_An Epithalamion, or
Marriage
Song, &c.
John Donne
99.
PAGE =112=, l. 44. _England is onely a worthy Gallerie_: i. e. entrance
hall or corridor: 'Here then is the use of our hope before death, that
this life shall be a gallery into a better roome and deliver us over
to a better Country: for, _if in this life only_,' &c. _Sermons_ 50.
30. 270. 'He made but one world; for, this, and the next, are not _two
Worlds_;. . . They are not _two Houses_; This is the _Gallery_, and
that the _Bedchamber_ of one, and the same Palace, which shall feel no
ruine. ' _Sermons_ 50. 43. 399.
In connexion with the general theme of this poem it may be noted
that in 1605 Sir Robert Dudley, the illegitimate son of the Earl of
Leicester, who like Donne served in the Cadiz and Islands expeditions,
left England accompanied by the beautiful Elizabeth Southwell
disguised as a page. At this period the most fantastic poetry was
never more fantastic than life itself.
PAGE =113=. ELEGIE XVII.
l. 12. _wide and farr. _ The MSS. here correct an obvious error of the
editions.
PAGE =114=, l. 24. This line is found only in _A10_, which omits the
next eleven lines. It may belong to a shorter version of the poem, but
it fits quite well into the context.
PAGE =115=, l. 58. _daring eyes. _ The epithet looks as though it had
been repeated from the line above, and perhaps 'darling' or 'darting'
may have been the original reading. However, both the MSS. agree with
the editions, and the word is probably used in two distinct senses,
'bold, adventurous' with 'armes' and 'dazzling' with 'eyes'. Compare:
O now no more
Shall his perfections, like the sunbeams, dare
The purblind world; in heaven those glories are.
Campion, _Elegie upon the Untimely Death of Prince Henry_.
Let his Grace go forward
And dare us with his cap like larks.
Shakespeare, _Henry VIII_, III. ii. 282.
This refers to the custom of 'daring' or dazzling larks with a mirror.
PAGE =116=. ELEGIE XVIII.
PAGE =117=, ll. 31-2. _Men to such Gods, &c. _ Donne has in view here
the different kinds of sacrifice described by Porphyry:
How to devote things living in due form
My verse shall tell, thou in thy tablets write.
For gods of earth and gods of heaven each three;
For heavenly pure white; for gods of earth
Cattle of kindred hue divide in three,
And on the altar lay thy sacrifice.
For gods infernal bury deep, and cast
The blood into a trench. For gentle Nymphs
Honey and gifts of Dionysus pour.
Eusebius: _Praeparatio Evangelica_, iv. 9
(trans. E. H. Gifford, 1903).
l. 47. _The Nose_ (_like to the first Meridian_) 'In the state
of nature we consider the light, as the sunne, to be risen at the
Moluccae, in the farthest East; In the state of the law we consider it
as the sunne come to Ormus, the first Quadrant; but in the Gospel to
be come to the Canaries, the fortunate Ilands, the first Meridian.
Now whatsoever is beyond this, is Westward, towards a Declination. '
_Sermons_ 80. 68. 688.
'Longitude is length, and in the heavens it is understood the distance
of any starre or Planet, from the begining of Aries to the place of
the said Planet or Starre . . . Otherwise, longitude in the earth, is
the distance of the Meridian of any place, from the Meridian which
passeth over the Isles of Azores, where the beginning of longitude is
said to be. ' _The Sea-mans Kalender_, 1632. But ancient Cosmographers
placed the first meridian at the Canaries. See note to p. 187, l. 2.
PAGE =118=, l. 52. _Not faynte Canaries but Ambrosiall. _ The 'Canary'
of several MSS. is probably right--an adjective, like 'Ambrosiall'.
By 'faynte' is meant 'faintly odorous' as opposed to 'Ambrosial', i. e.
'divinely fragrant; perfumed as with Ambrosia' (O. E. D. ). 'Fruit that
ambrosial smell diffus'd': Milton, _Par. Lost_, ix. 852. The text
gives an earlier use of both these words in this meaning than any
indicated by the O. E. D. William Morris uses the same adjective in a
somewhat ambiguous way but meaning, I suppose, 'weak, ready to die':
Where still mid thoughts of August's quivering gold
Folk hoed the wheat, and clipped the vine in trust
Of faint October's purple-foaming must.
_Earthly Paradise, Atalanta's Race. _
PAGE =119=. ELEGIE XIX.
PAGE =120=, l. 17. _then safely tread. _ The 'safely' of so many MSS. ,
including _W_, seems to me a more likely reading than 'softly'. The
latter was probably suggested by the 'soft' of the following line. The
'safely' means of course that even without her shoes she will not be
hurt.
l. 22. _Ill spirits. _ It is not easy to decide between the 'Ill' of
_1669_ and some MSS. and the 'All' of some other MSS. Besides those
enumerated, two lesser MSS. , viz. the Sloane MSS. 542 and 1792, read
'all'.
In _Elegie IV_, l. 68, 'all' is written for 'ill' in _B_.
