Dressed in the glorious madness of a Muse, Whose feet can walk the Milky-way, and choose TO THE MORNING. Introduction. I. BIOGRAPHICAL. RICHARD CRASHAW was the son of the Reverend William Crashaw, B.D., by his first wife, and was born in London, 1612-13. The precise date of his birth it is impossible to ascertain, and the known facts of his life are few. He was admitted to the University of Cambridge at the age of eighteen, that is, about the year 1630, and elected a scholar of Pembroke Hall, so his biographer Willmott informs us, March 26, 1632. He took the degree B.A., in 1634, the same year publishing his first volume, a collection of Latin Epigrams, and other poems, which was inscribed to Benjamin Laney, the 'Master of Pembroke Hall. A studious, poetical, and religious life he led at the University, and spent several hours a day in the quietude of St. Mary's Church. the Temple of God, under His wing, he led his life, in St. Mary's Church, near St. Peter's College: there he lodged under Tertullian's roof of angels; there he made his nest more gladly than David's swallow near the house of God, where, like a primitive saint, he offered more prayers in the night than others usually offer in the day." (Preface to Steps to the Temple, 1646.) "In In November, 1636, he passed to Peterhouse, of which he was made a Fellow in 1637, and Master of Arts in 1638, with a view of entering Holy Orders. He soon became a powerful preacher, his high and rich qualities, and his enthusiasm, abundantly evident in all his writings, rendering him an effective and popular religious teacher. But troublous days were fast approaching. The year 1644 saw the University of Cambridge converted into a garrison for the Parliament. Many members refused to subscribe to the Covenant, our Poet amongst the number, the result being that he was ejected from his Fellowship. His University friends included William Herrys, whose early death he mourned in several Epitaphs; Robert Brook, also the subject of an Epitaph; Robert Shelford; James Staninough, upon whose death he wrote an elegy; and Beaumont, the author of the now well-nigh forgotten poem, Psyche, and Abraham Cowley, the Poet. John Selden, of Table-talk fame, and the Countess of Denbigh were also of his acquaintance. Crashaw soon after his ejection seceded from the Protestant Church and retired to France. His friend Cowley, who was in the French capital in 1646, as secretary to Lord Jermyn, found him in great poverty at that time. The Queen of Charles the first was then an exile in Paris, and it is said that Cowley, or Dr. Gough and Mr. Car, introduced our Poet to the Queen, from whom he received letters of recommendation to Italy, where he became secretary at Rome to Cardinal Palotta. He probably remained in Rome until 1650, when, having |