'To you, who
understand
neither French nor Italian, he may seem
perfect French and Italian--but to no one else.
perfect French and Italian--but to no one else.
John Donne
_Away thou fondling, &c.
_ The reading of the majority of
editions and MSS. is 'changeling', but this is a case not of a right
and wrong reading but of two versions, both ascribable to the author.
Which was his emendation it is impossible to say. He may have changed
'fondling' (a 'fond' or foolish person) thinking that the idea was
conveyed by 'motley', which, like Shakespeare's epithet 'patch', is a
synecdoche from the dress of the professional fool or jester. On the
other hand the idea of 'changeling' is repeated in 'humorist', which
suggests changeable and fanciful. I have, therefore, let the _1633_
text stand. 'Changeling' has of course the meaning here of 'a fickle
or inconstant person', not the common sense of a person or thing
or child substituted for another, as 'fondling' is not here a 'pet,
favourite', as in modern usage.
l. 3. _Consorted. _ Grosart, who professes to print from _H51_, reads
_Consoled_, without any authority.
l. 6. _Natures Secretary_: i. e. Aristotle. He is always 'the
Philosopher' in Aquinas and the other schoolmen. Walton speaks of 'the
great secretary of nature and all learning, Sir Francis Bacon'.
l. 7. _jolly Statesmen. _ All the MSS. except _O'F_ agree with _1633_
in reading 'jolly', though 'wily' is an obvious emendation.
Chambers adopts it. By 'jolly' Donne probably meant 'overweeningly
self-confident . . . full of presumptuous pride . . . arrogant,
over-bearing' (O. E. D. ). 'Evilmerodach, a jolly man, without Iustyse
and cruel. ' Caxton (1474). 'It concerneth every one of us . . . not
to be too high-minded or jolly for anything that is past. ' Sanderson
(1648).
l. 10. _Giddie fantastique Poets of each land. _ In a letter Donne
tells Buckingham, in Spain, how his own library is filled with Spanish
books 'from the mistress of my youth, Poetry, to the wife of mine age,
Divinity'. This line in the Satires points to the fact, which Donne
was probably tempted later to obscure a little, that his first
prolonged visit to the Continent had been made before he settled in
London in 1592 and probably without the permission of the Government.
The other than Spanish poets would doubtless be French and Italian.
Donne had read Dante. He refers to him in the fourth _Satyre_ ('who
dreamt he saw hell'), and in an unpublished letter in the Burley MS.
he dilates at some length, but in no very creditable fashion, on an
episode in the _Divina Commedia_. Of French poets he probably knew at
any rate Du Bartas and Regnier.
l. 12. _And follow headlong, wild uncertain thee? _ I have retained the
_1633_ punctuation instead of, with Chambers, comma-ing 'wild' as
well as 'headlong'. The latter is possibly an adverb here, going with
'follow'. The use of 'headlong' as an adjective with persons was not
common. The earliest example in the O. E. D. is from _Hudibras_:
The Friendly Rug preserv'd the ground,
And headlong Knight from bruise or wound.
Donne's line is, however, ambiguous; and the subsequent description of
the humorist would justify the adjective.
l. 18. _Bright parcell gilt, with forty dead mens pay. _ Compare:
'Captains some in guilt armour (unbatt'red) some in buffe jerkins,
plated o'r with massy silver lace (raz'd out of the ashes of dead
pay). ' Dekker, _Newes from Hell_, ii. 119 (Grosart). So many
'dead pays' (i. e. men no longer on the muster roll) were among the
perquisites allowed to every captain of a company, but the number was
constantly exceeded: 'Moreover where' (i. e. whereas) 'there are 15
dead paies allowed ordinarily in every bande, which is paid allwaies
and taken by the captaines, althogh theire nombers be greatly
dyminished in soche sorte as sometimes there are not fower score or
fewer in a company, her Majestys pleasure is that from hence the saide
15 dead paies shall not be allowed unlesse the companies be full and
compleate, but after the rate of two dead paies for everie twenty men
that shalbe in the saide bande where the companies are dyminished. '
Letter to Sir John Norreyes, Knighte. _Acts of the Privy Council_,
1592.
PAGE =146=, l. 27. _Oh monstrous, superstitious puritan. _ The
'Monster' of the MSS. is of course _not_ due to the substitution
of the noun for the adjective, but is simply an older form of the
adjective. Compare 'O wonder Vandermast', Greene's _Friar Bacon and
Friar Bungay_.
l. 32. _raise thy formall_: 'raise' is probably right, but 'vaile' is
a common metaphor. 'A Player? Call him, the lousie slave: what will
he saile by, and not once strike or vaile to a Man of Warre. ' Captain
Tucca in Jonson's _Poetaster_, III. 3.
l. 33. _That wilt consort none, &c. _ It is unnecessary to alter
'consort none' to 'consort with none', as some MSS. do. The
construction is quite regular. 'Wilt thou consort me, bear me
company? ' Heywood. The 'consorted with these few books' of l. 3
is classed by the O. E. D. under a slightly different sense of the
word--not 'attended on by' these books, but 'associated in a common
lot with' them.
l. 39. _The nakednesse and barenesse, &c. _ The reading 'barrennesse'
of all the editions and some MSS. is due probably to similarity of
pronunciation (rather than of spelling) and a superficial suggestion
of appropriateness to the context. A second glance shows that
'bareness' is the correct reading. The MSS. give frequent evidence of
having been written to dictation.
l. 46. The 'yet', which the later editions and Chambers drop, is quite
in Donne's style. It is heavily stressed and 'he was' is slurred, 'h'
was. '
PAGE =147=, l. 58. _The Infanta of London, Heire to an India. _ It is
not necessary to suppose a reference to any person in particular.
