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Today 23 April is the presumed birthday of a man from Stratford
whose name was attached to a splendid body of work, apparently by
Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford.<br>
<br>
The place to start this Easter weekend may be 'Shakespeare's'
eulogy, "The Phoenix and the Turtle," written in memory of the
Catholic martyr Anne Line (and her husband), executed at Tyburn in
1601. The poem is an allegorical Catholic requiem; the "bird of
loudest lay" may be the composer William Byrd (Oxford's protege),
and the crow, Fr. Henry Garnet. (See <i>TLS</i> 18 April 2003,
12-14.) Sancta Anne Line ora pro nobis.<br>
<br>
<b> The Phoenix And The Turtle<br>
</b> by William Shakespeare <br>
<br>
Let the bird of loudest lay,<br>
On the sole Arabian tree,<br>
Herald sad and trumpet be,<br>
To whose sound chaste wings obey.<br>
<br>
But thou, shrieking harbinger,<br>
Foul pre-currer of the fiend,<br>
Augur of the fever's end,<br>
To this troop come thou not near.<br>
<br>
From this session interdict<br>
Every fowl of tyrant wing,<br>
Save the eagle, feather'd king:<br>
Keep the obsequy so strict.<br>
<br>
Let the priest in surplice white,<br>
That defunctive music can,<br>
Be the death-defying swan,<br>
Lest the requiem lack his right.<br>
<br>
And thou, treble-dated crow,<br>
That thy sable gender mak'st<br>
With the breath thou giv'st and tak'st,<br>
'Mongst our mourners shalt thou go.<br>
<br>
Here the anthem doth commence:<br>
Love and constancy is dead;<br>
Phoenix and the turtle fled<br>
In a mutual flame from hence.<br>
<br>
So they lov'd, as love in twain<br>
Had the essence but in one;<br>
Two distincts, division none:<br>
Number there in love was slain.<br>
<br>
Hearts remote, yet not asunder;<br>
Distance, and no space was seen<br>
'Twixt the turtle and his queen;<br>
But in them it were a wonder.<br>
<br>
So between them love did shine,<br>
That the turtle saw his right<br>
Flaming in the phoenix' sight:<br>
Either was the other's mine.<br>
<br>
Property was thus appall'd,<br>
That the self was not the same;<br>
Single nature's double name<br>
Neither two nor one was call'd.<br>
<br>
Reason, in itself confounded,<br>
Saw division grow together;<br>
To themselves yet either-neither,<br>
Simple were so well compounded.<br>
<br>
That it cried how true a twain<br>
Seemeth this concordant one!<br>
Love hath reason, reason none<br>
If what parts can so remain.<br>
<br>
Whereupon it made this threne<br>
To the phoenix and the dove,<br>
Co-supreme and stars of love;<br>
As chorus to their tragic scene.<br>
<br>
<br>
THRENOS.<br>
<br>
Beauty, truth, and rarity.<br>
Grace in all simplicity,<br>
Here enclos'd in cinders lie.<br>
<br>
Death is now the phoenix' nest;<br>
And the turtle's loyal breast<br>
To eternity doth rest,<br>
<br>
Leaving no posterity:—<br>
'Twas not their infirmity,<br>
It was married chastity.<br>
<br>
Truth may seem, but cannot be:<br>
Beauty brag, but 'tis not she;<br>
Truth and beauty buried be.<br>
<br>
To this urn let those repair<br>
That are either true or fair;<br>
For these dead birds sigh a prayer.<br>
<br>
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