Poems of Henry Vaughan, Silurist Part 42

Dr. Grosart hunted out an obscure Neapolitan, Marcus Aurelius Severino, and ascribed to him the originals of these translations. They are of course from the _De Consolatione Philosophiae_ of Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius, and are a continuation of the pieces already printed in _Olor Isca.n.u.s_ (pp. 125-143).

P. 245. Pious Thoughts and e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.ns.

These are much in the vein of _Silex Scintillans_. They probably belong to various dates later than 1655, when the second part of that collection appeared. _The Nativity_ (p. 259) is dated 1656, and _The True Christmas_ (p. 261) was apparently written after the Restoration.

P. 261. The True Christmas.

Vaughan was no Puritan; _cf._ his lines on _Christ's Nativity_ (vol. i., p. 107)--

"Alas, my G.o.d! Thy birth now here Must not be numbered in the year,"

but he was not much in sympathy with the ideals of the Restoration either; _cf._ the pa.s.sage on "our unjust ways" in _Daphnis_ (p. 284).

P. 267. De Salmone.

On Thomas Powell, _cf._ p. 57, note.

P. 272. The Bee.

_Hilarion's servant, the sage crow._ There seems to be some confusion between Hilarion, an obscure fourth-century Abbot, and Paul the Hermit, of whom it is related in his _Life by S. Jerome_ that for sixty years he was daily provided with half a loaf of bread by a crow.

P. 278. Daphnis.

The subject of the Eclogue appears to be Vaughan's brother Thomas, who died 27th February, 1666. On him _see_ the _Biographical Note_ (vol.

ii., p. x.x.xiii).

_true black Moors_; an allusion, perhaps, to Thomas Vaughan's controversy with Henry More.

_Old Amphion_; perhaps Matthew Herbert, on whom see note to p. 158.

_The Isis and the prouder Thames._ Thomas Vaughan was buried at Albury, near Oxford.

_n.o.ble Murray._ Thomas Vaughan's patron, himself a poet and alchemist, Sir Robert Murray, Secretary of State for Scotland. His poems have been collected by the Hunterian Club.

FRAGMENTS AND TRANSLATIONS.

The larger number of the verses in this section are translated quotations scattered through Vaughan's prose-pamphlets. Dr. Grosart identified some of the originals; I have added a few others; but the larger number remain obscure and are hardly worth spending much labour upon. The t.i.tle-pages of the pamphlets will be found in the _Bibliography_ (vol. ii., p. lvii).

P. 289. From Eucharistica Oxoniensia.

I have already, in the _Biographical Note_ (vol. ii., p. xxviii), given reasons for doubting whether this poem is by the Silurist. It was first printed as his by Dr. Grosart. Charles the First was in Scotland, trying to settle his differences with the Scots, during the closing months of 1641.

P. 291. Translations from Plutarch and Maximus Tyrius.

These, together with a translation of Guevara's _De vitae rusticae laudibus_, were appended to the _Olor Isca.n.u.s_. Vaughan did not translate directly from the Greek, but from a Latin version published in 1613-14 amongst some tracts by John Reynolds, Lecturer in Greek at, and afterwards President of Corpus Christi College, Oxford.

P. 294. From the Mount of Olives.

A volume of Devotions published by Vaughan in 1652. The preface, dated 1st October, 1651, is addressed to Sir Charles Egerton, Knight, and in it Vaughan speaks of "that near relation by which my dearest friend lays claim to your person." It is impossible to say who is the "dearest friend" referred to. The _Flores Solitudinis_ (1654) is also dedicated to Sir Charles Egerton. He was probably of Staffords.h.i.+re. Dr. Grosart (II. x.x.xiii) states that in Hanbury Church, co. Stafford, is a monument _Caroli Egertoni Equitis Aurati_, who died 1662. Perhaps therefore he was connected with Vaughan's wife's family, the Wises of Staffords.h.i.+re.

P. 298. From Man in Glory.

This translation from a work attributed to St. Anselm and published as his in 1639 is appended to the Mount of Olives.

In the original lines 5, 6, are printed in error after lines 7, 8.

P. 299. From Flores Solitudinis.

In 1654 Vaughan published a volume containing (1) translations of two discourses by Eusebius Nierembergius, (2) a translation of Eucherius, _De Contemptu Mundi_, (3) an original life of S. Paulinus, Bishop of Nola. These were poems "collected in his sickness and retirement." The Epistle-dedicatory to Sir Charles Egerton is dated 1653, and that to the reader which precedes the translations from Nierembergius on 17th April, 1652.

_Bissellius._ John Bissel a Jesuit, (1601-1677), wrote _Deliciae Aetatis_, _Argonauticon Americanorum_, etc. (Grosart).

_Augurellius._ Johannes Aurelius Augurellius of Rimini (1454-1537), wrote _Carmina_, _Chrysopoeia_, _Geronticon_, etc. (Grosart).

P. 307. From Primitive Holiness.

This original life of S. Paulinus of Nola, by far the most striking of Vaughan's prose works, contains a number of poems, pieced together by Vaughan from lines in Paulinus' own poems and in those of Ausonius addressed to him. The edition used by Vaughan seems to have been that published by Rosweyd at Antwerp in 1622. I have traced the sources of the poems so far as I can in the edition published by W. de Hartel in the _Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum_ (vols. xxix, x.x.x 1894).

P. 322. From Hermetical Physic.

A translation from the _Naturae Sanctuarium! quod est Physica Hermetica_ (1619) of the alchemist Henry Nollius, published by Vaughan in 1655.

P. 323. From Cerbyd Fechydwiaeth.

This tract is bound up with the Brit. Mus. copy of [Thomas Powell's]

_Quadriga Salutis_ (1657), of which it appears to be a Welsh translation. The verses, to which nothing corresponds in the English version, are signed Ol[or] Vaughan (_cf._ Olor Isca.n.u.s). Professor Palgrave (_Y Cymrodor_, 1890-1) translates them as follows: "The Lord's Prayer, when looked into (we see), the Trinity of His Fatherly goodness has given it as a foundation-stone of all prayer, and has made it for our instruction in doctrine." He adds that this Englyn occurs with others written in an eighteenth-century hand on the fly-leaf of a MS. of Welsh poetry by Iago ab Duwi.

P. 324. From Humane Industry.

On Thomas Powell _cf._ p. 57, note. The first three of these translations are marked H. V. in the margin; of the fourth Powell says, "The translation of Mr. Hen. Vaughan, Silurist, whose excellent Poems are published." Many other translations are scattered through the book, but there is nothing to connect them with Vaughan.