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THE

LIFE OF THOMAS CAREW,

BY MR. CHALMERS.

THIS elegant poet was the younger brother of sir Matthew Carew, a zealous adherent

to the fortunes of Charles I. and of the family of the Carews in Gloucestershire, but descended from the more ancient family of that name in Devonshire. He is supposed to have been born in 1589'. According to Anthony Wood, he received his academical education at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, but was neither matriculated, nor took any degree.

After leaving college, he improved himself by travelling, according to the custom of the age, and associating with men of learning and talents both at home and abroad: and being distinguished for superior elegance of manners and taste, he was received into the court of Charles I. as gentleman of the privy chamber, and sewer in ordinary. His wit had recommended him to his sovereign, who, however, Clarendon informs us, incurred the displeasure of the Scotch nation by bestowing upon him the place of sewer, in preference to a gentleman recommended upon the interest of the courtiers of that nation.

He appears after this appointment to have passed his days in affluence and gaiety. His talents were highly valued by his contemporaries, particularly Ben Jonson and sir William Davenant. Sir John Suckling, only, in his Session of the Poets, insinuates that his poems cost him more labour than is consistent with the fertility of real genius. But of this there are not many marks visible in his works, and what sir John mistakes for the labour of costiveness may have been only the laudable care he employed in bringing his verses to a higher degree of refinement than any of his contemporaries.

His death is said to have taken place in 1639, which agrees with the information we have in Clarendon's life. "He was a person of a pleasant and facetious wit, and made many poems (especially in the amorous way) which for the sharpness of the fancy, and the elegance of the language, in which that fancy was spread, were at least equal, if not superior to any of that time: but his glory was, that after fifty years of his life spent with less severity or exactness than it ought to have been, he died with great remorse for that licence, and with the greatest manifestation of christianity, that his best friends could desire." It is pleasing to record such ample atonement for the licentiousness of some of his poems, which, however, his editors have hitherto persisted in handing down to posterity. It does not appear that any of his poems were published during his life-time, except such as were set to music. The first collection was printed in 12mo. 1640, the second in 1642, the third (not in 1654 as Cibber asserts, but) in 1651, and a fourth in 1670. In 1772 Mr. Thomas Davies published an edition, with a few notes, and a short character, in which the

MS. note in my copy of the edition 1651, probably on the authority of Clarendon hereafter given.

writer has taken for granted some particulars for which no authority can be found. This edition, with some necessary omissions and corrections, has been principally used on the present occasion. A dialogue, in irregular measure, is printed in Mr. Ellis's Specimens, from a manuscript in the possession of Mr. Malone.

Carew's Cœlum Britannicum, at one time erroneously attributed to Davenant, was printed with the first editions of his poems, and afterwards separately in 1651. Langbaine, and Cibber after him, says that our author placed the Latin notes on the front, when printed, but no edition printed in his life-time, is now known. The distich, however, might have been prefixed to the music of the Masque.

Oldys, in his MSS. notes on Langbaine, informs us, that "Carew's Sonnets were more in request than any poet's of his time, that is between 1630 and 1640. They were many of them set to music by the two famous composers, Henry and William Lawes, and other eminent masters, and sung at court in their masques." It may be added that Carew was one of the old poets whom Pope studied, and from whom he borrowed. Dr. Percy honours him with the compliment of being an "elegant, and almost forgotten writer, whose poems deserve to be revised." But no modern critic appears to have estimated his merit with more liberality than Mr. Headley; his opinion however, is here copied, not without suspicion that his enthusiasm may be thought to have carried him too far.

