_ I cannot
identify
this Rope.
Donne - 2
E.
D.
gives the fourteenth to the sixteenth centuries as
those in which 'yere' was a recognized pronunciation of 'ear', but it
is found sporadically later and has misled editors. Thus in Sir George
Etherege's letter to the Earl of Middleton from Ratisbon, printed in
Dryden's _Works_ (Scott and Saintsbury), xi, pp. 38-40, some lines
run:
These formed the jewel erst did grace
The cap of the first Grave o' the race,
Preferred by Graffin Marian
To adorn the handle of her fan;
And, as by old record appears,
Worn since in Kunigunda's years;
Now sparkling in the Froein's hair,
No rocket breaking in the air
Can with her starry head compare.
In a modernized text, as this is, surely 'Kunigunda's years' should be
'Kunigunda's ears'.
ll. 93-4. _That I may grow enamoured on your mind,
When my own thoughts I there reflected find. _
'I there neglected find' has been the reading of all editions
hitherto--a strange reason for being enamoured.
PAGE =104=, l. 96. _My deeds shall still be what my words are now_:
'words' suits the context better than either the 'deeds' of _1635-69_
or 'thoughts' of _A25_.
PAGE =104=. ELEGIE XIII.
PAGE =105=, ll. 13-14. _Liv'd Mantuan now againe,
That foemall Mastix, to limme with his penne_
Chambers, following the editions from _1639_ onwards, drops the comma
after 'Mastix', which suggests that Julia is the 'foemall Mastix',
not Mantuan. By Mantuan he understands Virgil, and supposes there is
a reference to the 'flammis armataque Chimaera' of _Aen. _ vi. 289. The
Mantuan of the text is the 'Old Mantuan' of _Love's Labour's Lost_,
iv. 2. 92. Donne calls Mantuan the scourge of women because of his
fourth eclogue _De natura mulierum_. Norton quotes from it:
Femineum servile genus, crudele, superbum.
The O. E. D. quotes from S. Holland, _Zara_ (1656): 'It would have
puzzell'd that Female Mastix Mantuan to have limn'd this she
Chymera'--obviously borrowed from this poem. The dictionary gives
examples of 'mastix' in other compounds.
The reference to Mantuan as a woman-hater is a favourite one with
the prose-pamphleteers: 'To this might be added _Mantuans_ invective
against them, but that pittie makes me refraine from renewing his
worne out complaints, the wounds whereof the former forepast feminine
sexe hath felt. I, but here the _Homer_ of Women hath forestalled an
objection, saying that _Mantuans_ house holding of our Ladie, he was
enforced by melancholic into such vehemencie of speech', &c. Nash,
_The Anatomy of Absurdity_ (ed. McKerrow, i. 12).
'Where I leave you to consider, Gentlemen, how far unmeete women are
to have such reproches laid upon them, as sundrye large lipt fellows
have done: who when they take a peece of work in hand, and either for
want of matter, or lack of wit, are half gravelled, then they must
fill up the page with slaundering of women, who scarsly know what
a woman is: but if I were able either by wit or arte to be their
defender, or had the law in my hand to dispose as I list, which would
be as unseemely, as an Asse to treade the measures: yet, if it were
so, I would correct _Mantuans Egloge_, intituled _Alphus_: or els
if the Authour were alive, I would not doubt to persuade him in
recompence of his errour, to frame a new one,' &c. Greene, _Mamillia_
(ed. Grosart), 106-7. Greene is probably the '_Homer_ of Women'
referred to in the first extract.
l. 19. _Tenarus. _ In the _Anatomy of the World_ 'Tenarif' is thus
spelt in the editions of 1633 to 1669, and Grosart declared that the
reference here is to that island. It is of course to 'Taenarus' in
Laconia. There was in that headland a sulphurous cavern believed to be
a passage to Hades. Through it Orpheus descended to recover Eurydice.
Ovid, _Met. _ x. 13; Paus. iii. 14, 25.
l. 28. _self-accusing oaths_: 'oaths' is the reading of the MSS. ,
'loaths' of the editions. The word 'loaths' in the sense of 'dislike,
hatred, ill-will' is found as late as 1728 (O. E. D. ). 'If your Horse
. . . grow to a loath of his meat. ' Topsell (1607). A self-accusing
loath may mean a hatred, e. g. of good, which condemns yourself. In
the context, however, 'cavils, untroths,' I am inclined to think that
'oaths' is right. Among the malevolent evils with which her breast
swarms are oaths accusing others of crimes, which accuse herself,
either because she is willing to implicate herself so long as she
secures her enemy's ruin, or because the information is of a kind that
could be got only by complicity in crime.
PAGE =105=. ELEGIE XIV.
PAGE =106=, l. 6. _I touch no fat sowes grease. _ Probably 'I say
nothing libellous as to the way in which this or that rich man has
acquired his wealth'. I cannot find the proverb accurately explained,
or given in quite this form, in any collection.
l. 10. _will redd or pale. _ The reading of _1669_ and the two MSS. is
doubtless correct, 'looke' being an editorial insertion as the use
of 'red' as a verb was growing rare. If 'looke' had belonged to the
original text 'counsellor' would probably have had the second syllable
elided. Compare:
Roses out-red their [i. e. women's] lips and cheeks,
Lillies their whiteness stain.
