POEMS WHICH HAVE BEEN
ATTRIBUTED
TO DONNE.
John Donne
) simply
represents the way in which the name was pronounced. Thomas Carew
(1598? -1639? ) was sewer-in-ordinary to King Charles in 1633, and in
February 1633/4 his most elaborate work, the _Coelum Britannicum_,
was performed at Whitehall, on Shrove Tuesday. It was published
immediately afterwards, 1634. His collected _Poems_ were issued in
1640 and contained this _Elegie_. I note the following variants from
the text of 1640 as reproduced by Arthur Vincent (_Muses Library_,
1899):
3. dare we not trust _1633_: did we not trust _1640_; 5. Churchman
_1633_: lecturer _1640_; 8. thy Ashes _1633_: the ashes _1640_; 9.
no voice, no tune? _1633_: nor tune, nor voice? _1640_; 17. our Will,
_1633_: the will, _1640_; 44. dust _1633_: dung _1640_; rak'd _1633_:
search'd _1640_; 50. stubborne language _1633_: troublesome language
_1640_; 58. is purely thine _1633_: was only thine _1640_; 59. thy
smallest worke _1633_: their smallest work _1640_; 63. repeale _1633_:
recall _1640_; 65. Were banish'd _1633_: Was banish'd _1640_; 66.
o'th'Metamorphoses _1633_: i'th'Metamorphoses _1640_;
68-9.
Till verse refin'd by thee, in this last Age,
Turne ballad rime _1633_:
Till verse, refin'd by thee in this last age,
Turn ballad-rhyme _1640_ (_Vincent_):
Surely 'in this last Age' goes with 'Turne ballad rime'; 73. awfull
solemne _1633_; solemn awful _1640_; 74. faint lines _1633_: rude
lines _1640_; 81. maintaine _1633_: retain _1640_; 88. our losse
_1633_: the loss _1640_; 89. an Elegie, _1633_: one Elegy, _1640_;
91-2.
Though every pen should share a distinct part,
Yet art thou Theme enough to tyre all Art;
_1633_: _omit 1640_.
Some of these differences are trifling, but in several instances (3,
8, 50, 59, 66, 91-2) the 1633 text is so much better that it seems
probable that the poem was printed in 1640 from an early, unrevised
version. In 87. 'the' _1633_, _1640_ should be 'thee'.
Sir Lucius Cary, second Viscount Falkland (1610-1643), was a young man
of twenty-one when Donne died, and succeeded his father in the year
in which this poem was published. He had been educated at Trinity
College, Dublin. 'His first years of reason', Wood says, 'were spent
in poetry and polite learning, into the first of which he made divers
plausible sallies, which caused him therefore to be admired by the
poets of those times, particularly by Ben Jonson . . . by Edm. Waller of
Beaconsfield . . . and by Sir John Suckling, who afterwards brought him
into his poem called _The Session of Poets_ thus,
He was of late so gone with divinity,
That he had almost forgot his poetry,
Though to say the truth (and Apollo did know it)
He might have been both his priest and his poet. '
But Falkland is best known through his friendship with Clarendon,
whose account of him is classical: 'With these advantages' (of birth
and fortune) 'he had one great disadvantage (which in the first
entrance into the world is attended with too much prejudice) in his
person and presence, which was in no degree attractive or promising.
His stature was low, and smaller than most men; his motion not
graceful; and his aspect so far from inviting, that it had somewhat
in it of simplicity; and his voice the worst of the three, and so
untuned, that instead of reconciling, it offended the ear, so that
nobody would have expected music from that tongue; and sure no man
was less beholden to nature for its recommendation into the world:
but then no man sooner or more disappointed this general and customary
prejudice: that little person and small stature was quickly found to
contain a great heart, a courage so keen, and a nature so fearless,
that no composition of the strongest limbs, and most harmonious and
proportioned presence and strength, ever more disposed any man to
the greatest enterprise; it being his greatest weakness to be too
solicitous for such adventures: and that untuned voice and tongue
easily discovered itself to be supplied and governed by a mind and
understanding so excellent that the wit and weight of all he said
carried another kind of lustre and admiration in it, and even another
kind of acceptation from the persons present, than any ornament of
delivery could reasonably promise itself, or is usually attended with;
and his disposition and nature was so gentle and obliging, so much
delighted in courtesy, kindness, and generosity, that all mankind
could not but admire and love him. ' _The Life of Edward Earl of
Clarendon_ (Oxford, 1827) i. 42-50. Coming from him, Falkland's
poem is an interesting testimony to the influence of Donne's poetry,
presence, and character.
