Pastoral Poetry & Pastoral Drama Part 42

[68] So, at least, Theophilo Braga interprets what he calls 'o drama amoroso das Eclogas,' in his monograph on _Bernardim Ribeiro e o bucolismo_. Porto, 1897.

[69] Ticknor is responsible for an unfortunate error, and much consequent confusion, respecting this date. Some one had cited an imaginary edition of 1545. Of this Ticknor confessed ignorance, but stated that he had in his possession a copy consisting of 112 quarto leaves, printed at Valencia in 1542. This description applies exactly to the earliest edition extant in the British Museum, except in the matter of the date. There can be no doubt that this is a mistake. The date 1542 is intrinsically impossible.

Fitzmaurice-Kelly, who himself dates the work 1558-9, points out that one of the songs refers to events which took place in 1554. The sudden crop of reprints, dated 1561 and 1562, proves the _Diana_ to have been then a new book, and inclines me to place the actual publication somewhat after the date suggested by Kelly. I may mention that Ticknor is also in error over the date of Ribeiro's work, which he a.s.signs to 1557.

[70] See the collection of Latin student songs, _Gaudeamus! Carmina uagorum selecta in usum laet.i.tiae_, Leipzig, 1879, p. 124.

[71] The novels alluded to will be found in the _Ecatommiti_, I. i, _Cent Nouvelles nouvelles_, No. 82, and _Novelle de' Novizi_, No. 12.

[72] _Knight of the Burning Pestle_, II. viii. (Dyce, ii. p. 172), and _The Pilgrim_, IV. ii. (Dyce, viii. p. 66).

[73] B. M., Roxburghe, III. 160, also II. 30.

[74] References are best given to F. J. Child's monumental collection, in five volumes, where all variants are printed. _Cowdenknows_ and the _Bonny May_ are No. 217; _The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter_ 110, the _Bonny Ilynd_ 50, _Child Waters_ 63, _The Laird of Drum_ 236, _Lizie Lindsay_ 226, _Lizie Baillie_ 227, _Glasgow Peggie_ 228, and _Johnie Faa_ 200. No doubt further examples might be collected.

[75] Similar shepherd-scenes are found not only in French but even in Italian miracle plays. The tendency they indicate, however, is not traceable in later pastoral, as it is with us. That such representations as those of the Sienese 'Rozzi' formed no exception to this general statement I shall have to show later.

[76] For the literary history of the Wakefield cycle, see A. W. Pollard's admirable introduction to the edition published by the Early English Text Society.

[77] They also criticize the angels' singing in curiously technical language.

[78] Towneley Plays, XII. l. 377, &c., and l. 386, &c., cf. Vergil, _Bucolics_, IV. 6.

[79] It is perhaps necessary to define the above use of 'idealization' as that modification of photographie reality observable in all true art. It is only when the methods of art have become self-conscious that realism can become an end in itself.

[80] _An English Garner_: Fifteenth Century Prose and Verse, ed. A. W.

Pollard, 1903, p. 87. The carol is from a MS. at Balliol College.

[81] The poem will be found in Arber's edition of the 'Miscellany,' p.

138, and in A. H. Bullen's reprint of _England's Helicon_, p. 56. In dealing with isolated poems I have quoted, wherever possible, from Bullen's reprints of the song books, &c.

[82] Forst = cared for.

[83] It first appeared as 'The Ploughman's Song' in the 'Entertainment at Elvetham' in 1591. This has been recently claimed for Lyly. Without expressing any opinion in this place as to the likelihood of such an ascription for the bulk of the piece, it may be remarked that the song in question is as like the rest of Breton's work in style as it is unlike anything to be found in Lyly's writings.

[84] Of all pedestrian, not to say reptilian, metres, this is perhaps the most intolerable; indeed, it was not until touched to new life by the genius of Blake that it deserved to be called a metre at all.

[85] See R. B. McKerrow's articles on the Elizabethan 'cla.s.sical metres' in the _Modern Language Quarterly_ for December, 1901, and April, 1902, iv.

p. 172, and v. p. 6.

[86] Eclogues i-iv were printed by Pynson, and the fifth by Wynkyn de Worde early in the century; i-iii were twice reprinted about 1550. Barclay died in 1552.

[87] Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini, afterwards Pope Pius II. I suppose that it is on account of this statement of Barclay's that English critics have constantly referred to the work as pastoral. It is nothing but a prose invective against court life.

[88] See Dyce's _Skelton_, Introduction, p. x.x.xvi.

[89] 'Eglogs Epytaphes, and Sonettes. Newly written by Barnabe Googe: 1563. 15. Marche.' Reprinted by Professer Arber from the Huth copy.

[90] The t.i.tle of the collection as originally published is obviously ambiguous--is Shepheardes' to be considered as singular or plural? There is a tendency among modern critics to evade the difficulty in such cases by quoting t.i.tles in the original spelling. I confess that this practice seems to me both clumsy and pedantic. In the present case there can be little doubt that the t.i.tle of Spenser's work was suggested by the _Calender of Shepherds_. On the other hand, I think it is likewise clear that the poet, in adopting it, was thinking particularly of Colin Clout--that he intended, that is, to call his poems 'the calender of the shepherd' (see first line of postscript), rather than 'the calender for shepherds.' I have therefore adopted the singular form. 'Calender' is, I think, a defensible spelling.

[91] The alternative view, which would make Spenser his own commentator, is not without supporters both in Germany and in this country. Even were the question, however, one of greater importance from our point of view, the 'proofs' so far adduced do not const.i.tute sufficient of an _a priori_ case to justify discussion here.

