_ The
improved
sense, as well as the unanimity of
the MSS.
the MSS.
Donne - 2
is
surely right notwithstanding the consensus of the editions and other
MSS. in reading 'death'. The poet is enumerating various modes in
which death comes; death itself cannot be one of these. The 'death'
in l. 8 perhaps explains the error; it certainly makes the error more
obvious.
VIII. 7. _in us, not immediately. _ I have interjected a comma after
'us' in order to bring out distinctly the Scholastic doctrine of
Angelic knowledge on which this sonnet turns. See note on _The Dreame_
with the quotation from Aquinas. What Donne says here is: 'If our
minds or thoughts are known to the saints in heaven as to angels, not
immediately, but by circumstances and signs (such as blushing or a
quickened pulsation) which are apparent in us, how shall the sincerity
of my grief be known to them, since these signs are found in lovers,
conjurers and pharisees? ' 'Deo tantum sunt naturaliter cognitae
cogitationes cordium. ' 'God alone who put grief in my heart knows its
sincerity. '
l. 10. _vile blasphemous Conjurers. _ The 'vilde' of the MSS. is
obviously the right reading. The form too is that which Donne used if
we may judge by the MSS. , and by the fact that in _Elegie XIV: Julia_
he rhymes thus:
and (which is worse than vilde)
Sticke jealousie in wedlock, her owne childe
Scapes not the showers of envie.
By printing 'vile' the old and modern editions destroy the rhyme. In
the sonnet indeed the rhyme is not affected, and accordingly, as I am
not prepared to change every 'vile' to 'vilde' in the poems, I have
printed 'vile'. _W_ writes vile. Probably one might use either form.
PAGE =326=, IX. 9-10. I have followed here the punctuation of _W_,
which takes 'O God' in close connexion with the preceding line; the
vocative case seems to be needed since God has not been directly
addressed until l. 9. The punctuation of _D_, _H49_, which has often
determined that of _1633_, is not really different from that of _W_:
But who am I, that dare dispute with Thee?
Oh God; Oh of thyne, &c.
Here, as so often, the question-mark is placed immediately after the
question, before the sentence is ended. But 'Oh God' goes with the
question. A new strain begins with the second 'Oh'. The editions, by
punctuating
But who am I that dare dispute with thee?
O God, Oh! &c.
(which modern editors have followed), make 'O God, Oh! ' a hurried
series of exclamations introducing the prayer which follows. This
suits the style of these abrupt, passionate poems. But it leaves
the question without an address to point it; and to my own mind the
hurried, feverous effect of 'O God, Oh! ' is more than compensated for
by the weight which is thrown, by the punctuation adopted, upon the
second 'Oh',--a sigh drawn from the very depths of the heart,
so piteous and profound
As it did seem to shatter all his bulk,
And end his being.
PAGE =327=, XII. 1. _Why are wee by all creatures, &c. _ The 'am I' of
the _W_ is probably what Donne first wrote, and I am strongly tempted
to restore it. Donne's usual spelling of 'am' is 'ame' in his letters.
This might have been changed to 'are', which would have brought
the change of 'I' to 'we' in its wake. On the other hand there are
evidences in this sonnet of corrections made by Donne himself (e. g. l.
9), and he may have altered the first line as being too egotistical in
sound. I have therefore retained the text of the editions.
l. 4. _Simple, and further from corruption? _ The 'simple' of _1633_
and _D_, _H49_, _W_ is preferable to the 'simpler' of the later
editions and somewhat inferior MSS. which Chambers has adopted,
inadvertently, I think, for he does not notice the earlier reading.
The dropping of an 'r' would of course be very easy; but the
simplicity of the element does not admit of comparison, and what Donne
says is, I think, 'The elements are purer than we are, and (being
simple) farther from corruption. '
PAGE =328=, XIII. 4-6. _Whether that countenance can thee affright,
Teares in his eyes quench the amazing light,
Blood fills his frownes, which from his pierc'd head fell. _
Chambers alters the comma after 'affright' to a full stop, the Grolier
Club editor to a semicolon. Both place a semicolon after 'fell'.
Any change of the old punctuation seems to me to disguise the close
relation in which the fifth and sixth lines stand to the third. It is
with the third line they must go, not with the seventh, with which a
slightly different thought is introduced. 'Mark the picture of Christ
in thy heart and ask, can that countenance affright thee in whose eyes
the light of anger is quenched in tears, the furrows of whose frowns
are filled with blood. ' Then, from the countenance Donne's thought
turns to the tongue. The full stop, accidentally dropped after 'fell'
in the editions of _1633_ and _1635_, was restored in _1639_.
l. 14. _assures. _ In this case the MSS. enable us to correct an
obvious error of _all_ the printed editions.
PAGE =329=, XVI. 9. _Yet such are thy laws. _ I have adopted the
reading 'thy' of the Westmoreland and some other MSS. because the
sense seems to require it. 'These' and 'those' referring to the same
antecedent make a harsh construction. 'Thy laws necessarily transcend
the limits of human capacity and therefore some doubt whether these
conditions of our salvation can be fulfilled by men. They cannot, but
grace and spirit revive what law and letter kill. '
l. 11. _None doth; but all-healing grace and spirit. _ I have dropped
the 'thy' of the editions, following all the MSS. I have no doubt
that 'thy' has been inserted: (1) It spoils the rhyme: 'spirit' has
to rhyme with 'yet', which is impossible unless the accent may fall on
the second syllable; (2) 'thy' has been inserted, as 'spirit' has been
spelt with a capital letter, under the impression that 'spirit' stands
for the Divine Spirit, the Holy Ghost. But obviously 'spirit' is
opposed to 'letter' as 'grace' is to 'law'. In _W_ both 'grace' and
'spirit' are spelt with capitals. Either both or neither must be so
treated. 'Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament;
not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the
spirit giveth life. ' 2 Cor. iii. 6.
If 'thy' is to be retained, then 'spirit' must be pronounced 'sprit'.
Commentators on Shakespeare declare that this happens, but it is
very difficult to prove it. When Donne needs a monosyllable he uses
'spright'; 'spirit' he rhymes as disyllable with 'merit'.
PAGE =330=, XVII. 1. _she whom I lov'd. _ This is the reference to his
wife's death which dates these poems. Anne More, Donne's wife, died
on August 15, 1617, on the seventh day after the birth of her twelfth
child. She was buried in the church of St. Clement Danes. Her monument
disappeared when the Church was rebuilt. The inscription ran:
{ ANNAE }
GEORGII} { MORE de } {Filiae
ROBERT} {Lothesley} {Soror.
WILIELMI} { Equitum } {Nept.
CHRISTOPHERI} { Aurator } {Pronept.
