In the rest of the poem the
punctuation
is also careful.
Donne - 2
' Mr.
Pearsall
Smith adds, 'It is worth noting that while Wotton was travelling to
Venice, Shakespeare was probably engaged in writing his great Venetian
tragedy, _Othello_, which was acted before James I in November of this
year. '
PAGE =215=, ll. 21-4. _To sweare much love, &c. _ The meaning of this
verse, accepting the 1633 text, is: 'Admit this honest paper to swear
much love,--a love that will not change until with your elevation to
the peerage (or increasing eminence) it must be called _honour_ rather
than _love_. ' (We _honour_, not _love_, those who are high above us. )
'But when that time comes I shall not more honour your fortune,
the rank that fortune gives you, than I have honoured your honour
["nobleness of mind, scorn of meanness, magnanimity" (Johnson)], your
high character, magnanimity, without it, i. e. when yet unhonoured. '
Donne plays on the word 'honour'.
Walton's version, and the slight variant of this in _1635-69_, give
a different thought, and this is perhaps the correct reading, more
probably either another (perhaps an earlier) version of the poet or an
attempt to correct due to a failure to catch the meaning of the rather
fanciful phrase 'honouring your honour'. The meaning is, 'I shall not
then more honour your fortune than I have your wit while it was still
unhonoured, or (_1635-69_) unennobled. ' The 1633 version seems to me
the more likely to be the correct or final form of the text, because
a reference to character rather than 'wit' or intellectual ability is
implied by the following verse:
But 'tis an easier load (though both oppresse)
To want then governe greatnesse, &c.
This stress on character, too, and indifference to fortune, is quite
in the vein of Donne's and Wotton's earlier verse correspondence and
all Wotton's poetry.
For the distinction between love and honour compare Lyly's _Endimion_,
V. iii. 150-80:
'_Cinthia. _ Was there such a time when as for my love thou
did'st vow thyself to death, and in respect of it loth'd thy
life? Speake Endimion, I will not revenge it with hate . . .
_Endimion. _ My unspotted thoughts, my languishing bodie, my
discontented life, let them obtaine by princelie favour that,
which to challenge they must not presume, onelie wishing of
impossibilities: with imagination of which I will spend my
spirits, and to myselfe that no creature may heare, softlie
call it love. And if any urge to utter what I whisper, then
will I name it honor. . . .
. . . _Cinthia. _ Endimion, this honourable respect of thine,
shalbe christened love in thee, and my reward for it favor. '
With the lines,
Nor shall I then honour your fortune, &c. ,
compare in the same play:
'O Endimion, Tellus was faire, but what availeth Beautie
without wisdom? Nay, Endimion, she was wise, but what availeth
wisdom without honour? She was honourable, Endimion, belie her
not. I, but how obscure is honour without fortune? '
II. iii. 11-17.
The antithesis here between 'honour' and 'fortune' is exactly that
which Donne makes.
If we may accept 'noble-wanting-wit' as Donne's own phrase (and
Walton's authority pleads for it) and interpret it as 'wit that yet
wants ennoblement' it forms an interesting parallel to a phrase of
Shakespeare's in _Macbeth_, when Banquo addresses the witches:
My noble partner
You greet with present grace and great prediction,
Of noble having and of royal hope.
_Macbeth_, I. iii. 55-7.
Some editors refer 'present grace' to the first salutation, 'Thane
of Glamis'. This is unlikely as there is nothing startling in a
salutation to which Macbeth was already entitled. The Clarendon Press
editors refer the line, more probably, to the two prophecies, 'thane
of Cawdor' and 'that shalt be King hereafter'. The word 'having' is
then not _quite_ the same as in the phrases 'my having is not great',
&c. , which these editors quote, but is simply opposed to 'hope'.
You greet him with 'nobility in possession', with 'royalty in
expectation', as being already thane of Cawdor, as to be king
hereafter. Shakespeare's 'noble having' is the opposite of Donne's
'noble wanting'.
One is tempted to put, as Chambers does, an emphasizing comma after
'honour' as well as 'fortune'; but the antithesis is between 'fortune'
and 'honour wanting fortune'.
'Sir Philip Sidney is none of this number; for the greatness which he
affected was built upon true Worth, esteeming Fame more than Riches,
and Noble actions far above Nobility it self. ' Fulke Greville's _Life
of Sidney_, c. iii. p. 38 (_Tudor and Stuart Library_).
PAGE =216=. TO M^{rs} M. H.
I. e. Mrs. Magdalen Herbert, daughter of Sir Richard Newport, mother of
Sir Edward Herbert (Lord Herbert of Cherbury), and of George Herbert
the poet. For her friendship with Donne, see Walton's _Life of Mr.
George Herbert_ (1670), Gosse's _Life and Letters of John Donne_, i.
162 f. , and what is said in the _Introduction_ to this volume and
the Introductory Note to the _Elegies_. In 1608 she married Sir John
Danvers. Her funeral sermon was preached by Donne in 1627.
PAGE =217=, l. 27. _For, speech of ill, and her, thou must abstaine. _
The O. E. D. gives no example of 'abstain' thus used without 'from'
before the object, and it is tempting with _1635-69_ and all the MSS.
to change 'For' to 'From'. But none of the MSS. has great authority
textually, and the 'For' in _1633_ is too carefully comma'd off to
suggest a mere slip. Probably Donne wrote the line as it stands. One
does not miss the 'from' so much when the verb comes so long after the
object. 'Abstain' acquires the sense of 'forgo'.
ll. 31-2. _And since they'are but her cloathes, &c. _ Compare:
For he who colour loves and skinne,
Loves but their oldest clothes.
_The Undertaking_, p. 10.
PAGE =218=. TO THE COUNTESSE OF BEDFORD.
l. 13. _Care not then, Madam,'how low your praysers lye. _ I cannot but
think that the 'praysers' of the MSS. is preferable to the 'prayses'
of the editions. It is difficult to construe or make unambiguous sense
of 'how low your prayses lie'. Donne does not wish to suggest that the
praise is poor in itself, but that the giver is a 'low person'. The
word 'prayser' he has already used in a letter to the Countess
(p. 200), and there also it has caused some trouble to editors and
copyists.
ll. 20-1. _Your radiation can all clouds subdue;
But one, 'tis best light to contemplate you. _
Grosart and the Grolier Club editor punctuate these lines so as to
connect 'But one' with what precedes.
Your radiation can all clouds subdue
But one; 'tis best light to contemplate you.
I suppose 'death' in this reading is to be regarded as the one
cloud which the radiation of the Countess cannot dispel. There is
no indication, however, that this is the thought in Donne's mind.
