Franz Cumont,
_Astrology
and
Religion among the Greeks and Romans_, 1912, pp.
Religion among the Greeks and Romans_, 1912, pp.
John Donne
481.
He died sometime before April 1636.
It is clear that the MSS. _Cy_, _O'F_, _P_, _S96_ have derived this
poem from a common source, inferior to that from which the _1633_ text
is derived, which has the general support of the best MSS. These MSS.
agree in the readings: 3 'holiness', but _O'F_ corrects, 10 'to use
it,' 13 'whites' _Cy_, _O'F_, 14 'Integritie', but _O'F_ corrects, 33
'good treasure'. It is clear that a copy of this tradition fell into
the hands of the _1635_ editor. His text is a contamination of the
better and the inferior versions. The strange corruption of 4-6 began
by the mistake of 'flowne' for 'showne'. In _O'F_ and the editions
_1635-54_ the sense is adjusted to this by reading, 'How long loves
weeds', and making the two lines an exclamation. The 'good treasure'
(l. 33) of _1635-69_, which Chambers has adopted, comes from this
source also. The reading at l. 10 is interesting; 'to use it', for 'to
us, it', has obviously arisen from 'to use and love Poetrie' of the
previous verse. In the case of 'seeme but light and thin' we have an
emendation, even in the inferior version, made for the sake of the
metre (which is why Chambers adopted it), for though _Cy_, _O'F_, and
_P_ have it, _S96_ reads:
Thoughe to use it, seeme and be light and thin.
l. 2. _a retirednesse. _ This reading of some MSS. , including _W_,
which is a very good authority for these Letters, is quite possibly
authentic. It is very like Donne to use the article; it was very easy
for a copyist to drop it. Compare the dropping of 'a' before 'span' in
_Crucifying_ (p. 320), l. 8. The use of abstracts as common nouns with
the article, or in the plural, is a feature of Donne's syntax. He does
so in the next line: 'a chast fallownesse'. Again: 'Beloved, it is not
enough to awake out of an ill sleepe of sinne, or of ignorance, or out
of a good sleep, _out of a retirednesse_, and take some profession, if
you winke, or hide your selves, when you are awake. ' _Sermons_ 50.
11. 90. 'It is not that he shall have no adversary, nor that that
adversary shall be able to doe him no harm, but that he should have a
refreshing, a respiration, _In velamento alarum_, under the shadow
of Gods wings. ' _Sermons_ 80. 66. 670--where also we find 'an
extraordinary sadnesse, a predominant melancholy, a faintnesse of
heart, a chearlessnesse, a joylessnesse of spirit' (Ibid. 672). Donne
does not mean to say that he is 'tied to retirednesse', a recluse. The
letter was not written after he was in orders, but probably, like the
preceding, when he was at Pyrford or Mitcham (1602-8). He is tied to
a degree of retirednesse (compared with his early life) or a period of
retiredness. He does not compare himself to a Nun but to a widow.
Even a third widowhood is not necessarily a final state. 'So all
retirings', he says in a letter to Goodyere, 'into a shadowy life are
alike from all causes, and alike subject to the barbarousnesse and
insipid dulnesse of the Country. ' _Letters_, p. 63. But the phrase
here applies primarily to the Nun and the widow.
l. 3. _fallownesse_; I have changed the full stop of _1633-54_ to a
semicolon here because I take the next three lines to be an adverbial
clause giving the reason why Donne's muse 'affects . . . a chast
fallownesse'. The full stop disguises this, and Chambers, by keeping
the full stop here but changing that after 'sown' (l. 6), has thrown
the reference of the clause forward to 'Omissions of good, ill, as ill
deeds bee. '--not a happy arrangement.
ll. 16-18. _There is no Vertue, &c. _ Donne refers here to the Cardinal
Virtues which the Schoolmen took over from Aristotle. There are,
Aquinas demonstrates, four essential virtues of human nature:
'Principium enim formale virtutis, de qua nunc loquimur, est rationis
bonum. Quod quidem dupliciter potest considerari: uno modo secundum
quod in ipsa consideratione consistit; et sic erit una virtus
principalis, quae dicitur _prudentia_. Alio modo secundum quod circa
aliquid ponitur rationis ordo; et hoc vel circa operationes, et sic
est _justitia_; vel circa passiones, et sic necesse est esse duas
virtutes. Ordinem enim rationis necesse est ponere circa passiones,
considerata repugnantia ipsarum ad rationem. Quae quidem potest
esse dupliciter: uno modo secundum quod passio impellit ad aliquid
contrarium rationi; et sic necesse est quod passio reprimatur, et ab
hoc denominatur _temperantia_; alio modo secundum quod passio retrahit
ab eo quod ratio dictat, sicut timor periculorum vel laborum; et sic
necesse est quod homo firmetur in eo quod est rationis, ne recedat; et
ab hoc denominatur _fortitudo_. ' _Summa, Prima Secundae_, 61. 2.
Since the Cardinal Virtues thus cover the whole field, what place is
reserved for the Theological Virtues, viz. , Faith, Hope, and Charity?
Aquinas's reply is quite definite: 'Virtutes theologicae sunt
supra hominem . . . Unde non proprie dicuntur virtutes _humanae_ sed
_suprahumanae_, vel _divinae_. ' Ibid. , 61. 1. Donne here exclaims that
the cardinal virtues themselves are non-existent without religion.
They are, isolated from religion, habits which any one can assume
who has the discretion to cover his vices. Religion not only gives us
higher virtues but alone gives sincerity to the natural virtues. Donne
is probably echoing St. Augustine, _De Civ. Dei_, xviiii. 25: '_Quod
non possint ibi verae esse virtutes, ubi non est vera religio_.
Quamlibet enim videatur animus corpori et ratio vitiis laudibiliter
imperare, si Deo animus et ratio ipsa non servit, sicut sibi esse
serviendum ipse Deus precepit, nullo modo corpori vitiisque recte
imperat. Nam qualis corporis atque vitiorum potest esse mens domina
veri Dei nescia nec eius imperio subjugata, sed vitiosissimis
daemonibus corrumpentibus prostituta? Proinde virtutes quas habere
sibi videtur per quas imperat corpori et vitiis, ad quodlibet
adipiscendum vel tenendum rettulerit nisi ad Deum, etiam ipsae vitia
sunt potius quam virtutes. Nam licet a quibusdam tunc verae atque
honestae esse virtutes cum referentur ad se ipsas nec propter
aliud expetuntur: etiam tunc inflatae et superbae sunt, et ideo non
virtutes, sed vitia iudicanda sunt. Sicut enim non est a carne sed
super carnem quod carnem facit vivere; sic non est ab homine sed super
hominem quod hominem facit beate vivere: nec solum hominem, sed etiam
quamlibet potestatem virtutemque caelestem. '
PAGE =186=, ll. 25-7. _You know, Physitians, &c. _ Paracelsus refers
more than once to the heat of horse-dung used in 'separations', e. g.
