ELIZABETHAN LYRICS As a whole, the brilliant lyrical effluence of the Elizabethan period may fairly be regarded as the product of English courtly life, and particularly, in its beginning, the product of the Renaissance court of Henry VIII. Wyatt and Surrey were conspicuous courtiers, and scarcely one of the contributors to Tottel's Miscellany (1557) was free from court influence. An inevitable result of courtliness in literature is convention, a too conscious refinement, and, often, a baffling veil of literary pretence. These qualities are salient and inherent in the Elizabethan sonnet. After its introduction into English literature by Sir Thomas Wyatt, and after its chastening in the hands of Surrey and others, this poetical form was first used in masterly fashion by Sir Philip Sidney in his Astrophel and Stella, the earliest sonnet sequence in English, composed a good while before its publication in 1591. During the decade 15901600, the sonnet was, apparently, the prevailing literary fashion, a fashion to which Shakspere submitted without restraint. Of the total number of these sonnets, which far exceeds two thousand,' the larger proportion are found in sonnet collections, or sonnet sequences, of which the most important, after those of Shakspere and Sidney, are the following: Delia (1592), by Samuel Daniel; Idea (1594), by Michael Drayton; and Amoretti (1595), by Edmund Spenser. With few exceptions, these sonnets, like those of Wyatt and Surrey, are imitations of Continental models. But since lyric is essentially the expression of personal emotion, the lyrist inevitably breaks out, at times, into a frank, intimate, and spontaneous utterance which is of all sorts of expres sion the most immediately pleasurable. Free, fresh, and various are the lyrics found in the series of miscellanies which began with Tottel's Miscellany, and continued with The Paradise of Dainty Devices (1576), A Gorgeous Gallery of Gallant Inventions (1578), A Handful of Pleasant Delights (1584), The Phoenix' Nest (1593), The Passionate Pilgrim (1599), England's Helicon (1600), and Francis Davison's Poetical Rhapsody (1602). In one or other of these collections are represented the chief lyrical writers of the Elizabethan period. In a group apart from the lyrical miscellanies, though not conspicuously different from some of them in content, may be reckoned the Elizabethan song books. William Byrd's Psalms, Sonnets, and Songs of Sadness and Piety (1587) and Songs of Sundry Natures (1589) were followed, during the next decade or two, by some scores of similar collections, such as John Dowland's The First Book of Songs or Airs (1597), and Thomas Campion's A Book of Airs (1601). Along with the songs in song books should be mentioned those that delightfully enliven many of the plays of the period, eminently those of Lyly and of Shakspere. Yet still my mind forbids to crave. No princely pomp, no wealthy store, No wily wit to salve a sore, No shape to feed a loving eye; To none of these I yield as thrall: For why? My mind doth serve for all. I see how plenty [surfeits] oft, And hasty climbers soon do fall; I see that those which are aloft Mishap doth threaten most of all; They get with toil, they keep with fear: Such cares my mind could never bear. Content to live, this is my stay; I seek no more than may suffice; I press to bear no haughty sway; Look, what I lack my mind supplies: Lo, thus I triumph like a king, Content with that my mind doth bring. 5 ΙΟ 15 Than words, though ne'er so witty: A beggar that is dumb, you know, May challenge double pity. Then wrong not, dearest to my heart, HIS PILGRIMAGE Give me my scallop-shell of quiet, My staff of faith to walk upon, My bottle of salvation, 5 10 My scrip of joy, immortal diet, 35 I loathe not life, nor dread my end. My gown of glory, hope's true gauge; And thus I'll take my pilgrimage. 5 I fear no foe, I fawn no friend; Blood must be my body's balmer; No other balm will there be given; Whilst my soul, like a quiet palmer, Traveleth towards the land of heaven, 10 Over the silver mountains, Where spring the nectar fountains. The bowl of bliss; And drink mine everlasting fill My soul will be a-dry before; Then by that happy blissful day More peaceful pilgrims I shall see, That have cast off their rags of clay, And walk appareled fresh like me. I'll take them first, To quench their thirst And taste of nectar suckets, At those clear wells Drawn up by saints in crystal buckets. And when our bottles and all we From thence to heaven's bribeless hall, No cause deferred, no vain-spent journey, For there Christ is the King's attorney, Who pleads for all, without degrees, And he hath angels but no fees. 15 24 30 41 GEORGE PEELE (1558?-1597?) SONG FROM THE ARRAIGNMENT OF PARIS CENONE. Fair and fair, and twice so fair, As fair as any may be; The fairest shepherd on our green, A love for any lady. Fair and fair, and twice so fair, 5 Thy love is fair for thee alone, And this is mine eternal plea PARIS. To him that made heaven and earth and sea: CEN. My love is fair, my love is gay, Set on my soul an everlasting head! 56 PHILOMELA'S ODE FROM PHILOMELA Sitting by a river's side, Who esteem your virgin blisses No such quiet to the mind As true love with kisses kind; Then is true love quite disgraced. Though love be sweet, learn this of me No sweet love but honesty. SONG FROM MENAPHON 10 20 30 10 Weep not, my wanton, smile upon my knee, When thou art old there's grief enough for thee. A mind content both crown and kingdom is. |