As punctuated (i. e. with a comma after 'subdue', which I have
strengthened to a semicolon), 'But one' goes with what follows, and
refers to God: 'Excepting God only, you are the most illuminating
object we can contemplate. '
PAGE =219=, l. 27. _May in your through-shine front your hearts
thoughts see. _ All the MSS. agree in reading 'your hearts thoughts',
which is obviously correct. _N_, _O'F_, and _TCD_ give the line
otherwise exactly as in the editions. _B_ drops the 'shine' after
'through'; and _S96_ reads:
May in you, through your face, your hearts thoughts see.
Donne has used 'through-shine' already in '_A Valediction: of my name
in the window_':
'Tis much that glasse should bee
As all confessing, and through-shine as I,
'Tis more that it shewes thee to thee,
And cleare reflects thee to thine eye.
But all such rules, loves magique can undoe,
Here you see mee, and I am you.
If there were any evidence that Donne was, as in this lyric, playing
with the idea of the identity of different souls, there would be
reason to retain the 'our hearts thoughts' of the editions; but there
is no trace of this. He is dwelling simply on the thought of the
Countess's transparency. Donne is fond of compounds with 'through'.
Other examples are 'through-light', 'through-swome', 'through-vaine',
'through-pierc'd'.
ll. 36-7. _They fly not, &c. _ Chambers and the Grolier Club editor
have here injured the sense by altering the punctuation. 'Nature's
first lesson' does not complete the previous statement about the
relation of the different souls, but qualifies 'discretion'. 'Just as
the souls of growth and sense do not claim precedence of the rational
soul, so the first lesson taught us by Nature, viz. _discretion_, must
not grudge a place to zeal. ' 'Anima rationalis est perfectior quam
sensibilis, et sensibilis quam vegetabilis,' Aquinas, _Summa_, ii. 57.
2.
PAGE =220=, l. 46. _In those poor types, &c. _ The use of the circle
as an emblem of infinity is very old. 'To the mystically inclined the
perpendicular was the emblem of unswerving rectitude and purity; but
the circle, "the foremost, richest, and most perfect of curves" was
the symbol of completeness and eternity, of the endless process of
generation and renascence in which all things are ever becoming new. '
W. B. Frankland, _The Story of Euclid_, p. 70. God was described
by St. Bonaventura as 'a circle whose centre is everywhere, whose
circumference nowhere'. See also supplementary note.
PAGE =221=. A LETTER TO THE LADY CAREY, AND M^{rs} ESSEX RICHE, FROM
AMYENS.
Probably written when Donne was abroad with Sir Robert Drury in
1611-12. 'The two ladies', Mr. Chambers says, 'were daughters of
Robert, third Lord Rich, by Penelope Devereux, daughter of Walter,
Earl of Essex, the Stella of Sidney's _Astrophel and Stella_. ' Lady
Rich abandoned her husband after five years' marriage and declared
that the true father of her children was Charles Blount, Earl of
Devonshire, to whom, after her divorce in 1605, she was married by
Laud. Lettice, the eldest daughter, married Sir George Carey, of
Cockington, Devon. Essex, the younger, was married, subsequently to
this letter, to Sir Thomas Cheeke, of Pirgo, Essex.
ll. 10-12. _Where, because Faith is in too low degree, &c. _ Donne
refers to the Catholic doctrine of good works as necessary to
salvation in opposition to the Protestant doctrine of Justification by
Faith. He is fond of the antithesis. Compare:
My faith I give to Roman Catholiques;
All my good workes unto the Schismaticks
Of Amsterdam;. . .
Thou Love taughtst mee, by making mee
Love her that holds my love disparity,
Onely to give to those that count my gifts indignity.
_The Will_, p. 57.
PAGE =222=, l. 14. _where no one is growne or spent. _ Like the stars
in the firmament your virtues neither grow nor decay. According to
Aquinas the heavenly bodies are neither temporal nor eternal; not
temporal because they are subject neither to growth nor decay; not
eternal because they change their position. They are 'Aeonical', their
life is measured by ages.
l. 19. _humilitie_ has such general support that the 'humidity' of
_1669_ seems to be merely a conjecture.
PAGE =224=. TO THE COUNTESSE OF SALISBURY. 1614.
Catharine Howard, daughter of Thomas, first Earl of Suffolk, married
in 1608 William Cecil, second Earl of Salisbury, son of the greater
earl and grandson of Burghley, 'whose wisdom and virtues died with
them, and their children only inherited their titles'. Clarendon.
It is not impossible, considering the date of this letter, that the
Countess of Salisbury may be 'the Countesse' referred to in Donne's
letter to Goodyere quoted in my introduction on the canon of Donne's
poems. There is a difficulty in applying to the Countess of Huntingdon
the words 'that knowledge which she hath of me, was in the beginning
of a graver course, then of a Poet'. _Letters, &c. _, p. 103. Donne
made the acquaintance of Lady Elizabeth Stanley when he was Sir Thomas
Egerton's secretary. She must have known him as a wit before his
graver days. Nor would he have apologized for writing to such an old
friend whose prophet he had been in her younger days.
The punctuation of this poem repays careful study. The whole is a
fine example of that periodic style, drawn out from line to line, and
forming sonorous and impressive verse-paragraphs, in which Donne more
than any other poet anticipated Milton. The first sentence closes only
at the thirty-sixth line. The various clauses which lead up to the
close are separated from one another by the full-stop (ll. 8, 24),
the colon (ll. 2, 7 (sonnets:), 34), and the semicolon (ll. 18, 21, 30
where the old edition had a colon), all with distinct values. The only
change I have made (and recorded) is at l. 30 (fantasticall), where
a careful consideration of the punctuation throughout shows that a
semicolon is more appropriate than a colon. The clause which begins
with 'Since' in l. 25 does not close till l. 34, 'understood'.
In the rest of the poem the punctuation is also careful. The only
changes I have made are--ll. 42 'that day;' and 46 'yesterday;' (a
semi-colon for a colon in each case), 61 'mee:' (a colon for a full
stop), and 63 'good;' (a semicolon for a comma).
PAGE =227=. TO THE LADY BEDFORD.
l. 1. _You that are she and you, that's double shee_: The old
punctuation suggests absurdly that the clause 'and you that's double
she' is an independent co-ordinate clause.
l. 7. _Cusco. _ I note in a catalogue, 'South America, a very early
Map, with view of Cusco, the capital of Peru'.
l. 44. _of Iudith. _ 'There is not such a woman from one end of the
earth to the other, both for beauty of face and wisdom of words. '
Judith xi. 21.
AN ANATOMIE OF THE WORLD.
