The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland (1753) - Theophilus Cibber
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Thus fell Sir Walter Raleigh in the 66th year of his age, a sacrifice
to a contemptible administration, and the resentment of a mean prince:
A man of so great abilities, that neither that nor the preceding reign
produced his equal. His character was a combination of almost every
eminent quality; he was the soldier, statesmen, and scholar united,
and had he lived with the heroes of antiquity, he would have made a
just parallel to Caesar, and Xenophon, like them being equal master of
the sword and the pen. One circumstance must not be omitted, which in
a life so full of action as his, is somewhat extraordinary, viz.
that whether he was on board his ships upon important and arduous
expeditions, busy in court transactions, or pursuing schemes of
pleasure, he never failed to dedicate at least four hours every day
to study, by which he became so much master of all knowledge, and was
enabled, as a poet beautifully expresses it, to enrich the world with
his prison-hours[13]. As the sentence of Raleigh blackens but his
King, so his memory will be ever dear to the lovers of learning, and
of their country: and tho' he makes not a very great figure as a poet,
having business of greater importance continually upon his hands; yet
it would have been an unpardonable negligence to omit him, as he does
honour to the list, and deserves all the encomiums an honest mind can
give, or the most masterly pen bestow; and it were to be wished some
man of eminent talents, whose genius is turned to biography, (of such
at present we are not destitute) would undertake the life of this
hero, and by mixing pleasing and natural reflexions with the
incidents, as they occur, not a little instruct and delight his
countrymen; as Raleigh's life is the amplest field for such an attempt
to succeed in.
His works are,
Orders to be observed by the commanders of the fleets and land
companies, under the conduct of Sir Walter Raleigh, bound for the
South parts of America, given at Plymouth 3d May 1617.
The Dutiful Advice of a Loving Son to his Aged Father.
A Brief Relation of Sir Walter Raleigh's Troubles; with the taking
away the lands and castle of Sherburn from him and his heirs, which
were granted to the Earl of Bristol.
Maxims of State.
The Prerogatives of Parliament.
The Cabinet Council; containing the Arts of Empires and Mysteries of
State.
A Discourse touching a Marriage between Prince Henry of England, and a
Daughter of Savoy.
A Discourse touching a War with Spain, and of the Protesting the
Netherlands.
A Discourse of the original and Fundamental Cause of natural,
arbitrary, necessary, and unnatural War.
A Discourse of the inventions of Ships, Anchors, and Compass,
Observations concerning the Royal Navy, and Sea service. To Prince
Henry.
Observations touching Trade and Commerce with the Hollanders and other
Nations.
A Voyage for the Discovery of Guiana.
An Apology for the Voyage to Guiana.
A Letter to Lord Carew touching Guiana.
An Introduction to a Breviary of the History of England; with the
Reign of William the Conqueror.
The Seat of Government.
Observations on the Causes of the Magnificence and Opulence of Cities.
The Sceptic.
Instructions to his Son.
Letters.
Poems.
I shall give a specimen of Sir Walter's poetry in a piece called the
Vision of the Fairy Queen.
Methought I sawe the grave where Laura lay;
Within that temple, where the vestal flame;
Was wont to burne: and passing by that way,
To see that buried dust of living fame,
Whose tombe fair love, and fairer virtue kept,
All suddenly I sawe the Fairy Queene:
At whose approach the soul of Petrarche wept
And from henceforth, those Graces were not scene;
For they this queen attended; in whose steede
Oblivion laid him down in Laura's hearse:
Hereat the hardest stones were seen to bleed.
And grones of buried ghosts the Heavens did perse;
Where Homer's spright did tremble all for 'griefe,
And curst th' accesse of that celestial thief.
But the most extraordinary work of Sir Walter's is his History of the
World, composed in the Tower; it has never been without its admirers;
and I shall close the account of our author's works, by the
observation of the ingenious author of the Rambler upon this
history, in a paper in which he treats of English Historians, No.
