of the like sort quietly accompanies an heap of gold, broken earthenware, conch-shells, and other consecrated things." Adair's American Indians, p. 82. "The king of the island of Tornate having a mind to make Admiral Sir Francis Drake a visit on shipboard, sent beforehand four large canoes, filled with some of the most highly dignified persons about him. They were all dressed in white lawn, and had a large umbrella of a very fine perfumed mat (borne up with a frame made of reeds) spreading over their heads from one end of the canoe to the other. Their servants clad in white stood about them, and without there were ranks of soldiers, placed in comely order on both sides." Sir Francis Drake's Voy. Harris, Vol. I. 22. See p. 178. B. 3. ON PSALMODY. French, who about this time (1545) seem to have been seized with a sort of furor psalmodicus, since nothing was to be heard among them, from the court to the cottage, but the strains of Clement Marot*; the popular interest in whose work was for a long time kept up by the lucky adoption of it by Calvin and his followers, and its consequent condemnation by the Doctors of the Sorbonne College or from whatever other cause this practice may have arisen amongst us, one not the least remarkable feature about it was, the great and general interest which was immediately excited, and the multitude of persons who all at once began to exercise themselves in this species of composition. Thus, in 1549, we have published a portion of the psalms by Sternhold, thirty-seven in number, (not fiftyone, as stated by Hawkins † and Warton) in the same year the seven penitential psalms by Sir Thomas Wyatt, the canticles or To the Editor of the Remembrancer. ballads of Solomon by William Sir, THE origin and progress of psalmody in England is a subject which has attracted the attention and exercised the pens of several of our distinguished writers. Both the general principle of versifying portions of the Holy Scriptures, and the performances of those who have made attempts of this kind, have been brought under discussion; have been attacked and defended with no ordinary degree of interest. Whatever may have been the immediate cause of metrical versions, more particularly of the psalms, being introduced into this country; whether it were simply the wish of receding as far as possible from the forms of worship used by the Church of Rome, from whose communion we had then lately separated; and that a psalm in metre was adopted as a substitute for the Antiphona of the Primer: or whether the hint was taken from our neighbours the In Baldwin, and the whole psalter by * Marot was a court-poet, who translated into French verse, the first fifty psalms: his version was subsequently completed by Theodore Beza. + History of Music. + History of English poetry. to have escaped the researches of Ames, Herbert, and Dibdin, and even to have eluded the prying eye of Ritson, I shall say no more at present, as I shall shortly have to speak of its contents, and perhaps give a specimen of them, in another place. In 1551, Sternhold's psalms were republished, with seven additional ones by John Hopkins. These were soon adopted by the English Calvinists at Geneva; and after undergoing such alterations as to them seemed meet, after being conferred with the Hebrewe, and in certeyne places corrected," they were, with the addition of seven others by W. Whityngham at that time residing at Geneva, printed there in 1556. The number now has become fifty-one, and perhaps it was an hasty sight of this edition which misled Hawkins and Warton, as stated above. In 1553 were published the first fourteen chapters of the Acts of the Apostles in verse by Christofer Tye, one of the gentlemen of the Chapel Royal: and, about the same time, the Proverbs, some chap. ters of Ecclesiastes, with certain psalms" drawen into metre by John Hall." I say nothing of those translators, such as Sir Thomas Smith, and probably many others, whose works have not appeared in print, or have been subsequently lost. The profusion of these sacred poets, may in some degree be accounted for by the known fondness of Edward the Sixth for music, no less than by his habits of piety, and favourable sentiments to the reformed religion and ritual: he was himself a poet and a performer on the lute, and Sternhold, groom of his chamber, was used to sing before him the psalms which he had translated. About 1560 was printed a metrical version of the whole Psalter, made, as it is believed, by Archbishop Parker, although it does not bear his name. On account of the extreme rarity of copies of this book, it has been generally maintained that the Archbishop intended it for private circulation only: it is however to be seen in the Bodleian library, and in the library of Brasen Nose College, Oxford. The Earl of Surrey turned into verse some few psalms, and a portion of the book of Ecclesiastes. Elizabeth herself did not disdain to shew her talents in this manner: the xivth psalm in metre executed by her, was printed in 1548, and may be seen in Park's edition of the Royal and Noble