering included alter­ nately burning and/’freezing, sorrowing when absent from the loved one’s presence, living only in her sight, and feeling that Inspiration came from her alone. The passage below exemplifies the traditional state of woe that a lover must suffer to show his true spirit of de­ votion: Who taught thee first to sigh, alas, my heart? Who taught thy tongue the woeful words of plaint? Who filled your eyes with tears of bitter smart? Who gave thee grief, and made thy joys to feint?

Who first did paint With colors pale thy face? Who first did break thy sleeps of quiet rest? Above the rest in court who gave thee grace? Who made thee strive, in honor to be best?©

We may select the following lyric from William Cornish’s poems as an example of the lover’s reaction when absent from his lady:

Aht the sighs that come from my heart They grieve me passing sore; Sith I must from my love depart, Farewell, my joy, for evermore.

Oft to me with her goodly face

5. p Philip Sidney, u. Poetry of the p. 108 # 6. it thee fi to_sigh? Poetry ,of_the.Englisha w Gsance. p, fB: She vrao went to east an eye, And now absence to me in place— Alas, fop woe I die, I die'.?

The theme of the pemenewie of the lover1 a passion ap­ pears frequently among the courtly poems, I cite the selec­ tion below as an example:

Therefore I never will repent, But pains contented still endure; For like as when, rough winter spent. The pleasant spring straight draweth in ure, So, after raging storms of oar®, . Joyful at length may he my fare.8

The poet*o attitude was one of superficiality and sur­ face insincerity. Einstein writes that the Itrlian courtly poems

represented an ingenious effort to write of love without any true emotion of the soul, to pretend an ardent passion for an imaginary mistress, and relate in verse the story of a fictitious intrigue conducted along certain lines established by in- movable tradition*9

English poets adopted this pretense of passion. They secured a superficial tone and surface insincerity by the use of conventional and exaggerated comparisons. The fol­ lowing selection is an example of both. To see the lover* s exaggeration in comparing his lady* s complexion to the whiteness of a lily. His conventionality is apparent In

Tl Villllom Cornish. Ahr the sigh. Poetry o^* the English """"" „ Renaissance, p. 42. 8. Earl of Surrey. The lover comforteth himself wlth^the E2mine6o_ofj £Hlce, p. 30. 9. Einsteistein, The Xta in England, p. 323. 35

comparison® that liken hie lady1n cheek.to a roe# and hor hair to sunbeam®.

What cunning can express The favor of her face To whom in this distress I do appeal for grace? A thousand Cupids fly About her gentle eye.

The lily in the field *hat glories in Mr, white. For pureness now must yield , And.render up his right. Heaw’n pictured in her face Doth promise joy and grace.

Fair Cynthia* s silver light That beats on running streams Compares not with her white, Whose hairs are all sun-beams Her virtues so do shine As day unto nine eyne.

^ith this there is a red ■ Exceeds the damask rose, Which in her cheeks is spread, Whence every favor grew®. In sky there is no star That she surmounts not far.10

Another mark of superficiality id the use of abstrae-

■' •••'* • tions. According to Einstein, "the form of allegory pre­

sented an easy method of expressing imaginary passion."11

For example, Wyatt compares a lover*s life to the Alp®:

Like unto these unmeasurable mountsins, So is my painful life, the burden of ire. For high be they, and high is my desire, And I of tears, and they be full of fountains;

t he En g-10% Anonymous, W the Eng-10% lish.Renaissance, pp. 11. Einstein, The Italian Renaissance in England, p. 335, 36

Under craggy rocks they have barren plains. Hard thoughts in me ay woeful mind doth tire; Small fruit and many leaves their tops do attire, With small effect great trust In me remains. .The hoist ©us winds oft their high houghs do blast. Hot sighs in me continually be shed; ' Wild M asts In them, fierce love In me Is fed; Unmovable am I, and they steadfast.- Of singing birds they have the tune and note. And I always plaints passing through my throat,12

The employment of stock expressions lent an artificial ton© to the poems of Petrarch and his followers. In & die- ■ ■ ; ‘ ■ ■ ■ ■' ■ • ■ ■1 . : cusslon of these stodk expressions, Einstein points out that their us© was conventional in Petrarch and was copied by the

English poets; The Elizabethan sonnets seem at first glance to yield a rloh harvest of intimate thoughts and emotions, to take the reader into the poet1s con­ fidence and lay bare his soul for him. It in only after comparing together, the English with.the French, Spanish and Italian, and treeing them back to their source In Petrarch and his imltetore, that a common stock of expressions and conceits appears throughout. Ho matter how much the Individual genius of the poet may have added new beauties of his own, underneath It all certain forms and modes of thought remain unaltered.13

Ih® same relations exist between the lady and her lover.

In the poetic jargon she is cold, cruel, insensible to him, while he is timid, unworthy, and racked with suffering. To these stock expressions and situations, Sir Philip Sidney refers:

Some lovers speak, when they their muses entertain, Of hopes begot by fear, of wot not what desires.

1 2 * Sir Thomas Wyatt. The lover's life compared to the Alps. Poetry of the English Renalssanco. p. 13. 13. Einstein. The Italian Renaissance in England, p. 333. 37

Of force of heav1nly beams infusing hellish pain. Of living deaths, dear -pounds, fair storms, and . , freezing fires $ Someone his song in Jove ana Jove’s strange tales attires. Bordered with bulls and swans, powdered with golden rain; Another humbler wit to shepherd1s pipe retires; Yet hiding royal blood full oft In-rural vein; To some a sweetest plaint a sweetest style affords, %hlle tears pour out his Ink, and sigh breathe out M s words, Ills paper pale. despair, and pain his pen doth move. I oan speak what 1 feel, and feel as much as they, But think that all the map of my state I display . When trembling vole® brings forth that I do Stella love.UA

The English courtly poets, as ve have seen, copied the

stock expressions of ^etraroh. They sing of their lady’s hair and eyes, they mourn of their sorrow, they shed tears and heave sigh#, they burn with passion’s flames. In the following example we have a typical allusion to the lady’s beauty:

Whence eernes my love? O heart, disclose1 •Twas from cheeks that shame the rose, From lips that spoil the ruby’s praise, From eyes that mock the diamond’s blaze. Whence comes my woe? As freely own, _ Ah me, ’twas from a heart like stone’.15

Below la a selection presenting the lover’s conventional

tears and sorrow:

When raging love with extreme pain Host cruelly distrains my heart, When that my tears, as floods of rain,' Bear witness of my woeful smart; When sighs have wasted so my breath

I2i7 Sir Philip Sidney, Lla, Poetry of the EEnglial p. 107. 15. Johnm Har ington, ______net _to Isabella Markham. Poetry of thQ_.English Renaissance, W 38

That I lie nt the point of death

The stock emotions that a rejected lover must endure were to to burn and to freeze. In the following passage we hove a

lover "burning one moment and freezing the next: I find no peeoe, and all my war Is done: _ I fear and hope $ I h u m , and freeze like ice,1-' _ - - 1 -. To heighten the effect of his sorrow, the lover contrasts

his state of vob to the happiness of nature:

The soote season that bud and bloom forth brings With green hath clad the hill and eke the vale, The nightingale with feathers new she sings. The turtle to her make hath told her tale. Summer is oome, for every spray now springs, The hart hath hung hie old head on the pale. The bud in brake his winter coat he flings. The fishes float with new repaired scale, The adder all her slough away she slings. The swift swallow pursueth the flyes smale, The busy bee her honey now she mlngs,— Winter is worn, that was the flowers1 bole: And thus I see; among these pleasant things _ Each care decayB-.and yet my sorrow springs,1®

In the preceding pages, we have observed that English

poetry of the sixteenth century affected Italian traditions,

following Petrarch os a model. Limiting the discussion to

theme and attitude, since these are the two characteristics

to be considered later in Ralegh’s poems, wo found that in

subject matter the English poets adopted the Petrarchan lady

33% Karl of Surrey. The Lover comforteth hlr self with the Worthiness of his love. Poetry ofthe English RenaTs- . sance, p. 2 f . . - . - ■; 17. Sir Thomas Wyatt, Description of the contrarlous passions of a_laver. Poetry of the English Renaissance, p, 13, 18. Earl of Surrey, Dercrintlon of Soring. Poetry of the English Renaissance, p. 27. 39

and the Petrarchan Idea of love. They formalized thee# themeo lot© conventional patterns. We observed a superfi­ ciality of tone and surfase Insincerity which were the re­ sults of using exaggerated and conventional comparisons, by using stock expressions, and by using allegory. To show how Ralegh employed these conventional characteristics in his poems will be the purpose of the following material.

Ralegh’s Petrarchan lady was Elizabeth, Just as Sidney’s had been Stella, Of her beauty he sang in his poem addressed to the Queen:

Since, if my Plaint#;se m e not to proue The Oonejuest of your Beauty, It comes not from Defect of Lous, But from Excess© of duety.

