Pastoral Poetry & Pastoral Drama Part 8

IV

It will be convenient, in dealing with the considerable volume of English pastoral verse which has come down to us from the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, to divide it into two portions, according as it tends to attach itself to orthodox foreign tradition on the one hand, or to the more spontaneous native type on the other. To the former division belong in the main the more ambitious set pieces and eclogue-cycles, to the latter the lighter and more occasional verse, the pastoral ballads and the lyrics. The division is necessarily somewhat arbitrary, for the two traditions act and react on one another incessantly, and the types merge almost imperceptibly the one into the other; but that does not prevent the spirit that manifests itself in Drayton's eclogues being essentially different from that which produced Breton's songs. I shall not, however, try to draw any hard and fast line between the two, but shall rather deal first with those writers whose most important work inclines to the more formal tradition, and shall then endeavour to give some account of the lighter pastoral verse of the time.

After the appearance of the _Shepherd's Calender_ some years elapsed before English poetry again ventured upon the domain of pastoral, at least in any serious composition. In 1589, however, appeared a small quarto volume, with the t.i.tle: 'An Eglogue. Gratulatorie. Ent.i.tuled: To the right honorable, and renowmed Shepheard of Albions Arcadia: Robert Earle of Ess.e.x and Ewe, for his welcome into England from Portugall. Done by George Peele. Maister of arts in Oxon.' Like the 'A. W.' of the _Rhapsody_, Peele followed Spenser more closely than most of his fellow imitators in the use of dialect, but his eclogue on the not particularly glorious return of Ess.e.x has little interest. His importance as a pastoralist lies elsewhere.

The following year the poet of the _Hecatompathia_, Thomas Watson, a pastoralist of note according to the critics of his own age, but whose work in this line is chiefly Latin, published his 'Ecloga in Obitum Honoratissimi Viri, Domini Francisci Walsinghami, Equitis aurati, Divae Elizabethae a secretis, & sanctioribus consiliis,' ent.i.tled _Meliboeus_, and also in the same year a translation of the piece into English. The latter is considerably shorter than the original, but still of tedious length. The usual transition from the dirge to the paean is managed with more than the usual lack of effect. The eclogue contains a good deal beyond its immediate subject; for instance, a lament for Astrophel, a pa.s.sage in praise of Spenser, and a panegyric on

Diana, matchless Queene of Arcadie--

all subjects hardly possible for a poet to escape, writing _more pastorali_ in 1590. Watson also left several other pastoral compositions in the learned tongue, which, from their eponymous hero, won for him the shepherd-name of Amyntas. Thus in 1585 he published a work in Latin hexameter verse with the t.i.tle 'Amyntas Thomae Watsoni Londinensis I. V.

studiosi,' divided into eleven 'Querelae,' which was 'paraphrastically translated' by Abraham Fraunce into English hexameters, and published under the t.i.tle 'The Lamentations of Amyntas for the death of Phillis' in 1587. This translation, 'somewhat altered' to serve as a sequel to an English hexametrical version of Ta.s.so's _Aminta_, was republished in 'The Countesse of Pembrokes Ivychurch' of 1591. Again in 1592 Watson produced another work ent.i.tled _Amintae Gaudia_, part of which was translated under the t.i.tle _An Old-fashioned Love_, and published as by I. T. in 1594.[111]

Next in order--pa.s.sing over Drayton, with whom we have been already sufficiently concerned--is a writer who, without the advantage of original genius or brilliant imagination, succeeded by mere charm of poetic style and love of natural beauty, in lifting his work above the barren level of contemporary pastoral verse. Richard Barnfield's _Affectionate Shepherd_, imitated, as he frankly confesses, from Vergil's _Alexis_, appeared in 1594. Appended to it was a poem similar in tone and spirit, ent.i.tled _The Shepherd's Content_, containing a description of country life and scenery, together with a lamentation for Sidney, a hymn to love, a praise of the poets, and other similar matters. The easy if somewhat monotonous grace which pervades both these pieces is seen to better advantage in the delightful _Shepherd's Ode_, which appeared in his _Cynthia_ of 1595, and begins:

Nights were short and days were long, Blossoms on the hawthorn hong, Philomel, night-music's king, Told the coming of the spring;

or in the yet more perfect song:

As it fell upon a day In the merry month of May, Sitting in a pleasant shade Which a group of myrtles made, Beasts did leap and birds did sing, Trees did grow and plants did spring, Everything did banish moan, Save the nightingale alone; She, poor bird, as all forlorn, Lean'd her breast against a thorn, And there sung the dolefull'st ditty, That to hear it was great pity....