"The consummate elegance of this gentleman entitles him to very considerable attention. Sprightly, polished, and perspicuous, every part of his works displays the man of sense, gallantry, and breeding; indeed many of his productions have a certain happ finish, and betray a dexterity both of thought and expression much superior to any thing of his contemporaries, and on similar subjects, rarely surpassed by his successors. Cares has the ease without the pedantry of Waller, and perhaps less conceit. He reminds us of the best manner of lord Lyttelton. Waller is too exclusively considered as the first ma who brought versification to any thing like its present standard. Carew's pretensions to the same merit are seldom sufficiently either considered, or allowed. Though love bad long before softened us into civility, yet it was of a formal, ostentatious, and romantic cast; and, with a very few exceptions, its effects upon composition were similar to those on manners. Something more light, unaffected, and alluring, was still wanting; in every thing but sincerity of intention it was deficient. Panegyric, declamatory and nauseous, was rated by those to whom addressed, on the principle of Ruben's taste for beauty, by its quantity, not its elegance. Satire, dealing in rancour rather than reproof, was more inclined to lash than to laugh us out of our vices; and nearly counteracted her intentions by her want of good manners. Carew and Waller jointly began to remedy those defects. In them, gallantry, for the first time, was accompanied by the Graces, the fulsomness of panegyric forgot its gentility, and the edge of satire rendered keener in proportion to its smoothness. Suckling says of our author in his Session of the Poets, that

......... the issue of his brain

Was seldome brought forth but with trouble and pain.

"In Lloyd's Worthies, Carew is likewise called 'elaborate and accurate.' However the fact might be, the internal evidence of his poems says no such thing. Hume has properly remarked, that Waller's pieces, aspire not to the sublime, still less to the pathetic. Carew, in his beautiful Masque, has given us instauces of the former; and, in his Epitaph on lady Mary Villers, eminently of the latter."

POEMS

OF

THOMAS CAREW.

NO

THE SPRING.

[OW that the winter's gone, the Earth hath lost
Her snow-white robes, and now no more the
Candies the grass, or casts an icy cream [frost
Upon the silver lake, or chrystal stream:
But the warm Sun thaws the benummed Earth
And makes it tender, gives a sacred birth
To the dead swallow, wakes in hollow tree
The drowsy cuckow and the humble bee.
Now do a quire of chirping minstrels bring
In triumph to the world, the youthful Spring :
The vallies, hills, and woods, in rich array,
Welcome the coming of the long'd-for May.
Now all things smile; only my love doth low'r :
Nor hath the scalding noon-day-Sun the pow'r
To melt that marble ice, which still doth hold
Her heart congeal'd, and makes her pity cold.
The ox, which lately did for shelter fly
Into the stall, doth now securely lie

In open fields: and love no more is made
By the fire-side; but in the cooler shade
Amyntas now doth with his Chloris sleep
Under a sycamore, and all things keep
Time with the season; only she doth carry
June in her eyes, in her heart January.

TO A. L.

PERSUASIONS TO LOVE.

THINK not, 'cause men flatt'ring say,
Y' are fresh as April, sweet as May,
Bright as is the morning-star,
That you are so; or though you are,
Be not therefore proud, and deem
All men unworthy your esteem:
For being so, you lose the pleasure
Of being fair, since that rich treasure

Of rare beauty and sweet feature Was bestow'd on you by nature To be enjoy'd, and 't were a sin There to be scarce, where she hath been So prodigal of her best graces; Thus common beauties and mean faces Shall have more pastime, and enjoy The sport you lose by being coy. Did the thing for which I sue, Only concern myself, not you; Were men so fram'd as they alone Reap'd all the pleasure, women none, Then had you reason to be scant; But 't were a madness not to grant That which affords (if you consent) To you the giver, more content Than me the beggar; oh then be Kind to yourself, if not to me; Starve not yourself, because you may Thereby make me pine away; Nor let brittle beauty make You your wiser thoughts forsake: For that lovely face will fail; Beauty's sweet, but beauty's frail; 'T is sooner past, 't is sooner done Than summer's rain, or winter's sun; Most fleeting, when it is most dear; 'T is gone, while we but say 't is here. These curious locks so aptly twin'd,Whose every hair a soul doth bind, Will change their auburn hue, and grow White, and cold as winter's snow. That eye which now is Cupid's nest Will prove his grave, and all the rest Will follow; in the cheek, chin, nose, Nor lilly shall be found, nor rose; And what will then become of all Those, whom now you servants call? Like swallows, when your summer's done They 'll fly, and seek some warmer sun. Then wisely chuse one to your friend, Whose love may (when your beauties end)

Remain still firm: be provident,
And think before the summer's spent
Of following winter; like the ant
In plenty hoard for time of scant.
Call out amongst the multitude
Of lovers, that seek to intrude
Into your favour, one that may
Love for an age, not for a day;

One that will quench your youthful fires,
And feed in age your hot desires.

