Monday, January 28, 2013

"rewarded with rigor"

Edmund Campion.
Line engraving after unknown artist.
Published on 1 Dec 1819 by T & H. Rodd.
National Portrait Gallery, London, D2158.
"If these my offers be refused and my endeuoure can take no place and I hauing come thousandes of myles to do you good shall be rewarded with rigor: I haue no more to say but recommēd your cause to almighty god the searcher of all harts who send vs of his grace and set vs all at concord before the day of payment to the end at the last we may be friends in Heauen where all iniuries shalbe forgotten."

     Edmund Campion's brag 9, as reproduced in The great bragge and challenge of M. Champion a Iesuite, . . . co[n]futed & aunswered by Meredith Hanmer (London:  Thomas Marsh, 1581), as scanned into Early English Books Online.  This was one of the only two places in which it was ever published.  It was also the first.  According to the OED, by the early 15th century "rigor" meant (in addition to the "application or enforcement" of the "rigour", "full extent", or "strict enforcement" of the law) "cruelty" (Campion was hanged, drawn, and quartered).  But it also meant "hardness of heart" (a sort of rigor cordis, as it were).  I have changed only the esses (from non-final to final).  Was it written in English originally?  Does it exist in manuscript?  Note that it differs from the version offered by Evelyn Waugh
"If these my offers be refused, and my endeavours can take no place, and I, having run thousands of miles to do you good, shall be rewarded with rigour, I have no more to say but to recommend your case and mine to Almightie God, the Searcher of Hearts, who send us His grace, and set us at accord before the day of payment, to the end we may at last be friends in Heaven, when all injuries shall be forgotten."
the version offered by Richard Simpson, according to McCoog in the Oxford encyclopedia of the Reformation still Campion's best (if "Historiographically dated") biographer:
"If these my offers be refused, and my endeavours can take no place, and I, having run thousands of miles to do you good, shall be rewarded with rigour,I have no more to say, but to recommend your case and mine to Almighty God, the Searcher of hearts, who send us of His grace, and set us at accord before the day of payment, to the intent we may at last be friends in heaven, where all injuries shall be forgotten."
and the version offered by J. H. Pollen, as reproduced in Appendix B (p. 181 (179-181)) of James V. Holleran, A Jesuit challenge:  Edmund Campion's debates at the Tower of London in 1581 (New York:  Fordham University Press, 1999):
"If these my offers be refused, and my endeavours can take no place, and I, having run thousands of miles to do you good, shall be rewarded with rigour, I have no more to say but to recommend your case and mine to Almighty God, the Searcher of Hearts, who send us of His grace, and set us at accord before the day of payment, to the end we may at last be friends in heaven, when all injuries shall be forgotten."
The Hanmer version of 1581, only very slightly modernized:
"If these my offers be refused and my endevoure can take no place and I having come thousandes of myles to do you good shall be rewarded with rigor: I have no more to say but recommēd your cause to almighty god the searcher of all harts who send us of his grace and set us all at concord before the day of payment to the end at the last we may be friends in Heaven where all iniuries shalbe forgotten."