[92] _Anglia_, iii. p. 266, and ix. p. 205.

[93] At the end of the _Calender_ Spenser placed as his motto 'Merce non mercede'--as merchandise, not for reward.

[94] On all questions relating to the _Shepherd's Calender_ see C. H.

Herford's edition, to which I gratefully acknowledge my indebtedness. So far as I am aware, we possess no more admirable edition of any monument of English literature.

[95] Cf. the t.i.tles of Drayton's _Idea_ and Ba.s.se's MS. eclogues, _infra_.

[96] _Discoveries_, 1640 (-41), p. 116 (Gifford, 1875; -- cxxv). The 'ancients,' as appears from the context, are Chaucer and Gower.

[97] _Apology for Poetry_, 1595; Arber's edition, p. 63.

[98] Even Sidney's authorities break down to some extent. Theocritus certainly modified the literary dialect in his pastoral idyls, and we may recall that when Vergil began his third eclogue with the line--

Die mihi, Damoeta, cuium pecus? an Meliboei?

a wit of Rome retorted:

Die mihi, Damoeta, 'cuium pecus?' anne Latinum?

Or again it may be asked whether Lorenzo de' Medici is not as good a name to conjure by as Jacopo Sannazzaro.

[99] Some of the eclogues are mucn more p.r.o.nouncedly dialectal than others, but even within the limits of a single one, literary and dialectal forms may often be found used indiscriminately. See Herford's remarks on the subject.

[100] 'February,' l. 33, &c. Lines 35-6 contain one of the few direct reminiscences of Chaucer. Cf. _House of Fame_, II. 1225-6. Spenser repeated the imitation, _Faery Queen_, VI. ix. 43-5, and was followed by Fletcher, _Faithful Shepherdess_, V. v. 183-4.

[101] _Pastime of Pleasure_, x.x.xv. 6, from the edition of 1555 (Percy Soc., 1845, p. 113).

[102] In the above instance the rime is sacrificed, and I do not mean that all anomalous lines in Spenser's measure become strict decasyllables when done into ME.; indeed, they do so of course only by accident. My point is that Chaucer's verse as read by the sixteenth-century editors must have often contained just such unmetrical lines as Spenser's. The view I have indicated above is that accepted by W. J. Courthope (_History of English Poetry_, ii. p. 253). Herford, on the other hand, while having recourse to Chancer's influence to explain Spenser's anomalies, regards the metre in question as derived from the old alliterative line. From this view I am reluctantly forced to dissent. The alliterative line may be readily traced in the mystery cycles, and later influenced the verse of the interludes and such comedies as _Royster Doyster_; and this tradition may have affected the verse of the later poets of the school of Lydgate, and even the popular ideas concerning Chaucer's metre. But as to the actual origin of Spenser's four-beat line there can surely be no doubt.

[103] The late A. B. Grosart, in a pa.s.sage which is a masterpiece of literary casuistry _(Spenser_, iii. p. lii.), put forward the truly astounding theory that the discussions on the evils of the clergy and similar subjects, put into the mouths of shepherds in the _Calender_ and elsewhere, are 'in nicest keeping with character.' Such a theory ignores the essence of the question, for, even supposing that shepherds had done nothing else but discuss the corruption of the Curia since there was a Curia to be corrupted, it is still utterly beside the mark. Apart from his own observation of ecclesiastical manners, Spenser's compositions have for their sole origin the similar discussions of the humanistic eclogues, while these in their turn did but cast the individual opinions of their authors into a conventional mould inherited from the cla.s.sical poets.

Thus, so far as actual shepherds are connected with Spenser's eclogues at all, they belong to an age when the Curia and all its sins were happily unknown.

[104] The MS. is now in the library of Caius College, Cambridge, and is contained in the volume numbered 595 in the catalogue. It is ent.i.tled _Poimenologia_. The dedication to William James, Dean of Christ Church, fixes the date as between 1584 and 1596. Dove became Master of Arts in 1586, and since he does not describe himself as such, the translation probably belongs to an earlier date. I am indebted for knowledge of and information concerning this MS. to the kindness of Prof. Moore Smith, and of Dr. J. S. Reid, Librarian of Caius College.

[105] Winstanley (_Lives of the English Poets_, 1687, p. 196) ascribes it to Sir Richard Fanshawe; but he was no doubt confusing it with the Latin version of the _Faithful Shepherdess_.

[106] _Faery Queen_, VII. vi. 349, &c.

[107] Somewhat similar episodes occur both in the _Orlando_ and the _Gerusalemme_, to the imitation of which, indeed, certain pa.s.sages in Spenser can be directly referred.

[108] See A. H. Bullen's edition, two vols., 1890-91. The poems in question will be fonnd in vol. i, pp. 48, 58, 63 and 76.

[109] It is worth noting that in the last stanza all the early editions read 'Thenot' instead of 'Wrenock'; Thenot being the corresponding character in Spenser.

[110] Perhaps Anne Goodere: but the question is alien to our present discussion. Some of the allusions in the eclogues are obvious, and probably all the names, except perhaps the speaker's, conceal real personalities. In the _Muses' Elizium_, on the other hand, most of the names and characters appear to me fict.i.tious. In connexion with the name 'Idea,' in which certain critics have wished to see a deep philosophical meaning, I would suggest that it may be nothing but the feminine of 'Idaeus,' that is, a shepherd of Mount Ida, a name found in the second eclogue of Petrarch. It is, however, true that the word 'idea' bore the meaning of 'an ideal,' in which sense, no doubt, we occasionally find it applied to England.