Robert Wodrow and Andrew Symson: Two Late-Seventeenth-Century Scottish Readers of George Herbert’s...

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GEORGE HERBERTJOURNAL

Volume 36 Numbers 1 & 2

Fall 2012 / Spring 2013

Robert Wodrow and Andrew Symson:Two Late-Seventeenth-Century Scottish Readers

of George Herbert’s The Temple

by Guillaume Coatalen

Little is known about George Herbert’s reception in Scotland inthe late seventeenth century, a topic which has not been researchedextensively.1 But Herbert’s poetic presence at that time in Scotland isillustrated by two manuscripts that have emerged, each containingnumerous transcriptions of poems from The Temple. Robert Wodrow’scommonplace book, National Library of Scotland, MS 2824, is thework of a thirteen-year-old student, and includes twenty-eight poemsby Herbert. Andrew Symson’s miscellany, Edinburgh UniversityLibrary, MS La. III. 432, is that of an older clergyman – he was thirty-two years old when he finished copying Herbert’s verses, as indicatedby the note in the manuscript beneath “Iudgement” which reads “Kr.Maij. 12°. 1671. transc. 6. fol. posteri A.S,” and probably fifty-sevenwhen he completed the manuscript around 1691, the date of the deathof his close friend Sir George McKenzie, celebrated in one of hisnumerous elegies. Symson copied thirty of Herbert’s poems into hismiscellany. In what follows, I will discuss the background of eachwriter; the dates, provenance, and contents of each manuscript; and thesignificance of what they extract from The Temple.

* * * * *

Folio 1 of National Library of Scotland, MS 2824 has theinscription “Robert Wodro wroght [wrote] this book” in the owner’shand, and bears the date “17 die Marchij 1692” on the last folio,which was not long after Wodrow (1679-1734), the futureecclesiastical historian of the Presbyterian Church in Scotland, enteredthe University of Glasgow in 1691.2 The volume’s binding measures95 x 150 mm, and includes rectangular panel design, blind-tooled,with the initials “RW” and remnants of a clasp. The watermark isquite hard to make out, since the paper is very thick, and you neversee more than a fragment in the inner margins. Even when you shinea light through the paper the watermark is still rather faint. It looks as

if it might be something like Churchill no. 109-118, but you only eversee part of its top.3

A quick perusal of the manuscript’s contents reveals manyreferences to pious readings and travel: the interests of a thirteen-year-old boy and beginning student in theology. Unsurprisingly, hecompiled information on the scriptures (under subject headings suchas “2 Dunasty of the Maccabees” or “3 Dunasty of Kings”). Ofparticular note are the two pieces, “It is not I that die, I do but leavethe inn” attributed to Philip Sidney and supposedly composed on hisdeathbed, and Thomas Lodge’s “Of all chaste birds the Phoenix dothexcel.” The presence of these two poems here indicates that at least afew Elizabethan poets were still read in Scotland in the Restoration.Lodge’s “Sonnetto,” which was originally printed in his popularRosalynd (1590), is the only love poem copied in the commonplacebook. Wodrow may have liked the anaphora “Of all . . .” on which theentire song is built. The Tudor verse (which survives in no othermanuscripts) is taken from Winstanley’s Lives of the Poets (1687),rather than from editions of the poet’s works themselves or fromanother compilation in manuscript.

Clearly, Herbert matters more than the other poets, as shown bythe list of poems from The Temple on fol. 1 and the care with whichRobert copied them, using new pagination and ruling and decoratingthe paper. Nathaniel Richardson, who was very much influenced byThe Temple, is the other religious poet whose verse occurs in themanuscript. Wodrow copied three of his pattern poems, a genre whichfell out of fashion in the Restoration, even though the self-taught poetSamuel Speed (1631-82) published three in Prison Pietie (1677).4 TheFolger first-line index, which is fairly comprehensive, covering majorrepositories like the British Library, the Bodleian, and the Folger, listsno other manuscript containing verse by Richardson.5

One of Robert Wodrow’s own compositions is included, a longuntitled religious poem which is the naïve work of a budding poetdeveloping the conventional Augustinian allegory of heaven as apalace. The two tercets with the rare rhyme-scheme aabccb, and theplodding meter, the two-stressed couplet followed by a three-stressedline, sound amateurish and far inferior to Herbert’s subtle music.6 Ifthe theme of the sinner longing for eternal life is reminiscent ofHerbert’s verse, Wodrow displays none of his poetic mastery. As

GUILLAUME COATALEN114

different as they may be, Wodrow’s and, as we shall see, Symson’soriginal poems give the modern reader lessons in poetic mediocrity, inthe literal sense of the word, and remind us that the vast bulk ofordinary verse written at this time was quite a bit different from theverse of Dryden and Pope that we normally think characterizes writingat the turn of the eighteenth century.

