Donne uses the word also in the more
original
sense of 'a
piece of ground, a spot'.
piece of ground, a spot'.
John Donne
3, 4.
The _Assistentes_ are
those who 'only stand and wait'.
PAGE =99=, l. 100. _rot thy moist braine_: So Sylvester's _Du Bartas_,
I. ii. 18:
the Brain
Doth highest place of all our Frame retain,
And tempers with its moistful coldness so
Th'excessive heat of other parts below.
This was Aristotle's opinion (_De Part. Anim. _ II. 7), refuted by
Galen, who, like Plato, made the brain the seat of the soul and the
generator of the animal spirits. See II. p. 45.
PAGE =100=, ll. 112, 114. _Gold is Restorative . . . 'tis cordiall. _
'Most men say as much of gold, and some other minerals, as these have
done of precious stones. Erastus still maintaineth the opposite part,
Disput. in Paracelsum, cap. 4, fol. 196, he confesseth of gold, that
it makes the heart merry, but in no other sense but as it is in a
miser's chest:
----at mihi plaudo
----simulac nummos contemplor in arca
as he said in the poet: it so revives the spirits, and is an excellent
receipt against melancholy,
For gold in phisik is a cordial,
Therefore he lovede gold in special. '
Burton, _Anatomy of Melancholy_, Pt. 2, Sub. 4.
ELEGIE XII.
PAGE =101=, l. 37. _And mad'st us sigh and glow_: 'sigh and blow' has
been the somewhat inelegant reading of all editions hitherto.
l. 42. _And over all thy husbands towring eyes. _ The epithet 'towring'
is strange and the MSS. show some vacillation. Most of them read
'towred', probably the past participle of the same verb, though
Grosart alters to 'two red'--not a very poetical description. _RP31_
here diverges from _H40_ and reads 'loured', perhaps for 'lurid', but
both these MSS. alter the order of the words and attach the epithet
to 'husbands', which is manifestly wrong, and the Grolier Club edition
prints 'lowering' without comment, regarding, I suppose, 't' as a
mistake for 'l'.
The 'towring' of _1669_ and _TCD_ is probably correct, being a
bold metaphor from hawking, and having the force practically of
'threatening'. The hawk towers threateningly above its prey before it
'sousing kills with a grace'. If 'towring' is not right, 'lowring' is
the most probable emendation.
PAGE =102=, l. 43. _That flam'd with oylie sweat of jealousie. _ This
is the reading of all the MSS. , and as on the whole their text is
superior I have followed it. If 'oylie' is, as I think, the right
epithet, it means 'moist', as in 'an oily palm', with perhaps a
reference to the inflammability of oil. If 'ouglie '(i. e. ugly) be
preferred it is a forcible transferred epithet.
l. 49. _most respects? _ This is the reading of all the MSS. , and
'best' in _1669_ is probably an emendation. The use of 'most' as an
adjective, superlative of 'great', is not uncommon:
God's wrong is most of all.
Shakespeare, _Rich. III_, IV. iv. 377.
Though in this place most master wear no breeches.
Ibid. , _2 Hen. VI_, I. iii. 144.
l. 54. I can make no exact sense of this line either as it stands in
_1669_ or in the MSS. One is tempted to combine the versions and read:
Yea thy pale colours, and thy panting heart,
the 'secrets of our Art' being all the signs by which they
communicated to one another their mutual affection. But it is
necessary to explain the presence of 'inwards' or 'inward' in both the
versions.
PAGE =103=, l. 79. _The Summer how it ripened in the eare_; This fine
passage has been rather spoiled in all editions hitherto by printing
in this line 'yeare' for 'eare', even in modernized texts. The MSS.
and the sense both show that 'eare' is the right word, and indeed I
have no doubt that 'year' in _1635_ was simply due to a compositor's
or copyist's pronunciation. It occurs again in the 1669 edition in the
song _Twicknam Garden_ (p. 28, l. 3):
And at mine eyes, and at mine years,
These forms in 'y' are common in Sylvester's _Du Bartas_, e. g.
'yerst'. The O. E. D. gives the fourteenth to the sixteenth centuries as
those in which 'yere' was a recognized pronunciation of 'ear', but it
is found sporadically later and has misled editors. Thus in Sir George
Etherege's letter to the Earl of Middleton from Ratisbon, printed in
Dryden's _Works_ (Scott and Saintsbury), xi, pp. 38-40, some lines
run:
These formed the jewel erst did grace
The cap of the first Grave o' the race,
Preferred by Graffin Marian
To adorn the handle of her fan;
And, as by old record appears,
Worn since in Kunigunda's years;
Now sparkling in the Froein's hair,
No rocket breaking in the air
Can with her starry head compare.
In a modernized text, as this is, surely 'Kunigunda's years' should be
'Kunigunda's ears'.
ll. 93-4. _That I may grow enamoured on your mind,
When my own thoughts I there reflected find. _
'I there neglected find' has been the reading of all editions
hitherto--a strange reason for being enamoured.
PAGE =104=, l. 96. _My deeds shall still be what my words are now_:
'words' suits the context better than either the 'deeds' of _1635-69_
or 'thoughts' of _A25_.
PAGE =104=. ELEGIE XIII.
