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THE LIVES
OF
THE POETS-LAUREATE.
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THE LIVES
OP
THE POETS-LAUEEATE.
WITH AN INTRODUCTORT E88AT ON
THE TITLE AND OFFICE.
BY WILTSHIRE STANTON AUSTIN, JUN.,
B.A./EXETES COLLEGE, OXON ;
AND JOHN RALPH, M.A.,
BARBISTEB-AT-LAW.
ovre yap IffTOplag ypatjiOfjieVf AXXa fiiovQ' ovt€ rdis ciri^avcoraraic
TTpa^ecri irdyrtifQ ci^cort oriXwffis aperfig, fi xaKlag, &\Xa wpay^a Ppax^
froXXaiccc Ka\ pfjfia^ xai irai^ia ric> efKf^atriv ijdovc eiroirifre /laXXov,
H fia^ai fivpiovtKpoiy Ka\ frapardieig ai fxiyitrTai, Koi vo\i6pKiai
TToXeiav. — ^PLXJTABCH.
LONDON:
RICHABD BENTLEY, NEW BUELINGTON STREET.
Puiblfejbrt in ®ttiinars to J^et iWajestg*
M.DCCC.LIII.
UNIVERSITY
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lokdon:
Printed by Schulze and Co., 13, Poland Street.
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PREFACE.
This Work is an attempt to arrange, under a new
classification, an interesting portion of our literary and
dramatic annals, and to give the origin and antiquities
of an office, which, if it in some reigns fell deservedly
into contempt, was in earlier times graced by the genius
of Jonson and Dryden, and has of late been brought into
honourable connection with the names of Southey, Words-
worth, and Tennyson.
The object of the Authors has been to produce a Work
popular in style, but to be relied on for its accuracy. That
some errors may be found in a volume, the contents of
which are spread over such a space of time, and which
make mention of the works of so many writers, will
not be matter for surprise.
Had the Authors been intent upon mere book-making^
it would have been quite possible to have constructed two
or three volumes out of the materials which have been
^<
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VI PREFACE.
sparingly (and it is hoped judiciously) used. Their aim
has rather been to give the most concise accounts, which
might be consistent with deamess, of the lives of such
of the Poets-Laiu*eate as have met with biographers, and,
in collecting from multifarious sources the narratives of
the career of those who have not been so fortunate,
to record nothing which was not in itself valuable, or
interesting from its relation to literary, dramatic, or
political history. Nothing would have been easier than
to have imparted to the Work, by a copious parade of
references, an appearance of industry and research, if not
of learning.
LONDON,
JULY 21, 1853.
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CONTENTS.
PAGE
INTaODUCTOEY CHAPTER
1
BEN JONSON ....
49
SI& WILLIAM BAVENANT
109
JOHN DBTDEN ....
U2-
THOMAS SHADWELL ....
183
NAHTJM TATE ....
196
NICHOLAS SOWE ....
223
BETEBEND LAUBENCE EUSDEN
239
COLLET CIBBBB ....
246
WILLIAM WHITEHEAD
287
BETEBEND THOMAS WABTOH .
316
HBNBY JAMES PTE .
333
BOBEBT SOUTHEI ....
346
WILLIAM WOBDSWOBTH
396
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^1^;!!;^
y^
UNIVEE£JTY
LIVES
THE LAUREATES.
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.
The vivid imagination of the Greeks created a mytho-
logy, which has coloured the sentiments of all succeeding
generations. To understand many of our vernacular phrases
X and allusions, we must even now go back to that wonder-
ful life and learn something of its tendencies and meaning.
In its commonest forms it overflowed with poetry. All
nature ministered to its embellishment. Every stream
had its naiad : the forest, the plain, the mountain and the
ocean-cave were thronged with imaginary habitants ; while
the diversified products of the earth had each their
guardian divinity, and their consecrating use. The con-
spicuous glory of the Olympic conqueror was typified by
the silvery olive ; and what symbol so appropriate to indicate
the immortality of Verse as the unfading laurel ? A m)rth
was readily supplied. The tree was at one time a nymph
seen and beloved by Apollo. The bashful Thessalian fled
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2 INTRODUCTION.
before his eager pursuit, and ere overtaken an interposing
power shielded her from harm, and the virgin stood trans-
formed into a bay-tree. The disappointed god wreathed
for himself a garland from its boughs, and pronounced it
for ever sacred to himself.
