Richard Crashaw | |
|---|---|
| Born | c. 1612–1613 London, England |
| Died | (1649-08-21)21 August 1649 (aged 36) Loreto,March of Ancona,Papal States |
| Occupation | poet, teacher |
| Alma mater | Charterhouse School, Pembroke College, Cambridge |
| Literary movement | Metaphysical poets |
| Notable works | Epigrammaticum Sacrorum Liber (1634) Steps to the Temple (1646) Delights of the Muses (1648) Carmen Deo Nostro (1652) |
Richard Crashaw (c. 1613 – 21 August 1649) was an English poet, teacher,High ChurchAnglicancleric and Roman Catholic convert, who was one of the majormetaphysical poets in 17th-century English literature.
Crashaw was the son of a famousAnglican divine with Puritan beliefs,William Crashaw, who earned a reputation as a hard-hittingpamphleteer and polemicist againstCatholicism. After his father's death, Crashaw was educated atCharterhouse School andPembroke College, Cambridge. After taking a degree, Crashaw taught as a fellow atPeterhouse, Cambridge and began to publish religious poetry that expressed a distinctmystical nature and an ardent Christian faith.
Crashaw wasordained as a clergyman in theChurch of England and in his theology and practice embraced the High Churchreforms of Archbishop Laud. Crashaw became infamous among English Puritans for his use ofChristian art to decorate his church, for his devotion to theVirgin Mary, for his use of Catholic vestments, and for many other reasons. During these years, however, the University of Cambridge was a hotbed for High Church Anglicanism and forRoyalist sympathies. Adherents of both positions were violently persecuted by Puritan forces during and after theEnglish Civil War (1642–1651).
When Puritan GeneralOliver Cromwell seized control of the city in 1643, Crashaw was ejected from his parish and fellowship and became a refugee, first in France and then in thePapal States. He found employment as an attendant toCardinalGiovanni Battista Maria Pallotta atRome. While in exile he converted from Anglicanism to Roman Catholicism. In April 1649, Cardinal Pallotta appointed Crashaw to a minorbenefice as canon of theShrine of the Holy House at Loreto where he died suddenly four months later.
Crashaw's poetry, although often categorised with those of the contemporary English metaphysical poets, exhibits similarities with theBaroque poets and influenced in part by the works of Italian andSpanish mystics. It draws parallels "between the physical beauties of nature and the spiritual significance of existence".[1] His work is said to be marked by a focus toward "love with the smaller graces of life and the profounder truths of religion, while he seems forever preoccupied with the secret architecture of things".[2]
Richard Crashaw was born in London, England, circa 1612 or 1613. He was the only son ofWilliam Crashaw (1572–1626). The exact date of Richard Crawshaw's birth and the name of his mother are unknown; it is believed that he was born either in late 1612 or in January 1613.[3] His mother, William Crashaw's first wife, may have died while he was an infant.[2] William Crashaw's second wife, Elizabeth Skinner, whom he married in 1619, died in 1620 in childbirth. Richard Crashaw may have been baptised byJames Ussher, later theArchbishop of Armagh.[4]
William Crashaw was aCambridge-educated clergyman who served as a preacher at London'sInner Temple. He was born in or nearHandsworth in theWest Riding of Yorkshire, and came from a wealthy family.[5][6] William Crashaw wrote and published manypamphlets advocatingPuritan theology that were sharply critical ofCatholicism. Despite his opposition to Catholic thought, William Crashaw was attracted by Catholic devotion; he translated many verses by Catholic poets from Latin to English.[7] According to Cornelius Clifford, William Crashaw was
"a man of unchallenged repute for learning in his day, an argumentative but eloquent preacher, strong in his Protestantism, and fierce in his denunciation of 'Romish falsifications' and 'besotted Jesuitries'".[2]
Scholars believe that as a child, Richard Crashaw read extensively from his father's private library. It contained many Catholic works and was described as "one of the finest private theological libraries of the time".[8][9] The Crashaw library included works such asBernard of Clairvaux'sSermons on the Song of Songs, the life ofCatherine of Siena, theRevelations ofSaint Bridget, and the writings ofRichard Rolle.[10]
With the death of William Crashaw in 1626, Richard Crashaw became an orphan at 13 or 14 years old. English attorney general, SirHenry Yelverton and SirRanulph Crewe, a prominent judge, were appointed as Crashaw'slegal guardians.
