• No results
ElementalAmplified
Manuscript
Notes
#
The Pulter Project
pulterproject.northwestern.edu
Poem 8

On that Unparalleled Prince Charles the First,
His Horrid Murder1

Edited by Leah Knight and Wendy Wall
This poem is one of several that meditates on the disastrous results caused by the death of King Charles I in the English Civil War. Offering an extended analogy, the speaker compares the national, natural, and personal trauma caused by the 1649 regicide to the trauma of the sun being extinguished. Written in iambic pentameter couplets, the poem draws heavily on mythological and cosmological knowledge, showing the relatively harmless consequences of losing particular constellations in the sky (compared to the disappearance of the sun’s primal heat and light). It concludes with a single couplet imploring God to install Charles II on the throne.
Compare Editions
i
1Those glittering
globes2
of light which grace
2The vast
expansion3
, when they leave their place,
3Or hide their radiant heads, we
ne’er4
wonder;
4
Their place and splendency’s supplied by number5
.
5But should the sun forsake the
line ecliptic6
,
6Then total Nature would be
epileptic7
.
7Just so’s our case since royal Charles did die;
8In horrid, trembling trances now we lie.
9Coy
Asoph8
may her sparkling splendor hide
10Four hundred years, yet we no change abide;
11And if sad
Electra9
may her beauties turn
12Away from us, yet none but
Ilium10
burn.
13But if the sun in darkness be
involved11
14Old Nature’s fabric would be soon dissolved.
15E’en so (ay me) since sacred
Caesar’s12
death
16Our spirits exhale in sighs; we turn to earth.
17Those
oviparous brothers13
, so adored
18By navigators, would be deplored
19By none but them, nor do we care or
fear14
20The one, or both of them, at once appear;
21But if the sun should lose his heat and light
22We should invaded be with Death and Night.
23So since our martyred sovereign’s spirit’s fled,
24Our light and life, our hopes and joys, are dead.
25Nay, should the
poles or axes of the sky15
26Their radiant luster unto us deny,
27Or
Cynthia16
cease to wane or to increase,
28We should subsist; t’would not disturb our peace.
29But should we lose the influence of the sun
30All into
chaos17
instantly would run.
31So since our king’s above—in
glory’s18
crowned—
32Anarchical confusion doth surround
33This fatal
isle19
, and
devils20
here will dwell,
34As
anciently21
, and turn this place to hell.
35Unless our God doth a
second Charles illustrate22
,
36(Which, O deny not!) all our hopes are frustrate.
Macron symbol indicating the end of a poem.

Elemental Edition,

edited by Leah Knight and Wendy Walli

Editorial Note

The aim of the elemental edition is to make the poems accessible to the largest variety of readers, which involves modernizing spelling and punctuation as well as adding basic glosses. Spelling and punctuation reflect current standard American usage; punctuation highlights syntax which might otherwise be obscure. Outmoded but still familiar word forms (“thou,” “‘tis,” “hold’st”) are not modernized, and we do not modernize grammar when the sense remains legible.

After a brief headnote aimed at offering a “way in” to the poem’s unique qualities and connections with other verse by Pulter or her contemporaries, the edition features a minimum of notes and interpretative framing to allow more immediate engagement with the poem. Glosses clarify synonyms or showcase various possible meanings in Pulter’s time. Other notes identify named people and places or clarify obscure material. We rely (without citation) primarily on the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), the Oxford Reference database, and the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible. When we rely on Alice Eardley’s edition of Pulter’s work, we cite her text generally (“Eardley”); other sources are cited in full. The result is an edition we consider a springboard for further work on Pulter’s poetry.

See the full conventions for the elemental edition here.

Macron symbol indicating the end of a poem.
  • Leah Knight, Brock University
  • Wendy Wall, Northwestern University
  • His Horrid Murder
    This phrase was added, probably in Pulter’s hand.
  • globes
    stars, planets
  • expansion
    heaven, firmament
  • ne’er
    “never” in the manuscript
  • Their place and splendency’s supplied by number
    Their presence and splendor are assured by their multitude, even if some disappear from view.
  • line ecliptic
    the great circular path of the celestial sphere that the sun appears to follow over the course of a year (as seen from Earth); named as such because eclipses can happen only when the moon is very near this line
  • epileptic
    have a seizure
  • Asoph
    comet visible every 400 years
  • Electra
    one of the Pleiades, or constellation of seven stars; mythical ancestor of the Trojans, known as the “Lost Pleiad,” or she is said to have disappeared before the Trojan war to avoid seeing the ruin of her beloved city; reputed to show herself occasionally to mortal eyes only in the guise of a comet; not to be confused with the daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, sister of Orestes who persuaded her brother Orestes to kill Clytemnestra and Aegisthus (their mother’s lover) in revenge for the murder of Agamemnon
  • Ilium
    Troy
  • involved
    entangled, enveloped
  • Caesar’s
    epithet for King Charles
  • oviparous brothers
    The twins, Castor and Pollux, were born out of a single egg (“oviparous” means egg-laying, which Pulter uses idiosyncratically); Zeus transformed the twins into the constellation Gemini, which navigators use to track their course.
  • fear
    fear if
  • poles or axes of the sky
    “Poles” are the points in the celestial sphere about which stars appear to revolve or the points at which the earth’s axis meets the celestial sphere; “axis” is the imaginary line about which planets rotate.
  • Cynthia
    moon, named after goddess
  • chaos
    primordial matter, nothingness
  • glory’s
    glory is
  • isle
    England, now doomed
  • devils
    usurpers led by Cromwell
  • anciently
    in ancient times
  • second Charles illustrate
    illumine or confer honor on the son of Charles I
The Pulter Project

Copyright © 2023
Wendy Wall, Leah Knight, Northwestern University, others.

Except where otherwise noted, this site is licensed
under a Creative Commons CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 License.

How to cite
About the project
Editorial conventions
Who is Hester Pulter?
Resources
Get in touch