_On the Separations of the Elements from Metals_ he enjoins that when
the metal has been reduced to a liquid substance you must 'add to
one part of this oil two parts of fresh _aqua fortis_, and when it
is enclosed in glass of the best quality, set it in horse-dung for a
month'.
l. 31. _Wee are but farmers of our selves. _ The reading of _1633_ is
'termers', and as in 'Tables' 'Fables' of the preceding poem it is not
easy to determine which is original. 'Termer' of course, in the sense
of 'one who holds for a term' (see O. E. D. ), would do. It is the more
general word and would include 'Farmer'. A farmer generally is a
'termer' in the land which he works. I think, however, that the rest
of the verse shows that 'farmer' is used in a more positive sense
than would be covered by 'termer'. The metaphor includes not only
the terminal occupancy but the specific work of the farmer--stocking,
manuring, uplaying.
Donne's metaphor is perhaps borrowed by Benlowes when he says of the
soul:
She her own farmer, stock'd from Heav'n is bent
To thrive; care 'bout the pay-day's spent.
Strange! she alone is farmer, farm, and stock, and rent.
Donne in a sermon for the 5th of November speaks of those who will
have the King to be 'their Farmer of his Kingdome. ' _Sermons_ 50. 43.
403.
It must be remembered that in MS. 'Fermer' and 'Termer' would be
easily interchanged.
l. 34. _to thy selfe be approv'd. _ There is no reason to prefer the
_1669_ 'improv'd' here. To be 'improv'd to oneself' is not a very
lucid phrase. What Donne bids Woodward do is to seek the approval
of his own conscience. His own conscience is contrasted with 'vaine
outward things'. Donne has probably Epictetus in mind: 'How then may
this be attained? --Resolve now if never before, to approve thyself to
thyself; resolve to show thyself fair in God's sight; long to be pure
with thine own pure self and God. ' _Golden Sayings_, lxxvi. , trans. by
Crossley.
PAGE =187=. TO S^r HENRY WOOTTON.
The date of this letter is given in two MSS. as July 20, 1598. Its
tone is much the same as that of the previous letter (p. 180) and
of both the fourth and fifth _Satyres_. The theme of them all is the
Court.
l. 2. _Cales or St Michaels tale. _ The point of this allusion was
early lost and has been long in being recovered. The spelling 'Calis'
is a little misleading, as it was used both for Calais and for
Cadiz. In Sir Francis Vere's _Commentaries_ (1657) he speaks of 'The
Calis-journey' and the 'Island voiage'. I have taken 'Cales' from some
MSS. as less ambiguous. All the modern editors have printed 'Calais',
and Grosart considers the allusion to be to the Armada, Norton to the
'old wars with France'. The reference is to the Cadiz expedition
and the Island voyage: 'Why should I tell you what we both know? ' In
speaking of 'St. Michaels tale' Donne may be referring to the attack
on that particular island, which led to the loss of the opportunity
to capture the plate-fleet. But the 'Islands of St. Michael' was a
synonym for the Azores. 'Thus the ancient Cosmographers do place the
division of the East and Western Hemispheres, that is, the first term
of longitude, in the _Canary_ or fortunate Islands; conceiving these
parts the extreamest habitations Westward: But the Moderns have
altered that term, and translated it unto the _Azores_ or Islands
of St Michael; and that upon a plausible conceit of the small or
insensible variation of the Compass in those parts,' &c. Browne,
_Pseud. Epidem. _ vi. 7.
ll. 10-11. _Fate, (Gods Commissary)_: i. e. God's Deputy or Delegate.
Compare:
Fate, which God made, but doth not control.
_The Progresse of the Soule_, p. 295, l. 2.
Great Destiny the Commissary of God
That hast mark'd out a path and period
For every thing . . .
Ibid. , p. 296, ll. 31 f.
The idea that Fate or Fortune is the deputy of God in the sphere of
external goods ([Greek: ta ektos agatha], i beni del mondo) is very
clearly expressed by Dante in the _Convivio_, iv. 11, and in the
_Inferno_, vi. 67 f. : '"Master," I said to him, "now tell me also:
this Fortune of which thou hintest to me; what is she, that has the
good things of the world thus within her clutches? " And he to me, "O
foolish creatures, how great is this ignorance that falls upon ye!
Now I wish thee to receive my judgement of her. He whose wisdom
is transcendent over all, made the heavens" (i. e. the nine moving
spheres) "and gave them guides" (Angels, Intelligences); "so that
every part may shine to every part equally distributing the light. In
like manner, for worldly splendours, he ordained a general minister
and guide (ministro e duce); to change betimes the vain possessions,
from people to people, and from one kindred to another, beyond
the hindrance of human wisdom. Hence one people commands, another
languishes; obeying her sentence, which is hidden like the serpent in
the grass. Your knowledge cannot withstand her. She provides,
judges, and maintains her kingdom, as the other gods do theirs. Her
permutations have no truce. Necessity makes her be swift; so oft come
things requiring change. This is she, who is so much reviled, even by
those who ought to praise her, when blaming her wrongfully, and with
evil words. But she is in bliss, and hears it not. With the other
Primal Creatures joyful, she wheels her sphere, and tastes her
blessedness. "' Dante finds in this view the explanation of the want of
anything like distributive justice in the assignment of wealth, power,
and worldly glory. Dante speaks here of Fortune, but though in
its original conception at the opposite pole from Fate, Fortune is
ultimately included in the idea of Fate. 'Necessity makes her be
swift. ' 'Sed talia maxime videntur esse contingentia quae Fato
attribuuntur. ' Aquinas. The relation of Fate or Destiny to God or
Divine Providence is discussed by Boethius, _De Cons. Phil. _ IV.
_Prose_ III, whom Aquinas follows, _Summa_, I. cxvi. Ultimately the
immovable Providence of God is the cause of all things; but viewed in
the world of change and becoming, accidents or events are ascribed to
Destiny. 'Uti est ad intellectum ratiocinatio; ad id quod est, id quod
gignitur; ad aeternitatem, tempus; ad punctum medium, circulus; ita
est fati series mobilis ad Providentiae stabilem simplicitatem. '
Boethius. This is clearly what Donne has in view when he calls Destiny
the Commissary of God or declares that God made but doth not control
her. The idea of Fate in Greek thought which Christian Philosophy
had some difficulty in adjusting to its doctrines of freedom
and providence came from the astronomico-religious ideas of the
Chaldaeans. The idea of Fate 'arose from the observation of the
regularity of the sidereal movements'.
Franz Cumont, _Astrology and
Religion among the Greeks and Romans_, 1912, pp. 28, 69.
l. 14. _wishing prayers. _ This may be a phrase corresponding to
'bidding prayers', but 'wishing' is comma'd off as a noun in some MSS.
and 'wishes' may be the author's correction.
PAGE =188=, l. 24. _dull Moralls of a game at Chests. _ The comparison
of life and especially politics to a game of chess is probably an old
one. Sancho Panza develops it with considerable eloquence.
PAGE =188=. H: W: IN HIBER: BELLIGERANTI.
