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 A STUDY OF COWLEY'S DAVIDEIS 
 
 A DISSERTATION 
 
 p.. -SEN TED TO THE BOARD OF UNIVERSITY STUDIES OF THE 
 
 JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY FOR THE DEGREE 
 
 OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 
 
 JOHN McLaren mcbryde, jr. 
 
 ROFESSuR OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE AT HOLLINS 
 
 INSTITUTE, VA, 
 FORMERLY FELLOW IN ENGLISH AT JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY 
 
 [RhfRINTED FROM ThE JOURNAL OF GERMANIC PHILOLOGY, VOL. II, No. 4.] 
 
A STUDY OF COWLEY'S DAVIDEIS 
 
 A DISSERTATION 
 
 PRESENTED TO THE BOARD OF UNIVERSITY STUDIES OF THE 
 
 JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY FOR THE DEGREE 
 
 OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 
 
 JOHN McLaren Mcbryde, jr. 
 
 PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE AT HOLLINS 
 
 INSTITUTE, VA. 
 
 FORMERLY FELLOW IN ENGLISH AT JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY 
 
 [Reprinted from The Journal of Germanic Philology, Vol. II, No. 4.] 
 
TO 
 
 MY COLLEAGUES AND FORMER FELLOW-STUDENTS, 
 
 FREDERICK TUPPER, JR. 
 
 AND 
 
 JAMES PINCKNEY KINARD. 
 
 'Ar^7()^^^ 
 
IV 
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 
 Introduction, ........... i 
 
 Biographical Sketch, .......... 2 
 
 The Familiar Letters of Cowley, ........ 6 
 
 The David Theme in Literature Preceding Cowle}^ .... 14 
 
 A. Catalogue of Dramas and Poems on the subject of David, . 16 
 
 B. Examination of Accessible Plays and Poems, ... 23 
 
 Rothschild, 23 
 
 Bishop Bale, 23 
 
 Hans Sachs, ......... 25 
 
 Du Bartas, 25 
 
 George Peele, ......... 35 
 
 Francis Ouarles, ........ 36 
 
 George Sandys, George Wither, George Herbert, . . 38 
 
 Michael Drayton, ........ 38 
 
 Thomas Fuller, ......... 40 
 
 Thomas Heywood, ........ 41 
 
 Robert Ashle)^'s Translation of Malvezzi, .... 42 
 
 Felice Passero, ......... 43 
 
 Arias Montanus, ......... 43 
 
 David's Troubles, etc., . , . . ■ . . . 43 
 Remarks on the Growth of the English Religious Epic Prior to 
 
 Milton, and the Part Played by Cowley in this Development, . 44 
 
 Cowley and Milton, .......... 46 
 
 Poems on the subject of David Subsequent to Cowle)'^'s, ... 47 
 
 The Davideis in its Relation to Crashaw's Sospetto D' Herode, . . 50 
 
 Cowley and Virgil, .......... 59 
 
 Imitations of the Aeneid, VII, 2S6 ff. Preceding Cowley, ... 66 
 
 Fracastor'sy^j-^///, ........ 66 
 
 Metre of the Davideis^ .......... 75 
 
A STUDY OF COWLEY'S DAVIDEIS. 
 
 THE literary reputation of Cowley has undergone 
 many vicissitudes. In his own day accounted 
 superior to Milton and to Tasso, he is now almost com- 
 pletely forgotten, and even of his most enthusiastic 
 admirers very few can be found who have read through 
 the Davideis, the subject of the following investigation. 
 For this neglect the poet can blame no one but himself. 
 He had a loftiness of purpose and a seriousness of thought 
 far in advance of the other poets of his school ; yet he 
 had not the strength to resist the popular taste, nor the 
 judgment to select only the enduring qualities of his age. 
 (Compare Dryden's well-known simile of the drag-net.) 
 Dr. Grosart has eloquently defended Cowley against the 
 'elaborate and weighty' criticism of Dr. Johnson, and 
 against Mr. Gosse with his 'smoky or jaundice-yellow 
 pair of spectacles,' and has catalogued in detail the endur- 
 ing poems, passages, and lines of Cowley. It is not the 
 purpose of the following study to enter into a criticism 
 of the poet. Very few, however, will dissent from Dr. 
 Grosart's thesis, that Cowley has been too much neglected 
 in our day, and that both as a lyrist and a prose writer he 
 has made some notable and lasting contributions to our 
 literature. It was as an epic writer that his failure was 
 most conspicuous, and his Davideis has justly sunk into 
 oblivion, in spite of Rymer's judgment in pronouncing it 
 superior to Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered. The purpose, 
 then, in resurrecting this almost forgotten epic of Cow- 
 ley's is not to make it a basis for a criticism of the poet, 
 but to show in some slight way the growth of the religious 
 epic prior to Milton, and the part which Cowley took in 
 its development. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 Abraham Cowley was the ' posthumous son of Thomas 
 Cowley, citizen and stationer, and of the parish of St. 
 Michael Le Querne.' ' 
 
 As his father's will wa« dated London, Parish of St. 
 Michael le Querne, July 24, 1618, and as the poet died 
 July 28, 1667, in his 49th year. Dr. Grosart places the 
 approximate date of Abraham's birth between August 
 and December 1618. 
 
 Cowley was entered at Westminster School as King's 
 Scholar, the exact date of his admission not being known, 
 and here at the age of ten years he wrote his first poem, 
 an epical romance, entitled TJie TragicalL Historic of 
 Piramus and Thisbe, and dedicated to Mr. Lambert Osbol- 
 ston. Headmaster of Westminster. Two years later he 
 wrote another little epic, Constantia and Philetns, and in 
 1633 his poems were collected into a volume and y^\j\i- 
 \\^\i&di \\\\}i\ X}c\q,\\\\q Poetical Blossoms, and with a dedica- 
 tion to the famous John Williams, Bishop of Lincoln, at 
 that time Dean of Westminster. These schoolboy efforts 
 were well received and went through several editions, so 
 that the young writer, being tempted to try with his 
 muse a still more lofty flight, wrote, while still at West- 
 minster, his first drama, a pastoral comedy in English, 
 entitled Love s Riddle. This was published in 1638, with a 
 dedication to Sir Kenelm Digby. 
 
 Leaving Westminster then, with a reputation as a rising 
 man of letters, he entered Trinity College, Cambridge, 
 where he took the oath June 14, 1637, and was admitted 
 as Westminster scholar (Lumby, Prose Works). In the 
 same year Richard Crashaw was elected Fellow of Peter- 
 house from Pembroke Hall, and from this time dates the 
 iriendship between the two poets. It was at this period, 
 too, that Cowley began his Davideis, and that Crashaw 
 probably made his translation of the first book of Marini's 
 Strage degli Innoccnti. 
 
 ' Peter Cunningham, Johnson's Lives of the Poets, 3 vols. 8vo. 1854 
 (Murray), I, 3, quoted by Dr. Grosart, I, x. See also J. L. Chester, Notes and 
 Queries, 4th Series, XI, 340, 
 
— 3— 
 
 In 1639 Cowley received his Bachelor's degree, and 
 October 30, 1640, became Minor Fellow. According to 
 Lumby he was not admitted as Major Fellow, and proba- 
 bly left Cambridge without proceeding to a full degree. 
 Dr. Grosart, however, on the authority of the Alumni 
 Wcstvwnastcriciisis, gives among the landmarks of Cowley's 
 progress at Trinity : 
 
 Chosen a Major Fellow in 1642. 
 
 Proceeded M.A. of Cambridge in due course. 
 
 And Anthony a Wood {Fasti Oxon. II. col. 209, note) has 
 the following entry: 'Abraham Cowley, admissus Socius 
 Minor Collegii Trinitatis Oct. 30, 1640, Major (Socius) 
 Mar. 16, 1642. Reg. Coll. Trin. Cant.' Still further 
 proof of the fact that Cowley finally proceeded to his 
 M.A. is seen in the following letter of Vice-Chancellor 
 Feme re-instating the poet in his fellowship (quoted in 
 full by Lumby, p. XVII): 
 
 'Whereas we received a letter from his Ma'ty dated the last of January in 
 behalf of Mr. Abraham Cowley, Fellow of Trinity College, for the continu- 
 ance of his seven years before taking holy orders, in regard of his being 
 eiected immediately after his taking degree of Master of Ars, etc., 
 
 H. Ferne.' 
 
 Wood also states that Cowley was M.A. of Cambridge. 
 
 At Cambridge Cowley's literary activity continued. 
 He contributed a Latin poem to the '^vvwbia sive Miisanivi 
 Cantabrigensimn Concentiis, a collection of verses upon the 
 birth of Princess Anne (March 17, 1636/7), so that from 
 the outset his sympathy with the royal party was strong. 
 Among other distinguished contributors to this collection 
 were Thomas Chambers, the Vice-Chancellor, Samuel 
 Collins, the Provost of King's College, James Duport, 
 afterwards Bishop of Peterborough, and Richard Crashaw. 
 Cowley wrote various other Latin poems, and on the 2d 
 of February, 1638, a Latin comedy of his, entitled A^««/rrt:- 
 gium J ocular c,\xiW\Q style of Plautus, was performed by 
 the men of his college before the members of the Univer- 
 sity. It was printed the same year, with a dedication to 
 Dr. Comber, Dean of Carlisle, and Master of Trinity. 
 
— 4— 
 
 When on the 12th of March, 1641, the King passed 
 through Cambridge with his little son Charles (afterwards 
 Charles II), an entertainment was hastily arranged for his 
 benefit, and Cowley wrote for the occasion his comedy 
 The Guardian. It was not printed till 1650, though mean- 
 time it had been acted privately ' during the troubles.' 
 
 In February 1643/4 came the commission of the Earl of 
 Manchester 'to take special care that the solemn league 
 and Covenant be tendered and taken in the University of 
 Cambridge,' and as a consequence Cowley, in common 
 with nearly all the Masters and Fellows, was forcibly 
 ejected from the University. Together with Crashaw 
 and many others, he took refuge in Oxford, then quite a 
 Royalist stronghold, and entered St. John's College. 
 Here he became intimate with Lord Falkland, to whom 
 he afterwards addressed some lines. He attached him- 
 self to the Royal cause and secured an introduction to 
 Baron Jermyn, afterwards Earl of St. Albans, one of the 
 Queen's most trusted friends and admirers. Through 
 him Cowley was brought into her service, and when in 
 July 1644 the Queen escaped from England and took 
 refuge in Paris, Cowley accompanied her as secretary to 
 Lord Jermyn. His duties as secretary were arduous, and 
 his life in Paris was distasteful to him ; y^X. he managed 
 to continue his literary work, and wrote while there his 
 collection of love poems entitled TJie Mistress. In Paris 
 he met his friend Crashaw again, then in actual need, and 
 introduced him to the Queen. Through her, Crashaw 
 was appointed secretary to Cardinal Palotta, and died in 
 Italy a short time later, soon after he had been appointed 
 one of the Canons of the church of Loretto. 
 
 In 1656 Lord Jermyn sent Cowley to England, in order 
 that he might, says Sprat, ' under pretence of privacy 
 and retirement, take occasion of giving notice of the 
 posture of things in this nation.' Shortly after reaching 
 his native land, he was seized by mistake for another, but 
 as soon as his identity was discovered he was cast into 
 prison. 
 
While in prison, in 1656, he published the first collected 
 edition of his poems in folio, containing- The Miscellanies, 
 The Mistress, Pindariquc Odes, and Davideis. 
 
 Through the influence of his friends he secured his 
 liberty this same year, and Sir Charles Scarborough went 
 his bail for the sum of i^i.ooo. In the following year, in 
 September 1657, Cowley acted as groomsman at the mar- 
 riage of the Duke of Buckingham, and wrote a sonnet 
 upon the occasion. 
 
 December 2d, 1657 (Wood, i^. O. II, col. 209), he secured 
 the degree of M.D. from the University of Oxford, and 
 withdrew into Kent, where he devoted himself to the 
 study of botany, in order, says Sprat, ' to dissemble the 
 main intention of his coming over.' As a result of his 
 study, he wrote his Plantariim Libri, published in 1662, 
 and included in his Poemata Latina of 1668. 
 
 ' Taking the opportunity of the confusion that followed 
 upon Cromwell's death,' says Sprat, 'he ventured back 
 into France, and there remained in the same station as 
 before, till near the time of the King's return.' Of this, 
 his second sojourn in France, we have no account. 
 
 In 1660 he returned to England and published his long 
 and labored Ode upon his Blessed Majesty s Restoration and 
 Return. On the nth of February of this year he was 
 restored to his Fellowship at Cambridge (Lumby). 
 
 The following year he wrote his famous Discourse by 
 ivay of a Vision concerning his late pretended Highness, Croni- 
 zvell the Wicked, and Wx-s, Proposition for the Advancement of 
 Experimental Philosophy. 
 
 Cowley's efforts to obtain from the Government sub- 
 stantial aid in recognition of his long and arduous services, 
 all ended in disappointment. An absurd charge of treason 
 was brought against him, and Charles II had nothing to 
 give him but posthumous praise. The Mastership of 
 Savoy had been promised him by both Charles I and 
 Charles II, but he never received the appointment. It 
 was at this gloomy period of his life that he wrote his 
 Complaint , %\.y\\n'g himself the 'Melancholy Cowley,' for 
 
which he was ridiculed in some verses beginning ' Savoy- 
 missing Cowley has come into Court,' wrongly attributed 
 by Mr. Leslie Stephen to Suckling {Diet. Nat. Biog. 
 ' Cowley '). 
 
 He then retired from public life to Barn Elms, on the 
 banks of the Thames, and through the influence of his 
 friends, the Duke of Buckingham and the Earl of St. 
 Albans, secured a lease of the Queen's lands. 
 
 Thus relieved from want, he continued his literary 
 work, in 1663 appeared his Verses upon Several Occa- 
 sions. In this same year, the Royal Society was founded, 
 and Cowley was one of the charter members. He took 
 great interest in the science of the day and wrote, about 
 this time, his Ode to Mr. Hobhs. 
 
 In April 1665, he removed to the Porch House in 
 Chertsey. There, in spite of his troubles with his tenants 
 and neighbors, he continued his literary work. During 
 these last years of his life, he wrote his Essays, and only a 
 few months before his death, he composed his Ode to the 
 Royal Society. 
 
 He died July 18, 1667, in the 49th year of his age, and 
 was buried in Westminster Abbey, near Chaucer and 
 Spenser. 
 
 THE FAMILIAR LETTERS OF COWLEY. 
 
 Bishop Sprat, Cowley's friend and biographer, to whom 
 the poet bequeathed his private papers, refused to allow 
 the familiar letters in his possession to be published, and 
 set forth in his biography his old-fashioned views in 
 regard to the matter. As a consequence he has drawn 
 down upon his head maledictions of all sorts. ' What 
 literary man,' says Coleridge, ' has not regretted the 
 prudery of Sprat in refusing to let Cowley appear in his 
 slippers and dressing-gown ?' and this regret has since 
 been voiced by every reader and every editor of Cowley. 
 Mary Russell Mitford, in her Recollections of a Literary 
 Life, 1, 65, goes so far in her resentment as to call the 
 innocently offending Dean a 'Goth and a Vandal.' It has 
 
been assumed that all of Cowley's familiar letters were 
 lost or destroyed. Dr. Grosart, in his Memorial Intro- 
 duction, regrets that ' utterly disproportionate search and 
 research have aided very slightly to the biographical 
 data. Specifically I have been more than disappointed 
 that none of the mass of his "familiar letters" which Sprat 
 certainly possessed, has been traced. I cannot believe 
 that he destroyed them.' 
 
 It seems almost incredible that -such a careful and 
 painstaking editor as Dr. Grosart should so completely 
 have overlooked two articles in Frasers Magazine (Vols. 
 XIII, 395 ; XIV, 234) containing several apparently gen- 
 uine copies of these much-sought-for familiar letters of 
 Cowley. They are easily accessible to the general reader 
 by reference to Poole's Index (1882) under the name 
 ' Cowley ',' yet it is remarkable that no editor or biog- 
 rapher of the poet has called attention to these letters. 
 
 The articles in Eraser, which are unsigned, are entitled 
 'The familiar Letters of Cowley, with notices of his Life 
 and Sketches of some of his Friends and Contemporaries 
 — Now first printed.' The writer of these articles thus 
 explains how these letters came into his possession 
 {Eraser XIII, 397): 'We are now by a most fortunate 
 circumstance enabled to state that a large portion of 
 these letters is preserved, and has been placed in our 
 hands for arrangement and publication, by a descendant 
 of Dr. Sprat. Of their authenticity proofs can be afforded 
 which will satisfy even the incredulity of Mr. Disraeli, 
 by whom we are certain the discovery will be hailed 
 with delight in his forth-coming " History of Literature." ' 
 
 The first article opens with a brief but admirable criti- 
 cism of Cowley and of the metaphysical school, in which 
 the editor proves himself a man of wide learning and 
 
 "^ lx\ N'otes and Queries, 8th series, VIII, 465, Mr. Roberts refers to this 
 apparently forgotten article on Cowley in Fraser y^lll^and regrets that such 
 a 'vast area of valuable information in the better class of periodicals of the 
 earlier part of this century, is practically a sealed book to literary inquirers.' 
 In N. and Q., 8th s., IX, 51, a reply was made to Mr. Roberts, in which it was 
 suggested that Poole s Index is just such a general index as is required. 
 
good judgrnent. Then follows the first letter, 'To his 
 Mother, after her sickness, with Consolations for Mourn- 
 ers,' dated Trinity College, March 3 (year not given), and 
 signed 'Your affectionate son, A. Cowley.' 
 
 The second letter is ' To Mr. William Hervey, with an 
 account of a visit to Ben Jonson, a Sketch of Cartwright, 
 and a Notice of the Sad Shepherd.' It is signed 'A. Cow- 
 ley,' but has no date or place attached. 
 
 In vol. XIV of Eraser is printed one more letter, 
 addressed to 'My beloved friend, C. E.', dated Trin. Coll., 
 May 8, 1637, and signed 'A. C 
 
 The editor's heading is, ' Anacreon at Cambridge. 
 Lyric Poetry. Pindar and Sappho. With a notice of 
 the Davideis.' 
 
 Here, then, was apparently a noteworthy find, — no less 
 than three of the 'familiar letters' of Cowley, so highly 
 praised by Dean Sprat, and so eagerly sought for by 
 recent students and editors of Cowley. If genuine, they 
 would be of almost priceless value, worthy to be placed 
 beside the famous Conversations of William Drummond 
 of Hawthornden with Ben Jonson. 
 
 Several considerations, however, awaken the suspicion of 
 the careful student. Towards the close of the first letter, 
 ' To his Mother after her Sickness,' there is a reference to 
 Herbert, ' Hear what holy Mr. George Herbert says,' and 
 here follows the last verse of The Floiver. Moreover, 
 the editor himself refers to a letter written by George 
 Herbert to his mother after her sickness, and dated 
 Trinity College, May 29, 1622. A comparison of the two 
 letters reveals a verbal correspondence too close to be 
 accidental. In the so-called Cowley letter we read: 
 'For consider, dear Madam, that we never read in the 
 Scriptures, " blessed be the mighty, or blessed be the zvealthy, 
 but blessed be the poor, and blessed be the mourners, 
 for they shall be comforted" ' [Fraser, XIII, 400). Herbert 
 offers consolation to his mother with exactly the same 
 words from Scripture : ' But, O God ! how easily is that 
 answered when we consider that the blessings in the Holy 
 
— 9— 
 
 Scripture are never given to the rich but the poor! I 
 never find " Blessed be the rich," or " Blessed be the 
 noble," but " Blessed be the meek," and " Blessed be the 
 poor," and " Blessed be the mourners, for they shall be 
 comforted"' (Given in V^-Atox^^ Life of George Herbert — 
 see also Grosart, Hcrbcrf s IVor/cs, Fuller Worthies, London, 
 1874, III, 491 ff.). 
 
 Again in Fraser, p. 400, a few lines further on, we read, 
 'and in another place, "Casting all your care upon Him, 
 for He careth for you,"' with which compare Herbert's 
 letter (Grosart, III, 493-494), 'And above all, if any care of 
 future things molest you, remember those admirable 
 words of the Psalmist, " Cast thy care on the Lord, and 
 He shall nourish thee" (Psal. LV). To which joyn that 
 of St. Peter, " Casting all your care upon the Lord, for 
 He careth for you" (I Peter V, 7),' 
 
 This similarity is not mere coincidence, and yet how 
 could young Cowley have had access to Herbert's private 
 letters written fifteen years before, and not published by 
 Walton till 1670? 
 
 The description of Ben Jonson given in the letter to 
 Mr. William Hervey is clearly based upon Aubrey, to 
 whom indeed the editor refers : ' Cowley's description of 
 the poet accords with the few particulars we possess con- 
 cerning him. The studying chair and the loose horseman's 
 coat are mentioned by Aubrey, who derived his informa- 
 tion from Lacy, a well-known comic actor of that day, 
 and intimately acquainted with Jonson. The credulous 
 antiquary adds that the chair was such as Aulus Gellius is 
 drawn in ' {Fraser, XIII, 403). 
 
 Cowley's description is as follows: 'He is now confined 
 entirely to his apartments, rarely wandering further than 
 from his bed to his studying chair, which is of straw, and 
 covered with a cloth wrapper such as the old country 
 wives use. We found him wrapped in a large and loose 
 great coat, with slits under the arms, like those we have 
 often seen at Newmarket. His face, once, as I have been 
 told, very fair and beautiful, is now roughened, as it were, 
 
• — TO 
 
 by a scorbutic eruption, to which he has long been subject. 
 His eyes are rather grave and thoughtful than bright, 
 and one seemed to me somewhat bigger than the other.' 
 
 Compare Aubrey (Clarendon Press ed. 1898, II, 12 ff.) 
 ' He was (or rather had been) of a clear and faire skin ; 
 his habit was very plaine. I have heard Mr. Lacy, the 
 player, say that he was wont to wear a coate like a coach- 
 man's coate, with slitts under the arme-pitts. ... I have 
 seen his studyeing chaire, which was of strawe, such as 
 old women used, and as Aulus Gellius is drawen in.' On 
 p. 14 of Clark's Aubrey is to be found the note about 
 Jonson's eyes, which, suggests the editor, 'may come 
 from that " Chronicle of the stage," as reported to Aubrey 
 by John Lacy.' 
 
 ' B. Jonson ; one eye lower than t'other and bigger.' 
 ' Ben Jonson had one eie lower than t'other, and bigger, 
 like Clun, the player.' 
 
 The conversation of Ben Jonson in this letter is ob- 
 viously based upon Drummond of Hawthornden's con- 
 versation with Ben Jonson, as even the most casual reader 
 would note at a glance. 
 
 ' Our conversation turned upon the Muses,' the Cowley 
 letter has it, 'and he spoke, as his custom is, with 
 great admiration of Donne, repeating from the " Calm " 
 two lines, which he said were admirably descriptive of 
 unbroken stillness : 
 
 " In the same place lay 
 Feathers and dust — to-day and yesterday."' 
 
