"Men in the deepest pits see best by farre WOTTON, HENRY.-A Courtlie Controversie of Cupid's Cautels: Conteyning five Tragicall Histories, very pithie, pleasant, pitifull and profitable: discoursed uppon with Argumentes of Love by three Gentlemen and two Gentlewomen, entermedled with divers delicate Sonets and Rithmes, exceeding delightfull to refresh the yrksomnesse of tedious Tyme. Translated out of French as neare as our Englishe Phrase will permit, by H. W. Gentleman. At London, Imprinted by Francis Coldocke and Henry Bynneman. 1578. 4to. B. L. 176 leaves. This work, which, though professing to be only a translation, we are convinced was in many parts original, was by Henry Wotton, whose initials only appear upon the title page. Whether he were any, and what, relation to Sir Henry Wotton, the Provost of Eton, who was born in 1568, we have no means of knowing: Henry Wotton was, perhaps, brother to Edward Wotton, whom Sir P. Sidney mentions in the opening of his "Defence of Poesie," as having been with him at the Emperor's Court. Whether this conjecture be or be not unfounded, it is quite certain that Henry Wotton, whether as translator of the work in our hands, or as an original poet, is by no means a contemptible versifier. It is to be borne in mind that this "Courtly Controversy of Cupid's Cautels" was written some years before the work of Sidney; and the poetry it contains much more resembles the ease and grace of his school, than the formality, and even rigidity, of that in which Whetstone and Turbervile, some ten years earlier, were masters. Of his own qualifications Henry Wotton speaks thus diffidently, but sharply, in the commencement: — "Yet I must needes confesse (notwithstanding the greate good will which urgeth me forward) that the mistrust of my disabilitie to finishe this enterprise (the whiche giveth me perfecte knowledge of my selfe without flatterie) at the first encounter hath for feare frozen the ynke in my penne, knowing the carping wittes of our age, to be so cloyed with the sower taste of loathsome disdayne, as there is no sauce sufficient (howe delicate so ever it be) to restore againe their appetite, or at the leaste, to give them knowledge that the unsavory fault they finde in their meate resteth in their unseasoned mouths." There is not much invention in the incidents which bring the five young people three gentlemen and two ladies - together. France at the time was torn by civil wars, and the party retire to the castle of a prudent matron to escape from the consequences of the hostilities, and there they amuse themselves by conversation, not always very lively, and by tales not always very original. The two longest poems in the volume, of more than twenty stanzas, are entitled "The Complaint of the Civil Warres in Fraunce," and "A Welcome of Peace unto Fraunce." These are clearly translations, and it is in the shorter songs, ditties, and lyrics that we seem to trace the freedom and spirit of originality. We copy, in proof, three stanzas of a poem in dispraise of Cupid : "All such as love in loyall sort, and hope reliefe to finde, With them the Elfe doth make his sport; he smiles to see them pinde: He seekes to reave them of delight, and breedes them all annoy; It is of all the most despight "Make love who list an angell then, And who so doth shall live at ease, devoyde of care and strife, Unlesse that libertie displease, to leade a quiet life. "This Love, whom Poets call a God, is but a fury fell, Sent from above, a scourging rod, To martyre and to put to payne all poore afflicted wights; But wise are they that can refrayne This may be rather plain-spoken, but it does not read like translation, and the same may be said of various other lively lyrics, in some of which, however, we are bound to say, we detect a French word or two: in the following femme is used, partly in the distress of rhyme: "Behold the guerdon due to love Bestowed on a fickle femme: The forging of some precious gemme. That love consumes with bitter smart." In the opening of what is headed "The fourth day's Delight," is a poem of considerable power and variety in praise of the vine, which we do not place among the original pieces, contributed, as we suppose, by the translator; and we say the same of the two subsequent stanzas: they are still on the subject of love, and, like much else in the volume, not very complimentary to the ladies of the party. "What moveth men abashed thus to stay, As tumbled from the cloudes in such a mase, "Bereave them of their outwarde masking vayle, Their thoughtes lye hidde, their tongues of truth do fayle, Till sugred wordes the harmlesse hart hath slayne: If in their chaunge they fast on men their hooke, Their smiling then convertes to louring looke." The following, which alludes to the famous Dance of Death, is obscurely worded in the beginning, for the sake of brevity, but it ends with animation, and, if translated, runs without constraint: "Why doo the Lillies fade away, and pleasant sentes resigne my grave? Let rather violets, freshe and gay, my tender heare environ brave. Bring heere to me my love so faire to quallifie my pining care, So as before the day when I must leade the daunce among the dead, All sorrowes from my sight may flye, and joy possesse my troubled head." Of the prose portion of the volume we cannot speak very highly it is long drawn out, and somewhat dull; for even the ladies, who partake in the discussions arising out of the several stories, are not sprightly or animated, and, on the question of love and its abusers, they by no means stand their ground against the accusations of the ungallant gentlemen. There are some pretty descriptions of rural scenery, but here and there words are employed, which, if not French, are new in English, as where we are told "The young lambes frisking and leaping by the sides of their dams [were] nibling and brettyng the toppes of the preatye pagles in the greene pastures." Can "brettyng” be a misprint for biting, or is it a word derived from the French bretauder, which signifies to crop? Chaucer uses bretful, but with him it merely means brimful. Among the five tales we meet with one that furnished the story of the old drama of "Soliman and Perseda,” written about 1590, printed in 1599, and to which Shakspeare alludes in King John, Act I. sc. 1. The names of all the principal characters in "Soliman and Perseda," are derived from the novel translated by Henry Wotton in 1578, but the writer of the drama added some absurdities to the incidents and persons. Of another history William Rufus is made the hero, the scene being laid in England; and here we meet with one of the earliest echo-songs ́that we remember in our language, where the singer (in this case the King) puts a question, answered by echo according to the last word of the inquiry. A third tale of "contrarious love" relates to the adventures of two scholars, one named Claribel of Poictiers, and the other Floridan of Xaintes, in the conclusion of which an Epithalame," as it is called, is divided between a Lover and his 66 Lady. It is rather an enlargement of Horace's Donec gratus eram tibi than anything else, but it is easily and cheerfully written; what succeeds are the first two out of twelve or fifteen alternating stanzas: "The Lover. So long as I such favour founde To flow from my faire Ladies face, To serve as slave her noble grace, "The Lady. So long as of a servaunt true, The faithfull guage of loyal love His service sought his faith to prove, To be partaker with a Queene In worldly wealth and all delight." It is not very clear at the end of the "Courtly Controversy " whether any more of it was really contemplated, but a continuation is hinted at. We never saw but a single complete copy of the book, though two fragments have, at long intervals, come under our notice; each had the colophon, "Imprinted at London by Francis Coldocke and Henry Bynneman. 1578." - WROTHE, SIR THOMAS. Sir Thomas Wrothe his sad Encomion upon his Dearest Consort, Dame Margaret Wrothe. Who died of a Fever at Petherton Parke in the Countie of Somerset, about Midnight of the 14. day of October 1635, and was buried in the Parish Church of St. Stephen in Coleman Street, London, the 11. of November next ensuing &c. London, Printed for Henry Seile. 1635. 4to. 6 leaves. |