122.--"Raleigh (says he) is deservedly celebrated for the labour of
his researches, and the elegance of his stile; but he has endeavoured
to exert his judgment more than his genius, to select facts, rather
than adorn them. He has produced a historical dissertation, but has
seldom risen to the majesty of history."
[Footnote 1: Prince's Worthies of Devon.]
[Footnote 2: Camdeni Annales Elizabethae, p. 172. Edit. Batav. 1625.]
[Footnote 3: Hooker, fol. 167.]
[Footnote 4: Case's History of Ireland, fol. 367.]
[Footnote 5: Captain Haynes's Report of Sir Humphry Gilbert's voyage
to Newfoundland, vol. iii. p. 149.]
[Footnote 6: Oldys, fol. 125.]
[Footnote 7: Birch's life of Raleigh.]
[Footnote 8: Letter of Rowland White, Esq; to Sir Robert Sidney,
November 5, 1597.]
[Footnote 9: Oldys, fol. 167.]
[Footnote 10: Oldys, fol. 157.]
[Footnote 11: Raleigh's remains, vol. ii. p. 188.]
[Footnote 12: Letter to his lady from Caliana, November 14, 1617.]
[Footnote 13: Thompson.]
* * * * *
DR. JOHN DONNE
An eminent poet, and divine of the last century, was born in London
in the year 1573. His father was a merchant, descended from a very
ancient family in Wales, and his mother from Sir Thomas More,
Chancellor of England. He was educated in his father's house under a
tutor till the 11th year of his age[1], when he was sent to Oxford; at
which time it was observed of him, as of the famous Pica Mirandula,
that he was rather born wise than made so by study. He was admitted
commoner of Harthall, together with his younger brother, in Michaelmas
term 1584.[2] By advice of his relations, who were Roman Catholics, he
declined taking the oath tendered upon the occasion of taking degrees.
After he had studied three years at the University, he removed to
Cambridge, and from thence three years after to Lincoln's-Inn. About
this time his father died, and left him a portion of 3000L. He became
soon distinguished at Lincoln's-Inn, by his rapid progress in the law.
He was now eighteen years of age, and as yet had attached himself to
no particular denomination of Christians, and as his relations
were bigotted to the Romish faith, he was induced to examine the
controversy, and to embrace publickly that which appeared to him to be
best supported by the authority of the scriptures. He relinquished
the study of the law, and devoted himself entirely to that of the
controverted points between the Protestants and Catholics, which ended
in a thorough conviction of the truths of the reformed religion.
In the years 1596 and 1597 Mr. Donne attended the Earl of Essex in
his expeditions against Cadiz and the Azores Islands, and stayed some
years in Italy and Spain, and soon after his return to England he was
made secretary to lord chancellor Egerton. This probably was intended
by his lordship only as an introduction to a more dignified place; for
he frequently expressed a high opinion of his secretary's abilities;
and when he afterwards, by the sollicitation of his lady, parted with
him, he observed that he was fitter to be a secretary to a Monarch
than to him. When he was in the lord chancellor's family, he married
privately without the consent of her father, the daughter of Sir
George More, chancellor of the Garter, and lord lieutenant of the
Tower, who so much resented his daughter's marriage without
his consent, that he procured our author's dismission from the
chancellor's service, and got him committed to prison. Sir George's
daughter lived in the lord chancellor's family, and was niece to his
lady. Upon Sir George's hearing that his daughter had engaged her
heart to Donne, he removed her to his own house in Surry, and friends
on both sides endeavoured to weaken their affection for each other,
but without success; for having exchanged the most sacred promises,
they found means to consummate a private marriage. Our author was not
long in obtaining his liberty, but was obliged to be at the expence
of a tedious law-suit to recover the possession of his wife, who was
forcibly detained from him. At length our poet's extraordinary merit
and winning behaviour so far subdued Sir George's resentment, that he
used his interest with the Chancellor to have his son-in-law restored
to his place; But this request was refused; his lordship observing,
that he did not chuse to discharge and re-admit servants at the
request of his passionate petitioners. Sir George had been so far
reconciled to his daughter and son, as not to deny his paternal
blessing, but would contribute nothing towards their support, Mr.
