The Poems of Sidney Godolphin, ed. William Dighton, with a Preface by John Drinkwater; Clarendon Press, 1931
Part of the Introduction transcribed from a copy in the British Library. One or two additional paragraph breaks have been inserted in the interest of screen readability. Footnotes in the source book are given page by page, numbered from 1 up on each page. In this transcription, the footnotes have been moved to follow, in each case, the paragraph to which they refer; and they are renumbered consecutively from [1] to [21] throughout the document.
[ Introduction by William Dighton ]
SIDNEY GODOLPHIN was the second son of Sir William Godolphin of Godolphin, a manor-house near Helston in Cornwall, where the family had long been prominent. The poet's grandfather, Sir Francis, who was knighted in 1580, gained some distinction for his defence of Penzance against the Spanish in 1595. His wife was Margaret, daughter of John Killigrew, of Arwennack, Cornwall, by whom he had three sons, the eldest being Sir William, the father of Sidney Godolphin the poet.
Sir William in turn had three sons: Sir Francis, Sidney, and William, and one daughter Penelope [*Note 1]. William and Sidney were never married, but Sir Francis married Dorothy Berkeley, second daughter of Sir Henry Berkeley of Yarlington, and had five children, the eldest of whom was Sir William Godolphin, and the third son was Sidney Godolphin, afterwards Lord High Treasurer and first Earl of Godolphin [*Note 2]. Because of his greater prominence some of the verse of his uncle, Sidney the poet, has been attributed occasionally to him. The fourth of Sir Francis's sons was Henry, Dean of St. Paul's and Provost of Eton.
The poet's mother was Thomasine Sidney, a daughter of Thomas Sidney, of Wrighton, Norfolk, and from her he received his Christian name. The exact date of his birth is unknown, but he was born at Godolphin Hall, and on the 15th of January 1610 he was baptized at Breage, Cornwall.
His mother died when he was only two years old. She was buried at Tavistock, Devon, the 24th of April 1612. In 1613 his father died; so at the age of three Godolphin was left an orphan. In the will of his father (signed the 2nd of September 1613, and proved the 4th of December of the same year) all the property in Norfolk which his mother had inherited from her father is left to Sidney Godolphin, and his uncle Francis Godolphin is appointed executor of the estate until his brother Francis shall have reached the age of twenty-one, when he shall be the executor during Sidney's minority [*Note 3]. During the minority of Francis the whole of the estate is left in charge of his uncle Francis, who is instructed to see that the children are properly cared for and educated.
As a boy Sidney did not attend either Winchester, Westminster, or Eton -- which in the next generation became the family school, and of which his nephew, Henry, became provost; so he was probably educated at home. No definite fact appears to be discoverable concerning his life before his matriculation, together with his elder brother, Sir Francis, at Exeter College, Oxford, on the 25th of June 1624 [*Note 4]. But both he and his brother contributed to the collection Carolus Redux, printed by the Oxford University Press in 1623 in honour of the return of Prince Charles from Spain the 5th of October of the same year. Sidney wrote a Latin chronogram and two lines. He may, therefore, have spent some time in Oxford before he matriculated at Exeter. Because of the prominence of his family, no doubt some contribution was solicited from him, as it impossible to believe that he could have had any reputation other than that of his family name at the age of thirteen. For the same reason, his name appears among the contributors to the Camdeni Insignia printed in memory of William Camden, the historian and antiquary, by the University Press in 1624. On the 26th of July 1624 he was admitted as a reader to the Bodleian Library.
In 1627 he left Oxford without a degree [*Note 5]. Wood in the Athenae Oxonienses (London, 1721, vol.ii, p.23) states without reference, as does the Dictionary of National Biography, that he then entered one of the Inns of Court, but there is no mention of his name in the records of any of the four Inns [*Note 6]. He may have resided near the Temple after leaving Oxford, and have had acquaintances and friends who were members. But the period from 1628 to 1642 is important in that it was then that he became acquainted with Clarendon and Falkland and Hobbes -- men who were later to give him almost more immortality than his poetry. There is no reason to suppose that Godolphin did not know all of the men mentioned in Suckling's A Sessions of the Poets. His contribution to Jonsonus Virbius and the mention of his name in Falkland's Eclogue on Ben Jonson are sufficient evidence that he must also have known Jonson, and we can be sure that Godolphin was one of the `tribe of Ben'.
