The Hymns and Songs of the Church. with an Introd. by Edward Farr
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Presented to the LIBRARY of the UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO by NORAH DE PMCTER L,oe. this ts Jie whose in/antJ(^tls& beaann. (To Iram tbeWorld lieforej'ear&s stiili. H 'Thow/l ba slewbt&. o-conies to makehisH praise f Beagfauors or- opinion of the l\'mes, laue bmtTmore ~Ye$j&P byaooa men approu'd. None loud. ^ofvnseen^^o^tnertiUy' S.V.I. mentis . HYMNS AND SONGS OF THE CHURCH BY GEORGE WITHER. WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY EDWARD FARR. LONDON I REEVES & TURNER, 5, WELLINGTON STREET, STRAND, W.C. 1895. 1022296 INTRODUCTION. MONG the numerous poets of the six. teenth and seventeenth centuries there is scarcely a name more worthy of honour than that of George Wither. Some writers have, indeed pronounced Wither a fanatical rhymer and an intemperate Puritan. Such was the judgment of Ritson, Heylin, Dryden, Swift and Pope : all writers of undoubted talent, but whose criticism and taste must have " been governed by prejudice. In the neglected " leaves of Wither, Dr. Southey discerned "felicity of expression;" "tenderness of feeling;" and " " elevation of Sir mind ; and Egerton Brydges, Mr. Park, Mr. Willmott, and that truly Christian poet and critic, James Montgomery, have all borne testimony to Wither's merits. The cloud which obscured his merits as a poet, arose from his mingling in the political warfare of the turbulent period in which he lived. Sir Egerton Brydges in his Bestituta has thus given the pedigree of the poet. " Thomas Wither of the County of Lancaster, Esq., left three sons. b vi INTRODUCTION. " Bobert Wither, third son, came to Manydowne in Hampshire, and there lived, leaving issue. " Thomas Wither, of Manydowne, who married Joane, daughter and heir of Richard Mason of Lydmonton in Hampshire, and had three sons, John, Thomas, and Richard. " John, eldest son, of Manydowne who married Ann daughter of Ayliffe of Skeynes in Hamp shire, had three sons, John, Richard and George (which last married Avelyn, daughter of John Shank, and had Gilbert, Thomas, John and Regi the said Gilbert was father of nald ; and George, William, Reginald and Henry.) " Richard Wither, second son of John Wither and Ann Ayliffe, was of Manydowne, and married a daughter of William Poynter of Whitchurch in Hampshire, by whom he had four sons, John, George, (father of the poet) Otho and Ferdinando, " John Wither of Manydowne, eldest son, married Jane, daughter of John Love of Basing in Hampshire, and had five sons, William, Anthony, John, James, and Richard. William eldest son, was of Manydowne, and married Susan, daughter of Paul Risley of Chetwood in Buckinghamshire, and had issue, John, Paul, and Susan. 11 George Wither (second son of Richard Wither by the daughter of Poynter) had issue three sons, viz., George Wither the poet, James Wither, and Anthony Wither. In most of Wither's poems something of his private history may be collected. The date of his birth even is better substantiated by his verse than by the baptismal Register. Aubrey and Anthony Wood state that he was born in 1588 : others authors assert that the poet was born in INTRODUCTION. vii 1590. His verse settles the question in favour of Wood and Aubrey. In a pamphlet entitled ' ' Salt upon Salt," written and published in 1658 he writes : When I began to know the world and men, I made records of what I found it then. Continuing even since to take good heed How they stood still, went back, or did proceed: Till of my scale of time ascending heaven The round I stand in maketh ten times seven. " " Ten times seven or seventy years, fixes the date of his birth in 1588. The poet received his early education in the village of Colemore, under one John Greaves, a schoolmaster of some celebrity. The tutor evi dently gained the love of his pupil, for he is noticed in the poet's epigrams in this touching language : If ever I do wish 1 may be rich (As oft perhaps such idle breath I spend), I do it not for anything so much, to to friend As have wherewithal pay my ; For trust me there is nothing grieves me more Than this, that I should still much kindness take, And have a fortune to my mind so poor, That I would I cannot though amends make ; Yet to be still as thankful as I may, (Sith my estate no better means afford) What I indeed receive, I do repay In willingness, in thanks, and gentle words. The father of the poet appears to have enjoyed considerable affluence, for alluding to his juvenile years, Wither, in a poem entitled Britain's Kemembrancer, writes : When daily I on change of dainties fed, Lodged night by night upon an easy bed, In lordly chambers and had wherewithal! Attendants forwarder than I to