PAGE =121=, l. 30. _How blest am I in this discovering thee! _
The 'this' of almost all the MSS. is supported by the change of
'discovering' into 'discovery' of _B_, _O'F_, one way of evading the
rather unusual construction, 'this' with a verbal noun followed by an
object. The alteration of 'this' to 'thus' in _1669_ is another. But
the construction, though bold, is not inexcusable, and Donne wishes
to lay the stress not on the manner of the discovery, but on the
discovery itself, comparing it (in a very characteristic manner) to
the discovery of America. This figure alone is sufficient to establish
Donne's authorship, for he is peculiarly fond of these allusions to
voyages, using them again and again in his sermons. For the use of
'this' with the gerund compare: 'Sir,--I humbly thank you for this
continuing me in your memory, and enlarging me so far, as to the
memory of my Sovereign, and (I hope) my Master. ' _Letters_, p. 306.
l. 32. _Then where my hand is set, my seal shall be. _ Chambers reads
'my soul'--I do not know from what source. The metaphor is from
signing and sealing.
ll. 35-8. _Gems which you women use, &c. _ I have adopted several
emendations from the MSS. In the edition of 1669 the lines are printed
thus:
Jems which you women use
Are like Atlantas ball: cast in men's views,
That when a fools eye lighteth on a Jem
His earthly soul may court that, not them:
I have adopted 'balls' from several MSS. as agreeing with the story
and with the plural 'Gems'. I have taken 'are' with 'cast in mens
views', regarding 'like Atlantas balls' as parenthetic. Both the metre
and the sense of l. 38 are improved by reading 'covet' for 'court',
though the latter has considerable support. The two words are easily
confused in writing. I have adopted 'theirs' too in preference to
'that' because it is more in Donne's manner as well as strongly
supported. 'A man who loves dress and ornaments on a woman loves
not her but what belongs to her; what is accessory, not what is
essential. ' Compare:
For he who colour loves, and skin,
Loves but their oldest clothes.
The antithesis 'theirs not them' is much more pointed than 'that not
them'.
l. 46. _There is no pennance due to innocence. _ I suspect that the
original cast of this line was that pointed to by the MSS. ,
Here is no penance, much less innocence:
Penance and innocence alike are clothed in white. The version in the
text is a softening of the original to make it compatible with the
suggestion that the poem could be read as an epithalamium. 'Why', says
a note in the margin of the Bridgewater MS. , 'may not a man write his
own epithalamium if he can do it so modestly? '
PAGE =122=. ELEGIE XX.
Though not printed till 1802 there can be no doubt that this poem
is by Donne. The MS. which Waldron used is the Dyce fellow of _JC_.
Compare Ovid, _Amor. _ i. 9: 'Militat omnis amans, et habet sua castra
Cupido. '
PAGE =124=. HEROICALL EPISTLE. _Sapho to Philaenis. _
I have transferred this poem hither from its place in _1635-69_ among
the sober _Letters to Severall Personages_. It has obviously a closer
relation to the Elegies, and must have been composed about the same
time. Its genus is the Heroical Epistle modelled on Ovid, of which
Drayton produced the most popular English imitations in 1597. Donne's
was possibly evoked by these and written in 1597-8, but there is no
means of dating it exactly. 'Passionating' and 'conceited' eloquence
is the quality of these poems modelled on Ovid, and whatever one may
think of the poem on moral grounds it is impossible to deny that Donne
has caught the tone of the kind, and written a poem passionate and
eloquent in its own not altogether admirable way. The reader is more
than once reminded of Mr. Swinburne's far less conceited but more
diffuse _Anactoria_.
l. 22. _As Down, as Stars, &c. _ 'Down' is probably correct, but the
'Dowves' (i. e. doves) of _P_ gives the plural as in the other
nouns, and a closer parallel in poetic vividness. We get a series of
pictures--doves, stars, cedars, lilies. The meaning conveyed would be
the same:
this hand
As soft as doves-downe, and as white as it.
_Wint. Tale_, IV. iv. 374.
But of course swan's down is also celebrated:
Heaven with sweet repose doth crowne
Each vertue softer than the swan's fam'd downe.
Habington, _Castara_.
PAGE =125=, l. 33. Modern editors separate 'thorny' and 'hairy' by a
comma. They should rather be connected by a hyphen as in _TCD_.
l. 40. _And are, as theeves trac'd, which rob when it snows. _ This is
doubtless the source of Dryden's figurative description of Jonson's
thefts from the Ancients: 'You track him everywhere in their snow. '
_Essay of Dramatic Poesy_.
EPITHALAMIONS.
PAGE =127=. The dates of the two chief Marriage Songs are: the
Princess Elizabeth, Feb. 14, 1613; the Earl of Somerset, Dec. 26,
1613. The third is an earlier piece of work, dating from the years
when Donne was a student at Lincoln's Inn. It is found in _W_,
following the _Satyres_ and _Elegies_ and preceding the _Letters_,
being probably the only one written when the collection in the first
part of that MS. was made.
While quite himself in his treatment of the theme of this kind of
poem, Donne comes in it nearer to Spenser than in any other kind.
In glow and colour nothing he has written surpasses the Somerset
Epithalamion:
First her eyes kindle other Ladies eyes,
Then from their beams their jewels lusters rise,
And from their jewels torches do take fire,
And all is warmth and light and good desire.
_An Epithalamion, or Marriage Song, &c. _ 'In February following, the
Prince Palatine and that lovely Princess, the Lady Elizabeth, were
married on Bishop Valentine's Day, in all the Pomp and Glory that so
much grandeur could express. Her vestments were white, the Emblem of
Innocency; her Hair dishevel'd hanging down her Back at length,
an Ornament of Virginity; a Crown of pure Gold upon her Head, the
Cognizance of Majesty, being all over beset with precious Gems,
shining _like a Constellation_; her Train supported by Twelve young
Ladies in White Garments, so adorned with Jewels, that her passage
looked like a Milky-way. She was led to Church by her Brother Prince
Charles, and the Earl of Northampton; the young Batchelor on the Right
Hand, and the old on the left. ' Camden, _Annales_.