Brome, _The Resolve_.
l. 21. _the number of the Plaguy Bill_: i. e. the weekly bill of deaths
by the plague. By a Privy Council order of April 9, 1604, the theatres
were permitted to be open 'except ther shall happen weeklie to die of
the Plague above the number of thirtie'. The number was later raised
to forty. The theatres were repeatedly closed for this reason between
July 10, 1606, and 1610. In 1609 especially the fear of infection made
it difficult for the companies, driven from London, to gain permission
to act anywhere. There were no performances at Court during the winter
1609-10. Murray, _English Dramatic Companies_.
l. 22. _the Custome Farmers. _ The Privy Council registers abound in
references to the farmers of the customs and their conflicts with the
merchants. As they had to pay dearly for their farm, they were tempted
to press the law against the merchants in exacting dues.
l. 23. _Of the Virginian plot. _ Two expeditions were sent to Virginia
in 1609, in May under Sir Thomas Gates, Sir George Somers, and Captain
Newport, and at the end of the year under Lord de la Warr, 'who by
free election of the Treasurer and counsell of Virginia, and with the
full consent of the generality of that company was constituted and
authorized, during his natural life to be Lord Governor and Captaine
Generall of all the English Collonies planted, or to be planted in
Virginia, according to the tenor of his Majesties letters patents
granted that yeare 1609. ' Stow. Speculation in Virginia stock was
encouraged: 'Besides many noblemen, knights, gentlemen, merchants,
and wealthy tradesmen, most of the incorporated trades of London were
induced to take shares in the stock. ' Hildreth, _History of the United
States_, i. 108, quoted by Norton.
The meaning of 'plot' here is 'device, design, scheme' (O. E. D. ), as
'There have beene divers good plottes devised, and wise counsells
cast allready about reformation of that realme': Spenser, _State of
Ireland_. Donne uses the word also in the more original sense of 'a
piece of ground, a spot'. See p. 132, l. 34.
l. 23-4. _whether Ward . . . the I(n)land Seas. _ I have taken 'Iland'
_1635-54_ as intended for 'Inland', perhaps written 'ĩland', not
for 'Island'. The edition of 1669 reads 'midland', and there is no
doubt that the Mediterranean was the scene of the career and exploits
of the notorious Ward, whose head-quarters were at Tunis. The
Mediterranean is called the Inland sea in Holland's translation of
Pliny (_Hist. of the World_, III. _The Proeme_); and Donne uses
the phrase (with a different application but one borrowed from this
meaning) in the _Progresse of the Soule_, p. 308, ll. 317-8:
as if his vast wombe were
Some Inland sea.
Previous editors read 'Island seas' but do not explain the reference,
except Grosart, who declares that the 'Iland seas are those around the
West Indian and other islands. The Midland seas (as in _1669_)
were probably the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Seas'. He cites no
authority; nor have we proof that Ward was ever in these seas. Writing
to Salisbury on the 7th of March, 1607-8, Wotton says: 'The voice is
here newly arrived that Warde hath taken another Venetian vessel of
good value, so as the hatred of him increaseth among them and fully
as fast as the fear of him. These are his effects. Now to give your
Lordship some taste of his language. One Moore, captain of an English
ship that tradeth this way . . . was hailed by him not long since a
little without the Gulf, and answering that he was bound for Venice,
"Tell those flat caps" (said he) "who have been the occasion that I
am banished out of my country that before I have done with them I will
make them sue for pardon. " In this style he speaketh. ' Pearsall Smith,
_Life and Letters of . . . Wotton_, ii. 415. Mr. Pearsall Smith adds in
a note that Ward hoped to 'buy or threaten the English Government into
pardoning him', and that some attempt was also made by the Venetian
Government to procure his assassination.
If 'Island' be the right reading the sea referred to must be the
Adriatic. The Islands of the Illyrian coast were at various times the
haunt of pirates. But I have found no instance of the phrase in this
sense.
l. 25. _the Brittaine Burse. _ This was built by the Earl of Salisbury
on the site of an 'olde long stable' in the Strand on the north side
of Durham House: 'And upon Tuesday the tenth of Aprill this yeere, one
thousand sixe hundred and nine, many of the upper shoppes were richly
furnished with wares, and the next day after that, the King, Queene,
and Prince, the Lady Elizabeth and the Duke of Yorke, with many great
Lords, and chiefe Ladies, came thither, and were there entertained
with pleasant speeches, giftes, and ingenious devices, and then
the king gave it a name, and called it Brittaines Burse. ' Stow,
_Chronicle_, p. 894.
l. 27. _Of new built Algate, and the More-field crosses. _ Aldgate, one
of the four principal gates in the City wall, was taken down in 1606
and rebuilt by 1609: Stow, _Survey_. Norton refers to Jonson's _Silent
Woman_, I. i: 'How long did the canvas hang afore Aldgate? Were the
people suffered to see the city's Love and Charity while they were
rude stone, before they were painted and burnished? '
'The More-field crosses' are apparently the walks at Moor-field.
Speaking of the embellishment of London which ensued from the long
duration of peace, Stow says, 'And lastly, whereof there is a more
generall, and particular notice taken by all persons resorting and
residing in London, the new and pleasant walks on the north side of
the city, anciently called More fields, which field (untill the third
yeare of King James) was a most noysome and offensive place, being a
generall laystall, a rotten morish ground, whereof it tooke first the
name. ' Stow, _Chronicle_. For the ditches which crossed the field were
substituted 'most faire and royall walkes'.
PAGE =107=, l. 41. The '(_quoth Hee_)' of the 1669 edition is
obviously correct. 'Hee' is required both by rhyme and reason. Mr.