Ah, thought I, thou mourn'st in vain, None takes pity on thy pain.

Senseless trees, they cannot hear thee; Ruthless beasts, they will not cheer thee; King Pandion he is dead, All thy friends are lapp'd in lead[112]; All thy fellow birds do sing, Careless of thy sorrowing; Even so, poor bird, like thee, None alive will pity me[113].

No particular interest attaches to the four eclogues included in Thomas Lodge's _Fig for Momus_, published in 1595, but they serve to throw light on a kind of pastoral freemasonry that was springing up at this period.

Spenser and Sidney, under the names of Colin and Astrophel, or more rarely Philisides, were firmly fixed in poetic tradition; Barnfield, by coupling them with these, made Watson and Drayton free of the craft in his complaint to Love in the _Shepherd's Content_:

By thee great Collin lost his libertie, By thee sweet Astrophel forwent his joy, By thee Amyntas wept incessantly, By thee good Rowland liv'd in great annoy.

Now we find Lodge dedicating his four eclogues respectively to Colin, Menalcus, Rowland, and Daniel. Who Menalcus was is uncertain; not, it would seem, a poet. The themes are serious, even weighty according to the estimation of the author, and befit the mood of the poet who first sought to acclimatize the cla.s.sical satire[114]. These eclogues do not, however, testify to any high poetic gift, any more than do the couple in a lighter vein found in the _Phillis_ of 1593. Lodge was happier in the lyric verses with which he strewed his romances--such for instance as the lines to Phoebe in _Rosalynde_, though these did certainly lay themselves open to parody[115]. In the same romance Lodge rose for once to a perfection of delicate conceit unsurpa.s.sed from his day to ours:

Love in my bosom like a bee Doth suck his sweet; Now with his wings he plays with me, Now with his feet.

Within mine eyes he makes his nest, His bed amidst my tender breast; My kisses are his daily feast, And yet he robs me of my rest.

Ah, wanton, will ye?

The year 1595 also saw the publication of Francis Sabie's _Pan's Pipe_, which contains, according to the not wholly accurate t.i.tle-page, 'Three Pastorall Eglogues, in English Hexameter.' These const.i.tuted the first attempt in English at writing original eclogues in Vergilian metre, and the injudicious experiment has not, I believe, been repeated. The subjects present little novelty of theme, but the treatment ill.u.s.trates the natural tendency of English pastoral writers towards narrative and the influence of the romantic ballad motives. The same volume contains another work of Sabie's, namely, the _Fishermaris Tale_, a blank-verse rendering of Greene's _Pandosto_[116].

The three pastoral elegies of William Ba.s.se, published in 1602, the last work of the kind to appear in Elizabeth's reign, form in reality a short pastoral romance. The court-bred Anander falls in love with the shepherdess Muridella, and charges the sheep-boy Anetor to convey to her the knowledge of his pa.s.sion. His love proving unkind he turns shepherd, and resolves to remain so until his suit obtains better grace. More than half a century later, namely in 1653, Ba.s.se prepared for press a ma.n.u.script containing a series of pastorals headed 'Clio, or The first Muse in 9 Eglogues in honor of 9 vertues,' and arranged according to the days of the week. The whole composition is singularly lacking alike in interest and merit.[117]

It is not surprising to find the eclogues of the early years of James'

reign reflecting current events. In 1603 appeared a curious compilation, the work of Henry Chettle, bearing the t.i.tle: 'Englandes Mourning Garment: Worne here by plaine Shepheardes; in memorie of their sacred Mistresse, Elizabeth, Queene of Vertue while shee lived, and Theame of Sorrow, being dead. To which is added the true manner of her Emperiall Funerall. After which foloweth the Shepheards Spring-Song, for entertainement of King James our most potent Soveraigne. Dedicated to all that loved the deceased Queene, and honor the living King.' The book is a strange medley of verse and prose, elegies on Elizabeth in the form of eclogues, and political lectures written in the style of the pastoral romance. The most interesting pa.s.sage is an address to contemporary poets reproaching them for their neglect of the praises of the late queen. The pastoral names under which they are introduced appear to be merely nonce appellations, but are worth recording as they refer to a set outside the usual pastoral circle. Thus Corin is Chapman; Musaeus, of course Marlowe; English Horace, no doubt Jonson; Melicert, Shakespeare; Coridon, Drayton; Anti-Horace, most likely Dekker, and Moelibee, mentioned with him, possibly Marston. To Musidore, 'Hewres last Musaeus' (no doubt corrupt), and the 'infant muse,'

it is more difficult to a.s.sign an ident.i.ty.[118] Throughout Chettle a.s.sumes to himself Spenser's pastoral t.i.tle.