Crashaw's guardians sent him to theCharterhouse School in 1629. At Charterhouse, Crashaw was a pupil of the school's headmaster, Robert Brooke. He required his students to writeepigrams and verse inGreek andLatin based on theEpistle and Gospel readings from the day's chapel services.[11] Crashaw later continued this exercise as an undergraduate at Cambridge. Several years later, he assembled many these epigrams for his firstcollection of poems,Epigrammatum Sacrorum Liber (trans. "A Book of Sacred Epigrams"), published in 1634. After finishing at Charterhouse, Crashaw entered Pembroke Hall at the University of Cambridge
According to clergyman and editorAlexander Grosart, Crashaw was "as thoroughly Protestant, in all probability, as his father could have desired" before his graduation from Pembroke Hall in 1634.[12] During his education, Crashaw gravitated to theHigh Church tradition in Anglicanism, particularly towards the ideals and ritual practices that emphasised the church's Catholic heritage. These practices were advocated byWilliam Laud, theArchbishop of Canterbury. Laud, with the support ofKing Charles I, had reoriented the practices of the Church of England with a programme of reforms that sought "beauty in holiness". Laud sought to incorporate "more reverence and decorum in church ceremonial and service, in the decoration of churches, and in the elaboration of the ritual".[13] This movement, calledLaudianism, rose out of the influence of theCounter-Reformation. The University of Cambridge was a centre of the Laudian movement at the time of Crashaw's attendance.
Richard Crashaw matriculated as a scholar at Pembroke on 26 March 1632.[2][6] At that time, the college's master was the Reverend Benjamin Lany, an Anglican clergyman and friend of William Crashaw. Early in his career, Lany shared many of William Crashaw's Puritan beliefs. However, Lany's beliefs evolved toward more High Church practices. It is likely that Richard Crashaw was under Lany's influence while at Pembroke.[4] Crashaw was acquainted withNicholas Ferrar and participated in hisLittle Gidding community, a family religious group. Little Gidding was noted for its adherence to High Church rituals centred around Ferrar's model of a humble spiritual life of devoted to prayer and eschewing material, worldly life. Little Gidding was criticised by its Puritan detractors as a "Protestant Nunnery".
Pembroke Hall conferred on Crashaw aBachelor of Arts degree in 1634. This degree was promoted to aMaster of Arts in 1638 by Cambridge, and through incorporationad eundem gradum by theUniversity of Oxford in 1641.[6]
In 1636, Crashaw was elected a Fellow of Peterhouse at Cambridge. In 1638, he was ordained into the priesthood of the Church of England, and was installed ascurate of theChurch of St Mary the Less in Cambridge, England This church, commonly known as "Little St Mary's", is adjacent to Peterhouse and had served as the college chapel until 1632.[14]
Peterhouse's Master, John Cosin, and many of the college's Fellows, adhered to Laudianism and embraced the Anglican tradition's Catholic heritage. Crashaw became close to the Ferrar family and frequently visited Little Gidding. Crashaw incorporated these influences into his conduct at St Mary the Less. These changes included holding late-nightprayer vigils, and adorning the chapel with relics,crucifixes, and images ofMary, mother of Jesus.[14] According to an early Crashaw biographer,David Lloyd, Crashaw attracted many attendees to Little St Mary's who were eager to hear his sermons, "that ravished more like Poems, than both the Poet and Saint... scattering not so much Sentences as Extasies".[15]
Because of the tensions between Laudian adherents and their Puritan detractors, the Puritans often sent spies to attend church services to identify and gather evidence of "superstitious" or "Popish" idolatry. In 1641, Crashaw was cited forMariolatry (excessive devotion to the Virgin Mary) and for his superstitious practices of "diverse bowings, cringeings" and incensing before the altar".
