SPECULUM AMANTIS:

LOVE-POEMS FROM RARE SONG-BOOKS AND MISCELLANIES OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

EDITED BY A. H. BULLEN.

LONDON: PRIVATELY PRINTED. 1889.

Note.—Five Hundred Copies only printed, each numbered as issued.

No. 133

Warning and Welcome.

[Pg i]

PREFACE.

In sending out this little anthology of seventeenth-century love-verses, I must say a few words by way of explanation or apology. Some eighteen months ago I published a collection of "Lyrics from the Song-books of the Elizabethan Age" (J. C. Nimmo), and recently I issued a second collection, "More Lyrics from the Song-books of the Elizabethan Age" (J. C. Nimmo). Those volumes were addressed to all classes of readers. They may lie on a drawing-room table without offence. Philemon may give them to his Amanda on her birthday with the full assurance that he will run no risk of bringing a blush to the fair nymph's cheek. I was careful to exclude from those collections any poems that passed the bounds of conventional propriety. In the seventeenth century those bounds were not so well defined as in the present age. John Attey, in 1622,[Pg ii] dedicated his "First Book of Airs" to "The Right Honourable John, Earl of Bridgewater, Viscount Brackley, and Baron of Ellesmere; and the truly Noble and Virtuous Lady, Frances, Countess of Bridgewater." Among Attey's songs are the audacious verses,

"My days, my months, my years," which I have given in the present collection (page 15). A noble and virtuous lady now-a-days would be justly incensed if she found such a lyric in a song-book of which she had accepted the dedication; but we may be sure that John Attey's patroness did not withdraw her favour from the composer, or express herself shocked at his temerity. Manners have changed, and "My days, my months, my years" is no longer a song for the drawing-room; but snugly stowed away with its fellows on a top shelf in the library it can do no harm.

In the present volume I have gathered together from the song-books the songs that could find no place in the former collections, and I have included several poems from rare miscellanies of the seventeenth century.

Although some of the poems here collected will be familiar to students, I am confident that a con[Pg iii]siderable portion of the anthology is unknown. Sir Walter Raleigh is a prominent figure in English literature. The late Archdeacon Hannah's edition of Raleigh's poems is a valuable piece of work; and Sir Egerton Brydges, in collecting what he supposed to be Raleigh's poems, showed commendable industry, but scant judgment. I therefore count myself fortunate in having discovered the characteristic poem, "Nature that wash'd her hands in milk" (page 76), which escaped the researches of previous enquirers. The last stanza of that poem, "Oh cruel time, which takes in trust," with a couple of lines tacked on, was published in Raleigh's Remains, where it is said to have been "found in his bible in the Gatehouse at Westminster." Every reader has that stanza by heart, but the complete poem—as given in the Harleian MS.—is printed for the first time.

Aurelian Townsend is a poet about whom I have often felt curiosity. He was the friend of Carew, and Suckling introduces him into The Session of the Poets. From one of the Malone MSS., in the Bodleian Library, I have recovered the charming verses "To the Lady May;" and I can lay my hand on other poems of Townsend which[Pg iv] have never seen the light.[1] The poems by Henry Ramsay (page 118), of whom I know nothing, of Bishop Andrewes (page 121), and of J. Paulin (page 127), are not hackneyed; and I might refer to many others.

The finest of all Cartwright's poems is here—the magnificent "Song of Dalliance"—beginning, "Hark, my Flora! Love doth call us." It is ascribed to Cartwright in the unique miscellany (preserved in the Bodleian), Sportive Wit: the Muses' Merriment, 1656, but is not printed in his Works. Cartwright had a great reputation among his contemporaries. "My son, Cartwright," said Ben Jonson, "writes all like a man." "Cartwright was the utmost man could come to" in the opinion of that excellent prelate, Bishop Fell. All the wits of the age paid tributes to his memory. Anthony-à-Wood and Lloyd rush into raptures about him. After reading the various panegyrics on his poems it is a sad disappointment to turn to the poems themselves. But if Cartwright wrote other poems equal to "Hark, my[Pg v] Flora!"—not for publication (for he was "the most florid and seraphical preacher in the University," and seraphical preachers should not publish Songs of Dalliance), but to be circulated in manuscript among his friends—then the esteem in which his poetical abilities were held would be intelligible.