He was elected a member of Parliament for Helston the 6th of March 1628 [*Note 7]. Clarendon states in his Life (Oxford, 1759, p.24) that `he had spent some years in France and in the low countries, and accompanied the Earl of Leicester in his ambassage into Denmark, before he resolved to be quiet and attend some promotion in the Court'. The embassy into Denmark here referred to was that led by his kinsman [*Note 8], Robert Sidney, second Earl of Leicester by a new creation in 1618, to Christian IV of Denmark and the Duke of Holstein, from September to November 1632.
The 28th March 1640 again finds him a member of Parliament for Helston, and again he was elected a member of the Long Parliament in October 1640 [*Note 9]. Throughout his parliamentary career he was a staunch Royalist and adherent of Strafford. The only record of any speech, however, which he delivered in Parliament is to be found in Somers Tracts (London, 1811, vol.vi, p.574), in which there is the following account:
When the opposition to the warrants of Parliament had grown to a great height, the King ordered those in opposition to withdraw. One of the last to leave the House of Commons was Sidney Godolphin who for a farewell declared, `that by a war Pariliament would expose itself to unknown dangers; for when the cards are once shuffled no man knows what the game will be'. [*Note 10]
At the outbreak of the war he joined the King's forces under Sir Ralph Hopton. The first record of Sidney Godolphin in Hopton's narrative [*Note 11] tells of his joining the forces at Sherborne. Because of the desertion of large numbers of men at Wells on the 6th of August, the army under the command of Sir Ralph Hopton had retreated to Sherborne, where preparations were made to withstand a siege. `And thither came to him Sir Thomas Lunsford with more of his officers, and Sir John Berkley, Col. Ashburnham, Col. Lawdy, Mr Henry Killegrew, and Mr Sidney Godolphin, and divers other good officers.' After a slight skirmish and disappointment in the arrival of reinforcements, together with the capture of Portsmouth by the Parliamentarians, the council of war on the 20th of September decided to retreat from Sherborne.
The army then marched by Bradford and Stogumber to Minehead. On hearing that the Earl of Bedford was advancing to attack,
The Lo: Marquesse [*Note 12] with all the Voluntiers, the foote, the baggage, and the drakes, tooke passage for Wales, leaving the horse and the dragoones under the command of Sir Ralph Hopton, accompayned with Sir Jo: Berkley . . . Mr Sidney Godolphin, . . . and some other officers. They marcht immediately towards Cornwall by the North of Devonshire.
Godolphin accompanied Hopton into Cornwall and was with him at Launceston. He is mentioned again as being with Hopton when the Royalist army entered Saltash in January 1643. But he never had any definite command.
The Lo: Mohun and Sir Ralph Hopton . . . accompayned with Sir Wm. Courtney Mr. Henr. Killigrew and Mr Sidney Godolphin, who, though they had noe particular commands yett gave very great assistance being all of the Councell of warr, and very ready with their persons in all occasions, with this strength they advanc'd upon General Ruthen at Saltash.
After the capture of Saltash the army divided, one part quartering at Plymouth, and the other at Plympton. Godolphin went with the army under the command of Sir John Berkeley to Plympton. At Kingsbridhe Sir John was successful in a skirmish, and `took divers good prisoners'. But at Okehampton, the enemy
dispersed themselves upon the noyse of his coming, and drew together againe at Chagford whither Sir Jo: Berkeley advancing from Okehampton accompayned with Sir Fran: Hawley, Mr Tho: Bassett, and Mr Sidney Godolphin fayl'd of his wonted successe, being ingaged upon the Towne too suddenly before day, and before all his dragoones were come to him . . . and there they lost likewise a Gentleman never to bee forgotten Mr Sidney Godolphin, of whom may bee sayd in briefe, that hee was as perfect, and as absolute peice of vertue as ever our Nation bredd.
