far from owning what is ascribed to them, that they would proceed against the innovators as CHEATS"." It is certain, that this translation in its genuine and unsophisticated state, by ascertaining the signification of many radical words now perhaps undeservedly disused, and by displaying original modes of the English language, may justly be deemed no inconsiderable monument of our ancient literature, if not of our ancient poetry*. In condemning the practice of adulterating this primitive version, I would not be understood to recommend another in its place, entirely new. I reprobate any version at all, more especially if intended for the use of the church+. In the mean time, not to insist any longer on the incompatibility of these metrical psalms with the spirit of our liturgy, and the barbarism of their style, it should be remembered, that they were never admitted into our church by lawful authority. They were first introduced by the puritans, and afterwards continued by connivance. But they never received any royal approbation or parliamentary sanction ‡, notwithstanding it is said in their title page, that they are "set forth and AlLOWED to be sung in all churches of all the people together before and after evening prayer, and also before and after sermons: and moreover in private houses for their godly solace and comfort, laying apart all ungodly songs and ballads, which tend only to the nourishing of vice and the corrupting of youth." At the beginning of the reign of queen Elizabeth, when our ecclesiastical reformation began to be placed on a solid and durable establishment, those English divines who had fled from the superstitions of queen Mary to Franckfort and Geneva, where they had learned to embrace the opposite extreme, and where, from an abhorrence of catholic ceremonies, they had contracted a dislike to the [Hearne Gloss. Rob. Gl. p. 699. complains also that these innovators have in several places changed the very initial letters that were to represent the several parts of the Psalms that every one turned into metre.-PARK.] * [Sir John Hawkins observes, that the early translation of the psalms into metre "was the work of men as well qualified for the undertaking as any that the times they lived in could furnish; and he deemed Fuller had not greatly erred in saying that match these verses for their ages, they shall go abreast with the best poems of those times.'"- Hist. of Music, iii. 512. -PARK.] + [Dr. Huntingford, bishop of Gloucester, represented Mr. Warton as strongly attached to the church of England in all the offices of her liturgy. "This attachment," says Mr. Mant, "mixed with a decided antipathy to Calvinistic doctrine and discipline, may have disposed our historian not only to regard choral service with fondness, but to have reprobated somewhat too severely the practice of po pular psalmody in our churches." Life of Warton, p. cvi.-PARK.] [This is humorously attested by Sir John Birkenhead in his witty character of an Assembly-man or Independent, who is made to tear the liturgy, and burn the book of common prayer: yet he has mercy (he adds) on Hopkins and Sternhold, because their metres are sung without authority (no statute, canon, or injunction at all) only like himself, first crept into private houses, and then into churches. Wither gravely confirms the same in the following paragraph from his Scholler's Purgatory, before quoted: "By what publicke example did we sing David's Psalms in English meeter before the raigne of king Edward the Sixth? or by what command of the church do we sing them as they are now in use? Verily by none. But tyme and Christian devotion having first brought forth that practice, and custome ripening it, long toleration hath in a manner fully authorized the same."PARK.] decent appendages of divine worship, endeavoured, in conjunction with some of the principal courtiers, to effect an abrogation of our solemn church service, which they pronounced to be antichristian and unevangelical. They contended that the metrical psalms of David, set to plain and popular music, were more suitable to the simplicity of the gospel, and abundantly adequate to all the purposes of edification: and this proposal they rested on the authority and practice of Calvin, between whom and the church of England the breach was not then so wide as at present. But the queen and those bishops to whom she had delegated the business of supervising the liturgy, among which was the learned and liberal archbishop Parker, objected, that too much attention had already been paid to the German theology. She declared, that the foreign reformers had before interposed, on similar deliberations, with unbecoming forwardness; and that the Common Prayer of her brother Edward had been once altered, to quiet the scruples, and to gratify the cavils, of Calvin, Bucer, and Fagius. She was therefore invariably determined to make no more concessions to the importunate