The next poem on which I have any remark to make immediately succeeds that "on the Queen's Return," and is entitled "Upon the Death of the Right Valiant Sir Bevill Grenvill, Knight," who, we know from Lord Clarendon, was killed at Lansdown on 5th July, 1643, only five months before the death of Cartwright, who is supposed to have celebrated his fall. This production is incomplete, and the subsequent twelve lines on p. 305, are omitted in the ordinary copies of Cartwright's _Comedies, Tragi-Comedies, with other Poems_:--
"You now that boast the spirit, and its sway, Shew us his second, and wee'l give the day: We know your politique axiom, _Lurk, or fly_; Ye cannot conquer, 'cause you dare not dye: And though you thank God that you lost none there, 'Cause they were such who _liv'd_ not when they were; Yet your great Generall (who doth rise and fall, As his successes do, whom you dare call, As Fame unto you doth reports dispence, Either a---- or his Excellence) Howe'r he reigns now by unheard-of laws, Could wish his fate together with his cause."
It is clear to me, that these lines could not have been written in 1643, soon after the death of Sir B. Grenvill; and, supposing any part of the poem to have come from the pen of Cartwright, they must have been interpolated after the elevation of Cromwell to supreme power.
I have thrown out these points for information, and it is probable that some of your readers will be able to afford it: if able, I conclude they will be willing.
It may be an error to fancy that the copy of Cartwright now in my hands, containing the cancelled and uncancelled leaves, is a rarity; but although in my time I have inspected at least thirty copies of his _Comedies, Tragi-Comedies, with other Poems_, I certainly never met with one before with this peculiarity. On this matter, also, I hope for enlightenment.
Do the stanzas "on the Queen's Return" and the lines on the Death of Sir B. Grenvill exist in any of the various collections of State Poems?
In Day's edition of Tyndale's Works, Lond. 1573, at p. 476, Tyndale says:--
"Had he" [Sir Thomas More] "not come begging for the clergy from purgatory, with his _supplication of souls_--nor the poor soul and proctor been there with his bloody bishop Christen catte, so far conjured into his own Utopia."