Of his importance in the councils of war there can be no doubt. There is a letter [*Note 13] dated Moylsboroughe [*Note 14] the 11th of October 1642 from the Sheriff of Cornwall and others to the Deputy Lieutenants of Devon which urges the trained bands of Devon to remain within their own county and not to invade Cornwall. It is signed by sixteen leading Royalists in Cornwall, and one of the signatures is that of Sidney Godolphin. Another letter, dated Launceston, 14 October 1642, from the Commissioners of Array for Cornwall to Sir George Chudleigh in Devon, urges the committee of Devon to disband any troops raised, and protests that those in arms in Cornwall have the King's commission to be so. Godolphin's name is here again one of the fifteen of those attached to the letter.
Clarendon in the History of the Rebellion (Oxford, 1704, vol.ii, p.103) confirms the fact that Godolphin's opinion was valued by the commanders, and also gives an account of his death.
In those necessary and brisk expeditions in falling upon Chagford (a little town in the South of Devon) before day, the King lost Sidney Godolphin, a young Gentleman of incomparable parts; who, being of a constitution and education more delicate, and unacquainted with contentions, upon his observation of the wickedness of those Men in the House of Commons, of which he was a Member, out of the pure indignation of his Soul against them, and conscience to his Country, had with the first, engaged himself with that Party in the West: and though he thought not fit to take Command in a Profession he had not willingly chosen, yet as his advice was of great Authority with all the Commanders, being allways one in the Council of War, and whose notable abilities they had still use of in their Civil Transactions, so he exposed his Person to all Action, Travel, and Hazard; and by too forward engaging himself in this last, receiv'd a mortal shot by a Musquet, a little above the knee, of which he died in the instant; leaving the misfortune of his death upon a place which could never otherwise have had a mention to the world.' [*Note 15]
There is another account of his death left by Clarendon in his own Life (Oxford, 1759, p.24).
Yet the Civil War no sooner began (the first Approaches towards which He discovered as soon as any Man, by the Proceedings in Parliament, where He was a Member, and opposed with great Indignation) than He put himself into the first Troops which were raised in the West for the King; and bore the Uneasiness and Fatigue of Winter Marches, with an exemplar Courage and Alacrity; until by too brave a Pursuit of the Enemy, into an obscure Village in Devonshire, He was shot with a Musket; with which (without saying any Word more, than, Oh God, I am hurt) He fell dead from his Horse; to the excessive Grief of his Friends, who were all that knew him; and the irreparable Damage of the Public. [*Note 16]
He fell at Chagford in the early morning of the 9th of February 1643, and was buried in Okehampton church on the following day. In the church there is no memorial to him, nor is there a tomb, as the church was burned in 1842, and of the old building nothing remains. There is a record in Okehampton of a tablet which existed in the old church to Thomasine Godolphin, wife of Thomas Peter, and a bas-relief in brass representing a mother and three children, with the inscription: `Here under lyeth Thomasin Godolphin wife of Thomas Peter gent. who died the 9th of September 1608'. She was the daughter of Thomas Godolphin, and sister of Sir Francis Godolphin, the poet's grandfather, who mentions her in his will. Doubtless it was because of this family connexion that he was buried in Okehampton church, eleven miles from the scene of his death. The Royalist forces had retired rapidly on Okehampton after the failure at Chagford, and had brought his body with them.
In Chagford a tradition exists that Godolphin was killed in the porch of an old Tudor building, now used as a hotel, in contradiction to Clarendon's statement that he was killed on horseback. But it is possible that he was carried to the building after he had been shot, so that both accounts are perhaps true.
