2»* S. VI. 136., Aug. 7. '58.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



113 



corresponding duration of their lives, all these 

 circumstances combined might easily have puz- 

 zled wiser heads than that of our Shakspearian 

 commentator. Lest, however, there should still 

 be a lingering doubt upon the matter, I may add 

 that, among the poetical contributors to Henry 

 Lawes' Ayres and Dialogues for One, Two, and 

 Three Voyces ; The First Booke, 1G53, folio, both 

 names occur, and with the following designations : 



"3Ir. Tho. Cary, Son to the Earle of Monmouth, and of 

 the Bedchamber to his hite Majesty." 



"Mr. Tho. Careiv, Gentleman of the Privy Chamber, 

 and Sewer to his late Majesty." 



I am glad to find that Me. Yeowell is turning 

 his attention to a complete edition of the works of 

 the charming old poet Thomas Carew. A good 

 edition is much wanted, and it cannot be in better 

 hands. 



The biography of Carew is in much confusion. 

 The time of his birth is uncertain. Fry says, 

 "probably about 1577." Brydges says, " a typo- 

 graphical error ; it should be 1597." Lord Dun- 

 drennan says, " the year 1589 has been assigned 

 as the period of his birth." 



The same uncertainty exists as to the time of 

 his death. Ellis, in the " Chronological List of 

 Poets," prefixed to the Specimens (4th edit. 1811, 

 vol. i.), fixes Carew's birth in 1577, and his death 

 in 1634, adding in a note, — 



" Notwithstanding what is said in iii. 156., it has been 

 thought best on deliberate consideration, to place Carew's 

 birth as above. His death certainly happened in 1634." 



Upon which Thomas Campbell observes, — 



" When Mr. Ellis pronounced that Carew certainly died 

 in 1634, he had probably some reasons for setting aside 

 the date of the poet's birth assigned by Lord Clarendon ; 

 but as he has not given them, the authority of a contem- 

 porary must be allowed to stand." 



Wood says that he died ahout 1639, which year 

 is probably correct, and for the following reasons 

 assigned by Peter Cunningham in a note to Camp- 

 bell's Essay on Poetry, p. 207. : — 



" He [Carew] is mentioned as alive in 1638, in Lord 

 Falkland's verses on Jonson's dc-Jth ; and as there is no 

 poem by Carew in the ' Jonsonus Virbius,' it is not un- 

 likely that he was dead before its publication." 



Carew, like his shadow Cary, is supposed to 

 have lived a gay and dissipated life, and to have 

 died penitent. Clarendon says, — 



" His greatest glory was, that after fifty years of his 

 life spent with less severity or exactness than it ought to 

 have been, he died with the greatest remorse for that 

 licence, and with the greatest manifestation of Chris- 

 tianity that liis best friends could desire." 



This statement is in some measure confirmed by 

 the comparativelj*"- recent discovery in the Ash- 

 molean Library of a number of metrical Psalms 

 paraphrased by Carew, and supposed to have been 

 penned at the close of his days. These Psalms 

 form no portion of Carew's pripted works, and 



have been overlooked in the Rev. John Holland's 

 Psalmists of Britain. They are thus described in 

 Mr. Black's excellent Catalogue of the Ashmolean 

 Manuscripts*, No. 38., col. 45. : — 



" 115. ' Eight Psalmes, translated by Mr. Thomas 



Carew.' 

 " i. Happie the man that doth not walke." 

 " ii. Why rageth heathens, wherefore swell." 

 " li. Good God unlocke thy magazine." 

 " cxiii. Ye children of the' Lord that waite." 

 " cxiv. When the seed of Jacob fledd." 

 " cxxxvii, Sitting by the streames that glide." (Printed 



in the quarto edition of Wood's Ath. Oxon. ii. col. 659— 



60.) 

 " xci. Blake the greate God thy forte, and dwell." 

 " civ. My soule the great God's praises singes." 

 " They occupy G pages, marked 98 a, b, etc." 



To Mr. Black's description I may add that the 

 first psalm is printed in Mr. Fry's Bibliographical 

 Memoranda, 4:iQ. 'Bristol, 1816. Speaking of the 

 Psalms, he says : — 



" They shall be inserted in the forthcoming edition of 

 our Poet's works, which has been for more than four 

 years in preparation for the press, and will, it is to be 

 hoped, when it appears, present the correct text of a 

 valuable author, and Memoirs somewhat improved, be- 

 yond any existing Life, by the addition of new and im- 

 portant facts." t 



Malone writing to Fry, June 18, 1810, says 

 that : — 



" In the British Museum there are some old tran- 

 scripts of various of Carew's Poems; and if the poetical 

 treasures of that repository be carefully examined, I be- 

 lieve some •unjjublished songs of his may be found." 



The Ashmolean Library contains MSS. of several 

 of Carew's songs. For instance, " I will enjoy 

 thee nowe my Celia, come," (No. 36, 37., art. 197.; 

 see also No. 38., art. 82.) ; " He that loves a rosie 

 cheeke " (No. 38., art. 8.) ; " When this flye liv'd 

 she used to playe " {lb. art. 10. ; see also No. 47., 

 art. 35.) ; " I saw fayre Celia walke alone " {lb'. 

 art. 11.) ; " Like to the hand that hath bine used 

 to playe" (lb. art. 81.) ; " If when the sunn at 

 noone displayes" (lb. art. 218.), &c. &c. 



In the Malone Collection (MS., No. 13,), is a 

 song by Carew, beginning, " Tell me, Utrechia, 

 since my fate ; " and doubtless if the MS. treasures 

 of the Museum, Bodleian, and Ashmolean Libra- 

 ries were attentively examined, many other of his 

 stray lyrics might be discovered. 



I should also suggest a careful examination of 

 the various printed Music Books from 1630 to 

 1680; particularly the early collections of Ayres 

 and Dialogues published by John Playford. I 

 may add that Walter Porter's Madrigales and 

 Ayres, of Two, Three, Foure and Five Voyces, 1632, 

 contains those exquisite lines, " He that loves a 

 rosie cheek," set to music of four voices, eight 



[* It is much to be regretted that there is no Index to " 

 this useful work. — Ei>.] 



[t O.uery, What has become of Mr. Fry's Carew docu- 

 ments? — Ed.] 



