Poems of Henry Vaughan, Silurist Part 39

_Ausonius._ The famous schoolmaster, rhetorician and courtier of the early fourth century, was born at Bordeaux. One of his most famous poems is the _Mosella_ (Idyll X), a description of the river and its fish.

_Castara_, Lucy, daughter of William Herbert, Lord Powys, and wife of the Worcesters.h.i.+re poet, William Habington, who celebrated her in his poems under that name. The _Castara_ was published in 1634.

_Sabrina_, the tutelar nymph of the Severn. _Cf._ the invocation of her in Milton's "Comus."

_May the evet and the toad._ This pa.s.sage is imitated from W. Browne's _Britannia's Pastorals_, Bk. I., Song 2, II., 277 _sqq._:

"May never evet nor the toad Within thy banks make their abode!

Taking thy journey from the sea, May'st thou ne'er happen in thy way On nitre or on brimstone mine, To spoil thy taste! this spring of thine Let it of nothing taste but earth, And salt conceived, in their birth Be ever fres.h.!.+ Let no man dare To spoil thy fish, make lock or ware; But on thy margent still let dwell Those flowers which have the sweetest smell.

And let the dust upon thy strand Become like Tagus' golden sand.

Let as much good betide to thee, As thou hast favour show'd to me."

G. G.

_flames that are ... canicular. Cf. A Dialogue between Sir Henry Wotton and Mr. Donne_ (Poems of John Donne, _Muse's Library_, Vol. I., p. 79):

"I'll never dig in quarry of a heart To have no part, Nor roast in fiery eyes, which always are Canicular."

P. 65. The Charnel-house.

_Kelder_, a caldron; cf. J. Cleveland, _The King's Disguise_:

"The sun wears midnight; day is beetle-brow'd, And lightning is in kelder of a cloud."

_A second fiat's care._ The allusion is to _Genesis_ i. 3: "And G.o.d said, Let there be light (in the Vulgate, _Fiat lux_), and there was light"; _cf._ Donne, _The Storm_ (_Muses' Library_, II. 4):

"Since all forms uniform deformity Doth cover; so that we, except G.o.d say Another _Fiat_, shall have no more day."

P. 70. To his Friend ----.

Miss Morgan thinks that the "friend" of this poem, whose name is shown by the first line to have been James, may perhaps be identified with the James Howell of the _Epistolae Ho-Elianae_. Howell had Vaughans amongst his cousins and correspondents, but these appear to have been of the Golden Grove family.

P. 73. To his retired Friend--an Invitation to Brecknock.

_her foul, polluted walls._ Miss Morgan quotes a statement from Grose's _Antiquities_ to the effect that the walls of Brecknock were pulled down by the inhabitants during the Civil War in order to avoid having to support a garrison or stand a siege.

_the Greek_, _i.e._ Hercules when in love with Omphale.

_Domitian-like_: _Cf._ Suetonius, _Vita Domitiani_, 3: "_Inter initia princ.i.p.atus cotidie secretum sibi horarum sumere solebat, nec quicquam amplius quam muscas captare ac stilo praeacuto configere._"

_Since Charles his reign._ This poem must date from after the execution of Charles I., on January 30, 1648/9. It would appear therefore that Vaughan was living in Brecknock and not at Newton about the time that the _Olor Isca.n.u.s_ was published.

P. 77. Monsieur Gombauld.

The writer referred to is John Ogier de Gombauld (1567-1666). His prose tale of _Endymion_ was translated by Richard Hurst in 1637. _Ismena_ and _Diophania_ who was metamorphosed into a myrtle, are characters in the story. _Periardes_ is a hill in Armenia whence the Euphrates takes its course.

P. 79. An Elegy on the Death of Mr. R. W., slain in the late unfortunate differences at Routon Heath, near Chester.

The battle of Routon, or Rowton, Heath took place on September 24, 1645.

