The Pulter Project
Poet in the MakingComparison Tool
Facsimile of manuscript: Photographs provided by University of Leeds, Brotherton Collection
For more on these textual notes and for an explanation of abbreviations, please see the “Editorial Note.”
AE: to My D.[ear] D.[aughters] M.[argaret] P.[ulter], P.[enelope] P.[ulter], 1647, when His Sacred Majesty Was at Unhappy [Holmby]
KW: 1647
RSB: to my Dear Daughters, M.P., P.P., 1647, when his Sacred Majesty was at Unhappy Hour
The series of initials in the title stand for, most editors agree, “Dear Daughters Margaret Pulter [and] Penelope Pulter.” I have left the title abbreviated because the coyness of the initials prepares the reader for the poem to follow, which often refuses to directly name its subjects (e.g., Chloris and Amintas for the queen and king of England), and yet makes it easy for its readers to crack its “code.” See also the headnote to the poem for more on this coyness. The final word of the title is blotted in the manuscript, but is clearly “home,” which AE says may be “in reference to Holdenby or Holmby House in Northamptonshire where Charles was kept under house arrest from February 7 until June 4, 1647” (p. 48, n. 12).
The MS has “Hydras,” which is either an alternate spelling of the name of the monster “Hydra,” or is a statement that London is filled with multiple hydras. I assumed it is an alternate spelling because of the singular verb “usurps,” though other editors read “hydras” as plural and emend the verb to “usurp.”
In the MS, the letter after the “P” is either an “l” or an “h”; one was written over the other, though it is difficult to discern which came first and which is the correction. While it is not impossible that plains (or plane trees) would be overgrown with moss, I chose “Phanes” or fanes, temples, because in line eight she suggests that even marble walls are weeping more than are (human) English subjects.
The MS originally read “Flowery,” and then the “e” was struck out and an apostrophe was inserted after the “w.” I interpreted these corrections as an attempt to remove a syllable, which would make this line’s meter more regular, and modernized accordingly.
The MS originally read “both”; this was replaced with “doth,” and then changed back, finally, to “both.”
The MS originally read “flowery,” and then the “e” was struck out and an apostrophe was inserted after the “w.” I interpreted these corrections as an attempt to remove a syllable, which would make this line’s meter more regular, and modernized accordingly.
Lines 71–72 were inserted in the margin after the fact; I have embedded them in the poem as they offer the last refrain before the poem shifts into another mode (the refrain will occur again only at the very end). I have also inserted a stanza break after these lines, to match the stanza breaks that occur after other instances of the refrain in the poem. However, without these lines and without the stanza break, the shift is much more subtle, as the poem originally transitioned from song of invitation to dark lament on the state of the world with no formal or visual cues.
Every other editor inserts these lines, with the following changes: SGC puts the inserted lines in brackets and adds a stanza break afterwards; AE does not add a stanza break, and emphasizes their continuity with what follows by adding a comma at the end of line 72; KW and RSB add a stanza break after.
Though the MS reads “breath,” I have followed RSB and emended to “birth” to rhyme with “earth.”
In early modern handwriting, “u” and “n” are written identically, so for the word I have given as “lonely” the MS could read either “lonely” or “louely” (lovely). I have interpreted the third graph (or letter) as an “n” as it makes more sense to me, in this dismal landscape, that the violet should creep into a lonely shade for its weeping. Further, that the violet is unpitied (l. 164) is perhaps because, in the lonely shade, there is no one else around to pity it. The MS’s ambiguity, however, is an interesting one, especially given that there is an identically written word (lonely / louely) only four lines earlier that almost certainly means “lovely.”
The manuscript reads “caves,” but the letters “u” and “v” were interchangeable in the period, so I have read it as “caues” to rhyme with “laws” and modernized as “cause.” The image of flowers “sleeping in their causes”—returning to their first principles, or existing as latent potentiality—is a common one in Pulter’s work; see also Universal Dissolution [Poem 6], l. 14, and The Perfection of Patience and Knowledge [Poem 39], l. 5.