This poem is taken from the Burley MS. , where it is found along with
a number of poems some of which are by Donne, viz. : the _Satyres_, one
of the _Elegies_, and several of the _Epigrams_. Of the others this
alone has the initials 'J. D. ' added in the margin. There can
be little doubt that it is by Donne,--a continuation of the
correspondence of the years 1597-9 to which the last letter and
'Letters more than kisses' belong. In _Life and Letters of Sir Henry
Wotton_ Mr. Pearsall Smith prints what he takes to be a reply to this
letter and the charge of indolence. 'Sir, It is worth my wondering
that you can complain of my seldom writing, when your own letters come
so fearfully as if they tread all the way upon a bog. I have received
from you a few, and almost every one hath a commission to speak of
divers others of their fellows, like you know who in the old comedy
that asks for the rest of his servants. But you make no mention of
any of mine, yet it is not long since I ventured much of my experience
unto you in a long piece of paper, and perhaps not of my credit; it is
that which I sent you by A. R. , whereof till you advertise me I shall
live in fits or agues. ' After referring to the malicious reports in
circulation regarding the Irish expedition he concludes in the style
of the previous letters: 'These be the wise rules of policy, and of
courts, which are upon earth the vainest places. '
l. 11. _yong death_: i. e. early death, death that comes to you while
young.
ll. 13-15. These lines are enough of themselves to prove Donne's
authorship of this poem. Compare _To S^r Henry Goodyere_, p. 183, ll.
17-20.
PAGE =189=. TO THE COUNTESSE OF BEDFORD.
Lucy, Countess of Bedford, occupies the central place among Donne's
noble patrons and friends. No one was more consistently his friend; to
none does he address himselfe in terms of sincerer and more respectful
eulogy.
The eldest child of John Harington, created by James first Baron
Harington of Exton, was married to Edward, third Earl of Bedford, in
1594 and was a lady in waiting under Elizabeth. She was one of the
group of noble ladies who hastened north on the death of the Queen
to welcome, and secure the favour of, James and Anne of Denmark. Her
father and mother were granted the tutorship of the young Princess
Elizabeth, and she herself was admitted at once as a Lady of the
Chamber. Her beauty and talent secured her a distinguished place
at Court, and in the years that Donne was a prisoner at Mitcham the
Countess was a brilliant figure in more than one of Ben Jonson's
masques. 'She was "the crowning rose" in that garland of English
beauty which the Spanish ambassador desired Madame Beaumont, the Lady
of the French ambassador, to bring with her to an entertainment on the
8th of December, 1603: the three others being Lady Rich, Lady Susan
Vere, and Lady Dorothy (Sidney); "and", says the Lady Arabella
Stewart, "great cheer they had. "' Wiffen, _Historical Memoirs of the
House of Russell_, 1833. She figured also in Daniel's Masque, _The
Vision of the Twelve Goddesses_, which was published (1604) with an
explanatory letter addressed to her. In praising her beauty Donne
is thus echoing 'the Catholic voice'. The latest Masque in which she
figured was the _Masque of Queens_, 2nd of February, 1609-10.
In Court politics the Countess of Bedford seems to have taken some
part in the early promotion of Villiers as a rival to the Earl of
Somerset; and in 1617 she promoted the marriage of Donne's patron Lord
Hay to the youngest daughter of the Earl of Northumberland, against
the wish of the bride's father. Match-making seems to have been a
hobby of hers, for in 1625 she was an active agent in arranging the
match between James, Lord Strange, afterwards Earl of Derby, and Lady
Charlotte de la Tremouille, the heroic Countess of Derby who defended
Lathom House against the Roundheads.
An active and gay life at Court was no proof of the want of a more
serious spirit. Lady Bedford was a student and a poet, and the patron
of scholars and poets. Sir Thomas Roe presented her with coins and
medals; and Drayton, Daniel, Jonson, and Donne were each in turn among
the poets whom she befriended and who sang her praises. She loved
gardens. One of Donne's finest lyrics is written in the garden of
Twickenham Park, which the Countess occupied from 1608 to 1617; and
the laying out of the garden at Moore Park in Hertfordshire, where she
lived from 1617 to her death in 1627, is commended by her successor in
that place, Sir William Temple.
Donne seems to have been recommended to Lady Bedford by Sir Henry
Goodyere, who was attached to her household. He mentions the death
of her son in a letter to Goodyere as early as 1602, but his intimacy
with the Countess probably began in 1608, and most of his verse
letters were written between that date and 1614. Donne praises her
beauty and it may be that in some of his lyrics he plays the part
of the courtly lover, but what his poems chiefly emphasize is the
religious side of her character. If my conjecture be right that she
herself wrote 'Death be not proud', her religion was probably of
a simpler, more pietistic cast than Donne's own was in its earlier
phase.
In 1612 the Countess had a serious illness which began on November
22-3 (II. p. 10). She recovered in time to take part in the ceremonies
attending the wedding of the Princess Elizabeth (Feb. 14, 1612/3),
but Chamberlain in his letters to Carleton notes a change in her
behaviour. After mentioning an accident to the Earl of Bedford he
continues: 'His lady who should have gone to the Spa but for lack of
money, shows herself again in court, though in her sickness she in a
manner vowed never to come there; but she verifies the proverb, _Nemo
ex morbo melior_. Marry, she is somewhat reformed in her attire, and
forbears painting, which, they say, makes her look somewhat strangely
among so many vizards, which together with their frizzled, powdered
hair, makes them look all alike, so that you can scant know one from
another at the first view. ' Birch, _The Court and Times of James the
First_, i. 262. Donne makes no mention of this illness, but it seems
to me probable that the first two of these letters, with the emphasis
which they lay on beauty, were written before, the other more serious
and pious verses after this crisis.
See notes on _Twicknam Garden_ and the _Nocturnall on St. Lucies Day_.
PAGE =189=, ll. 4-5. _light . . . faire faith. _ I have retained the
'light' and 'faire faith' of the editions, but the MS. readings
'sight' and 'farr Faith' are quite possibly correct. There is not much
to choose between 'light' and 'sight', but 'farr' is an interesting
reading. Indeed at first sight 'fair' is a rather otiose epithet, a
vaguely complimentary adjective. There is, however, probably more
in it than that. 'Fair' as an epithet of 'Faith' is probably
an antithesis to the 'squint ungracious left-handedness' of
understanding. If 'farr' be the right reading, then Donne is
contrasting faith and sight: 'Now faith is the substance of things
hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. ' Heb. xi. 1. The use of
'far' as an adjective is not uncommon: 'Pulling far history nearer,'
Crashaw; 'His own far blood,' Tennyson; 'Far travellers may lie by
authority,' Gataker (1625), are some examples quoted in the O. E. D.
But there is no parallel to Donne's use of 'far faith' for 'faith
that lays hold on things at a distance'. 'These all died in faith, not
having received the promises, but having seen them afar off', Heb. xi.