The Royalist forces, under Charles I. and Sir Marmaduke Langdale, advancing to raise the siege of Chester, were met and routed by the Parliamentarians under Poyntz. The contemporary pamphlets give a long list of the prisoners taken at Routon Heath, but name hardly any of those slain. It is therefore difficult to say who R. W., evidently a dear friend of Vaughan's, may have been. He appears to have been missing for a year before he was finally given up. From lines 25-27 we learn that he was a young man of only twenty. The most likely suggestion for his identification seems to me that of Mr. C. H. Firth, who points out to me that the name of one Roger Wood occurs in the list of Catholics who fell in the King's service as having been slain at Chester. Miss Southall (_Songs of Siluria_, 1890, p. 124) suggests that he may have been either Richard Williams, a nephew of Sir Henry Williams, of Gwernyfed, who died unmarried, or else a son of Richard Winter, of Llangoed. He might also, I think, have been one of Vaughan's wife's family, the Wises, and possibly also a Walbeoffe. A reference to the Walbeoffe pedigree in the note to p. 189 will show that there was a Robert Walbeoffe, brother of C. W. Miss Morgan thinks that he is a generation too old, and that the unnamed son of C. W., who, according to his tombstone, did not survive him, may have been a Robert, and the R.

W. in question. On the question whether Vaughan was himself present at Routon Heath, _see_ the _Biographical Note_ (vol. ii., p. xxviii).

P. 83. Upon a Cloak lent him by Mr. J. Ridsley.

I do not know who Mr. Ridsley was. On the references to Vaughan's "juggling fate of soldiery" in this poem, _see_ the _Biographical Note_ (vol. ii., p. xxviii).

_craggy Biston, and the fatal Dee._ Chester stands, of course, on the Dee, which is "fatal" as the scene of disasters to the Royalist cause.

Dr. Grosart explains Biston as "Bishton (or Bishopstone) in Monmouths.h.i.+re," and adds, "'Craggie Biston' refers, no doubt, to certain caves there. The Poet's school-boy rambles from Llangattock doubtless included Bishton." I think that Biston is clearly Beeston Castle, one of the outlying defences of Chester, which played a considerable part in the siege. It surrendered on November 5, 1645, and the small garrison was permitted to march to Denbigh (J. R. Phillips, _The Civil War in Wales and the Marshes_, vol. i., p. 343).

_Micro-cosmography_, the world represented on a small scale in man.

Vaughan means that he had as many lines on him as a map.

_Speed's Old Britons._ John Speed (1555-1629) published his _History of Great Britain_ in 1614.

_King Harry's Chapel at Westminster_, with its tombs, was already one of the sights of London.

_Brownist._ The Brownists were the religious followers of Robert Browne (c. 1550-c. 1633); they were afterwards known as Independents or Congregationalists.

P. 86. Upon Mr. Fletcher's Plays.

The first folio edition of Beaumont and Fletcher's _Comedies and Tragedies_ was published in 1647. Vaughan's lines are not, however, amongst the commendatory verses there given.

_Field's or Swansted's overthrow._ Nathaniel Field and Eliard Swanston, who appears to be meant by Swansted, were well-known actors. They were both members of the King's Company about 1633.

P. 90. Upon the Poems and Plays of the ever-memorable Mr. William Cartwright.

This was printed, together with verses by Tho. Vaughan and many other writers, in William Cartwright's _Comedies, Tragi-comedies, with other Poems_, 1651.

P. 94. An Elegy on the Death of Mr. R. Hall, slain at Pontefract, 1648.

Miss Southall thinks that the subject of this elegy may have been a son of Richard Hall, of High Meadow, in the Forest of Dean, co. Gloucester.

These Halls were connected with the Winters, a Brecons.h.i.+re family. Mr.

C. H. Firth ingeniously suggests to me that for R. Hall we should read R. Hall[ifax], and points out that a Robert Hallyfax was one of the garrison at the first siege of Pontefract in 1645. He may have been at the second siege also. (R. Holmes, _Sieges of Pontefract_, p. 20.)

P. 97. To my learned Friend, Mr. T. Powell, upon his Translation of Malvezzi's "Christian Politician."

The book referred to is _The Pourtract of the Politicke Christian-Favourite_. By Marquesse Virgilio Malvezzi, 1647. This is a translation of _Il Ritratto del Privato Politico Christiano_, published at Bologna in 1635. It does not contain Vaughan's verses, and no translator's name is given. The preface of another translation from Malvezzi, the _Stoa Triumphans_ (1651), is, however, signed "T. P."