In 1643, Cromwell's forces took control of Cambridge and immediately began to crack down on Catholic influences. Crashaw was forced to resign his fellowship at Peterhouse for refusing to sign theSolemn League and Covenant.[16] He soon decided to leave England, accompanied by Mary Collet, whom he revered as his "gratious mother". He arranged for Mary's son, Collete Ferrer, to take over his fellowship at Peterhouse. Soon after Crashaw left Cambridge, St Mary's was ransacked on 29 and 30 December 1643 byWilliam Dowsing under orders from the Parliamentarian commanders. Dowsing recording that at Little St Mary's "we brake downe 60 superstitious pictures, some popes, and crucifixes, and God the Father sitting in a chayer, and holding a globe in his hand".[17]
Crashaw's poetry took on decidedly Catholic imagery, especially in his poems about Spanish mysticSt Teresa of Avila. Teresa's writings were unknown in England and unavailable in English. However, Crashaw had been exposed to her work, and the three poems he wrote in her honor—"A Hymn to Sainte Teresa," "An Apologie for the fore-going Hymne," and "The Flaming Heart"— are, arguably, his most sublime works.
Crashaw began writing poems influenced by theGeorge Herbert's collectionThe Temple—an influence likely derived from Herbert's connection to Nicholas Ferrar. Several of these poems Crashaw later collected in a series titledSteps to the Temple andThe Delights of the Muses by an anonymous friend and published in one volume in 1646. This collection included Crashaw's translation ofGiambattista Marini'sSospetto d'Herode. In his preface, the collection's anonymous editor described the poems as having the potential to induce a considerable effect on the reader—it would "lift thee Reader, some yards above the ground."[14] According to contemporary accounts, Crashaw's sermons on this subject were powerful and well-attended, but no records of them exist today.[18]
In 1644, Crashaw and Collet settled in Leiden in the Netherlands.[14] It is believed that he converted from Anglicanism to Catholicism at this time. According to theAthanae Oxoniensis (1692), antiquarianAnthony à Wood explains the reasoning for Crashaw's conversion as the result of fearing the destruction of his beloved religion by the Puritans: "an infallible foresight that the Church of England would be quite ruined by the unlimited fury of the Presbyterians".[19] However, according to Husain,
"It was not the Roman Catholic dogma, or philosophy, but the Catholic ritual and the reading of the Catholic mystics, especially St. Teresa, which largely led him to seek repose in the bosom of the Catholic Church. Crashaw's conversion was the confirmation of a spiritual state which had already existed, and this state was mainly emotional, an artistic abandonment to the ecstasy of divine love expressed through sensuous symbolism."[20]
At some point in 1645, Crashaw appeared in Paris, where he encountered ReverendThomas Car[21] aconfessor to English refugees. The poet's vagrant existence made a lasting impression on Car, as shown by "The Anagramme":
He seeks no downes, no sheetes, his bed's still made.
If he can find a chaire or stoole, he's layd,
When day peepes in, he quitts his restlesse rest.
And still, poore soule, before he's up he's dres't.
The writerAbraham Cowley discovered Crashaw living in abject poverty in Paris. Cowley sought help from English QueenHenrietta Maria, herself in exile in France, to help Crashaw secure a position in Rome. Crashaw's friend and patron,Susan Feilding, Countess of Denbigh, also lobbied the Queen to recommend Crashaw toPope Innocent X.
Crashaw travelled as a pilgrim to Rome in November 1646. He lived there in poor health and poverty while waiting for a papal retainer. Crashaw was finally introduced to Innocent X, being called "the learned son of a famous Heretic".[22] According to Sabine, the Puritans who forced Crashaw into exile would have described him also as the heretical son of a learned performer.[23] After repeated lobbying by the Queen, Innocent X finally granted Crashaw in 1647 a post with CardinalGiovanni Battista Maria Pallotta, who was closely associated with theEnglish College, a seminary in Rome.[24] Crashaw was allowed to reside at the college.
At the college, Crashaw witnessed immoral behaviour from some of Pallotta's entourage and reported them to the Cardinal. This action created such bitter enemies for Crashaw that Pallotta eventually removed him from the college for his own safety.[25] In April 1649, Pallotta found a cathedralbenefice for Crashaw at theBasilica della Santa Casa atLoreto, Marche. Crashaw left for Loreto in May 1649.