PAGE =105=, ll. 13-14. _Liv'd Mantuan now againe,
That foemall Mastix, to limme with his penne_
Chambers, following the editions from _1639_ onwards, drops the comma
after 'Mastix', which suggests that Julia is the 'foemall Mastix',
not Mantuan. By Mantuan he understands Virgil, and supposes there is
a reference to the 'flammis armataque Chimaera' of _Aen. _ vi. 289. The
Mantuan of the text is the 'Old Mantuan' of _Love's Labour's Lost_,
iv. 2. 92. Donne calls Mantuan the scourge of women because of his
fourth eclogue _De natura mulierum_. Norton quotes from it:
Femineum servile genus, crudele, superbum.
The O. E. D. quotes from S. Holland, _Zara_ (1656): 'It would have
puzzell'd that Female Mastix Mantuan to have limn'd this she
Chymera'--obviously borrowed from this poem. The dictionary gives
examples of 'mastix' in other compounds.
The reference to Mantuan as a woman-hater is a favourite one with
the prose-pamphleteers: 'To this might be added _Mantuans_ invective
against them, but that pittie makes me refraine from renewing his
worne out complaints, the wounds whereof the former forepast feminine
sexe hath felt. I, but here the _Homer_ of Women hath forestalled an
objection, saying that _Mantuans_ house holding of our Ladie, he was
enforced by melancholic into such vehemencie of speech', &c. Nash,
_The Anatomy of Absurdity_ (ed. McKerrow, i. 12).
'Where I leave you to consider, Gentlemen, how far unmeete women are
to have such reproches laid upon them, as sundrye large lipt fellows
have done: who when they take a peece of work in hand, and either for
want of matter, or lack of wit, are half gravelled, then they must
fill up the page with slaundering of women, who scarsly know what
a woman is: but if I were able either by wit or arte to be their
defender, or had the law in my hand to dispose as I list, which would
be as unseemely, as an Asse to treade the measures: yet, if it were
so, I would correct _Mantuans Egloge_, intituled _Alphus_: or els
if the Authour were alive, I would not doubt to persuade him in
recompence of his errour, to frame a new one,' &c. Greene, _Mamillia_
(ed. Grosart), 106-7. Greene is probably the '_Homer_ of Women'
referred to in the first extract.
l. 19. _Tenarus. _ In the _Anatomy of the World_ 'Tenarif' is thus
spelt in the editions of 1633 to 1669, and Grosart declared that the
reference here is to that island. It is of course to 'Taenarus' in
Laconia. There was in that headland a sulphurous cavern believed to be
a passage to Hades. Through it Orpheus descended to recover Eurydice.
Ovid, _Met. _ x. 13; Paus. iii. 14, 25.
l. 28. _self-accusing oaths_: 'oaths' is the reading of the MSS. ,
'loaths' of the editions. The word 'loaths' in the sense of 'dislike,
hatred, ill-will' is found as late as 1728 (O. E. D. ). 'If your Horse
. . . grow to a loath of his meat. ' Topsell (1607). A self-accusing
loath may mean a hatred, e. g. of good, which condemns yourself. In
the context, however, 'cavils, untroths,' I am inclined to think that
'oaths' is right. Among the malevolent evils with which her breast
swarms are oaths accusing others of crimes, which accuse herself,
either because she is willing to implicate herself so long as she
secures her enemy's ruin, or because the information is of a kind that
could be got only by complicity in crime.
PAGE =105=. ELEGIE XIV.
PAGE =106=, l. 6. _I touch no fat sowes grease. _ Probably 'I say
nothing libellous as to the way in which this or that rich man has
acquired his wealth'. I cannot find the proverb accurately explained,
or given in quite this form, in any collection.
l. 10. _will redd or pale. _ The reading of _1669_ and the two MSS. is
doubtless correct, 'looke' being an editorial insertion as the use
of 'red' as a verb was growing rare. If 'looke' had belonged to the
original text 'counsellor' would probably have had the second syllable
elided. Compare:
Roses out-red their [i. e. women's] lips and cheeks,
Lillies their whiteness stain.
Brome, _The Resolve_.
l. 21. _the number of the Plaguy Bill_: i. e. the weekly bill of deaths
by the plague. By a Privy Council order of April 9, 1604, the theatres
were permitted to be open 'except ther shall happen weeklie to die of
the Plague above the number of thirtie'. The number was later raised
to forty. The theatres were repeatedly closed for this reason between
July 10, 1606, and 1610. In 1609 especially the fear of infection made
it difficult for the companies, driven from London, to gain permission
to act anywhere. There were no performances at Court during the winter
1609-10. Murray, _English Dramatic Companies_.
l. 22. _the Custome Farmers. _ The Privy Council registers abound in
references to the farmers of the customs and their conflicts with the
merchants. As they had to pay dearly for their farm, they were tempted
to press the law against the merchants in exacting dues.
l. 23. _Of the Virginian plot. _ Two expeditions were sent to Virginia
in 1609, in May under Sir Thomas Gates, Sir George Somers, and Captain
Newport, and at the end of the year under Lord de la Warr, 'who by
free election of the Treasurer and counsell of Virginia, and with the
full consent of the generality of that company was constituted and
authorized, during his natural life to be Lord Governor and Captaine
Generall of all the English Collonies planted, or to be planted in
Virginia, according to the tenor of his Majesties letters patents
granted that yeare 1609. ' Stow. Speculation in Virginia stock was
encouraged: 'Besides many noblemen, knights, gentlemen, merchants,
and wealthy tradesmen, most of the incorporated trades of London were
induced to take shares in the stock. ' Hildreth, _History of the United
States_, i. 108, quoted by Norton.
