If in Magique you have skill so farre,
Vouchsafe me to be your familiar.
Vouchsafe me to be your familiar.
John Donne
Elegy.
_
Cruell since that thou dost not feare the curse
W^{ch} thy disdayne, and my despayre procure,
My prayer for thee shall torment thee worse
Then all the payne thou coudst thereby endure.
May, then, that beauty w^{ch} I did conceave 5
In thee above the height of heavens course,
When first my Liberty thou didst bereave,
Bee doubled on thee and with doubled force.
Chayne thousand vassalls in like thrall with mee,
W^{ch} in thy glory mayst thou still despise, 10
As the poore Trophyes of that victory
Which thou hast onely purchasd by thine eyes;
And when thy Triumphs so extended are
That there is nought left to bee conquered,
Mayst thou with the great Monarchs mournfull care 15
Weepe that thine Hono^{rs} are so limited;
So thy disdayne may melt it selfe to love
By an unlookd for and a wondrous change,
W^{ch} to thy selfe above the rest must prove
In all th'effects of love paynefully strange, 20
While wee thy scorned subjects live to see
Thee love the whole world, none of it love thee.
[Upon his scornefull Mistresse. _O'F_: _no title_, _B_, _which
adds note_, This hath relation to 'When by thy scorne'. _See_
The Apparition, _p. _ 191]
[2 despayre _B_: disdayne _O'F_
procure, _Ed_: procure _O'F_]
[6 course, _Ed_: course _O'F_]
[7 bereave, _Ed_: bereave _O'F_]
[8 force. _Ed_: force _O'F_]
[9 Chayne _B_: Stay _O'F_ mee, _Ed_: mee _O'F_]
[10 despise, _Ed_: despise _O'F_]
[12 eyes; _Ed_: eyes _O'F_]
[14 conquered, _Ed_: conquered _O'F_]
[16 limited; _Ed_: limited _O'F_]
[18 change, _Ed_: change _O'F_]
[20 strange, _Ed_: strange _O'F_]
<_Absence. _>
Wonder of Beautie, Goddesse of my sense,
You that have taught my soule to love aright,
You in whose limbes are natures chief expense
Fitt instrument to serve your matchless spright,
If ever you have felt the miserie 5
Of being banish'd from your best desier,
By Absence, Time, or Fortunes tyranny,
Sterving for cold, and yet denied for fier:
Deare mistresse pittie then the like effects
The which in mee your absence makes to flowe, 10
And haste their ebb by your divine aspect
In which the pleasure of my life doth growe:
Stay not so long for though it seem a wonder
You keepe my bodie and my soule asunder.
FINIS.
<_Tongue-tied Love. _>
Faire eies do not think scorne to read of Love
That to your eies durst never it presume,
Since absence those sweet wonders do<th> remove
That nourish thoughts, yet sence and wordes consume;
This makes my pen more hardy then my tongue, 5
Free from my feare yet feeling my desire,
To utter that I have conceal'd so long
By doing what you did yourself require.
Believe not him whom Love hath left so wise
As to have power his owne tale for to tell, 10
For childrens greefes do yield the loudest cries,
And cold desires may be expressed well:
In well told Love most often falsehood lies,
But pittie him that only sighes and dies.
FINIS.
[<Absence. > <Tongue-tied Love. > _Ed_: _whole sonnets without
titles in_ _L74_: _the last six lines of the second appear
among Donne's poems in_ _B_, _O'F_, _S96_ <Tongue-tied Love. >]
[12 cold desires] coldest Ayres _O'F_]
<_Love, if a God thou art. _>
Love if a god thou art
then evermore thou must
Bee mercifull and just;
If thou bee just, o wherefore doth thy dart
Wound mine alone and not my mistresse hart? 5
If mercifull, then why
Am I to payne reservd
Who have thee truely serv'd,
When shee that by thy powre sets not a fly
Laughs thee to scorne and lives at liberty? 10
Then if a God thou woulds accounted bee,
Heale mee like her, or else wound her like mee.
<_Great Lord of Love. _>
Greate Lord of love, how busy still thou art
To give new wounds and fetters to my hart!
Is't not enough that thou didst twice before
It so mangle
And intangle 5
By sly arts
of false harts.
Forbeare mee, Ile make love no more.
Fy busy Lord, will it not thee suffice
To use the Rhetorique of her tongue and eyes 10
When I am waking, but that absent so
They invade mee
To perswade mee,
When that sleepe
Oft should keepe 15
And lock out every sence of woe.
If thou perswade mee thus to speake, I dye
And shee the murdresse, for me will deny;
And if for silence I bee prest, Her good
Yet I cherish 20
Though I perish,
For that shee
Shall bee free
From that foule guilt of spilling bloud.
[<Love if a God thou art. > <Great Lord of Love. > <Loves
Exchange. > _all without titles in_ _O'F_: _punctuation mainly
the Editor's_]
<_Loves Exchange_>
1. To sue for all thy Love, and thy whole hart
were madnesse.
I doe not sue, nor can admitt,
(Fayrest) from yo^u to have all yet;
Who giveth all, hath nothing to impart 5
But sadnesse.
2. Hee who receaveth all can have no more,
Then seeing.
My love by length of every howre
Gathers new strength, new growth, new power: 10
You must have dayly new rewards in store
Still beeing.
3. You cannot every day give mee yo^r hart
For merit;
Yet if you will, when yours doth goe 15
You shall have still one to bestow,
For you shall mine, when yours doth part,
Inherit.
4. Yet if you please weele find a better way
Then change them, 20
For so alone (dearest) wee shall
Bee one and one another all;
Let us so joyne our harts, that nothing may
Estrange them.
_Song. _
Now y'have killd mee with yo^{r} scorne
Who shall live to call yo^{u} fayre?
What new foole must now bee borne
To prepare
Dayly sacrifice of service new, 5
Teares too good for woemen true?
Who shall sorrow when yo^{u} crye
And to please yo^{u} dayly dye?
Men succeeding shall beware
And woemen cruell, no more fayre. 10
2.
Now y'have killd mee, never looke
Any left to call yo^{u} trewe;
Who more madd must now bee tooke
To renewe
My oblations dayly, lost? 15
Vowes too good for woemen chast!
Who shall call yo^{u} sweete, and sweare
T'is yo^{r} face renews the yeare?
Men by my Death shall beleeve,
And woemen cruell yet shall greeve. 20
[Song. _O'F_: _punctuation mainly Editor's_]
_Love, bred of glances. _
Love bred of Glances twixt amorous eyes
Like Childrens fancies, sone borne, sone dyes.
Guilte, Bitternes, and smilinge woe
Doth ofte deceaue poore lovers soe,
As the fonde Sence th'unwary soule deceives 5
With deadly poison wrapt in Lily leaves.
But harts so chain'd as Goodnes stands
With truthe unstain'd to couple hands,
Love beinge to all beauty blinde
Save the cleere beauties of the minde, 10
There heaven is pleasd, continuall blessings sheddinge,
Angells are guests and dance at this blest weddinge.
[Love _&c. _ <True Love. > _Chambers_, _who prints from RP117_:
_no title_, _O'F_, _P_, _S96_ (_from which present text is
taken_)]
[2 borne _B_, _P_, _O'F_, _S96_: bred _Chambers_]
[4 Doth _S96_: does _B_, _O'F_: doe _P_]
[5 As] And _Chambers_]
[7 as Goodnes] 'tis goodnes _Chambers_]
[8 hands, _Ed_: hands _S96_]
[10 minde, _B_: minde _S96_]
[11 There heav'n is _O'F_, _P_, _S96_: Where Reason is
_Chambers_
sheddinge, _Ed_: sheddinge _S96_]
[12 this] his _Chambers_]
_To a Watch restored to its Mystres. _
Goe and Count her better howers.
For they are happier than oures.
The day that gives her any bliss,
Make it as long againe as 'tis.
The hower shee smyles in, lett it bee 5
By thy acte multiplyde to three.
But if shee frowne on thee or mee,
Know night is made by her, not thee;
Be swifte in such an hower & soone,
See thou make night, ere it be noone. 10
Obey her tymes, whoe is the free
Faire Sunne that governes thee & mee.
[To a Watch _&c. _ _B_, _where note below title says_ none of
J. D. _and poem is signed_ W. L. ]
<_Ad Solem. _>
Wherfore peepst thou, envious daye?
We can kisse without thee.
Lovers hate the golden raye,
Which thou bearst about thee.
Goe and give them light that sorowe 5
Or the saylor flyinge:
Our imbraces need noe morowe
Nor our blisses eying.
We shall curse thy curyous eye
For thy soone betrayinge, 10
And condemn thee for a spye
Yf thou catch us playinge.
Gett thee gone and lend thy flashes
Where there's need of lendinge,
Our affections are not ashes 15
Nor our pleasures endinge.
Weare we cold or withered heare
We would stay thee by us,
Or but one anothers feare
Then thou shouldst not flye us. 20
Wee are yongue, thou spoilst our pleasure;
Goe to sea and slumber,
Darknes only gives us leasure
Our stolne joyes to number.
[<Ad Solem. > _Ed_: _no title_, _Add. MSS. _ _22603_, _33998_,
_Egerton MS. 2013_, _Harleian MS. 791_, _S_, _TCD(II)_:
_printed J. Wilson_: Cheerful Ayres (1659), _Grosart and
Chambers_: _text from Eg. MS. 2013_: _punctuation partly
Editor's_]
[2 kisse] live _E20_]
[9 curyous _A22_, _A33_, _H79_, _S_, _TCD_: envious _E20_]
[19 one anothers feare _TCD_: one another fear _E20_: one
anothers sphere _A22_, _A33_, _S_]
[23 gives] lends _A22_, _A33_]
<_If She Deride. _>
Greate and goode if she deryde mee
Let me walke Ile not despayre,
Ere to morrowe Ile provide mee
One as greate, lesse prowd, more faire.
They that seeke Love to constraine 5
Have theire labour for their paine.
They that strongly can importune
And will never yeild nor tyre,
Gaine the paye in spight of Fortune
But such game Ile not desyre. 10
Where the prize is shame or synn,
Wynners loose and loosers wynn.
Looke upon the faythfull lover,
Griefe stands paynted in his face,
Groanes, and Teares and sighs discover 15
That they are his onely grace:
Hee must weepe as children doe
That will in the fashion wooe.
I whoe flie these idle fancies
Which my dearest rest betraye, 20
Warnd by others harmfull chances,
Vse my freedome as I may.
When all the worlde says what it cann
'Tis but--Fie, vnconstant mann!
[<If She Deryde. > _Chambers_: _no title_, _S_: _also, Chambers
reports, in C. C. C. Oxon. MS. 327, f. 26: printed by Grosart
and Chambers_]
[11 Where the prize is _Chambers_: Where they prize this
(_'t' struck out_) _S_: Where they prize is _Grosart_]
[14 Teares and sighs] _Chambers reverses_]
<_Fortune Never Fails. _>
What if I come to my mistris bedd
The candles all ecclipst from shyninge,
Shall I then attempt for her mayden-head
Or showe my selfe a coward by declyninge?
Oh noe 5
Fie doe not soe,
For thus much I knowe by devyninge,
Blynd is Love
The dark it doth approve,
To pray on pleasures pantinge; 10
What needeth light
For Cupid in the night,
If jealous eyes be wantinge.
Fortune never failes, if she badd take place,
To shroude all the faire proceedings: 15
Love and she though blynd, yet each other embrace,
To favor all their servants meetings:
Venture I say
To sport and to play,
If in place all be fitting; 20
Though she say fie
Yet doth she not denie:
For fie is but a word of tryall:
Jealosie doth sleepe,
Then doe not weepe 25
At force of a faynt denyall.
Glorious is my love, with tryumphs in her face,
Then to to bould were I to venter:
Who loves deserves to live in a princes grace,
Why stand you then affraid to enter? 30
Lights are all out
Then make noe doubt
A lover bouldly maye take chusinge.
Bewtie is a baite
For a princely mate. 35
Fy, why stand you then a musinge?
You'll repent too late
If she doe you hate,
For loves delight refusinge.
[<Fortune Never Fails. > _Grosart_: _no title_, _RP31_, _S_:
_also, Chambers reports, in C. C. C. Oxon. MS. 327, f. 21:
printed Grosart and Chambers, and, last two verses only,
Simeon_]
[10 pantinge;] hauntinge: _RP31_]
[14 she badd _S_: she bidd _Grosart_: she bids _Chambers_: the
bould _RP31_]
[19 and to play _RP31_, _S_: and play _Grosart and Chambers_]
[26 faynt] fair _Chambers_]
[28 were] was _RP31_]
[29 princes] Princess _Chambers_]
[33 lover] woer _Chambers_
chusinge] a choosing _Chambers_]
_To His Mistress. _
1. Beleeve yo^r Glasse, and if it tell you (Deare)
Yo^r Eyes inshrine
A brighter shine
Then faire Apollo, looke if theere appeare
The milkie skye 5
The Crimson dye
Mixt in your cheeks, and then bid Phoebus sett,
More Glory then hee owes appears. But yet
2. Be not deceived with fond Alteration
. . . . . 10
. . . . .
