Headnote
These extracts come from an intriguing and little-studied manuscript held at the Beinecke Library at Yale University, Osborn b230. The manuscript is the work of a royalist imprisoned following the Civil Wars, for a time in Exeter: the poem presented below is signed “This writt in 1651 in Exeter Jayle”. The text is therefore an example of royalist prison literature, an important genre of writing during the period of royalist defeat, including well-known poems like Richard Lovelace’s “To Althea from Prison”. (see Murray, Anselment).
Unlike Lovelace’s cavalier poetry, this manuscript is strongly religious in content. The poems in the manuscript include several psalm paraphrases (including the poem presented here), and a full-length play, The Tragedye of Jepthah’s Daughter, based on the events of Judges 11:31-40. These texts nevertheless remain in conversation with royalist poetry: Jepthah’s daughter was also the topic of a poem by Robert Herrick (see our entry on his poems in civil war Exeter).
The religious identity is defined by the Church of England. The established church had been effectively abolished by Parliament in 1646, but it retained an intensely emotive importance for royalists, who identified with its erstwhile head, King Charles I. The manuscript is therefore an example of the nostalgic underground church loyalty of the 1650s that shaped what became the Anglican tradition after the Restoration of 1660 (Judith Maltby). The manuscript espouses an irenic Protestantism that allows for some toleration towards “orthodox divines” in other traditions, both Calvinist and Catholic—some strategic wiggle-room may be implied here for conforming to the moderate Presbyterianism that now dominated in England. But it nevertheless suggests intense disapproval of the Independent sects that had emerged with the approval of Oliver Cromwell. Hostility towards puritan sects is the central theme of the psalm paraphrase presented here.
The poetry collection is prefaced by a dedicatory letter “To my sonne G. S.”, signed by “W. S.”. This letter follows a conventional rhetorical genre, a father’s advice to a son (a well-known example was Charles’s father King James I’s Basilikon Doron (1599)). This text also provides some biographical insights into the author, “W. S.”, who describes the manuscript as “the fruits of my solitude whilst under restraint”. He presents the manuscript almost as a surrogate father, providing spiritual guidance in recompense for his years as a political prisoner, during which he has been unable to fulfil “my care for you… in your Infancye”.
“W. S.” has previously been identified, unconvincingly, as William Sandys, presumably by connection with the poet and Bible translator George Sandys (1578-1644). In fact, the author can conjecturally be identified as William Sprye of Blisland in Cornwall, a minor royalist infantry commander who fought in several south-western campaigns, who did indeed have a young son George, then preparing to leave home for university. Further research is in progress to develop this attribution, but it shows how this manuscript emerged from specific contexts of royalist confessional identity and political mobilization.
Works Cited
Richard A. Anselment, “‘Stone Walls’ and ‘I’ron Bars’: Richard Lovelace and the Conventions of Seventeenth-Century Prison Literature”, Renaissance and Reformation, 29.1 (2009), 15-34.
Judith Maltby, “Suffering and Surviving: the civil wars, the Commonwealth and the formation of ‘Anglicanism’, 1642-60” in Maltby and Christopher Durston, eds., Religion in Revolutionary England (Manchester University Press, 2005).
Molly Murray, “Measured Sentences: Forming Literature in the Early Modern Prison”, Huntington Library Quarterly, 72.2 (2009), 147-67.
W. S., poetry manuscript “written in Exeter jayle”.
Preface
To my sonne G. S. or any of my
children who shall happen to see
this Manuscript the fruits of my
solitude whilst under restraint.
My sonne.