For knowing that I sue to serue A Saint of such Perfection, As all desire, but none deserue, A place in her Affection42-9

In his poem Cynthia. Ralegh tells of the power of her beauty:

such force her angellike aparance hnd _ to master distance, tyme, or erueltye, 0

According to the Petrarchan tradition, Ralegh’s lady must also be cold and indifferent to his love, and we find that she is: - ■, -■ ■

At Loues entreaty, such a one nature made, but with her beauty

Sir. Ralegh, ed. Agnes Latham, p, 104. %hls anthology % L 1 hereaftericr be cited as -Poems. 20., Poems, p. 01* 40

@h@ hath framed a heart of stone.21

Roie

lover, he suffers the torture Inflicted upon the tradi­ tional lover; In the selection below, Ralegh writes of,

his misery:

Like to a Hermit® poore In place obscure, I meane to spend my dales of endles doubt. To wall® such woes as time cannot recure, Where none but Loue shall euer flnde me out.

My food® shall be of care and sorow made, My drink nought else but teares falne from mine eles. And for my light In such obscured shade, The flames shall serue, which from my hf?rt arise.

A gowne of grale, my bodle shall attire. My staffs of broken hope whereon H e stale. Of late repentance linokt with long desire. The couch is fram*de whereon my llrabes H e lay.

And at my gate dlspalre shall linger still. To let in death when Loue and Fortune will.22 . v ■ ; - - - ' ... . He tells Elizabeth In a poem addressed to her as the "Em- p : ' ' press® of my Heart" that he must suffer In silence for his

passion, and therefore. Is a more miserable victim of love:

Silence In Loue bewrales more Woe, Then Words, though ne’r so Witty, A Beggar that is dumb, yee know, deserueth double Pltty. Then aloconcelue not (dearest Heart) My true, though secret Passion, He® smarteth most that hides his smart, And sues for no CompassIon.23

In his Favne Wovlde I Bvt I Dare Hot. Ralegh shows that he

21. 4 ,gpgm. jf ■ k l r er..Rawlelghs, Poems, 737 22. Like to a Hermite Poore. Poems, p. 35. 23. Sir Walter ...... * Poems, p. 105. 41

follows the traditional rules of suffering. H@ b u m s and freezes, lives only In her sight, sorrows and suffers In her. absence;

You laughs, because you lyke not. I least and yet I loye not. You pearce, allthough# you stryke not. I stryke and yet annoye not*

I spye. nhenas I apeak not. For ofte I speak and speed not; But of my woundes you wreaks not; Because you se they bleed,not;

Yet bleed they wh e n you see not; But you the payne Indure not. Of noble mlndo they he not that euer kyll and cure not.

I see, whenas I vewc not. I wlshe, allthoughe I craue not* V : -.1 seruei and'yet % &we not. I hope for that I haue not.

I oatoho, allthoughe I houlde not. I burne, allthoughe I flame not. I seeme, whenae I would not; And when I seeme 1 am not.

Yours am I, thoughe I seeme not; And will be thoughe I shovre not. Myne owtwarde deeds than deeme not, V.'hen myne Intent-you knew® not.24

Ralegh tells Elizabeth that She is hie inspiration to

live. His happiness comes from her pleasure, his dismay

from jealousy of her attention. He declares that he Is a

lover ■■ ■ . :

Whose life once lived in her perrellike brest whose loyes wears drawne but from her happlne# whose harts hygh pleasure, and whose minds trew rest

24. Fogmsw PP» 78-737 42

preceded from her fortunes blessedness,

who wes Intentiue, Wakefull, and dlsmayde In feares, in dreameo, In feoverus lelosye who longe In oylence served, and obeyed with secret hart, and hydden loyalty©,25

Like the conventional lover in the courtly poems, Ralegh vows that his love will endure forever. In the selection quoted on page 27, "which never change to sadd adveraetye," he asserts that his devotion for Cynthia will never be les­ sened by time, age, or "natures overthrow," Ralegh adopted the conventional and superficial atti­ tude of the courtly poetry. He professed an ardent passion for his mistress and produced this,effect by following the traditional method that has-been previously discussed on

page 34. Employing the conventional tricks of his contem­

poraries to obtain this superficial passion, he uses ex­

aggerated comparisons, as in his A Farewell to False Love;

Farewell false loue, the oracle of lyes, A mortal foe and enimie to rest: An enuious boye, from whome all cares aryse, A bastard vile, a beast with rage poseest: A way of error, a temple ful of treason. In all effects, oontrarie vnto reason,

A poysoned serpent couered all with flowers, .Mother of sighes, and murtherer of repose, A sea of sorsws from whence are drawen such showers, As moysture lend to euerie grief® that growes, A sohole of guile, a net of deepe deceit, A guilded hooke, that holds a poysoned bayte,

A fortresoe foyld, which reason did defend, A Syren song, a feauer of the minde,

25. m s m 6# Poems, w . 43

A 'maze v/he re In affection finds no end®, A raging oloude that funnes before the wlna®, A substance like the shadow.of the Sunne, A goale of griefe for. >h ich • the wisest runne,

A duenohleose fire, a nurse of trembling fear®, A path that leads to perill and mishap, A true retreat of.sorrow and dispayre,- • , An idle boy that oleepes in pleasures lap, A deepe mistrust of that whieh oertalne seemen, • A hop® of that which reason doubtful d@em©se2o

Ralegh adopted the use of allegory. In his poem Omthl*. which we have already studied in Chapter I, Elizabeth is the beautiful and eruel Cynthia, Ralegh is the outcast lover

In the role of the Ocean.

Like the other court poets, Ralegh filled hie early poems with the stock expressions of the Italian love poetry.

As an example is the poem In the Grace of Y.'lt. of Tongve and Face:

• Your face %our tongue Your wit So faire , So sweet So sharpe

Your fa@e Ycur tongue Your, wit With beames With ®«md With art®

Your face . Your tongue Your v/ittes To serue To trust To feare.27

Ralegh describes his woe with frequent aliusions to the conventional tears and sorrows, as in the following eeleo- ■■ . ■ ' ' . ' tion:' -■ ; ' - ...

so did my ioyes mealt into eecreat teares so did my hart desolve in wasting® dropps and as the season of the yeare outweares

26. Poems. 0 . 28. 27. Ibid., p. 38, 44

and heap®® of snow from of the mountnyn toppe

with, B^ddayne otreames the valid s overflow so did the tymo draw on my more 'dlspe.lre then fludd® of sorrow and who®# eeas of wo the banoks of all ny hope did overbeare.28

We find the conventional suffering of the lover in Ralegh1 a poems described as sensations of ”intemall heat:"

my harts intemall heat, and livings fier would not, or could be quencht, with suddayn 8hourea,29

Then mought I wish (though nought I can deserue) Some dropps of grace to slake my scalding fir®,30

Ralegh uses descriptiona of nature to picture his misery

and to make it more impressiv®. As an example the following

selection may be cited:

Lost in the mudd of thos hygh flowing© stream®* which through more fayrer fields ther courses bend, slayne with seaIf thoughts, am&ede in ferrfull dreams, woes without date, discomforts without end,

from frutfull trees I gather wlthred leuoo and glean the broken eares with misers hands, who sumetyme did Inloy the weighty shaves I seek fairs flourea amldd the brinish sand,

all in the shade yeven In the fairs soon dayes vnder thos healthless trees I sytt a Ion® wher loyfull l^rrdds singe noather lovely layes nor phillomen recounts her dire full atone, No feeding© flockes, no sheapherds oumpunye that might renew my dollorus oonsayte while happy then, while loue and fantasy® oonflnde my thoughts enn that faire flock to wait®

no pleasing® streamss fast to the ocean wend Inge

^ M r f i r w r ’ PP‘ 81'82- 30. A Poem Pvt into Mv Lady Lalton*s Pocket. Poems, p. 74. the messenger' avmetymes of my great woe ... hut all onn yeapth as from the colde at or me s bepdinge shrinek from my thoughts in hygh. heavens and helow.31

The present chapter has undertaken to show that Ralegh, as Elizabeth' a favorite, wrote love poems according to the conventional form of Renaissance poetry. ™e shall now turn to the next decade of Ralegh’s life when changes occur In his position at court. These experiences result in a change of attitude, which is reflected in Ralegh*s poems.

31. Cynthia. Poemn. p. 77, CHAPTER III

THE TRANSITION

After the prosperous 80* * which culminated in the defeat of the Spanish Armada, the glory of Elizabeth and of her reign began to decline during the last decade of the century. The present chapter will describe these last years of Elizabeth*s reign. The world Which had centered around her brilliant court began to stir restlessly under the burden of continuous wars. The execution of Essex was to leave the people disil­ lusioned with their Queen, and the uncertainty of the royal succession was to shroud the future with doubt and uneasiness.

