DIVINE POEMS.

Page301, ll. 159-160.built by the guest,This living buried man, &c.

Page301, ll. 159-160.built by the guest,

This living buried man, &c.

The comma after guest is dropped in the printed editions, the editor regarding 'this living buried man' as an expansion of 'the guest'. But the man buried alive is the 'soul's second inn', the mandrake. 'Many Molas and false conceptions there are of Mandrakes, the first from great Antiquity conceiveth the Root thereof resembleth the shape of Man which is a conceit not to be made out by ordinary inspection, or any other eyes, than such as regarding the clouds, behold them in shapes conformable to pre-apprehensions.' Browne,Vulgar Errors.

Page303, ll. 203-5. The punctuation of this stanza is in the editions very chaotic, and I have amended it. A full stop should be placed at the end of l. 203, 'was not',becausethese lines complete the thought of the previous stanza. Possibly the semicolon after 'ill' was intended to follow 'not', but a full stop is preferable. Moreover, the colon after 'soule' (l. 204) suggests that the printer took ''twas not' with 'this soule'. The correct reading of l. 204 is obviously:

So jolly, that it can move, this soul is.

Chambers prefers:

So jolly, that it can move this soul, isThe body ...

So jolly, that it can move this soul, is

The body ...

but Donne was far too learned an Aristotelian and Scholastic to make the body move the soul, or feel jolly on its own account:

thy fair goodly soul, which dothGive this flesh power to taste joy, thou dost loathe.Satyre III, ll. 41-2.

thy fair goodly soul, which doth

Give this flesh power to taste joy, thou dost loathe.

Satyre III, ll. 41-2.

'The soul is so glad to be at last able to move (having been imprisoned hitherto in plants which have the soul of growth, not of locomotion or sense), and the body is so free of its kindnesses to the soul, that it, the sparrow, forgets the duty of self-preservation.'

l. 214.hid nets.In making my first collation of the printed texts I had queried the possibility of 'hid' being the correct reading for 'his', a conjecture which the Gosse MS. confirms.

Page305, l. 257.None scape, but few, and fit for use, to get.I have added a comma after 'use' to make the construction a little clearer; a pause is needed. 'The nets were not wrought, as now, to let none scape, but were wrought to get few and those fit for use; as, for example, a ravenous pike, &c.'

Page306, ll. 267-8. 'To make the water thinne, and airelike faith cares not.' What Chambers understands by 'air like faith', I do not know. What Donne says is that the manner in which fishes breathe is a matter about which faith is indifferent. Each man may hold what theory he chooses. There is not much obvious relevance in this remark, but Donne has already in this poem touched on the difference between faith and knowledge:

better proofes the lawOf sense then faith requires.

better proofes the law

Of sense then faith requires.

A vein of restless scepticism runs through the whole.

l. 280.It's rais'd, to be the Raisers instrument and food.If with1650-69, Chambers, and the Grolier Club editor, we alter the full stop which separates this line from the last to a comma, 'It' must mean the same as 'she', i.e. the fish. This is a harsh construction. The line is rather to be taken as an aphorism. 'To be exalted is often to become the instrument and prey of him who has exalted you.'

Page307, l. 296.That many leagues at sea, now tir'd hee lyes.The reading ofGrepresents probably what Donne wrote. It is quite clear that1633was printed from a MS. identical withA18,N,TC, and underwent considerable correction as it passed through the press. In no poem does the text of one copy vary so much from that of another as in this. Now in this MS. a word is dropped. The editor supplied the gap by inserting 'o're-past', which simply repeats 'flown long and fast'.Gshows what the dropped word was. 'Many leagues at sea' is an adverbial phrase qualifying 'now tir'd he lies'.

ll. 301-10. I owe the right punctuation of this stanza to the Grolier Club edition and Grosart. The 'as' of l. 303 requires to be followed by a comma. Missing this, Chambers closes the sentence at l. 307, 'head', leaving 'This fish would seem these' in the air. The words 'when all hopes fail' play with the idea of 'the hopeful Promontory', or Cape of Good Hope.

Page308, ll. 321-2.

He hunts not fish, but as an officer,Stayes in his court, at his owne net.

He hunts not fish, but as an officer,

Stayes in his court, at his owne net.

Compare: 'A confidence in their owne strengths, a sacrificing to their own Nets, an attributing of their securitie to their own wisedome or power, may also retard the cause of God.'Sermons, Judges xv. 20 (1622).

'And though some of the Fathers pared somewhat too neare the quick in this point, yet it was not as in the Romane Church, to lay snares, and spread nets for gain.'Sermons80. 22. 216.