I know that as mankind is naturally prone to addict himselfe to what is evill & to decline what is good, to Consume the pretious time of his life in vaine & unprofitable pleasures: to whom all contemplation & spirituall exercises which concerne the eternall happy being of the soul are nauseous; soe more especially is youth depraved, to whom all reclusenesse or restraint from sports is irksome & tedious. But have a Care, child: God gives noe allowance to youth or old age to sin, or to neglect his service. Although the Minoritye of the one & the infirme Condition & decrepitt old age of the other may seeme & plead something yett it will not free thee with impunitye. […][1]
Lett mee therefore charge thee to make thy greatest if not thine only care to serve God; & because the more you know him, the more you will love him, & have the greater fervency to serve him, searche the Scripture. You may find I have not bin idle in my solitudes: here are fruits (such as they are) watered & disclosed by affliction [Isaiah 30:20]; when a sad burthen of sorrow & trouble was upon mee; when the hand of God bowed downe my necke, making my enemies to tread thereupon & triumph over mee by many yeares imprisonment; when my care for you & the rest of my children in your Infancye did oppresse & chill my heart. Lett mee bee thy example, lett mee enjoyne thee to a speciall diligence in perusing this holy booke of God all thy life, with a desire to understand, but not with presumption to interprett (after the rashe custome of this Lunatique & Schismaticall age) unlesse it should please Almighty God in his providence to dispose of thee into his ministrye, & then not to depend upon a single judgement. […]
Pray to God, that hee will establishe your heart against the dangerous errors of these daies, wherein men through wilfulnesse, obstinacye, & blindnesse doe villifie & misunderstand the scripture, bringing their soules to the precipice of a sad eternitye.[2] […] Enquire after & observe the profession of the Church of England according to the nine & thirty Articles[3] as it was established in the daies of Queene Elizabeth & professed ever since untill this fatall interruption of Schisme & heresie did cast a vaile over it. You will find it unblameable: a Religion so well setled, soe united, so orderly, soe governed, adorned with all the beauties that true Articles, prudent Cannons, regular devotions, & Constant Sacraments can give it. A Church which hath laid aside all superfluous & unnecessary Ceremonies, retayning those that are truly advancements of Order, decencye, modestye, & gravitye in the service of God, & expressions of those heavenly desires & dispositions wch wee ought to bring along with us to God’s house. […] From this church never despare, alwaies submitting to the decrees of Lawfull, particular, or free Generall Counsells. In this carry thy selfe modestly, soberly, courting the Conversation of such learned Orthodoxe Divines, who are Exemplar for their vertues & good life, & doe Submitt to the same discipline (of wch pretious Jewells I hope God will never deprive this Nation) praying for all men, judging noe man.
Avoid that indecent & most inhumane custome of railing[4] att, reviling & throwing durt att other Churches because they are not of youre opinion. For although the Church of Rome & the Congregations of Calvin[5] have fostered too many errors to bee embraced yett they have too much pietye to bee despised, & too neare a relation to Jesus Christ to bee traduced. As for all those new Sects & erroneous disciplines wch God hath permitted to appeare among us, as Independents Anabaptists, & many other of wch there is too much varietye:[6] looke upon them Compassionately, as a people whom God hath suffered for a time to wander out of the True path, & bestow thy prayers upon them for their Conversion. […][7]
If your mother survive mee, love her, & obey her; for her vertues are soe well knowne to mee that thou canst not respect her enough.
If thou survivest mee & that God giveth thee abilities to discerne my weaknesses like the good & blessed sons of Noah (Genesis 9:23), conceale thy fathers infirmities: & lett this induce thee into a strict, circumspect, & religious life, acceptable to God & commendable among men.
Obey God, & hee will give thee the desire of thy heart: trust in him, & committ thy way unto him, & hee will bring it to pass.
The Lord God of heaven, & God of earth blesse you, wch is the dailye prayer of
your loving father W. S.
—
[p 110]
A Paraphrase upon the 137 Psalme of David with some enlargement alluding to the present dangerous Schismes of Presbetery & Independencye [8]
When mighty Persia & proud Caldean[9]
led Judah Captive unto Babilon,
Wee sate & wept upon the flowerye lees or Meades [10]
And shadowye bounds of Christall Euphrates:
Mingling our teares with his divided streame,
Who smil’d upon our greife (whilst wee th’extreame
And rigid fate of Sion[11] did Lament,
with sully’d cheeks with hearts asunder rent)
As in that churlishe flood, something had bin
Obdurate as the heart of Babell’s[12] king.
Our uselesse Harpes (made silent by our woe)
On willowe trees wee hung which there did grow
Th’insulting Conquerours requires us sing
To them an Hebrew song of Sion’s king.
Our soules are prest with heavinesse (wee cry’d),
Wee cannot sing; our Harpes are laid aside;
What harmonye can broken spiritts make;
When (Captive) they of nought but greife partake
Shall Sion’s sacred Hyms bee here profan’d
In forraigne lands? Or greate Jehovah nam’d?
The name of Baal[13] is a fitter theame
Of mirth to you uncircumcised men.
O blest Jersualem: when I forgett
Thy Cittye, or thy holy Temple, lett
Th’apostate tounge unto the pallatt cleave
Of my offending mouth; if I conceive
A joye, whilst in this sable roabe you lye,
In teares deploring our sad obsequie.