In his will signed the 23rd June 1642 there is the following statement: `the estate descended to me by my father Sir William Godolphin in Norfolk, I give intire to my deare brother Mr. Francis Godolphin, as also all that interest I have in the Islands of Scilly from the gift of my deare Brother Mr. William Godolphin; and I make by Brother Mr. Francis Godolphin my whole executor.' His brother William died in 1636, and willed the lease of the Scilly islands [*Note 17] to Sidney, rather than to his elder brother, Francis. His father, however, had provided for the lease to go to Francis. `I give unto my third sonne William Godolphin, the remainder of whatever there shall be of my lease of the Issues of the Isles of Scilly, ... if he shall happen to die before that [the age of twenty-one], then the remainder of the said terme shall come and be unto my eldest sonne and heir.'
It is interesting to note that Clarendon knew of the property which came to him from his younger brother William, for he says (Life, 1759, p.24):
Sidney Godolphin was a younger Brother of Godolphin, but by the Provision left by his Father, and by the Death of a younger Brother, liberally supplyed for a very good Education, and for a chearful subsistence in any Course of Life He proposed to himself.
Sidney also leaves in his will `two hundred pounds to my worthy friend Mr Thomas Hobbs', fifty pounds to a servant Thomas Bone, to his nurse what charity his brother may think fit, and `to my deare Cosen Mrs Jane Berkeley, a thousand pounds'. He further adds, `I desire my brother to pay her out of the forenamed estate with what conveniency he can'. Concerning his cousin Jane Berkeley, there is a note in Aubrey's Brief Lives (Clark's edition, Oxford, 1898, vol.1, p.98) that `Mris ... Barkley, sister of the late Lord Fitz-Harding [*Note 18], was cosen german to Mr Sydney Godolphin, and also his mistresse. He loved her exceedingly. After Mr. Godolphin's death she married one Mr. Davys, who I thinke is now dead, and she lives at Twicknam -- from Philip Packer, esq.' That he did hold her in special esteem seems likely, in that no other member of his family (except, of course, his brother) is mentioned in the will, and Aubrey's account may very well be true. To her may be addressed some of his love poems. At least there is no other record of a woman with whom he might have been in love.
For a conception of his character it is necessary to turn to those accounts of him left by his friends. It was not as a fighter that Godolphin was best known to them. Indeed, his nature was so pacific that one feels occasionally that Clarendon lays stress on Godolphin's activity so that the picture of his character may not be too quiet. It is rather the man in private life before the outbreak of the war than the soldier in Hopton's forces that we are likely to remember.
The portrait of Godolphin left by Clarendon is one of the most remarkable of all of Clarendon's character sketches (Life, Oxford, 1759, p.24). Not often is the picture as vivid as it is here; to Clarendon we are indebted for a knowledge of Godolphon as a man which is both clear and precise.
There was never so great a Mind and Spirit contained in so little Room; so large an Understanding, and so unrestrained a Fancy, in so very small a Body; so that the Lord Falkland used to say merrily, that He thought it was a great Ingredient into his friendship for Mr. Godolphin, that He was pleased to be found in his Company, where He was the properer Man; and it may be, the very Remarkableness of his little Person, made the Sharpness of his Wit, and the composed Quickness of his Judgment and Understanding, the more notable . . .Though every Body loved his Company very well, yet He loved very much to be alone, being in his Constitution inclined somewhat to Melancholy, and to Retirement amongst his Books; and was so far from being active, that He was contented to be reproached by his Friends with Laziness; and was of so nice and tender a Composition, that a little Rain or Wind would disorder him, and divert him from any short Journey, He had most willingly proposed to himself; insomuch, as when He rid abroad with those in whose Company He most delighted, if the Wind chanced to be in his Face, he would (after a little pleasant murmuring) suddenly turn his Horse, and go Home.
