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

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

Folio 1 of National Library of Scotland, MS 2824 has the inscription “Robert Wodro wroght [wrote] this book” in the owner’s hand, and bears the date “17 die Marchij 1692” on the last folio, which was not long after Wodrow (1679-1734), the future ecclesiastical historian of the Presbyterian Church in Scotland, entered the University of Glasgow in 1691.² The volume’s binding measures 95 x 150 mm, and includes rectangular panel design, blind-tooled, with the initials “RW” and remnants of a clasp. The watermark is quite hard to make out, since the paper is very thick, and you never see more than a fragment in the inner margins. Even when you shine a 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 ever see part of its top.³

A quick perusal of the manuscript’s contents reveals many references to pious readings and travel: the interests of a thirteen-year-old boy and beginning student in theology. Unsurprisingly, he compiled information on the scriptures (under subject headings such as “2 Dunasty of the Maccabees” or “3 Dunasty of Kings”). Of particular note are the two pieces, “It is not I that die, I do but leave the inn” attributed to Philip Sidney and supposedly composed on his deathbed, and Thomas Lodge’s “Of all chaste birds the Phoenix doth excel.” The presence of these two poems here indicates that at least a few Elizabethan poets were still read in Scotland in the Restoration. Lodge’s “Sonnetto,” which was originally printed in his popular Rosalynd (1590), is the only love poem copied in the commonplace book. Wodrow may have liked the anaphora “Of all …” on which the entire song is built. The Tudor verse (which survives in no other manuscripts) is taken from Winstanley’s Lives of the Poets (1687), rather than from editions of the poet’s works themselves or from another compilation in manuscript.

Clearly, Herbert matters more than the other poets, as shown by the list of poems from The Temple on fol. 1 and the care with which Robert copied them, using new pagination and ruling and decorating the paper. Nathaniel Richardson, who was very much influenced by The Temple, is the other religious poet whose verse occurs in the manuscript. Wodrow copied three of his pattern poems, a genre which fell out of fashion in the Restoration, even though the self-taught poet Samuel Speed (1631-82) published three in Prison Pietie (1677).⁴ The Folger first-line index, which is fairly comprehensive, covering major repositories like the British Library, the Bodleian, and the Folger, lists no other manuscript containing verse by Richardson.⁵

One of Robert Wodrow’s own compositions is included, a long untitled religious poem which is the naïve...