. . . . . . . .
As Cynthias Globe,
A snow white robe
Is soonest spotled, a Carnation dye 15
Fades, and discolours open'd but to Eie.
3. Make use of youth, and bewty whilest they flourish:
Tyme never sleepes,
Though it but creeps
It still gets forward. Do not vainly nourish 20
Them to selfe-use,
It is Abuse;
The richest Grownds lying wast turne Boggs and rott,
And soe beinge useles, were as good were not.
4. Walke in a meddowe by a Rivers side, 25
Upon whose Bancks
Grow milk-white Ranks
Of full blown Lyllies in their height of Pryde,
Which downward bend
And nothing tend 30
Save their owne Bewties in the Glassie streame:
Looke to yo^r selfe: Compare yo^{r}selfe to them.
5. In show, in bewtie, marke what followes then:
Sommer must end,
The sunn must bend 35
His Longe Absented beames to others: then
Their spring being crost
By wynters frost
And sneap'd by bytter storms against w^{ch} nought boots,
They bend their prowd topps lower then their roots. 40
6. Then none regard them; but w^{th} heedles feet
In durt each treads
Their declyned heads.
So when youthe wasted, Age, and yo^u shall meet,
Then I alone
Shall sadly moane 45
That Interviewe; others it will not move,
So light regard we, what we little Love.
FINIS.
[To His Mistress. _Le Prince D'Amour_ (_1660_): _no title_,
_S_ (_whence text_): _printed by Simeon_, _Grosart_,
_Chambers_: _punctuation partly Editor's_]
[1 if it tell] it will tell _Chambers_]
[9 deceived] deceiv'd _S_]
[16 open'd] opened _S_]
[24 were not] as not _LeP D' A_]
[31 the Glassie _S_: a Glassie _LePD'A_: their Glassie
_Chambers_]
[32 to them. _S_: with them. _Chambers_]
[36 then] when _Chambers_]
[39 sneap'd _Ed_: snep'd _S_: swept _LePD'A_: snipped
_Chambers_]
_A Paradoxe of a Painted Face. _
Not kisse? By Jove I must, and make impression
As longe as Cupid dares to holde his Session
Vpon my flesh and blood: our kisses shall
Outminute Time and without number fall.
Doe I not know these Balls of blushinge Red 5
That on thy Cheekes thus amorouslie are spred?
Thy snowy necke, those veynes upon thy Browe
Which with their azure crincklinge sweetly bowe
Are artificiall? Borrowed? and no more thine owne
Then Chaines which on St. George's Day are showne, 10
Are proper to the wearers? Yet for this
I idole thee, and beg a luscious kisse.
The fucus, and Ceruse, which on thy face
Thy Cunninge hand layes on to add new Grace,
Detaine me with such pleasing fraude, that I 15
Finde in thy art, what can in nature Lie.
Much like a painter that upon some Wall
On which the radiant Sun-beames use to fall
Paints with such art a Gilded butterflye
That silly maides with slowe-moved fingers trye 20
To Catch it, and then blush at theire mistake,
Yet of this painted flye most reckonynge make:
Such is our state; since what we looke upon
Is nought but Coullor and Proportion.
Take me a face, as full of fraud and Lies 25
As Gypsies in your cunninge Lotteries,
That is more false, and more Sophisticate
Than are Saints reliques, or a man of state.
Yet such being Glazed by the sleight of arte,
Gaines admiration, winninge many a Harte. 30
Put case there be a difference in the molde,
Yet may thy Venus be more Chaste, and holde
A dearer treasure: oftentimes we see
Rich Candian wines in woodden Boules to bee.
The odoriferous Civet doth not lie 35
Within the muskat's nose, or eare, or eye,
But in a baser place; for prudent nature
In drawinge us of various formes and stature
Gives from the curious shop of hir rich treasure
To faire parts comeliness, to baser, pleasure. 40
The fairest flowers, which in the Springe doe growe
Are not so much for use, as for the showe,
As Lillies, Hyacinths, and the georgious birthe
Of all pide flowers that diaper the earthe,
Please more with their discoloured purple traine 45
Then wholesome pothearbs which for use remaine.
Shall I a Gaudy Speckled Serpent kiss
For that the colours which he weares are his?
A perfumed Cordevant who will not wear
Because the sente is borrowed elsewhere? 50
The roabes and vestiments, which grace us all
Are not our owne, but adventitiall.
Time rifles Natures beauty, but slye Arte
Repaires by cunninge this decayinge parte.
Fills here a wrinckle, and there purles a veyne, 55
And with a nimble hand runs o're againe
The breaches dented in by th'arme of time,
And makes Deformity to be no crime.
As when great men be grip't by sicknes hand,
Industrious Physicke pregnantly doth stand 60
To patch up foule diseases, and doth strive
To keepe theire totteringe Carcasses alive.
Beautie is a candlelight which every puffe
Blowes out, and leaves nought but a stinking snuffe
To fill our nostrills with; this boldelie thinke, 65
The cleerest Candle makes the greatest stincke,
As your pure fode and cleerest nutryment
Gets the most hott, and nose stronge excrement.
Why hange we then on thinges so apt to varie,
So fleetinge, brittle, and so temporarie? 70
That agues, Coughes, the toothache, or Catarr
(Slight hansells of diseases) spoile and marr.
But when olde age theire beauties hath in Chace,
And plowes up furrowes in theire once-smoothe face,
Then they become forsaken, and doe showe 75
Like stately abbeyes ruin'd longe agoe.
Nature but gives the modell, and first draught
Of faire perfection, which by art is taught
To speake itselfe, a compleat form and birthe,
Soe stands a Copie to these shapes on earthe. 80
Jove grante me then a reparable face
Which, whiles that Colours are, can want no grace.
Pigmalions painted statue I coulde love,
Soe it were warme and softe, and coulde but move.
[A Paradoxe of a Painted Face. _H39_, _S_, _S96_, _TCD_ (_II_)
_Pembroke and Ruddier_ (_1660_), _Le Prince D'Amour_ (_1660_),
_Simeon_ (_1856-7_), _Grosart_ (_from S_), _Chambers_ (_from
Simeon_, _and Pembroke and Ruddier_): _text from S96_:
_punctuation partly Editor's_]
[8 azure crincklinge _S96_: azure winckles _P and R_: azure
twinklinge _S_: azur'd wrinklings _TCD_: azure wrinkles
_Chambers_]
[15 Detaine] Deceive _H39_, _P and R_, _LeP D' A_, _TCD_,
_Chambers_
pleasing] cunning _TCD_]
[18 radiant _S96_: cadent _H39_, _TCD_, _LeP D' A_, _Grosart_,
_and Chambers_: splendent _P and R_]
[21 then] yet _S96_]
[32 Chaste] choise _P and R_, _LeP D' A_, _TCD_]
[39 shop] shape _S96_
rich] largest _S96_: large _P and R_, _Grosart_, _and
Chambers_]
[45 discoloured] discovered _H39_: _but_ discoloured _is here_
variegated]
[53 rifles] rifled _S96_]
[55 purles] fills _S_: purls _is_ embroiders as with gold or
silver thread]
[67 clearest] choicest _P and R_: cleanest _S_: finest
_Chambers_]
[68 most hott] most stronge _S96_]
[72 hansells _H39_: houses _S_, _S96_, _Chambers_: touches _P
and R_: causes _LeP D' A_]
[73 beauties] brav'ries _H39_]
[79 To speake itselfe _TCD_, _P and R_: Speake to itselfe _S_,
_S96_: Speake for itselfe _H39_: To make itselfe _Simeon_,
_Grosart_, _and Chambers_]
_Sonnett. _
Madam that flea that Crept between your brests
I envied, that there he should make his rest:
The little Creatures fortune was soe good
That Angells feed not on so pretious foode.
How it did sucke how eager tickle you 5
(Madam shall fleas before me tickle you? )
Oh I can not holde; pardon if I kild it.
Sweet Blood, to you I aske this, that which fild it
Ran from my Ladies Brest. Come happie flea
That dide for suckinge of that milkie Sea. 10
Oh now againe I well could wishe thee there,
About hir Hart, about hir anywhere;
I would vowe (Dearest flea) thou shouldst not dye,
If thou couldst sucke from hir hir crueltye.
[Sonnett. _O'F_, _S96_: _no title_, _S_: On A Flea on His
Mistress's Bosom _Simeon_, _Grosart_, _Chambers_ (_from
Simeon_): _text from S96_]
[7 I can not holde] I not hold can _Chambers_
kild _Ed_: killed _Chambers_: kill _S96_]
[13 vowe ] now _Chambers_
Dearest _S96_: deare _S_, _O'F_, _Chambers_
thou] that thou _Chambers_]
_On Black Hayre and Eyes. _
If shaddowes be the pictures excellence;
And make it seeme more lively to the sence;
If starres in the bright day are hid from sight
And shine most glorious in the masque of night;
Why should you thinke (rare creature) that you lack 5
Perfection cause your haire and eyes are blacke,
Or that your heavenly beauty which exceedes
The new sprung lillies in their mayden weeds,
The damaske coullour of your cheekes and lipps
Should suffer by their darknesse an eclipps? 10
Rich diamonds shine brightest, being sett
And compassed within a foyle of Jett.
Nor was it fitt that Nature should have mayde
So bright a sunne to shine without a shade.
It seemes that Nature when she first did fancie 15
Your rare composure studied Necromancie,
That when to you this guift she did impart
She used altogether the black art.
By which infused power from Magique tooke
You doe command all spiritts with a looke: 20
Shee drew those Magique circles in your eyes,
And mayde your hayre the chaines wherewith shee ties
Rebelling hearts: those blew veines which appeare,
Winding Meander about either spheare,
Misterious figures are, and when you list 25
Your voice commandeth like the Exorcist,
And every word which from your Pallett falleth
In a deep charme your hearer's heart inthralleth.
Oh!
If in Magique you have skill so farre,
Vouchsafe me to be your familiar. 30
Nor hath kind Nature her black art reveal'd
To outward partes alone, some lie conceal'd,
And as by heads of springs men often knowe
The nature of the streames that run belowe,
So your black haire and eyes do give direction 35
To make me thinke the rest of like complexion:
That rest where all rest lies that blesseth Man,
That Indian mine, that straight of Magellan,
That worlde dividing gulfe where he that venters,
With swelling sayles and ravisht senses enters 40
To a new world of blisse. Pardon, I pray,
If my rude muse presumeth to display
Secretts unknowne, or hath her bounds orepast
In praysing sweetnesse which I ne're did tast;
Sterved men doe know there's meate, and blind men may 45
Though hid from light presume there is a day.
The rover in the marke his arrowe sticks
Sometimes as well as he that shootes att prickes,
And if I might direct my shaft aright,
The black mark would I hitt and not the white. 50
[On Black Hayre and Eyes _Add. MS. 11811, on which text is
based: in several MSS. including A25, TCD (II), L77: printed
in Parnassus Biceps (1656), Pembroke and Ruddier's Poems
(1660), Simeon (1856-7), Grosart, and Chambers_]
[2 it _A2I_, _H60_, _TCD_: them _A11_: things _L77_]
[4 shine _H39_, _TCD_: seem _A11_, _Grosart_, _and Chambers_]
[8 mayden weeds,] maidenheads, _H39_, _TCD_, _Grosart_, _and
Chambers_]
[9 The damasque coullor of] That cherry colour of _H39_,
_TCD_: Or that the cherries of _Some MSS. _]
[12 compassed ] compos'd _A11_
foyle] field _Chambers_]
[19 tooke] book _Grosart and Chambers_]
[20 all spiritts] like spirits _Grosart and Chambers_]
[25 figures] fables _A11_]
[26 commandeth] commands _A11_]
[29 you have skill _L77_, _TCD_, _&c. _: your power _A11_: you
have power _Grosart and Chambers_]
[33 For (And) as by the springhead a man may (men often) know
_L77_, _TCD_, _and other MSS. _]
[34 streame . . . runs _L77_, _&c. _]
[44 did] shall _TCD and other MSS. _]
[47 sticks] strikes _Grosart and Chambers_]
[49 direct _L77_, _TCD_, _&c. _: ayme _A11_, _Grosart_, _and
Chambers_]
_Fragment of an Elegy. _
And though thy glasse a burning one become
And turne us both to ashes on her urne,
Yet to our glory till the later day
Our dust shall daunce like attomes in her ray.
