English Pastorals Selected and with an Introduction
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
English Pastorals English Pastorals SELECTED AND WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY EDMUND K. CHAMBERS C.B., B.A., D.Litt. BLACKIE AND SON LIMITED 50 OLD BAILEY, LONDON; GLASGOW, BOMBAY There were kills which garnished their proud heights with stately trees; humble valleys, whose base estate seemed comforted with the refreshing of silver rivers; meadows enamelled with all sorts of eye-pleasing flowers; thickets, which being lined with most pleasant shade, were witnessed so too by the cheerful disposition of many well-tuned birds; each pasture stored with sheep, feeding with sober security, while the pretty lambs with bleating outcry craved the dam's comfort; here a shepherd's boy piping as though he should never be old; there a young shepherdess knitting, and withal singing; and it seemed that her voice comforted her hands to work, and her hands kept time to h> voice-music. SIDNEY : Description of Arcadia. Printed in Great Britain by BJackie & Son, Limited, Glasgow PUBLISHERS' NOTE This volume was originally issued as the first volume " " of The Warwick Library under the general editorship of Professor C. H. Herford. The series consisted of: English Literary Criticism. Introduction by C. E. Vaughan. * English Tales in Verse. Introduction by C. H. Herford. * English Essays. Introduction by J. H. Lobban. * English Masques. Introduction by Henry A. Evans. * English Historians. Introduction by A. J. Grant. * English Lyric Poetry. Introduction by Frederic Ives Carpenter. "English Satires. Introduction by Oliphant Wilson. * English Pastorals. Introduction by E. K. Chambers. The volumes marked with an asterisk are now re-issued in the present series of "Standard English Classics". Professor Herford's Editorial Preface to the original series, "The Warwick Library", is as follows: EDITOR'S PREFACE The present volume is the first of a series of literary " " it is serviceable Guide-books , which will, hoped, prove to the student and not distasteful to the lover of letters. Each volume will be devoted to the history of some single literary growth, bringing together representative illustrations of it reader to at in sufficient quantity to enable the follow, first hand, all its important phases. A critical introduction will sketch the story which the specimens illustrate, supply some of and the intervening detail, chronicle the faint beginnings, record where needful the undistingitished decay. In this way VI ENGLISH PASTORALS *'/ is hoped, among other things, to facilitate that comparative study of literature which is one ofthe secrets ofcritical wisdom and one ofthe springs ofcritical delight. The longprocession of singing shepherds which meanders, joyous or wailful, through the pages of the present volume, sounds almost every note ofEnglish pastoral song. They are a picturesque throng enough; yet there is little of sharp and palpable contrast among them, but rather a mellowed harmony of kindred tones; for, in Pastoralism, literary tradition penetrates everywhere, like an atmosphere, softening the asperities of innovation and touching the contours, even of work fashioned by a Shakespeare or a Milton, with a halo of allusion and reminiscence. It is just in such a region of quiet and faded hues as this that most is gained by assembling the nuances in a single picture, by making the scattered kinsfolk neigh- bours. Perdita, with her marjoram and marigold, comes to meet Herric&s Mayday Corinna, adding her arch reproof, maybe, to the poefs chiding of that "sweet slug-a-bed". Robin and Makin illustrate with their homely give and take one of the sources of that form ofpastoral occupation which culminates in more gracious ''''sport with Amaryllis in the shade, or with the tangles of Neaerds hair". The curiously tentative and hesitant note of Spenser's Calender the first great experiment of English Pastoralism is best appreciated by confronting his Colins and Cuddies with the blithe west- country rustics of his devoted but original disciple Drayton, or with the thrice-refined Hellenic Lycidas of a yet greater follower. Not every literary growth lends itself, it is true, so evi- dently as Pastoralism to the purposes of a summary survey such as is attempted in the present volume. Not all have so definite a beginning, so clearly marked and seemingly irrevo- cable an end. Pastoralism can now be reviewed as a whole from a distance sufficient to allow of all its parts falling into " due proportion. If the Eclogue ", its favourite form, still shows vitality, it is only by creating a quite new type of the sing- ing shepherd, the shepherd of Fleet Street, not of Sussex or Arcady, whose tales are cut short, not by the gloaming or the " " storm, but by the midnight boom of Paul's. The Masque EDITOR'S PREFACE vii (to which a later volume will be devoted) is even more dearly the product of an epoch, and had