History and travel make up for a good proportion of the materialcopied in the Wodrow manuscript. He included a passage from JohnTrussell, The Collection of the History of England, one of the mostpopular histories, on the number of casualties in the War of theRoses. The presence of extracts from the Roman Catholic priestRichard Lassels’s Voyage in Italy (1670, 2 vols.) along with material onFrance’s recent history (from The Memoirs of Louis XIV [1673] andHenry Care, Galliae Speculum [1673]) suggests that Wodrow mayhave contemplated embarking on a grand tour of the continent, likesome of his contemporaries, or at the very least a visit to France andItaly. This is corroborated by a passage taken from Lassels’s prefacethat details all the reasons why noblemen should travel. Farawaylands grab his imagination just as much as France and Italy, as shownby the excerpts from Thomas Coriate’s Of the Commodityes of theGreat Mogull (1616), Bernier’s History of ye Empire of ye Mogalls, ye

Present State of Tangier & Algiers (1676), A Description of the WestIndies by N.N. (1655), The Voyages & Travels of the Ambassadors Sentby Frederick Duke of Holstein (1662), and even from Cotton Mather,The triumphs of the reformed religion in America the life of the renownedJohn Eliot (1691). Wodrow is also interested in science, old (e.g.,Pliny on “Guiney and Turkey hens”) and new (e.g., the severalquotations from John Ray’s Observations Topographical, Moral &Physiological; Made in a Journey through Part of the Low-Countries,Germany, Italy and France [1673]).

As is often the case in commonplace books, receipts are kept and acipher, as well as a range of miscellaneous material, includinginformation on silk worms, the origin of the word “Hugonite”(“Huguenot”), a trial of chastity (copied from Lassel), and the fact thatItalian women walked bareheaded.

Wodrow may have come across Herbert in the library of hisfather, James Wodrow (1637-1707), professor of divinity in theUniversity of Glasgow, who perhaps owned a copy of The Temple. The

ROBERT WODROW AND ANDREW SYMSON 115

fairly simple lines drawn around “The Altar” in the manuscript copyof the poem suggest that Wodrow was using one of the printings inwhich the shape of the altar in that poem is outlined, as in editions of1635, 1638, and 1641. The 1667 edition of The Temple may be ruledout because of a textual variant: it misprints “poor knowledge” in“Faith” (l. 31) instead of “proud knowledge” as in earlier editions andWodrow’s transcription (p. 17).

Herbert’s verse is copied in a somewhat crude Italic hand, and in acareless way, with crenelated separation decorations. Question marksare not retained; neither are parentheses, and the Scottish spelling isentirely Wodrow’s, as shown by the typical abbreviation “qt” for“what.” Sometimes letters are missing as when he writes “me” insteadof “men” in “The Sacrifice” (l. 51) (see Appendix I). In the same poem“Most” becomes “Must” (l. 39). In “The Altar” “thy power” becomes“thy hand” (l. 8) and in “The Sacrifice” he leaves out the fourth stanzabeginning “My own Apostle” and changes “frighting the day” into“frighted the day” (l. 103). “Prince of peace” becomes “Prince of grace”(l. 118). He passes over “scoffs” in “scoffs or scornfulness” (l. 174) andremoves ”And” in the line “And thorny all their crowns” (l. 178); “flee”replaces “fly” in the original (l. 191), “subsist” becomes “consist” (l.227). In “The Agonie,” “depths” become “deeps” (l. 2). The piecebeginning “Since blood is fittest . . .” (the second part of “GoodFriday”) bears the title “I” (probably for “Jesus”) in the manuscript; inthe same poem, “spies” becomes “sees” (l. 25). In “H. Baptisme” (II)“antedate” (l. 4) becomes the meaningless “attendate,” and “My faith inme” becomes “My faith in the” (l. 5). In “Nature,” “then thee” (l. 18)is copied “the the.” In “Prayer” (I) the “of” is missing in “land of spices”(l. 14); “shall” replaces “should” in “should my rymes” (“The Temper”[I], l. 1). As shown in Appendix I, where all variants are listed, most arescribal mistakes with a few slight emendations. The discrepancies maybe due to the carelessness of a young reader or simply to a looserconception of scribal faithfulness to the original text which did notextend to spelling.