And when the world shall in confusion burne, 5
And Kinges and peasantes scramble at an urne,
Like tapers new blowne out wee happy then
Will at her beames catch fire and live againe.
But this is sence, and some one may-be glad
That I so good a cause of sorrow had, 10
Will with all those whome I affect may dye
So I might please him with an elegie.
O let there never line of witt be read
To please the living that doth speake thee dead;
Some tender-harted mother good and mild, 15
Who on the deare grave of her tender child
So many sad teares hath beene knowne to rayne
As out of dust would mould him up againe,
And with hir plaintes enforce the wormes to place
Themselves like veynes so neatly on his face, 20
And every lymne, as if that they wer striving
To flatter hir with hope of his reviving:
Shee should read this, and hir true teares alone
Should coppy forth these sad lines on the stone
Which hides thee dead, and every gentle hart 25
That passeth by should of his teares impart
So great a portion, that if after times
Ruine more churches for the Clergyes crimes,
When any shall remove thy marble hence,
Which is lesse stone then hee that takes it thence, 30
Thou shalt appeare within thy tearefull cell
Much like a faire nymph bathing in a well.
But when they find thee dead so lovely fair,
Pitty and sorrow then shall straight repaire
And weepe beside thy grave with cipresse cround, 35
To see the secound world of beauty dround,
And add sufficient teares as they condole
'Twould make thy body swimme up to thy soule.
Such eyes should read the lines are writ of thee;
But such a losse should have no elegie 40
To palliate the wound wee tooke in hir,
Who rightly greeves admittes no comforter.
He that had tane to heart thy parting hence
Should have beene chain'd to Bedlam two houres thence,
And not a frind of his ere shed a teare 45
To see him for thy sake distracted there,
But hugge himselfe for loving such as hee
That could runne mad with greefe for loosing thee.
I, haplesse soule, that never knew a frend
But to bewayle his too untimely end, 50
Whose hopes (cropt in the bud) have never come
But to sitt weeping on a sencelesse tombe,
That hides not dust enough to count the teares
Which I have fruitlesse spent in so few yeares,
I that have trusted those that would have given 55
For our deare Saviour and the Sonne of heaven
Ten times the valew Judas had of yore,
Onely to sell him for three peeces more;
I that have lov'd and trusted thus in vaine
Yet weepe for thee, and till the clowdes shall daigne 60
To throw on Egipt more then Nile ere sweld,
These teares of mine shalbee unparellell'd.
He that hath lov'd, enjoy'd, and then beene crost,
Hath teares at will to mourne for what he lost;
He that hath trusted and his hope appeares 65
Wrong'd but by death may soone dissolve in teares;
But hee unhappy man whose love and trust
Nere met fruition nor a promise just,
For him (unlesse like thee hee deadly slepe)
'Tis easier to runn mad then 'tis to weepe; 70
And yet I can. Fall then yee mournefull showers,
And as old time leades on the winged howers,
Bee you their minutes, and let men forgett
To count their ages from the plague of sweat,
From eighty eight, the Poulder-plot, or when 75
Men were affrayd to talke of it againe;
And in their numerations be it sayd
Thus old was I when such a teare was shed,
And when that other fell a comett rose
And all the world tooke notice of my woes. 80
Yet finding them past cure, as doctores fly
Their patientes past all hope of remedy,
No charitable soule will once impart
One word of comfort to so sicke a heart;
But as a hurt deare beaten from the heard, 85
Men of my shadow allmost now affeard
Fly from my woes, that whilome wont to greet mee,
And well nigh thinke it ominous to meete mee.
Sad lines go yee abroad; go saddest muse,
And as some nations formerly did use 90
To lay their sicke men in the street, that those,
Who of the same disease had scapt the throwes,
Might minister releefe as they went by
To such as felt the selfsame malady,
So haplesse lynes fly through the fairest land, 95
And if ye light into some blessed hand,
That hath a heart as merry as the shine
Of golden dayes, yet wrong'd as much as mine,
Pitty may lead that happy man to mee,
And his experience worke a remedy 100
To those sad fittes which (spight of nature's lawes)
Torture a poore hart that out-lives the cause.
But this must never bee, nor is it fitt
An ague or some sickenes lesse then itt
Should glory in the death of such as hee, 105
That had a heart of flesh and valued thee.
Brave Roman, I admire thee that would'st dy
At no lesse rate then for an empery.
Some massy diamond from the center drawne,
For which all Europ wer an equall pawne, 110
Should (beaten into dust) bee drunke by him
That wanted courage good enough to swimme
Through seas of woes for thee, and much despise
To meet with death at any lower prize,
Whilst greefe alone workes that effect in mee, 115
And yet no greefe but for the losse of thee.
Fortune now doe thy worst, for I have gott
By this her death so strong an antidote,
That all thy future crosses shall not have
More then an angry smile, nor shall the grave 120
Glory in my last day: these lines shall give
To us a second life, and we will live
To pull the distaffe from the hand of fate;
And spinn our own thrides for so long a date,
That death shall never seize uppon our fame 125
Till this shall perish in the whole world's frame.
[Fragment of an Elegy. _From_ _P_, _where it appears as
portion of an 'heroical epistle' from Lady Penelope Rich to
Sir Philip Sidney_: _punctuation Ed. _]
<_Farewel, ye guilded follies. _>
Farewel ye guilded follies, pleasing troubles,
Farewel ye honour'd rags, ye glorious bubbles;
Fame's but a hollow echo, gold pure clay,
Honour the darling but of one short day.
Beauty (th'eyes idol) but a damasked skin, 5
State but a golden prison, to keepe in
And torture free-born minds; imbroidered trains
Meerly but Pageants, proudly swelling vains,
And blood ally'd to greatness, is a loane
Inherited, not purchased, not our own. 10
Fame, honor, beauty, state, train, blood and birth,
Are but the fading blossomes of the earth.
I would be great, but that the Sun doth still
Level his rayes against the rising hill:
I would be high, but see the proudest Oak 15
Most subject to the rending Thunder-stroke;
I would be rich, but see men too unkind
Dig in the bowels of the richest mine;
I would be wise, but that I often see
The Fox suspected whilst the Ass goes free; 20
I would be fair, but see the fair and proud
Like the bright sun, oft setting in a cloud;
I would be poor, but know the humble grass
Still trampled on by each unworthy Asse:
Rich, hated; wise, suspected; scorn'd, if poor; 25
Great, fear'd; fair, tempted; high, stil envied more:
I have wish'd all, but now I wish for neither,
Great, high, rich, wise, nor fair, poor I'l be rather.
Would the world now adopt me for her heir,
Would beauties Queen entitle me the Fair, 30
Fame speak me fortune's Minion, could I vie
Angels with India, with a speaking eye
Command bare heads, bow'd knees, strike Justice dumb
As wel as blind and lame, or give a tongue
To stones, by Epitaphs, be called great Master 35
In the loose rhimes of every Poetaster;
Could I be more then any man that lives,
Great, fair, rich, wise in all Superlatives;
Yet I more freely would these gifts resign
Then ever fortune would have made them mine, 40
And hold one minute of this holy leasure,
Beyond the riches of this empty pleasure.
Welcom pure thoughts, welcom ye silent groves,
These guests, these Courts, my soul most dearly loves,
Now the wing'd people of the Skie shall sing 45
My cheerful Anthems to the gladsome Spring;
A Pray'r book now shall be my looking-glasse,
Wherein I will adore sweet vertues face.
Here dwell no hateful looks, no Pallace cares,
No broken vows dwell here, nor pale-faced fears, 50
Then here I'l sit and sigh my hot loves folly,
And learn t'affect an holy melancholy.
And if contentment be a stranger, then
I'l nere look for it, but in heaven again.
[<Farewell, Ye Guilded Follies. > _Ed_: _variously titled, Add.
MS. 18220, C. C. C. Oxon. MS. 324, Egerton MS. 2603, Harleian
MS. 6057: printed in Walton's Compleat Angler (1653), Wits
Interpreter (1655) Hannah's Courtly Poets: Grosart prints
from MS. Dd. 643 in Cambridge University Library, and Chambers
follows--a very inferior version: text from Walton_]
[2 ye glorious] ye christal _A18_, _E26_, _H60_: the christall
_WI_]
[6 keepe _A18_, _E26_, _H60_: live _Walton_]
[8 proudly] proud _Walton_]
[9 a loane _Ed_: a lone _Walton_: but loane _MSS. _]
[18 mine _E26_, _CCC_: mind _Walton_, _A182_, _H60_, _WI_:
minds _Grosart and Chambers_]
[19-20
I would be wise but that the fox I see
Suspected guilty when the Ass goes free
_A182_, _E26_, _H60_, _Grosart_, _and Chambers_]
[21-2
I would be fair, but see that Champion proud
The bright sun often setting in a cloud
_WI and MSS. _, _but with The worlds bright eye or fair
eye_]
[31-2
could I vie
Angels with India,
_Walton_, _A182_, _E26_, _H60_
could I joy
The blisse of angells, _CCC_
could I vie (vey _Grosart_)
The blisse of angells, _Grosart and Chambers_
]
[43 ye silent groves, _Walton_: the silent Groves, _WI_: ye
careless groves, _H60_: the careless grove, _CCC_: ye careless
groans, _Grosart and Chambers_]
[44 These are the courts my soul entire loves, _A182_: These
are my guests, this is the court I love, _CCC_: These are my
guests, this is that courtage tones, _Grosart and Chambers_:
the court age loves, _Ash 38_]
[46 My Anthem; be my Selah gentle Spring. _A182_: Mine
anthems; be my cellar, gentle spring. _Grosart and Chambers_]
[48 wherein] In which _Walton_]
[49-50
Here dwells no hartlesse Love, no palsey fears,
No short joys purchased with eternal tears.
_A182_, _H60_]
[51 hot loves _Walton_: hot youths _H60_: past years _A182_]
[53 be] prove _A182_]
* * * * *
INDEX OF FIRST LINES.
