Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jkksz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T12:53:57.788Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Unknown Sonnets by Sir Toby Matthew

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 September 2015

Anthony G. Petti
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

A poetry commonplace book in the Huntington Library (HM 198), comprising mainly the verse of notable English authors of the early 17th century, includes twenty-nine anonymous sonnets (vol. 2, ff. 88-95), most of them dedicated to the Saints and many highly personal in content. Although of considerable intrinsic merit, they seem to have been overlooked, possibly because of the relative importance of the numerous other poems in the volume and the fact that their authorship has never been established.

Type
Research Article
Information
British Catholic History , Volume 9 , Issue 3 , October 1967 , pp. 123 - 158
Copyright
Copyright © Catholic Record Society 1967

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Notes on Introduction

1. vid. De Ricci, S., Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada, i, 63 (1935),Google Scholar which describes the commonplace book as containing poems by James I, Beaumont, Ben Jonson, Fletcher, Herrick, Donne, Pembroke, Rudyerd, Carew, Randolph, Buck, Suckling, Corbet and others. It comprises 148 folios, measures 31 × 19 cms., and dates from the 17th century, when it belonged at divers times to Edward Denny, Charles Cooks and Thomas Lovigne. The writing is in several hands. A fuller description of the contents is given in the Huth Library Catalogue, IV, 1159ff.Google Scholar (1880); but neither De Ricci nor the Catalogue even mentions the sonnets. The present writer suggested Matthew's authorship in 1960 when the volume was being recatalogued.

2. In fact, only two poems appear to have been ascribed to him. One is a secular poem, An Answer, supposedly his reply to Suckling's “Out upon it I have loved”, since it appears under his name in Last Remains of Sir John Suckling, 1659 (vid. N. Ault, 17th century lyrics, p. 161), but the D.N.B. article on Matthew expresses the opinion that Suckling wrote the reply himself, and merely used Matthew as a mouthpiece. Concerning the other ascription, a religious poem, vid. note 10.

3. Italian poetry, like Italian art, seems to have provided the widest range of hagiology in the Renaissance. A good example is Casio de’ Medici's Vita e Morte Miser Jesu Christo (c. 1525) which after a series of meditative sonnets on the life and Passion of Christ and on death, has a section entitled Vite de Santi which deals with many renowned saints arranged in a sanctoral cycle, month by month (e.g., under “Genaio” there is a sonnet to Santa Paula, no. xxxvii). Among the other saints included are Mary Magdalen, St. Barbara, St. Margaret and the Guardian Angel. A useful though by no means comprehensive list of hagiological sonnets provided by Hugues, Vaganay, “Essai de bibliographic des sonnets relatifs aux Saints”, Analecta Bollandiana, xix, 377 ff.Google Scholar

4. These saints were especially common, comprising, with St. Paul the group invoked in the Confiteor, a prayer of penitence which was in constant use, figuring twice in the Mass (in the Preparatory Prayers and before the Communion of the Faithful) and forming part of the rite of Confession.

5. See further on this subject, Janelle, P., Robert Southwell the Writer (1935);Google Scholar Martz, L. B., The Poetry of Meditation (1954).Google Scholar

6. The only other Renaissance poem concerning her which I have been able to find is a stanza of “The Triumphe of feminyne Saintes” by Richard Verstegan, Odes (1601), p. 58. She is, of course, a highly revered saint in the Greek Orthodox Church.

7. e.g. no. 22, 1.2, “selfe”, 1.7, “beautifies”; 1.8, “selfe”, “suffer”, 1.13, from; no. 15, 1.12, “Fine”; no. 26, 1.5, “For”; no. 29, 1.5, “For”; no. 22, 1.8, “losse”, 1.9, “possesse”; 1.11, “expresse”. Also to be noted is the occasional capital “J”, e.g. in no. 1.2, “James”.

8. Matthew himself states that his few remaining doubts before becoming a Catholic concerned indulgences and “the manner wherewith the Saints are said to hear our prayers, and the divers terms wherewith Images are said to be ‘worshipped’” (The Life of Sir Tobie Matthew, by A. H. Mathew and A. Calthrop (1907), hereafter referred to in these notes as The Life).

