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verse, and admiring the birth of his own brains. He is only laughed at, or at most pitied, by his new patrons, who, conceiving him unworthy of any preferment in their Church, have given him leave to live like a lean swine, and almost ready to starve in poor mendicant quality *."

One of the "Court ladies" particularly alluded to, was the Countess of Denbight in whose conversion to the Papal creed he appears to have been instrumental. But the charges of dishonesty and desire of gain, so vehemently urged against him, are unfounded; whatever his sentiments may have been, he was not drawn from the faith of his father by those "chords of gold and silver twist," which the writer of the Legenda says "fetched over so many." Crashaw did not remain long in England; he retired to France, where his sufferings

were very severe.

An unknown and humble scholar could not hope to obtain, in a foreign land, the assistance denied him in his own. In 1646, Cowley, then Secretary to Lord Jermyn, found him in Paris, and in great poverty. Cowley had been his companion at Cambridge, and in this hour of affliction is said to have made him partaker of his slender fortunes. Crashaw's introduction to the Queen of Charles the First, has been usually attributed to the influence of Cowley; but Dodd, the Catholic Church-historian, ascribes it to Dr. Gough and Mr. Car. Cowley's connexion with the fortunes of the King point him out as the most probable benefactor. From the Queen, Crashaw received letters of recommendation to Italy, where he became Secretary to a • Legenda Lignea, Lond. 1652, p. 169.

Among his poems is a letter to this Lady, against irresolution and delay in matters of religion.

Cardinal at Rome. Cole thinks that he was acting in this capacity in 1648, a surmise undoubtedly well founded, although the reference to Carier's Missive to James must be erroneous, since it was published more than thirty years before; and George Hakewill's learned reply to it appeared in 1616.

Of Crashaw's condition in Italy, a brief, but interesting account is given by Dr. John Bargrave, who had been his fellow-collegian at Peterhouse, and who was also driven from Cambridge by the warrant of the Earl of Manchester*. Upon his expulsion he went abroad, and Wood calls him a great traveller.

"When I first went of my four times to Rome, there were three or four revolters to the Roman Church, that had been Fellows of Peterhouse, in Cambridge, with myself. The name of one of them was Mr. R. Crashaw, who was of the Seguita (as their term is), that is, an attendant, or one of the followers of Cardinal Palotta, for which he had a salary of crowns by the month (as the custom is), but no diet. Mr. Crashaw infinitely commended his Cardinal, but complained extremely of the wickedness of those of his retinue, of which he, having his Cardinal's ear, complained to him; upon which, the Italians fell so far out with him, that the Cardinal, to secure his life, was fain to put him from his service, and procuring him some small employ at the Lady's of Loretto, whither he went in pilgrimage in the summer-time, and, over-heating himself, died in a few weeks after he came thither; and it was doubtful whether he was not poisoned t."

In the margin of the folio edition of Cowley's Works,

Cole's MSS., vol. 42. p. 114, 115, 125, 126, 127.

+ The MS. from which the above extract is taken is printed in Todd's Works of Milton.

he is said to have died of a fever at Loretto, but the time is not mentioned. He was certainly dead before 1652, for in that year his Carmen Deo Nostro, Te Decet Hymnus, &c., were published at Paris, by his friend, Thomas Car, to whom the poet's manuscripts appear to have been bequeathed; for he says,

'Twas his intent

That what his riches penn'd, poor Car should print. His fate was wept by Cowley in a strain of noble tenderness and enthusiasm.

Poet and Saint! To thee alone are given

The two most sacred names of earth and heaven,
The hard and rarest union which can be*,

Next that of Godhead with humanity.

Long did the Muses banish'd slaves abide,

And built their pyramids to human pride;

Like Moses, thou, though spells and charms withstand,
Hast brought them nobly back to their Holy Land.

Hail, Bard triumphant, and some care bestow

On us, the poets militant below,

Oppos'd by our old enemy, adverse chance,

Attack'd by envy and by ignorance.

Thou, from low earth in nobler flames didst rise,
And like Elijah mount alive the skies.

The few further particulars it is in my power to communicate respecting his manners and acquirements, are chiefly collected from the brief notices of him by Car, who boasts that "sweet Crashaw was his friend, he Crashaw's brother." He was well versed in the Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Spanish, and Italian languages, the two last of which he mastered almost by

Folio edition, 1669. This line cannot surely be correct. Might not Cowley have written

The hardest, rarest, union which can be?

[graphic]

his own unaided efforts. The poets of Greece and Rome were his favourite study, and he quoted from them by memory, with singular readiness and exactness. His accomplishments were on a par with his learning; he was skilled in music, drawing, engraving, and painting; and we learn from some verses, that he employed his talents for the amusement of his friends. The Sacred Poems printed at Paris in 1652, are adorned by some vignettes," first made with his own hand," and engraved, in one or two instances, with great spirit. The designs, indeed, like the poetry, are characteristic of the author. The picture illustrating the verses to the Countess of Denbigh, "persuading her to resolution in religion," represents a heart fastened by a heavy padlock; and the sorrow of Mary Magdalen is portrayed by a heart distilling drops of blood.

In his habits he was temperate, even to severity, taking no thought of the luxuries, scarcely of the necessaries of life. He lived, says his affectionate

eulogist,

Above in the air,

A very bird of Paradise-no care

Had he of earthly trash; what might suffice
To fit his soul for heavenly exercise,

Sufficed him

What he might eat or wear he took no thought,

His needful food he rather found than sought*.

It has been supposed, from a passage in Selden's Table Talk, that he once entertained an intention of writing against the stage; but it is clear, from an Epigram upon two of Ford's tragedies, that he was at one period a student, if not an admirer, of the drama.

• Car's Prefatory verses to the Carmen Deo Nostro.

His secession from our Church is to be deeply deplored; but we have the zealous testimony of Cowley that the virtues of his after-life did not discredit the Mother whom he had forsaken.

Crashaw's poetical character has been drawn at considerable length, and with great ingenuity, by Pope, in a letter to his friend, Henry Cromwell *.

"It seems that my late mention of Crashaw, and my quotation from him, has moved your curiosity. I, therefore, send you the whole author, who has held a place among my other books of this nature for some years; in which time, having read him twice or thrice, I find him one of those whose works may just deserve reading. I take this poet to have writ like a gentleman, that is at leisure hours, and more to keep out of idleness than to establish a reputation; so that nothing regular or just can be expected from him. All that regards design, form, fable (which is the soul of poetry), all that concerns exactness or consent of parts (which is the body), will probably be wanting; only pretty conceptions, fine metaphors, glittering expressions, and something of a neat cast of verse (which are properly the dress, gems, or loose ornaments of poetry), may be found in these verses. This is, indeed, the case of most other poetical writers of Miscellanies; nor can it well be otherwise, since no man can be a true poet, who writes for diversion only. These authors should be considered as versifiers and witty men rather than as poets; and under this head will only fall the Thoughts, the Expression, and the Numbers. These are only the pleasing parts of poetry, which may be judged of at a view, and comprehended all at once; and (to express

• Literary Correspondence, vol. i., p. 302; 1735.

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