partisans of Geneva, and peremptorily decreed that the choral formalities should still be continued in the celebration of the sacred offices t. SECTION XLVI. Metrical versions of Scripture. Archbishop Parker's Psalms in metre. Robert Crowley's puritanical poetry. THE spirit of versifying the psalms, and other parts of the Bible, at the beginning of the reformation, was almost as epidemic as psalm-singing. William Hunnis, a gentleman of the chapel under Edward the Sixth, and afterwards chapel-master to queen Elizabeth, rendered into rhyme many select psalms*, which had not the good fortune to be rescued from oblivion by being incorporated into Hopkins's collection, nor to be sung in the royal chapel. They were printed in 1550, with this title: "Certayne Psalmes chosen out of the Psalter of David, and drawen furth into Englysh meter by William Hunnis servant to the ryght ho t See Canons and Injunctions, A.D. 1559. Num. xlix. *[On the back of the title to a copy of Sir Thomas More's works, 1557, (presented to the library of Trin. Coll. Oxon. by John Gibbon, 1630,) the following lines occur, which bear the signature of our poet in a coëval hand. "MY LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT. To God my soule I do bequeathe, because it is his owen, My body to be layd in grave, where to my frends best known: Executors I wyll none make, thereby great stryffe may grow; Because the goodes that I shall leave wyll not pay all I owe. W: Hvnnys."-PARK.] nourable syr William Harberd knight. Newly collected and imprinted"." I know not if among these are his SEVEN SOBS of a sorrowful soul for sin, comprehending the SEVEN PENITENTIAL PSALMS in metre*. They are dedicated to Frances countess of Sussex, whose attachment to the gospel he much extols†, and who was afterwards the foundress of Sydney college in Cambridge. Hunnis also, under the happy title of a HANDFUL OF HONEY-SUCKLES, published Blessings out of Deur teronomie, Prayers to Christ, Athanasius's Creed, and Meditations‡, in metre with musical notes. But his spiritual nosegays are numerous, To say nothing of his RECREATIONS on Adam's Banishment, Christ his Cribb, and the Lost Sheep, he translated into English rhyme the whole book of GENESIS, which he calls a HIVE Full of Honey". But his honey-suckles and his honey are now no longer delicious. He was a large contributor to the PARADISE OF DAINTY Devises, of which more will be said in its place. In the year 1550, were also published by John Hall, or Hawle, a surgeon or physician of Maidstone in Kent, and author of many tracts in his profession, "Certayne chapters taken out of the proverbes of Solomon, with other chapters of the holy Scripture, and certayne Psalmes of David translated into English metre by John Hall." By the remainder of the title it appears, that the pro I have also seen Hunnis's "Abridgement or brief meditation on certaine of the Psalmes in English metre," printed by R. Wier, 4to. [8vo. says Bishop Tanner.-PARK.] * [The "Certayne Psalmes" did not appear among the "Seven Sobs," which were licensed to H. Denham Nov. 1581, and printed in 15-, 1585, 1589, 1597, 1629 and 1636. Hunnis's "Seven Steps to Heaven" were also licensed in 1581. The love of alliteration had before produced "a Surge of Sorrowing Sobs," in the "gorgeous gallery of gallant inventions," 1578.-PARK.] + [Her ladyship's virtue and courtesie are extolled; but godlie fear, firm faith, &c. are only enumerated among the dedicator's wishes.-PARK.] [To these were added the poore Widowes mite, Comfortable Dialogs betweene Christ and a Sinner, a Lamentation of youth's follies, a psalme of rejoising, and a praier for the good estate of Queen Elizabeth. The last being the shortest is here given; for Hunnis was rather a prosaic penman. Thou God that guidst both heaven and On whom we all depend; Increase hir friends, maintaine hir cause, And heare us when we call! Rejoise and praise thy name: O God, ô Christ, ô Holie-Ghost, Printed by T. Marshe, 1578. 4to. [And entitled "A Hyve full of Hunnye; contayning the firste Booke of Moses called Genesis. Turned into English Meetre by William Hunnis, one of the Gent. of her Majestie's Chappel and Maister to the Children of the same," &c. It is inscribed to Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, in an acrostic on his name, which is followed by another on the versifiers" to the friendlye reader." Thos. Newton has verses prefixed "in commendation of this his Frendes travayle," which was written, as seems, "in the winter of his age." He names as previous productions of Hunnis, "Enterludes and gallant layes, and rondeletts and songs, his Nosegay and his WyIdowes Myte, with other fancies of his forge:" and he tells us, that in the prime of youth his pen "had depaincted Sonets Sweete." This probably is allusive to his contributions in the "Paradise of Daintie Devises." Wood calls Hunnis a crony of Thomas Newton, the Latin poet. Ath. Oxon. i. 152.