Foeminae lectissimae, dilectissimaeq'
Conjugi charissimae, castissimaeq'
Matri piissimae, indulgentissimaeq'
xv annis in conjugio transactis,
vii post xii partum (quorum vii superstant) dies
immani febre correptae
(quod hoc saxum fari jussit
Ipse prae dolore infans)
Maritus (miserrimum dictu) olim charae charus
cineribus cineres spondet suos,
novo matrimonio (annuat Deus) hoc loco sociandos,
JOHANNE DONNE
Sacr: Theol: Profess:
Secessit
An^o xxxiii aetat. suae et sui Jesu
CIↃ. DC. XVII.
Aug. xv
XVIII. It is clear enough why this sonnet was not published. It would
have revealed Donne, already three years in orders, as still conscious
of all the difficulties involved in a choice between the three
divisions of Christianity--Rome, Geneva (made to include Germany), and
England. This is the theme of his earliest serious poem, the _Satyre
III_, and the subject recurs in the letters and sermons. Donne entered
the Church of England not from a conviction that it, and it alone, was
the true Church, but because he had first reached the position that
there is salvation in each: 'You know I never fettered nor imprisoned
the word Religion; not straitening it Frierly _ad Religiones
factitias_, (as the _Romans_ call well their orders of Religion) nor
immuring it in a Rome, or a _Wittenberg_, or a _Geneva_; they are all
virtuall beams of one Sun, and wheresoever they find clay hearts,
they harden them, and moulder them into dust; and they entender and
mollifie waxen. They are not so contrary as the North and South Poles;
and that they are connatural pieces of one circle. ' _Letters_, p. 29.
From this position it was easy to pass to the view that, this being
so, the Church of England may have special claims on _me_, as the
Church of my Country, and to a recognition of its character as
primitive, and as offering a _via media_. As such it attracted
Casaubon and Grotius. But the Church of England never made the appeal
to Donne's heart and imagination it did to George Herbert:
Beautie in thee takes up her place
And dates her letters from thy face
When she doth write.
Herbert, _The British Church_.
Compare, however, the rest of Donne's poem with Herbert's description
of Rome and Geneva, and also: 'Trouble not thy selfe to know the
formes and fashions of forraine particular Churches; neither of a
Church in the Lake, nor a Church upon seven hils'. _Sermons_ 80. 76.
769.
PAGE =331=. THE CROSSE.
Donne has evidently in view the aversion of the Puritan to the sign of
the cross used in baptism.
With the latter part of the poem compare George Herbert's _The
Crosse_.
PAGE =332=, l. 27. _extracted chimique medicine. _ Compare:
Only in this one thing, be no Galenist; To make
Courts hot ambitions wholesome, do not take
A dramme of Countries dulnesse; do not adde
Correctives, but as chymiques, purge the bad.
_Letters to, &c. _, p. 182, ll. 59-62.
ll. 33-4. _As perchance carvers do not faces make,
But that away, which hid them there, do take. _
'To make representations of men, or of other creatures, we finde two
wayes; Statuaries have one way, and Painters have another: Statuaries
doe it by Substraction; They take away, they pare off some parts of
that stone, or that timber, which they work upon, and then that which
they leave, becomes like that man, whom they would represent: Painters
doe it by Addition; Whereas the cloth or table presented nothing
before, they adde colours, and lights, and shadowes, and so there
arises a representation. ' _Sermons_ 80. 44. 440.
Norton compares Michelangelo's lines:
Non ha l' ottimo artista alcun concetto
Ch' un marmo solo in se non circonscriva
Col suo soverchio, e solo a quello arriva
La man che obbedisce all' intelletto.
PAGE =333=, l. 47. _So with harsh, &c. _ Chambers, I do not know why,
punctuates this line:
So with harsh, hard, sour, stinking; cross the rest;
This disguises the connexion of 'cross' with its adverbial
qualifications. The meaning is that as we cross the eye by making it
contemplate 'bad objects' so we must cross the rest, i. e. the other
senses, with harsh (the ear), hard (touch), sour (the taste), and
stinking (the sense of smell). The asceticism of Donne in his later
life is strikingly evidenced in such lines as these.
l. 48. I have made an emendation here which seems to me to combine
happily the text of _1633_ and that of the later editions. It seems
to me that _1633_ has dropped 'all', _1635-69_ have dropped 'call'. I
thought the line as I give it was in _O'F_, but found on inquiry I had
misread the collation. I should withdraw it, but cannot find it in my
heart to do so.
l. 52. _Points downewards. _ I think the MS. reading is probably right,
because (1) 'Pants' is the same as 'hath palpitation'; (2) Donne
alludes to the anatomy of the heart, in the same terms, in the
_Essayes in Divinity_, p. 74 (ed. Jessop, 1855): 'O Man, which art
said to be the epilogue, and compendium of all this world, and the
Hymen and matrimonial knot of eternal and mortal things . . . and was
made by God's hands, not His commandment; and hast thy head erected to
heaven, and all others to the centre, that yet only thy heart of all
others points downward, and only trembles. '
The reference in each case is to the anatomy of the day: 'The figure
of it, as Hippocrates saith in his Booke _de Corde_ is Pyramidall, or
rather turbinated and somewhat answering to the proportion of a Pine
Apple, because a man is broad and short chested. For the Basis above
is large and circular but not exactly round, and after it by degrees
endeth in a cone or dull and blunt round point . . . His lower part is
called the Vertex or top, _Mucro_ or point, the Cone, the heighth of
the heart. Hippocrates calleth it the taile which Galen saith . . . is
the basest part, as the Basis is the noblest. ' Helkiah Crooke: [Greek:
MIKROKOSMOGRΑPHIΑ], _A Description of the Body of Man, &c. _ (1631),
Book I, chap. ii, _Of the Heart_.
'The heart therefore is called [Greek: kardia apo tou kerdainesthai],
(_sic. i. e. _ [Greek: kradainesthai]) which signifieth _to beate_
because it is perpetually moved from the ingate to the outgate of
life. ' _Ibid. _, Book VII, _The Preface_.
l. 53. _dejections. _ Donne uses both the words given here: 'dejections
of spirit,' _Sermons_ 50. 13. 102; and 'these detorsions have small
force, but (as sunbeams striking obliquely, or arrows diverted with a
twig by the way) they lessen their strength, being turned upon another
mark than they were destined to,' _Essays in Divinity_ (Jessop), p.
42.
l. 61. _fruitfully.
_ The improved sense, as well as the unanimity of
the MSS. , justifies the adoption of this reading. A preacher may deal
'faithfully' with his people. The adverb refers to his action, not its
result in them. The Cross of Christ, in Donne's view, must always deal
faithfully; whether its action produces fruit depends on our hearts.
PAGE =334=. THE ANNUNTIATION AND PASSION.
