HENRY VAUGHAN, SILURIST: THE INDWELLING OF GOD IN NATURE by Karleen Middleton Quin A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. Department of English, McGill University, MOntreal. April 1960 PREFACE My primary text in this paper is The Works of Henry Vaughan, edited by L.C. Martin, second edition (Oxford, 1957). Since there is no alphabetical list of the poems in this edition, a list of all poems cited with the number of the page on which they appear has been appended to this paper for the convenience of the reader. Throughout the paper references to the poems will be by short title and line number only. I am indebted to the research of E.L. Marilla, compiled in A Comprehensive Bibliography of Henry Vaughan (University, Ala., 1948), which, despite sorne errors in judgement and a few notable omissions, is an invaluable starting point for the student in secondary research. I wish to express my thanks to the librarians of the Redpath Library, McGill University (in particular Miss N. Johnson of the Interlibrary Loan Department) and of the Widener Library, Harvard University for assisting me in obtaining the necessary material for this work. K.M. Quin ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Preface • • • . • • . • • • • • . ii Introduction . 1 Chapter -I Biography and Vaughan as Nature Poet . Chapter II The Eternal Life and Light Symbolism . 31 Chapter III Intelli6ence and Sentience on the Part of Sub-Human and Inanimate Matter • • • • • • • • • 53 Chapter IV The Celestial-Terrestrial Commerce . 73 Conclusion . 93 Notes . 9$ List of Poems Cited . 107 List of Works Cited • . lll INTRODUCTION In anthologies or reference books Henry Vaughan is usually classified as either a "nature poet" or a "mystic" or sometimes as a "mystical nature poet." .Much has been said on the subject of mysticism as applied to Vaughan and I do not intend to swell the already overwhelming tide of material on this subject, since I feel it is impossible con- c-lusively to demonstrate Vaughan's mysticism from his poetry. Some of the critics who feel that Vaughan completely fulfills the requirements in the definition of a mystic (which may vary with different critics) or who assume Vaughan is a mystic and, without 11 proving" his mysticism, discuss his poetry as being 11 mystical," are listed below: Dike, Mary Elizabeth, Studies of Some English Mystical Poets in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. Unpublished thesis. McGill University, 1937. Durr, Robert Allen, "Vaughan's Theme and its Pattern: 'Regeneration,'" Studies in Philology, LIV (1957), 14-28. Garnett, Richard, "Henry Vaughan," Dictionary of National Biography (re-issue), XX (1909), 164-166. Hodgson, Geraldine Emma, English Mystics. London, 1922. --------' A Study in Illumination. London, 1914. l . __j 2 Hughes, Helen Sard, "Night in the Poetry of Henry Vaughan,'' MOdern Language Notes, XXVIII (1913), 208-211. Husain, Itrat, The Mystical Element in the Metaphysical Poets of the Seventeenth Century. London, 1948. Lucas, Frank Laurence, iuthors Dead and Living. London, 1928. Macdonald, George, England's Antiphon. London, Ll86~. Osmond, Percy Herbert, The Mystical Poets of the English Church. London, 1919. Paul, Frances, "Henry Vaughan," The Contemporary Review, CLXXVI (1949), 368-372. Sancourt, Robert, Outflying Philosophy: A Literary Study of the Religious Element in the Poems and Lett'ers of John Donne and in the Works of Sir Thomas Browne And of Henry Vaughan the Silurist, Together with an Account of the Interest of these' Writers in · Scholastic Philosophy, in Platonism and in Hermetic Physic, With also sorne Notes on Witchcraft. London, . 1923. Shairp, J.C., "Henry Vaughan, Silurist," The North American Review, CXXXVIII (1884), 120-137. Spurgeon, Caroline Frances Eleanor, Mysticism in English Literature. Cambridge, 1913. Thompson, Elbert N.S., "Mysticism in Seventeenth-Century English Literature," Studies in Philology, XVIII (1921), 170-2)1. Underhill, Evelyn, Mysticism: A Study in the Nature and Development of Man's Spirit ua!' Conscioushess. London, Ll9lY. White, Helen Constance, The Metaphysical Poets: A Study in Religious Experience. New York, 1936. Williamson, George, The Donne Tradition':" A. Study' in' Ehglish Poetry from Donne to the Death of.'' Cowley. Cambridge, 1930. 3 However, though Vaughan may fulfill the requirements for the primary stages through which the mystic must go, I do not feel that there is any evidence that he fulfilled the last essential stages. Vaughan's impassioned cry, "O take if off!" {Cock~crowing. 47), referring to the veil which separates him from God and which is often quoted as evidence of Illumination or Union {depending on the critic's definition), does not appear to me to be a request which is ever granted. It may well be a cry desiring Illumination, but if it was granted, this is outside of the text, since none of his works appear to have been written in the rapture of Union with God. Husain claims that the three stages of the mystical experience--in his definition "the awakening of self," "purgation," and l "illumination"--can be easily traced in Vaughan's poetry. 