The Complete Works of Richard Crashaw, Volume ICrashaw, Richard
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The Complete Works of Richard Crashaw, Volume I
Crashaw, Richard
English poetry -- Early modern, 1500-1700
Shall I, sett there
So deep a share
(Dear wounds), and onely now
In sorrows draw no diuidend with you?
O be more wise, 85
If not more soft, mine eyes!
Flow, tardy founts! and into decent showres
Dissolue my dayes and howres.
And if thou yet (faint soul!) desert
To bleed with Him, fail not to weep with her. 90
X.
Rich queen, lend some releife;
At least an almes of greif
To' a heart who by sad right of sin
Could proue the whole summe (too sure) due to him.
By all those stings 95
Of Loue, sweet-bitter things,
Which these torn hands transcrib'd on thy true heart;
O teach mine too the art
To study Him so, till we mix
Wounds, and become one crucifix. 100
XI.
O let me suck the wine
So long of this chast Vine,
Till drunk of the dear wounds, I be
A lost thing to the world, as it to me.
O faithfull friend 105
Of me and of my end!
Fold vp my life in loue; and lay't beneath
My dear Lord's vitall death.
Lo, heart, thy hope's whole plea! her pretious breath
Pour'd out in prayrs for thee; thy Lord's in death. 110
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
St. i. line 10. In 1648 the reading is
'Are more at home in her Owne heart.'
In 1670. 'All, more at home in her own heart.' I think 'all' and 'one'
of our text (1652) preferable. There is a world of pathos in the latter.
Cf. st. ii. line 8.
St. ii. line 1. On the change of orthography for rhyme, see our PHINEAS
FLETCHER, vol. ii. 206; and our LORD BROOKE, VAUGHAN, &c. &c., show
'then' and 'than' used as in Crashaw.
St. vi. line 3. In 1648 the reading is 'love;' 1670 as our text (1652).
The plural includes the twofold love of Son and mother.
Line 7, ib. 'to' for 'in.'
Line 9, ib. 'Oh give' at commencement. 1670, 'to' for 'too.'
St. vii. and viii. These two stanzas do not appear in 1648 edition, but
appear in 1670.
St. vii. line 4. By 'tree' the Cross is meant. Cf. st. i. line 1.
St. ix. line 1. 1648 edition supplies the two words required by the
measure of the other stanzas, 'in sins.' They are dropped inadvertently
in 1652 and 1670. Turnbull failed as usual to detect the omission.
Line 4. 1648 spells 'Divident.'
Lines 5 and 6. I have accepted correction of our text (1652) from 1648
edition, in line 6, of 'If' for 'Is,' which is also the reading of 1670.
1648 substitutes 'just' for 'soft;' but 1670 does not adopt it, nor can
I.
St. x. line 1. 1648 reads 'Lend, O lend some reliefe.'
Line 9 reads 'To studie thee so.'
St. xi. line 3, ib. reads 'thy' for 'the.'
Line 8, ib. reads 'Thy deare lost vitall death.'
Line 10. I have adopted from 1648 'in thy Lord's death' for 'thy lord's
in death' of our text (1652).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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