The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland (1753) - Theophilus Cibber
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The chief merit of this poem, no doubt, consists in that surprising
vein of fabulous invention, which runs through it, and enriches it
every where with imagery and descriptions, more than we meet with in
any other modern poem. The author seems to be possessed of a kind of
poetical magic, and the figures he calls up to our view rise so
thick upon us, that we are at once pleased and distracted with the
exhaustless variety of them; so that his faults may in a manner be
imputed to his excellencies. His abundance betrays him into excess,
and his judgment is over-born by the torrent of his imagination. That
which seems the most liable to exception in this work is the model of
it, and the choice the author has made of so romantic a story. The
several books rather appear like so many several poems, than one
entire fable. Each of them has its peculiar knight, and is independent
of the rest; and tho' some of the persons make their appearance in
different books, yet this has very little effect in concealing them.
Prince Arthur is indeed the principal person, and has therefore a
share given him in every legend; but his part is not considerable
enough in any one of them. He appears and vanishes again like a
spirit, and we lose sight of him too soon to consider him as the hero
of the poem. These are the most obvious defects in the fable of the
Fairy Queen. The want of unity in the story makes it difficult for the
reader to carry it in his mind, and distracts too much his attention
to the several parts of it; and indeed the whole frame of it would
appear monstrous, were it to be examined by the rules of epic poetry,
as they have been drawn from the practice of Homer and Virgil; but as
it is plain, the author never designed it by these rules, I think it
ought rather to be called a poem of a particular kind, describing in a
series of allegorical adventures, or episodes, the most noted virtues
and vices. To compare it therefore with the models of antiquity, would
be like drawing a parallel between the Roman and Gothic architecture.
In the first, there is doubtless a more natural grandeur and
simplicity; in the latter, we find great mixtures of beauty and
barbarism, yet assisted by the invention of a variety of inferior
ornaments; and tho' the former is more majestic in the whole, the
latter may be very surprizing and agreeable in its parts.
[Footnote 1: Hughes's Life of Spencer, prefixed to the edition of our
author's works.]
[Footnote 2: Hughes ubi supra,]
[Footnote 3: Winst. p. 88.]
[Footnote 4: Dublin]
[Footnote 5: The General of the English army in Ireland.]
* * * * *
JASPER HEYWOOD,
the son of the celebrated epigramatist, was born in London, and in the
12th year of his age, 1517, was sent to the University, where he was
educated in grammar and logic. In 1553 he took a degree in Arts, and
was immediately elected Probationer fellow of Merton College, where he
gained a superiority over all his fellow students in disputations at
the public school. Wood informs us, that upon a third admonition, from
the warden and society of that house, he resigned his fellowship, to
prevent expulsion, on the 4th of April, 1558; he had been guilty of
several misdemeanors, such as are peculiar to youth, wildness and
rakishness, which in those days it seems were very severely punished.
Soon after this he quitted England, and entered himself into the
society of Jesus at St. Omer's [1]; but before he left his native
country, he writ and translated (says Wood), these things following.
Various Poems and Devices; some of which are printed in a book called
the Paradise of Dainty Devices, 1574, 4to.
Hercules Furens, a Tragedy, which some have imputed to Seneca, and
others have denied to be his, but it is thought by most learned men to
be an imitation of that play of Euripides, which bears the same name,
and tho, in contrivance and economy, they differ in some things, yet
in others they agree, and Scaliger scruples not to prefer the Latin to
the Greek Tragedy [2].
Troas, a Tragedy of Seneca's, which the learned Farnaby, and Daniel
Heinsius very much commend; the former stiling it a divine tragedy,
the other preferring it to one of the same name by Euripides, both in
language and contrivance, but especially he says it far exceeds it in
the chorus. In this tragedy the author has taken the liberty of adding
several things, and altering others, as thinking the play imperfect:
First as to the additions, he has at the end of the chorus after
the first act, added threescore verses of his own invention: In the
beginning of the second act he has added a whole scene, where he
introduces the ghost of Achilles rising from hell, to require the
sacrifice of Polyxena! to the chorus of this act he added three
stanza's. As to his alterations, instead of translating the chorus
of the third act, which is wholly taken up with the names of foreign
countries, the translation of which without notes he thought would
be tiresome to the English reader, he has substituted in its stead
another chorus of his own invention. This tragedy runs in verses of
fourteen syllables, and for the most part his chorus is writ in verse
of ten syllables, which is called heroic.
