Part 2 (1/2)

page 423. Amintae Gaudia. Auth.o.r.e Tho. Watsono. Londinensi. Juris studiosi [sic]. 4.'to. 1592 [This unique pencilled annotation seems to be in Joseph Warton's hand.]

[17] [A note to accompany this Sonnet No. VII has been almost completely destroyed by the excision, unique in the notebook, of what was originally folio 17. The mutilated line ends of the note read thus: ”...

nd/ ... on/... omas/... s _Tr._” This note presumably referred to Thomas Watson and cited Section XI of ”A Comparative Discourse of our English Poets,” in Francis Meres's _Palladis Tamia: Wit's Treasury_ (London, 1598, fol. 280), where among those praised for their Latin verse are Christopher Ocland, Thomas Watson, Thomas Campion, Walter Haddon, and ”Thomas Newton with his Leyland.”]

[18] Novemb. 19. [1594, not 1595.] Registr. _Station_. B. fol. 315. a.

[19] There is [a] Sonnet by Spenser, never printed with his works, prefixed to Gabriel Harveys ”Foure Letters, &c. Lond. 1592.” I have much pleasure in drawing this little piece from obscurity, not only as it bears the name of Spenser, but as it is at the same time a natural unaffected effusion of friends.h.i.+p ... [four words illegible]. (See _Observations_ on Spenser's _Fair. Qu._ [II]. [245-247?].)

”_Harvey_, the happy aboue happiest men, I read: that sitting like a looker-on of this worldes stage, doest note with critique pen The sharpe dislikes of each condition; And, as one carelesse of suspition, Ne fawnest for the favour of the great, Ne fearest foolish reprehension of faulty men, which daunger to thee threat; But freely doest, of what thee list, entreat, Like a great lord of peerlesse liberty: Lifting the good vp to high honours seat, And th' euil d.a.m.ning euermore to dy.

For life and death is in thy doomefull writing So thy renowme liues euer by endighting.

_Dublin_ this 18 of July, 1586. _Your devoted Friend during life, Edmund Spencer._”

I avail myself of an opportunity of throwing together a few particulars of the life and writings of this very intimate friend of Spenser, more especially as they will throw general light on the present period. He was born at Saffron-Walden in Ess.e.x, [John] Strype's [_Life of the Learned Sir Thomas] Smith_. [London, 1698] p. 18. He was a fellow of Pembroke-Hall, Spenser's college: and was one of the proctors of the university of Cambridge, in 1583. [Thomas] Fuller's [_History of the University of] Cambridge_, p. 146. [in his] _Ch[urch] Hist[ory of Britain_]. [London, 1655.] Wood says, he was first of Christ's college, and afterwards fellow of Trinity-Hall, _Ath. Oxon._ F[asti, I, col.

755]. But Wood must be mistaken, for in the _Epilogus_ to his _Smithus_, addressed to John Wood Smith's amanuensis, Harvey dates from Pembroke-Hall. _Smithus_, Signat. G. iij. [G4 verso.] [Warton probably did not intend to deny that Harvey was a fellow of Trinity, but evidently felt that Wood was ignorant of the intermediate fellows.h.i.+p at Pembroke.] He was doctorated in jurisprudence at both universities. With his brother Henry, he was much addicted to Astrology. (See supr. [Vol.

IV], p. 23.)

He seems to have been a reader in rhetoric at Cambridge from his _Ciceronia.n.u.s, vel Oratio post reditum habita Cantabrigiae ad suos auditores_. Lond. 1577. 4to. It is dedicated to William Lewin, I suppose of Christ's college. (See Wood, ubi supr.) He published also _Rhetor, vel duorum dierum oratio de natura arte et exercitatione_ rhetorica, Lond. 1577. 4'o. It is dedicated to Bartholomew Clark, the elegant translator of Castilios _Courtier_, who has also prefixed an address to our author's _Rhetor_, dated at Mitcham in Surrey, Cal. Sept. 1577. He published in four books, a set of Latin poems called _Gabrielis Harveii Gratulationum Valdinensium Libri quatuor_, &c. Lond. 1578. 4to. This book he wrote in honour of queen Elisabeth, while she was on a progress at Audley-end in Ess.e.x, ”afterwards presenting the same in print to her Highnesse at the wors.h.i.+pfull Maister Capels in Hertfords.h.i.+re.” _Notes_ to Spenser's _September_. He mentions a most perfect and elegant delineation or engraving of all England, _perartificiose expressa_, procured by his friend M. Saccoford, to which the queen's effigy, _accuratissime depicta_, was prefixed. Lib. i. p. 13. In his character of an accomplished _Maid of Honour_ of the queen's court, some curious qualifications are recited. One of the first, to make her truly amiable, is what he calls _Affectatio_.