A full description of the festivities will be found in Nichol's
_Progresses of King James_, in Stow's _Chronicle_, and other works.
In a letter to Mrs. Carleton, Chamberlain gives an account of what he
saw: 'It were long and tedious to tell you all the particulars of the
excessive bravery, both of men and women, but you may conceive the
rest by one or two. The Lady Wotton had a gown that cost fifty pounds
a yard the embroidery. . . . The Viscount Rochester, the Lord Hay, and
the Lord Dingwall were exceeding rich and costly; but above all, they
speak of the Earl of Dorset. But this extreme cost and riches makes us
all poor. ' _Court and Times of James I_, i. 226. The princess had been
educated by Lord and Lady Harington, the parents of Donne's patroness,
the Countess of Bedford. They accompanied her to Heidelberg, but
Lord Harington died on his way home, Lady Harington shortly after her
return. Donne had thus links with the Princess, and these were renewed
and strengthened later when with Lord Doncaster he visited Heidelberg
in 1619, and preached before her and her husband. He sent her his
first printed sermon and his _Devotions upon Emergent Occasions, &c. _
(1624), and to the latter she, then in exile and trouble, replied in a
courteous strain.
PAGE =128=. Compare with the opening stanzas Chaucer's _Parliament
of Foules_ and Skeat's note (_Works of Chaucer_, i. 516). Birds were
supposed to choose their mates on St. Valentine's Day (Feb. 14).
l. 42. _this, thy Valentine. _ This is the reading of all the editions
except _1669_ and of all the MSS. except two of no independent value.
I think it is better than 'this day, Valentine', which Chambers adopts
from _1669_. The bride is addressed throughout the stanza, and it
would be a very abrupt change to refer 'thou' in l. 41 to Valentine.
I take 'this, thy Valentine' to mean 'this which is thy day, _par
excellence_', 'thy Saint Valentine's day', 'the day which saw you
paired'. But 'a Valentine' is a 'true-love': 'to be your
Valentine' (_Hamlet_, IV. v. 50), and the reference may be to
Frederick,--Frederick's Day is to become an era.
ll. 43-50. The punctuation of these lines requires attention. That of
the editions, which Chambers follows, arranges them thus:
Come forth, come forth, and as one glorious flame
Meeting Another growes the same,
So meet thy Fredericke, and so
To an unseparable union goe,
Since separation
Falls not on such things as are infinite,
Nor things which are but one, can disunite.
You'are twice inseparable, great, and one.
In this it will be seen that the clause 'Since separation . . . can
disunite' is attached to the _previous_ verb. It gives the reason
why they should 'go to an unseparable union'. In that which I have
adopted, which is that of several good MSS. , the clause 'Since
separation . . . can disunite' goes with what _follows_, explains 'You
are twice inseparable, great, and one. ' This is obviously right. My
attention was first called to this emendation by the punctuation of
the Grolier Club editor, who changes the comma after 'goe' (l. 46) to
a semicolon.
l. 46. _To an unseparable union growe. _ I have adopted 'growe' from
the MSS. in place of 'goe' from the editions. The former are unanimous
with the strange exception of _Lec_. This MS. , which in several
respects seems to be most like that from which _1633_ was printed,
varies here from its fellows _D_ and _H49_, probably for the same
reason that the editor of _1633_ did, because he did not quite
understand the phrase 'growe to' as used here, and 'goe' follows
later. But it is unlikely that 'goe' would have been changed to
'growe', and
To an unseparable union growe
is, I think, preferable, because (1) both the words used in l. 44 are
thus echoed.
_Meeting_ Another, _growes_ the same,
So _meet_ thy Fredericke, and so
To an unseparable union _growe_.
(2) 'To an unseparable union growe', meaning 'Become inseparably
incorporated with one another', is a slightly violent but not
unnatural application of the phrase 'grow to' so common in Elizabethan
English:
'I grow to you, and our parting is a tortured body. ' _All's Well that
Ends Well_, II. i. 36.
First let our eyes be rivited quite through
Our turning brains, and both our lips grow to.
Donne, _Elegie XII_, 57-8.
l. 56. The 'or' of the MSS. must, I think, be right. 'O Bishop
Valentine' does not make good sense. Chambers's ingenious emendation
of _1669_, by which he connects 'of Bishop Valentine' with 'one way
left', lacks support. Bishop Valentine has paired them; the Bishop in
church has united them; the consummation is their own act.
PAGE =131=. ECCLOGUE. 1613. _December_ 26, &c.
It is unnecessary to detail all the ugly history of this notorious
marriage. See Gardiner, _History of England_, ii. 16 and 20. Frances
Howard, daughter of Thomas Howard, the first Earl of Suffolk, was
married in 1606 to the youthful Earl of Essex, the later Parliamentary
general. In 1613, after a prolonged suit she was granted a divorce,
or a decree of nullity, and was at once married to King James's ruling
favourite, Robert Carr, created Viscount Rochester in 1611, and
Earl of Somerset in 1613. Donne, like every one else, had sought
assiduously to win the favour of the all-powerful favourite. Mr. Gosse
was in error in attributing to him a report on 'the proceedings in the
nullity of the marriage of Essex and Lady Frances Howard' (Harl. MS.
39, f. 416), which was the work of his namesake, Sir Daniell Dunn.
