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69 RICHARD STANIHURST (1547–1582–1618) Richard Stanihurst is the most interesting and significant Irish-born poet writing in English before Swift. His family was prominent in the Old English community in Dublin, and Stanihurst was educated in Kilkenny, at Oxford and at the Inns of Court in London. (There was no university in Ireland when Stanihurst was young.) When he returned to Ireland, Stanihurst was tutor to the children of the eleventh earl of Kildare. He wrote both prose and verse in English and in Latin; his English work includes accounts of Ireland, translations from Latin verse and original verse. He eventually became a catholic priest and a respected practitioner of alchemy. Stanihurst had strong views on how the English language should be pronounced and written and the fact that he followed his own theories on spelling in his verse makes it difficult for modern readers. Even his contemporaries mocked his way of writing English; however, Stanihurst combined the scholar’s knowledge of the English language with the poet’s enthusiasm for it and created striking effects by mixing words from the world of the epic with words from the street and by boldly employing nouns as verbs and verbs as nouns in a way later exploited by Lewis Carroll and James Joyce. Though some critics have thought that Stanihurst must have meant his verse to be comic, his scholarly prefaces show that he was trying to open up a new way of writing English verse, and that he saw this as a scholarly exercise in the highest humanist tradition. The poem that follows is the earliest of many Irish poems in English describing ordinary people’s reaction to extreme cold. A Devise made by Virgil … Englished. [A River hard frozen] Theare chariots doe travayle, wheare late the great argosye sayled:1 By reason of the river knit with a frostye soder. Wheare the great hulck floated, theare now thee cartwheele is hagling: Thee water hard curded with the chil ysye rinet. Where skut’s furth launched, theare now the great wayn is entred: When the river frized by reason of the weather. A rough paraphrase of the text might run as follows: ‘Because the river is knit together 1 by the solder of the frost, chariots travel where recently a great fleet sailed; where the great, heavy ship used to float is now hacked and mangled with cartwheels. The river is curdled, as it were, by the cold ice. Where trading-boats were launched before, great heavy carts rumble since the river is frozen. Because the water is so firmly congealed, there are now cheerful carmen where mariners used to row. Now the carter treats the place where people used to sail as an alleyway – turned like this because of the chill of the winter. Now haywains and horse-drawn vehicles travel where the navy used to go, their new-found pathway defined by the frost. Carts get used to going in parts where ships normally pass because the moisture that’s always there is now icebound. Oxen are tethered in their stalls where ships usually go because the water can’t flow. Where little coastal sailing boats normally belong, lots of cart wheels crash around; it is winter’s excesses that have brought about these strange happenings. The water that used to support a ship now supports cartwheels; the freezing weather makes the water gather firmly together. Where the rudder used to steer, the goad now pokes the oxen; the winter’s cold makes the river as hard as a rock.’ 70 Wheare rowed earst mariners, theare nowe godye carman abydeth, Thee flud, congealed stiflye, relats the reason. Now the place of sayling is turnd to a carter his entrye, This change thee winters chillines hoarye bredeth. 10 Now wayns and chariots are drawne, wheare navye dyd harrow: This new found passadge frostines hoarye shaped. Wheare barcks have passed, with cart’s that parcel is haunted: From woonted moysture for that ice heeld the water. Wheare stems have traversd, there have oxen traced in headstal: By reason yse knitting thee water heeld froe floing. Wheare the flye boat coasted, theare cart wheels clustred ar hobling This new strange passadge winter his hoarnes habled. Earst the flud, upbearing thee ship, now the cartwheele upholdeth. When water is ioygned firmlye with hoarye weather. 20 Whear ruther steered, thee goad theare poaked hath oxen: Thee winters coldnesse thee river hardlye roching. ...

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