Chambers has ingeniously put '"True" quoth I' into a parenthesis, as
a remark interjected by the poet. But apart from the rhyme the 'quoth
Hee' is needed to explain the transition to direct speech. Without it
the long speech of the citizen begins very awkwardly.
ll. 42-44. These lines seem to echo the Royal Proclamation of 1609,
though the reference is different: 'in this speciall Proclamation his
Majestic declared how grievously, the people of this latter age and
times are fallen into verball profession, as well of religion, as of
all commendable morall vertues, but wanting the actions and deeds of
so specious a profession, and the insatiable and immeasurable itching
boldnesse of the spirits, tongues and pens of most men. ' Stow,
_Chronicle_.
l. 46. _Bawd, Tavern-keeper, Whore and Scrivener_; The singular number
of the MS. gives as good a sense as the plural and a better rhyme.
l. 47. _The much of Privileg'd kingsmen, and the store
Of fresh protections, &c. _
'We have many bankrupts daily, and as many protections, which doth
marvellously hinder all manner of commerce. ' Chamberlain to Carleton,
Dec. 31, 1612. By 'kingsmen' I understand noblemen holding monopolies
from the King. I do not understand the 'kinsmen' of the editions.
By 'protections' is meant 'exemptions from suits in law', especially
suits for debt. The London tradesmen were much cheated by the
protections granted to the servants and followers of members of
Parliament.
l. 65. _found nothing but a Rope.
_ I cannot identify this Rope. In the
_Aulularia_ of Plautus, when Euclio finds his treasure gone he laments
in the usual manner. At l. 721 he says, 'Heu me miserum, misere perii,
male perditu', _pessume ornatus eo_. ' The last words may have been
taken as meaning 'I have the rope round my neck'.
PAGE =108=. ELEGIE XV.
l. 12. Following _RP31_ and also Jonson's _Underwoods_ I have taken
'at once' as going with 'Both hot and cold', not with 'make life, and
death' as in _1633-69_. This is one of the poems which _1633_ derived
from some other source than _D_, _H49_, _Lec_.
ll. 16-18 (_all sweeter . . . the rest_) Chambers has overlooked
altogether the _1633_ reading 'sweeter'. He prints 'sweeten'd'
from _1635-69_. It is clear from the MSS. that this is an editor's
amendment due to Donne's 'all sweeter' suggesting, perhaps
intentionally, 'all the sweeter'. By dropping the bracket Chambers
has left at least ambiguous the construction of 17-18: _And the divine
impression of stolne kisses That sealed the rest. _ Does this, as in
_1633_, belong to the parenthesis, or is 'the divine impression' to be
taken with 'so many accents sweet, so many sighes' and 'so many oathes
and teares' as part subject to 'should now prove empty blisses'. I
prefer the _1633_ arrangement, which has the support of the MSS. ,
though the punctuation of these is apt to be careless. The accents,
sighs, oaths, and tears were all made sweeter by having been stolen
with fear and trembling. This is how the Grolier Club editor takes it;
Grosart and Chambers prefer to follow _1635-69_.
PAGE 109, l. 34. I do not know whence Chambers derived his reading
'drift' for 'trust'--perhaps from an imperfect copy of _1633_. He
attributes it to all the editions prior to 1669. This is an oversight.
PAGE =110=, ll. 59 f. _I could renew, &c. _ Compare Ovid, _Amores_, III.
ii. 1-7.
Non ego nobilium sedeo studiosus equorum;
Cui tamen ipsa faves, vincat ut ille precor.
Ut loquerer tecum veni tecumque sederem,
Ne tibi non notus, quem facis, esset amor.
Tu cursum spectas, ego te; spectemus uterque
Quod iuvat, atque oculos pascat uterque suos.
O, cuicumque faves, felix agitator equorum!
PAGE =111=. ELEGIE XVI.
A careful study of the textual notes to this poem will show that there
is a considerable difference between the text of this poem as given
for the first time in _1635_, and that of the majority of the MSS. It
is very difficult, however, to decide between them as the differences
are not generally such as to suggest that one reading is necessarily
right, the other wrong. The chief variants are these: 7 'parents' and
'fathers'. Here I fancy the 'parents' of the MSS. is right, and that
'fathers' in the editions and in a late MS. like _O'F_ is due to the
identification of Donne's mistress with his wife. Only the father of
Anne More was alive at the time of their first acquaintance. It is not
at all certain, however, that this poem is addressed to Anne More,
and in any case Donne would probably have disguised the details. The
change of 'parents' to 'fathers' is more likely than the opposite.
In l. 12 'wayes' (edd. ) and 'meanes' (MSS. ) are practically
indistinguishable; nor is there much to choose between the two
versions of l. 18: 'My soule from other lands to thee shall soare'
(edd. ) and 'From other lands my soule towards thee shall soare'
(MSS. ). In each case the version of the editions is slightly the
better. In l. 28, on the other hand, I have adopted 'mindes' without
hesitation although here the MSS. vary. There is no question of
changing the mind, but there is of changing the mind's habit, of
adopting a boy's cast of thought and manner: as Rosalind says,
and in my heart
Lie there what hidden woman's fear there will,
We'll have a swashing and a martial outside,
As many other mannish cowards have
That do outface it with their semblances.
_As You Like It_, I. iii. 114-18.
In l. 35 the reading 'Lives fuellers', i. e. 'Life's fuellers', which
is found in such early and good MSS. as _D_, _H49_, _Lec_ and _W_,
is very remarkable. If I were convinced that it is correct I should
regard it as decisive and prefer the MS. readings throughout. But
'Loves fuellers', though also a strange phrase, seems more easy of
interpretation, and applicable.
In l. 37 there can, I think, be no doubt that the original reading is
preserved by _A18_, _N_, _S_, _TCD_, and _W_.
Will quickly knowe thee, and knowe thee, and, alas!
The sudden, brutal change in the sense of the word 'knowe' is quite in
Donne's manner. The reasons for omitting or softening it are obvious,
and may excuse my not restoring it. The whole of these central lines
reveal that strange bad taste, some radical want of delicacy, which
mars not only Donne's poems and lighter prose but even at times the
sermons. In l. 49 the reading of the MSS. _A18_, _N_, _TC_; _D_,
_H49_, _Lec_, and _W_ is also probably original:
Nor praise, nor dispraise me; Blesse nor curse.