Jaspar Mayne (1604-72), author of _The City Match_, was a student and
graduate of Christ Church, Oxford, a poet, dramatist, and divine. He
wrote complimentary verses on the Earl of Pembroke, Charles I, Queen
Henrietta, Cartwright, and Ben Jonson--all, like those on Donne,
very bad. He was the translator of the Epigrams ascribed to Donne and
published with some of his _Paradoxes, Problemes, Essays, Characters_
in 1651.
Arthur Wilson (1595-1652), historian and dramatist, author of _The
Inconstant Lady_ and _The Swisser_, had in 1633 just completed a
rather belated course at Trinity College, Oxford, whither he had gone
after leaving the service of the third Earl of Essex. For Wilson's
_Life_ see D. N. B. and Feuillerat: _The Swisser . . . avec une
Introduction et des Notes_, Paris, 1904.
The 'Mr. R. B. ' who wrote these lines is said by Mr. Gosse to be the
voluminous versifier Richard Brathwaite (1588-1673), author of _A
Strappado for the Divell_ and other works, satirical and pious. He is
perhaps the most likely candidate for the initials, which are all we
have to go by. At the same time it is a little surprising that a
poet whose name was so well known should have concealed himself under
initials, the device generally of a young man venturing among more
experienced poets. If he had not been too young in 1633, I should have
ventured to suggest that the author was Ralph Brideoak, who proceeded
B. A. at Oxford 1634, and in 1638 contributed lines to _Jonsonus
Virbius_. He was afterwards chaplain to Speaker Lenthall, and died
Bishop of Chichester. In the lines on Jonson, Brideoak describes the
reception of Jonson's plays with something of the vividness with which
the poet here describes the reception of Donne's sermons. He also
refers to Donne:
Had learned Donne, Beaumont, and Randolph, all
Surviv'd thy fate, and sung thy funeral,
Their notes had been too low: take this from me
None but thyself could write a verse for thee.
This last line echoes Donne (p. 204, l. 24). Most of Donne's eulogists
were young men.
Brathwaite's wife died in 1633, and, perhaps following Donne, he for
some years wrote _Anniversaries upon his Panarete_. W. C. Hazlitt
suggests Brome as the author of the lines on Donne, which is not
likely.
The Epitaph which follows R. B. 's poem is presumably by him also.
Endymion Porter (1587-1649) may have had a common interest with Donne
in the Spanish language and literature, for the former owed his early
success as an ambassador and courtier to his Spanish descent and
upbringing. He owes his reputation now mainly to his patronage of art
and poetry and to the songs of Herrick. For his life see D. N. B. and E.
B. de Fonblanque's _Lives of the Lords Strangford_, 1877.
Daniel Darnelly, the author of the long Latin elegy added to the
collection in 1635, was, according to Foster (_Alumni Oxonienses_,
vol. i. 1891), the son of a Londoner, and matriculated at Oxford on
Nov. 14, 1623, at the age of nineteen. He proceeded B. A. in 1627, M. A.
1629/30, and was incorporated at Cambridge in 1634. He is described
in Musgrave's _Obituary_ as of Trinity Hall. In 1632 he was appointed
rector of Curry Mallet, Somersetshire, and of Walden St. Paul, Herts. ,
1634. This would bring him into closer touch with London, and probably
explains his writing an elegy for the forthcoming second edition of
Donne's _Poems_. He was rector of Teversham, Cambridgeshire, from
1635 to 1645, when his living was sequestered. He died on the 23rd of
November, 1659.