None the less, Donne's own letters show that he was quite willing to
lend a hand in promoting the divorce; and that before the decree was
granted he was already busy polishing his epithalamium. One of these
letters is addressed to Sir Robert Ker, afterwards Earl of Ancrum, a
friend of Donne's and a protege of Somerset's. It seems to me probable
that Sir Robert Ker is the 'Allophanes' of the Induction. Donne is
of course 'Idios', the private man, who holds no place at Court.
'Allophanes' is one who seems like another, who bears the same name as
another, i. e. the bridegroom. The name of both Sir Robert and the Earl
of Somerset was Robert Ker or Carr.
PAGE =132=, l. 34. _in darke plotts. _ Here the reading of _1635_,
'plotts,' has the support of all the MSS. , and the 'places' of _1633_,
to which _1669_ returns, is probably an emendation accidental or
intentional of the editor or printer. It disturbs the metre. The word
'plot' of a piece of ground was, and is, not infrequent, and here its
meaning is only a little extended. In the _Progresse of the Soule_, l.
129, Donne speaks of 'a darke and foggie plot'.
_fire without light. _ Compare: 'Fool, saies Christ, this night they
will fetch away thy soul; but he neither tells him, who they be that
shall fetch it, nor whither they shall carry it; he hath no light but
lightnings; a sodain flash of horror first, and then he goes into fire
without light. ' _Sermons_ 26. 19. 273. 'This dark fire, which was not
prepared for us. ' Ibid.
l. 57. _In the East-Indian fleet. _ The MSS. here give us back a word
which _1633_ had dropped, the other editions following suit. It was
the East-Indian fleet which brought spices, the West-Indian brought
'plate', i. e. gold or (more properly) silver, to which there is no
reference here.
l. 58. _or Amber in thy taste? _ 'Amber' is here of course 'Ambergris',
which was much used in old cookery, in which considerable importance
was attached to scent as well as flavour. Compare:
beasts of chase, or foul of game,
In pastry built, or from the spit, or boil'd,
Gris-amber steam'd;
Milton, _Paradise Regained_, ii. 344.
and
Be sure
The wines be lusty, high, and full of spirit,
And amber'd all.
Beaumont and Fletcher, _The Custom of the Country_, iii. 2.
This was the original meaning of the word 'amber', which was extended
to the yellow fossil resin through some mistaken identification of
the two substances. Mr. Gosse has called my attention to some passages
which seem to indicate that the other amber was also eaten. Tallemant
des Reaux says of the Marquise de Rambouillet, 'Elle bransle un peu la
teste, et cela lui vient d'avoir trop mange d'ambre autrefois. '
This may be ambergris; but Olivier de Serres, in his _Theatre
d'Agriculture_ (1600), speaks of persons who had formed a taste for
drinking 'de l'ambre jaune subtilement pulverise'.
PAGE =134=, ll. 85-6. _Thou hast no such; yet here was this, and more,
An earnest lover, wise then, and before. _
This is the reading of _1633_ and gives, I think, Donne's meaning.
Missing this, later editions placed a full stop after 'more', so that
each line concludes a sentence. Mr. Chambers emends by changing the
full stop after 'before' into a comma, and reading:
Thou hast no such; yet here was this and more.
An earnest lover, wise then, and before,
Our little Cupid hath sued livery.
This looks ingenious, but I confess I do not know what it means. When
was Cupid wise? When had he been so before? And with what special
propriety is Cupid here called 'an earnest lover'? What Donne says is:
'Here _was_ all this,--a court such as I have described, and more--an
earnest lover (viz. the Earl of Somerset), wise in love (when most
men are foolish), and wise before, as is approved by the King's
confidence. In being admitted to that breast Cupid has ceased to be a
child, has attained his majority, and the right to administer his own
affairs. ' Compare: '_I love them that love me, &c. _. . . The Person that
professes love in this place is Wisdom herself . . . so that _sapere et
amare_, to be wise and to love, which perchance never met before nor
since, are met in this text. ' _Sermons_ 26. 18, Dec. 14, 1617.
Then, sweetest Silvia, let's no longer stay;
True love we know, precipitates delay.
Away with doubts, all scruples hence remove;
No man at one time can be wise and love.
Herrick, _To Silvia to Wed_.
PAGE =135=. I have inserted the title _Epithalamion_ after the
_Ecclogue_ from _D_, _H49_, _Lec_, _O'F_, _S96_, as otherwise the
latter title is extended to the whole poem. This poem is headed in
two different ways in the MSS. In _A18_, _N_, _TC_, the title at the
beginning is: _Eclogue Inducing an Epithalamion at the marriage of the
E. of S. _ The proper titles of the two parts are thus given at once,
and no second title is needed later. In the other MSS. the title at
the beginning is _Eclogue. 1613. Decemb. 26. _ Later follows the title
_Epithalamion_. As _1633_ follows this fashion at the beginning, it
should have done so throughout.
PAGE =136=, l. 126. _Since both have both th'enflaming eyes. _ This
is the reading of all the MSS. and it explains the fact that
'th'enflaming' is so printed in _1633_. Without the 'both' this
destroys the metre and, accordingly, the later editions read 'the
enflaming'. It was natural to bring 'eye' into the singular and
make 'th'enflaming eye' balance 'the loving heart'. Moreover 'both
th'enflaming eyes' may have puzzled a printer. It is a Donnean device
for emphasis. He has spoken of _her_ flaming eyes, and now that he
identifies the lovers, that identity must be complete. Both the eyes
of both are lit with the same flame, both their hearts kindled at the
same fire. Compare later: 225. 'One fire of foure inflaming eyes,' &c.
l. 129. _Yet let_ _A23_, _O'F_. The first of these MSS.