For more on these textual notes and for an explanation of abbreviations, please see the “Editorial Note.”
AE: to My D.[ear] D.[aughters] M.[argaret] P.[ulter], P.[enelope] P.[ulter], 1647, when His Sacred Majesty Was at Unhappy [Holmby]
KW: 1647
RSB: to my Dear Daughters, M.P., P.P., 1647, when his Sacred Majesty was at Unhappy Hour
The series of initials in the title stand for, most editors agree, “Dear Daughters Margaret Pulter [and] Penelope Pulter.” I have left the title abbreviated because the coyness of the initials prepares the reader for the poem to follow, which often refuses to directly name its subjects (e.g., Chloris and Amintas for the queen and king of England), and yet makes it easy for its readers to crack its “code.” See also the headnote to the poem for more on this coyness. The final word of the title is blotted in the manuscript, but is clearly “home,” which AE says may be “in reference to Holdenby or Holmby House in Northamptonshire where Charles was kept under house arrest from February 7 until June 4, 1647” (p. 48, n. 12).
The MS has “Hydras,” which is either an alternate spelling of the name of the monster “Hydra,” or is a statement that London is filled with multiple hydras. I assumed it is an alternate spelling because of the singular verb “usurps,” though other editors read “hydras” as plural and emend the verb to “usurp.”
In the MS, the letter after the “P” is either an “l” or an “h”; one was written over the other, though it is difficult to discern which came first and which is the correction. While it is not impossible that plains (or plane trees) would be overgrown with moss, I chose “Phanes” or fanes, temples, because in line eight she suggests that even marble walls are weeping more than are (human) English subjects.
The MS originally read “Flowery,” and then the “e” was struck out and an apostrophe was inserted after the “w.” I interpreted these corrections as an attempt to remove a syllable, which would make this line’s meter more regular, and modernized accordingly.
The MS originally read “both”; this was replaced with “doth,” and then changed back, finally, to “both.”
The MS originally read “flowery,” and then the “e” was struck out and an apostrophe was inserted after the “w.” I interpreted these corrections as an attempt to remove a syllable, which would make this line’s meter more regular, and modernized accordingly.
Lines 71–72 were inserted in the margin after the fact; I have embedded them in the poem as they offer the last refrain before the poem shifts into another mode (the refrain will occur again only at the very end). I have also inserted a stanza break after these lines, to match the stanza breaks that occur after other instances of the refrain in the poem. However, without these lines and without the stanza break, the shift is much more subtle, as the poem originally transitioned from song of invitation to dark lament on the state of the world with no formal or visual cues.
Every other editor inserts these lines, with the following changes: SGC puts the inserted lines in brackets and adds a stanza break afterwards; AE does not add a stanza break, and emphasizes their continuity with what follows by adding a comma at the end of line 72; KW and RSB add a stanza break after.
Though the MS reads “breath,” I have followed RSB and emended to “birth” to rhyme with “earth.”
In early modern handwriting, “u” and “n” are written identically, so for the word I have given as “lonely” the MS could read either “lonely” or “louely” (lovely). I have interpreted the third graph (or letter) as an “n” as it makes more sense to me, in this dismal landscape, that the violet should creep into a lonely shade for its weeping. Further, that the violet is unpitied (l. 164) is perhaps because, in the lonely shade, there is no one else around to pity it. The MS’s ambiguity, however, is an interesting one, especially given that there is an identically written word (lonely / louely) only four lines earlier that almost certainly means “lovely.”
The manuscript reads “caves,” but the letters “u” and “v” were interchangeable in the period, so I have read it as “caues” to rhyme with “laws” and modernized as “cause.” The image of flowers “sleeping in their causes”—returning to their first principles, or existing as latent potentiality—is a common one in Pulter’s work; see also Universal Dissolution [Poem 6], l. 14, and The Perfection of Patience and Knowledge [Poem 39], l. 5.