I shall review the story of Ralegh* e periods of disgrace and of favor during the last years of Elizabeth. It shall be my purpose to show that since Ralegh*s influence depended upon the Queen alone, his position at the end of her reign was as perilous as that of the nation. The latter part of the chap­ ter will be devoted to a study of Ralqgh*s transitional poems.

These poems that were written during this turbulent petted

indicate changes in Ralegh*s tone and foreshadow the serious

poetry of Ralegh*s last years.

Renaissance England had reached the high point with the defeat of the Spanish Armada. During the following decade,

she spent herself in continuous wars. 47

In 1589 a military and naval force wao sent on an un-

suoeeesful voyage to Portugal In the effort to establish

Don Antonio on the throne; in the autumn of the same year

aid was dispatched to Henri de Navarre against the Catholic

League and their Spanish allies; during 1590 English sol­

diers were fighting with the Dutch In tho Low Countries;

in 1591 two English expeditions were sent to repulse the

Spanish penetration into Brittany; that same autumn the

Earl of Essex led a large force Into Normandy to assist

Henri in the siege of Rouen; but In 1592 Henri lost hie

fight and came to terms with the League in 1593* becoming

a Catholic. Fear of his desertion of England and the up­

rising of Catholics In England resulted in panic. Fore- , , . . ' . - ' ' ' ^ - -..y \ ^ boding of defeats spread through the populace. In 1595

Hawkins and Drake set out on a voyage to South America and

never returned. In 1596 Essex and:Lord Howard were hur­

riedly dispatched to Calais, whleh the Spanish had invaded.

Though they were sueeeeeful at Calais, the Island Voyage

in 1597 under the sole command of Essex was wholly, a failure.

War with the Spanish languished in 1598. When England

was catching her breath, Irish uprisings demanded all her

strength. This war with Ireland was to prove more costly

than any of England's foreign expeditions. By the end of

1598 the English fb roe had lost 2,000 out of a total of

3,500 men and were very likely to be driven out of the conn- 48

try. %he following March, Essex was sent over as Lord Deputy with a large army of 16,000 men who were well trained and well equipped* Harrison notes that

This Irish expedition— comparing population and national fineness.-was a greater military effort than the despatch of the Expeditionary Force in 1914. Moreover, an army Which varied from 12,000 to 16,000 was maintained In Ireland until the end of the reign, being fed and paid from England,I

The long war with Spain evoked a gamut of national emo­ tions, As late as 1593, military aid wan dispatched to the continent with the approval of the people, later. In 1595, a reaction ran through the people. Their anxlet$ as well as loyalty and determination was expressed in the current remark: "If we he true within ourselves, we need not care or fear the enemy."2 This attitude is reflected in

Shakespeare1s King John:

This England never did, nor never shall. Lie at the proud foot of a conqueror. But when it first did help to wound itself. How these her princes are come home again, Come the three Corner# of the world in arm#. And we shall shock them. Nought shall make us rue, If England to itself do rest but true.3

After the unamceesful Island Voyage In 1597, military glory had begun to lose its appeal with the populace.

At first the burden of the war had not been to® heavy.

The number of men recruited from the nation had been small

TI G.B. Harrison. A Companion to Shakespeare studies, n. 180 2. Ibid., P. 171. 3. William Shakespeare, King John. V, vll, 112-118. 49

and the aoeumulsted wealth from the prosperous preceding 4e» cade took care of,the war expense. After 1598, however, the burden became excessive. The drain of men had been heavy and continuous; In July, 1601, alone, 8,000 men were demanded for reinforcements, national resources were being depleted; prices were soaring; taxes were high.4 Social unrest Is re­ flected In the rumors of the time:#

In the county of Leicester is great complaint of the high price of all corn and grain, to the grief of the'poor people whose want is increased by the evil custom of the farmers and graziers in those parts that feed their sheep with pease, which In time of scarcity Is the'betit relief that the poor find for,their bread.?

It is also forbidden at this time of scarcity that starch be made of corn of the realm.?

The situation became so critical that more stringent measures had to be enforced by the Council. Around the date

of August 8 , 1596, the following rumor is recorded: Moreover, the Council think It not amiss that the Archbishop of Canterbury should take order for the preachers generally in their sermons and exhorta­ tions to admonish farmers and owners of corn of this unchristian kind of seeking gain, recommending to the richer sort keeping of hospitality of relief of the poor and avoiding of excess. And therefore

4% In my study of the period, 1 have found most useful Sidney Lee's "The Last Years of Elizabeth,” Cambridge Modern History. III. 5. G. B, Harrison has published An Elizabethan Journal and A Second Elizabethan Journal in which he has collected ~ gossip that mirrors the mind of the English people from 1591-1598. "Each entry...is...taken directly from a contemporary source which is recorded in the Notes," 6. Harrison# 7. Ibid.. p. 50

that housekeepers of wealth would he contented with a more sober diet and fewer dishes of meat In this time of dearth, and to forbear.to have suppers In their houses on Wednesday9, Fridays, and fasting days. ..Gentlemen and other of meaner sort might forbear the keeping of hounds. These and other charitable deeds would be earnestly commended by the preachers and ministers; and special order taken that beneflcdd clergy should reside upon their benefices to give good example to other In using hospitality,® The uneasiness that was spreading was reflected In the fear of the revival of religious uprisings. There existed three principal forms of religion— Catholic, Established

Church, and Puritan. The Catholics were regarded by the

state as the greatest danger. When Pope Plus V excommuni­ cated Elizabeth In 1570, he absolved Catholics from their

duties of allegiance. Now at the turn of the century. It

was a matter of anxiety whether the Catholics would fight

for or against the Queen in the event of ah invasion. At this time there were fears In the minds of men of an inva­

sion from the Spanish, as is observed from the sensational

rumor® that were traveling around London.

With no printed method by which to disseminate news,

Ralegh's contemporaries necessarily hod to exchange hear­

says and views by word of mouth. Consequently, there

existed a perpetual state of gossip and scandal that often

developed into rumors and riots. Men were excitable and

emotional when thrust into a sudden .emergency. One sueh

57 Harrison, I W T ^ 51

notable occasion Is described In a letter written by John

Chamberlain In August 9, 1599, at the time of the false , report of a Spanish invasion:

Upon Monday, toward evening, came news (yet false) that the Spaniards were landed In the Isle of Wight, which bred eueh a fear and consternation in this town as I would little hove looked for, with such a cry of women, chaining of streets, and shotting of gates, as though the enemy had been at Blackmail.9

Among the people, frequent rumors of Spanish invasions ' • 1 ' ' ' • • ■ led to a belief that England would soon fall prey to the

enemy: r . ' ’ ' ' ' It is reported that a new armada is preparing by the King of Spain at Lisbon. There are ten Bis­ cayan ships and thirty otherSjand some not yet come in; and enough biscuit prepared for 10,000 men.10 There is a most certain expectation of the enemy attempting us next year, either directly here at home or by the way of Scotland; and these fears are grounded not on apprehension only but upon ■ the sure knowledge that the preparations in Spain _ be far greater than in *88,11 1'hls panto subsided only to be supplanted by the sensa­

tional rumors of the Queen*s illness. As early as 1594, a

rumor is recorded of the Queen*s death:

There is a rumour in London that the Queen is dead and hath been carried to Greenwich, but it Is be­ ing kept very secret in Court.12

Later in the decade, there are numerous references to

99. Harrison, P. 165. 10,Harrison, A“_ .' 11. Ibid. , p. 5T7 12. Harrison, An Elizabethan Journal. no. 303-304. the Queen*e illnese among Harrison1s collected rumors:

% @ s e last day® the Queen hath had an Indisposi­ tion of sleeplessness and an inflammation from ^ her breast upward, her mind also being altogether . averted from physio. These thing# happening in' this her oilmanterioal year terrify all, and es­ pecially last Friday in the morning; but now she is recovered.13

The startling realization that their Queen was failing caused a feeling of fear among the people. Stories of Eliza­ beth’s growing 111-humour end qualms substantiated the re­ port. One contemporary writes of his visit to court:

Much was my comfort in being well received, not­ withstanding it is an ill hour for seeing the Queen....She is quite disfavourd, and unattlrd, and these troubles waste her much®. she dls- regardeth every oostlie cover that cometh to the table, and taketh little but maohet and succory potage. Every new message from the city doth disturb her, and she frowns on all the ladies....! must not say much, even by this true- tie and sure messenger; but many evil plots and designs have overcome all her Highness1 sweet temper* She walks much im her privy chamber, and stamps with her feet at ill news, and thrusts her rusty sword at times into the arras in great rage. My Lord Buokhurst is much with her, and few else since the city business; but the dangers are over, and yet she always keeps a sword by her table.14

Attempts upon the life of the Queen were planned during these turbulent times, and on:one-occasion we have the notice that: - : • . - -

Edward Squire was arraigned this day in West­ minister for his high treason in compassing the

Harrison, 1, P* 81. ll: latm Harington, grams Of Sir Harlngton. pp. 90-91. 53

Queen* s death, and being feund guilty is con­ demned to /be quartered.15

At this crucial time, the groping.populace was dealt a blow that shook their faith In Elizabeth. The Earl of Essex was executed for treason.