The MSS. add 'falling upon one day Anno Dñi 1608'; i. e. March 25,
1608/9. George Herbert wrote some Latin verses _In Natales et Pascha
concurrentes_, and Sir John Beaumont an English poem 'Vpon the two
great feasts of the Annuntiation and Resurrection falling on the same
day, March 25, 1627'.
PAGE =336=. GOOD FRIDAY.
l. 2. _The intelligence_: i. e. the angel. Each sphere has its angel
or intelligence that moves and directs it. Grosart quotes the
arrangement,--the Sun, Raphael; the Moon, Gabriel; Mercury, Michael;
Mars, Chemuel; Jupiter, Adahiel; Venus, Haniel; Saturn, Zaphiel.
l. 4. _motions. _ Nothing is more easy and common than the dropping of
the final 's', which in writing was indicated by little more than a
stroke. The reference is to the doctrine of cycles and epicycles.
l. 13. _But that Christ on this Crosse, did rise and fall. _ Grosart
and Chambers adopt the reading 'his Crosse' of _1635-69_, the former
without any reference to the alternative reading. Professor Norton,
in the Grolier Club edition, prints this, but in a note at the
end remarks' that all editions after that of 1633 give this verse,
correctly,
But that Christ on his cross did rise and fall'.
The agreement of the later editions is of little importance. They too
often agree to go wrong. The balance of the MS. evidence is on the
side of _1633_. To me 'this' seems the more vivid and pointed reading.
The line must be taken in close connexion with what precedes. 'If I
turned to the East,' says Donne, 'I should see Christ lifted on to his
Cross to die, a Sun by rising set. And unless Christ had consented
to rise and set on _this_ Crosse (this Crosse which I should see in
vision if I turned my head), which was raised this day, Sin would have
eternally benighted all. '
l. 22. _turne all spheres. _ The 'tune all speares' of the editions
and some MSS. is tempting because of (as it is doubtless due to) the
Platonic doctrine of the music of the spheres. But Donne was more of a
Schoolman and Aristotelian than a Platonist, and I think there can be
little doubt that he is describing Christ as the 'first mover'. On the
other hand 'tune' may include 'turne'. The Dutch poet translates:
Die 't Noord en Zuyder-punt bereicken,
daer Sy 't spanden
Er geven met een' draeg elck Hemel-rond
sijn toon.
The idea that the note of each is due to the rate at which it is spun
is that of Plato, _The Republic_, x.
PAGE =338=. THE LITANIE.
In a letter to Goodyere written apparently in 1609 or 1610, Donne
says: 'Since my imprisonment in my bed, I have made a meditation in
verse, which I call a Litany; the word you know imports no other then
supplication, but all Churches have one forme of supplication, by that
name. Amongst ancient annals I mean some 800 years, I have met
two Litanies in Latin verse, which gave me not the reason of my
meditations, for in good faith I thought not upon them then, but they
give me a defence, if any man, to a Lay man, and a private, impute it
as a fault, to take such divine and publique names, to his own little
thoughts. The first of these was made by Ratpertus a Monk of Suevia;
and the other by S. Notker, of whom I will give you this note by the
way, that he is a private Saint, for a few Parishes; they were both
but monks and the Letanies poor and barbarous enough; yet Pope Nicolas
the 5, valued their devotion so much, that he canonized both their
Poems, and commanded them for publike service in their Churches: mine
is for lesser Chappels, which are my friends, and though a copy of it
were due to you, now, yet I am so unable to serve my self with writing
it for you at this time (being some 30 staves of 9 lines) that I must
intreat you to take a promise that you shall have the first, for a
testimony of that duty which I owe to your love, and to my self,
who am bound to cherish it by my best offices. That by which it will
deserve best acceptation, is, that neither the Roman Church need call
it defective, because it abhors not the particular mention of the
blessed Triumphers in heaven; nor the Reformed can discreetly accuse
it, of attributing more then a rectified devotion ought to doe. '
The Litanies referred to in Donne's letter to Goodyere may be read in
Migne's _Patrologia Latina_, vol. lxxxvii, col. 39 and 42. They are
certainly barbarous enough. That of Ratpertus is entitled _Litania
Ratperti ad processionem diebus Dominicis_, and begins:
Ardua spes mundi, solidator et inclyte coeli
Christe, exaudi nos propitius famulos.
Virgo Dei Genetrix rutilans in honore perennis,
Ora pro famulis, sancta Maria, tuis.
The other is headed _Notkeri Magistri cognomento Balbuli Litania
rhythmica_, and opens thus:
Votis supplicibus voces super astra feramus,
Trinus ut et simplex nos regat omnipotens.
Sancte Pater, adiuva nos, Sancte Fili, adiuva nos,
Compar his et Spiritus, ungue nos intrinsecus.
Michael, John the Baptist, Peter, Paul, and Stephen, martyrs and
virgins, are appealed to in both. There are some differences in
respect of particular saints invoked.
It is interesting also to compare Donne's series of petitions with
those in a Middle English Litany preserved in the Balliol Coll. MS.
354 (published by Edward Flügel in _Anglia_ xxv. 220). The poetry is
very poor and I need not quote. The interesting feature is the list
of petitions 'Vnto the ffader', 'ye sonne', 'ye holy gost', 'the
trinite', 'our lady', 'ye angelles'. 'ye propre angell', 'John
baptist', 'ye appostiles', 'ye martires', 'the confessours', 'ye
virgins', 'unto all sayntes'. Donne, it will be observed, includes
the patriarchs and the prophets, but omits any reference to a guardian
angel and to the saints. Other references in his poems and sermons
show that he had the thought of a guardian angel often in his mind:
'As that Angel, which God hath given to protect thee, is not weary of
his office, for all thy perversenesses, so, howsoever God deale with
thee, be not thou weary of bearing thy part, in his Quire here in the
Militant Church. ' _Sermons_ 80. 44. 440.
PAGE =339=, l. 34. _a such selfe different instinct
Of these;_
'As the three persons of the Trinity are distinguished as Power (The
Father), Knowledge (The Son), Love (The Holy Ghost), and are yet
identical, not three but one, may in me power, love, and knowledge be
thus at once distinct and identical. ' The comma after 'these' in _D_,
_H49_, _Lec_ was accidentally dropped. In _1635-69_ a comma was then
interpolated after 'instinct' and 'Of these' was connected with what
follows: 'Of these let all mee elemented bee,' 'these' being made to
point forward to the next line. Chambers and the Grolier Club editor
both read thus. But _D_, _H49_, _Lec_ show what was the original
punctuation. Without 'Of these' it is difficult to give a precise
meaning to 'instinct'. It would be easy to change 'a such' to 'such
a' with most of the MSS. , but Donne seems to have affected this order.