* * * * *

In some ways Andrew Symson’s miscellany is reminiscent ofJacobean verse miscellanies, with its light pieces, notably Ben Jonson’ssong, and misogynistic verse. Overall, however, the manuscript is a


more serious verse collection fit for a parson which containspredominantly sacred poems and elegies, Symson being a local poet ofsome renown.7 It tells us much about the amateur poet’s social rolecomposing elegies for the death of friends and patrons. Apart from thematerial taken from George Herbert or Francis Quarles and theoccasional piece by another poet, like Jonson’s, Symson’s own verse fillsthe bulk of the manuscript.

Andrew Symson (c. 1638-1712) came from a prominent familyof reformed clergymen and classicists. He was probably born inEngland and was educated at the High School of Edinburgh. He firsttaught Latin at the grammar school of Stirling and was licensed topreach by the bishop of Edinburgh on 23 January 1663. After beingsent to Galloway, he finally settled in the parish of Kirkinner. For atime, he was amanuensis to the lawyer and statesman Sir GeorgeMcKenzie, whom he celebrates in one of his elegies copied in MS La.III. 432, and acted as clerk to the Synod of Galloway from 25October to 27 April 1671. In Symson’s own words, he lived “in aremote part of the Kingdom where the Author’s Books were notmany and his Books of English Poems very few,” a fact perhapsreflected in the fairly narrow range of material found in themanuscript.8 Later in life, the range of books he was exposed toexpanded considerably. He moved to the parish of Douglas in 1686and retired to Edinburgh in 1689 to print and sell books. The rest ofhis life was spent there apart from a few trips. He was quite proud ofhis shop, “where a vast collection of good books consisting ofDivinity, History, Herauldry, Philosophy, Law, Medicine, Sermons,Pamphlets, and other books of all sorts and subjects, may be had atreasonable rates, at any time.”9

According to the entry for the manuscript in the online Catalogueof English Manuscripts 1450-1700:

MS La. III. 432 [is a] sextodecimo pocket notebook, for themost part in a single small mixed hand, largely written acrossthe page with the spine to the top, including 31 poems byGeorge Herbert transcribed from the sixth edition of TheTemple (Cambridge, 1641), 103 leaves, in 19th-century dicedbrown calf. [It was] compiled by Andrew Symson (1639-1712), usher of the Grammar School of Stirling, afterwards


parson of Kerkinner in Wigton. Including (ff. 21r-53v) 31poems transcribed by him in 1671 from the sixth edition ofGeorge Herbert’s The Temple (Cambridge, 1641). c. 1664-91.10

Based on the dates found in the manuscript, the Catalogue suggeststhat it was written from circa 1664 to 1691, but it is difficult to be anymore precise than that or establish how many items were copied at thesame time.

The Symson manuscript illustrates that George Herbert andFrancis Quarles were read well into the Restoration in Scotland, in atroubled period when Presbyterianism was first repressed and finallyaccepted. Jacobean verse from the 1630s was still popular in the1670s and apparently not considered to be quaint. The manuscriptcontains more material from Quarles than from Herbert, andSymson may have thought Quarles was at least as praiseworthy apoet as Herbert, and perhaps even better. Herbert and Quarles’spoems were often copied together, as in British Library, Add. MS18044; British Library, Add. MS 37719; Yale, Osborn MS b 137;and Bodleian, MS Rawl. poet. 90.11 Since the rediscovery of TheTemple by Coleridge and later by T.S. Eliot, Herbert has very muchbeen considered a poet sui generis and vastly superior to Quarles,who is only read by scholars. Symson’s manuscript shows that in theearlier time period the similarities between Herbert and Quarles asdevotional poets perhaps outweighed their differences, and in somecircle Quarles’s didactic value was more significant than Herbert’sformal variety and skill. The extracts from Quarles’s Meditationsreveal that Symson chose them because they illustrate commonreligious topics like man’s ingratitude or fleeting worldly pleasures.In a few instances they may appeal to him for stylistic reasons aswell, notably the catalog of forbidden flesh, which is reminiscent ofJohn Skelton’s list of birds.