The allusion is in the first place to the wealth of the city, and the
greed of patricians and courtiers to profit by that wealth. 'No one
can tell who, amid the host of greedy and expectant suitors, will
carry off whoever is at present the wealthiest minor (and probably the
king's ward) in London, i. e. the City. ' Compare the _Epithalamion made
at Lincolns Inn_:
Daughters of London, you which be
Our Golden Mines, and furnish'd Treasury,
You which are Angels, yet still bring with you
Thousands of Angels on your marriage days
. . . . . . . .
Make her for Love fit fuel,
As gay as Flora, and as rich as Inde.
Compare also: 'I possess as much in your wish, Sir, as if I were made
Lord of the Indies. ' Jonson, _Every Man out of his Humour_, II. iii.
The 'Infanta' of _A25_, _O'F_, _Q_ is pretty certainly right, though
'Infant' can be applied, like 'Prince', to a woman. There is probably
a second allusion to the claim of the Infanta of Spain to be heir to
the English throne.
l. 60. _heavens Scheme_: 'Scheme' is certainly the right reading. The
common MS. spelling, 'sceame' or 'sceames', explains the 'sceanes'
which _1633_ has derived from _N_, _TCD_. For the _Satyres_ the editor
did not use his best MS. See _Text and Canon, &c. _, p. xcv. It is
possible that a slurred definite article ('th'heavens') has been lost.
In preparing his 'theme' or horoscope the astrologer had five
principal things to consider, (1) the heavenly mansions, (2) the signs
of the zodiac, (3) the planets, (4) the aspects and configurations,
(5) the fixed stars. With this end in view the astrologer divided the
heavens into twelve parts, called mansions, to which he related the
positions occupied at the same moment by the stars in each of them
('drawing the horoscope'). There were several methods of doing this.
That of Ptolemy consisted in dividing the zodiac into twelve equal
parts. This was called the equal manner. To represent the mansions the
astrologers constructed twelve triangles between two squares placed
one within the other. Each of the twelve mansions thus formed had
a different name, and determined different aspects of the life and
fortune of the subject of the horoscope. From the first was foretold
the general character of his life, his health, his habits, morals.
The second indicated his wealth; and so on. The different signs of
the zodiac and the planets, in like manner, had each its special
influence. But sufficient has been said to indicate what Donne means
by 'drawing forth Heavens scheme'.
l. 62. _subtile-witted. _ There is something to be said for the
'supple-witted' of _H51_ and some other MSS. 'Subtle-witted' means
'fantastic, ingenious'; 'supple-witted' means 'variable'. Like
Fastidious Brisk in _Every Man out of his Humour_, they have a fresh
fashion in suits every day. 'When men are willing to prefer their
friends, we heare them often give these testimonies of a man; He
hath good parts, and you need not be ashamed to speak for him; he
understands the world, he knowes how things passe, and he hath a
discreet, a supple, and an appliable disposition, and hee may make a
fit instrument for all your purposes, and you need not be afraid to
speake for him. ' _Sermons_ 80. 74. 750. A 'supple disposition' is one
that changes easily to adapt itself to circumstances.
PAGE =148=, l. 81. _O Elephant or Ape_, See Introductory Note to
_Satyres_.
l. 89. _I whispered let'us go. _ I have, following the example of
_1633_ in other cases, indicated the slurring of 'let'us' or 'let's',
which is necessary metrically if we are to read the full 'whispered'
which _1669_ first contracts to 'whisperd'. _Q_ shows that 'let's'
is the right contraction. Donne's use of colloquial slurrings must be
constantly kept in view when reading especially his satires. They are
not always indicated in the editions: but note l. 52:
I shut my chamber doore, and come, lets goe.
PAGE =149=, ll. 100-4. My punctuation of these lines is a slight
modification of that indicated by _W_ and _JC_, which give the proper
division of the speeches. The use of inverted commas would make this
clearer, but Chambers' division seems to me (if I understand it) to
give the whole speech, from 'But to me' to 'So is the Pox', to Donne's
companion, which is to deprive Donne of his closing repartee. The
Grolier Club editor avoids this, but makes 'Why he hath travelled
long? ' a part of Donne's speech beginning 'Our dull comedians want
him'. I divide the speeches thus:--
_Donne. _ Why stoop'st thou so?
_Companion. _ Why? he hath travail'd.
_Donne. _ Long?
_Companion. _ No: but to me (_Donne interpolates_ 'which
understand none') he doth seem to be
Perfect French and Italian.
_Donne. _ So is the Pox.
The brackets round 'which understand none' I have taken from _Q_.