 In a foot-note, the editor of the letters calls attention to 
 the fact that Drummond of Hawthornden has printed 
 these verses incorrectly ; clearly a blind to mislead the 
 unwary reader. 
 
 Compare Conversations zuith William Drnnunond, Shakes- 
 peare Society, London, 1842, p. 8. 
 
 'Cowley.' *" My friend Donne," he said, '■' will perish 
 through the ignorance of his readers ; his oracles require 
 an interpreter." ' 
 
•II- 
 
 Convcrsatioiis, p. 15. 'That Donne himself for not being 
 understood, would perish.' 
 
 ' Cowley.' 'after all, Daniel was nothing but a verser.' 
 
 Conversations, p. 2. ' Samuel Daniel was a good, honest 
 man, but no poet.' 
 
 So much for the internal evidence. At the conclusion 
 of the second article [Frascr, vol. XIV), the editor enters 
 upon a criticism of the Davideis, and closes with a promise 
 to produce more letters containing ' Interesting notices of 
 Cowley's reappearance in London.' But here all trace 
 of the letters disappears. More remarkable still, in the 
 contemporary literature of that period there is absolutely 
 no reference to these letters, even though the editor 
 boldly says that they would be hailed with delight by 
 Mr. Disraeli in his forthcoming History of Literature. In 
 the Amenities, however, published in 1S40, no mention is 
 made of this treasure trove. 
 
 Equally puzzling was the fact that not one of the recent 
 editors and critics of Cowley had taken note of these 
 so-called 'Familiar letters' in Fraser. To resolve my 
 doubts I addressed a letter to Mr. Leslie Stephen, Dr. 
 Richard Garnett, of The British Museum, and Rev. A. 
 B. Grosart, stating the facts of the case and requesting an 
 expression of opinion. They were unanimous in agreeing 
 with my first supposition that the letters were but clever 
 forgeries. 
 
 The question then arose, what could have been the 
 motive for foisting these supposititious letters upon the 
 public? Dr. Garnett of the British Museum I have to 
 thank, not only for his kind reply to my letter of inquiry, 
 but also for the suggestion of the authorship of these 
 ' Cowley Letters.' One has to take only a brief glance at 
 the majority of articles in Fraser (vols. XIII and XIV) to 
 discover their real character. In the January number for 
 instance, the first sixty-two pages are devoted to a mock 
 Parliament of the Fraserians, in which the principal speak- 
 ers are Oliver Yorke, Mr. T. Moore, Mr. E. L. Bulwer, 
 Mr. Alaric Attila Watts, The Ghost of Goethe, Dr. 
 
— 12 — 
 
 Southey, Mr. T. Carlyle, Mr. Lockhart, The Ghost of 
 Coleridge, Sir Edgerton Brydges, Mr. Wordsworth, Sir 
 Walter Scott, etc., etc. In fact, from this wonderful Par- 
 liament Mr. Kendrick Bangs might have easily obtained 
 many hints for his Houseboat on the Styx. In this article 
 appears very prominently the name of FatJier Front — F. S. 
 Mahony — a name intimately associated with Eraser's 
 Magazine between the years 1834 and 1836 inclusive. 
 
 Francis S3'lvester Mahony (1804-1866), the Bohemian 
 Scholar priest, was born at Cork in Ireland, in 1804. His 
 life, full of pathos and romantic adventures, is sympatheti- 
 cally portrayed by Mr. Charles Kent, Barrister-at-law.' 
 Having pursued his early education in the Jesuit College 
 of St. Acheul, at Amiens, and in the Jesuit Parisian Semi- 
 nary in the Rue de Sevres, where he became marvel- 
 ously skilled in the Latin and Greek languages, he 
 removed to Rome in order to complete his studies in the 
 Jesuit College there. Here his health gave way, and he 
 was forced to return to his native land, before attaining 
 the great desire of his life, ordination to the priesthood. 
 His four-months' experience as Master of Rhetoric at 
 Clongowes Wood College, with John Sheehan, the Irish 
 Whiskey Drinker and others of that stamp, reads like a 
 chapter from one of Samuel Lever's rollicking romances. 
 He returned to the Continent after his unfortunate escapade 
 with the convivial Irish youngsters, and in Rome, after 
 long and persistent endeavors on his part, and resolute 
 opposition on the part of the Jesuit Fathers, he was finally 
 ordained priest. He never felt in full sympathy with his 
 profession, however, and gradually drifted away from 
 even the customary practices of religion. Literature was 
 a more congenial occupation, and he became a contributor 
 to various magazines and periodicals of the day. His 
 connection with Fraser''s, extending over a period of two 
 years, began with the publication of Father Pronf s Apol- 
 ogy for Lent, in which he recorded his Death, Obsequies, 
 
 ' See The works of Father Frout, ed. by Charles Kent, London, 1881, Bio- 
 graphical Introduction. 
 
— 13— 
 
 and an Elegy, April 1834. From this date appeared every 
 month Reliqucs of Father Praut, published from his posthu- 
 mous pnpers. The remainder of his life is the story of a 
 Bohemian journalist, of his wanderings over the European 
 Continent, settling for short periods at Rome, at Paris, 
 and at London, ft was in Paris that he spent the closing 
 years of his life, and it was there, reconciled to the 
 church, and comforted with the consolations of religion, 
 that he breathed his last, Ma}^ 18, 1866. 
 
 During the period 1834-1836, Francis Mahony was one 
 of the most brilliant contributors to Frascrs^ and his 
 Religiies, we are told, formed, month by month, the chief 
 attraction of the magazine. The versatility of his genius 
 was astonishing, from the broadest kind of burlesques to 
 the tenderest of lyrics. His favorite amusement, how- 
 ever, among all his surprising literary freaks, was to trans- 
 late into Latin or French the poems of some well-known 
 English writer, and then to accuse the original author 
 of plagiarism, — see especially The Rogueries of Tom. Moore. 
 
 Now with such an able contributor, whose audacity 
 knew no bounds, is it surprising to find in Fraser^s for 
 1836 these precious ' familiar Letters of Cowley?' Com- 
 pare the other articles in the January number, and see 
 how few serious compositions are there. In addition 
 to the Parliamentary Report covering sixty-two pages, 
 mentioned above, there are the following: Gallery of 
 Literary Charaeters, No. LXVIII. Regina s Maids of Honor. 
 The Greek Pastoral Poets — TJieocritus, Bion, and MoseJms (in 
 which may be clearly seen the pen of Father Prout), Mr. 
 Alaric Alexaiider Watts. The Speeeh of Mr. William Erie, 
 Esqr., K. C, in the ease of Watts v. Fraser and Moyes. Com- 
 pare also in the December number the letter of Sir Edger- 
 ton Brydges to Oliver Yorke (p. 695). 
 
 Thus the prima facie evidence seems very strong that 
 these Cowley letters were further contributions from the 
 pen of Father Prout, or of one of his associates among 
 that jovial band of Fraserians. 
 
 Dr. Grosart recognized the value of my material by 
 publishing it in the Athenaeum (July 17, 1897) without 
 2 
 
—14— 
 
 previously consulting me, and with but scant acknowledg- 
 ment. 
 
 THE DAVID THEME IN LITERATURE PRECEDING COWLEY. 
 LEGENDS AND TRADITIONS. 
 
 In addition to the multiplicity of incidents connected 
 with David's life in the biblical story, there arose many 
 legends and traditions concerning him.' Among these 
 may be mentioned : The story of the three historical 
 stones which cried unto him, as he was on his way to the 
 camp of the Israelites, to take them with him. He 
 granted their request, and it was with these three stones 
 that he smote first Goliath, then the right wing of the 
 Philistine army, and finally the left wing. How David 
 invented chain armor, and by means of his coat of mail 
 was saved from Saul, who attempted to stab him as he 
 lay sleeping. Of David's wonderfully rapid growth, so 
 that Saul's armor fitted him perfectly, though he was a 
 mere stripling. How Satan in the form of a bird leads 
 David to sin with Bathsheba. Of David and the rhinoce- 
 ros. Of David and the stag, and how the giant laid a 
 winepress upon David without injuring him. Of the reed 
 and bell sent from God to enable David to give confident 
 judgment in all cases pleaded before him. Finally the 
 wonderful account of David's death, — how the angel of 
 Death led the venerable king to climb a tree, and then 
 meanly took advantage of him by removing the ladder, 
 so that the good old king, then well stricken in years, 
 attempting to descend, fell and broke his neck, and so he 
 died. 
 
 With these legends, interesting as they are, the present 
 investigation has no direct concern, save in so far as they 
 serve to show the great popularity of the story of David. 
 All the plays and poems to which I have had access are 
 based almost exclusively upon the scriptural narrative. 
 
 The history of David as contained in the first and 
 
 ' See Migne, Dictionnaire des Apocryphes, II, 191 ff. ; Baring-Gould, Z/'^^wt/j 
 of the Old Testament Characteis, London, 1871. 
 
— ^5— 
 
 second books of Samuel has proved a never-failing source 
 of inspiration for early morality plays and for later 
 dramas and poems in the literature of Europe and of Eng- 
 land. An enumeration and classification of these plays 
 and poems, such as Alexander von Weilen has made for 
 the Joseph theme,' would be a difficult task, beyond the 
 scope of this investigation. What is here attempted, is 
 an enumeration of some of the more important David 
 themes in the poetry and drama of England and of 
 Europe, and a brief review of such as may have directly 
 or indirectly influenced Cowley. The attempt will also 
 be made to show how in the Davideis, the David and the 
 Joseph themes came into contact. 
 
 That the Biblical history of David was an abundant 
 source of inspiration for later writers is shown in the fact 
 that it branches out into no less than six distinct and 
 important streams : David and Saul (David Persecuted), 
 David and Goliath, David and Jonathan, David and Bath- 
 sheba, David and Absalom, and David and Nabal, besides 
 such scenes as the crowning of David, and the marriage 
 of David. 
 
 As to the relative popularity of these various episodes, 
 it is difficult to reach a definite conclusion, on account of 
 the limited material to which I have had access. Judged 
 solely by the number of the plays, the persecution of David 
 by Saul and the contest between David and Goliath 
 seem to have been the most attractive themes. Next in 
 importance comes David's adultery with Bathsheba. 
 Alexander von Weilen, Der cigyptische Josepli, vorzvort, 
 points out the fact that three Biblical subjects held almost 
 complete and undisputed possession of the stage during 
 the sixteenth century: namely, The Prodigal Son, Susan- 
 nah, and Joseph. In the first case, he goes on to show, 
 the dramatic effect is greatest, for here we have real sin 
 to be atoned for, while in the case of Susannah and Joseph 
 we have innocence unjustly accused. 
 
 ' See Alexander von Weilen, Der cigyptische Joseph im Drama des XVIten 
 Jahrhunderts, ein Beit7-ag zur vergleichenden Litteraturgeschichte, Wien, 1887. 
 
— 16— 
 
 In close connection with the Prodigal Son among the 
 courtesans and his subsequent repentance, appears David's 
 sin with Bathsheba and his later hearty contrition; and 
 Saul's cruel and unreasonable persecution of David arouses 
 for the latter the same pit}' among the spectators that 
 would be felt for Joseph and Susannah unjustly accused. 
 Finally, David's victory over Goliath, — the triumph of 
 skill over brute strength, of right over might, — would be 
 of never-failing interest to all classes of people. 
 
 The following list, though it does not claim to be com- 
 plete, is of value in showing the extent and popularity of 
 the David theme in literature preceding Cowley. 
 
 Fifteenth Century. The earliest extant drama concerning 
 David appears in Rothschild's Mistere du Viel Testament^ Paris, 
 1877 ff.j IV, 76 ff. It belongs to the end of the 15th century. 
 
 Sixteenth Century. 
 
 1500 La rapresentatio77e della distrtictione di Saul et del 
 pidto di Dauii. Finita la rappresejitatione della // battaglia de 
 filistei et della distru jj ctione di Saul. s. 1. n. d. [vers 1500]. In-4. 
 Again in 1547, 1559, and ca. 1600. 
 
 1538 God's Promises, A Tragedye or Enterlude, manyfest- 
 ing the chefe promyses of God unto Man in all Ages of the 
 olde lawe, from the fall of Adam to the Incarnacyon of the 
 Lorde Jesus Christ. Compyled by John Bale, Anno Domini 
 1538, 8vo. See Dodsley's Old Eng. Plays, London, 1825, I, i flf. 
 
 David and Absalom, a Tragedy in five acts. Attributed to 
 Bale. See Rothschild, IV, Ixxxi ; Halliwell, Diet, of Old Eng. 
 Flays, London, i860, p. 70. (This play, however, is not men- 
 tioned among Bale's works.) 
 
 1545 Ein schone trostliche Historia von dem Jiingling 
 David unnd dem mutwilligen Goliath, gehalten zu wienn inn 
 Osterreich durch wolffgang schmeltzel burger daselbst und 
 Schiilmaister zun Schotten, &c. Gedruckt zu Wien i?i Osterreich 
 durch Hans Singriener. See Rothschild, IV, Ixxxiv. 
 
 1549 Nabal. Rod. Gualteri Tigurini Comoedia. Absque 
 noia [Tiguri circa 1549]. In-S. See Rothschild, IV, Ivii. 
 Another edition, Mylium, 1562. 
 
 1550 Nabal. Ein schdn Christenlich, lustig, vnn Kurtz- 
 wylig Spil, erstlicli durch den Eervvirdigen vnnd wollge- 
 
leerten Herren Rudolffen Walthern, ausz dem ersten buch 
 Samuelis, des 25 Cap. gezogen, in ein Latinische Comediam 
 gestelt, niiwlich aber von einer Eerlichen loblichen Burger- 
 schafft zu Schaffhusen, auff den 16. tag Howmonats, des 1559 
 jars, Teiitsch gespilt vnnd gehalten. Getruckt zu Miilhiisen im 
 oberen Elsasz durch Peter Schmid. Anno M.D.LX. In-8. See 
 Rothschild, IV, Iviii. 
 
 1551 Dasz alle hohe gewaltige Monarchien von Gott ein- 
 gesetzt vnd geordnet, die grossen mechtigen Potentaten vnd 
 Herrn zu struffen, recht wider gewalt auffzurichten, auch wid' 
 dieselbigen sicli niemand setzen, verachten noch emporen soli, 
 wirdt durcli das exempel des Kiinigs Samuelis vnd Saulis 
 klarlich angezeygt . . . durch Wolfgang Schmeltzel Burger 
 zii Wienn. Im 155 1 Jar. [at end:] Gedruckt zu Wienn in 
 Osterreich durch Egidium Adier, 155 1. In-8. See Rothschild, 
 IV, xlv. 
 
 155 1 Monomachia Dauidis et Goliae. Tragico-comoedia 
 noua simul et sacra. Authore lacobo Schoeppero Tremoniano. 
 Antuerpice Joannes Lathis, 155 1. 
 
 " C est probableme7it la piece de Schcepperus qui fut repre'se?itee en 
 1577^ pd-r les e'leves du gymnase de Copenhague^ See Rothschild, 
 IV, lix. 
 
 155 1 Ein tragedi, mit vierzehen personen zu agieren, der 
 aufFrhiirische Absolom mit seinem vatter, Konig David ; hat 
 ftinff actus. By Hans Sachs. 
 
 [at end :] Anno Salutis i^^i Jar, am 26 tag Octobris. See Bibl. 
 des Litt. Vereins im Stuttgart, no, 86-1 11. 
 
 Comedia mit 10 personen, der David mitBatsebaim ehbruch, 
 unnd hat fiinff actus. By Hans Sachs. Ibid., 131,319-341. 
 
 1552 Tragedia mit 13 personen zu recidirn, wie Konig 
 David sein mannschaft zelen liess, unnd hat drey actus. 
 
 By Hans Sachs. Ibid., 13, 365-401. 
 
 [at end :] Aimo Salutis isji, am 12 tag Novemb. 
 
 i55i(?) Tragedie de la desconfiture du geant Goliath, 
 A Lausamie. s. d. [1551?]. In-8. 71 pp. By Joachim 
 
 de Coignac. See Migne, Bict. des Apocr., II, 195, note ; Roths- 
 child, IV, Ixiv. 
 
 1553 Ein comedi, mit acht personen zu recidiren : Die 
 Abigayl, und hat V actus. By Hans Sachs. 
 
 [at end :] Anno Salutis MDLIII atn 4 tag Januarii. See Bibl. 
 des Litt. Vereins im Stuttgart, 173, 70-S6. 
 
: — 18— 
 
 1554 Olung Dauidis desz liinglings, vnnd sein streit wider 
 den Risen Goliath. Durch Valentinum Boltz von Rufifach. 
 Gedruckt zu Basely by Bartholome Stdhiiliu, 1554. See Rothschild, 
 IV, Ixxxv. 
 
 1555 Goliath, Die Histori wie Dauid der liingling den 
 Risen Goliath umbbracht unnd erlegt hat. 1st zu Bern durch 
 ein gemeyne Burgerschaft gespilt. Gedruckt Z7i Bern by Samuel 
 Apiario, 1555. [at end :J Hans von Riite. In- 8. See Roths- 
 child, IV, Ixxxv. 
 
 1557 Tragedia Mit 14 Personen : die vervolgung Konig 
 Dauid von dem Konig Saul. Hat 5 actus. By Hans 
 
 Sachs. Niirmberg, 1561 ; dated, however, 6 September, 1557. 
 
 See Rothschild, IV, xlv ; Bibl. des Litt. Vereins im Stuttgart^ 
 131, 262-318. 
 
 156 1 A new interlude of the ij synnes of Kynge Davyde, 
 licensed by T. Hackett, 1561-62. 
 
 See Rothschild, IV, Ixxxii ; Warton-Hazlitt, Hist. Eng. 
 Poetry, II, 234; Hazlitt, Handbook Early Eng. Lit., 1867, under 
 Flays. 
 
 1562 Finis Saulis et Coronatio Davidis, tragi-comoedia. 
 
 " Cette piece fut repre'sentee avec grand succe's par les eleves du 
 Clementinum de Prague le ig septembre 1362.'' See Rothschild, 
 IV, XXV, 
 
 1556 Tragedies sainctes. Dauid combattant. Dauid tri- 
 omphant. Dauid fugitif. Par Loys des Masures Tournisien. 
 A Geneve, De Vimprimerie de Francois Ferrin. 1566. In- 8. 272 
 pp. Other editions printed at Antwerp, Geneva, and Paris, in 
 1582, 1583, 1587, 1595. See Rothschild, IV, Ixv. 
 
 1567 Tragico-comoedia. Von dem frommen Konige David 
 vnd seinem auffrtirischen Sohn Absolon . . . Agiret zu 
 Schwerin auff dem Schlosz fiir den . . . Herrn Johan Albrecht, 
 Hertzogen zu Meckelnburgk, etc., seiner F. G. Gemahl, 
 lungen Herren, vnd Frawlin Vrsula, gebornes Frawlin zu 
 Meckelnburg, Eptissin zu Ribnitz, etc. Anno 1567, i. Sept. 
 [at end :] Gedruckt zu Litbeck, durch Asszverum Kroger. 
 MDLXIX. In-8de88pp. 
 
 " La dedicace datde de Schwerin, le dimanche de la Trinite 156^, 
 est signe'e de Bernhard Hederich, prorecteur de I'^cole de cette ville." 
 Rothschild, IV, Ixxxvi. 
 
 1570 Spel van den Koninglyken profeet David. Composed 
 
—19— 
 
 by the painter Charles van Mander. Acted at Meulebeek (Bel- 
 gium), ca. 1570. Rothschild, IV, Ixxxii. 
 
 1571 Saul. Ein schon, new Spil, von KUnig Saul, vnnd 
 dem Hirten Dauid : Wie desz Sauls hochmut vnd stoltz 
 gerochen, Dauids Demlitigkeit aber so hoch erhaben worden. 
 Durch ein Eersamme Burgerschafft der loblichen Statt Basel 
 gespilet aufif den 5 tag Augustmonats, Anno 1571. 
 
 At the end of the dedication appears the name of the author, 
 Mathias Holtzwart de Ribeauville (Rappoltzweiler). See 
 Rothschild, IV, xlvi. 
 
 1572 Saul le Furieux, //Tragedie prise de la //Bible, //Faicte 
 selon I'art & a la mode des // vieux Autheurs Tragiques. // 
 Plus une Remonstrace faicte pour le Roy Charles IX, //a tous 
 ses subiects, a fin de les encliner a la paix. // Auec // Hymnes, 
 Cartels, Epitaphes, Anagrammatismes, // & autres oeuvres d'un 
 mesme Autheur. // A Paris // Par Frederic Morel Imprimeur du 
 Roy. II M.D.Lxxii [1572]. Avec Privilege dudit Seigneur.' 
 Prefixed is a discourse De Vart de la Tragedie preceded by the 
 name of the author, Jan de La Taille de Bondaroy. The play 
 is written in verse, and is divided into five acts. Several edi- 
 tions appeared; 1601, 1610. See Rothschild, IV, xxx. 
 
 1572 Die schone biblische historia von dem heil. Konigl. 
 Propheten Dauid vnd seinem Sohne Salamo spielweise ge- 
 stellet, durch Christian Berthold von Brandenburg Stadt- 
 schreiber zu Llibben. Wittenberg^ 1572. In-8. See Roths- 
 child, IV, Ixxxvi. 
 
 1572 Konig Davids vnnd Michols Heurath und Hochzeit 
 in ein Comediam gefast durch Johann Teckler. 1572. In-4. 
 See Rothschild, IV, Ixxxvi. 
 
 1575 'Audict an 1575, les troys jours de la Penthecoste, 
 fut jouee r Histoire de David et Golias, Jeant, audevant I'eglise 
 Sainct George, ou y eust grande compaignie de I'eglise, 
 noblesse et habitans de la ville, en grand rejouyssance.' 
 
 Quoted from M^inoires de Jean Burel, bourgeois du Puy,publie's 
 par Augustin C/iassaing, Le Puy-en-Velay, Marchesson, 1875. 
 In-4. Rothschild, IV, Ixviii. 
 
 1578 Du Bartas. La Sepmaine, ou Creation du Monde. 
 Paris, 1578. See Seconde Semaine, Quatrieme Jour. 
 
 1579 The Holie Historic of King David ; wherein is chiefly 
 learned those godly and wholesome lessons, that is, to have 
 
20 
 
 sure patience in persecution, due obedience to our Prince 
 without Rebellion, and also the true and most faithful deal- 
 ings of friends. Drawn into English Metre for the youth to 
 reade by John Marbeck. London, 1579. 4to. See Watts, 
 Bibliotheca Britannica. 
 
 1580 Among works printed by Henry Denham appears 
 David's Sling against great Goliath ; a Sword against the 
 Feare of Death ; a Battel between the Devill and the Con- 
 science ; the Dead Man's Schoole ; a Lodge for Lazarus ; a 
 Retraite for Sin. London, 1580. i6mo. See Watts, Bibl. 
 Brit. 
 
