Volume 1 — M. CRASHAW'S ANSWER FOR HOPE.[58]
Reading edition
M. CRASHAW'S ANSWER FOR HOPE.[58]
Dear Hope! Earth's dowry, and Heaun's debt!1 The entity of things that are not yet. Subtlest, but surest beeing! thou by whom Our nothing has a definition! Substantiall shade! whose sweet allay5 Blends both the noones of Night and Day: Fates cannot find out a capacity Of hurting thee. From thee their lean dilemma, with blunt horn, Shrinkes, as the sick moon from the wholsome morn.10 Rich hope! Loue's legacy, vnder lock Of Faith! still spending, and still growing stock! Our crown-land lyes aboue, yet each meal brings A seemly portion for the sonnes of kings. Nor will the virgin ioyes we wed15 Come lesse vnbroken to our bed, Because that from the bridall cheek of Blisse Thou steal'st vs down a distant kisse. Hope's chast stealth harmes no more Ioye's maidenhead Then spousal rites preiudge the marriage bed.20 Fair hope! Our earlyer Heau'n! by thee Young Time is taster to Eternity: Thy generous wine with age growes strong, not sowre, Nor does it kill thy fruit, to smell thy flowre. Thy golden, growing head neuer hangs down25 Till in the lappe of Loue's full noone It falls; and dyes! O no, it melts away As doth the dawn into the Day: As lumpes of sugar loose themselues, and twine Their subtile essence with the soul of wine.30 Fortune? alas, aboue the World's low warres Hope walks; and kickes the curld heads of conspiring starres. Her keel cutts not the waues where these winds stirr, Fortune's whole lottery is one blank to her. Her shafts and shee, fly farre above,35 And forage in the fields of light and love. Sweet Hope! kind cheat! fair fallacy! by thee We are not where nor what we be, But what and where we would be. Thus art thou Our absent presence, and our future now.40 Faith's sister! nurse of fair desire! Fear's antidote! a wise and well-stay'd fire! Temper 'twixt chill Despair, and torrid Ioy! Queen regent in yonge Loue's minority! Though the vext chymick vainly chases45 His fugitiue gold through all her faces; Though Loue's more feirce, more fruitlesse, fires assay: One face more fugitiue then all they; True Hope's a glorious huntresse, and her chase, The God of Nature in the feilds of grace.50
NOTES.
Various readings from 1646 edition.
Line 2, 'things' for 'those;' adopted. But in Harleian ms. 6917-18, it is 'those.' As this ms. supplies in poems onward various excellent readings (e.g. 'Wishes'), it may be noted that the Collection came from Lord Somers' Library of mss., and is accordingly authoritative.
Lines 5-6 read
'Faire cloud of fire, both shade and light Our life in death, our day in night.'
Our text (1652) seems finer and deeper, and to put the thought with more concinnity.
Line 9, 'thinne' for 'lean.' " 10, 'like' for 'as.' " 11, 'Rich hope' dropped in all the other editions; but as it is parallel with the 'dear Hope' and 'fair Hope' of the preceding and succeeding stanzas, I have restored the words. The line reads elsewhere,
'Thou art Love's Legacie under lock'
and the next,
'Of Faith: the steward of our growing stock.'
Line 13, 'crown-lands lye.' " 18, ' a distant kisse.' " 19, 'Hope's chaste kisse wrongs.'... " 24, 'Nor need wee.'... " 25, 'growing' is dropped. " 28, 'doth' for 'does;' adopted. " 30, 'subtile' for 'supple;' adopted: but in Harleian ms. as before, it is 'supple.' Lines 31-32. This couplet is oddly misprinted in all the other editions,
'Fortune, alas, above the world's law warres, Hope kicks the curld'....
In 1670 there is a capital L to Law: but 'low' yields the evident meaning intended. Alas is = exclamation simply, not in our present limitation of it to sorrow. See Epitaph of Herrys onward, lines 49-52.
Line 33, 'our' for 'these;' the latter necessary in its relation to 'low' not 'law,' the 'winds' being those of the 'warres' of our world.
Line 34, 'And Fate's' for 'Fortune's.' " 35-36 dropped by our text (1652) inadvertently. " 36, 'or' for 'nor.' " 45, 'And' for 'Though.' " 47, 'huntresse' for 'hunter;' adopted. " 48, 'field' for 'fields.' " 49. I prefer 'huntresse' of 1646, 1648 and 1670, to 'hunter' of our text (1652). G.