_The poems marked * are contained in Appendixes B and C of doubtful or
unauthentic poems. Those marked ? are poems to or on Donne. _
PAGE
A Sheafe of Snakes used heretofore to be 399
*Absence heare my protestation 428
After those reverend papers, whose soule is 214
All haile sweet Poet, more full of more strong fire, 203
? All is not well when such a one as I 374
All Kings, and all their favorites 24
Although thy hand and faith, and good workes too, 82
*And though thy glasse a burning one become 462
As due by many titles I resigne 322
As the sweet sweat of Roses in a Still 90
As virtuous men passe mildly away 49
At once, from hence, my lines and I depart, 206
At the round earths imagin'd corners, blow 325
Away thou fondling motley humorist, 145
Batter my heart, three person'd God; for, you 328
Before I sigh my last gaspe, let me breath, 56
*Beleeve yo^{r} Glasse, and if it tell you (Deare) 455
Beyond th'old Pillers many have travailed 76
Blasted with sighs, and surrounded with teares 28
Blest are your North parts, for all this long time 213
Both rob'd of aire, we both lye in one ground, 75
Busie old foole, unruly Sunne, 11
By childrens births, and death, I am become 75
*By Euphrates flowry side 424
By miracles exceeding power of man, 320
By our first strange and fatall interview, 111
? Can we not force from widdowed Poetry, 378
*Chast Love, let mee embrace thee in mine armes 445
*Come, Fates; I feare you not. All whom I owe 407
Come live with mee, and bee my love, 46
Come, Madam, come, all rest my powers defie, 119
*Comend her? no. I dare not terme her fayre, 439
Compassion in the world againe is bred: 78
? _Conquerar? ignavoque sequar tua funera planctu? _ 390
*Cruell since that thou dost not feare the curse 446
*Deare Love, continue nice and chaste, 412
Deare love, for nothing lesse then thee 37
Death be not proud, though some have called thee 326
*Death be not proud, thy hand gave not this blow, 422
Death I recant, and say, unsaid by mee 282
Deigne at my hands this crowne of prayer and praise, 318
? _Donne_ dead? 'Tis here reported true, though I 386
? Donne, _the delight of Phoebus, and each Muse_, 5
Eternall God, (for whom who ever dare 348
Even as lame things thirst their perfection, so 208
Faire eies do not think scorne to read of Love 447
Faire, great, and good, since seeing you, wee see 224
Faire soule, which wast, not onely, as all soules bee, 271
*Farewel ye guilded follies, pleasing troubles, 465
Father of Heaven, and him, by whom 338
Father, part of his double interest 329
Fond woman, which would'st have thy husband die, 79
For every houre that thou wilt spare mee now 13
For Godsake hold your tongue, and let me love 14
For the first twenty yeares, since yesterday, 69
*Fye, Fye you sonnes of Pallas what madd rage 435
God grant thee thine own wish, and grant thee mine, 400
Goe, and catche a falling starre, 8
*Goe and Count her better howres 451
Good wee must love, and must hate ill, 32
*Greate and goode if she deryde mee 452
*Greate Lord of love, how busy still thou art 448
Haile Bishop Valentine, whose day this is, 127
Harke newes, o envy, thou shalt heare descry'd 104
Hast thee harsh verse, as fast as thy lame measure 205
He is starke mad, who ever sayes, 48
He that cannot chuse but love, 73
? Hee that would write an Epitaph for thee, 374
*He was the Word that spake it, 427
Her of your name, whose fair inheritance 317
? _Heere lies Deane Donne_; Enough; Those words alone 388
Here's no more newes, then vertue,'I may as well 187
Here take my Picture; though I bid farewell, 86
Here where by All All Saints invoked are, 221
Honour is so sublime perfection, 218
How sits this citie, late most populous, 354
I am a little world made cunningly 324
I am two fooles, I know, 16
I am unable, yonder begger cries, 76
I can love both faire and browne, 12
? I cannot blame those men, that knew thee well, 373
I fixe mine eye on thine, and there 45
I have done one braver thing 10
I'll tell thee now (deare Love) what thou shalt doe 29
I long to talke with some old lovers ghost, 54
I never stoop'd so low, as they 66
I scarce beleeve my love to be so pure 33
? I see in his last preach'd, and printed Booke, 3
I sing no harme good sooth to any wight, 105
I sing the progresse of a deathlesse soule, 295
*I that y^{e} higher half of loues 440
I wonder by my troth, what thou, and I 7
If, as mine is, thy life a slumber be, 209
If faithfull soules be alike glorifi'd 325
*If great men wrong me, I will spare my selfe; 415
*If her disdaine least change in you can move, 430
If in his Studie he hath so much care 77
If poysonous mineralls, and if that tree, 326
*If shaddowes be the pictures excellence; 460
If yet I have not all thy love, 17
If you from spoyle of th'old worlds farthest end 76
Image of her whom I love, more then she, 95
Immensitie cloysterd in thy deare wombe, 319
*In that, o Queene of Queenes, thy birth was free 427
? _In thy Impression of_ Donnes _Poems rare_, 3
In what torn ship soever I embarke, 352
? Is _Donne_, great _Donne_ deceas'd? then England say 376
Is not thy sacred hunger of science 212
Kinde pitty chokes my spleene; brave scorn forbids 154
Kindly I envy thy songs perfection 210
_Klockius_ so deeply hath sworne, ne'r more to come 77
Language thou art too narrow, and too weake 284
Let mans Soule be a Spheare, and then, in this, 336
Let me powre forth 38
Like Esops fellow-slaves, O _Mercury_, 78
Like one who'in her third widdowhood doth professe 185
Little think'st thou, poore flower, 59
? Long since this taske of teares from you was due, 394
Looke to mee faith, and looke to my faith, God; 267
_Love_, any devill else but you, 34
*Love bred of Glances twixt amorous eyes 450
*Love if a god thou art, 448
? _Lucy_, you brightnesse of our Spheare, who are, 6
Mad paper stay, and grudge not here to burne 216
*Madam that flea that Crept between your brests 459
Man is a lumpe, where all beasts kneaded bee, 193
Man is the World, and death th'Ocean, 279
Man to Gods image; _Eve_, to mans was made, 201
Marke but this flea, and marke in this, 40
Marry, and love thy _Flavia_, for, shee 80
*Men write that love and reason disagree, 406
Moyst with one drop of thy blood, my dry soule 321
Muse not that by thy mind thy body is led: 207
My Fortune and my choice this custome break, 292
*My love doth fly w^{th} wings of feare 437
My name engrav'd herein, 25
*Nature amaz'd sawe man without mans ayde 443
Natures lay Ideot, I taught thee to love, 89
No Lover saith, I love, nor any other 69
No _Spring_, nor _Summer_ Beauty hath such grace, 92
*Not Kisse? By Jove I must, and make impression 456
Not that in colour it was like thy haire, 96
Nothing could make me sooner to confesse 251
? Now by one yeare, time and our frailtie have 392
Now thou hast lov'd me one whole day, 9
*Now y'have killd mee with yo^{r} scorne 450
*O eyes, what do you see? 438
*O frutefull garden, and yet never tilde, 434
O might those sighes and teares returne againe 323
O Thou which to search out the secret parts 211
*O what a blisse 441
Of that short Roll of friends writ in my heart 212
Oh do not die, for I shall hate 21
Oh, let mee not serve so, as those men serve 87
Oh my blacke Soule! now thou art summoned 323
Oh, to vex me, contraryes meet in one: 331
Oh to what height will love of greatnesse drive 172
Once, and but once found in thy company, 84
Our storme is past, and that storms tyrannous rage, 178
Out of a fired ship, which, by no way 75
_Parturiunt madido quae nixu praela, recepta_, 397
_Philo_, with twelve yeares study, hath beene griev'd 77
? Poets attend, the Elegie I sing 380
Pregnant again with th'old twins Hope, and Feare, 206
_Qui prius assuetus Serpentum fasce Tabellas_ 398
_Quod arte ausus es hic tua, Poeta_, 398
_Quot_, _dos haec_, Linguists perfetti, _Disticha_ fairont, 174
Reason is our Soules left hand, Faith her right 189
Salute the last and everlasting day, 321
Salvation to all that will is nigh; 319
See Sir, how as the Suns hot Masculine flame 317
Send home my long strayd eyes to mee, 43
Send me some token, that my hope may live, 72
*Shall I goe force an Elegie? abuse 410
Shee'is dead; And all which die 64
Show me deare Christ, thy spouse, so bright and clear. 330
Since Christ embrac'd the Crosse it selfe, dare I 331
*Since ev'ry Tree beginns to blossome now 433
Since I am comming to that Holy roome, 368
Since she must go, and I must mourn, come Night, 100
Since she whom I lov'd hath payd her last debt 330
Sir, more then kisses, letters mingle Soules; 180
Sir; though (I thanke God for it) I do hate 149
*Sleep, next Society and true friendship, 401
Sleep sleep old Sun, thou canst not have repast 333
So, so breake off this last lamenting kisse, 68
Some man unworthy to be possessor 36
Some that have deeper digg'd loves Myne then I, 39
Sorrow, who to this house scarce knew the way: 287
*Soules joy, now I am gone, 429
Spit in my face you Jewes, and pierce my side, 327
Stand still, and I will read to thee 71
*Stay, O sweet, and do not rise, 432
Sweetest love, I do not goe, 18
Take heed of loving mee, 67
Tamely, fraile body,'abstaine to day; to day 334
*Tell her if she to hired servants shew 416
*Tell me who can when a player dies 443
That I might make your Cabinet my tombe, 291
*That unripe side of earth, that heavy clime 417
The heavens rejoyce in motion, why should I 113
*The State and mens affaires are the best playes 414
The Sun-beames in the East are spred, 141
? This decent Urne a sad inscription weares, 389
This is my playes last scene, here heavens appoint 324
*This lyfe it is not life, it is a sight 437
This twilight of two yeares, not past nor next, 198
*Those drossy heads & irrepurged braynes 440
Thou art not so black, as my heart, 65
Thou art repriv'd old yeare, thou shalt not die, 135
Thou hast made me, And shall thy worke decay? 322
Thou in the fields walkst out thy supping howers, 78
Thou shalt not laugh in this leafe, Muse, nor they 168
Thou which art I, ('tis nothing to be soe) 175
Thou, whose diviner soule hath caus'd thee now 351
Though I be _dead_, and buried, yet I have 220
Thy father all from thee, by his last Will, 77
Thy flattering picture, _Phryne_, is like thee, 77
Thy friend, whom thy deserts to thee enchaine, 208
Thy sinnes and haires may no man equall call 77
Till I have peace with thee, warr other men, 122
'Tis lost, to trust a Tombe with such a quest, 245
Tis the yeares midnight, and it is the dayes, 44
'Tis true, 'tis day; what though it be? 23
*To sue for all thy Love, and thy whole hart 449
? To have liv'd eminent, in a degree 371
T'have written then, when you writ, seem'd to mee 195
To make the doubt cleare, that no woman's true, 108
To what a combersome unwieldinesse 55
_Transiit in Sequanam Moenus; Victoris in aedes;_ 397
*True Love findes witt, but he whose witt doth move 412
Twice or thrice had I loved thee, 22
Two, by themselves, each other, love and feare 75
? Two Soules move here, and mine (a third) must move 249
Vnder an undermin'd, and shot-bruis'd wall 76
Vnseasonable man, statue of ice, 131
Vpon this Primrose hill, 61
Vengeance will sit above our faults; but till 350
Well dy'd the World, that we might live to see 229
Well; I may now receive, and die; My sinne 158
Went you to conquer? and have so much lost 188
*What if I come to my mistris bedd 453
What if this present were the worlds last night? 328
*What is o^{r} life? a play of passion 441
When by thy scorne, O murdresse, I am dead, 47
*When fortune, love, and Tyme bad me be happie, 440
When I am dead, and Doctors know not why, 63
When I dyed last, and, Deare, I dye 20
When my grave is broke up againe 62
When that rich Soule which to her heaven is gone, 231
? When thy _Loose_ raptures, _Donne_, shall meet with Those 372
Where is that holy fire, which Verse is said 124
Where, like a pillow on a bed, 51
*Wherefore peepst thou, envious daye? 451
Whether that soule which now comes up to you 288
Whilst yet to prove, 70
? Who dares say thou art dead, when he doth see 384
Who ever comes to shroud me, do not harme 58
Who ever guesses, thinks, or dreames he knowes 41
Who ever loves, if he do not propose 116
Who makes the Past, a patterne for next yeare, 183
? Who shall doubt, _Donne_, where I a _Poet_ bee, 6
? Who shall presume to mourn thee, _Donne_, unlesse 382
Why are wee by all creatures waited on? 327
*Why chose shee black; was it that in whitenes 436
Why this man gelded _Martiall_ I muse, 78
Wilt thou forgive that sinne where I begunne, 369
Wilt thou forgive that sinn, where I begunn, 370
Wilt thou love God, as he thee! then digest, 329
With his kinde mother who partakes thy woe, 320
*Wonder of Beautie, Goddesse of my sense, 447
You have refin'd mee, and to worthyest things 191
You that are she and you, that's double shee, 227
Your mistris, that you follow whores, still taxeth you: 76
Zealously my Muse doth salute all thee, 207
* * * * *
OXFORD: HORACE HART, M. A.
PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY
* * * * *
Transcriber's Note:
- - indicates italic script; + + indicates Old English script;
= = indicates bold script or non-italic text within italic
passages; ^ or ^{} indicates a superscript.
Doubtful words or passages were checked against a 1968 reprint
of the 1933 edition, based, by the author, on this larger 1912
edition.
The Mediaeval long 's' has been replaced by the modern 's', but
usually the capital 'V' for 'U', and lower case v/u, u/v have
been retained (as in the 1968 reprint).
The spelling is, of course, early 17th century.
Unspaced punctuation, e. g. "Thy beauty,'and all parts,", is
as printed in this, and the 1968 reprint, and denotes elisions
(the running together of words to fit the metre).
In general, footnotes have been moved to the ends of their
relevant sections, and linenotes to the ends of their
relevant poems. An exception is on page 251 et seq. , where the
footnotes fit naturally in sequence with the linenotes.
'_See note_' (usually) refers to poem note in the Commentary
in Volume II.
Page 7: 'seelily', from Middle English, via Old English, Old
Saxon, West Germanic. . . . 'sely', 'seely', from 'saelig' etc.
'seely' also occurs in other poems.
The modern word 'silly' has evolved from Old English saelig
(holy, blessed, fortunate, prosperous, happy) through meanings
of 'innocent', 'naive', 'unworldly', 'foolish' . . . .
Page 65: 'A Ieat Ring Sent. ' Ieat = Jeat, probably jet,
a black semi-precious stone, popular in English costume
jewellery.
Page 95: Notes: Elegy X. 'S96' is given twice, with different
titles. Second entry possible error, but retained.
Page 251: The Author has placed the footnotes to the
sidenotes, in order, with the linenotes. This is probably the
least confusing place for them, so they have been retained
here.
Page 262: Printer's error: 'foveraigne' corrected to
'soveraigne'.
Page 276: Printer's error: _169-69_ corrected to _1639-69_.
"[176 them. _D_: them; _1633_, _1639-69_: them, _1635_]"
Pages 390-392: This Latin text contains a number of instances
of words ending in 'que', and a few instances (at the ends of
words) of the letter 'q' with an acute accent (stress mark)
and a subscript which looks like '3', but is 'Latin Small
Letter ET'.
This is a Mediaeval scribal abbreviation for 'que' (indicating
'and') at the ends of certain words. To avoid problems with
the text, all the abbreviated words in this passage have been
written out in full.
