Seven Minor Epics of the English Renaissance (1596-1624) Part 2

[20] =Poems by Richard Linche, Gentleman= (=1596=), ed. Grosart, p. x; =The Love of Dom Diego and Gynevra=, ed. Arber in =An English Garner=, VII (Birmingham, 1883), 209.

[21] "The Source of Richard Lynche's 'Amorous Poeme of Dom Diego and Ginevra,'" =PMLA=, LVIII (1943), 579-580.

[22] William Painter, =The Palace of Pleasure=, IV (London, 1929), 74.

(Actually, "Catheloigne" in Painter.)

[23] =Certain Tragical Discourses of Bandello=, trans. Geffraie Fenton anno 1567. Introd. by Robert Langton Douglas, II (London, 1898), 239.

[24] Painter, I, No. 40, 153-158.

[25] Painter, I, 156.

[26] Painter, I, 157.

[27] Bush, p. 139.

[28] Two (=Philos and Licia, Amos and Laura=) employ the Marlovian couplet, two (=Dom Diego= and =The Scourge=) the Shakespearean sixain, and Barksted's two employ eight-line stanzas, with =Mirrha= rhyming =_ababccdd_= (the Shakespearean stanza plus a couplet), and =Hiren= rhyming =_ababbcac_=, a more tightly knit departure from Shakespeare's stanza. The last, =Pyramus and Thisbe=, suggests its debt to both masters--or plays both ends against the middle--by employing a 12 (26)-line stanza composed of couplets, with the last couplet having a double rhyme probably designed to echo the concluding couplet of the Shakespearean sixain.

[29] Thomas Lodge, =Scillaes Metamorphosis= in =Elizabethan Minor Epics=, ed. Donno, p. 35, stanza 71.

[30] Yet =Dom Diego= seems not to have been previously identified as a minor epic. The late C. S. Lewis, a few pages before his brilliant discussion of =Hero and Leander= as an epyllion, refers to Lynche's poem as a "stanzaic =novella=." See Lewis' =English Literature in the Sixteenth Century Excluding Drama= (Oxford, 1954), p. 479, pp. 486-488.

[31] For a complete list of Burton's books in the Bodleian and Christ Church libraries, numbering 581 and 473 items respectively, see "Lists of Burton's Library," ed. F. Madan, =Oxford Bibliographical Society Proceedings & Papers=, I, Part 3 (1925; printed 1926), 222-246.

[32] No. 376 in Ronald B. McKerrow, =Printers' & Publishers' Devices in England & Scotland 1485-1640= (London, 1913), p. 144. According to McKerrow, the bird in this handsome device, with the word "wick" in its bill, is probably a smew, with a pun intended on the name of the owner of the device, Smethwick.

[33] For these notes I am indebted to an excellent article, "The library of Robert Burton," ed. F. Madan, p. 185 especially, in the =Oxford Bibliographical Society= volume listed above.

[34] No. 240 in McKerrow, =Printers' Devices=, p. 92. "Framed device of a lion pa.s.sant crowned and collared, a mullet for difference, on an anchor; with =Desir n'a repos=, and the date 1586."

[35] =A Dictionary of Printers and Booksellers=, ed. R. B. McKerrow (London, 1910), p. 151.

[36] Ibid., p. 199.

[37] Arber, =A Transcript=, IV, 149.

[38] Contributing to the unattractive appearance of the Bodleian copy of =Mirrha=, which Grosart consulted, is the close cropping of its upper margins.

[39] =The poems of William Barksted=, ed. Grosart (Manchester, 1876), p.

x.

[40] Barksted, p. xiv.

[41] Henry Plomer, =A Short History of English Printing= (London, 1900), p. 163.

[42] The Oxford and Folger copies, of which only the first is listed in the STC. There is a third, imperfect copy at Trinity College, Cambridge, from the Edward Capell collection. According to Mr. L.W.

Hanson, Keeper of Printed Books at the Bodleian, the tipping of the type in the Bodleian copy represents a fault at binding.

[43] Though the printer's name is not given, the printer's device, a fleur-de-lis, no. 251 in McKerrow, was used by Okes about this time.

