With swelling pride and scornful insolency, Come, see these vices punished in me!" &c. (From "Raleigh's Caveat to secure Courtiers;" following the above in the same MS.; thirty-eight stanzas of six lines each.) IV. ANSWERS TO "THE LIE;" CHIEFLY SUCH AS CONNECT RALEIGH WITH THAT POEM. 1. Go, echo of the mind, a careless truth protest; What reason proves, confess; what slander saith, deny : Let no untruth with triumph pass; but never give the lie! Confess, in glittering court all are not gold that shine; Yet say one pearl and much fine gold g[1]ows in the prince's mind. Confess that many [weeds] do overgrow the ground; Yet say, within the field of God good corn is to be found. Confess, some judge unjust the widow's right delay; Yet say there are some Samuels that never say her nay. Admit, some man of state do pitch his thoughts too high; Is that a rule for all the rest, their loyal hearts to try? Your wits are in the wane; your autumn in the bud; You argue from particulars; your reason is not good. And still that men may see less reason to commend you, I marvel most, amongst the rest, how schools and arts offend you. But why pursue I thus the witless words of wind? The more the crab doth seek to creep, the more she is behind. In church and commonwealth, in court and country both, What! nothing good? but all [s]o bad that every man doth loathe ? The further that you range, your error is the wider; The bee sometimes doth honey suck, but sure you are a spider! And so my counsel is, for that you want a name, To seek some corner in the dark to hide yourself from shame. There wrap the silly fly within your spiteful web; Both church and court may want you well; they are not at such ebb. As quarrels once begun are not so quickly ended, So many faults may soon be found, but not so soon amended. And when you come again to give the world the lie, I pray you tell them how to live, and teach them how to die. (Chetham MS. 8012, p. 107, each line as two. First printed by me, partially in 1842, and at length in 1845.) 2. The Answer to the Lie. Court's scorn, state's disgracing, potentates' scoff, governments' defacing, Princes' touch, church's unhallowing, arts' injury, virtue's debasing, Age's monster, honour's wasting, beauty's blemish, favour's blasting, Wit's excrement, wisdom's vomit, physic's scorn, law's comet, Fortune's child, valour's defiler, justice' revenger, friendship's beguiler, Such is the song, such is the author; worthy to be rewarded with a halter. Erroris Responsio. Court's commender, state's maintainer, potentate's defender, governments' gainer, Princes' praiser, church's preacher, arts' raiser, virtue's teacher, Age's rewarder, honour's strengthener, beauty's guarder, favour's lengthener, Wit's admirer, wisdom's scholar, physic's desirer, law's follower, Fortune's blamer, nature's observer, justice' proclaimer, friendship's preserver; Such is the author, such is the song; returning the halter, contemning the wrong. SR. WA. RA. (MS. Ashm. 781, p. 164. Printed from that MS. among Raleigh's own poems in the Oxford edition of his works, viii. 735.) 3. Extract from another Contemporary St. 2. "The Court bath settled sureness In banishing such boldness; The Church retains her pureness, Though Atheists show their coldness: St. 3. "The Potentates reply, Thou base, by them advanced, And at their actions glanced: They, for this thankless part, Turn lies into thy heart," &c. (MS. Tann. 306, fol. 188; written stanza by stanza at the side of a copy of the original poem.) V. THE REACTION AFTER HIS DEATH. 1. "O hadst thou served thy Heroine all thy days! The valiant subject, but a coward king." I have taken one ("Phoenix Britannicus," 1732, p. 453; Oldys' "Life of Raleigh," p. clxxxv., slightly altered. word from Oldys' copy.) 2. "I will not weep; for 'twere as great a sin An actor in thy death. Thy life and age With whom thou tugg'st and strov'st even out of breath And then, despite of trains and cruel wit, Thou didst at once subdue malice and it. "I dare not then so blast thy memory Thy most industrious and friendly foes, Who, when they thought to make thee scandal's story, Which, but for them, nature and age had done. "Such worthless things as these were only born Thou diedst an envious wonder, whose high fate (From Bishop Henry King's "Poems, Elegies, Paradoxes, and Sonnets," 1657, p. 97, as "An Elegy upon S. W. R." Also in Oldys, p. ccxxxi.) 3. "Great heart, who taught thee thus to die, Where took'st thou leave of life? If here, Pale Death; Life only in thine eye. a (Printed in Shirley's "Life of Raleigh," ad fin., as taste of the poetry of those times." It occurs in MS. Rawl. Misc. 699, p. 35, along with the preceding elegy; also among the Hawthornden MSS. vol. viii. as by "A. B.," and was printed from this last copy by Mr. Laing, "Arch. Scot." iv. 238.) APPENDIX B. ALPHABETICAL LIST OF POEMS WHICH HAVE BEEN ASCRIBED TO SIR W. RALEIGH 1. RE women fair? aye, wondrous fair to see too.". Included among "Poems supposed to be written by Sir W. Raleigh," in the Lee Priory ed. of Davison's "Poetical Rhapsody," vol. ii. p. 89, on no evidence but the signature "Ignoto." Title, "An Invective against Women." An anonymous copy in the Percy folio; see Furnivall's edit. vol. iii. p. 364. 2. "As at noon Dulcina rested."-Given to Raleigh in Ellis's "Specimens," edit. 1801 (not retained in edit. 1811). Thence Cayley and Brydges, and the Oxford editors. No evidence whatever. An anonymous copy in the Percy folio; see Furnivall's edit. vol. iv. p. 32. 3. "Come, gentle herdman, sit by me."-Among Ra leigh's poems in Lee Priory ed. of Davison's "Poetical Rhapsody" (as above), vol. ii. p. 92. No evidence but the signature" Ignoto." Title, Eclogue." 4. "Come, live with me and be my dear."-E. H., p. 216, as a second reply to Marlowe's song (see this vol. p. 10). It is headed, "Another of the same nature made since," and signed "Ignoto." Hence claimed for Raleigh by Ellis, Cayley, Brydges, and the Oxford editors. 5." Corydon, arise, my Corydon."-E. H., p. 73, signed Ignoto." Hence claimed for Raleigh by Brydges and the Oxford editors. There is an anonymous copy in the "CrownGarland of Golden Roses," 1612, p. 63, repr. 6. "Court's commender, state's maintainer."-A defence of "The Lie" in the Ashm. MSS.; claimed for Raleigh by the Oxford editors. (See it in this vol. above, p. xxvii.) 7. "Court's scorn, state's disgracing."-The attack to which the above is a reply. Printed among Raleigh's poems by the Oxford editors. (See it in this vol. above, p. xxvii.) |