Among the rare miscellanies from which I have quoted are Wits Interpreter, 1655, 1671; The Academy of Compliments, 1650; The Marrow of Compliments, 1655; Sportive Wit, 1656; The Mysteries of Love and Eloquence (edited by Milton's nephew, Edward Phillips), 1658; Wit and Drollery, 1661; The New Academy of Compliments, 1671; The Windsor Drollery, 1672; and The Bristol Drollery, 1674. Many poems are from MSS. preserved in the Bodleian Library and the British Museum. The Rev. J. W. Ebsworth, with his usual kindness, has helped me when my knowledge or memory has been at fault. No man has so intimate a knowledge as Mr. Ebsworth of the floating literature of the second half of the seventeenth century.

Though not a few of the poems in the present volume could not be included in anthologies intended for general circulation, I must yet be allowed[Pg vi] to state that I have reprinted nothing that is offensively gross. There is a great deal of dirt—nasty worthless trash—in the miscellanies of the Restoration, and with this garbage I have not chosen to meddle.

Dalkeith, N.B., August, 1888.

[Pg vii]

INDEX OF FIRST LINES.

[Pg viii] [Pg x] [Pg xi] [Pg 1]

SPECULUM AMANTIS.

From The Academy of Compliments, 1650.

[Pg 2]

From Harl. MS. 6917. fol. 38.

[Pg 3]

From Harl. MS. 6917.

A Motion to Pleasure.

From Add. MS. 22601.

[Pg 4]

From Folly in Print, or a Book of Rhymes, 1667.

Of Love.

[Pg 5]

From Harl. MS. 6917, fol. 87.

[Pg 6]

From Thomas Campion's Fourth Book of Airs (circ. 1617).

[Pg 7]

From The Bristol Drollery, 1674.

From Vinculum Societatis, or the Tie of Good Company, 1687.

[Pg 9]

From John Cotgrave's Wit's Interpreter, 1655.

[Pg 10]

Rawlinson Poetry MS., 117, fol. 144.

From Sportive Wit: the Muses' Merriment, 1656.

From Davison's Poetical Rhapsody, 1602.

Madrigal.

[Pg 13]

From The New Academy of Compliments, 1671.

From The Academy of Compliments, 1650.

[Pg 15]

From John Attey's First Book of Airs, 1622.

[Pg 16]

From Robert Jones' First Book of Airs, 1601.

[Pg 17]

From John Cotgrave's Wit's Interpreter, 1655.

To his Mistress desirous to go to Bed.

From The Bristol Drollery, 1674.

[Pg 19]

From The Bristol Drollery, 1674.

[Pg 21]

From MS. Rawlinson Poet. 94. fol. 192.

The[16] Resolution.

[Pg 23]

From Captain Wm. Hicks' Oxford Drollery, 1671.

A[18] new Song, to the New Jig-tune.

From Folly in Print, 1667.

A Song in Dialogue.

Strephon.

[Pg 26]

From The Windsor Drollery, 1672.

(After Anacreon.)[19]

[Pg 28]

From John Cotgrave's Wit's Interpreter, 1655.

On his Black Mistress.

From John Cotgrave's Wit's Interpreter, 1655.

Two Kisses.

[Pg 30]

From Rawlinson MS. Poet. 199.

On Mrs. Beata Poole with Black Eyes.

[Pg 32]

From Choice Drollery, 1656.

Black eyes and enticing frowns.[23]

To Lucina.

[Pg 34]

From Robert Jones' Second Book of Songs and Airs, 1601.

From The Academy of Compliments, 1650.

[Pg 39]

From Songs and Poems of Love and Drollery. By T. W.[26] 1654.

To Sylvia frowning.

From The New Academy of Compliments, 1671.

[Pg 41]

From The Westminster Drollery, 1671.

[Pg 42]

From The Mysteries of Love and Eloquence, 1658.

Cupid Contemned.

[Pg 43]

From The New Academy of Compliments, 1671.

From William Corkine's Airs, 1610.

[Pg 45]

From The Marrow of Compliments, 1655.

[Pg 46]

From Thomas Greaves' Songs, 1604.

[Pg 47]

From Dr. John Wilson's Cheerful Airs or Ballads, 1660.

[Pg 48]

From The New Academy of Compliments, 1671.

[Pg 49]

From Sportive Wit; the Muses' Merriment, 1656.

A Maiden's Denial.[34]

[Pg 51]

From Sloane MS. 1792. fol. 6.

On Dreams.

[Pg 52]

From Thomas Campion's Two Books of Airs (circ. 1613).

[Pg 53]

From Thomas Jordan's Poetical Varieties,[36] 1637.

A Dialogue betwixt Castadorus and Arabella in bed.

Arabella.

[Pg 55]

From John Dowland's Third Book of Songs or Airs, 1603.