After being dismissed earlier from the court for de­ serting his post in Ireland, Esse?? became desperate and In­ sanely unreasonable. He gathered friends together and pro- posed an "alteration of the state*" The Queen was not to be harm®!, although she was to become a prisoner, losing her government an! court* The plan leaked out, and 2,000 of the Queen1 s army besieged Essex’s house, ’^he trial and verdict were immediate*

The emotions engendered Iqr the fall of Essex produced a bitterness and disillusionment among the people. Essex had been their hero*

The problem of succession had been dropped during the last years of Essex's career. After his death, a deeply troubled era insued * The violent reigns that had followed

Henry VIII's death had not been forgotten. The Queen had no direct heirs so that the more level the claims of each possible successor* the more likelihood of a civil war's breaking out at the Queen's death or of the intervention of a foreign power* Discussion of the succession was strict-

15. Harrison, 3 5 5 7 ly forbidden in England, for the Queen feared a consequent movement to desert her in favor of her suceessor, if he be known. However, a Fr. Parsons produced on the continent a book sailed A Conference about the next Succession In Which i _ he considered the various claimants from the King of Scot­ land and Lady Arabella Stuart to English nobles and foreign princes, particularly the Infanta of Spain. The uncertainty of the succession left the English people in a state of In­ stability at the close of the century.

We have seen how the nation's wealth was spent in con­ tinuous ware after the defeat of the Spanish Armada, and as a result, how the country was drained of her men, how economic resources became depleted, prices soared, and taxes became burdensome so that the people began to grumble under the oppressions how their disapproval and dissatis­ faction was intensified by the execution of Essexj how the nation awoke to the realization that Elisabeth was failing and that the dangerous question of the succession must be

settled. As a consequence,of these and other troubles, a

sense of Insecurity settled over the nation* and the people

stirred uneasily at the close of Elizabeth’s reign*

Now we may turn to Ralegh and see what his position was during this decade of decline.

Ralegh1s career during the go’s was likewise turbulent.

All had gone well until he secretly married Elizabeth Throek- morton in 1592, inourring Elizabeth*a wrath. Both Ralegh and hie bride were confined to the Tower. It was only

Ralegh1s being needed to handle the distribution of a rich cargo that released him and Lady Ralegh from prison* Out of the prize, Ralegh saved a handsome portion for Elizabeth.

He did not intend to let such a chance to regain his Queen*s favor pass, so he wrote the following note to Elizabeth:

Four score thousdmd pounds is more than ever a man presented to her Majesty as yet. If God have sent it for my ransom, I hope her Majesty of her abundant goodness will accept it. If her Majesty cannot beat me from her affection, 1 hope her sweet nature will think it no con­ quest to afflict me.&6

Forbidden to appear at court, he spent the next few years quietly on his estate at Sherborne. : ,

Until Essex*s execution in 1601, Ralegh was engaged

in retrieving all that he had lost by his marriage. He . had to resort upon all his abilities to regain royal favor.

He became interested in the colonization of Guiana, which was free from European flag and reputed to be rich. Hoping

this scheme might bring bountiful results which would ap­

pease Elizabeth*s anger, he sent out expeditions in 1595

and 1596 to gather information of the country. But It was his clever strategy at Cadiz in 1596 that won the battle,

captured treasure for the Queen, and restored him to Court.

16. Ralegh* s letter, as quoted in Irwin Anthony*s Raiogh World, p. 152. Having regained Elizabeth*o favor, Ralegh Incurred tt®

jealousy of several preelneat eourtlere.. Hie old rival

Essex hated hla acre than ever for stealing the glory from the Islands Voyage. All Essex had received was blame for

Its failure. He vee very antagonistic up to his execution

in 1601. With no more fascinating court rival In his way

after that date, Ralegh enjoyed a period of political

power. ; - ;■ / : Ralegh was probably unconscious of the malice being

done him at this time In the letters of Cecil, tils Intimate

friend, to James of Scotland. Dr. Peter Heylin in hie

Examen Hlstorlcum relates that Sir Robert Cecil, principal secretary of state, , fearing the great abilities of Ralegh, and be­ ing wearied vith the troublesome impertinences of Cray and Cobham, all which had Joined with him In design against the earl of irssex, their common enemy; had done their errand to King James (whose counsels h# desired to engross to_w himself alone) before his coming into England.if

Ceoil In his correspondence to the Scottish King (unknown

to Elizabeth) was poisoning James1 mind against Ralegh.

Outside the court, Ralegh had incensed the people

against him. They hatdd his arrogance; "he was damnable

proud," wrote Autrey.18 A popular ballad on Ralegh by the Londoners reflects tho people’s impression thet Ralegh

17% William Oldys, "fhe Life of Ralegh,” r 18. Auhrey^A u b r e V a ' "Brlef^Llves" , II, 182. 57

was a man of greed and overbearing pride:

Ralegh doth time bestride, He sits Hvtxt wind and tide, Xet mphill ho eannot ride, For all his bloody pride....

He eeeke taxes In the tin, He polls-the poor to the skin, Yet he vows ’tis no Bln, Lord for thy pity*. 19 .

V?e have seen that Ralegh1 s position was vested In Elizabeth, xhe courtiers feared his abilities; the people hated his pride, Cecil had turned the new monarch against him, and public opinion would not stay Cecil's attempt t@ ruin him. Ralegh's life was at the brink of a great transi­ tion. So was his poetry.

Ve shall now turn to a study of Ralegh*s poems written during this period with the purpose to show how these poems

foreshadow the serious poetry of Ralegh1s later life.

Ralegh* s turbulent career soon sobered his exaggerated

love songs. The scathing contempt for the court that Ralegh

voices In The Lie is totally foreign from his attitude in ' - ; ' ' : , - ; - . ' ; ; . : . - : ' " \ . . earlier poems.

Say to the Court It glowes, and shines like rotten wood. Say to the Church It ehowes whatn good, and doth ho good. If Church and Court reply, then glue them both the lie. Tell Potentates they H u e acting by others action.

19« M. C, Bradbrook, P. 31. 58

Hot loued vnlesse they glue, mot strong hut by sffeotlon. If Potentates reply, glue Potentates the lie.

Tell men of high condition, that manage the estate. Their purpose is ambition, their practise onely hate: And if they once reply, " . then glue them all the lie.20

The poem could not have been written later than 1596 for Miss Latham has seen a copy of the poem in MS Harley

6910 that was written about 1596. 21 To support this date, we find that between 1596-1603 Ralegh was enjoying favor ' r: and had no reason for such a bitter outburst. His Imprison­ ment In 1592 as a result of hie secret marriage to Eliza­ beth' s mala of honor was the first time he had received a definite rebuff from the Queen, ^hat his position after years of service was to be swept aside by the Queen's whim was probably a hard blow for Ralegh's pride to take. It was characteristic for the hold and daring soldier to fight back. He had humbled himself in the superficial role of a lover in earlier years of security to please the Queen who had showered honors on him. He had played upon the unklnd- nees of Cynthia for her attention to Essex. But now he had been openly rebuked and publicly humiliated. He was not one to cower, when cornered. Bitterly he assailed Elizabeth* s

23% Poems, p. 4% J ' ' ' — — 21. Latham, "Notes," Poems, p. 156. 59

Injustice atiti unklndneao:

Tell wit how much it wrangles In tickle points of nyceneose, Tell wisedomo she entangles her selfe In ouer wiseness©. And when they doe reply straight glue them both the lie.

Tell fortune of her "blindness, tell nature of decay. Tell friendship of vnklndnesee, tell luetice of delay, And if they will reply, then glue them all the lie.

Tell faith its fled the Cltle, tell how the country erreth, Tell manhood shakes off pittle, tell vertue least preferred. And if they doe reply, ^ spar® not to glue the lie.22

In Ralegh's questioning of the lasting values In this world, we h-ve a foreshadowing of his serious mind that emerges in M s late poems:

Tell zeale it wants deuotlon tell loue It Is "but lust. Tell time it meets but motion, tell flesh It is but dust. A M wish them not replie , for thou must glue the lie. Tell age it dally wasteth, tell honour how it alters. Tell beauty how she blaateth . tell fauour how It falters And as they shall replyy glue euery one the lie. -A

When misfortune falls, Ralegh shews as early as this

poem that he la prone to analyse hie artificial role of a

Pp. 46-47. 23r f f i sp, 46. 60

lover who places all value on love and ita reward, H® tends to question earthly values and to find them short-lived.

