Hymns and songs of the church

Introduction

the numerous poets of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, there is scarcely a name more worthy of honour than that of George Wither.

Some writers have, indeed, pronounced Wither a fanatical rhymer and an intemperate Puritan. Such was the judgment of Kitson, Heylin, Dryden, Swift and Pope : all writers of undoubted talent, but whose criticism and taste must have been governed by prejudice. In the " neglected leaves" of Wither, Dr. Southey discerned " felicity of expression ;" " tenderness of feeling;" and " elevation of mind ;" and Sir Egerton Brydges, Mr. Park, Mr. Willmott, and that truly Christian poet and critic, James Montgomery, have all borne testimony to Wither's merits. The cloud which obscured his merits as a poet, arose from his mingling in the political warfare of the turbulent period in which he lived.

Sir Egerton Brydges in his Eestituta has thus given the pedigree of the poet.

" Thomas Wither of the County of Lancaster, Esq. left three sons.

vi INTRODUCTION.

" Robert Wither, third son, came to Manydowne in Hampshire, and there lived, leaving issue.

" Thomas Wither, of Manydowne, who married Joane, daughter and heir of Richard Mason of Lydmonton in Hampshire, and had three sons, John, Thomas, and Richard.

" John, eldest son, of Manydowne who married Ann daughter of — Ayliffe of Skeynes in Hampshire, had three sons, John, Richard and George (which last married Avelyn, daughter of John Shank, and had Gilbert, Thomas, John and Reginald ; and the said Gilbert was father of George, William, Reginald and Henry).

" Richard Wither, second son of John Wither and Ann Ayliffe, was of Manydowne, and married a daughter of William Poynter of Whitchurch in Hampshire, by whom he had four sons, John, George, (father of the poet) Otho and Ferdinando.

" John Wither of Manydowne, eldest son, married Jane, daughter of John Love of Basing in Hampshire, and had five sons, William, Anthony, John, James, and Richard. William, eldest son, was of Manydowne, and married Susan, daughter of Paul Risley of Chetwood in Buckinghamshire, and had issue, John, Paul, and Susan.

" George Wither (second son of Richard Wither by the daughter of — Poynter) had issue three sons, viz. George Wither the poet, James Wither, and Anthony Wither."

In most of Wither's poems something of his private history may be collected. The date of his birth even is better substantiated by his verse than by the baptismal Register. Aubrey and Anthony Wood state

INTE OD UCTION. . vii

that he was born in 1588 : other authors assert that the poet was horn in 1590. His verse settles the question in favour of Wood and Auhrey. In a pamphlet entitled " Salt upon Salt/' written and published in 1658 he writes : —

When I began to know the world and men, I made records of what I found it then, Continuing even since to take good heed How they stood still, went back, or did proceed : Till of my scale of time ascending heaven The round I stand in maketh ten times seven.

" Ten times seven" or seventy years, fixes the date of his birth in 1588.

The poet received his early education in the village of Colemore, under one John Greaves, a schoolmaster of some celebrity. The tutor evidently gained the love of his pupil, for he is noticed in the poet's epigrams in this touching language : —

If ever I do wish I may be rich

(As oft perhaps such idle breath I spend),

I do it not for any thing so much,

As to have wherewithal to pay my friend :

For trust me there is nothing grieves me more

Than this, that I should still much kindness take,

And have a fortune to my mind so poor,

That though I would, amends I cannot make :

Yet to be still as thankful as I may,

(Sith my estate no better means afford)

What I indeed receive, I do repay

In willingness, in thanks, and gentle words.

The father of the poet appears to have enjoyed considerable affluence, for alluding to his juvenile years, Wither, in a poem entitled Britain's Remembrancer, writes :—

When daily I on change of dainties fed, Lodged night by night upon an easy bed, yiii INTRODUCTION.