I had thought of inserting them before I came on this MS. Of course
brackets in old editions are often used where commas would be
sufficient, and one can build nothing on their insertion here in one
MS. But it seems to me that these words have no point unless regarded
as a sarcastic comment interpolated by Donne, perhaps _sotto voce_.
'To you, who understand neither French nor Italian, he may seem
perfect French and Italian--but to no one else. ' Probably an eclectic
attire was the only evidence of travel observable in the person in
question. 'How oddly is he suited! ' says Portia of her English wooer;
'I think he bought his doublet in Italy, his round hose in France, his
bonnet in Germany, and his behaviour everywhere. ' Brackets are thus
used by Jonson to indicate a remark interjected _sotto voce_. See the
quotation from the _Poetaster_ in the note on _The Message_ (II. p.
37). Modern editors substitute for the brackets the direction 'Aside',
which is not in the Folio (1616).
PAGE =149=. SATYRE II.
ll. 1-4. It will be seen that _H51_ gives two alternative versions of
these lines. The version of the printed text is that of the majority
of the MSS.
PAGE =150=, ll. 15-16. _As in some Organ, &c. _ Chambers prints these
lines with a comma after 'move', connecting them with what follows
about love-poetry. Clearly they belong to what has been said about
dramatic poets. It is Marlowe and his fellows who are the bellows
which set the actor-puppets in motion.
ll. 19-20. _Rammes and slings now, &c. _ The 'Rimes and songs' of _P_
is a quaint variant due either to an accident of hearing or to an
interpretation of the metaphor: 'As in war money is more effective
than rams and slings, so it is more effective in love than songs. ' But
there is a further allusion in the condensed stroke, for 'pistolets'
means also 'fire-arms'. Money is as much more effective than poetry in
love as fire-arms are than rams and slings in war. Donne is Dryden's
teacher in the condensed stroke, which 'cleaves to the waist', lines
such as
They got a villain, and we lost a fool.
PAGE =151=, l. 33. _to out-sweare the Letanie. _ 'Letanie,' the reading
of all the MSS. , is indicated by a dash in _1633_ and is omitted
without any indication by _1635-39_. In _1649-50_ the blank was
supplied, probably conjecturally, by 'the gallant'. It was not till
_1669_ that 'Letanie' was inserted. In 'versifying' Donne's _Satyres_
Pope altered this to 'or Irishmen out-swear', and Warburton in a note
explains the original: 'Dr. Donne's is a low allusion to a licentious
quibble used at that time by the enemies of the English Liturgy, who,
disliking the frequent invocations in the Litanie, called them the
_taking God's name in vain_, which is the Scripture periphrasis for
swearing. '
l. 36. _tenements. _ Drummond in _HN_ writes 'torments', probably a
conjectural emendation. Drummond was not so well versed in Scholastic
Philosophy as Donne.
l. 44. _But a scarce Poet. _ This is the reading of the best MSS. , and
I have adopted it in preference to 'But scarce a Poet', which is an
awkward phrase and does not express what the writer means. Donne does
not say that he is barely a poet, but that he is a bad poet. Donne
uses 'scarce' thus as an adjective again in _Satyre IV_, l. 4 (where
see note) and l. 240. It seems to have puzzled copyists and editors,
who amend it in various ways. By 'jollier of this state' he means
'prouder of this state', using the word as in 'jolly statesmen', I. 7.
l. 48. '_language of the Pleas and Bench. _' See Introductory Note for
legal diction in love-sonnets.
PAGE =152=, ll. 62-3. _but men which chuse
Law practise for meere gaine, bold soule, repute. _
The unpunctuated 'for meere gaine bold soule repute' of _1633-69_ and
most MSS. has caused considerable trouble to the editors and copyists.
One way out of the difficulty, 'bold souls repute,' appears in
Chambers' edition as an emendation, and before that in Tonson's
edition (1719), whence it was copied by all the editions to Chalmers'
(1810). Lowell's conjecture, 'hold soules repute,' had been anticipated
in some MSS. There is no real difficulty. I had comma'd the words
'bold soule' before I examined _Q_, which places them in brackets,
a common means in old books of indicating an apostrophe. The 'bold
soule' addressed, and invoked to esteem such worthless people
aright, is the 'Sir' (whoever that may be) to whom the whole poem is
addressed. A note in _HN_ prefixed to this poem says that it is taken
from 'C. B. 's copy', i. e. Christopher Brooke's. It is quite possible
that this _Satyre_, like _The Storme_, was addressed to him.
ll. 71-4. _Like a wedge in a block, wring to the barre,
Bearing-like Asses; and more shamelesse farre, &c. _
These lines are printed as in _1633_, except that the comma after
'Asses' is raised to a semicolon, and that I have put a hyphen between
'Bearing' and 'like'. The lines are difficult and have greatly puzzled
editors. Grosart prints from _H51_ and reads 'wringd', which, though
an admissible form of the past-participle, makes no sense here. The
Grolier Club editor prints:
Like a wedge in a block, wring to the bar,
Bearing like asses, and more shameless far
Than carted whores; lie to the grave judge; for . . .
Chambers adopts much the same scheme:
Like a wedge in a block, wring to the bar,
Bearing like asses, and more shameless far
Than carted whores; lie to the grave judge, for . . .