The Romans adopted from the Greeks the practice of
rewarding eminent merit by the presentation of some
symbolical chaplet. They, however, enlarged it into an
elaborate system. A variety of crowns, formed of various
materials, were held forth as the worthy guerdon of nume-
rous warlike feats and accomplishments ; and certain rules
were prescribed which the candidate or the champion was
strictly required to observe. We have no very authentic
assurance that poets were thus rewarded under the repub-
lic ; but later. Statins three times gained the prize in the
AJban contests, instituted or revived by Domitian, and on
such occasions a garland of laurel leaves was the usual
acknowledgment of musical or poetical success. The
custom most prevailed, however, after the revival of letters
in the middle ages. Learning then appeared to many
with more than a syren's fascination. Its progress and its
pursuit became the sole subject of their concern. No
form or ceremony was omitted that might feed a useful
vanity or kindle the ennobling emulation. Such forms
then, were not idle or meaninglegs. At a time when
profound learning existed side by side wi|;h an almost
hopeless barbarism; any fiction that surrounded the
individual with dignity, or challenged respect for his
occupation, was more valid to withstand wrong, than the
fitful vigilance of a prince, or the fi-ail enactments of
ill-executed laws. Hence originated the pomp and the
splendour of the mediaeval laureations to which we shall
have occasion presently to advert.
In England the title of poet-laureate was then never
conferred, as is now the case, by royal appointment ; it was
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INTRODUCTION. 3
a scholastic distinction, and of many poets-laureate, the
King merely selected one to publish his praises and to
attend his court. It was simply a university degree.
The origin of degrees, as is the establishment of the
universities by which they were conferred, is involved in
considerable obscurity. Such institutions have no type in
the classic era. As Christianity prevailed over Paganism,
the schools connected with cathedral churches, and after-
wards with monasteries, became the sole nurseries of
general education. When Bishops became temporal lords
and monks accumulated wealth, those seminaries were
neglected; and scholars eschewing the rule of their
negligent masters, withdrew from their several societies
and themselves opened independent places of teaching.
In this way the University of Paris had its origin.
These establishments were encouraged and prospered.
Nobles endowed them and kings granted immunities ; but
though schools of universalia studia, as had been the cathe-
dral and monastic seminaries, it was long before they were
erected into universities or corporations; and this word
University we first find applied to the school at Paris, in a
decretal of Pope Innocent III., dated the beginning of the
thirteenth century. They then obtained powers of self-
government and of conferring degrees of honour and
precedence within their several republics. These degrees
which at first were only the old distinction between teacher
and scholar became civil honours, were conferred with
great pomp, and were in some cases placed on a par with
nobility itself. " When a Bachelor was created Master,"
says Wood, "the Chancellor gave him the badges with
very great solemnity, and admitted him into the fraternity
with a kiss on his left cheek using then these words,
* En tibi insignia honoris tui en librum, en cucuUum, en
pileum, en denique amoris mei pignus, osculum; in
nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sanctus.' That being
B 2
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4 INTRODUCTION.
done, he was to consider what was to belong to
the reverence of so great a name as Master, viz.,
what he ought to have in relation to his habit, because
for fifteen days he was to walk the streets in a
round cap, not a plaited cap; neither in a coUobe or
tabard. He ought also to be so chaste and modest in
word, look and action, that he may resemble a virgin
newly aspoused. Also that he was not to go alone ; but
always — chiefly within these fifteen days — have with him
an Esquire or supporter of his body or at least a com-
panion.
" When the ultimate day of proceeding was come, care
was to be taken that the Inceptor should be commended
by a venerable company of Masters with a brief and well-
ordered speech, and that also the Master under whom
he proceeds should use decent and fruitful words, lest
the venerable company of Masters should be reviled by
the standers-by, for the miscarriage and ill deport-
ment of one Master redounds to the dishonour of all
the rest."
Laureation, which had accompanied degrees in law and
medicine, was reserved eventuaDy for the graduate in gram-
mar. It was in fact, his Master's degree in that faculty
which included rhetoric and the art of versification. These
degrees were more common at Oxford than at Cambridge,
and there are various instances of their being taken so late
as the sixteenth century. Thus by the University Registers
at Oxford, we find that on the 12th March, 1511, one
Edward Watson, student in grammar, obtained a concession
to be graduated and laureated in that faculty, provided he
composed a Latin comedy, that is, any short poem not of
a tragic cast, or one hundred Latin verses in praise of his
University. The next year Richard Smyth obtained the
like concession on condition that at the next public Act he
should affix one hundred Latin hexameters to the great
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INTRODUCTION. 5
gates of St. Mary's Church ; and Maurice Byrchenshaw,
scholar in rhetoric, obtained the same honour provided he
wrote the customary number of verses, and promised not
to read Ovid's " Art of Love" to his pupils. On the 5th
June, 1511, John Bulman graduated in rhetoric, and a
wreath was placed on his head by the Chancellor of the
University. Skelton was laureated at Oxford, and some
years afterwards, viz. in 1493, he obtained public per-
mission to wear his laurel at Cambridge, or as we now
should term it, took an ad eundem there ; thus Churchyard
writing in 1 568 says :
"Nay, Skelton wore the laurel wreath.
