The influence of medical poets on English poetry / ... by Sir Arthur Salusbury MacNalty.

  • Arthur MacNalty
Date:
1946
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The influence of medical poets on English poetry / ... by Sir Arthur Salusbury MacNalty. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    encouraged in this fantastic course by the approval of their pedantic monarch, King James I, who wrote poems himself. It is sometimes said that in the decline of the greater poetry of the Elizabethan period a “metaphysical school” arose, of which Donne was the founder or the first eminent member. Professor Dowden(14) remarked that this so-called “metaphysical school” never existed. Much of Donne’s characteristic poetry belongs to the reign of Elizabeth, but the delight in subtleties of thought, in over-ingenious fantasies, in far-fetched imagery, in curiosity of expression was accentuated in the reigns of James I and Charles I. A leading exponent of these metaphysical flights was Abraham Cowley, M.D. (Oxon.). He was born in London in 1618, the seventh and posthumous child of Thomas Cowley, a stationer. He is the most pre¬ cocious of poets, for he published Poetical Blossoms, a collection of five juvenile poems in 1633, which includes “The tragical history of Pyramus and Thisbe”, written when he was ten years old, and “Constantia and Philetus”, written two years after. Educated at Westminster School, he wrote at the age of 16 a pastoral comedy called Love's Riddle, but he found difficulty in learning Latin and Greek grammar. In 1637 he became a scholar of Trinity College, Cambridge (B.A., 1639; “minor fellow”, 1640; M.A., 1642). On 12th March, 1641, Prince Charles was enter¬ tained at Cambridge by Cowley’s improvised comedy, The Guardian. In 1658 this was rewritten and performed as The Cutter of Coleman Street in 1661 at Lincoln’s Inn Fields, when Pepys was present. Cowley wrote the greater part of his ponderous epic the Davideis at Cambridge. It was published in his collected poems in 1656. Originally planned to occupy twelve books and to culminate with the lament of David for Jonathan, he mercifully found “neither the appetite nor leisure” to complete more than four books. A staunch Royalist, Cowley was ejected from Cambridge by the Parliament in 1643-4 and found a refuge in St. John’s College, Oxford. At Oxford he obtained court favour through his satire, The Puritan and Papist; and in 1646 when Oxford surrendered, he followed Queen Henrietta Maria to Paris. He became secretary to Jermyn, afterwards Earl of St. Albans and was employed in various diplomatic missions to Jersey, Holland and elsewhere. He also conducted the correspondence in cipher between the Queen and Charles I. In spite of his poem, “The Chronicle”, in which he mentions a number of successive loves, Barnes [Anacreon, 1705? xxxii) states that Cowley was never in love but once in his life and then never dared to avow his passion. Pope says the lady was one Leonora, who married his biographer’s brother. In 1656 Cowley was sent to England to obtain information for the Royalist cause. He was arrested by mistake for another person and released on bail for £1,000, Dr. (afterwards Sir Charles) Scarborough— to whom one of his odes is addressed—becoming his security. Cowley was created M.D. at Oxford on 2nd December, 1657, by an order from the Government. This acquiescence in the Commonwealth gave great *93
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