but in thother p(s)alme of David fynd I ease Iacta curam tuam super dominum et ipse to enutriet. 1
The Latin line with which the poem ends is that in the Vulgate immediately following the one translated; the Psalm then continues for five more verses. Surrey's version is then truncated; forty-one lines are translated, an original passage is interpolated, a line of the original is given, and the conclusion omitted. The explanation of this anomaly is purely hypothetical. It will be remembered that the witnesses all comment upon the fact that during his trial Surrey's attitude was one of defiance, 2 to such an extent that Holinshed insinuates that it prejudiced his judges against him. 3 If this passage means what it says, Surrey had been told by a friar, suborned by his enemies, that the accusation concerned merely his reputation, not his life. 4 Consequently instead of the expected humble confession, such as was his father's later, he played into the hands of the Seymours by defending himself. After his conviction, therefore, Iacta super Dominum curam tuam, et ipse te enutriet!
If this hypothesis be accepted as plausible, the passage becomes interesting, since it is the last work of the author. To the end, then, he scans his lines by the number of accents, not by the number of syllables. The third line of the passage quoted reads that sweáre to mé by heáuen the fótestole óf the lórd;
and the fourth line is still more irregular in beginning with an anapest, who though fórce had húrt my fáme they díd not tóuch my lýfe.
Clearly he avails himself of an unacademic freedom. ____________________ | 1 | Padelford, op. cit., 53. Of course "to" in the last line of the passage should read te. The poem is the last of Surrey's in Add. MS. 36529 and is found in Add. MS. 28635. | | 2 | Cf. p. 511. | | 3 | Herbert of Cherbury, ( The Life and Raigne of King Henry the Eighth, London, 1649, 565) who had access to documents now lost, gives the same impression. | | 4 | Nott ( Surrey, op. cit., 398) sees in this passage a "presumption that Surrey's attachment to the Reformation had drawn upon him the anger of the supporters of Popery." The documents do not support such an interpretation. Bapst, 158, | -533- |