If I forgett thy name, O sacred king
Of Judah, when thy holy songs I sing
Then lett my right hand loose her cunning all
To guide the warbling strings of Harpsicall.[14]
Left thy Almightye arme above thy head;
Lett thy avenging weapon bee unsheath’d;
Brandishe thy flaming sword: in furye smite
Those Edomites*[15] that gainst thy Sion fight
whose cursed cryes in every place resound,
Downe with this Temple: rase it to the ground.
Lett the swift issue of their precipitate
Rage, fall on their heades, make them desolate.
Thy daughter† [16] (faire) proud Babilon must tast
This bitter case: lye desolate & waste;
Thou Parent‡ to soe many sonnes of pride
Tutor to sectaryes & Regicide.
Shee whose adulterate armes was ope soe wide:
Whose breast & face pretences beautify’d;
In whose embracements Error folded is;
Prophanenesse, Blasphemy, & sacrilidge.
Whose Lustfull claspings have produc’d, in place
Of Judah’s Tribe a most prodigious race
Thy Pride (ambitious Pagan) & thy State
must fall like us: must suffer the same fate.
Happy is hee, is Authour of thy groanes:
is hee, shall dashe thy children ’gainst the stones.
O sacred king of kings: yea divine Pow’rs;
With strenuous arme shake these aspiring Tow’rs
In flames their Palaces & Cittyes burne:
Their ruines to their Ashes fire an Urne.
This writt in 1651 in Exeter Jayle.
Sprye’s footnotes
* Independents
† Praesbeterians
‡ it may justly bee affirm’d that the Presbeterians of this age were the nurseryes of all the many heresyes wch are now in England. & alsoe that they held the kingly haire whilst the Independants cutt of his head.
[1] Sprye expands on the conventional theme of youth and old age, citing St Augustine to urge the necessity of studying the Bible when young.
[2] Here Sprye cites (in Latin) the early Church father Irenaeus’s work Against Heresy (Book 3, chapter 2), arguing that “when heretics are confuted from the Scriptures, they turn around and accuse the same Scriptures” (ed. Dominic J. Unger, New York: Newman Press, 2012).
[3] The 39 Articles that define the Church of England, which were finalized in 1571 under Queen Elizabeth. The Church had been abolished by the Presbyterian-dominated parliament in 1646, and replaced with a radically reduced form of worship set out in the Directory for the Publique Worship of God (1644), the so-called “Westminster Directory”. Loyalty to the Church, its hierarchy and ceremonies, became a defining feature of continuing royalist loyalty.
[4] “railing”: speaking sharply, disrespectfully, mockingly against someone.
[5] Sprye frames the Church of England, conventionally, as a middle way between Catholicism and Reformed Calvinism.
[6] Parliament’s assault on the established Church, abetted by Independent leaders like Oliver Cromwell, was perceived to have enabled a number of radical and subversive sects. These were catalogued (and often exaggerated) in satirical tracts like Thomas Edwards, Gangraena (1646).
[7] Sprye cites Jeremiah 35:13-19 in which the prophet Jeremiah warns the sons of Jonadab that God will bless them for obeying their father.
[8] Psalm 137 is a much-quoted psalm associated with the Jews’ forced captivity in Babylon during the 6th century BCE. It begins with the memorable first verse “By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion”. It is often used to allude to conditions of spiritual exile or subjection to tyrannical power, appropriate to royalists in the England of the 1650s, but also echoed by many writers and musicians from Martin Luther to Boney M.
[9] Chaldean: the ruling dynasty of Babylon.
[10] lees / Meades: W. S. offers a choice of readings here, both poetic terms for “fields” or “meadows”.
[11] Sion: i.e. Jerusalem.
[12] Babel: i.e. Babylon.
[13] Baal: pagan deity.
[14] Harpsicall: usually used to mean harpsichord, but presumably here referring to the harp.
[15] The Edomites had colluded in the Babylonian defeat of Judea; the psalm calls for divine retribution. Here, W. S. relates them to the Independent sects who had helped to dismantle the established Church.
[16] The psalm alludes to the “daughter of Babylon”, the future generation who will also face divine vengeance; here, W. S. also links this figure with the Whore of Babylon in Revelation in Revelation 17:5. Here, W. S. relates them to the Presbyterians who had established the alternative Directory of Publique Worship on Presbyterian lines. Though Presbyterians protested their disapproval of radical Independent doctrine, their opponents often highlighted their complicity in the campaign against Charles I.