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Richard Crashaw RICHARD CRASHAW “NARRATIVE HISTORY” AMOUNTS TO FABULATION, THE REAL STUFF BEING MERE CHRONOLOGY “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Richard Crashaw HDT WHAT? INDEX RICHARD CRASHAW RICHARD CRASHAW 1613 On some day in about this year Richard Crashaw was born at London, a son of that enemy of all things Catholic, the divine Dr. William Crashaw (1572-1626). NOBODY COULD GUESS WHAT WOULD HAPPEN NEXT Richard Crashaw “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX RICHARD CRASHAW RICHARD CRASHAW 1631 July: Richard Crashaw had been at Charterhouse School near Godalming in Surrey, but at this point was admitted to Pembroke College of Cambridge University. LIFE IS LIVED FORWARD BUT UNDERSTOOD BACKWARD? — NO, THAT’S GIVING TOO MUCH TO THE HISTORIAN’S STORIES. LIFE ISN’T TO BE UNDERSTOOD EITHER FORWARD OR BACKWARD. “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Richard Crashaw HDT WHAT? INDEX RICHARD CRASHAW RICHARD CRASHAW 1633 Rector George Herbert’s THE TEMPLE: SACRED POEMS AND PRIVATE EJACULATIONS. GEORGE HERBERT This collection of poems seems to have had an influence immediately upon Richard Crashaw and in less than two generations of human life, it would have gone through a dozen reprintings. HDT WHAT? INDEX RICHARD CRASHAW RICHARD CRASHAW Eventually, it would be having an impact upon Harvard student David Henry Thoreau as well. Constancie. Who is the honest man? He that doth still and strongly good pursue, To God, his neighbour, and himself most true: Whom neither force nor fawning can Unpinne, or wrench from giving all their due. Whose honestie is not So loose or easie, that ruffling winde Can blow away, or glittering look it blinde: Who rides his sure and even trot, While the world now rides by, now lags behinde. Who, when great trials come, Nor seeks, nor shunns them; but doth calmly stay, Till he the thing and the example weigh: All being brought into a summe, What place or person calls for, he doth pay. Whom none can work or wooe To use in anything a trick or sleight; For above all things he abhorres deceit: His words and works and fashion too All of a piece, and all are cleare and straight. Who never melts or thaws At close tentations: when the day is done, His goodnesse sets not, but in dark can runne: The sunne to others writeth laws, And is their vertue; Vertue is his Sunne. HDT WHAT? INDEX RICHARD CRASHAW RICHARD CRASHAW Who, when he is to treat With sick folks, women, those whom passions sway, Allows for that, and keeps his constant way: Whom others faults do not defeat; But though men fail him, yet his part doth play. Whom nothing can procure, When the wide world runnes bias, from his will To writhe his limbes, and share, not mend the ill, This is the Mark-man, safe and sure, Who still is right, and prayes to be so still. THE FUTURE IS MOST READILY PREDICTED IN RETROSPECT “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Richard Crashaw HDT WHAT? INDEX RICHARD CRASHAW RICHARD CRASHAW 1634 Richard Crashaw graduated from Pembroke College of Cambridge University, with the degree of BA, and put out a volume of Latin verses, EPIGRAMMATUM SACRORUM LIBER. THE FUTURE CAN BE EASILY PREDICTED IN RETROSPECT “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Richard Crashaw HDT WHAT? INDEX RICHARD CRASHAW RICHARD CRASHAW 1636 Richard Crashaw removed to Peterhouse College of Cambridge University. CHANGE IS ETERNITY, STASIS A FIGMENT Richard Crashaw “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX RICHARD CRASHAW RICHARD CRASHAW 1637 Richard Crashaw was made a fellow of Peterhouse College of Cambridge University, and achieved note as an eloquent and powerful preacher. DO I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION? GOOD. Richard Crashaw “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX RICHARD CRASHAW RICHARD CRASHAW 1638 Richard Crashaw graduated from Peterhouse College of Cambridge University with the degree of MA and became a priest for the Church of St. Mary the Less in Cambridge. He would made the acquaintance and secure the lasting friendship of Abraham Cowley. He would also come to be on terms of intimacy with Nicholas Ferrar, and frequently visit him at his house at Little Gidding. HDT WHAT? INDEX RICHARD CRASHAW RICHARD CRASHAW 1641 Richard Crashaw may have gone briefly to Oxford. HDT WHAT? INDEX RICHARD CRASHAW RICHARD CRASHAW 1643 When Abraham Cowley departed from Cambridge for refuge at Oxford, Richard Crashaw elected to remain in position. HDT WHAT? INDEX RICHARD CRASHAW RICHARD CRASHAW HDT WHAT? INDEX RICHARD CRASHAW RICHARD CRASHAW 1644 Vicar Robert Herrick would have written his poem “To the King upon his Coming with his Army into the West” in this year. WELCOME, most welcome to our vows and us, Most great and universal genius! The drooping west, which hitherto has stood As one, in long-lamented widowhood, Looks like a bride now, or a bed of flowers, Newly refresh’d, both by the sun and showers. War, which before was