INTRODUCTION. I. THE MANUSCRIPTS AND THE AUTHOR. The Life and Death of Mary Magdalene exists in two MSS. of the first quarter of the 17th century, Harleian 6211 (p. 56-94);1 and Rawlinson 41 in the Bodleian. The latter MS. contains the author's name, "Thomas Robinson," plainly at full length; the former his initials "T. R.", and his full name blotted out, but still legible. The Rawlinson MS.2 contains another legend of another writer, entitled The Life of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and has the following dedication to its Mary Magdalene: 1 A small part of the poem, altered and modernised, appeared in 1869 (February and March), in a monthly periodical called The Westminster Abbey Magazine, or Reminiscences of Past Literature, which lived but three months. At the beginning is a foot-note: "This poem, which now for the first time sees light of day in print, was probably written by Sir Philip Sidney-it is thoroughly Spenserian in style, and will recommend itself in a very marked manner to the poetic mind." 2 The Curators of the Bodleian Library were good enough to send the Rawlinson Manuscript to London for me, after Mr. E. M. Thompson, the Keeper of the Manuscripts in the British Museum, had declared his readiness to take charge of it. 3 On the cover of the volume are written the following lines, by Edw. Umfreville, who has described several of the Bodleian Manuscripts: "Mr. Robinson's Life and Death of M. Magdalene, I have seen and read years since in MS. It is a very pretty little thing of about 100 years old, and, I believe, never printed-its age may be found by inquiring the time when W. Taylor was fellow of Trinity College." I did enquire, but without result. The Wood Manuscript (vol. 8490, f. 172), Ashmolean Library, Oxford, which contains a list of the fellows of Trinity College, does not mention the name of Taylor at all, nor could the College library give any other information from the archives on the subject, than that a man of this name entered the College in 1670 as a commoner. The words "To the Worshippeful," etc., seem to imply that Taylor was then an old man, possibly one of the senior fellows. There is no certainty that Wood's list is complete, which would account for its omission of Taylor's name. Moreover, the dedicatory lines do not specify whether Trinity College, Oxford or Cambridge, was meant. But the list of the college of that name at Cambridge (Brit. Mus. Coll. of Cambr. and Miscell., Vol. xlv., Add. 5846, p. 230) does not mention the name of Taylor. X INTRODUCTION. I. THE MSS. AND THE AUTHOR. "To the Worshippeful, his very kinde T. R. Wisheth health, and Happinesse. When Socrates his sholars ev'ry yeare, Brought guifts, and presents to their Master deare, A Muse it may be, though no Muse divine. In commendation of my ruder lay: They that give much, more for themselves doe save, Yours in all duty to command THOMAS ROBINSON." The Harleian MS. has, before the Magdalene legend, a Prologue1 in heroic couplets in the same handwriting as the sidenotes to Mary Magdalene. Its last ten verses are addressed to a "great Lord," who is styled the poet's grace, and who is identified by the four lines prefixed to this poem, and scrawled over with ink, but reading as follows: "To the right honourable and truly noble gentleman and Lord, Henry Clifford, Lord-Lieutenant of the midle shires of Westmoreland, Cumberland and Northumberland, T. R. wisheth all happinesse and increase of honour."2 At the end of this poem are the words: "Your Honours in all duty and service to commaund," and underneath, instead of a name, is a long rectangular inkblot, from which some strokes of writing 1 It is of course printed below. It begins with some reflections on the difficulties that poets have in finding a patron, and also in choosing the subjects of their compositions. The various subjects of poetry are then analysed, and some complaints made, that poetry is not so much liked and patronised as in former days, for people are rather ashamed to call themselves poets. Then follows an enumeration of many Greek, Latin, and English poets, and, finally, the profit that arises from poetry is commended. 2 Thus the author dedicated the two different copies of his poem to different persons, as Norden did two copies of his Description of Essex: compare the Camden Society's print of it with the MS. in the Granville collection. INTRODUCTION. I. THE MSS. AND THE AUTHOR xi project. By using a powerful magnifying-glass, I was enabled to read, through the blot, the name "Thomas Robinson," and thus confirm the suggestion of the Harleian Catalogue.1 To fix the date of the MS. it was natural to inquire the time when either of the two dedicatees was living. The inquiry after W. Taylour, which Umfreville suggests, proved entirely fruitless, as I have above stated; and the result which the inquiry after Lord Clifford afforded left the matter in so far undetermined, as the Clifford family had several members of the Christian name " Henry." Mr. E. Maunde Thompson, the Keeper of the MSS. in the British Museum, was kind enough to decide the point for me, after I had myself gone wrong, by showing that the watermark of the paper on which the Legend is written is such as was used in the year 1621. Perhaps it was also used some few years earlier or later, but the difference is certainly not great, as Mr. Thompson says that the watermarks about this time change very rapidly. We may therefore reasonably date the poem "about A.D. 1621." This date falls within the lifetime of Lord Henry Clifford, the fifth and last Earl of Cumberland. Moreover, the poem contains (Part II. 1132) the line, "There stood y Monarche of this tripple Isle," etc., which is internal evidence to its date, as referring to King James I., to whom this epithet was first given; for he was the first monarch who united under his sceptre the three islands of England, Ireland, and Scotland.3 1 "The author's name at the end has been more carefully blotted out, but seems to have been Thomas Robinson.'"