The _Anatomie of the World_ and _Of The Progresse of the Soule_ were
the first poems published in Donne's lifetime. The former was
issued in 1611. It is exceedingly rare. The copy preserved in Lord
Ellesmere's library at Bridgewater House is a small octavo volume
of 26 pages (_Praise of the Dead, &c. _ 3 pp. , _Anatomy_ 19 pp. , and
_Funerall Elegie_ 4 pp. , all unnumbered), with title-page as given on
the page opposite.
In 1612 the poem was reissued along with the _Second Anniversary_. A
copy of this rare volume was sold at the Huth sale on the thirteenth
of June this year. With the kind permission of Mr. Edward Huth and
Messrs. Sotheby, Mr. Godfrey Keynes made a careful collation for
me, the results of which are embodied in my notes. The separate
title-pages of the two poems which the volume contains are here
reproduced.
Mr. Keynes supplies the following description of the volume: _A_ first
title, _A-A4 To the praise of the Dead_ (in italics), _A5-D2_ (pp.
1-44) _The First Anniversary_ (in roman), _D3-D7_ (pp. 45-54) _A
funerall Elegie_ (in italics), _D8_ blank except for rules in margins;
_E1_ second title, _E2-E4_ recto _The Harbinger_ (in italics), _E4_
verso blank, _E5-H5_ recto (pp. 1-49) _The Second Anniversarie_ (in
roman), _H5_ verso--_H6_ blank except for rules in margins. A fresh
title-page introduces the second poem.
In 1611 the introductory verses entitled _To the praise of the Dead,
and the Anatomy_, and the _Anatomy_ itself, are printed in italic, _A
Funerall Elegie_ following in roman type. This latter arrangement
was reversed in 1612. In the second part, only the poem entitled _The
Harbinger to the Progresse_ is printed throughout in italic. Donne's
own poem is in roman type.
The reason of the variety of arrangement is, I suppose, this: The
_Funerall Elegie_ was probably, as Chambers suggests, the first part
of the poem, composed probably in 1610. When it was published in
1611 with the _Anatomie_, the latter was regarded as introductory and
subordinate to the _Elegie_, and accordingly was printed in italic.
Later, when the idea of the Anniversary poems emerged, and _Of The
Progresse of the Soule_ was written as a complement to _An Anatomy
of the World_, these became the prominent parts of the whole work in
honour of Elizabeth Drury, and the _Funerall Elegie_ fell into the
subordinate position.
The edition of 1612 does not strike one as a very careful piece of
printing. It was probably printed while Donne was on the Continent. It
supplies only two certain emendations of the later text.
The reprints of this volume made in 1621 and 1625 show increasing
carelessness. They were issued after Donne took orders and probably
without his sanction. The title-pages of the editions are here
reproduced.
[Illustration: title encapsulated in Doric frame:]
_AN_
ANATOMY
of the World.
WHEREIN,
BY OCCASION OF
the vntimely death of Mistris
ELIZABETH DRVRY
the frailty and the decay
of this whole world
is represented.
LONDON,
Printed for _Samuel Macham_.
and are to be solde at his shop in
Paules Church-yard, at the
signe of the Bul-head.
AN. DOM.
1611.
[Illustration of title page, containing:]
_The First Anniuersarie. _
AN
ANATOMIE
of the VVorld.
_Wherein_,
BY OCCASION OF
_the vntimely death of Mistris_
ELIZABETH DRVRY,
the frailtie and the decay of
this whole World is
represented.
[Illustration]
LONDON,
Printed by _M. Bradwood_ for _S. Macham_, and are
to be sold at his shop in Pauls Church-yard at the
signe of the Bull-head. 1612.
[Illustration of title page, containing:]
_The Second Anniuersarie. _
OF
THE PROGRES
of the Soule.
_Wherein_:
By Occasion Of The
Religious Death of Mistris
ELIZABETH DRVRY,
the incommodities of the Soule
_in this life and her exaltation in_
the next, are Contem-
_plated_.
LONDON,
Printed by M. _Bradwood_ for _S. Macham_, and are
to be sould at his shop in Pauls Church-yard at
the signe of the Bull-head.
1612.
The above title is not an exact facsimile.
[Illustration of title page, containing:]
_The First Anniuersarie. _
AN
ANATOMIE
of the World.
_Wherein_,
BY OCCASION OF
_the vntimely death of Mistris_
ELIZABETH DRVRY,
the frailtie and the decay of
this whole World is
represented.
[Illustration]
LONDON,
Printed by _A. Mathewes_ for _Tho: Dewe_, and are
to be sold at his shop in Saint _Dunstons_ Church-yard in
Fleetestreete. 1621.
[Illustration of title page, containing:]
_The Second Anniuersarie. _
OF
THE PROGRES
of the Soule.
_Wherein_,
BY OCCASION OF
_the Religious death of Mistris_
ELIZABETH DRVRY,
the incommodities of the Soule
_in this life, and her exaltation in_
the next, are Contem-
_plated_.
[Illustration]
LONDON,
Printed by _A. Mathewes_ for _Tho: Dewe_, and are
to be sold at his shop in Saint _Dunstons_ Church-yard
in Fleetestreete. 1621.
[Illustration of title page, containing:]
AN
ANATOMIE
OF THE
_World. _
WHEREIN,
_By occasion of the vn_-
timely death of Mistris
Elizabeth Drvry,
_the frailtie and the decay_
of this whole World is
_represented_.
The first Anniuersarie.
LONDON
Printed by _W. Stansby_ for _Tho. Dewe_,
and are to be sold in S. _Dunstanes_
Church-yard. 1625
[Illustration of title page, containing:]
OF
THE PROGRES
of the
_SOVLE_
WHEREIN,
_By occasion of the_ Re-
ligious death of Mistris
ELIZABETH DRVRY,
the incommodities of the _Soule_ in
this life, and her exaltation in the
_next, are Contemplated_.
The second Anniuersarie.
LONDON
Printed by _W. Stansby_ for _Tho. Dewe_,
and are to be sold in S. _Dunstanes_
Church-yard. 1625.
The symbolic figures in the title-pages of 1625 probably represent the
seven Liberal Arts. A feature of the editions of _1611_, _1612,_ and
_1625_ is the marginal notes. These are reproduced in _1633_, but a
little carelessly, for some copies do not contain them all. They are
omitted in the subsequent editions.
