_ This phrase might tempt one to date
the poem after the Cadiz expedition and Islands voyage, in both of
which 'leaders' rage', i.
the poem after the Cadiz expedition and Islands voyage, in both of
which 'leaders' rage', i.
Donne - 2
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 Prädikat_ (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. ' _Of Adversitie_.
PAGE =154=. SATYRE III.
PAGE =155=, l. 19. _leaders rage.
_ This phrase might tempt one to date
the poem after the Cadiz expedition and Islands voyage, in both of
which 'leaders' rage', i. e. the quarrels of Howard and Essex, and of
Essex and Raleigh, militated against success; but it is too little to
build upon. Donne may mean simply the arbitrary exercise of arbitrary
power on the part of leaders.
ll. 30-2. _who made thee to stand Sentinell, &c. _ 'Souldier' is the
reading of what is perhaps the older version of the _Satyres_. It
would do as well: 'Quare et tibi, Publi, et piis omnibus retinendus
est animus in custodia corporis; nec iniussu eius a quo ille est
vobis datus ex hominum vita migrandum est, ne munus assignatum a Deo
defugisse videamini. ' Cicero, _Somnium Scipionis_.
'Veteres quidem philosophiae principes, Pythagoras et Plotinus,
prohibitionis huius non tam creatores sunt quam praecones, omnino
illicitum esse dicentes _quempiam militiae servientem a praesidio et
commissa sibi statione discedere_ contra ducis vel principis iussum.
Plane eleganti exemplo usi sunt eo quod militia est vita hominis super
terram. ' John of Salisbury, _Policrat. _ ii. 27.
Donne considers the rashness of those whom he refers to as a degree
of, an approach to, suicide. To expose ourselves to these perils we
abandon the moral warfare to which we are appointed. In his own work
on suicide ([Greek: BIATHANATOS], &c. ) Donne discusses the permissible
approaches to suicide. An unpublished _Problem_ shows his knowledge of
John of Salisbury.
ll. 33-4. _Know thy foes, &c. _ I have followed the better MSS. here
against _1633_ and _L74_, _N_, _TCD_. The dropping of 's' after 'foe'
has probably led to the attempt to regularize the construction by
interjecting 'h'is'. Donne has three foes in view--the devil, the
world, and the flesh.
l. 35. _quit. _ Whether we read 'quit' or 'rid' the construction
is difficult. The phrase seems to mean 'to be free of his whole
Realm'--an unparalleled use of either adjective.
l. 36. _The worlds all parts. _ Here 'all' means 'every', but
Shakespeare would make 'parts' singular: 'All bond and privilege of
nature break,' _Cor. _ V. iii. 25. Donne blends two constructions.
PAGE =156=, l. 49. _Crantz. _ I have adopted the spelling of _W_, which
emphasizes the Dutch character of the name. The 'Crates' of _Q_ is
tempting as bringing the name into line with the other classical ones,
but all the other MSS. have an 'n' in the word. Donne has in view
the 'schismatics of Amsterdam' (_The Will_) and their followers.
The change to Grant or Grants shows a tendency in the copyists to
substitute a Scotch for a Dutch name.
PAGE =157=, ll. 69-71. _But unmoved thou, &c. _ As punctuated in the
old editions these lines are certainly ambiguous. The semicolon after
'allow' has a little less value than that of a full stop; that
after 'right' a little more than a comma, or contrariwise. Grosart,
Chambers, and the Grolier Club editor all connect 'and the right' with
what precedes:
But unmoved thou
Of force must one, and forced but one allow;
And the right.
So Chambers,--Grosart and the Grolier Club editor place a comma after
'allow'. It seems to me that 'And the right' goes rather with what
follows:
But unmoved thou
Of force must one, and forced but one allow.
And the right, ask thy father which is she.
If the first arrangement be right, then 'And' seems awkward. The
second marks two stages in the argument: a stable judgement compels
us to acknowledge religion, and that there can be only one. This being
so, the next question is, Which is the true one? As to that, we cannot
do better than consult our fathers:
In doubtful questions 'tis the safest way
To learn what unsuspected ancients say;
For 'tis not likely we should higher soar
In search of Heaven than all the Church before;
Nor can we be deceived unless we see
The Scriptures and the Fathers disagree.
Dryden, _Religio Laici_.
'Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations:
ask thy father, and he will shew thee; thy elders, and they will tell
thee. ' Deut. xxxii. 7.
l. 76. _To adore, or scorne an image, &c. _ Compare: 'I should violate
my own arm rather than a Church, nor willingly deface the name of
Saint or Martyr. At the sight of a Cross or Crucifix I can dispense
with my hat, but scarce with the thought or memory of my Saviour: I
cannot laugh at, but rather pity the fruitless journeys of Pilgrims,
or contemn the miserable condition of Friars; for though misplaced
in circumstances, there is something in it of Devotion. I could
never hear the _Ave-Mary_ Bell without an elevation, or think it a
sufficient warrant, because they erred in one circumstance, for me
to err in all, that is in silence and dumb contempt. . . . At a solemn
Procession I have wept abundantly, while my consorts blind with
opposition and prejudice, have fallen into an excess of scorn and
laughter. ' Sir Thomas Browne, _Religio Medici_, sect. 3. Compare also
Donne's letter To Sir H. R. (probably to Goodyere), (_Letters_,
p. 29), 'You know I have never imprisoned the word Religion; not
straightning it Friarly _ad religiones factitias_, (as the Romans
call well their orders of Religion), nor immuring it in a Rome, or
a Geneva; they are all virtual beams of one Sun. . . . They are not so
contrary as the North and South Poles; and they are connaturall pieces
of one circle. Religion is Christianity, which being too spirituall to
be seen by us, doth therefore take an apparent body of good life and
works, so salvation requires an honest Christian. '
l. 80. _Cragged and steep. _ The three epithets, 'cragged', 'ragged',
and 'rugged', found in the MSS. , are all legitimate and appropriate.
The second has the support of the best MSS. and is used by Donne
elsewhere: 'He shall shine upon thee in all dark wayes, and rectifie
thee in all ragged ways. ' _Sermons_ 80. 52. 526. Shakespeare uses it
repeatedly: 'A ragged, fearful, hanging rock,' _Gent. of Ver. _ I.
ii. 121; 'My ragged prison walls,' _Rich. II_, V. v. 21; and
metaphorically, 'Winter's ragged hand,' _Sonn. _ VI. i.
ll. 85-7. _To will implyes delay, &c. _ I have changed the 'to' of
_1633_ to 'too'. It is a mere change of spelling and has the support
of both _H51_ and _W_. Grosart and Chambers take it as the preposition
following the noun it governs, 'hard knowledge to'--an unexampled
construction in the case of a monosyllabic preposition. Franz
(_Shak. -Gram. _ § 544) gives cases of inversion for metrical purposes,
but only with 'mehrsilbigen Präpositionen', e. g. 'For fear lest day
should look their shapes upon. ' _Mid. N. Dream_, III. ii. 385.
Grosart, the Grolier Club editor, and Chambers have all, I think, been
misled by the accidental omission in _1633_ of the full stop or colon
after 'doe', l. 85. Chambers prints:
To will implies delay, therefore now do
Hard deeds, the body's pains; hard knowledge to
The mind's endeavours reach.
The Grolier Club version is:
To will implies delay, therefore now do
Hard deeds, the body's pains; hard knowledge too
The mind's endeavours reach.
The latter is the better version, but in each 'the body's pains' is a
strange apposition to 'deeds' taken as object to 'do'. We do not 'do
pains'. The second clause also has no obvious relation to the first
which would justify the 'too'. If we close the first sentence at
'doe', we get both better sense and a better balance: 'Act _now_, for
the night cometh. Hard deeds are achieved by the body's pains (i. e.
toil, effort), and hard knowledge is attained by the mind's efforts. '
The order of the words, and the condensed force given to 'reach'
produce a somewhat harsh effect, but not more so than is usual in the
_Satyres_, and less so than the alternative versions of the editors.
The following lines continue the thought quite naturally: 'No
endeavours of the mind will enable us to _comprehend_ mysteries, but
all eyes can _apprehend_ them, dazzle as they may. ' Compare: 'In all
Philosophy there is not so darke a thing as light; As the sunne which
is _fons lucis naturalis_, the beginning of naturall light, is the
most evident thing to be seen, and yet the hardest to be looked upon,
so is naturall light to our reason and understanding. Nothing clearer,
for it is _clearnesse_ it selfe, nothing darker, it is enwrapped in so
many scruples. Nothing nearer, for it is round about us, nothing more
remote, for wee know neither entrance, nor limits of it. Nothing
more _easie_, for a child discerns it, nothing more _hard_ for no man
understands it. It is apprehensible by _sense_, and not comprehensible
by _reason_. If wee winke, wee cannot chuse but see it, if wee stare,
wee know it never the better. ' _Sermons_ 50. 36. 324.