Compare _Elegie X: The Dreame_, p. 95, l. 17:
After a such fruition I shall wake.
PAGE =341=, l. 86. _In Abel dye. _ Abel was to the early Church a type
of Christ, as being the first martyr.
PAGE =343=, ll. 122-4. One might omit the brackets in these lines and
substitute a semicolon after 'hearken too' and a comma after 'and
do', and make the sense clearer. The MSS. bear evidence to their
difficulty. There is certainly no call for brackets as we use them,
and the 1633 edition is more sparing of them in this poem than the
later editions. What Donne says is: 'While this quire' (enumerated in
the previous stanzas) 'prays for us and thou hearkenest to them, let
not us whose duty is to pray, to endure patiently, and to do thy will,
trust in their prayers so far as to forget our duty of obedience and
service. '
PAGE =347=, l. 231. _Which well, if we starve, dine_: 'well' has the
support of all the MSS. and may be the adverb placed before its verb.
'If we starve they dine well. ' In this wire-drawn and tormented poem
it is hard to say what Donne may not have written. Most of the editors
read 'will', and this appears in some copies of _1633_.
l. 243. _Heare us, weake ecchoes, O thou eare, and cry. _ The 'cry' of
the editions is surely right. God is at once the source of our prayers
and their answerer. Our prayers are echoes of what His grace inspires
in our hearts. The 'eye' of _S_ and other MSS. , which also read
'wretches' for 'ecchoes', is due to a misapprehension of the condensed
thought, and 'eye' with 'ecchoes' is entirely irrelevant. _JC_ tries
another emendation: 'Oh thou heare our cry. '
'Every man who prostrates himselfe in his chamber, and poures out his
soule in prayer to God;. . . though his faith assure him, that God hath
granted all that he asked upon the first petition of his prayer, yea
before he made it, (for God put that petition in to his heart and
mouth, and moved him to aske it, that thereby he might be moved to
grant it), yet as long as the Spirit enables him he continues his
prayer,' &c. _Sermons_ 80. 77. 786.
But indeed we do not need to go to the _Sermons_ to see that this is
Donne's meaning. He has emphasized it already in this poem: e. g. in
Stanza xxiii:
Heare us, for till thou heare us, Lord
We know not what to say:
Thine eare to'our sighes, teares, thoughts gives voice and word.
O Thou who Satan heard'st in Jobs sicke day,
Heare thy selfe now, for thou in us dost pray.
'But in things of this kind (i. e. sermons), that soul that inanimates
them never departs from them. The Spirit of God that dictates them in
the speaker or writer, and is present in his tongue or hand, meets
him again (as we meet ourselves in a glass) in the eyes and ears and
hearts of the hearers and readers. ' Gosse, _Life, &c. _, i. 123: To . . .
the Countess of Montgomery.
'God cannot be called a cry', Grosart says; but St. Paul so describes
the work of the Spirit: 'Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our
infirmities, for we know not what we should pray for as we ought:
but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which
cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the heart knoweth what is
the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints
according to the will of God. ' Calvin thus closes his note on the
passage: 'Atque ita locutus est Paulus quo significantius id totum
tribueret Spiritus gratiae. Iubemur quidem pulsare, sed nemo sponte
praemeditari vel unam syllabam poterit, nisi arcano Spiritus sui
instinctu nos Deus pulset, adeoque sibi corda nostra aperiat. '
PAGE =348=, l. 246. _Gaine to thy self, or us allow. _ If we perish
neither Christ nor we have gained anything. Both have died in vain.
If 'and' is substituted for 'or' in this line (_1635-69_ and Chambers)
then the next line becomes otiose.
PAGE =348=. UPON THE TRANSLATION OF THE PSALMES, &c.
We do not know what was the occasion of these lines. The Countess was
the mother of William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke, and Philip Herbert,
Earl of Montgomery, and of Pembroke after his brother's death.
Poems by the former are frequently found with Donne's, e. g. in
the Hawthornden MS. which is made from a collection in Donne's own
possession. Doubtless they were known to one another, but there is no
evidence of intimacy, such as letters. To the Countess of Montgomery
Donne in 1619 sent a copy of one of his sermons which she had asked
for (Gosse, _Life, &c_. , ii. 123). It may have been for her that he
composed this poem.
An elaborate copy of the Psalms was prepared by John Davis of
Hereford. From this they were published in 1822.
From l. 53 it is evident that Donne's poem was written after the death
of the Countess of Pembroke in 1621.
PAGE =349=, l. 38. _So well attyr'd abroad, so ill at home. _ Donne has
probably in mind the French versions of Clement Marot, which were the
war-songs of the Huguenots.
PAGE =351=. TO MR. TILMAN.
Of Mr. Tilman I can find no trace in printed Oxford or Cambridge
registers. The poem is a strange comment on the seventeenth century's
estimate of the clergy:
Why do they think unfit
That Gentry should joyne families with it?
In his _Life of George Herbert_ Walton tells us of Herbert's
resolution to enter the Church, and the opposition he met with:
'He did, at his return to London, acquaint a Court-friend with his
resolution to enter into _Sacred Orders_, who perswaded him to alter
it, as too mean an employment, and too much below his birth, and the
excellent abilities and endowments of his mind. To whom he replied,
'_It hath been formerly judg'd that the Domestick Servants of the King
of Heaven, should be of the noblest Families on Earth: and, though the
Iniquity of the late Times have made Clergy-men meanly valued, and
the sacred name of Priest contemptible; yet, I will labour to make
it honourable, by consecrating all my learning, and all my poor
abilities, to advance the Glory of that God that gave them. _' This
estimate of the clergy must not be overlooked when considering the
struggle that went on in Donne's mind too before he crossed the
Rubicon.
PAGE =352=, l. 43. _As Angels out of clouds, &c. _ Walton doubtless
had this line in his mind when he described Donne's own preaching:
'A Preacher in earnest, weeping sometimes for his Auditory, sometimes
with them, alwayes preaching to himselfe, like an Angel from a cloud,
though in none: carrying some (as S. Paul was) to heaven, in holy
raptures; enticing others, by a sacred art and courtship, to
amend their lives; and all this with a most particular grace, and
un-imitable fashion of speaking. '
PAGE =352=. A HYMNE TO CHRIST.
PAGE =353=, ll. 9-12. Perhaps the rhetoric of these lines would be
improved by shifting the semicolon from l. 10 to l. 11. 'In putting,
at thy behest, the seas between my friends and me, I sacrifice them
unto thee: Do thou put thy,' &c. As the verse stands the connexion
between the first two lines and the next is a little vague.
l. 12. _thy sea_. I have adopted 'sea' from the MSS. in place of
'seas' _1633_. It was easy for the printer to take over 'seas' from
the preceding line, but 'sea' is the more pointed word. The sea is the
blood of Christ.
surely right notwithstanding the consensus of the editions and other
MSS. in reading 'death'. The poet is enumerating various modes in
which death comes; death itself cannot be one of these. The 'death'
in l. 8 perhaps explains the error; it certainly makes the error more
obvious.