Authors of Great Britain. At a later period, James the First translated the whole Psalter into metre. A person writing with a professed view of ascertaining the respective merits of these metrical translators, would naturally be disposed to arrange their productions under two distinct classes: assigning to the first, those which were intended for public use in the Church; to the other, those which were composed for the amusement of the writers or their private friends. I think it may fairly be presumed, that most of the earlier publications belong to the former of these classes: in fact, the authors of several of them expressly declare their wishes and intentions to be, that these psalms and other portions of Scripture, should be generally used by the people, to their spiritual solace and edification, and to the exclusion of loose and objectionable songs and sonnets, which at that time were too fashionable among all ranks. Thus Sternhold, in his dedication to Edward VI. says, "Seeinge further that your tender and godly zeale doeth more delight in the holye songes of veritye than in any feygued rhimes of vanitye, I am encouraged to travail further in the said book of psalms: trusting that as your grace taketh pleasure to hear them sung sometimes of me, so ye will also delight not onely to see and reade 2 them yourself, but also to command them to be sung to you of others, &c." Thus also Coverdale declares that his psalms were set forth in order to teach men: Lorde, the poetry of the age of Edward VI. because it wants the polish and embellishments of that of George III.? The real fact is, that Warton, by his own confession, considered any metrical psalms whatever as incom to make theyr songes of the patible with the spirit of the English That they may thrust under the borde Thus again, Christopher Tye, in his dedication to the king, says of his poems, "And though they be not curious, 66 Liturgy : I reprobate any version at all, more especially if intended for the use of the Church." With these feelings and ideas, it can hardly be supposed that he would enter without bias into the discussion of the merits of any one particular version: and as that of Sternhold and Hopkins appeared to be the most prominent, as being better known and more extensively used than the rest, he has studiously "That such good thinges your grace might sought out and exposed, what he move your lute when ye assaye, Instede of songes of wanton love these stories then to playe." Archbishop Parker, in his preface, uses the same sort of language. It has of late years been much the fashion among us, to look down upon the version of Sternhold and Hopkins with disdain and ridicule; and Warton has contributed no little to the confirming of this opinion, by condemning in a few sweeping sentences, the whole composition as mean and contemptible; as likely to excite laughter, rather than to assist and inspire devotion; as retained in the service of our Church to the disgrace of sacred music, sacred poetry, and our established worship. But surely these are not the sentiments of a man, who has deliberately and impartially examined into all the circumstances of the case; who has considered the peculiar nature of the subject matter, the period at which the translators lived, the object of their work, and the habits and attainments of the great bulk of those for whose use and benefit it was principally intended. Where is the fairness or the wisdom of condemning REMEMBRANCER, No. 30. considers the chief defects in this. And from them has maintained the propriety and necessity of banishing metrical psalms altogether from our service. Yet, notwithstanding the classic taste and critical celebrity of Warton, many persons may think with me, that his arguments on this point are not sufficiently conclusive. That we may not only continue to use the psalms in metre, with perfect safety to our present Church establishment, and without danger of being called either Puritans or Calvinists; but farther, that we may, without moral turpitude or actual mischief, go on to use them in that form which Sternhold and Hopkins have prepared. That this generally-abused version ever actually did impede devotion, it has not been even attempted to be shewn; but that it has often produced the most salutary effects, it would not perhaps be difficult to shew: if it has its defects, it has likewise, or has had, its advantages; and even in the present age of intellectual cultivation and refinement, there are not wanting those, who, in the midst of versions possessing higher claims to poetical excellence, can yet look up to the pious and U u simple labours of these men with unfeigned sentiments of gratitude and respect. To this brief sketch of some of the earlier versifications of the psalms, I beg to add a few words concerning a translation of them little known amongst us, because it has never yet been communicated to the world through the medium of the press. The version to which I allude, is that by Sir Philip Sidney, or as Ballard and some others maintain, the joint production of him and