THE

LIFE OF THOMAS CAREW,

BY MR. CHALMERS.

[HIS elegant poet was the younger brother of sir Matthew Carew, a zealous adherent o the fortunes of Charles I. and of the family of the Carews in Gloucestershire, but decended from the more ancient family of that name in Devonshire. He is supposed to ave been born in 15891. According to Anthony Wood, he received his academical ducation at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, but was neither matriculated, nor took ny degree.

After leaving college, he improved himself by travelling, according to the custom of ne age, and associating with men of learning and talents both at home and abroad: and eing distinguished for superior elegance of manners and taste, he was received into the ourt of Charles I. as gentleman of the privy chamber, and sewer in ordinary. His wit ad recommended him to his sovereign, who, however, Clarendon informs us, incurred he displeasure of the Scotch nation by bestowing upon him the place of sewer, in preerence to a gentleman recommended upon the interest of the courtiers of that nation.

He appears after this appointment to have passed his days in affluence and gaiety. His talents were highly valued by his contemporaries, particularly Ben Jonson and sir Villiam Davenant. Sir John Suckling, only, in his Session of the Poets, insinuates that his oems cost him more labour than is consistent with the fertility of real genius. But of this here are not many marks visible in his works, and what sir John mistakes for the labour of costiveness may have been only the laudable care he employed in bringing his verses to higher degree of refinement than any of his contemporaries.

His death is said to have taken place in 1639, which agrees with the information we nave in Clarendon's life. "He was a person of a pleasant and facetious wit, and made many poems (especially in the amorous way) which for the sharpness of the fancy, and the elegance of the language, in which that fancy was spread, were at least equal, if not superior to any of that time: but his glory was, that after fifty years of his life spent with less severity or exactness than it ought to have been, he died with great remorse for that licence, and with the greatest manifestation of christianity, that his best friends could desire." It is pleasing to record such ample atonement for the licentiousness of some of his poems, which, however, his editors have hitherto persisted in handing down to posterity.

It does not appear that any of his poems were published during his life-time, except such as were set to music. The first collection was printed in 12mo. 1640, the second in 1642, the third (not in 1654 as Cibber asserts, but) in 1651, and a fourth in 1670. In 1772 Mr. Thomas Davies published an edition, with a few notes, and a short character, in which the

MS. note in my copy of the edition 1651, probably on the authority of Clarendon hereafter given.

writer has taken for granted some particulars for which no authority can be found. This edition, with some necessary omissions and corrections, has been principally used on the present occasion. A dialogue, in irregular measure, is printed in Mr. Ellis's Specimens, from a manuscript in the possession of Mr. Malone.

Carew's Cœlum Britannicum, at one time erroneously attributed to Davenant, was printed with the first editions of his poems, and afterwards separately in 1651. Langbaine, and Cibber after him, says that our author placed the Latin notes on the front, when printed, but no edition printed in his life-time, is now known. The distich, however, might have been prefixed to the music of the Masque.

Oldys, in his MSS. notes on Langbaine, informs us, that " Carew's Sonnets were more in request than any poet's of his time, that is between 1630 and 1640. They were many of them set to music by the two famous composers, Henry and William Lawes, and other eminent masters, and sung at court in their masques." It may be added that Carew was one of the old poets whom Pope studied, and from whom he borrowed. Dr. Percy honours him with the compliment of being an " elegant, and almost forgotten writer, whose poems deserve to be revised." But no modern critic appears to have estimated merit with more liberality than Mr. Headley; his opinion however, is here copied, t without suspicion that his enthusiasm may be thought to have carried him too far.