PAGE =112=, l. 44. _England is onely a worthy Gallerie_: i. e. entrance
hall or corridor: 'Here then is the use of our hope before death, that
this life shall be a gallery into a better roome and deliver us over
to a better Country: for, _if in this life only_,' &c. _Sermons_ 50.
30. 270. 'He made but one world; for, this, and the next, are not _two
Worlds_;. . . They are not _two Houses_; This is the _Gallery_, and
that the _Bedchamber_ of one, and the same Palace, which shall feel no
ruine. ' _Sermons_ 50. 43. 399.
In connexion with the general theme of this poem it may be noted
that in 1605 Sir Robert Dudley, the illegitimate son of the Earl of
Leicester, who like Donne served in the Cadiz and Islands expeditions,
left England accompanied by the beautiful Elizabeth Southwell
disguised as a page. At this period the most fantastic poetry was
never more fantastic than life itself.
PAGE =113=. ELEGIE XVII.
l. 12. _wide and farr. _ The MSS. here correct an obvious error of the
editions.
PAGE =114=, l. 24. This line is found only in _A10_, which omits the
next eleven lines. It may belong to a shorter version of the poem, but
it fits quite well into the context.
PAGE =115=, l. 58. _daring eyes. _ The epithet looks as though it had
been repeated from the line above, and perhaps 'darling' or 'darting'
may have been the original reading. However, both the MSS. agree with
the editions, and the word is probably used in two distinct senses,
'bold, adventurous' with 'armes' and 'dazzling' with 'eyes'. Compare:
O now no more
Shall his perfections, like the sunbeams, dare
The purblind world; in heaven those glories are.
Campion, _Elegie upon the Untimely Death of Prince Henry_.
Let his Grace go forward
And dare us with his cap like larks.
Shakespeare, _Henry VIII_, III. ii. 282.
This refers to the custom of 'daring' or dazzling larks with a mirror.
PAGE =116=. ELEGIE XVIII.
PAGE =117=, ll. 31-2. _Men to such Gods, &c. _ Donne has in view here
the different kinds of sacrifice described by Porphyry:
How to devote things living in due form
My verse shall tell, thou in thy tablets write.
For gods of earth and gods of heaven each three;
For heavenly pure white; for gods of earth
Cattle of kindred hue divide in three,
And on the altar lay thy sacrifice.
For gods infernal bury deep, and cast
The blood into a trench. For gentle Nymphs
Honey and gifts of Dionysus pour.
Eusebius: _Praeparatio Evangelica_, iv. 9
(trans. E. H. Gifford, 1903).
l. 47. _The Nose_ (_like to the first Meridian_) 'In the state
of nature we consider the light, as the sunne, to be risen at the
Moluccae, in the farthest East; In the state of the law we consider it
as the sunne come to Ormus, the first Quadrant; but in the Gospel to
be come to the Canaries, the fortunate Ilands, the first Meridian.
Now whatsoever is beyond this, is Westward, towards a Declination. '
_Sermons_ 80. 68. 688.
'Longitude is length, and in the heavens it is understood the distance
of any starre or Planet, from the begining of Aries to the place of
the said Planet or Starre . . . Otherwise, longitude in the earth, is
the distance of the Meridian of any place, from the Meridian which
passeth over the Isles of Azores, where the beginning of longitude is
said to be. ' _The Sea-mans Kalender_, 1632. But ancient Cosmographers
placed the first meridian at the Canaries. See note to p. 187, l. 2.
PAGE =118=, l. 52. _Not faynte Canaries but Ambrosiall. _ The 'Canary'
of several MSS. is probably right--an adjective, like 'Ambrosiall'.
By 'faynte' is meant 'faintly odorous' as opposed to 'Ambrosial', i. e.
'divinely fragrant; perfumed as with Ambrosia' (O. E. D. ). 'Fruit that
ambrosial smell diffus'd': Milton, _Par. Lost_, ix. 852. The text
gives an earlier use of both these words in this meaning than any
indicated by the O. E. D. William Morris uses the same adjective in a
somewhat ambiguous way but meaning, I suppose, 'weak, ready to die':
Where still mid thoughts of August's quivering gold
Folk hoed the wheat, and clipped the vine in trust
Of faint October's purple-foaming must.
_Earthly Paradise, Atalanta's Race. _
PAGE =119=. ELEGIE XIX.
PAGE =120=, l. 17. _then safely tread. _ The 'safely' of so many MSS. ,
including _W_, seems to me a more likely reading than 'softly'. The
latter was probably suggested by the 'soft' of the following line. The
'safely' means of course that even without her shoes she will not be
hurt.
l. 22. _Ill spirits. _ It is not easy to decide between the 'Ill' of
_1669_ and some MSS. and the 'All' of some other MSS. Besides those
enumerated, two lesser MSS. , viz. the Sloane MSS. 542 and 1792, read
'all'.
In _Elegie IV_, l. 68, 'all' is written for 'ill' in _B_.