Thyestes, another tragedy of Seneca's, which in the judgment of
Hiensius, is not inferior to any other of his dramatic pieces. Our
author translated this play when he was at Oxford; it is wrote in
the same manner of verse as the other, only the chorus is written in
alternate rhime. The translator has added a scene at the end of the
fifth act, spoken by Thyestes alone; in which he bewails his misery,
and implores Heaven's vengeance on Atreus. These plays are printed in
a black letter in 4to. 1581.
Langbain observes, that tho' he cannot much commend the version of
Heywood, as poetically elegant, as he has chosen a measure of fourteen
syllables, which ever sounds harsh to the ears of those that are used
to heroic poetry, yet, says he, I must do the author this justice, to
acquaint the world, that he endeavours to give Seneca's sense, and
likewise to imitate his verse, changing his measure, as often as his
author, the chorus of each act being different from the act itself, as
the reader may observe, by comparing the English copy with the Latin
original.
After our author had spent two years in the study of divinity amongst
the priests, he was sent to Diling in Switzerland, where he continued
about seventeen years, in explaining and discussing controverted
questions, among those he called Heretics, in which time, for his zeal
for the holy mother, he was promoted to the degree of Dr. of Divinity,
and of the Four Vows. At length pope Gregory XIII. calling him away
in 1581, he sent him, with others, the same year into the mission of
England, and the rather because the brethren there told his holiness,
that the harvest was great, and the labourers few [3]. Being settled
then in the metropolis of his own country, and esteemed the chief
provincial of the Jesuits in England, it was taken notice of, that
he affected more the exterior shew of a lord, than the humility of a
priest, keeping as grand an equipage, as money could then furnish him
with. Dr. Fuller says, that our author was executed in the reign of
Queen Elizabeth; but Sir Richard Baker tells us, that he was one of
the chief of those 70 priests that were taken in the year 1585; and
when some of them were condemned, and the rest in danger of the law,
her Majesty caused them all to be shipp'd away, and sent out of
England. Upon Heywood's being taken and committed to prison, and the
earl of Warwick thereupon ready to relieve his necessity, he made a
copy of verses, mentioned by Sir John Harrington, concluding with
these two;
----Thanks to that lord, that wills me good;
For I want all things, saving hay and wood.
He afterwards went to Rome, and at last settled in the city of Naples,
where he became familiarly known to that zealous Roman Catholick, John
Pitceus, who speaks of him with great respect.
It is unknown what he wrote or published after he became a Jesuit. It
is said that he was a great critic in the Hebrew language, and that he
digested an easy and short method, (reduced into tables) for novices
to learn that language, which Wood supposes was a compendium of a
Hebrew grammar. Our author paid the common debt of nature at Naples,
1598, and was buried in the college of Jesuits there.
[Footnote 1: Langb. Lives of the Poets, p. 249.]
[Footnote 2: Langb. ubi supra.]
[Footnote 3: Athen. Oxon.]
* * * * *
JOHN LILLY,
A writer who flourished in the reign of Queen Elizabeth; he was a
Kentish man, and in his younger years educated at St. Mary Magdalen
College in Oxon, where in the year 1575 he took his degree of Master
of Arts. He was, says Langbaine, a very close student, and much
addicted to poetry; a proof of which he has given to the world, in
those plays which he has bequeathed to posterity, and which in that
age were well esteemed, both by the court, and by the university. He
was one of the first writers, continues Langbain, who in those
days attempted to reform the language, and purge it from obsolete
expressions. Mr. Blount, a gentleman who has made himself known to the
world, by several pieces of his own writing (as Horae Subsecivae, his
Microcosmography, &c.) and who published six of these plays, in his
title page stiles him, the only rare poet of that time, the witty,
comical, facetiously quick, and unparallell'd John Lilly. Mr. Blount
further says, 'That he sat 'at Apollo's table; that Apollo gave him a
wreath of his own bays without snatching; and that the Lyre he played
on, had no borrowed strings:' He mentions a romance of our author's
writing, called Euphues; our nation, says he, are in his debt, for a
new English which he taught them; Euphues, and his England began first
that language, and all our ladies were then his scholars, and that
beauty in court who could not read Euphism, was as little regarded,
as she who now speaks not French. This extraordinary Romance I
acknowledge I have not read, so cannot from myself give it a
character, but I have some reason to believe, that it was a miserable
performance, from the authority of the author of the British Theatre,
who in his preface thus speaks of it; "This Romance, says he, so
fashionable for its wit; so famous in the court of Queen Elizabeth,
and is said to have introduced so remarkable a change in our language,
I have seen and read. It is an unnatural affected jargon, in which the
perpetual use of metaphors, allusions, allegories, and analogies,
is to pass for wit, and stiff bombast for language; and with this
nonsense the court of Queen Elizabeth (whose times afforded better
models for stile and composition, than almost any since) became
miserably infected, and greatly help'd to let in all the vile pedantry
of language in the two following reigns; so much mischief the most
ridiculous instrument may do, when he proposes to improve on the
simplicity of nature."
