Now! Then! One of the compensatory “northern poems” registered today by Dr John Favour, Vicar of Halifax, to celebrate the union under James of Scotland and England a year ago

14 May 1604: One of the compensatory “northern poems” registered today by Dr John Favour, Vicar of Halifax, to celebrate the union under James of Scotland and England a year ago

Anon. 1604. Northerne Poems Congratulating the Kings Majesties Most Happy and Peaceable Entrance to the Crowne of England. London: John Windet for Edmund Weaver. Get it:

Excerpt

England seems fertile only in the South,
These north parts yield but few things that are good:
The learnèd schools have filled their flowing mouth
With James his praise, in verse and pleasant mood,
Unlearned with learned have sundry poems wrote,
From North’s cold clime the muses have sent nought.

This grieved my thoughts, with sighs I called at last,
Upstart a rural muse and brake the ice
With these unpolished verses made in haste
And send to thee, O King, her weak device
Pardon to me the bringer of her letter,
Vouchsafe, the muse delivered me no better.

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

Abbreviations

Comment

T.W. Hanson clearly established Favour’s authorship in 1946 (Hanson 1946). Here’s the Stationers’ Register entry.

The final verse makes a clearer case for unity. Dickens, though he cites Hanson, has got more of it, so presumably saw Northerne Poems:

Old Albion is but one by nature’s lore
Environed round with the vast ocean shore.
To make it two, nature denies it bounds,
It is united fast by solid grounds.
The peoples’ manners do resemble each,
There is small difference in their mother speech.
As for religion it hath professed but one,
One God, one truth, one faith in Christ alone.
(Dickens 1963)

The collection was probably written, not in 1603, but in the year of Northerne Poems‘ appearance, 1604, in response to southern excess:

On 5 April, James left Edinburgh for London, promising to return every three years (a promise that he did not keep), and progressed slowly southwards. Local lords received him with lavish hospitality along the route and James was amazed by the wealth of his new land and subjects, claiming that he was “swapping a stony couch for a deep feather bed”. James arrived in the capital on 7 May, nine days after Elizabeth’s funeral.[84][86] His new subjects flocked to see him, relieved that the succession had triggered neither unrest nor invasion.[87] On arrival at London, he was mobbed by a crowd of spectators.[88]

James’s English coronation took place on 25 July at Westminster Abbey. An outbreak of plague restricted festivities. The Royal Entry to London with elaborate allegories provided by dramatic poets such as Thomas Dekker and Ben Jonson was deferred to 15 March 1604.[89] Dekker wrote that “the streets seemed to be paved with men; stalls instead of rich wares were set out with children; open casements filled up with women”.[90]

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Original

England seemes fertile onely in the South,
These North parts yeelde but few things that are good:
The learned Schools haue filde their flowing mouth
With James his prayse, in verse and pleasant moode,
Vnlearned with learnd haue sundry poems wrote,
From Norths cold clime the muses haue sent nought.

This grieude my thoughts, with sighs I cald at last,
Vpstart a rurall Muse and brake the ice
With these vnpolisht verses made in hast
And send to thee (O King) her weake deuise
Pardon to me the tringer of her letter,
Vouchsafe, the Muse deliuered me no better.

113 words.