Martin, his "Epigrams" by their abandon and general allusiveness reveal that he was the associate of the "young gallants" of the city and lived "fast ;" and so give significance and interpretation to his later passionate regrets, self-accusations and self-rebuke. How abased and yet in touches how noble is this! "O ignorant poor man! what dost thou beare Lockt vp within the casket of thy brest? Looke in thy soule, and thou shalt beauties find, Thinke of her worth, and think that God did meane, Kill not her quickning powers with surfettings, And when thou think'st of her eternitie, Thinke not that death against her nature is, Take heed of over-weening, and compare Thy peacock's feet with thy gay peacock's traine; But of thyselfe an humble thought retaine."7 "Expelled" and "disbarred,” he retired to Oxford and there "followed his studies, although he wore a cloak." (Wood's Athenæ, as before, ii. 401). To lighten severer studies he now leisurely composed that "Nosce Teipsum" from which has just been quoted the remarkable close. His vein must have been a "flowing" one; for it was published within a year of his disgrace, viz. in 1599.8 It was dedicated to the "great Queen;" without 7 Vol. I., pp. 115-116, "Nosce Teipsum." .... 8 See Vol. I., pp. 9-11. The date 1592, sometimes (modernly) appended to the dedication of " Nosce Teipsum," has no authority, and is in contradiction with all the known facts and circumstances. Equally erroneous and misleading is the ultra-rhetorically given chronology in "Court and Society from Elizabeth to Anne," (2 Vols., 8vo., 1864), which bears the name of the present Duke of Manchester, as thus:-"This Templar. who wrote a noble work on the immortality of the soul in the very hey-day of his young blood, who afterwards became famous for his gravity as a judge, his wisdom as a politician, and his soundness as a statesman, terminated his literary career as the author of a poem in praise of dancing," (Vol. I., p. 289). This is precisely the reverse of the fact. In his earlier hot-blooded days he threw off his gay and self-named "light" verses. In an interval of penitent selfinspection and worthier aspiration, he wrote "Nosce Teipsum," and the all-too-common contemporary hyperbole of laudation, yet showing the strange magnetism of her influence to win allegiance from the greatest, even in her old age: "Loadstone to hearts and loadstone to all eyes." The Carte "Notes" (as before) thus tell the whole story and ratify Anthony-a-Wood:-" Vpon a quarrell between him and Mr. Martin before ye Judges, where he strooke Mr. Martin hee was confined and made prisoner after wch in discontentment he retired to ye countrye, and writt yt excellent poeme of his Nosce Teipsum, wch was so well aprooved of by the Lord Mountioy after Lord Deputy of Ireland and Earle of Devonshire, that by his aduise he publisht it and dedicated it to Queen Elizabeth, to whom hee presented it, being introduced by ye aforesaide Lord his pattron, and ye first essay of his pen was so well relisht yt ye Queen encouraged him in his studdys, promising him prefer he followed this up by ever-deepened grave, wise and weighty (prose) books. It is a pity (perhaps) to spoil your brilliant bits of antithetic scandal; and more pity that they should be hazarded for inevitable spoiling. Or put it in another way: it is too bad to have your cook serving up the Roast Beef of Old England as if it were strawberries (and cream). One need not use severer terms, knowing the ducal editorship is a blind. Campbell in his “Specimens," preceded in the blundering. ment, and had him sworn her servant in ordinary." "Nosce Teipsum" was not his "first essay" so that perchance the meaning is that its verse-dedication was his "first essay" in addressing the Queen-his second being the Hymns to Astræa. The "Hymns to Astræa" appeared in quick succession to "Nosce Teipsum” in the same year 1599. They are dainty trifles; but from all we know of Elizabeth would be received as "sweet incense." If they seem to us to-day flattering not to say adulatory, it must be remembered that such was the mode. Much later, Epistles-dedicatory from Bacon and others of the mighties, and not to Elizabeth but to James-are infinitely fulsome compared with the ideal praises of an ideal Elizabeth-that Elizabeth who had stirred the nation's pulses through her great patriotic words when "The Armada" threatened-in the most superlative of these "Hymnes." Their workmanship is as of diamond-facets. The "bright light" of olden promise was now "lining" the dark cloud. The discipline of his retirement to Oxford did him life-long good. Speedily outward events dove-tailed with the deepened ethical experience and resultant character. For despair and disgrace there came hope and help. For a career that seemed arrested, a higher, and wider, and nobler opened out in inspiriting perspective. In 1599-1600 he was in all men's mouths as a Poet. The "Poetical Rhapsody" of Davison of these years would have been rendered incomplete without contributions from "I. D. ;" and so there went to it those Minor Poems, that are read still with pleasure. So early as 1595 George Chapman had printed his "Ovid's Banquet of Sence," with lines from "I. D." More important still, "Secretary Cecil" became his friend and patron. "By desire" he prepared certain dialogues and scenes for entertainments to the Queen. Three of these remain. The first is "A Dialogue between a Gentleman Usher and a Poet."9 The second is "A Contention betwixt a Wife, a Widdow, and a Maide.”1 The third is "A Lottery: presented (as the heading states) before the late Queene's Maiesty at the Lord Chancelor's House, 1601."2 These indicate that the recluse of Oxford was once more restored to society, and that the supremest. The favour of the aged Queen was capricious; but the "Lottery that formed part of the entertainment at the Lord Chancellor's marked the turning of the tide, in flood not ebb. Through Elles "In Memorial-Introduction to Poems, as before, pp. 15-21. 1 See Vol. II., pp. 72-86. 2 Ibid, pp. 87-95. See on this in second division of this Memorial-Introduction: Postscript. |