Samuel Daniel (–1619)

[The complete works in Verse and Prose of Samuel Daniel] vol II The Civile Wars of England between the two houses of Lancaster and Yorke.

Having read and enjoyed Daniel's Delia; a sonnet cycle in typical Elizabethan love poetry format I turned to The Civil Wars an epic poem whose first four books were published in 1595. The poem is indeed epic, whose final version was published in 1609 when it was expanded to eight books consisting of 875 stanzas written in ottava rima (eight line verses with a rhyming scheme). I read the 1885 reprint of the 1623 version, published for the Spenser society, which also contains alternative stanzas as Daniel updated his poem for each new reprint up until the final 1609 version. He never completed the poem stopping about half way through the events of the Wars of the Roses. It is a curious mixture of poetry and history and bears all the hallmarks of Daniels careful and thoughtful style. Historically accurate in accordance with the known facts at the time, it can be read as history or poetry and of course both. Where his poetical licence made the narrative less clear; Daniel included glosses (foot notes) in prose of the historical events.

In the final version there is a dedication to the 'Right Noble Lady, the Lady Maria, Countess Dowager of Pembroke' where Daniel explains a little of his working method, which is as follows:

"with a purpose to show the deformaties of civil dissention, and the miserable events of rebellions, conspiraces and bloody revengements, which followed the usurpation of King Henry IV and there to make the happiness of an established government, I trust that I shall do a grateful work to my country to continue the fame into the glorious union of Henry VII from whence is descended our present happiness."

It is a poem that without doubt contains an air of Tudor propaganda, but Daniel was not into the practice of altering known facts to suit this purpose. He claimed that he followed the history, without adding or subtracting from the general received opinion in the annals. (the referred to annals were John Stowe's Chronicles of England and Holinshed's chronicles). He went onto say however that he used poetical licence to frame (invent speeches) which men could have used when the occasion demanded; for example Henry V's speech to his army before Agincourt.

Stanza 3 of the first book is his dedication to the glory of Queen Elizabeth I

Yet now what reason have we to complain
since herby came the calm we did enjoy
The bliss of thee Eliza: happy gain
For all our loss: when as no other way
the heavens could find, to unite again
the fatal fevered families, that they
might bring forth thee, that in thy peace might grow
That glory, which few Times could ever show.

Another interesting note from the dedication is that Daniel seemingly apologises for his sometimes harsh treatment of one of the few females that feature in his poem. Queen Isabel was 14 when she came over from France as wife of Richard II. He says:

"And if I have erred from what is the draught of the young Queen Isabel in not suiting her passions to her years, I must crave favour of my credulous readers, to excuse me of this point."

Book one starts with a potted history of the kings and Queens of England since the Norman Conquest. The meat of the story starts with the exile of Bolingbroke (future king Henry IV) and his return to England with a band of armed followers to claim back his lands that Richard II had sequestered in his absence. The Wars of the Roses started in earnest at this point, because Bolingbroke was from the House of Lancaster and he arrived back in England to forcibly take back his lands while Richard was fighting in Ireland. It has always been unclear as to Bolingbroke's motives apart from winning back his lands, but his small army attracted many followers as they moved through middle England: an example of Samuel Daniel's poetic licence is a prolonged metaphor likening it to the river Thames:

And look how Thames, inriched with many a flood
And goodly rivers (that have made their graves
And buried both their names and all their good
Within his greatness, to augment the waves)
Glides on, with pomp of waters unwithstood
Unto the Ocean (which his tribute craves)
And lays up all his wealth, within that power
Which in itself all greatness doth devour.

Samuel Daniel is ambiguous towards Bolingbroke, blaming him for usurping the crown and starting the warfare, but then admitting that he provided strong leadership and produced an heir (Henry V), who had he lived longer, might have provided more stability. He softens his tone towards him as the fighting becomes more ferocious as the wars proceed. Daniel's poem is not all history; he questions the motives of the individuals, he is appalled at the descent into barbarism, he comments on the human condition, but the central theme is the need for a strong monarchy to shore up England's place in the world.