 1582 In Historiam Monomachise Davidis et Goliatlii In- 
 quisitio. By David Hostius, ^/z/., 1582. 8vo. See Watts, 
 Bibl. Brit. 
 
 1583 Saul. Trauerspiel, acted in Annaberg, Germany, 
 Feb. 17, 1583. See Rothschild, IV, xlvi. 
 
 1584 Du Bartas, La Seconde Sepmaine. 
 
 1586 Dauid sconsolato. Tragedia spirituals Del R. Pier 
 Giovanni Brunetto, frate di S. Francesco osseruante. Ifi 
 Biorejiza, per Giorgio Marescotti. 1586. Another edition, Ven- 
 ice, 1605. See Rothchild, IV, Ixxii. 
 
 1597 David, virtutis . . . probatum Deo spectaculum . . . 
 by Arias Montanus (Benedictus). 
 
 Aeneis laminis ornatum a I. T. & I. I. de Br}^, etc., with a 
 preface by C. Ritterhusius [Frankfort] 1597. See Cowley's 
 reference to Arias Montanus, Davideis, Book II, note 47. 
 
 1599 The Love of David and Fair Bethsabe. By 
 George Peele. London, 1599. 
 
 1600 Monomachia Davidis cum Goliath, tragoedia sacra. 
 Tragico-comcedioe. sacrce. qidnque, ac tres Fabella, cum aliquot 
 
 Epigrammatibus. Author e Gabriele latisejiio, Scholarcha Abstano. 
 Gandani, Ex officina Gualterij Manilij, Typogr. lurati, ad 
 signum albse Columbae. 1600. See Rothschild, IV, lix. 
 
 1600 Kurzer Auszzug vnd Summarischer Innhalt, der 
 Tragedi vom Konig Saul, Vnd Comedien vom Konig Dauid, 
 ausz H. Schrifft gezogen. . . . Gehalten . . . Inn Dem Fiirst- 
 lichen Collegio vnd Academia der Societet lesu in der Steyri- 
 schen Haubstatt Griitz den [ ] tag Aprilis, Anno 1600. 
 Gedruckt zu Griitz^ bey Georg Widmanstetter. S. d. [1600]. In-4to. 
 
 Represented on the occasion of the marriage of the Arch- 
 
duke Frederick with the Princess Palatine Marie-Anne. See 
 Rothschild, IV, xxvi. 
 
 1600 Tragedies et autres CEuvres. Par Antoine Mont- 
 chrestien. Contains five tragedies, among which : David ou 
 I'Adultere, Rouen, 1604, 1606. 
 
 1602 Dauid victus et victor. 
 
 Adultermm : Zwo Christliche Spiele vom laster des Ehebruchs. 
 Von Ambrosio Fape, Pfarrer zu KIcin-A»i/nanslebc?t im Magde- 
 burgischen (Magdeburg, 1602). See Rothschild, IV, Ixxxvi. 
 
 1604 Konungh Da//widhz Historia ifran thet // han bleff 
 smordh til Konungh j //Betlehem aff Propheten Samuel, //in 
 til thes han Kom igen til lerusalem, //sedhan Absalon dodher 
 waar, Nyli-//ghen vthsatt pft rijm. Lustigh//att lasa, etc. 
 
 Trycktj Stockholm, aff A mind I j Olufson, Anno 1604. Prose and 
 verse, in three acts. Author, Thomas Gevaliensis. See Roths- 
 child, IV, xci. 
 
 i6o6 Comoedia von Dauid vnd Goliath. Gestellet durch 
 M. Georgium Mauritium den Eltern. Von dem Autore mit 
 Fleisz von newem durchsehen. Leipzig, 1606. See Rothschild, 
 IV, Ixxxvii. 
 
 1609 Davide perseguitato. Tragedia di Felice Passero. 
 In Napole, per Gio : Donienico Ro}icaglioio,i6Qg. See Rothschild, 
 IV, Ixxii. 
 
 1612 Three sermons wherein Queen Elizabeth is paralleled 
 with David, Joshua, and Hezekia. London, 161 2. 8vo. 
 By Valentine Leigh. See Watts, Bibl. Brit. 
 
 16 14 Davide, re adultero et micidiale, ma penitente. Rap- 
 presentazione di Fra Michiele Zanardo. In Venezia, per Antonio 
 Turrini, 16 14. See Rothschild, IV, Ixxii. 
 
 1616 loseph Goetzii eyn geystliche Comedia vom Goliath. 
 Magdeburg, 1616. See Rothschild, IV, Ixxxvii. 
 
 1620 Dauidis ^^rumnosum Exilium et gloriosum Effugium, 
 Die Beschwerliche Flucht vnd herliche Auszflucht, des 
 vnschuldigen Koniglichen Hoffdieners Dauids, wie er vom 
 Konige Saul verfolgt, gllicklichen entgangen, vnd an dessen 
 stadt zum Konigreich mit Ehren erhaben worden. In die 
 Form einer Christlichen Comedien vnd Spiel verfast, Gott zu 
 Ehren, zum erstenmal agiret zu Baldstedt, auff begehren 
 etlicher ehrlicher Leute zum Drucke vbergeben. 1620. Von 
 Tobia Kilio Baldstadensi, Pfarrer zu Eschenberga. Gedruckt 
 zu Erffurdt, Bey Tobies Fritzschen. See Rothschild, IV, Ixxxvii. 
 
— 22 — 
 
 i62o Francis Quarles. Feast of Wormes, etc. 1632 Divine 
 Fancies, edited by A. B. Grosart, Chertsey Worthies^ 1 880-1881. 
 
 1628 a Dauide. Tragedia dell' Accademico Nascosto [cioe 
 del F. Tancredi Cottone, Sanese, Compagnia di Gesu]. In 
 Roma, per Gugliebuo Facciotti, 1628. See Rothschild, IV, Ixxiii. 
 
 b David per Saulispersecutionem ad regnum Israelis erectus. 
 Ex Tancredo Cottono Soc. Jesu. 
 
 * Tragedie en cinq actes qui off re tin curicux melange du sacre et 
 du profane. Les personnages sent : Pluto, Sulphurimis, genius 
 itif emails, Saul, Jonathas, Ellab, Abner, Joab, Mosue, miles, Capi- 
 taneus, Moab, Dochim, pastor, Charon, cum Cerbero, Nuncii, Chori.' 
 Published 1680. See Rothschild, IV, Ixxiii. 
 
 1630 The Muses Elizium : three Divine Poems on Noah's 
 Flood, Moses' Birth and Miracles, and David and Goliath. 
 By Michael Drayton. London, 1630. 4to. 
 
 1631 David's Heinous Sin, Repentances, and heavy Pun- 
 ishments. By Thomas Fuller, D.D., London, 1631. 8vo. 
 See Grosart's edition : Poems atid Translations in verse, Liver- 
 pool, 1868. Privately printed. 
 
 1632 a II Gigante. Rapprezentazione fatta nel Seminario 
 Romano. Poesia del P. Leone Santi, Sanese, della Com- 
 pagnia di Gesu. In Roma, per Francesco Corbelleti, 1632. See 
 Rothschild, IV, Ixxiii. 
 
 b Dauide, rappresentazione fatta nel Seminario Romano, e 
 altre poesie del P. Leone Santi, Sanese, della Compagnia di 
 Gesu. In Roma, per Francesco Corbelletti, 1637. In- 12. See 
 Rothschild, IV, Ixxiii. 
 
 1633 True Happiness, or King David's Choice. By 
 Wm. Struther. London, 1633. 
 
 ' Begunne in Sermons, and now digested into a Treatise.' 
 
 1634 Davide persequitato. Venetia, 1634. By Marquis 
 Virgilio Malvezzi. 
 
 1635 The Story of David and Berseba [a ballad]. 2 pts. 
 Black Letter. London, [1635 ?]. '$)et Roxburgke Ballads, I, 88. 
 
 1635 David's Diamond Sparkling in the Darke, or A Medi- 
 tation on part of the ninth Verse of the 36 Psalme. By P. 
 H. London, 1635. 
 
 1637 A Translation from Italian into English of II Davide 
 Persequitato, i. e. David Persecuted. London, 1637. See 
 Watts, Bibl. Brit. 
 
1637 Israel // afflige // on // Tragecomedie // aduenue du 
 temps //'du Dauid, //etc. A Geneve jj Far Jacques Flanchant, 
 1637. With an epistle signed Jean Vallin, Genevois. See 
 Rothschild, IV, Ixviii. 
 
 Among the dramatis personre appears Alecton, fiirie. 
 
 1637 David, hoc est vertutis exercitatissimae probatum Deo 
 Spectaculum ex Davidis pastoris, militis regis, exulis, ac pro- 
 plietae exemplis. Consisting of 4^ engravings. Amstelodami, 
 1637. 
 
 1638 Davi[ds] troubl[es] remembered in i Absolons Sheep- 
 shearing. 2 Joab projecting. 3 Bathsheba bathing. 4 Israel 
 rebelling. 5 Ahitophel hanging. 6 David returning, [a poem]. 
 London, 1638. 
 
 The earliest drama of David to which I had access, and 
 possibly the earliest extant, is a French miracle play 
 belonging to the end of the 15th century, and printed in 
 Rothschild's Le Mist ere du Viel Testament, IV, 76 ff. Over 
 4000 lines are devoted to the history of David. 
 
 The scene opens with a conversation between Jesse and 
 his three sons, Helyas, Amadab, and David, in which he 
 assigns to each his path in life. The two older are to 
 follow the train of 'noblesse,' while the youngest is to 
 become a shepherd. The varying fortunes of David are 
 then set before us, following closely the Scriptural ac- 
 count. But the poet has wisely omitted many tiresome 
 details, and has not hesitated to change the order of 
 events. It is noticeable that the episode of David and 
 Bathsheba is given the most prominence. 
 
 BISHOP BALE. GocVs Promises. 
 
 Rothschild, IV, Ixxxi, includes in his list David and 
 Absoloji, a tragedy in five acts, by Bishop Bale, mentioned 
 by Halliwell, Diet. Old Eng. Plays, London, i860, p. 70. 
 This was not accessible, but of the other works of Bale, 
 Dodsley, Old Eng. Plays, London, 1825, I, ff., prints God''s 
 Promises, A Tragedye or Enterliide, inanyfesting the cheefe 
 promyses of God unto man in. all ages of the olde lazve, from 
 the fall of Adam to the Incarnacyon of the Lorde Jesus Christ. 
 
—24— 
 
 Conipylcd by JoJian Bale, Anno Domini, i^jS. 8vo. Doubt- 
 less published abroad at Geneva. 
 
 The drama is divided into seven acts, corresponding to 
 seven ages or periods, the seven promises of God to 
 Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, Esaias, and John 
 the Baptist. At the end of each act is a kind of chorus, 
 performed with voices and instruments, and subjoined 
 are a prologue and epilogue, spoken by the author Baleus 
 himself. 
 
 Each act is devoted to a dialogue between the Creator 
 and one of the characters. In act 5 appear Pater Coelestis 
 and David, Rex Pins. God complains to David of the 
 idolatry of Israel and threatens to punish her. David 
 begs him to stay his hand, and refers to all the good men 
 of Israel and their good deeds. The Lord, however, 
 becomes more personal in his accusation, and insists that 
 David himself must be punished for his adultery with 
 Bathsheba. David is then given his choice among three 
 punishments: seven years' famine, three months' exile, or 
 three days' pestilence. David, however, is unable to 
 choose, and leaves all to the Lord, who determines to send 
 a pestilence of three days' length, during which time three 
 score thousand men are to die. David then begs that his 
 innocent people may be spared, and that he, who alone is 
 guilty, may be punished. This pleases the Lord, and he 
 makes a promise to David that the kingdom shall descend 
 to his son, and that this son shall build a temple to the 
 Lord. David then sings a hymn of praise to the Lord, 
 thanking Him for his victories over the bear, the lion, 
 and Goliath. 
 
 This miracle play, though very simple in construction, 
 is more ambitious in design than the French mistere, and 
 is developed according to a strict logical plan. The 
 object of the learned Bishop was not so much to amuse 
 as to instruct : 
 
 No tryfling sporte 
 In fantasyes I'ayned, nor soche like gaudysh gere. 
 But the thyngs that shall your inward stomake cheare, 
 To rejoice in God for your just3^fycacyon, 
 And alone in Christ to hope for your salvacyon. 
 
-CO- 
 
 HANS SACHS S PLAYS. 
 
 In Sachs's plays, Saul's Persecution of David, David 
 and Absalom, David and Bathsheba, David and Abigayl, 
 and David numbers his People, are largely paraphrases 
 of the Scriptural text. The poet has added nothing of 
 his own, either by way of material or manner of treat- 
 ment. On the contrary, the Biblical narrative has suf- 
 fered at his hands. 
 
 DU BARTAS'S WORKS. 
 
 Of no little importance in the history and development 
 of the religious epic were the works of Guillaume de 
 Saluste du Bartas, who flourished during the latter half 
 of the XVIth centur}'.' Du Bartas was a strong Prot- 
 estant, and in the great Civil War in France in the time 
 of Charles IX and Henry III, he warmly espoused the 
 cause of the Huguenots. Attaching himself to Henry IV, 
 he aided him on the field and in the council chamber, and 
 was sent as ambassador to the court of Scotland, where 
 King James VI took a great liking to him and wished to 
 retain him in his service. James was an ardent admirer 
 of his poems, and tried his hand at translating L Uranie 
 and Les Furies^ the third part of the first day ; while Du 
 Bartas translated into French a poem of the King's.' 
 
 Du Bartas, however, remained faithful to King Henr}'^ 
 to the last, and at the great battle of Ivry, fought bravely 
 for the royal cause, and received wounds from which he 
 soon afterwards died (1590). 
 
 His principal work consists of an almost complete his- 
 tory of the Old Testament in verse. The first part is en- 
 titled La Sepmaine, 021 Creation dii Monde, published first 
 at Paris, 1578, 4to. The privilege of the king is dated 
 
 ' See Sainte Beuve, Revue des Deux Maudes, 1842, 4th series, vol. 29, pp. 
 549 ff. ; Frasers Magazine, vol. 26, 1842, pp. 312 ff. ; vol. 58, 1858, pp. 4S0 ff. 
 
 ^ The Exord, or preface of the second week of Dtc Bartas. The Fuiies. His 
 Majesties Poeticall Exercises, etc., 1591. 4to. 
 
 ^ La Lepanthe de Jacques VI, faicte Francoise par le Sieur du Bartas. His 
 Majesties Poeticall Exercises, etc., 1591. 
 
—26— 
 
 Feb., 1578. The second part is entitled Le Sccondc Sep- 
 maine, and was first published in 1584. 
 
 The success of the first part was immediate and strik- 
 ing. It was translated into Latin, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, 
 and English, and went through thirty editions in less 
 than six years, so that the fame and influence of Du 
 Bartas spread abroad over England as well as over 
 Europe. Even Milton was a reader and admirer of the 
 Divine Weeks. 
 
 Joshua Sylvester, an English poet of some note, trans- 
 lated portions of Du Bartas's poem as early as 1591, only 
 one year after the French poet's death.' It was not, 
 however, till 1605 that the first edition of the complete 
 translation appeared. Sylvester was peculiarly fitted for 
 his task. He had acquired a thorough knowledge of 
 French at school, and he had traveled in Holland, France, 
 and German}'. He was a staunch Puritan and must have 
 been in full sympathy with Du Bartas's religious views, 
 so that his work of translation was doubtless a labor of 
 love. At all events, his translation was successful. It 
 won for him the praise of his contemporaries, and served 
 to establish his reputation as a poet. 
 
 Sylvester follows the original closely, with an occa- 
 sional change of name, so as to make the description 
 more suitable to his own country. For instance, Du 
 Bartas likens Eden to Paris, whereas Sylvester compares 
 it to London, ' that it might be more familiar to his meere 
 English and untravell'd Readers.' Moreover, Sylvester 
 occasionally stops to apply the story to some recent polit- 
 ical event. The expulsion of Adam and Eve from Para- 
 dise, for instance, is applied to the expulsion of the 
 Spaniards from Cadiz. On the whole, however, it is a 
 faithful translation. 
 
 Sylvester was not the only English translator of Du 
 Bartas. In 1596 there appeared at London a translation 
 of part of the Second Week by the famous Anglo-Saxon 
 
 1 See Arber, Transcript of the Stationers' Register ; Grosart's Sylvester, 
 Chertsey Worthies, Memorial-Intro., pp. XII-XIII. 
 
—z-j— 
 
 Scholar William L'Isle, with the long and learned Com- 
 mentary of Simon Goulart Senlisien. A more complete 
 translation by the same scholar, including the end of the 
 fourth book of Adam and all of the four books of Noah, 
 was published at London in 1625. There were also other 
 translations of portions of this monster poem by J. 
 Winter, London, 1604; Thomas Lodge, 1621 ; and a 
 Latin rendering at Edinburgh, 1600. Of Du Bartas's 
 Judith the translation of T. Hudson appeared at Edin- 
 burgh in 1584; London, 1608 and 161 1. 
 
 The first part of this poem, La Sepmame, is divided into 
 seven days, to represent the week of creation : (i) Chaos. 
 (2) The Elements. (3) The Sea and Earth. (4) The 
 Heavens; Sun, Moon, etc. (5) Tne Fishes and Fowls. 
 (6) The Beasts and Man. (7) The Sabbath. To the edi- 
 tion of 1588 are prefixed the first two chapters of Genesis 
 to serve as the argument of the poem. 
 
 This first part, containing more than six thousand lines, 
 is almost encyclopaedic in content. Not satisfied with 
 mentioning hail or snow or wind among the created 
 elements, the poet must enter into a long and involved 
 discussion as to the origin of each ; likewise of birds and 
 beasts and fishes ; so that Du Bartas has given us a store- 
 house of mediaeval science and folk-lore. At every oppor- 
 tunity he has stopped to bring in elaborate theological 
 discussions, — for example, as to the essence of God and 
 the nature of the Trinity, — for the aim of the poet has 
 been to instruct as well as to amuse. The poem has been 
 made still more compendious by Simon Goulart de Senlis, 
 who has added to each book a summary at the beginning, 
 marginal notes, and at the end, full explanation of all 
 difficulties. 
 
 The second part, La Seconde Sepmaine, was also divided 
 into seven days, to form a second week. Here the poet's 
 design was a vast one ; he intended to treat the whole 
 Biblical history as contained in the Old and New Testa- 
 ments. He died, however, before he could carrv out his 
 
—28— 
 
 extensive scheme ; so that he was enabled to complete 
 only the first four parts, or days of the week. 
 
 Each day is devoted to the life of a prophet or of a holy 
 man of Israel : (i) Adam. (2) Noah. (3) Abraham. (4) 
 David. (5) Zedechiah. (6) Messias. (7) Th' Eternall Sab- 
 bath. ' But of the three last, Death (preventing Our 
 Noble Poet) hath deprived us.' 
 
 The first day is divided into four parts : (i) Eden. (2) 
 The Imposture. (3) The Furies. (4) The Handy-Crafts. 
 Here we have an elaborate treatment of the fall of man. 
 The poet begins with a long description of the Garden of 
 Eden, containing some very pretty passages. Next is 
 narrated how the devil plotteth man's destruction, and 
 clothing himself in a 'Dragon skin, all bright bespeckt,' 
 enters Eden and brings about the fall of man. We are told 
 then of the discord brought about by man's sin, of famine 
 and war and sickness summoned as a result of man's dis- 
 obedience. Finally the poet relates the first manner of life 
 of Adam and Eve after their fall, and tells of Cain and 
 Abel and of the various useful inventions made by man. 
 The whole occupies nearly three thousand lines in Sylves- 
 ter's translation. 
 
 The second day, Noah, is divided into four parts : (i) 
 The Ark. (2) Babylon. (3) The Colonies. (4) The Col- 
 umnes. 
 
 The third day, Abraham, is divided into four parts: 
 (i) The Vocation. (2) The Fathers. (3) The Law. (4) 
 The Captains. 
 
 The fourth day, David, is divided into four parts: (i) 
 The Trophies. (2) The Magnificence. (3) The Schism. 
 {4) Decay. 
 
 Du Bartas was a religious poet but not a mystic, and 
 he contended for the use of Biblical themes as the only 
 proper subjects for verse. His Uranie is an address to the 
 Heavenly Muse, a powerful plea for the employment of 
 sacred themes in poetry. As a consequence he was ex- 
 tolled as the one 'Qui Musas ereptas profanae lasciviae 
 sacris montibus reddidit; sacris fontibus aspersit ; sacris 
 cantibus intonuit.' 
 
—29— 
 
 In his own words : 
 
 Profanes ecrivans, vostre impudique rime 
 Est cause que Ton met nos chantres mieux-disans 
 Au rang des basteleurs, des boufons, des plaisans ; 
 Est qu'encore moins qu'eux le peuple les estime. 
 
 Que Christ, comme Homme-Dieu, soil la croupe jumelle 
 Sur qui vous sommeillez. Que, pour cheval aile 
 L'Esprit du Trois fois. 
 
 Cowley felt the same inspiration of the Heavenl}^ Muse, 
 and declared that the Muse had been debased by poems 
 upon profane and lascivious subjects. ' Amongst all the 
 holy and consecrated things which the Devil ever stole 
 and alienated from the service of the Deity,' are his im- 
 passioned words in his general preface to his work, ' there 
 is none so long usurpt as poetry. ... It is time to baptize 
 it in Jordan, for it will never become clean by bathing it 
 in the waters of Damascus.' His divine mission to purify 
 poetry is also seen clearl}^ in the Davidcis, I, 37 ff. 
 
 Too long the Muses' land hath heathen been ; 
 Their gods too long were devils, and virtues sin, 
 But thou. Eternal Word, hath called forth me, 
 Th' Apostle to convert that world to thee. 
 
 Cowley and Du Bartas had much in common. The 
 French poet gave up his very life to the cause of Protes- 
 tantism and of his royal master. Cowley was a staunch 
 Royalist, even at the University, and in a few years, he 
 too was to devote his time and his talents to the service 
 of his king. Moreover, as shown above, both had the 
 same conception of the moral purpose of poetry. There 
 was thus much in the life of the French poet to arouse the 
 sympathy of the young Cambridge student. On the 
 whole, then, we should expect to find no slight influence 
 of Du Bartas upon Cowley's religious epic, the Davideis. 
 