For when the storms of time have mov'd Waves on that cheek which was belov'd; When a fair lady's face is pin'd,

And yellow spread where red once shin'd;
When beauty, youth, and all sweets leave her,
Love may return, but lovers never:
And old folks say there are no pains

Like itch of love in aged veins.
Oh love me then, and now begin it,
Let us not lose this present minute:
For time and age will work that wrack
Which time or age shall ne'er call back.
The snake each year fresh skin resumes,
And eagles change their aged plumes;
The faded rose each spring receives
A fresh red tincture on her leaves:
But if your beauties once decay,
You never know a second May.

Oh, then be wise, and whilst your season
Affords you days for sport, do reason;
Spend not in vain your life's short hour,
But crop in time your beauty's flow'r :
Which will away, and doth together
Both bud and fade, both blow and wither.

LIPS AND EYES.

IN Celia's face a question did arise,
Which were more beautiful, her Lips or Eyes:
"We," said the Eyes, "send forth those pointed darts
Which pierce the bardest adamantine hearts."
"From us," reply'd the Lips, "proceed those blisses,
Which lovers reap by kind words and sweet kisses."
Then wept the Eyes, and from their springs did pour
Of liquid oriental pearl a show'r.

Whereat the Lips, mov'd with delight and pleasure,
Through a sweet smile unlock'd their pearly treasure;
And bade Love judge, whether did add more grace,
Weeping or smiling pearls in Celia's face.

Nor need I beg from all the store
Of Heaven for her one beauty more:
She hath too much divinity for me:

Ye gods, teach her some more humanity!

SONG.

A BEAUTIFUL MISTRESS.

Ir when the Sun at noon displays
His brighter rays,
Thou but appear,

He then all pale with shame and fear,
Quencheth his light,

Hides his dark brow, flies from thy sight,
And grows more dim,
Compar'd to thee, than stars to him.
If thou but show thy face again,
When darkness doth at midnight reign,
The darkness flies, and light is hurl'd
Round about the silent world:
So as alike thou driv'st away

Both light and darkness, night and day.

A CRUEL MISTRESS.

We read of kings, and gods, that kindly took
A pitcher fill'd with water from the brook:
But I have daily tendred without thanks
Rivers of tears that overflow their banks.
A slaughter'd bull will appease angry Jove;
A horse the Sun, a lamb the god of love;
But she disdains the spotless sacrifice
Of a pure heart, that at her altar lies.
Vesta is not displeased, if her chaste urn
Do with repaired fuel ever burn;
But my saint frowns, though to her honour'd name
I consecrate a never-dying flame.
Th' Assyrian king did none i' th' furnace throw,
But those that to his image did not bow;
With bended knees I daily worship her,
Yet she consumes her own idolater.
Of such a goddess no times leave record,
That burnt the temple where she was ador'd.

A DIVINE MISTRESS.

IN Nature's pieces still I see
Some errour that might mended be;
Something my wish could still remove,
Alter or add; but my fair love
Was fram'd by hands far more divine;
For she hath every beauteous line:
Yet I had been far happier

Had Nature, that made me, made her;
Then likeness might (that love creates)
Have made her love what now she hates:
Yet I confess I cannot spare
From her just shape the smallest hair;

SONG.

MURDERING BEAUTY.

I'LL gaze no more on her bewitching face,
Since ruin harbours there in every place:
For my enchanted soul alike she drowns
With calms and tempests of her smiles and frowns.
I'll love no more those cruel eyes of hers,
Which, pleas'd or anger'd, still are murderers:
For if she dart (like lightning) through the air
Her beams of wrath, she kills me with despair;
If she behold me with a pleasing eye,

I surfeit with excess of joy, and die.

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