The meaning of 'plot' here is 'device, design, scheme' (O. E. D. ), as
'There have beene divers good plottes devised, and wise counsells
cast allready about reformation of that realme': Spenser, _State of
Ireland_.
Donne uses the word also in the more original sense of 'a
piece of ground, a spot'. See p. 132, l. 34.
l. 23-4. _whether Ward . . . the I(n)land Seas. _ I have taken 'Iland'
_1635-54_ as intended for 'Inland', perhaps written '? land', not
for 'Island'. The edition of 1669 reads 'midland', and there is no
doubt that the Mediterranean was the scene of the career and exploits
of the notorious Ward, whose head-quarters were at Tunis. The
Mediterranean is called the Inland sea in Holland's translation of
Pliny (_Hist. of the World_, III. _The Proeme_); and Donne uses
the phrase (with a different application but one borrowed from this
meaning) in the _Progresse of the Soule_, p. 308, ll. 317-8:
as if his vast wombe were
Some Inland sea.
Previous editors read 'Island seas' but do not explain the reference,
except Grosart, who declares that the 'Iland seas are those around the
West Indian and other islands. The Midland seas (as in _1669_)
were probably the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Seas'. He cites no
authority; nor have we proof that Ward was ever in these seas. Writing
to Salisbury on the 7th of March, 1607-8, Wotton says: 'The voice is
here newly arrived that Warde hath taken another Venetian vessel of
good value, so as the hatred of him increaseth among them and fully
as fast as the fear of him. These are his effects. Now to give your
Lordship some taste of his language. One Moore, captain of an English
ship that tradeth this way . . . was hailed by him not long since a
little without the Gulf, and answering that he was bound for Venice,
"Tell those flat caps" (said he) "who have been the occasion that I
am banished out of my country that before I have done with them I will
make them sue for pardon. " In this style he speaketh. ' Pearsall Smith,
_Life and Letters of . . . Wotton_, ii. 415. Mr. Pearsall Smith adds in
a note that Ward hoped to 'buy or threaten the English Government into
pardoning him', and that some attempt was also made by the Venetian
Government to procure his assassination.
If 'Island' be the right reading the sea referred to must be the
Adriatic. The Islands of the Illyrian coast were at various times the
haunt of pirates. But I have found no instance of the phrase in this
sense.
l. 25. _the Brittaine Burse. _ This was built by the Earl of Salisbury
on the site of an 'olde long stable' in the Strand on the north side
of Durham House: 'And upon Tuesday the tenth of Aprill this yeere, one
thousand sixe hundred and nine, many of the upper shoppes were richly
furnished with wares, and the next day after that, the King, Queene,
and Prince, the Lady Elizabeth and the Duke of Yorke, with many great
Lords, and chiefe Ladies, came thither, and were there entertained
with pleasant speeches, giftes, and ingenious devices, and then
the king gave it a name, and called it Brittaines Burse. ' Stow,
_Chronicle_, p. 894.
l. 27. _Of new built Algate, and the More-field crosses. _ Aldgate, one
of the four principal gates in the City wall, was taken down in 1606
and rebuilt by 1609: Stow, _Survey_. Norton refers to Jonson's _Silent
Woman_, I. i: 'How long did the canvas hang afore Aldgate? Were the
people suffered to see the city's Love and Charity while they were
rude stone, before they were painted and burnished? '
'The More-field crosses' are apparently the walks at Moor-field.
Speaking of the embellishment of London which ensued from the long
duration of peace, Stow says, 'And lastly, whereof there is a more
generall, and particular notice taken by all persons resorting and
residing in London, the new and pleasant walks on the north side of
the city, anciently called More fields, which field (untill the third
yeare of King James) was a most noysome and offensive place, being a
generall laystall, a rotten morish ground, whereof it tooke first the
name. ' Stow, _Chronicle_. For the ditches which crossed the field were
substituted 'most faire and royall walkes'.
PAGE =107=, l. 41. The '(_quoth Hee_)' of the 1669 edition is
obviously correct. 'Hee' is required both by rhyme and reason. Mr.
Chambers has ingeniously put '"True" quoth I' into a parenthesis, as
a remark interjected by the poet. But apart from the rhyme the 'quoth
Hee' is needed to explain the transition to direct speech. Without it
the long speech of the citizen begins very awkwardly.
ll. 42-44. These lines seem to echo the Royal Proclamation of 1609,
though the reference is different: 'in this speciall Proclamation his
Majestic declared how grievously, the people of this latter age and
times are fallen into verball profession, as well of religion, as of
all commendable morall vertues, but wanting the actions and deeds of
so specious a profession, and the insatiable and immeasurable itching
boldnesse of the spirits, tongues and pens of most men. ' Stow,
_Chronicle_.
l. 46. _Bawd, Tavern-keeper, Whore and Scrivener_; The singular number
of the MS. gives as good a sense as the plural and a better rhyme.
l. 47. _The much of Privileg'd kingsmen, and the store
Of fresh protections, &c. _
'We have many bankrupts daily, and as many protections, which doth
marvellously hinder all manner of commerce. ' Chamberlain to Carleton,
Dec. 31, 1612. By 'kingsmen' I understand noblemen holding monopolies
from the King. I do not understand the 'kinsmen' of the editions.
By 'protections' is meant 'exemptions from suits in law', especially
suits for debt. The London tradesmen were much cheated by the
protections granted to the servants and followers of members of
Parliament.
l. 65. _found nothing but a Rope. _ I cannot identify this Rope. In the
_Aulularia_ of Plautus, when Euclio finds his treasure gone he laments
in the usual manner. At l. 721 he says, 'Heu me miserum, misere perii,
male perditu', _pessume ornatus eo_. ' The last words may have been
taken as meaning 'I have the rope round my neck'.
