Read Ebook: The Complete Poems of Sir John Davies. Volume 1 of 2. by Davies John Sir Grosart Alexander Balloch Editor

Font size: 10 px 15 px 20 px 25 px 30 px 35 px

Background color: BlackWhiteGrayLight GrayDark GrayDim Gray

Text color: BlackWhiteGrayLight GrayDark GrayDim Gray

Apply/Save settings

Ebook has 607 lines and 82214 words, and 13 pages

I haue written to the lordes in the behalfe of the howse servitors here, that they maye be remembered vpon the deuysion and plantation of the scheated lands in Ulster. I am discreadited amonge them if they should be forgotten, and sure the plantation woulde be weake w^ out them, for they must be the pyllers to support it. Those that shall come from thence wyll not affect it in that kynde as these do, to make it a settlement for them and theirs; and in respect of their wourthier deserts and paynfull labors, and that I haue vpon my promise to speake effectually for them preuayled so farre as to staye them from resortinge thither, w^ they woulde doe in great multitudes if I woulde haue given way to their desire. I wysh that an honorable consideration maye be had of them before the diuision be concluded. I knowe that worke is of great moment and on it dependes much of the prosperitie, and good estate of the whole kingdome. I haue sayd enough to one that vnderstandes so well: And so beinge called vpon sooner then I expected I must end w^ the page, but wyll euer be found

Your trewe affected friend ARTHUR CHICHESTER.

Att Dublyn Castle the 7th of februarie 1608.

I send here w^ the proceedinge of the Court of Kinges bench in the cause of the Carrolans w^ was violently prosecuted by the l. of Howth. I send them by reason it is thought by the Judges that the Baron will exclaime of their proceedinges here.

To my verie wourthie friend Sr John Davis Knight his

Ma^ Attornie in the Realme of Irelande.

Two short letters from Bacon--not before printed, having escaped even Mr. Spedding's Argus-eyes--in the same Carte MSS.--show Davies's pleasant relations with his great contemporary. They are as follow:--

Good Sr Jh. Davies yo^ mistaking shall not be imputed to you . Yo^ gratulacons for my marrige I take kyndly. And as I was all waies delighted w^ the fruites of yo^ so I would be gladde of yo^ so as you plant not yo^ self to farre of. For I had rather you should be a laborer than a plant in that State. You giue me no occasion to wryte longer in that you impart not by yo^ l^ any occurrence of y^. And so w^ my very lov^ consid^ towards you

I remayne Yo^ assured friend FR. BACON.

from Graies Inn, this 26th of Dec. 1606.

To my very good Frend Sr Jh. Davis Knt Attorny g'rall to his M. in Ireland.

Mr. Atturny,

I thanke you for yo^ l^ and the discourse you sent of this mere accident, as thinges then appeared. I see manifestly the begynnyng of better or woorse. But me thinketh it is first a tender of the better, and woorse foloweth but vpon refusall or default. I would haue been gladd to see you hear, but I hope occasion restreineth o^ meeting for a vacation when we may haue more fruite of conference. To requite yo^ proclamacon I send you w^ w^ happened to be in my hands when y^ came.

I would be gladde to hear oft from you and to be advertized how passe whereby to haue some occasion to thinke some good thoughts though I can doe lyttell. At least it wilbe a contynuance in exercise of o^r frendshippe w^ on my part remayneth increased by that I hear of yo^ service and the good respects I find towards my self. And so in extreme hast I remayne

Yo^ very frend FR. BACON.

from Graies Inn this 23th of Oct. 1607.

To the R. W. his verie Lovinge frende Sr Iohn Dauys Knight, his Ma^ Atturnye in Irelande.

During one of his 'circuits' in Ireland, he met Eleanor, daughter of Lord Audley and was married to her--though the date has not been traced. Her later years were darkened with insanity of a strangely voluble type. It is to be feared she was an ill "help-meet" for her husband. There is pathos, if also inevitable comedy, in her career--not here to be entered on.