Both Herbert and Quarles are his poetic models, although he isfar from their equal. He deliberately placed Herbert’s verse – which iscopied in one block – between his own compositions as if they wereconnected. But wit is conspicuously absent from his plodding verse.In his elegy on Sir Alexander McCullough, Symson rejects “the Muses. . . describ’d of old” (p. 72, l. 2) as opposed to his “dull and rusticMuse” (p. 73, l. 15), but the collection proves he tirelessly borrows


from antiquity. Every elegy alludes to classical myths and the secondpiece entitled “Aliam aetatem alia decent,” like one of Erasmus’sAdagia (3.9.32), is in Greek. While his verses are unexceptional, hedid gain some notice later on. Several of the elegies in thismanuscript were eventually printed, and two of them – “On theunexpected death of the virtuous Lady Mrs. Janet Dalrymple, LadyBaldoon, younger,” and “A Funeral Elegie, occasioned by the sadand much lamented death of that worthily respected, and verymuch accomplished gentleman, David Dunbar, younger, ofBaldoon” – were discussed by Sir Walter Scott in the preface to TheBride of Lammermoor.12

In transcribing Herbert’s poems, Symson is generally faithful tothe text of the 1641 edition he used, whose front page hereproduces in the manuscript, but there are numerous orthographicvariants, added capitalization of nouns, and dropped italics. (Theseare so numerous it is not practical to catalog them completely in myessay.) The occasional “he” becomes “be.” In “The Church-porch”he writes “head” instead of “feet” (l. 24) and “given” twice insteadof “giv’n,” which adds an extra syllable to each line (ll. 38, 382) andshows little concern for Herbert’s precise meter, perhaps because itsounded quaint by the 1680s. In a few instances Herbert’s poemsare excerpted, a widespread practice in commonplace books, andwhich might indicate the compiler considered using the trimmedverse in his own future writings. For example, Symson copies juststanza five from “Employment” and stanza one from “Prayer,”stanzas two and three from “The Size,” the first twelve lines from“Grief,” and omits the last six lines in “Humilitie.” Some variantsare simply scribal mistakes as when copying “The Invitation,” hefirst writes “vertues,” then crosses it out and writes the correct“dainties” (l. 6); and in the same poem writes “love and dwell”instead of “live and dwell” (l. 3).

* * * * *

The particular poems copied by Wodrow and Symson suggestthat they are more interested in the liturgical poems in The Templethan the private ejaculations, which accords with Robert Ray’sfindings about the poems by Herbert that were most often alluded tothroughout the seventeenth century.13 A comparison of the specific


poems by Herbert that they copied (see Appendix II) reveals that thereare 5 common to both of the popular liturgical sort: “Providence,”“Prayer” (I), “The H. Scriptures” (I), “Humilitie,” and “A Dialogue-Antheme.” Symson copied all the 77 stanzas of the “The Church-porch,” which reconfirms the ongoing popularity of that poem,perhaps based on its practical and accessible advice about how toprepare for further devotion. The more unsettling, personal and (to amodern reader) more exciting poems, such as “The Collar” areconspicuously absent from both manuscripts.