It is not uncommon in Donne's poetry to find a syllable dropped with
the effect of increasing the stress on a rhetorically emphatic word,
here 'Blesse'. An editor would be sure to supply 'nor'.
Lamb has quoted from this Elegy in his note to Beaumont and Fletcher's
_Philaster_ (_Specimens of English Dramatic Poets_, 1808). It is
clear that he used a copy of the 1669 edition, for he reads 35 'Lives
fuellers', and also 42 'Aydroptique' for 'Hydroptique'. Both these
mistakes were corrected in _1719_. Donne speaks in his sermons of
'fuelling and advancing his tentations'. _Sermons_ 80. 10. 99.
PAGE =112=, l. 44. _England is onely a worthy Gallerie_: i. e. entrance
hall or corridor: 'Here then is the use of our hope before death, that
this life shall be a gallery into a better roome and deliver us over
to a better Country: for, _if in this life only_,' &c. _Sermons_ 50.
30. 270. 'He made but one world; for, this, and the next, are not _two
Worlds_;. . . They are not _two Houses_; This is the _Gallery_, and
that the _Bedchamber_ of one, and the same Palace, which shall feel no
ruine. ' _Sermons_ 50. 43. 399.
In connexion with the general theme of this poem it may be noted
that in 1605 Sir Robert Dudley, the illegitimate son of the Earl of
Leicester, who like Donne served in the Cadiz and Islands expeditions,
left England accompanied by the beautiful Elizabeth Southwell
disguised as a page. At this period the most fantastic poetry was
never more fantastic than life itself.
PAGE =113=. ELEGIE XVII.
l. 12. _wide and farr. _ The MSS. here correct an obvious error of the
editions.
PAGE =114=, l. 24. This line is found only in _A10_, which omits the
next eleven lines. It may belong to a shorter version of the poem, but
it fits quite well into the context.
PAGE =115=, l. 58. _daring eyes. _ The epithet looks as though it had
been repeated from the line above, and perhaps 'darling' or 'darting'
may have been the original reading. However, both the MSS. agree with
the editions, and the word is probably used in two distinct senses,
'bold, adventurous' with 'armes' and 'dazzling' with 'eyes'. Compare:
O now no more
Shall his perfections, like the sunbeams, dare
The purblind world; in heaven those glories are.
Campion, _Elegie upon the Untimely Death of Prince Henry_.
Let his Grace go forward
And dare us with his cap like larks.
Shakespeare, _Henry VIII_, III. ii. 282.
This refers to the custom of 'daring' or dazzling larks with a mirror.
PAGE =116=. ELEGIE XVIII.
PAGE =117=, ll. 31-2. _Men to such Gods, &c. _ Donne has in view here
the different kinds of sacrifice described by Porphyry:
How to devote things living in due form
My verse shall tell, thou in thy tablets write.
For gods of earth and gods of heaven each three;
For heavenly pure white; for gods of earth
Cattle of kindred hue divide in three,
And on the altar lay thy sacrifice.
For gods infernal bury deep, and cast
The blood into a trench. For gentle Nymphs
Honey and gifts of Dionysus pour.
Eusebius: _Praeparatio Evangelica_, iv. 9
(trans. E. H. Gifford, 1903).
l. 47. _The Nose_ (_like to the first Meridian_) 'In the state
of nature we consider the light, as the sunne, to be risen at the
Moluccae, in the farthest East; In the state of the law we consider it
as the sunne come to Ormus, the first Quadrant; but in the Gospel to
be come to the Canaries, the fortunate Ilands, the first Meridian.
Now whatsoever is beyond this, is Westward, towards a Declination. '
_Sermons_ 80. 68. 688.
'Longitude is length, and in the heavens it is understood the distance
of any starre or Planet, from the begining of Aries to the place of
the said Planet or Starre . . . Otherwise, longitude in the earth, is
the distance of the Meridian of any place, from the Meridian which
passeth over the Isles of Azores, where the beginning of longitude is
said to be. ' _The Sea-mans Kalender_, 1632. But ancient Cosmographers
placed the first meridian at the Canaries. See note to p. 187, l. 2.
PAGE =118=, l. 52. _Not faynte Canaries but Ambrosiall. _ The 'Canary'
of several MSS. is probably right--an adjective, like 'Ambrosiall'.
By 'faynte' is meant 'faintly odorous' as opposed to 'Ambrosial', i. e.
'divinely fragrant; perfumed as with Ambrosia' (O. E. D. ). 'Fruit that
ambrosial smell diffus'd': Milton, _Par. Lost_, ix. 852. The text
gives an earlier use of both these words in this meaning than any
indicated by the O. E. D. William Morris uses the same adjective in a
somewhat ambiguous way but meaning, I suppose, 'weak, ready to die':
Where still mid thoughts of August's quivering gold
Folk hoed the wheat, and clipped the vine in trust
Of faint October's purple-foaming must.
_Earthly Paradise, Atalanta's Race. _
PAGE =119=. ELEGIE XIX.
PAGE =120=, l. 17. _then safely tread. _ The 'safely' of so many MSS. ,
including _W_, seems to me a more likely reading than 'softly'. The
latter was probably suggested by the 'soft' of the following line. The
'safely' means of course that even without her shoes she will not be
hurt.
l. 22. _Ill spirits. _ It is not easy to decide between the 'Ill' of
_1669_ and some MSS. and the 'All' of some other MSS. Besides those
enumerated, two lesser MSS. , viz. the Sloane MSS. 542 and 1792, read
'all'.