In Wit's Interpreter, 1655, and other Miscellanies, a third stanza is given:—

The younger Donne printed the verses among the Poems by William, Earl of Pembroke, and Benjamin Ruddier, 1660, ascribing them to the Earl. Donne's authority carries no weight.

[Pg 56]

From Harl. MS. 791, fol. 54.

[Pg 57]

From Malone MS. 16.

[Pg 58]

From Ashmole MS. 38, No. 196.

[Pg 59]

From The Banquet of Music, 1688.

[Pg 60]

From The Marrow of Compliments, 1655.

The Lover pithily persuading his Mistress to relinquish her virgin resolves.

T. W.

[Pg 61]

From John Cotgrave's Wit's Interpreter, 1655.

[Pg 62]

From Robert Jones' First Book of Songs and Airs, 1601.

[Pg 63]

From The Westminster Drollery. (The Second Part.) 1672.

The Valentine.

[Pg 67]

From Rawlinson MS. Poet. 206.

On a Watch Sent to a Gentlewoman.[44]

From Wit Restored, 1658.

A Song to his Mistress.

From Wit at a Venture: or Clio's Privy Garden, 1674.

The Surprising Lover.

From The New Academy of Compliments, 1671.

From Choice Drollery, 1656.

Against Fruition.

[Pg 72]

From The Bristol Drollery, 1674.

To A Young Lady in a Garden.

The Rose's Speech.

From The Mysteries of Love and Eloquence, 1658.

Lose no Time.

[Pg 74]

From Westminster Drollery (Second Part), 1672.

One and his Mistress a-dying.

From John Cotgrave's Wit's Interpreter, 1655.

A health to his Mistress.

[Pg 76]

From Harl. MS. 6917. fol. 48.

A Poem of Sir Walter Rawleigh's.[47]

[Pg 78]

From Add. MS. 2218, fol. 32 (compared with a copy in Wit and Drollery, 1661).

Cupid's Holiday.

W. Munsey.[51]

[Pg 80]

From Harl. MS. 7332, fol. 47.

From Harleian MS. 791, fol. 55.

From Wit Restored, 1658.

Women.

From The New Academy of Compliments, 1671.

[Pg 86]

From Wit's Recreations, 1640.

Love Begotten by Pity.

[Pg 87]

From The Windsor Drollery, 1672.

From William Corkine's Second Book of Airs, 1612.

[Pg 89]

From The Windsor Drollery, 1672.

[Pg 90]

From The Treasury of Music, 1669.

Cælia's[63] Complaint.

[Pg 91]

From William Corkine's Second book of Airs, 1612.

[Pg 93]

From Sportive Wit, 1656.

From Songs and Poems of Love and Drollery. By T. W., 1654.

[Pg 95]

From Campion and Rosseter's Book of Airs, 1601.

From Vinculum Societatis, or the Tie of Good Company, 1687.

[Pg 97]

From The Marrow of Compliments, 1655.

From Henry Lawes' Airs and Dialogues, 1653.

A[67]Caution to Fair Ladies.

From Thomas Campion's Fourth Book of Airs (circ. 1617).

From The Academy of Compliments, 1650.

[Pg 101]

John Cotgrave's Wit's Interpreter, 1655.

From Melpomene; or the Muses' Delight, 1678.

Fading Beauty.

[Pg 103]

From Comes Amoris, 1687.

From Thomas Weelkes' Airs or Fantastic Spirits, 1608.

[Pg 105]

From The Westminster Drollery, 1671.

The Advice.[71]

From Songs and Poems of Love and Drollery. By T. W., 1654.

To Sylvia,

On a Bracelet of her Hair.

From The New Academy of Compliments, 1671.

[Pg 108]

From Tixall Poetry,[72] 1813.

To Flora.

[Pg 109]

From The New Academy of Compliments, 1671.

From Wit's Cabinet, n. d.

Virgins Admonished.

[Pg 111]

From Harl. MS. 7332. fol. 242.

[Pg 113]

From Wit Restored, 1658.

To B. R. for her Bracelets.

By Sir Edward Sherburne.

Ice and Fire.

From Wit's Recreations, 1663.

On the Eyes and Breasts of the Lady on whom he was Enamoured.

[Pg 116]

From Tixall Poetry,[74] 1813.

A Song[75] for Drinking.

A Song for Love.

From Wit at a Venture: or Clio's Privy Garden, 1674.[76]

Epithalamium.

[Pg 118]

From Rawlinson MS. Poet. 199.

To his Mistress feigning to conceal Love.

He. Ramsay.

From Rawlinson MS. Poet. 199.

A Song.

W. R.

From Harl. MS. 6917. fol. 86.