VIII. 7. _in us, not immediately. _ I have interjected a comma after
'us' in order to bring out distinctly the Scholastic doctrine of
Angelic knowledge on which this sonnet turns. See note on _The Dreame_
with the quotation from Aquinas. What Donne says here is: 'If our
minds or thoughts are known to the saints in heaven as to angels, not
immediately, but by circumstances and signs (such as blushing or a
quickened pulsation) which are apparent in us, how shall the sincerity
of my grief be known to them, since these signs are found in lovers,
conjurers and pharisees? ' 'Deo tantum sunt naturaliter cognitae
cogitationes cordium. ' 'God alone who put grief in my heart knows its
sincerity. '
l. 10. _vile blasphemous Conjurers. _ The 'vilde' of the MSS. is
obviously the right reading. The form too is that which Donne used if
we may judge by the MSS. , and by the fact that in _Elegie XIV: Julia_
he rhymes thus:
and (which is worse than vilde)
Sticke jealousie in wedlock, her owne childe
Scapes not the showers of envie.
By printing 'vile' the old and modern editions destroy the rhyme. In
the sonnet indeed the rhyme is not affected, and accordingly, as I am
not prepared to change every 'vile' to 'vilde' in the poems, I have
printed 'vile'. _W_ writes vile. Probably one might use either form.
PAGE =326=, IX. 9-10. I have followed here the punctuation of _W_,
which takes 'O God' in close connexion with the preceding line; the
vocative case seems to be needed since God has not been directly
addressed until l. 9. The punctuation of _D_, _H49_, which has often
determined that of _1633_, is not really different from that of _W_:
But who am I, that dare dispute with Thee?
Oh God; Oh of thyne, &c.
Here, as so often, the question-mark is placed immediately after the
question, before the sentence is ended. But 'Oh God' goes with the
question. A new strain begins with the second 'Oh'. The editions, by
punctuating
But who am I that dare dispute with thee?
O God, Oh! &c.
(which modern editors have followed), make 'O God, Oh! ' a hurried
series of exclamations introducing the prayer which follows. This
suits the style of these abrupt, passionate poems. But it leaves
the question without an address to point it; and to my own mind the
hurried, feverous effect of 'O God, Oh! ' is more than compensated for
by the weight which is thrown, by the punctuation adopted, upon the
second 'Oh',--a sigh drawn from the very depths of the heart,
so piteous and profound
As it did seem to shatter all his bulk,
And end his being.
PAGE =327=, XII. 1. _Why are wee by all creatures, &c. _ The 'am I' of
the _W_ is probably what Donne first wrote, and I am strongly tempted
to restore it. Donne's usual spelling of 'am' is 'ame' in his letters.
This might have been changed to 'are', which would have brought
the change of 'I' to 'we' in its wake. On the other hand there are
evidences in this sonnet of corrections made by Donne himself (e. g. l.
9), and he may have altered the first line as being too egotistical in
sound. I have therefore retained the text of the editions.
l. 4. _Simple, and further from corruption? _ The 'simple' of _1633_
and _D_, _H49_, _W_ is preferable to the 'simpler' of the later
editions and somewhat inferior MSS. which Chambers has adopted,
inadvertently, I think, for he does not notice the earlier reading.
The dropping of an 'r' would of course be very easy; but the
simplicity of the element does not admit of comparison, and what Donne
says is, I think, 'The elements are purer than we are, and (being
simple) farther from corruption. '
PAGE =328=, XIII. 4-6. _Whether that countenance can thee affright,
Teares in his eyes quench the amazing light,
Blood fills his frownes, which from his pierc'd head fell. _
Chambers alters the comma after 'affright' to a full stop, the Grolier
Club editor to a semicolon. Both place a semicolon after 'fell'.
Any change of the old punctuation seems to me to disguise the close
relation in which the fifth and sixth lines stand to the third. It is
with the third line they must go, not with the seventh, with which a
slightly different thought is introduced. 'Mark the picture of Christ
in thy heart and ask, can that countenance affright thee in whose eyes
the light of anger is quenched in tears, the furrows of whose frowns
are filled with blood. ' Then, from the countenance Donne's thought
turns to the tongue. The full stop, accidentally dropped after 'fell'
in the editions of _1633_ and _1635_, was restored in _1639_.
l. 14. _assures. _ In this case the MSS. enable us to correct an
obvious error of _all_ the printed editions.
PAGE =329=, XVI. 9. _Yet such are thy laws. _ I have adopted the
reading 'thy' of the Westmoreland and some other MSS. because the
sense seems to require it. 'These' and 'those' referring to the same
antecedent make a harsh construction. 'Thy laws necessarily transcend
the limits of human capacity and therefore some doubt whether these
conditions of our salvation can be fulfilled by men. They cannot, but
grace and spirit revive what law and letter kill. '
l. 11. _None doth; but all-healing grace and spirit. _ I have dropped
the 'thy' of the editions, following all the MSS. I have no doubt
that 'thy' has been inserted: (1) It spoils the rhyme: 'spirit' has
to rhyme with 'yet', which is impossible unless the accent may fall on
the second syllable; (2) 'thy' has been inserted, as 'spirit' has been
spelt with a capital letter, under the impression that 'spirit' stands
for the Divine Spirit, the Holy Ghost. But obviously 'spirit' is
opposed to 'letter' as 'grace' is to 'law'. In _W_ both 'grace' and
'spirit' are spelt with capitals. Either both or neither must be so
treated. 'Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament;
not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the
spirit giveth life. ' 2 Cor. iii. 6.
If 'thy' is to be retained, then 'spirit' must be pronounced 'sprit'.
Commentators on Shakespeare declare that this happens, but it is
very difficult to prove it. When Donne needs a monosyllable he uses
'spright'; 'spirit' he rhymes as disyllable with 'merit'.
PAGE =330=, XVII. 1. _she whom I lov'd. _ This is the reference to his
wife's death which dates these poems. Anne More, Donne's wife, died
on August 15, 1617, on the seventh day after the birth of her twelfth
child. She was buried in the church of St. Clement Danes. Her monument
disappeared when the Church was rebuilt. The inscription ran:
{ ANNAE }
GEORGII} { MORE de } {Filiae
ROBERT} {Lothesley} {Soror.
WILIELMI} { Equitum } {Nept.
CHRISTOPHERI} { Aurator } {Pronept.