By retaining the comma after 'bar' in a modernized text with modern
punctuation these editors leave it doubtful whether they do or do not
consider that 'asses' is the object to 'wring'. Further, they connect
'and more shameless far than carted whores' closely with 'asses',
separating it by a semicolon from 'lie to the grave judge'. I take it
that 'more shameless far' is regarded by these editors as a qualifying
adjunct to 'asses'. This is surely wrong. The subject of the
long sentence is 'He' (l. 65), and the infinitives throughout are
complements to 'must': 'He must walk . . . he must talk . . . [he must]
lie . . . [he must] wring to the bar bearing-like asses; [he must], more
shameless than carted whores, lie to the grave judge, &c. ' This is the
only method in which I can construe the passage, and it carries with
it the assumption that 'bearing like' should be connected by a hyphen
to form an adjective similar to 'Relique-like', which is the MS. form
of 'Relique-ly' at l. 84. Certainly it is 'he', Coscus, who is 'more
shameless, &c. ,' not his victims. These are the 'bearing-like asses',
the patient Catholics or suspected Catholics whom he wrings to the bar
and forces to disgorge fines. Coscus, a poet in his youth, has become
a Topcliffe in his maturer years. 'Bearing,' 'patient' is the regular
epithet for asses in Elizabethan literature:
Asses are made to bear and so are you.
_Taming of the Shrew_, II. i. 200.
In Jonson's _Poetaster_, v. i, the ass is declared to be the
hieroglyphic of
Patience, frugality, and fortitude.
Possibly, but it is not very likely, Donne refers not only to the
stupid patience of the ass but to her fertility: 'They be very
gainefull and profitable to their maisters, yielding more commodities
than the revenues of good farmers. ' Holland's _Pliny_, 8. 43, _Of
Asses_.
PAGE =153=, l. 87. _In parchments. _ The plural is the reading of the
better MSS. and seems to me to give the better sense. The final 's'
is so easily overlooked or confounded with a final 'e' that one must
determine the right reading by the sense of the passage.
ll. 93-6. _When Luther was profest, &c. _ The 'power and glory clause'
which is not found in the Vulgate or any of the old Latin versions
of the New Testament (and is therefore not used in Catholic prayers,
public or private), was taken by Erasmus (1516) from all the Greek
codices, though he does not regard it as genuine. Thence it passed
into Luther's (1521) and most Reformed versions. In his popular and
devotional _Auslegung deutsch des Vaterunsers_ (1519) Luther makes no
reference to it.
l. 105. _Whereas th'old . . . In great hals. _ The line as I have printed
it combines the versions of _1633_ and the later editions. It is found
in several MSS. Some of these, on the other hand, like _1633-69_,
read 'where'; but 'where's' with a plural subject following was quite
idiomatic. Compare: 'Here needs no spies nor eunuchs,' p. 81, l. 39;
'With firmer age returns our liberties,' p. 115, l. 77.
At p. 165, l. 182, the MSS. point to 'cryes his flatterers' as
the original version. See Franz, _Shak. -Gram. _ ? 672; Knecht, _Die
Kongruenz zwischen Subjekt und Pradikat_ (1911), p. 28.
Donne has other instances of irregular concord, or of the plural form
in 's', and 'th':
by thy fathers wrath
By all paines which want and divorcement hath.
P. 111, l. 8.
Had'st thou staid there, and look'd out at her eyes,
All had ador'd thee that now from thee flies.
P. 285, l. 17.
Those unlick't beare-whelps, unfil'd pistolets
That (more than Canon shot) availes or lets.
P. 97, l. 32.
The rhyme makes the form here indisputable. The MSS. point to a more
frequent use of 'hath' with a plural subject than the editions have
preserved. The above three instances seem all plurals. In other cases
the individuals form a whole, or there is ellipsis:
All Kings, and all their favorites,
All glory of honors, beauties, wits,
The Sunne it selfe which makes times, as they passe,
Is elder by a year, now, then it was.
_The Anniversarie_, p. 24, ll. 1-4.
He that but tasts, he that devours,
And he that leaves all, doth as well.
_Communitie_, p. 33, ll. 20-1.
PAGE =154=, l. 107. _meanes blesse_. The reading of _1633_ has the
support of the best MSS. Grosart and Chambers prefer the reading of
the later editions, 'Meane's blest. ' This, it would seem to me, needs
the definite article. The other reading gives quite the same sense,
'in all things means (i. e. middle ways, moderate measures) bring
blessings':
Rectius vives, Licini, neque altum
Semper urgendo neque, dum procellas
Cautus horrescis, nimium premendo
Litus iniquum.
Auream quisquis mediocritatem
Diligit, tutus caret obsoleti
Sordibus tecti, caret invidenda
Sobrius aula.
Horace, _Odes_, ii. 10.
The general tenor of the closing lines recalls Horace's treatment of
the same theme in _Sat. _ ii. 2. 88, 125, more than either Juvenal,
_Sat. _ ix, or Persius, _Sat. _ vi.