MS National Library of Scotland 2824 and EdinburghUniversity Library La. III. 432 illustrate that George Herbert’s verseappealed to scholarly Scottish readers at the end of the seventeenthcentury. Nonconformists, or at least Presbyterian-leaning readers,valued Herbert, which corroborates the poet’s status as a classic wellbeyond the confined boundaries of the Anglican Church. RobertWodrow, the young student and the more mature Andrew Symsoncopied poems from The Temple alongside their own compositions inrelatively small manuscripts that they could carry with them. Thepresence of other religious material, both in verse and prose,suggests that they highly prized Herbert’s particular type of faith,as expressed in his sacred ejaculations. Even if the compilersthought he was a particularly fine poet, in the technical sense ofthe word, they seem to have considered that other poets, such asQuarles, were just as good and perhaps even superior. NeitherWodrow’s nor Symson’s choices reveal that they were sophisticatedreaders. Their tastes are conservative, if not quaint; fashionableRestoration plays and poems in particular are conspicuously absent.The manuscripts are the work of pious and provincial rather thanmodish and contemporary readers. Twenty-first century critics andscholars are long used to turning to Herbert as primarily a test casein poetic subtlety, ingenuity, and existential and devotionalcomplexity and worry. Wodrow and Symson read and copiedHerbert’s verses more simply for spiritual comfort and edification,and remind us how historically dominant and still powerful thisapproach to Herbert is.

Université de Cergy-Pontoise


Appendix I

Variants in Wodrow’s Transcriptions of Herbert

Almost all of the variants listed below are scribal errors, but it isworth recording them on the chance that some of them areemendations on Wodrow’s part. I do not include numerous instanceswhere “s” and “f ” are confused. Wodrow’s words are followed by thetext as it is in Herbert. The titles are first given as they are in the MSand then, when there is a difference, in brackets as they are inHerbert’s printed text.

The Altar2 ane heart] a heart8 hand can] power doth

The Sacrifice 9 eachon] each one

now doe] doth now35 whow] how39 Must] Most51 me] men55 qt] what67 Why?] Why,86 weying] vying87 pike] Pick103 frighted the day] frighting the day105 stope ears] stop their eares117 murtherer] murderer118 prince of grace] Prince of peace; peace129 the list] they list139 it do shine] either shine154 they the deride in] they deride me155 can call] could call169 give] gave

strook] strike174 qt ever scornfullness] What ever scoffes

& scornfulnesse


178 thorny] And thornybloody all] bloudie their

185 the bring] they bring189 led] leade191 flee] flie199 burthen] burden221 thy life] thy self 227 consist] subsist234 I am] am239 angells] Angels food

The Agony [“The Agonie”]2 deeps] depths11 press that vice] presse and vice

I [the last three stanzas of “Good Friday”]25 sees] spies

H. Baptizme [“H. Baptisme” (II)]1 the] thee4 attendate] antedate5 My faith in the] My faith in me

Nature18 hid] hidethe the] then thee

Faith11 weell] well

Prayer [“Prayer” (I)]14 land spices] land of spices

The temper [“The Temper” (I)]1 shall my rymes] should my rymes 20 a I] And I25 flee] flie

the dust] dust


The Holy Scriptures [“The H. Scriptures” (I)]3 any] any grief7 wisse] wish

Grace 17 hamaring] hammering21 qr thou] for thou22 thou to me] to me thou

Matens [“Mattens”]1 open] ope2 but art] But thou art4 most] must10 soe it ee] it so eye18 I doe see] now I see

Sinne [“Sinne” (II)] 2 but] yet6 but if god more care of us had] But God more care

of us hath had10 prospective] perspective

Church Lock & key 7 soe doe I lay] So I do lay

humility [“Humilitie”]18 not)] only instance of round bracket28 qchmade] made29 soe] so

Constanciefirst two stanzas copied as one

Antiphone [“Antiphon” (II)]2 men. say] Men3 angells say,] Angels.

Justice [“Justice” (I)]1 scill] skill


IESU [“Jesu”]9 to the broken heart its I ease you] That to my broken

heart he was I ease you

untitled in the MS [“Love-joy”]3 side bunch] bunch [“side” struck out in the MS and

replaced by “bunch”]4 very] never5 tell] spend

Paradise5 m] my9 the le] Then letmissing fourth stanza

the Call [“The Call”]8 & makes] as makes

untitled in the MS [“A Dialogue-Antheme”]2 force & sting] force, thy ancient sting4 I kild] I have kill’d

