Mistress, and Dies Ira." What can be said of such judgment in the face of such glorious poems as Music's Duel, Sospetto d'Herode, To the Name above every name, Hymn to St. Teresa, Psalm cxxxvii., To the Morning, &c.? Crashaw's verse is marked by some of the highest qualities of poetry. He has strong affinities to two of our great nineteenth-century poets; he has the rich imagination and sensuousness of Keats, and the subtlety of thought and exquisite lyrical flow of Shelley. Crashaw is essentially a sacred poet, and, compared with George Herbert, is his superior, judged from the purely poetic standpoint. Herbert is, in a limited degree, a popular poet; Crashaw is not, and has never been so. One of the reasons for this is (probably) the taste for artificial poetry of the school of Waller, Dryden, Pope, &c., during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The fact of his being a Catholic would also deter many readers from studying his works; but, poetical thought now being wider, and religious intolerance almost a thing of the past, it may be hoped that Crashaw will soon receive the recognition which is his due. The text of the following selection follows that adopted and amended from original sources by Rev. A. B. Grosart in his complete edition of Crashaw's Works in "The Fuller Worthies' Library," but the spelling has been modernized. I am under a debt of obligation to Dr Grosart for his kind permission in respect of the above-named edition of the Poet's works, an edition which will be indispensable to all future editors of Crashaw. I am especially indebted for the use of the Latin poem Christe, veni (Notes, p. 77), and the translation of it by the Rev. Richard Wilton, M.A. (p. 26). At the conclusion of my Notes will be found a Bibliography of Crashaw's Works. WATERWORKS STREET, HULL, J. R. TUTIN. VIII. Dies iræ, dies illa: the Hymn of the Church, in medita- IX. Translation of "Christe, veni," by Rev. R. Wilton, X. Saint Mary Magdalene, or the Weeper . XI. A Hymn to the Name and Honour of the admirable XII. From "The Flaming Heart: upon the Book and Picture of the seraphical Saint Teresa, as she is usually expressed with a Seraphim beside her XIII. Description of a Religious House and Condition of Life 45 XXV. Aquae in vinum versae (John ii. 1-11), and translation II. Wishes. To his (supposed) Mistress III. To the Morning: Satisfaction for Sleep VI. Upon the Death of the most desired Mr Herrys VII. An Epitaph upon Mr Ashton, a conformable Citizen . VIII. Death's Lecture and the Funeral of a Young Gentleman |