The text of the _Anniversaries_ in _1633_ has been on the whole
carefully edited. It is probable, judging from several small
circumstances (e. g. the omission of the first marginal note even in
copies where all the rest are given), that _1633_ was printed from
_1625_, but it is clear that the editor compared this with earlier
editions, probably those of _1611-12_, and corrected or amended
the punctuation throughout. My collation of _1633_ with _1611_ has
throughout vindicated the former as against _1621-5_ on the one hand
and the later editions on the other. [1] Of mistakes other than of
punctuation I have noted only three: l. 181, thoughts _1611-12_;
thought _1621-33_. This was corrected, from the obvious sense, in
later editions (_1635-69_), and Grosart, Chambers, and Grolier make
no note of the error in _1621-33_. l. 318, proportions _1611-12_;
proportion _1621_ and all subsequent editions without comment. l. 415,
Impressions _1611_; Impression _1612-25_: impression _1633_ and all
subsequent editions. All three cases are examples of the same error,
the dropping of final 's'.
In typographical respects _1611_ shows the hand of the author more
clearly than the later editions. Donne was fastidious in matters of
punctuation and the use of italics and capital letters, witness the
_LXXX Sermons_ (1640), printed from MSS. prepared for the press by the
author. But the printer had to be reckoned with, and perfection was
not obtainable. In a note to one of the separately published sermons
Donne says: 'Those Errors which are committed in mispointing, or
in changing the form of the Character, will soone be discernd, and
corrected by the Eye of any deliberate Reader'. The _1611_ text shows
a more consistent use in certain passages of emphasizing capitals,
and at places its punctuation is better than that of _1633_. My
text reproduces _1633_, corrected where necessary from the earlier
editions; and I have occasionally followed the typography of _1611_.
But every case in which _1633_ is modified is recorded.
Of the _Second Anniversarie_, in like manner, my text is that of
_1633_, corrected in a few details, and with a few typographical
features borrowed, from the edition of _1612_. The editor of _1633_
had rather definite views of his own on punctuation, notably a
predilection for semicolons in place of full stops. The only certain
emendations which _1612_ supplies are in the marginal note at p.
234 and in l. 421 of the _Second Anniversarie_ 'this' for 'his'. The
spelling is less ambiguous in ll. 27 and 326.
[Footnote 1: _1621-25_ abound in misplaced full stops which
are not in _1611_ and are generally corrected in _1633_. The
punctuation of the later editions (_1635-69_) is the work of
the printer. Occasionally a comma is dropped or introduced
with advantage to the sense, but in general the punctuation
grows increasingly careless. Often the correction of one error
leads to another. ]
The subject of the _Anniversaries_ was the fifteen-year-old Elizabeth
Drury, who died in 1610. Her father, Sir Robert Drury, of Hawsted in
the county of Suffolk, was a man of some note on account of his great
wealth. He was knighted by Essex when about seventeen years old, at
the siege of Rouen (1591-2). He served in the Low Countries, and at
the battle of Nieuport (1600) brought off Sir Francis Vere when
his horse was shot under him. He was courtier, traveller, member of
Parliament, and in 1613 would have been glad to go as Ambassador to
Paris when Sir Thomas Overbury refused the proffered honour and was
sent to the Tower. Lady Drury was the daughter of Sir Nicholas Bacon,
the eldest son of Queen Elizabeth's Lord Keeper. She and her brother,
Sir Edmund Bacon, were friends and patrons of Joseph Hall, Donne's
rival as an early satirist. From 1600 to 1608 Hall was rector of
Hawsted, and though he was not very kindly treated by Sir Robert
he dedicated to him his _Meditations Morall and Divine_. This tie
explains the fact, which we learn from Jonson's conversations with
Drummond, that Hall is the author of the _Harbinger to the Progresse_.
As he wrote this we may infer that he is also responsible for _To the
praise of the dead, and the Anatomie_.
Readers of Donne's _Life_ by Walton are aware of the munificence with
which Sir Robert rewarded Donne for his poems, how he opened his
house to him, and took him abroad. Donne's letters, on the other hand,
reveal that the poem gave considerable offence to the Countess of
Bedford and other older patrons and friends. In his letters to Gerrard
he endeavoured to explain away his eulogies. In verse-letters to the
Countess of Bedford and others he atoned for his inconstancy by subtle
and erudite compliments.
_The Funerall Elegie_ was doubtless written in 1610 and sent to Sir
Robert Drury. He and Donne may already have been acquainted through
Wotton, who was closely related by friendship and marriage with Sir
Edmund Bacon. (See Pearsall Smith, _Life and Letters of Sir Henry
Wotton_ (1907). _The Anatomie of the World_ was composed in 1611, _Of
the Progresse of the Soule_ in France in 1612, at some time prior to
the 14th of April, when he refers to his _Anniversaries_ in a letter
to George Gerrard.
Ben Jonson declared to Drummond 'That Donnes Anniversaries were
profane and full of blasphemies: that he told Mr. Done if it had
been written of the Virgin Marie it had been something; to which he
answered that he described the Idea of a Woman, and not as she was'.
This is a better defence of Donne's poems than any which he advances
in his letters, but it is not a complete description of his work.
Rather, he interwove with a rapt and extravagantly conceited laudation
of an ideal woman two topics familiar to his catholic and mediaeval
learning, and developed each in a characteristically subtle and
ingenious strain, a strain whose occasional sceptical, disintegrating
reflections belong as obviously to the seventeenth century as the
general content of the thought is mediaeval.
The burden of the whole is an impassioned and exalted _meditatio
mortis_ based on two themes common enough in mediaeval devotional
literature--a _De Contemptu Mundi_, and a contemplation of the Glories
of Paradise. A very brief analysis of the two poems, omitting the
laudatory portions, may help a reader who cannot at once see the wood
for the trees, and be better than detailed notes.
_The Anatomie of the World. _
_l. 1. _ The world which suffered in her death is now fallen into the
worse lethargy of oblivion. _l. 60. _ I will anatomize the world for
the benefit of those who still, by the influence of her virtue, lead a
kind of glimmering life. _l. 91. _ There is no health in the world. We
are still under the curse of woman. _l. 111. _ How short is our life
compared with that of the patriarchs! _l. 134. _ How small is our
stature compared with that of the giants of old! _l. 147. _ How
shrunken of soul we are, especially since her death! _l. 191. _ And
as man, so is the whole world. The new learning or philosophy has
shattered in fragments that complete scheme of the universe in which
we rested so confidently, and (_l. 211_) in human society the same
disorder prevails. _l. 250. _ There is no beauty in the world, for,
first, the beauty of proportion is lost, alike in the movements of the
heavenly bodies, and (_l. 285_) in the earth with its mountains and
hollows, and (_l. 302_) in the administration of justice in society.
_l. 339. _ So is Beauty's other element, Colour and Lustre. _l. 377. _
Heaven and earth are at variance. We can no longer read terrestrial
fortunes in the stars. But (_l. 435_) an Anatomy can be pushed too
far.