[Pg 121]

From Harl. MS. 4955. fol. 146. (By Dr. Andrewes.[77])

Phillis Inamorata.

By Sir Charles Sedley.

The Fall.

[Pg 124]

From Poems. By W[illiam] H[ammond], 1655.

The Forsaken Maid.

[Pg 125]

Another.

[Pg 126]

From Malone MS. 13. fol. 53.

To the Lady May.

Au. Townsend.[78]

[Pg 127]

From Harl. MS. 6918. fol. 92.

Love's Contentment.

J. Paulin.

[Pg 129]

L'ENVOI.

[Pg 130]

Chiswick Press PRINTED BY CHARLES WHITTINGHAM AND CO. TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON, E.C.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Some time ago I was at the pains to transcribe from a unique MS. a long poem of Thomas Nashe. It is smoothly written, but very gross. There must be other poems of Nashe in MS.

[2] Also found in Dr. John Wilson's Cheerful Airs, 1660, and other collections.

[3] These verses are printed (with some slight alterations) in Wit's Interpreter, 1655. For "Kiss Me" (l. 15) Wit's Interpreter gives a word to rhyme with "Money" (l. 7).

[4] "There was probably a close connection here with the Song on Love, beginning, 'When I do love, I would not wish to speed,' printed in Parnassus Biceps, 1656, p. 82, and reprinted by Robert Jamieson, in Popular Ballads, ii. 311."—J. W. Ebsworth.

[5] This jocular song must have been written long before the date of publication, for a quotation from it occurs in Eastward Ho, 1605. (In Campion and Rosseter's Book of Airs, 1601, there is a song beginning, "Mistress, since you so much desire"; but Gertrude, in Eastward Ho, iii. 2—"But a little higher," &c.—was evidently quoting from the present song).

[6] In the 1671 edition of Wit's Interpreter this poem is headed "Love's Riddle Resolved." It is found in several miscellanies of the time.

["Amplified and spun out, it became a ballad printed for the assigns of Thomas Symcocke, in Roxburghe Collection, l. 242, a probably unique exemplar, entitled 'The Maid's Comfort.'"—J. W. Ebsworth.]

[7] The poem is headed "Cartwright's Song of Dalliance. Never printed before." It was printed in the same year, without the author's name, in Parnassus Biceps, where it is headed, "Love's Courtship." Unquestionably the finest of Cartwright's poems.

[8] Parnassus Biceps reads,—

[9] Parnassus Biceps,—

[10] This is the reading in Parnassus Biceps—Sportive Wit, "restless."

[11] Parnassus Biceps, "when we twine."

[12] Compare Morley's song, "Thyrsis and Milla," in More Lyrics, pp. 116-7.

[13] Old ed. "brales."

[14] Old ed. "Gods."

[15] Old ed. "had had hastn'ed."

[16] There are some verses in Thomas Flatman's Songs and Poems, 1674, which suggested, or were suggested by, the present poem. They run thus:—

The Slight.

"The Resolution" is far the better poem.

[17] Quite in Mr. Browning's vein this expression, "Put case that."

[18] The Windsor Drollery, 1672, has a similar copy of verses:—

Compare another copy of verses, "O Amis! quoth he. Well, Thomas! quoth she," in the Academy of Compliments, 1671, p. 270.

[19] A delightful rendering of the fourth ode of Anacreon. I have found a MS. copy of it in Rawlinson MS. Poet., 214, where it is ascribed (how truly I know not) to "Mr. Tho. Head." It occurs in several later miscellanies; and in the variorum translation of Anacreon published at Oxford in 1683. Here is Stanley's rendering of the same ode: it is good, but far inferior to the version in the Drollery:—

[20] So ed. 1671.—Ed. 1655, "factious."

[21] So ed. 1671.—Ed. 1655, "fortune."

[22] So ed. 1671.—Ed. 1655, "we."

[23] "This poem was written by James Howell. It is printed among his Poems, 1664, p. 68. Also in Poems collected by P. F. [= P. Fisher], 1663. See my Note in Choyce Drollery, reprint, 1876, p. 298."—J. W. Ebsworth.

[24] Old ed. "My thought." The first two stanzas of this poem (which becomes somewhat enigmatical towards the end) are also found in The Westminster Drollery.

[25] Old ed. "pish;" but "push" (required for the rhyme), the reading in The Westminster Drollery, is an old form of "pish."

[26] Rawlinson MS. Poet. 211, contains very many, if not all, of the poems in this collection. On the fly-leaf of the MS. is a note, "Charles Williams his booke written with Thomas."

[27] Old ed. "into."

