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Thomas Stanley: His Original Lyrics, Complete, In Their Collated Readings of 1647, 1651, 1657.: With an Introduction, Textual Notes, a List of Editions, an Appendix of Translations, and a Portrait.Stanley, Thomas

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Thomas Stanley: His Original Lyrics, Complete, In Their Collated Readings of 1647, 1651, 1657.: With an Introduction, Textual Notes, a List of Editions, an Appendix of Translations, and a Portrait.

Name: Thomas Stanley: His Original Lyrics, Complete, In Their Collated Readings of 1647, 1651, 1657.: With an Introduction, Textual Notes, a List of Editions, an Appendix of Translations, and a Portrait.
Author: Stanley, Thomas

Stanley, Thomas

English poetry -- Early modern, 1500-1700; Stanley, Thomas, 1625-1678

As in the crystal-centre of the sight
    Two subtle beams make but one cone of light,
    Or, when one flame twin'd with another is,
    They both ascend in one bright pyramis;
    Our spirits thus into each other flow,                             5
    One in our being, one in what we know,
    In what we will, desire, dislike, approve,
    In what we love; and one is that pure love.
    As in a burning glass the aerial flame
    With the producing ray is still the same,                         10
    We to love's purest quintessence refin'd,
    Do both become one undivided mind.
    This sacred fire into itself converts
    Our yielding spirits and our melting hearts,
    Till both our lines into one spirit run;                          15
    So several lines are in their centre one.
    And when thy fair idea is impress'd
    In the soft tablet of my easier breast,
    The sweet reflexion brings such sympathy,
    That I my better self behold in thee;                             20
    And all perfections that in thee combine,
    By this resultance are entirely mine.
    Thy rays disperse my shades, who only live
    Bright in the lustre thou art pleas'd to give,

15:2. P. 22, line 8. _i.e._ 'I [who] know no native light but light
    borrowed from thee.' The rather obscure phrase is obscured the more
    by its slovenly original punctuation.

15:3. P. 22, line 10. 'Wouldst': 1651.

      _The Blush_ (p. 24).

16:1. P. 24, line 11. 'Conferr'd' in 1647; 'comferd' in Gamble's
    _Ayres_, 1657. The right word is obvious.

16:2. P. 24, line 16. 'Knows': 1647.

_The Cold Kiss_ (p. 25).

17:1. P. 25, line 3. 'These': 1657.

17:2. P. " line 12. 'My': 1657.

17:3. P. " line 15. 'Lip': 1657.

      _The Idolater_ (p. 25).

18:1. P. 26, line 7. 'By' in other texts, but 'from' in Gamble, 1856.

18:2. P. " line 11. 'He' in 1647: the later text must be right.

18:3. P. " line 18. 'Breast': 1647.

      _The Magnet_ (p. 26).

19:1. P. 26, line 9. 'She': 1657.

19:2. P. 27, line 13. 'Then': 1647.

      _Song: 'Foolish Lover'_ (p. 28).

20:1. P. 28, line 24. 'Distinguish,' by printer's error, in 1657.

      _The Parting_ (p. 29).

21:1. P. 29, line 4. 'Do': 1647.

21:2. P. " lines 5-6. 1647:

     'But when hereafter thou shalt know
      That grief hath slain me, come.'

21:3. P. " line 19. 'Condemn': 1647; 'contain': 1657. 'Contemn' is
    Stanley's word, if one is to judge from the context.

      _Counsel_ (p. 29).

22:1. P. 29, line 4. 'Creature': 1647.

22:2. P. 30, line 7. 'Their': 1657.

22:3. P. " line 10. This line is a tangle of misprints in 1657, viz.:

      'Stars to jewels they divest thee.'

22:4. P. " line 13. 'Powers': a misprint of 1647.

22:5. P. " lines 23-24. The final couplet in 1647 is:

     'Who would keep another's heart,
      With her own must never part.'

      _Expostulation with Love, in Despair_ (p. 30).

The text here given is a composite. The variants follow:

23:1. P. 30, lines 1-4. 1647:

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Thomas Stanley: His Original Lyrics, Complete, In Their Collated Readings of 1647, 1651, 1657.: With an Introduction, Textual Notes, a List of Editions, an Appendix of Translations, and a Portrait.

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