-p. 243, col. 2. The Harleian Catalogue, moreover, mentions the two poems separately, as if they had nothing to do with one another. This fact has misled the editor in the Westminster Magazine, so that he did not find Robinson's name, and supposed it to be written by Sir Philip Sidney. 2 (a.) Sir B. Burke's Extinct Peerage of England, etc. (b.) Dugdale English Baronage, vol. i. p. 346: Henry, Lord Clifford, Earl of Cumberland succeeded to his father's title in 1640. He was the last Earl of Cumberland, and at his death, in 1643, this peerage became extinct, as he only left one daughter. 3 Compare Shakspere's Macbeth, IV. i. 120, 121: "And some I see That two-fold balls and treble sceptres carry." This is an allusion to the union of the two islands of Great Britain and Ireland, and the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland, which took place at the accession of James I. xii INTRODUCTION. I. THE MSS. AND THE AUTHOR. Although the date was thus fixed, and the author's name attached to the poem in initials and at full length, there was little or no chance to settle the question who was this Thomas Robinson. In despite of the most careful searches through the State Papers, ecclesiastical Fasti,1 and literary records of the time I had access to, I was entirely unable to get a satisfactory result. The name, being a very common one, occurs, it is true, several times about this date, but unless he was either the Thomas Robinson mentioned (Hardy's Le Neve, vol. ii. p. 186) in 1615, one of the prebendaries of St. Martin's, Lincoln, or (vol. iii. p. 637) another Th. Robinson, one of the taxors of Jesus College, Cambridge,-I know not who wrote the poem. Except one line, Part I. 25, 66 'Poore, silly sheapherd-swaines? ev'n such am I," which may be understood to mean that the poet was a minister, calling himself the shepherd of his congregation, the poem does not contain the slightest allusion to its writer. So far as we may draw a conjectural picture of an author from his work, we have to imagine a man highly educated for his time; not only well versed in Holy Scripture, but also thoroughly at home in classical literature, and a perfect master of versification. Even the name of Lord Clifford,2 which at the first sight promises to throw some light on the author's personality, does not do so. This nobleman's life is involved in great 1 I speak of the biographies and dates of divines to be got from the following works:-1. Bliss's edition of Wood's Athen. Oxon., 1813. 2. Hardy's edition of Le Neve's Fasti Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ, 1854. 3. Dodd's Church History of England. 4. Tanner's Bibliotheca Britannico-Hibernica, 1748. 5. Bale's De Scriptoribus Britannicis, 1557. 6. Pit's Scriptores illustres Britannia, 1619. 2 The following few particulars about Lord Clifford I have gleaned from, a. Court and Time of James I., London, 1848; b. The Progresses, Processions, etc. of James I., by John Nichols (vol. ii.), 1828; c. Gardiner's History of England from the Accession of James I., etc., Lond., 1883; d. Th. D. Whitaker's Craven, ed. Morant, Lond., 1878. Lord Henry Clifford, the nephew of the celebrated Earl George, was made Knight of the Bath. After having married Francis, daughter of the Lord Treasurer, Earl of Salisbury, he accompanied Lord Wotton on his embassy to France. "Earl Henry," says the Countess of Pembroke (Lady Anne Clifford), "was endued with a good natural wit, was a tall and proper man, a good courtier, a brave horseman, an excellent huntsman, and had a good skill in architecture and mathematics. He was much favoured by King James and Charles I. He died of a burning fever at one of the Prebendaries' houses in York in 1643." INTRODUCTION. I. THE MSS. AND THE AUTHOR. xiii obscurity, and he is but seldom mentioned in the historical records of his time. I was therefore unable to ascertain what his relations were to Thomas Robinson, or why the dedicatory inscription and the name were so carefully blotted out. Possibly the poet had changed his mind before carrying out his intention, or some unknown reasons compelled him to do so; at least his introductory lines to the Legend of Mary Magdalene in the Rawlinson manuscript: "My selfe (kinde Sir) I cannot nowe preesent, To your acceptance, sith I rest ypent In Northern climat," etc. give rise to the supposition that he did not go voluntarily to the Of Harrington among our noble Peares? are noteworthy, because the Earl was the author of 'Poeticall Translations of some Psalmes and the Song of Solomon, with other Divine Poems.' 2 After all, the want of news about the life of the author is not so much to be lamented as one might think. If we could say this Thomas Robinson is the writer; he was born in such a year; these were the offices he held; he died when 60 years old: these few mere dates would probably make all we could hope to get about a man at this period, in which biography was not cultivated as it is now-a-days, as people were not anxious about registering all the little details of the private life of even great contemporaries. II. THE POEM. a. Its two Parts. This Life and Death of Mary Magdalene is, so far as we know, the latest English poetical version of the life of that Saint; and it is most probably one of the last legends of Saints written in England. The late date of this legend is only intelligible from its subject. It is from its character that legendary poetry, describing the lives of 1 See next page. 2 See Bliss's ed. of Wood's Athen. Oxon. iii. 82-3, where specimens are given from the MS.-W. |