[28] These dainty verses are by Robert Herrick.

[29] These verses are found in many later Miscellanies. [It was variously entitled "The Fearful Lover," "Pinks and Lilies; or, Phillis at a Non-plus." An answer to it begins, "Forbid me not t'enquire, Why you meet me here alone."—J. W. Ebsworth.]

[30] "This was written by Willm. Cavendish, Duke of Newcastle, and sung in his 'Variety' (printed 1649), at the Black Friars Theatre."—J. W. Ebsworth.

[31] Qy. "in"?

[32] "For why" = because.

[33] An old form of "then." I restore it (old ed. reads "then") for the sake of the rhyme.

[34] This song was printed from a MS. in the Sloane Collection, by Ritson, in Antient Songs, 1790. It is in Egerton MS. 923, fol. 65, and Ashmole MS. 38, No. 272.

["Cf. Oxford Drollery (3 stanzas), ii. 89, 'Nay pish, nay fie! you venter to enter,' which is by Thomas Jordan, or before 1664. There is much closer resemblance (beyond accidental coincidence) to 'Loves Follies,' a four stanza song in Merry Drollery, 1661, 'Nay, out upon this fooling, for shame!'"—J. W. Ebsworth.]

[35] Affianced.

[36] Mr. Ebsworth kindly pointed out to me that this dialogue belongs to Jordan. I had taken it from Wit and Drollery, 1656. The earlier text is more correct. There is an MS. copy of it in Harleian MS. 3511 fol. 108.

[37] This poem is ascribed by the younger Donne to William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke. It was very popular, and is found in many MS. collections. "Go, soul, the body's guest," is ascribed by Donne to Pembroke. People must have been very credulous in the second half of the seventeenth century. (See Windsor Drollery, 1672; Add. MS. 10309, &c.).

[38] There is a printed copy of this poem, widely different from the MS. version, in the second book of The Treasury of Music, 1659. After l. 6, the printed copy reads:—

Compare the song in Ben Jonson's Poetaster, ii. 1—

which probably suggested the present poem.

[39] This poem is also found in The Academy of Compliments and other collections.

[40] Old ed. "And."

[41] Old ed. "from."

[42] Motto.

[43] Sighed.

[44] Also in Wit's Recreations (with slightly altered text).

[45] Old form of "guest."

[46] There is an inferior version of this poem in Wit's Interpreter.

[47] This is the heading in the MS. Archdeacon Hannah, in his valuable edition of Raleigh's poems, makes no mention of this MS. poem. The last stanza, with a couple of lines tacked on, was printed in Raleigh's Remains, where it is stated to have been "found in his bible in the Gatehouse at Westminster." The whole poem is very much in Raleigh's manner; and I congratulate myself upon its discovery.

[48] MS. "discovers."

[49] This line is omitted in the MS.

[50] Both the MS. and printed copy read "pleasures."

[51] I have at present no information about "W. Munsey," whose name is attached to this (not very valuable) poem in the MS. In Rawlinson MS. 117, fol. 151, a copy of "I saw fair Chloris walk alone" (which has been attributed, without evidence, by some to Carew, and by others to Herrick) is subscribed "Munsey." The well-known poem, "In the nonage of a winter's day," usually ascribed to Carew, is signed in Rawlinson MS. Poet., 210, "W. Munsey."

[52] Immediately, without delay.

[53] MS. "ornaments."

[54] MS. "vppon downe."

[55] MS. "beds."

[56] Old form of aprons.

[57] Attributed to Thomas Carew.

[58] Old ed. "beauties."

[59] There is a somewhat similar copy of verses in Choice Drollery, 1656:—

[60] Old ed. "by."

[61] Mr. Ebsworth reminds me that this is Theocles' song, by Sir William Davenant, sung in Act iii. of "The Rivals," 1668.

[62] Old ed. "they."

[63] This poem is by Thomas Flatman, and is printed among his Songs and Poems, 1669.

["Also in Westminster Drollery, Windsor Drollery, and Pills to P. Mel., iii. 153. The music to it was composed by Roger Hill."—J. W. Ebsworth.]

[64] "Coth" = quoth.

[65] "This was written by Henry Bold; it is in his Poems Lyrique, 1664, p. 6."—J. W. Ebsworth. (I suspect Bold stole it: he was a notorious pilferer.)

[66] D'Urfey printed these verses in his Pills to Purge Melancholy, 1700, ii. 93, as "The Silly Maids."

[67] This poem is ascribed by Lawes to Henry Harrington, son to Sir Henry Harrington. It is found among the Fancies and Fantasticks appended to Wit's Recreations.