While intensely occupied with his official duties, Sir John Davies did not neglect his literary gift. He was making history every year--so fundamental and permanent was the part he filled in Ireland--but the Past was gone back on that he might fetch from it monition for the Present, and hope for the Future. His imperishable book: "A Discourse of the true reasons why Ireland has neuer been entirely subdued till the beginning of His Majesty's reign," will reward the most prolonged study to-day. It was published in 1612. In the same year he was made King's Sergeant and also elected M.P. for Fermanagh, being the first representative for that county in the Irish House of Parliament. He was likewise chosen to be Speaker of the House; but not without a characteristically violent struggle between the Catholics and Protestants. He delivered a notable speech "to the House" on its opening in 1613. In 1614 he appears in the House of Commons in England as M.P. for Newcastle-under-Lyne: and his attendance in England was preparatory to final retirement from Ireland. "Grants of lands" there from the "forfeitures,"--which, if ever any righteously acquired, he did--gave him a special interest in Ireland as a proprietor; but after all, for such a man, at such a time, to be limited to Ireland, was but a splendid exile. It is not, therefore, to be wondered at that having practically achieved all, and more than all, he had been given to do, or himself originated, he sought to return. It is usually stated that he so returned in 1616; but it was not until 1619 that he did so finally and absolutely; for in a letter under date "21 June, 1619," to Buckingham, he is found still only pleading for retirement and for the transference of his office to a relative. It is one of the treasures of the Fortescue MSS, in the Bodleian, and is as follows:

My most honored Lord,

I praesent my most humble Thanks to y^ L^ for praesenting mee to his Ma^ the last Day, at Wansted; & for y^ noble favour in furthering the suit I then made, as well for mine owne stay in England, as for my recommending a fitt man to my place of service in Ireland.

The Gentleman to whom I wish this place now, is much obliged to y^ L^ already, & well worthy of y^ L^ favours, & besides his owne worthines , hee is of neere alliance vnto mee. So as, where there is concurrence of meritt & kinred, y^ L^ may conjecture that I deale w^ him like a gentleman & a friend, & not like a marchent. Albeit I wi^ leave a good place there, w^out any praesent praeferment heer I might, perhaps w^ some reason expect some Retribution, to recompence the charge of Transporting my famely from thence, & of setling it heer in this Kingdome, where I am become almost an Alien by reason of my long absence.

For this particular favour of transferring my place to so well deserving a successor, I doo wholly depend vppon y^ L^ as I shall euer doo vpon all other occasions, while I live, as one that have separated my self from all other dependancies, beeing entirely devoted to doo y^ L^ all humble & faythful service

Jo: Dauys.

if my long service may induce favour, y^ L^ may bee pleased to looke vppon the noate enclosed.

To the right honorable my very good lord my lord the Marques of Buckingham, &c.

It is to be regretted that the "noate" of the postscript has not been preserved. It probably enumerated his public services.

Sir William Ryves succeeded as Attorney-General for Ireland by Patent dated 30th October, 1619. From 1619 onward, Sir John Davies is found in the House of Commons and "on circuit" as a Judge. His "Charges"--to be given in his Prose Works--as "one of the Justices of Assize for the Northerne Circute"--are very characteristic, being full of legal 'precedents,' and noticeable in their tracing up the verdict sought to abiding principles. He took part in the memorable "case" of Frances, Countess of Somerset, for the poison-murder of Sir Thomas Overbury. In the House of Commons he spoke seldom; but when anything that concerned Irish interests came up he never failed to contend in behalf of Ireland.

Sweet Robin, for a few sweet words, a client of mine hath presented me w^ sweet meates, to what end I know not except it be, as Chaucer speakes,

To make mine English sweet uppon my tongue, that I may pleade the better for him to morrow at the Seale.

Not w^ standing, the best vse that I can make of it, is to preesent you w^ it, especially at this time when you ar in Physick, that you may sweeten your tast after the Rhewbarb. I have been a little distracted w^ vnexpected busines these two or three last dayes, that I cold not performe my officious promise to visit you in this voluntary sicknes of yours; but now I am faine to make my hands to excuse my feet from travayling vnto you, because being the servant of the multitude I am not mine owne man. Make much of your self, & make y^ self speedily well, that I may have your company towards Cambridge, from whence I will go w^ you to see the ancient Seat of Robt. le Bruis; so wishing you a prosperous operation of your Phisick, at least that you may Imagine so, for it is the Imagination that doth good, & not the Physick, w^ I ever thought a meere imposture; I cease to troble you least the intention of to much Reading hinder the working of those vertuous drugs.

Y^ all & ever J. Dauis.

To my worthy friend Rob: Cotton esquier.