Weakened by years of privatation, Crashaw died in Loreto of a fever on 21 August 1649. There were suspicions that Crashaw was poisoned, possibly by his enemies in Pallotta's entourage.[24] Crashaw was buried in thelady chapel of the shrine at Loreto.
Three collections of Crashaw's poetry were published during his lifetime and one small volume posthumously—three years after his death. The posthumous collection,Carmen Del Nostro, included 33 poems.
For his firstcollection of poems, Crashaw turned to the epigrams composed during his schooling, assembling these efforts to form the core of his first book,Epigrammatum Sacrorum Liber (trans. "A Book of Sacred Epigrams"), published in 1634. Among its well-known lines is Crashaw's observation on themiracle of turning water into wine (John 2:1–11):Nympha pudica Deum vidit, et erubuit, believed to be translated by Crashaw himself as: "The conscious water saw its God and blushed".[26][a]
For instance, thisquatrain, titledDominus apud suos vilis from the collection, was based on a passage from theGospel of Luke:[27]
Crashaw's epigram (1634)
| Clement Barksdale's translation (1873)
| A literal translation
|
Crashaw's work has as its focus the devotional pursuit of divine love. According to literary historian Maureen Sabine, his poems "reveal new springs of tenderness as he became absorbed in a Laudian theology of love, in the religious philanthropy practiced by his Pembroke master, Benjamin Laney, and preached by his tutor, John Tournay, and in the passionate poetic study of the Virgin Mother and Christ Child".[14] Sabine asserts that as a result of his Marian devotion and Catholic sensibilities,
"In expressing his Christian love for all men, even the archenemy of his father and most English Protestants, Crashaw began to feel what it was like for Christ to be a stranger in his own land."
[14] He depicts women, most notably theVirgin Mary, but also Teresa andMary Magdalene, as the embodiment of virtue, purity andsalvation.[28] Indeed, Crashaw's three poems in honour of the Saint Teresa of Avila--"A Hymn to Sainte Teresa," "An Apologie for the fore-going Hymne," and "The Flaming Heart" are considered his most sublime works.According to Sabine,
"In his finest contemplative verse, he would reach out from the evening stillness of the sanctuary to an embattled world that was deaf to the soothing sound of Jesus, the name which, to his mind, cradled the cosmos."[14]
According to Husain, Crashaw is not a mystic—and not by traditional definitions of mysticism—he is simply a devotee who had a mystic temperament because he "often appears to us as an ecstatic poet writing about the mystical experiences of a great saint (St. Teresa) rather than conveying the richness of his own mystical experience".[29] Husain continued to categorise Crashaw's poems into four topic areas:
- (1) poems on Christ's life and His miracles;
- (2) poems on the Catholic Church and its ceremonies;
- (3) poems on thesaints andmartyrs of the Church; and
- (4) poems on several sacred themes such as the translation of thePsalms, and letters to the Countess of Denbigh, and "On Mr. George Herbert's book intituled,The Temple of Sacred Poems sent to a Gentlewoman," which contain Crashaw's reflections on the problem of conversion and on the efficacy of prayer."[30]
While Crashaw is categorised as one of the metaphysical poets, his poetry differs from those of the other metaphysical poets by its cosmopolitan and continental influences. As a result of this eclectic mix of influences, Sabine states that Crashaw is usually
"regarded as the incongruous younger brother of the Metaphysicals who weakens the 'strong line' of their verse or the prodigal son who 'took his journey into a far country', namely the Continent and Catholicism."[14]
Lorraine M. Roberts writes Crashaw "happily set out to follow in the steps of George Herbert" with the influence ofThe Temple (1633), and that "confidence in God's love prevails in his poetry and marks his voice as distinctly different from that of Donne in relation to sin and death and from that of Herbert in his struggle to submit his will to that of God."[31]
Much of the negative criticism of Crashaw's work stems from an anti-Catholic sentiment in English letters—especially among critics who claim that his verse suffered as a result of his religious conversion.[32] Conversely, the Protestant poetAbraham Cowley memorialised Crashaw in anelegy, expressing a conciliatory opinion of Crashaw's Catholic character.