Grosart states that 'means, then as now, meant riches, possessions,
but never the mean or middle'. But see O. E. D. , which quotes for the
plural in this sense: 'Tempering goodly well Their contrary dislikes
with loved means. ' Spenser, _Hymns_. In the singular Bacon has, 'But
to speake in a Meane.
editions and MSS. is 'changeling', but this is a case not of a right
and wrong reading but of two versions, both ascribable to the author.
Which was his emendation it is impossible to say. He may have changed
'fondling' (a 'fond' or foolish person) thinking that the idea was
conveyed by 'motley', which, like Shakespeare's epithet 'patch', is a
synecdoche from the dress of the professional fool or jester. On the
other hand the idea of 'changeling' is repeated in 'humorist', which
suggests changeable and fanciful. I have, therefore, let the _1633_
text stand. 'Changeling' has of course the meaning here of 'a fickle
or inconstant person', not the common sense of a person or thing
or child substituted for another, as 'fondling' is not here a 'pet,
favourite', as in modern usage.
l. 3. _Consorted. _ Grosart, who professes to print from _H51_, reads
_Consoled_, without any authority.
l. 6. _Natures Secretary_: i. e. Aristotle. He is always 'the
Philosopher' in Aquinas and the other schoolmen. Walton speaks of 'the
great secretary of nature and all learning, Sir Francis Bacon'.
l. 7. _jolly Statesmen. _ All the MSS. except _O'F_ agree with _1633_
in reading 'jolly', though 'wily' is an obvious emendation.
Chambers adopts it. By 'jolly' Donne probably meant 'overweeningly
self-confident . . . full of presumptuous pride . . . arrogant,
over-bearing' (O. E. D. ). 'Evilmerodach, a jolly man, without Iustyse
and cruel. ' Caxton (1474). 'It concerneth every one of us . . . not
to be too high-minded or jolly for anything that is past. ' Sanderson
(1648).
l. 10. _Giddie fantastique Poets of each land. _ In a letter Donne
tells Buckingham, in Spain, how his own library is filled with Spanish
books 'from the mistress of my youth, Poetry, to the wife of mine age,
Divinity'. This line in the Satires points to the fact, which Donne
was probably tempted later to obscure a little, that his first
prolonged visit to the Continent had been made before he settled in
London in 1592 and probably without the permission of the Government.
The other than Spanish poets would doubtless be French and Italian.
Donne had read Dante. He refers to him in the fourth _Satyre_ ('who
dreamt he saw hell'), and in an unpublished letter in the Burley MS.
he dilates at some length, but in no very creditable fashion, on an
episode in the _Divina Commedia_. Of French poets he probably knew at
any rate Du Bartas and Regnier.
l. 12. _And follow headlong, wild uncertain thee? _ I have retained the
_1633_ punctuation instead of, with Chambers, comma-ing 'wild' as
well as 'headlong'. The latter is possibly an adverb here, going with
'follow'. The use of 'headlong' as an adjective with persons was not
common. The earliest example in the O. E. D. is from _Hudibras_:
The Friendly Rug preserv'd the ground,
And headlong Knight from bruise or wound.
Donne's line is, however, ambiguous; and the subsequent description of
the humorist would justify the adjective.
l. 18. _Bright parcell gilt, with forty dead mens pay. _ Compare:
'Captains some in guilt armour (unbatt'red) some in buffe jerkins,
plated o'r with massy silver lace (raz'd out of the ashes of dead
pay). ' Dekker, _Newes from Hell_, ii. 119 (Grosart). So many
'dead pays' (i. e. men no longer on the muster roll) were among the
perquisites allowed to every captain of a company, but the number was
constantly exceeded: 'Moreover where' (i. e. whereas) 'there are 15
dead paies allowed ordinarily in every bande, which is paid allwaies
and taken by the captaines, althogh theire nombers be greatly
dyminished in soche sorte as sometimes there are not fower score or
fewer in a company, her Majestys pleasure is that from hence the saide
15 dead paies shall not be allowed unlesse the companies be full and
compleate, but after the rate of two dead paies for everie twenty men
that shalbe in the saide bande where the companies are dyminished. '
Letter to Sir John Norreyes, Knighte. _Acts of the Privy Council_,
1592.
PAGE =146=, l. 27. _Oh monstrous, superstitious puritan. _ The
'Monster' of the MSS. is of course _not_ due to the substitution
of the noun for the adjective, but is simply an older form of the
adjective. Compare 'O wonder Vandermast', Greene's _Friar Bacon and
Friar Bungay_.
l. 32. _raise thy formall_: 'raise' is probably right, but 'vaile' is
a common metaphor. 'A Player? Call him, the lousie slave: what will
he saile by, and not once strike or vaile to a Man of Warre. ' Captain
Tucca in Jonson's _Poetaster_, III. 3.
l. 33. _That wilt consort none, &c. _ It is unnecessary to alter
'consort none' to 'consort with none', as some MSS. do. The
construction is quite regular. 'Wilt thou consort me, bear me
company? ' Heywood. The 'consorted with these few books' of l. 3
is classed by the O. E. D. under a slightly different sense of the
word--not 'attended on by' these books, but 'associated in a common
lot with' them.
l. 39. _The nakednesse and barenesse, &c. _ The reading 'barrennesse'
of all the editions and some MSS. is due probably to similarity of
pronunciation (rather than of spelling) and a superficial suggestion
of appropriateness to the context. A second glance shows that
'bareness' is the correct reading. The MSS. give frequent evidence of
having been written to dictation.
l. 46. The 'yet', which the later editions and Chambers drop, is quite
in Donne's style. It is heavily stressed and 'he was' is slurred, 'h'
was. '
PAGE =147=, l. 58. _The Infanta of London, Heire to an India. _ It is
not necessary to suppose a reference to any person in particular.