13, is probably the source of the phrase. Such a condensed elliptical
construction is quite in Donne's manner. Compare 'Neere death', p. 28,
l. 63. Both versions may be original. The variants in l. 19 point to
some revision of the poem.
PAGE =190=, l. 22. _In every thing there naturally grows, &c. _
'Every thing hath in it as, as Physicians use to call it, _Naturale
Balsamum_, a naturall Balsamum, which, if any wound or hurt which that
creature hath received, be kept clean from extrinseque putrefaction,
will heal of itself. We are so far from that naturall Balsamum, as
that we have a naturall poyson in us, Originall sin:' &c. _Sermons_
80. 32. 313.
'Now Physitians say, that man hath in his Constitution, in his
Complexion, a naturall Vertue, which they call _Balsamum suum_, his
owne Balsamum, by which, any wound which a man could receive in
his body, would cure itself, if it could be kept cleane from the
annoiances of the aire, and all extrinseque encumbrances. Something
that hath some proportion and analogy to this Balsamum of the body,
there is in the soul of man too: The soule hath _Nardum suum_, her
Spikenard, as the Spouse says, _Nardus mea dedit odorem suum_, she
hath a spikenard, a perfume, a fragrancy, a sweet savour in her
selfe. For _virtutes germanius attingunt animam, quam corpus sanitas_,
vertuous inclinations, and disposition to morall goodness, is more
naturall to the soule of man, and nearer of kin to the soule of man,
then health is to the body. And then if we consider bodily health,
_Nulla oratio, nulla doctrinae formula nos docet morbum odisse_, sayes
that Father: There needs no Art, there needs no outward Eloquence, to
persuade a man to be loath to be sick: _Ita in anima inest naturalis
et citra doctrinam mali evitatio_, sayes he: So the soule hath a
naturall and untaught hatred, and detestation of that which is evill,'
&c. _Sermons_ 80. 51. 514.
Paracelsus has a great deal to say about this natural balsam, though
he declares that 'the spirit is _most_ truly the life and balsome of
all Corporeal things'. It was to supply the want of this balsam that
mummy was used as a medicine. Of a man suddenly slain Paracelsus says:
'His whole body is profitable and good and may be prepared into a most
precious Mummie. For, although the spirit of life went out of such a
Body, yet the Balsome, in which lies the Life, remains, which doth as
Balsome preserve other mens. '
l. 27. _A methridate_: i. e. an antidote. See note to p. 255, l. 127.
ll. 31-2. _The first good Angell, &c. _ 'Our first consideration
is upon the persons; and those we finde to be Angelicall women and
Evangelicall Angels: . . . And to recompense that observation, that
never good Angel appeared in the likenesse of woman, here are good
women made Angels, that is, Messengers, publishers of the greatest
mysteries of our Religion. ' _Sermons_ 80. 25. 242.
ll. 35-6. _Make your returne home gracious; and bestow
This life on that; so make one life of two. _
'Make a present of this life to the next, by living now as you will
live then; and so make this life and the next one'--or, as another
poet puts it:
And so make life, death, and that vast forever
One grand, sweet song.
This I take to be Donne's meaning. The 'This' of _1635-69_ and
the MSS. , which Chambers also has adopted, seems required by the
antithesis. If one recalls that 'this' is very commonly written
'thys', and that final 's' is little more than a tail, it is easy to
account for 'Thy' in _1633_. The meaning too is not clear at a glance,
and 'Thy' might seem to an editor to make it easier. The thought is
much the same as in the _Obsequies to the Lord Harrington_, p. 279.
And I (though with paine)
Lessen our losse, to magnifie thy gaine
Of triumph, when I say, It was more fit,
That all men should lacke thee, then thou lack it.
Compare also: 'Sir, our greatest businesse is more in our power then
the least, and we may be surer to meet in heaven than in any place
upon earth. ' _Letters_, p. 188. And see the quotation in note to p.
112, l. 44, 'this and the next are not two worlds,' &c.
PAGE =191=. TO THE COUNTESSE OF BEDFORD.
ll. 1-6. The sense of this verse, carefully and correctly printed in
the 1633 edition, was obscured if not corrupted by the insertion of
a semicolon after 'Fortune' in the later editions. The correct
punctuation was restored in 1719, which was followed in subsequent
editions until Grosart returned to that of the 1635-39 editions (which
the Grolier Club editor also adopts), and Chambers completed the
confusion by printing the lines thus,
You have refined me, and to worthiest things--
Virtue, art, beauty, fortune.
Even Mr. Gosse has been misled into quoting this truncated and
enigmatical compliment to Lady Bedford, regarding it, I presume, as of
the same nature as Shakespeare's lines,
Spirits are not finely touch'd,
But to fine issues.
But this has a meaning; what meaning is there in saying that a man is
refined to 'beauty and fortune'? Poor Donne was not likely to boast
of either at this time. What he says is something quite different, and
strikes the key-note of the poem. 'You have refined and sharpened my
judgement, and now I see that the worthiest things owe their value
to rareness or use. Value is nothing intrinsic, but depends on
circumstances. ' This, the next two verses add, explains why at Court
it is your virtue which transcends, in the country your beauty. To
Donne the country is always dull and savage; the court the focus of
wit and beauty, though not of virtue. On the relative nature of all
goodness he has touched in the _Progresse of the Soule_, p. 316, ll.
518-20:
There's nothing simply good nor ill alone;
Of every quality Comparison
The only measure is, and judge, Opinion.
With the sentiment regarding Courts compare: 'Beauty, in courts, is
so necessary to the young, that those who are without it, seem to be
there to no other purpose than to wait on the triumphs of the fair; to
attend their motions in obscurity, as the moon and stars do the sun
by day; or at best to be the refuge of those hearts which others have
despised; and by the unworthiness of both to give and take a miserable
comfort. ' Dryden, Dedication of the _Indian Emperor_.
ll. 8-9. (_Where a transcendent height, (as lownesse mee)
Makes her not be, or not show_)
I have completed the enclosure of (Where . . . show) in brackets which
_1633_ began but forgot to carry out. The statement is parenthetical,
and it is of the essence of Donne's wit to turn aside in one
parenthesis to make another, dart from one distracting thought to
a further, returning at the end to the main track. He has left the
Countess for a moment to explain why the Court 'is not Vertues clime'.
She is too transcendent to be, or at any rate to be seen there, as
I (he adds, quite irrelevantly) am too low. Then taking up again the
thought of the first line he continues: 'all my rhyme is claimed
there by your vertues, for _there_ rareness gives them value. I am the
comment on what _there_ is a dark text; the usher who announces one
that is a stranger. '
For brackets within brackets compare: 'And yet it is imperfect which
is taught by that religion which is most accommodate to sense (I dare
not say to reason (though it have appearance of that too) because
none may doubt but that that religion is certainly best which is
reasonablest) That all mankinde hath one protecting Angel; all
Christians one other, all English one other, all of one Corporation
and every civill coagulation or society one other; and every man one
other. ' _Letters_, p. 43.
l. 13. _To this place_: i. e. Twickenham. _O'F_ heads the poem _To the
Countesse of Bedford, Twitnam_.