And past in schoels, ye knoe."
Whittington, a graduate in rhetoric, in his panegyric on
Wolsey, says:
" Suscipe Lauricomi munuscxda parva Bx)herti."
(Accept this slight tribute from Robert the Laureate.)
Through the more general use of English, the Latin lan-
guage gradually became an accomplishment rather than a
medium of communication ; and such degrees ceasing to
be useful were no longer solicited or conferred. The last
instance was in 1514, when one Thomas Thomson was
laureated.
In the annuls of the German Empire, we meet with
several instances of poets being presented with a crown of
laurel. Frederick IIL conferred it on Conradus Celtes
Protuccius, the first poet-laureate of Germany, who by a
patent of Maximilian L was made Superintendent or
Rector of the College of Poetry and Rhetoric in Vienna,
with power to bestow the laurel on approved candidates.
The honour being purely civil, emanated solely from the
supreme authority, and the power of conferring it was
occasionally invested in Counts Palatine and others, as a
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6 INTRODUCTION.
delegated portion of the imperial prerogative. Rodolph II.
by his letters patent, elevated two professors of the law at
Strasburg, George Obrechtus and his son Thomas, to
that rank ; and the licence to grant the degrees of Doctor,
Licentiate, and Bachelor of both laws, of Master and
Bachelor of Arts, and of Poet-Laureate was inserted in
the patent, as appurtenant to the dignity. It was long
a debated question among the learned whether such
degrees were the same in their nature, and consequently
were attended with the same privileges as those conferred
by a University, and the power itself like all other authority
was at length contested by the Popes, and Pius V. by a
bull denied it to the Counts, and deprived the recipients
of all the privileges such degrees might otherwise have
conferred upon them in the Church.
The learned research of Selden has enabled us to present
the reader with the following account of the manner in
which the ceremony of laureating was performed at Stras-
burg in the seventeenth century. In the year 1616 one
John Paul Crusius had petitioned for the laurel. Obrechtus,
the Count Palatine, in a formal instrument dated 20th
December, reciting how degrees are conducive to the ad-
vancement of learning, and how Crusius having already
attained the dignity of Master in Arts, now through his
skill in versifying, deserved also the laurel of Poetry ;
through the power and licence given him by the Emperor,
appointed the 23rd of December for the presentation. In
the document which is extant, he beseeches and entreats
all who have any affection for learning, and especially all
noble and illustrious lords, counts, and barons, all academic
dignitaries, all doctors, licentiates, professors, masters and
others, not only to dignify the ceremony by their presence,
but also to assist him with their prayers for the safety of
the Church, the School* and the Commonwealth. On
the day appointed, Crusius stept forward before the as-
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INTRODUCTION. 7
sembled magnates, arrayed in all the pompous insignia of
their quality, and recited a short Latin poem petitioning
for the honour of the laurel. The Count then in a long
Latin oration extolled the poetical art, and addressing
Crusius, proceeded in graceiul panegyric to exhort him
ever to merit and sustain his high reputation ; that Justice
herself might pronounce him worthy of the honour, nor
even Envy question his claim. When the murmur of
applause had subsided, Crusius again stood forth to recite
an original poem, on a subject selected by himself. This
composition extended to about three hundred lines in elegiac
metre, its theme was " Quam nihil omnis homo," and it
was termed his exercise for obtaining the laurel. The
Count, to give the greater assurance that he had full power
and authority to confer the title, produced his letters patent
from the Emperor. The public notary solemnly inspected
the seal and subscription, and read the document aloud
to the meeting. The Count then briefly summing up the
authority given him, observed that whoever desired to be
crowned with the laurel, must first take the oath of allegiance
to the Emperor and his successors, which he ordered the
notary to read and Crusius carefully to listen to. When
Crusius had taken the oath, the Count in another Latin
oration proceeded to the main business of the day, and
placed the laurel upon the head of the candidate, and a
ring of gold upon his finger, pronouncing him Poet-
Lam-eate, and confirming him in all the privileges of the
degree. The Count then made another speech, expatiating
upon the laurel and the ring ; and Crusius returned thanks
in a poetical recitation which concluded the elaborate cere-
monial.