In lordly chambers, and had wherewithal! Attendants forwarder than I to call, Who brought me all things needful ; when at hand Hounds, hawks, and horses, were at my command, Then choose I did my walks on hills or vallies, In groves, near springs, or in sweet garden allies, Reposing either in a natural shade Or in neat harbours which by hands were made, Where I might have required without denial, The lute, the organ, or deep sounding viol, To cheer my spirits ; with what else beside Was pleasant, when my friends did thus provide Without my cost or labour.

From the village school of Colemore Wither was sent to Magdalen College, Oxford, and it was here that his poetical talents were first developed. Before he left the school of Greaves he had become acquainted with " Lilly's Latin" and " Camden's Greek," but at the University he seems to liave neglected classical learning, and to have devoted his powers to the Muses, until his kind old tutor, " by his good persuasion," again brought him to a love of what he had been taught. Then after Cynthia " had six times lost her borrowed light," he again " drank at Aristotle's well,"

It was while Wither was redevoting his attention to classical studies, and when he had been at Oxford about two years, and was beginning to love a college life, that the change in his father's temporal circumstances seems to have taken place, for he was suddenly removed from the University and taken home " to hold the plough." He alludes thus touchingly to this change in " Abuses Whipt and Stript :" —

But now ensues the worst — I setting foot And thus digesting learning's bitter root,

INTRODUCTION. ix

Ready to taste the fruit ; then when I thought I should a calling in that place have sought, I found that I for other ends ordain'd Was from that course perforce to be constrain'd.

If the plough had a charm for Cincinnatus, not so had it for Wither. According to Aubrey he returned in discontent to " the beechy shadows of Brentworth ;" and his sojourn at home was more embittered by officious friends, who were constantly urging his relations to apprentice him to some trade. But the mind of Wither was not to be cast down. When only eighteen years of age he made his way to London of his own accord, there to seek his fortune. Shortly after his arrival in the metropolis, he entered himself of Lincoln's Inn, where he appears to have formed an acquaintance with the pastoral poet, William Brown, who belonged to the Inner Temple. This seems to have been the turning point in his history. Anthony W^ood says that hanging after things more smooth and delightful than the law, he did at length make himself known to the world by certain specimens of his poetry, which being dispersed in several hands, he became shortly after a public author.

The poetical works of George Wither are numerous. Most of them are of a secular character, but interspersed throughout his writings are beautiful passages indicating the mind of a Christian. There is the fine gold of Christian thought even in " Abuses Stript and Whipt," a satire of the most galling nature ; and in " Prince Henry's Obsequies," " Epithalamia," or " Nuptial Poems," the " Shepherds Hunting," the " Motto," " Fair Virtue," the " Eemembrancer,"

x INTRODUCTION.

and the " Emblems," there are lines on almost every page which reflect a hallowed light over much that is unworthy of a Christian poet.

In his earlier years of authorship Wither appears to have obtained the semblance of court favour. But the favour of courts is proverbially fickle, and so Wither found. His expectations of preferment were not realized, and being unable to procure preferment, he applied himself to watching the vices of the times. These vices were abundant, and in his " Abuses Stript and Whipt" he exposed them unsparingly. Never did satirist write with more thrilling effect, but the chief result of his exertions to mend the public morals was his committal to the Marshalsea prison. What sufferings he there endured he thus describes in the " Scholar's Purgatory:"—

" All my apparent good intentions were so mistaken by the aggravation of some ill affected towards my endeavours, that I was shut up from the society of mankind, and as one unworthy the compassion vouchsafed to thieves and murderers, was neither permitted the use of my pen, the access or sight of acquaintance, the allowances usually afforded other close prisoners, nor means to send for necessaries befitting my present condition : by which means I was for many days compelled to feed on nothing but the coarsest bread, and sometimes locked up fourand-twenty hours together, without so much as a drop of water to cool my tongue : and being at the same time in one of the grossest extremities of dullness that was ever inflicted upon my body, the help both of physician and apothecary was uncivilly denied

INTRODUCTION. . xi

me. So that if God had not, by resolutions of the mind which he infused into me, extraordinarily enabled me to wrestle with those and such other afflictions as I was then exercised withall, I had been dangerously and lastingly overcome. But of these usages I complain not ; he that made me, made me strong enough to despise them."