In his poem Kv Boday In the Walls Captived. Ralegh writes of the change in his relationship with Elizabeth:

Butt tymeo effects, and destines dlsplghtfull haue changed both my keeper end my fare, loves fire, and bewtes light I then had store, but now close keipt, as captives wounted are that food, that heat, that light % find# no more.2*

It Is apparent from the references to time changing

"both ny keeper and my fare" and to his receiving no more

"loves fire" that Ralegh wrote this poem during his im­ prisonment under Elizabeth In 1592 and not during his Inw prlsonment under James in 1603,

Ralegh* s tone shows signs of becoming more serious and losing its superficiality and surface Insincerity. Com­ pare the above passage that states clearly and simply the loss of love and separation from his lady to the exaggerated description of the same situation in his early poems Cynthia:

And as a man distract, with trebell might bound in strong# ohaynes douth strive, and rage in vayne , till tyrde and breathless, he Is forst to rest fyndes by contention but iwreae of payne and fiery heat inflamde in swollen breast.

So did my mlnde in change of passion from wo to wrath, from wr?th returne to wo, ' strugling© in vayne from loves subiectlon Therfore all liueless, and all healplesa bounde my fayntlnge spirritts sunok, and he rt apalde

24. Poems, p. 76. 61

■ my loyes and hopes lay M e e d Inge on the g e o W L -_ that not longe since the highest heaven scalde*25

Though hie tone, 'becomes more sober, Ralegh does not give up his role as a dejected lover. He suffers the fate of a conventional lover when separated from his loves

butt ray thralde rainde, of liberty deprived, fast fettered in her auntient memery, . douth nought behold# but aorrowes dllnge face.26

We notice the exaggerated emotions of a rejected lover have disappeared. He does not describe his sorrow in the conventional wails of woe as he did in earlier poems. Com­ pare the above passage with the following selection from an early poem:

the thoughts of passed tymea like flames of hell, kyndled a fresh within my memorye the many deere achiuements that befell

In those pryme yeereo and infancy of love which to discribe wears butt to dy in writings ah those I sought, but vaynly, to remove and vaynly shall, by which I perrlsh lluii^e.2?

We have noted that Ralegh* s turbulent experiences dur­

ing the last years of Elizabeth’s reign introduced a new attitude and tone into his poetry of that period. Hy hie attacks on the court and his analysis of earthly things he once valued, he Indicates a change In attitude. By his

abandoning exaggeration, his poems become less superficial

in tone. We can,see in these few transitional poems a

e Walls Cantlved.C Po^aa. p. 76, m m , PP. 82-~w. #3

refleetIon of Ralegh1e experiences and a foreshadowing of his serious poetry, ' ...... •

The present chapter has undertaken to; show the decline

of Elizabethan England and the Insecurity of Ralegh1s posi­ tion during this© years. By a study of the poems that can be definitely dated at the time of Ralegh1 s disfavor, we have observed thnt Ralegh1 a experleno&tig loss of position instigated the beginnings of a change in attitude and tone. These new characteristics foreshadow the serious poetry

of Ralegh*s last years, which we will consider In the next

chapter. CHAPTER IV

THE PRISONER, A SERIOUS POET

In this chapter I undertake to describe the eh&nges at the court and in Ralegh1s position under the new monarch

James, $he ruin of his career caused Ralegh to assume a new outlook on life. We find this new attitude reflected

In the broadened Intellect and more serious content of his prose works written during his twelve years in prison. The last part of the chapter is devoted to a study of Ralegh* s late poems. *hey are serious in tone and religious or philo­ sophical in theme, as contrasted to the superficial tone and conventional love theme of his early poems.

When Elizabeth died in 1603, no claimant disputed the right of King James of Scotland to the English throne. The matter had already been settled secretly by Robert'!Cecil, the Queen’s secretary, who was in almost complete control of English policy after the death of his father, the great

Lord Burghley, in 1598. So the Councillors proclaimed their intention: to maintain and uphold King James* person and estate, as our only undoubted Sovereign Lord and King, with the sacrifice of our lives, lands, goods, and friends, and adherents against all force, power, or practice, that shall go about, by word or deed, to interrupt, contradict, or impugn his just claim, or his entry into this . 64

Kingdom or into any part thereof, at his good pleasure.1 When King James was accepted as King of England, a general feeling of relief that the dangerous problem of the sueeesBion had been settled without bloodshed ran throughout the nation. Since James befriended the pope and the Spanish King, the war ceme to a sudden end. With peace, there followed a brief era of enthusiasm and opti­

mism. • . V ■ " However, a reaction quickly set In. The King was not

a statesman as Elizabeth had been, and the general disci­

pline of the State became disrupted. Sir Roger Wilbraham

leaves a contemporary s comparison of these two sovereigns,

I'l’he King) was most bountiful, seldom denying any suit; the Queen strict in giving, Ttilch age and her sex inclined her unto; the one often complained of for sparing; the other so benign that his people fear his over-readiness in giving, ^he Queen slow to resolution and seldom to bo retracted; His Ma­ jesty quick In concluding and more variable In sub­ sisting, The Queen solemn and ceremonious, and re­ quiring decent and diep&rent order to be kept con­ venient in each degree; and though she bare a greater majesty yet would she labour to entertain strangers, suitors, and her people with more court­ ly courtesy and favourable speeches than the King useth; who although he he indeed of a more true benignity and ingenuous nature,’ yet the neglect of these ordinary ceremonies, which his variable and quick wit cannot attend, makes common people Judge otherwise of hlm.2

Bacon* s letter to the Earl of Northumberland analyses

H "nthonv. Ralegh and HlsWorld. p. 220. 8, Harrison. A Companion to Shakespeare Studies, p. 183. 65

the King: ' • ■

YouF Lord ship shall find a prince the farthest from th® appearance of vain-glory that may he, rather like a p r i m e ©f th® ancient form than of the latter time. His speech Is swift and cursory, and in the full dialect of his country; and in point of business, short; In point of dis­ course large. He affeoteth popularity by grac­ ing such as he h&th heard to be popular, and not by any fashions of his own. He Is thought some- . what general In M s favours, and M s virtue of access la rather because he in much abroad in press, than that he glveth easy audience about serious things. He hasteneth a mixture of both kingdoms and nations, faster perhaps than policy w i n conveniently hear.3

A great change was made by James in the court. Men

of such great standing under Elizabeth as Ralegh wero put

out of their posts, ^hen James first arrived on English

soil, Ralegh had hoped to impress the King with M g im­

portance by offering his strength and wealth for the utter

defeat of Spain. Ralegh only deepened the King's convic­

tion of his treacherous nature, for rumors of Ralegh*s

aversion to him as England’s king had already reached

James* ears. Aubrey writes that

at a consultation at TShithall, after queen Eliza­ beth* s death* how,matters were to be ordered and what out to be donae, Sir Walter Raleigh de­ clared his opinion * twas the wisest way for them to keep the government in their owns hands, and sett up a commonwealth, and not be subject to a needy beggarly nation. It seemes there were some of this caball,..who kept not thla.se see ret but that it came to king James’s oare.4

Baconv Eds. S Ellis, Heath, T7 Aubrey "Brief II. 186. 66

Upon their firot mooting, Jarace' dislike of Ralegh was made evident in his rude pun: On my soules mon, I have heard rawly of thee.”5 ’ - . ;

Elizabeth's favorite received many a rebuff, losing some of M e offices* According to' Irvin Anthony* Ralegh?.G

"vehemence frightened James."6 The:Scottish King feared his ability, his mind, his power. -Unlike;Elisabeth, ;hs considered such force dangerous, He suffered no trust in others and tried to be the wisdom, wit, and strength of the nation he did not understand, , v-v

'^he dignified court life of the Elizabethan reign loon vanished, and fashionable manners rapidly deteriorated.

Sir John Harington leaves us a vivid picture of tho extra­ vagance and carousing during an evening1s entertainment in

James’ court:

In compliance with your asking, new shall you accept my poor aoootinte of rich doolngs, I came here a day or two before the Danish King came, and from the day he did come uni111 this hour, I have been well n i A overwhelmed with carousel and sports of all kinds. The sports began each day in such man­ ner and suoh eorte, ‘ as well nlghr^rsuadM me of Mahometo paradise, "e had women, and indeed wine too, of such plenty, : as w w l d here astonished each sober beholder. Our feasts were magnificent, and the two royal guests did most lovingly embrace emah other at the tablo, I think the Dane hath strangely• wrought on our good English nobles; for those, whom I never could get to taste good liquor, now follow the fashion, and wallow in beastly delights, Ahe