his accomplished sister the Countess of Pembroke. How, or by what strange means it has happened, that this version has slept in unmerited obscurity for nearly two centuries and a half, I am utterly at a loss to divine: more especially as within the last fifteen or twenty years there has been no little mania for bringing into public notice, the unknown or forgotten works of the poets who flourished in the days of Elizabeth. Will it be thought an answer, to say, that all this was done by gentlemen, by amateurs, by collectors? who laid down to themselves a narrow path, that of giving again to the world what it had once possessed before, and that from this they were unwilling to depart? What had been once edited, might be edited again: but as this work of Sir Philip Sidney had never been printed, it was clear that no reprint of it could be made. The psalms of George Wither have again been laid before a few at least of the public; but those of Sir Philip Sidney are still unseen and unknown*. * Psalm cxxxvii. was given in Number 18 of the Guardian; seven others, supposed to be the composition of the Countess of Pembroke, were given in Sir John Harrington's "Nuga Antiquæ," and two at the end of Zouch's "Life of Sir Philip Sidney." With the exception of these I do not know that any portion has ever appeared in print. I have said 'unmerited obscurity,' for such to me it appears; I seem to see in many of them passages of considerable beauty: and notwithstanding the stiffness characteristic of the poetry of that day, there is often peculiar happiness of expres sion, a nerve and energy, a poetic spirit that might have disarmed, even if it could not extort praise from, the fastidious Warton himself. But, in order that this my own individual opinion may be confirmed or refuted at once, I proceed to present the reader with two or three specimens, taken from a manuscript. of which I have very lately become possessed. It contains the entire Psalter in the regular order, written in various metres; among which is found the hexameter, a species of verse, which, in spite of all the attempts to introduce it into our language, from Fraunce and Stanihurst down to Southey, will never become popular with a correct taste and ear: of this, however, there are very few specimens in the book. "PSALM lxvii. 1. "God! on us thy mercies shewe, make on us thy blessings flow, thy face's beames from heav'n upon us shoure that all may see the way of thee and know thy saving power. 2. "God! the nations praise thee shall, thee shall praise the nations all; to mirth and joye all such as earth possess shall them imploy; for thou their guide "Cloth'd in state and girt with might He who endless One remaines, One the same in changeless plight, He wounds the rock; the rock doth wounded swell swelling affords new streams to chanels new; All, for God's mindfull will cannot be driven from sacred word once to his Abram given." The description of the manna, in the fourth line of this stanza, strikes me as exceedingly beautiful both in idea and expression. Michael Drayton, in his poem of "Moses' Birth and Miracles," seems to have borrowed the language. He thus renders the passage: "When clouds of quailes from the Arabian shore upon the camp immediately are sent, which came so long, and in such marv❜lous 2. "Now while our harpes were hanged so the men whose captives then we lay did on our grief insulting grow and more to grieve us thus did say, you that of musick make such show, come sing us now a Sion laie: O no! we have nor voice nor hand for such a song in such a land. 3. "Though far I lye, sweet Sion hill, in forraine soile exil'd from thee, yet let my hand forget his skill if ever thou forgotten bee: yea let my tongue fast glewed still unto my roof ly mute in me, if thy neglect in me do spring, or ought I doe but Salem sing. 4. "But thon, ô Lord, wilt not forget to quit the paines of Edom's race, who causelessly yet hotly set thy holy citie to deface: thus did the bloodie victors whet what time they entred first the place: downe, downe with it at any hand, make all flat plaine, let nothing stand. 5. "And Babylon that didst us wast thyself shall one day wasted bee, and happie he who what thou hast to others done shall do to thee: like bitterness shall make thee tast like wofull objects make thee see, yea happie who thy little ones shall take and dash against the stones." This latter psalm, although a fine one, it may be thought that I might well have omitted, since it has had the singular advantage above its fellows, of having been twice printGuardian, and again at the end of ed. Once in Number 18 of The Zouch's life of Sir Philip Sidney. This very circumstance, however, has added to my reasons for producing it here, in order that the variations between the manuscripts from which it was before printed, and my own, may be perceived: and that should hereafter any person feel disposed to put the whole version in print, he may be aware that a collation of several manuscripts will be desirable, if not absolutely necessary, for his work. Oxford, April 12. H, COTTON. |