The Complete Works of Richard Crashaw Volume I Part 33

SECOND PART.

Though still I dy, I liue again; Still longing so to be still slain; 10 So gainfull is such losse of breath, I dy euen in desire of death.

Still liue in me this longing strife Of liuing death and dying life; For while Thou sweetly slayest me 15 Dead to my selfe, I liue in Thee.

IN THE GLORIOVS a.s.sVMPTION OF OVR BLESSED LADY.[52]

THE HYMN.

Hark! she is call'd, the parting houre is come; 1 Take thy farewell, poor World! Heaun must go home.

A peice of heau'nly earth; purer and brighter Then the chast starres, whose choise lamps come to light her, Whil'st through the crystall orbes, clearer then they 5 She climbes; and makes a farre more Milkey Way.

She's call'd! Hark, how the dear immortall Doue Sighes to His syluer mate, 'Rise vp, my loue'!

Rise vp, my fair, my spotlesse one!

The Winter's past, the rain is gone; 10 The Spring is come, the flowrs appear, No sweets, (save thou,) are wanting here.

Come away, my loue!

Come away, my doue!

Cast off delay; 15 The court of Heau'n is come To wait vpon thee home; Come, come away!

The flowrs appear, Or quickly would, wert thou once here. 20 The Spring is come, or if it stay 'Tis to keep time with thy delay.

The rain is gone, except so much as we Detain in needfull teares to weep the want of thee.

The Winter's past, 25 Or if he make lesse hast, His answer is, why she does so, If Sommer come not, how can Winter goe?

Come away, come away!

The shrill winds chide, the waters weep thy stay; 30 The fountains murmur, and each loftyest tree Bowes low'st his leauy top, to look for thee.

Come away, my loue!

Come away, my doue &c.

She's call'd again. And will she goe? 35 When Heau'n bidds come, who can say no?

Heau'n calls her, and she must away, Heau'n will not, and she cannot stay.

Goe then; goe, gloriovs on the golden wings Of the bright youth of Heau'n, that sings 40 Vnder so sweet a burthen. Goe, Since thy dread Son will haue it so.

And while thou goest, our song and we Will, as we may, reach after thee.

Hail, holy queen of humble hearts! 45 We in thy prayse will haue our parts.

And though thy dearest lookes must now give light To none but the blest heavens, whose bright Beholders, lost in sweet delight, Feed for ever their faire sight 50 With those divinest eyes, which we And our darke world noe more shall see; Though our poore eyes are parted soe, Yet shall our lipps never lett goe Thy gracious name, but to the last 55 Our loving song shall hold it fast.

Thy pretious name shall be Thy self to vs; and we With holy care will keep it by vs.

We to the last 60 Will hold it fast, And no a.s.svmption shall deny vs.

All the sweetest showres Of our fairest flowres Will we strow vpon it. 65 Though our sweets cannot make It sweeter, they can take Themselues new sweetness from it.

Maria, men and angels sing, Maria, mother of our King. 70 Live, rosy princesse, live! and may the bright Crown of a most incomparable light Embrace thy radiant browes. O may the best Of euerlasting ioyes bath thy white brest.

Live, our chast loue, the holy mirth 75 Of Heau'n; the humble pride of Earth.

Liue, crown of woemen; queen of men; Liue, mistresse of our song. And when Our weak desires haue done their best, Sweet angels come, and sing the rest. 80

NOTES AND ILl.u.s.tRATIONS.

The heading in the SANCROFT MS. is 'On the a.s.sumption of the Virgin Marie.' In line 5 it reads 'whil'st,' and so in line 43: line 7, 'againe th' immortal Dove:' line 12, our text (1652) reads 'but;' we prefer 'saue' of 1648 and the MS.: line 30, our text (1652) misprints 'heauy'

for 'leavy' of 1648: line 42, the MS. reads 'great:' line 47, 'give' for 'be;' adopted: line 53, 'eyes' for 'ioyes;' adopted: line 57, 'sacred:'

line 76, 'bragg:' line 77, '_praise_ of women, _pride_ of men.'

By an unaccountable inadvertence, our text (1652) omits lines 47-56.

They are restored from 1648: they also appear in 1670. Line 18 in 1648 reads 'Come, come away:' in 1670 it is 'Come away, come away;' but this edition strangely, but characteristically, omits lines 19-34; and TURNBULL, following it, though p.r.o.nounced by himself 'the most inaccurate of all' (Preliminary Observations, p. xi. of his edition), has overlooked them. Confer, for a quaint parallel with these lines (19-34), our JOSEPH FLETCHER. It may also be noted here that TURNBULL betrays his habitual use of his self-condemned text of 1670 by misreading in line 12, 'No sweets since thou art wanting here;' so converting the fine compliment into ungrammatical nonsense. Earlier also (line 3) he similarly reads, after the same text, 'light' for 'earth.' So too in line 7 he reads 'She's call'd again; hark! how th'

immortall dove:' and line 42, for the favourite 'dread' of our Poet the weaker 'great,' as _supra_: and the following line 63 omits 'the:' line 64, 'our:' line 65 reads 'We'll:' line 76, 'and' for 'the.' On lines 9-10, cf. Song of Solomon, ii. 10-13. G.