Thomas Hobbes in his dedication of the Leviathan, and also in the `Review and Conclusion', mentions Godolphin in eulogistic terms. The Leviathan is dedicated to Francis Godolphin of Godolphin, Sidney's elder brother, but a great part of the dedication is in praise of Sidney:
Honor'd Sir, -- Your most worthy Brother Mr. Sidney Godolphin, when he lived, was pleas'd to think my studies something, and otherwise to oblige me, as you know, with reall testimonies of his good opinion, great in themselves, and the greater for the worthinesse of his person. For there is not any vertue that disposeth a man, either to the service of God, or to the service of his Country, to Civill Society, or private Friendship, that did not manifestly appear in his conversation, not as acquired by necessity, or affected upon occasion, but inhaerent, and shining in a generous constitution of his nature.
Again, in the `Review and Conclusion' of the Leviathan, Hobbes returns to the virtues of his honoured friend:
`I have known' says Hobbes, `cleerness of Judgment, and largeness of of Fancy; strength of Reason, and graceful Elocution; a Courage for the War, and a Fear for the Laws, and all eminently in one Man; and that was my most noble and honoured friend Mr. Sidney Godolphin; who hating no man, nor hated of any, was unfortunately slain in the beginning of the late Civil war, in the publick quarrel, by an undiscerned, and an undiscerning hand.'
Godolphin left Hobbes in his will a legacy of two hundred pounds. Clarendon says that he sent word to Hobbes, who was then in Paris, of Godolphin's death and the legacy. `This information was the ground of the Dedication of this Book [the Leviathan]) to him [*Note 19], whom Mr Hobbes had never seen.' [*Note 20]
Clarendon, however, did not altogether trust Hobbes's sincerity. [*Note 21]
And I would be very willing to preserve the just testimony which he gives to the memory of Sidney Godolphin, who deserved all the Eulogy that he gives him, and whose untimely loss in the beginning of the War, was too lively an instance of the inequality of the contention, when such inestimable Treasure was ventur'd against dirty people of no name, and whose irreparable loss was lamented by all men living who pretended to Virtue, how much divided soever in the prosecution of that quarrel. But I find myself temted to add, that of all men living, there were no two more unlike then Mr. Godolphin and Mr. Hobbes, in the modesty of nature, or integrity of manners; and therefore it will be too reasonably suspected, that the freshness of the Legacy rather put him in mind of that Noble Gentleman, to mention him in the fag-end of his Book very unproperly, and in a huddle of many unjustifiable and wicked particulars, when he had more seasonable occasion to have remembered him in many parts of his Book.
The Dedication is really addressed to Sidney, and although any dedicatory statement of praise must be considered as extravagant, the fact that Hobbes mentions Godolphin three times, twice in the Leviathan and once in his Life, proves that Hobbes, although older, did value his friendship. Clarendon and Hobbes agree upon at least one point -- Godolphin was a man of singular ability.
Clarendon does not mention Godolphin's poetry specifically, and two passages of verse, one from Suckling's Sessions of the Poets, and the other from Falkland's Eclogue on the death of Ben Jonson, are all the accounts which remain to give any exact idea of his contemporary reputation as a poet. In the Sessions of the Poets there is this stanza:
- During these troubles in the Court was hid
- One that Apollo soon mist, little Cid;
- And having spied him, call'd him out of the throng,
- And advis'd him in his ear not to write so strong.
It is impossible to tell in what esteem he was held by Suckling by the number of lines allotted to him, or to be sure, because `little Cid' fares better than some of the other wits, that Suckling held him in much esteem. Vaughan and Waller are only mentioned, and Ben Jonson himself receives the brunt of the satire.
Falkland, however, definitely tells us his opinion of Godolphin's ability in his Eclogue on Ben Jonson.
- Let Digby, Carew, Killigrew, and Maine,
- Godolphin, Waller, that inspired Traine,
- Or whose rare Pen beside deserves the grace,
- Or of an equall, or a neighbouring Place,
- Answer thy wish, for none so fit appeares
- To raise his Tombe, as who are left his Heires.
