eyes of his countrymen when he was found the means of bringing these wars to a successful close. Daniel's lines are as follow: Now that the hand of death hath layd thee there, Where neither greatnesse, pompe, nor grace, we see, No vaile is drawne betwixt thy selfe and thee: And therefore I sincerely will report First how thy parts were faire convaid within, How that brave minde was built, and in what sort Nor could be better lodg'd nor more repos'd, Then in that goodly frame; where all things sweete, The emptiest vessels make the greatest sound. Although in peace thou seem'dst to be all peace, To move with indefatigable care. And nothing seem'd more to arride thy heart Nor more enlarge thee into jollity, Then when thou sawest thy selfe in armour girt, [Of his Irish command] For without thy great valour we had lost And happily to our dominions laid; Without which out-let, England thou hadst bin But shooke, no ligament, no band Of order and obedience, but were then Loose and in tottering, when the charge Thereof was laid on Montioy, and that other men And he out of his native modesty (As being no undertaker) labours too The state replide, it was not lookt he should But only now if possible he could In any fashion but the same retaine, So that it did not fall a sunder quite, Being thus dishivered in a desperate plight. The poem alludes (in reference to "detraction"), in general terms, to Mountjoy's relations with Lady Rich (the "Stella" supposed of the Sidney sonnets), and urges, in his defence, that his vertues and his worthinesse, Being seene so farre above his weaknesse, Must ever shine. 1 The allusion is to Essex. who never more was knowne To use immodest act, or speech obscene, The tone but of a thought that was uncleane, and concludes with a relation of his cheerfulness and Christian fortitude in his last sickness. It may be said that the "Delia" sonnets provide an answer to my contention that Daniel was deficient in the power of invention. I do not think so; on the contrary, they seem to me to bear it out. The emotion of love finds its expression in certain imagery all the world over, and many men who never become poets may write passably well under its influence. It is not surprising, therefore, that the "Delia" sonnets should be more imaginative than Daniel's other works, and as the work of a man whose ambition was to succeed as a writer they are naturally carefully wrought. But they are marked by poverty of ideas; in fact there is practically only one idea, which is worn threadbare long before the close. There is no form of poetry, except perhaps blank verse, which is so intolerant of poverty of thought as the sonnet. These sonnets can, in my opinion, be only pronounced interesting as an experiment. In them Daniel seems to me to have been trying his hand at the new art which came from Italy and France. But his mind was too purely English for it, and he is only really himself in the simple directness of his native thought and speech. A clue to the connection between Daniel and Bacon is perhaps visible in the "M. P." sonnet quoted above. Grosart says that it appeared only in one edition of the "Delia " "Delia" sonnets, the 2nd of 1592. It has been supposed that the initials are intended for Mary, Countess of Pembroke, but, as Grosart says, the form is very familiar for a dependant to make use of, and he draws attention to the occurrence of the same initials, in allusion to some one who is a man, in the letter of "N. W." addressed to Daniel which precedes Paulus Jovius (1585). The passage is as follows: A frend of mine, whom you know, M. P. climing for an Egles nest, but defeated by the mallalent of fortune, limned in his studie a Pine tree striken with lightning, carrying this mot, Il mio sperar, which is borrowed also from Petrarch. Allor che fulminato e morto giaacque il mio sperar che tropp' alto mintana. (My hopes.) Yet in despight of fortune he devised also a Pinnace or small Barke, tossed with tempestious stormes, and in the saile was written expectanda dies, hoping as I think for one Sunne shine day to recompence so many gloomy and winter monethes. The expression "a frend of mine, whom you know," appears to me to be a form of the Latin est qui, and, read with the context, it seems evidently intended as a description of the writer himself, and it is a description which applies exactly to the case of Francis Bacon, as he thought of himself and his prospects at the age of twenty-four. Compare with this the reference to The clyming of an Eagles neast by "G. T.,” p. 215 above. There is in the same letter an allusion to "conceled philosophers" ("neither must wee depend upon the verdite of some conceled Philosophers "), which Grosart also notices in connection with the well-known remark about "concealed poets" in one of Bacon's letters.1 Grosart is careful to repudiate any taint of "heresy" on that subject, but he says "it seemed worth making a note of" (v. 305). To return to Spenser's Colin Clout, conjectures as to the identity of the other poets referred to in the poem will be found in Todd. I have nothing to add to what is said there except to say that I think "Corydon " probably stands for Donne. The last syllable suggests the name, and the description tallies with the facts: And there is Corydon though meanly waged, As a poet Donne's range is not extensive, but he was probably the strongest intellect of his time, and is described 1 "So desiring you to be good to concealed poets."-Letter to "Mr. Davys [Sir John Davies, poet] then going to the King," 28th March 1603. Spedding, Life, iii. 65. 2 Cf. the pun on the name of "Somerset" in the Prothalamion (st. 4). by Dryden as "the greatest wit, though not the greatest poet, of our nation." I am not aware that anything is known of his movements at the time when this poem was published, but he is said to have taken service in the expedition of Essex against Cadiz in 1596, so it is quite possible that he was previously employed (after quitting Lincoln's Inn, where he read law) in some capacity in the Earl's establishment. On his return to England he became Secretary to Lord Keeper Egerton, whose niece he subsequently married. His name appears in Aubrey's notes on Bacon among his "admirers and acquaintances." Among the ladies of the Court occur, under various names, those to whom the poems are dedicated : the Queen ("Cynthia "); Mary, Countess of Pembroke ("Urania "); Anne, Countess of Warwick ("Theana "); Margaret, Countess of Cumberland (" Marian "); 2 Helena, Marquess of Northampton (" Mansilia "); the three sisters, the Ladies Hunsdon, Dorset and Derby, daughters of Sir John Spencer (" Phyllis," "Charyllis" and "Amaryllis "). "Stella" is, of course, supposed to be Penelope, Lady Rich, sister of Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, an interpretation which is incompatible with Spenser's "Astrophel " poem of the same year, to be dealt with presently. In connection with the question of the place and date of the dedication, "From my house of Kilcolman, the 27 of December, 1591," four points may be noted: I. The death of Ferdinando, 5th Earl of Derby, who is evidently referred to under "Amyntas,"3 did not occur until April 1594. 2. Spenser was hardly likely to hear of the publication of Daniel's sonnets in Ireland. 3. The statement that There learned arts do florish in great honor, is inconsistent with the "complaints" on this subject in 1 Called "Marie" in the dedication to the Fowre Hymnes, but "Anne” is the recognised name, and so appears in the Beauchamp mortuary chapel at Warwick. But "Marie" may be intentional; see p. 504 below. 2 Todd. 3 Cf. p. 65 above. |