Foeminae lectissimae, dilectissimaeq'
Conjugi charissimae, castissimaeq'
Matri piissimae, indulgentissimaeq'
xv annis in conjugio transactis,
vii post xii partum (quorum vii superstant) dies
immani febre correptae
(quod hoc saxum fari jussit
Ipse prae dolore infans)
Maritus (miserrimum dictu) olim charae charus
cineribus cineres spondet suos,
novo matrimonio (annuat Deus) hoc loco sociandos,
JOHANNE DONNE
Sacr: Theol: Profess:
Secessit
An^o xxxiii aetat. suae et sui Jesu
CIↃ. DC. XVII.
Aug. xv
XVIII. It is clear enough why this sonnet was not published. It would
have revealed Donne, already three years in orders, as still conscious
of all the difficulties involved in a choice between the three
divisions of Christianity--Rome, Geneva (made to include Germany), and
England. This is the theme of his earliest serious poem, the _Satyre
III_, and the subject recurs in the letters and sermons. Donne entered
the Church of England not from a conviction that it, and it alone, was
the true Church, but because he had first reached the position that
there is salvation in each: 'You know I never fettered nor imprisoned
the word Religion; not straitening it Frierly _ad Religiones
factitias_, (as the _Romans_ call well their orders of Religion) nor
immuring it in a Rome, or a _Wittenberg_, or a _Geneva_; they are all
virtuall beams of one Sun, and wheresoever they find clay hearts,
they harden them, and moulder them into dust; and they entender and
mollifie waxen. They are not so contrary as the North and South Poles;
and that they are connatural pieces of one circle. ' _Letters_, p. 29.
From this position it was easy to pass to the view that, this being
so, the Church of England may have special claims on _me_, as the
Church of my Country, and to a recognition of its character as
primitive, and as offering a _via media_. As such it attracted
Casaubon and Grotius. But the Church of England never made the appeal
to Donne's heart and imagination it did to George Herbert:
Beautie in thee takes up her place
And dates her letters from thy face
When she doth write.
Herbert, _The British Church_.
Compare, however, the rest of Donne's poem with Herbert's description
of Rome and Geneva, and also: 'Trouble not thy selfe to know the
formes and fashions of forraine particular Churches; neither of a
Church in the Lake, nor a Church upon seven hils'. _Sermons_ 80. 76.
769.
PAGE =331=. THE CROSSE.
Donne has evidently in view the aversion of the Puritan to the sign of
the cross used in baptism.
With the latter part of the poem compare George Herbert's _The
Crosse_.
PAGE =332=, l. 27. _extracted chimique medicine. _ Compare:
Only in this one thing, be no Galenist; To make
Courts hot ambitions wholesome, do not take
A dramme of Countries dulnesse; do not adde
Correctives, but as chymiques, purge the bad.
_Letters to, &c. _, p. 182, ll. 59-62.
ll. 33-4. _As perchance carvers do not faces make,
But that away, which hid them there, do take. _
'To make representations of men, or of other creatures, we finde two
wayes; Statuaries have one way, and Painters have another: Statuaries
doe it by Substraction; They take away, they pare off some parts of
that stone, or that timber, which they work upon, and then that which
they leave, becomes like that man, whom they would represent: Painters
doe it by Addition; Whereas the cloth or table presented nothing
before, they adde colours, and lights, and shadowes, and so there
arises a representation. ' _Sermons_ 80. 44. 440.
Norton compares Michelangelo's lines:
Non ha l' ottimo artista alcun concetto
Ch' un marmo solo in se non circonscriva
Col suo soverchio, e solo a quello arriva
La man che obbedisce all' intelletto.
PAGE =333=, l. 47. _So with harsh, &c. _ Chambers, I do not know why,
punctuates this line:
So with harsh, hard, sour, stinking; cross the rest;
This disguises the connexion of 'cross' with its adverbial
qualifications. The meaning is that as we cross the eye by making it
contemplate 'bad objects' so we must cross the rest, i. e. the other
senses, with harsh (the ear), hard (touch), sour (the taste), and
stinking (the sense of smell). The asceticism of Donne in his later
life is strikingly evidenced in such lines as these.
l. 48. I have made an emendation here which seems to me to combine
happily the text of _1633_ and that of the later editions. It seems
to me that _1633_ has dropped 'all', _1635-69_ have dropped 'call'. I
thought the line as I give it was in _O'F_, but found on inquiry I had
misread the collation. I should withdraw it, but cannot find it in my
heart to do so.
l. 52. _Points downewards. _ I think the MS. reading is probably right,
because (1) 'Pants' is the same as 'hath palpitation'; (2) Donne
alludes to the anatomy of the heart, in the same terms, in the
_Essayes in Divinity_, p. 74 (ed. Jessop, 1855): 'O Man, which art
said to be the epilogue, and compendium of all this world, and the
Hymen and matrimonial knot of eternal and mortal things . . . and was
made by God's hands, not His commandment; and hast thy head erected to
heaven, and all others to the centre, that yet only thy heart of all
others points downward, and only trembles. '
The reference in each case is to the anatomy of the day: 'The figure
of it, as Hippocrates saith in his Booke _de Corde_ is Pyramidall, or
rather turbinated and somewhat answering to the proportion of a Pine
Apple, because a man is broad and short chested. For the Basis above
is large and circular but not exactly round, and after it by degrees
endeth in a cone or dull and blunt round point . . . His lower part is
called the Vertex or top, _Mucro_ or point, the Cone, the heighth of
the heart. Hippocrates calleth it the taile which Galen saith . . . is
the basest part, as the Basis is the noblest. ' Helkiah Crooke: [Greek:
MIKROKOSMOGRΑPHIΑ], _A Description of the Body of Man, &c. _ (1631),
Book I, chap. ii, _Of the Heart_.
'The heart therefore is called [Greek: kardia apo tou kerdainesthai],
(_sic. i. e. _ [Greek: kradainesthai]) which signifieth _to beate_
because it is perpetually moved from the ingate to the outgate of
life. ' _Ibid. _, Book VII, _The Preface_.
l. 53. _dejections. _ Donne uses both the words given here: 'dejections
of spirit,' _Sermons_ 50. 13. 102; and 'these detorsions have small
force, but (as sunbeams striking obliquely, or arrows diverted with a
twig by the way) they lessen their strength, being turned upon another
mark than they were destined to,' _Essays in Divinity_ (Jessop), p.
42.
l. 61. _fruitfully.
_ The improved sense, as well as the unanimity of
the MSS. , justifies the adoption of this reading. A preacher may deal
'faithfully' with his people. The adverb refers to his action, not its
result in them. The Cross of Christ, in Donne's view, must always deal
faithfully; whether its action produces fruit depends on our hearts.
PAGE =334=. THE ANNUNTIATION AND PASSION.
