CONTENTS IV. Contemporary and posthumous fame II. TEXT AND CANON A. Early Printed Editions B. Manuscripts Modern Editions. XV xliii liv lxxxvi I. POEMS INCLUDED IN PREVIOUS EDITIONS II. POEMS NOT INCLUDED IN PREVIOUS EDITIONS PLATES ing by Gerbier now owned by the To face p. xxx LORETO. From an engraving published in 1853 and To face p. xxxiii I. BIOGRAPHY I. 1612-1631, London and Yorkshire. II. 1631-1643, Cambridge. III. 1643-1649, Leyden, (?) Oxford, Paris, Rome, Loreto. 1. 1612-1631. London and Yorkshire. LTHOUGH in the Admission Book of Pembroke College, Cambridge, Richard Crashaw is no doubt correctly described as 'natus Londini', since at the time of his birth his father, William Crashaw, was preacher at the Temple, the Crashaw family had for generations before this been settled in Yorkshire. The more original form of the name, Crawshaw, is still of fairly common occurrence in that county and is even to be found at the present day in the small community of Handsworth, near Sheffield, where William Crashaw was born in 1572. The researches of Dr. Grosart at the parish church of Handsworth showed that William Crashaw's father and grandfather were both apparently named Richard, and that Richard Crashaw, the grandfather of the poet, died in 1585. William Crashaw entered St. John's College, Cambridge, on May 1, 1591. The date of his first graduation is not recorded, but on May 19, 1594, he succeeded to the Bishop of Ely's Fellowship at the same college, being nominated by the queen in the temporary vacancy of the bishopric. He proceeded M.A. in 1595 and subsequently took the degree of B.D. How long he resided at Cambridge is not known, but he maintained for many years his relations with St. John's, and his memory is secured there by the collection of his own books which, apparently, he induced the Earl of Southampton to buy and present to the college library.1 His will at Somerset House begins with a statement of the various places with which he had been pastorally connected after he left Cambridge: 'I William Crashawe, Bachelor in Divinitye Preacher of Gods worde. First at Bridlington then at Beverley in Yorkeshire afterwards at the Temple Since then Pastor of the Church of Ag: Burton in the diocese of Yorke. 1 Article in the college magazine, The Eagle, Dec. 1901, quoting letters from William Crashaw kept at St. John's. Nowe Pastor of that too greate Parishe of Whitechappell in the Suburbs of London. His biographers have hitherto shelved or been baffled by the question how long his tenure of these cures respectively lasted, and in the absence of contemporary records at the churches in question the difficulty is great. It is well, however, for the present purpose to be as sure as possible of his whereabouts at the times when and after his son was born. It is clear that he was settled in London as early as February 14, 1607/8, when he preached his anti-Roman and anti-Brownist sermon at the Crosse' -for in the first printed edition of that energetic work (1608) he is already described as 'preacher at the Temple'. And it is also clear that he still held the same office as late as August 30, 1613, when he signed Sir Thomas Cuming's 'Album Amicorum' (British Museum Add. MS. 17083, f. 145 v.) as 'Gul. Crashavius verbi div. ap. Templar. london praedic:'. On March 23, 1614, however, he writes to St. John's College about his books, giving as his address' Ag. Burton',1 so that evidently by that date he had obtained the living to which his right had earlier been disputed (see D.N.B. art. William Crashaw). It is probable that he was reinstated here as a result of his (undated) petition to the king, now in the British Museum (Royal MS. 17. B. ix.), in which he requests facilities for compiling' A discoverye of popy[s]he Corruption requiringe A kingely reformation . . . ' and asks that with a view to the necessary leisure he may be restored to a 'litle vicharage' of which he had been dispossessed' in ye last yeare of the Queene'. On November 13, 1618, he was instituted to the living of St. Mary Matfellon, Whitechapel, where he remained until his death in 1626. He was twice married, but the year of his first marriage and the identity of his first wife remain unknown in spite of careful inquiry, and approximations of date have to suffice. The terminus a quo is provided in an answer to some of the polemical utterances into which William Crashaw had been led by his strong Puritan sympathies and his vigorous zeal; this was The Overthrow of the Protestants Pulpit-Babels, Convincing their Preachers of Lying & Rayling, to make the Church Authority in note on p. xv. 1 A copy of the official document recording his induction is in Bodl. MS. Rawl. 377, f. 335. |