Aubrey, aggMEnnyfTi______^ives". II. 186. I: I have based this reaction of James to Ralegh arA the character of James on Irvin Anthony1o discussion in his Ralegh and His World, pp. 225-227, 67

ladies abandon their sobriety, and are seen to roll about in intoxication. In good sooth, the parliament did kindly to provide his Majeati# so seasonably with money, for there hath been no lack of good llvlnge; shews, sights, and banquetings, from morn to ®aw. One day, a great feadt was held, and; after dinner, the representation of Solomon his Temple and the coming of the Queen of Sheba was made, or (as I may better say) was meant to have been made, before their Majesties, by device of the Earl of Salisbury and others#•-But, alasst as all earthly things do fail to poor mortals in enjoyment, so did prove our pre­ sentment hereof; %he ^ady who did play the Queens part* did oarty moat precious gifts to both their Majesties; but, forgetting the steppes arising to the canopy, overset her easkets into M s Danish Majesties lap, and fell at his feet, tho I rather think it was in hie face. More was the hurry and confusion; cloths and napkins were at hand, to make all clean. His Majesty then got up and wood dance with the Queen of Sheba; but he fell down and humbled himself before her, and was carried to an inner chamber and laid on a bed of state; which was not a little defiled with the presents of the Queen which had been bestowed on hie garments; such as wine, cream, Jelly, beverage, cakes, spices, and other good matters. The entertainment and show went forward, and most of the presenters went backward, or fell down; wine did so ocoupy their upper chambers, ow did appear, in rich dress, Hope, Faith, and Charity: Hope did assay to speak but wine renderd her endeavours so feeble that she withdrew and hoped the King would excuse her brevity: Faith was then all alone, for I am certain she was not joyned with good works, and left the court in a staggering condition; Charity oame to the King's feet, and seemed to cover the multi- I tude of sins her slaters had committed; in some aorte she made obeyanee and brought glftes, but said she would return home again, as there was no gift which heaven had not already given His Majesty, She then returned to Hope and Faith, who were both n sick and spewing in the lower hall. Next came Victory, in bright armour, and presented a rich sword to the &ing, who did not accept It, but put it by with his hand; and, by strange medley of ver­ sification* did endeavour to make suit to the King, But Victory did not tryumph long; for, after muoh lamentable utterance, she was led away like a silly captive, and laid to sleep in the outer steps of the antl-ohaaber, Now did Peace make entry, and strive to get foremoste to the King; hut I grieve to tell how great wrath she did discover unto those of her attendants; and, much contrary to her sea- , hlanoe, most rudely made war with her olive trancti, and laid on the pate s of those who did opose her coming. I have much marvalled at these strange pageantries, and they do bring to my remembrance shat passed of this sort in our Queens days; of which I was some- ..... time an humble presenter and assistant; but I peer did see such lack of good order, discretion, and sobriety, as I have now done. I have passed much "1 time in seeing the royal sports of hunting and hawk* .ing, where the manners were such as made me devise the beasts were pursuing the sober ereation, and not man in quest of exercise or food. I will now, In good sooth, declare to you, who will net blab, . that the gunpowder fright is got out of all our heads, and we are going on, hereabouts, as if the devil was contriving every man should blow up him­ self, by wild riot, excess, and devastation of time and temperance. The great ladles do go well-masked, and indeed it be the only show of their modesty, to oonoeal their oontenanoe; but, alack, they meet with suoh doings, that I marvel not at aught that happens. The Lord of the mansion is overwhelmed in preparations at Theobalds, and doth marvelously please both Kings, with good meat, good drink, and good speeches. I do often say (but not aloud) that the Danes have again conquered the Britain#, for I see no man, or woman, either, that can now command himself or herself. I wish I was at home:— 0 rus, quando te aspiclam?— And I will; before the Prince Veudemont oometh.

--Sir John Harlngton to Secretary Barlow Theobalds July, 1606 7

James* personal unpopularity as a sovereign brqught about a feeling of uncertainty and danger even greater than that of the late 90*8. The lowering of standards in the Court

7. ifarlngton, * iBstea. pp. 119-121. 69

was Immediate; Blackneea of discipline, IPs® of dignity, and Increase of expense eenMned to produce dissatisfaction and a feeling of Instability among the people.

$hls smouldering discontent developed Into plots* the

Jesuits were incensed against James for not granting them religious freedom as he had premised} consequently. Catho­ lics and enemies of James were enlisted in a plot* The plans came to the L ord Admiral’s ears, and the "Surprisew or

"Bye* plot was uncovered. All were taken Including a Lord

Oobham, whom Ralegh had lately met frequently while nego­ tiating the purchase of a farm. Cobham's intimacy with

Ralegh, who was then buying an estate from him, drew Ralegh

into suspicion.®

1n Novemberj 1603, Ralegh was summoned to attend the

Lords of Council. Without the slightest notion of the trickery of his friend, Cecil, who had managed to establish

a connection between Ralegh and the plot by the bribed tes­

timony of Oobham,9 Ralegh strode boldly into the Council

room. He was examined for his connection with the conspir­

acy^, for plotting to place Arabella Stuart on the English

throne, and for his acquaintance with Lord Oobham* He re­

turned from the examination a prisoner, confined to his own homo*,

5% G. E. Hadow, “introduction,"

01d y s , % i f e of Ralegh," I, 373. 70

Ineenaequential testimony and irrelevant reasoning followed, and the Jury pronounced th® verdlot— guilty of high treason#^O Afterward, some of his Jury "were, after he was cast, so far touched in oonsoienoe, as to demand. of him pardon on their knees,Ralegh had replied: My Lords, the Jury hath found me guilty. They must do os they are directed. I can say nothing why Judgment should not proeeed. %ou see where­ of Cobham hath aoeused me. You remember his pro­ testation that I was never guilty. I desire the King should know the wrong * have been done to since I came hither,12

But James was not to be persuaded to the contrary:

Ralegh1 s execution was. ordered for December 11, 1603.

However, his execution and those of the other plotters were stayed dramatically on the very block. Ralegh was

Confined to the Bloody Tower on December 15, where he wno

to remain prisoner for twelve years.

That Ralegh accepted the reality of his position—

the loss of all material power and position to attain which he had exerted every effort and used every means and

on which he had placed utmost value— is evidenced in hie

letter to Lady Ralegh, written during the latter part of his trial:

For my selfe, I am left of all men that have done

id,Complete information of ihe trial can be found in Stebbing, Sir Walter Ralegh, pp, 186-241* 11. Osborne1 s Memoirs of King James. II, 108, as oited in Oldys, "The Life of Ralegh,w I, 362. 12, Stebbing, 0£, olt*. p. 220. 71

good to many. All my good turnea forgotten, all my erroar® revived,,and expounded to all extremltle of 111., All.my services, hazaz-des, and expemea; for my Countrle plantings, discoveries, fights, ; Couneells, and whatsoever ells, malice hath nowe' covered over, I am nowe made an enemle and traytour by the word of an imworthle man*13 ^hat Ralegh turned his thoughts to more serious matters of a broad Intellectual character Is evidenced by his prose writings while in the Tower* He wrote on the affairs of the state: Maxims of State. Acts of the Empire (The Cabinet

Council), Prerogative of Parliaments: he penetrated foreign affairs: Premonition to Princes. A Dialogue between a Jesuit and a Recusant; Savoy Marriage: he conceived a History of the

World of gigantic porportion: WFor, beginning, with the crea­ tion, I have proceeded with the history of the world; and lastly proposed...to confine my discourse within this own re* nowned island of Great Britain." Living in the Tower within the shadow of life and death, Ralegh in M s thoughts wandered into the realm of metaphysics* Be questioned in A Treatise on the Soul and meditated in The Sceptic (a defense of man's right to doubt), and moralized In his Instructions to his

Son and to Posterity. ^

Though a prisoner, Ralegh continued to fight to regain his liberty. He had incessantly pleaded for his freedom so that he might serve his country, hut neither merits nor Justice opened M s doors. Finally, the hope that Ralegh

iSECHSBTdWgfinKnwBaroa&s, ed, Hadow, p, 176, 72

, might add to the royal coffers Induced the King to listen.

As long as Cecil lived, Ralegh* s proposals were ignored.

After Cecil’s death, Ralegh had revived his plans to Sir

Ralph llnwood, succeeding secretary of state, writing: "VThat

* know of the riches of that place, net by hearsay, "but what

mine eyes hnve.seen, I have said it often, hut it was then

to no end."14 two expeditions "between 1604-1608 to Guiana

verified Ralegh’s assertion® of the wealth of the land*

James, desperate for money, consented to let Ralegh sail for

Guiana in the hopes of discovering a gold mine. $he prisoner

was released after twelve years, three months, and five days

In the Tower,

Ralegh financed the expedition himself. At the very

start the voyage .met with mishap. James betrayed Ralegh’s

plans to the Spanish ambassador, who sent them to Madrid,

The expedition, set upon by Spaniards, failed to find the

gold mine mapped out by Ralegh on his previous expeditions

in 1595 and 1596. *al gh's misery was added to by the death

of his son, Reiter, at the hands of the Spanish, He re-

' turned empty-handed and was immediately sentenced on hi#

old charge. According to AubreyJ

The time of his execution was contrived to be on my Lord Mayer’s day...that the pageants and fine shewes might drawe away the people from beholding the tragoedie of one of the gallants worthies that

14. Ralegh’s letter to V/inwood, 1 Ralegh. VIII. 629. 73

over England bred.15

In the preceding pages, we have seen the change that

James made in the Court, his weakness as a monarch, and his unpopularity. We have also seen his dislike of Ralegh, which resulted in Ralegh1s loss of favor and final imprison­ ment. The prose works written during his twelve years in the Tower mark the change that came over Ralegh* s outlook— his broadened intellect in his political and social dis-

• ■ ■ • , • - . ■ ' - courses and his deeper insight in his metaphysical treatise.