It is clear that the MSS. _Cy_, _O'F_, _P_, _S96_ have derived this
poem from a common source, inferior to that from which the _1633_ text
is derived, which has the general support of the best MSS. These MSS.
agree in the readings: 3 'holiness', but _O'F_ corrects, 10 'to use
it,' 13 'whites' _Cy_, _O'F_, 14 'Integritie', but _O'F_ corrects, 33
'good treasure'. It is clear that a copy of this tradition fell into
the hands of the _1635_ editor. His text is a contamination of the
better and the inferior versions. The strange corruption of 4-6 began
by the mistake of 'flowne' for 'showne'. In _O'F_ and the editions
_1635-54_ the sense is adjusted to this by reading, 'How long loves
weeds', and making the two lines an exclamation. The 'good treasure'
(l. 33) of _1635-69_, which Chambers has adopted, comes from this
source also. The reading at l. 10 is interesting; 'to use it', for 'to
us, it', has obviously arisen from 'to use and love Poetrie' of the
previous verse. In the case of 'seeme but light and thin' we have an
emendation, even in the inferior version, made for the sake of the
metre (which is why Chambers adopted it), for though _Cy_, _O'F_, and
_P_ have it, _S96_ reads:
Thoughe to use it, seeme and be light and thin.
l. 2. _a retirednesse. _ This reading of some MSS. , including _W_,
which is a very good authority for these Letters, is quite possibly
authentic. It is very like Donne to use the article; it was very easy
for a copyist to drop it. Compare the dropping of 'a' before 'span' in
_Crucifying_ (p. 320), l. 8. The use of abstracts as common nouns with
the article, or in the plural, is a feature of Donne's syntax. He does
so in the next line: 'a chast fallownesse'. Again: 'Beloved, it is not
enough to awake out of an ill sleepe of sinne, or of ignorance, or out
of a good sleep, _out of a retirednesse_, and take some profession, if
you winke, or hide your selves, when you are awake. ' _Sermons_ 50.
11. 90. 'It is not that he shall have no adversary, nor that that
adversary shall be able to doe him no harm, but that he should have a
refreshing, a respiration, _In velamento alarum_, under the shadow
of Gods wings. ' _Sermons_ 80. 66. 670--where also we find 'an
extraordinary sadnesse, a predominant melancholy, a faintnesse of
heart, a chearlessnesse, a joylessnesse of spirit' (Ibid. 672). Donne
does not mean to say that he is 'tied to retirednesse', a recluse. The
letter was not written after he was in orders, but probably, like the
preceding, when he was at Pyrford or Mitcham (1602-8). He is tied to
a degree of retirednesse (compared with his early life) or a period of
retiredness. He does not compare himself to a Nun but to a widow.
Even a third widowhood is not necessarily a final state. 'So all
retirings', he says in a letter to Goodyere, 'into a shadowy life are
alike from all causes, and alike subject to the barbarousnesse and
insipid dulnesse of the Country. ' _Letters_, p. 63. But the phrase
here applies primarily to the Nun and the widow.
l. 3. _fallownesse_; I have changed the full stop of _1633-54_ to a
semicolon here because I take the next three lines to be an adverbial
clause giving the reason why Donne's muse 'affects . . . a chast
fallownesse'. The full stop disguises this, and Chambers, by keeping
the full stop here but changing that after 'sown' (l. 6), has thrown
the reference of the clause forward to 'Omissions of good, ill, as ill
deeds bee. '--not a happy arrangement.
ll. 16-18. _There is no Vertue, &c. _ Donne refers here to the Cardinal
Virtues which the Schoolmen took over from Aristotle. There are,
Aquinas demonstrates, four essential virtues of human nature:
'Principium enim formale virtutis, de qua nunc loquimur, est rationis
bonum. Quod quidem dupliciter potest considerari: uno modo secundum
quod in ipsa consideratione consistit; et sic erit una virtus
principalis, quae dicitur _prudentia_. Alio modo secundum quod circa
aliquid ponitur rationis ordo; et hoc vel circa operationes, et sic
est _justitia_; vel circa passiones, et sic necesse est esse duas
virtutes. Ordinem enim rationis necesse est ponere circa passiones,
considerata repugnantia ipsarum ad rationem. Quae quidem potest
esse dupliciter: uno modo secundum quod passio impellit ad aliquid
contrarium rationi; et sic necesse est quod passio reprimatur, et ab
hoc denominatur _temperantia_; alio modo secundum quod passio retrahit
ab eo quod ratio dictat, sicut timor periculorum vel laborum; et sic
necesse est quod homo firmetur in eo quod est rationis, ne recedat; et
ab hoc denominatur _fortitudo_. ' _Summa, Prima Secundae_, 61. 2.
Since the Cardinal Virtues thus cover the whole field, what place is
reserved for the Theological Virtues, viz. , Faith, Hope, and Charity?
Aquinas's reply is quite definite: 'Virtutes theologicae sunt
supra hominem . . . Unde non proprie dicuntur virtutes _humanae_ sed
_suprahumanae_, vel _divinae_. ' Ibid. , 61. 1. Donne here exclaims that
the cardinal virtues themselves are non-existent without religion.
They are, isolated from religion, habits which any one can assume
who has the discretion to cover his vices. Religion not only gives us
higher virtues but alone gives sincerity to the natural virtues. Donne
is probably echoing St. Augustine, _De Civ. Dei_, xviiii. 25: '_Quod
non possint ibi verae esse virtutes, ubi non est vera religio_.
Quamlibet enim videatur animus corpori et ratio vitiis laudibiliter
imperare, si Deo animus et ratio ipsa non servit, sicut sibi esse
serviendum ipse Deus precepit, nullo modo corpori vitiisque recte
imperat. Nam qualis corporis atque vitiorum potest esse mens domina
veri Dei nescia nec eius imperio subjugata, sed vitiosissimis
daemonibus corrumpentibus prostituta? Proinde virtutes quas habere
sibi videtur per quas imperat corpori et vitiis, ad quodlibet
adipiscendum vel tenendum rettulerit nisi ad Deum, etiam ipsae vitia
sunt potius quam virtutes. Nam licet a quibusdam tunc verae atque
honestae esse virtutes cum referentur ad se ipsas nec propter
aliud expetuntur: etiam tunc inflatae et superbae sunt, et ideo non
virtutes, sed vitia iudicanda sunt. Sicut enim non est a carne sed
super carnem quod carnem facit vivere; sic non est ab homine sed super
hominem quod hominem facit beate vivere: nec solum hominem, sed etiam
quamlibet potestatem virtutemque caelestem. '
PAGE =186=, ll. 25-7. _You know, Physitians, &c. _ Paracelsus refers
more than once to the heat of horse-dung used in 'separations', e. g.