PAGE =121=, l. 30. _How blest am I in this discovering thee! _
The 'this' of almost all the MSS. is supported by the change of
'discovering' into 'discovery' of _B_, _O'F_, one way of evading the
rather unusual construction, 'this' with a verbal noun followed by an
object. The alteration of 'this' to 'thus' in _1669_ is another. But
the construction, though bold, is not inexcusable, and Donne wishes
to lay the stress not on the manner of the discovery, but on the
discovery itself, comparing it (in a very characteristic manner) to
the discovery of America. This figure alone is sufficient to establish
Donne's authorship, for he is peculiarly fond of these allusions to
voyages, using them again and again in his sermons. For the use of
'this' with the gerund compare: 'Sir,--I humbly thank you for this
continuing me in your memory, and enlarging me so far, as to the
memory of my Sovereign, and (I hope) my Master. ' _Letters_, p. 306.
l. 32. _Then where my hand is set, my seal shall be. _ Chambers reads
'my soul'--I do not know from what source. The metaphor is from
signing and sealing.
ll. 35-8. _Gems which you women use, &c. _ I have adopted several
emendations from the MSS. In the edition of 1669 the lines are printed
thus:
Jems which you women use
Are like Atlantas ball: cast in men's views,
That when a fools eye lighteth on a Jem
His earthly soul may court that, not them:
I have adopted 'balls' from several MSS. as agreeing with the story
and with the plural 'Gems'. I have taken 'are' with 'cast in mens
views', regarding 'like Atlantas balls' as parenthetic. Both the metre
and the sense of l. 38 are improved by reading 'covet' for 'court',
though the latter has considerable support. The two words are easily
confused in writing. I have adopted 'theirs' too in preference to
'that' because it is more in Donne's manner as well as strongly
supported. 'A man who loves dress and ornaments on a woman loves
not her but what belongs to her; what is accessory, not what is
essential. ' Compare:
For he who colour loves, and skin,
Loves but their oldest clothes.
The antithesis 'theirs not them' is much more pointed than 'that not
them'.
l. 46. _There is no pennance due to innocence. _ I suspect that the
original cast of this line was that pointed to by the MSS. ,
Here is no penance, much less innocence:
Penance and innocence alike are clothed in white. The version in the
text is a softening of the original to make it compatible with the
suggestion that the poem could be read as an epithalamium. 'Why', says
a note in the margin of the Bridgewater MS. , 'may not a man write his
own epithalamium if he can do it so modestly? '
PAGE =122=. ELEGIE XX.
Though not printed till 1802 there can be no doubt that this poem
is by Donne. The MS. which Waldron used is the Dyce fellow of _JC_.
Compare Ovid, _Amor. _ i. 9: 'Militat omnis amans, et habet sua castra
Cupido. '
PAGE =124=. HEROICALL EPISTLE. _Sapho to Philaenis. _
I have transferred this poem hither from its place in _1635-69_ among
the sober _Letters to Severall Personages_. It has obviously a closer
relation to the Elegies, and must have been composed about the same
time. Its genus is the Heroical Epistle modelled on Ovid, of which
Drayton produced the most popular English imitations in 1597. Donne's
was possibly evoked by these and written in 1597-8, but there is no
means of dating it exactly. 'Passionating' and 'conceited' eloquence
is the quality of these poems modelled on Ovid, and whatever one may
think of the poem on moral grounds it is impossible to deny that Donne
has caught the tone of the kind, and written a poem passionate and
eloquent in its own not altogether admirable way. The reader is more
than once reminded of Mr. Swinburne's far less conceited but more
diffuse _Anactoria_.
l. 22. _As Down, as Stars, &c. _ 'Down' is probably correct, but the
'Dowves' (i. e. doves) of _P_ gives the plural as in the other
nouns, and a closer parallel in poetic vividness. We get a series of
pictures--doves, stars, cedars, lilies. The meaning conveyed would be
the same:
this hand
As soft as doves-downe, and as white as it.
_Wint. Tale_, IV. iv. 374.
But of course swan's down is also celebrated:
Heaven with sweet repose doth crowne
Each vertue softer than the swan's fam'd downe.
Habington, _Castara_.
PAGE =125=, l. 33. Modern editors separate 'thorny' and 'hairy' by a
comma. They should rather be connected by a hyphen as in _TCD_.
l. 40. _And are, as theeves trac'd, which rob when it snows. _ This is
doubtless the source of Dryden's figurative description of Jonson's
thefts from the Ancients: 'You track him everywhere in their snow. '
_Essay of Dramatic Poesy_.
EPITHALAMIONS.
PAGE =127=. The dates of the two chief Marriage Songs are: the
Princess Elizabeth, Feb. 14, 1613; the Earl of Somerset, Dec. 26,
1613. The third is an earlier piece of work, dating from the years
when Donne was a student at Lincoln's Inn. It is found in _W_,
following the _Satyres_ and _Elegies_ and preceding the _Letters_,
being probably the only one written when the collection in the first
part of that MS. was made.
While quite himself in his treatment of the theme of this kind of
poem, Donne comes in it nearer to Spenser than in any other kind.
In glow and colour nothing he has written surpasses the Somerset
Epithalamion:
First her eyes kindle other Ladies eyes,
Then from their beams their jewels lusters rise,
And from their jewels torches do take fire,
And all is warmth and light and good desire.
_An Epithalamion, or Marriage Song, &c. _ 'In February following, the
Prince Palatine and that lovely Princess, the Lady Elizabeth, were
married on Bishop Valentine's Day, in all the Pomp and Glory that so
much grandeur could express. Her vestments were white, the Emblem of
Innocency; her Hair dishevel'd hanging down her Back at length,
an Ornament of Virginity; a Crown of pure Gold upon her Head, the
Cognizance of Majesty, being all over beset with precious Gems,
shining _like a Constellation_; her Train supported by Twelve young
Ladies in White Garments, so adorned with Jewels, that her passage
looked like a Milky-way. She was led to Church by her Brother Prince
Charles, and the Earl of Northampton; the young Batchelor on the Right
Hand, and the old on the left. ' Camden, _Annales_.