Donne's fortune being greatly diminished by the expence of travels,
law-suits, and the generosity of his temper; however his wants were in
a great measure prevented by the seasonable bounty of their kinsman
Sir Francis Wooley, who entertained them several years at his house at
Pilford in Surry, where our author had several children born to
him. During his residence at Pilford he applied himself with great
diligence and success to the study of the civil and canon law, and was
about this time sollicited by Dr. Morton, (afterwards lord bishop of
Durham) to go into holy Orders, and accept of a Benefice the Doctor
would have resigned to him; but he thought proper to refuse this
obliging offer. He lived with Sir Francis till that gentleman's death,
by whose mediation a perfect reconciliation was effected between Mr.
Donne and his father-in-law; who obliged himself to pay our author
800L. at a certain day as his wife's portion, or 20L. quarterly for
their maintenance, till it was all paid.
He was incorporated master of arts in the university of Oxford, having
before taken the same degree at Cambridge 1610.
About two years after the reconciliation with his father, he was
prevailed upon with much difficulty to accompany Sir Robert Drury to
Paris[3] Mrs. Donne, being then big with child and in a languishing
state of health, strongly opposed his departure, telling him, that
her divining soul boaded some ill in his absence; bur Sir Robert's
importunity was not to be resisted, and he at last consented to go
with him. Mr. Walton gives an account of a vision Mr. Donne had seen
after their arrival there, which he says was told him by a person of
honour, who had a great intimacy with Mr. Donne; and as it has in it
something curious enough, I shall here present it to the reader in
that author's own words[4]
"Two days after their arrival there, Mr. Donne was left alone in that
room in which Sir Robert and he and some other friends had dined
together. To this place Sir Robert returned within half an hour; and
as he left so he found Mr. Donne alone, but in such an extasy, and so
altered as to his looks, as amazed Sir Robert to behold him; insomuch
that he earnestly desired Mr. Donne to declare what had befallen him
in the short time of his absence; to which he was not able to make a
present answer, but after a long and perplexed pause did at last say:
I have seen a dreadful vision since I saw you; I have seen my wife
pass twice by me through this room with her hair hanging about her
shoulders, and a dead child in her arms. To which Sir Robert replied,
sure Sir, you have slept since you saw me, and this is the result of
some melancholy dream, which I desire you to forget, for you are now
awake. To which Mr. Donne's reply was, I cannot be surer that I now
live, than that I have not slept since I saw you; and am as sure
that at her second appearing she stopt and looked me in the face and
vanished." Rest and sleep had not altered Mr. Donne's opinion next
day, for then he confirmed his vision with so deliberate a confidence,
that he inclined Sir Robert to a faint belief that the vision was
true. It is an observation, that desire and doubt have no rest, for
he immediately sent a servant to Drury-House, with a charge to hasten
back and bring him word "whether Mrs. Donne was dead or alive, and if
alive in what condition she was as to her health." The twelfth day the
messenger returned with this account; "that he found and left Mrs.
Donne very sad and sick in her bed; and that after a long and
dangerous labour she had been delivered of a dead child, and upon
examination the birth proved, to be on the same day, and about
the very hour Mr. Donne affirmed he saw her pass by him in his
chamber."----After Donne's return from France, many of the nobility
pressed the King to confer some secular employment upon him; but his
Majesty, who considered him as better qualified for the service of
the church than the state, rejected their requests, tho' the Earl of
Somerset, then the great favourite, joined in petitioning for his
preferment. About this time the disputes concerning the oaths of
allegiance and supremacy being agitated, Mr. Donne by his Majesty's
special command, wrote a treatise on that subject, entitled, Pseudo
Martyr, printed in 4to, 1610, with which his Majesty was highly
pleased, and being firmly resolved to promote him in the church,
he pressed him to enter into holy orders, but he being resolved to
qualify himself the better for the sacred office by studying divinity,
and the learned languages deferred his entering upon it three years
longer, during which time he made a vigorous application to these
branches of knowledge, and was then ordained both deacon and priest,
by Dr. John King, then bishop of London. Presently after he was
appointed one of the chaplains in ordinary to his Majesty, and about
the same time attending the King in a progress, he was created Dr.