 Of especial interest in connection with the Davideis is 
 Du Bartas's histor}^ of David as contained in the Fourth 
 Day of the second week, part first, entitled Les Trophees. 
 In the preceding part, Les Capitaines, the people had de- 
 * 3 
 
— 30— 
 
 manded a king, Saul had been chosen and anointed (11. 
 879 to end). The poet makes much of this election of the 
 King-. It is debated in full assembly, — first, a Plebeian 
 makes a declamation for a Democracy, or People-Sway; 
 next, a Reverend Senator speaks for an Aristocracy, or a 
 rule of a chosen synod of the best men ; finally, a noble 
 young prince pleads for a Monarchy, or the Sovereignty 
 of a king. Cowley, Book IV, follows the Biblical account 
 more closely. In Les Trophees, the history of Saul is con- 
 tinued : In the opening lines, the rejection of Saul is 
 related and the election of David in his stead. The poet 
 states these facts in a few lines, and then proceeds at once 
 to David's visit to the camp of the Israelites and to his 
 contest with Goliath. To this Du Bartas devotes over 
 three hundred lines including man}' elaborate similes and 
 comparisons. Next the poet recounts Saul's envy of David 
 and Jonathan's love for him. Nothing, however, is said 
 of David's marriage. Much is made of Saul's visit to the 
 witch of Endor, to which about a hundred lines are given, 
 in addition to a disquisition upon the devil and upon evil 
 spirits in general. The poet is careful to show that the 
 shade summoned up by the witch could not have been 
 Samuel, for devils have no power over saints; it must, 
 therefore, have been the Prince of darkness himself that 
 appeared and spoke to Saul. The relation of the death 
 of Saul and of Jonathan occupies only a few lines, and then 
 follows a long enumeration of David's virtues, together 
 with a consideration of the excellence of his Psalms. The 
 rest of the book treats of David's adultery with Bath- 
 sheba (II. 887-1094). The poet, moreover, take occasion 
 to compare to David King James VI of Scotland, to whose 
 court Du Bartas had been sent by Henry IV of France 
 (see above). The book closes with an account of the pes- 
 tilence inflicted upon David, as a consequence of his sin, 
 and with an application of this pestilence to France ; in 
 Sylvester's translation, to England. 
 
 The remarks of Simon Goulart de Senlis, the editor of 
 Du Bartas, in his summary prefixed to this book, are of 
 
—31— 
 
 great importance in connection with the Davidcis. ' En 
 ces chapitres,' he writes, ' le S. Esprit nous fait voir las 
 merveilles de Dieu en I'infirmite de son serviteur David. 
 Le Poete represente les principaux poincts d'icelle his- 
 toire en onze cens vers ou environs, choisissant ce qui lui 
 a semble plus digne d'estre compris en I'oeuvre par lui 
 entrepris. Car une Davideide vaudroit bien le cours 
 dune Eneide, ou le nombre des livres de I'lliade et de 
 rOdyssee ensemble si quelque Chrestien et docte poete 
 Frangois vouloit y employer le temps et I'estude, comme 
 un si noble et fertile sujet le merite. Mais le Sieur du 
 Bartas, qui ne vouloit ainsi s'estendre, ains visoit a se 
 maintenir en sa bienseance accoustumee, s'est convena- 
 blement enclos en ce cercle d'un petit nombre de vers, 
 qui comprenent une infinite de chpses, sous le nom de 
 Trophees ou marques des victoires de David ; que nous 
 rapportons a quatre principaux.' 
 
 Here we have a suggestion for just such a poem as 
 Cowley undertook, and undertook on just such a scale as 
 is here suggested. In fact, the whole design of Cowley's 
 work, as given by him in his preface, seems very close to 
 that of Du Bartas. ' I come now to the last part which 
 is the Davideis, or an heroical poem of the troubles of 
 David : which I designed into twelve books ; not for the 
 tribes' sake, but after the pattern of our master Virgil ; 
 ^nd intended to close all with that most poetical and 
 excellent elegy of David on the death of Saul and Jona- 
 than, for I had no mind to carry him quite on to his 
 anointing at Hebron, because it is the custom of heroic 
 poets (as we see by the example of Homer and Virgil, 
 whom we should do ill to forsake to imitate others) never 
 to come to the full end of their story . . . This I say was 
 the whole design, in which there are many noble and 
 fertile arguments behind ; as the barbarous cruelty of 
 Saul to the priests at Nob, the several flights and escapes 
 of David, with the manner of his living in the Wilderness, 
 the funeral of Samuel, the love of Abigail, the sacking of 
 Ziglag, the loss and recovery of David's wives from the 
 
—32— 
 
 Amalekites, the witch of Endor, the war with the Philis- 
 tines, and the battle of Gilboa ; all which I meant to inter- 
 weave, upon several occasions, with the most of the illus- 
 trious stories of the Old Testament, and to embellish with 
 the most remarkable antiquities of the Jews, and of other 
 nations before or at that age.' 
 
 Cowley's whole design was thus wonderfully like that 
 of Du Bartas. Cowley's poem was to be, not simply a 
 history of David, but a complete history of the Old Tes- 
 tament. At the same time it is to be noted that Cowley's 
 plan is founded upon the Aencid of Virgil, to whom the 
 English poet refers in every matter of doubt. Even here, 
 however, in casting a religious poem in classical, yet 
 ' heathen,' mold, Cowley follows the precedent of Du 
 Bartas, who had attempted exactly the same thing in his 
 epic \)OQV[\ Jjtdith, entitled by Sylvester, the English trans- 
 lator, ^^///z/Z/^'j- i?<r.y«/r. This poem, containing about fif- 
 teen hundred lines, was written before the Divine Weeks, 
 possibly about 1565.' It was first translated into English 
 by F. Hudson, in 1534, before the publication of the 
 Second Week. The translation was dedicated to King 
 James, by whom the work was probably suggested. It 
 was issued in London in 1608, and again in 161 1. Hud- 
 son's translation contains exactly the same number of 
 verses as the original text. Sylvester's translation ap- 
 peared in 1614, under the title Bethiilias Rescue. 
 
 For the design and execution of his poem, Du Bartas 
 in his letter to the reader thus excuses himself : ' Ami 
 lecteur, m'ayant este commande par feu tres-illustre & 
 tres-vertueuse Princesse lanne, Reine de Navarre, de 
 rediger I'histoire de ludith en forme d'un Poem Epique ; 
 ie n'ai pas tout suivi I'ordre, ou la phrase du texte de la 
 Bible, come i'ai tasche (sous toutes fois m'eslonger de la 
 verite de I'histoire) d'imiter Homere en son Iliade, Ver- 
 gile en son Eneide, & autres qui nous ont laisse des 
 ouvrages de seblable estofFe, & ce pour rendre de tant 
 
 ' See Sainte-Beuve, Keime des Deiix Mondes, 1842, 4th series, vol. 49, pp. 
 551 ff- 
 
—33— 
 
 plus mon oeuvre delectable. Si I'effect n'a respondu a 
 mon desir, ie te supplie de reietter la coulpe sur celle qui 
 m'a propose un si sterile suiet : & non sur moy, qui 
 ne lui pouvois honnestement desobeyer. Tant y a que 
 comme estant le premier de la France, qui par un iuste 
 Poeme a}- traicte, en nostre langue, des choses sacrees, 
 i'espere recevoir de ta grace quelque excuse.' 
 
 Compare above the quotation made from Cowley's 
 preface : ' which I designed into twelve books ; . . . . after 
 the pattern of our master Virgil.' But Cowley is much 
 more modest than Du Bartas, and is willing to put the 
 blame of a possible failure where it properly belongs — 
 upon himself. ' I am farre from assuming to m3'self to 
 have fulfilled the duty of this weighty undertaking,' he 
 continues, 'but sure I am, that there is nothing yet in 
 our Language (nor perhaps in afijy) that is in any degree 
 answerable to the idea that I conceive of it.' Again 
 he expresses himself to similar effect, in note 3 to the 
 Davideis, 'for though some in other Languages have 
 attempted the writing a Divine Poem ; yet none, that I 
 know of, has in English.' Thus he completely ignores 
 Peele, Quarles, Drayton, and Fuller, not to speak of 
 others. 
 
 Since Cowley and Du Bartas both imitate classical 
 models, their poems have much in common. In both 
 poems, the same devices were used for the relation of past 
 events; sometimes by narration, as when, in the second 
 book of /wrf'zV/;, the Prince of the Ammonites relates to 
 Holofernes the history of Israel, to which more than half 
 of the book is devoted. Similarly in the Davideis, the 
 whole of the fourth book is occupied by David's account 
 of the government of Israel. Again, whole histories are 
 wrought in tapestry. In book II, Judith embroiders 
 divine stories, and in book V she sees various histories 
 woven in the arras of the tent. In the Davideis likewise 
 this is a favorite device, as in books II and III. In 
 addition to this, Cowley, by means of David's vision, 
 relates a long history of the future. This general resem- 
 
—34— 
 
 blance in the outline and in the use of such epic devices 
 is a natural consequence of the employment of the same 
 classical model. The following points, however, seem 
 clearl}' established by the foregoing- investigation : That 
 Du Bartas set the example for Cowley in his treatment 
 of a religious epic in strictly classical form, and that 
 Cowley derived from Du Bartas not only the inspiration 
 for the Davideis, but also many helpful suggestions as to 
 style and treatment of the poem, 
 
 I have observed the following more specific correspond- 
 ences between Cowley and Du Bartas : 
 
 And Saul himself, tho' in his troubled breast 
 The weight of empire la)-, took gentle rest. 
 
 Davideis, I, 229-230. 
 
 Of Pharaoh: 
 
 Who slumbering then on his unquiet couch 
 With Israel's greatness was disturbed much. 
 
 Sylvester's Translation, Grosart, I, 185. 
 
 3d Part of 3d Day of I Week, 11. 92-93. 
 
 Swift Jordan started and straight backward fled, 
 Hiding among thick reeds his aged head. 
 
 Davideis, I, 1. 237-238. 
 
 Clear Jordan's Selfe in his dry oazie Bed, 
 Blushing foT shame, was faine to hide his head. 
 Sylvester's Translation, 
 
 Bet/iulia's Resctie, 1, 1. 51-52. 
 
 Compare also Davideis, 1, 70 ff., description of Env}^ and 
 episode of Envy arousing Saul, with Sylvester's Du 
 Bartas, 2d Week, 3d Da}', 3d Book, The Lazu, 11. 45 ff., 
 description of Envy, and episode of Env)" inciting Phar- 
 aoh to rage. Compare, too, with this same passage of 
 Cowley, the pictures of the furies, 2d Week, ist Day, 3d 
 Book, 11. 234 ff., and the witch of Endor, 3d Week, 4th 
 Day, ist Book, 11. 624 ff. (see below, p. 49). Finally com- 
 pare Davideis, I, 441 ff., and note on this passage, with 
 Sylvester's Du Bartas, 2d week, 4th Day, ist Book, The 
 Trophces, II. 417 ff., influence of music; Davideis, IV, 975 
 ff.. Slaughter of Philistines, with BetJmlids Rescue, Gro- 
 sart's Sylvester, VI, 284 ff. 
 
GEORGE PEELE. Love of David and Fair BetJisabc. 1599. 
 
 In point of chronology, the next pla}^ concerning David 
 to which I have had access, is George Peele's Love of 
 David and Fail' BetJisabe, with the Tragedy of Absahn, 
 printed at London in 1599, by Adam Islip. 410.' 
 
 David and Bethsabe is considered Peele's masterpiece. 
 It has much in common with the earlier miracle plays, 
 but it makes a great advance as compared with them. 
 The scene opens with Bethsabe bathing and David above 
 admiring her charms. He sends Cusay to bring her 
 before him, and tells her of his passion. He then com- 
 missions Cusay to fetch Uriah from the army. Joab and 
 his hosts next appear, and Uriah returns to the king. 
 Then follows the episode of Ammon and Thamar. Uriah 
 comes before David, who makes him drunk, 'And David 
 joys his too dear Bethsabe.' Bethsabe laments her folly. 
 The next scene is between Nathan and David, wherein 
 David repents of his sin. Absalom slays Ammon. David 
 marches against Rabath and takes the town. He learns 
 of Absalom's crime, but becomes reconciled to him. 
 Absalom, however, rebels, aided by Achitophel. Achito- 
 phel's counsel is disregarded, and he slays himself. Joab 
 slays Absalom, and the play closes with David's lament 
 over his son. 
 
 Fleay thinks the situations in the play suggestive of 
 Elizabeth and Leicester as David and Bathsheba, Uriah 
 as Leicester's first wife, and Absalom as Mary Queen of 
 Scots. It remained, however, for the masterly hand of 
 Dryden to draw the wonderful parallel between Absalom 
 and Achitophel and the political events of Charles II's 
 reign. 
 
 Although Peele follows closely the main features of the 
 Scriptural account, he has made more than a mere para- 
 phrase, or chronicle history of the Bible. He shows con- 
 siderable imagination, and he allows himself some little 
 
 ^ See Fleay, Eng. Drain., II, 153-154; Warton-Hazlitt, Hist. Eng. Poetry, 
 II, 234 ; Hazlitt, Handbook, p. 451 ; S)'mond, Shakespeare's Predecessors, p. 
 570 ; Ward, Eng. Dram. Lit., I, 211 ff. 
 
-36- 
 
 freedom in the treatment of the dialogues. On the whole, 
 he has handled the subject with dignity and propriety. 
 
 FRANCIS QUARLES ( I 592- 1 644). 
 
 Francis Quarles was a man of very different tempera- 
 ment from Peele. He was deeply religious like Du Bar- 
 tas, and his mind * was chiefly set upon devotion and 
 study.' Like Du Bartas and Cowley, he too was a Prot- 
 estant and a strong supporter of the royal cause; but he 
 was altogether of a gloomy and puritanical cast of mind. 
 He is said to have visited King Charles at Oxford in 1644, 
 and doubtless met Cowley there. He died September 8, 
 1644. 
 
 It was chiefly through his Emblems that he secured his 
 reputation ; but his earliest poems were religious para- 
 phrases of the Bible. His first poem, published in 1620, 
 is entitled A Feast of Worines set forth in a Poeme of the 
 History of Jonah. It is written in heroic couplets, and 
 contains 1784 lines, besides a Proposition of the Whole, an 
 Introduction, and at the end, The General Use of this 
 History. The story follows the Bible closely, chapter 
 and verse being indicated in the margin. The poem is 
 divided into thirteen sections, at the end of each of which 
 appears a pious meditation, in the nature of a commentary 
 or sermon upon the text. His material for these ' medi- 
 tations ' is drawn from the Bible, from the church 
 Fathers, and often from the Latin and Greek poets. 
 
 His other religious poems are: Hadessa, or the History 
 of Queen Esther, 1621; /ob Militant, 1624; The History of 
 Sampson, 163 1 ; Solomon's Recantation, not published till 
 1645, but doubtless composed at about the same time that 
 his other religious poems were written. In his Divine 
 Fancies, 1633, he has several short poems on David : Saul 
 and David, II, 9; David and Goliath, II, 10; David's Epi- 
 taph on Jonathan, II, 13; David'' s Choice, II, 27; David, II, 
 48 ; Kai)i and David, II, 71 ; David, IV, 39. 
 
 In his treatment of these different poems, Quarles shows 
 little or no variation; all are equall}^ dull and monoto- 
 
—Z7— 
 
 nous, all are written in heroic couplets, and all contain 
 'pious meditations' interspersed throughout the story. 
 
 For the insertion of the ' Meditations,' the poet, in his 
 preface to Hadessa, thus justifies himself:' 'As for the 
 Manner of this History (consisting of the Periphrase, the 
 adjournment of the Story, and interposition of Medita- 
 tions) I hope I have not injured the Matter; For in this I 
 was not the least carefuU to use the light of the best Expo- 
 sitors authoritatis quorum sum germanus) not daring to 
 go un-led for fear of stumbling. Some say. Divinity in 
 verse is incongruous, and unpleasing: such 1 referre to 
 the Psalms of David, or the song of his sonne Solomon, to 
 be corrected. But in these lewd times, the salt, and soule 
 of a Verse, is obscene scurrility, without which it seems 
 dull and lifeless. And though the sacred History needs 
 not (as humane do) Poetry to perpetuate the remem- 
 brance (being by God's ovvne mouth blest with Eternity) 
 yet Verse, working so neare upon the soule, and spirit) 
 will oft times draw those to have a History in familiarity, 
 who (perchance) before (scarce knew there was such a 
 book).' 
 
 This recalls at once Cowley's eloquent plea for the 
 employment of Scriptural scenes and incidents as proper 
 subjects for poetry. Cowley wishes to ' recover poetry 
 from the service of the devil,' ' to baptize it in Jordan,' 
 and 'to restore it to the kingdom of God.' 'AH the 
 books of the Bible are either already most admirable and 
 exalted pieces of poesy, or are the best materials in the 
 world for it. Yet, though they be in themselves so pro- 
 per to be made use of for this purpose, none but a good 
 artist will know how to do it . . . for if any man design 
 to compose a sacred poem, by only turning a story of the 
 Scripture, like Mr. Quarles's, or some other goodly mat- 
 ter, like Mr. Heywood of Angels, into rhyme, he is so far 
 from elevating of poesy, that he only abases divinity ' 
 (Preface of the author). 
 
 Very few will dissent from this opinion of Quarles. 
 
 1 Complete works of Francis Quarles, 3 vols., Grosart, Chertsey Worthies, 
 1880, II. 42. 
 
-38- 
 
 With such narrow views as he had, he could never have 
 produced a work of art. Leaving aside, however, all 
 question as to the merit of Quarles's poetry, it must be 
 admitted that he gave a great impetus to the employ- 
 ment of Scriptural themes as subjects for poetr}^ and 
 doubtless had no little influence on Cowley in the choice 
 of a religious subject for his epic. 
 
 GEORGE SANDYS (1577-1643). 
 
 George Sandys wrote several religious paraphrases : 
 Upon Job ; Upon the Song of Solomon ; Upon the Lamentations 
 of Jeremiah. These were published in 1638. He is better 
 known, however, by his Translation of the Psalms^ pub- 
 lished in 1636. Cowley, Preface to Pindarique Odes, thus 
 refers to this translation : ' The Psalms of David . . . are 
 a great example of what I have said : all the translators 
 of which (even Mr. Sandys himself ; for in spight of pop- 
 ular error, I will be bold not to except him) . . . are so 
 far from doing Honor, or at least Justice to that Divine 
 Poet, that methinks they revile him worse than Shimei.' 
 
 GEORGE WITHER (1593-1632) AND GEORGE HERBERT 
 (1 588-1667). 
 
 In this connection, as doubtless of influence upon Cow- 
 ley in his choice of a religious theme, mention must be 
 made of George Wither's tremendous undertaking, his 
 proposed Exercises on the Psalms ; of his Songs of the Old 
 Testament, translated into English Measure, and of his 
 Psalms of David. We must also bear in mind the works 
 of ' holy Mr. George Herbert,' for whom doubtless Cow- 
 ley had a great respect and regard. 
 
 MICHAEL DRAYTON. David and Goliath. 
 
 The earliest work of Michael Drayton (i 563-1631) was 
 a metrical rendering of portions of the Scriptures, enti- 
 tled The Harmonic of the Chnrch (or TJie Trinmphcs of the 
 Chiirchc), published in 1591. It was, for some unknown 
 reason, destroyed, and only one copy, belonging to the 
 
—39— 
 
 British Museum, is now known to exist. Then appeared 
 his lyrical, pastoral, and historical poems. Shepherds' Gar- 
 land, The Barons War, England's Heroical Epistles, The 
 Oivl, Polyolbion, The Battle of Aginconrt, Nynipliida. His 
 last poems, like his first, were religious. They were in- 
 cluded under the title ' TJie Mnscs Elysinm, Lately dis- 
 covered, By a neiv way over Parnassus. The passages therein 
 being the subject of Ten sundry Nyniphals, Leading three 
 Divine Poems. NoaJCs Flood, Moses, his Birth and Miracles, 
 David and Goliah^ 1630. 
 
 Although Drayton was a man of unquestioned virtue, 
 he had not the sombre religious character of Quarles. 
 He could look on the bright side of life and was not, like 
 Quarles, continually reflecting upon the unworthiness of 
 man. In fact there is nothing to show that he would turn 
 naturally to Scriptural subjects. That the influence of 
 Du Bartas led him to select such subjects, there can be 
 no doubt. In his Moses he dedicates his work to Du 
 Bartas and Sylvester: 
 
 And thou translator of that faithful Muse 
 
 This all's creation that divinely song, 
 
 From courtly French (no travel do'st refuse) 
 
 To make him master of thy genuine tongue, 
 
 Salust to thee and Sylvester th}' friend, 
 
 Comes my high poem peaceabl}' and chaste. 
 
 Your hallowed labours humbly to attend, 
 
 That wreckful time shall not have power to waste. 
 
 Moreover, he strikes the same note that we heard from 
 Du Bartas, Quarles, and Cowley, — namely, a regret at 
 the debasement of poetry, and a determination to restore 
 it to its proper sphere. 
 
 Muse, I invoke the utmost of thy might. 
 That with an armed and auspicious wing, 
 Thou be obsequious in his doubt less right 
 'Gainst the vile atheist's vituperious sting. 
 
 To shew how poesie (simply hath her praise) 
 That from full Jove takes her celestial birth, 
 And quick as fire, her glorious self can raise 
 Above this base abominable earth. 
 
— 40— 
 
 The use of Jove here seems a clear indication of the 
 artificiality of his religious feelings. He was writing of 
 such subjects, not because he felt himself moved by the 
 Holy Spirit to reform poetr}^, but because he thought it 
 best to follow the fashion. 
 
 'Dr2iy\.oxiS David arid Goliah is written in heroic coup- 
 lets, and contains about 850 lines. The poem begins with 
 an invocation to the Muse, and then takes up the story at 
 the time when the Almighty, displeased with Saul for 
 sparing King Agag, had resolved to choose a new ruler 
 for Israel. Then follows a long description of David 
 feeding his flock, and in this enumeration of David's per- 
 sonal charms, the poet gives free rein to his imagination. 
 
 No mention, however, is made of Saul's daughters, or 
 of the promise Saul made to bestow his daughter's hand 
 on the conqueror of Goliath. The poet has added no 
 episodes, and he tells his story with directness. He has 
 followed his own fancy throughout, and seems to have 
 had no model before him, either classical or modern. 
 Cowley owes nothing directly to Drayton. 
 
 THOMAS FULLER. David's Hainous Sinne. 
 
 The year following the publication of the Muses Elysium, 
 appeared David's Hainous Sinne, by Thomas Fuller, D.D. 
 The poem is written in stanzas riming a b a b ccc. It is 
 divided into three parts : David's Hainous Sinne, 47 stanzas ; 
 David's Heartie repentance, 26 stanzas ; David's Heavie Pun- 
 ishme7it, 71 stanzas. 
 
 In the first part, the story is frequently interrupted by 
 moralizations of the poet. Into the second part is intro- 
 duced a Proces du Paradis. The Lord resolves to punish 
 David, and at once all the elements, — fire, air, water, 
 earth, — offer to be the instrumentsof his vengeance. The 
 Almighty appeases the strife of the elements, and opening 
 the book of life, offers to blot out David's name, but is dis- 
 suaded by His Son, the Prince of Peace. At the decision 
 of the Lord to pardon David, the fickle elements rejoice, 
 and now offer to minister to David's pleasure. Nathan 
 
—41— 
 
 is then sent to David and makes the King's ' marble minde 
 to melt.' 
 