A full description of the festivities will be found in Nichol's
_Progresses of King James_, in Stow's _Chronicle_, and other works.
In a letter to Mrs. Carleton, Chamberlain gives an account of what he
saw: 'It were long and tedious to tell you all the particulars of the
excessive bravery, both of men and women, but you may conceive the
rest by one or two. The Lady Wotton had a gown that cost fifty pounds
a yard the embroidery. . . . The Viscount Rochester, the Lord Hay, and
the Lord Dingwall were exceeding rich and costly; but above all, they
speak of the Earl of Dorset. But this extreme cost and riches makes us
all poor. ' _Court and Times of James I_, i. 226. The princess had been
educated by Lord and Lady Harington, the parents of Donne's patroness,
the Countess of Bedford. They accompanied her to Heidelberg, but
Lord Harington died on his way home, Lady Harington shortly after her
return. Donne had thus links with the Princess, and these were renewed
and strengthened later when with Lord Doncaster he visited Heidelberg
in 1619, and preached before her and her husband. He sent her his
first printed sermon and his _Devotions upon Emergent Occasions, &c. _
(1624), and to the latter she, then in exile and trouble, replied in a
courteous strain.
PAGE =128=. Compare with the opening stanzas Chaucer's _Parliament
of Foules_ and Skeat's note (_Works of Chaucer_, i. 516). Birds were
supposed to choose their mates on St. Valentine's Day (Feb. 14).
l. 42. _this, thy Valentine. _ This is the reading of all the editions
except _1669_ and of all the MSS. except two of no independent value.
I think it is better than 'this day, Valentine', which Chambers adopts
from _1669_. The bride is addressed throughout the stanza, and it
would be a very abrupt change to refer 'thou' in l. 41 to Valentine.
I take 'this, thy Valentine' to mean 'this which is thy day, _par
excellence_', 'thy Saint Valentine's day', 'the day which saw you
paired'. But 'a Valentine' is a 'true-love': 'to be your
Valentine' (_Hamlet_, IV. v. 50), and the reference may be to
Frederick,--Frederick's Day is to become an era.
ll. 43-50. The punctuation of these lines requires attention. That of
the editions, which Chambers follows, arranges them thus:
Come forth, come forth, and as one glorious flame
Meeting Another growes the same,
So meet thy Fredericke, and so
To an unseparable union goe,
Since separation
Falls not on such things as are infinite,
Nor things which are but one, can disunite.
You'are twice inseparable, great, and one.
In this it will be seen that the clause 'Since separation . . . can
disunite' is attached to the _previous_ verb. It gives the reason
why they should 'go to an unseparable union'. In that which I have
adopted, which is that of several good MSS. , the clause 'Since
separation . . . can disunite' goes with what _follows_, explains 'You
are twice inseparable, great, and one. ' This is obviously right. My
attention was first called to this emendation by the punctuation of
the Grolier Club editor, who changes the comma after 'goe' (l. 46) to
a semicolon.
l. 46. _To an unseparable union growe. _ I have adopted 'growe' from
the MSS. in place of 'goe' from the editions. The former are unanimous
with the strange exception of _Lec_. This MS. , which in several
respects seems to be most like that from which _1633_ was printed,
varies here from its fellows _D_ and _H49_, probably for the same
reason that the editor of _1633_ did, because he did not quite
understand the phrase 'growe to' as used here, and 'goe' follows
later. But it is unlikely that 'goe' would have been changed to
'growe', and
To an unseparable union growe
is, I think, preferable, because (1) both the words used in l. 44 are
thus echoed.
_Meeting_ Another, _growes_ the same,
So _meet_ thy Fredericke, and so
To an unseparable union _growe_.
(2) 'To an unseparable union growe', meaning 'Become inseparably
incorporated with one another', is a slightly violent but not
unnatural application of the phrase 'grow to' so common in Elizabethan
English:
'I grow to you, and our parting is a tortured body. ' _All's Well that
Ends Well_, II. i. 36.
First let our eyes be rivited quite through
Our turning brains, and both our lips grow to.
Donne, _Elegie XII_, 57-8.
l. 56. The 'or' of the MSS. must, I think, be right. 'O Bishop
Valentine' does not make good sense. Chambers's ingenious emendation
of _1669_, by which he connects 'of Bishop Valentine' with 'one way
left', lacks support. Bishop Valentine has paired them; the Bishop in
church has united them; the consummation is their own act.
PAGE =131=. ECCLOGUE. 1613. _December_ 26, &c.
It is unnecessary to detail all the ugly history of this notorious
marriage. See Gardiner, _History of England_, ii. 16 and 20. Frances
Howard, daughter of Thomas Howard, the first Earl of Suffolk, was
married in 1606 to the youthful Earl of Essex, the later Parliamentary
general. In 1613, after a prolonged suit she was granted a divorce,
or a decree of nullity, and was at once married to King James's ruling
favourite, Robert Carr, created Viscount Rochester in 1611, and
Earl of Somerset in 1613. Donne, like every one else, had sought
assiduously to win the favour of the all-powerful favourite. Mr. Gosse
was in error in attributing to him a report on 'the proceedings in the
nullity of the marriage of Essex and Lady Frances Howard' (Harl. MS.
39, f. 416), which was the work of his namesake, Sir Daniell Dunn.