PAGE =108=. ELEGIE XV.
l. 12. Following _RP31_ and also Jonson's _Underwoods_ I have taken
'at once' as going with 'Both hot and cold', not with 'make life, and
death' as in _1633-69_. This is one of the poems which _1633_ derived
from some other source than _D_, _H49_, _Lec_.
ll. 16-18 (_all sweeter . . . the rest_) Chambers has overlooked
altogether the _1633_ reading 'sweeter'. He prints 'sweeten'd'
from _1635-69_. It is clear from the MSS. that this is an editor's
amendment due to Donne's 'all sweeter' suggesting, perhaps
intentionally, 'all the sweeter'. By dropping the bracket Chambers
has left at least ambiguous the construction of 17-18: _And the divine
impression of stolne kisses That sealed the rest. _ Does this, as in
_1633_, belong to the parenthesis, or is 'the divine impression' to be
taken with 'so many accents sweet, so many sighes' and 'so many oathes
and teares' as part subject to 'should now prove empty blisses'. I
prefer the _1633_ arrangement, which has the support of the MSS. ,
though the punctuation of these is apt to be careless. The accents,
sighs, oaths, and tears were all made sweeter by having been stolen
with fear and trembling. This is how the Grolier Club editor takes it;
Grosart and Chambers prefer to follow _1635-69_.
PAGE 109, l. 34. I do not know whence Chambers derived his reading
'drift' for 'trust'--perhaps from an imperfect copy of _1633_. He
attributes it to all the editions prior to 1669. This is an oversight.
PAGE =110=, ll. 59 f. _I could renew, &c. _ Compare Ovid, _Amores_, III.
ii. 1-7.
Non ego nobilium sedeo studiosus equorum;
Cui tamen ipsa faves, vincat ut ille precor.
Ut loquerer tecum veni tecumque sederem,
Ne tibi non notus, quem facis, esset amor.
Tu cursum spectas, ego te; spectemus uterque
Quod iuvat, atque oculos pascat uterque suos.
O, cuicumque faves, felix agitator equorum!
PAGE =111=. ELEGIE XVI.
A careful study of the textual notes to this poem will show that there
is a considerable difference between the text of this poem as given
for the first time in _1635_, and that of the majority of the MSS. It
is very difficult, however, to decide between them as the differences
are not generally such as to suggest that one reading is necessarily
right, the other wrong. The chief variants are these: 7 'parents' and
'fathers'. Here I fancy the 'parents' of the MSS. is right, and that
'fathers' in the editions and in a late MS. like _O'F_ is due to the
identification of Donne's mistress with his wife. Only the father of
Anne More was alive at the time of their first acquaintance. It is not
at all certain, however, that this poem is addressed to Anne More,
and in any case Donne would probably have disguised the details. The
change of 'parents' to 'fathers' is more likely than the opposite.
In l. 12 'wayes' (edd. ) and 'meanes' (MSS. ) are practically
indistinguishable; nor is there much to choose between the two
versions of l. 18: 'My soule from other lands to thee shall soare'
(edd. ) and 'From other lands my soule towards thee shall soare'
(MSS. ). In each case the version of the editions is slightly the
better. In l. 28, on the other hand, I have adopted 'mindes' without
hesitation although here the MSS. vary. There is no question of
changing the mind, but there is of changing the mind's habit, of
adopting a boy's cast of thought and manner: as Rosalind says,
and in my heart
Lie there what hidden woman's fear there will,
We'll have a swashing and a martial outside,
As many other mannish cowards have
That do outface it with their semblances.
_As You Like It_, I. iii. 114-18.
In l. 35 the reading 'Lives fuellers', i. e. 'Life's fuellers', which
is found in such early and good MSS. as _D_, _H49_, _Lec_ and _W_,
is very remarkable. If I were convinced that it is correct I should
regard it as decisive and prefer the MS. readings throughout. But
'Loves fuellers', though also a strange phrase, seems more easy of
interpretation, and applicable.
In l. 37 there can, I think, be no doubt that the original reading is
preserved by _A18_, _N_, _S_, _TCD_, and _W_.
Will quickly knowe thee, and knowe thee, and, alas!
The sudden, brutal change in the sense of the word 'knowe' is quite in
Donne's manner. The reasons for omitting or softening it are obvious,
and may excuse my not restoring it. The whole of these central lines
reveal that strange bad taste, some radical want of delicacy, which
mars not only Donne's poems and lighter prose but even at times the
sermons. In l. 49 the reading of the MSS. _A18_, _N_, _TC_; _D_,
_H49_, _Lec_, and _W_ is also probably original:
Nor praise, nor dispraise me; Blesse nor curse.
It is not uncommon in Donne's poetry to find a syllable dropped with
the effect of increasing the stress on a rhetorically emphatic word,
here 'Blesse'. An editor would be sure to supply 'nor'.
Lamb has quoted from this Elegy in his note to Beaumont and Fletcher's
_Philaster_ (_Specimens of English Dramatic Poets_, 1808). It is
clear that he used a copy of the 1669 edition, for he reads 35 'Lives
fuellers', and also 42 'Aydroptique' for 'Hydroptique'. Both these
mistakes were corrected in _1719_. Donne speaks in his sermons of
'fuelling and advancing his tentations'. _Sermons_ 80. 10. 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.
those who 'only stand and wait'.