a still more compact history. For it achieved greatness quite suddenly at the outset of the seventeenth century, andperished of sheer inanition a genera- tion later when the Court left Whitehallfor the field, scarcely surviving that great master of the robust and masculine, to whose culture, paradoxically enough, almost all its rare and delicate beauty was due. Other branches of literary art, " again, such as the "Essays and "Letters ", to which succeed- ing volumes will be devoted, have evidently a morefluctuating history; their literary aspects are more involved with others not literary; or their salient examples are remote, detached, apparently unrelated. But these very qualities open new sources of interest and value. It is a paradox, but true, that a Letter, for instance, can hardly have the highest value as literature if its interest is solely literary; to be spoken from heart to heart, to deal with real issues and definite facts, is the very stuff of its being; in seeking to be more than this, it is apt to become less. The editors of the present series will give full scope to these more obviously human and social aspects of literature ; while still making it their immediate aim to trace the fortune in our literature of one or other of those forms of literary speech in which the instinct of beauty has found apt and memorable expression, C. H. HERFORD. TABLE OF CONTENTS. Page INTRODUCTION, xv ROBERT HENRYSON / - I. Robyn and Makyne, - - . '. '-. i HENRY HOWARD, EARL OF SURREY (?) II. Harpalus' Complaint of Phillida's Love bestowed on Corin, who loved her not, and denied him that loved her, 6 EDMUND SPENSER III. January, -...... 10 iv.. April, I 4 v. May, .- .' 18 vi. June, . ... 2o vn. December, ....... 24 SIR PHILIP SIDNEY via. Dorus to - - - .' . Pamela, , $ 30 IX. Nico and Dorus, ...... 30 x. A Country Song, 38 FULKE GREVILLE, LORD BROOKE XL Myra's Fickleness, 42 XII. Caelica and Philocell, 43 SIR EDWARD DYER xin. Cynthia, 45 EDWARD VERB, EARL OF OXFORD xiv. Fancy and Desire, 47 A. W. xv. A Fiction how Cupid made a Nymph wound her- self with his Arrows, 48 JOHN LYLY xvi. Spring's Welcome, 50 (M80) B ENGLISH PASTORALS. GEORGE PEELE page xvn. The Handiwork of Flora, - - - -51 xviu. The Song of Paris and CEnone, 54 XIX. The Harvesters' Song, 55 ROBERT GREENE XX. Doron's Description of Samela, 56 XXI. Doron's Eclogue joined with Carmela's, - 57 xxn. The Description of the Shepherd and his Wife, 59 xxin. The Shepherd's Wife's Song, - - - 61 xxiv. Content, 63 XXV. Philomela's Second Ode, - - - - 63 THOMAS LODGE XXVI. The Solitary Shepherd's Song, 66 xxvn. A Lament in Spring, 66 xxvin. A Poet's Vow, 67 xxix. Montanus' Sonnet, .... 68 xxx. Montanus' Sonnet, 69 xxxi. Phillis, 71 XXXII. Love and Phillis, 71 xxxni. On Phillis' Sickness, 72 THOMAS NASH - xxxiv. Spring, the Sweet Spring, CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE xxxv. The Passionate Shepherd to his Love, - THOMAS WATSON xxxvi. A Lament for Melibceus, .... SAMUEL DANIEL xxxvii. An Ode, 76 xxxviii. A Pastoral, 77 RICHARD BARNFIELD xxxix. An Ode, 80 JOHN DONNE - - 82 XL. The Bait, SIR WALTER RALEIGH XLI. A Reply to Marlowe, 83 - - XLII. The Shepherd's Description of Love, 84 TABLE OF CONTENTS. XI ANTHONY MUNDAY P,ge XLIII. To Colin Clout, 86 IGNOTO XLIV. Phillida's Love-call, .... 87 HENRY CONSTABLE XLV. Damelus' Song to his Diaphenia, 89 NICHOLAS BRETON XLVI. Olden Love-making, 90 XLVII. Phillida and Coridon, 91 XLVIII. A Sweet Pastoral, - - - - - -92 XLix. The Second Pastor's Song, 93 L. The Third Pastor's Song, 95 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE Li. Spring, 97 LI I. Who is Sylvia? 98 LIII. Under the Greenwood Tree, .... 98 LIV. It was a Lover and his Lass, - ... 99 LV. A Sheep-shearing, - - - - - >ioo LVI. An Insubstantial Pageant .... 104 LVII. King Henry's Ambition, .... 107 LVIII. Youth and Age, 109 ROBERT JONES Lix. My Love, 109 IGNOTO LX. Phillis, no THOMAS CAMPION LXI. Amaryllis, HO LXH. Jack and Joan, ...... ill IGNOTO LXIII. Phillida Flouts Me, "3 THOMAS DEKKER - - - - - LXIV. O, Sweet Content ! 117 LXV. Country Glee, 1 17 THOMAS HEYWOOD LXVI. Phillis, ... lift Xli ENGLISH PASTORALS. MICHAEL DRAYTON Page LXVII. Cassamen and Dowsabel, - - - - 120 LXVIII. Daffodil, 125 LXIX. Sirena, 127 - - - LXX. The Description of Elizium, 132 LXXI. A Contest, I36 JOHN FLETCHER LXXII. The Priest's Evening Song, - - - 145 LXXIII. The Priest's Morning Song, - - - 146 LXXIV. A Hymn to Pan, 14? LXXV. The Satyr's Service, 148 GEORGE WITHER - - LXXVI. A Shepherd's Swain, - - 149 - - - LXXVII. Admire not, Shepherd's Boy, 153 LXXVIII. Eclogue, 157 WILLIAM BROWNE LXXix. Thirsis' Praise of his Mistress, ... 160 LXXX. A Landscape, 162 LXXXI. A Description of a Musical Consort of Birds, 163 LXXXII. Riot's Climbing of a Hill, - 164 LXXXIII. A Dirge, 166 LXXXIV. A Country Danger, 168 - - LXXXV. The Shepherdesses' Garlands, 168 LXXXVI. An Invitation, I7 1 LXXXVII. The Death of Philarete, - - - - 172 WILLIAM BASSE LXXXVIII.