PAGE =158=, ll. 96-7. _a Philip, or a Gregory, &c. _ Grosart and Norton
conjecture that by Philip is meant Melanchthon, and for 'Gregory'
Norton conjectures Gregory VII; Grosart either Gregory the Great or
Gregory of Nazianzus. But surely Philip of Spain is balanced against
Harry of England, one defender of the faith against another, as
Gregory against Luther. What Gregory is meant we cannot say,
but probably Donne had in view Gregory XIII or Gregory XIV,
post-Reformation Popes, rather than either of those mentioned above.
Satire does not deal in Ancient History. The choice is between
Catholic and Protestant Princes and Popes.
PAGE =158=. SATYRE IIII.
This satire, like several of the period, is based on Horace's _Ibam
forte via Sacra_ (_Sat. _ i. 9), but Donne follows a quite independent
line. Horace's theme is at bottom a contrast between his own
friendship with Maecenas and 'the way in which vulgar and pushing
people sought, and sought in vain, to obtain an introduction'. Donne,
like Horace, describes a bore, but makes this the occasion for a
general picture of the hangers-on at Court. A more veiled thread
running through the poem is an attack on the ways and tricks of
informers. The bore's gossip is probably not without a motive:
I . . . felt my selfe then
Becoming Traytor, and mee thought I saw
One of our Giant Statutes ope his jaw
To sucke me in.
The manner in which the stranger accosts him suggests the
'intelligencer': 'Two hungry turns had I scarce fetcht in this wast
gallery when I was encountered by a neat pedantical fellow, in the
forme of a Cittizen, who thrusting himself abruptly into my companie,
like an Intelligencer, began very earnestly to question me. ' Nash,
_Pierce Penniless_.
In the _Satyres_ Donne is always, though he does not state his
position too clearly, one with links attaching him to the persecuted
Catholic minority. He hates informers and pursuivants.
ll. 1-4. These lines resemble the opening of Régnier's imitation of
Horace's satire:
Charles, de mes peches j'ay bien fait penitence;
Or, toy qui te cognois aux cas de conscience,
Juge si j'ay raison de penser estre absous.
I can trace no further resemblance.
l. 4. _A recreation to, and scarse map of this. _ I have ventured here
to restore, from _Q_ and its duplicate among the Dyce MSS. , what I
think must have been the original form of this line. The adjective
'scarse' or 'scarce' used in this way ('a scarce poet', 'a scarce
brook') is characteristic of Donne, and it always puzzled his
copyists, who tried to correct it in one way or another, e. g. 'scarce
a poet', II. 44; 'a scant brooke', IV. 240. It is inconceivable that
they would have introduced it. The preposition 'to' governing 'such
as' regularizes the construction, but would very easily be omitted by
a copyist who wished to smooth the metre or did not at once catch its
reference. Donne's use of 'scarse', like his use of 'Macaron' in this
poem, is probably an Italianism; in Italian 'scarso' means 'wanting,
scanty, poor'--'stretta e scarsa fortuna', 'E si riduce talvolta nell'
Estate con si scarsa acqua', 'Veniva bellissima tanto quanto ogni
comparazione ci saria scarsa', 'Ma l'ingegno e le rime erano scarse'
(Petrarch).
PAGE =159=, l. 21. _seaven Antiquaries studies. _ Donne has more than
one hit at Antiquaries. See the _Epigrams_ and _Satyre V_. The reign
of Elizabeth witnessed a great revival of antiquarian studies and the
first formation of an Antiquarian society: 'There was a time, most
excellent king,' says a later writer addressing King James, 'when
as well under Queen Elizabeth, as under your majesty, certain
choice gentlemen, men of known proof, were knit together, _statis
temporibus_, by the love of these studies, upon contribution among
themselves: which company consisted of an elective president and of
clarissimi, of other antiquaries and a register. ' Oldys, _Life of
Raleigh_, p. 317. He goes on to describe how the society was dissolved
by death. In the list of names he gives there are more than seven,
but it is just possible that Donne refers to some such society in its
early stages.
l. 22. _Africks monsters, Guianaes rarities. _ Africa was famous as the
land of monsters. The second reference is to the marvels described in
Sir Walter Raleigh's _The discoverie of the large, rich and bewtiful
Empire of Guiana, with a relation of the great and golden City of
Manoa which the Spaniards call El Dorado, performed in the year 1595_
(pub.
