68 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[July 28. 1855. 



easily conceive that he may have misquoted in 

 the way he has done. Perhaps the blank for 

 the name was left because he felt a little uncertain 

 of the accuracy of his quotation. 



Taking for granted, then, that Pope was pro- 

 bably riu;ht, and that Prynne really was " the 

 Homer of the Isle," the work which, in that case, 

 Cowley had in his mind, was entitled 



" Mount-Orgueil : or Divine and Profitable Medita- 

 tions, raised from the contemplation of these three Leaves 

 of Nature's Volume: 1. Rockes, 2. Seas, 3. Gardens, di- 

 gested into three distinct poems. To which is prefixed, 

 a poeticall description of Mount-Orgueil Castle in the 

 Isle of Jersy. By William Prynne, late exile, and close 

 prisoner in "the sayd Castle. A Poem of the Soules Com- 

 plaint against the Body ; and Comfortable Cordialls 

 against the Discomforts of Imprisonment, &c., are hereto 

 annexed. Psalme xix. 14. Psalme cxliii. 5. London, 

 Printed by Tho. Cotes, for Michael Sparke, Senior, dwell- 

 ing at the Blue Bible, in Greene Arbor. 1641. 4to." 



The book of which this is the title-page may 

 claim a place among the many singular works 

 for which our literature stands indebted to our 

 prisons, but not on account of any poetical merit. 

 The author has himself passed sentence on his 

 rhymes in much the same terms as Cowley. He 

 describes them as — 



"Like the subject, barren, rude, uncompt." 



The merit and curiosity of the book are to be 

 found in the evidence which it affords that a good 

 man unjustly sentenced may bear long and close 

 imprisonment with equanimity, and if, like Prynne, 

 of an active turn of mind, may convert even the 

 view from the bare dungeon to which he is con- 

 signed into a subject of study and improvement. 

 Prynne's imprisonment will hereafter come to 

 be treated by me more particularly; but I may 

 remark at this time, especially as the facts are 

 stated in the volume under consideration, that 

 . Prynne was imprisoned for nearly eight years. 



"I was," he says, "first committed prisoner to the 

 Towre of London, February 1, 1632, where, after two re- 

 movals to the Fleete for a short space, I remained prisoner 

 till July the 27, 1637, and was then removed to Carnarvan 

 Castle, in North Wales, where I arrived August the 5, 

 and was there kept close prisoner till I was by special 

 warrant shipped and sent close prisoner for Jersy, Octob. 

 the 10, 1637, where I arrived not till January the 17 

 following. From whence I departed by warrant from the 

 Parliament, Novemb. 19, 1640, and landed at Dartmouth, 

 Novemb. 22, came into London, Novemb. 28, was pre- 

 sented to the Commons House, Novemb. 30, where my 

 petition was read Decemb. 3." 



During much of this time he was deprived of 

 ordinary writing materials. His keeper in Jersey 

 treated him in the kindest manner, and when 

 times were changed received from Prynne the 

 return of a true and grateful friend ; but even in 

 Jersey he was kept without the use " of Inke 

 and Pen." The poems here printed were jotted 

 down with the rudest materials; some of them were 

 probably written, like the letters of Sir Thomas 



No. 300.] 



More, with a piece of charcoal borrowed from a 

 scanty fire ; others were preserved by being 

 scratched on the walls of his prison chamber; 

 most of them were thrown aside after they had 

 been committed to writing with little expectation 

 that they would ever see the light of day. 



On Prynne's release, he tells us that he blew up 

 " these buried sparks." Whilst he was at the height 

 of his popularity, they were printed by or for 

 his old acquaintance Michael Sparke, and were 

 put together in a volume with the author's 

 portrait prefixed. Some copies do not contain 

 "Mount-Orgueil" and the "Comfortable Cordials," 

 but merely the " Meditations on Rocks, Seas, and 

 Gardens." These last run to 184 pages ; " Mount- 

 Orgueil" contains 10 pages not numbered ; and 

 the "Comfortable Cordials" 16 numbered pages; 

 besides title-page and dedication, which are un- 

 numbered. 



Some of the poems, as I have already stated, 

 were written in the Tower; but as our present 

 question relates chiefly to Jersey, I shall confine 

 myself to a few words about those which were 

 penned in that island. Prynne thus explains how 

 he came to turn his thoughts into this channel : 



" Shut up close-pris'ner in Mount-Orgueil pile, 

 A lofty castle, within Jersie Isle, 

 Remote from friends, neere three yeares' space, where I 

 Had Rockes, Seas, Gardens, dayly in mine eye, 

 Which I oft viewed with no small delight, 

 These pleasing objects did at last invite 

 Me, to contemplate in more solemne wise. 

 What usefuU meditations might arise, 

 From each of them, my soule to warme, feast, cheere. 

 And unto God, Christ.Heaven, mount more neare. 

 In which pursuite I found such inward joyes. 

 Such cordiall comforts, as did overpoise 

 My heaviest crosses, losses, and supply, 

 The want of all foes did me then deny. 

 Give me assurance of a sweete return 

 Both from my exile, prison, and mine urne." 



I know not how it may affect other people, but 

 there is to my mind something striking and even 

 pathetic in the picture which is here and through- 

 out this volume disclosed. The ill-used solitary 

 man nurses no idle grief over past troubles and 

 calamities ; but opening his heart to the influences 

 of those natural objects which he could see at a 

 distance, draws comfort and consolation from the 

 prospect of that beauty from which he was ex- 

 cluded. Thus he strengthens his heart for either 

 fortune, and stands prepared with equal mind for 

 still longer endurance of his imprisonment, or for 

 delivery and triumph over his enemies. 



Thus occupied, he was happy. In all his prisons, 

 and both by sea and land, he says, God " kept me 

 so 



" In health and comfort that I met with no 

 One day of sicknesse, sadnesse, discontent, 

 In eight years' troubles and imprisonment." 



The nature of his meditations may be easily 

 imagined. They are moralisations chiefly founded 