'The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of comfort comes to him' (the courtier) 'but hee will die in his old religion, which is to sacrifice to his owne Nets, by which his portion is plenteous.'Sermons80. 70. 714.

The image of the net is probably derived from Jeremiah v. 26: 'For among my people are found wicked men; they lay wait as he that setteth snares; they set a trap, they catch men.' Compare also: 'he lieth in wait to catch the poor: he doth catch the poor when he draweth him into his net.' Psalm x. 9.

Pages310-11, ll. 381-400. Compare: 'Amongstnaturall Creatures, because howsoever they differ in bignesse, yet they have some proportion to one another, we consider that some very little creatures, contemptible in themselves, are yet called enemies to great creatures, as the Mouse is to the Elephant.'Sermons50. 40. 372. 'How great an Elephant, how small a Mouse destroys.'Devotions, p. 284.

ll. 405-6.

Who in that trade, of Church, and kingdomes, thereWas the first type.

Who in that trade, of Church, and kingdomes, there

Was the first type.

The1635punctuation of this passage is right, though it is better to drop the comma after 'Kingdoms' and obviate ambiguity. The trade is the shepherd's; in it Abel is type both of Church and Kingdom, Emperor and Pope. As a type of Christ Donne refers to Abel inThe Litanie, p.341, l. 86.

Page312, l. 419.Nor〈make〉resist.I have substituted 'make' for the 'much' of the editions, confident that it is the right reading and explains the vacillation of the MSS. The proper alternative to 'show' is 'make'. The error arose from the obsolescence of 'resist' used as a noun. But the O.E.D. cites from Lodge,Forbonius and Priscilla(1585), 'I make no resist in this my loving torment', and other examples dated 1608 and 1630. Donne is fond of verbal nouns retaining the form of the verb unchanged.

l. 439.soft Moaba.'Moaba', 'Siphatecia' (l. 457), 'Tethlemite' (l. 487), and Themech' (l. 509) are not creatures of Donne's invention, but derived from his multifarious learning. It is, however, a little difficult to detect the immediate source from which he drew. The ultimate source of all these additions to the Biblical narrative and persons was the activity of the Jewish intellect and imagination in the interval between the time at which the Old Testament closes andthe dispersion under Titus and Vespasian, the desire of the Jews in Palestine and Alexandria to 'round off the biblical narrative, fill up the lacunae, answer all the questions of the inquiring mind of the ancient reader'. Of the original Hebrew writings of this period none have survived, but their traditions passed into mediaeval works like theHistoria Scholasticaof Petrus Comestor and hence into popular works, e.g. the Middle EnglishCursor Mundi. Another compendium of this pseudo-historical lore was thePhilonis Judaei Alexandrini. Libri Antiquitatum. Quaestionum et Solutionum in Genesin. de Essaeis. de Nominibus hebraicis. de Mundo. Basle.1527. An abstract of this work is given by Annius of Viterbo in the book referred to in a previous note. Dr. Cohn has shown that this Latin work is a third- or fourth-century translation of a Greek work, itself a translation from the Hebrew. More recently Rabbi M. Gaster has brought to light the Hebrew original in portions of a compilation of the fourteenth century called theChronicle of Jerahmeel, of which he has published an English translation under the 'Patronage of the Royal Asiatic Society',Oriental Translation Fund. New Series, iv. 1899. In chapter xxvi of this work we read: 'Adam begat three sons and three daughters, Cain and his twin wife Qualmana, Abel and his twin wife Deborah, and Seth and his twin wife Nōba. And Adam, after he had begotten Seth, lived seven hundred years, and there were eleven sons and eight daughters born to him. These are the names of his sons: Eli, Shēēl, Surei, 'Almiel, Berokh, Ke'al, Nabath, Zarh-amah, Sisha, Mahtel, and Anat; and the names of his daughters are: Havah, Gitsh, Harē, Bikha, Zifath, Hēkhiah, Shaba, and 'Azin.' In Philo this reappears as follows: 'Initio mundi Adam genuit tres filios et unam filiam, Cain, Noaba, Abel, et Seth: Et vixit Adam, postquam genuit Seth, annos DCC., et genuit filios duodecim, et filias octo: Et haec sunt nomina virorum, Aeliseel, Suris, Aelamiel, Brabal, Naat, Harama, Zas-am, Maathal, et Anath: Et hae filiae eius, Phua, Iectas, Arebica, Siphatecia, Sabaasin.' It is clear there are a good many mistakes in Philo's account as it has come to us. His numbers and names do not correspond. Clearly also some of the Latin names are due to the running together of two Hebrew ones, e.g. Aeliseel, Arebica, and Siphatecia. Of the names in Donne's poem two occur in the above lists—Noaba (Heb. Nobā) and Siphatecia. But Noaba has become Moaba: Siphatecia is 'Adams fift daughter', which is correct according to the Hebrew, but not according to Philo's list; and there is no mention in these lists of Tethlemite (or Thelemite) among Adam's sons, or of Themech as Cain's wife. In the Hebrew she is called Qualmana. Doubtless since two of the names are traceable the others are so also. We have not found Donne's immediate source. I am indebted for such information as I have brought together to Rabbi Gaster.