For more on these textual notes and for an explanation of abbreviations, please see the “Editorial Note.”
AE: to My D.[ear] D.[aughters] M.[argaret] P.[ulter], P.[enelope] P.[ulter], 1647, when His Sacred Majesty Was at Unhappy [Holmby]
KW: 1647
RSB: to my Dear Daughters, M.P., P.P., 1647, when his Sacred Majesty was at Unhappy Hour
The series of initials in the title stand for, most editors agree, “Dear Daughters Margaret Pulter [and] Penelope Pulter.” I have left the title abbreviated because the coyness of the initials prepares the reader for the poem to follow, which often refuses to directly name its subjects (e.g., Chloris and Amintas for the queen and king of England), and yet makes it easy for its readers to crack its “code.” See also the headnote to the poem for more on this coyness. The final word of the title is blotted in the manuscript, but is clearly “home,” which AE says may be “in reference to Holdenby or Holmby House in Northamptonshire where Charles was kept under house arrest from February 7 until June 4, 1647” (p. 48, n. 12).
The MS has “Hydras,” which is either an alternate spelling of the name of the monster “Hydra,” or is a statement that London is filled with multiple hydras. I assumed it is an alternate spelling because of the singular verb “usurps,” though other editors read “hydras” as plural and emend the verb to “usurp.”
In the MS, the letter after the “P” is either an “l” or an “h”; one was written over the other, though it is difficult to discern which came first and which is the correction. While it is not impossible that plains (or plane trees) would be overgrown with moss, I chose “Phanes” or fanes, temples, because in line eight she suggests that even marble walls are weeping more than are (human) English subjects.
The MS originally read “Flowery,” and then the “e” was struck out and an apostrophe was inserted after the “w.” I interpreted these corrections as an attempt to remove a syllable, which would make this line’s meter more regular, and modernized accordingly.
The MS originally read “both”; this was replaced with “doth,” and then changed back, finally, to “both.”
The MS originally read “flowery,” and then the “e” was struck out and an apostrophe was inserted after the “w.” I interpreted these corrections as an attempt to remove a syllable, which would make this line’s meter more regular, and modernized accordingly.
Lines 71–72 were inserted in the margin after the fact; I have embedded them in the poem as they offer the last refrain before the poem shifts into another mode (the refrain will occur again only at the very end). I have also inserted a stanza break after these lines, to match the stanza breaks that occur after other instances of the refrain in the poem. However, without these lines and without the stanza break, the shift is much more subtle, as the poem originally transitioned from song of invitation to dark lament on the state of the world with no formal or visual cues.
Every other editor inserts these lines, with the following changes: SGC puts the inserted lines in brackets and adds a stanza break afterwards; AE does not add a stanza break, and emphasizes their continuity with what follows by adding a comma at the end of line 72; KW and RSB add a stanza break after.
Though the MS reads “breath,” I have followed RSB and emended to “birth” to rhyme with “earth.”
In early modern handwriting, “u” and “n” are written identically, so for the word I have given as “lonely” the MS could read either “lonely” or “louely” (lovely). I have interpreted the third graph (or letter) as an “n” as it makes more sense to me, in this dismal landscape, that the violet should creep into a lonely shade for its weeping. Further, that the violet is unpitied (l. 164) is perhaps because, in the lonely shade, there is no one else around to pity it. The MS’s ambiguity, however, is an interesting one, especially given that there is an identically written word (lonely / louely) only four lines earlier that almost certainly means “lovely.”
The manuscript reads “caves,” but the letters “u” and “v” were interchangeable in the period, so I have read it as “caues” to rhyme with “laws” and modernized as “cause.” The image of flowers “sleeping in their causes”—returning to their first principles, or existing as latent potentiality—is a common one in Pulter’s work; see also Universal Dissolution [Poem 6], l. 14, and The Perfection of Patience and Knowledge [Poem 39], l. 5.