Dooms Day [“Dooms-day”]28 the so all] to all the world29 confort] consort

heaven [“Heaven”]5 wherwast thou] Wert thou not

Appendix II

Herbert’s Poems Copied by Robert WodrowNational Library of Scotland, MS 2824

ProvidenceThe AltarThe SacrificeThe Agonie


Good FridayH. Baptisme (II)NatureFaithPrayer (I)The Temper (I)The H. Scriptures (I)GraceMattensSinne (I)Church-lock and keyThe Church-flooreHumilitieConstancieAntiphon (II)Justice (I)Charms and KnotsJESULove-joyParadiseThe CallA Dialogue-AnthemeDooms-dayHeaven

Herbert’s Poems Copied by Andrew SymsonEdinburgh University Library, MS La. III. 432

The Church-porchPrayer (I)The H. Scriptures (I)The H. Scriptures (II)ContentHumilitieSundayAvariceAnagram of the Virgin MarieEmployment (II) [stanza 5]


Coloss. 3.3 Our life is hid with Christ in GodPrayer (II) [stanza 1] ConscienceThe British ChurchProvidenceGiddinesseThe MethodEphes. 4.30. Grieve not the Holy Spirit, Etc.The SizeJustice (II)The PriesthoodGriefDotageThe 23. PsalmeThe Odour, 2. Cor. ii. 15The InvitationThe BanquetDeathA Dialogue-AnthemeJudgement

Notes

1. I wish to thank Sebastiaan Verweij for drawing my attention toEdinburgh University Library, MS La. III. 432 and am extremely grateful toSidney Gottlieb for his encouragement and help with revisions. On the poet’sreception in the Restoration, see Sharon Achinstein, “Reading George Herbertin the Restoration,” English Literary Renaissance 36 (2006): 430-65.

2. L.A. Yeoman, “Wodrow, Robert (1679-1734),” in Oxford Dictionary ofNational Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004); online athttp://www.oxforddnb.com.

3. W.A. Churchill, Watermarks in Paper in Holland, England, France, etc.,in the XVII and XVIII Centuries and Their Interconnection (Amsterdam, 1935).I wish to thank Ulrike Hogg, the senior curator of the manuscript and mapcollections at the National Library of Scotland, for examining the manuscriptand recording these details for me.

4. Dick Higgins, Pattern Poetry: Guide to an Unknown Literature (Albany:SUNY Press, 1987), p. 103.


5. Union First Line Index, hosted by the Folger Shakespeare Library,online at http://www.folger.edu/Content/Collection/Union-First-Line-Index-of-English-Verse.cfm

6. David Norbrook and Henry Woodhuysen, eds., The Penguin Book ofRenaissance Verse: 1509-1659 (London: Penguin, 1993) reprints only oneinstance with this rhyme scheme, Poem 12, an extract taken from WilliamBirch (fl. 1558-71), “A songe betwene the Quenes Majestie and Englande,” asingle sheet broadside printed 1564.

7. The best source on Andrew Symson’s life remains W.J. Couper,“Andrew Symson: Preacher, Printer and Poet,” Scottish Historical Review 13(1915-16), pp. 47-67.

8. Couper, “Andrew Symson,” p. 54.9. Couper, “Andrew Symson,” pp. 57-58.

10. Catalogue of English Manuscripts 1450-1700, online at http://www.celm-ms.org.uk.

11. British Library, Add. MS 18044 is an octavo miscellany of largelydevotional verse and some prose, compiled by Marmaduke Radown (1610-69).British Library, Add. MS 37719 is a quarto miscellany of prose and versecompiled by Sir John Gibson (1606-55) when he was a Royalist prisoner inDurham Castle (c. 1653-60). Yale, Osborn MS b 137 is a quarto miscellany ofprincipally religious verse in several hands, although signed on the inside cover byAnthony Search, dated January 6, 1695. Bodleian, MS Rawl. poet. 90 is a quartoverse miscellany from the early eighteenth century. For further information onthese manuscripts, see the Catalogue of English Manuscripts 1450-1700.

12. Walter Scott, Introductions and Notes and Illustrations to the Novels,Tales, and Romances of the Author of Waverley: Volume II. Bride of Lammermoorand Peveril of the Peak (London: Whittaker & Company, 1833), pp. 14-19.

13. Robert Ray, The Herbert Allusion Book: Allusions to George Herbertin the Seventeenth Century. Texts and Studies. Studies in Philology 83, no. 4(fall 1986).


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