1 "Ignoto." Not one of these nineteen additions has been hitherto authenticated by conclusive evidence. I have allowed three to remain, with some misgivings; for they rest on the weakest proofs of any poems which are still included in Part I.2 The remaining sixteen may be rejected altogether from the list of Raleigh's writings. In fact, six at least can be proved to be the work of other writers; and the authorship of the rest is quite unknown. The Oxford editors of 1829 accepted Brydges' collection with only one unexplained omission, and annexed eleven "additional poems," most of which had been pointed out by Oldys nearly a century before. Two of these additions were mere attacks on Raleigh. The whole set, however, is retained in some form in the present volume; and, in several instances, the evidence which has been discovered is of the highest order. But this wholesale adoption of so uncritical a collection as that of Brydges into the only general edition of Raleigh's works has proved to be a real literary mis 4 1 The fact that this signature meant simply what it says, that an author was unknown to the original editor or printer, was established in my former volume (Introd. pp. xxixxxxiv). A complete list of all the pieces ascribed to Raleigh which I have rejected will be found in this volume (Appendix to Introd. B.), and several of them are now printed under other heads, as there referred to. 2 Namely, Nos. XXVI. and XXVII. on the singularly weak evidence of the obliterated signature in " England's Helicon ;" and No. XXIX. on the authority of the " London Magazine." 3 See Appendix to the Introduction A, No. III. 1, and IV. 2. 4 See Part I. Nos. II. VIII. IX. X. XI., two fragments in No. XXIII., and No. XXVIII., together with the Appendix to the Introduction, as above. fortune. Even the most careful of Raleigh's biographers have been misled by it into illustrating his supposed emotions from verses to which he has not the shadow of a claim. The additions made to Raleigh's Poems in the present publication amount to more than twice as much as I have been able to retain from former editors. The most important of these fresh materials is the "Continuation of Cynthia," No. xx., which is now first published from the Hatfield MSS. The "Petition to Queen Anne of Denmark," No. XXI., was first printed from the Hawthornden MSS., by Mr. D. Laing, in 1828-32. A few smaller pieces have been drawn direct from other MS. sources." In the case of two well-known little poems, which were published anonymously, or under other names, during Raleigh's lifetime (Nos. VII. and xxv.), the discovery of some printed evidence in his favour is due to Mr. J. Payne Collier. The lines addressed to Gorges and Lithgow (Nos. XIX. and xxx.), have frequently been mentioned; but it has been a singular oversight in editors to omit poems so accessible, and so well authenticated, as Nos. III. and xv., which were assigned to Raleigh as early as 1591 and 1602, or to neglect the obvious duty of collecting the Metrical Translations (No. xxiv. 1-69), which occur throughout the "History of the World." I. p. 3. Walter Rawely of the Middle Temple. 1 Of about 1557 lines of verse included in Part I. the nine poems in Birch make 254; the three pieces retained from Brydges' additions, 80; and the Oxford additions retained, 136; in all, 470. My additions amount altogether to about 1087 verses. 2 e. g. Nos. XII. XIII. XVIII. and two or three fragments in No. XXIII. As Raleigh declared on his trial, with a strong asseveration, that he had never "read a word of the law or statute before" he "was prisoner in the Tower" (Oldys' "Life of Raleigh," p. ccxliii.), we must suppose that he was merely a resident in the Temple for some short time after his return from France in 1576. There is no good reason for doubting that he wrote the verses, to which there is no other claimant. The point is discussed by all his biographers. Oldys believed that he had discovered "the links, if not the perfect chain, of some acquaintance between" Raleigh and Gascoigne (" Life,” p. xi.). III. p. 5. Epitaph on Sir Philip Sidney. Raleigh's claim to this poem was substantiated from Malone's papers in 1821 ("Shakespeare," by Boswell, ii. 580), and in my former volume of 1845 (pp. xxxvii.-viii.). It cannot be doubted that Sir John Harington was alluding to the closing lines, when he wrote of "Our English Petrarch, Sir Philip Sidney, or, as Sir Walter Raleigh in his Epitaph worthily calleth him, the Scipio and the Petrarch of our time" ("Translation of Ariosto," 1591, Notes on Book xvi. p. 126). And Drummond of Hawthornden, in his character of several authors, says: "S. W. R., in an epitaph on Sidney, calleth him our English Petrarch ' ("Works," ed. 1711, p. 226). The second stanza is very obscure, and if separated from the first by a full stop, as usually printed, has no construction. I take it to mean, "Yet (one may try to praise thee who is) rich in zeal, though poor in learning; rich in care; rich in love, which envy suppressed during thy dear life now done, and which thy death hath now doubled." In stanza 5, the king who gave Sidney his name was Philip of Spain, after whom many Englishmen were called, while he was the husband of Queen Mary. The twelfth stanza reminds us of the inscription (copied from the French) which was formerly suspended, in memory of Sidney, in the choir of old St. Paul's : "His body hath England, for she it bred, Netherlands his blood, in her defence shed; The heavens have his soul; the arts have his fame; self: "Heaven hath his soul; the world his fame; The Elegy on Sidney, which follows Raleigh's, both in the "Phoenix Nest" and in Spenser's volume a poem of forty lines, beginning, "Silence augmenteth grief, writing increaseth rage is entitled, "Another of the same;" to which is added, in the former copy, "excellently written by a most worthy gentleman." Raleigh's second poem on the "Fairy Queen" (No. v.), is also headed" Another of the same;" but, in this case, the phrase has generally been understood to mean "of the same nature," rather than "ejusdem auctoris." It was ascribed by Malone to Sir E. Dyer on the ground of the metre (which is, however, extremely common), and by Charles Lamb to Lord Brooke on internal evidence. Iv. p. 8. Sonnet on the Fairy Queen. This noble sonnet is alone sufficient to place Raleigh in the rank of those few original writers who can introduce and perpetuate a new type in a literature; a type distinct from the "visions" which Spenser translated. The highest tribute which it has received is the imitation of Milton: "Methought I saw my late espoused saint." But Mr. Todd quotes a sonnet, printed as early as 1594, beginning "Methought I saw upon Matilda's tomb." Waldron gives another, signed "E. S.," which was printed in 1612 :— Methought I saw in dead of silent night." And the echo is still repeated by poets nearer our own times. Methought I saw the footsteps of a throne." Wordsworth," Miscellaneous Sonnets." "Methought I saw a face divinely fair, 66 With nought of earthly passion." 66 Lyra Apost." No. XCII. Methought there was around me a strange light.” Williams," Thoughts in Past Years," No. LV. &c. v. p. 9. Another of the same. These very inferior verses illustrate the height to which flattery of Queen Elizabeth was carried. It was she to whom Spenser's poem was dedicated. She there fore is the "virtue and " beauty," which are treated as the poet's model and appeal. Compare No. xxvi. p. 77. v. p. 9, line 2. Philumena. Compare the Hatfield MS., No. xx., p. 33, line 12; "Nor Philomen recounts her direful moan.” In Gascoigne's "Complaint of Philomene," 1576, he appears to write Philomene when he needs three syllables, and Philomela for four. VI. p. 11. Reply to Marlowe. The external evidence that Raleigh wrote this poem is confined to |