Part 4 (2/2)

”And Time may be so kind to these weak lines To keep ilded marble, or in brazen leaves: Since verse preserves, when stone and brass deceives

Or if (as worthless) Tiive, Yet I a Of re Envy's strife, Add to my name some hours beyond my life”

This is the amiable hope of one who lived an entirely amiable life in

”homely towns, Sweetly environ'd with the daisied downs:”

and who is not the less to be beloved because at ti even our somnolence too fiercely If the casual reader but remember Browne as a poet who had the honor to supply Keats with inspiration,[A] there will always be others, and enough of the Muse for her own qualities

FOOTNOTES:

[A] _Cf_ his lament for Willia), drowned at sea--

”Glide soft, ye silver floods, And every spring: Within the shady woods Let no bird sing”

THOMAS CAREW

July 28, 1894 A Note on his Name

Even as there is an M alike in Macedon and Monrievance--that our names are constantly mispronounced It is their own fault, of course; on the face of it they ought to rhyed (impolitely but with a fair amount of plausibility) that what my name may or may not rhyme with is of no concern to anybody, I have only to reply that, until a month or so back, I cheerfully shared this opinion and acquiesced in the general error Had I drea a subject for poetry, I had pointed out--as I do now--for the benefit of all intending bards, that I do not legitiment to err, even in trifles), unless they pronounce it ”vooch,” which is aard I believe, indeed (speaking as one who has never had occasion to own a Rhylish words consonant with ly senious Dr Alexander H japp, LLD, FRSE, who has lately been at the pains to cohtly lampoon upon me As it is not my intention to reply with a set of verses upon Dr japp, it seems superfluous to inquire if _his_ name should be pronounced as it is spelt

But Carew's case is rather important; and it is really odd that his latest and most learned editor, the Rev JF Ebsworth, should fall into the old error In a ”dedicatory prelude” to his edition of ”The Poems and Masque of Thomas Carew” (London: Reeves & Turner), Mr

Ebsworth writes as follows:--

”Hearken strains from one who kne to praise and how to sue: _Celia's_ lover, TOM CAREW”

Thomas Carew (born April 3d, 1590, at Wickham, in Kent) was the son of Sir Matthew Carew, Master in Chancery, and the grandson of Sir Wymond Carew, of East Antony, or Antony St Jacob, between the Lynher and Tamar rivers in Cornwall, where the family of Pole-Carew lives to this day Now, the Cornish Carews have always pronounced their nah, as soon as you cross the Tamar and find yourself (let us say) as far east as Haccombe in South Devon, the name becomes ”Carew”--pronounced as it is written The two fore, as the old rhyme bears witness--

”Carew, Carey and Courtenay, When the Conqueror came, were here at play”--

and the name was often written ”Carey” or ”Cary,” as in the case of the famous Lucius Carey, Lord Falkland, and his descendants In Cornwall, however, where spelling is often an untrustworthy guide to pronunciation (I have known people to write their name ”Hix” and pronounce it as ”Hic”--when sober, too), it ritten ”Carew” and pronounced as ”Carey”; and there is not the slightest doubt that this was the case with our poet's name If anyone deny it, let him consider the verse in which Carew is mentioned by his contemporaries: and attempt, for instance, to scan the lines in Robert Baron's ”Pocula Castalia,” 1650--

”Sweet _Suckling_ then, the glory of the Bower Wherein I've wanton'd enial hour, Fair Plant! whom I have seen _Minerva_ wear An ornahest days; remove a little from Thy excellent _Carew_! and thou, dearest _To _Suckling_, that between you both I --

”_Tom Careas next, but he had a fault, That would not well stand with a Laureat; His Muse was hard-bound, and th' issue of 's brain Was seldoht forth but with trouble and pain”

Or this, by Lord Falkland himself (who surely may be supposed to have kno the naue on the Death of Ben Jonson”--

”_Let Digby, Carew, Killigrew_ and _Maine, Godolphin, Waller_, that inspired train-- Or whose rare pen beside deserves the grace Or of an equal, or a neighbouring place-- Answer thy wish, for none so fit appears To raise his Tomb, as who are left his heirs”

In each case ”Carey” scans adives the line an intolerable limp

Mr Ebsworth's championshi+p