the young Prince of Bohemia, (which is one of your Memorials that have slept too long by me,) and I have ransacked mine own poor Papers for some entertainment for the Queen, which shall be sent together;-Though it be now a Misery to re-visit the Fancies of my Youth, which my judgement tells me, are all too green, and my Glass tells me, that my self am gray." (Rel. Wotton. p. 558.) Compare also the following expressions with lines 9, 10:-" methinks not unlike that which Astrologers call a Conjunction of Planets, of no very benign Aspect the one to the other;" (ib. p. 217.) "I am come hither in a very benign Constellation, and silent conspiracy of my chiefest Friends," &c. (ib. p. 575.) Also compare line 19 with the following:-" who, taking him into his regard, taught him more and more to please himself, and moulded him (as it were) Platonically, to his own Idea;" (ib. p. 163, repeated on p. 210. Cf. p. 333.) Taken separately, these coincidences would be scarcely worth remarking; but they serve to shew that Wotton was familiar with the phraseology employed in this Poem. The Variations are not sufficiently important to quote, except in one instance, viz. in line 17, where both the MSS. read blowne' for 'bloom'—which is the reading of Rel. Wotton. It is also 'blown' in the first edit. of Jonson; and Gifford has ridiculed Whalley for first vaunting it as a conjectural emendation, to correct the rhyme, and then supporting his conjecture by the early copy. (Life of Jonson, p. ccxxxv.)—The misprint in Rel. Wotton. probably arose, partly from the more familiar idiom, partly from an unseasonable recollection of a line (12) in the last poem. In Jonson, the two concluding lines are inserted after each stanza; and though only given once in the MSS. they are marked as "Chorus."] application than the terms imply. See Mr. Laing's Notices of Scotch Metr. Versions, in Appendix to Baillie's Letters. (They have been also printed as a separate tract.) [5] OUSE up thy self, my gentle Muse, gray, And yet once more do not refuse To take thy Phrygian Harp, and Play Make first a Song of Joy and Love, To this let all good Hearts resound, Long may he live, whose Life doth bound More than his Laws, and better Lead [15] By high Example than by Dread! [20] Long may He round about Him see And Kingdoms Hopes so timely sown; Long may they both contend to prove, This signature is given, as usual, in ed. 1651. Its omission in eð. 1654 and 1672 cannot be regarded as an argument against Wotton's right to the piece, for it seems to have arisen merely from the fulness of the page. ["THE following verses," says Mr. Park," addressed to the lord Bacon, when falling from favour,' are too good to be immured in the obscure little volume whence they are now extracted." Then, after quoting this present piece from "Bacon's Felicity of Queen Elizabeth, &c. 1651, p. 158," he proceeds;-"Sir E. Brydges has observed to me, that the above verses were collected into Reliquiæ Wottonianæ, and bear a denotation of having been addressed to the earl of Somerset. I might add, however, that those denotations are of doubtful authority, and that the first edition of the Reliquiæ gave it no earlier appropriation than Bacon's Felicity, &c. Both books were published in the same year." This is mere trifling. Park is not even accurate; for the Edit. of Walpole's Royal and Noble Authors, ii. 208, note. title in Rel. Wotton. does not say that it was "addressed to the earl of Somerset," but that it was written "upon his sudden restraint:"-but there are graver faults in the passage; for first, the assertion that the "denotations" of Rel. Wotton. " are of doubtful authority," is evidently made at random. Park shewed that he had not read that volume with much care, when he forgot that it contained the Poem, and needed to be reminded of it by Sir Egerton Brydges. His own copy of Rel. Wotton. is now before me; and though it contains several MS. notes,—the reference to Bacon's Felicity among the rest,-not a single error in the Poetical part is pointed out.-Next, the publication of both books in 1651 goes for nothing; as the one was prepared by Izaak Walton, with Sir Henry's own papers in his hands; while the other was an unauthorized translation of Bacon's Latin tract, made, says Archbishop Tennison, by "a person of more good will than ability."*-Lastly, although the lines might be made to apply to Bacon, on the ground that his submission and consequent fall arose from obedience to the King's command, their application to Somerset is far more direct and obvious. Bacon's sentence was passed May 3: 1621: Somerset was committed into custody, Oct. 18: 1615: and this latter event will give us the probable date of the Poem. Its imagery is singularly confused. The Variations are from two MS. copies. A=Archbishop Sancroft's Collection, MS. Tann. 465, fol. 61, vo. Title, "On the suddaine restraint of a Favourite." It is given to Wotton. B-MS. Rawl. Poet. 147, p. 97. The title originally was, "Sr. H. W. (on ye Duke [sic] of Somer.)" but the other title, as in the former MS., was afterwards written in. Signature, "S". H. W."-The copy printed by Park nearly agrees with that in Rel. Wotton.] ⚫ See Montagu's Life of Bacon, Note 4 H. AZLED thus with height of place, [5] Then, since Fortunes favours fade, You that in her Arms do sleep,* * Learn to swim, and not to wade; But if Greatness be so blind [10] As to trust in Towers of Air, Let it be with Goodness lin'd, That at least the Fall be fair. Then, though darkned, you shall say, [15] Vertue is the roughest way, But proves at Night a Bed of Down. H. W. [VARIATIONS. 1: Thus dazzled'-A B. 'wth ye height'-A. -2. 'While'-B.-3. 'heeds'-B.-5. 'fortunes children'-A B. -9. 'Or if'-A B.-13. though broken he may say'-B. 'hee may say' also in A.-14. 'When freinds doe faile'-A. 'When freinds sinke'-B.-15. 'hardest way'-A B.-16. Butt at night'-A. Yet at night'-B.-Mr. Campbell has introduced two new variations into this Poem, (Spec. p. 158, second ed.) viz. 5. Yet since'-and 13. dark and'-.] "They both slept long in the arms of Fortune." Parallel of Essex and Buckingham, Rel. Wotton. p. 182. |