Page 405, line note 133: _OF_ corrected to _O'F_. Probable
printer's error.
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Cruell since that thou dost not feare the curse
W^{ch} thy disdayne, and my despayre procure,
My prayer for thee shall torment thee worse
Then all the payne thou coudst thereby endure.
May, then, that beauty w^{ch} I did conceave 5
In thee above the height of heavens course,
When first my Liberty thou didst bereave,
Bee doubled on thee and with doubled force.
Chayne thousand vassalls in like thrall with mee,
W^{ch} in thy glory mayst thou still despise, 10
As the poore Trophyes of that victory
Which thou hast onely purchasd by thine eyes;
And when thy Triumphs so extended are
That there is nought left to bee conquered,
Mayst thou with the great Monarchs mournfull care 15
Weepe that thine Hono^{rs} are so limited;
So thy disdayne may melt it selfe to love
By an unlookd for and a wondrous change,
W^{ch} to thy selfe above the rest must prove
In all th'effects of love paynefully strange, 20
While wee thy scorned subjects live to see
Thee love the whole world, none of it love thee.
[Upon his scornefull Mistresse. _O'F_: _no title_, _B_, _which
adds note_, This hath relation to 'When by thy scorne'. _See_
The Apparition, _p. _ 191]
[2 despayre _B_: disdayne _O'F_
procure, _Ed_: procure _O'F_]
[6 course, _Ed_: course _O'F_]
[7 bereave, _Ed_: bereave _O'F_]
[8 force. _Ed_: force _O'F_]
[9 Chayne _B_: Stay _O'F_ mee, _Ed_: mee _O'F_]
[10 despise, _Ed_: despise _O'F_]
[12 eyes; _Ed_: eyes _O'F_]
[14 conquered, _Ed_: conquered _O'F_]
[16 limited; _Ed_: limited _O'F_]
[18 change, _Ed_: change _O'F_]
[20 strange, _Ed_: strange _O'F_]
<_Absence. _>
Wonder of Beautie, Goddesse of my sense,
You that have taught my soule to love aright,
You in whose limbes are natures chief expense
Fitt instrument to serve your matchless spright,
If ever you have felt the miserie 5
Of being banish'd from your best desier,
By Absence, Time, or Fortunes tyranny,
Sterving for cold, and yet denied for fier:
Deare mistresse pittie then the like effects
The which in mee your absence makes to flowe, 10
And haste their ebb by your divine aspect
In which the pleasure of my life doth growe:
Stay not so long for though it seem a wonder
You keepe my bodie and my soule asunder.
FINIS.
<_Tongue-tied Love. _>
Faire eies do not think scorne to read of Love
That to your eies durst never it presume,
Since absence those sweet wonders do<th> remove
That nourish thoughts, yet sence and wordes consume;
This makes my pen more hardy then my tongue, 5
Free from my feare yet feeling my desire,
To utter that I have conceal'd so long
By doing what you did yourself require.
Believe not him whom Love hath left so wise
As to have power his owne tale for to tell, 10
For childrens greefes do yield the loudest cries,
And cold desires may be expressed well:
In well told Love most often falsehood lies,
But pittie him that only sighes and dies.
FINIS.
[<Absence. > <Tongue-tied Love. > _Ed_: _whole sonnets without
titles in_ _L74_: _the last six lines of the second appear
among Donne's poems in_ _B_, _O'F_, _S96_ <Tongue-tied Love. >]
[12 cold desires] coldest Ayres _O'F_]
<_Love, if a God thou art. _>
Love if a god thou art
then evermore thou must
Bee mercifull and just;
If thou bee just, o wherefore doth thy dart
Wound mine alone and not my mistresse hart? 5
If mercifull, then why
Am I to payne reservd
Who have thee truely serv'd,
When shee that by thy powre sets not a fly
Laughs thee to scorne and lives at liberty? 10
Then if a God thou woulds accounted bee,
Heale mee like her, or else wound her like mee.
<_Great Lord of Love. _>
Greate Lord of love, how busy still thou art
To give new wounds and fetters to my hart!
Is't not enough that thou didst twice before
It so mangle
And intangle 5
By sly arts
of false harts.
Forbeare mee, Ile make love no more.
Fy busy Lord, will it not thee suffice
To use the Rhetorique of her tongue and eyes 10
When I am waking, but that absent so
They invade mee
To perswade mee,
When that sleepe
Oft should keepe 15
And lock out every sence of woe.
If thou perswade mee thus to speake, I dye
And shee the murdresse, for me will deny;
And if for silence I bee prest, Her good
Yet I cherish 20
Though I perish,
For that shee
Shall bee free
From that foule guilt of spilling bloud.
[<Love if a God thou art. > <Great Lord of Love. > <Loves
Exchange. > _all without titles in_ _O'F_: _punctuation mainly
the Editor's_]
<_Loves Exchange_>
1. To sue for all thy Love, and thy whole hart
were madnesse.
I doe not sue, nor can admitt,
(Fayrest) from yo^u to have all yet;
Who giveth all, hath nothing to impart 5
But sadnesse.
2. Hee who receaveth all can have no more,
Then seeing.
My love by length of every howre
Gathers new strength, new growth, new power: 10
You must have dayly new rewards in store
Still beeing.
3. You cannot every day give mee yo^r hart
For merit;
Yet if you will, when yours doth goe 15
You shall have still one to bestow,
For you shall mine, when yours doth part,
Inherit.
4. Yet if you please weele find a better way
Then change them, 20
For so alone (dearest) wee shall
Bee one and one another all;
Let us so joyne our harts, that nothing may
Estrange them.
_Song. _
Now y'have killd mee with yo^{r} scorne
Who shall live to call yo^{u} fayre?
What new foole must now bee borne
To prepare
Dayly sacrifice of service new, 5
Teares too good for woemen true?
Who shall sorrow when yo^{u} crye
And to please yo^{u} dayly dye?
Men succeeding shall beware
And woemen cruell, no more fayre. 10
2.
Now y'have killd mee, never looke
Any left to call yo^{u} trewe;
Who more madd must now bee tooke
To renewe
My oblations dayly, lost? 15
Vowes too good for woemen chast!
Who shall call yo^{u} sweete, and sweare
T'is yo^{r} face renews the yeare?
Men by my Death shall beleeve,
And woemen cruell yet shall greeve. 20
[Song. _O'F_: _punctuation mainly Editor's_]
_Love, bred of glances. _
Love bred of Glances twixt amorous eyes
Like Childrens fancies, sone borne, sone dyes.
Guilte, Bitternes, and smilinge woe
Doth ofte deceaue poore lovers soe,
As the fonde Sence th'unwary soule deceives 5
With deadly poison wrapt in Lily leaves.
But harts so chain'd as Goodnes stands
With truthe unstain'd to couple hands,
Love beinge to all beauty blinde
Save the cleere beauties of the minde, 10
There heaven is pleasd, continuall blessings sheddinge,
Angells are guests and dance at this blest weddinge.
[Love _&c. _ <True Love. > _Chambers_, _who prints from RP117_:
_no title_, _O'F_, _P_, _S96_ (_from which present text is
taken_)]
[2 borne _B_, _P_, _O'F_, _S96_: bred _Chambers_]
[4 Doth _S96_: does _B_, _O'F_: doe _P_]
[5 As] And _Chambers_]
[7 as Goodnes] 'tis goodnes _Chambers_]
[8 hands, _Ed_: hands _S96_]
[10 minde, _B_: minde _S96_]
[11 There heav'n is _O'F_, _P_, _S96_: Where Reason is
_Chambers_
sheddinge, _Ed_: sheddinge _S96_]
[12 this] his _Chambers_]
_To a Watch restored to its Mystres. _
Goe and Count her better howers.
For they are happier than oures.
The day that gives her any bliss,
Make it as long againe as 'tis.
The hower shee smyles in, lett it bee 5
By thy acte multiplyde to three.
But if shee frowne on thee or mee,
Know night is made by her, not thee;
Be swifte in such an hower & soone,
See thou make night, ere it be noone. 10
Obey her tymes, whoe is the free
Faire Sunne that governes thee & mee.
[To a Watch _&c. _ _B_, _where note below title says_ none of
J. D. _and poem is signed_ W. L. ]
<_Ad Solem. _>
Wherfore peepst thou, envious daye?
We can kisse without thee.
Lovers hate the golden raye,
Which thou bearst about thee.
Goe and give them light that sorowe 5
Or the saylor flyinge:
Our imbraces need noe morowe
Nor our blisses eying.
We shall curse thy curyous eye
For thy soone betrayinge, 10
And condemn thee for a spye
Yf thou catch us playinge.
Gett thee gone and lend thy flashes
Where there's need of lendinge,
Our affections are not ashes 15
Nor our pleasures endinge.
Weare we cold or withered heare
We would stay thee by us,
Or but one anothers feare
Then thou shouldst not flye us. 20
Wee are yongue, thou spoilst our pleasure;
Goe to sea and slumber,
Darknes only gives us leasure
Our stolne joyes to number.
[<Ad Solem. > _Ed_: _no title_, _Add. MSS. _ _22603_, _33998_,
_Egerton MS. 2013_, _Harleian MS. 791_, _S_, _TCD(II)_:
_printed J. Wilson_: Cheerful Ayres (1659), _Grosart and
Chambers_: _text from Eg. MS. 2013_: _punctuation partly
Editor's_]
[2 kisse] live _E20_]
[9 curyous _A22_, _A33_, _H79_, _S_, _TCD_: envious _E20_]
[19 one anothers feare _TCD_: one another fear _E20_: one
anothers sphere _A22_, _A33_, _S_]
[23 gives] lends _A22_, _A33_]
<_If She Deride. _>
Greate and goode if she deryde mee
Let me walke Ile not despayre,
Ere to morrowe Ile provide mee
One as greate, lesse prowd, more faire.
They that seeke Love to constraine 5
Have theire labour for their paine.
They that strongly can importune
And will never yeild nor tyre,
Gaine the paye in spight of Fortune
But such game Ile not desyre. 10
Where the prize is shame or synn,
Wynners loose and loosers wynn.
Looke upon the faythfull lover,
Griefe stands paynted in his face,
Groanes, and Teares and sighs discover 15
That they are his onely grace:
Hee must weepe as children doe
That will in the fashion wooe.
I whoe flie these idle fancies
Which my dearest rest betraye, 20
Warnd by others harmfull chances,
Vse my freedome as I may.
When all the worlde says what it cann
'Tis but--Fie, vnconstant mann!
[<If She Deryde. > _Chambers_: _no title_, _S_: _also, Chambers
reports, in C. C. C. Oxon. MS. 327, f. 26: printed by Grosart
and Chambers_]
[11 Where the prize is _Chambers_: Where they prize this
(_'t' struck out_) _S_: Where they prize is _Grosart_]
[14 Teares and sighs] _Chambers reverses_]
<_Fortune Never Fails. _>
What if I come to my mistris bedd
The candles all ecclipst from shyninge,
Shall I then attempt for her mayden-head
Or showe my selfe a coward by declyninge?
Oh noe 5
Fie doe not soe,
For thus much I knowe by devyninge,
Blynd is Love
The dark it doth approve,
To pray on pleasures pantinge; 10
What needeth light
For Cupid in the night,
If jealous eyes be wantinge.
Fortune never failes, if she badd take place,
To shroude all the faire proceedings: 15
Love and she though blynd, yet each other embrace,
To favor all their servants meetings:
Venture I say
To sport and to play,
If in place all be fitting; 20
Though she say fie
Yet doth she not denie:
For fie is but a word of tryall:
Jealosie doth sleepe,
Then doe not weepe 25
At force of a faynt denyall.
Glorious is my love, with tryumphs in her face,
Then to to bould were I to venter:
Who loves deserves to live in a princes grace,
Why stand you then affraid to enter? 30
Lights are all out
Then make noe doubt
A lover bouldly maye take chusinge.
Bewtie is a baite
For a princely mate. 35
Fy, why stand you then a musinge?
You'll repent too late
If she doe you hate,
For loves delight refusinge.
[<Fortune Never Fails. > _Grosart_: _no title_, _RP31_, _S_:
_also, Chambers reports, in C. C. C. Oxon. MS. 327, f. 21:
printed Grosart and Chambers, and, last two verses only,
Simeon_]
[10 pantinge;] hauntinge: _RP31_]
[14 she badd _S_: she bidd _Grosart_: she bids _Chambers_: the
bould _RP31_]
[19 and to play _RP31_, _S_: and play _Grosart and Chambers_]
[26 faynt] fair _Chambers_]
[28 were] was _RP31_]
[29 princes] Princess _Chambers_]
[33 lover] woer _Chambers_
chusinge] a choosing _Chambers_]
_To His Mistress. _
1. Beleeve yo^r Glasse, and if it tell you (Deare)
Yo^r Eyes inshrine
A brighter shine
Then faire Apollo, looke if theere appeare
The milkie skye 5
The Crimson dye
Mixt in your cheeks, and then bid Phoebus sett,
More Glory then hee owes appears. But yet
2. Be not deceived with fond Alteration
. . . . . 10
. . . . .