Page314, l. 485. (loth). I have adopted this reading from the insertion inTCC, not that much weight can be allowed to thisanonymous reviser (some of whose insertions are certainly wrong), but because 'loth' or 'looth' is more likely to have been changed to 'tooth' than 'wroth'. The occurrence of 'Tooth' inGas well as in1633led me to consult Sir James Murray as to the possibility of a rare adjectival sense of that word, e.g. 'eager, with tooth on edge for'. I venture to quote his reply: 'We know nothing oftoothas an adjective in the senseeager; or in any sense that would fit here. Nor doeswrothseem to myself and my assistants to suit well. In thinking of the possible word for whichtoothwas a misprint, or rather misreading ... the wordloth,loath,looth, occurred to myself and an assistant independently before we saw that it is mentioned in the foot-note....Loathseems to me to be exactly the word wanted, the true antithesis to willing, and it was a very easy word to write astooth.' Sir James Murray suggests, as just a possibility, that 'wroth' (1635-69) may have arisen from a provincial form 'wloth'. He thinks, however, as I do, that it is more probably a mere editorial conjecture.

Page315, ll. 505-9.

these limbes a soule attend;And now they joyn'd: keeping some qualityOf every past shape, she knew treachery,Rapine, deceit, and lust, and ills enowTo be a woman.

these limbes a soule attend;

And now they joyn'd: keeping some quality

Of every past shape, she knew treachery,

Rapine, deceit, and lust, and ills enow

To be a woman.

Chambers and the Grolier Club editor have erroneously followed1635-69in their punctuation and attached 'keeping some quality of every past shape' to the preceding 'they'. The force of Donne's bitter comment is thus weakened. It is with 'she', i.e. the soul, that the participial phrase goes. 'She, retaining the evil qualities of all the forms through which she has passed, has thus "ills enow" (treachery, rapine, deceit, and lust) to be a woman.'

The dating of Donne'sDivine Poemsraises some questions that have not received all the consideration they deserve. They fall into two groups—those written before and those written after he took orders. Of the former the majority would seem to belong to the years of his residence at Mitcham. The poemOn the Annunciation and Passionwas written on March 25, 1608⁄9.The Litaniewas written, we gather from a letter to Sir Henry Goodyere, about the same time.The Crossewe cannot date, but I should be inclined with Mr. Gosse to connect it rather with the earlier than the later poems. It is in the same somewhat tormented, intellectual style. On the other hand theHoly Sonnetswere composed, we know now from Sonnet XVII, first published by Mr. Gosse, after the death of Donne's wife in 1617; andThe Lamentations of Jeremyappear to have been writtenat the same juncture. The first sermon which Donne preached after that event was on the text (Lam. iii. 1): 'I am the man that hath seen affliction,' and Walton speaks significantly of his having ended the night and begun the day inlamentations.

The more difficult question is the date of theLa Coronagroup of sonnets. It is usual to attribute them to the later period of Donne's ministry. This is not, I think, correct. It seems to me most probable that they too were composed at Mitcham in or before 1609.

Dr. Grosart first pointed out that one of Donne's short verse-letters, headed in1663and later editionsTo E. of D. with six holy Sonnets, must have been sent with a copy of six of these sonnets, the seventh being held back on account of some imperfection. It appears with the same heading inO'F, but inWit is entitled simplyTo L. of D., and is placed immediately after the letterTo Mr. T. W., 'Haste thee harsh verse' (p.205), and before the next to the same person, 'Pregnant again' (p. 206). It thus belongs to this group of letters written apparently between 1597 and 1609-10.

Who is the E. of D.? Dr. Grosart, Mr. Chambers, and Mr. Gosse assume that it must be Lord Doncaster, though admitting in the same breath that the latter was not Earl of, but Viscount Doncaster, and that only between 1618 and 1622, four short years. The title 'L. of D.' might indicate Doncaster because the title 'my Lord of' is apparently given to a Viscount. In his letters from Germany Donne speaks of 'my Lord of Doncaster'. It may, therefore, be a mistake of the printer or editor of1633; which turned 'L. of D.' into 'E. of D.'; but Hay was still alive in 1633, and the natural thing for the printer to do would have been to alter the title to 'E. of C.' or 'Earl of Carlisle'. Before 1618 Donne speaks of the 'Lord Hay' or 'the L. Hay' (seeLetters, p. 145),1and this or 'the L. H.' is the title the poem would have borne if addressed to him in any of the years to which the other letters in the Westmoreland MS. (W) seem to belong.