 This Proccs du Paradis is clearly a remain of the earlier 
 Miracle Plays. 
 
 The third part treats of the episode of Ammon and 
 Tamar, of Absalom's vengeance upon Ammon, of Absa- 
 lom's revolt and death. 'At the close of this performance,' 
 writes Oldys (Grosart's edition of Fuller, 1868). 'our 
 author, having subsided into the characters of Queen 
 Elizabeth, King James, and King Charles I, and lamented 
 the loss of the Duke of Brunswick, with the discords then 
 in Europe through the wars in the Netherlands, Denmark, 
 etc., he very properl}' and piously concludes that those 
 grievances may be bewailed by mankind, but till the}' are 
 reversed by Providence, they are more befitting his /r«j/^rjr 
 than his pen.' 
 
 Although this poem abounds in the quaint and charac- 
 teristic conceits of Fuller, it is not altogether without 
 merit, and there is no doubt that Cowley read it with 
 appreciation and genuine admiration. 
 
 THOMAS HEYWOOD. 
 
 That curious work by Thomas Heywood, TJic Hier- 
 arcliie oftJic Blessed A ngels, — TJieir Names, Orders, and Offices, 
 — The Fall of Ljicifer zvith his Angells, London, printed by 
 Adam Islip, 1635, is of some interest in connection with 
 the Davideis. That Cowle}' was familiar with this work 
 is shown by a humorous reference to Heywood (General 
 Preface of the Author), as ' Mr. Heywood of Angels, 
 whose poem serves only to abase divinity ' (see above, 
 
 P- 37). 
 
 The Hierarchic of the Blessed Angels is a poem in 
 nine books, entitled respectively : The Seraphim, The Cher- 
 ubim, The Thrones, The Dominations, The Verities, The Poiv- 
 ers. The Principals, The Arch-Angel, The Angel. To each 
 book is prefixed the argument in verse, and to each of 
 these arguments is added the name of an angel, as follows : 
 
—42— 
 
 Uriel, Jophiel, Zaphiel, Zadchiel, Haniel, Raphael, Car- 
 mael, Michael and Gabriel. In addition to this, there are 
 long and elaborate notes, ' Theological, Philosophical, 
 Moral, Poetical, Historical, and Emblematical Observa- 
 tions.' This work, containing over six hundred pages in 
 folio, is a mass of learned references and childish supersti- 
 tions. In the sixth book, TJie Pozvers, the poet after de- 
 scribing the revolt and fall of the angels, gives descrip- 
 tions of hell drawn from the Bible, from the church 
 fathers, and from the Latin and Greek poets. In his 
 notes to this book he enters into a long discussion as to 
 the nature of hell-fire and as to the torments of the 
 damned, interspersing throughout marvelous ghost tales 
 of Incubi and Succubi. 
 
 Although the literar}^ value of Hey wood's poem is very 
 slight, and although ever}^ one will agree in Cowley's 
 opinion that he serves only to 'abase divinity,' he has 
 nevertheless collected much curious information of no 
 slight value to the writer of a religious epic such as 
 Cowley undertook. 
 
 ROBERT ASHLEY'S TRANSLATION OF V. MALVEZZl'S 
 // Davide Persegiiitato. 
 
 In the year 1637 (doubtless the very year in which Cow- 
 ley was writing his epic), appeared at London Robert 
 Ashle3^'s translation of V. Malvezzi's // Davide Persegiiitato. 
 Ashley was a school-fellow of Joshua Sylvester's at Sara- 
 via's school in Southampton, and may have been inspired 
 to translate Malvezzi through Sylvester's translation of 
 Du Bartas. 
 
 Malvezzi was for a time in the service of Philip IV of 
 Spain, who sent him to England as his Ambassador. On 
 account of ill-health, however, he was forced to return to 
 his native land, Italy, where he died at Bologna, Aug. 11, 
 1654. His Davide was first published at Bologna in 1634, 
 and again at Venice, 1636. It was translated into French 
 by Louys de Benoist, Avignon, 1646, and into Latin in 
 
—43— 
 
 i66o. Of Robert Ashley's English translation, subsequent 
 editions appeared in 1647 and in 1650. 
 
 In spite of this array of editions and translations, Mal- 
 vezzi's work was only a running commentary, or set of 
 homilies, on the various incidents of David's life. The 
 author holds up the disobedience of Saul as a warning to 
 princes, and contrasts it with the humility of David. 
 
 FELICE PASSERO. 
 
 // David Pcrsegiiitato, Tragedia, published at Naples in 
 1609, Inaccessible. Not in British Museum. 
 
 Mention must be made here of the curious set of engrav- 
 ings illustrating David's life, entitled: David, Hoc est Vir- 
 t tit is exercitatissiviae Probatiim Deo Spectaculuni, ex Davidis 
 Past or is, Militis, Regis, Exiilis, ac Prophet ae, Exemplis, Am- 
 sterdam, 1637. Each plate is accompanied by a short 
 Latin verse of four lines, similar to the English Emblems. 
 This is based upon the more elaborate work of Arias 
 Montanus with the same title, dated 1597. In Montanus, 
 the verses are the same, but the plates are different, and 
 in addition there is with each engraving a Paraphrasis, or 
 Explicatio. In note 47, Book II of the Davideis, Cowley 
 has a reference to Arias Montanus, quoting his opinion in 
 regard to the heathen god Moloch. 
 
 DAVID'S TROUBLES, ETC. 1638. 
 
 Rather a poor series of poems on David was published 
 in 1638 at London, entitled : David's Troubles Remembered 
 in: (i) Absolons SJieepsliearing ; (2) Joab projecting ; (3) 
 Bathsheba bathing; {/!^ Israel rebelling ; {^) A hit hop he I hang- 
 ing; (6) David returning. 
 
 The first book begins: 
 
 I tell the divers tryalls of the King 
 Who hevenly hymns did to his Maker sing : 
 Blest spirit that infus'd on him such skill, 
 Dispose aright thine humble servant's quill. 
 
—44— 
 
 REMARKS ON THE GROWTH OF THE ENGLISH RELIGIOUS 
 EPIC PRIOR TO MILTON AND THE PART PLAYED BY 
 COWLEY IN THIS DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 The English religious narrative poem growing out of 
 the lives and legends of the saints, later developing into 
 the English religious epic and reaching its most perfect 
 form in Milton's Paradise Lost, must have influenced the 
 miracle plays and been in turn influenced by them. It 
 has been seen how the influence of the miracle plays per- 
 sisted even through the first quarter of the seventeenth 
 century (see Fuller, David's Haijious Sinne, above). In the 
 miracle plays there appear early two different lines of 
 treatment, popular and didactic. Treated in a popular 
 way, these plays were intended solely to amuse ; treated 
 in a didactic way, they came into contact with the homily 
 and the long religious poem like the Cursor Mundi, itself a 
 precursor of Du Bartas's Divine Weeks. The Old French 
 Mistere (above, p. 23) is largely didactic. The poet en- 
 deavors all through to make clear the connection between 
 the Old and the New Testament. In the Chester Plays, 
 an Expositor appears between acts and explains the alle- 
 gorical meaning of the action. This, in fact, was the pri- 
 mary object of the early religious drama, to instruct ; to 
 bring certain facts and dogmas of the Bible within reach 
 of the common mind. 
 
 In addition to this, the Moralities often became bitterly 
 controversial, as for example in N. Wood's Conflict of Con- 
 science, 1 581, in which the hero, Philologus, becomes 
 ensnared in the foils of Rome (Ward, Eng. Dram. Lit., I, 
 47). Bale's play God''s Promises is learned and didactic, 
 written for the sole purpose of developing a theological 
 argument. 
 
 Du Bartas's poems likewise are both didactic and con- 
 troversial. In the opening lines of the First Week, ist 
 Day, ist Part, the poet 'refute par diverses raisons la 
 curieuse et profane objection des atheistes, qui demandent 
 que Dieu faisoit avant qu'il creast le monde,' In the first 
 part of the second day of the second week, he enumerates 
 
—45— 
 
 twelve answers of Noah to the bhasphemies of Cham and of 
 his fellow atheists. In that same book he replies at length 
 to the objections of the atheists who contended that the 
 capacity of the ark was insufficient for Noah, his family, 
 and all brute creation. 
 
 This introduction of theological argument into a pro- 
 fessedly narrative poem is a serious hindrance to the 
 highest artistic development, a blot from which even Mil- 
 ton's epic is not free. 
 
 At the close of the sixteenth century, the protest against 
 the growing immorality of the stage was extended to 
 poetry, and Du Bartas (as seen above) makes a powerful 
 plea for the rescue of poetry from profane hands, and for 
 the employment of scriptural themes alone as proper sub- 
 jects for verse. Thus at the opening of the 17th century, 
 the use of Biblical stories and episodes as proper subjects 
 of verse was a live question in all countries. In France 
 there was the great struggle between the Catholics and 
 Huguenots. Italy was under the tyranny of the popes 
 and of Philip the Second of Spain, and had to furnish 
 Philip with money and men to aid him in his career of 
 bigotry and persecution. The whole of Europe was soon 
 engaged in a great religious struggle, the Thirty Years' 
 War, and England in the time of Cowley and Milton was 
 to be torn asunder by civil strife for political and religious 
 freedom. Men's minds were, therefore, prepared for re- 
 ligious poems, and the appropriateness of such themes as 
 Saul's Persecution of David must have been felt. Mal- 
 vezzi's II Davide Pcrseguitato, with its warning to Princes, 
 went through several editions in his country, 1634, 1636, 
 ff., and was translated into Latin and English. 
 
 In England during the early part of the 17th century, 
 the soil proved fruitful for religious poems. A year after 
 Du Bartas's death, Sylvester began his translation, and 
 collective editions of it appeared in 1605, 1608, 161 1, 1613, 
 1614, 1621, 1633, and 1641, William L'Isle, the Anglo- 
 Saxon scholar, thought it worth while to translate Du 
 Bartas, and his rendering appeared in 1596, to be followed 
 4 
 
-46- 
 
 by a more complete one in 1625. Other translations were 
 made by Winter, and several translations of JitditJi were 
 published by Hudson, all before 161 2. Robert Ashley's 
 translation of Malvezzi appeared in 1637. 
 
 Among- all these religious poems, however, the David 
 theme was not the least popular in England. There were 
 poems of David by George Peele, 1599; Francis Quarles, 
 1620 fF., Divine Fancies, (1633); Michael Drayton, 1630; 
 Thomas Fuller, 163 1 ; yet from Bale to Hey wood, no 
 attempt had been made at the true epic form. The aim 
 of the poet was either to make a mere paraphrase of the 
 scriptures, hoping thus to popularize the Sacred Word ; 
 or to expound the Holy Writ, using the words of the 
 Bible as his text, like Quarles, ' not daring to go unled.' 
 Peele, Drayton, and Fuller, though far in advance of 
 Quarles, and though showing originality of treatment, 
 made no attempt to produce a finished epic. To Cowley, 
 then, inspired by the example of Du Bartas, must be 
 given the credit of having first attempted the true epic 
 form. His conception was a noble one, but his powers 
 were not equal to the task. 
 
 COWLEY AND MILTON. 
 
 As an outcome of this great interest in religious themes 
 was written the most perfect religious epic of modern 
 times, the Paradise Lost. Milton was undoubtedly famil- 
 iar with Cowley's epic, and Cowley's modest words at 
 the conclusion of his preface seem almost prophetic of 
 that great poem which was so completely to overshadow 
 his. 'I shall be ambitious of no other fruit from this 
 weak and imperfect attempt of mine, but the opening of a 
 way to the courage and industry of some other persons 
 who may be better able to perform it thoroughly and 
 successfully.' In 1658, two years after the publication of 
 these words, Milton settled down to the composition of 
 the Paradise Lost, although, it is true, he had already 
 sketched out a plan nearly twenty years before. 
 
 Masson {Life of Milton, London, 1880, VI, 557), in dis- 
 cussing Milton's relation to his predecessors, remarks: 
 
—47— 
 
 ' Had it been worth while, it could have been proved 
 from Paradise Lost that Milton was no stranger to the 
 writings of Cowley and Davenant.' 
 
 I have noted the following correspondences between 
 the Davideis and the Paradise Lost : 
 
 Cowley's description of Goliath's spear, Davideis, III, 
 393 ; and Milton's description of Satan's spear. Paradise 
 Lost, I, 292. Both poets, however, borrowed from 
 Homer's description of Polyphemus, Odyssey, IX, 367 ff., 
 and Virgil's Aeneid, III, 659, 
 
 Compare also Cowley's list of false gods, Moloch, 
 Osiris, Dagon, etc., Davideis, II, 501 ff., with Paradise Lost, 
 I> 393) though it is to be noted that Milton had already 
 used this same catalogue of heathen deities in his Nativity 
 Ode (1629), Stanzas XXII-XXIV. 
 
 Finally compare Cowley's description of hell, Davideis, 
 I, 71 ff., with Paradise Lost, I, 56-69, The weakness of 
 Cowley's labored effort, full of his characteristic conceits, 
 is only too evident beside Milton's picture of the vastness 
 and horror of the gloomy abyss. 
 
 Though the Paradise Lost thus owes directly little or 
 nothing to the Davideis, nevertheless Cowley's ideals were 
 lofty, and his very failures may have proved instructive 
 to Milton. 
 
 The next section is devoted to a consideration of cer- 
 tain poems concerning David subsequent to Cowley's. 
 
 POEMS CONCERNING DAVID SUBSEQUENT TO COWLEY'S. 
 
 The Davideis, though begun in 1637, was not published 
 till 1656, when it appeared in the first collective edition 
 of his works. The great interest taken in religious poems 
 at this period is still further shown by the fact that 
 another epic poem of the troubles of David, called also 
 the Davideis, was begun and written a few years after 
 Cowley's. The author was the well known Thomas Ell- 
 wood (1639-1713), the Quaker and the friend of Milton. 
 He entered into numerous religious controversies and pub- 
 lished several volumes. Among them were Sacred His- 
 
-48- 
 
 tory, or the Historical Part oj the Holy Scriptures of the Old 
 Testament, published in 1705 ; Sacred History, or the Histor- 
 ical Part of the Holy Scriptures of the Neiv Testament, pub- 
 lished in 1709. His Davideis was first published in 1712, 
 In his Epistle to the Reader, he refers to Cowley's poem : 
 ' Till I had wholly finished and transcribed also this poem, 
 I had not had the opportunity of perusing the learned 
 Cowley's Davideis, though I had heard of it and I think 
 had once a transient sight of it, before I began this. 
 Since, I have read it through with my best attention, and 
 am very well pleased that I had not read it before ; lest his 
 great name, high style, and lofty fancy should have led 
 me, unawares, into an apish imitation of them ; which 
 doubtless would have looked very oddly and ill in me, 
 how admirable soever in him. 
 
 ' His aim and mine differ widely : The method of each 
 no less. He wrote for the learned; and those of the 
 Upper Form : and his flights are answerable. I write for 
 Common Readers, in a style familiar, and easy to be 
 understood by such. His would have needed (if he had 
 not added it) a large Paraphrase upon it; to explain the 
 many diflficult passages in it. Mine, as it has none, will 
 not, I hope, need any.' And then, in a tone of self-depre- 
 ciation, he adds what might be construed into a humor- 
 ous criticism of Cowley and his school : ' I am not so 
 wholly a stranger to the writings of the most celebrated 
 poets, as well ancient as modern, as not to know, that 
 their great embellishments of their poems consist mostly 
 in their extravagant and almost boundless fancies; amaz- 
 ing and even dazzling flights ; luxurious inventions; wild 
 hyperboles ; lofty language ; with an introduction of 
 angels, spirits, demons, and their respective deities, etc., 
 which, as not suitable to my purpose, I industriously 
 abstain from.' 
 
 Nevertheless the first book begins in proper classic 
 style, with the proposition and invocation : 
 
 I sing the Life of David, Israel's King, 
 
 Assist, thou Sacred Power, who didst him bring 
 
 From the sheepfold and set him on the throne. 
 
—-19— 
 
 It contains five books, and is written in heroic couplets. 
 More than twenty years the author had the work on 
 hand, having been interrupted by various disturbances in 
 the kingdom ; but so attractive did he find his subject, 
 that he was led on to finish it, and weave into his poem 
 the complete history of David. In spite, however, of 
 this long process of incubation, the poem possesses very 
 little merit. 
 
 Although I have made no effort to trace David poems in 
 the literature of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, 
 it may be of interest to call attention to a David epic pub- 
 lished in London in 1817. It is entitled : TJie Royal Min- 
 strel, or The Witcheries of Endor, an Epic Poem in eleven books, 
 by J. F. Pennie, Dorchester, Printed and sold by G. Clark, iSiy. 
 One of the author's mottoes on the title page is a quotation 
 from Cowley's Preface : ' All the books of the Bible are 
 either most admirable and exalted pieces of Poetry, or 
 are the best materials in the world for it.' The opening 
 scene in the first book seems clearly modelled upon 
 Cowley. The Witch of Endor in a general assembly of 
 Demons and Weird Sisters holds a consultation on the 
 best means of overthrowing Saul. Satan rehearses what 
 he has done against the seed of Israel since he heard in 
 heaven that Christ was to spring from the seed of 
 Abraham. Adramelec informs the infernal assembly that 
 Saul is for his obstinacy rejected by his God, and that 
 another is already chosen to succeed him on his throne; 
 that this new favorite is David, from whom the Messiah 
 is to spring. They with united power, therefore, resolve 
 to destroy David. Adramelec enters into Saul and in- 
 cites his rage against David, but David is protected by 
 his guardian angel, Abdiel. The poem ends with the 
 death of Saul and coronation of David. The poem is 
 written in blank verse, and extends through eleven books. 
 It is far superior to Ellwood's labored effort, and contains 
 many fine passages. 
 
 In other countries, too, the interest in religious poems 
 continued. At Paris in 1660 was published David, poeme 
 
heroique, in eight books by le Sieur Lesfargues. It begins 
 in proper classic style : 
 
 Je chante dans I'ardeur du beau feu qui m'anime 
 Le Berger Couronne, le vainqueur magnanime 
 Du Geant Philistin avec honte abatu : 
 Je chante ce David qui seul a combattu. 
 
 Five years later, 1665, there appeared at Paris another 
 similar poem ; David on la Vertu Couronnee, par Jacques 
 de Coras, in seven books. It opens similarly : 
 
 Je chante le Berger, le Prince, et le Prophdte 
 Dont la voix, dont le zele, et le forte houlete 
 Des climats Palestins, par cents climats divers, 
 Porterent la louange au bout de I'Univers. 
 
 In the third book there is a picture of the Almighty 
 seated in the Heavens. The Devil appears before him, 
 and begs for permission to enter into Saul's mind. The 
 figures of God and of His Son are extremely puerile. 
 
 Finally, in 1691, at Brescia in Italy was published a 
 poem entitled Davide Re, poeina eroico, etc., by Count 
 Giovanni Albano. 
 
 the davideis in its relation to crashaw s sospetto 
 
 d'herode. 
 
 Although critics,' in discussing possible sources for the 
 Paradise Lost, have brought in many parallels from other 
 poems, — among them from Cowley s Davideis, and from 
 Crashaw's Sospetto U Herode, — no one seems to have noted 
 that Cowley and Crashaw, in their descriptions of hell, 
 have both treated the same episode from Virgil, and that 
 their manner of treatment is wonderfully similar. The 
 episode in question is Virgil's account, in the seventh 
 book of the Aeiieid, of Juno's descent into hell, and of 
 how Alecto, at the command of the goddess, taking her 
 
 > Voltaire, Lauder, Dunster, Hayley, and Masson ; George Edmondson, 
 Milton and Vondel' ; a Curiosity of Literature, London, 1885; August Miiller, 
 Uber Milt07is Abhiingigkeit vottVondel, dissertation, Berlin, 1891. 
 
— 5^— 
 
 snakes incites to rage and madness first Queen Amata 
 and then Turnus. 
 
 I purpose, then, in the following pages, to make a 
 detailed comparison of Cowley and Crashaw. 
 
 Cowley begins his long epic with the proposition of the 
 whole and the invocation, in proper classic style. The 
 poet then tells of the new agreement that had been 
 entered into between David and Saul. Here, beginning 
 with the seventieth line of the Davideis and extending to 
 the three hundred and forty-second, is the passage to be 
 compared with the Sospetto UHerode. 
 
 First is shown a picture of hell, which the poet de- 
 scribes at some length. Satan himself is then represented, 
 furious over the friendship which has just been declared 
 between Saul and David. He sees the beauties of young 
 David, and knowing that from him is to spring the Eter- 
 nal Shiloh, his rage is increased ten-fold. He knocks his 
 iron teeth, he howls, he lashes his breast with his long 
 tail, and he makes hell too hot even for the fiends them- 
 selves. He calls upon his hosts for aid to bring to utter 
 ruin ' this bold young shepherd boy.' All the powers of 
 hell at first stand amazed and terrified ; the snakes cease 
 to hiss and the tortured souls fear to groan. At last Envy 
 crawls forth from the dire throng, her locks attired with 
 curling serpents, vipers preying upon her breasts, her 
 garments stained with gore, and lashing herself with her 
 knotted whip. Addressing the Arch-fiend at some length, 
 she urges him not to despair, and offers him her aid. 
 Beelzebub, descending from his burning throne, embraces 
 her. She, bowing thrice, sets out at dead of night, and 
 comes to the palace where Saul lies sleeping. All nature 
 shudders at sight of her. Taking upon her the shape of 
 Father Benjamin, she enters the chamber of Saul, and 
 standing by his bedside, urges him to bestir himself and 
 take vengeance upon 'this upstart youth, this beardless 
 shepherd boy.' Then drawing forth one of her worst, her 
 best beloved snakes, she thrusts it into Saul's bosom, and 
 unseen takes her fliorht into the darkness. Saul awakes in 
 
—52— 
 
 terror, the sweat bedewing his bed. His anger against 
 David is increased ten-fold, and he swears eternal ven- 
 geance against him. 
 
 Now in Crashaw's Sospetto UHerode, we have exactly 
 the same situation. After invoking the Muse, the poet 
 gives a short description of hell. Next Satan is described. 
 He has heard of God's plan to redeem mankind by send- 
 ing His Blessed Son to earth. His rage exceeds even 
 that of Cowley's devil. He gnashes his teeth, and lashes 
 his sides with his tail ; he claws his furrowed brow, and 
 finally chews his twisted tail for spite. He summons his 
 hosts to help him. Cruelty appears and offers her ser- 
 vices. Her fearful palace is described. Hardly could the 
 Arch-fiend tell her all his intentions, so eager is she for 
 wicked deeds. Rising through the air, she sets out for 
 Bethlehem. Laying aside her own shape, she personates 
 a mortal part, and assumes the shape of Joseph, King 
 Herod's dead brother. Entering the palace, where Herod 
 lies sleeping, she approaches his bed-side. Addressing 
 him in a feigned voice, she urges him to be a man, and to 
 guard himself against the dangers that threaten his king- 
 dom. This said, she takes her richest snake, and, apply- 
 ing it to the king's breast, hastens away. Herod awakes 
 in terror. His bed is bedewed with sweat. In rage he 
 calls for arms and defies his own fancy -framed foes. 
 