For more on these textual notes and for an explanation of abbreviations, please see the “Editorial Note.”
AE: to My D.[ear] D.[aughters] M.[argaret] P.[ulter], P.[enelope] P.[ulter], 1647, when His Sacred Majesty Was at Unhappy [Holmby]
KW: 1647
RSB: to my Dear Daughters, M.P., P.P., 1647, when his Sacred Majesty was at Unhappy Hour
The series of initials in the title stand for, most editors agree, “Dear Daughters Margaret Pulter [and] Penelope Pulter.” I have left the title abbreviated because the coyness of the initials prepares the reader for the poem to follow, which often refuses to directly name its subjects (e.g., Chloris and Amintas for the queen and king of England), and yet makes it easy for its readers to crack its “code.” See also the headnote to the poem for more on this coyness. The final word of the title is blotted in the manuscript, but is clearly “home,” which AE says may be “in reference to Holdenby or Holmby House in Northamptonshire where Charles was kept under house arrest from February 7 until June 4, 1647” (p. 48, n. 12).
The MS has “Hydras,” which is either an alternate spelling of the name of the monster “Hydra,” or is a statement that London is filled with multiple hydras. I assumed it is an alternate spelling because of the singular verb “usurps,” though other editors read “hydras” as plural and emend the verb to “usurp.”
In the MS, the letter after the “P” is either an “l” or an “h”; one was written over the other, though it is difficult to discern which came first and which is the correction. While it is not impossible that plains (or plane trees) would be overgrown with moss, I chose “Phanes” or fanes, temples, because in line eight she suggests that even marble walls are weeping more than are (human) English subjects.
The MS originally read “Flowery,” and then the “e” was struck out and an apostrophe was inserted after the “w.” I interpreted these corrections as an attempt to remove a syllable, which would make this line’s meter more regular, and modernized accordingly.
The MS originally read “both”; this was replaced with “doth,” and then changed back, finally, to “both.”
The MS originally read “flowery,” and then the “e” was struck out and an apostrophe was inserted after the “w.” I interpreted these corrections as an attempt to remove a syllable, which would make this line’s meter more regular, and modernized accordingly.
Lines 71–72 were inserted in the margin after the fact; I have embedded them in the poem as they offer the last refrain before the poem shifts into another mode (the refrain will occur again only at the very end). I have also inserted a stanza break after these lines, to match the stanza breaks that occur after other instances of the refrain in the poem. However, without these lines and without the stanza break, the shift is much more subtle, as the poem originally transitioned from song of invitation to dark lament on the state of the world with no formal or visual cues.
Every other editor inserts these lines, with the following changes: SGC puts the inserted lines in brackets and adds a stanza break afterwards; AE does not add a stanza break, and emphasizes their continuity with what follows by adding a comma at the end of line 72; KW and RSB add a stanza break after.
Though the MS reads “breath,” I have followed RSB and emended to “birth” to rhyme with “earth.”
In early modern handwriting, “u” and “n” are written identically, so for the word I have given as “lonely” the MS could read either “lonely” or “louely” (lovely). I have interpreted the third graph (or letter) as an “n” as it makes more sense to me, in this dismal landscape, that the violet should creep into a lonely shade for its weeping. Further, that the violet is unpitied (l. 164) is perhaps because, in the lonely shade, there is no one else around to pity it. The MS’s ambiguity, however, is an interesting one, especially given that there is an identically written word (lonely / louely) only four lines earlier that almost certainly means “lovely.”
The manuscript reads “caves,” but the letters “u” and “v” were interchangeable in the period, so I have read it as “caues” to rhyme with “laws” and modernized as “cause.” The image of flowers “sleeping in their causes”—returning to their first principles, or existing as latent potentiality—is a common one in Pulter’s work; see also Universal Dissolution [Poem 6], l. 14, and The Perfection of Patience and Knowledge [Poem 39], l. 5.