in divinity, by the university of Cambridge, by the particular
recommendation of that Prince[5] His abilities and industry in his
profession were so eminent, and himself so well beloved, that within
the first year of his entering into holy orders, he had the offer of
fourteen benefices from persons of quality, but as they lay in the
country, his inclination of living in London, made him refuse them
all. Upon his return from Cambridge his wife died, and his grief for
her loss was so great, that for some time he betook himself to a
retired and solitary life: Mrs. Donne died in the year 1617, on the
seventh day after the birth of her twelfth child. She left our author
in a narrow unsettled state with seven children then living, to her he
gave a voluntary assurance, that he would never bring them under the
subjection of a step-mother, and this promise he faithfully kept. Soon
after the death of his wife, he was chosen preacher of Lincoln's-Inn,
and in the year 1619 appointed by King James to attend the earl of
Doncaster, in his embassy to the Princes of Germany, and about 14
months after his return to England, he was advanced to the deanery of
St. Paul's. Upon the vacancy of the deanery, the King sent an order to
Dr. Donne, to attend him the next day at dinner: When his Majesty sat
down, he said, "Dr. Donne, I have invited you to dinner, and though
you sit not down with me, yet I will carve to you of a dish that I
know you love well; for knowing you love London, I do therefore make
you dean of St. Paul's, and when I have dined, then do you take your
beloved dish home to your study, say grace there to your self, and
much good may it do you[6]." Soon after, another vicarage of St.
Dunstan in the West, and another benefice fell to Dr. Donne. 'Till the
59th year of his age he continued in perfect health, when being with
his eldest daughter in Essex, in 1630, he was taken ill of a fever,
which brought on a consumption; notwithstanding which he returned
to London, and preached in his turn at court as usual, on the first
friday in Lent. He died on the 31st day of March 1631, and was buried
in the cathedral church of St. Paul's, where a monument was erected
over him. Walton says that amongst other preparations for death, he
made use of this very remarkable one. He ordered an urn to be cut in
wood, on which was to be placed a board of the exact heighth of his
body: this being done, he caused himself to be tied up in a winding
sheet in the same manner that dead bodies are. Being thus shrouded,
and standing with his eyes shut, and with just so much of the sheet
put aside, as might discover his thin, pale, and death-like face,
he caused a skilful painter to draw his picture. This piece being
finished, was placed near his bed-side, and there remained as his
constant remembrance to the hour of his death.
His character as a preacher and a poet are sufficiently seen in his
incomparable writings. His personal qualifications were as eminent as
those of his mind; he was by nature exceeding passionate, but was apt
to be sorry for the excesses of it, and like most other passionate
men, was humane and benevolent. His monument was composed of white
marble, and carved from the picture just now mentioned of him, by
order of his executor Dr. King, bishop of Chichester, who wrote the
following inscription,
Johannes Donne, S.T.P.
Post varia studia, quibus ab annis tenerimus fideliter,
Neo infeliciter, incubit,
Instinctu et impulsu spiritus sancti, monitu et horatu,
Regis Jacobi, ordines sacros amplexus,
Anno sui Jesu 1614, et fuae aetatis 42,
Decanatu hujus ecclesiae indutus 27 Novembris 1621,
Exutus morte ultimo die Martii 1631.
Hic, licet in occiduo cinere, aspicit eum,
Cujus nomen est oriens.
Our author's poems consist of, 1. Songs and Sonnets. 2. Epigrams. 3.