-PARK.] There is an edition in quarto dedicated to king Edward the Sixth with this title, verbs had been in a former impression unfairly attributed to Thomas Sternhold. The other chapters of Scripture are from Ecclesiasticus and saint Paul's Epistles. We must not confound this John Hall with his cotemporary Eliseus Hall, who pretended to be a missionary from heaven to the queen, prophesied in the streets, and wrote a set of metrical visionsd. Metre was now become the vehicle of enthusiasm, and the puritans seem to have appropriated it to themselves, in opposition to our service, which was in prose*. William Baldwyn, of whom more will be said when we come to the MIRROUR OF MAGISTRATES, published a Phraselike declaration in English meeter on the CANTICLES or SONGS OF SOLOMON, in 1549†. "The Psalmes of David translated into English metre by T. Sternhold, sir T. Wyat, and William Hunnis, with certaine chapters of the Proverbes and select Psalmes by John Hall." I think I have seen a book by Hall called the "Court of Virtue," containing some or all of these sacred songs, with notes, 1565. 8vo. [16mo.] He has a copy of verses prefixed to Gale's Enchiridion of Surgery, Lond. 1563. See John Reade's Preface to his translation of F. Arcaeus's Anatomy. a Strype, Ann. i. p. 291. ch. xxv. ed. 1725. * [I suppose that church service of chant and anthem is here meant; otherwise, their preaching and praying was at least as bad prose as ours.-ASHBY.] t[With the sight of this rare book I have been favoured by a friend; its title runs thus: "The CANTICLES or BALADES of SALOMON, phraselyke declared in Englysh metres, by WILLIAM BALDWIN. Colophon: "Imprinted at London by William Baldwin, servaunt with Edwarde Whitchurche." Baldwin, in the dedication to his royal patron, expresses a pious wish that these swete and mistical songs may drive out of office "the baudy balades of lecherous love," which were indited and sung by idle courtiers in the houses of princes and noblemen. To forward the same purpose, he tells us "his Majesty [Edw. VI.] had given a notable example, in causyng the Psalmes, brought into fine Englysh meter, by his godly disposed servaunt Thomas Sternholde, to be song openly before his grace, in the hearing of all his subjectes." Baldwin's metrical paraphrase of the Song of Solomon exhibits a greater facility of versification It is dedicated to Edward the Sixth. Nineteen of the psalms in rhyme are extant by Francis Seagar, printed by William Seres in 1553, with musical notes, and dedicated to Lord Rusself. Archbishop Parker also versified the psalter; not from any opposition to our liturgy, but, either for the private amusement and exercise of his religious exile, or that the people, whose predilection for psalmody could not be suppressed, might at least be furnished with a rational and proper translation. It was finished in 1557, and a few years afterwards printed by Day, the archbishop's printer, in quarto, with this title, "The whole Psalter translated into English metre, which contayneth an hundredth and fifty psalmes. The first Quinquagenes. Quoniam omnis terræ deus, psallite sapienter. Ps. 14. 47. Imprinted at London by John Daye, dwelling over Aldersgate beneath Saint Martyn's. Cum privilegio per decennium." Without date of the printer', or name of the translator. In the metrical preface prefixed, he tries to remove the objections of those who censured versifications of Scripture, he pleads the comforts of such an employment to the persecuted theologist who suffers voluntary banishment, and thus displays the power of sacred music: The psalmist stayde with tuned songe The rage of myndes agast, the typographical antiquities of Herbert. Come, wend unto my garden gay, My sister and my spowse; A fantastical and almost unintelligible Wheras ther is a boke called Beware the The verie truth is so that STREMER made Nor no suche false fabels fell ever from But wil ye gladli knoe who made that boke in dede, One WYLLIAM Baldewine-God graunt him wel to spede.—PARK.] e In quarto. I have seen also "The Ballads or Canticles of Solomon in Prose and Verse." Without date, or name of printer or author. * [Sir Thomas Smith, the learned secretary to Edward VI. and to his sister Elizabeth, while a prisoner in the Tower in 1549, translated eleven of David's psalms into English metre, and composed three metrical prayers, which are now in the British Museum. MSS. Reg. 17. A. xvii.-PARK.] f At the end is a poem, entitled "A Description of the Lyfe of Man, the World and Vanities thereof." Princ. "Who on earth can justly rejoyce?" The second quinquagene follows, fol. 146. The third and last, fol. 280. h In black letter. Among the prefaces are four lines from lord Surrey's Ecclesiastes. Attached to every psalm is a prose collect. At the end of the psalms are versions of Te Deum, Benedictus, Quicunque vult, &c. &c. Day had a license, June 3d, 1561, to print the psalms in metre. Ames, p. 238. |