The allusion is in the first place to the wealth of the city, and the
greed of patricians and courtiers to profit by that wealth. 'No one
can tell who, amid the host of greedy and expectant suitors, will
carry off whoever is at present the wealthiest minor (and probably the
king's ward) in London, i. e. the City. ' Compare the _Epithalamion made
at Lincolns Inn_:
Daughters of London, you which be
Our Golden Mines, and furnish'd Treasury,
You which are Angels, yet still bring with you
Thousands of Angels on your marriage days
. . . . . . . .
Make her for Love fit fuel,
As gay as Flora, and as rich as Inde.
Compare also: 'I possess as much in your wish, Sir, as if I were made
Lord of the Indies. ' Jonson, _Every Man out of his Humour_, II. iii.
The 'Infanta' of _A25_, _O'F_, _Q_ is pretty certainly right, though
'Infant' can be applied, like 'Prince', to a woman. There is probably
a second allusion to the claim of the Infanta of Spain to be heir to
the English throne.
l. 60. _heavens Scheme_: 'Scheme' is certainly the right reading. The
common MS. spelling, 'sceame' or 'sceames', explains the 'sceanes'
which _1633_ has derived from _N_, _TCD_. For the _Satyres_ the editor
did not use his best MS. See _Text and Canon, &c. _, p. xcv. It is
possible that a slurred definite article ('th'heavens') has been lost.
In preparing his 'theme' or horoscope the astrologer had five
principal things to consider, (1) the heavenly mansions, (2) the signs
of the zodiac, (3) the planets, (4) the aspects and configurations,
(5) the fixed stars. With this end in view the astrologer divided the
heavens into twelve parts, called mansions, to which he related the
positions occupied at the same moment by the stars in each of them
('drawing the horoscope'). There were several methods of doing this.
That of Ptolemy consisted in dividing the zodiac into twelve equal
parts. This was called the equal manner. To represent the mansions the
astrologers constructed twelve triangles between two squares placed
one within the other. Each of the twelve mansions thus formed had
a different name, and determined different aspects of the life and
fortune of the subject of the horoscope. From the first was foretold
the general character of his life, his health, his habits, morals.
The second indicated his wealth; and so on. The different signs of
the zodiac and the planets, in like manner, had each its special
influence. But sufficient has been said to indicate what Donne means
by 'drawing forth Heavens scheme'.
l. 62. _subtile-witted. _ There is something to be said for the
'supple-witted' of _H51_ and some other MSS. 'Subtle-witted' means
'fantastic, ingenious'; 'supple-witted' means 'variable'. Like
Fastidious Brisk in _Every Man out of his Humour_, they have a fresh
fashion in suits every day. 'When men are willing to prefer their
friends, we heare them often give these testimonies of a man; He
hath good parts, and you need not be ashamed to speak for him; he
understands the world, he knowes how things passe, and he hath a
discreet, a supple, and an appliable disposition, and hee may make a
fit instrument for all your purposes, and you need not be afraid to
speake for him. ' _Sermons_ 80. 74. 750. A 'supple disposition' is one
that changes easily to adapt itself to circumstances.
PAGE =148=, l. 81. _O Elephant or Ape_, See Introductory Note to
_Satyres_.
l. 89. _I whispered let'us go. _ I have, following the example of
_1633_ in other cases, indicated the slurring of 'let'us' or 'let's',
which is necessary metrically if we are to read the full 'whispered'
which _1669_ first contracts to 'whisperd'. _Q_ shows that 'let's'
is the right contraction. Donne's use of colloquial slurrings must be
constantly kept in view when reading especially his satires. They are
not always indicated in the editions: but note l. 52:
I shut my chamber doore, and come, lets goe.
PAGE =149=, ll. 100-4. My punctuation of these lines is a slight
modification of that indicated by _W_ and _JC_, which give the proper
division of the speeches. The use of inverted commas would make this
clearer, but Chambers' division seems to me (if I understand it) to
give the whole speech, from 'But to me' to 'So is the Pox', to Donne's
companion, which is to deprive Donne of his closing repartee. The
Grolier Club editor avoids this, but makes 'Why he hath travelled
long? ' a part of Donne's speech beginning 'Our dull comedians want
him'. I divide the speeches thus:--
_Donne. _ Why stoop'st thou so?
_Companion. _ Why? he hath travail'd.
_Donne. _ Long?
_Companion. _ No: but to me (_Donne interpolates_ 'which
understand none') he doth seem to be
Perfect French and Italian.
_Donne. _ So is the Pox.
The brackets round 'which understand none' I have taken from _Q_.
I had thought of inserting them before I came on this MS. Of course
brackets in old editions are often used where commas would be
sufficient, and one can build nothing on their insertion here in one
MS. But it seems to me that these words have no point unless regarded
as a sarcastic comment interpolated by Donne, perhaps _sotto voce_.