Ralegh* when no longer a man of physical activity, became a man of mental energy. We shall no* turn to Ralegh’s late poems and see the change that came into his poetry of this

period. .

Bitter circumstances of Ralegh’s life under the reign

of James and the temper of the age left melancholy deeply

engraved upon his soul. Life offered nothing certain but

sorrow. Beauty had faded, friends had failed, and hopes

had darkened. There was no f^vor to be secured by elabor­

ate love poems, so Sir Walter forsook the Petrarchan lady

and his passionate love verses and turned inward to dwell upon his deeper thoughts, •

Religious and philosophical questions became the themes

of his late poems. He asks the meaning of life in his poem On the Life of Man;

15. Aubrey . Aul "yes.u II. ~T5o7 74

What Is our life? a play of passion, 5-"> Our mirth the meloke of diuision. Our mothers mombes the tyring houses be, Where we are drest for this short Comedy, Heauen the Judicious Sharpe spectator is. That sits and markes still who doth act amisse, Our graces that hide vs from the searching Sun, Are like drawee curtaynes when the play is done. Thus march we playing to our latest rest-, °nely we dye in earnest, that*8 no lest.16

Ahe appearance of religious poems brings up the ques­ tion of Ralegh1 s alleged atheism. To aoeount for these two conflicting ideas in Ralegh, we must investigate his atheis­ tic doctrine. We have the following evidence from Jesuit Parson*e

Resnonsio ad Ellzabethae Edioturn, written in 1592, that

Ralegh was accused by his ag@ ©f atheistic beliefs:

Sir Walter Hawley1 s, school of Atheism® by the way, and of the Conjuror that is H(aster) thereof, and of the diligence used to get young gentlemen of this school, wherein both Moyses and our Saviourj the olde and the Uewe Testa- mentes are Jested at, and the scoilers taught, among other things, to spell God backwards,17

Ralegh was likely to provoke a public scandal by M s blunt but keen tongue and by his association with men of shady reputations, "He was scandalized with athelsme," wrote Aubrey, "but he was a bold man and would venture at discourse Which was unpleasant to church-menThere is a contemporary story supporting Aubrey* s statementt

ESgr-p: 45. — ...... :v P. 12. II, 188. 75

Sir Walter#..started.a dispute on the reasonable soul. He asked the parson for a definition, say­ ing that though he was an Oxford man and had dis­ puted in the schools, "hitherto in this poynt have I not by any been resolved." The parson promptly pattered off "Aristotle 2° de Anlma cap. I0" but Sir Walter absolutely rejected Aristotle as "obscure and intricate." Mr. ironside...said that the soul was "a spiritual and immortal substance breathed into man by God." Yea, but what is that spiritual and immor­ tal substance?" saith Sir Walter, "fhe soul," quoth 1. "Hay, then," said he, "you reason not like a scholar. 19 Such boldness was heresy in the sixteenth century,

Ralegh* s association with Marlowe and Harriot was 1 indieting evidence of his atheism in the public mind. Hls personal connection with *arlowe a M other atheists is es­ tablished by the testimony of a Mr. Chorniy, who

saieth & verely beleueth that one Marlowe is able to shewe more sounde reasons for Atheisme then any dovine in Bnglande is able to geue to prove de- vinltle & that Marloe told® him that hee hath read, the Atheist lecture to Sr Walter Raliegh & others.20

Concerning the activities of the School of Atheism,

Bradbrook makes the following deduction:

*he conclusion to be drawn from the testimony of Kyd, Baines and the Devonshire clergy is that the school did not disclose its opinions to the gener­ ality; that it enjoyed scandalizing the godly and confounding the dogmatic $ that it was provocative and irreverent, out of deliberate policy or natural devilment or both**!

Bradbrook, T P* 20. S: Frederick's? ''JSSEZMsdI His Circle, p. 84. 21,Bradbrook, op, cit p. 14. T*

Ahese dleouBsiona were probably what attracted Ralegh.

He had an Insatiable appetite for knowledge. "He studyed most In his sea-voyageo, where he carried always a trunk® of bookes along with him, and h&4 nothing to divert him," say® Aubrey.22 This broad interest and knowledge most likely made him.tolerant and sharpened the contempt for dogmatism that is prevalent in the following remart: "for

' ■ . ■ ■ \ . • . . • . -; ■ myself, I shall never be persuaded that God hath shut up all light of learning within the lanthom of Aristotle1s brains,"23

^n his prose work The Soul, written while Ralegh was ' .1" . .. r.. ... '' .. in the Tower, we see Ralegh’s applying his Intellectual

inquiry to religious doctrine. This treatise is a scien­ tific Investigation of the substance of the soul, "^t is

a sufficient proof that Ralegh was no atheist in the modern

sense," declares Bradbrook.®*

Ralegh1e scientific rationalisation of Churoh doctrine was too modern, ^o doubt the Bible, even in its literal in­

terpretation, was punished by the stake in the sixteenth

century, , Ralegh’s separation of Christian doctrine from

organized Christianity is,seen in his poem The Passionate Mans Pilgrimage in which he attacks the ritualistic features

of the Church*

22. ' Aubrey. Aubrey II, 182. 23. Bradbrook, ^he p. 46. 24. Ibid.. P ; 547"teaveg; 77

(Hue me my Scallop shell of quiet. My staffe of Faith to walke vpon. My Scrip of loy, Immortall diet. My bottle of aaluatlon: My Gowne of Glory, hopes true gage. And thus lie take my pilgrimage. . ,

„ And by the happle blisfull way More peaoefull Pilgrims I shall see, That haue shooke off their gownes of clay. And goe appareld fresh like mea. lie bring them first To slake their thirst, And then to tast those Nectar Buckets At the cleare wells "Where sweetnes dwells. Drawn® vp by Saints in Chriotali buckets.

And when our bottles and all we* Are fild with immortalitie: 'I’hen the holy paths weele trauell Strewfte with Rubles thlcke as grauell. Seeling# of Di a w m d a , Saphlre floores, High wallea of Corall and Pearle Bowres.25

After Ralegh mocks the Church* s conception of a heaven with earthly riches, he carries his point farther and ways that he might find lawyers to plead hie ease When he reaches

"heavene Brlbeles hall.1'

Where no corrupted voyces brail.

•ney, . For there Christ is the Klx%# Attorney: Who pleades for all without degrees. And he hath Angells, but no fees.

When the grand twelue million lury, °f our sinnea with slnfull fury. Gainst our eoules blacke verdicts glue, Christ pleades his death, and then we H u e , Be thou my speaker taintles pleader,

25% Poems, pp. 43-44. 78

Vnbldtted Mwy®*1, t^a® prooeeder, T h w mouest saluation euen for almee: Not with c bribed Lawyoro palmes.26

Written in hie Bible the night before his execution, the following epitaph.shows Ralegh*e belief in the life hereafter. It indicates that Ralegh has changed in atti­ tude » He no longer values material things which he finds do not last, but places more value on hie rdllgiou® faith.

Euen such is Tlmo, which takes in trust Our Youth, our loys, and all we haue. And payee va but with age and dust, Who in the dark# and silent graue. When we haue wandred all our vrnyes. Shuts vp the story of our dayes: And from which Earth, and Graue, and DUst, %he Lord shall raise me vp I trust.27 This serious poetry assumed a new tone to replace the

Superficial attitude and surface insincerity of the conven­

tional love songs, ■‘•'his superfieiallty, as has been pointed ' X, ' • out in Chapter II, was the result of exaggeration and of con­

ventional expressions. We shall see what change has been

made in these forms to produce the new tone of Ralegh* s late

poems.

Compare the clarity and simplicity of Ralegh* s descrip­

tion of passing earthly values in his Epitaph, above, with

hie earlier description of the lbsa of all the lover valued:

all is desolvde, our labors oume to nought nor any marks therof ther douth Indure

ZfT. Poems, p. 44. ST-- Aythovr0 Epltanhr Madm-by Himselfe. Poems, p. 64. 79

■ no more then when small dropps of rayne do fall vppon the psrehed ground© by heat vp dried no eoolinge acqreture Is peroeude att all nor any shew or sign© of weet 4 oath byde.2y

The conventional comparisons of the lady's eyes to diamonds, lips to the rose, heart to a stone have been been replaced by allusions to more comprehensive ideas of /V : _ 13^© end death, Ralegh refers numerous times to death in his late poems, some examples of which I quote below:

And from which Earth, and Gkraue, and Dust, Ahe Lord shall raise me vp I trust,29

No thing % should estime so dear© as D e a t h , 3 0

Thus march we playing to our latest rest* Onely wo dye in earnest, that*a no Test,31

The organization of my thesis has separated Ralegh* o late poems from his early poems. At the close of this last chapter, I shall select two poems as representative of each period, By comparing them, I purpose to summarize the characteristics of each period and to emphasize the change id Ralegh1s poems from his early conventional love songs to his late serious poetry.