But Wither did not so quietly endure his incarceration as these last sentences would lead us to suppose. His " Shepherds Hunting" was written in the Marshalsea, which, although it is a pastoral poem of great beauty, yet contains some passages burning with indignation against his persecutors. But his indignation is more clearly seen in a satire which he addressed to King James. In this satire he writes : —

Did I not know a great man's power and might

In spite of innocence can smother right,

Colour his villanies to get esteem,

And make the honest man the villain seem.

I know it, and the world doth know 'tis true,

Yet I protest if such a man I knew,

That might my country prejudice or thee

Were he the greatest or the proudest he,

That breathes this day 5 if so it might be found

That any good to either might redound,

I unappalled, dare in such a case

Rip up his foulest crimes before his face,

Though for my labour I were sure to drop

Into the mouth of ruin without hope.

This Satire was addressed to the King in 1614, and it has been asserted that his liberation from prison was attributable to its influence. It would rather appear from some lines in one of his Emblems, that his release was owing to the friendly interposition of the Earl of Pembroke. He writes that this friend — xii INTRODUCTION.

found such means and place To bring and reconcile me to his grace, That therewithall his majesty bestow'd A gift upon me which his bounty show'd, And had enrich 3d me if what was intended Had not by othersome been ill befriended.

The gift alluded to in these lines was a patent for his Hymns and Songs of the Church. This is the work we lay before our readers, and it may be safely asserted that none of Wither's works possess greater interest.

The King's patent bears date the 17th of February, 1622-3. It reads thus : — " James by the Grace of God. To all and singular printers, booksellers. Whereas, our well beloved subject George Wither, gentleman, by his great industry and diligent study hath gathered and composed a book, entitled Hymns and Songs of the Church, by him faithfully and briefly translated into lyric verse, which said book being esteemed worthy and profitable to be inserted in convenient manner and due place into every English Psalm book in metre. We give and grant mil and free license, power and privilege unto the said George Wither, his executors and assigns, only to imprint or cause to be imprinted, for the term of fifty and one years, &c. Witness our self at Westminster the 17th day of February." Keg. 20—1622-3.

The origin of the privilege granted by King James has thus been explained by Wither : —

" For before I had license to come abroad again into the world, I was forced to pay expenses so far beyond my ability that ere I could be clearly discharged, I was left many pounds worse than nothing, and to enjoy the name of liberty, was cast into a

INTRODUCTION. xiii

greater bondage than before. Wherefore coming abroad again into the world, accompanied thither with those affections which are natural to most men, I was loth (if it might conveniently be prevented) either to sink below my rank, or to live at the mercy of a creditor. And, therefore, having none of those helps, or trades, or shifts which many others have to relieve themselves withall, I humbly petitioned the King's most excellent Majesty (not to be supplied at his, or by any projectment to the oppression of his people) but that according to the laws of Nature, I might enjoy the benefits of my own labours, by virtue of his royal privilege. His Majesty vouchsafed my reasonable request with addition of voluntary favours, beyond my own desire."

But the publication of the Hymns and Songs of the Church brought no profit to their author. The work did not, it is true, like " Abuses Stript and Whipt," have the effect of casting him into the Marshalsea prison, but it not only failed to produce him the profit he so much needed and desired, but it raised against him a powerful body of active and malignant enemies in the Company of Stationers, who considered their own privileges invaded by the patent the King had granted to Wither. The result of the publication of the Hymns and Songs is related in the before mentioned curious prose tract entitled " The Scholar's Purgatory," which Wither issued in 1624. This tract was addressed to Archbishop Abbott and the other bishops of the Convocation, in vindication of the patent. The following copious extract from it is deeply interesting, as relating to the poetical pages of this volume : — xiv I NT ROD UCTION.