Moreover, there is another of Donne's noble friends who might correctly be described as either E. of D. or L. of D. and that is Richard Sackville, third Earl of Dorset. Donne generally speaks of him as 'my Lord of Dorset': 'I lack you here', he writes to Goodyere, 'for my L. of Dorset, he might make a cheap bargain with me now, and disingage his honour, which in good faith, is a little bound, because he admitted so many witnesses of his large disposition towards me.' Born in 1589, the grandson of the great poet of Elizabeth's early reign, Richard Sackville was educated at Christ Church, Oxford. He succeeded as third Earl of Dorset on February 27, 1608⁄9, having two days previously married Anne, Baroness Cliffordin her own right, the daughter of George Clifford, the buccaneering Earl of Cumberland, and Margaret, daughter of Francis, second Earl of Bedford. The Countess of Dorset was therefore a first cousin to Edward, third Earl of Bedford, the husband of Donne's patroness Lucy, Countess of Bedford.

The earliest date at which the letter could have been addressed to Dorset as L. of D. or E. of D. is 1609, just after his marriage into the circle of Donne's friends. Now in Harleian MS. 4955 (H49) we find the heading,

Holy Sonnets: written 20 yeares since.

This is followed at once by 'Deign at my hands', and then the titleLa Coronais given to the six sonnets which ensue. Thereafter follow, without any fresh heading, twelve of the sonnets belonging to the second group, generally entitledHoly Sonnets. It will be noticed that in the editions this last title is used twice, first for both groups and then, in italics, for the second alone. The question is, did the copyist ofH49intend that the note should apply to all the sonnets he transcribed or only to theLa Coronagroup? If to all, he was certainly wrong as to the second lot, which were written later; but he was quite possibly right as to the first. Now twenty years before 1629, which is the date given to some of Andrewes' poems in the MS., would bring us to 1609, the year of the Earl of Dorset's accession and marriage, and the period when most of the letters among which that to L. of D. inWappears were written.

Note, moreover, the content of the letterTo L. of D.Most of the letters in this group, to Thomas and Rowland Woodward, to S. B., and B. B., are poetical replies to poetical epistles. Now thatTo L. of D.is in the same strain:

See Sir, how as the Suns hot Masculine flameBegets strange creatures on Niles durty slime,In me, your fatherly yet lusty Ryme(For, these songs are their fruits) have wrought the same.

See Sir, how as the Suns hot Masculine flame

Begets strange creatures on Niles durty slime,

In me, your fatherly yet lusty Ryme

(For, these songs are their fruits) have wrought the same.

This is in the vein of the letterTo Mr. R. W., 'Muse not that by thy mind,' and of the epistleTo J. D.which I have cited in the notes (p. 166). We hear nowhere that Lord Hay wrote verses, and it is very unlikely that he, already when Donne formed his aquaintance a rising courtier, should have joined with the Woodwards, and Brookes, and Cornwallis, in the game of exchanging bad verses with Donne. It is quite likely that the young Lord of Dorset, either in 1609, or earlier when he was still an Oxford student or had just come up to London, may have burned his pinch of incense to the honour of the most brilliant of the wits, now indeed a graveépistolierand moralist, but still capable of 'kindling squibs about himself and flying into sportiveness'. We gather from Lord Herbert of Cherbury that the Earl of Dorset must have been an enthusiastic young man. When Herbert returned toEngland after the siege of Julyers (whither Donne had sent him a verse epistle), 'Richard, Earl of Dorset, to whom otherwise I was a stranger, one day invited me to Dorset House, where bringing me into his gallery, and showing me many pictures, he at last brought me to a frame covered with green taffeta, and asked me who I thought was there; and therewithal presently drawing the curtain showed me my own picture; whereupon demanding how his Lordship came to have it, he answered, that he had heard so many brave things of me, that he got a copy of a picture which one Larkin a painter drew for me, the original whereof I intended before my departure to the Low Countries for Sir Thomas Lucy.'Autobiography, ed. Lee. A man so interested in Herbert may well have been interested in Donne even before his connexion by marriage with Lucy, Countess of Bedford. He became later one of Donne's kindest and most practical patrons. The grandson of a great poet may well have written verses.2

But there is another consideration besides that of the letterTo E. of D.which seems to connect theLa Coronasonnets with the years 1607-9. That is the sonnetTo the Lady Magdalen Herbert: of St. Mary Magdalen, which I have prefixed, with thatTo E. of D., to the group. This was sent with a prose letter which says, 'By this messenger and on this good day, I commit the inclosed holy hymns and sonnets (which for the matter not the workmanship, have yet escaped the fire) to your judgment, and to your protection too, if you think them worthy of it; and I have appointed this enclosed sonnet to usher them to your happy hand.' This letter is dated 'July 11, 1607', which Mr. Gosse thinks must be a mistake, because another letter bears the same date; but the date is certainly right, for July 11 is, making allowance for the difference between the Julian and the Gregorian Calendars, July 22, i.e. St. Mary Magdalen's day, 'this good day.'