Mr. Lilly has writ the following dramatic pieces;
Alexander and Campaspe, a tragical comedy; play'd before the Queen's
Majesty on twelfth-night, by her Majesty's children, and the children
of St. Paul's, and afterwards at the Black Fryars; printed in 12mo.
London, 1632. The story of Alexander's bestowing Campaspe, in the
enamoured Apelles, is related by Pliny in his Natural History. Lib.
xxxv. L. x.
Endymion, a Comedy, presented before Queen Elizabeth, by the children
of her Majesty's chaple, printed in 12mo. 1632. The story of
Endymion's being beloved by the moon, with comments upon it, may be
met with in most of the Mythologists. See Lucian's Dialogues, between
Venus and the Moon. Mr. Gambauld has writ a romance called Endymion,
translated into English, 8vo. 1639.
Galathea, a Comedy, played before the Queen at Greenwich on New year's
day, at night, by the children of St. Paul's, printed in 12mo. London,
1632. In the characters of Galathea and Philidia, the poet has copied
the story of Iphis and Ianthe, which the reader may find at large in
the ninth book of Ovid's Metamorphosis.
Maid's Metamorphosis, a Comedy, acted by the children of St. Paul's,
printed in 12mo. 1632.
Mydas, a Comedy, played before the Queen on Twelfth-night, printed
in 12mo. London, 1632. For the story, see the xith book of Ovid's
Metamorphosis.
Sappho and Phaon, a Comedy, played before the queen on Shrove-Tuesday,
by the children of Paul's, and afterwards at Black-Fryars, printed
in Twelves, London 1632. This story the reader may learn from Ovid's
Epistles, of Sappho to Phaon, Ep. 21.
Woman in the Moon, presented before the Queen, London 1667. Six of
these plays, viz. Alexander and Campaspe, Endymion, Galathea and
Mydas, Sappho and Phaon, with Mother Bombie, a Comedy, by the
same author, are printed together under the title of the Six
Court-Comedies, 12mo, London 1632, and dedicated by Mr. Blount, to the
lord viscount Lumly of Waterford; the other two are printed singly
in Quarto.----He also wrote Loves Metamorphosis, a courtly pastoral,
printed 1601.
* * * * *
Sir THOMAS OVERBURY
Was son of Nicholas Overbury, Esq; of Burton in Gloucestershire, one
of the Judges of the Marches[1]. He was born with very bright parts,
and gave early discoveries of a rising genius. In 1595, the 14th year
of his age, he became a gentleman commoner in Queen's-College in
Oxford, and in 1598, as a 'squire's son, he took the degree of
batchelor of arts; he removed from thence to the Middle-Temple, in
order to study the municipal law, but did not long remain there[2].
His genius, which was of a sprightly kind, could not bear the
confinement of a student, or the drudgery of reading law; he abandoned
it therefore, and travelled into France, where he so improved himself
in polite accomplishments, that when he returned he was looked upon as
one of the most finished gentlemen about court.
Soon after his arrival in England, he contracted an intimacy, which
afterwards grew into friendship with Sir Robert Carre, a Scotch
gentleman, a favourite with king James, and afterwards earl of
Somerset. Such was the warmth of friendship in which these two
gentlemen lived, that they were inseparable. Carre could enter into no
scheme, nor pursue any measures, without the advice and concurrence of
Overbury, nor could Overbury enjoy any felicity but in the company of
him he loved; their friendship was the subject of court-conversation,
and their genius seemed so much alike, that it was reasonable to
suppose no breach could ever be produced between them; but such it
seems is the power of woman, such the influence of beauty, that even
the sacred ties of friendship are broke asunder by the magic energy of
these superior charms. Carre fell in love with lady Frances Howard,
daughter to the Earl of Suffolk, and lately divorced from the Earl
of Essex[3]. He communicated his passion to his friend, who was too
penetrating not to know that no man could live with much comfort, with
a woman of the Countess's stamp, of whose morals he had a bad opinion;
he insinuated to Carre some suspicions, and those well founded,
against her honour; he dissuaded him with all the warmth of the
sincerest friendship, to desist from a match that would involve him in
misery, and not to suffer his passion for her beauty to have so much
sway over him, as to make him sacrifice his peace to its indulgence.