. . . . . . . .
As Cynthias Globe,
A snow white robe
Is soonest spotled, a Carnation dye 15
Fades, and discolours open'd but to Eie.
3. Make use of youth, and bewty whilest they flourish:
Tyme never sleepes,
Though it but creeps
It still gets forward. Do not vainly nourish 20
Them to selfe-use,
It is Abuse;
The richest Grownds lying wast turne Boggs and rott,
And soe beinge useles, were as good were not.
4. Walke in a meddowe by a Rivers side, 25
Upon whose Bancks
Grow milk-white Ranks
Of full blown Lyllies in their height of Pryde,
Which downward bend
And nothing tend 30
Save their owne Bewties in the Glassie streame:
Looke to yo^r selfe: Compare yo^{r}selfe to them.
5. In show, in bewtie, marke what followes then:
Sommer must end,
The sunn must bend 35
His Longe Absented beames to others: then
Their spring being crost
By wynters frost
And sneap'd by bytter storms against w^{ch} nought boots,
They bend their prowd topps lower then their roots. 40
6. Then none regard them; but w^{th} heedles feet
In durt each treads
Their declyned heads.
So when youthe wasted, Age, and yo^u shall meet,
Then I alone
Shall sadly moane 45
That Interviewe; others it will not move,
So light regard we, what we little Love.
FINIS.
[To His Mistress. _Le Prince D'Amour_ (_1660_): _no title_,
_S_ (_whence text_): _printed by Simeon_, _Grosart_,
_Chambers_: _punctuation partly Editor's_]
[1 if it tell] it will tell _Chambers_]
[9 deceived] deceiv'd _S_]
[16 open'd] opened _S_]
[24 were not] as not _LeP D' A_]
[31 the Glassie _S_: a Glassie _LePD'A_: their Glassie
_Chambers_]
[32 to them. _S_: with them. _Chambers_]
[36 then] when _Chambers_]
[39 sneap'd _Ed_: snep'd _S_: swept _LePD'A_: snipped
_Chambers_]
_A Paradoxe of a Painted Face. _
Not kisse? By Jove I must, and make impression
As longe as Cupid dares to holde his Session
Vpon my flesh and blood: our kisses shall
Outminute Time and without number fall.
Doe I not know these Balls of blushinge Red 5
That on thy Cheekes thus amorouslie are spred?
Thy snowy necke, those veynes upon thy Browe
Which with their azure crincklinge sweetly bowe
Are artificiall? Borrowed? and no more thine owne
Then Chaines which on St. George's Day are showne, 10
Are proper to the wearers? Yet for this
I idole thee, and beg a luscious kisse.
The fucus, and Ceruse, which on thy face
Thy Cunninge hand layes on to add new Grace,
Detaine me with such pleasing fraude, that I 15
Finde in thy art, what can in nature Lie.
Much like a painter that upon some Wall
On which the radiant Sun-beames use to fall
Paints with such art a Gilded butterflye
That silly maides with slowe-moved fingers trye 20
To Catch it, and then blush at theire mistake,
Yet of this painted flye most reckonynge make:
Such is our state; since what we looke upon
Is nought but Coullor and Proportion.
Take me a face, as full of fraud and Lies 25
As Gypsies in your cunninge Lotteries,
That is more false, and more Sophisticate
Than are Saints reliques, or a man of state.
Yet such being Glazed by the sleight of arte,
Gaines admiration, winninge many a Harte. 30
Put case there be a difference in the molde,
Yet may thy Venus be more Chaste, and holde
A dearer treasure: oftentimes we see
Rich Candian wines in woodden Boules to bee.
The odoriferous Civet doth not lie 35
Within the muskat's nose, or eare, or eye,
But in a baser place; for prudent nature
In drawinge us of various formes and stature
Gives from the curious shop of hir rich treasure
To faire parts comeliness, to baser, pleasure. 40
The fairest flowers, which in the Springe doe growe
Are not so much for use, as for the showe,
As Lillies, Hyacinths, and the georgious birthe
Of all pide flowers that diaper the earthe,
Please more with their discoloured purple traine 45
Then wholesome pothearbs which for use remaine.
Shall I a Gaudy Speckled Serpent kiss
For that the colours which he weares are his?
A perfumed Cordevant who will not wear
Because the sente is borrowed elsewhere? 50
The roabes and vestiments, which grace us all
Are not our owne, but adventitiall.
Time rifles Natures beauty, but slye Arte
Repaires by cunninge this decayinge parte.
Fills here a wrinckle, and there purles a veyne, 55
And with a nimble hand runs o're againe
The breaches dented in by th'arme of time,
And makes Deformity to be no crime.
As when great men be grip't by sicknes hand,
Industrious Physicke pregnantly doth stand 60
To patch up foule diseases, and doth strive
To keepe theire totteringe Carcasses alive.
Beautie is a candlelight which every puffe
Blowes out, and leaves nought but a stinking snuffe
To fill our nostrills with; this boldelie thinke, 65
The cleerest Candle makes the greatest stincke,
As your pure fode and cleerest nutryment
Gets the most hott, and nose stronge excrement.
Why hange we then on thinges so apt to varie,
So fleetinge, brittle, and so temporarie? 70
That agues, Coughes, the toothache, or Catarr
(Slight hansells of diseases) spoile and marr.
But when olde age theire beauties hath in Chace,
And plowes up furrowes in theire once-smoothe face,
Then they become forsaken, and doe showe 75
Like stately abbeyes ruin'd longe agoe.
Nature but gives the modell, and first draught
Of faire perfection, which by art is taught
To speake itselfe, a compleat form and birthe,
Soe stands a Copie to these shapes on earthe. 80
Jove grante me then a reparable face
Which, whiles that Colours are, can want no grace.
Pigmalions painted statue I coulde love,
Soe it were warme and softe, and coulde but move.
[A Paradoxe of a Painted Face. _H39_, _S_, _S96_, _TCD_ (_II_)
_Pembroke and Ruddier_ (_1660_), _Le Prince D'Amour_ (_1660_),
_Simeon_ (_1856-7_), _Grosart_ (_from S_), _Chambers_ (_from
Simeon_, _and Pembroke and Ruddier_): _text from S96_:
_punctuation partly Editor's_]
[8 azure crincklinge _S96_: azure winckles _P and R_: azure
twinklinge _S_: azur'd wrinklings _TCD_: azure wrinkles
_Chambers_]
[15 Detaine] Deceive _H39_, _P and R_, _LeP D' A_, _TCD_,
_Chambers_
pleasing] cunning _TCD_]
[18 radiant _S96_: cadent _H39_, _TCD_, _LeP D' A_, _Grosart_,
_and Chambers_: splendent _P and R_]
[21 then] yet _S96_]
[32 Chaste] choise _P and R_, _LeP D' A_, _TCD_]
[39 shop] shape _S96_
rich] largest _S96_: large _P and R_, _Grosart_, _and
Chambers_]
[45 discoloured] discovered _H39_: _but_ discoloured _is here_
variegated]
[53 rifles] rifled _S96_]
[55 purles] fills _S_: purls _is_ embroiders as with gold or
silver thread]
[67 clearest] choicest _P and R_: cleanest _S_: finest
_Chambers_]
[68 most hott] most stronge _S96_]
[72 hansells _H39_: houses _S_, _S96_, _Chambers_: touches _P
and R_: causes _LeP D' A_]
[73 beauties] brav'ries _H39_]
[79 To speake itselfe _TCD_, _P and R_: Speake to itselfe _S_,
_S96_: Speake for itselfe _H39_: To make itselfe _Simeon_,
_Grosart_, _and Chambers_]
_Sonnett. _
Madam that flea that Crept between your brests
I envied, that there he should make his rest:
The little Creatures fortune was soe good
That Angells feed not on so pretious foode.
How it did sucke how eager tickle you 5
(Madam shall fleas before me tickle you? )
Oh I can not holde; pardon if I kild it.
Sweet Blood, to you I aske this, that which fild it
Ran from my Ladies Brest. Come happie flea
That dide for suckinge of that milkie Sea. 10
Oh now againe I well could wishe thee there,
About hir Hart, about hir anywhere;
I would vowe (Dearest flea) thou shouldst not dye,
If thou couldst sucke from hir hir crueltye.
[Sonnett. _O'F_, _S96_: _no title_, _S_: On A Flea on His
Mistress's Bosom _Simeon_, _Grosart_, _Chambers_ (_from
Simeon_): _text from S96_]
[7 I can not holde] I not hold can _Chambers_
kild _Ed_: killed _Chambers_: kill _S96_]
[13 vowe ] now _Chambers_
Dearest _S96_: deare _S_, _O'F_, _Chambers_
thou] that thou _Chambers_]
_On Black Hayre and Eyes. _
If shaddowes be the pictures excellence;
And make it seeme more lively to the sence;
If starres in the bright day are hid from sight
And shine most glorious in the masque of night;
Why should you thinke (rare creature) that you lack 5
Perfection cause your haire and eyes are blacke,
Or that your heavenly beauty which exceedes
The new sprung lillies in their mayden weeds,
The damaske coullour of your cheekes and lipps
Should suffer by their darknesse an eclipps? 10
Rich diamonds shine brightest, being sett
And compassed within a foyle of Jett.
Nor was it fitt that Nature should have mayde
So bright a sunne to shine without a shade.
It seemes that Nature when she first did fancie 15
Your rare composure studied Necromancie,
That when to you this guift she did impart
She used altogether the black art.
By which infused power from Magique tooke
You doe command all spiritts with a looke: 20
Shee drew those Magique circles in your eyes,
And mayde your hayre the chaines wherewith shee ties
Rebelling hearts: those blew veines which appeare,
Winding Meander about either spheare,
Misterious figures are, and when you list 25
Your voice commandeth like the Exorcist,
And every word which from your Pallett falleth
In a deep charme your hearer's heart inthralleth.
Oh!
If in Magique you have skill so farre,
Vouchsafe me to be your familiar. 30
Nor hath kind Nature her black art reveal'd
To outward partes alone, some lie conceal'd,
And as by heads of springs men often knowe
The nature of the streames that run belowe,
So your black haire and eyes do give direction 35
To make me thinke the rest of like complexion:
That rest where all rest lies that blesseth Man,
That Indian mine, that straight of Magellan,
That worlde dividing gulfe where he that venters,
With swelling sayles and ravisht senses enters 40
To a new world of blisse. Pardon, I pray,
If my rude muse presumeth to display
Secretts unknowne, or hath her bounds orepast
In praysing sweetnesse which I ne're did tast;
Sterved men doe know there's meate, and blind men may 45
Though hid from light presume there is a day.
The rover in the marke his arrowe sticks
Sometimes as well as he that shootes att prickes,
And if I might direct my shaft aright,
The black mark would I hitt and not the white. 50
[On Black Hayre and Eyes _Add. MS. 11811, on which text is
based: in several MSS. including A25, TCD (II), L77: printed
in Parnassus Biceps (1656), Pembroke and Ruddier's Poems
(1660), Simeon (1856-7), Grosart, and Chambers_]
[2 it _A2I_, _H60_, _TCD_: them _A11_: things _L77_]
[4 shine _H39_, _TCD_: seem _A11_, _Grosart_, _and Chambers_]
[8 mayden weeds,] maidenheads, _H39_, _TCD_, _Grosart_, _and
Chambers_]
[9 The damasque coullor of] That cherry colour of _H39_,
_TCD_: Or that the cherries of _Some MSS. _]
[12 compassed ] compos'd _A11_
foyle] field _Chambers_]
[19 tooke] book _Grosart and Chambers_]
[20 all spiritts] like spirits _Grosart and Chambers_]
[25 figures] fables _A11_]
[26 commandeth] commands _A11_]
[29 you have skill _L77_, _TCD_, _&c. _: your power _A11_: you
have power _Grosart and Chambers_]
[33 For (And) as by the springhead a man may (men often) know
_L77_, _TCD_, _and other MSS. _]
[34 streame . . . runs _L77_, _&c. _]
[44 did] shall _TCD and other MSS. _]
[47 sticks] strikes _Grosart and Chambers_]
[49 direct _L77_, _TCD_, _&c. _: ayme _A11_, _Grosart_, _and
Chambers_]
_Fragment of an Elegy. _
And though thy glasse a burning one become
And turne us both to ashes on her urne,
Yet to our glory till the later day
Our dust shall daunce like attomes in her ray.
And when the world shall in confusion burne, 5
And Kinges and peasantes scramble at an urne,
Like tapers new blowne out wee happy then
Will at her beames catch fire and live againe.