In _Elegie IV_, l.
those in which 'yere' was a recognized pronunciation of 'ear', but it
is found sporadically later and has misled editors. Thus in Sir George
Etherege's letter to the Earl of Middleton from Ratisbon, printed in
Dryden's _Works_ (Scott and Saintsbury), xi, pp. 38-40, some lines
run:
These formed the jewel erst did grace
The cap of the first Grave o' the race,
Preferred by Graffin Marian
To adorn the handle of her fan;
And, as by old record appears,
Worn since in Kunigunda's years;
Now sparkling in the Froein's hair,
No rocket breaking in the air
Can with her starry head compare.
In a modernized text, as this is, surely 'Kunigunda's years' should be
'Kunigunda's ears'.
ll. 93-4. _That I may grow enamoured on your mind,
When my own thoughts I there reflected find. _
'I there neglected find' has been the reading of all editions
hitherto--a strange reason for being enamoured.
PAGE =104=, l. 96. _My deeds shall still be what my words are now_:
'words' suits the context better than either the 'deeds' of _1635-69_
or 'thoughts' of _A25_.
PAGE =104=. ELEGIE XIII.
PAGE =105=, ll. 13-14. _Liv'd Mantuan now againe,
That foemall Mastix, to limme with his penne_
Chambers, following the editions from _1639_ onwards, drops the comma
after 'Mastix', which suggests that Julia is the 'foemall Mastix',
not Mantuan. By Mantuan he understands Virgil, and supposes there is
a reference to the 'flammis armataque Chimaera' of _Aen. _ vi. 289. The
Mantuan of the text is the 'Old Mantuan' of _Love's Labour's Lost_,
iv. 2. 92. Donne calls Mantuan the scourge of women because of his
fourth eclogue _De natura mulierum_. Norton quotes from it:
Femineum servile genus, crudele, superbum.
The O. E. D. quotes from S. Holland, _Zara_ (1656): 'It would have
puzzell'd that Female Mastix Mantuan to have limn'd this she
Chymera'--obviously borrowed from this poem. The dictionary gives
examples of 'mastix' in other compounds.
The reference to Mantuan as a woman-hater is a favourite one with
the prose-pamphleteers: 'To this might be added _Mantuans_ invective
against them, but that pittie makes me refraine from renewing his
worne out complaints, the wounds whereof the former forepast feminine
sexe hath felt. I, but here the _Homer_ of Women hath forestalled an
objection, saying that _Mantuans_ house holding of our Ladie, he was
enforced by melancholic into such vehemencie of speech', &c. Nash,
_The Anatomy of Absurdity_ (ed. McKerrow, i. 12).
'Where I leave you to consider, Gentlemen, how far unmeete women are
to have such reproches laid upon them, as sundrye large lipt fellows
have done: who when they take a peece of work in hand, and either for
want of matter, or lack of wit, are half gravelled, then they must
fill up the page with slaundering of women, who scarsly know what
a woman is: but if I were able either by wit or arte to be their
defender, or had the law in my hand to dispose as I list, which would
be as unseemely, as an Asse to treade the measures: yet, if it were
so, I would correct _Mantuans Egloge_, intituled _Alphus_: or els
if the Authour were alive, I would not doubt to persuade him in
recompence of his errour, to frame a new one,' &c. Greene, _Mamillia_
(ed. Grosart), 106-7. Greene is probably the '_Homer_ of Women'
referred to in the first extract.
l. 19. _Tenarus. _ In the _Anatomy of the World_ 'Tenarif' is thus
spelt in the editions of 1633 to 1669, and Grosart declared that the
reference here is to that island. It is of course to 'Taenarus' in
Laconia. There was in that headland a sulphurous cavern believed to be
a passage to Hades. Through it Orpheus descended to recover Eurydice.
Ovid, _Met. _ x. 13; Paus. iii. 14, 25.
l. 28. _self-accusing oaths_: 'oaths' is the reading of the MSS. ,
'loaths' of the editions. The word 'loaths' in the sense of 'dislike,
hatred, ill-will' is found as late as 1728 (O. E. D. ). 'If your Horse
. . . grow to a loath of his meat. ' Topsell (1607). A self-accusing
loath may mean a hatred, e. g. of good, which condemns yourself. In
the context, however, 'cavils, untroths,' I am inclined to think that
'oaths' is right. Among the malevolent evils with which her breast
swarms are oaths accusing others of crimes, which accuse herself,
either because she is willing to implicate herself so long as she
secures her enemy's ruin, or because the information is of a kind that
could be got only by complicity in crime.
PAGE =105=. ELEGIE XIV.
PAGE =106=, l. 6. _I touch no fat sowes grease. _ Probably 'I say
nothing libellous as to the way in which this or that rich man has
acquired his wealth'. I cannot find the proverb accurately explained,
or given in quite this form, in any collection.
l. 10. _will redd or pale. _ The reading of _1669_ and the two MSS. is
doubtless correct, 'looke' being an editorial insertion as the use
of 'red' as a verb was growing rare. If 'looke' had belonged to the
original text 'counsellor' would probably have had the second syllable
elided. Compare:
Roses out-red their [i. e. women's] lips and cheeks,
Lillies their whiteness stain.