None the less, Donne's own letters show that he was quite willing to
lend a hand in promoting the divorce; and that before the decree was
granted he was already busy polishing his epithalamium. One of these
letters is addressed to Sir Robert Ker, afterwards Earl of Ancrum, a
friend of Donne's and a protege of Somerset's. It seems to me probable
that Sir Robert Ker is the 'Allophanes' of the Induction. Donne is
of course 'Idios', the private man, who holds no place at Court.
'Allophanes' is one who seems like another, who bears the same name as
another, i. e. the bridegroom. The name of both Sir Robert and the Earl
of Somerset was Robert Ker or Carr.
PAGE =132=, l. 34. _in darke plotts. _ Here the reading of _1635_,
'plotts,' has the support of all the MSS. , and the 'places' of _1633_,
to which _1669_ returns, is probably an emendation accidental or
intentional of the editor or printer. It disturbs the metre. The word
'plot' of a piece of ground was, and is, not infrequent, and here its
meaning is only a little extended. In the _Progresse of the Soule_, l.
129, Donne speaks of 'a darke and foggie plot'.
_fire without light. _ Compare: 'Fool, saies Christ, this night they
will fetch away thy soul; but he neither tells him, who they be that
shall fetch it, nor whither they shall carry it; he hath no light but
lightnings; a sodain flash of horror first, and then he goes into fire
without light. ' _Sermons_ 26. 19. 273. 'This dark fire, which was not
prepared for us. ' Ibid.
l. 57. _In the East-Indian fleet. _ The MSS. here give us back a word
which _1633_ had dropped, the other editions following suit. It was
the East-Indian fleet which brought spices, the West-Indian brought
'plate', i. e. gold or (more properly) silver, to which there is no
reference here.
l. 58. _or Amber in thy taste? _ 'Amber' is here of course 'Ambergris',
which was much used in old cookery, in which considerable importance
was attached to scent as well as flavour. Compare:
beasts of chase, or foul of game,
In pastry built, or from the spit, or boil'd,
Gris-amber steam'd;
Milton, _Paradise Regained_, ii. 344.
and
Be sure
The wines be lusty, high, and full of spirit,
And amber'd all.
Beaumont and Fletcher, _The Custom of the Country_, iii. 2.
This was the original meaning of the word 'amber', which was extended
to the yellow fossil resin through some mistaken identification of
the two substances. Mr. Gosse has called my attention to some passages
which seem to indicate that the other amber was also eaten. Tallemant
des Reaux says of the Marquise de Rambouillet, 'Elle bransle un peu la
teste, et cela lui vient d'avoir trop mange d'ambre autrefois. '
This may be ambergris; but Olivier de Serres, in his _Theatre
d'Agriculture_ (1600), speaks of persons who had formed a taste for
drinking 'de l'ambre jaune subtilement pulverise'.
PAGE =134=, ll. 85-6. _Thou hast no such; yet here was this, and more,
An earnest lover, wise then, and before. _
This is the reading of _1633_ and gives, I think, Donne's meaning.
Missing this, later editions placed a full stop after 'more', so that
each line concludes a sentence. Mr. Chambers emends by changing the
full stop after 'before' into a comma, and reading:
Thou hast no such; yet here was this and more.
An earnest lover, wise then, and before,
Our little Cupid hath sued livery.
This looks ingenious, but I confess I do not know what it means. When
was Cupid wise? When had he been so before? And with what special
propriety is Cupid here called 'an earnest lover'? What Donne says is:
'Here _was_ all this,--a court such as I have described, and more--an
earnest lover (viz. the Earl of Somerset), wise in love (when most
men are foolish), and wise before, as is approved by the King's
confidence. In being admitted to that breast Cupid has ceased to be a
child, has attained his majority, and the right to administer his own
affairs. ' Compare: '_I love them that love me, &c. _. . . The Person that
professes love in this place is Wisdom herself . . . so that _sapere et
amare_, to be wise and to love, which perchance never met before nor
since, are met in this text. ' _Sermons_ 26. 18, Dec. 14, 1617.
Then, sweetest Silvia, let's no longer stay;
True love we know, precipitates delay.
Away with doubts, all scruples hence remove;
No man at one time can be wise and love.
Herrick, _To Silvia to Wed_.
PAGE =135=. I have inserted the title _Epithalamion_ after the
_Ecclogue_ from _D_, _H49_, _Lec_, _O'F_, _S96_, as otherwise the
latter title is extended to the whole poem. This poem is headed in
two different ways in the MSS. In _A18_, _N_, _TC_, the title at the
beginning is: _Eclogue Inducing an Epithalamion at the marriage of the
E. of S. _ The proper titles of the two parts are thus given at once,
and no second title is needed later. In the other MSS. the title at
the beginning is _Eclogue. 1613. Decemb. 26. _ Later follows the title
_Epithalamion_. As _1633_ follows this fashion at the beginning, it
should have done so throughout.
PAGE =136=, l. 126. _Since both have both th'enflaming eyes. _ This
is the reading of all the MSS. and it explains the fact that
'th'enflaming' is so printed in _1633_. Without the 'both' this
destroys the metre and, accordingly, the later editions read 'the
enflaming'. It was natural to bring 'eye' into the singular and
make 'th'enflaming eye' balance 'the loving heart'. Moreover 'both
th'enflaming eyes' may have puzzled a printer. It is a Donnean device
for emphasis. He has spoken of _her_ flaming eyes, and now that he
identifies the lovers, that identity must be complete. Both the eyes
of both are lit with the same flame, both their hearts kindled at the
same fire. Compare later: 225. 'One fire of foure inflaming eyes,' &c.
l. 129. _Yet let_ _A23_, _O'F_. The first of these MSS.