What were the 'holy hymns and sonnets', of which Donne says:

and in some recompenceThat they did harbour Christ himself, a Guest,Harbour these Hymns, to his dear name addrest?

and in some recompence

That they did harbour Christ himself, a Guest,

Harbour these Hymns, to his dear name addrest?

Walton says: 'These hymns are now lost; but doubtless they weresuch as they two now sing in heaven.' But Walton was writing long afterwards and was probably misled by the name 'hymns'. By 'hymns and sonnets' Donne possibly means the same things, as he calls his love-lyrics 'songs and sonets'. The sonnets are hymns, i.e. songs of praise. Mr. Chambers suggests—it is only a suggestion—that they are the second set, theHoly Sonnets. But these are not addressed to Christ. In them Donne addresses The Trinity, the Father, Angels, Death, his own soul, the Jews—Christ only in one (Sonnet XVIII, first published by Mr. Gosse). On the other hand, 'Hymns to his dear name addrest' is an exact description of theLa Coronasonnets.

I venture to suggest, then, that the Holy Sonnets sent to Mrs. Herbert and to the E. of D. were one and the same group, viz. theLa Coronasequence. Probably they were sent to Mrs. Herbert first, and later to the E. of D. Donne admits their imperfection in his letter to Mrs. Herbert. One of them seems to have been criticized, and in sending the sequence to the E. of D. he held it back for correction. If the E. of D. be the Earl of Dorset they may have been sent to him before he assumed that title. Any later transcript would adopt the title to which he succeeded in 1609. We need not, however, take too literally Donne's statement that the E. of D.'s poetical letter was 'the only-begetter' of his sonnets.

My argument is conjectural, but the assumptions that they were written about 1617 and sent to Lord Doncaster are equally so. The last is untenable; the former does not harmonize so well as that of an earlier date with the obvious fact, which I have emphasized in the essay on Donne's poetry, that these sonnets are more in the intellectual, tormented, wire-drawn style of his earlier religious verse (excellent as that is in many ways) than the passionate and plangent sonnets and hymns of the years which followed the death of his wife.

1This letter was written in November or December, 1608, and seems to be the first in which Donne speaks of Lord Hay as a friend and patron. The kindness he has shown in forwarding a suit seems to have come somewhat as a surprise to Donne.

2Lord Dorset is thus described by his wife: 'He was in his own nature of a just mind, of a sweet disposition, and very valiant in his own person: He had a great advantage in his breeding by the wisdom and discretion of his grandfather, Thomas, Earl of Dorset, Lord High Treasurer of England, who was then held one of the wisest men of that time; by which means he was so good a scholar in all manner of learning, that in his youth when he lived in the University of Oxford, there was none of the young nobility then students there, that excelled him. He was also a good patriot to his country ... and so great a lover of scholars and soldiers, as that with an excessive bounty towards them, or indeed any of worth that were in distress, he did much diminish his estate; As also, with excessive prodigality in house-keeping and other noble ways at Court, as tilting, masking, and the like; Prince Henry being then alive, who was much addicted to these noble exercises, and of whom he was much beloved.' Collins'sPeerage, ii. 194-5. quoted in Zouch's edition of Walton'sLives, 1817.

ll. 3-4.Ryme ... their ... have wrought.The concord here seems to require the plural, the rhyme the singular. Donne, I fear, does occasionally rhyme a word in the plural with one in the singular, ignoring the 's'. But possibly Donne intended 'Ryme' to be taken collectively for 'verses, poetry'. Even so the plural is the normal use.

ll. 1-2.

whose faire inheritanceBethina was, and jointure Magdalo.

whose faire inheritance

Bethina was, and jointure Magdalo.

'Mary Magdalene had her surname of magdalo a castell | and was born of right noble lynage and parents | which were descended of the lynage of kynges | And her fader was named Sinus and her moder eucharye | She wyth her broder lazare and her suster marthapossessed the castle of magdalo: whiche is two myles fro nazareth and bethanye the castel which is nygh to Iherusalem and also a gret parte of Iherusalem whiche al thise thynges they departed amonge them in suche wyse that marye had the castelle magdalo whereof she had her name magdalene | And lazare had the parte of the cytee of Iherusalem: and martha had to her parte bethanye'Legenda Aurea. See Ed. (1493), f. 184, ver. 80.

l. 4.more than the Church did know, i.e. the Resurrection. John xx. 9 and 11-18.