There are a lot of stanzas and it is useful to have an outline of the Wars of the Roses fixed in your mind to enable you to follow the narrative. Today one would not choose this book as a history of the wars and so the value of it, is as an epic poem. It is as a poem that makes the Civil Wars worth reading. It was a popular book and something of a life's work for Daniel; there were many reprints, some of which contained amendments by the poet. It would be an interesting poem on which to carry out more detailed study, but I am going to pass on this and move along to the next book that catches my attention. I enjoyed my read through and it rekindled an interest in the history of the wars of the roses. 4 stars.… (meer)

The critical view of the Delia sonnet sequence is that it is beautiful but mediocre, well written but limited in scope. A masterpiece of phrasing and melody, but which offers no ideas, no psychology and no story. Perhaps it could be summed up as a sequence that will appeal to poets and lovers of form, but may leave the general reader a little cold. This would be a pity because two themes emerge which are treated at length: a sustained elegiac lament on the passing of youth (and beauty) and a declaration of faith in the survival of the poets vision. These are not new themes for the Elizabethan sonneteers and some may feel they are too dominant in a sequence that is meant to be about love, although to be fair courtly love.

There are fifty sonnets in the Delia sequence and twenty eight of them were published in 1591 at the conclusion of Sir Philip Sidney's Astrophel and Stella. In the following year he had printed the remaining twenty two with revisions to the earlier twenty eight. He continued to refine the sonnets for versions printed in 1594 and 1601 and so he was a precursor to William Wordsworth who famously brought out later more refined versions of his Prelude. Like Wordsworth Daniel could be accused of tinkering with the originals to no great effect other than to reduce still further any of the passion in the original. I read the 1592 versions before a more mature Daniel had made his revisions: as though he was trying to banish all thoughts of lusty youthfulness. The sonnets have a regular rhyming scheme and end with a rhyming couplet in which the final line comments or or makes sense of the preceding 13 lines.

Throughout the poem we learn nothing much about Delia only that she continues to look on the poet with disdain and never gives a hint that she welcomes his attentions. In fact so little happens that Delia may well have been completely unaware of the poets love for her. Delia is an anagram of Ideal and she may have only existed in the poets imagination. Here is an example and one of my favourites from the sequence (if only for the first four lines):

Sonnet XLV.
Care-charmer sleepe, sonne of the Sable night,
Brother to death, in silent darknes borne:
Relieue my languish, and restore the light,
With darke forgetting of my cares returne
And let the day be time enough to morne,
The shipwrack of my ill-aduentred youth:
Let vvaking eyes suffice to vvayle theyr scorne,
Without the torment of the nights vntruth.
Cease dreames, th'ymagery of our day desires,
To modell foorth the passions of the morrow:
Neuer let rysing Sunne approue you lyers,
To adde more griefe to aggrauat my sorrow.
Still let me sleepe, imbracing clovvdes in vaine;
And neuer vvake, to feele the dayes disdayne.

Sonnet XXXV shows his debt to Petrarch:

Sonnet XXXV.
Thou canst not dye whilst any zeale abounde
In feeling harts, that can conceiue these lines:
Though thou a Laura hast no Petrarch founde,
In base attire, yet cleerely Beautie shines.
And I, though borne in a colder clime,
Doe feele mine inward heate as great, I knowe it:
He neuer had more faith, although more rime,
I loue as well, though he could better shew it.
But I may ad one feather to thy fame,
To helpe her flight throughout the fairest Ile:
And if my penne could more enlarge thy name,
Then shouldst thou liue in an immortall stile.
But though that Laura better limned bee,
Suffice, thou shalt be lou'd as well as shee.

The Complaint of Rosamond is a poem of 742 lines divided into seven line stanzas with a regular rhyming scheme of ABABBCC and it tells the story of Rosamond who appears as a ghost to tell the poet of her complaint. She was a beautiful virtuous young woman who came to be noticed by King Henry II of France. She finally gave into his advances and he built a Palace for her which could only be entered by a complicated maze. She is now alone with her entourage of female assistants and regrets that nobody else is witness to her beauty. Henry's Queen discovers a way into the maze and forces Rosamond to drink poison. Henry discovers her body and is bereft.

Much can be made of the allegory and classical allusions in the poem, but it can be enjoyed as a straight forward moral tale. It is full of passion and feeling, almost melodrama which makes it an interesting companion to Delia. Daniel does not miss an opportunity to compare the actions of Rosamond with the chaste Delia of his earlier poem. Time passing and the destruction of beauty is again a theme explored:

What greater torment euer could haue beene,
Then to inforce the fayre to liue retired?
For what is Beautie if it be not seene,
Or what is't to be seene vnlesse admired?
And though admyred, vnlesse in loue desired?
Neuer were cheekes of Roses, locks of Amber,
Ordayn'd to liue imprisond in a Chamber.

Daniel's choice of words and phrases flow beautifully in a poem that can be read pleasurably today. It was good to read these poems one after another and while my reactions to Delia were a little cool, after reading Rosamond I went back to Delia and discovered much to like. 4 stars.… (meer)