PAGE =99=, l. 100. _rot thy moist braine_: So Sylvester's _Du Bartas_,
I. ii. 18:
the Brain
Doth highest place of all our Frame retain,
And tempers with its moistful coldness so
Th'excessive heat of other parts below.
This was Aristotle's opinion (_De Part. Anim. _ II. 7), refuted by
Galen, who, like Plato, made the brain the seat of the soul and the
generator of the animal spirits. See II. p. 45.
PAGE =100=, ll. 112, 114. _Gold is Restorative . . . 'tis cordiall. _
'Most men say as much of gold, and some other minerals, as these have
done of precious stones. Erastus still maintaineth the opposite part,
Disput. in Paracelsum, cap. 4, fol. 196, he confesseth of gold, that
it makes the heart merry, but in no other sense but as it is in a
miser's chest:
----at mihi plaudo
----simulac nummos contemplor in arca
as he said in the poet: it so revives the spirits, and is an excellent
receipt against melancholy,
For gold in phisik is a cordial,
Therefore he lovede gold in special. '
Burton, _Anatomy of Melancholy_, Pt. 2, Sub. 4.
ELEGIE XII.
PAGE =101=, l. 37. _And mad'st us sigh and glow_: 'sigh and blow' has
been the somewhat inelegant reading of all editions hitherto.
l. 42. _And over all thy husbands towring eyes. _ The epithet 'towring'
is strange and the MSS. show some vacillation. Most of them read
'towred', probably the past participle of the same verb, though
Grosart alters to 'two red'--not a very poetical description. _RP31_
here diverges from _H40_ and reads 'loured', perhaps for 'lurid', but
both these MSS. alter the order of the words and attach the epithet
to 'husbands', which is manifestly wrong, and the Grolier Club edition
prints 'lowering' without comment, regarding, I suppose, 't' as a
mistake for 'l'.
The 'towring' of _1669_ and _TCD_ is probably correct, being a
bold metaphor from hawking, and having the force practically of
'threatening'. The hawk towers threateningly above its prey before it
'sousing kills with a grace'. If 'towring' is not right, 'lowring' is
the most probable emendation.
PAGE =102=, l. 43. _That flam'd with oylie sweat of jealousie. _ This
is the reading of all the MSS. , and as on the whole their text is
superior I have followed it. If 'oylie' is, as I think, the right
epithet, it means 'moist', as in 'an oily palm', with perhaps a
reference to the inflammability of oil. If 'ouglie '(i. e. ugly) be
preferred it is a forcible transferred epithet.
l. 49. _most respects? _ This is the reading of all the MSS. , and
'best' in _1669_ is probably an emendation. The use of 'most' as an
adjective, superlative of 'great', is not uncommon:
God's wrong is most of all.
Shakespeare, _Rich. III_, IV. iv. 377.
Though in this place most master wear no breeches.
Ibid. , _2 Hen. VI_, I. iii. 144.
l. 54. I can make no exact sense of this line either as it stands in
_1669_ or in the MSS. One is tempted to combine the versions and read:
Yea thy pale colours, and thy panting heart,
the 'secrets of our Art' being all the signs by which they
communicated to one another their mutual affection. But it is
necessary to explain the presence of 'inwards' or 'inward' in both the
versions.
PAGE =103=, l. 79. _The Summer how it ripened in the eare_; This fine
passage has been rather spoiled in all editions hitherto by printing
in this line 'yeare' for 'eare', even in modernized texts. The MSS.
and the sense both show that 'eare' is the right word, and indeed I
have no doubt that 'year' in _1635_ was simply due to a compositor's
or copyist's pronunciation. It occurs again in the 1669 edition in the
song _Twicknam Garden_ (p. 28, l. 3):
And at mine eyes, and at mine years,
These forms in 'y' are common in Sylvester's _Du Bartas_, e. g.
'yerst'. The O. E. D. gives the fourteenth to the sixteenth centuries as
those in which 'yere' was a recognized pronunciation of 'ear', but it
is found sporadically later and has misled editors. Thus in Sir George
Etherege's letter to the Earl of Middleton from Ratisbon, printed in
Dryden's _Works_ (Scott and Saintsbury), xi, pp. 38-40, some lines
run:
These formed the jewel erst did grace
The cap of the first Grave o' the race,
Preferred by Graffin Marian
To adorn the handle of her fan;
And, as by old record appears,
Worn since in Kunigunda's years;
Now sparkling in the Froein's hair,
No rocket breaking in the air
Can with her starry head compare.
In a modernized text, as this is, surely 'Kunigunda's years' should be
'Kunigunda's ears'.
ll. 93-4. _That I may grow enamoured on your mind,
When my own thoughts I there reflected find. _
'I there neglected find' has been the reading of all editions
hitherto--a strange reason for being enamoured.
PAGE =104=, l. 96. _My deeds shall still be what my words are now_:
'words' suits the context better than either the 'deeds' of _1635-69_
or 'thoughts' of _A25_.
PAGE =104=. ELEGIE XIII.