_The Progresse of the Soule.
Smith adds, 'It is worth noting that while Wotton was travelling to
Venice, Shakespeare was probably engaged in writing his great Venetian
tragedy, _Othello_, which was acted before James I in November of this
year. '
PAGE =215=, ll. 21-4. _To sweare much love, &c. _ The meaning of this
verse, accepting the 1633 text, is: 'Admit this honest paper to swear
much love,--a love that will not change until with your elevation to
the peerage (or increasing eminence) it must be called _honour_ rather
than _love_. ' (We _honour_, not _love_, those who are high above us. )
'But when that time comes I shall not more honour your fortune,
the rank that fortune gives you, than I have honoured your honour
["nobleness of mind, scorn of meanness, magnanimity" (Johnson)], your
high character, magnanimity, without it, i. e. when yet unhonoured. '
Donne plays on the word 'honour'.
Walton's version, and the slight variant of this in _1635-69_, give
a different thought, and this is perhaps the correct reading, more
probably either another (perhaps an earlier) version of the poet or an
attempt to correct due to a failure to catch the meaning of the rather
fanciful phrase 'honouring your honour'. The meaning is, 'I shall not
then more honour your fortune than I have your wit while it was still
unhonoured, or (_1635-69_) unennobled. ' The 1633 version seems to me
the more likely to be the correct or final form of the text, because
a reference to character rather than 'wit' or intellectual ability is
implied by the following verse:
But 'tis an easier load (though both oppresse)
To want then governe greatnesse, &c.
This stress on character, too, and indifference to fortune, is quite
in the vein of Donne's and Wotton's earlier verse correspondence and
all Wotton's poetry.
For the distinction between love and honour compare Lyly's _Endimion_,
V. iii. 150-80:
'_Cinthia. _ Was there such a time when as for my love thou
did'st vow thyself to death, and in respect of it loth'd thy
life? Speake Endimion, I will not revenge it with hate . . .
_Endimion. _ My unspotted thoughts, my languishing bodie, my
discontented life, let them obtaine by princelie favour that,
which to challenge they must not presume, onelie wishing of
impossibilities: with imagination of which I will spend my
spirits, and to myselfe that no creature may heare, softlie
call it love. And if any urge to utter what I whisper, then
will I name it honor. . . .
. . . _Cinthia. _ Endimion, this honourable respect of thine,
shalbe christened love in thee, and my reward for it favor. '
With the lines,
Nor shall I then honour your fortune, &c. ,
compare in the same play:
'O Endimion, Tellus was faire, but what availeth Beautie
without wisdom? Nay, Endimion, she was wise, but what availeth
wisdom without honour? She was honourable, Endimion, belie her
not. I, but how obscure is honour without fortune? '
II. iii. 11-17.
The antithesis here between 'honour' and 'fortune' is exactly that
which Donne makes.
If we may accept 'noble-wanting-wit' as Donne's own phrase (and
Walton's authority pleads for it) and interpret it as 'wit that yet
wants ennoblement' it forms an interesting parallel to a phrase of
Shakespeare's in _Macbeth_, when Banquo addresses the witches:
My noble partner
You greet with present grace and great prediction,
Of noble having and of royal hope.
_Macbeth_, I. iii. 55-7.
Some editors refer 'present grace' to the first salutation, 'Thane
of Glamis'. This is unlikely as there is nothing startling in a
salutation to which Macbeth was already entitled. The Clarendon Press
editors refer the line, more probably, to the two prophecies, 'thane
of Cawdor' and 'that shalt be King hereafter'. The word 'having' is
then not _quite_ the same as in the phrases 'my having is not great',
&c. , which these editors quote, but is simply opposed to 'hope'.
You greet him with 'nobility in possession', with 'royalty in
expectation', as being already thane of Cawdor, as to be king
hereafter. Shakespeare's 'noble having' is the opposite of Donne's
'noble wanting'.
One is tempted to put, as Chambers does, an emphasizing comma after
'honour' as well as 'fortune'; but the antithesis is between 'fortune'
and 'honour wanting fortune'.
'Sir Philip Sidney is none of this number; for the greatness which he
affected was built upon true Worth, esteeming Fame more than Riches,
and Noble actions far above Nobility it self. ' Fulke Greville's _Life
of Sidney_, c. iii. p. 38 (_Tudor and Stuart Library_).
PAGE =216=. TO M^{rs} M. H.
I. e. Mrs. Magdalen Herbert, daughter of Sir Richard Newport, mother of
Sir Edward Herbert (Lord Herbert of Cherbury), and of George Herbert
the poet. For her friendship with Donne, see Walton's _Life of Mr.
George Herbert_ (1670), Gosse's _Life and Letters of John Donne_, i.
162 f. , and what is said in the _Introduction_ to this volume and
the Introductory Note to the _Elegies_. In 1608 she married Sir John
Danvers. Her funeral sermon was preached by Donne in 1627.
PAGE =217=, l. 27. _For, speech of ill, and her, thou must abstaine. _
The O. E. D. gives no example of 'abstain' thus used without 'from'
before the object, and it is tempting with _1635-69_ and all the MSS.
to change 'For' to 'From'. But none of the MSS. has great authority
textually, and the 'For' in _1633_ is too carefully comma'd off to
suggest a mere slip. Probably Donne wrote the line as it stands. One
does not miss the 'from' so much when the verb comes so long after the
object. 'Abstain' acquires the sense of 'forgo'.
ll. 31-2. _And since they'are but her cloathes, &c. _ Compare:
For he who colour loves and skinne,
Loves but their oldest clothes.
_The Undertaking_, p. 10.
PAGE =218=. TO THE COUNTESSE OF BEDFORD.
l. 13. _Care not then, Madam,'how low your praysers lye. _ I cannot but
think that the 'praysers' of the MSS. is preferable to the 'prayses'
of the editions. It is difficult to construe or make unambiguous sense
of 'how low your prayses lie'. Donne does not wish to suggest that the
praise is poor in itself, but that the giver is a 'low person'. The
word 'prayser' he has already used in a letter to the Countess
(p. 200), and there also it has caused some trouble to editors and
copyists.
ll. 20-1. _Your radiation can all clouds subdue;
But one, 'tis best light to contemplate you. _
Grosart and the Grolier Club editor punctuate these lines so as to
connect 'But one' with what precedes.
Your radiation can all clouds subdue
But one; 'tis best light to contemplate you.
I suppose 'death' in this reading is to be regarded as the one
cloud which the radiation of the Countess cannot dispel. There is
no indication, however, that this is the thought in Donne's mind.