 Since both accounts are based upon Virgil, the general 
 outline is, of course, the same in each. When, however, 
 we come to compare the details of treatment, we find a 
 striking similarity. 
 
 In his description of hell, Crashaw has : 
 
 Below the bottom of the great abyss, 
 
 There where one center reconciles all things, 
 
 The world's profound heart pants; there placed is 
 
 Mischief's old master; close about him clings 
 
 A curl'd knot of embracing snakes that kiss 
 
 His correspondent cheekes ; these loathsome strings 
 
 Hold the perverse prince in eternal ties 
 
 Fast bound since first he forfeited the skies. 
 
—53— 
 Cowley has similarly : 
 
 Beneath the silent chambers of the earth, 
 Where the sun's fruitful beams give metals birth, 
 There is a place, deep, wondrous deep below. 
 Which genuine night and horror does o'erflow. 
 
 Here Lucifer the mighty captive reigns, 
 Proud midst his woes, and tyrant in his chains. 
 
 Continuing, Crashaw describes the Devil's rage: 
 
 his teeth for torment gnash. 
 While his steel sides sound with his tail's strong lash. 
 
 Cowley has : 
 
 Thrice did he knock his iron teeth, thrice howl, 
 And into frowns his wrathful forehead roll : 
 
 With that, with his long tail he lashed his breast. 
 
 In each poem the Devil has a vision of fate hostile to 
 him. He sees the promised Shiloh that is to save man- 
 kind. 
 
 In Crashaw it is expressed thus : 
 
 He calls to mind the old quarrel . . . 
 
 Heaven's golden winged herald late ke saw 
 To a poor Galilean virgin sent. 
 
 , He saw the old Hebrew's womb neglect the law 
 
 Of age and barrenness. 
 
 He saw rich nectar-thaws release the rigour 
 Of th' icy North . . . 
 
 He sa7u a vernal smile sweetly disfigure 
 Winter's sad face. 
 
 He saw how in that blest day-bearing night 
 The Heaven-rebuked shades made haste away. 
 
 He marked how the poor shepherds ran to pa}' 
 Their simple tribute to the babe. 
 
—54— 
 
 He sa-w a three-fold sun, with rich increase, 
 
 Make proud the ruby portals of the East ; 
 
 He satv the temple sacred to sweet peace 
 
 Adore her Prince's birth . . . 
 
 He saw the falling idols all confess 
 
 A coming deity ; he saw the nest 
 
 Of pois'nous and unnatural loves, earth-nurst, 
 
 Touch'd with the world's true antidote, to burst. 
 
 He saw heaven blossom with a new-born light, etc., etc. 
 
 Struck with these great concurrences of things, 
 
 Symptoms so deadly unto death and him, 
 
 Fain would he have forgot what fatal strings 
 
 Eternally bind each rebellious limb. 
 
 He shook himself and spread his spacious wings, 
 
 Which, like two bosomed sails, embrace the dim 
 
 Air with a dismal shade ; but all in vain, 
 
 Of sturdy adamant is his chain. 
 
 Now in Cowley, the Devil sees in the same way young 
 David and the promised Messiah to spring from his stock. 
 The form of the description and the repetition of the 
 phrase he sazv, II. 109 ff. are noteworthy: 
 
 He sazv the beauties of his shape and face. 
 
 He saw the nobler wonders of his mind. 
 
 He saw . . . 
 
 How by his young hand their Gathite champion fell. 
 
 He saw the reverend prophet boldly shed 
 
 The royal drops round his enlarged head. 
 
 And well he knew what legacy did place 
 
 The sacred sceptre in bless'd Judah's race, 
 
 From which th' Eternal Shiloh was to spring, 
 
 A knowledge which new hells to Hell did bring ; 
 
 And though no less he knew himself too weak 
 
 The smallest link of strong wrought fate to break, 
 
 Yet would he rage and struggle with the chain. 
 
 In the Sospetto, Satan addresses his hosts in these words : 
 
 And yet, whose force fear I ? Have I so lost 
 
 Myself? my strength too, with my innocence ? 
 
 Come, try who dares, Heav'n, earth, vvhat'er dost boast 
 
 A borrowed being, make thy bold defence. 
 
 Come, thy Creator, too ; what though it cost 
 
 Me yet a second fall, we'd try our strengths. 
 Heaven saw us struggle once, as brave a fight 
 Earth now shall see and tremble at the sight. 
 
—55— 
 Cowley's Satan exclaims : 
 
 Are we such nothings then, said he, our will 
 Cross'd by a shepherd's boy? And you yet still 
 Play with your idle serpents here ? Dares none 
 Attempt what becomes furies? Are ye grown 
 Benum'd with fear or virtue's sprightless cold, 
 Ye who were once (I'm sure) so brave and bold? 
 
 At the sight of the fury passing through the air, Nature 
 herseH is terrified, and Crashaw thus describes it: 
 
 Heaven saw her rise and saw hell in the sight, 
 
 The fields' fair eyes saw her and saw no more, 
 
 But shut their flow'rj' lids ; forever night 
 
 And winter strow her way : yea such a sore 
 
 Is she to Nature, that a general fright. 
 
 An universal palsy spreading o'er 
 
 The face of things, from her dire eyes had run 
 Had not her thick snnkes hid them from the sun. 
 
 Cowley's description is close to this : 
 
 The silver moon with terror paler grew 
 And neighb'ring Hermon sweated fiowr'y dew. 
 Swift Jordan started and straight backward fled. 
 Hiding among thick reeds his aged head. 
 
 Also see above under Du Bartas. Compare Aeneid, VII, 
 514 ff., referred to by Cowley in note; Thebaid, I, 197 ff. 
 (see below). 
 
 In theSospetto, Cruelty, personating Joseph, urges Herod 
 to action and exclaims : 
 
 Why did I spend my life and spill my blood. 
 That thy firm hand forever might sustain 
 A well-pois'd sceptre? Does it now seem good 
 Thy brother's blood be spilt, life spent in vain ? 
 
 In the Davideis, Envy, personating Benjamin, thus incites 
 
 Saul : 
 
 Why was I else from Canaan's famine led? 
 Happy, thrice happy, had I there been dead, 
 Ere my full loins discharged this numerous race. 
 
;6— 
 
 Crashaw continues : 
 
 So said, her richest snake, which to her wrist 
 
 For a beseeming bracelet she had tied, 
 
 A special worm it was, as ever kiss'd 
 
 The foamy lips of Cerberus, she applied 
 
 To the King's breast — 
 
 This done, home to her hell she hied amain. 
 
 Compare Ovid, Meta, VII, 402 ff. ; Cowley, Book of 
 Plants, III, 195-196. 
 While Cowley has : 
 
 with that she takes 
 One of her worst, her best beloved snakes: 
 'Softly, dear worm, soft and unseen,' said she, 
 ' Into his bosom steal and in it be 
 'My vicero)^' At that word she took her flight, 
 And her loose shape dissolved into the night. 
 
 The effect of this fearful apparition is in each case the 
 same. 
 
 In Crashaw : 
 
 He wakes, and with him ne'er to sleep, new fears ; 
 
 His sweat-bedewed bed had now betray'd him 
 
 To a vast field of thorns ; ten thousand spears 
 
 All pointed at his heart seem'd to invade him ; 
 
 So mighty were th' amazing characters 
 
 With which his feeling dream had thus dismay'd him. 
 
 He his own fancy-framed foes defies ; 
 
 In rage, Mj' arms ! Give me my arms ! he cries. 
 
 In Cowley : 
 
 Th' infested King leaped from his bed amaz'd, 
 Scarce knew himself at first, but round him gaz'd. 
 And started back at pieced-up shapes which fear 
 And his distorted fancy painted there. 
 Terror froze up his hair and on his face 
 Showers of cold sweat roll'd trembling down apace ; 
 Then knocking with his angry hands his breast, 
 Earth with his feet, he cries: ' Oh ! 'tis confess'd, 
 ' I've been a pious fool, a woman-King ! ' 
 
 As Crashaw's Sospetto is a translation of the first book 
 of Marini's Strage degli Innocenti, the first question that 
 
—57— 
 
 arises is, did Cowley borrow from Marini? This can 
 easily be settled by comparing a few passages. 
 Crashaw describes Satan thus : 
 
 His eyes, the sullen dens of death and night 
 Startle the dull air with a dismal red. 
 
 Cowley's description is : 
 
 His eyes dart forth red flames which scare the night. 
 
 In both poets, we see the idea of terror inspired by 
 Satan's eyes. But Marini has: 
 
 Negli occhi, ove mestizia alberga e morte 
 Luce fiammeggia torbida e vermiglia. St. 7. 
 
 Again, in describing the effect of the Fury's appear- 
 ance, Crashaw has : 
 
 Such to the frighted palace now she comes. 
 
 In Cowley we read : 
 
 Lo ! at her entrance Saul's strong palace shook. 
 Marini, on the other hand, says nierely : 
 
 Ricerca e spia della magion reale. 
 
 Nothing whatever is said of the effect of her appearance 
 upon the palace. 
 
 To take another example, Cruelty, in Crashaw, addresses 
 Herod : 
 
 Why dost thou let thy brave soul lie suppressed 
 In death-like slumbers, while thy dangers crave 
 A waking eye and hand ? 
 
 Cowley similarly : 
 
 Arise, lost King of Israel ; canst thou lie 
 Dead in this sleep, and yet thy last so nigh ? 
 
 Marini, however, dilTers from both : 
 
 Te ne stai neghittoso, e'l cor guerriero 
 Neir ozio immergi e nel riposo i sensi. 
 
-58- 
 
 The expression 'death-like' belongs only to the English 
 translation. 
 
 Finally, in Crashaw, Cruelty says to Herod : 
 
 O, call thj'self home to thyself . . . 
 
 rouse thee and shake * 
 
 Th3'self into a shape that may become thee : 
 Be He7'od. 
 
 In Cowley, Envy exclaims to Saul : 
 
 Betray not, too, thyself; take courage, call 
 Thy enchanted virtues forth and be whole Saul. 
 
 In Marini simply : 
 
 Sveglia il tuo spirto addormentato, ond'arda 
 Di regio sdegno e I'ire e I'armi appresta. 
 
 Clearly, then, Cowley did not refer to Marini. That 
 both Marini and Cowley drew from Virgil in the first 
 instance there is not the least doubt, but a common origin 
 does not account for such verbal correspondences as have 
 been shown between Cowley and Crashaw. The question 
 now remains, did Cowley imitate Crashaw? or was Cra- 
 shaw indebted to Cowley ? The difficulty in deciding this 
 question lies in the fact that it is impossible to fix an exact 
 date for Crashaw's translation. The first book, at least, 
 of the Davidcis was written while Cowley was at Cam- 
 bridge, 1637-1643. Now Crashaw's Steps to the Temple, in 
 which the Sospetto appeared, was not published till 1646, 
 just before he left England ; yet there is no doubt that he 
 wrote the great body of his poems while he was still at 
 Cambridge. His first publication consisted of some Latin 
 verses on the King's recovery from small-pox (1632), on 
 the King's return from Scotland (1633), and on the birth 
 of James, Duke of York (1633). In 1634 appeared anony- 
 mously EpigranivtatJim SacroriLm Liber. 
 
 In 1636 Crashaw removed from Pembroke Hall to Peter- 
 house and was elected a fellow there in 1637, the very year 
 that Cowley entered the University (see above, p. 2). 
 
—59— 
 
 The first dated editions of Marini's work, Strage degli 
 Innocenti, appeared at Rome and at Venice in 1633, 
 although other undated editions had been published be- 
 fore. There was thus ample time for Marini to become 
 known in England, and for Crashaw to make his transla- 
 tion before leaving Cambridge. 
 
 As Cowley wrote most of the Davideis at Cambridge 
 between 1637- 1643 and did not publish it till 1656, so I 
 would assume that Crashaw made his translation at Cam- 
 bridge just before Cowley's admission to the University, 
 or even while Cowley was a student there, and that it 
 remained in manuscript till 1646, when it was published 
 in the Steps to the Temple. 
 
 The proofs are not conclusive, it must be confessed, but 
 it seems more probable that Cowley, the younger poet 
 just entering the University, should have borrowed from 
 a translation of the popular Marini (provided it was then 
 in MS.) rather than that Crashaw with his original before 
 him should have borrowed from Cowley's poem. 
 
 This episode in the seventh book of the Aeneid, in 
 which Alecto, sent by Juno, goes in disguise and arouses 
 the fury of Queen Amata and of Turnus against Aeneas 
 and the Trojans, and upon which Cowley and Marini 
 based their accounts, has been exceedingly popular, and 
 has been imitated again and again both by the Latin and 
 English poets. 
 
 COWLEY AND VIRGIL. 
 
 Virgil's account, upon which all the episodes to be 
 considered are based, must first be examined in detail. 
 It appears in the Aeneid, Book VII, 11. 286 flf. Compared 
 with Crashaw and Cowley, Virgil's description offers a 
 parallel complete in every detail.' 
 
 Juno sees the success of Aeneas and the Trojans settled 
 in the country of Latium, and knows that the descendants 
 of Aeneas are to possess the land, just as the Devil, in 
 
 1 The following paraphrase is based upon Works of Virgil in Prose trans- 
 lated by James Davidson. Third American edition, New York, 1823. 
 
— 6o — 
 
 Cowley has a vision of a descendant of David who shall 
 rule over the kingdom of Israel. Juno then, plunging to 
 earth, calls up baleful Alecto from the mansions of the 
 dire sisters, and begs her aid. Alecto, infected with Gor- 
 gonian poisons, repairs to Latium and, entering the palace, 
 takes possession of Queen Amata's gate. At her the 
 Fury flings from her serpentine locks one of her snakes, 
 and plunges it deep into the bosom of the Queen, so that 
 it may incite her anger against the whole household. 
 The poison of the serpent drives the Queen to rage and 
 madness. After having endeavored in vain to persuade 
 King Latinus to break off the match between Lavinia and 
 Aeneas, the Queen, driven by the poison of the Furj^ 
 wanders madly through the town. 
 
 This is but the beginning of the Fury's work. 
 
 Now begins the episode which furnished the ultimate 
 source for Marini and Cowley. 
 
 The baleful goddess is borne on dusky wings to the 
 walls of the bold Rutulian, and at the dead hour of mid- 
 night enters the palace where Turnus is enjoying repose. 
 Here Alecto, laying aside her hideous aspect and Fury's 
 limbs, transforms herself into a hag, plows with wrinkles 
 her obscene loathed front, assumes gray hairs, and with a 
 fillet binds on them an olive branch. She becomes 
 Calybe, the aged priestess of Juno's temple, and presents 
 herself to the youth. She addresses Turnus and urges 
 him to overthrow the Tuscan armies and to protect the 
 Latins. But he refuses to believe her, and derides her as 
 'an old woman oppressed with dotage and void of truth.' 
 Alecto kindles with rage, and as for the youth, while yet 
 the words were in his mouth, a sudden trembling seized 
 upon his limbs ; his eyes grew fixed at sight of the hissing 
 snakes and the horrid shape of the Fury ; as he hesitates 
 and purposes more to say, she, rolling her fiery eye-balls, 
 repels his words, rears the double snakes in her hair, 
 clanks her whip and tells him who she is, whence she 
 comes. Then she fiings a fire-brand at the youth, and 
 deep in his breast fixes the torch smoking with horrid 
 
— 6i— 
 
 light. Excessive terror disturbs his rest, and sweat, 
 bursting from every pore, completely drenches his bones 
 and his limbs. He raves, and frantic calls for arms. 
 Alecto then wings her flight to where lulus is pursuing 
 beasts of prey. Mounted upon the high roof of the stall, 
 she sounds the shepherd's signal, and stirs up the forces 
 of Tyrrhus and of Ascanius against each other, so that 
 they join in battle and the earth is covered with the blood 
 of the slain. This done, she reports to Juno the success 
 of her hellish designs, and leaving the high places in this 
 upper world, hastens to the mansions below, disburdening 
 thus both heaven and earth. 
 
 To this episode, Cowley refers in his note, and criticises 
 Virgil's method: 'Neither do I more approve in this 
 point of Virgil's method, who in the seventh Aeneid 
 brings Alecto to Turnus at first in the shape of a priestess, 
 but at her leaving of him, makes her take upon her the 
 shape of her own figure of a Fury ; and so speak to him, 
 which might have been done, methinks, as well at first, or 
 indeed better not done at all ; for no person is so im- 
 proper to persuade man to any undertaking as the Devil 
 without a disguise ; which is why I make him here both 
 come in and go out too in the likeness of Benjamin, who 
 as the first of Saul's progenitors might the most probably 
 seem concerned for his welfare, and the easiliest be bcliev'd 
 and obey'd.' 
 
 It is noticeable that, in the case of Crashaw, the Devil 
 assumes the shape of Joseph, the King's dead brother. 
 
 It is a remarkable fact, that though Cowley is always 
 ready to quote from the classic poets, though he never 
 hesitates to give the source of a simile or of a metaphor, 
 if taken from Latin or Greek, he never refers to contem- 
 poraries or to preceding English poets. In the first 
 instance, he is doubtless led by a scholarly spirit to give 
 his classic authorities ; in the other case, he may have 
 thought the likeness or source would be obvious. 
 
 Among all the ancient poets to whom Cowley refers, 
 Virgil is given the precedence. Ever)- where Cowley 
 
 5 
 
—62— 
 
 speaks of him in terms of the highest respect and admira- 
 tion, as ' My Master,' and ' That Prince of Poets.' One 
 needs only a casual glance at the Davideis to see how much 
 Cowley, in his epic, was indebted to Virgil, so that one 
 critic' says : ' It is crowded with unblushing plagiarisms.' 
 And the opening line of the Davideis, ' I sing the man who 
 Judah's sceptre bore,' leads another critic to remark'*: 
 ' Even the opening of Virgil's Aeneid has proved irresist- 
 ible to Cowley, who has miserably paraphrased it in the 
 first line of the Davideis. Embarking with such a deter- 
 mined lack of originality, Cowley was still the school-boy 
 copying closely from his models.' 
 
 Cowley, in his note, thus justifies himself : ' The custom 
 of beginning all poems with a proposition of the whole 
 work and an invocation of some God for his assistance to 
 go through with it, is so solemnly and religiously observed 
 by all the ancient poets, that though I could have found 
 out a better way, I should not (I think) have ventured 
 upon it. But there can be, I believe, none better ; and 
 that part of the Invocation, if it became a Heathen, is no 
 less necessary for a Christian poet. A Jove pi-incipiiun, 
 Miisae ; and it follows then very naturally, Jovis omnia 
 plena. The whole work may reasonably hope to be filled 
 with a Divine Spirit, when it begins with a prayer to be 
 so.' Cowley thus felt the tradition too strong to break 
 away from, as did also Milton later, who began his epic 
 with a proposition and an invocation to the Hebrew 
 Muse. 
 
 On the whole, however, it must be confessed that the 
 critic of the North British Review is right when he says 
 that Cowley is ' still the school-boy copying closely from 
 his models.' This may be seen by comparing the opening 
 passage of the Davideis : 
 
 I sing the man who Judah's sceptre bore 
 
 Much danger first, much toil did he sustain, 
 Whilst Saul and Hell cross'd his strong fate in vain ; 
 
 ' Wm. Stabbing. Some Vei-dicts of History reviewed. London, 1887. 
 '^ North Brit. Review, Vol. 6 (1846-1847), p. 398. 
 
-63- 
 
 So long her conqu'ror Fortune's flight pursued, 
 
 Till with unwearied virtue he subdu'd 
 
 All home-bred malice and all foreign boasts. 
 
 With the familiar : 
 
 Arma virumque cano, Trojae qui primus ab oris 
 Italiam, fato profugus, Laviniaque venit 
 Litora: multum ille et terris jactatus et alto 
 Vi superum, saevae memorem Junonis ob iram, 
 Multa quoque et bello passus, dum conderet urbem. 
 
 Compare also the opening lines of Tasso's Jeriisalem and 
 of Voltaire's Hcnriadc. 
 
 And so, all through the poem, passage after passage 
 might be cited showing the closest following of Virgil. 
 Wherever there is the least exaggeration or a seeming 
 departure from truth, Cowley hastens to strengthen his 
 statement b}^ reference to Virgil. Even in the matter of 
 verse as seen below, Virgil is his authority. On a ques- 
 tion of style, too, Cowley has recourse to the Latin poet. 
 At the introduction of the ode, Davideis, I, 482, the note 
 in the line explains that there is a seeming want of con- 
 nection between the ode and the preceding line. For this, 
 reference is had to Aeneid, III, 84 fF.; IV, 869 ff., in which 
 appears the common construction of the omission of 
 iiiquit before direct discourse. In the description of the 
 Prophet's College, based on English colleges of his own 
 day,* Cowley tells of early books, 'Some drawn on fair 
 
 ^ Compare the academj' in the first scene of Love's Labor's Lost, and see 
 Gregor Sarrazin, William Shakespeare's Lehrjahre, Litterarhistorische For- 
 schungen, Heft V, 1897, p. 205. Sarrazin cites as a parallel and possible 
 hint for Shakespeare, the academy founded in 1592 by Sir Walter Raleigh. 
 It included in its membership Marlowe, Thomas Kyd, Thomas Harriott, 
 Royden, and Warner. The club, however, developed atheistic tendencies, 
 and the assassination of Marlowe was considered the just judgment of 
 God upon him for his impiety. 
 
 Compare also the academy of Charlemagne, in which the Emperor and 
 Court assumed names taken partly from the Bible and partly from the 
 Greek and Roman classics. Alcuin was known as Horace, Eginbart as 
 Calliopus, and the Emperor himself as King David. 
 
 From such well-known societies and academies as these, Cowley may 
 have derived some hints for his Prophet's College at Rama. 
 
-64- 
 
 palm-leaves, with short-liv'd toil' and here the note refers 
 to the Sibyl, Acneid, VI, 74, ' Foliis tantum ne carmina 
 manda.' 
 
 The feast of Saul, Davideis, II, 358 ff., is celebrated in 
 true Roman style, as also the feast of Moab, Davideis, III, 
 271 ff. * An hereditary bowl with which they made their 
 libations to their gods and entertained strangers ' (III, note 
 33) was crowned with flowers and passed from hand to 
 hand. The room was hung with tapestry, and the guests 
 at the feast reclined upon beds in Roman fashion (II, 
 note 33). In his note to the second passage, Cowley 
 refers to Virgil's description of the feast with which 
 Queen Dido welcomes Aeneas, Aeneid, I, 728. Thus, 
 feasts, battles, and even religious ceremonies are dis- 
 tinctly Roman, Virgilian. In nearly every case, Cowley 
 has frankly pointed out his sources. 
 