The MSS. of these poems fall into three well-defined groups: (1) That on which the 1633 text is based is represented byD,H49;Lecdoes not contain these poems. (2) A version different in several details is presented by the groupB,S,S96,W, of whichWis the most important and correct.O'Fhas apparently belonged originally to this group but been corrected from the first. (3)A18,N,TCagrees now with one, now with another of the two first groups. When all the three groups unite against the printed text the case for an emendation is a strong one.

l. 10.who is thy Sonne and Brother.

'Maria ergo faciens voluntatem Dei, corporaliter Christi tantummodo mater est, spiritualiter autem et soror et mater.' August.De Sanct. Virg.i. 5. Migne 40. 399.

l. 8.The effect of Herods jealous generall doome: The singular 'effect' has the support of most of the MSS. against the plural of the editions and ofD,H49, and there can be no doubt that it is right. All the effects of Herod's doom were not prevented, but the one aimed at, the death of Christ, was.

l. 8.selfe-lifes infinity to'a span.The MSS. supply the 'a' which the editions here, as elsewhere (e.g. 'a retirednesse', p.185), have dropped. In the present case the omission is so obvious that the Grolier Club editor supplies the article conjecturally. In the editions after1633'infinitie' is the spelling adopted, leading to the misprint 'infinite' in1669and1719, a variant which I have omitted to note.

It will be seen there are some important differences between the text of this sonnet given in1633,D,H49, on the one hand and that ofB,O'F,S,S96,W. The former has (l. 5) 'this death' where the latter gives 'thy death'. It may be noted that 'this' is always spelt'thys' inD, which makes easy an error one way or the other. But the most difficult reading in1633is (l. 8) 'thy little booke'. Oddly enough this has the support not only ofD,H49but also ofA18,N,TC, whose text seems to blend the two versions, adding some features of its own. Certainly the 'life-booke' of the second version and the later editions seems preferable. Yet this too is an odd expression, seeing that the line might have run:

If in thy Book of Life my name thou'enroule.

Was Donne thinking vaguely or with some symbolism of his own, not of the 'book of life' (Rev. xiii. 8, and xx. 12) but of the 'little book' (Rev. x. 2) which John took and ate? Or does he say 'little book' thinking of the text, 'Strait is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it' (Matt. vii. 14)? The grimmer aspects of the Christian creed were always in Donne's mind:

And though thou beest, O mighty bird of prey,So much reclaim'd by God, that thou must layAll that thou kill'st at his feet, yet doth heeReserve but few, and leave the most to thee.

And though thou beest, O mighty bird of prey,

So much reclaim'd by God, that thou must lay

All that thou kill'st at his feet, yet doth hee

Reserve but few, and leave the most to thee.

In l. 9 'last long' is probably right.D,H49had dropped both adjectives, and 'long' was probably supplied by the editormetri causa, 'last' disappearing. Between 'glorified' and 'purified' in l. 11 it is impossible to choose. The reading 'deaths' for 'death' I have adopted. HereA18,N,TCagree withB,O'F,S,W, and there can be no doubt that 'sleepe' is intended to go with both 'sinne' and 'death'.

The MSS. of these sonnets evidently fall into two groups: (1)B,O'F,S96,W: of whichWis by far the fullest and most correct representative. (2)A18,D,H49,N,TCC,TCD. I have kept the order in which they are given in the editions1635to1669, but indicated the order of the other groups, and added at the close the three sonnets contained only inW. I cannot find a definite significance in any order, otherwise I should have followed that ofWas the fullest and presumably the most authoritative. Each sonnet is a separate meditation or ejaculation.

Page323, III. 7.That sufferance was my sinne; now I repent: I have followed the punctuation and order ofB,W, because it shows a little more clearly what is (I think) the correct construction. As printed in1635-69,

That sufferance was my sinne I now repent,

the clause 'That sufferance was' &c. is a noun clause subject to 'repent'. But the two clauses are co-ordinates and 'That' is a demonstrative pronoun. 'Thatsuffering' (of which he has spokenin the six preceding lines) 'was my sin. Now I repent. Because I did suffer the pains of love, I must now suffer those of remorse.'