'To you, who understand neither French nor Italian, he may seem
perfect French and Italian--but to no one else. ' Probably an eclectic
attire was the only evidence of travel observable in the person in
question. 'How oddly is he suited! ' says Portia of her English wooer;
'I think he bought his doublet in Italy, his round hose in France, his
bonnet in Germany, and his behaviour everywhere. ' Brackets are thus
used by Jonson to indicate a remark interjected _sotto voce_. See the
quotation from the _Poetaster_ in the note on _The Message_ (II. p.
37). Modern editors substitute for the brackets the direction 'Aside',
which is not in the Folio (1616).
PAGE =149=. SATYRE II.
ll. 1-4. It will be seen that _H51_ gives two alternative versions of
these lines. The version of the printed text is that of the majority
of the MSS.
PAGE =150=, ll. 15-16. _As in some Organ, &c. _ Chambers prints these
lines with a comma after 'move', connecting them with what follows
about love-poetry. Clearly they belong to what has been said about
dramatic poets. It is Marlowe and his fellows who are the bellows
which set the actor-puppets in motion.
ll. 19-20. _Rammes and slings now, &c. _ The 'Rimes and songs' of _P_
is a quaint variant due either to an accident of hearing or to an
interpretation of the metaphor: 'As in war money is more effective
than rams and slings, so it is more effective in love than songs. ' But
there is a further allusion in the condensed stroke, for 'pistolets'
means also 'fire-arms'. Money is as much more effective than poetry in
love as fire-arms are than rams and slings in war. Donne is Dryden's
teacher in the condensed stroke, which 'cleaves to the waist', lines
such as
They got a villain, and we lost a fool.
PAGE =151=, l. 33. _to out-sweare the Letanie. _ 'Letanie,' the reading
of all the MSS. , is indicated by a dash in _1633_ and is omitted
without any indication by _1635-39_. In _1649-50_ the blank was
supplied, probably conjecturally, by 'the gallant'. It was not till
_1669_ that 'Letanie' was inserted. In 'versifying' Donne's _Satyres_
Pope altered this to 'or Irishmen out-swear', and Warburton in a note
explains the original: 'Dr. Donne's is a low allusion to a licentious
quibble used at that time by the enemies of the English Liturgy, who,
disliking the frequent invocations in the Litanie, called them the
_taking God's name in vain_, which is the Scripture periphrasis for
swearing. '
l. 36. _tenements. _ Drummond in _HN_ writes 'torments', probably a
conjectural emendation. Drummond was not so well versed in Scholastic
Philosophy as Donne.
l. 44. _But a scarce Poet. _ This is the reading of the best MSS. , and
I have adopted it in preference to 'But scarce a Poet', which is an
awkward phrase and does not express what the writer means. Donne does
not say that he is barely a poet, but that he is a bad poet. Donne
uses 'scarce' thus as an adjective again in _Satyre IV_, l. 4 (where
see note) and l. 240. It seems to have puzzled copyists and editors,
who amend it in various ways. By 'jollier of this state' he means
'prouder of this state', using the word as in 'jolly statesmen', I. 7.
l. 48. '_language of the Pleas and Bench. _' See Introductory Note for
legal diction in love-sonnets.
PAGE =152=, ll. 62-3. _but men which chuse
Law practise for meere gaine, bold soule, repute. _
The unpunctuated 'for meere gaine bold soule repute' of _1633-69_ and
most MSS. has caused considerable trouble to the editors and copyists.
One way out of the difficulty, 'bold souls repute,' appears in
Chambers' edition as an emendation, and before that in Tonson's
edition (1719), whence it was copied by all the editions to Chalmers'
(1810). Lowell's conjecture, 'hold soules repute,' had been anticipated
in some MSS. There is no real difficulty. I had comma'd the words
'bold soule' before I examined _Q_, which places them in brackets,
a common means in old books of indicating an apostrophe. The 'bold
soule' addressed, and invoked to esteem such worthless people
aright, is the 'Sir' (whoever that may be) to whom the whole poem is
addressed. A note in _HN_ prefixed to this poem says that it is taken
from 'C. B. 's copy', i. e. Christopher Brooke's. It is quite possible
that this _Satyre_, like _The Storme_, was addressed to him.
ll. 71-4. _Like a wedge in a block, wring to the barre,
Bearing-like Asses; and more shamelesse farre, &c. _
These lines are printed as in _1633_, except that the comma after
'Asses' is raised to a semicolon, and that I have put a hyphen between
'Bearing' and 'like'. The lines are difficult and have greatly puzzled
editors. Grosart prints from _H51_ and reads 'wringd', which, though
an admissible form of the past-participle, makes no sense here. The
Grolier Club editor prints:
Like a wedge in a block, wring to the bar,
Bearing like asses, and more shameless far
Than carted whores; lie to the grave judge; for . . .
Chambers adopts much the same scheme:
Like a wedge in a block, wring to the bar,
Bearing like asses, and more shameless far
Than carted whores; lie to the grave judge, for . . .