Elegies. 4. Epithalamiums, or Marriage Songs. 5. Satires. 6. Letters
to several Personages. 7. Funeral Elegies. 8. Holy Sonnets. They
are printed together in one volume 12mo. 1719, with the addition
of elegies upon the author by several persons. Mr. Dryden in his
dedication of Juvenal to the earl of Dorset, has given Dr. Donne the
character of the greatest wit, though not the greatest poet of our
nation, and wishes his satires and other works were rendered into
modern language. Part of this wish the world has seen happily executed
by the great hand of Mr. Pope. Besides the Pseudo-Martyr, and volume
of poems now mentioned, there are extant the following works of Dr.
Donne, viz.
Devotions upon emergent Occasions, and several steps in sickness, 4to.
London 16. Paradoxes, Problems, Essays, Characters, &c. to which is
added a Book of Epigrams, written in Latin by the same author, and
translated into English by Dr. Main, as also Ignatius his conclave, a
Satire, translated out of the original copy written in Latin by the
same author, found lately amongst his own papers, 12mo. London 1653.
These pieces are dedicated by the author's son, Dr. John Donne, to
Francis Lord Newport.
Three Volumes of Sermons, in folio; the first printed in 1640, the
second in 1649, and the third in 1660.
Essays on Divinity, being several disquisitions interwoven with
meditations and prayers before he went into holy orders, published
after his death by his son, 1651.
Letters to several persons of honour, published in 4to. 1654. There
are several of Dr. Donne's letters, and others to him from the Queen
of Bohemia, the earl of Carlisle, archbishop Abbot, and Ben Johnson,
printed in a book, entitled A Collection of Letters made by Sir Toby
Mathews Knt. London 1660, 8vo.
The Ancient history of the Septuagint, translated from the Greek
of Aristeus, London 1633, 4to. This translation was revised, and
corrected by another hand, and printed 1685 in 8vo.
Declaration of that Paradox or Thesis, that Self-Homicide is not so
naturally a sin that it may not be otherwise, London, 1644, 1648, &c.
4to. The original under the author's own hand is preserved in the
Bodleian Library. Mr. Walton gives this piece the character of an
exact and laborious treatise, 'wherein all the laws violated by that
act (self murder) are diligently surveyed and judiciously censured.'
The piece from whence I shall take the following quotation, is called
a Hymn to God the Father, was composed in the time of his sickness,
which breathes a spirit of fervent piety, though no great force of
poetry is discoverable in it.
A HYMN to GOD the FATHER.
Wilt thou forgive that sin where I begun,
Which was my sin, tho' it were done before?
Wilt thou forgive that sin through which I run,
And do run still, tho' still I do deplore?
When thou hast done, thou hast not done,
For I have more.
Wilt thou forgive that in which I have won,
Others to sin, and made my sin their door?
Wilt thou forgive that sin, which I did shun,
A year or two, but wallowed in a score?
When thou hast done, thou hast not done,
For I have more.
I have a sin of fear, when I have spun,
My last thread, I shall perish on the shore;
But swear, that at my death, thy son,
Shall shine, as he shines now, and heretofore,
And having done that, thou hast done,
I ask no more.
[Footnote 1: Walton's Life of Donne]
[Footnote 2: Wood vol. v. col. 554.]
[Footnote 3: Walton p. 29].
[Footnote 4: Life ubi supra p. 52].
[Footnote 5: Walton, p. 39, 41.]
[Footnote 6: Walton ut Supra, p. 46]
* * * * *
MICHAEL DRAYTON
A Renowned poet, who lived in the reigns of Elizabeth, James and
Charles I. sprung from an ancient family, originally descended from
the town of Drayton in Leicestershire,[1] but his parents removing
into Warwickshire, he was born there, as he himself declares in his
Poly-olbion, Song 13. A little village called Harsul in that county
claims the honour of his birth, by which accident it is raised from
obscurity; he was born in the year 1573, according to the most
accurate computation that can be made from the dates of his works.