The MSS. add 'falling upon one day Anno Dñi 1608'; i. e. March 25,
1608/9. George Herbert wrote some Latin verses _In Natales et Pascha
concurrentes_, and Sir John Beaumont an English poem 'Vpon the two
great feasts of the Annuntiation and Resurrection falling on the same
day, March 25, 1627'.
PAGE =336=. GOOD FRIDAY.
l. 2. _The intelligence_: i. e. the angel. Each sphere has its angel
or intelligence that moves and directs it. Grosart quotes the
arrangement,--the Sun, Raphael; the Moon, Gabriel; Mercury, Michael;
Mars, Chemuel; Jupiter, Adahiel; Venus, Haniel; Saturn, Zaphiel.
l. 4. _motions. _ Nothing is more easy and common than the dropping of
the final 's', which in writing was indicated by little more than a
stroke. The reference is to the doctrine of cycles and epicycles.
l. 13. _But that Christ on this Crosse, did rise and fall. _ Grosart
and Chambers adopt the reading 'his Crosse' of _1635-69_, the former
without any reference to the alternative reading. Professor Norton,
in the Grolier Club edition, prints this, but in a note at the
end remarks' that all editions after that of 1633 give this verse,
correctly,
But that Christ on his cross did rise and fall'.
The agreement of the later editions is of little importance. They too
often agree to go wrong. The balance of the MS. evidence is on the
side of _1633_. To me 'this' seems the more vivid and pointed reading.
The line must be taken in close connexion with what precedes. 'If I
turned to the East,' says Donne, 'I should see Christ lifted on to his
Cross to die, a Sun by rising set. And unless Christ had consented
to rise and set on _this_ Crosse (this Crosse which I should see in
vision if I turned my head), which was raised this day, Sin would have
eternally benighted all. '
l. 22. _turne all spheres. _ The 'tune all speares' of the editions
and some MSS. is tempting because of (as it is doubtless due to) the
Platonic doctrine of the music of the spheres. But Donne was more of a
Schoolman and Aristotelian than a Platonist, and I think there can be
little doubt that he is describing Christ as the 'first mover'. On the
other hand 'tune' may include 'turne'. The Dutch poet translates:
Die 't Noord en Zuyder-punt bereicken,
daer Sy 't spanden
Er geven met een' draeg elck Hemel-rond
sijn toon.
The idea that the note of each is due to the rate at which it is spun
is that of Plato, _The Republic_, x.
PAGE =338=. THE LITANIE.
In a letter to Goodyere written apparently in 1609 or 1610, Donne
says: 'Since my imprisonment in my bed, I have made a meditation in
verse, which I call a Litany; the word you know imports no other then
supplication, but all Churches have one forme of supplication, by that
name. Amongst ancient annals I mean some 800 years, I have met
two Litanies in Latin verse, which gave me not the reason of my
meditations, for in good faith I thought not upon them then, but they
give me a defence, if any man, to a Lay man, and a private, impute it
as a fault, to take such divine and publique names, to his own little
thoughts. The first of these was made by Ratpertus a Monk of Suevia;
and the other by S. Notker, of whom I will give you this note by the
way, that he is a private Saint, for a few Parishes; they were both
but monks and the Letanies poor and barbarous enough; yet Pope Nicolas
the 5, valued their devotion so much, that he canonized both their
Poems, and commanded them for publike service in their Churches: mine
is for lesser Chappels, which are my friends, and though a copy of it
were due to you, now, yet I am so unable to serve my self with writing
it for you at this time (being some 30 staves of 9 lines) that I must
intreat you to take a promise that you shall have the first, for a
testimony of that duty which I owe to your love, and to my self,
who am bound to cherish it by my best offices. That by which it will
deserve best acceptation, is, that neither the Roman Church need call
it defective, because it abhors not the particular mention of the
blessed Triumphers in heaven; nor the Reformed can discreetly accuse
it, of attributing more then a rectified devotion ought to doe. '
The Litanies referred to in Donne's letter to Goodyere may be read in
Migne's _Patrologia Latina_, vol. lxxxvii, col. 39 and 42. They are
certainly barbarous enough. That of Ratpertus is entitled _Litania
Ratperti ad processionem diebus Dominicis_, and begins:
Ardua spes mundi, solidator et inclyte coeli
Christe, exaudi nos propitius famulos.
Virgo Dei Genetrix rutilans in honore perennis,
Ora pro famulis, sancta Maria, tuis.
The other is headed _Notkeri Magistri cognomento Balbuli Litania
rhythmica_, and opens thus:
Votis supplicibus voces super astra feramus,
Trinus ut et simplex nos regat omnipotens.
Sancte Pater, adiuva nos, Sancte Fili, adiuva nos,
Compar his et Spiritus, ungue nos intrinsecus.
Michael, John the Baptist, Peter, Paul, and Stephen, martyrs and
virgins, are appealed to in both. There are some differences in
respect of particular saints invoked.
It is interesting also to compare Donne's series of petitions with
those in a Middle English Litany preserved in the Balliol Coll. MS.
354 (published by Edward Flügel in _Anglia_ xxv. 220). The poetry is
very poor and I need not quote. The interesting feature is the list
of petitions 'Vnto the ffader', 'ye sonne', 'ye holy gost', 'the
trinite', 'our lady', 'ye angelles'. 'ye propre angell', 'John
baptist', 'ye appostiles', 'ye martires', 'the confessours', 'ye
virgins', 'unto all sayntes'. Donne, it will be observed, includes
the patriarchs and the prophets, but omits any reference to a guardian
angel and to the saints. Other references in his poems and sermons
show that he had the thought of a guardian angel often in his mind:
'As that Angel, which God hath given to protect thee, is not weary of
his office, for all thy perversenesses, so, howsoever God deale with
thee, be not thou weary of bearing thy part, in his Quire here in the
Militant Church. ' _Sermons_ 80. 44. 440.
PAGE =339=, l. 34. _a such selfe different instinct
Of these;_
'As the three persons of the Trinity are distinguished as Power (The
Father), Knowledge (The Son), Love (The Holy Ghost), and are yet
identical, not three but one, may in me power, love, and knowledge be
thus at once distinct and identical. ' The comma after 'these' in _D_,
_H49_, _Lec_ was accidentally dropped. In _1635-69_ a comma was then
interpolated after 'instinct' and 'Of these' was connected with what
follows: 'Of these let all mee elemented bee,' 'these' being made to
point forward to the next line. Chambers and the Grolier Club editor
both read thus. But _D_, _H49_, _Lec_ show what was the original
punctuation. Without 'Of these' it is difficult to give a precise
meaning to 'instinct'. It would be easy to change 'a such' to 'such
a' with most of the MSS. , but Donne seems to have affected this order.
Compare _Elegie X: The Dreame_, p. 95, l. 17:
After a such fruition I shall wake.