By retaining the comma after 'bar' in a modernized text with modern
punctuation these editors leave it doubtful whether they do or do not
consider that 'asses' is the object to 'wring'. Further, they connect
'and more shameless far than carted whores' closely with 'asses',
separating it by a semicolon from 'lie to the grave judge'. I take it
that 'more shameless far' is regarded by these editors as a qualifying
adjunct to 'asses'. This is surely wrong. The subject of the
long sentence is 'He' (l. 65), and the infinitives throughout are
complements to 'must': 'He must walk . . . he must talk . . . [he must]
lie . . . [he must] wring to the bar bearing-like asses; [he must], more
shameless than carted whores, lie to the grave judge, &c. ' This is the
only method in which I can construe the passage, and it carries with
it the assumption that 'bearing like' should be connected by a hyphen
to form an adjective similar to 'Relique-like', which is the MS. form
of 'Relique-ly' at l. 84. Certainly it is 'he', Coscus, who is 'more
shameless, &c. ,' not his victims. These are the 'bearing-like asses',
the patient Catholics or suspected Catholics whom he wrings to the bar
and forces to disgorge fines. Coscus, a poet in his youth, has become
a Topcliffe in his maturer years. 'Bearing,' 'patient' is the regular
epithet for asses in Elizabethan literature:
Asses are made to bear and so are you.
_Taming of the Shrew_, II. i. 200.
In Jonson's _Poetaster_, v. i, the ass is declared to be the
hieroglyphic of
Patience, frugality, and fortitude.
Possibly, but it is not very likely, Donne refers not only to the
stupid patience of the ass but to her fertility: 'They be very
gainefull and profitable to their maisters, yielding more commodities
than the revenues of good farmers. ' Holland's _Pliny_, 8. 43, _Of
Asses_.
PAGE =153=, l. 87. _In parchments. _ The plural is the reading of the
better MSS. and seems to me to give the better sense. The final 's'
is so easily overlooked or confounded with a final 'e' that one must
determine the right reading by the sense of the passage.
ll. 93-6. _When Luther was profest, &c. _ The 'power and glory clause'
which is not found in the Vulgate or any of the old Latin versions
of the New Testament (and is therefore not used in Catholic prayers,
public or private), was taken by Erasmus (1516) from all the Greek
codices, though he does not regard it as genuine. Thence it passed
into Luther's (1521) and most Reformed versions. In his popular and
devotional _Auslegung deutsch des Vaterunsers_ (1519) Luther makes no
reference to it.
l. 105. _Whereas th'old . . . In great hals. _ The line as I have printed
it combines the versions of _1633_ and the later editions. It is found
in several MSS. Some of these, on the other hand, like _1633-69_,
read 'where'; but 'where's' with a plural subject following was quite
idiomatic. Compare: 'Here needs no spies nor eunuchs,' p. 81, l. 39;
'With firmer age returns our liberties,' p. 115, l. 77.
At p. 165, l. 182, the MSS. point to 'cryes his flatterers' as
the original version. See Franz, _Shak. -Gram. _ ? 672; Knecht, _Die
Kongruenz zwischen Subjekt und Pradikat_ (1911), p. 28.
Donne has other instances of irregular concord, or of the plural form
in 's', and 'th':
by thy fathers wrath
By all paines which want and divorcement hath.
P. 111, l. 8.
Had'st thou staid there, and look'd out at her eyes,
All had ador'd thee that now from thee flies.
P. 285, l. 17.
Those unlick't beare-whelps, unfil'd pistolets
That (more than Canon shot) availes or lets.
P. 97, l. 32.
The rhyme makes the form here indisputable. The MSS. point to a more
frequent use of 'hath' with a plural subject than the editions have
preserved. The above three instances seem all plurals. In other cases
the individuals form a whole, or there is ellipsis:
All Kings, and all their favorites,
All glory of honors, beauties, wits,
The Sunne it selfe which makes times, as they passe,
Is elder by a year, now, then it was.
_The Anniversarie_, p. 24, ll. 1-4.
He that but tasts, he that devours,
And he that leaves all, doth as well.
_Communitie_, p. 33, ll. 20-1.
PAGE =154=, l. 107. _meanes blesse_. The reading of _1633_ has the
support of the best MSS. Grosart and Chambers prefer the reading of
the later editions, 'Meane's blest. ' This, it would seem to me, needs
the definite article. The other reading gives quite the same sense,
'in all things means (i. e. middle ways, moderate measures) bring
blessings':
Rectius vives, Licini, neque altum
Semper urgendo neque, dum procellas
Cautus horrescis, nimium premendo
Litus iniquum.
Auream quisquis mediocritatem
Diligit, tutus caret obsoleti
Sordibus tecti, caret invidenda
Sobrius aula.
Horace, _Odes_, ii. 10.
The general tenor of the closing lines recalls Horace's treatment of
the same theme in _Sat. _ ii. 2. 88, 125, more than either Juvenal,
_Sat. _ ix, or Persius, _Sat. _ vi.
Grosart states that 'means, then as now, meant riches, possessions,
but never the mean or middle'. But see O. E. D. , which quotes for the
plural in this sense: 'Tempering goodly well Their contrary dislikes
with loved means. ' Spenser, _Hymns_. In the singular Bacon has, 'But
to speake in a Meane.