As punctuated (i. e. with a comma after 'subdue', which I have
strengthened to a semicolon), 'But one' goes with what follows, and
refers to God: 'Excepting God only, you are the most illuminating
object we can contemplate. '
PAGE =219=, l. 27. _May in your through-shine front your hearts
thoughts see. _ All the MSS. agree in reading 'your hearts thoughts',
which is obviously correct. _N_, _O'F_, and _TCD_ give the line
otherwise exactly as in the editions. _B_ drops the 'shine' after
'through'; and _S96_ reads:
May in you, through your face, your hearts thoughts see.
Donne has used 'through-shine' already in '_A Valediction: of my name
in the window_':
'Tis much that glasse should bee
As all confessing, and through-shine as I,
'Tis more that it shewes thee to thee,
And cleare reflects thee to thine eye.
But all such rules, loves magique can undoe,
Here you see mee, and I am you.
If there were any evidence that Donne was, as in this lyric, playing
with the idea of the identity of different souls, there would be
reason to retain the 'our hearts thoughts' of the editions; but there
is no trace of this. He is dwelling simply on the thought of the
Countess's transparency. Donne is fond of compounds with 'through'.
Other examples are 'through-light', 'through-swome', 'through-vaine',
'through-pierc'd'.
ll. 36-7. _They fly not, &c. _ Chambers and the Grolier Club editor
have here injured the sense by altering the punctuation. 'Nature's
first lesson' does not complete the previous statement about the
relation of the different souls, but qualifies 'discretion'. 'Just as
the souls of growth and sense do not claim precedence of the rational
soul, so the first lesson taught us by Nature, viz. _discretion_, must
not grudge a place to zeal. ' 'Anima rationalis est perfectior quam
sensibilis, et sensibilis quam vegetabilis,' Aquinas, _Summa_, ii. 57.
2.
PAGE =220=, l. 46. _In those poor types, &c. _ The use of the circle
as an emblem of infinity is very old. 'To the mystically inclined the
perpendicular was the emblem of unswerving rectitude and purity; but
the circle, "the foremost, richest, and most perfect of curves" was
the symbol of completeness and eternity, of the endless process of
generation and renascence in which all things are ever becoming new. '
W. B. Frankland, _The Story of Euclid_, p. 70. God was described
by St. Bonaventura as 'a circle whose centre is everywhere, whose
circumference nowhere'. See also supplementary note.
PAGE =221=. A LETTER TO THE LADY CAREY, AND M^{rs} ESSEX RICHE, FROM
AMYENS.
Probably written when Donne was abroad with Sir Robert Drury in
1611-12. 'The two ladies', Mr. Chambers says, 'were daughters of
Robert, third Lord Rich, by Penelope Devereux, daughter of Walter,
Earl of Essex, the Stella of Sidney's _Astrophel and Stella_. ' Lady
Rich abandoned her husband after five years' marriage and declared
that the true father of her children was Charles Blount, Earl of
Devonshire, to whom, after her divorce in 1605, she was married by
Laud. Lettice, the eldest daughter, married Sir George Carey, of
Cockington, Devon. Essex, the younger, was married, subsequently to
this letter, to Sir Thomas Cheeke, of Pirgo, Essex.
ll. 10-12. _Where, because Faith is in too low degree, &c. _ Donne
refers to the Catholic doctrine of good works as necessary to
salvation in opposition to the Protestant doctrine of Justification by
Faith. He is fond of the antithesis. Compare:
My faith I give to Roman Catholiques;
All my good workes unto the Schismaticks
Of Amsterdam;. . .
Thou Love taughtst mee, by making mee
Love her that holds my love disparity,
Onely to give to those that count my gifts indignity.
_The Will_, p. 57.
PAGE =222=, l. 14. _where no one is growne or spent. _ Like the stars
in the firmament your virtues neither grow nor decay. According to
Aquinas the heavenly bodies are neither temporal nor eternal; not
temporal because they are subject neither to growth nor decay; not
eternal because they change their position. They are 'Aeonical', their
life is measured by ages.
l. 19. _humilitie_ has such general support that the 'humidity' of
_1669_ seems to be merely a conjecture.
PAGE =224=. TO THE COUNTESSE OF SALISBURY. 1614.
Catharine Howard, daughter of Thomas, first Earl of Suffolk, married
in 1608 William Cecil, second Earl of Salisbury, son of the greater
earl and grandson of Burghley, 'whose wisdom and virtues died with
them, and their children only inherited their titles'. Clarendon.
It is not impossible, considering the date of this letter, that the
Countess of Salisbury may be 'the Countesse' referred to in Donne's
letter to Goodyere quoted in my introduction on the canon of Donne's
poems. There is a difficulty in applying to the Countess of Huntingdon
the words 'that knowledge which she hath of me, was in the beginning
of a graver course, then of a Poet'. _Letters, &c. _, p. 103. Donne
made the acquaintance of Lady Elizabeth Stanley when he was Sir Thomas
Egerton's secretary. She must have known him as a wit before his
graver days. Nor would he have apologized for writing to such an old
friend whose prophet he had been in her younger days.
The punctuation of this poem repays careful study. The whole is a
fine example of that periodic style, drawn out from line to line, and
forming sonorous and impressive verse-paragraphs, in which Donne more
than any other poet anticipated Milton. The first sentence closes only
at the thirty-sixth line. The various clauses which lead up to the
close are separated from one another by the full-stop (ll. 8, 24),
the colon (ll. 2, 7 (sonnets:), 34), and the semicolon (ll. 18, 21, 30
where the old edition had a colon), all with distinct values. The only
change I have made (and recorded) is at l. 30 (fantasticall), where
a careful consideration of the punctuation throughout shows that a
semicolon is more appropriate than a colon. The clause which begins
with 'Since' in l. 25 does not close till l. 34, 'understood'.
In the rest of the poem the punctuation is also careful. The only
changes I have made are--ll. 42 'that day;' and 46 'yesterday;' (a
semi-colon for a colon in each case), 61 'mee:' (a colon for a full
stop), and 63 'good;' (a semicolon for a comma).
PAGE =227=. TO THE LADY BEDFORD.
l. 1. _You that are she and you, that's double shee_: The old
punctuation suggests absurdly that the clause 'and you that's double
she' is an independent co-ordinate clause.
l. 7. _Cusco. _ I note in a catalogue, 'South America, a very early
Map, with view of Cusco, the capital of Peru'.
l. 44. _of Iudith. _ 'There is not such a woman from one end of the
earth to the other, both for beauty of face and wisdom of words. '
Judith xi. 21.
AN ANATOMIE OF THE WORLD.