The poems I have selected are Cvnthia, written in 1589-

1592, and the Petition to the Qveene (Anne), written in 1618.

Both poems are petitions, Cynthia being a love poem? . in which Ralegh endeavors to regain Elizabeth*o favor and the petition to Queen Anne being a formal request for par- I don of Ralegh a sentence. The former nails the loss of lore, the latter mourns Impending loss of M s life. To Cynthia

Ralegh speaks as a lover "whose life once lived In her per- relllke brest," and who worshipped her with "secret hart, and hydden loyaltye."32 T0 Queen Anne he Is "your humblest raasell."33 In both petitions he pleads that his sentence is unjust, that his past services should not be forgotten.

In Cynthia he reminds Elisabeth of the honors he sought for her: To seeks new worlds, for golde, for pveyae, for glory, to try desire, to try loue seuered farr34

and in his Petition to the Oveen: he recalls past services:

All loue and all desert of former tymes Malice hath oouered from my Soueralgnee Elea, And largelle laid abroad supposed orimes.

But kings call not to myna what Vaaoalls were. But know them now, as Enule hath desorlu'd them So can I looks on no syde from Despairs.35

Ralegh*s position was not so critical In 1592, so he

flippantly assumed the role of a lover, suffering exaggerated

misery. rile approach Is negative, professing that Cynthia’s

love is dead and that his state Is hopeless:

her love hath end. my woe must ever last.^G

32% Cynthia. Poems, p. qO. 33. Petition to the Qveene. Poems, p. 99, 34. Cynthia, poems, p. 79. 35* Petition to the Qveene. Poeme. p. 98. 36. Cynthia. Poems. p. 94.' 81

while In his Petition to the Qveene. he hopes to convey the

Impression that there Is hope for him In the Queen1s mercy:

Them vnto whom shall I vnfold my wrong. Cast down# my teares or hold vp folded hands? To her to whom remorse doth most belong. To her who la the first.and mayo alone Be lustlle ealld the empress# of the Bretannes : Who should have meroye If a - Queens haue none?™

The pretense of the poem to Elizabeth as contrasted to the sincerity end seriousness of the petition to Queen Anne marks the vital difference between the tones of these two periods of Ralegh1 s poems*

In this chapter we have seen how Ralegh* o lilting songs were hushed by the somber shadows of the Tower and the con­ demnation of James1 dislike. We have observed that during the twelve years in prison, Ralegh*s mind delved into serious matters. His love lyrics were replaced by philosophical and

religious verses: his conventional tricks of Imagery were

replaced by more simple and sincere ones; his superficiality

and surface insincerity changed Into a serious tone. Out

of the conventional lover of Elizabeth* s court had emerged

the man with a human soul. Of this change, Ralegh writes himself: ,

For what wee soratyme were wee are no more. Fortune hath chang’d our shape, end Destint# Defac’d tho verye forme wee had before.58

-eene. Poems. p. 98." 38. Ibid. OOUCLDSIO*

We have followed the development of Ralegh1a poetry from hie early love poems to his late poems of reflection.

I have endeavored to show at each stage the great influence of Ralegh1s experience upon his poetry,

A courtier seeking to regain Elizabeth*s favor, Ralegh wrote his love poem Cynthia to flatter the Queen. A poet

In the Renaissance age, he wrote his early poems according to the conventional patterns of his contemporaries.

When Ralegh lost position and power during the reign of James, hitter experiences altered M s outlook. A new seriousness Is reflected In his late poems. From the amorist had emerged the meditative poet, a change brought about by

Ralegh’s experiences. BIBUGGRAPHY

Background of Period

Bacon, Francis, The Works of Francis Bacon. James Speddlng, Robert Ellis, Douglas Heath, editors. London: Longman & Go., 1857. 14 vole. VIII, .

Castigllone, Baidassare. The Courtier. Sir Thoeae Hoby, translator. Hew York: E. P. Dutton & Go., 1928.

Chamberlin, Frederick. KefW York* Dodd, Me

Creighton, Hand ell. The Agee of Elizabeth. Mew York: Charles Scribner*s Sons, 1898.

Cunningham, Archdeacpn. "Early Writings on Politics and E*o- nomics." The Cambridge History of English Literature. A.W, Ward inS A.^T^iler™.edltoro. Hew York: WTT. Putnam*a Sons, 1907-1927. 15 vols. IV.

Einstein, Lewis. The Italian Renalssssance in England. Hew York: Columbia University Press, 1902.

Gibbins, H. de B. The Industrial History of England. London: Methuen & Co., 1900. Hakluyt, Richard. The Principal Navigations. Voyages. Traf- les of the English Nation, aumuna dlnburgh:...... E. & G. Goldsmid, 1885. Harington H* Milford, Oxford University Press, 1930.

Harrison, #. B, An Elizi Hew York: Cosmopolitan Book Corporation,

Hew York: Richard

. and Harley Granville-Barker, editors. A Companion to

Shakespeare Studies. Hew York: The Macmillan Co., 1934. 84

Hebei, J* William, and Hoyt H. Hudson, editors. Poetry of the English Renaissance 1509-1660. New York: F. 3,. Crofts ' !o., 1929.

Lee, Sidney; "The Last Years of Elizabeth.^ The Cambridge Modern History. A: W. Ward, G, W . Prothero, Stanley Leathes, editors. New York: The Macmillan Co., 1909. 13 vols. III.

Lyly, John. Endymlon, 'ama.. End Winfield Parks and Richmond Groom Beatty, ’S. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., Ino., 1935.

and King John, __ Williamlliam GoorgeGoorge^Clark^nd16 "TStrjifcfe-ors. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1911.

Traill, H. D. Social England. New York: G. P. Putnam* s Sons, 1899. 3 vols. III.

Ward, A. W. "Some Political and Social Aspects of the Later Elizabethan and Earlier Steward Period." The Cambridge

eaggr :: Putnam* s Son®, R-1907- • 1927. 15 vols. V, Part I.

Ralegh* s Life and Poems

Anthony, Irvin. Ralegh and His World. Now York: Charles Soribner*s Sons, 1934.

Aubrey, John. Aubrey*s "Brief Lives". Andrew Clark, editor. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1898. 2 vols, II.

Bacon, Francis. "Apophthegms *. Basil Montagu, editor. Phil;M s g 1 Lan 1856. 3 vols. I,

Boas, Frederick S. Marlowe and His Circle. Second edition. Oxford University Press, 1931.

Bradbrook, M. C. The School of Night; A Study In th Relationships of bir^Walter Ralegh. London: C 85

Creighton, Louioe. 11 Sir Walter Ralegh." The Cambridge Hictory of English Literature. A. W, Ward and A , R. Waller, edl- tors. New York: G. P . Putnam*e Sons, 1907-19^7. 15 vole. IV.

Enovolonedla Brlttanloa. "Sir Walter Ralegh." Fourteenth edi­ tion. New York: , Encyclopedia Brlttanloa, Inc., 1929- 1933. 34 vols. XVIII.

Fullerr, Thomas. The History the' Wp Austin Hutrell, editor. Dndon: I!1!! S! 1849. 3 vols, I,

Lee, Sidney. Shakespeare* s England. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1917. 2 vols. I. .

Oldys, William. "The Life of Ralegh," The Works of Sir Walter Ralegh. William Oldys and i'homas Birch, editors. Oxford: University Press, 1829. 8 vols. I.

• ' ■ ' . . Spenser, Edmund, The Complete Poetical Works of Edmund Spenser. .R, ,E. ..Neil Dodge, editor. New York: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1908. ■ ... \ - ;

Stabbing, William. Sir Walter Ralegh: \ A Biography. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1891. ' : .. ■ Waldman, Hilton. Sir Walter Raleigh. New York: Harper & Bros., 1928.

Wood, Anthony. Athenae Oxonlenses. London, 1721. 2 vols. I.

Collected Works

Hadow, G. E. , editor. Sir Walter Raleigh: Selection B from "“istorle of the ioriel.lf His Letters. Oxford: on Press, 1926,

Hersey, Frank, editor. Sir Walter Ralegh: The Shepherd of the Ocean. New York: Yacmillan Co,, 1916.

Latham, M. C., editor. The Poems of Sir Walter Ralegh. London: Constable & Co., Ltd,, I929. -

Oldys, William and Thomas Birch, editors. The Works■of Sir Walter Ralegh. Oxford: University Press, 1629. 8 vols. iino -a? C5 £974/ / 9 m

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