516 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2'"i S. V. 130., June 26; '58. 



CEASHAW AND SHELLEY, AND THEIR POETICAL 

 COINCIDENCES WITH EACH OTHER. 



(2°* S. V. 449.) 

 Your correspondent, Mr. M'Cartht, has oc- 

 cupied several columns of your journal with the 

 correction of an error of the press in Mr. Turn- 

 buU's edition of Crashaw ; and a comparison of 

 that poet with Shelley, which does not appear to 

 me to have any rational foundation. The sub- 

 stitution of " case" for " ease " in the lines — 

 " Yet let the poor drops weep, 

 Weeping is the ease of woe," 

 is obviously one of those errors of the press which 

 deform some of the handsomest editions of our 

 standard authors ; but from which, it is but fair 

 to add, the reprints of Mr. Russell Smith are 

 comparatively free. Mr. M'Carthy is, however, 

 mistaken in assuming the alteration to have been 

 deliberate, or that Mr. TurnbuU had followed 

 all the preceding editions. With the single ex- 

 ception of that of 1646, in which an e, evidently 

 broken by the press, has been converted into a c, 

 all the early editions have given the passage cor- 

 rectly. Of those of more modern date, the only 

 editor who appears to have deliberately repeated 

 the error is Chalmers. From the collection of Dr. 

 Anderson down to the edition of Crashaw edited 

 by Mr. Gilfillan, and published, in the latter part 

 of last year, by Mr. James Nichol of Edinburgh, 

 inclusive, the original and correct reading of 

 the text has been invariably preserved. Mr. 

 McCarthy's remark, therefore, that Mr. Turn- 

 bull having found ''his reading in all the pre- 

 vious editions, was perfectly correct in retaining 

 it either in the text or in a note," is altogether a 

 fallacy; as the former editions, with the exceptions 

 referred to above, afford no such excuse ; and if 

 they did, Mr. TurnbuU would not, I am satisfied, 

 adopt such an apology for so palpable an acci- 

 dent. . , 



With respect to the comparison instituted by 

 Mr. M'Carthy between the poetry of Crashaw 

 and Shelley, there does not appear to me to be 

 any resemblance whatever between them ; but if 

 the theory be entitled to consideration, the credit 

 of the discovery must be assigned to Mr. Gilfillan, 

 who, in an able essay prefixed to his recent edi- 

 tion of the Poetical Works of Crashaw, appears to 

 have originated the idea : — 



"If," sava Mr. Gilfillan, "we turn to Shelley's lines 

 addressed to the noble and unfortunate Lady Emelia V., 

 we shall find that the sceptical Shelley and the Roman 

 Catholic Crashaw wrote, the one of earthly, nay, illicit, 

 love, and the other of spiritual communion, in language 

 marvellously similar both in beauty and extravagance. 

 The two poets," adds Mr. G., « resemble each other in 

 the weakness which was bound up with their strength. 

 Their fault was an excess of the emotional, a morbid 

 excitability and enthusiasm," &c. 



So that if the hare be worth hunting, it has been 

 already started by Mr. Gilfillan ! Mr. M'Carthy 

 has endeavoured to illustrate the supposed resem- 

 blance by bringing numerous passages from the 

 works of the two poets into juxta-position. With 

 a single exception, however, to which I shall refer 

 more particularly hereafter, I can discover in 

 them no nearer resemblance to each other than 

 they would seem to bear to passages in the writ- 

 ings of numerous poets from Homer to the pre- 

 sent time. The mere common-places of poetry, 

 like the notes of music or the seven primitive 

 colours, are at the service of whoever may think 

 proper to make use of them; and he is most 

 deserving of credit who achieves the newest and 

 happiest combinations of these common materials. 

 In several of the passages adduced by Mr. M'Car- 

 thy, however, there is no resemblance of any kind; 

 whilst in other of his examples numerous similar 

 coincidences may be traced to the works of poets 

 of early and modem date. For instance, Crashaw 

 describes 



" The soft and downy hand of sleep,"* 



as — 



" Sealing all breasts in a Lethsean band ; " 



but what resemblance does this bear to Shelley's 



line 



" Touching with all thine opiate wand." ? 



None whatever ! And if the " wonderful afli- 

 nity" between the passages cited by Mr. M'Car- 

 thy really existed, such ideas and expressions 

 like the " common air, the sun, the sky," are the 

 accredited " properties " of Parnassus. 

 Again, Crashaw says : — 



" Night hangs yet heavy on the lids of day ; " 

 and Shelley invokes Night to 



" Blind with her hair the eyes of day ; " 

 but, ;beyond the "lids of day" and the "eyes of 

 day," there is no similitude whatever; and cer- 

 tainly nothing which can be said to be really 

 characteristic of either poet. The idea is one of 

 those common-places of poetry which have ob- 

 tained an almost universal acceptance. Milton 

 makes frequent reference to the " eyes" and " eye- 

 lids" of "day." The following are a few of the 

 many examples that might be quoted from his 

 works : — 



" Where day never shuts her eye." — Comus, 1. 923. 

 " Under the opening eye-lids of the morn." 



Lycidas, 1. 15. 

 " Hide me from day's gairish eye." 



II Pensieroso, 1. 141. 

 « The liquid notes that close the eye of day." 



Sonnet 1. 1. 5. 



So also Shakspeare on many occasions ; among 



others : — 



« With eyes best seeing Heaven's fiery eye." 



Love's Labour Lost, Act V. So, 2. 



And of the stars as — 



« Eyes of fire sparkling through." 