" With a good purpose, I began and finished those Hymns and Songs, which make up the book called, the HYMNS AND SONGS OF THE CHURCH. So named, not for that I would have them accounted part of our Liturgy, as I have delivered to his Majesty in my Epistle ; but because they do for the most part treat of such particulars as concern the whole Church of God. And this is that Book, for which his Majesty vouchsafed me the privilege before mentioned, and which he piously and graciously commanded to be annexed to the Singing Psalms, that it might be the more generally and more conveniently divulged among his subjects, for their instruction.

" And indeed, by that means, these poor people, whose pastors suffer them, or cause them to be misinformed concerning that point, shall carry about with them, in their most usual book, what may at one time or other open their understandings, to perceive their error.

" This is that Book, for which I, ever worst used for my best intentions, suffer more than for all my former indiscretions ; and for which I have received those affronts, that may well be ranked among my greatest injuries ; notwithstanding it had besides the ordinary allowance of authority, the particular approbation and commendation both of the King himself,

o

and of many the Members of this most reverend Convocation.

" Yea, this is that Book, for which the Commonwealth of Stationers, a tyranny unheard of in former ages, desire to make me as odious, as if I had employed my whole study to the oppression of this weal public, or to the subversion of religion : and for which

INTE OD UCTION. xv

they have pursued me with such violence and clamour, as hath seldom or never been exampled in any cause.

" Some give out that my Book contains nothing but a few needless Songs ; which I composed, and got privilege by Patent, merely for my private benefit, to the oppression of the Commonwealth.

" Some discourage those that come to buy the Book ; otherwhiles denying that it is to be had ; and otherwhile peremptorily protesting against the selling of it ; or disgracefully telling such as enquire after the same, that the book is ridiculous ; and that it better befitted me to meddle with my Poetry than to be tampering with Divinity ; with such like other words of contempt.

" Other some there be, who dare aver that my Lord's Grace of Canterbury, with many of the Bishops and best Divines, do much dislike and oppose the said HYMNS.

" Others again buzz in the people's ears, that the Hymns for the observable times are Popish, and tending to the maintenance of superstition.

" And some there be among them, who in such terms of ribaldry, as no Stews can go beyond them, blasphemingly affirm, that the CANTICLES are obscene, and not fit to be divulged in song or verse.

" Yea, many other objections they make, and cast out diverse aspersions, as well upon the Author, as on his Book, to bring both into contempt.

* * * *

" To keep myself the closer to that, which shall be pertinent to this apology, I will make these particular objections my themes, which I have repeated:

xvi INTRODUCTION.

nor will I bring any other authorities to make good my defence than the true relations of what hath been done, and such plain arguments as mine own reason shall be able to frame. For, if this discourse come to the view of your Reverences only, you well enough know what the records of antiquity can afford to these purposes. And if it happen among those only of mean capacity, such plain expressions, as I purpose to use, will acquire most credit among them.

" And, first, whereas they give out that my Hymns are needless ; they do not only thereby contemn and slight my pains, but lay imputation upon the wisdom of the Holy Ghost also. For a great part of them are parcels of the Canonical Scriptures ; originally Song. And to say, any fragment thereof were needless, is, in effect, to diminish from God's words, upon which follows a heavy curse.

" God deserves every day to be praised of us for delivering his Church, by the overthrow of Pharaoh in the Ked Sea, as much as he did in the very moment of their deliverance. And the Song of Moses, then used, doth in every particular, as properly concern every Christian congregation, as it did the Jews themselves upon that occasion. For God's mercy shewed to us in our baptism, and the spiritual overthrow of the Devil, pursuing us with an host of sins and temptations, is, in mine opinion, more effectually expressed to a spiritual understanding by apprehending the actions and circumstances of that temporal deliverance, than it could be by the power of any words, or by any other ordinary means ; except by contemplating, of that most excellent material object, the Sacrament of Baptism itself, of which the other was but a type.