Brome, _The Resolve_.
l. 21. _the number of the Plaguy Bill_: i. e. the weekly bill of deaths
by the plague. By a Privy Council order of April 9, 1604, the theatres
were permitted to be open 'except ther shall happen weeklie to die of
the Plague above the number of thirtie'. The number was later raised
to forty. The theatres were repeatedly closed for this reason between
July 10, 1606, and 1610. In 1609 especially the fear of infection made
it difficult for the companies, driven from London, to gain permission
to act anywhere. There were no performances at Court during the winter
1609-10. Murray, _English Dramatic Companies_.
l. 22. _the Custome Farmers. _ The Privy Council registers abound in
references to the farmers of the customs and their conflicts with the
merchants. As they had to pay dearly for their farm, they were tempted
to press the law against the merchants in exacting dues.
l. 23. _Of the Virginian plot. _ Two expeditions were sent to Virginia
in 1609, in May under Sir Thomas Gates, Sir George Somers, and Captain
Newport, and at the end of the year under Lord de la Warr, 'who by
free election of the Treasurer and counsell of Virginia, and with the
full consent of the generality of that company was constituted and
authorized, during his natural life to be Lord Governor and Captaine
Generall of all the English Collonies planted, or to be planted in
Virginia, according to the tenor of his Majesties letters patents
granted that yeare 1609. ' Stow. Speculation in Virginia stock was
encouraged: 'Besides many noblemen, knights, gentlemen, merchants,
and wealthy tradesmen, most of the incorporated trades of London were
induced to take shares in the stock. ' Hildreth, _History of the United
States_, i. 108, quoted by Norton.
The meaning of 'plot' here is 'device, design, scheme' (O. E. D. ), as
'There have beene divers good plottes devised, and wise counsells
cast allready about reformation of that realme': Spenser, _State of
Ireland_. Donne uses the word also in the more original sense of 'a
piece of ground, a spot'. See p. 132, l. 34.
l. 23-4. _whether Ward . . . the I(n)land Seas. _ I have taken 'Iland'
_1635-54_ as intended for 'Inland', perhaps written 'ĩland', not
for 'Island'. The edition of 1669 reads 'midland', and there is no
doubt that the Mediterranean was the scene of the career and exploits
of the notorious Ward, whose head-quarters were at Tunis. The
Mediterranean is called the Inland sea in Holland's translation of
Pliny (_Hist. of the World_, III. _The Proeme_); and Donne uses
the phrase (with a different application but one borrowed from this
meaning) in the _Progresse of the Soule_, p. 308, ll. 317-8:
as if his vast wombe were
Some Inland sea.
Previous editors read 'Island seas' but do not explain the reference,
except Grosart, who declares that the 'Iland seas are those around the
West Indian and other islands. The Midland seas (as in _1669_)
were probably the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Seas'. He cites no
authority; nor have we proof that Ward was ever in these seas. Writing
to Salisbury on the 7th of March, 1607-8, Wotton says: 'The voice is
here newly arrived that Warde hath taken another Venetian vessel of
good value, so as the hatred of him increaseth among them and fully
as fast as the fear of him. These are his effects. Now to give your
Lordship some taste of his language. One Moore, captain of an English
ship that tradeth this way . . . was hailed by him not long since a
little without the Gulf, and answering that he was bound for Venice,
"Tell those flat caps" (said he) "who have been the occasion that I
am banished out of my country that before I have done with them I will
make them sue for pardon. " In this style he speaketh. ' Pearsall Smith,
_Life and Letters of . . . Wotton_, ii. 415. Mr. Pearsall Smith adds in
a note that Ward hoped to 'buy or threaten the English Government into
pardoning him', and that some attempt was also made by the Venetian
Government to procure his assassination.
If 'Island' be the right reading the sea referred to must be the
Adriatic. The Islands of the Illyrian coast were at various times the
haunt of pirates. But I have found no instance of the phrase in this
sense.
l. 25. _the Brittaine Burse. _ This was built by the Earl of Salisbury
on the site of an 'olde long stable' in the Strand on the north side
of Durham House: 'And upon Tuesday the tenth of Aprill this yeere, one
thousand sixe hundred and nine, many of the upper shoppes were richly
furnished with wares, and the next day after that, the King, Queene,
and Prince, the Lady Elizabeth and the Duke of Yorke, with many great
Lords, and chiefe Ladies, came thither, and were there entertained
with pleasant speeches, giftes, and ingenious devices, and then
the king gave it a name, and called it Brittaines Burse. ' Stow,
_Chronicle_, p. 894.
l. 27. _Of new built Algate, and the More-field crosses. _ Aldgate, one
of the four principal gates in the City wall, was taken down in 1606
and rebuilt by 1609: Stow, _Survey_. Norton refers to Jonson's _Silent
Woman_, I. i: 'How long did the canvas hang afore Aldgate? Were the
people suffered to see the city's Love and Charity while they were
rude stone, before they were painted and burnished? '
'The More-field crosses' are apparently the walks at Moor-field.
Speaking of the embellishment of London which ensued from the long
duration of peace, Stow says, 'And lastly, whereof there is a more
generall, and particular notice taken by all persons resorting and
residing in London, the new and pleasant walks on the north side of
the city, anciently called More fields, which field (untill the third
yeare of King James) was a most noysome and offensive place, being a
generall laystall, a rotten morish ground, whereof it tooke first the
name. ' Stow, _Chronicle_. For the ditches which crossed the field were
substituted 'most faire and royall walkes'.
PAGE =107=, l. 41. The '(_quoth Hee_)' of the 1669 edition is
obviously correct. 'Hee' is required both by rhyme and reason. Mr.
Chambers has ingeniously put '"True" quoth I' into a parenthesis, as
a remark interjected by the poet. But apart from the rhyme the 'quoth
Hee' is needed to explain the transition to direct speech. Without it
the long speech of the citizen begins very awkwardly.
ll. 42-44. These lines seem to echo the Royal Proclamation of 1609,
though the reference is different: 'in this speciall Proclamation his
Majestic declared how grievously, the people of this latter age and
times are fallen into verball profession, as well of religion, as of
all commendable morall vertues, but wanting the actions and deeds of
so specious a profession, and the insatiable and immeasurable itching
boldnesse of the spirits, tongues and pens of most men. ' Stow,
_Chronicle_.
l. 46. _Bawd, Tavern-keeper, Whore and Scrivener_; The singular number
of the MS. gives as good a sense as the plural and a better rhyme.
l. 47. _The much of Privileg'd kingsmen, and the store
Of fresh protections, &c. _
'We have many bankrupts daily, and as many protections, which doth
marvellously hinder all manner of commerce. ' Chamberlain to Carleton,
Dec. 31, 1612. By 'kingsmen' I understand noblemen holding monopolies
from the King. I do not understand the 'kinsmen' of the editions.
By 'protections' is meant 'exemptions from suits in law', especially
suits for debt. The London tradesmen were much cheated by the
protections granted to the servants and followers of members of
Parliament.
l. 65. _found nothing but a Rope.
_ I cannot identify this Rope. In the
_Aulularia_ of Plautus, when Euclio finds his treasure gone he laments
in the usual manner. At l. 721 he says, 'Heu me miserum, misere perii,
male perditu', _pessume ornatus eo_. ' The last words may have been
taken as meaning 'I have the rope round my neck'.
PAGE =108=. ELEGIE XV.
l. 12. Following _RP31_ and also Jonson's _Underwoods_ I have taken
'at once' as going with 'Both hot and cold', not with 'make life, and
death' as in _1633-69_. This is one of the poems which _1633_ derived
from some other source than _D_, _H49_, _Lec_.
ll. 16-18 (_all sweeter . . . the rest_) Chambers has overlooked
altogether the _1633_ reading 'sweeter'. He prints 'sweeten'd'
from _1635-69_. It is clear from the MSS. that this is an editor's
amendment due to Donne's 'all sweeter' suggesting, perhaps
intentionally, 'all the sweeter'. By dropping the bracket Chambers
has left at least ambiguous the construction of 17-18: _And the divine
impression of stolne kisses That sealed the rest. _ Does this, as in
_1633_, belong to the parenthesis, or is 'the divine impression' to be
taken with 'so many accents sweet, so many sighes' and 'so many oathes
and teares' as part subject to 'should now prove empty blisses'. I
prefer the _1633_ arrangement, which has the support of the MSS. ,
though the punctuation of these is apt to be careless. The accents,
sighs, oaths, and tears were all made sweeter by having been stolen
with fear and trembling. This is how the Grolier Club editor takes it;
Grosart and Chambers prefer to follow _1635-69_.
PAGE 109, l. 34. I do not know whence Chambers derived his reading
'drift' for 'trust'--perhaps from an imperfect copy of _1633_. He
attributes it to all the editions prior to 1669. This is an oversight.
PAGE =110=, ll. 59 f. _I could renew, &c. _ Compare Ovid, _Amores_, III.
ii. 1-7.
Non ego nobilium sedeo studiosus equorum;
Cui tamen ipsa faves, vincat ut ille precor.
Ut loquerer tecum veni tecumque sederem,
Ne tibi non notus, quem facis, esset amor.
Tu cursum spectas, ego te; spectemus uterque
Quod iuvat, atque oculos pascat uterque suos.
O, cuicumque faves, felix agitator equorum!
PAGE =111=. ELEGIE XVI.
A careful study of the textual notes to this poem will show that there
is a considerable difference between the text of this poem as given
for the first time in _1635_, and that of the majority of the MSS. It
is very difficult, however, to decide between them as the differences
are not generally such as to suggest that one reading is necessarily
right, the other wrong. The chief variants are these: 7 'parents' and
'fathers'. Here I fancy the 'parents' of the MSS. is right, and that
'fathers' in the editions and in a late MS. like _O'F_ is due to the
identification of Donne's mistress with his wife. Only the father of
Anne More was alive at the time of their first acquaintance. It is not
at all certain, however, that this poem is addressed to Anne More,
and in any case Donne would probably have disguised the details. The
change of 'parents' to 'fathers' is more likely than the opposite.
In l. 12 'wayes' (edd. ) and 'meanes' (MSS. ) are practically
indistinguishable; nor is there much to choose between the two
versions of l. 18: 'My soule from other lands to thee shall soare'
(edd. ) and 'From other lands my soule towards thee shall soare'
(MSS. ). In each case the version of the editions is slightly the
better. In l. 28, on the other hand, I have adopted 'mindes' without
hesitation although here the MSS. vary. There is no question of
changing the mind, but there is of changing the mind's habit, of
adopting a boy's cast of thought and manner: as Rosalind says,
and in my heart
Lie there what hidden woman's fear there will,
We'll have a swashing and a martial outside,
As many other mannish cowards have
That do outface it with their semblances.
_As You Like It_, I. iii. 114-18.
In l. 35 the reading 'Lives fuellers', i. e. 'Life's fuellers', which
is found in such early and good MSS. as _D_, _H49_, _Lec_ and _W_,
is very remarkable. If I were convinced that it is correct I should
regard it as decisive and prefer the MS. readings throughout. But
'Loves fuellers', though also a strange phrase, seems more easy of
interpretation, and applicable.
In l. 37 there can, I think, be no doubt that the original reading is
preserved by _A18_, _N_, _S_, _TCD_, and _W_.
Will quickly knowe thee, and knowe thee, and, alas!
The sudden, brutal change in the sense of the word 'knowe' is quite in
Donne's manner. The reasons for omitting or softening it are obvious,
and may excuse my not restoring it. The whole of these central lines
reveal that strange bad taste, some radical want of delicacy, which
mars not only Donne's poems and lighter prose but even at times the
sermons. In l. 49 the reading of the MSS. _A18_, _N_, _TC_; _D_,
_H49_, _Lec_, and _W_ is also probably original:
Nor praise, nor dispraise me; Blesse nor curse.
It is not uncommon in Donne's poetry to find a syllable dropped with
the effect of increasing the stress on a rhetorically emphatic word,
here 'Blesse'. An editor would be sure to supply 'nor'.
Lamb has quoted from this Elegy in his note to Beaumont and Fletcher's
_Philaster_ (_Specimens of English Dramatic Poets_, 1808). It is
clear that he used a copy of the 1669 edition, for he reads 35 'Lives
fuellers', and also 42 'Aydroptique' for 'Hydroptique'. Both these
mistakes were corrected in _1719_. Donne speaks in his sermons of
'fuelling and advancing his tentations'. _Sermons_ 80. 10. 99.
PAGE =112=, l. 44. _England is onely a worthy Gallerie_: i. e. entrance
hall or corridor: 'Here then is the use of our hope before death, that
this life shall be a gallery into a better roome and deliver us over
to a better Country: for, _if in this life only_,' &c. _Sermons_ 50.
30. 270. 'He made but one world; for, this, and the next, are not _two
Worlds_;. . . They are not _two Houses_; This is the _Gallery_, and
that the _Bedchamber_ of one, and the same Palace, which shall feel no
ruine. ' _Sermons_ 50. 43. 399.
In connexion with the general theme of this poem it may be noted
that in 1605 Sir Robert Dudley, the illegitimate son of the Earl of
Leicester, who like Donne served in the Cadiz and Islands expeditions,
left England accompanied by the beautiful Elizabeth Southwell
disguised as a page. At this period the most fantastic poetry was
never more fantastic than life itself.
PAGE =113=. ELEGIE XVII.
l. 12. _wide and farr. _ The MSS. here correct an obvious error of the
editions.
PAGE =114=, l. 24. This line is found only in _A10_, which omits the
next eleven lines. It may belong to a shorter version of the poem, but
it fits quite well into the context.
PAGE =115=, l. 58. _daring eyes. _ The epithet looks as though it had
been repeated from the line above, and perhaps 'darling' or 'darting'
may have been the original reading. However, both the MSS. agree with
the editions, and the word is probably used in two distinct senses,
'bold, adventurous' with 'armes' and 'dazzling' with 'eyes'. Compare:
O now no more
Shall his perfections, like the sunbeams, dare
The purblind world; in heaven those glories are.
Campion, _Elegie upon the Untimely Death of Prince Henry_.
Let his Grace go forward
And dare us with his cap like larks.
Shakespeare, _Henry VIII_, III. ii. 282.
This refers to the custom of 'daring' or dazzling larks with a mirror.
PAGE =116=. ELEGIE XVIII.
PAGE =117=, ll. 31-2. _Men to such Gods, &c. _ Donne has in view here
the different kinds of sacrifice described by Porphyry:
How to devote things living in due form
My verse shall tell, thou in thy tablets write.
For gods of earth and gods of heaven each three;
For heavenly pure white; for gods of earth
Cattle of kindred hue divide in three,
And on the altar lay thy sacrifice.
For gods infernal bury deep, and cast
The blood into a trench. For gentle Nymphs
Honey and gifts of Dionysus pour.
Eusebius: _Praeparatio Evangelica_, iv. 9
(trans. E. H. Gifford, 1903).
l. 47. _The Nose_ (_like to the first Meridian_) 'In the state
of nature we consider the light, as the sunne, to be risen at the
Moluccae, in the farthest East; In the state of the law we consider it
as the sunne come to Ormus, the first Quadrant; but in the Gospel to
be come to the Canaries, the fortunate Ilands, the first Meridian.
Now whatsoever is beyond this, is Westward, towards a Declination. '
_Sermons_ 80. 68. 688.
'Longitude is length, and in the heavens it is understood the distance
of any starre or Planet, from the begining of Aries to the place of
the said Planet or Starre . . . Otherwise, longitude in the earth, is
the distance of the Meridian of any place, from the Meridian which
passeth over the Isles of Azores, where the beginning of longitude is
said to be. ' _The Sea-mans Kalender_, 1632. But ancient Cosmographers
placed the first meridian at the Canaries. See note to p. 187, l. 2.
PAGE =118=, l. 52. _Not faynte Canaries but Ambrosiall. _ The 'Canary'
of several MSS. is probably right--an adjective, like 'Ambrosiall'.
By 'faynte' is meant 'faintly odorous' as opposed to 'Ambrosial', i. e.
'divinely fragrant; perfumed as with Ambrosia' (O. E. D. ). 'Fruit that
ambrosial smell diffus'd': Milton, _Par. Lost_, ix. 852. The text
gives an earlier use of both these words in this meaning than any
indicated by the O. E. D. William Morris uses the same adjective in a
somewhat ambiguous way but meaning, I suppose, 'weak, ready to die':
Where still mid thoughts of August's quivering gold
Folk hoed the wheat, and clipped the vine in trust
Of faint October's purple-foaming must.
_Earthly Paradise, Atalanta's Race. _
PAGE =119=. ELEGIE XIX.
PAGE =120=, l. 17. _then safely tread. _ The 'safely' of so many MSS. ,
including _W_, seems to me a more likely reading than 'softly'. The
latter was probably suggested by the 'soft' of the following line. The
'safely' means of course that even without her shoes she will not be
hurt.
l. 22. _Ill spirits. _ It is not easy to decide between the 'Ill' of
_1669_ and some MSS. and the 'All' of some other MSS. Besides those
enumerated, two lesser MSS. , viz. the Sloane MSS. 542 and 1792, read
'all'.
In _Elegie IV_, l.