Carre, who was desperately in love, forgetting the ties of honour as
well as friendship, communicated to the lady, what Overbury had said
of her, and they who have read the heart of woman, will be at no loss
to conceive what reception she gave that unwelcome report. She knew,
that Carre was immoderately attached to Overbury, that he was directed
by his Council in all things, and devoted to his interest.
Earth has no curse like love to hatred turn'd,
Nor Hell a fury like a woman scorn'd.
This was literally verified in the case of the countess; she let loose
all the rage of which she was capable against him, and as she panted
for the consummation of the match between Carre and her, she so
influenced the Viscount, that he began to conceive a hatred likewise
to Overbury; and while he was thus subdued by the charms of a wicked
woman, he seemed to change his nature, and from the gentle, easy,
accessible, good-natured man he formerly appeared, he degenerated into
the sullen, vindictive, and implacable. One thing with respect to the
countess ought not to be omitted. She was wife of the famous Earl of
Essex, who afterwards headed the army of the parliament against the
King, and to whom the imputation of impotence was laid. The Countess,
in order to procure a divorce from her husband, gave it out that tho'
she had been for some time in a married state, she was yet a virgin,
and which it seems sat very uneasy upon her. To prove this, a jury of
matrons were to examine her and give their opinion, whether she was,
or was not a Virgin: This scrutiny the Countess did not care to
undergo, and therefore entreated the favour that she might enter
masked to save her blushes; this was granted her, and she took care
to have a young Lady provided, of much the same size and exterior
appearance, who personated her, and the jury asserted her to be
an unviolated Virgin. This precaution in the Countess, no doubt,
diminishes her character, and is a circumstance not favourable to her
honour; for if her husband had been really impotent as she pretended,
she needed not have been afraid of the search; and it proves that she
either injured her husband, by falsely aspersing him, or that she had
violated her honour with other men. But which ever of these causes
prevailed, had the Countess been wise enough, she had no occasion to
fear the consequences of a scrutiny; for if I am rightly informed, a
jury of old women can no more judge accurately whether a woman has
yielded her virginity, than they can by examining a dead body, know
of what distemper the deceased died; but be that as it may, the whole
affair is unfavourable to her modesty; it shews her a woman of
irregular passions, which poor Sir Thomas Overbury dearly
experienced; for even after the Countess was happy in the embraces
of the Earl of Somerset, she could not forbear the persecution of him;
she procured that Sir Thomas should be nominated by the King to go
ambassador to Russia, a destination she knew would displease him, it
being then no better than a kind of honourable grave; she likewise
excited Earl Somerset to seem again his friend, and to advise him
strongly to refuse the embassy, and at the fame time insinuate, that
if he should, it would only be lying a few weeks in the Tower, which to
a man well provided in all the necessaries, as well as comforts of
Life, had no great terror in it. This expedient Sir Thomas embraced,
and absolutely refused to go abroad; upon which, on the twenty-first
of April 1613, he was sent prisoner to the Tower, and put under the
care of Sir Gervis Yelvis, then lord lieutenant. The Countess being so
far successful, began now to conceive great hopes of compleating her
scheme of assassination, and drew over the Earl of Somerset her
husband, to her party, and he who a few years before, had obtained
the honour of knighthood for Overbury, was now so enraged against
him, that he coincided in taking measures to murder his friend. Sir
Gervis Yelvis, who obtained the lieutenancy by Somerset's interest,
was a creature devoted to his pleasure. He was a needy man, totally
destitute of any principles of honour, and was easily prevailed upon
to forward a scheme for destroying poor Overbury by poison.