PAGE =105=, ll. 13-14. _Liv'd Mantuan now againe,
That foemall Mastix, to limme with his penne_
Chambers, following the editions from _1639_ onwards, drops the comma
after 'Mastix', which suggests that Julia is the 'foemall Mastix',
not Mantuan. By Mantuan he understands Virgil, and supposes there is
a reference to the 'flammis armataque Chimaera' of _Aen. _ vi. 289. The
Mantuan of the text is the 'Old Mantuan' of _Love's Labour's Lost_,
iv. 2. 92. Donne calls Mantuan the scourge of women because of his
fourth eclogue _De natura mulierum_. Norton quotes from it:
Femineum servile genus, crudele, superbum.
The O. E. D. quotes from S. Holland, _Zara_ (1656): 'It would have
puzzell'd that Female Mastix Mantuan to have limn'd this she
Chymera'--obviously borrowed from this poem. The dictionary gives
examples of 'mastix' in other compounds.
The reference to Mantuan as a woman-hater is a favourite one with
the prose-pamphleteers: 'To this might be added _Mantuans_ invective
against them, but that pittie makes me refraine from renewing his
worne out complaints, the wounds whereof the former forepast feminine
sexe hath felt. I, but here the _Homer_ of Women hath forestalled an
objection, saying that _Mantuans_ house holding of our Ladie, he was
enforced by melancholic into such vehemencie of speech', &c. Nash,
_The Anatomy of Absurdity_ (ed. McKerrow, i. 12).
'Where I leave you to consider, Gentlemen, how far unmeete women are
to have such reproches laid upon them, as sundrye large lipt fellows
have done: who when they take a peece of work in hand, and either for
want of matter, or lack of wit, are half gravelled, then they must
fill up the page with slaundering of women, who scarsly know what
a woman is: but if I were able either by wit or arte to be their
defender, or had the law in my hand to dispose as I list, which would
be as unseemely, as an Asse to treade the measures: yet, if it were
so, I would correct _Mantuans Egloge_, intituled _Alphus_: or els
if the Authour were alive, I would not doubt to persuade him in
recompence of his errour, to frame a new one,' &c. Greene, _Mamillia_
(ed. Grosart), 106-7. Greene is probably the '_Homer_ of Women'
referred to in the first extract.
l. 19. _Tenarus. _ In the _Anatomy of the World_ 'Tenarif' is thus
spelt in the editions of 1633 to 1669, and Grosart declared that the
reference here is to that island. It is of course to 'Taenarus' in
Laconia. There was in that headland a sulphurous cavern believed to be
a passage to Hades. Through it Orpheus descended to recover Eurydice.
Ovid, _Met. _ x. 13; Paus. iii. 14, 25.
l. 28. _self-accusing oaths_: 'oaths' is the reading of the MSS. ,
'loaths' of the editions. The word 'loaths' in the sense of 'dislike,
hatred, ill-will' is found as late as 1728 (O. E. D. ). 'If your Horse
. . . grow to a loath of his meat. ' Topsell (1607). A self-accusing
loath may mean a hatred, e. g. of good, which condemns yourself. In
the context, however, 'cavils, untroths,' I am inclined to think that
'oaths' is right. Among the malevolent evils with which her breast
swarms are oaths accusing others of crimes, which accuse herself,
either because she is willing to implicate herself so long as she
secures her enemy's ruin, or because the information is of a kind that
could be got only by complicity in crime.
PAGE =105=. ELEGIE XIV.
PAGE =106=, l. 6. _I touch no fat sowes grease. _ Probably 'I say
nothing libellous as to the way in which this or that rich man has
acquired his wealth'. I cannot find the proverb accurately explained,
or given in quite this form, in any collection.
l. 10. _will redd or pale. _ The reading of _1669_ and the two MSS. is
doubtless correct, 'looke' being an editorial insertion as the use
of 'red' as a verb was growing rare. If 'looke' had belonged to the
original text 'counsellor' would probably have had the second syllable
elided. Compare:
Roses out-red their [i. e. women's] lips and cheeks,
Lillies their whiteness stain.
Brome, _The Resolve_.
l. 21. _the number of the Plaguy Bill_: i. e. the weekly bill of deaths
by the plague. By a Privy Council order of April 9, 1604, the theatres
were permitted to be open 'except ther shall happen weeklie to die of
the Plague above the number of thirtie'. The number was later raised
to forty. The theatres were repeatedly closed for this reason between
July 10, 1606, and 1610. In 1609 especially the fear of infection made
it difficult for the companies, driven from London, to gain permission
to act anywhere. There were no performances at Court during the winter
1609-10. Murray, _English Dramatic Companies_.
l. 22. _the Custome Farmers. _ The Privy Council registers abound in
references to the farmers of the customs and their conflicts with the
merchants. As they had to pay dearly for their farm, they were tempted
to press the law against the merchants in exacting dues.
l. 23. _Of the Virginian plot. _ Two expeditions were sent to Virginia
in 1609, in May under Sir Thomas Gates, Sir George Somers, and Captain
Newport, and at the end of the year under Lord de la Warr, 'who by
free election of the Treasurer and counsell of Virginia, and with the
full consent of the generality of that company was constituted and
authorized, during his natural life to be Lord Governor and Captaine
Generall of all the English Collonies planted, or to be planted in
Virginia, according to the tenor of his Majesties letters patents
granted that yeare 1609. ' Stow. Speculation in Virginia stock was
encouraged: 'Besides many noblemen, knights, gentlemen, merchants,
and wealthy tradesmen, most of the incorporated trades of London were
induced to take shares in the stock. ' Hildreth, _History of the United
States_, i. 108, quoted by Norton.
The meaning of 'plot' here is 'device, design, scheme' (O. E. D. ), as
'There have beene divers good plottes devised, and wise counsells
cast allready about reformation of that realme': Spenser, _State of
Ireland_.