The heading of this poem shows that it was written at the request of
some one, probably King. In l. 35 _Nilusque minus strepuisset_ the
reference is to the great cataract. See Macrobius, _Somn. Scip. _ ii.
4.
Of Sidney Godolphin (1610-43) Clarendon says, 'There was never so
great a mind and spirit contained in so little room; so large an
understanding and so unrestrained a fancy in so very small a body: so
that the Lord Falkland used to say merrily, that he was pleased to be
found in his company, where he was the properer man; and it may be
the very remarkableness of his little person made the sharpness of his
wit, and the composed quickness of his judgement and understanding the
more notable. ' _The Life of Edward Earl of Clarendon_, i. 51-2. He
was killed at Chagford in the civil war. Professor Saintsbury has not
included this poem in his collection of Godolphin's poems, _Caroline
Poets_, ii. pp. 227-61.
John Chudleigh's name appears in MSS. occasionally at the end of
different poems. In the second collection in the Trinity College,
Dublin MS. G. 2. 21 (_TCD_ Second Collection) he is credited with the
authorship of Donne's lyric _A Feaver_, but two other poems are also
ascribed to him. He is the author of another in Addl. MS. 33998. f. 62
b. Who he was, I am not sure, but probably he may be identified with
John Chudleigh described in 1620 (_Visitation of Devonshire_) as son
and heir of George Chudley of Asheriston, or Ashton, in the county of
Devon, and then aged fourteen. On the 1st of June, 1621, aged 15,
he matriculated at Wadham College, Oxford. He proceeded B. A. 1623-4,
being described as 'equ. aur. fil. ' 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 GAZAEI
_e Societate Iesu, Atrebatis_.
[An ornament in original. ]
DILINGAE
_Formis Academicis
Cum auctoritate Superiorum_.
Apud VDALRICUM REM
CI? . I? C. 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_.
represents the way in which the name was pronounced. Thomas Carew
(1598? -1639? ) was sewer-in-ordinary to King Charles in 1633, and in
February 1633/4 his most elaborate work, the _Coelum Britannicum_,
was performed at Whitehall, on Shrove Tuesday. It was published
immediately afterwards, 1634. His collected _Poems_ were issued in
1640 and contained this _Elegie_. I note the following variants from
the text of 1640 as reproduced by Arthur Vincent (_Muses Library_,
1899):
3. dare we not trust _1633_: did we not trust _1640_; 5. Churchman
_1633_: lecturer _1640_; 8. thy Ashes _1633_: the ashes _1640_; 9.
no voice, no tune? _1633_: nor tune, nor voice? _1640_; 17. our Will,
_1633_: the will, _1640_; 44. dust _1633_: dung _1640_; rak'd _1633_:
search'd _1640_; 50. stubborne language _1633_: troublesome language
_1640_; 58. is purely thine _1633_: was only thine _1640_; 59. thy
smallest worke _1633_: their smallest work _1640_; 63. repeale _1633_:
recall _1640_; 65. Were banish'd _1633_: Was banish'd _1640_; 66.
o'th'Metamorphoses _1633_: i'th'Metamorphoses _1640_;
68-9.
Till verse refin'd by thee, in this last Age,
Turne ballad rime _1633_:
Till verse, refin'd by thee in this last age,
Turn ballad-rhyme _1640_ (_Vincent_):
Surely 'in this last Age' goes with 'Turne ballad rime'; 73. awfull
solemne _1633_; solemn awful _1640_; 74. faint lines _1633_: rude
lines _1640_; 81. maintaine _1633_: retain _1640_; 88. our losse
_1633_: the loss _1640_; 89. an Elegie, _1633_: one Elegy, _1640_;
91-2.
Though every pen should share a distinct part,
Yet art thou Theme enough to tyre all Art;
_1633_: _omit 1640_.