To be considered equally capable of verse-making as Carew and Waller is no mean praise, but when it is the judgement of a man whose bearing and taste were as celebrated during his time as those of any other person, it has double significance. Falkland is not writing either a satire or eulogy of the six men whom he considers the heirs of Jonson. He is not called upon to mention any of them.
Godolphin in his own verse tells us little of himself. That his conception of love was not that of a care-free Suckling or a satirical Carew is everywhere evident in such lines as these:
- Tis affection but dissembled
- or dissembled lyberty,
- to pretend thy passion changed
- with change of thy Mistresse Eye
- following her inconstancy:
- Hopes which doe from favour flourish
- may perhapps assoone expire
- as the cause which did them nourish
- and disdain'd they may retire,
- but Love is another fyre.
Or again in the Song, `To the tune of In fayth I cannot keep my fathers sheepe':
- Cloris, it is not thy disdaine
- Can ever cover with dispaire
- Or in cold ashes hide that care
- Which I have fedd with soe long paine,
- I may perhaps myne eyes refrain
- And fruiteless wordes noe more impart
- But yet still serve, still serve thee in my hearte
- What though I spend my hapless dayes,
- In finding entertainements out
- Carelesse of what I goe about,
- Or seeke my peace in skillfull wayes
- Applying to my eyes new rays
- of Beawty, And another flame
- Unto my Heart, my heart is still the same.
With the possible exception of the Song `Or love mee lesse, or love mee more', in all of Godolphin's verse concerning love there is greater seriousness and intensity than is common in the verse of the Cavaliers. But apart from a general impression of character, Godolphin does not help us to form any clear conception of his nature. There are three religious poems, but two are paraphrases of Psalms, and the Hymn does not show any great religious intensity. It is possible that he was sincere in the poem called `Chorus' when he asks:
- Doeth not our Chiefest Blisse then lie
- Betwixt thirst and satiety,
- In the mild way?
and that great religious enthusiasm was as distasteful to him as were uncontrolled gusts of love verse and `dissembled lyberty'.
Opinions of character are subject to variation and change in much the same way as are critical opinions of the worth of a man's work. It is possible that to-day we do not get from Clarendon (when his portrayal is combined with Godolphin's verse and will, and the one account of his activity in Parliament) the same conception of the man which Clarendon held or might wish us to hold. When he says `that there was never so great a mind and spirit contained in so little room; so large an understanding and so restrained a fancy, in so very small a body', we must accept it as an overstatement. And when Lloyd states in his Memoirs of the Lives and Actions of Those Noble and Excellent Persons that suffered for the Protestant Religion, `that Godolphin will live as long as Virgil whom he hath translated', we are apt to smile. Some of Hobbes's praise also must be discarded as extravagant.
But we may easily believe that he was a man who preferred a life of quiet and study to a life of affairs. His defence in Parliament, or at least all that exists of what may very likely have been a longer and more decided speech, is not the expression of a man likely to do anything in excess. It is rather the advice of one who is naturally cautious and conservative, of one who instinctively fears decisive action. Still, there must have been that in him which won respect from all men with whom he came in contact.
It is a fact worth mentioning that although three men of more than ordinary eminence, Clarendon, Falkland, and Hobbes, praise Godolphin for his intelligence and goodness of character, not one of them has anything derogatory to say of him. He possessed force and energy in spite of his small size. If he were retiring and gentle, his activity in the war is proof that once engaged upon a course of action, he did not shirk. Few men in his age had more illustrious friends than he, and none, perhaps, received more tribute from them.
There remains one more expression of devotion to record, Hobbes's `Epitaph' from his autobiography:
- Godolphinie jaces, purae rationis amator
- Justitiae et Pacis miles amande vale.
[ Part II of William Dighton's Introduction, consisting of an analysis of the manuscript sources of the poems printed in his edition, is not included here. ]
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(The Rejoice & Sing Enchiridion:edited by David Goodall; last amended 11/4/03)