To the same or the following year belong the twelve eclogues by Edward Fairfax, the translater of Ta.s.so's _Gerusalemme_, which are now for the most part lost. One, the fourth, was printed in 1737 from the original ma.n.u.script, another in 1883 from a later transcript in the Bodleian, while a third is preserved in a fragmentary state in the British Museum.[119]

All three deal chiefly with contemporary affairs, the two former being concerned with the abuses of the church, while the last is a panegyric of the 'present age,' and especially of English maritime adventure. This is certainly the most pleasing of the three, though the style is at times pretentious and over-charged with far-fetched allusions. There are, however, fine pa.s.sages, as for instance the lines on Drake:

And yet some say that from the Ocean maine, He will returne when Arthur comes againe.

More directly concerned with the political events of the day is the curious eclogue ??f??? ????st?fa??? by Sir George Buc, published in 1605, in praise of the Genest crown, the royal right by Apollo's divine decree of a long line of English kings, who are pa.s.sed in review by way of introduction to the praises of their latest representative. The work was revised by an unknown hand for the accession of Charles, and republished under the t.i.tle of _The Great Plantagenet_ in 1635, as by 'Geo. Buck, Gent.' Sir George held the post of Master of the Revels from 1608 to 1622, and died the following year.

In 1607 appeared a poem 'Mirrha the Mother of Adonis,' by William Barksted, to which were appended three eclogues by Lewes Machin.[120] Of these, one describes the love of a shepherd and his nymph, while the other two treat the theme of Apollo and Hyacinth. Composed in easy verse of no particular distinction these poems belong to that borderland between the idyllic and the salacious on which certain shepherd-poets loved to dally.

The years 1614 and 1615 saw the appearance of works of considerably greater interest from every point of view, among others from that of what I have described as pastoral freemasonry. In the former year there appeared a small octavo volume ent.i.tled _The Shepherd's Pipe_. The chief contributor was William Browne of Tavistock, the first book of whose pastoral epic, _Britannia's Pastorals_, had appeared the previous year.

Besides seven eclogues from his pen, the volume contained one by Christopher Brooke, one by Sir John Davies, and two by George Wither.

These last two were republished in 1615, with three additional pieces, in Wither's collection ent.i.tled _The Shepherd's Hunting_. With the exception of one or two of Browne's, these fourteen eclogues all deal with the personal relation of the friends who disguise themselves respectively, Browne as w.i.l.l.y, Wither as Roget (a name later exchanged for that of Philarete), Brooke as Cuddie, and Davies as Wernock. Wither's were written, as we learn from the t.i.tle-page of the 1615 volume, while the author was in prison in the Marshalsea for hunting vice with a pack of satires in full cry, that is, the _Abuses Stript and Whipt_ of 1611. The verse seldom rises above an amiable mediocrity, the best that can be said for it being that it carries on, in a not wholly unworthy manner, the dainty tradition of the octosyllabic couplet between the _Faithful Shepherdess_ and Milton's early poems. Browne's eclogues are chiefly remarkable for the introduction into the first of a long and rather tedious tale derived from a ma.n.u.script of Thomas Occleve's. The last of the series, an elegy on the death of Thomas, son of Sir Peter Manwood, has been quoted as the model of _Lycidas_, but the resemblance begins and ends with the fact that in either case the subject of the poem met his death by drowning--a resemblance which will scarcely support a charge of plagiarism[121].

In 1621 appeared six eclogues under the t.i.tle of _The Shepherd's Tales_ by the prolific miscellaneous writer Richard Brathwaite. Each in its turn recounts the amorous misfortunes of some swain, which usually arise out of the inconstancy of his sweetheart, and the prize of infelicity having been adjudged, the author, not perhaps without a touch of malice, sends the whole company off to a wedding. The _Tales_ are noteworthy for the very p.r.o.nounced dramatic gift they reveal, being in this respect quite unique in their kind. The same year saw the publication of the not very successful expansion of one of these eclogues into the pastoral narrative in verse, ent.i.tled 'Omphale or the Inconstant Shepherdesse.' Brathwaite had already in 1614 published the _Poet's Willow_, containing a 'Pastorall' which recounts the unsuccessful love of Berillus, an Arcadian shepherd, for the nymph Eliza[122].

Pursuing the chronological order we come next to Phineas Fletcher's 'Piscatorie Eclogs' appended to his _Purple Island_ in 1633. Except that the scene is laid on the banks of a river instead of in the pastures, and that the characters spend their time looking after boats and nets instead of tending flocks, they differ in nought from the strictly pastoral compositions. They are seven in number, and deal either with personal subjects or with conventional themes. As an imitation of the _Shepherd's Calender_, without its uncouthness whether of subject or language, and equally without its originality or higher poetic value, the work is not wanting in merit, but it is most decidedly wanting in all power to arrest the reader's attention.