INTRODUCTION. xvii

" In like manner, all the other Canonical Hymns do admirably help towards God's everlasting mercies, and for illustrating those particular mysteries of our Christian Faith, which they did typically and prophetically foreshow. Yea, they are part of the Prophetical Witness, as the Hymns of the New Testament are part of the Evangelical Witness, of our interest in Christ Jesus. And, verily, the late neglect of their application in our Christian mysteries hath not only much injured one of the two great witnesses of our salvation, but given occasion also, that many unsound professors have corrupted them, even to the bringing in of diverse Jewish and Talmudical fancies, to the fearful distraction of weak people.

" But, were not those Hymns necessary in respect of the variety of their arguments, yet the variety of expression were somewhat needful, although the matter were the same. For, as the several dressings of one sort of meat make it diversely agreeable to the palates and stomachs of men, so the various manner of things delivered in Holy Scriptures makes them applicable to our understandings : and what in one kind of delivery seems harsh or obscure, in another kind is acceptable, and more easily apprehended. That, which is easy to you, is hard perhaps to me ; and what may be thought an impropriety to some great judgments doth many times most properly insinuate the speaker's meaning unto them of meaner capacities.

* * * *

" If it be but to awaken our dulness, and take away our wearisomeness in holy duties, variety is xviii INTE OD UCTION.

needful. For flesh and blood, as we find by daily experience, loaths those things, wherewithal they are naturally best pleased, if they be too frequent : how much more tedious then will those things be unto us, which are perpetually iterated in the same words, being naturally unpleasing to a carnal ear? Since God in mercy hath provided and permitted, as means to assist our weaknesses, let not such as are strong enough to be without them, condemn the use of such helps in those who, being not so able, must have their affections weaned by degrees from their childish inclinations.

" We see the flesh and the Devil, having for their service thousands of vain songs and profane ballads, stored up in the stationers' warehouses, have nevertheless many Muses perpetually employed for the composing of new strains ; and that many hundred pounds are yearly consumed upon them, to the enriching of those merchants ; to the shame of our profession ; to the corruption of youth ; and to the building up of the kingdom of sin and Satan : as it is well known and observed by many of good note in this Reverend Assembly. Yet there having been, for divers ages together, but so many Hymns composed and published, as make in some impressions not above two sheets and an half of paper, for the reverence and practice of devotion unto the honour of God, they are censured impertinent ; maliciously exclaimed on ; violently opposed ; and the author of them seeking, for the needful hire of his labour, but his due, and what strangers should have been suffered to make thereof, is publicly accused, as a man covetously hunting after the world, and an injurious oppressor of the Commonwealth.

INTRODUCTION. xix

" My weak fortunes, my troubles, and the chargeableness of a study, that brings with it no outward supply, put me into a kind of necessity to cast my thoughts aside unto worldly respects ; but I have since been sorry for it upon better consideration. And as a just reward for my too earnest looking after vain hopes, I do now accept of my present trouble, that outwardly is like to impoverish me. And the time thereof draws me the more needfully to consider it, being just about that season wherein I expected to reap some contentment in the fruition of my labour and expences. God grant this experience may enrich me another way, and settle my hopes upon more certain things ; and that those, who accuse me of this imperfection, may examine their own hearts, and if they find them guilty of the like infirmity, learn by mine example to confess their error : and my prayer shall be, that we both may more directly seek God's glory in our undertakings.

" But why should I be the man more accused than all others, for seeking after the just hire of my labours? Am I the only one guilty of studying mine own profit, in the course of my painful endeavours for religious end ? I would to God I were; and that no man living, save I,. were so wicked as to make his own glory and enriching, the end and scope of his Christian diligence ! For, doubtless, such an universal piety would be a powerful means of drawing me to repentance ! But I believe there be so few that can, with the Apostle, clear himself herein, that if none might be permitted to throw at me the stone of reproof, but only they who are free from this weakness, I may xx INTRODUCTION.

walk from St. Michael's Mount in Cornwall to Dover, and from thence even through our Metropolitan Churches, to the farthest Northern Isles, without touch of exception.