[44] Grosart, p. xiii, n. 17, stanza 20, line 7, which has "adoration[e]" in both the original and Grosart's "corrected" version, and p. xiii, n. 19, stanza 41, line 6, "graces" in both copies.

[45] The printer was Thomas Creede, as revealed by the printer's device, no. 299 in McKerrow, p. 117: "Framed device of Truth being scourged by a hand from the clouds. Between her feet the initials T.

C. The motto Viressit vulnere veritas."

[46] The presence of these dedicatory verses in the Huntington copy has been noted by Franklin Williams in his =Index of Dedications and Commendatory Verses= (London, 1962), p. 193.

[47] The Folger copy, here reproduced, is complete except for Sig. L4 (pp. 235-236), which have been supplied from another copy.

[48] This error goes back to the first entry in =A Catalogue of the Library of Henry Huth= (London, 1880), which says the second edition is the same as the first.

[49] The first word of the next stanza is changed from "And" in the 1613 edition to "Then" in the second impression.

[50] Rather surprisingly, in view of its silent emulation of Marlowe's poem, =Philos and Licia= pays lavish tribute to Sidney. But since tributes to Sidney were common in the period, this one may be no more than a conventional recognition of his greatness.

[51] Occasionally, though, it introduces odd off-rhymes such as "forth" and "mouth" (p. 5), "vaines" and "streames" (p. 6), "either"

and "fairer" (p. 8).

A PLEASANT AND DELIGHTFVLL POEME OF two Louers, PHILOS and _LICIA_.

LONDON

Printed by _W. S._ for _Iohn Smethwick_, and are to bee sold at his Shop in Saint _Dunstanes_ Church-yard in Fleete-streete, vnder the Dyall.

1624.

To the Reader

_Gentlemen; hauing beene (with the ouerthrow giuen to my best opposed forces) violently taken with the ouerflowing delights of hart-rauis.h.i.+ng Poesie, the common infection of easie youth, and commending manie idle houres to these papers, and these to the Presse, I commit both to your fauorable censures. In which, if there be any thing (yet I feare I am not to attend so high a blisfulnesse) which may yeeld you the least content, my fortune hath brought forth the intended end of my labours, and I desire no other happinesse._

PHILOS AND LICIA.

No sooner had the Sun chas'd night away, And that the Worlds discouerer, bright-eyd day, Poasting in triumph through the enameld skie, Had to the people showne this victorie, But that poore _Philos_ (in himselfe forlorne) Hasted to tell his Loue that it was morne.

The milke-white path that leadeth vnto _Ioue_, Whereon the G.o.ds continually doe moue, Compar'd with that, which leadeth to her bed, Was not so white, nor so enameled.

A paire of milke-white staires, whiter than white, Was the next way vnto his chiefe delight: Vp those he mounted; and as by he paste, Vpon a wall were sundry stories plaste: Sweet weeping _Venus_, crying out amaine For the dear boy that by the bore was slaine: Skie-ruling _Ioue_ lamenting ore a Cow, That seemd to weepe with him the sweetest _Io_: And there the picture of proud _Phaeton_, Mounting the chariot of the burning Sun, Was portraied, by which _Apollo_ stood, Who seemd to check his hot sonnes youthful blood: One hand had holde, and one legge was aduanst, To climbe his longing seat; but yet it chanst, That warned by his father so, he staid A while, to heare whose teeres might well perswade; Which with such plenty answerd his desires, As though they striu'd to quench ensuing fires: Hanging so liuely on the painted wall, That standers by haue sought to make them fall.

The chamber, where his hearts delight did lie, Was all behung with richest Tapistrie; Where Troies orethrow was wrought, & therwithall The G.o.ddesses dissent about the ball.

Bloud-quaffing _Hector_ all in compleat steele, Coping _Achilles_ in the Troian feeld, Redoubling so his sterne stroaks on his head, That great _Achilles_ left the field, and fled; Which was so liuely by the Painter done, That one would sweare the very cloth did runne.

Trecherous _Vlysses_ bringing in that horse, Which proued a fatall coffin for Troies corse.

False-hearted _Synon_ groueling on the mire, Whose oily words prou'd fewell to Troies fire.

Flint-brested _Pyrrhus_ with an iron mace Murdring the remnants of great _Priams_ race.