Yorkshire Almanac Depressed by chronic illness, Edward Burlend of Barwick-in-Elmet addresses a sleeping infant

18 May 1836: Depressed by chronic illness, Edward Burlend of Barwick-in-Elmet addresses a sleeping infant

Edward Burlend. 1858. Village Rhymes, 1st Ed. Leeds: David Green. Can anyone lend me the embiggened edition issued in 1868 or 1869, which contains his poem about Barwick-in-Elmet? Get it:

Unedited excerpt

If an excerpt is used in the book, it will be shorter, edited and, where applicable, translated.

TO AN INFANT SLEEPING.

Written under a depression of spirits, the result of frequent attacks of illness, May 18, 1836.

LOVELY creature, thou’rt a stranger
To the cares that mar the breast;
Free from grief and guilt and danger,
Little infant, take thy rest.

Thou hast now the world before thee,
‘Tis a tiresome world, I trow;
Little know’st thou what hangs o’er thee,
Ah! ’tis well thou dost not know.

If, as some have said, thy slumbers*
Show the path ’tis ours to tread,
‘Tis in sweet and holy numbers,
Such as charm the pious dead.

* Referring to a popular superstition–that infants dream of every thing that will happen to them.

‘Tis on Eden’s grove they ponder
Ere the two-edged sword was drawn;
Bliss and mortals torn asunder,
Woe’s dark day had seen its dawn.

Else the path of mercy leading
Back to Eden – back to God:
Not the path that I am treading,
Not the path that I have trod.

If at all in slumbers dreaming,
Thou hast found a pleasing theme;
‘Tis beyond thy life-spark’s gleaming,
Life was ne’er a laughing dream.

But methinks ’tis not a vision
Thus becalms and lulls thy brain;
‘Tis a balmy, sweet fruition,
I must never taste again.

Cares have racked my heart, and borne it
From the sphere in which it grew;
Projects foiled have rudely torn it,
Tinged with many a sickly hue.

Health’s a blessing, but she never
Casts a kindly glance at me:
When we parted, ’twas for ever
Doomed to dire hostility.

Evening spreads her sober covering
O’er the weary and the blest,
Round my head her dark shades hovering,
Come, but not to bring me rest.

Slumbering infant, I’ll not wake thee,
I will not thy bliss impair;
Soon, too soon, it will forsake thee,
Thus to lull thee, soon forbear.

Oh how lovely are the dozes
First that light on life begun!
Sweeter than a bed of roses
Smiling at the morning sun.

Calm as is the breast of ocean
Kissed by breezes warm and young,
Kindling soft refined emotion,
Suiting well the plaintive song.

Would I were, like Proteus, able
To transform my restless clay,
Once I’d use the power of fable,
Then I’d cast that power away.

Then I’d be a slumbering baby,
Never more to wake again;
Ever sleeping, ever happy –
Sleep’s a good exchange for pain.

Yet it will be – yes, it must be,
On my eyes a sleep shall fall,
And my flesh restored to dust be –
Death’s a sleep that lights on all.

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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.

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23 January 1640: Andrew Marvell’s father drowns in the Humber at Hull

11 July 1787: Advertisement for The Commercial and Mathematical Academy, Hull

18 February 1889: An effigy of Jack Nelson, wife-beater, is paraded with rough music through Hedon (Holderness) by a furious crowd

30 July 1820: Primitive Methodists try to disrupt the traditional Maudlin Fair football match between Hedon and Preston (Holderness)

30 May 1835: Alfred Austin, future poet laureate, “Banjo-Byron that twangs the strum-strum,” is born into rural splendour at Ashwood, 48 Headingley Lane, Leeds

3 August 1846: Aged one month, Frances Jane Campbell becomes the latest Leeds victim of the opiate epidemic

25 September 1880: Thomas Harper reveals to the Leeds Mercury’s young readers a mnemonic song of monarchs (except Oliver) used in the village school at Weldrake (York) in the 1770s

20 June 1881: John Tutin of Hull visits Hart-leap Well, the subject of Wordsworth’s anti-hunting poem

30 May 1415: A native God creates, in the York Mystery Plays, the first Yorkshireman and -woman

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Of all the entries in this almanac, this is the most arbitrary. Peter Meredith, via Margaret Rogerson (Playing a Part in History: The York Mysteries 2009):

There are five key dates that establish our understanding of the functioning of the Play: 1377, 3 the first record of any kind; 1399, the first list of the stations* (the places in the city streets at which the Play was performed); 1415, the first clear statement of its scope and structure; 1433, the date of the Mercers’ indenture that illuminates the nature of the pageant wagon; and 1463-77, the writing of the Register that provides us with almost the complete text of the Play. Perhaps one should add to those 1569, the date of the last performance (Meredith 2000).

But I have no idea whether this text was created or reached this form before or after 1415, though my negligible knowledge of the historical linguistics suggests 15th century York dialect (hence “native God”), exhibiting features from both further south and north. However, if you are prepared to join me in self-deception, then we do know that Easter was 31 March in Julian 1415, and Corpus was thus 30 May.

“Course”/”courses” is ugly, but Canon Purvis’s translation of the first quatrain gets the job done:

In heaven and earth the course is seen
Of five days’ work even unto the end,
I have completed by courses clean;
Methinks the space of them well spent.
(Purvis 1957)

My mistranslation of “fere” is a tribute to Les Dawson:

Les Dawson might have disagreed with the great Canon Purvis' translation of "fere" in his popular version of the York Mystery Plays. ("I discovered the wife's got asthma. Thank God – I thought she was hissing at me.") pic.twitter.com/Zrac5r4Oua

— Leeds' Singing Organ-Grinder (@elorganillero) May 19, 2024

For all the lack of proper dating, I am glad this entry has ended my flirtation with Archbishop’s dating of the creation of Adam Eve to Friday 28 October 4004 B.C.:

And upon the sixth day (October 28, which is our Friday) the living creatures of the earth took their creation, as well going, as creeping creatures. And last of all, man was made and created after the image of God, which consisted principally in the divine knowledge of the mind, and in the natural and proper sanctity of his will. And he forthwith, when all living creatures, by the divine power, were brought before him, as a lord appointed over them, gave them their names, by which they should be called. Among all which, when he found none to help him like to himself, lest he should be destitute of a fit companion, God taking a rib out of his side, while he slept, fashioned it into a woman, and gave her to him for a wife, establishing, withal, a law of marriage between them; then blessing them, he bade them wax and multiply, and gave them dominion over all living creatures, and for them all he provided a large proportion of food and sustenance to live upon. To conclude, sin being not yet entered upon the world, God beheld all that he had made, and, behold, it was exceeding good. And so was the evening, and so was the morning of the sixth day (Ussher 1658).

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