Noble S^ Robert: the ordinary subject of letters is, newes, whereof this kingdome since the warres, hath been very barren; therefore I must write vnto you that w^ is no newes, that is, that I love you, & hold a kind & dear memory of you.

according to my promise to y^ self & Mr. Solliciter of England who is now, I hear, a Judge, I have caused this bearer to draw some Mapps of o^ principal Cittyes of Ireland; & he having occasion to go for England, I have thought fitt to direct him vnto you. he is an honest ingenuous yong m & of y^ owne Name. I hear not yet of y^ Antiquities out of Cumberland; if they be brought hither I will take care to transmitt th to London, & so in speciall hast, being ready to go my circuit ov^ all Munster I leave you to y^ divine p'servation.

Y^ to do you Service, Io: Dauys.

Dublin 4 Martij 1607. I desire to be affectionately remembred to Mr. Justice Doddridge & Mr. Clarencieux.

His Poems, as finally collected by him, appeared in a thin octavo in 1622. His Prose Works he never collected, but allowed them to be re-published separately. His "True Cause" passed through several editions during his own life-time. One of his most important prose-books after the "True Cause" brings us to the closing event of his busy and various-coloured life. It is entitled in the first issue, which was posthumous--"The Question concerning Impositions, Tonnage, Poundage, Prizage, Customs, &c. Fully stated and argued, from Reason, Law, and Policy. Dedicated to King James in the latter end of his Reign."

D. O. M. S.

D O M S

To God the Best and Greatest: Sacred. John Davys of knightly rank, having formerly discharged with prudence the highest duties of King's Attorney General in the realm of Ireland: thence having been recalled to his own country, secured the first place among the servants of his lord the King, at the Law. After various services nobly rendered in each office, being now nominated to more distinguished he suddenly frustrated the hope of his friends but fulfilled his own--being called away from human honours to celestial glory, in the year of his age 57. A man for accomplished genius, for uncommon eloquence, for language whether free or bound in verse, Most happy. Judicial sternness with elegance of manners and more pleasant learning he tempered. An uncorrupt Judge, a faithful Patron For love of free-born piety and contempt of fretting superstition alike remarkable. He looked down from on high on the obstinate narrowness of plebeian souls in the matter of religion, pity softening his disdain. Himself magnanimously just, religious, free, and moved by heaven, Had for wife the Lady Eleanor of the Right Honble. Earl of Castlehaven, Baron Audley, daughter: His only surviving offspring by her he left as heiress, Lucy, to the most illustrious Ferdinand Baron Hastings, Earl of Huntingdon, married. He spent his last day the 8th December In the year of our Lord 1626. With us leaving an example: here for the resurrection of the Just, he waits.

Near to her most worthy husband lies his incomparable Wife: Who her illustrious birth And spirit equal to her race With Christian mildness tempered. Learned above her sex, Meek below her rank, Than most people greater Because more humble, In eminent beauty She possessed a lofty mind, In pleasing affability, singular modesty: In a woman's body a man's spirit, In most adverse circumstances a serene mind, In a wicked age unshaken piety and uprightness. Not for her did Luxury relax her strong soul, or Poverty narrow it: but each lot with equal countenance And mind, she not only took but ruled. Nay she was full of God, to which fulness Neither a smiling world could have added, Nor from it a frowning world have taken away. Now for a long time sufficiently breathing of God and aspiring above, of her own And the Commonwealth's fate divining beforehand, And most sure of Eternal Salvation With a mighty and huge ardour into her Beloved Saviour's breast, She breathed forth her soul washed in His own blood. Taken away from things human she put on immortality on the fifth of July, in the year of Salvation, 1652. Ps. 16. 9. My flesh also dwells securely because Thou wilt not leave my soul in the sepulchre.

One is willing to accept the "golden lies" of these Epitaphs in either case.

Sir John Davies had several children. One, who was semi-idiotic, was drowned in Ireland. Others alleged to have been born, have not been traced. His daughter Lucy, of the Inscriptions, and by whom, no doubt, they were procured, became famous in her generation as Countess of Huntingdon. We have to deplore that while we have a fine portrait of her, none, as yet, has been found of her Father. His Will and Charities, and their singular after-history, will be given in my fuller Life . Pass we now to