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 Prädikat_ (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. ' _Of Adversitie_.
PAGE =154=. SATYRE III.
PAGE =155=, l. 19. _leaders rage.
_ This phrase might tempt one to date
the poem after the Cadiz expedition and Islands voyage, in both of
which 'leaders' rage', i. e. the quarrels of Howard and Essex, and of
Essex and Raleigh, militated against success; but it is too little to
build upon. Donne may mean simply the arbitrary exercise of arbitrary
power on the part of leaders.
ll. 30-2. _who made thee to stand Sentinell, &c. _ 'Souldier' is the
reading of what is perhaps the older version of the _Satyres_. It
would do as well: 'Quare et tibi, Publi, et piis omnibus retinendus
est animus in custodia corporis; nec iniussu eius a quo ille est
vobis datus ex hominum vita migrandum est, ne munus assignatum a Deo
defugisse videamini. ' Cicero, _Somnium Scipionis_.
'Veteres quidem philosophiae principes, Pythagoras et Plotinus,
prohibitionis huius non tam creatores sunt quam praecones, omnino
illicitum esse dicentes _quempiam militiae servientem a praesidio et
commissa sibi statione discedere_ contra ducis vel principis iussum.
Plane eleganti exemplo usi sunt eo quod militia est vita hominis super
terram. ' John of Salisbury, _Policrat. _ ii. 27.
Donne considers the rashness of those whom he refers to as a degree
of, an approach to, suicide. To expose ourselves to these perils we
abandon the moral warfare to which we are appointed. In his own work
on suicide ([Greek: BIATHANATOS], &c. ) Donne discusses the permissible
approaches to suicide. An unpublished _Problem_ shows his knowledge of
John of Salisbury.
ll. 33-4. _Know thy foes, &c. _ I have followed the better MSS. here
against _1633_ and _L74_, _N_, _TCD_. The dropping of 's' after 'foe'
has probably led to the attempt to regularize the construction by
interjecting 'h'is'. Donne has three foes in view--the devil, the
world, and the flesh.
l. 35. _quit. _ Whether we read 'quit' or 'rid' the construction
is difficult. The phrase seems to mean 'to be free of his whole
Realm'--an unparalleled use of either adjective.
l. 36. _The worlds all parts. _ Here 'all' means 'every', but
Shakespeare would make 'parts' singular: 'All bond and privilege of
nature break,' _Cor. _ V. iii. 25. Donne blends two constructions.
PAGE =156=, l. 49. _Crantz. _ I have adopted the spelling of _W_, which
emphasizes the Dutch character of the name. The 'Crates' of _Q_ is
tempting as bringing the name into line with the other classical ones,
but all the other MSS. have an 'n' in the word. Donne has in view
the 'schismatics of Amsterdam' (_The Will_) and their followers.
The change to Grant or Grants shows a tendency in the copyists to
substitute a Scotch for a Dutch name.
PAGE =157=, ll. 69-71. _But unmoved thou, &c. _ As punctuated in the
old editions these lines are certainly ambiguous. The semicolon after
'allow' has a little less value than that of a full stop; that
after 'right' a little more than a comma, or contrariwise. Grosart,
Chambers, and the Grolier Club editor all connect 'and the right' with
what precedes:
But unmoved thou
Of force must one, and forced but one allow;
And the right.
So Chambers,--Grosart and the Grolier Club editor place a comma after
'allow'. It seems to me that 'And the right' goes rather with what
follows:
But unmoved thou
Of force must one, and forced but one allow.
And the right, ask thy father which is she.
If the first arrangement be right, then 'And' seems awkward. The
second marks two stages in the argument: a stable judgement compels
us to acknowledge religion, and that there can be only one. This being
so, the next question is, Which is the true one? As to that, we cannot
do better than consult our fathers:
In doubtful questions 'tis the safest way
To learn what unsuspected ancients say;
For 'tis not likely we should higher soar
In search of Heaven than all the Church before;
Nor can we be deceived unless we see
The Scriptures and the Fathers disagree.
Dryden, _Religio Laici_.
'Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations:
ask thy father, and he will shew thee; thy elders, and they will tell
thee. ' Deut. xxxii. 7.
l. 76. _To adore, or scorne an image, &c. _ Compare: 'I should violate
my own arm rather than a Church, nor willingly deface the name of
Saint or Martyr. At the sight of a Cross or Crucifix I can dispense
with my hat, but scarce with the thought or memory of my Saviour: I
cannot laugh at, but rather pity the fruitless journeys of Pilgrims,
or contemn the miserable condition of Friars; for though misplaced
in circumstances, there is something in it of Devotion. I could
never hear the _Ave-Mary_ Bell without an elevation, or think it a
sufficient warrant, because they erred in one circumstance, for me
to err in all, that is in silence and dumb contempt. . . . At a solemn
Procession I have wept abundantly, while my consorts blind with
opposition and prejudice, have fallen into an excess of scorn and
laughter. ' Sir Thomas Browne, _Religio Medici_, sect. 3. Compare also
Donne's letter To Sir H. R. (probably to Goodyere), (_Letters_,
p. 29), 'You know I have never imprisoned the word Religion; not
straightning it Friarly _ad religiones factitias_, (as the Romans
call well their orders of Religion), nor immuring it in a Rome, or
a Geneva; they are all virtual beams of one Sun. . . . They are not so
contrary as the North and South Poles; and they are connaturall pieces
of one circle. Religion is Christianity, which being too spirituall to
be seen by us, doth therefore take an apparent body of good life and
works, so salvation requires an honest Christian. '
l. 80. _Cragged and steep. _ The three epithets, 'cragged', 'ragged',
and 'rugged', found in the MSS. , are all legitimate and appropriate.
The second has the support of the best MSS. and is used by Donne
elsewhere: 'He shall shine upon thee in all dark wayes, and rectifie
thee in all ragged ways. ' _Sermons_ 80. 52. 526. Shakespeare uses it
repeatedly: 'A ragged, fearful, hanging rock,' _Gent. of Ver. _ I.
ii. 121; 'My ragged prison walls,' _Rich. II_, V. v. 21; and
metaphorically, 'Winter's ragged hand,' _Sonn. _ VI. i.
ll. 85-7. _To will implyes delay, &c. _ I have changed the 'to' of
_1633_ to 'too'. It is a mere change of spelling and has the support
of both _H51_ and _W_. Grosart and Chambers take it as the preposition
following the noun it governs, 'hard knowledge to'--an unexampled
construction in the case of a monosyllabic preposition. Franz
(_Shak. -Gram. _ § 544) gives cases of inversion for metrical purposes,
but only with 'mehrsilbigen Präpositionen', e. g. 'For fear lest day
should look their shapes upon. ' _Mid. N. Dream_, III. ii. 385.
Grosart, the Grolier Club editor, and Chambers have all, I think, been
misled by the accidental omission in _1633_ of the full stop or colon
after 'doe', l. 85. Chambers prints:
To will implies delay, therefore now do
Hard deeds, the body's pains; hard knowledge to
The mind's endeavours reach.
The Grolier Club version is:
To will implies delay, therefore now do
Hard deeds, the body's pains; hard knowledge too
The mind's endeavours reach.
The latter is the better version, but in each 'the body's pains' is a
strange apposition to 'deeds' taken as object to 'do'. We do not 'do
pains'. The second clause also has no obvious relation to the first
which would justify the 'too'. If we close the first sentence at
'doe', we get both better sense and a better balance: 'Act _now_, for
the night cometh. Hard deeds are achieved by the body's pains (i. e.
toil, effort), and hard knowledge is attained by the mind's efforts. '
The order of the words, and the condensed force given to 'reach'
produce a somewhat harsh effect, but not more so than is usual in the
_Satyres_, and less so than the alternative versions of the editors.
The following lines continue the thought quite naturally: 'No
endeavours of the mind will enable us to _comprehend_ mysteries, but
all eyes can _apprehend_ them, dazzle as they may. ' Compare: 'In all
Philosophy there is not so darke a thing as light; As the sunne which
is _fons lucis naturalis_, the beginning of naturall light, is the
most evident thing to be seen, and yet the hardest to be looked upon,
so is naturall light to our reason and understanding. Nothing clearer,
for it is _clearnesse_ it selfe, nothing darker, it is enwrapped in so
many scruples. Nothing nearer, for it is round about us, nothing more
remote, for wee know neither entrance, nor limits of it. Nothing
more _easie_, for a child discerns it, nothing more _hard_ for no man
understands it. It is apprehensible by _sense_, and not comprehensible
by _reason_. If wee winke, wee cannot chuse but see it, if wee stare,
wee know it never the better. ' _Sermons_ 50. 36. 324.