Donne uses the word also in the more original sense of 'a
piece of ground, a spot'. See p. 132, l. 34.
l. 23-4. _whether Ward . . . the I(n)land Seas. _ I have taken 'Iland'
_1635-54_ as intended for 'Inland', perhaps written '? land', not
for 'Island'. The edition of 1669 reads 'midland', and there is no
doubt that the Mediterranean was the scene of the career and exploits
of the notorious Ward, whose head-quarters were at Tunis. The
Mediterranean is called the Inland sea in Holland's translation of
Pliny (_Hist. of the World_, III. _The Proeme_); and Donne uses
the phrase (with a different application but one borrowed from this
meaning) in the _Progresse of the Soule_, p. 308, ll. 317-8:
as if his vast wombe were
Some Inland sea.
Previous editors read 'Island seas' but do not explain the reference,
except Grosart, who declares that the 'Iland seas are those around the
West Indian and other islands. The Midland seas (as in _1669_)
were probably the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Seas'. He cites no
authority; nor have we proof that Ward was ever in these seas. Writing
to Salisbury on the 7th of March, 1607-8, Wotton says: 'The voice is
here newly arrived that Warde hath taken another Venetian vessel of
good value, so as the hatred of him increaseth among them and fully
as fast as the fear of him. These are his effects. Now to give your
Lordship some taste of his language. One Moore, captain of an English
ship that tradeth this way . . . was hailed by him not long since a
little without the Gulf, and answering that he was bound for Venice,
"Tell those flat caps" (said he) "who have been the occasion that I
am banished out of my country that before I have done with them I will
make them sue for pardon. " In this style he speaketh. ' Pearsall Smith,
_Life and Letters of . . . Wotton_, ii. 415. Mr. Pearsall Smith adds in
a note that Ward hoped to 'buy or threaten the English Government into
pardoning him', and that some attempt was also made by the Venetian
Government to procure his assassination.
If 'Island' be the right reading the sea referred to must be the
Adriatic. The Islands of the Illyrian coast were at various times the
haunt of pirates. But I have found no instance of the phrase in this
sense.
l. 25. _the Brittaine Burse. _ This was built by the Earl of Salisbury
on the site of an 'olde long stable' in the Strand on the north side
of Durham House: 'And upon Tuesday the tenth of Aprill this yeere, one
thousand sixe hundred and nine, many of the upper shoppes were richly
furnished with wares, and the next day after that, the King, Queene,
and Prince, the Lady Elizabeth and the Duke of Yorke, with many great
Lords, and chiefe Ladies, came thither, and were there entertained
with pleasant speeches, giftes, and ingenious devices, and then
the king gave it a name, and called it Brittaines Burse. ' Stow,
_Chronicle_, p. 894.
l. 27. _Of new built Algate, and the More-field crosses. _ Aldgate, one
of the four principal gates in the City wall, was taken down in 1606
and rebuilt by 1609: Stow, _Survey_. Norton refers to Jonson's _Silent
Woman_, I. i: 'How long did the canvas hang afore Aldgate? Were the
people suffered to see the city's Love and Charity while they were
rude stone, before they were painted and burnished? '
'The More-field crosses' are apparently the walks at Moor-field.
Speaking of the embellishment of London which ensued from the long
duration of peace, Stow says, 'And lastly, whereof there is a more
generall, and particular notice taken by all persons resorting and
residing in London, the new and pleasant walks on the north side of
the city, anciently called More fields, which field (untill the third
yeare of King James) was a most noysome and offensive place, being a
generall laystall, a rotten morish ground, whereof it tooke first the
name. ' Stow, _Chronicle_. For the ditches which crossed the field were
substituted 'most faire and royall walkes'.
PAGE =107=, l. 41. The '(_quoth Hee_)' of the 1669 edition is
obviously correct. 'Hee' is required both by rhyme and reason. Mr.
Chambers has ingeniously put '"True" quoth I' into a parenthesis, as
a remark interjected by the poet. But apart from the rhyme the 'quoth
Hee' is needed to explain the transition to direct speech. Without it
the long speech of the citizen begins very awkwardly.
ll. 42-44. These lines seem to echo the Royal Proclamation of 1609,
though the reference is different: 'in this speciall Proclamation his
Majestic declared how grievously, the people of this latter age and
times are fallen into verball profession, as well of religion, as of
all commendable morall vertues, but wanting the actions and deeds of
so specious a profession, and the insatiable and immeasurable itching
boldnesse of the spirits, tongues and pens of most men. ' Stow,
_Chronicle_.
l. 46. _Bawd, Tavern-keeper, Whore and Scrivener_; The singular number
of the MS. gives as good a sense as the plural and a better rhyme.
l. 47. _The much of Privileg'd kingsmen, and the store
Of fresh protections, &c. _
'We have many bankrupts daily, and as many protections, which doth
marvellously hinder all manner of commerce. ' Chamberlain to Carleton,
Dec. 31, 1612. By 'kingsmen' I understand noblemen holding monopolies
from the King. I do not understand the 'kinsmen' of the editions.
By 'protections' is meant 'exemptions from suits in law', especially
suits for debt. The London tradesmen were much cheated by the
protections granted to the servants and followers of members of
Parliament.
l. 65. _found nothing but a Rope. _ I cannot identify this Rope. In the
_Aulularia_ of Plautus, when Euclio finds his treasure gone he laments
in the usual manner. At l. 721 he says, 'Heu me miserum, misere perii,
male perditu', _pessume ornatus eo_. ' The last words may have been
taken as meaning 'I have the rope round my neck'.
