No authoritative editions follow. Very little demand was made for them, while public taste was debased, and the earlier poets neglected, until Thomas Warton in 1778, and Thomas Percy in 1765 (ridiculed by Samuel Johnson), set a better fashion of studying 'The Old Singers.' Not until 1772 was a fresh issue made of the 'Poems, Songs, and Sonnets: Together with a Masque; By Thomas Carew, Esq., etc. . . . to King Charles I. A New Edition. London: Printed for T. Davies, in Russell Street, Covent Garden, MDCCLXII.' (See pp. 211, 212.) Next, near the close of the century, Carew's Poems, with the Masque, were included in Dr. Robert Anderson's useful, tolerably accurate, but not scholarly, edition of the British Poets, wherein these poems occupy pp. 671 to 723 of vol. iii., 1793. They are also reprinted in Alexander Chalmers's similar double-column edition of the English Poets, vol. v., 1810. 'A Selection from the Poetical Works of Thomas Carew,' London, Printed for Longmans, Hurst, & Co., and sold by Thomas Fry & Co., No. 46 High Street, Bristol, 1810, is chiefly noteworthy for having preceded what had been intended to be a more complete edition (mentioned in The Gentleman's Magazine of January 1811 as being in preparation,' and in Bibliographical Memoranda, 1816, declared to be 'in the Press'), but not known to have been published: it was told, in a prospectus, dated 1814, that it will be illustrated with Portraits of the Authour and his Wife, from a rare medal by Warin.' This is a false statement, doubly 1st, of Carew having had a wife (even though she had been the lady whose pseudonym was 'Celia,' or some later consoler), for we refuse to accept it as proved, on such totally inadequate evidence: no medallion portrait of the lady being forthcoming or known to be extant. No one else saw it but Fry: (as Paul Dombey said, 'I don't believe that story'). Cf. p. viii.] And, 2nd, The medal is not of Carew, but of Cary. The Works of Thomas Carew were 'reprinted from the original edition of 1640,' issued in 1824: Edinburgh, Printed for W. and T. Tait :-Edited by Mr. Thomas Maitland, a Lord of Session. 125 copies printed. The appendix poems, additional, from eds. 1642 and 1651, alone are modernised in spelling. [Not seen.] Robert Southey gave a large selection from Carew, including the entire Masque, in 1831; but it was merely hack-work, and he left any slightest revision to the chances of the printing office, or the untrained energies of what he playfully called his 'Harem' of sisters-in-law (we know what sort of accuracy might be expected from the Irrepressible sex): as a Moderator of the General Assembly, circa 1856-7, once profanely in his place had declared of Macphail's Edinburgh Ecclesiastical Journal (obiit 1863), that it was 'Edited by Divine Providence.' Southey was a noble 'man of letters,' over-burdened in too many ways, so that he was always hurrying his 'copy.' That he had reprinted seventeen of Carew's choice poems and the Masque deserves gratitude. His criticism is unworthy of himself and of his subject, though it sufficed for his female coterie and their proprieties: Carew's wit and his accomplishments qualified him for a courtier, and his morals would not have disqualified him, even at the court of Charles the Second' (p. 732): Ipse dixit. The Poetical Works of Thomas Carew, etc., London : H. G. Clarke and Co., 66 Old Bailey, bears date 1845. It is summarised by W. C. Hazlitt as 'an edition of no value, and chiefly a reprint of that of 1824.' His own edition of 1870, the Roxburghe Library large quarto, was published by Messrs. Reeves and Turner, of London, handsomely printed and bound, dedicated to (the now, late) Frederick William Cosens, F.S.A., and furnished with an elaborate array of references to transcripts from MSS., etc. It gives verbatim several letters written by the poet Carew, with his signature in fac-simile (written at Tunstall, on 20th September 1616, in an epistle to Sir Dudley Carleton, whom he had by that time left, after having joined him as secretary in 1614). These letters (p. 256) show not the poetic attainments of Carew: compare the Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, James I., vol. 88, Nos. 67, 77, 87; Ditto, of Charles I., 1638, April 1-17 (certainly after the decease of Carew), vol. 387, No. 31, and May 25-31, vol. 391, No. 99. Mr. W. C. Hazlitt has done life-long service for literary students, by innumerable and laborious works, especially of Bibliography, in which department he stands eminent. He is personally entitled to respect and esteem; moreover as being the grandson of that true critic, William Hazlitt; and the worthy son of a second William Hazlitt, the author and Registrar, still alive and honoured: who had shown his own great love for the writings of our Poet, by giving to his son William the additional baptismal-name of 'CAREW.' In the present edition, 1893, The Poems of Thomas Carew are for the first time added by Messrs. Reeves and Turner to the Library of Old Authors, now their sole property. The editor, Joseph Woodfall Ebsworth, of Molash Priory, Kent, to whom they generously entrusted the work unrestrictedly, has followed his own judgment throughout in determining the text, which had been often obscured and perverted. He alone is responsible, if aught be blamed. There is no better 'Golden Rule' than Theobald's (p. 270). The former mis-readings deserved unhesitating rejection. He hopes speedily to send forth similarly a trustworthy new edition of 'ROBERT SOUTHWELL'S POEMS,' to follow these of THOMAS CAREW. TABLE OF FIRST LINES TO THE POEMS OF THOMAS CAREW, 1893. (Library of Old Authors' Edition.) ་ [No historical work ought ever to be published without a full Inder. Every printed collection of 'Letters and Life' requires similar help for the student, making easier any reperusal of particular passages. Also, each new edition of a Standard Poet should be furnished with a good 'Index of First Lines,' in addition to a Table of Contents.' Without these the book, especially a collection of Songs, or other short poems, is wofully defective; and the omission furnishes perpetual reproach alike against the Editor and the Publisher. It shows that the work has not been a labour of love, but merely a cheap substitute for a better edition. Some future day may give us the greatlyneeded 'Index of First Lines of all Early Poems;' meanwhile the present Editor has been for years preparing one of All Known Songs and Ballads, in print or manuscript, of date before 1805; though intended solely for his private use. Here are the First Lines of the Poems and Songs by Thomas Carew; not neglecting the few of doubtful authenticity, or the collateral poems quoted in the Notes.] A Carver, having loved too long in vain A Child, and dead! alas! how could it come A Session was held the other day (Suckling's, quoted) PAGE 75 185 244 81 Amongst the myrtles as I walk'd (improbably by Herrick) 65 And here the precious dust is laid As Celia rested in the shade As one that strives, being sick, and sick to death Ask me no more where Jove bestows Ask me no more why I do wear (mentioned, only) Ask me why I send you here (probably Carew's own; not by Herrick: cf. pp. 234, and Hallam note, 255) 53 39 91 69 235 236 73 Fair copy of my Celia's face Fair Doris, break thy glass! it hath perplex'd Fear not, dear love, that I'll reveal Fly not from him whose silent misery Fond man, that canst believe her blood Fond man, that hopest to catch that face For thy word's sake, give new birth From the high Senate of the Gods to you (Mercury) Gaze not on thy beauties' pride Give Lucinda pearl nor stone Give me more love, or more disdain Go, thou gentle whispering wind God bless the Sabbath: fie on worldly pelf Good folk, for gold or hire, one help me to a Crier (D.'s) 182 Good God, unlock thy magazine Grieve not, my Celia, but with haste Happy the man that doth not walk Happy youth! that shall possess Hark, how my Celia, with the choice (cf. Mark how') He gave her jewels in a cup of gold He that loves a rosy cheek. Hear this and tremble all Hence, vain intruder, haste away. Here are shapes form'd fit for heaven 177 160 |