Volume 1 — AN APOLOGIE FOR THE FOREGOING HYMN,
Reading edition
AS HAUING BEEN WRITT WHEN THE AUTHOR WAS YET AMONG THE PROTESTANTS.[49]
Thus haue I back again to thy bright name1 (Fair floud of holy fires!) transfus'd the flame I took from reading thee: 'tis to thy wrong I know, that in my weak and worthlesse song Thou here art sett to shine where thy full day5 Scarse dawnes. O pardon, if I dare to say Thine own dear bookes are guilty. For from thence I learn't to know that Loue is eloquence. That hopefull maxime gaue me hart to try If, what to other tongues is tun'd so high,10 Thy praise might not speak English too: forbid (By all thy mysteryes that here ly hidde) Forbid it, mighty Loue! let no fond hate Of names and wordes, so farr præiudicate. Souls are not Spaniards too: one freindly floud15 Of baptism blends them all into a blood. Christ's faith makes but one body of all soules, And Loue's that body's soul; no law controwlls Our free traffique for Heau'n; we may maintaine Peace, sure, with piety, though it come from Spain.20 What soul so e're, in any language, can Speak Heau'n like her's, is my soul's country-man. O 'tis not Spanish, but 'tis Heau'n she speaks! 'Tis Heau'n that lyes in ambush there, and breaks From thence into the wondring reader's brest;25 Who feels his warm heart hatcht into a nest Of little eagles and young loues, whose high Flights scorn the lazy dust, and things that dy. There are enow whose draughts (as deep as Hell) Drink vp all Spain in sack. Let my soul swell30 With the strong wine of Loue: let others swimme In puddles; we will pledge this seraphim Bowles full of richer blood then blush of grape Was euer guilty of. Change we our shape (My soul) some drink from men to beasts, O then35 Drink we till we proue more, not lesse, then men, And turn not beasts but angels. Let the King Me euer into these His cellars bring, Where flowes such wine as we can haue of none But Him Who trod the wine-presse all alone:40 Wine of youth, life, and the sweet deaths of Loue; Wine of immortall mixture; which can proue Its tincture from the rosy nectar; wine That can exalt weak earth; and so refine Our dust, that at one draught, Mortality45 May drink it self vp, and forget to dy.
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
The title in 1646 'Steps' is 'An Apologie for the precedent Hymne:' in 1648 the 'Flaming Heart' also precedes the 'Apologie,' and its title, 'Hymnes on Teresa,' is added. 1670 has 'was yet a Protestant.'
Various readings from 1646.
Line 2, 'sea.' " 9, 'heavenly.' " 12, 'there' for 'here.' " 14, 'prejudicate.' " 16, 'one' for 'a:' 1670 has 'one.' " 18, 1648 spells 'comptrolls.' " 20, 'dwell in' for 'come from.' " 21, 'soever.' " 26, 'finds' for 'feels:' our text (1652) drops 'hatcht,' which we have restored after 1646 and 1648; 1670 reads 'hatch,' and Turnbull follows blindly. Line 29, our text (1652) misreads 'now:' we restore 'enow,' after the editions as in No. 9. Line 34, our text misreads 'too' after 'we:' I omit it, as in 1646 and 1670. 1648 has 'to.' Line 41, 'Wine of youth's Life.' " 45, 'in' for 'at.' As the 'Apologie' refers only to the Hymn preceding, and not to what follows, I have placed it after the former, not (as in 1648) the latter, which would make it refer to both. G.