Accordingly they consulted with one Mrs. Turner, the first inventer
(says Winstanley of that horrid garb of yellow ruffs and cuffs, and in
which garb he was afterwards hanged) who having acquaintance with
one James Franklin, a man who it seems was admirably fitted to be
a Cut-throat, agreed with him to provide that which would not kill
presently, but cause one to languish away by degrees. The lieutenant
being engaged in the conspiracy, admits one Weston, Mrs. Turner's
man, who under pretence of waiting on Sir Thomas, was to do the
horrid deed. The plot being thus formed, and success promising
so fair, Franklin buys various poisons, White Arsenick,
Mercury-Sublimate, Cantharides, Red-Mercury, with three or four
other deadly ingredients, which he delivered to Weston, with
instructions how to use them; who put them into his broth and meat,
increasing and diminishing their strength according as he saw him
affected; besides these, the Countess sent him by way of present,
poisoned tarts and jellies: but Overbury being of a strong
constitution, held long out against their influence: his body broke
out in blotches and blains, which occasioned the report industriously
propagated by Somerset, of his having died of the French Disease. At
last they produced his death by the application of a poisoned
clyster, by which he next day in painful agonies expired. Thus
(says Winstanley) "by the malice of a woman that worthy Knight was
murthered, who yet still lives in that witty poem of his, entitled, A
Wife, as is well expressed by the verses under his picture."
A man's best fortune or his worst's a wife,
Yet I, that knew no marriage, peace nor strife
Live by a good one, by a bad one lost my life.
Of all crimes which the heart of man conceives, as none is so enormous
as murder, so it more frequently meets punishment in this life than
any other. This barbarous assassination was soon revealed; for
notwithstanding what the conspirators had given out, suspicions ran
high that Sir Thomas was poisoned; upon which Weston was strictly
examined by Lord Cook, who before his lordship persisted in denying
the same; but the Bishop of London afterwards conversing with him,
pressing the thing home to his conscience, and opening all the terrors
of another life to his mind, he was moved to confess the whole. He
related how Mrs. Turner and the Countess became acquainted, and
discovered all those who were any way concerned in it; upon which they
were all apprehended, and some sent to Newgate, and others to the
Tower. Having thus confessed, and being convicted according to due
course of law, he was hanged at Tyburn, after him Mrs. Turner, after
her Franklin, then Sir Gervis Yelvis, being found guilty on their
several arraignments, were executed; some of them died penitent. The
Earl and the Countess were both condemned, but notwithstanding their
guilt being greater than any of the other criminals, the King, to the
astonishment of all his subjects, forgave them, but they were both
forbid to appear at court.
There was something strangely unaccountable in the behaviour of
Somerset after condemnation. When he was asked what he thought of
his condition, and if he was preparing to die, he answered, that he
thought not of it at all, for he was sure the King durst not command
him to be executed. This ridiculous boasting and bidding defiance to
his majesty's power, was construed by some in a very odd manner; and
there were not wanting those who asserted, that Somerset was privy
to a secret of the King's, which if it had been revealed, would have
produced the strangest consternation in the kingdom that ever was
known, and drawn down infamy upon his majesty for ever; but as nothing
can be ascertained concerning it, it might seem unfair to impute to
this silly Prince more faults than he perhaps committed: It is certain
he was the slave of his favourites, and not the most shocking crime
in them, it seems, could entirely alienate his affections, and it is
doubtful whether the saving of Somerset or the execution of Raleigh
reflects most disgrace upon his reign. Some have said, that the body
of Sir Thomas Overbury was thrown into an obscure pit; but Wood, says
it appears from the Tower registers, that it was interred in the
chapel; which seems more probable. There is an epitaph which
Winstanley has preserved, written by our author upon himself, which I
shall here insert, as it serves to illustrate his versification.
The span of my days measured here I rest,
That is, my body; but my soul, his guest
Is hence ascended, whither, neither time,
Nor faith, nor hope, but only love can climb,
Where being new enlightened, she doth know
The truth, of all men argue of below:
Only this dust, doth here in pawn remain,
That when the world dissolves, she come again.
The works of Overbury besides his Wife, which is reckoned the wittiest
and most finished of all, are, first Characters, or witty descriptions
of the prophesies of sundry persons. This piece has relation to some
characters of his own time, which can afford little satisfaction to a
modern reader.
Second, The Remedy of Love in two parts, a poem 1620, Octavo, 2s.
Third, Observations in his Travels, on the State. of the seventeen
Provinces, as they stood anno 1609.
Fourth, Observations on the Provinces united, and the state of France,
printed London 1631.