But this is sence, and some one may-be glad
That I so good a cause of sorrow had, 10
Will with all those whome I affect may dye
So I might please him with an elegie.
O let there never line of witt be read
To please the living that doth speake thee dead;
Some tender-harted mother good and mild, 15
Who on the deare grave of her tender child
So many sad teares hath beene knowne to rayne
As out of dust would mould him up againe,
And with hir plaintes enforce the wormes to place
Themselves like veynes so neatly on his face, 20
And every lymne, as if that they wer striving
To flatter hir with hope of his reviving:
Shee should read this, and hir true teares alone
Should coppy forth these sad lines on the stone
Which hides thee dead, and every gentle hart 25
That passeth by should of his teares impart
So great a portion, that if after times
Ruine more churches for the Clergyes crimes,
When any shall remove thy marble hence,
Which is lesse stone then hee that takes it thence, 30
Thou shalt appeare within thy tearefull cell
Much like a faire nymph bathing in a well.
But when they find thee dead so lovely fair,
Pitty and sorrow then shall straight repaire
And weepe beside thy grave with cipresse cround, 35
To see the secound world of beauty dround,
And add sufficient teares as they condole
'Twould make thy body swimme up to thy soule.
Such eyes should read the lines are writ of thee;
But such a losse should have no elegie 40
To palliate the wound wee tooke in hir,
Who rightly greeves admittes no comforter.
He that had tane to heart thy parting hence
Should have beene chain'd to Bedlam two houres thence,
And not a frind of his ere shed a teare 45
To see him for thy sake distracted there,
But hugge himselfe for loving such as hee
That could runne mad with greefe for loosing thee.
I, haplesse soule, that never knew a frend
But to bewayle his too untimely end, 50
Whose hopes (cropt in the bud) have never come
But to sitt weeping on a sencelesse tombe,
That hides not dust enough to count the teares
Which I have fruitlesse spent in so few yeares,
I that have trusted those that would have given 55
For our deare Saviour and the Sonne of heaven
Ten times the valew Judas had of yore,
Onely to sell him for three peeces more;
I that have lov'd and trusted thus in vaine
Yet weepe for thee, and till the clowdes shall daigne 60
To throw on Egipt more then Nile ere sweld,
These teares of mine shalbee unparellell'd.
He that hath lov'd, enjoy'd, and then beene crost,
Hath teares at will to mourne for what he lost;
He that hath trusted and his hope appeares 65
Wrong'd but by death may soone dissolve in teares;
But hee unhappy man whose love and trust
Nere met fruition nor a promise just,
For him (unlesse like thee hee deadly slepe)
'Tis easier to runn mad then 'tis to weepe; 70
And yet I can. Fall then yee mournefull showers,
And as old time leades on the winged howers,
Bee you their minutes, and let men forgett
To count their ages from the plague of sweat,
From eighty eight, the Poulder-plot, or when 75
Men were affrayd to talke of it againe;
And in their numerations be it sayd
Thus old was I when such a teare was shed,
And when that other fell a comett rose
And all the world tooke notice of my woes. 80
Yet finding them past cure, as doctores fly
Their patientes past all hope of remedy,
No charitable soule will once impart
One word of comfort to so sicke a heart;
But as a hurt deare beaten from the heard, 85
Men of my shadow allmost now affeard
Fly from my woes, that whilome wont to greet mee,
And well nigh thinke it ominous to meete mee.
Sad lines go yee abroad; go saddest muse,
And as some nations formerly did use 90
To lay their sicke men in the street, that those,
Who of the same disease had scapt the throwes,
Might minister releefe as they went by
To such as felt the selfsame malady,
So haplesse lynes fly through the fairest land, 95
And if ye light into some blessed hand,
That hath a heart as merry as the shine
Of golden dayes, yet wrong'd as much as mine,
Pitty may lead that happy man to mee,
And his experience worke a remedy 100
To those sad fittes which (spight of nature's lawes)
Torture a poore hart that out-lives the cause.
But this must never bee, nor is it fitt
An ague or some sickenes lesse then itt
Should glory in the death of such as hee, 105
That had a heart of flesh and valued thee.
Brave Roman, I admire thee that would'st dy
At no lesse rate then for an empery.
Some massy diamond from the center drawne,
For which all Europ wer an equall pawne, 110
Should (beaten into dust) bee drunke by him
That wanted courage good enough to swimme
Through seas of woes for thee, and much despise
To meet with death at any lower prize,
Whilst greefe alone workes that effect in mee, 115
And yet no greefe but for the losse of thee.
Fortune now doe thy worst, for I have gott
By this her death so strong an antidote,
That all thy future crosses shall not have
More then an angry smile, nor shall the grave 120
Glory in my last day: these lines shall give
To us a second life, and we will live
To pull the distaffe from the hand of fate;
And spinn our own thrides for so long a date,
That death shall never seize uppon our fame 125
Till this shall perish in the whole world's frame.
[Fragment of an Elegy. _From_ _P_, _where it appears as
portion of an 'heroical epistle' from Lady Penelope Rich to
Sir Philip Sidney_: _punctuation Ed. _]
<_Farewel, ye guilded follies. _>
Farewel ye guilded follies, pleasing troubles,
Farewel ye honour'd rags, ye glorious bubbles;
Fame's but a hollow echo, gold pure clay,
Honour the darling but of one short day.
Beauty (th'eyes idol) but a damasked skin, 5
State but a golden prison, to keepe in
And torture free-born minds; imbroidered trains
Meerly but Pageants, proudly swelling vains,
And blood ally'd to greatness, is a loane
Inherited, not purchased, not our own. 10
Fame, honor, beauty, state, train, blood and birth,
Are but the fading blossomes of the earth.
I would be great, but that the Sun doth still
Level his rayes against the rising hill:
I would be high, but see the proudest Oak 15
Most subject to the rending Thunder-stroke;
I would be rich, but see men too unkind
Dig in the bowels of the richest mine;
I would be wise, but that I often see
The Fox suspected whilst the Ass goes free; 20
I would be fair, but see the fair and proud
Like the bright sun, oft setting in a cloud;
I would be poor, but know the humble grass
Still trampled on by each unworthy Asse:
Rich, hated; wise, suspected; scorn'd, if poor; 25
Great, fear'd; fair, tempted; high, stil envied more:
I have wish'd all, but now I wish for neither,
Great, high, rich, wise, nor fair, poor I'l be rather.
Would the world now adopt me for her heir,
Would beauties Queen entitle me the Fair, 30
Fame speak me fortune's Minion, could I vie
Angels with India, with a speaking eye
Command bare heads, bow'd knees, strike Justice dumb
As wel as blind and lame, or give a tongue
To stones, by Epitaphs, be called great Master 35
In the loose rhimes of every Poetaster;
Could I be more then any man that lives,
Great, fair, rich, wise in all Superlatives;
Yet I more freely would these gifts resign
Then ever fortune would have made them mine, 40
And hold one minute of this holy leasure,
Beyond the riches of this empty pleasure.
Welcom pure thoughts, welcom ye silent groves,
These guests, these Courts, my soul most dearly loves,
Now the wing'd people of the Skie shall sing 45
My cheerful Anthems to the gladsome Spring;
A Pray'r book now shall be my looking-glasse,
Wherein I will adore sweet vertues face.
Here dwell no hateful looks, no Pallace cares,
No broken vows dwell here, nor pale-faced fears, 50
Then here I'l sit and sigh my hot loves folly,
And learn t'affect an holy melancholy.
And if contentment be a stranger, then
I'l nere look for it, but in heaven again.
[<Farewell, Ye Guilded Follies. > _Ed_: _variously titled, Add.
MS. 18220, C. C. C. Oxon. MS. 324, Egerton MS. 2603, Harleian
MS. 6057: printed in Walton's Compleat Angler (1653), Wits
Interpreter (1655) Hannah's Courtly Poets: Grosart prints
from MS. Dd. 643 in Cambridge University Library, and Chambers
follows--a very inferior version: text from Walton_]
[2 ye glorious] ye christal _A18_, _E26_, _H60_: the christall
_WI_]
[6 keepe _A18_, _E26_, _H60_: live _Walton_]
[8 proudly] proud _Walton_]
[9 a loane _Ed_: a lone _Walton_: but loane _MSS. _]
[18 mine _E26_, _CCC_: mind _Walton_, _A182_, _H60_, _WI_:
minds _Grosart and Chambers_]
[19-20
I would be wise but that the fox I see
Suspected guilty when the Ass goes free
_A182_, _E26_, _H60_, _Grosart_, _and Chambers_]
[21-2
I would be fair, but see that Champion proud
The bright sun often setting in a cloud
_WI and MSS. _, _but with The worlds bright eye or fair
eye_]
[31-2
could I vie
Angels with India,
_Walton_, _A182_, _E26_, _H60_
could I joy
The blisse of angells, _CCC_
could I vie (vey _Grosart_)
The blisse of angells, _Grosart and Chambers_
]
[43 ye silent groves, _Walton_: the silent Groves, _WI_: ye
careless groves, _H60_: the careless grove, _CCC_: ye careless
groans, _Grosart and Chambers_]
[44 These are the courts my soul entire loves, _A182_: These
are my guests, this is the court I love, _CCC_: These are my
guests, this is that courtage tones, _Grosart and Chambers_:
the court age loves, _Ash 38_]
[46 My Anthem; be my Selah gentle Spring. _A182_: Mine
anthems; be my cellar, gentle spring. _Grosart and Chambers_]
[48 wherein] In which _Walton_]
[49-50
Here dwells no hartlesse Love, no palsey fears,
No short joys purchased with eternal tears.
_A182_, _H60_]
[51 hot loves _Walton_: hot youths _H60_: past years _A182_]
[53 be] prove _A182_]
* * * * *
INDEX OF FIRST LINES.