9. The fullest biography published to date is The Life referred to in the preceding note. Useful supplementary works are A. H. Mathew, A true historical relation of the Conversion of Sir Tobie Matthew (1904) which is an edition of Toby's autobiographical account (hereafter referred to as The Conversion), and the brief impressionistic study by David Mathew, Sir Tobie Mathew (1950).

10. Reprinted in The Life, 349-51, being ascribed to Matthew apparently because it is signed “T.M.” This fairly reasonable ground for ascription is reinforced by the style, which contains images and phrases similar to those used in Matthew's devotional prose, and shows the characteristic sensitive ear for rhythm and cadence. It has too, interesting points of similarity with the sonnets.

11. Though a little below the standard of the “Pannegyricke”, this poem also shows resemblances to Matthew's writings. Cf., e.g., the analogy of the nut and the kernel in stanza 67, and The Conversion (p. 13) where Matthew speaks of the Protestants and Puritans as having “but the bark of the tree without the juice, the shell without the kernel. …”

12. vid., especially Matthew's affectionate reference to Florence as the place where “God, in His good time, did there vouchsafe to call me to the communion of His Church, and to open the eyes of my dark soul, which had never been able, till then, to see the face of truth, so mightily had they been overshadowed with the clouds of heresy and sensuality” (The Life, p. 75).

13. Letters of John Chamberlain, ed. McClure, ii, 306, 452. These letters also include references to Gage as Toby's “dear friend”.

14. The will is printed in full in The Life (vid. especially, 128).

15. The Life, 70, 117; Oliver, Collections SJ. (1845), 140; Schillings, A., Matricule de l'Université de Louvain, V (1962), 7–8.Google Scholar D. Mathew (biography, 67-8), while conceding that Gage must have been a priest “at least before 1624” and Toby by 1640, is doubtful that either was ordained in 1614. But The Life provides incontrovertible documentary evidence (123) that Toby received major as well as minor orders from Bellarmine, being ordained priest 20th May 1614. The idea that Gage was ordained contemporaneously is, as yet, supported only by the MS. note “written at Rome about the year 1690” (quoted by Oliver, loc. cit.); and the fact that in Toby's will made 7th June lol4 Gage is termed “Mr. George Gage”, but Thomas Owen is referred to as the “Reverend father ffa. Thomas Owen” might indicate that Gage was not yet a priest. This could explain the enigma in the sestet of sonnet 29 if it concerns Gage: i.e., Gage had said that he wanted Toby to be ordained first, and that he would then follow his example.

16. Remarkably little is published about George Gage, and to make matters worse he is sometimes confused with another contemporary Catholic priest, George Gage of Haling. See further, Revill, P. and Steer, F., “George Gage I and George Gage II”, Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research, xxxi, no. 84 (1958), 141–158,Google Scholar a valuable article, though the section on George Gage I (Toby's friend) draws on material which is probably forged, and inexplicably omits any reference to Mary Gage, George's sister, even in the genealogical table. Other biographical details can be gained from C. Dodd's Church History, J. Gillow, Literary and Bibliographical Dictionary, The Life, and David Mathew's biography (e.g., 56, 69).

Gage's name also recurs in State Papers and diplomatic correspondence of the period, for example, the Trumbull Papers (Downshire MSS.) and Letters of John Chamberlain (vid. note 9), which contain an important reference concerning the care Gage took over his appearance (ii, 510, letter dated 26 July 1623).

17. e.g., letter from Bacon to Matthew, c. 1623, printed in The Life, 210.

18. e.g., the Sidney circle: “Dy-er thou let his name be knowne”, and Greiv-Ill, paine, forlorne estate doe best decipher me”. Needless to say, Matthew used cipher in his correspondence with Bacon, a fact utilised by the Baconians.