PAGE =108=. ELEGIE XV.
l. 12. Following _RP31_ and also Jonson's _Underwoods_ I have taken
'at once' as going with 'Both hot and cold', not with 'make life, and
death' as in _1633-69_. This is one of the poems which _1633_ derived
from some other source than _D_, _H49_, _Lec_.
ll. 16-18 (_all sweeter . . . the rest_) Chambers has overlooked
altogether the _1633_ reading 'sweeter'. He prints 'sweeten'd'
from _1635-69_. It is clear from the MSS. that this is an editor's
amendment due to Donne's 'all sweeter' suggesting, perhaps
intentionally, 'all the sweeter'. By dropping the bracket Chambers
has left at least ambiguous the construction of 17-18: _And the divine
impression of stolne kisses That sealed the rest. _ Does this, as in
_1633_, belong to the parenthesis, or is 'the divine impression' to be
taken with 'so many accents sweet, so many sighes' and 'so many oathes
and teares' as part subject to 'should now prove empty blisses'. I
prefer the _1633_ arrangement, which has the support of the MSS. ,
though the punctuation of these is apt to be careless. The accents,
sighs, oaths, and tears were all made sweeter by having been stolen
with fear and trembling. This is how the Grolier Club editor takes it;
Grosart and Chambers prefer to follow _1635-69_.
PAGE 109, l. 34. I do not know whence Chambers derived his reading
'drift' for 'trust'--perhaps from an imperfect copy of _1633_. He
attributes it to all the editions prior to 1669. This is an oversight.
PAGE =110=, ll. 59 f. _I could renew, &c. _ Compare Ovid, _Amores_, III.
ii. 1-7.
Non ego nobilium sedeo studiosus equorum;
Cui tamen ipsa faves, vincat ut ille precor.
Ut loquerer tecum veni tecumque sederem,
Ne tibi non notus, quem facis, esset amor.
Tu cursum spectas, ego te; spectemus uterque
Quod iuvat, atque oculos pascat uterque suos.
O, cuicumque faves, felix agitator equorum!
PAGE =111=. ELEGIE XVI.
A careful study of the textual notes to this poem will show that there
is a considerable difference between the text of this poem as given
for the first time in _1635_, and that of the majority of the MSS. It
is very difficult, however, to decide between them as the differences
are not generally such as to suggest that one reading is necessarily
right, the other wrong. The chief variants are these: 7 'parents' and
'fathers'. Here I fancy the 'parents' of the MSS. is right, and that
'fathers' in the editions and in a late MS. like _O'F_ is due to the
identification of Donne's mistress with his wife. Only the father of
Anne More was alive at the time of their first acquaintance. It is not
at all certain, however, that this poem is addressed to Anne More,
and in any case Donne would probably have disguised the details. The
change of 'parents' to 'fathers' is more likely than the opposite.
In l. 12 'wayes' (edd. ) and 'meanes' (MSS. ) are practically
indistinguishable; nor is there much to choose between the two
versions of l. 18: 'My soule from other lands to thee shall soare'
(edd. ) and 'From other lands my soule towards thee shall soare'
(MSS. ). In each case the version of the editions is slightly the
better. In l. 28, on the other hand, I have adopted 'mindes' without
hesitation although here the MSS. vary. There is no question of
changing the mind, but there is of changing the mind's habit, of
adopting a boy's cast of thought and manner: as Rosalind says,
and in my heart
Lie there what hidden woman's fear there will,
We'll have a swashing and a martial outside,
As many other mannish cowards have
That do outface it with their semblances.
_As You Like It_, I. iii. 114-18.
In l. 35 the reading 'Lives fuellers', i. e. 'Life's fuellers', which
is found in such early and good MSS. as _D_, _H49_, _Lec_ and _W_,
is very remarkable. If I were convinced that it is correct I should
regard it as decisive and prefer the MS. readings throughout. But
'Loves fuellers', though also a strange phrase, seems more easy of
interpretation, and applicable.
In l. 37 there can, I think, be no doubt that the original reading is
preserved by _A18_, _N_, _S_, _TCD_, and _W_.
Will quickly knowe thee, and knowe thee, and, alas!
The sudden, brutal change in the sense of the word 'knowe' is quite in
Donne's manner. The reasons for omitting or softening it are obvious,
and may excuse my not restoring it. The whole of these central lines
reveal that strange bad taste, some radical want of delicacy, which
mars not only Donne's poems and lighter prose but even at times the
sermons. In l. 49 the reading of the MSS. _A18_, _N_, _TC_; _D_,
_H49_, _Lec_, and _W_ is also probably original:
Nor praise, nor dispraise me; Blesse nor curse.
It is not uncommon in Donne's poetry to find a syllable dropped with
the effect of increasing the stress on a rhetorically emphatic word,
here 'Blesse'. An editor would be sure to supply 'nor'.
Lamb has quoted from this Elegy in his note to Beaumont and Fletcher's
_Philaster_ (_Specimens of English Dramatic Poets_, 1808). It is
clear that he used a copy of the 1669 edition, for he reads 35 'Lives
fuellers', and also 42 'Aydroptique' for 'Hydroptique'. Both these
mistakes were corrected in _1719_. Donne speaks in his sermons of
'fuelling and advancing his tentations'. _Sermons_ 80. 10. 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.