She is to understand painting her cheeks, to have a collection of good jokes, to dance, draw, write verses, sing, and play on the lute, and furnish her library with some approved recipt-books. She is to be completely skilled in cosmetics. ”_Deglabret_, lavet, atque ungat, &c.”

Lib. iiii. p. 21. 22. (See supr. ii[i]. [426, n].) Another book of Harvey's Latin poetry is his _Smithus, vel Musarum Lacrymae_, on the death of Seceretary [sic] Sir Thomas Smith, Lond. 1578. 4to. The dedication is to Sir Walter Mildmay. When Smith died, he says, Lord Surrey broke his lyre. _Cant._ v. He wishes on this mournful occasion, that More, Surrey, and Gascoigne, would be silent. _Cant._ vi. Ascham, Carr, Tonge, Bill, Goldwell, Watson, and Wilson, are panegyrised as imitators of Smith. [Nicholas Carr, 1524-1568, was Regius Professor of Greek at Cambridge. William Bill, d. 1561, was Master of Trinity College, Cambridge. Perhaps Tonge is the Barnaby Tonge who matriculated at Christ Church, Cambridge, in 1555. There were two John Goldwell's at Cambridge in Smith's day: one was a fellow at Queen's from 1538 to 1542; the other was named fellow of Trinity in 1546. For Wilson see Warton's discussion earlier in the _History_ (III, 331-344), where this very praise in Harvey's _Smithus_ is quoted.] _Cant._ vii. Signat. D. iij.

See also, Sign. L. i. And C. ij. Wilson, the author of the _Art of Rhetoric_, is again commended. Ibid. Sign. E. ij. Again, Sign. F. i. F.

ij. He thinks it of consequence to remember, that Smith gave a Globe, _mira arte politum_, to Queens College Library at Cambridge. Ibid, Sign.

E. iij. [E4 verso.] He praises Lodovice Dolci's odes, and Ronsard.

_Cant._ ii. Sign. C. i. His iambics are celebrated by his cotemporaries.

See Meres, _Wits Tr._ fol. 280. 282. [283 verso.] (See supr. ii [i].

[401, n].) Nothing can be more uncla.s.sical than Harvey's Latin verse. He is _Hobbinol_ in Spenser's Pastorals. Under that name, he has prefixed two recommendatory poems to the first and second parts of the _Faerie queene_. [There was only one such poem, but in some folio editions it was inadvertently printed twice.] The old annotator on Spenser's Pastorals prefaces his commentary, with an address, dated 1579, ”To the most excellent and learned both oratour and poet master _Gabriel Harvey_, &c.” In the notes to _September_, he is said to have written many pieces, ”partly vnder vnknowne t.i.tles, and partly vnder counterfeit names: as his _Tyrannomastix_, his _old [ode] Natalitia_, his _Rameidos_, and especially that part of _Philomusus_ his divine _Anticosmopolite_, &c.” He appears to have been an object of the petty wits & pamphlet-critics of his times. His chief antagonists were Nash and Greene. In the _Foure Letters_ abovementioned, may be seen many anecdotes of his literary squabbles. To these controversies belong his _Pierces supererogation_, Lond. 1593. Sub-Joined, is a _New Letter of notable contents with a strange sound sonnet called_ Gorgon. To this is sometimes added _An Advertis.e.m.e.nt for Pap-Hatchet_ &c. Nash's _Apology of Pierce Penniless_, printed 1593, is well known. Nash also attacks Harvey, as a fortune-teller & ballad maker, in _Have with you to Saffron-Walden_. Nash also wrote a confutation of Harvey's _Foure Letters_, 1592. [_Strange News, of the Intercepting Certaine Letters_, to which Warton evidently refers, is actually the early t.i.tle of the _Apology_.] I pa.s.s over other pieces of the kind. The origin of the dispute seems to have been, that Nash affirmed Harvey's father to have been a rope-maker at Saffron-Walden. Harvey died, aged about 90, at Saffron Walden, in 1630.

[20] Sonn. xliii.

[21] Sonn. xv.

[22] Except in in [sic] such a pa.s.sage as when he calls this favourite by ”The master-mistress of my pa.s.sion,” _Sonn._ 20. And in a few others, where the expressions literally shew the writer to be a man. [Warton of course wanted to preserve Shakespeare's sonnets from the charge of h.o.m.os.e.xuality. In the eighteenth century the distaste for conceits and an acute sensitivity to the suspicion of h.o.m.os.e.xuality made the _Sonnets_ so unpopular that they were omitted from the editions of Shakespeare by, among others, Rowe, Pope, Theobald, Warburton, Capell, and Johnson.]

[23] The last of these is that which begins, ”O thou, my lovely Boy.”

_Sonn._ 126.

[24] ”When _absent_ from thee”.

[25] _Sonn._ 97.

[26] They were _sweet_ indeed, but they wanted animation; and, in appearance, they were nothing more than beautiful resemblances or copies of you.

[27] _Sonn._ 98.