19. This letter, which survives only in a fragmentary copy (now in the possession of Roger Barrett of Chicago, according to Keynes, G., Bibliography of Dr. John Donne, 1958, 105, 122)Google Scholar, was first printed by Gosse, E., Life and Letters of John Donne (1899), i, 309–10.Google Scholar

20. The Life, 128.

21. This seems to have been his violent reaction against his former doubts concerning the saints. Cf. his letter to Carleton, July 1609, in which he justifies his position and reiterates his belief in the validity of “Intercession to Saints, and especially to the glorious and most blessed Virgin” (The Life, 119).

22. e.g., in the preface to his translation, The Flaming Hart (1642).

23. The Conversion, 37.

24. It is illuminating to consider this sestet in the light of the comments Matthew makes concerning his parents’ attitude to his conversion in his letter to Mary Gage: e.g., “The greatest cross which I bear concerning them [his parents], is to see the little use they make of the conversion of me, their son” (The Life, 84).

25. The Conversion, 132.

26. The Life, 66.

27. Cf. also the remarks Matthew makes about his own parents cited in note 24, which conclude with the following image: “As the trees fall, so shall they lie, but as long as they stand upon their roots, I will hope, even beyond hope, and pray both by myself, and all the charitable friends I have, that they may fall on fair ground” (The Life, 84).

28. The Conversion, 11.

29. e.g., most deponents in Chancery law suits add “or thereabouts” when giving their age.

30. Bacon to Buckingham, 18 April 1623 (The Life, 111).

31. See further, The Life, 46, 98, 105, 117-8, etc.

32. vid. The Conversion, 70; David Mathew, op. cit., 13.

33. See further, The Life, 141-2, 176-7, 189, 190; David Mathew, op. cit., 37-8, 51ff., etc.

34. The Life, 103.

35. Added in a postscript to a letter from Buckingham to James I (printed The Life, 212).

36. A collection of letters made by Sr. Tobie Mathews (1660), 153.

37. ibid., 151: “I have sometimes such fits of melancholy, and to speak truly, I have seldome any other thing, that, when they take me, I become, as if I had been bitten with the Torpedo. …”

38. Carleton to Chamberlain, extract printed in The Life, 140.

39. Suckling accused him of being a whisperer of sweet nothings into female ears: e.g., vid. his Session of the Poets (1637). See also The Life, 343; David Mathew, op. cit., 82.

40. See further The Life, 89, 102, 158, 160, 312.

41. Cited in note no. 36: vid. especially 152: e.g., “… I have an extream paine in my neck, and withall an eye so newly and imperfectly recovered of a Catarrhe, that I pray God, I prove free from it, this Winter”.

42. Illnesses of varying seriousness (including acute melancholia) are recorded from 1596 onwards. He also often felt himself close to death. See further, The Life, 14-7, 23, 109, 113-4, 162, etc.

43. The Life, 176.

44. id. xii. Matthew's Life of Dame Lucy Knatchbull has been edited by D. Knowles (1935). The letter to Mary Gage, dated from Paris, 16 August 1611 forms the basis of the autobiographical account Matthew prepared for publication in 1640. Useful biographical details of Mary Gage and Lucy Knatchbull are provided by the registers of the Brussels convent, printed in Catholic Society Publications, XI. See especially 179 and 180.

45. The Life, 85.

46. See further, id., 89ff.

47. Cf. Bacon's letter to Matthew, id., 92-3.

48. The essay Of Friendship first appeared in Essaies, 1624, and was greatly augmented in Essayes, 1625. That Bacon wrote the essay in Toby's honour is assumed from Bacon's letter “to a most dear Friend” printed in A Collection of Letters made by Sr. Tobie Mathews (1660), 53. Bacon states that the essay was “differred”, implying that it was composed some time before its publication.

49. vid. note no. 15.

50. vid. note no. 12.

51. Cf. D. Mathew, op. cit., 69. It is important to note that in his will proved 11 September 1638, Gage makes no bequest to Matthew (vid. the Revill and Steer article cited in note 16, 149).

52. The works of these poets are all available in excellent modern editions: W. Ringler, The Poems of Sir Philip Sidney (1962); G. M. Story and H. Gardner, The Sonnets of William Alabaster (1959); J. Grundy, The Poems of Henry Constable (1960).

53. Sonnet 21 has the close rhyming scheme for the sestet: cdcdcc.