_On the Separations of the Elements from Metals_ he enjoins that when
the metal has been reduced to a liquid substance you must 'add to
one part of this oil two parts of fresh _aqua fortis_, and when it
is enclosed in glass of the best quality, set it in horse-dung for a
month'.
l. 31. _Wee are but farmers of our selves. _ The reading of _1633_ is
'termers', and as in 'Tables' 'Fables' of the preceding poem it is not
easy to determine which is original. 'Termer' of course, in the sense
of 'one who holds for a term' (see O. E. D. ), would do. It is the more
general word and would include 'Farmer'. A farmer generally is a
'termer' in the land which he works. I think, however, that the rest
of the verse shows that 'farmer' is used in a more positive sense
than would be covered by 'termer'. The metaphor includes not only
the terminal occupancy but the specific work of the farmer--stocking,
manuring, uplaying.
Donne's metaphor is perhaps borrowed by Benlowes when he says of the
soul:
She her own farmer, stock'd from Heav'n is bent
To thrive; care 'bout the pay-day's spent.
Strange! she alone is farmer, farm, and stock, and rent.
Donne in a sermon for the 5th of November speaks of those who will
have the King to be 'their Farmer of his Kingdome. ' _Sermons_ 50. 43.
403.
It must be remembered that in MS. 'Fermer' and 'Termer' would be
easily interchanged.
l. 34. _to thy selfe be approv'd. _ There is no reason to prefer the
_1669_ 'improv'd' here. To be 'improv'd to oneself' is not a very
lucid phrase. What Donne bids Woodward do is to seek the approval
of his own conscience. His own conscience is contrasted with 'vaine
outward things'. Donne has probably Epictetus in mind: 'How then may
this be attained? --Resolve now if never before, to approve thyself to
thyself; resolve to show thyself fair in God's sight; long to be pure
with thine own pure self and God. ' _Golden Sayings_, lxxvi. , trans. by
Crossley.
PAGE =187=. TO S^r HENRY WOOTTON.
The date of this letter is given in two MSS. as July 20, 1598. Its
tone is much the same as that of the previous letter (p. 180) and
of both the fourth and fifth _Satyres_. The theme of them all is the
Court.
l. 2. _Cales or St Michaels tale. _ The point of this allusion was
early lost and has been long in being recovered. The spelling 'Calis'
is a little misleading, as it was used both for Calais and for
Cadiz. In Sir Francis Vere's _Commentaries_ (1657) he speaks of 'The
Calis-journey' and the 'Island voiage'. I have taken 'Cales' from some
MSS. as less ambiguous. All the modern editors have printed 'Calais',
and Grosart considers the allusion to be to the Armada, Norton to the
'old wars with France'. The reference is to the Cadiz expedition
and the Island voyage: 'Why should I tell you what we both know? ' In
speaking of 'St. Michaels tale' Donne may be referring to the attack
on that particular island, which led to the loss of the opportunity
to capture the plate-fleet. But the 'Islands of St. Michael' was a
synonym for the Azores. 'Thus the ancient Cosmographers do place the
division of the East and Western Hemispheres, that is, the first term
of longitude, in the _Canary_ or fortunate Islands; conceiving these
parts the extreamest habitations Westward: But the Moderns have
altered that term, and translated it unto the _Azores_ or Islands
of St Michael; and that upon a plausible conceit of the small or
insensible variation of the Compass in those parts,' &c. Browne,
_Pseud. Epidem. _ vi. 7.
ll. 10-11. _Fate, (Gods Commissary)_: i. e. God's Deputy or Delegate.
Compare:
Fate, which God made, but doth not control.
_The Progresse of the Soule_, p. 295, l. 2.
Great Destiny the Commissary of God
That hast mark'd out a path and period
For every thing . . .
Ibid. , p. 296, ll. 31 f.
The idea that Fate or Fortune is the deputy of God in the sphere of
external goods ([Greek: ta ektos agatha], i beni del mondo) is very
clearly expressed by Dante in the _Convivio_, iv. 11, and in the
_Inferno_, vi. 67 f. : '"Master," I said to him, "now tell me also:
this Fortune of which thou hintest to me; what is she, that has the
good things of the world thus within her clutches? " And he to me, "O
foolish creatures, how great is this ignorance that falls upon ye!
Now I wish thee to receive my judgement of her. He whose wisdom
is transcendent over all, made the heavens" (i. e. the nine moving
spheres) "and gave them guides" (Angels, Intelligences); "so that
every part may shine to every part equally distributing the light. In
like manner, for worldly splendours, he ordained a general minister
and guide (ministro e duce); to change betimes the vain possessions,
from people to people, and from one kindred to another, beyond
the hindrance of human wisdom. Hence one people commands, another
languishes; obeying her sentence, which is hidden like the serpent in
the grass. Your knowledge cannot withstand her. She provides,
judges, and maintains her kingdom, as the other gods do theirs. Her
permutations have no truce. Necessity makes her be swift; so oft come
things requiring change. This is she, who is so much reviled, even by
those who ought to praise her, when blaming her wrongfully, and with
evil words. But she is in bliss, and hears it not. With the other
Primal Creatures joyful, she wheels her sphere, and tastes her
blessedness. "' Dante finds in this view the explanation of the want of
anything like distributive justice in the assignment of wealth, power,
and worldly glory. Dante speaks here of Fortune, but though in
its original conception at the opposite pole from Fate, Fortune is
ultimately included in the idea of Fate. 'Necessity makes her be
swift. ' 'Sed talia maxime videntur esse contingentia quae Fato
attribuuntur. ' Aquinas. The relation of Fate or Destiny to God or
Divine Providence is discussed by Boethius, _De Cons. Phil. _ IV.
_Prose_ III, whom Aquinas follows, _Summa_, I. cxvi. Ultimately the
immovable Providence of God is the cause of all things; but viewed in
the world of change and becoming, accidents or events are ascribed to
Destiny. 'Uti est ad intellectum ratiocinatio; ad id quod est, id quod
gignitur; ad aeternitatem, tempus; ad punctum medium, circulus; ita
est fati series mobilis ad Providentiae stabilem simplicitatem. '
Boethius. This is clearly what Donne has in view when he calls Destiny
the Commissary of God or declares that God made but doth not control
her. The idea of Fate in Greek thought which Christian Philosophy
had some difficulty in adjusting to its doctrines of freedom
and providence came from the astronomico-religious ideas of the
Chaldaeans. The idea of Fate 'arose from the observation of the
regularity of the sidereal movements'.
Franz Cumont, _Astrology and
Religion among the Greeks and Romans_, 1912, pp. 28, 69.
l. 14. _wishing prayers. _ This may be a phrase corresponding to
'bidding prayers', but 'wishing' is comma'd off as a noun in some MSS.
and 'wishes' may be the author's correction.
PAGE =188=, l. 24. _dull Moralls of a game at Chests. _ The comparison
of life and especially politics to a game of chess is probably an old
one. Sancho Panza develops it with considerable eloquence.
PAGE =188=. H: W: IN HIBER: BELLIGERANTI.