For more on these textual notes and for an explanation of abbreviations, please see the “Editorial Note.”
AE: to My D.[ear] D.[aughters] M.[argaret] P.[ulter], P.[enelope] P.[ulter], 1647, when His Sacred Majesty Was at Unhappy [Holmby]
KW: 1647
RSB: to my Dear Daughters, M.P., P.P., 1647, when his Sacred Majesty was at Unhappy Hour
The series of initials in the title stand for, most editors agree, “Dear Daughters Margaret Pulter [and] Penelope Pulter.” I have left the title abbreviated because the coyness of the initials prepares the reader for the poem to follow, which often refuses to directly name its subjects (e.g., Chloris and Amintas for the queen and king of England), and yet makes it easy for its readers to crack its “code.” See also the headnote to the poem for more on this coyness. The final word of the title is blotted in the manuscript, but is clearly “home,” which AE says may be “in reference to Holdenby or Holmby House in Northamptonshire where Charles was kept under house arrest from February 7 until June 4, 1647” (p. 48, n. 12).
The MS has “Hydras,” which is either an alternate spelling of the name of the monster “Hydra,” or is a statement that London is filled with multiple hydras. I assumed it is an alternate spelling because of the singular verb “usurps,” though other editors read “hydras” as plural and emend the verb to “usurp.”
In the MS, the letter after the “P” is either an “l” or an “h”; one was written over the other, though it is difficult to discern which came first and which is the correction. While it is not impossible that plains (or plane trees) would be overgrown with moss, I chose “Phanes” or fanes, temples, because in line eight she suggests that even marble walls are weeping more than are (human) English subjects.
The MS originally read “Flowery,” and then the “e” was struck out and an apostrophe was inserted after the “w.” I interpreted these corrections as an attempt to remove a syllable, which would make this line’s meter more regular, and modernized accordingly.
The MS originally read “both”; this was replaced with “doth,” and then changed back, finally, to “both.”
The MS originally read “flowery,” and then the “e” was struck out and an apostrophe was inserted after the “w.” I interpreted these corrections as an attempt to remove a syllable, which would make this line’s meter more regular, and modernized accordingly.
Lines 71–72 were inserted in the margin after the fact; I have embedded them in the poem as they offer the last refrain before the poem shifts into another mode (the refrain will occur again only at the very end). I have also inserted a stanza break after these lines, to match the stanza breaks that occur after other instances of the refrain in the poem. However, without these lines and without the stanza break, the shift is much more subtle, as the poem originally transitioned from song of invitation to dark lament on the state of the world with no formal or visual cues.
Every other editor inserts these lines, with the following changes: SGC puts the inserted lines in brackets and adds a stanza break afterwards; AE does not add a stanza break, and emphasizes their continuity with what follows by adding a comma at the end of line 72; KW and RSB add a stanza break after.
Though the MS reads “breath,” I have followed RSB and emended to “birth” to rhyme with “earth.”
In early modern handwriting, “u” and “n” are written identically, so for the word I have given as “lonely” the MS could read either “lonely” or “louely” (lovely). I have interpreted the third graph (or letter) as an “n” as it makes more sense to me, in this dismal landscape, that the violet should creep into a lonely shade for its weeping. Further, that the violet is unpitied (l. 164) is perhaps because, in the lonely shade, there is no one else around to pity it. The MS’s ambiguity, however, is an interesting one, especially given that there is an identically written word (lonely / louely) only four lines earlier that almost certainly means “lovely.”
The manuscript reads “caves,” but the letters “u” and “v” were interchangeable in the period, so I have read it as “caues” to rhyme with “laws” and modernized as “cause.” The image of flowers “sleeping in their causes”—returning to their first principles, or existing as latent potentiality—is a common one in Pulter’s work; see also Universal Dissolution [Poem 6], l. 14, and The Perfection of Patience and Knowledge [Poem 39], l. 5.