The last collection that will claim our notice is that of Francis Quarles, which appeared posthumously in 1646 under the t.i.tle of 'The Shepheards Oracles: Delivered in Certain Eglogues[123]. The interest of the volume lies not so much in its poetic merit, which however is considerable, as in the fact that it deals with almost every form of religious controversy at a critical point in English history. Quarles was a stanch Anglican, and he lashes Romanists and Precisians with impartial severity. One of the eclogues opens with a panegyric on Gustavus Adolphus, in the midst of which a messenger enters bearing the news of his death, thus fixing the date of the poem in all probability in the winter of 1632-3. In the eleventh and last the Puritan party is mercilessly satirized in the person of Anarchus, in allusion to the supposed socialistic tendency of its teaching. He is thus described in a dialogue between Philarchus and Philorthus (the lovers of order and justice presumably):

_Philor._ How like a Meteor made of zeal and flame The man appears!

_Philar._ Or like a blazing Star Portending change of State, or some sad War, Or death of some good Prince.

_Philor._ He is the trouble Of three sad Kingdoms.

_Philar._ Even the very Bubble, The froth of troubled waters.

_Philor._ Hee's a Page Fill'd with Errata's of the present Age.

_Philar._ The Churches Scourge--

_Philor._ The devils _Enchiridion_--

_Philar._ The Squib, the _Ignis fatuus_ of Religion.

To their address Anarchus replies in a song which it would be easy to ill.u.s.trate from the dramatic literature of the time, and which well indicates the estimation in which the faction was popularly held. Here is one verse:

Wee'l down with all the Varsities, Where Learning is profest, Because they practise and maintain The Language of the Beast: Wee'l drive the Doctors out of doores, And Arts what ere they be, Wee'l cry both Arts, and Learning down, And, hey! then up goe we.

The whole song for sheer rollicking hypocrisy is without parallel in the language. The date of the poem is doubtful, but Quarles lived till 1644, and after two years of civil strife the terms which the interlocutors in the above pa.s.sage apply to the Puritan party can hardly be regarded as prophetic.

Besides the works we have examined above, several others are known to have existed, though they are not now traceable. Thus 'The sweete sobbes, and amorous Complaintes of Shepardes and Nymphes in a fancye confusde by An Munday' was entered on the books of the Stationers' Company on August 19, 1583. Two years earlier, on August 3, 1581, had been entered 'A Shadowe of Sannazar.' Again we know, alike from Wood's _Athenae_ and Meres' _Palladis Tamia_, that Stephen Gosson left works of the kind of which we have now no trace; while Puttenham in his _Art of English Poesy_ mentions an eclogue of his own, addressed to Edward VI, and ent.i.tled _Elpine_. Puttenham and Meres in dealing with pastoral writers also mention one Challener, no doubt the Thomas Chaloner who contributed to the _Mirror for Magistrates_, and Nashe in his preface to _Menaphon_ adds Thomas Atchelow, who may be plausibly identified with the Thomas Ach.e.l.ly who contributed verses to Watson's _Hecatompathia_ and various sententious fragments to _England's Parna.s.sus_, among them a not very happy rendering of those lines of Catullus which might almost be taken as a motto to pastoral poetry as a whole:

The sun doth set, and brings again the day, But when our light is gone, we sleep for aye.

V

It is not easy to arrange the ma.s.s of occasional lyric verse of a pastoral nature in a manner to facilitate a general survey. We may perhaps divide it roughly into general groups which possess certain points in common and can be treated more or less independently. Little would be gained by following a strictly chronological order, even were it possible to do so.

We occasionally meet with translations, though from the nature of the case these, as well as evidences of direct foreign influence, are less prominent here than in the more formal type of pastoral verse. We have already seen that Googe, besides borrowing from Garcilaso's version of a portion of the _Arcadia_, himself paraphrased pa.s.sages of the _Diana_ in his eclogues, and the latter work also supplied material for the pen of Sir Philip Sidney. His debt consists in translations of two songs from Montemayor's romance, printed among his miscellaneous poems[124]. About a dozen translations from the same source appeared in _England's Helicon_, the work of Bartholomew Yong. They are for the most part very inferior to the general average of the collection, but the opening of one at least is worth quoting:

'Guardami las vaccas, Carillo, por tu fe.-- Besami primero, Yo te las guardare.'