Divine Meditations (1640) (review)

Henry Colman, Divine Meditations (1640) ed. Karen Steanson (New Haven and London: Yale Univ. Press, 1979. 206 pp. $16.00) by Amy Charles Henry Colman, probably the first English poet to be inspired by George Herbert to develop his own series of devotional poems, now has the good fortune to be brought to the attention of students of the seventeenth century in a fine edition with perceptive introduction and commentary. Karen Steanson, who began her work with Colman during her graduate study at Yale, has not only given us his poems, but has set them properly against the meditative tradition of the time. Her edition is useful, readable, and attractive, the sort of book anyone working in this period will want to have at hand. Although little of Colman's biography is certain, Steanson has worked sensibly from the evidence of the two manuscripts of the poems and has employed restrained conjecture to suggest that Colman was a Yorkshireman probably sent to Cambridge at the Easter term of 1637 by his patron and kinsman William Rokeby, Esq., of the West Riding, who may have intended ultimately to make him the incumbent of the local parish. The "Henry Coleman" who matriculated in this term as sizar from Trinity is likely indeed to have been the author of the poems here set forth. Although they show influence by Quarles (and Donne and Jonson, to a lesser degree), an undergraduate at Trinity in the late 1630's might well have been influenced by the example of Herbert, who had been so much a part of life at Trinity for fifteen years or more, had served as sublector in the college, and was surely remembered for his university lecturesand his oratorship — to say nothing, of course, of his poems in 77»· Templo, which the university printers would run through six editions by 1641 . The editor had to consider the merits of two holographic manuscripts of the Divino Meditations as she developed her 76 REVIEW: DIVINE MEDITATIONS edition the May manuscript, forty leaves numbered in arabic, dedicated on 20 May 1640 to Rokeby; and the July manuscript. 108 numbered pages, dedicated to Sir William Savile, Bart , also of the West Riding of Yorkshire The earlier manuscript, now at the Bodleian Library, is catalogued as Rawlmson poetical MS 204, the manuscript dated 2 July 1640, the basis for the present text, is part of the James Marshall and MarieLouise Osborn Memorial Collection of the Bemecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University Steanson has settled on the July manuscript as the basis of her text because of its superior readings and its inclusion of nine new poems, but she considers Colman's conception of the order of the volume to be "firmer" in the May manuscript (? 35n) (A note of some interest emerges in the editor's description of the physical evidence of the July manuscript, of two leaves cut out and replaced by leaves apparently added in haste to dedicate this later manuscript to Savile — though we need not assume that Savile was a descriptive bibliographer who fathomed the significance of such substitution ) The texts are set forth sensibly, with the least editorial emendation possible. The commentary is restramedandclear. Steanson presents her poet decently and respectfully, then lets him speak for himself Along the way she renders him considerable service by analyzing the pattern of order he devised for his Dlvine Meditations Although Coiman must have been very young when he wrote these poems, probably about twenty at most, he had, as Steanson understands it. undergone physical or mental suffering that caused him to focus on his religious practice as a means of finding his waytospiritualhealthafter he hasgrown in experience and understanding, has acquired "that salt, that seasonmge" of maturity that finally brings him to a full understanding of God's love and grace in the Eucharist. It would be unfair to try to condense the explanation of this pattern (pp 34-52). Both Colman and his editor deserve to be read in full Steanson has dealt responsibly and carefully with her subject, and has provided understandmgand insight in this analysis It is no easy matter to present a poet hitherto unknown. This editor...