"The consummate elegance of this gentleman entitles him to very considerable attertion. Sprightly, polished, and perspicuous, every part of his works displays the man of sense, gallantry, and breeding; indeed many of his productions have a certain happ finish, and betray a dexterity both of thought and expression much superior to any thin of his contemporaries, and on similar subjects, rarely surpassed by his successors. Cares has the ease without the pedantry of Waller, and perhaps less conceit. He reminds us a the best manner of lord Lyttelton. Waller is too exclusively considered as the first mal who brought versification to any thing like its present standard. Carew's pretensions the same merit are seldom sufficiently either considered, or allowed. Though love hal long before softened us into civility, yet it was of a formal, ostentatious, and romantir cast; and, with a very few exceptions, its effects upon composition were similar to thos on manners. Something more light, unaffected, and alluring, was still wanting; in every thing but sincerity of intention it was deficient. Panegyric, declamatory and nauseous was rated by those to whom addressed, on the principle of Ruben's taste for beauty, by its quantity, not its elegance. Satire, dealing in rancour rather than reproof, was mor inclined to lash than to laugh us out of our vices; and nearly counteracted her intentions by her want of good manners. Carew and Waller jointly began to remedy those defects In them, gallantry, for the first time, was accompanied by the Graces, the fulsomness of panegyric forgot its gentility, and the edge of satire rendered keener in proportion to its smoothness. Suckling says of our author in his Session of the Poets, that

the issue of his brain

Was seldome brought forth but with trouble and pain.

" In Lloyd's Worthies, Carew is likewise called 'elaborate and accurate.' However. the fact might be, the internal evidence of his poems says no such thing. Hume has properly remarked, that Waller's pieces, 'aspire not to the sublime, still less to the pathetic. Carew, in his beautiful Masque, has given us instances of the former; and, in his Epitaph on lady Mary Villers, eminently of the latter."

POEMS

OF

THOMAS CAREW.

THE SPRING.

JOW that the winter's gone, the Earth hath lost
Her snow-white robes, and now no more the
[frost

indies the grass, or casts an icy cream
pon the silver lake, or chrystal stream:
at the warm Sun thaws the benummed Earth
ad makes it tender, gives a sacred birth
> the dead swallow, wakes in hollow tree
he drowsy cuckow and the humble bee.
ow do a quire of chirping minstrels bring
triumph to the world, the youthful Spring:
he vallies, hills, and woods, in rich array,
Welcome the coming of the long'd-for May.
ow all things smile; only my love doth low'r:

- or hath the scalding noon-day-Sun the pow'r
o melt that marble ice, which still doth hold
er heart congeal'd, and makes her pity cold.
- he ox, which lately did for shelter fly
ato the stall, doth now securely lie
a open fields: and love no more is made
by the fire-side; but in the cooler shade
Amyntas now doth with his Chloris sleep
Inder a sycamore, and all things keep
lime with the season; only she doth carry
fune in her eyes, in her heart January.

TO A. L.

PERSUASIONS TO LOVE.

-THINK not, 'cause men flatt'ring say,
Y' are fresh as April, sweet as May,
Bright as is the morning-star,
That you are so; or though you are,
Be not therefore proud, and deem
All men unworthy your esteem :
For being so, you lose the pleasure
Of being fair, since that rich treasure

Of rare beauty and sweet feature
Was bestow'd on you by nature
To be enjoy'd, and 't were a sin

There to be scarce, where she hath been

prodigal of her best graces;
Thus common beauties and mean faces
Shall have more pastime, and enjoy
The sport you lose by being coy.
Did the thing for which I sue,
Only concern myself, not you;
Were men so fram'd as they alone
Reap'd all the pleasure, women none,
Then had you reason to be scant;
But 't were a madness not to grant
That which affords (if you consent)
To you the giver, more content
Than me the beggar; oh then be
Kind to yourself, if not to me;
Starve not yourself, because you may
Thereby make me pine away;
Nor let brittle beauty make
You your wiser thoughts forsake :
For that lovely face will fail;
Beauty's sweet, but beauty's frail;
'T is sooner past, 't is sooner done
Than summer's rain, or winter's sun;
Most fleeting, when it is most dear;
'T is gone, while we but say 't is here.
These curious locks so aptly twin'd,-
Whose every hair a soul doth bind,
Will change their auburn hue, and grow
White, and cold as winter's snow.
That eye which now is Cupid's nest
Will prove his grave, and all the rest
Will follow; in the cheek, chin, nose,
Nor lilly shall be found, nor rose;
And what will then become of all
Those, whom now you servants call?
Like swallows, when your summer's done
They 'll fly, and seek some warmer sun.
Then wisely chuse one to your friend,
Whose love may (when your beauties end)

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