pp 75–6
...
On ye Death of Longland slaine in acting a Tragedy
O let me weepe in English whole denye
My Mothers Tongue wherin I l‸⸢e⸣a‸⸢r⸣nd to cry
The Graecian Idiom fitts not all, their fiue
Affords no case like this sad Ablatiue
The courting period of a Spanish breath
Yeilds not persuasiue complement for Death
The french excludes most consonants and I
Must be a consonant in this wofull crye
Indeede ye fluent Latin may expresse
Our sorrows tide, yat ouerflowes no lesse.|
Yet their Declensions are all designd
To in‸⸢v⸣ocke a fate yat cannot be declined.
Vnhappy Wretch yat acts a this dismall part
That puts to silence all ye Tongues of art
For what can Nature speake alasse this fall
Hath L made her dumbe too, tis vnnaturall
How shall wee uent our greife? (o lets deuise
To wring a Language from our blubbord eyes
Teach me to pen a sigh, yat euery line
May pe pickle vp a Mourner in ye brine
Of his owne teares, at least; lets be agreed
To weepe as fast as this our freind did bleed
Deare heart that was so serious in ye rest
Of all his lyfe, he could not play in Iest
O too too true Tragaedian twas thy task
To practize to be murderd & to maske
A Deadman on ye stage, vnhappy strife
To act <..> a lyfe of Death,
a Death of Lyfe
But sure his soule had still bene Chamberd in
Within his Body had his Body bin
Still in his Chamber, had her not drawne ayre
To quicke throughe new made mouth Id'e not dispayre
But that his one might still haue breath'd quick
Had he not sickly liu'd; that dy'd not sick
Had Heauens posture bene as Drowsy as
Was ours, or ours as Wakefull as Heauens was
Doubtlesse he had (alass alass my greife
Sends me I know not whither for releife)
Hees dead, hees dead & all haue giuen him or'e,
Hees slaine, Ile weep, for I can write no more.
H
Record title: Poem on a Schoolboy Actor Killed Acting a Tragedy
Repository: Huntington Library
Shelfmark: HM 116
Repository location: San Marino, California
A boy called Christopher Longland was elected to Winchester College at the age of 11 in 1623. Some time between his admission, which could have been as much as a year later, and when he would have left college in about 1630, aged 18, he was killed by a sword wound, according to Kirby, who gets his information from the original college register (Thomas Frederick Kirby, Winchester Scholars: A List of the Wardens, Fellows, and Scholars of Saint Mary College of Winchester, near Winchester, commonly called Winchester College (London and Winchester, 1888), 170). According to the college archivist, a note next to the 1623 Longland entry says 'gladio interrumpt' et in claust' sepult',' but there is no date given for his death.
The authorship of this poem is unclear. All the
handwriting in the manuscript, with the exception of the last page,
appears to be the same, and the manuscript includes at least one poem
attributed to Donne. Others are by Carew, Cleveland, and Beaumont and
Fletcher. There are several others signed 'H' and 'HH,' which could be
by the writer himself, who appears to have some connection with Oxford, either with Brasenose
College or Christ Church but not with New College, as might be expected
if there had been any personal connection with Winchester College. The
manuscript is undated but Hudson gives the dates as between 1615 and
1640, although the last entry appears to be dated 1637 ('Schoolboy
Tragedy,' pp 153–4). The poems are copied down at random, not in any
date order of the events to which they refer. 'On Dr Dun's Death,' for
example, comes earlier in the manuscript than the poem attributed to
Donne himself. The poem was written by someone who considered himself a
friend and who knew what part Longland took in the performance, so he
could well have been a Winchester scholar. Longland did not live long
enough to matriculate at Oxford, although his friend may well have done
so and have been at New College. Hudson also says that a number of the
pieces in the manuscript deal with Winchester College as well as with
Oxford, but there is no mention of Winchester at all in the text of this
commonplace book.
c 1615–37; English; paper; ii + 180 + ii; 140mm x 91mm, interleaved with blank pages measuring 158mm x 145mm, some with late 18th-c. or early 19th-c. notes concerning the MS; contemporary pagination; 20th-c. rebinding in marbled calf.