This poem is taken from the Burley MS. , where it is found along with
a number of poems some of which are by Donne, viz. : the _Satyres_, one
of the _Elegies_, and several of the _Epigrams_. Of the others this
alone has the initials 'J. D. ' added in the margin. There can
be little doubt that it is by Donne,--a continuation of the
correspondence of the years 1597-9 to which the last letter and
'Letters more than kisses' belong. In _Life and Letters of Sir Henry
Wotton_ Mr. Pearsall Smith prints what he takes to be a reply to this
letter and the charge of indolence. 'Sir, It is worth my wondering
that you can complain of my seldom writing, when your own letters come
so fearfully as if they tread all the way upon a bog. I have received
from you a few, and almost every one hath a commission to speak of
divers others of their fellows, like you know who in the old comedy
that asks for the rest of his servants. But you make no mention of
any of mine, yet it is not long since I ventured much of my experience
unto you in a long piece of paper, and perhaps not of my credit; it is
that which I sent you by A. R. , whereof till you advertise me I shall
live in fits or agues. ' After referring to the malicious reports in
circulation regarding the Irish expedition he concludes in the style
of the previous letters: 'These be the wise rules of policy, and of
courts, which are upon earth the vainest places. '
l. 11. _yong death_: i. e. early death, death that comes to you while
young.
ll. 13-15. These lines are enough of themselves to prove Donne's
authorship of this poem. Compare _To S^r Henry Goodyere_, p. 183, ll.
17-20.
PAGE =189=. TO THE COUNTESSE OF BEDFORD.
Lucy, Countess of Bedford, occupies the central place among Donne's
noble patrons and friends. No one was more consistently his friend; to
none does he address himselfe in terms of sincerer and more respectful
eulogy.
The eldest child of John Harington, created by James first Baron
Harington of Exton, was married to Edward, third Earl of Bedford, in
1594 and was a lady in waiting under Elizabeth. She was one of the
group of noble ladies who hastened north on the death of the Queen
to welcome, and secure the favour of, James and Anne of Denmark. Her
father and mother were granted the tutorship of the young Princess
Elizabeth, and she herself was admitted at once as a Lady of the
Chamber. Her beauty and talent secured her a distinguished place
at Court, and in the years that Donne was a prisoner at Mitcham the
Countess was a brilliant figure in more than one of Ben Jonson's
masques. 'She was "the crowning rose" in that garland of English
beauty which the Spanish ambassador desired Madame Beaumont, the Lady
of the French ambassador, to bring with her to an entertainment on the
8th of December, 1603: the three others being Lady Rich, Lady Susan
Vere, and Lady Dorothy (Sidney); "and", says the Lady Arabella
Stewart, "great cheer they had. "' Wiffen, _Historical Memoirs of the
House of Russell_, 1833. She figured also in Daniel's Masque, _The
Vision of the Twelve Goddesses_, which was published (1604) with an
explanatory letter addressed to her. In praising her beauty Donne
is thus echoing 'the Catholic voice'. The latest Masque in which she
figured was the _Masque of Queens_, 2nd of February, 1609-10.
In Court politics the Countess of Bedford seems to have taken some
part in the early promotion of Villiers as a rival to the Earl of
Somerset; and in 1617 she promoted the marriage of Donne's patron Lord
Hay to the youngest daughter of the Earl of Northumberland, against
the wish of the bride's father. Match-making seems to have been a
hobby of hers, for in 1625 she was an active agent in arranging the
match between James, Lord Strange, afterwards Earl of Derby, and Lady
Charlotte de la Tremouille, the heroic Countess of Derby who defended
Lathom House against the Roundheads.
An active and gay life at Court was no proof of the want of a more
serious spirit. Lady Bedford was a student and a poet, and the patron
of scholars and poets. Sir Thomas Roe presented her with coins and
medals; and Drayton, Daniel, Jonson, and Donne were each in turn among
the poets whom she befriended and who sang her praises. She loved
gardens. One of Donne's finest lyrics is written in the garden of
Twickenham Park, which the Countess occupied from 1608 to 1617; and
the laying out of the garden at Moore Park in Hertfordshire, where she
lived from 1617 to her death in 1627, is commended by her successor in
that place, Sir William Temple.
Donne seems to have been recommended to Lady Bedford by Sir Henry
Goodyere, who was attached to her household. He mentions the death
of her son in a letter to Goodyere as early as 1602, but his intimacy
with the Countess probably began in 1608, and most of his verse
letters were written between that date and 1614. Donne praises her
beauty and it may be that in some of his lyrics he plays the part
of the courtly lover, but what his poems chiefly emphasize is the
religious side of her character. If my conjecture be right that she
herself wrote 'Death be not proud', her religion was probably of
a simpler, more pietistic cast than Donne's own was in its earlier
phase.
In 1612 the Countess had a serious illness which began on November
22-3 (II. p. 10). She recovered in time to take part in the ceremonies
attending the wedding of the Princess Elizabeth (Feb. 14, 1612/3),
but Chamberlain in his letters to Carleton notes a change in her
behaviour. After mentioning an accident to the Earl of Bedford he
continues: 'His lady who should have gone to the Spa but for lack of
money, shows herself again in court, though in her sickness she in a
manner vowed never to come there; but she verifies the proverb, _Nemo
ex morbo melior_. Marry, she is somewhat reformed in her attire, and
forbears painting, which, they say, makes her look somewhat strangely
among so many vizards, which together with their frizzled, powdered
hair, makes them look all alike, so that you can scant know one from
another at the first view. ' Birch, _The Court and Times of James the
First_, i. 262. Donne makes no mention of this illness, but it seems
to me probable that the first two of these letters, with the emphasis
which they lay on beauty, were written before, the other more serious
and pious verses after this crisis.
See notes on _Twicknam Garden_ and the _Nocturnall on St. Lucies Day_.
PAGE =189=, ll. 4-5. _light . . . faire faith. _ I have retained the
'light' and 'faire faith' of the editions, but the MS. readings
'sight' and 'farr Faith' are quite possibly correct. There is not much
to choose between 'light' and 'sight', but 'farr' is an interesting
reading. Indeed at first sight 'fair' is a rather otiose epithet, a
vaguely complimentary adjective. There is, however, probably more
in it than that. 'Fair' as an epithet of 'Faith' is probably
an antithesis to the 'squint ungracious left-handedness' of
understanding. If 'farr' be the right reading, then Donne is
contrasting faith and sight: 'Now faith is the substance of things
hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. ' Heb. xi. 1. The use of
'far' as an adjective is not uncommon: 'Pulling far history nearer,'
Crashaw; 'His own far blood,' Tennyson; 'Far travellers may lie by
authority,' Gataker (1625), are some examples quoted in the O. E. D.
But there is no parallel to Donne's use of 'far faith' for 'faith
that lays hold on things at a distance'. 'These all died in faith, not
having received the promises, but having seen them afar off', Heb. xi.
13, is probably the source of the phrase. Such a condensed elliptical
construction is quite in Donne's manner. Compare 'Neere death', p. 28,
l. 63. Both versions may be original. The variants in l. 19 point to
some revision of the poem.