PAGE =158=, ll. 96-7. _a Philip, or a Gregory, &c. _ Grosart and Norton
conjecture that by Philip is meant Melanchthon, and for 'Gregory'
Norton conjectures Gregory VII; Grosart either Gregory the Great or
Gregory of Nazianzus. But surely Philip of Spain is balanced against
Harry of England, one defender of the faith against another, as
Gregory against Luther. What Gregory is meant we cannot say,
but probably Donne had in view Gregory XIII or Gregory XIV,
post-Reformation Popes, rather than either of those mentioned above.
Satire does not deal in Ancient History. The choice is between
Catholic and Protestant Princes and Popes.
PAGE =158=. SATYRE IIII.
This satire, like several of the period, is based on Horace's _Ibam
forte via Sacra_ (_Sat. _ i. 9), but Donne follows a quite independent
line. Horace's theme is at bottom a contrast between his own
friendship with Maecenas and 'the way in which vulgar and pushing
people sought, and sought in vain, to obtain an introduction'. Donne,
like Horace, describes a bore, but makes this the occasion for a
general picture of the hangers-on at Court. A more veiled thread
running through the poem is an attack on the ways and tricks of
informers. The bore's gossip is probably not without a motive:
I . . . felt my selfe then
Becoming Traytor, and mee thought I saw
One of our Giant Statutes ope his jaw
To sucke me in.
The manner in which the stranger accosts him suggests the
'intelligencer': 'Two hungry turns had I scarce fetcht in this wast
gallery when I was encountered by a neat pedantical fellow, in the
forme of a Cittizen, who thrusting himself abruptly into my companie,
like an Intelligencer, began very earnestly to question me. ' Nash,
_Pierce Penniless_.
In the _Satyres_ Donne is always, though he does not state his
position too clearly, one with links attaching him to the persecuted
Catholic minority. He hates informers and pursuivants.
ll. 1-4. These lines resemble the opening of Régnier's imitation of
Horace's satire:
Charles, de mes peches j'ay bien fait penitence;
Or, toy qui te cognois aux cas de conscience,
Juge si j'ay raison de penser estre absous.
I can trace no further resemblance.
l. 4. _A recreation to, and scarse map of this. _ I have ventured here
to restore, from _Q_ and its duplicate among the Dyce MSS. , what I
think must have been the original form of this line. The adjective
'scarse' or 'scarce' used in this way ('a scarce poet', 'a scarce
brook') is characteristic of Donne, and it always puzzled his
copyists, who tried to correct it in one way or another, e. g. 'scarce
a poet', II. 44; 'a scant brooke', IV. 240. It is inconceivable that
they would have introduced it. The preposition 'to' governing 'such
as' regularizes the construction, but would very easily be omitted by
a copyist who wished to smooth the metre or did not at once catch its
reference. Donne's use of 'scarse', like his use of 'Macaron' in this
poem, is probably an Italianism; in Italian 'scarso' means 'wanting,
scanty, poor'--'stretta e scarsa fortuna', 'E si riduce talvolta nell'
Estate con si scarsa acqua', 'Veniva bellissima tanto quanto ogni
comparazione ci saria scarsa', 'Ma l'ingegno e le rime erano scarse'
(Petrarch).
PAGE =159=, l. 21. _seaven Antiquaries studies. _ Donne has more than
one hit at Antiquaries. See the _Epigrams_ and _Satyre V_. The reign
of Elizabeth witnessed a great revival of antiquarian studies and the
first formation of an Antiquarian society: 'There was a time, most
excellent king,' says a later writer addressing King James, 'when
as well under Queen Elizabeth, as under your majesty, certain
choice gentlemen, men of known proof, were knit together, _statis
temporibus_, by the love of these studies, upon contribution among
themselves: which company consisted of an elective president and of
clarissimi, of other antiquaries and a register. ' Oldys, _Life of
Raleigh_, p. 317. He goes on to describe how the society was dissolved
by death. In the list of names he gives there are more than seven,
but it is just possible that Donne refers to some such society in its
early stages.
l. 22. _Africks monsters, Guianaes rarities. _ Africa was famous as the
land of monsters. The second reference is to the marvels described in
Sir Walter Raleigh's _The discoverie of the large, rich and bewtiful
Empire of Guiana, with a relation of the great and golden City of
Manoa which the Spaniards call El Dorado, performed in the year 1595_
(pub.