Page324, V. 11.have burnt it heretofore.Donne uses 'heretofore' not infrequently in the sense of 'hitherto', and this seems to be implied in 'Let their flames retire'. I have therefore preferred the perfect tense of the MSS. to the preterite of the editions. The 'hath' ofO'Fis a change made in the supposed interests of grammar, if not used as a plural form, for 'their flames' implies that the fires of lust and of envy are distinguished. In speaking of the first Donne thinks mainly of his youth, of the latter he has in memory his years of suitorship at Court.

VI. 7, note.Or presently, I know not, see that Face.This line, which occurs in several independent MSS., is doubtless Donne's, but the reading of the text is probably his own emendation. The first form of the line suggested too distinctly a not approved, or even heretical, doctrine to which Donne refers more than once in his sermons: 'SoAudivimus, et ab Antiquis, We have heard, and heard by them of old, That in how good state soever they dye yet the souls of the departed do not see the face of God, nor enjoy his presence, till the day of Judgement; This we have heard, and from so many of them of old, as that the voyce of that part is louder, then of the other. And amongst those reverend and blessed Fathers, which straied into these errors, some were hearers and Disciples of the Apostles themselves, as Papias was a disciple of S. John and yet Papias was a Millenarian, and expected his thousand yeares prosperity upon the earth after the Resurrection: some of them were Disciples of the Apostles, and some of them were better men then the Apostles, for they were Bishops of Rome;Clementwas so: and yetClementwas one of them, who denied the fruition of the sight of God, by the Saints, till the Judgement.'Sermons80. 73. 739-40.

There are two not strictly orthodox opinions to which Donne seems to have leant: (1) this, perhaps a remnant of his belief in Purgatory, the theory of a state of preparation, in this doctrine applied even to the saints; (2) a form of the doctrine now called 'Conditional Immortality'. See note on LetterTo the Countesse of Bedford, p.196, l. 58.

Page325, VII. 6.dearth.This reading of the Westmoreland MS. is surely right notwithstanding the consensus of the editions and other MSS. in reading 'death'. The poet is enumerating various modes in which death comes; death itself cannot be one of these. The 'death' in l. 8 perhaps explains the error; it certainly makes the error more obvious.

VIII. 7.in us, not immediately.I have interjected a comma after 'us' in order to bring out distinctly the Scholastic doctrine of Angelic knowledge on which this sonnet turns. See note onThe Dreamewith the quotation from Aquinas. What Donne says here is: 'If our minds or thoughts are known to the saints in heaven as to angels, notimmediately, but by circumstances and signs (such as blushing or a quickened pulsation) which are apparent in us, how shall the sincerity of my grief be known to them, since these signs are found in lovers, conjurers and pharisees?' 'Deo tantum sunt naturaliter cognitae cogitationes cordium.' 'God alone who put grief in my heart knows its sincerity.'

l. 10.vile blasphemous Conjurers.The 'vilde' of the MSS. is obviously the right reading. The form too is that which Donne used if we may judge by the MSS., and by the fact that inElegie XIV: Juliahe rhymes thus:

and (which is worse than vilde)Sticke jealousie in wedlock, her owne childeScapes not the showers of envie.

and (which is worse than vilde)

Sticke jealousie in wedlock, her owne childe

Scapes not the showers of envie.

By printing 'vile' the old and modern editions destroy the rhyme. In the sonnet indeed the rhyme is not affected, and accordingly, as I am not prepared to change every 'vile' to 'vilde' in the poems, I have printed 'vile'.Wwrites vile. Probably one might use either form.

Page326,IX. 9-10. I have followed here the punctuation ofW, which takes 'O God' in close connexion with the preceding line; the vocative case seems to be needed since God has not been directly addressed until l. 9. The punctuation ofD,H49, which has often determined that of1633, is not really different from that ofW:

But who am I, that dare dispute with Thee?Oh God; Oh of thyne, &c.

But who am I, that dare dispute with Thee?

Oh God; Oh of thyne, &c.

Here, as so often, the question-mark is placed immediately after the question, before the sentence is ended. But 'Oh God' goes with the question. A new strain begins with the second 'Oh'. The editions, by punctuating

But who am I that dare dispute with thee?O God, Oh! &c.

But who am I that dare dispute with thee?

O God, Oh! &c.

(which modern editors have followed), make 'O God, Oh!' a hurried series of exclamations introducing the prayer which follows. This suits the style of these abrupt, passionate poems. But it leaves the question without an address to point it; and to my own mind the hurried, feverous effect of 'O God, Oh!' is more than compensated for by the weight which is thrown, by the punctuation adopted, upon the second 'Oh',—a sigh drawn from the very depths of the heart,

so piteous and profoundAs it did seem to shatter all his bulk,And end his being.

so piteous and profound

As it did seem to shatter all his bulk,

And end his being.