call, viii INTRODUCTION. Who me all needful when at hand brought things ; Hounds, hawks and horses were at my command, Then chose I did my walks on hills or valiies In groves, near springs, or in sweet garden allies, Reposing either in a natural shade Or in neat harbours which by hands were made, Where I might have required without denial, The lute, the organ or deepsounding viol, else beside To cheer my spirits ; with what Was pleasant, when my friends did thus provide Without my cost or labour. From the village school of Colemore Wither was sent to Magdalen College, Oxford, and it was here that his poetical talents were first developed. Be fore he left the school of Greaves he had become " " " acquainted with Lilly's Latin and Camden's Greek," but at the University he seems to have neglected classical learning, and to have devoted his powers to the Muses, until his kind old tutor, " by his good persuasion," again brought him to a love of what he had been taught. Then after " Cynthia had six times lost her borrowed light," " he again drank at Aristotle's well." It was while Wither was redevoting his attention to classical studies and when he had been at Oxford about two years, and was beginning to love a col lege life, that the change in his father's temporal circumstances seems to have taken place, for he was suddenly removed from the University and " taken home to hold the plough." He alludes " thus touchingly to this change in Abuses Whipt and Stript :"- But now ensues the worst I setting foot And thus digesting learning's bitter root, to taste the fruit I Rsady ; then when thought I should a calling in that place have sought, I found that I for other ends ordain' d Was from that course perforce to be constrain'd. INTRODUCTION. ix If the plough had a charm for Cincinnatus, not so had it for Wither. According to Aubrey he re " turned in discontent to the beechy shadows of Brentworth;" and his sojourn at home was more embittered by officious friends,who were constantly urging his relations to apprentice him to some trade. But the mind of Wither was not to be cast down. When only eighteen years of age he made his way to London of his own accord, there to seek his fortune. Shortly after his arrival in the metropolis, he entered himself of Lincoln's Inn, where he appears to have formed an acquaintance with the pastoral poet, William Brown, who be longed to the Inner Temple. This seems to have been the turning point in his history. Anthony Wood says that hanging after things more smooth and delightful than the law, he did at length make himself known to the world by certain specimens of his poetry, which being dispersed in several hands, he became shortly after a public author. The poetical works of George Wither are numer ous. Most of them are of a secular character, but interspersed throughout his writings are beautiful passages indicating the mind of a Christian. There is the fine gold of Christian thought even in " Abuses Stript and Whipt," a satire of the most in " Prince galling nature ; and Henry's Obse " " quies," Epithalamia," or Nuptial Poems," the "Shepherd's Hunting," the "Motto," "Fair Virtue," the "Remembrancer," and the "Em blems," there are lines on almost every page which reflect a hallowed light over much that is un worthy of a Christian poet. In his earlier years of authorship Wither x INTRODUCTION. appears to have obtained the semblance of court favour. But the favour of courts is proverbially fickle, and so Wither found. His expectations of preferment were not realised, and being un able to procure preferment, he applied himself to watching the vices of the times. These vices " were abundant, and in his Abuses Stript and Whipt," he exposed them unsparingly. Never did satirist write with more thrilling effect, but the chief result of his exertions to mend the public morals was his committal to the Marshal- sea prison. What sufferings he there endured he thus describes in the " Scholar's Pur " gatory : " All my apparent good intentions wore so mistaken by the aggravation of some ill affected towards my endeavours, that I was shut up from the society of mankind, and as one unworthy the compassion vouchsafed to thieves and murderers, was neither permitted the use of my pen, the access or sight of acquaintance, the allowances usually afforded other close prisoners, nor means to send for necessaries befitting my present con dition : by which means I was for many days compelled to feed on nothing but the coarsest bread, and sometimes locked up four-and-twenty hours together, without so much as a drop of water to cool my tongue : and being at the same time in one of the grossest extremities of dullness that was ever inflicted upon my body, the help both of physician and apothecary was uncivilly denied me.