All patronage given to letters requires the nicest tact
and judgment in its application. The indulgence of the
emperors was abused by the lavish and indiscriminate dis-
tribution of poetical honours ; and the very means designed
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8 INTRODUCTION.
as an encouragement of the art, tended ultimately to cover
it with ridicule. The learned Paulus Hachenbergius, in
his " Dissertations on the state of Mediaeval Germany," a
monument, as his editor Franckius justly observes, of
stupendous diligence, has commented on the evil con-
sequences of this injudicious liberality. Referring to the
time of the promulgation of the constitution of Maximilian,
concerning the privileges of poets, he writes : " Ab eo
tempore magnus poetarum proventus in Germania ftiit,
qui Latino seque ac patrio carmini studium addixSre : plures
procul dubio et meliores futuri ; nisi coronse laureae etiam
ad imperitos delatse essent, et divinam ccdestemque artem
ipsa canentium vilitas paupertasque prostituisset." To check
the abuse, it was ordained that those only should be crowned
who had obtained testimonials of their capacity from a
board of at least three examiners. But this rule was
relaxed, and it was observed that poets-laureate were as
plentiful in Grermany as poets were rare in all countries.
The wits of Italy and Germany launched the most ferocious
satires (" de sanglantes satires" is the strong expression of
the Abbd du Resnel) alike against those who received and
those who conferred the title. We do not read, however
that the privilege was ever suspended, and so late as 1621,
the Emperor Ferdinand II., in augmenting those of the
University of Strasburg, especially gave it the right of
creating poets-laureate, before enjoyed by the Counts
Palatine. That body was not slow to exercise its authority.
The examination of three candidates who presented them-
selves was referred to the Faculty of Philosophy ; and it
was arranged the degrees in the two branches should be
conferred at the same time. The ceremony was announced.
The degrees in philosophy were conferred, and a concert of
vocal and instrumental music divided the labours of the
day. The Syndic of the University then made an inge-
nious speech upon the connection between philosophy and
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INTRODUCTION. 9
poetry, and the three candidates proceeded to give public
proofs of their sufficiency. The Dean then rose. He
applauded these fevourites of the Muses, and bitterly
reflected upon what had happened: that, through the
ignorance and the corruption of the times, the sacred
laurel, the peculiar privilege of the Caesars, was prostituted
and sold, so to speak, to men whose harshness, prosiness,
and insipidity rendered them unworthy of the name of
poets. But he would not hesitate to assure his audience
that the University of Strasburg, in the case of the three
poets now before them, could never be exposed to such
reproaches. The Chancellor next proposed three oaths,
which were severally taken; 1. that they would sustain
the privileges of the University ; 2. that they would
not accept the crown from any other University, nor from
any Coimt Palatine, even though he were an hereditary
one; and 3. that, in all their compositions, they would
propose for their object, the glory of God and the honour
of his Imperial Majesty ; that they would banish from
their work anything that might hurt another's reputation ;
and that in their conduct, nothing should escape them
which might be turned to the disgrace of literature or the
dishonour of their University. He then created and crowned
them poets-laureate, and accorded them all the honours,
ornaments, privileges, prerogatives, and immunities, in the
best possible form, in such manner as other poets-laureate
use and enjoy them, notwithstanding all laws and customs
which would seem to derogate from such imperial grace
and concession.
The laureation of Petrarch in the Capitol, will naturally
suggest itself to the reader's mind. This proceeding
appears to have been an act of homage, and a public
assurance of protection on the part of the city or senate to
the most distinguished poet and man of letters of the age,
Petrarch had coveted some such distinction, and Robert of
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10 INTRODUCTION.
Anjou, King of Naples, aware of his desires, had urged the
Roman Senate to offer such a recognition of the poet's
merit. Accordingly, a notification of their intention reached
Petrarch, at Vaucluse, on the 23rd of August, 1340. The
Neapolitan monarch was an enthusiast in letters, and Petrarch
embarked at once for the court of his patron, carrying with
him his Latin epic, "Africa." He there demanded a
public trial of his qualifications, and offered to reply, during
three successive days, to all questions that might be pro-
posed to him in history, literature, or philosophy. He
passed his examination with distinguished success; and
the King, pronouncing him fully worthy of the proposed
triumph, took off his robe of state, and threw it around
Petrarch, desiring him to wear it on the day he was to
receive his crown. He proceeded to Rome, and on Easter
day, 8th of April, 1341, slowly ascended the Capitoline
Hill, amid the acclamations of the assembled city. Twelve
youths, belonging to the principal families in the place,
preceded him, reciting extracts from his poems; and the
Count Anguillara, one of the senators who governed the
town during the residence of the Popes at Avignon, after
having made a speech to the people, placed the laurel on
his head, and crowned him as poet-laureate and historio-
grapher. He then recited a sonnet on the heroes of
ancient Ronie, and returning to the Church of St. Peter,
dedicated his chaplet on the altar, and travelled home
slowly by land, luxuriating in his renown. He was pre-
sented with letters patent by the King of Naples and from
the Senate, authorizing him to read and explain ancient
books, compose new ones, write poems, and wear his
laurel crown whenever it pleased him.
The poet had sought this honour partly, perhaps, from
vanity, but chiefly for protection. We read in his letters
how some had called him a necromancer, some a heretic,