2 · He adroits that the "unitive stage" is lacking; however, he points out that for the last thirty years of his life Vaughan was silent and therefore we have no report o.f Vaughan' s progress 3 in the Mystic Way. Husain's assumption that Vaughan was silent because his mystical progress was "incommunicable" is an explanation which, though it may satisfy the mystically minded, can hardly satisfy the scholar. Moreover, the rather unpleasant biographical facts known about the end of Vaughan's life could hardly be associated with the conclusion of a mystic's 4 4 career. Another disconcerting element in the "mystical" critic~l material is the fact that quite frequently different critics will identify a given passage with different stages in the Mystic Way. Another stream of Vaughan criticism is that which believes Vaughan can be understood and interpreted only in relation to the Hermetic philosophy which his brother, Thomas, studied. l~ny of the mystical critics, for instance Husain, recognize the Hermetic influence on Vaughan and reconcile mysticism and Hermeticism with such statements as "The concept which underlies the occult sciences ••• is common 5 both to magic and mysticism." Among the most important studies on the Hermetic influence are: Blunden, Edmund, On the Poems of Henry Vaughan. London, 1927. Childe, Wilfred Rowland, "Henry Vaughan," Essays by Divers Hands bein the Transactions of the Ro al Societ of Literature of the United Kingdom New Series , XXII (1945), 131-160. Clough, Wilson O., "Henry Vaughan and the Hermetic Philosophy," Publications of the Modern Language Association, XLVIII (1933), 1108-30. Holmes, Elizabeth, Henry Vaughan and the Hermetic Philosophy. Oxford, 1932. Husain, Itrat, The !vlystical Element in 'the Metaphysicar Poets of the Seventeenth Century. London, 1948. 5 Judson, Alexander Corbin, "Cornelius Agrippa and Henry Vaughan," Modern Language Notes, XLI (1926), 178-181 • . ____, "Henry Vaughan as a Nature Poet," Publications of the MOdern Language Association, XLII (1927), 146-156. ____ , UThe Source of Henry Vaughan' s Ideas Concerning Godin Nature," Studies in Philology, XXIV (1927), 592-606. Mahood, lVIolly Maureen, Poetry and Humanism. London, 1950. Martin, Leonard Cyril, "Henry Vaughan and 'Hermes Trismegistus,'" Review of English Studies, XVIII (1942), 301-307. Sancourt, Robert, Outflying Philosophy: A Literary Study of the Religious Element in the' Poems and Letters of John Donne and in th'e Works of Sir Thomas B'rowne And Of Henry Vaughan the Silurist, Together with an Account of the Interest of these Writers in Scholastic Philosophy, in Platonism and in Hermetic Physic, With also some Notes on Witchcraft. London, 1923. Smith, Arthur J.lVl., "Some Relations between Henry Vaughan and Thomas -Vaughan," Papers of the Michigan Aéademy of Science, Arts, aad Letters, XVIII (1933), 551-561. Stewart, Bain Tate, "Hermetic Symbolism in Henry Vaughan's 'The Night; '" Philological Quarterly, XXIX (1950), 417-422. Thoma, Henry Francis, The Hermetic Strain iil Seventeenth­ Century English IVlysticism. Unpublished thesis. Havard University, 1945. Walters, Richard H., "Henry Vaughan and the Alchemists," Review ·or EBglish Studies, XXIII (1947), 107-122. Wardle, Ralph M., "Thomas Vaughan's Influence upon the Poetry of Henry · Vaughan," Publications of the M:>dern Language Association, LI (1936), 936-952. 6 White, Helen Constance, The Metaphysical Poets: A Study in Religious Experience. New York, 1936. The influence of the Hermetic philosophy and the parallel between the ideas held by Thomas Vaughan and Henry Vaughan has been most completely and canclusively treated in Yùss Elizabeth Holmes' short book Henry Vaughan and the Hermetic Philosophy. I do not intend within the scope of this paper to trace the Hermetic influence on Henry Vaughan, but when the attitudes of the Hermetists or the esoteric meanings which they have for words or phrases will elucidate sorne point which I am discussing in Vaughan's works, I shall draw freely on this discipline. So much has been written merely to "prove" or demonstrate the Hermetic influence on Vaughan's poetry that it is refreshing, despite its limitations, to read Ross Garner's book Henry Vaughan: Experience and the Tradition (Chicago, 1959). Garner feels that undue emphasis has been placed on a Hermetic reading of Vaughan's poetry and while I feel that he underplays this influence, I agree with him that the elements of Hermetic philosophy embodied in Vaughan's works are a vehicle, sometimes a metaphor, to convey his meaning to the reader. Vaughan can be read, understood and appreciated with only a passing reference to Hermeticism; it does not "explain" his poetic 7 thought or meaning. This paper is not a poetic appreciation of Vaughan's works. I have, through Vaughan's works, chased after ideas which emerge in a word here and a phrase there, ideas which totalled present a rather startling revelation of what Vaughan believed.