Some of these differences are trifling, but in several instances (3,
8, 50, 59, 66, 91-2) the 1633 text is so much better that it seems
probable that the poem was printed in 1640 from an early, unrevised
version. In 87. 'the' _1633_, _1640_ should be 'thee'.
Sir Lucius Cary, second Viscount Falkland (1610-1643), was a young man
of twenty-one when Donne died, and succeeded his father in the year
in which this poem was published. He had been educated at Trinity
College, Dublin. 'His first years of reason', Wood says, 'were spent
in poetry and polite learning, into the first of which he made divers
plausible sallies, which caused him therefore to be admired by the
poets of those times, particularly by Ben Jonson . . . by Edm. Waller of
Beaconsfield . . . and by Sir John Suckling, who afterwards brought him
into his poem called _The Session of Poets_ thus,
He was of late so gone with divinity,
That he had almost forgot his poetry,
Though to say the truth (and Apollo did know it)
He might have been both his priest and his poet. '
But Falkland is best known through his friendship with Clarendon,
whose account of him is classical: 'With these advantages' (of birth
and fortune) 'he had one great disadvantage (which in the first
entrance into the world is attended with too much prejudice) in his
person and presence, which was in no degree attractive or promising.
His stature was low, and smaller than most men; his motion not
graceful; and his aspect so far from inviting, that it had somewhat
in it of simplicity; and his voice the worst of the three, and so
untuned, that instead of reconciling, it offended the ear, so that
nobody would have expected music from that tongue; and sure no man
was less beholden to nature for its recommendation into the world:
but then no man sooner or more disappointed this general and customary
prejudice: that little person and small stature was quickly found to
contain a great heart, a courage so keen, and a nature so fearless,
that no composition of the strongest limbs, and most harmonious and
proportioned presence and strength, ever more disposed any man to
the greatest enterprise; it being his greatest weakness to be too
solicitous for such adventures: and that untuned voice and tongue
easily discovered itself to be supplied and governed by a mind and
understanding so excellent that the wit and weight of all he said
carried another kind of lustre and admiration in it, and even another
kind of acceptation from the persons present, than any ornament of
delivery could reasonably promise itself, or is usually attended with;
and his disposition and nature was so gentle and obliging, so much
delighted in courtesy, kindness, and generosity, that all mankind
could not but admire and love him. ' _The Life of Edward Earl of
Clarendon_ (Oxford, 1827) i. 42-50. Coming from him, Falkland's
poem is an interesting testimony to the influence of Donne's poetry,
presence, and character.
Jaspar Mayne (1604-72), author of _The City Match_, was a student and
graduate of Christ Church, Oxford, a poet, dramatist, and divine. He
wrote complimentary verses on the Earl of Pembroke, Charles I, Queen
Henrietta, Cartwright, and Ben Jonson--all, like those on Donne,
very bad. He was the translator of the Epigrams ascribed to Donne and
published with some of his _Paradoxes, Problemes, Essays, Characters_
in 1651.
Arthur Wilson (1595-1652), historian and dramatist, author of _The
Inconstant Lady_ and _The Swisser_, had in 1633 just completed a
rather belated course at Trinity College, Oxford, whither he had gone
after leaving the service of the third Earl of Essex. For Wilson's
_Life_ see D. N. B. and Feuillerat: _The Swisser . . . avec une
Introduction et des Notes_, Paris, 1904.
The 'Mr. R. B. ' who wrote these lines is said by Mr. Gosse to be the
voluminous versifier Richard Brathwaite (1588-1673), author of _A
Strappado for the Divell_ and other works, satirical and pious. He is
perhaps the most likely candidate for the initials, which are all we
have to go by. At the same time it is a little surprising that a
poet whose name was so well known should have concealed himself under
initials, the device generally of a young man venturing among more
experienced poets. If he had not been too young in 1633, I should have
ventured to suggest that the author was Ralph Brideoak, who proceeded
B. A. at Oxford 1634, and in 1638 contributed lines to _Jonsonus
Virbius_. He was afterwards chaplain to Speaker Lenthall, and died
Bishop of Chichester. In the lines on Jonson, Brideoak describes the
reception of Jonson's plays with something of the vividness with which
the poet here describes the reception of Donne's sermons. He also
refers to Donne:
Had learned Donne, Beaumont, and Randolph, all
Surviv'd thy fate, and sung thy funeral,
Their notes had been too low: take this from me
None but thyself could write a verse for thee.