PAGE =341=, l. 86. _In Abel dye. _ Abel was to the early Church a type
of Christ, as being the first martyr.
PAGE =343=, ll. 122-4. One might omit the brackets in these lines and
substitute a semicolon after 'hearken too' and a comma after 'and
do', and make the sense clearer. The MSS. bear evidence to their
difficulty. There is certainly no call for brackets as we use them,
and the 1633 edition is more sparing of them in this poem than the
later editions. What Donne says is: 'While this quire' (enumerated in
the previous stanzas) 'prays for us and thou hearkenest to them, let
not us whose duty is to pray, to endure patiently, and to do thy will,
trust in their prayers so far as to forget our duty of obedience and
service. '
PAGE =347=, l. 231. _Which well, if we starve, dine_: 'well' has the
support of all the MSS. and may be the adverb placed before its verb.
'If we starve they dine well. ' In this wire-drawn and tormented poem
it is hard to say what Donne may not have written. Most of the editors
read 'will', and this appears in some copies of _1633_.
l. 243. _Heare us, weake ecchoes, O thou eare, and cry. _ The 'cry' of
the editions is surely right. God is at once the source of our prayers
and their answerer. Our prayers are echoes of what His grace inspires
in our hearts. The 'eye' of _S_ and other MSS. , which also read
'wretches' for 'ecchoes', is due to a misapprehension of the condensed
thought, and 'eye' with 'ecchoes' is entirely irrelevant. _JC_ tries
another emendation: 'Oh thou heare our cry. '
'Every man who prostrates himselfe in his chamber, and poures out his
soule in prayer to God;. . . though his faith assure him, that God hath
granted all that he asked upon the first petition of his prayer, yea
before he made it, (for God put that petition in to his heart and
mouth, and moved him to aske it, that thereby he might be moved to
grant it), yet as long as the Spirit enables him he continues his
prayer,' &c. _Sermons_ 80. 77. 786.
But indeed we do not need to go to the _Sermons_ to see that this is
Donne's meaning. He has emphasized it already in this poem: e. g. in
Stanza xxiii:
Heare us, for till thou heare us, Lord
We know not what to say:
Thine eare to'our sighes, teares, thoughts gives voice and word.
O Thou who Satan heard'st in Jobs sicke day,
Heare thy selfe now, for thou in us dost pray.
'But in things of this kind (i. e. sermons), that soul that inanimates
them never departs from them. The Spirit of God that dictates them in
the speaker or writer, and is present in his tongue or hand, meets
him again (as we meet ourselves in a glass) in the eyes and ears and
hearts of the hearers and readers. ' Gosse, _Life, &c. _, i. 123: To . . .
the Countess of Montgomery.
'God cannot be called a cry', Grosart says; but St. Paul so describes
the work of the Spirit: 'Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our
infirmities, for we know not what we should pray for as we ought:
but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which
cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the heart knoweth what is
the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints
according to the will of God. ' Calvin thus closes his note on the
passage: 'Atque ita locutus est Paulus quo significantius id totum
tribueret Spiritus gratiae. Iubemur quidem pulsare, sed nemo sponte
praemeditari vel unam syllabam poterit, nisi arcano Spiritus sui
instinctu nos Deus pulset, adeoque sibi corda nostra aperiat. '
PAGE =348=, l. 246. _Gaine to thy self, or us allow. _ If we perish
neither Christ nor we have gained anything. Both have died in vain.
If 'and' is substituted for 'or' in this line (_1635-69_ and Chambers)
then the next line becomes otiose.
PAGE =348=. UPON THE TRANSLATION OF THE PSALMES, &c.
We do not know what was the occasion of these lines. The Countess was
the mother of William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke, and Philip Herbert,
Earl of Montgomery, and of Pembroke after his brother's death.
Poems by the former are frequently found with Donne's, e. g. in
the Hawthornden MS. which is made from a collection in Donne's own
possession. Doubtless they were known to one another, but there is no
evidence of intimacy, such as letters. To the Countess of Montgomery
Donne in 1619 sent a copy of one of his sermons which she had asked
for (Gosse, _Life, &c_. , ii. 123). It may have been for her that he
composed this poem.
An elaborate copy of the Psalms was prepared by John Davis of
Hereford. From this they were published in 1822.
From l. 53 it is evident that Donne's poem was written after the death
of the Countess of Pembroke in 1621.
PAGE =349=, l. 38. _So well attyr'd abroad, so ill at home. _ Donne has
probably in mind the French versions of Clement Marot, which were the
war-songs of the Huguenots.
PAGE =351=. TO MR. TILMAN.
Of Mr. Tilman I can find no trace in printed Oxford or Cambridge
registers. The poem is a strange comment on the seventeenth century's
estimate of the clergy:
Why do they think unfit
That Gentry should joyne families with it?
In his _Life of George Herbert_ Walton tells us of Herbert's
resolution to enter the Church, and the opposition he met with:
'He did, at his return to London, acquaint a Court-friend with his
resolution to enter into _Sacred Orders_, who perswaded him to alter
it, as too mean an employment, and too much below his birth, and the
excellent abilities and endowments of his mind. To whom he replied,
'_It hath been formerly judg'd that the Domestick Servants of the King
of Heaven, should be of the noblest Families on Earth: and, though the
Iniquity of the late Times have made Clergy-men meanly valued, and
the sacred name of Priest contemptible; yet, I will labour to make
it honourable, by consecrating all my learning, and all my poor
abilities, to advance the Glory of that God that gave them. _' This
estimate of the clergy must not be overlooked when considering the
struggle that went on in Donne's mind too before he crossed the
Rubicon.
PAGE =352=, l. 43. _As Angels out of clouds, &c. _ Walton doubtless
had this line in his mind when he described Donne's own preaching:
'A Preacher in earnest, weeping sometimes for his Auditory, sometimes
with them, alwayes preaching to himselfe, like an Angel from a cloud,
though in none: carrying some (as S. Paul was) to heaven, in holy
raptures; enticing others, by a sacred art and courtship, to
amend their lives; and all this with a most particular grace, and
un-imitable fashion of speaking. '
PAGE =352=. A HYMNE TO CHRIST.
PAGE =353=, ll. 9-12. Perhaps the rhetoric of these lines would be
improved by shifting the semicolon from l. 10 to l. 11. 'In putting,
at thy behest, the seas between my friends and me, I sacrifice them
unto thee: Do thou put thy,' &c. As the verse stands the connexion
between the first two lines and the next is a little vague.
l. 12. _thy sea_. I have adopted 'sea' from the MSS. in place of
'seas' _1633_. It was easy for the printer to take over 'seas' from
the preceding line, but 'sea' is the more pointed word. The sea is the
blood of Christ.