 When, however, we come to compare Cowley with 
 Virgil in the treatment of the episode discussed above, 
 we find that Cowley does not, after all, take many details 
 from Virgil's account. He owes more to Ovid, Statins, 
 and Claudian, as will be shown below. 
 
 In his description of hell, one borrowing from Virgil is 
 of interest, for it was later imitated by Dryden. To jus- 
 tify his epithet, ' unfletcht tempests,' I, 75, Cowley either 
 quotes or refers to Aristotle, Hippocrates, Virgil, Juvenal, 
 and the Bible. He quotes from Virgil the well-known 
 passage concerning the cave of Aeolus, Aeneid, I, 52. 
 Cowle3''s lines are : 
 
 'Beneath the dens where unfletcht tempests lie, 
 And infant winds their tender voices tr}'.' 
 
 This is not based upon Aeneid, I, 52, but rather upon 
 Aeneid, X, 97: 
 
 ceu flamina prima 
 Cum deprensa fremunt sylvis, et caeca volutant 
 Murmura, ventures nautis prodentia ventos. 
 
 Which Dryden translates in almost the exact words of 
 Cowley : 
 
-65- 
 
 So winds, when yet unfledg'd in woods they lie, 
 In whispers first their tender voices try.' 
 
 Cowley, however, is still closer to Statius : 
 
 lUic exhausti posuere cubilia venti. Thebaid, I, 37. 
 Ventus uti primas struit inter nubila vires. Theb., VII, 625. 
 
 Marini in his treatment of this episode, Stj-age degli Inno- 
 centi, stanza 61, has taken bodily the figure used to de- 
 scribe Herod's rage, from Virgil's Aeneid, VII, 462-466. 
 
 ' Dryden afterwards parodied this couplet in Mac Flecknoe, 11. 76, ff. 
 
 Where unfledg'd actors learn to laugh and cry, I 
 
 Where infant punks their tender voices try. ' 
 
 A writer in LittelFs Living Age, 5th series, vol. 40 (Oct.-Dec. 18S2), p. 753, 
 has pointed out later imitations of these lines of Cowie}' : 
 
 Compare Young's Night Thoughts, Night IX (Anderson's British Poets, 
 p. 125, col. b) : 
 
 above the caves 
 Where infant tempests wait their growing wings, 
 And tune their tender voices to that roar. 
 
 Mrs. Barbauld, The Invitation, 11. S3-84 : 
 
 Here callow chiefs and embryo statesmen lie, 
 And unfledg'd poets short excursions tr)'. 
 
 In still another passage of his translation Dryden has imitated Cowley. 
 Compare the death of Goliath, Davideis, III, 589 : 
 
 Down, down, he falls ! and bites in vain the ground. 
 Blood, brain, and soul crowd mingled through the wound. 
 
 A passage based upon Aeneid, X, 349 : 
 
 Fronte ferit terrum, et crassum vomit ore cruorem. 
 which is translated by Dryden : 
 
 His forehead was the first that struck the ground, 
 Life-blood and life rush'd mingled through the wound. 
 
 Compare also Aeneid, IX, 752 : 
 
 ingenti concussa est pondere tellus : 
 Collapses artus et arma cruenta cerebro. 
 
 which Dryden translates : 
 
 Down sinks the giant with a thund'ring sound, * 
 His pond'rous limbs oppress the trembling ground. 
 Blood, brains, and foam, gush from the gaping wound. 
 
—66— 
 
 IMITATIONS OF THE AENEID, VII, 286 FF. PRECEDING 
 
 COWLEY. 
 
 In many of the Joseph dramas described by Von Wei- 
 len, Der Agyptische Joseph, etc., this same episode has been 
 imitated. 
 
 In the Spanish Tragedia, llamada Josefina, by Mical de 
 Cravajal, Placencia, 1546 (von Weilen, p. 13), the poet 
 introduces in the fourth act, Invidia, fiiria infernal, who 
 complains that, though everything else lies at her feet, 
 Jacob and his race resist her. She calls to her assistance 
 the demons of hell and sends her four daughters, the 
 Furies, to incite the brothers against Joseph. They suc- 
 cessfully accomplish their mission, and Joseph is sold into 
 captivity. 
 
 In Brunner's German drama, or Biblisclie Historia, pub- 
 lished at Wittenberg, 1566 (von Weilen, p. 92), appear in 
 the first scene two devils, Belial and Moloch, who incite 
 the brothers against Joseph, and later instigate Potiphar's 
 wife to tempt him (compare Fracastor's/^f^^^/// below). 
 
 Upon the subject of Herod and Mariamne appeared not 
 long after 1544 a drama entitled Maj'iainne by Lodovico 
 Dolce.' In the second prologue, Pluto, the Prince of 
 Hell, who has heard of God's plan of salvation for man- 
 kind, resolves to get possession of Herod's soul. Envy 
 (Gelosia) appears before Pluto and offers her services. 
 Pluto praises her faithfulness, but resolves to undertake 
 the mission himself. The devils do not appear again. 
 
 A far more complete and careful treatment of this epi- 
 sode, a close parallel to Cowley, is seen in Jerome Fracas- 
 tor's Joseph, a Latin poem in two books, which appeared 
 in his Opera Omnia, etc., Venise, 1555. 
 
 Jerome Fracaster was one of the most celebrated schol- 
 ars of his time. Born at Verona in 1483, he became Pro- 
 fessor of Logic at Padua, at the age of nineteen. He 
 established his reputation as a poet by the publication of 
 his Syphilod^s, sive viorbi gallici, libri tres, Verone, 1530, in 
 
 ' See Marcus Landau. Die Dranien von Herodes u. Alariatnne, Zeitschrift 
 fiir vet-gleichende Litterattu-geschichte, Netie Folge, VIII, 183. 
 
-67- 
 
 which he traces the origin of this loathsome disease syph- 
 ilis to ancient times. His poem was very popular, and 
 was translated into many languages. 
 
 Joseph was the last of his works, and was left unfinished 
 at his death in 1553. It must have been known to Mar- 
 ini, and to Cowley it was made familiar by Joshua Sylves- 
 ter's translation, entitled The Maiden s Bhish, or Joseph, 
 Mirror of Modestie, Map of Pietie, Maze of Destinie, or rather 
 of Divine Providence. From the Latin of Fracastorius, trans- 
 lated and dedicated to the High HopefuU Charles, Prince of 
 Wales, by Joshua Sylvester. It was entered upon the Sta- 
 tioners' Register Dec. 6th, 1619. See Grosart's edition of 
 Sylvester, Chert sey Worthies Library, 1879, H- 103 ff. Syl- 
 vester's translation contains 1799 lilies and is written in 
 heroic couplets. 
 
 The poem begins with the usual invocation, but there 
 is no picture of hell here as in Cowley and in Crashavv, 
 Pluto, the poet relates, knowing that from Abraham's 
 stock the Saviour of mankind is to spring, becomes per- 
 plexed and vexed sore, and therefore, ' he labors and he 
 lays about, with all the engines of his hellish hate, that 
 dear issue to exterminate.' He incites the anger of the 
 brethren against Joseph, so that they cast him into the 
 pit. But the Almighty takes pity upon Joseph and sends 
 down an angel to comfort him. 
 
 When Joseph is finally sold, and brought before Poti- 
 phar, lempsar, Potiphar's wife, conceives a guilty pas- 
 sion for the young Egyptian. Pluto, seeing his opportu- 
 nity, calls forth a cruel Harpy full of wicked wile (the Latin 
 has ' unum servorum '), and commissions him to inflame 
 lempsar's lust still more, and if possible to ' set Joseph, 
 too, afire.' 
 
 He, glad and ready for the worst of ills, 
 
 With Stygian puddle half a vial fills, 
 
 Blending some bitter sharp-sweet wine withal. 
 
 Then snatching quick one of the snakes that crawl 
 
 About Alecto's grim and ghastl_v brows, 
 
 Away he hies to Potiphar his hows, 
 
 Within his bosom hiding what he had. 
 
 And formerly just in the form him clad 
 
 Of Iphicle, the lady lempsar's nurse. 
 
—68— 
 
 In this disguise he addresses her, encourages her in her 
 desires, and gives her, as a love potion, ' the hellish phil- 
 ter ' which excites her passions still further. Clothing 
 himself then as a hag, he hastens to Joseph's chamber, but 
 finds the young man praying and praising God, and is 
 driven off by a heavenly warder with a shining sword. 
 Whereupon, he assumes the form of an owl. and perches 
 upon the roof. Here ends Book I in the Latin. Sylves- 
 ter prints both books in one. 
 
 lempsar, meanwhile, influenced b}' the poison, tempts 
 Joseph, but he resists her advances and leaves her. At 
 this the devil upon the roof ' puts off the fowl and re-puts 
 on Nurse Iphicle a space,' enters to lempsar and encour- 
 ages her to make a second attempt. This she does, but 
 is again repulsed by Joseph, who tells her the real char- 
 acter of the supposed Iphicle. Upon this the fury, who 
 was hiding behind the door, rushes forth, and seizing one 
 of her snakes, throws it at Joseph, but the heavenly war- 
 der again saves him. Unable to hurt him, the snake 
 crawls to lempsar, creeps into her skirts, gnaws into her 
 very vitals, and infuses his poison into her soul. Furious, 
 she seizes Joseph's cloak, so that he flees in terror. The 
 fiend then incites lempsar to accuse Joseph of having 
 attempted her honor: — 
 
 . All which and more false Iphicle avers 
 And aggravates, adjudging him exempt 
 From pity, fit to hang for such attempt 
 So insolent, so impudent, and whets 
 The hearer's hearts ; then close away she gets, 
 Unseen and owl-like in a cloud involv'd, 
 Her borrowed body into air dissolv'd, 
 Descending swift from whence she came, to tell 
 Her good ill-service and success in Hell. 
 
 In the opening lines, the expression crat siispectus Jacob 
 is to be compared with Marini's title Sospctto tV Her ode. 
 
 Here we find a parallelism between Fracastor (or Syl- 
 vester) and Cowley, which does not appear in Crashaw. 
 When Joseph is cast into the pit, the Lord looks down 
 with tender compassion upon him, and calling one of his 
 
-69- 
 
 winged messengers to him, sends him down to comfort 
 Joseph. Similarly, we find in the Davidcis, following im- 
 mediately upon the Devil's successful attempt to incite 
 Saul against David, a picture of God in Heaven looking 
 down in pity upon David and sending a herald to comfort 
 him. This episode is wanting in the Sospetto. Cowley 
 has a long description of Heaven, with the Almighty 
 surrounded by his angels, evidently based on Statius, 
 Theb., I, 211 ff. and on Virgil's Aeneid, X, loi ff., to 
 whom Cowley refers in a note. Otherwise the two pas- 
 sages in Cowley and Sylvester correspond closely. 
 In Sylvester, the angel's flight is thus described : 
 
 The hill-born nymphs with quav'ring warbles sing 
 His happy welcome : caves and rocks do ring 
 Redoubled echoes : woods and winds withal 
 Whisper about a joyful Madrigal. 
 
 While Cowley thus pictures it : 
 
 The jocund spheres began again to play, 
 Again each spirit sung Halleluia. 
 
 Of the swiftness of the angel's flight, we read in Syl- 
 vester : 
 
 And through the 7voundless welkin swifter glides 
 Than Zephyrus : or than (when mounted high 
 With many turns and tow'ring in the sky) 
 The stout Ger-faulcon stoopeth at the Heme 
 With sudden souse that man}' scarce discerne, 
 Such was the speed of the celestial bird. 
 
 In Cowley : 
 
 Even so 
 (But not so swift) the morning glories flow 
 At once from the bright sun, and strike the ground : 
 So winged lightning the soft air does woutid : 
 Slow time admires and knows not what to call 
 The motion, having no account so small. 
 
 In Sylvester, the angel then appears to Joseph, com- 
 forts him, tells him God is his friend, and reveals to him 
 the future, with a prophecy of the Saviour who is to spring 
 from Joseph's stock. 
 
— 70— 
 
 In Cowley, the angel comes to David, comforts him, 
 and prophesies to him the Saviour of mankind, who is to 
 spring- from David's stock. 
 
 It appears evident, then, that Cowley knew and read 
 the Maiden s Blush among the works of Joshua Sylvester. 
 It is not an improbable supposition that Cowley read the 
 original Latin of Fracastorius. 
 
 In the Divine Weeks of Du Bartas appears still another 
 handling of this same theme (see The Law, 3d Part, 3d 
 Day, II Week, 11. 36-120), namely, where Envy incenses 
 Pharaoh to oppress the Israelites. First is given a 
 description of Envy's palace. To her, swift-flying Fame 
 reports the prosperity of Israel. Envy — 
 
 Swoln like a toad, between her bleeding jawes 
 Her hissing serpents' wriggling tails she chawes,' 
 And hasting hence in Isis form she jets. 
 
 Disguised thus in the form of the goddess, she appears to 
 the sleeping Pharaoh and urges him to bestir himself, and 
 take arms against the dangers that threaten him. With 
 that she blows into his breast a baneful air, which flows 
 through all his veins and ' makes reason stoop to sence in 
 every part.' 
 
 Compare especially Sylvester, 11. 92-93, with the Davideis, 
 I, 229-230. See above, p. 34. 
 
 In 1587 appeared at Cracow a Latin drama, Castus 
 Joseph, by the Polish priest Simon Simonides (Szymono- 
 wicz).^ This pla}^ opens with a long monologue by the 
 Malus D^mon, who is hostile to the Hebrew race because 
 of the old prophec}^ ' pedibus . . . saeviret super caput 
 meum,' so he seeks to ruin Joseph by means of a woman, 
 Potiphar's wife lempsar. The devils appear, however, 
 only in the opening scene. 
 
 ' Compare the Sospetto, 'The while his twisted tail he gnaw'd for spite.' 
 ^ Cited by R. M. Werner in the review of Von Weilen Der Agyptische 
 Joseph^ etc., Zeiischr. filr deutsches A Iter turn. Vol. 33, pp. 47-48. Werner 
 saj's the pla3^ shows no influence of the western versions. Potiphar's wife 
 is here called lempsar, — a name, thinks Werner, invented by the poet (foot 
 note, p. 49). But this name at once connects the play with Fracastor'syi^j^//;, 
 b)' which it was doubtless influenced. 
 
Tasso in his Gcritsaleviine Liberata {i^y^) has made use of 
 this episode from the Aencid. In 1594 Richard Carew 
 published his translation of the first five books of Godfrey 
 of Bulloigne. In 1600 appeared Edward Fairfax's trans- 
 lation, a work far superior in every respect to Carew's, 
 and considered one of the glories of Elizabeth's reign. A 
 second edition was published in 1624. 
 
 Book IV opens with a scene in hell. The devil assem- 
 bles his fiends and sends them forth against the Christians. 
 False Plidraort, the wizard, is employed by Satan to 
 further his evil designs. Hidraort sends his niece Armida 
 to ensnare the Christian knights. The picture of hell is 
 drawn with power and great imagination, and there is no 
 doubt that Cowley consulted this passage in Fairfax's 
 translation. Compare especially the effect of Satan's 
 rage, Davidcis, I, 147 flf., with Fairfax, Book IV, stanza 8. 
 
 In Book VIII, stanza 72, Alecto 'strews wasteful fire' 
 among the Italians, and incites them to revolt. Stanza 74 
 is borrowed directly from Aeneid, VII, 462-466, exactly 
 the same passage which Marini appropriated to describe 
 Herod's rage, Strage degli Innocenti, stanza 61 (see above, 
 p. 65). 
 
 In Book IX we find the imitation of the episode from 
 Virgil, an almost exact parallel to Cowley. 
 
 In the opening stanzas, Alecto disguises herself, 
 
 and semblant bore 
 Of one whose age was great, whose looks were grave, 
 Whose cheeks were bloodless, and whose locks were hoar. 
 
 She appears then at the bed-side of Soliman, and urges 
 him to active efforts against the Christians : 
 
 This said, her poison in his breast she hides, 
 And then to shapeless air unseen she glides. 
 
 Compare p. 56 above, and also 
 
 Straight into shapeless air unseen she fell. 
 
 Davideis, II, 838. 
 
There are also other passages in which Cowley's in- 
 debtedness to Tasso may be traced. Compare the Invoca- 
 tion in each, and the following: Description of Gabriel, 
 Davidcis, II, 793 ff,; Fairfax, Canto, I, stanzas 13 fif. ; 
 Canto IX, stanza 59 ; though here both Tasso and Cowley 
 borrow from the classics, Homer, Iliad, XXIV, 339 ; 
 Odyssey, V, 43 ; Virgil, Aeneid, IV, 238 ; Statins, Thebaid, 
 
 I, 303. Compare also Milton, Paradise Lost, V, 246. 
 Mention must be made of Ben Jonson, The Poetaster, in 
 
 the prologue to which Envy appears with her snakes. 
 Gifford, in a note, compares with the Davideis. 
 
 When we examine, however, details of this episode in 
 the Davideis, we find passages, metaphors and similes taken 
 from almost all Latin and Greek poets. 
 
 In his description of heaven, and of the Lord sending 
 an angel to comfort David, Cowley has followed Fracas- 
 tor, but both Cowley and Fracastor are indebted to 
 Statius, Thebaid, I, 192, ff., where Jupiter, in answer to 
 Oedipus's prayer for vengeance, sends Mercury to sum- 
 mon Laius from hell. Compare also Iliad, 24; Aeneid, 
 IV, 238 ; X, loi ; Tasso, Gierus. Lib., I, 13. The speech 
 of Jehovah, Davideis, I, 389, ff., is modelled upon that of 
 Jupiter, Thebaid, I, 211 ff. For the whole episode of Envy 
 in disguise inciting Saul to vengeance, compare Thebaid, 
 
 II, I ff., where Laius, disguised as Tiresias, appears to 
 Eteocles and urges him to action, a passage referred to 
 by Cowley in a note. From Statius, too, Cowley took 
 not a few features of his description of hell. Compare 
 Thebaid, II, 37 with Davideis, I, 75. Also the description 
 of Pluto in the infernal regions,' Thebaid, VIII, and the 
 picture of the furies, Book XI, must have afforded Cowley 
 many suggestions. 
 
 From Ovid, Cowley took several features of his descrip- 
 tion of hell. Compare Davideis, I, 71 ff. with Metamor- 
 phoses, I, 137 ff. ; II, 760 ff, (see also Milton, Paradise Lost, 
 I, 684). Cowley's description of Envy is largely made up 
 from MetaniorpJioses, II, 760 ; IV, 431 ; VIII, 792. 
 
 The picture of Satan's i*age, Davideis, T, 143 ff,, is imi- 
 
tated from Claudian, De Raptii Proserpinae, I, 83 ff. Com- 
 pare also Tasso, Gieriis. Lib., IV, 8. The speech of Envy 
 to Satan follows closely that of the fury Lachesis to Pluto, 
 De Raptu Proserpinae, I, 55 ff., and the speech of Megaera, 
 In Rufinuni, I, 74 ff. The whole episode in Cowley is to 
 be compared with In Ritfiniivi, I, 123 ff. 
 
 For the description of hell in the Davideis compare also 
 Hesiod's famous description, Theogony, 11. 713 fF., a passage 
 to which Cowley refers. 
 
 Finally, Cowley's description of heaven is modelled 
 upon his own description of hell; the phraseology corre- 
 sponds closely. 
 
 Hell. 
 
 Beneath the silent chambers of the earth, 
 Where the sun's fruitful beams give metals birth, 
 Where he the growth of fatal gold doth see, 
 
 Beneath the dens where unfletcht tempests lie, 
 
 Beneath the mighty ocean's wealthy caves. 
 Beneath the eternal fountain of all waves. 
 Where their vast court the mother waters keep. 
 
 There is a place deep, wondrous deep below, 
 
 Which genuine night and hoi-ror does oerjlow. 
 
 No doze nd controls the unwearied space, but Hell 
 
 Endless as those dire pains which in it dwell. 
 
 Here no dear glimpse of the sun's lovely face 
 
 Strikes through the solid darkness of the place. 
 
 No dawning morn does her kind reds display ; 
 
 One slight weak beam would here be thought the day. 
 
 Here Lucifer the mighty captive reigns. 
 
 Proud midst his woes and tyrant in his chains. 
 
 Heaven. 
 
 Above the well-set orbs' soft harmony, 
 
 Above those petty lamps that gild the night. 
 
 There is a place o'erfown zaith hallowed light. 
 
 Where heaven as if it left itself behind, 
 
 Is stretch' d out far, nor its oivn bounds can find. 
 
 Here peaceful flames swell up the sacred place, 
 
 Nor can the glory contain itself in th' endless space. 
 
—74— 
 
 For there no twilight of the sun's dull ray 
 Glim vie rs upon the ptire and ftative day. 
 No pale-faced moon does in stoVn beams appear. 
 Or with dim taper scatter darkness there. 
 
 Nothing is there to come and nothing past. 
 But an eternal no2u does always last ; 
 There sits the Almighty, First of all and End, 
 Whom nothing but himself can comprehend. 
 
 Heaven is thus only the negative of hell, and both 
 descriptions are but lifeless catalogues of details full of 
 childish conceits. 
 
 SUMMARY. 
 
 After having examined in detail the poems of David 
 preceding Cowley, the conclusion was reached that 
 Cowley received from Du Bartas the suggestion and 
 inspiration of the Davideis, and that, in basing his religious 
 epic upon the Aeneid, he likewise followed the precedent 
 of the French poet. 
 
 For general outline of the treatment, however, Cowley 
 owes more perhaps to Virgil than to any other writer. 
 
 The striking verbal correspondence between the David- 
 eis, I, 70 ff. and the Sospetto D'Herode was discussed at 
 length, and, from the evidence attainable, it was concluded 
 that Cowley in this episode imitated Crashaw, but did 
 not use Marini, Crashaw's original. Further, both Marini 
 and Cowley were indebted to Virgil's Aeneid, VII, 286 fF. 
 Other imitations of this same episode from Virgil were 
 examined, and it was concluded that Cowley made use 
 of Sylvester's translation of Fracastor's Joseph, and also 
 of Fairfax's Tasso. Finally a brief discussion was given 
 of Cowley's indebtedness to the classic poets; namely, in 
 addition to Virgil, Statins, Thebaid, Ovid, Metamorphoses, 
 Claudian, I)i Riifinum and De Raptii Proserpinae, and 
 Hesiod's Theogony. 
 
— /D — 
 
 METRE OF THE DAVIDEIS. 
 THE HEIMISTICH. 
 
