THE LIFE OF RICHARD CRASHAW. BY MR. CHALMERS. RICHARD CRASHAW was the son of the rev. William. Crashaw, a divine of some note in his day, and preacher at the Temple church, London. He published several volumes on points controverted between the Roman catholics and protestants, either original or translated; and in 1608, a translation of the Life of Galeacius Caracciolos, marquis of Vico, an Italian nobleman who was converted by the celebrated reformer, Peter Martyr, and forsook all that rank, family and wealth could yield, for the quiet enjoyment of the reformed religion. Mr. Crashaw also translated a supposed poem of St. Bernard's, entitled "The Complaint, or Dialogue between the Soule and the Bodie of a damned man, 1616," and in the same year published a "Manual for true Catholics, or a handfull, or rather a heartfull of holy Meditations and Prayers'". All these show him to have been a zealous protestant, but, like his son, somewhat tinctured with a love of mystic poetry and personifi cation. Our poet was born in London, but in what year is uncertain. In his infancy, sir Henry Yelverton and sir Randolph Crew undertook the charge of his education, and afterwards procured him to be placed in the Charterhouse on the foundation, where he improved in an extraordinary degree under Brooks, a very celebrated master. thence admitted of Pembroke Hall, March, 1632, and took his bachelor's degree in the same college, in 1634. He then removed to Peterhouse, of which he was a fellow in 1637, and took his master's degree in 1638. In 1634, he published a volume of Latin poems, mostly of the devotional kind, dedicated to Benjamin Lany, master of Pembroke Hall. This contained the well-known line, which has sometimes been ascribed to Dryden and others, on the miracle of turning water into wine: Nympha pudica Deum vidit et erubuit. The modest water saw its God, and blushed. 1 Cens. Lit. vol. 10, p. 105. a Cole's MSS. Athenæ in Brit. Mus. and Mr. Reed's MSS. notes to his copy of Crashaw, which I purchased at his sale. Some of Reed's dates appear to have been communicated by his friend Dr. Farmer. C. In 1641, Mr. Wood informs us, he took degrees at Oxford. At what time he was admitted into holy orders is uncertain, but he soon became a popular preacher, full of energy and enthusiasm. In 1644, when the parliamentary army expelled those members of the university who refused to take the covenant, Crashaw was among the number; and being unable to contemplate, with resignation or indifference, the ruins of the church-establishment, went over to France, where his sufferings and their peculiar influence on his mind prepared him to embrace the Roman catholic religion. Before he left England, he appears to have practised many of the austerities of a mistaken piety, and the poems entitled Steps to the Temple were so called in allusion to his passing his time almost constantly in St. Mary's church, Cambridge. "There," says the author of the preface to his poems, "he lodged under Tertullian's roof of angels: there he made his nest more gladly than David's swallow near the house of God; where like a primitive saint, he offered more prayers in the night, than others usually offer in the day; there he penned these poems, Steps for happy Souls to climb Heaven by." The same writer informs us that he understood Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Italian and Spanish, and was skilled in poetry, music, drawing, painting and engraving, which last he represents as "recreations for vacant hours, not the grand business of his soul." It is certain, however, that soon after his arrival in France, he embraced the religion of the country with a sincerity, which may be respected while it is pitied, but which has rather uncharitably been imputed to motives of interest. He seems to have thought, with Dr. Johnson, that "to be of no church was dangerous," and the church of England he had witnessed in ruins. If in this Crashaw did what was wrong, he did what was not uncommon in his time, and what perhaps may account for the otherwise extraordinary leaning of some eminent and pious men to the catholic religion of the continent, when that, and our own church, seemed in equal danger a few years ago. In 1646, the poet Cowley found Crashaw in France in great distress, and introduced him to the patronage of Charles the First's queen, who gave him letters of recommendation to Italy. There he became secretary to one of the cardinals at Rome, and was made canon in the church of Loretto, where he died of a fever, soon after this last promotion, about the year 1650. Cowley's very elegant and affectionate lines may be seen in the works of that poet. Mr. Hayley remarks, that "fine as they are, Cowley has sometimes fallen into the principal defect of the poet whom he is praising. He now and then speaks of sacred things with a vulgar and ludicrous familiarity of language, by which (to use a happy expression of Dr. Johnson's), 'readers far short of sanctity, may be offended in the present age, when devotion, perhaps not more fervent, is more delicate.' Let us add, that if the poetical character of Crashaw seem not to answer this glowing panegyrick; yet in his higher character of saint, he appears to have had the purest title to this affectionate eulogy3." It appears by a passage in Selden's Table Talk, that Crashaw had at one time an intention of writing against the stage, and that Selden succeeded in diverting him 3 Life of Crashaw, in the Biog. Britannica, contributed by Mr. Hayley. C. from his purpose. He had not, however, to regret that the stage outlived the church. Crashaw's poems were first published in 1646, under the title of, 1. Steps to the Temple. 2. The Delights of the Muses. 3. Sacred Poems presented to the Countess of Denbigh. But Mr. Hayley is of opinion that this third class only was published at that time, and that the two others were added to the subsequent editions of 1648-1649, that printed at Paris in 16524, and another in 1670. So many republications within a short period, and that period not very favourable to poetry, sufficiently mark the estimation in which this devotional enthusiast was held, notwithstanding his having relinquished the church in which he had been educated. His poems prove him to bave been of the school which produced Herbert and Quarles. Herbert was his model, and Granger attributes the anonymous poems, at the end of Herbert's volume, to Crashaw, but however partial Crasbaw might be to Herbert, it is impossible he could have been the author of these anonymous poems, which did not appear until after his death, and were written by a clergyman of the cburch of England known to Walton, who subjoins some commendatory lines dated 16545. In 1785, the late Mr. Peregrine Phillips published a selection from Crashaw's poems, with an address, in which he attacks Pope, for having availed himself of the beauties of Crashaw, while he endeavoured to injure his fame. Against this accusa. tion, Mr. Hayley has amply vindicated Pope. That be has borrowed from him is undeniable, and not unacknowledged by himself, but that it should be his intention to injure the fame of a writer whose writings were unknown unless to poetical antiquaries, and that in a confidential letter to friend whom he advised to read the poems as well as his opinion of them, is an absurdity scarcely worthy of refutation. A part of Pope's observations on Crashaw's poetry deserves a place here, not as being in all respects applicable to that writer, but as forming an excellent character of a class of minor poets of the seventeenth century, some of which have preceded, and many will follow in the present collection. It was written by Pope in a letter to his friend Cromwell; and more just notions of poetical distinctions than he now entertained in his twenty-second year, will probably not be found expressed or realized in any of bis subsequent performances. “ I take this poet (Crashaw) 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 of 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) 4 * This, I find, is not strictly true. By a letter from Mr. Park, in the Centleman's Magazine, vol. 63. p. 1166, it appears that this is a volume of religious poems, with vignettes executed by Crashaw bimself: Mr. Park thinks they are included in the edition of 1670. But it must be remarked that the date of this book is two years beyond the death of the author. C. ! See more on this subject in Zouch's excellent edition of Walton's Lives, Art. Herbert. C. |