When he was but very young he gave such discoveries of a rising genius
as rendered him a favourite with his tutors, and procured him the
patronage of persons of distinction. In the year 1573, being then but
about ten years of age, he was page to some honourable person, as may
be collected from his own words: In some of his epistles to Henry
Reynold esquire, it appears that even then he could construe his Cato,
and some other little collections of sentences, which made him very
anxious to know, what sort of beings the poets were, and very pressing
upon his tutor to make him, if possible, a poet. In consequence of
this he was put to the reading of Virgil's Eclogues, and 'till even
then, says one of his Biographers, he scorned any thing that looked
like a ballad, though written by Elderton himself. This Elderton was a
famous comedian in those days, and a facetious companion, who having
a great readiness at rhiming, composed many catches on Love and Wine,
which were then in great vogue among the giddy and volatile part of
the town; but he was not more celebrated for drollery than drinking,
so that he obtained the name of the bacchanalian buffoon, the
red-nosed ballad-maker, &c. and at last by the excessive indulgence of
his favourite vice, he fell a martyr to it 1592, and Mr. Camden has
preserved this epitaph on him, which for its humour, I shall here give
a place.
Dead drunk, here Elderton does lie;
Dead as he is, he still is drie.
So of him it may well be said,
Here he, but not his thirst, is laid.
If after this our author did not finish his education at the
university of Cambridge, it is evident from the testimony of Sir Alton
Cohain, his intimate friend, who mentions him in his Choice Poems of
several Sorts, that he was for some time a student at Oxford; however,
he is not taken notice of by Wood, who has commemorated the most part
of the writers who were educated there. In 1588 it appears from his
poem, entitled Moses his Birth and Miracles, that he was a spectator
at Dover of the Spanish invasion, which was arrogantly stiled
Invincible, and it is not improbable that he was engaged in some
military employment there, especially as we find some mention made
of him, as being in esteem with the gentlemen of the army. He early
addicted himself to the amusement of poetry, but all who have written
of him, have been negligent in informing us how soon he favoured the
public with any production of his own. He was distinguished as a poet
about nine or ten years before the death of Queen Elizabeth, but at
what time he began to publish cannot be ascertained. In the year 1593,
when he was but 30 years of age, he published a collection of his
Pastorals; likewise some of the most grave poems, and such as have
transmitted his name to posterity with honour, not long after saw the
light. His Baron's wars, and England's heroical Epistles; his Downfals
of Robert of Normandy; Matilda and Gaveston, for which last he is
called by one of his contemporaries, Tragdiographus, and part of his
Polyolbion were written before the year 1598, for all which joined
with his personal good character; he was highly celebrated at that
time, not only for the elegance and sweetness of his expressions, but
his actions and manners, which were uniformly virtuous and honourable;
he was thus characterised not only by the poet; and florid writers of
those days, but also by divines, historians, and other Scholars of the
most serious turn and extensive learning. In his younger years he
was much beloved and patronized by Sir Walter Aston of Tixhall
in Staffordshire, to whom for his kind protection, he gratefully
dedicates many of his poems, whereof his Barons Wars was the first, in
the spring of his acquaintance, as Drayton himself expresses it;
but however, it may be gathered from his works, that his most early
dependance was upon another patron, namely, Sir Henry Goodere of
Polesworth, in his own county, to whom he has been grateful for a
great part of his education, and by whom he was recommended to the
patronage of the countess of Bedford: it is no less plain from many
of his dedications to Sir Walter Ashton, that he was for many years
supported by him, and accommodated with such supplies as afforded him
leisure to finish some of his most elaborate compositions; and the
author of the Biographia Britannica has told us, 'that it has been
alledged, that he was by the interest of the same gentleman with Sir
Roger Ashton, one of the Bedchamber to King James in his minority,
made in some measure ministerial to an intercourse of correspondence
between the young King of of Scots and Queen Elizabeth:' but as
no authority is produced to prove this, it is probably without
foundation, as poets have seldom inclination, activity or steadiness
to manage any state affairs, particularly a point of so delicate a
nature.