Today, Crashaw's work is largely unknown and unread[33]— if he is not the "most important" he is certainly one of the most distinguished of the metaphysical poets.[2] Crashaw's poetry has inspired or directly influenced the work of many poets in his own day, and throughout the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries.
According to literary scholars Lorraine Roberts and John Roberts, "those critics who expressed appreciation for Crashaw's poetry were primarily impressed not with its thought, but with its music and what they called 'tenderness and sweetness of language'"—including a roster of writers such asSamuel Taylor Coleridge, William Wordsworth,Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Ralph Waldo Emerson,Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Amy Lowell, andA. Bronson Alcott.[32] During and after his life, friends and poets esteemed Crashaw as a saint—Abraham Cowley called him such in his elegy "On the Death of Mr. Crashaw" (1656);[34] andSir John Beaumont's poem "Psyche" (1648) compares Crashaw with fourth-century poet and saintGregory of Nazianzen.[35] Others referred to him in comparison withGeorge Herbert, as "the other Herbert" or "the second Herbert of our late times".[36][37]
"His faith, perhaps, in some nice tenets might
Be wrong; his life, I'm sure, was in the right:
And I, myself, a Catholic will be,
So far at least, dear saint, to pray to thee"
The Crashaw prize for poetry is awarded bySalt Publishing.[38]
Alexander Pope judged Crashaw "a worse sort of Cowley", adding that "Herbert is lower than Crashaw, Sir John Beaumont higher, and Donne, a good deal so."[32][39] Pope first identified the influence of Italian poetsPetrarch and Marino on Crashaw, which he criticised as yielding thoughts "oftentimes far fetch'd and strain'd", but that one could "skim off the froth" to get to Crashaw's "own natural middle-way". However, contemporary critics were quick to point out that Pope owed Crashaw a debt and in several instances, plagiarised from him.[40] In 1785, Peregrine Philips disparaged those who borrowed from and imitated Crashaw without giving proper acknowledgement—singling out Pope,John Milton, Young, and Gray—saying that they "dress themselves in his borrowed robes"[32][41] Early 20th-century literary criticAustin Warren identified that Pope'sThe Rape of the Lock borrowed heavily from Crashaw's style and translation ofSospetto d'Herode.[42]
In a 1751 edition of inThe Rambler, criticSamuel Johnson called attention to a direct example of Pope's plagiaristic borrowing from Crashaw:[43]
Crashaw's verse:
| Pope's plagiarized verse:
|
Crashaw's verse has been set by or inspired musical compositions.Elliott Carter (1908–2012) was inspired by Crashaw's Latin poem "Bulla" ("Bubble") to compose his three-movement orchestral workSymphonia: sum fluxae pretium spei (1993–1996). The festivalanthemLo, the full, final sacrifice, Op. 26, composed in 1946 by British composerGerald Finzi (1901–1956) is a setting of two Crashaw poems, "Adoro Te" and "Lauda Sion Salvatorem"—translations by Crashaw of two Latin hymns byThomas Aquinas (c. 1225–1274). "Come and let us live", a translation by Crashaw of a poem by Roman poetCatullus (84–54 BC), was set to music as a four-part choral glee bySamuel Webbe, Jr. (1770–1843). Crashaw's "Come Love, Come Lord" was set to music byRalph Vaughan Williams. Excerpts from "In the Holy Nativity of our Lord" were set by American composer Alf Houkom (b. 1935) as part of his "A Christmas Meditation" (1986, rev. 2018) for SATB choir, synthesizer and piano. "A Hymn of the Nativity" was set as "Shepherd's Hymn" by American composer Timothy Hoekman in his 1992 set of three songs entitledThe Nativity for soprano and orchestra.
These houres, and that which hovers o're my End,
Into thy hands, and hart, lord, I commend.
Take Both to Thine Account, that I and mine
In that Hour, and in these, may be all thine.
That as I dedicate my devoutest Breath
To make a kind of Life for my lord's Death,
So from his living, and life-giving Death,
My dying Life may draw a new, and never fleeting Breath.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Gosse, Edmund William (1911). "Crashaw, Richard".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 7 (11th ed.). pp. 379–380.
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