UPON FIVE PIOVS AND LEARNED DISCOURSES:

BY ROBERT SHELFORD.[53]

Rise, then, immortall maid! Religion, rise! 1 Put on thy self in thine own looks: t' our eyes Be what thy beauties, not our blots, have made thee; Such as (ere our dark sinnes to dust betray'd thee) Heav'n set thee down new drest; when thy bright birth 5 Shot thee like lightning to th' astonisht Earth.

From th' dawn of thy fair eyelids wipe away Dull mists and melancholy clouds: take Day And thine own beams about thee: bring the best Of whatsoe're perfum'd thy Eastern nest. 10 Girt all thy glories to thee: then sit down, Open this book, fair Queen, and take thy crown.

These learned leaves shall vindicate to thee Thy holyest, humblest, handmaid, Charitie; She'l dresse thee like thy self, set thee on high 15 Where thou shalt reach all hearts, command each eye.

Lo! where I see thy altars wake, and rise From the pale dust of that strange sacrifice Which they themselves were; each one putting on A majestie that may beseem thy throne. 20 The holy youth of Heav'n, whose golden rings Girt round thy awfull altars; with bright wings Fanning thy fair locks, (which the World beleeves As much as sees) shall with these sacred leaves Trick their tall plumes, and in that garb shall go 25 If not more glorious, more conspicuous tho.

--------Be it enacted then, By the fair laws of thy firm-pointed pen, G.o.d's services no longer shall put on Pure s.l.u.ttishnesse for pure religion: 30 No longer shall our Churches' frighted stones Lie scatter'd like the burnt and martyr'd bones Of dead Devotion; nor faint marbles weep In their sad ruines; nor Religion keep A melancholy mansion in those cold 35 Urns: Like G.o.d's sanctuaries they lookt of old; Now seem they Temples consecrate to none, Or to a new G.o.d, Desolation.

No more the hypocrite shall th' upright be Because he's stiffe, and will confesse no knee: 40 While others bend their knee, no more shalt thou, (Disdainfull dust and ashes!) bend thy brow; Nor on G.o.d's altar cast two scorching eyes, Bak't in hot scorn, for a burnt sacrifice: But (for a lambe) thy tame and tender heart, 45 New struck by Love, still trembling on his dart; Or (for two turtle-doves) it shall suffice To bring a pair of meek and humble eyes.

This shall from henceforth be the masculine theme Pulpits and pennes shall sweat in; to redeem 50 Vertue to action, that life-feeding flame That keeps Religion warm: not swell a name Of Faith; a mountain-word, made up of aire, With those deare spoils that wont to dresse the fair And fruitfull Charitie's full b.r.e.a.s.t.s (of old), 55 Turning her out to tremble in the cold.

What can the poore hope from us, when we be Uncharitable ev'n to Charitie?

Nor shall our zealous ones still have a fling At that most horrible and horned thing, 60 Forsooth the Pope: by which black name they call The Turk, the devil, Furies, h.e.l.l and all, And something more. O he is Antichrist: Doubt this, and doubt (say they) that Christ is Christ: Why, 'tis a point of Faith. What e're it be, 65 I'm sure it is no point of Charitie.

In summe, no longer shall our people hope, To be a true Protestant's but to hate the Pope.

NOTES AND ILl.u.s.tRATIONS.

I have taken the text of this poem as it originally appeared, because in all the editions of the Poems wherein it is given the last ten lines are omitted. TURNBULL discovered this after his text of the Poems was printed off, and so had to insert them in a Postscript, wherein his genius for blundering describes Shelford's volume as 'Five ... _Poems_.'

These slight variations may be recorded:

The t.i.tle in all is 'On a Treatise of Charity.'

Line 12, 1648 has 'thy' for 'this.'

" 16, ib. 'shall' for 'shalt.'

" 17, all the editions 'off'rings' for 'altars.'

" 30, ib. 'A' for the first 'pure.'

" 36, our text misprints 'look' for 'look't.'

The poem is signed in Shelford's volume 'RICH. CRASHAW, Aul. Pemb. A.B.'

It appeared in 'Steps' of 1646 (pp. 86-8), 1648 (pp. 101-2), 1670 (pp.

68-70). G.

DIES IRae, DIES ILLA: