Indeed his own note
suggests
that the
reading of _H-K_ is 'but in's hands'.
reading of _H-K_ is 'but in's hands'.
Donne - 2
' for his father, a member of
Parliament, had been created a baronet on the 1st of August, 1622.
He took his M. A. in 1626, and was incorporated at Cambridge in 1629
(Foster, _Alumni Oxonienses_, i. 276). Just before taking his M. A. he
was elected to represent East Looe. He died, however, before May 10,
1634, which is difficult to reconcile with his being the author of
these verses in 1635, unless they were written some time before.
APPENDIX A.
LATIN POEMS AND TRANSLATIONS.
Who the Dr. Andrews referred to was we do not know. Dr. Grosart
identifies him with the Andrews whose poems are transcribed in _H49_,
but this is purely conjectural.
The lines which I have taken out and made into a separate Epigram
are printed in the old editions as the third and fourth lines of the
letter. As Professor Norton pointed out, they have no connexion with
it. They seem to be addressed to some one who had travelled to Paris
from Frankfort, on an Embassy to the King of France, and had returned.
'The Maine passed to the Seine, into the house of the Victor, and with
your return comes to Frankfort. '
If Grosart's conjecture be correct, the author of the epigram may be
the Francis Andrews whose poems appear along with Donne's in _H49_,
for among these are some political poems in somewhat the same vein:
Though Ister have put down the Rhene
And from his channel thrust him quite;
Though Prage again repayre her losses,
And Idol-berge doth set up crosses,
Yet we a change shall shortly feele
When English smiths work Spanish steele;
Then Tage a nymph shall send to Thames,
The Eagle then shall be in flames,
Then Rhene shall reigne, and Boeme burne,
And Neccar shall to Nectar turne.
And of Henri IV:
Henrie the greate, great both in peace and war
Whom none could teach or imitate aright,
Findes peace above, from which he here was far;
A victor without insolence or spite,
A Prince that reigned, without a Favorite.
Of course, Andrews may be only the transcriber of these poems.
PAGE =398=. TO MR. GEORGE HERBERT, &c.
Walton has described the incident of the seals: 'Not long before his
death he caused to be drawn the figure of the Body of Christ, extended
upon an Anchor, like those which Painters draw when they would present
us with the picture of Christ crucified on the Cross; his varying
no otherwise than to affix him not to a Cross, but to an Anchor (the
Emblem of hope); this he caused to be drawn in little, and then many
of those figures thus drawn to be ingraven very small in _Helitropian_
Stones, and set in gold, and of these he sent to many of his dearest
friends, to be used as _Seals_ or _Rings_, and kept as memorials of
him, and of his affection to them. '
These seals have been figured and described in _The Gentleman's
Magazine_, vol. lxxvii, p. 313 (1807); and _Notes and Queries_, 2nd
Series, viii. 170, 216; 6th Series, x. 426, 473.
Herbert's epistle to Donne is given in _1650_. In Walton's _Life_ the
first two and a half lines of Donne's Latin poem and the whole of
the English one are given, and so with Herbert's reply. As printed
in _1650_ Herbert's reply is apparently interrupted by the insertion
between the eighth and ninth lines of two disconnected stanzas, which
may or may not be by Herbert. The first of these ('When Love' &c. )
with some variants is given in the 1658 edition of the _Life_ of
Donne; but in the collected _Lives_ (1670, 1675) it is withdrawn. The
second I have not found elsewhere.
Although the Crosse could not Christ here detain,
Though nail'd unto't, but he ascends again,
Nor yet thy eloquence here keep him still,
But onely while thou speak'st; This Anchor will.
Nor canst thou be content, unlesse thou to
This certain Anchor adde a Seal, and so
The Water, and the Earth both unto thee
Doe owe the symbole of their certainty.
Let the world reel, we and all ours stand sure,
This holy Cable's of all storms secure.
When Love being weary made an end
Of kinde Expressions to his friend,
He writ; when's hand could write no more,
He gave the Seale, and so left o're.
How sweet a friend was he, who being griev'd
His letters were broke rudely up, believ'd
'Twas more secure in great Loves Common-weal
(Where nothing should be broke) to adde a Seal.
[Line 2: Though _1650_: When _Walton_]
[Line 10: of _1650_: from _Walton_]
In the _Life of Herbert_ Walton refers again to the seals and adds,
'At Mr. Herbert's death these verses were found wrapped up with that
seal which was by the Doctor given to him.
When my dear Friend could write no more,
He gave this Seal, and, so gave ore.
When winds and waves rise highest, I am sure,
This Anchor keeps my faith, that, me secure. '
PAGE =400=, l. 22. <_Wishes_> I have ventured to change 'Works' to
'Wishes'. It corrects the metre and corresponds to the Latin.
PAGE =400=. TRANSLATED OUT OF GAZAEUS, &c.
The original runs as follows:
Tibi quod optas et quod opto, dent Divi,
(Sol optimorum in optimis Amicorum)
Vt anima semper laeta nesciat curas,
Vt vita semper viva nesciat canos,
Vt dextra semper larga nesciat sordes,
Vt bursa semper plena nesciat rugas,
Vt lingua semper vera nesciat lapsum,
Vt verba semper blanda nesciant rixas,
Vt facta semper aequa nesciant fucum,
Vt fama semper pura nesciat probrum,
Vt vota semper alta nesciant terras,
Tibi quod optas et quod opto, dent Divi.
I have taken it from:
PIA
H I L A R I A
VARIAQVE
CARMINA
ANGELINI GAZÆI
_è Societate Iesu, Atrebatis_.
[An ornament in original. ]
DILINGAE
_Formis Academicis
Cum auctoritate Superiorum_.
Apud VDALRICUM REM
CIↃ. IↃC. XXIII.
The folios of this edition do not correspond to those of that which
Donne seems to have used.
APPENDIX B.
POEMS WHICH HAVE BEEN ATTRIBUTED TO DONNE.
For a full discussion of the authorship of these poems see _Text and
Canon of Donne's Poems_, pp. cxxix _et seq. _
PAGE =401=. TO S^r NICHOLAS SMYTH.
Chambers points out that a Nicholas Smyth has a set of verses in
_Coryats Crudities_, 1611.
In the _Visitation of the County of Devon_, 1620, a long genealogy is
given, the closing portion of which shows who this Nicholas Smith or
Smyth of Exeter (l. 15) and his father were:
Joan, d. of James Walker = Sir Geo. Smith of Exeter,
who was descended of the | Knt. , ob. 1619.
Mathewes of Wales who |
were descended of Flewellyns |
and Herberts. |
+-----------------+-----------+------+-----------------------+
| | | |
Divers children Elizabeth, Sir Nicholas Smith=Dorothea, d. James,
d. without &c. of Larkbeare in of Sir Raphe &c.
issue. com. Devon, Kt. Horsey de
com. Dorsett.
Seven children of Sir Nicholas are given, including another Nicholas
(aet. 14), and the whole is signed 'Nich Smith'.
This is doubtless Roe's friend. With Roe as a Falstaff he had probably
'heard the chimes at midnight' in London before he settled down to
raise a family in Devonshire.
l. 7. _sleeps House, &c. _ Ovid xi; Ariosto, _Orlando Furioso_, Canto
xiv; Spenser, _Faerie Queene_, I. i.
PAGE =402=, l. 26. _Epps_. 'This afternoon a servingman of the Earl
of Northumberland fought with swaggering Eps, and ran him through the
ear. ' _Manninghams Diary_, 8th April, 1603 (Camden Club, p. 165). This
is the only certain reference to Epps I have been able to find, but
Grosart declares he is the soldier described in Dekker's _Knights
Conjuring_ as behaving with great courage at the siege of Ostend
(1601-4), where he was killed. I can find no name in Dekker's work.
ll. 27-31. As printed in _1669_ these lines are not very intelligible,
and neither Grosart nor Chambers has corrected them. As given in the
MSS. (e. g. _TCD_) they are a little clearer:
For his Body and State
The Physick and Counsel (which came too late)
'Gainst whores and dice, hee nowe on mee bestowes
Most superficially: hee speakes of those,
(I found by him) least soundly whoe most knows:
The purpose of bracketing 'which came too late' is obviously to keep
it from being taken with ''Gainst whores and dice'--the very mistake
that _1669_ has fallen into and Grosart and Chambers have preserved.
The drawback to this use of the bracket is that it disguises, at least
to modern readers, that 'which came too late' must be taken with 'For
his Body and State'. I have therefore dropped it and placed a comma
after 'late'. The meaning I take to be as follows: 'The physic and
counsel against whores and dice, which came too late for his own body
and estate, he now bestows on me in a superficial fashion; for I found
by him that of whores and dice those speak least soundly who know
most from personal experience. ' A rather shrewd remark. There are some
spheres where experience does not teach, but corrupt.
l. 40. _in that or those_: 'that' the Duello, 'those' the laws of the
Duello. There is not much to choose between 'these' and 'those'.
ll. 41-3. _Though sober; but so never fought. I know
What made his Valour, undubb'd, Windmill go,
Within a Pint at most:_
The MSS. improve both the metre and the sense of the first of these
lines, which in _1669_ and Chambers runs:
Though sober; but nere fought. I know . . .
It is when he is sober that he never fights, though he may quarrel.
Roe knows exactly how much drink it would take to make this undubb'd
Don Quixote charge a windmill, or like a windmill. But the poem is too
early for an actual reference to _Don Quixote_
PAGE =403=, ll. 67-8. _and he is braver now
Than his captain. _
By 'braver' the poet means, not more courageous, but more splendidly
attired, more 'braw'.
PAGE =404=, l. 88. _Abraham France_--who wrote English hexameters. His
chief works are _The Countess of Pembrokes Ivy Church_ (1591) and _The
Countess of Pembrokes Emmanuel_ (1591). He was alive in 1633.
PAGE =405=, l. 113. _So they their weakness hide, and greatness
show. _ Grosart refused the reading 'weakness', which he found in
his favourite MS. _S_, and Chambers ignored it. It has, however, the
support of _B_, _O'F_, and _L74_ (which is strong in Roe's poetry),
and seems to me to give the right edge to the sarcasm. 'By giving to
flatterers what they owe to worth, Kings and Lords think to hide their
weakness of character, and to display the greatness of their wealth
and station. ' They make a double revelation of their weakness in their
credulity and their love of display.
l. 128. _Cuff. _ Henry Cuff (1563-1601), secretary to Essex and an
abettor of the conspiracy.
l. 131. _that Scot. _ It is incredible that Donne wrote these lines. He
found some of his best friends among the Scotch--Hay, Sir Robert Ker,
Essex, and Hamilton, to say nothing of the King.
PAGE =406=. SATYRE.
PAGE =407=, ll. 32-3. _A time to come, &c. _ I have adopted Grosart's
punctuation and think his interpretation of 'beg' must be the right
one--'beg thee as an idiot or natural. ' The O. E. D. gives: '† 5a. _To
beg a person_: to petition the Court of Wards (established by Henry
VIII and suppressed under Charles II) for the custody of a minor, an
heiress, or an idiot, as feudal superior or as having interest in the
matter: hence also fig. _To beg_ (any one) _for a fool_ or _idiot_: to
take him for, set him down as. _Obs. _' Among other examples is, 'He
proved a wiser man by much than he that begged him. Harington, _Met.
Ajax_ 46. ' What the satirist says is, 'The time will come when she
will beg to have wardship of thee as an idiot. If you continue she
will take you for one now. '
l. 35. _Besides, her<s>. _ My reading combines the variants. I think
'here' must be wrong.
PAGE =407=. AN ELEGIE.
PAGE =408=, l. 5. _Else, if you were, and just, in equitie &c. _ This
is the punctuation of _H39_, and is obviously right, 'in equitie'
going with what follows. He has denied the existence or, at least, the
influence of the Fates, and now continues, 'For if you existed or had
power, and if you were just, then, according to all equity I should
have vanquish'd her as you did me. ' Grosart and the Grolier Club
editor follow _1635-54_, and read:
Else, if you were, and just in equity, &c.
Chambers accepts the attempt of _1669_ to amend this, and prints:
True if you were, and just in equity, &c.
But 'just in equity' is not a phrase to which any meaning can be
attached.
PAGE =412=. AN ELEGIE.
Grosart prints this very incorrectly. He does not even reproduce
correctly the MS. _S_, which he professes to follow. Chambers follows
Grosart, adopting some of the variants of the Haslewood-Kingsborough
MS. reported by Grosart. They both have the strange reading 'cut
in bands' in l. 11, which as a fact is not even in _S_, from which
Grosart professes to derive it. The reading of all the MSS. , 'but in
his handes,' makes quite good sense. The Scot wants matter, except
in his hands, i. e. dirt, which is 'matter out of place'. The reading,
'writ in his hands', which Chambers reports after Grosart, is probably
a mistake of the latter's.
Indeed his own note suggests that the
reading of _H-K_ is 'but in's hands'.
PAGE =417=. TO THE COUNTESSE OF HUNTINGTON.
It looks as if some lines of this poem had been lost. The first
sentence has no subject unless 'That' in the second line be a
demonstrative--a very awkward construction.
If written by Donne this poem must have been composed about the same
time as _The Storme_ and _The Calme_. He is writing apparently from
the New World, from the Azores. But it is as impossible to recover the
circumstances in which the poem was written as to be sure who wrote
it.
PAGE =422=. ELEGIE.
ll. 5-6. _denounce . . . pronounce. _ The reading of the MSS. seems to
me plainly the correct one. 'In others, terror, anguish and grief
announce the approach of death. Her courage, ease and joy in dying
pronounce the happiness of her state. ' The reading of the printed
texts is due to the error by which _1635_ and _1639_ took 'comming'
as an epithet to 'terror' as 'happy' is to 'state'. Some MSS. read
'terrors' and 'joyes'.
l. 22. _Their spoyles, &c. _ I have adopted the MS. reading here,
though with some hesitation, because (1) it is the more difficult
reading: 'Soules to thy conquest beare' seems more like a conjectural
emendation than the other reading, (2) The construction of the line
in the printed texts is harsh--one does not bear anything 'to a
conquest', (3) the meaning suits the context better. It is not souls
that are spoken of, but bodies. The bodies of the wicked become the
spoil of death, trophies of his victory over Adam; not so those of the
good, which shall rise again. See 1 Cor. xv. 54-5.
PAGE =424=. PSALME 137.
This Psalm is found in a MS. collection of metrical psalms (Rawlinson
Poetical 161), in the Bodleian Library, transcribed by a certain R.
Crane. The list of authors is Fr. Dav. , Jos. Be. , Rich. Cripps, Chr.
Dav. , Th. Carry. That Davison is the author of this particular Psalm
is strongly suggested by the poetical _Induction_ which in style and
verse resembles the psalm. The induction is signed 'Fr. Dav. ' The
first verse runs:
Come Urania, heavenly Muse,
and infuse
Sacred flame to my invention;
Sing so loud that Angells may
heare thy lay,
Lending to thy note attention.
PAGE =429=. SONG.
_Soules joy, now I am gone, &c. _ George Herbert, in the _Temple_,
gives _A Parodie_ of this poem, opening:
Soul's joy, when thou art gone,
And I alone,
Which cannot be,
Because Thou dost abide with me,
And I depend on Thee.
The parody does not extend beyond the first verse.
It was one of the aims of Herbert to turn the Muse from profane love
verses to sacred purposes. Mr. Chambers points to another reference
to this poem in some very bad verses by Sir Kenelm Digby in Bright's
edition of Digby's _Poems_ (p. 8), _The Roxburghe Club_.
APPENDIX C.
I. POEMS FROM ADDITIONAL MS. 25707. PAGE =433=.
The authorship of the four poems here printed from _A25_ has been
discussed in the _Text and Canon, &c. _ There is not much reason to
doubt that the first is what it professes to be. The order of the
names in the heading, and the character of the verses both suggest
that the second and corresponding verses are Donne's contribution.
There is a characteristic touch in each one. I cannot find anything
eminently characteristic in any of the rest of the group. The third
poem refers to the poetical controversy on Love and Reason carried on
with much spirit between the Earl of Pembroke and Sir Benjamin Rudyerd
in their _Poems_ as printed by the younger Donne in 1660. A much finer
fragment of the debate, beginning--
And why should Love a footboy's place despise?
is attributed to Donne by the Bridgewater MS. and the MS. in the
library of the Marquess of Crewe. It is part of a poem by Rudyerd in
the debate in the volume referred to.
II. POEMS FROM THE BURLEY MS. PAGE =437=.
Of the poems here printed from the Burley-on-the-Hill MS. , none I
think is Donne's. The chief interest of the collection is that it
comes from a commonplace-book of Sir Henry Wotton, and therefore
presumably represents the work of the group of wits to which Donne,
Bacon, and Wotton belonged. I have found only one of them in other
MSS. , viz. that which I have called _Life a Play_. This occurs in
quite a number of MSS. in the British Museum, and has been published
in Hannah's _Courtly Poets_. It is generally ascribed to Sir Walter
Raleigh; and Harleian MS. 733 entitles it _Verses made by Sir Walter
Raleigh made the same morning he was executed_. I have printed it
because with the first, and another in the _Reliquiae Wottonianae_, it
illustrates Wotton's taste for this comparison of life to a stage, a
comparison probably derived from an epigram in the Greek Anthology,
which may be the source of Shakespeare's famous lines in _As You Like
It_. The epitaph by Jonson on Hemmings, Shakespeare's fellow-actor
and executor, is interesting. A similar epitaph on Burbage is found in
Sloane MS. 1786:
An Epitaph on Mr Richard Burbage the Player.
This life's a play groaned out by natures Arte
Where every man hath his alloted parte.
This man hath now as many men can tell
Ended his part, and he hath done it well.
The Play now ended, think his grave to bee
The retiring house of his sad Tragedie.
Where to give his fame this, be not afraid:
Here lies the best Tragedian ever plaid.
III. POEMS FROM VARIOUS MSS. PAGE =443=.
Of the miscellaneous poems here collected there is very little to be
said. The first eight or nine come from the O'Flaherty MS. (_O'F_),
which professes to be a collection of Donne's poems, and may, Mr.
Warwick Bond thinks, have been made by the younger Donne, as it
contains a poem by him. It is careless enough to be his work.
They illustrate well the kind of poem attributed to Donne in the
seventeenth century, some on the ground of their wit, others because
of their subject-matter. Donne had written some improper poems as a
young man; it was tempting therefore to assign any wandering poem
of this kind to the famous Dean of St. Paul's. The first poem, _The
Annuntiation_, has nothing to do with Donne's poem _The Annuntiation
and Passion_, but has been attached to it in a manner which is
common enough in the MSS. The poem _Love's Exchange_ is obviously an
imitation of Donne's _Lovers infinitenesse_ (p. 17). _A Paradoxe of a
Painted Face_ was attributed to Donne because he had written a prose
_Paradox_ entitled _That Women ought to paint_. The poem was not
published till 1660. In Harleian MS. it is said to be 'By my Lo: of
Cant. follower Mr. Baker'. The lines on _Black Hayre and Eyes_ (p.
460) are found in fifteen or more different MSS. in the British Museum
alone, and were printed in _Parnassus Biceps_ (1656) and Pembroke and
Ruddier's _Poems_ (1660). Two of the MSS. attribute the poem to Ben
Jonson, but others assign it to W. P. or Walton Poole. Mr. Chambers
points out that a Walton Poole has verses in _Annalia Dubrensia_
(1636), and also cites from Foster's _Alumni Oxonienses_: 'Walton
Poole of Wilts arm. matr. 9. 1. 1580 at Trinity Coll. aged 15. ' These
may be the same person. The signature A. P. or W. P. at the foot of
several pages suggests that the Stowe MS. 961 of Donne's poems had
belonged to some member of this family. The fragment of an Elegy at
p. 462 occurs only in _P_, where it forms part of an Heroicall Epistle
with which it has obviously nothing to do. I have thought it worth
preserving because of its intense though mannered style. The line,
'Fortune now do thy worst' recalls _Elegie XII_, l. 67. The closing
poem,'Farewell ye guilded follies,' comes from Walton's _Complete
Angler_ (1658), where it is thus introduced: 'I will requite you with
a very good copy of verses: it is a farewell to the vanities of the
world, and some say written by Dr. D. But let they be written by
whom they will, he that writ them had a brave soul, and must needs be
possest with happy thoughts of their composure. ' In the third edition
(1661) the words were changed to 'And some say written by Sir Harry
Wotton, who I told you was an excellent Angler. ' In one MS. they are
attributed to Henry King, Donne's friend and literary executor, and in
two others they are assigned to Sir Kenelm Digby, as by whom they are
printed in _Wits Interpreter_ (1655). Mr. Chambers points out that
'The closing lines of King's _The Farewell_ are curiously similar to
those of this poem. ' He quotes:
My woeful Monument shall be a cell,
The murmur of the purling brook my knell;
My lasting Epitaph the Rock shall groan;
Thus when sad lovers ask the weeping stone,
What wretched thing does in that centre lie,
The hollow echo will reply, 'twas I.
I cannot understand why Mr. Chambers, to whom I am indebted for most
of this information, was content to print so inadequate a text when
Walton was in his hand. Two of his lines completely puzzled me:
Welcome pure thoughts! welcome, ye careless groans!
These are my guests, this is that courtage tones.
'Groans' are generally the sign of care, not of its absence. However,
I find that Ashmole MS. 38, in the Bodleian, and some others read:
Welcome pure thoughts! welcome ye careless groves!
These are my guests, this is that court age loves.
This explains the mystery. But Mr. Chambers followed Grosart; and
Grosart was inclined to prefer the version of a bad MS. which he had
found to a good printed version.
SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES.
PAGES =5=, =6=. The poems of Ben Jonson are here printed just as
they stand in the 1650, 1654, 1669 editions of Donne's _Poems_.
A comparison with the 1616 edition of Jonson's _Works_ shows some
errors. The poem _To John Donne_ (p. 5) is xxiii of the _Epigrammes_.
The sixth line runs
And which no affection praise enough can give!
The absurd 'no'n' of 1650 seems to have arisen from the printing
'no'affection' of the 1640 edition of Jonson's _Works_. The 1719
editor of Donne's _Poems_ corrected this mistake. A more serious
mistake occurs in the ninth line, which in the _Works_ (1616) runs:
All which I meant to praise, and, yet I would.
The error 'mean' comes from the 1640 edition of the _Works of Ben
Jonson_, which prints 'meane'.
_To Lucy, &c. _, is xciii of the _Epigrammes_. The fourteenth line
runs:
Be of the best; and 'mongst those, best are you.
The comma makes the sense clearer. In l. 3, 1616 reads 'looke,' with
comma.
_To John Donne_ (p. 6) is xcvi. There are no errors; but 'punees' is
in _1616_ more correctly spelt 'pui'nees'.
PAGES =7=, =175=, =369=. I am indebted for the excellent copies of
the engravings here reproduced to the kind services of Mr. Laurence
Binyon. The portraits form a striking supplement to the poems along
with which they are placed. The first is the young man of the _Songs
and Sonets_, the _Elegies_ and the _Satyres_, the counterpart of Biron
and Benedick and the audacious and witty young men of Shakespeare's
Comedies. 'Neither was it possible,' says Hacket in his _Scrinia
Reserata: a Memorial of John Williams . . . Archbishop of York_ (1693),
'that a vulgar soul should dwell in such promising features. '
The engraving by Lombart is an even more lifelike portrait of the
author of the _Letters_, _Epicedes_, _Anniversaries_ and earlier
_Divine Poems_, learned and witty, worldly and pious, melancholy
yet ever and again 'kindling squibs about himself and flying into
sportiveness', writing at one time the serious _Pseudo-Martyr_,
at another the outrageous _Ignatius his Conclave_, and again the
strangely-mooded, self-revealing _Biathanatos_: 'mee thinks I have the
keyes of my prison in mine owne hand, and no remedy presents it selfe
so soone to my heart, as mine own sword. '
After describing the circumstances attending the execution of the last
portrait of Donne, Walton adds in the 1675 edition of the _Lives_ (the
passage is not in the earlier editions of the _Life of Donne_): 'And
now, having brought him through the many labyrinths and perplexities
of a various life: even to the gates of death and the grave; my desire
is, he may rest till I have told my Reader, that I have seen many
Pictures of him, in several habits, and at several ages, and in
several postures: And I now mention this, because, I have seen one
Picture of him, drawn by a curious hand at his age of eighteen; with
his sword and what other adornments might then suit with the present
fashions of youth, and the giddy gayeties of that age: and his Motto
then was,
How much shall I be chang'd,
Before I am chang'd.
And, if that young, and his now dying Picture, were at this time set
together, every beholder might say, _Lord! How much is_ Dr. Donne
_already chang'd, before he is chang'd! _' The change written in the
portrait is the change from the poet of the _Songs and Sonets_ to the
poet of the _Holy Sonnets_ and last _Hymns_.
Parliament, had been created a baronet on the 1st of August, 1622.
He took his M. A. in 1626, and was incorporated at Cambridge in 1629
(Foster, _Alumni Oxonienses_, i. 276). Just before taking his M. A. he
was elected to represent East Looe. He died, however, before May 10,
1634, which is difficult to reconcile with his being the author of
these verses in 1635, unless they were written some time before.
APPENDIX A.
LATIN POEMS AND TRANSLATIONS.
Who the Dr. Andrews referred to was we do not know. Dr. Grosart
identifies him with the Andrews whose poems are transcribed in _H49_,
but this is purely conjectural.
The lines which I have taken out and made into a separate Epigram
are printed in the old editions as the third and fourth lines of the
letter. As Professor Norton pointed out, they have no connexion with
it. They seem to be addressed to some one who had travelled to Paris
from Frankfort, on an Embassy to the King of France, and had returned.
'The Maine passed to the Seine, into the house of the Victor, and with
your return comes to Frankfort. '
If Grosart's conjecture be correct, the author of the epigram may be
the Francis Andrews whose poems appear along with Donne's in _H49_,
for among these are some political poems in somewhat the same vein:
Though Ister have put down the Rhene
And from his channel thrust him quite;
Though Prage again repayre her losses,
And Idol-berge doth set up crosses,
Yet we a change shall shortly feele
When English smiths work Spanish steele;
Then Tage a nymph shall send to Thames,
The Eagle then shall be in flames,
Then Rhene shall reigne, and Boeme burne,
And Neccar shall to Nectar turne.
And of Henri IV:
Henrie the greate, great both in peace and war
Whom none could teach or imitate aright,
Findes peace above, from which he here was far;
A victor without insolence or spite,
A Prince that reigned, without a Favorite.
Of course, Andrews may be only the transcriber of these poems.
PAGE =398=. TO MR. GEORGE HERBERT, &c.
Walton has described the incident of the seals: 'Not long before his
death he caused to be drawn the figure of the Body of Christ, extended
upon an Anchor, like those which Painters draw when they would present
us with the picture of Christ crucified on the Cross; his varying
no otherwise than to affix him not to a Cross, but to an Anchor (the
Emblem of hope); this he caused to be drawn in little, and then many
of those figures thus drawn to be ingraven very small in _Helitropian_
Stones, and set in gold, and of these he sent to many of his dearest
friends, to be used as _Seals_ or _Rings_, and kept as memorials of
him, and of his affection to them. '
These seals have been figured and described in _The Gentleman's
Magazine_, vol. lxxvii, p. 313 (1807); and _Notes and Queries_, 2nd
Series, viii. 170, 216; 6th Series, x. 426, 473.
Herbert's epistle to Donne is given in _1650_. In Walton's _Life_ the
first two and a half lines of Donne's Latin poem and the whole of
the English one are given, and so with Herbert's reply. As printed
in _1650_ Herbert's reply is apparently interrupted by the insertion
between the eighth and ninth lines of two disconnected stanzas, which
may or may not be by Herbert. The first of these ('When Love' &c. )
with some variants is given in the 1658 edition of the _Life_ of
Donne; but in the collected _Lives_ (1670, 1675) it is withdrawn. The
second I have not found elsewhere.
Although the Crosse could not Christ here detain,
Though nail'd unto't, but he ascends again,
Nor yet thy eloquence here keep him still,
But onely while thou speak'st; This Anchor will.
Nor canst thou be content, unlesse thou to
This certain Anchor adde a Seal, and so
The Water, and the Earth both unto thee
Doe owe the symbole of their certainty.
Let the world reel, we and all ours stand sure,
This holy Cable's of all storms secure.
When Love being weary made an end
Of kinde Expressions to his friend,
He writ; when's hand could write no more,
He gave the Seale, and so left o're.
How sweet a friend was he, who being griev'd
His letters were broke rudely up, believ'd
'Twas more secure in great Loves Common-weal
(Where nothing should be broke) to adde a Seal.
[Line 2: Though _1650_: When _Walton_]
[Line 10: of _1650_: from _Walton_]
In the _Life of Herbert_ Walton refers again to the seals and adds,
'At Mr. Herbert's death these verses were found wrapped up with that
seal which was by the Doctor given to him.
When my dear Friend could write no more,
He gave this Seal, and, so gave ore.
When winds and waves rise highest, I am sure,
This Anchor keeps my faith, that, me secure. '
PAGE =400=, l. 22. <_Wishes_> I have ventured to change 'Works' to
'Wishes'. It corrects the metre and corresponds to the Latin.
PAGE =400=. TRANSLATED OUT OF GAZAEUS, &c.
The original runs as follows:
Tibi quod optas et quod opto, dent Divi,
(Sol optimorum in optimis Amicorum)
Vt anima semper laeta nesciat curas,
Vt vita semper viva nesciat canos,
Vt dextra semper larga nesciat sordes,
Vt bursa semper plena nesciat rugas,
Vt lingua semper vera nesciat lapsum,
Vt verba semper blanda nesciant rixas,
Vt facta semper aequa nesciant fucum,
Vt fama semper pura nesciat probrum,
Vt vota semper alta nesciant terras,
Tibi quod optas et quod opto, dent Divi.
I have taken it from:
PIA
H I L A R I A
VARIAQVE
CARMINA
ANGELINI GAZÆI
_è Societate Iesu, Atrebatis_.
[An ornament in original. ]
DILINGAE
_Formis Academicis
Cum auctoritate Superiorum_.
Apud VDALRICUM REM
CIↃ. IↃC. XXIII.
The folios of this edition do not correspond to those of that which
Donne seems to have used.
APPENDIX B.
POEMS WHICH HAVE BEEN ATTRIBUTED TO DONNE.
For a full discussion of the authorship of these poems see _Text and
Canon of Donne's Poems_, pp. cxxix _et seq. _
PAGE =401=. TO S^r NICHOLAS SMYTH.
Chambers points out that a Nicholas Smyth has a set of verses in
_Coryats Crudities_, 1611.
In the _Visitation of the County of Devon_, 1620, a long genealogy is
given, the closing portion of which shows who this Nicholas Smith or
Smyth of Exeter (l. 15) and his father were:
Joan, d. of James Walker = Sir Geo. Smith of Exeter,
who was descended of the | Knt. , ob. 1619.
Mathewes of Wales who |
were descended of Flewellyns |
and Herberts. |
+-----------------+-----------+------+-----------------------+
| | | |
Divers children Elizabeth, Sir Nicholas Smith=Dorothea, d. James,
d. without &c. of Larkbeare in of Sir Raphe &c.
issue. com. Devon, Kt. Horsey de
com. Dorsett.
Seven children of Sir Nicholas are given, including another Nicholas
(aet. 14), and the whole is signed 'Nich Smith'.
This is doubtless Roe's friend. With Roe as a Falstaff he had probably
'heard the chimes at midnight' in London before he settled down to
raise a family in Devonshire.
l. 7. _sleeps House, &c. _ Ovid xi; Ariosto, _Orlando Furioso_, Canto
xiv; Spenser, _Faerie Queene_, I. i.
PAGE =402=, l. 26. _Epps_. 'This afternoon a servingman of the Earl
of Northumberland fought with swaggering Eps, and ran him through the
ear. ' _Manninghams Diary_, 8th April, 1603 (Camden Club, p. 165). This
is the only certain reference to Epps I have been able to find, but
Grosart declares he is the soldier described in Dekker's _Knights
Conjuring_ as behaving with great courage at the siege of Ostend
(1601-4), where he was killed. I can find no name in Dekker's work.
ll. 27-31. As printed in _1669_ these lines are not very intelligible,
and neither Grosart nor Chambers has corrected them. As given in the
MSS. (e. g. _TCD_) they are a little clearer:
For his Body and State
The Physick and Counsel (which came too late)
'Gainst whores and dice, hee nowe on mee bestowes
Most superficially: hee speakes of those,
(I found by him) least soundly whoe most knows:
The purpose of bracketing 'which came too late' is obviously to keep
it from being taken with ''Gainst whores and dice'--the very mistake
that _1669_ has fallen into and Grosart and Chambers have preserved.
The drawback to this use of the bracket is that it disguises, at least
to modern readers, that 'which came too late' must be taken with 'For
his Body and State'. I have therefore dropped it and placed a comma
after 'late'. The meaning I take to be as follows: 'The physic and
counsel against whores and dice, which came too late for his own body
and estate, he now bestows on me in a superficial fashion; for I found
by him that of whores and dice those speak least soundly who know
most from personal experience. ' A rather shrewd remark. There are some
spheres where experience does not teach, but corrupt.
l. 40. _in that or those_: 'that' the Duello, 'those' the laws of the
Duello. There is not much to choose between 'these' and 'those'.
ll. 41-3. _Though sober; but so never fought. I know
What made his Valour, undubb'd, Windmill go,
Within a Pint at most:_
The MSS. improve both the metre and the sense of the first of these
lines, which in _1669_ and Chambers runs:
Though sober; but nere fought. I know . . .
It is when he is sober that he never fights, though he may quarrel.
Roe knows exactly how much drink it would take to make this undubb'd
Don Quixote charge a windmill, or like a windmill. But the poem is too
early for an actual reference to _Don Quixote_
PAGE =403=, ll. 67-8. _and he is braver now
Than his captain. _
By 'braver' the poet means, not more courageous, but more splendidly
attired, more 'braw'.
PAGE =404=, l. 88. _Abraham France_--who wrote English hexameters. His
chief works are _The Countess of Pembrokes Ivy Church_ (1591) and _The
Countess of Pembrokes Emmanuel_ (1591). He was alive in 1633.
PAGE =405=, l. 113. _So they their weakness hide, and greatness
show. _ Grosart refused the reading 'weakness', which he found in
his favourite MS. _S_, and Chambers ignored it. It has, however, the
support of _B_, _O'F_, and _L74_ (which is strong in Roe's poetry),
and seems to me to give the right edge to the sarcasm. 'By giving to
flatterers what they owe to worth, Kings and Lords think to hide their
weakness of character, and to display the greatness of their wealth
and station. ' They make a double revelation of their weakness in their
credulity and their love of display.
l. 128. _Cuff. _ Henry Cuff (1563-1601), secretary to Essex and an
abettor of the conspiracy.
l. 131. _that Scot. _ It is incredible that Donne wrote these lines. He
found some of his best friends among the Scotch--Hay, Sir Robert Ker,
Essex, and Hamilton, to say nothing of the King.
PAGE =406=. SATYRE.
PAGE =407=, ll. 32-3. _A time to come, &c. _ I have adopted Grosart's
punctuation and think his interpretation of 'beg' must be the right
one--'beg thee as an idiot or natural. ' The O. E. D. gives: '† 5a. _To
beg a person_: to petition the Court of Wards (established by Henry
VIII and suppressed under Charles II) for the custody of a minor, an
heiress, or an idiot, as feudal superior or as having interest in the
matter: hence also fig. _To beg_ (any one) _for a fool_ or _idiot_: to
take him for, set him down as. _Obs. _' Among other examples is, 'He
proved a wiser man by much than he that begged him. Harington, _Met.
Ajax_ 46. ' What the satirist says is, 'The time will come when she
will beg to have wardship of thee as an idiot. If you continue she
will take you for one now. '
l. 35. _Besides, her<s>. _ My reading combines the variants. I think
'here' must be wrong.
PAGE =407=. AN ELEGIE.
PAGE =408=, l. 5. _Else, if you were, and just, in equitie &c. _ This
is the punctuation of _H39_, and is obviously right, 'in equitie'
going with what follows. He has denied the existence or, at least, the
influence of the Fates, and now continues, 'For if you existed or had
power, and if you were just, then, according to all equity I should
have vanquish'd her as you did me. ' Grosart and the Grolier Club
editor follow _1635-54_, and read:
Else, if you were, and just in equity, &c.
Chambers accepts the attempt of _1669_ to amend this, and prints:
True if you were, and just in equity, &c.
But 'just in equity' is not a phrase to which any meaning can be
attached.
PAGE =412=. AN ELEGIE.
Grosart prints this very incorrectly. He does not even reproduce
correctly the MS. _S_, which he professes to follow. Chambers follows
Grosart, adopting some of the variants of the Haslewood-Kingsborough
MS. reported by Grosart. They both have the strange reading 'cut
in bands' in l. 11, which as a fact is not even in _S_, from which
Grosart professes to derive it. The reading of all the MSS. , 'but in
his handes,' makes quite good sense. The Scot wants matter, except
in his hands, i. e. dirt, which is 'matter out of place'. The reading,
'writ in his hands', which Chambers reports after Grosart, is probably
a mistake of the latter's.
Indeed his own note suggests that the
reading of _H-K_ is 'but in's hands'.
PAGE =417=. TO THE COUNTESSE OF HUNTINGTON.
It looks as if some lines of this poem had been lost. The first
sentence has no subject unless 'That' in the second line be a
demonstrative--a very awkward construction.
If written by Donne this poem must have been composed about the same
time as _The Storme_ and _The Calme_. He is writing apparently from
the New World, from the Azores. But it is as impossible to recover the
circumstances in which the poem was written as to be sure who wrote
it.
PAGE =422=. ELEGIE.
ll. 5-6. _denounce . . . pronounce. _ The reading of the MSS. seems to
me plainly the correct one. 'In others, terror, anguish and grief
announce the approach of death. Her courage, ease and joy in dying
pronounce the happiness of her state. ' The reading of the printed
texts is due to the error by which _1635_ and _1639_ took 'comming'
as an epithet to 'terror' as 'happy' is to 'state'. Some MSS. read
'terrors' and 'joyes'.
l. 22. _Their spoyles, &c. _ I have adopted the MS. reading here,
though with some hesitation, because (1) it is the more difficult
reading: 'Soules to thy conquest beare' seems more like a conjectural
emendation than the other reading, (2) The construction of the line
in the printed texts is harsh--one does not bear anything 'to a
conquest', (3) the meaning suits the context better. It is not souls
that are spoken of, but bodies. The bodies of the wicked become the
spoil of death, trophies of his victory over Adam; not so those of the
good, which shall rise again. See 1 Cor. xv. 54-5.
PAGE =424=. PSALME 137.
This Psalm is found in a MS. collection of metrical psalms (Rawlinson
Poetical 161), in the Bodleian Library, transcribed by a certain R.
Crane. The list of authors is Fr. Dav. , Jos. Be. , Rich. Cripps, Chr.
Dav. , Th. Carry. That Davison is the author of this particular Psalm
is strongly suggested by the poetical _Induction_ which in style and
verse resembles the psalm. The induction is signed 'Fr. Dav. ' The
first verse runs:
Come Urania, heavenly Muse,
and infuse
Sacred flame to my invention;
Sing so loud that Angells may
heare thy lay,
Lending to thy note attention.
PAGE =429=. SONG.
_Soules joy, now I am gone, &c. _ George Herbert, in the _Temple_,
gives _A Parodie_ of this poem, opening:
Soul's joy, when thou art gone,
And I alone,
Which cannot be,
Because Thou dost abide with me,
And I depend on Thee.
The parody does not extend beyond the first verse.
It was one of the aims of Herbert to turn the Muse from profane love
verses to sacred purposes. Mr. Chambers points to another reference
to this poem in some very bad verses by Sir Kenelm Digby in Bright's
edition of Digby's _Poems_ (p. 8), _The Roxburghe Club_.
APPENDIX C.
I. POEMS FROM ADDITIONAL MS. 25707. PAGE =433=.
The authorship of the four poems here printed from _A25_ has been
discussed in the _Text and Canon, &c. _ There is not much reason to
doubt that the first is what it professes to be. The order of the
names in the heading, and the character of the verses both suggest
that the second and corresponding verses are Donne's contribution.
There is a characteristic touch in each one. I cannot find anything
eminently characteristic in any of the rest of the group. The third
poem refers to the poetical controversy on Love and Reason carried on
with much spirit between the Earl of Pembroke and Sir Benjamin Rudyerd
in their _Poems_ as printed by the younger Donne in 1660. A much finer
fragment of the debate, beginning--
And why should Love a footboy's place despise?
is attributed to Donne by the Bridgewater MS. and the MS. in the
library of the Marquess of Crewe. It is part of a poem by Rudyerd in
the debate in the volume referred to.
II. POEMS FROM THE BURLEY MS. PAGE =437=.
Of the poems here printed from the Burley-on-the-Hill MS. , none I
think is Donne's. The chief interest of the collection is that it
comes from a commonplace-book of Sir Henry Wotton, and therefore
presumably represents the work of the group of wits to which Donne,
Bacon, and Wotton belonged. I have found only one of them in other
MSS. , viz. that which I have called _Life a Play_. This occurs in
quite a number of MSS. in the British Museum, and has been published
in Hannah's _Courtly Poets_. It is generally ascribed to Sir Walter
Raleigh; and Harleian MS. 733 entitles it _Verses made by Sir Walter
Raleigh made the same morning he was executed_. I have printed it
because with the first, and another in the _Reliquiae Wottonianae_, it
illustrates Wotton's taste for this comparison of life to a stage, a
comparison probably derived from an epigram in the Greek Anthology,
which may be the source of Shakespeare's famous lines in _As You Like
It_. The epitaph by Jonson on Hemmings, Shakespeare's fellow-actor
and executor, is interesting. A similar epitaph on Burbage is found in
Sloane MS. 1786:
An Epitaph on Mr Richard Burbage the Player.
This life's a play groaned out by natures Arte
Where every man hath his alloted parte.
This man hath now as many men can tell
Ended his part, and he hath done it well.
The Play now ended, think his grave to bee
The retiring house of his sad Tragedie.
Where to give his fame this, be not afraid:
Here lies the best Tragedian ever plaid.
III. POEMS FROM VARIOUS MSS. PAGE =443=.
Of the miscellaneous poems here collected there is very little to be
said. The first eight or nine come from the O'Flaherty MS. (_O'F_),
which professes to be a collection of Donne's poems, and may, Mr.
Warwick Bond thinks, have been made by the younger Donne, as it
contains a poem by him. It is careless enough to be his work.
They illustrate well the kind of poem attributed to Donne in the
seventeenth century, some on the ground of their wit, others because
of their subject-matter. Donne had written some improper poems as a
young man; it was tempting therefore to assign any wandering poem
of this kind to the famous Dean of St. Paul's. The first poem, _The
Annuntiation_, has nothing to do with Donne's poem _The Annuntiation
and Passion_, but has been attached to it in a manner which is
common enough in the MSS. The poem _Love's Exchange_ is obviously an
imitation of Donne's _Lovers infinitenesse_ (p. 17). _A Paradoxe of a
Painted Face_ was attributed to Donne because he had written a prose
_Paradox_ entitled _That Women ought to paint_. The poem was not
published till 1660. In Harleian MS. it is said to be 'By my Lo: of
Cant. follower Mr. Baker'. The lines on _Black Hayre and Eyes_ (p.
460) are found in fifteen or more different MSS. in the British Museum
alone, and were printed in _Parnassus Biceps_ (1656) and Pembroke and
Ruddier's _Poems_ (1660). Two of the MSS. attribute the poem to Ben
Jonson, but others assign it to W. P. or Walton Poole. Mr. Chambers
points out that a Walton Poole has verses in _Annalia Dubrensia_
(1636), and also cites from Foster's _Alumni Oxonienses_: 'Walton
Poole of Wilts arm. matr. 9. 1. 1580 at Trinity Coll. aged 15. ' These
may be the same person. The signature A. P. or W. P. at the foot of
several pages suggests that the Stowe MS. 961 of Donne's poems had
belonged to some member of this family. The fragment of an Elegy at
p. 462 occurs only in _P_, where it forms part of an Heroicall Epistle
with which it has obviously nothing to do. I have thought it worth
preserving because of its intense though mannered style. The line,
'Fortune now do thy worst' recalls _Elegie XII_, l. 67. The closing
poem,'Farewell ye guilded follies,' comes from Walton's _Complete
Angler_ (1658), where it is thus introduced: 'I will requite you with
a very good copy of verses: it is a farewell to the vanities of the
world, and some say written by Dr. D. But let they be written by
whom they will, he that writ them had a brave soul, and must needs be
possest with happy thoughts of their composure. ' In the third edition
(1661) the words were changed to 'And some say written by Sir Harry
Wotton, who I told you was an excellent Angler. ' In one MS. they are
attributed to Henry King, Donne's friend and literary executor, and in
two others they are assigned to Sir Kenelm Digby, as by whom they are
printed in _Wits Interpreter_ (1655). Mr. Chambers points out that
'The closing lines of King's _The Farewell_ are curiously similar to
those of this poem. ' He quotes:
My woeful Monument shall be a cell,
The murmur of the purling brook my knell;
My lasting Epitaph the Rock shall groan;
Thus when sad lovers ask the weeping stone,
What wretched thing does in that centre lie,
The hollow echo will reply, 'twas I.
I cannot understand why Mr. Chambers, to whom I am indebted for most
of this information, was content to print so inadequate a text when
Walton was in his hand. Two of his lines completely puzzled me:
Welcome pure thoughts! welcome, ye careless groans!
These are my guests, this is that courtage tones.
'Groans' are generally the sign of care, not of its absence. However,
I find that Ashmole MS. 38, in the Bodleian, and some others read:
Welcome pure thoughts! welcome ye careless groves!
These are my guests, this is that court age loves.
This explains the mystery. But Mr. Chambers followed Grosart; and
Grosart was inclined to prefer the version of a bad MS. which he had
found to a good printed version.
SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES.
PAGES =5=, =6=. The poems of Ben Jonson are here printed just as
they stand in the 1650, 1654, 1669 editions of Donne's _Poems_.
A comparison with the 1616 edition of Jonson's _Works_ shows some
errors. The poem _To John Donne_ (p. 5) is xxiii of the _Epigrammes_.
The sixth line runs
And which no affection praise enough can give!
The absurd 'no'n' of 1650 seems to have arisen from the printing
'no'affection' of the 1640 edition of Jonson's _Works_. The 1719
editor of Donne's _Poems_ corrected this mistake. A more serious
mistake occurs in the ninth line, which in the _Works_ (1616) runs:
All which I meant to praise, and, yet I would.
The error 'mean' comes from the 1640 edition of the _Works of Ben
Jonson_, which prints 'meane'.
_To Lucy, &c. _, is xciii of the _Epigrammes_. The fourteenth line
runs:
Be of the best; and 'mongst those, best are you.
The comma makes the sense clearer. In l. 3, 1616 reads 'looke,' with
comma.
_To John Donne_ (p. 6) is xcvi. There are no errors; but 'punees' is
in _1616_ more correctly spelt 'pui'nees'.
PAGES =7=, =175=, =369=. I am indebted for the excellent copies of
the engravings here reproduced to the kind services of Mr. Laurence
Binyon. The portraits form a striking supplement to the poems along
with which they are placed. The first is the young man of the _Songs
and Sonets_, the _Elegies_ and the _Satyres_, the counterpart of Biron
and Benedick and the audacious and witty young men of Shakespeare's
Comedies. 'Neither was it possible,' says Hacket in his _Scrinia
Reserata: a Memorial of John Williams . . . Archbishop of York_ (1693),
'that a vulgar soul should dwell in such promising features. '
The engraving by Lombart is an even more lifelike portrait of the
author of the _Letters_, _Epicedes_, _Anniversaries_ and earlier
_Divine Poems_, learned and witty, worldly and pious, melancholy
yet ever and again 'kindling squibs about himself and flying into
sportiveness', writing at one time the serious _Pseudo-Martyr_,
at another the outrageous _Ignatius his Conclave_, and again the
strangely-mooded, self-revealing _Biathanatos_: 'mee thinks I have the
keyes of my prison in mine owne hand, and no remedy presents it selfe
so soone to my heart, as mine own sword. '
After describing the circumstances attending the execution of the last
portrait of Donne, Walton adds in the 1675 edition of the _Lives_ (the
passage is not in the earlier editions of the _Life of Donne_): 'And
now, having brought him through the many labyrinths and perplexities
of a various life: even to the gates of death and the grave; my desire
is, he may rest till I have told my Reader, that I have seen many
Pictures of him, in several habits, and at several ages, and in
several postures: And I now mention this, because, I have seen one
Picture of him, drawn by a curious hand at his age of eighteen; with
his sword and what other adornments might then suit with the present
fashions of youth, and the giddy gayeties of that age: and his Motto
then was,
How much shall I be chang'd,
Before I am chang'd.
And, if that young, and his now dying Picture, were at this time set
together, every beholder might say, _Lord! How much is_ Dr. Donne
_already chang'd, before he is chang'd! _' The change written in the
portrait is the change from the poet of the _Songs and Sonets_ to the
poet of the _Holy Sonnets_ and last _Hymns_.