Page327,XII. 1.Why are wee by all creatures, &c.The 'am I' of theWis probably what Donne first wrote, and I am strongly tempted to restore it. Donne's usual spelling of 'am' is 'ame'in his letters. This might have been changed to 'are', which would have brought the change of 'I' to 'we' in its wake. On the other hand there are evidences in this sonnet of corrections made by Donne himself (e.g. l. 9), and he may have altered the first line as being too egotistical in sound. I have therefore retained the text of the editions.

l. 4.Simple, and further from corruption?The 'simple' of1633andD,H49,Wis preferable to the 'simpler' of the later editions and somewhat inferior MSS. which Chambers has adopted, inadvertently, I think, for he does not notice the earlier reading. The dropping of an 'r' would of course be very easy; but the simplicity of the element does not admit of comparison, and what Donne says is, I think, 'The elements are purer than we are, and (being simple) farther from corruption.'

Page328, XIII. 4-6.

Whether that countenance can thee affright,Teares in his eyes quench the amazing light,Blood fills his frownes, which from his pierc'd head fell.

Whether that countenance can thee affright,

Teares in his eyes quench the amazing light,

Blood fills his frownes, which from his pierc'd head fell.

Chambers alters the comma after 'affright' to a full stop, the Grolier Club editor to a semicolon. Both place a semicolon after 'fell'. Any change of the old punctuation seems to me to disguise the close relation in which the fifth and sixth lines stand to the third. It is with the third line they must go, not with the seventh, with which a slightly different thought is introduced. 'Mark the picture of Christ in thy heart and ask, can that countenance affright thee in whose eyes the light of anger is quenched in tears, the furrows of whose frowns are filled with blood.' Then, from the countenance Donne's thought turns to the tongue. The full stop, accidentally dropped after 'fell' in the editions of1633and1635, was restored in1639.

l. 14.assures.In this case the MSS. enable us to correct an obvious error ofallthe printed editions.

Page329,XVI. 9.Yet such are thy laws.I have adopted the reading 'thy' of the Westmoreland and some other MSS. because the sense seems to require it. 'These' and 'those' referring to the same antecedent make a harsh construction. 'Thy laws necessarily transcend the limits of human capacity and therefore some doubt whether these conditions of our salvation can be fulfilled by men. They cannot, but grace and spirit revive what law and letter kill.'

l. 11.None doth; but all-healing grace and spirit.I have dropped the 'thy' of the editions, following all the MSS. I have no doubt that 'thy' has been inserted: (1) It spoils the rhyme: 'spirit' has to rhyme with 'yet', which is impossible unless the accent may fall on the second syllable; (2) 'thy' has been inserted, as 'spirit' has been spelt with a capital letter, under the impression that 'spirit' stands for the Divine Spirit, the Holy Ghost. But obviously 'spirit' is opposed to 'letter' as 'grace' is to 'law'. InWboth 'grace' and 'spirit' are spelt with capitals. Either both or neither mustbe so treated. 'Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.' 2 Cor. iii. 6.

If 'thy' is to be retained, then 'spirit' must be pronounced 'sprit'. Commentators on Shakespeare declare that this happens, but it is very difficult to prove it. When Donne needs a monosyllable he uses 'spright'; 'spirit' he rhymes as disyllable with 'merit'.

Page330, XVII. 1.she whom I lov'd.This is the reference to his wife's death which dates these poems. Anne More, Donne's wife, died on August 15, 1617, on the seventh day after the birth of her twelfth child. She was buried in the church of St. Clement Danes. Her monument disappeared when the Church was rebuilt. The inscription ran:

XVIII.It is clear enough why this sonnet was not published. It would have revealed Donne, already three years in orders, as still conscious of all the difficulties involved in a choice between the three divisions of Christianity—Rome, Geneva (made to include Germany), and England. This is the theme of his earliest serious poem, theSatyre III, and the subject recurs in the letters and sermons. Donne entered the Church of England not from a conviction that it, and it alone, was the true Church, but because he had first reached the position that there is salvation in each: 'You know I never fettered nor imprisoned the word Religion; not straitening it Frierlyad Religiones factitias, (as theRomanscall well their orders of Religion)nor immuring it in a Rome, or aWittenberg, or aGeneva; they are all virtuall beams of one Sun, and wheresoever they find clay hearts, they harden them, and moulder them into dust; and they entender and mollifie waxen. They are not so contrary as the North and South Poles; and that they are connatural pieces of one circle.'Letters, p. 29. From this position it was easy to pass to the view that, this being so, the Church of England may have special claims onme, as the Church of my Country, and to a recognition of its character as primitive, and as offering avia media. As such it attracted Casaubon and Grotius. But the Church of England never made the appeal to Donne's heart and imagination it did to George Herbert:

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