horrid, now appears Lovely in you, brave prince of cavaliers! A deal of courage in each bosom springs By your access, O you the best of kings! Ride on with all white omens ; so that where Your standard’s up, we fix a conquest there. Despite his humble birth, at the age of 16 John Wray or Ray had been sent to study at Trinity College and Catharine Hall in Cambridge University. After the disintegration in the vicinity of Cambridge of the influence of King Charles I in the ongoing English Civil War, Richard Crashaw refused to take the oath of the Covenant and was forcibly ejected by Parliamentarians from his fellowship at Peterhouse College of Cambridge University. Escaping to Paris, he converted to Catholicism and became a secretary to the exiled Queen Henrietta Maria and her court. HDT WHAT? INDEX RICHARD CRASHAW RICHARD CRASHAW Queen Henrietta Maria HDT WHAT? INDEX RICHARD CRASHAW RICHARD CRASHAW 1646 An anonymous friend had been collecting the religious and secular poems of Richard Crashaw during his exile in France and in this year, with the poet reduced to destitution in Paris, they appeared as STEPS TO THE TEMPLE. SACRED POEMS, WITH OTHER DELIGHTS OF THE MUSES. BY RICHARD CRASHAW, FOMETIMES OF PEMBROKE HALL, AND LATE FELLOW OF S. PETERS COLL. IN CAMBRIDGE. PRINTED AND PUBLIFHED ACCORDING TO ORDER. LONDON, PRINTED BY TW. FOR HUMPHREY MOFELY, AND ARE TO BE FOLD AT HIS FHOP AT THE PRINCES ARMES IN ST. PAULS CHURCH-YARD, 1646. The initial portion of this volume contained the hymn to St Teresa and the version of Marini’s Sospetto d’Herode. HDT WHAT? INDEX RICHARD CRASHAW RICHARD CRASHAW Queen Henrietta Maria took pity on the economic plight of the Catholic poet and provided him with a letter of introduction that enabled him to journey to Rome and be accepted at the Venerable English College as an attendant to Cardinal Giovanni Battista Maria Pallotta. WHAT I’M WRITING IS TRUE BUT NEVER MIND YOU CAN ALWAYS LIE TO YOURSELF Richard Crashaw “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX RICHARD CRASHAW RICHARD CRASHAW 1648 Publication, at Paris, of two hymns in Latin by the Catholic poet Richard Crashaw. HDT WHAT? INDEX RICHARD CRASHAW RICHARD CRASHAW 1649 April 24, Tuesday (Old Style): In Rome, Richard Crashaw had been denouncing the misdeeds of others, and in an attempt to shield him from vengeance Cardinal Giovanni Battista Maria Pallotta designated him a canon of the Holy House at Loretto (a shrine credited as being the actual house of the Virgin Mary from the village of Nazareth, magically transported to Italy by angels toward the close of the 13th century). Early August: Richard Crashaw arrived at the Holy House in Loretto, where he had been made a canon. August 25, Saturday (Old Style): Richard Crashaw succumbed to a fever. It seems rather plausible that his enemies had poisoned him. His remains are in the Lady chapel at Loreto. Here is the English Protestant poet Abraham Cowley’s elegy to his Catholic friend: His Faith perhaps in some nice Tenents might Be wrong; his Life, I’m sure, was in the right. And I my self a Catholick will be, So far at least, great Saint, to Pray to thee. HDT WHAT? INDEX RICHARD CRASHAW RICHARD CRASHAW 1652 Publication at Paris of a collection of the religious poems of Richard Crashaw, CARMEN DEO NOSTRO. This volume was dedicated as the dead poet had desired to a faithful friend during his sufferings, the countess of Denbigh. It contains 13 engravings of the poet’s own design. Barnabas Oley edited, at London, HERBERT’S REMAINS, OR SUNDRY PIECES OF THAT SWEET SINGER, MR. GEORGE HERBERT, CONTAINING A PRIEST TO THE TEMPLE, OR THE COUNTREY PARSON, JACULA PRUDENTUM, &C. (the unsigned preface is by Oley). HDT WHAT? INDEX RICHARD CRASHAW RICHARD CRASHAW 1670 Richard Crashaw’s 1646 STEPS TO THE TEMPLE appeared in a 4th edition (London: In the Savoy, printed by T.N. for Henry Herringman at the Blew Anchor in the Lower Walk of the New Exchange; erroneously designated as 2d edition), bound with THE DELIGHTS OF THE MUSES, and CARMEN DEO NOSTRO. This is the edition that would be in the library of Bronson Alcott and therefore available to Henry Thoreau. HDT WHAT? INDEX RICHARD CRASHAW RICHARD CRASHAW 1844 January 17, Wednesday: Waldo Emerson checked out from Harvard Library, for Henry Thoreau, the 6th volume of Alexander Chalmers’s 1810 anthology, THE WORKS OF THE ENGLISH POETS, FROM CHAUCER TO COWPER,1 the volume that contains William Browne’s “Britannia’s Pastorals” (1613) and “The Shepherd’s Pipe” (1614), Francis Beaumont’s THE HONEST MAN’S FORTUNE, Richard Crashaw’s “Sospetto d’Herode,” Charles Cotton’s “The World,” “The Morning Quatrains,” “Evening Quatrains,” “The Tempest,” “On the Death of the Most Noble Thomas Earl of Ossory,” and “Contentment,” the poetry of Sir John Beaumont, Sir William Davenant’s preface to “Gondibert,” the poetry of Giles Fletcher and Phineas Fletcher, William Habington’s “To Roses in the Bosome of Castara,” and Sir John Birkenhead’s “On the Happy Collection of Mr.
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