This last line echoes Donne (p. 204, l. 24). Most of Donne's eulogists
were young men.
Brathwaite's wife died in 1633, and, perhaps following Donne, he for
some years wrote _Anniversaries upon his Panarete_. W. C. Hazlitt
suggests Brome as the author of the lines on Donne, which is not
likely.
The Epitaph which follows R. B. 's poem is presumably by him also.
Endymion Porter (1587-1649) may have had a common interest with Donne
in the Spanish language and literature, for the former owed his early
success as an ambassador and courtier to his Spanish descent and
upbringing. He owes his reputation now mainly to his patronage of art
and poetry and to the songs of Herrick. For his life see D. N. B. and E.
B. de Fonblanque's _Lives of the Lords Strangford_, 1877.
Daniel Darnelly, the author of the long Latin elegy added to the
collection in 1635, was, according to Foster (_Alumni Oxonienses_,
vol. i. 1891), the son of a Londoner, and matriculated at Oxford on
Nov. 14, 1623, at the age of nineteen. He proceeded B. A. in 1627, M. A.
1629/30, and was incorporated at Cambridge in 1634. He is described
in Musgrave's _Obituary_ as of Trinity Hall. In 1632 he was appointed
rector of Curry Mallet, Somersetshire, and of Walden St. Paul, Herts. ,
1634. This would bring him into closer touch with London, and probably
explains his writing an elegy for the forthcoming second edition of
Donne's _Poems_. He was rector of Teversham, Cambridgeshire, from
1635 to 1645, when his living was sequestered. He died on the 23rd of
November, 1659.
The heading of this poem shows that it was written at the request of
some one, probably King. In l. 35 _Nilusque minus strepuisset_ the
reference is to the great cataract. See Macrobius, _Somn. Scip. _ ii.
4.
Of Sidney Godolphin (1610-43) Clarendon says, 'There was never so
great a mind and spirit contained in so little room; so large an
understanding and so unrestrained a fancy in so very small a body: so
that the Lord Falkland used to say merrily, that he was pleased to be
found in his company, where he was the properer man; and it may be
the very remarkableness of his little person made the sharpness of his
wit, and the composed quickness of his judgement and understanding the
more notable. ' _The Life of Edward Earl of Clarendon_, i. 51-2. He
was killed at Chagford in the civil war. Professor Saintsbury has not
included this poem in his collection of Godolphin's poems, _Caroline
Poets_, ii. pp. 227-61.
John Chudleigh's name appears in MSS. occasionally at the end of
different poems. In the second collection in the Trinity College,
Dublin MS. G. 2. 21 (_TCD_ Second Collection) he is credited with the
authorship of Donne's lyric _A Feaver_, but two other poems are also
ascribed to him. He is the author of another in Addl. MS. 33998. f. 62
b. Who he was, I am not sure, but probably he may be identified with
John Chudleigh described in 1620 (_Visitation of Devonshire_) as son
and heir of George Chudley of Asheriston, or Ashton, in the county of
Devon, and then aged fourteen. On the 1st of June, 1621, aged 15,
he matriculated at Wadham College, Oxford. He proceeded B. A. 1623-4,
being described as 'equ. aur. fil. ' 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 GAZAEI
_e Societate Iesu, Atrebatis_.
[An ornament in original. ]
DILINGAE
_Formis Academicis
Cum auctoritate Superiorum_.
Apud VDALRICUM REM
CI? . I? C. 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_.