PAGE =190=, l. 22. _In every thing there naturally grows, &c. _
'Every thing hath in it as, as Physicians use to call it, _Naturale
Balsamum_, a naturall Balsamum, which, if any wound or hurt which that
creature hath received, be kept clean from extrinseque putrefaction,
will heal of itself. We are so far from that naturall Balsamum, as
that we have a naturall poyson in us, Originall sin:' &c. _Sermons_
80. 32. 313.
'Now Physitians say, that man hath in his Constitution, in his
Complexion, a naturall Vertue, which they call _Balsamum suum_, his
owne Balsamum, by which, any wound which a man could receive in
his body, would cure itself, if it could be kept cleane from the
annoiances of the aire, and all extrinseque encumbrances. Something
that hath some proportion and analogy to this Balsamum of the body,
there is in the soul of man too: The soule hath _Nardum suum_, her
Spikenard, as the Spouse says, _Nardus mea dedit odorem suum_, she
hath a spikenard, a perfume, a fragrancy, a sweet savour in her
selfe. For _virtutes germanius attingunt animam, quam corpus sanitas_,
vertuous inclinations, and disposition to morall goodness, is more
naturall to the soule of man, and nearer of kin to the soule of man,
then health is to the body. And then if we consider bodily health,
_Nulla oratio, nulla doctrinae formula nos docet morbum odisse_, sayes
that Father: There needs no Art, there needs no outward Eloquence, to
persuade a man to be loath to be sick: _Ita in anima inest naturalis
et citra doctrinam mali evitatio_, sayes he: So the soule hath a
naturall and untaught hatred, and detestation of that which is evill,'
&c. _Sermons_ 80. 51. 514.
Paracelsus has a great deal to say about this natural balsam, though
he declares that 'the spirit is _most_ truly the life and balsome of
all Corporeal things'. It was to supply the want of this balsam that
mummy was used as a medicine. Of a man suddenly slain Paracelsus says:
'His whole body is profitable and good and may be prepared into a most
precious Mummie. For, although the spirit of life went out of such a
Body, yet the Balsome, in which lies the Life, remains, which doth as
Balsome preserve other mens. '
l. 27. _A methridate_: i. e. an antidote. See note to p. 255, l. 127.
ll. 31-2. _The first good Angell, &c. _ 'Our first consideration
is upon the persons; and those we finde to be Angelicall women and
Evangelicall Angels: . . . And to recompense that observation, that
never good Angel appeared in the likenesse of woman, here are good
women made Angels, that is, Messengers, publishers of the greatest
mysteries of our Religion. ' _Sermons_ 80. 25. 242.
ll. 35-6. _Make your returne home gracious; and bestow
This life on that; so make one life of two. _
'Make a present of this life to the next, by living now as you will
live then; and so make this life and the next one'--or, as another
poet puts it:
And so make life, death, and that vast forever
One grand, sweet song.
This I take to be Donne's meaning. The 'This' of _1635-69_ and
the MSS. , which Chambers also has adopted, seems required by the
antithesis. If one recalls that 'this' is very commonly written
'thys', and that final 's' is little more than a tail, it is easy to
account for 'Thy' in _1633_. The meaning too is not clear at a glance,
and 'Thy' might seem to an editor to make it easier. The thought is
much the same as in the _Obsequies to the Lord Harrington_, p. 279.
And I (though with paine)
Lessen our losse, to magnifie thy gaine
Of triumph, when I say, It was more fit,
That all men should lacke thee, then thou lack it.
Compare also: 'Sir, our greatest businesse is more in our power then
the least, and we may be surer to meet in heaven than in any place
upon earth. ' _Letters_, p. 188. And see the quotation in note to p.
112, l. 44, 'this and the next are not two worlds,' &c.
PAGE =191=. TO THE COUNTESSE OF BEDFORD.
ll. 1-6. The sense of this verse, carefully and correctly printed in
the 1633 edition, was obscured if not corrupted by the insertion of
a semicolon after 'Fortune' in the later editions. The correct
punctuation was restored in 1719, which was followed in subsequent
editions until Grosart returned to that of the 1635-39 editions (which
the Grolier Club editor also adopts), and Chambers completed the
confusion by printing the lines thus,
You have refined me, and to worthiest things--
Virtue, art, beauty, fortune.
Even Mr. Gosse has been misled into quoting this truncated and
enigmatical compliment to Lady Bedford, regarding it, I presume, as of
the same nature as Shakespeare's lines,
Spirits are not finely touch'd,
But to fine issues.
But this has a meaning; what meaning is there in saying that a man is
refined to 'beauty and fortune'? Poor Donne was not likely to boast
of either at this time. What he says is something quite different, and
strikes the key-note of the poem. 'You have refined and sharpened my
judgement, and now I see that the worthiest things owe their value
to rareness or use. Value is nothing intrinsic, but depends on
circumstances. ' This, the next two verses add, explains why at Court
it is your virtue which transcends, in the country your beauty. To
Donne the country is always dull and savage; the court the focus of
wit and beauty, though not of virtue. On the relative nature of all
goodness he has touched in the _Progresse of the Soule_, p. 316, ll.
518-20:
There's nothing simply good nor ill alone;
Of every quality Comparison
The only measure is, and judge, Opinion.
With the sentiment regarding Courts compare: 'Beauty, in courts, is
so necessary to the young, that those who are without it, seem to be
there to no other purpose than to wait on the triumphs of the fair; to
attend their motions in obscurity, as the moon and stars do the sun
by day; or at best to be the refuge of those hearts which others have
despised; and by the unworthiness of both to give and take a miserable
comfort. ' Dryden, Dedication of the _Indian Emperor_.
ll. 8-9. (_Where a transcendent height, (as lownesse mee)
Makes her not be, or not show_)
I have completed the enclosure of (Where . . . show) in brackets which
_1633_ began but forgot to carry out. The statement is parenthetical,
and it is of the essence of Donne's wit to turn aside in one
parenthesis to make another, dart from one distracting thought to
a further, returning at the end to the main track. He has left the
Countess for a moment to explain why the Court 'is not Vertues clime'.
She is too transcendent to be, or at any rate to be seen there, as
I (he adds, quite irrelevantly) am too low. Then taking up again the
thought of the first line he continues: 'all my rhyme is claimed
there by your vertues, for _there_ rareness gives them value. I am the
comment on what _there_ is a dark text; the usher who announces one
that is a stranger. '
For brackets within brackets compare: 'And yet it is imperfect which
is taught by that religion which is most accommodate to sense (I dare
not say to reason (though it have appearance of that too) because
none may doubt but that that religion is certainly best which is
reasonablest) That all mankinde hath one protecting Angel; all
Christians one other, all English one other, all of one Corporation
and every civill coagulation or society one other; and every man one
other. ' _Letters_, p. 43.
l. 13. _To this place_: i. e. Twickenham. _O'F_ heads the poem _To the
Countesse of Bedford, Twitnam_.