"Nosce Teipsum" as it was practically the earliest so it remains the most remarkable example of deep reflective-meditative thinking in verse in our language or in any language. The student of this great poem will very soon discover that within sometimes homeliest metaphors there is folded a long process of uncommon thought on the every-day facts of our mysterious existence. I call the thinking deep, because "Nosce Teipsum" reveals more than eyes that looked on the surface--reveals penetrative and bold descent to the roots of our being and reachings upward to the Highest. Your mere realistic word-painter of what he sees, is shallow beside a Poet who passes beneath the surface and circumstance and fetches up from sunless depths or down from radiant altitudes fact and facts--each contributory to that ultimate philosophy which while it shall accept every proved fact, will not rush off hysterically shouting "eureka," with ribald accusations of all that generations have held to be venerable and sustaining. I call the thinking original, for there is evidence everywhere in "Nosce Teipsum" that the penitent recluse of Oxford made his own self his study--as really if not as avowedly as Wordsworth.

Were this true it would utterly take from "Nosce Teipsum" the first characteristic and merit I claim for it--deep and original thought. But it is absolutely untrue, an utter delusion, as any one will find who takes the pains that I have done to read, either the original Nemesius, or what this sapient book-buyer mentions, Wither's translation. With my mind and memory full of "Nosce Teipsum" and the poem itself beside me, I have read and re-read every page, sentence and word of Nemesius and Wither and I have not come upon a single metaphor or "similies," or even observation in "Nosce Teipsum" drawn from Nemesius or Wither. The only element in common is that necessarily Nemesius adduces and discusses the opinions of the Heathen Philosophers on the many matters handled by him, and Sir John Davies does the same with equal inevitableness. But to base a charge of plagiarism against "Nosce Teipsum" on this, is to reason on the connection between Tenterden Steeple and Goodwin Sands . The following is the title-page of the quaint old tome and as it is by no means scarce, any reader can cross-question our witness: "The Nature of Man. A learned and useful Tract written in Greek by Nemesius, surnamed the Philosopher; sometime Bishop of a City in Phnecia, and one of the most ancient Fathers of the Church. Englyshed, and divided into Sections, with briefs of their principle contents by Geo. Wither. London: Printed by M. F. for Henry Taunton in St. Duncan's Churchyard in Fleetstreet. 1636." Chronologically--Wither's translation was not published until 1636, while "Nosce Teipsum" was published in 1599; but Nemesius' own book no more than Wither's warrants any such preposterous statements as this Alexander Dalrymple makes. Even in the treatment of the "opinions" of the Heathen Philosophers which come up in Nemesius, and in "Nosce Teipsum," the latter while 'intermedling' with the same returns wholly distinct answers in refutation. The "opinions" themselves as being derived of necessity from the same sources are identical; but neither their statement nor refutation. Nemesius is ingenious and well-learned, but heavy and prosaic. Sir John Davies is light of touch and a light of poetic glory lies on the lamest "opinion." The "Father of the Church" goes forth to war with encumbering armour: the Poet naked and unarmed beyond the spear wherewith he 'pierces' everything, viz. human consciousness. Jenner's forgotten book had perhaps been read by Tate, but that concerns Tate not Sir John Davies. I pronounce it a hallucination to write "Sir John Davies' poem on the immortality of the Soul is chiefly taken from Nemesius." Not one line was taken from Nemesius.

Before passing on it may be well to illustrate here from the "contents" of two chapters in Wither's Nemesius, the merely superficial agreement between them and "Nosce Teipsum." In the Poem under "The Soule of Man and the Immortalitie thereof" various opinions of its 'nature' are thus summarized:

The headings of the successive sections--removed in our text from the margins to their several places--suffice to inform us of the original lines of thought and research and illustration pursued in "Nosce Teipsum" and thither I refer the Reader. The merest glance will show that in "Nosce Teipsum" you have the whole breadth of the field traversed--and that for the first time in Verse. I can only very imperfectly illustrate either the depth or the originality of the poem. Almost as at the opening of the book, take these uniting both:--

How can we hope, that through the eye and eare, This dying sparkle, in this cloudy place, Can recollect these beames of knowledge cleere, Which were infus'd in the first minds by grace?

The wits that diu'd most deepe and soar'd most hie Seeking Man's pow'rs, haue found his weaknesse such: "Skill comes so slow, and life so fast doth flie, "We learne so little and forget so much.

For why should wee the busie Soule beleeue, When boldly she concludes of that and this; When of her selfe she can no iudgement giue, Nor how, nor whence, nor where, nor what she is?

Share on: WhatsApp @Hash Facebook Tweet