 In note 14 to Book I of the Davideis, Cowley attempts 
 to justify his use of the broken line by reference to Vir- 
 gil : * Though none of the English poets, nor indeed of the 
 ancient Latin, have imitated Virgil in leaving sometimes 
 half verses (where the Sense seems to invite a man to that 
 Liberty) yet his authority alone is sufficient, especially in 
 a thing that looks so naturally and gracefully, and I am 
 far from their Opinion, who think that Virgil himself in- 
 tended to have filled up those broken Hemistiques : There 
 are some places in him which I dare almost swear have 
 been made up since his death by the putid Officiousness 
 of some Grammarians.' Then follow quotations from Vir- 
 gil and Ovid to establish this point. Cowley seems to 
 have imagined that he was introducing a new feature into 
 English poetry, yet Francis Quarles, only a few years 
 before, had made frequent use of the hemistich, and it 
 appears also in Peele's King David and Fair BetJisabe, ed. 
 Boyce, London, 1828, I, 279. 
 
 In the Davideis, the following examples appear: — 
 
 5-stressed line — 
 
 O my ill-changed condition ! O my Fate ! I, 141. 
 
 4-stressed line — 
 
 Such is the sea, and such was Saul. II, ig. 
 
 3-stressed lines — 
 
 Did I lose heaven for this? I, 142. One hour will do your work. 
 I, 584. By the Great Name 'tis true. II, 3S0. 
 
 'twill be a smaller gift. Ill, 895. It did so, and did wonders. IV, 
 55. Yet such, Sir, was his case. IV, 1047. 
 
 2-stressed line — 
 
 And both for God. IV, 676.1 
 
 ' Schipper, Altengl. Metrik, II, 210, in treating Cowley's use of the broken 
 line, makes a curious slip in quoting examples of Cowley's metre from Mrs. 
 A. Behn's and Nahum Tate's translations of the Book 0/ Plants. 
 
-7(3- 
 
 Cowley's use of the hemistich is often artistic and effec- 
 tive. For instance, Satan, expressing his rage at David's 
 success, suddenly breaks off with, 
 
 O my ill-changed condition ! O my Fate ! 
 Did I lose heav'n for this? I, 141. 
 
 And again the speech of Michel to the pursuers of 
 David is suddenly broken by her tearful utterance, 
 
 One hour will do your work. 
 
 Cowley evidently felt the limitations of the rime, and, 
 lacking skill in varying the position of the caesura, tried 
 to gain the same end by a rhetorical .device, 
 
 Dryden makes frequent and skilful use of the hemistich, 
 yet, in his Discourse of Epic Poetry (1697), he objects to 
 Cowlej^'s view of the broken line in Virgil, and inclines to 
 the contrary opinion, namely that the Latin poet intended 
 eventually to fill in the half verses (Malone, III, 585 ff.) : 
 'But there is another thing in which I have presumed to 
 deviate from him and Spenser, They both make hemi- 
 sticks, or half verses, breaking off in the middle of a line. 
 I confess there are not many such in the Faery Queen ; 
 and even those might be occasioned by his unhappy 
 choice of so long a stanza. Mr. Cowley had found out 
 that no kind of staff is proper for an heroic poem, as being 
 all too lyrical ; yet though he wrote in couplets, where 
 rhyme is freer from constraint, he frequently affects half 
 verses, of which we find not one in Homer, and I think 
 not in any of the Greek poets or the Latin, excepting only 
 Virgil, and there is no question but that he thought he 
 had Virgil's authority for that license. But I am confi- 
 dent our poet never meant to leave him or any other such 
 a precedent. . . . On these considerations, I have shunned 
 hemisticks, not being willing to imitate Virgil to a fault ; 
 like Alexander's courtiers, who affected to hold their 
 necks awry, because he could not help it.' Evidently 
 this applied only to his translation of Virgil, in which he 
 felt that the broken lines did not properly belong, and 
 that thus, in his capacity as translator, he had no right to 
 
introduce them ; in his dramas, on the contrary, the hemi- 
 stich is common. 
 
 As to the significance of the broken lines in Virgil, 
 scholars to-day are divided in opinion, some holding to 
 Cowley's view and some to Dryden's. Dryden, however, 
 was totally wrong in his conception of Spenser's use of 
 the hemistich in his Faerie Queene. There are but two 
 examples to be found : in Book II, canto VIII, 1. 500, and 
 in Book III, canto VI, 1. 405, in both of which the stanza 
 is clearly defective. In Colin Cloufs Come Home Again, 1. 
 695, is an odd line, where, however, the corresponding 
 line has evidently been lost. The only undoubted exam- 
 ple in Spenser appears in the Shepherd's Calendar, Feb-' 
 ruary, 1. 238, where Cuddy interrupts Thenot's long 
 speech. 
 
 Denham, in his translation of the Aeneid (written in 
 1636, published about twenty years later), had used the 
 hemistich, but as it occurs only in lines corresponding to 
 the Latin, and as it appears in none of his other poems, he 
 doubtless did what Dryden avoided, 'imitated Virgil to a 
 fault.' In Waller, not a single example appears. Early 
 in the next century. Garth, in his translation of the Meta- 
 morphoses, still held to Cowley's view of the broken lines 
 in the Aeneid ; Pope inclined to Dryden's opinion and 
 excluded them from his verse. 
 
 The hemistich, however, founded thus by Cowley upon 
 a doubtful conception of Virgil's metre, and established 
 by Dryden through an erroneous idea of Spenser's verse, 
 became a recognized license in English poetry, persisting 
 even to our own day. Keats introduces into his heroic 
 couplets short lines of two and three stresses, which, how- 
 ever, always rime, for example in his Callidore (see 
 Schipper, Altengl. Metrik, II, 220). 
 
 THE TRIPLET. 
 
 In the Davideis, there is no example of the triplet, but 
 in the Anacreontics, written at about the same time, appear 
 a considerable number as follows : 
 6 
 
-78- 
 
 \ Love, 11. 1-3 Kings: things: strings; 11. 12-14 lyre: 
 inspire: desire; 11. 15-17 Kings: things: strings. Ill 
 Beauty, 11. 21-23 express: undress: nakedness. IV The 
 Duel, 11. 3-5 enemy: I: defy; 11. 22-24 maintain: vain: 
 remain. V Age, 11. 9-1 1 take: make; stake. IX TJie 
 Epicure, 11. 25-27 crave : have : grave. 
 
 Here the lines are tetrameters, and the verse is very 
 free. In his heroic couplets the following examples were 
 noted : 
 
 Of Liberty, Grosart, 11, 314, 11. 7-9 stay: away: play. 
 Of Agriculture, Grosart, II, 324, Country Mouse, 11. 15-17 
 wheat: meat: eat. Of Myself, Grosart, II, 341, Martial 
 L, 10, Ep. 47, 11. 3-5 all : call: small. Prologue to Cutter, 11. 
 17-19 by : cry : why. Epilogue to Cutter, 11. 1 1-13 Cavalier : 
 here : were. Discourse concerning the Government of Oliver 
 Cromwell, Grosart, II, 307, 11. 23-25 shew: do: slew; 11. 
 44-46 throne : grown : one. 
 
 Cowley occasionally introduces two couplets together, 
 with the same rime. Of these there are three examples 
 vci \\iQ Anacreontics ; II Drinking, Yi. 16-20 high : why: I: 
 why: VII, Gold, 11. 17-21 hate: debate: separate: create. 
 IX TJie Szvallow, 11. 15-19 pray : away : away : to-day. In 
 the Davideis there are two examples : sell : well : Israel : 
 foretell I, 917 ; dare : there : care : prayer IV, 737. Also 
 in the Essays, Country Mouse, Grosart, II, 324, 11. 50-54 
 repel: cell : tell : fell. 
 
 These cases seem, however, due to carelessness rather 
 than to design. Thus in all Cowley's poetry there are 
 only hfteen examples of the triplet ; in his heroic couplets, 
 only seven. Evidently, thei'efore, Cowley regarded the 
 triplet as a metrical license. See also Mead's statement' : 
 ' Of Pope's predecessors, Cowle}^ and Dryden show most 
 partiality for the triplet' (p. 43). Cowley and Dryden, 
 however, are not to be classed together in their use of the 
 triplet, for in 4000 lines of Dryden {Absalom and Achitophel, 
 Religio Laici, Hi)id and Panther I-III) appear 200 triplets 
 (Mead). 
 
 ' VV. E. Mead. The Versification of Pope in its Relatioji to the Seventeenth 
 Century, Leipzig, 1889. 
 
—79— 
 
 Of the other poets of this period, Milton never uses 
 the triplet. Waller has only three examples. Denham's 
 Cooper s /////contains none, but there are six in his Destruc- 
 tion of Troy (Mead). 
 
 Dryden, Discoiirse of Epic Poetry, was the first that 
 attempted to explain the rhetorical and metrical value of 
 triplets, namely, that they ' bound the sense.' According 
 to Dr. Johnson, though ' Dryden did not introduce the 
 triplet, he established it. Dryden seems not to have 
 traced it higher than to Chapman's Homer ; but it is to 
 be found in Phaer's Virgil (1558) written in the reign of 
 Mary, and in Hall's Satires, published five years before 
 the death of Elizabeth,' 
 
 The triplet thus established by Dryden became very 
 popular and was affected by all the poets from Cowley to 
 Wordsworth. 
 
 Schipper in his discussion of the triplet, Altenglische 
 Metrik, II, 207, has overlooked these examples in Phaer's 
 Virgil spoken of by Dr. Johnson. The earliest instances 
 cited by Schipper are from Joseph Hall's Satires, written 
 in heroic couplets, in which there are only four triplets. 
 Book IV, satires i, 4, 6. Book V, satire 3. 
 
 See also H. M. Regel. JJber George Chapinans Homer- 
 ubersetzung, EngliscJie Stiidien, IV, 336. In the Iliad 
 Regel finds 36 examples of the triplet; in the Odyssey 121. 
 Regel also refers to Phaer's Virgil, in which he says the 
 triplet is not uncommon, (between 175 and 200 examples). 
 'Im heroischen couplet,' continues Regel, ' finden sie sich 
 beinahe von anfang an fast bei alien dichtcrn, die in diesem 
 metrum geschrieben haben. Sie sind tiberhaupt bei den 
 langzeilen seltener als bei den funfifussigen jamben.' He 
 gives, however, no examples in support of his statement, 
 and indeed the facts do not seem to bear it out, certainly 
 for the early period of the language. No one seems to 
 have pointed out the fact that triplets appear in Middle 
 English verse. Here they are rare in the short line, but 
 more common in the long line. In the short line in Seven 
 Sages (Percy Society, vol. 16, 1. 337) is one example, Caton : 
 
— 8o— 
 
 mone : to-don. In Weber's text {Metrical Romance, vol. 3' 
 1. 915), one example, _/rt//r .• ivithalle : falle. In Vox and 
 Witlf (Matzner Alteng. Spj-acJiproben, I, 136, 1. 293), one 
 example, kvissc : blissc : forgcvcncss. But in the long- line 
 instances are frequent. In Horstmann's Early Sontli Eng- 
 lish Legendary (E. E. T. S., vol. 87), written in the long 
 line, septenaries and alexandrines, examples of triplets are 
 numerous. The long line indeed is just where we should 
 expect to find the triplet first, for here the jingle of the 
 rime would be less noticeable. The appearance of the 
 triplet in the long line of Chapman's Homer and of Phaer's 
 Virgil is to be connected with the not uncommon use of 
 the triplet in the Early South English Legendary (1280- 
 1290). The triplet seems, however, to have been of little 
 significance in Middle English verse, just as it was later 
 until Dryden made it popular. But the fact that it 
 appears in Middle English has not yet been observed by 
 metrists. 
 
 ALEXANDRINES. 
 
 Still another metrical license which Cowley employed 
 for artistic effect, and which, too, he considered an innova- 
 tion in English poetry, was the introduction into the 
 heroic couplet of the Alexandrine, or long line of twelve 
 syllables. Here again he has recourse to Virgil as his 
 authority (Book I, note 25 of Davideis) : ' I am sorry it is 
 necessary to admonish the most part of my readers that 
 it is not by Negligence that the verse is so loose, long, 
 and, as it were, vast ; it is to paint in the Number the 
 Nature of the thing which it describes, which I would 
 have observed in various other parts of this Poem, that 
 else will pass for very careless Verses : " And overruns 
 the neighb'ring Fields with violent Course"' {Davideis, I, 
 60). Here follow various other examples of the same 
 kind. 'The thing is,' he continues, 'that the Disposition 
 of words and Numbers should be such as that out of the 
 Order and Sound of them, the things themselves may be 
 represented. This the Greeks were not so accurate as to 
 
— 8i— 
 
 bind themselves to ; neither have our English Poets 
 observed it, for ought I can find. The Latins (qui Musas 
 colunt severiores), sometimes did it, and their Prince, Vir- 
 gil, always.' 
 
 In the Daz'ide/s there are 25 Alexandrines, as follows: 
 1,60,354. 832; II, 611, 718; III, 366, 844, 1035; IV, 79, 
 92, 143, 189, 303, 325-333. 351. 661, 840, 922. 
 
 In the long passage IV, 325-333, God's speech is writ- 
 ten in Alexandrines in order to give greater dignity to 
 the language, and so anxious is the poet to gain the 
 desired effect, that he makes the Almighty use the first 
 person plural of majesty. (See Johnson, Life of Cowley.) 
 
 Other examples of Alexandrines appear as follows : On 
 the Deatli of Mr. Crashazv, 11. 8, 16, 34, 44, 64, 74. Here 
 again the long lines are used to lend dignity to the lan- 
 guage. Verses in the Discourse Concerning the Govermnent 
 of Oliver Cronnvell, Grosart, II, 307, 11. 20, 54; ibid., II, 
 308, col. b., 1. 14: Ansiver to a Copy of Verses sent me to 
 Jersey, last line, ibid., I, 145a ; Essays, Danger of Procrasti- 
 nation, ibid., II, 338a, 1. 5 ; II, 339a, 1. 12 ; Of Myself , ibid., 
 II, 341a, II. 28-29. Total 15. 
 
 Total number of Alexandrines in his poetry, 35. 
 
 The fact that Cowley was the first poet to mingle the 
 Alexandrine with the heroic couplet has already been 
 pointed out by Dr. Johnson, who, however, at the same 
 time, condemned the practice : ' I know not whether he 
 has, in man}'' of these instances, attained the representa- 
 tion or resemblance that he purposes. Verse can only 
 imitate sound and motion. A boundless verse, a headlong 
 verse, and a verse of brass, or of strong brass, seem to com- 
 prise very incongruous and unsociable ideas. What there 
 is peculiar in the sound of a line expressing loose care, I 
 cannot discover nor why the pine is taller in the alexan- 
 drine than in ten syllables.' 
 
 Dryden, Disco2irse of Epic Poetry, Malone, III, 522, thus 
 justifies his use of the Alexandrine: 'Spenser has also 
 given me the boldness to make use sometimes of his 
 Alexandrine line, which we call, though improperly, the 
 
—82— 
 
 Pindarick, because Mr. Cowley has often employed it in 
 his odes. It adds a certain majesty to the verse, when it 
 is used with judgment, and stops the sense from overflow- 
 ing into another line.' 
 
 It is interesting to note that in one instance Cowley 
 closes the triplet with an Alexandrine. In the verses in 
 Discourse Cojicerning the Government of Oliver Cromwell, 
 Grosart, II, 307b, 11. 15-17: 
 
 The great Jesssean race on Judah's throne, 
 
 'Till 'twas at last an equal wager grown ; 
 
 Scarce Fate, with much ado, the better got by one. 
 
 It was this same trick of verse which Dryden after- 
 words so much affected, and which, in his Discourse on 
 E/>ic Poetrj/, M:xlone, III, 537, he thus justifies : 'When I 
 mentioned the Pindarick line, I should have added that I 
 take another license in my verses, for I frequently make 
 use of triplet rhymes, and for the same reason, — because 
 they bound the sense. And therefore I generally join 
 these two licenses together and make the last line a Pin- 
 darick ; for besides the majesty which it gives, it confines 
 the sense within the barriers of these lines, which would 
 languish if lengthened into four. Spenser is my example 
 for both these privileges of English verse, ^ and Chapman 
 has followed him in his translation of Homer. Mr. Cow- 
 ley has given in to them after both ; and all succeeding 
 writers after him. I regard them now as the Magna 
 Charta of heroick poetry.' 
 
 FEMININE RIMES. 
 
 In the Davidcis there is no example of a feminine rime, 
 and it is not common in the other poetry of Cowley. 
 The feminine rime was generally excluded from the heroic 
 couplet by the seventeeth century poets. In Milton, 
 Waller, and Dryden, examples are few. See Mead, pp. 
 45-46. In the heroic couplets of Cowley there are only 
 nine examples. 
 
 ^ In the Shepherd's Calendar there are six triplets. 
 
In the rest of his poetry there are 57 examples, appear- 
 ing, for the most part, in the Pindaric Odes and Anacre- 
 ontics, where the verse is free. 
 
 RUN-ON LINES AND RUN-ON COUPLETS. 
 
 On Cowley's use of the heroic couplet, Schipper re- 
 marks (II, 210): 'Das enjambement bedient er sich neben 
 den gevvohnlichen Licenzen wie Taktumstellung- und 
 Wandel der Ciisur, in nicht seltenen Fallen. Reimbre- 
 chung kommt nur ganz vereinzelt vor. Auch sind die 
 Reime fast durchgehends stumpf.' 
 
 In Cowley's early poems, his use of the heroic couplet 
 is very free, as appears from the following table : 
 
 Mid-stopt Broken 
 lines. rimes. 
 
 Z% o 
 
 7% I 
 
 11% 
 13^ 
 
 To be compared with this are two humorous poems in 
 which the verse is designedly free : 
 
 Mid-stopt Broken 
 lines. rimes. 
 
 24% 12 
 
 
 
 
 Run-on 
 
 Run-on 
 
 
 
 No. lines. 
 
 lines. 
 
 couplets. 
 
 1632 
 
 £/eo;y on Death of 
 
 
 
 
 
 Lord Carleton 
 
 28 
 
 23^ 
 
 21^ 
 
 1633 
 
 Elegy on Death of 
 
 
 
 
 
 Mr. Rd. Gierke 
 
 36 
 
 20% 
 
 IIJ? 
 
 1633 
 
 Dreaju of Elysium 
 
 98 
 
 32% 
 
 24^ 
 
 1633 
 
 On His Majesty's 
 Return out of 
 
 
 
 
 
 Scotland 
 
 54 
 
 42% 
 
 44^ 
 
 1636 
 
 Elegy on Death of 
 
 
 
 
 
 John Littleton 
 
 64 
 
 2?>% 
 
 28^ 
 
 1636 
 
 Elegy on Death of 
 Mrs.AnnWhit- 
 
 
 
 
 
 Jield 
 
 36 
 
 AA% 
 
 38^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 Run-on 
 
 Run-on 
 
 
 
 Nc 
 
 ). lines. 
 
 lines. 
 
 couplets. 
 
 1636 
 
 Poetical Revenge 
 
 
 54 
 
 bbfa 
 
 -J-ifc 
 
 1645 
 
 Answer to a Copy 
 of Verses sent me 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 to Jersey 
 
 
 52 
 
 A2% 
 
 36^ 
 
 Here there is a marked increase in the per cent, of 
 run-on lines, run-on couplets, and mid-stop lines. 
 
 In 1637 Cowley entered the University, and from this 
 time forward his verse becomes more correct, as may be 
 seen from the following table : 
 
-84- 
 
 
 
 
 Run-on 
 
 Run-on 
 
 Mid-stopt 
 
 Broken 
 
 
 No 
 
 . lines. 
 
 lines. 
 
 couplets 
 
 lines. 
 
 rimes. 
 
 i639 
 
 To Lord Falkland 
 
 42 
 
 21^ 
 
 23^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 1639 
 
 On the Death of 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Sir H. Wotton 
 
 28 
 
 21^ 
 
 1% 
 
 
 
 
 
 1640 
 
 To the Bishop of 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Lincoln 
 
 56 
 
 15^ 
 
 \o% 
 
 
 
 
 
 1641 
 
 On the death of 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Sir A . Vandyke 
 
 40 
 
 14^ 
 
 \A% 
 
 I 
 
 
 
 1650 
 
 To Sir IV. Davenant 
 
 40 
 
 22^ 
 
 \o% 
 
 
 
 
 
 1650 
 
 On the Death of 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Mr. Crashaw 
 
 72 
 
 24^ 
 
 10% 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 The following table exhibits his use of the heroic coup- 
 let in the Davideis : 
 
 
 No. lines. 
 
 Run-on 
 lines. 
 
 Run-on 
 couplets. 
 
 Mid-stopt 
 lines. 
 
 Broken 
 rimes. 
 
 Book I 
 
 934 
 
 19^ 
 
 13^ 
 
 b% 
 
 I^ 
 
 " II 
 
 838 
 
 \t% 
 
 \o% 
 
 1% 
 
 2% 
 
 " III 
 
 1034 
 
 13^ 
 
 11^ 
 
 1% 
 
 I^ 
 
 " IV 
 
 1117 
 
 23^ 
 
 19^ 
 
 10% 
 
 2% 
 
 Here the verse gradually becomes freer, the increase in 
 mid-stopt lines being especially noticeable. Effective use 
 is made of them in conversation. On the whole, however, 
 the general average of run-on lines, run-on couplets, and 
 mid-stopt lines in the Davideis agrees with the average of 
 his other verse at this period. 
 
 For the heroic couplets interspersed throughout his 
 prose, of which only the longer pieces are taken (Grosart, 
 II, 307, 323, 324, 325, 326, 333), 612 lines in all, the figures 
 are, run-on lines 18, run-on couplets 19, mid-stopt lines i. 
 
 The results may be tabulated thus : 
 
 1632-1637 . 
 1637-1650 . 
 
 Davideis 
 1660-1667 . 
 
 It thus appears that Cowley's verse tends to become 
 
 more 'correct.' The verse of his boyhood, 1632-1637, is 
 
 *• ^>free and careless. Upon his entrance to the University a 
 
 Lun-on 
 
 Run-on 
 
 Mid-stopt 
 
 lines. 
 
 couplets. 
 
 lines. 
 
 32% 
 
 29^ 
 
 6^ 
 
 10% 
 
 13^ 
 
 ^% 
 
 18^ 
 
 14^ 
 
 n 
 
 m 
 
 19^ 
 
 Ifo 
 
-85- ■,.. "• ■ ■' , .i:. 
 
 distinct advance is noted ; his verse here had more of his 
 care, and consequently there is a marked decrease in the 
 per cent, of run-on lines and run-on couplets. Since, how- 
 ever, from 1637 on, the per cent, remains almost constant, 
 it is evident that this approach to ' correctness ' is due, 
 not to the influence of Waller and of the ' classical school,' 
 but to the natural and gradual improvement of his own 
 verse. In metre, as in almost everything else, Virgil was 
 his authority and court of last resort, and to him Cowley 
 was indebted for every ' improvement ' he ventured to 
 introduce into the heroic couplet. 
 
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