_The poems marked * are contained in Appendixes B and C of doubtful or
unauthentic poems. Those marked ? are poems to or on Donne. _
PAGE
A Sheafe of Snakes used heretofore to be 399
*Absence heare my protestation 428
After those reverend papers, whose soule is 214
All haile sweet Poet, more full of more strong fire, 203
? All is not well when such a one as I 374
All Kings, and all their favorites 24
Although thy hand and faith, and good workes too, 82
*And though thy glasse a burning one become 462
As due by many titles I resigne 322
As the sweet sweat of Roses in a Still 90
As virtuous men passe mildly away 49
At once, from hence, my lines and I depart, 206
At the round earths imagin'd corners, blow 325
Away thou fondling motley humorist, 145
Batter my heart, three person'd God; for, you 328
Before I sigh my last gaspe, let me breath, 56
*Beleeve yo^{r} Glasse, and if it tell you (Deare) 455
Beyond th'old Pillers many have travailed 76
Blasted with sighs, and surrounded with teares 28
Blest are your North parts, for all this long time 213
Both rob'd of aire, we both lye in one ground, 75
Busie old foole, unruly Sunne, 11
By childrens births, and death, I am become 75
*By Euphrates flowry side 424
By miracles exceeding power of man, 320
By our first strange and fatall interview, 111
? Can we not force from widdowed Poetry, 378
*Chast Love, let mee embrace thee in mine armes 445
*Come, Fates; I feare you not. All whom I owe 407
Come live with mee, and bee my love, 46
Come, Madam, come, all rest my powers defie, 119
*Comend her? no. I dare not terme her fayre, 439
Compassion in the world againe is bred: 78
? _Conquerar? ignavoque sequar tua funera planctu? _ 390
*Cruell since that thou dost not feare the curse 446
*Deare Love, continue nice and chaste, 412
Deare love, for nothing lesse then thee 37
Death be not proud, though some have called thee 326
*Death be not proud, thy hand gave not this blow, 422
Death I recant, and say, unsaid by mee 282
Deigne at my hands this crowne of prayer and praise, 318
? _Donne_ dead? 'Tis here reported true, though I 386
? Donne, _the delight of Phoebus, and each Muse_, 5
Eternall God, (for whom who ever dare 348
Even as lame things thirst their perfection, so 208
Faire eies do not think scorne to read of Love 447
Faire, great, and good, since seeing you, wee see 224
Faire soule, which wast, not onely, as all soules bee, 271
*Farewel ye guilded follies, pleasing troubles, 465
Father of Heaven, and him, by whom 338
Father, part of his double interest 329
Fond woman, which would'st have thy husband die, 79
For every houre that thou wilt spare mee now 13
For Godsake hold your tongue, and let me love 14
For the first twenty yeares, since yesterday, 69
*Fye, Fye you sonnes of Pallas what madd rage 435
God grant thee thine own wish, and grant thee mine, 400
Goe, and catche a falling starre, 8
*Goe and Count her better howres 451
Good wee must love, and must hate ill, 32
*Greate and goode if she deryde mee 452
*Greate Lord of love, how busy still thou art 448
Haile Bishop Valentine, whose day this is, 127
Harke newes, o envy, thou shalt heare descry'd 104
Hast thee harsh verse, as fast as thy lame measure 205
He is starke mad, who ever sayes, 48
He that cannot chuse but love, 73
? Hee that would write an Epitaph for thee, 374
*He was the Word that spake it, 427
Her of your name, whose fair inheritance 317
? _Heere lies Deane Donne_; Enough; Those words alone 388
Here's no more newes, then vertue,'I may as well 187
Here take my Picture; though I bid farewell, 86
Here where by All All Saints invoked are, 221
Honour is so sublime perfection, 218
How sits this citie, late most populous, 354
I am a little world made cunningly 324
I am two fooles, I know, 16
I am unable, yonder begger cries, 76
I can love both faire and browne, 12
? I cannot blame those men, that knew thee well, 373
I fixe mine eye on thine, and there 45
I have done one braver thing 10
I'll tell thee now (deare Love) what thou shalt doe 29
I long to talke with some old lovers ghost, 54
I never stoop'd so low, as they 66
I scarce beleeve my love to be so pure 33
? I see in his last preach'd, and printed Booke, 3
I sing no harme good sooth to any wight, 105
I sing the progresse of a deathlesse soule, 295
*I that y^{e} higher half of loues 440
I wonder by my troth, what thou, and I 7
If, as mine is, thy life a slumber be, 209
If faithfull soules be alike glorifi'd 325
*If great men wrong me, I will spare my selfe; 415
*If her disdaine least change in you can move, 430
If in his Studie he hath so much care 77
If poysonous mineralls, and if that tree, 326
*If shaddowes be the pictures excellence; 460
If yet I have not all thy love, 17
If you from spoyle of th'old worlds farthest end 76
Image of her whom I love, more then she, 95
Immensitie cloysterd in thy deare wombe, 319
*In that, o Queene of Queenes, thy birth was free 427
? _In thy Impression of_ Donnes _Poems rare_, 3
In what torn ship soever I embarke, 352
? Is _Donne_, great _Donne_ deceas'd? then England say 376
Is not thy sacred hunger of science 212
Kinde pitty chokes my spleene; brave scorn forbids 154
Kindly I envy thy songs perfection 210
_Klockius_ so deeply hath sworne, ne'r more to come 77
Language thou art too narrow, and too weake 284
Let mans Soule be a Spheare, and then, in this, 336
Let me powre forth 38
Like Esops fellow-slaves, O _Mercury_, 78
Like one who'in her third widdowhood doth professe 185
Little think'st thou, poore flower, 59
? Long since this taske of teares from you was due, 394
Looke to mee faith, and looke to my faith, God; 267
_Love_, any devill else but you, 34
*Love bred of Glances twixt amorous eyes 450
*Love if a god thou art, 448
? _Lucy_, you brightnesse of our Spheare, who are, 6
Mad paper stay, and grudge not here to burne 216
*Madam that flea that Crept between your brests 459
Man is a lumpe, where all beasts kneaded bee, 193
Man is the World, and death th'Ocean, 279
Man to Gods image; _Eve_, to mans was made, 201
Marke but this flea, and marke in this, 40
Marry, and love thy _Flavia_, for, shee 80
*Men write that love and reason disagree, 406
Moyst with one drop of thy blood, my dry soule 321
Muse not that by thy mind thy body is led: 207
My Fortune and my choice this custome break, 292
*My love doth fly w^{th} wings of feare 437
My name engrav'd herein, 25
*Nature amaz'd sawe man without mans ayde 443
Natures lay Ideot, I taught thee to love, 89
No Lover saith, I love, nor any other 69
No _Spring_, nor _Summer_ Beauty hath such grace, 92
*Not Kisse? By Jove I must, and make impression 456
Not that in colour it was like thy haire, 96
Nothing could make me sooner to confesse 251
? Now by one yeare, time and our frailtie have 392
Now thou hast lov'd me one whole day, 9
*Now y'have killd mee with yo^{r} scorne 450
*O eyes, what do you see? 438
*O frutefull garden, and yet never tilde, 434
O might those sighes and teares returne againe 323
O Thou which to search out the secret parts 211
*O what a blisse 441
Of that short Roll of friends writ in my heart 212
Oh do not die, for I shall hate 21
Oh, let mee not serve so, as those men serve 87
Oh my blacke Soule! now thou art summoned 323
Oh, to vex me, contraryes meet in one: 331
Oh to what height will love of greatnesse drive 172
Once, and but once found in thy company, 84
Our storme is past, and that storms tyrannous rage, 178
Out of a fired ship, which, by no way 75
_Parturiunt madido quae nixu praela, recepta_, 397
_Philo_, with twelve yeares study, hath beene griev'd 77
? Poets attend, the Elegie I sing 380
Pregnant again with th'old twins Hope, and Feare, 206
_Qui prius assuetus Serpentum fasce Tabellas_ 398
_Quod arte ausus es hic tua, Poeta_, 398
_Quot_, _dos haec_, Linguists perfetti, _Disticha_ fairont, 174
Reason is our Soules left hand, Faith her right 189
Salute the last and everlasting day, 321
Salvation to all that will is nigh; 319
See Sir, how as the Suns hot Masculine flame 317
Send home my long strayd eyes to mee, 43
Send me some token, that my hope may live, 72
*Shall I goe force an Elegie? abuse 410
Shee'is dead; And all which die 64
Show me deare Christ, thy spouse, so bright and clear. 330
Since Christ embrac'd the Crosse it selfe, dare I 331
*Since ev'ry Tree beginns to blossome now 433
Since I am comming to that Holy roome, 368
Since she must go, and I must mourn, come Night, 100
Since she whom I lov'd hath payd her last debt 330
Sir, more then kisses, letters mingle Soules; 180
Sir; though (I thanke God for it) I do hate 149
*Sleep, next Society and true friendship, 401
Sleep sleep old Sun, thou canst not have repast 333
So, so breake off this last lamenting kisse, 68
Some man unworthy to be possessor 36
Some that have deeper digg'd loves Myne then I, 39
Sorrow, who to this house scarce knew the way: 287
*Soules joy, now I am gone, 429
Spit in my face you Jewes, and pierce my side, 327
Stand still, and I will read to thee 71
*Stay, O sweet, and do not rise, 432
Sweetest love, I do not goe, 18
Take heed of loving mee, 67
Tamely, fraile body,'abstaine to day; to day 334
*Tell her if she to hired servants shew 416
*Tell me who can when a player dies 443
That I might make your Cabinet my tombe, 291
*That unripe side of earth, that heavy clime 417
The heavens rejoyce in motion, why should I 113
*The State and mens affaires are the best playes 414
The Sun-beames in the East are spred, 141
? This decent Urne a sad inscription weares, 389
This is my playes last scene, here heavens appoint 324
*This lyfe it is not life, it is a sight 437
This twilight of two yeares, not past nor next, 198
*Those drossy heads & irrepurged braynes 440
Thou art not so black, as my heart, 65
Thou art repriv'd old yeare, thou shalt not die, 135
Thou hast made me, And shall thy worke decay? 322
Thou in the fields walkst out thy supping howers, 78
Thou shalt not laugh in this leafe, Muse, nor they 168
Thou which art I, ('tis nothing to be soe) 175
Thou, whose diviner soule hath caus'd thee now 351
Though I be _dead_, and buried, yet I have 220
Thy father all from thee, by his last Will, 77
Thy flattering picture, _Phryne_, is like thee, 77
Thy friend, whom thy deserts to thee enchaine, 208
Thy sinnes and haires may no man equall call 77
Till I have peace with thee, warr other men, 122
'Tis lost, to trust a Tombe with such a quest, 245
Tis the yeares midnight, and it is the dayes, 44
'Tis true, 'tis day; what though it be? 23
*To sue for all thy Love, and thy whole hart 449
? To have liv'd eminent, in a degree 371
T'have written then, when you writ, seem'd to mee 195
To make the doubt cleare, that no woman's true, 108
To what a combersome unwieldinesse 55
_Transiit in Sequanam Moenus; Victoris in aedes;_ 397
*True Love findes witt, but he whose witt doth move 412
Twice or thrice had I loved thee, 22
Two, by themselves, each other, love and feare 75
? Two Soules move here, and mine (a third) must move 249
Vnder an undermin'd, and shot-bruis'd wall 76
Vnseasonable man, statue of ice, 131
Vpon this Primrose hill, 61
Vengeance will sit above our faults; but till 350
Well dy'd the World, that we might live to see 229
Well; I may now receive, and die; My sinne 158
Went you to conquer? and have so much lost 188
*What if I come to my mistris bedd 453
What if this present were the worlds last night? 328
*What is o^{r} life? a play of passion 441
When by thy scorne, O murdresse, I am dead, 47
*When fortune, love, and Tyme bad me be happie, 440
When I am dead, and Doctors know not why, 63
When I dyed last, and, Deare, I dye 20
When my grave is broke up againe 62
When that rich Soule which to her heaven is gone, 231
? When thy _Loose_ raptures, _Donne_, shall meet with Those 372
Where is that holy fire, which Verse is said 124
Where, like a pillow on a bed, 51
*Wherefore peepst thou, envious daye? 451
Whether that soule which now comes up to you 288
Whilst yet to prove, 70
? Who dares say thou art dead, when he doth see 384
Who ever comes to shroud me, do not harme 58
Who ever guesses, thinks, or dreames he knowes 41
Who ever loves, if he do not propose 116
Who makes the Past, a patterne for next yeare, 183
? Who shall doubt, _Donne_, where I a _Poet_ bee, 6
? Who shall presume to mourn thee, _Donne_, unlesse 382
Why are wee by all creatures waited on? 327
*Why chose shee black; was it that in whitenes 436
Why this man gelded _Martiall_ I muse, 78
Wilt thou forgive that sinne where I begunne, 369
Wilt thou forgive that sinn, where I begunn, 370
Wilt thou love God, as he thee! then digest, 329
With his kinde mother who partakes thy woe, 320
*Wonder of Beautie, Goddesse of my sense, 447
You have refin'd mee, and to worthyest things 191
You that are she and you, that's double shee, 227
Your mistris, that you follow whores, still taxeth you: 76
Zealously my Muse doth salute all thee, 207
* * * * *
OXFORD: HORACE HART, M. A.
PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY
* * * * *
Transcriber's Note:
- - indicates italic script; + + indicates Old English script;
= = indicates bold script or non-italic text within italic
passages; ^ or ^{} indicates a superscript.
Doubtful words or passages were checked against a 1968 reprint
of the 1933 edition, based, by the author, on this larger 1912
edition.
The Mediaeval long 's' has been replaced by the modern 's', but
usually the capital 'V' for 'U', and lower case v/u, u/v have
been retained (as in the 1968 reprint).
The spelling is, of course, early 17th century.
Unspaced punctuation, e. g. "Thy beauty,'and all parts,", is
as printed in this, and the 1968 reprint, and denotes elisions
(the running together of words to fit the metre).
In general, footnotes have been moved to the ends of their
relevant sections, and linenotes to the ends of their
relevant poems. An exception is on page 251 et seq. , where the
footnotes fit naturally in sequence with the linenotes.
'_See note_' (usually) refers to poem note in the Commentary
in Volume II.
Page 7: 'seelily', from Middle English, via Old English, Old
Saxon, West Germanic. . . . 'sely', 'seely', from 'saelig' etc.
'seely' also occurs in other poems.
The modern word 'silly' has evolved from Old English saelig
(holy, blessed, fortunate, prosperous, happy) through meanings
of 'innocent', 'naive', 'unworldly', 'foolish' . . . .
Page 65: 'A Ieat Ring Sent. ' Ieat = Jeat, probably jet,
a black semi-precious stone, popular in English costume
jewellery.
Page 95: Notes: Elegy X. 'S96' is given twice, with different
titles. Second entry possible error, but retained.
Page 251: The Author has placed the footnotes to the
sidenotes, in order, with the linenotes. This is probably the
least confusing place for them, so they have been retained
here.
Page 262: Printer's error: 'foveraigne' corrected to
'soveraigne'.
Page 276: Printer's error: _169-69_ corrected to _1639-69_.
"[176 them. _D_: them; _1633_, _1639-69_: them, _1635_]"
Pages 390-392: This Latin text contains a number of instances
of words ending in 'que', and a few instances (at the ends of
words) of the letter 'q' with an acute accent (stress mark)
and a subscript which looks like '3', but is 'Latin Small
Letter ET'.
This is a Mediaeval scribal abbreviation for 'que' (indicating
'and') at the ends of certain words. To avoid problems with
the text, all the abbreviated words in this passage have been
written out in full.
Page 405, line note 133: _OF_ corrected to _O'F_. Probable
printer's error.
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