The _Anatomie of the World_ and _Of The Progresse of the Soule_ were
the first poems published in Donne's lifetime. The former was
issued in 1611. It is exceedingly rare. The copy preserved in Lord
Ellesmere's library at Bridgewater House is a small octavo volume
of 26 pages (_Praise of the Dead, &c. _ 3 pp. , _Anatomy_ 19 pp. , and
_Funerall Elegie_ 4 pp. , all unnumbered), with title-page as given on
the page opposite.
In 1612 the poem was reissued along with the _Second Anniversary_. A
copy of this rare volume was sold at the Huth sale on the thirteenth
of June this year. With the kind permission of Mr. Edward Huth and
Messrs. Sotheby, Mr. Godfrey Keynes made a careful collation for
me, the results of which are embodied in my notes. The separate
title-pages of the two poems which the volume contains are here
reproduced.
Mr. Keynes supplies the following description of the volume: _A_ first
title, _A-A4 To the praise of the Dead_ (in italics), _A5-D2_ (pp.
1-44) _The First Anniversary_ (in roman), _D3-D7_ (pp. 45-54) _A
funerall Elegie_ (in italics), _D8_ blank except for rules in margins;
_E1_ second title, _E2-E4_ recto _The Harbinger_ (in italics), _E4_
verso blank, _E5-H5_ recto (pp. 1-49) _The Second Anniversarie_ (in
roman), _H5_ verso--_H6_ blank except for rules in margins. A fresh
title-page introduces the second poem.
In 1611 the introductory verses entitled _To the praise of the Dead,
and the Anatomy_, and the _Anatomy_ itself, are printed in italic, _A
Funerall Elegie_ following in roman type. This latter arrangement
was reversed in 1612. In the second part, only the poem entitled _The
Harbinger to the Progresse_ is printed throughout in italic. Donne's
own poem is in roman type.
The reason of the variety of arrangement is, I suppose, this: The
_Funerall Elegie_ was probably, as Chambers suggests, the first part
of the poem, composed probably in 1610. When it was published in
1611 with the _Anatomie_, the latter was regarded as introductory and
subordinate to the _Elegie_, and accordingly was printed in italic.
Later, when the idea of the Anniversary poems emerged, and _Of The
Progresse of the Soule_ was written as a complement to _An Anatomy
of the World_, these became the prominent parts of the whole work in
honour of Elizabeth Drury, and the _Funerall Elegie_ fell into the
subordinate position.
The edition of 1612 does not strike one as a very careful piece of
printing. It was probably printed while Donne was on the Continent. It
supplies only two certain emendations of the later text.
The reprints of this volume made in 1621 and 1625 show increasing
carelessness. They were issued after Donne took orders and probably
without his sanction. The title-pages of the editions are here
reproduced.
[Illustration: title encapsulated in Doric frame:]
_AN_
ANATOMY
of the World.
WHEREIN,
BY OCCASION OF
the vntimely death of Mistris
ELIZABETH DRVRY
the frailty and the decay
of this whole world
is represented.
LONDON,
Printed for _Samuel Macham_.
and are to be solde at his shop in
Paules Church-yard, at the
signe of the Bul-head.
AN. DOM.
1611.
[Illustration of title page, containing:]
_The First Anniuersarie. _
AN
ANATOMIE
of the VVorld.
_Wherein_,
BY OCCASION OF
_the vntimely death of Mistris_
ELIZABETH DRVRY,
the frailtie and the decay of
this whole World is
represented.
[Illustration]
LONDON,
Printed by _M. Bradwood_ for _S. Macham_, and are
to be sold at his shop in Pauls Church-yard at the
signe of the Bull-head. 1612.
[Illustration of title page, containing:]
_The Second Anniuersarie. _
OF
THE PROGRES
of the Soule.
_Wherein_:
By Occasion Of The
Religious Death of Mistris
ELIZABETH DRVRY,
the incommodities of the Soule
_in this life and her exaltation in_
the next, are Contem-
_plated_.
LONDON,
Printed by M. _Bradwood_ for _S. Macham_, and are
to be sould at his shop in Pauls Church-yard at
the signe of the Bull-head.
1612.
The above title is not an exact facsimile.
[Illustration of title page, containing:]
_The First Anniuersarie. _
AN
ANATOMIE
of the World.
_Wherein_,
BY OCCASION OF
_the vntimely death of Mistris_
ELIZABETH DRVRY,
the frailtie and the decay of
this whole World is
represented.
[Illustration]
LONDON,
Printed by _A. Mathewes_ for _Tho: Dewe_, and are
to be sold at his shop in Saint _Dunstons_ Church-yard in
Fleetestreete. 1621.
[Illustration of title page, containing:]
_The Second Anniuersarie. _
OF
THE PROGRES
of the Soule.
_Wherein_,
BY OCCASION OF
_the Religious death of Mistris_
ELIZABETH DRVRY,
the incommodities of the Soule
_in this life, and her exaltation in_
the next, are Contem-
_plated_.
[Illustration]
LONDON,
Printed by _A. Mathewes_ for _Tho: Dewe_, and are
to be sold at his shop in Saint _Dunstons_ Church-yard
in Fleetestreete. 1621.
[Illustration of title page, containing:]
AN
ANATOMIE
OF THE
_World. _
WHEREIN,
_By occasion of the vn_-
timely death of Mistris
Elizabeth Drvry,
_the frailtie and the decay_
of this whole World is
_represented_.
The first Anniuersarie.
LONDON
Printed by _W. Stansby_ for _Tho. Dewe_,
and are to be sold in S. _Dunstanes_
Church-yard. 1625
[Illustration of title page, containing:]
OF
THE PROGRES
of the
_SOVLE_
WHEREIN,
_By occasion of the_ Re-
ligious death of Mistris
ELIZABETH DRVRY,
the incommodities of the _Soule_ in
this life, and her exaltation in the
_next, are Contemplated_.
The second Anniuersarie.
LONDON
Printed by _W. Stansby_ for _Tho. Dewe_,
and are to be sold in S. _Dunstanes_
Church-yard. 1625.
The symbolic figures in the title-pages of 1625 probably represent the
seven Liberal Arts. A feature of the editions of _1611_, _1612,_ and
_1625_ is the marginal notes. These are reproduced in _1633_, but a
little carelessly, for some copies do not contain them all. They are
omitted in the subsequent editions.