" And whereas they ohject I have compassed a privilege to the puhlic grievance ; jour Reverences shall perceive how innocent I am from giving cause of such an imputation, if you please to consider the circumstances of his Majesty's grant, with his pious intention, and my carriage in the procuring and execution of it : for I did not, as some of the Stationers have done in the name of many, and hy pretending the relief of the poor, whom they may be proved thereby to oppress, monopolize the principal books of sale within this realm, even those wherein the Commonwealth have a just interest, which is really one of those monopolies which our State abhors: but having composed a new Book, which no man could claim a share in, while it remained mine own, and in mine own power to make public or no ; and proposing the same to his Majesty briefly and plainly, without pretence of any bye-respect, I obtained a free and gracious grant to make such benefit thereof as usually heretofore, in like cases his Majesty hath vouchsafed unto others : yea, such as the Stationers would have made of it without a privilege, if so be I had left it in their power.

* * * *

" How unfortunate am I, as some think, that, having performed a good work, do nevertheless hear it exclaimed upon as a frivolous labour ; and stand accused for oppressing the people, because a few Hymns, containing the praises of God, are commanded

INTR OD UCTION. xxi

to be divulged the most convenient way, while such abuses as these aforementioned, and many of an higher nature, may be winked at in my accusers. Yet I say rather, how happy am I, and how much bound to praise God's mercy, who covers the multitude of my transgressions, and still brings me into public question for such actions only as shall upon trial become mine honour ; and to the shame of my traducers. For I am confident that I shall in due time be delivered from that, and from all other scandalous imputations, which the world hath laid to my charge. And, therefore, whether it be now or hereafter, I am indifferent, and place such assurance in God's word, that I can stay his leisure.

" I procured the King's grant, being the possibility of a temporal blessing, by moving for it where I ought ; and as I ought to seek the same, without any man's furtherance : and if it be not in every particular just and convenient that I should enjoy the same, it shall go ; and I will venture an utter undoing, rather than make use of any man's friendship to detain it. For God, who hath hitherto provided for me in such a manner, as best befitted both my temporal and spiritual condition, will, I know, continue his provident care of me, while I can have grace to be thankful, and retain the resolution to do my lawful endeavour. Howsoever, let the world conceit of me as it pleaseth, I scorn to enjoy my life, much more any privilege, to the common prejudice: and am able to demonstrate, as shall hereafter appear, that my Book, and the King's Grant, have been maliciously traduced without cause.

xxii INTR OD UCTION.

" I will omit to particularize those many discourtesies which I am offered, and proceed to answer such other objections as they and their abettors have framed, to bring both my Hymns and me into contempt.

" And first, they object, forsooth, that they are not worthy to be annexed with their Psalms in metre, in respect of that insufficiency which they have discovered in my expressions. For so harsh and improper do my lines appear to these judicious censurers and their chaplains, that some compare them to Dod theSilkman's late ridiculous translation of the Psalms; which was by authority worthily condemned to the fire. Some term them in scorn, WITHEB'S SONNETS ; and some, among them, the better to express what opinion they have of their pious use, are pleased to promise that they will procure the roving ballad-singer with one leg, to sing and sell them about the city : which base speeches, proceeding from those scoffing Ismaelites, I could well enough brook in respect of mine own person or merit ; for there is so much evil, even in the best of my actions, that contempt is the fairest reward which they can justly challenge. Yet when I call to mind with what Christian intentions I was employed upon those Hymns ; and how many hours at midnight I spent about them, whilst, it may be, my traducers were either sleeping out their time, or worse employed : when I consider also how many learned and religious men have approved them, and how much their pious use might further the reverence and practice of devotion to the praise of God ; it grieves me that there should be in this nation any so wicked as to oppose so Christian a work to so frivolous