Published 1855, dated ‘January, 1854’. H. Lpr 245 shows T. changing the order of the stanzas. H.T. says of this ‘invitation to Farringford’ that ‘Mr Maurice had been ejected from his professorship at King’s College for non-orthodoxy. He had especially alarmed some of the “weaker brethren” by pointing out that the word “eternal” in “eternal punishment” (aiævioç), strictly translated, referred to the quality not the duration of the punishment.’ Maurice (1805–72) had argued in Theological Essays (1853) that the popular belief in the endlessness of future punishment was superstitious; in Oct. 1853 a council of King’s College, London, forced his resignation. T. abhorred the belief in eternal punishment (Despair 26, Faith 7–8). Maurice had agreed to be godfather of H.T. in Aug. 1852, the month of birth. Apparently he did not see the poem till it was published in 1855, to judge from his letter of 27 July 1855 (Mat. ii 147–8). Cp. Horace, Epistle I v, and, e.g., Ben Jonson’s Inviting a Friend to Supper. Cp. the stanza form of The Daisy (p. 501), and To Professor Jebb (III 162).
Come, when no graver cares employ,
Godfather, come and see your boy:
Your presence will be sun in winter,
Making the little one leap for joy.
For, being of that honest few,
Who give the Fiend himself his due,
Should eighty-thousand college-councils
Thunder ‘Anathema,’ friend, at you;
Should all our churchmen foam in spite
At you, so careful of the right,
Yet one lay-hearth would give you welcome
(Take it and come) to the Isle of Wight;
Where, far from noise and smoke of town,
I watch the twilight falling brown
All round a careless-ordered garden
Close to the ridge of a noble down.
You’ll have no scandal while you dine,
But honest talk and wholesome wine,
And only hear the magpie gossip
Garrulous under a roof of pine:
For groves of pine on either hand,
To break the blast of winter, stand;
And further on, the hoary Channel
Tumbles a billow on chalk and sand;
Where, if below the milky steep
Some ship of battle slowly creep,
And on through zones of light and shadow
Glimmer away to the lonely deep,
We might discuss the Northern sin
Which made a selfish war begin;
Dispute the claims, arrange the chances;
Emperor, Ottoman, which shall win:
Or whether war’s avenging rod
Shall lash all Europe into blood;
Till you should turn to dearer matters,
Dear to the man that is dear to God;
How best to help the slender store,
How mend the dwellings, of the poor;
How gain in life, as life advances,
Valour and charity more and more.
Come, Maurice, come: the lawn as yet
Is hoar with rime, or spongy-wet;
But when the wreath of March has blossomed,
Or later, pay one visit here,
For those are few we hold as dear;
Nor pay but one, but come for many,
Many and many a happy year.
January, 1854
¶312. 1–4] T. Nbk 36 has these following l. 12, and begins:
With loathsome, loveless prate of Hell
Each bigot makes his infidel,
Claps Calvin in God’s chair and bids us
Honour the Devil and all is well.
1. when] if H.MS.
3. will] would T.MS. sun in winter] light among us H.MS.
5–6] But you are of that honest few
Who give both God and men their due. T.MS
7. eighty-] thirty T.MS.
8] Dare to decide on a man like you T.MS. Anathema: the curse of the church, denouncing a doctrine as damnable. (Ironic, in view of Maurice’s doctrine.)
9–10] Should half our churchmen bear a spite
To one so loving of the light T.MS;
The bigot needs must bear a spite
To priests so faithful to the light, H.MS
11. Yet one lay-hearth] There’s yet one hearth T.MS; But there is one H.MS.
(12. Take … the] Here in the sweet little H.MS.
12^13] T.MS has ll. 1–4 and then:
Listen. I see the golden ray
Of sunrise on three headlands play,
Here falling over elm and ilex
There on the curve of a lovely bay.
13] And here far off from noise of town T.MS; Far off from hum and noise of town, H.MS. Horace’s fumum et opes strepitumque Romae (Odes III xxix 12), as in In Memoriam lxxxix 8: ‘The dust and din and steam of town’.
14. falling] mellowing MSS.
15. All round] About MSS.
17–20. N. Rudd compares Horace, Satires II vi 65–78, of which, too, l. 35 below is an adaptation.
17. You’ll … you] We’ll … we MSS. scandal] slander T.MS.
18. wholesome] an honest H.MS.
19. only] sitting H.MS.
20^21] For these are frequent here with me –
O not ill-omened may they be.
Here comes the fieldfare, here the starling,
Mixt with a clangorous bird of sea. H.MS
This stanza appears on its own; it was presumably intended to follow the magpie, but would have disrupted the sequence in ll. 20–1.
24. billow] 1872; breaker 1855–70.
25. Where,] Here T.MS; Or H.MS.
27] And moving, charged with silent thunders, T.MS; And bearing on her towers of silver H.MS.
28. lonely] silent H.MS.
29–32] We would not scruple to discuss
The claims that shake the Bosporus,
Nor Oltenitza, nor Sinope,
Ottoman, Emperor, Turk and Russ. H.MS
T.MS has the second line as ‘Our fleet that keeps the Bosporus’; and breaks off after the third line. The Russo–Turkish war began in Oct. 1853; l. [3] mentions two battles. It was Russia’s destruction of the Turkish ships in Nov. that shocked British opinion; by the end of March 1854 England was to find herself at war with Russia in the Crimea.
33–7] Nor how the chance of war may fall H.MS with lacuna.
37. best to help] to eke out H.MS.
41–5. Recalling Horace’s invitation to enjoy the springtime (Odes I iv), and also Milton’s Sonnet 17 (which makes use of Horace): ‘Now that the Fields are dank, and ways are mire,/Where shall we sometimes meet, and by the fire/Help wast a sullen day; what may be won/From the hard Season gaining: time will run/On smoother, till Favonius re-inspire/The frozen earth; and cloth in fresh attire/The Lillie and Rose, that neither sow’d nor spun./What neat repast shall feast us …’
41. lawn] park H.MS.
42. spongy-wet] dank with wet H.MS.
43. wreath] pride H.MS.
46. as] so H.MS.
47. pay but] only H.MS.