The text of the _Anniversaries_ in _1633_ has been on the whole
carefully edited. It is probable, judging from several small
circumstances (e. g. the omission of the first marginal note even in
copies where all the rest are given), that _1633_ was printed from
_1625_, but it is clear that the editor compared this with earlier
editions, probably those of _1611-12_, and corrected or amended
the punctuation throughout. My collation of _1633_ with _1611_ has
throughout vindicated the former as against _1621-5_ on the one hand
and the later editions on the other. [1] Of mistakes other than of
punctuation I have noted only three: l. 181, thoughts _1611-12_;
thought _1621-33_. This was corrected, from the obvious sense, in
later editions (_1635-69_), and Grosart, Chambers, and Grolier make
no note of the error in _1621-33_. l. 318, proportions _1611-12_;
proportion _1621_ and all subsequent editions without comment. l. 415,
Impressions _1611_; Impression _1612-25_: impression _1633_ and all
subsequent editions. All three cases are examples of the same error,
the dropping of final 's'.
In typographical respects _1611_ shows the hand of the author more
clearly than the later editions. Donne was fastidious in matters of
punctuation and the use of italics and capital letters, witness the
_LXXX Sermons_ (1640), printed from MSS. prepared for the press by the
author. But the printer had to be reckoned with, and perfection was
not obtainable. In a note to one of the separately published sermons
Donne says: 'Those Errors which are committed in mispointing, or
in changing the form of the Character, will soone be discernd, and
corrected by the Eye of any deliberate Reader'. The _1611_ text shows
a more consistent use in certain passages of emphasizing capitals,
and at places its punctuation is better than that of _1633_. My
text reproduces _1633_, corrected where necessary from the earlier
editions; and I have occasionally followed the typography of _1611_.
But every case in which _1633_ is modified is recorded.
Of the _Second Anniversarie_, in like manner, my text is that of
_1633_, corrected in a few details, and with a few typographical
features borrowed, from the edition of _1612_. The editor of _1633_
had rather definite views of his own on punctuation, notably a
predilection for semicolons in place of full stops. The only certain
emendations which _1612_ supplies are in the marginal note at p.
234 and in l. 421 of the _Second Anniversarie_ 'this' for 'his'. The
spelling is less ambiguous in ll. 27 and 326.
[Footnote 1: _1621-25_ abound in misplaced full stops which
are not in _1611_ and are generally corrected in _1633_. The
punctuation of the later editions (_1635-69_) is the work of
the printer. Occasionally a comma is dropped or introduced
with advantage to the sense, but in general the punctuation
grows increasingly careless. Often the correction of one error
leads to another. ]
The subject of the _Anniversaries_ was the fifteen-year-old Elizabeth
Drury, who died in 1610. Her father, Sir Robert Drury, of Hawsted in
the county of Suffolk, was a man of some note on account of his great
wealth. He was knighted by Essex when about seventeen years old, at
the siege of Rouen (1591-2). He served in the Low Countries, and at
the battle of Nieuport (1600) brought off Sir Francis Vere when
his horse was shot under him. He was courtier, traveller, member of
Parliament, and in 1613 would have been glad to go as Ambassador to
Paris when Sir Thomas Overbury refused the proffered honour and was
sent to the Tower. Lady Drury was the daughter of Sir Nicholas Bacon,
the eldest son of Queen Elizabeth's Lord Keeper. She and her brother,
Sir Edmund Bacon, were friends and patrons of Joseph Hall, Donne's
rival as an early satirist. From 1600 to 1608 Hall was rector of
Hawsted, and though he was not very kindly treated by Sir Robert
he dedicated to him his _Meditations Morall and Divine_. This tie
explains the fact, which we learn from Jonson's conversations with
Drummond, that Hall is the author of the _Harbinger to the Progresse_.
As he wrote this we may infer that he is also responsible for _To the
praise of the dead, and the Anatomie_.
Readers of Donne's _Life_ by Walton are aware of the munificence with
which Sir Robert rewarded Donne for his poems, how he opened his
house to him, and took him abroad. Donne's letters, on the other hand,
reveal that the poem gave considerable offence to the Countess of
Bedford and other older patrons and friends. In his letters to Gerrard
he endeavoured to explain away his eulogies. In verse-letters to the
Countess of Bedford and others he atoned for his inconstancy by subtle
and erudite compliments.
_The Funerall Elegie_ was doubtless written in 1610 and sent to Sir
Robert Drury. He and Donne may already have been acquainted through
Wotton, who was closely related by friendship and marriage with Sir
Edmund Bacon. (See Pearsall Smith, _Life and Letters of Sir Henry
Wotton_ (1907). _The Anatomie of the World_ was composed in 1611, _Of
the Progresse of the Soule_ in France in 1612, at some time prior to
the 14th of April, when he refers to his _Anniversaries_ in a letter
to George Gerrard.
Ben Jonson declared to Drummond 'That Donnes Anniversaries were
profane and full of blasphemies: that he told Mr. Done if it had
been written of the Virgin Marie it had been something; to which he
answered that he described the Idea of a Woman, and not as she was'.
This is a better defence of Donne's poems than any which he advances
in his letters, but it is not a complete description of his work.
Rather, he interwove with a rapt and extravagantly conceited laudation
of an ideal woman two topics familiar to his catholic and mediaeval
learning, and developed each in a characteristically subtle and
ingenious strain, a strain whose occasional sceptical, disintegrating
reflections belong as obviously to the seventeenth century as the
general content of the thought is mediaeval.
The burden of the whole is an impassioned and exalted _meditatio
mortis_ based on two themes common enough in mediaeval devotional
literature--a _De Contemptu Mundi_, and a contemplation of the Glories
of Paradise. A very brief analysis of the two poems, omitting the
laudatory portions, may help a reader who cannot at once see the wood
for the trees, and be better than detailed notes.
_The Anatomie of the World. _
_l. 1. _ The world which suffered in her death is now fallen into the
worse lethargy of oblivion. _l. 60. _ I will anatomize the world for
the benefit of those who still, by the influence of her virtue, lead a
kind of glimmering life. _l. 91. _ There is no health in the world. We
are still under the curse of woman. _l. 111. _ How short is our life
compared with that of the patriarchs! _l. 134. _ How small is our
stature compared with that of the giants of old! _l. 147. _ How
shrunken of soul we are, especially since her death! _l. 191. _ And
as man, so is the whole world. The new learning or philosophy has
shattered in fragments that complete scheme of the universe in which
we rested so confidently, and (_l. 211_) in human society the same
disorder prevails. _l. 250. _ There is no beauty in the world, for,
first, the beauty of proportion is lost, alike in the movements of the
heavenly bodies, and (_l. 285_) in the earth with its mountains and
hollows, and (_l. 302_) in the administration of justice in society.
_l. 339. _ So is Beauty's other element, Colour and Lustre. _l. 377. _
Heaven and earth are at variance. We can no longer read terrestrial
fortunes in the stars. But (_l. 435_) an Anatomy can be pushed too
far.
_The Progresse of the Soule.
