Page131.Ecclogue.1613.December26, &c.

To an unseparable union growe

is, I think, preferable, because (1) both the words used in l. 44 are thus echoed.

MeetingAnother,growesthe same,Someetthy Fredericke, and soTo an unseparable uniongrowe.

MeetingAnother,growesthe same,

Someetthy Fredericke, and so

To an unseparable uniongrowe.

(2) 'To an unseparable union growe', meaning 'Become inseparably incorporated with one another', is a slightly violent but not unnatural application of the phrase 'grow to' so common in Elizabethan English:

'I grow to you, and our parting is a tortured body.'All's Well that Ends Well,II.i. 36.

First let our eyes be rivited quite throughOur turning brains, and both our lips grow to.Donne,Elegie XII, 57-8.

First let our eyes be rivited quite through

Our turning brains, and both our lips grow to.

Donne,Elegie XII, 57-8.

l. 56. The 'or' of the MSS. must, I think, be right. 'O Bishop Valentine' does not make good sense. Chambers's ingenious emendation of1669, by which he connects 'of Bishop Valentine' with 'one way left', lacks support. Bishop Valentine has paired them; the Bishop in church has united them; the consummation is their own act.

It is unnecessary to detail all the ugly history of this notorious marriage. See Gardiner,History of England, ii. 16 and 20. Frances Howard, daughter of Thomas Howard, the first Earl of Suffolk, was married in 1606 to the youthful Earl of Essex, the later Parliamentary general. In 1613, after a prolonged suit she was granted a divorce, or a decree of nullity, and was at once married to King James's ruling favourite, Robert Carr, created Viscount Rochester in 1611, and Earl of Somerset in 1613. Donne, like every one else, had sought assiduously to win the favour of the all-powerful favourite. Mr. Gosse was in error in attributing to him a report on 'the proceedings in the nullity of the marriage of Essex and Lady Frances Howard' (Harl. MS. 39, f. 416), which was the work of his namesake, Sir Daniell Dunn. None the less, Donne's own letters show that he was quite willing to lend a hand in promoting the divorce; and that before the decree was granted he was already busy polishing his epithalamium. One of these letters is addressed to Sir Robert Ker, afterwards Earl of Ancrum, a friend of Donne's and a protégé of Somerset's. It seems to me probable that Sir Robert Ker is the 'Allophanes' of the Induction. Donne is of course 'Idios', the private man, who holds no place at Court. 'Allophanes' is one who seems like another, who bears the same name as another, i.e. the bridegroom. The name of both Sir Robert and the Earl of Somerset was Robert Ker or Carr.

Page132, l. 34.in darke plotts.Here the reading of1635, 'plotts,' has the support of all the MSS., and the 'places' of1633, to which1669returns, is probably an emendation accidental or intentional of the editor or printer. It disturbs the metre. The word 'plot' of a piece of ground was, and is, not infrequent, and here its meaning is only a little extended. In theProgresse of the Soule, l. 129, Donne speaks of 'a darke and foggie plot'.

fire without light.Compare: 'Fool, saies Christ, this night they will fetch away thy soul; but he neither tells him, who they be that shall fetch it, nor whither they shall carry it; he hath no light but lightnings; a sodain flash of horror first, and then he goes into fire without light.'Sermons26. 19. 273. 'This dark fire, which was not prepared for us.' Ibid.

l. 57.In the East-Indian fleet.The MSS. here give us back a word which1633had dropped, the other editions following suit. It was the East-Indian fleet which brought spices, the West-Indian brought 'plate', i.e. gold or (more properly) silver, to which there is no reference here.

l. 58.or Amber in thy taste?'Amber' is here of course 'Ambergris', which was much used in old cookery, in which considerable importance was attached to scent as well as flavour. Compare:

beasts of chase, or foul of game,In pastry built, or from the spit, or boil'd,Gris-amber steam'd;Milton,Paradise Regained, ii. 344.

beasts of chase, or foul of game,

In pastry built, or from the spit, or boil'd,

Gris-amber steam'd;

Milton,Paradise Regained, ii. 344.

and

Be sureThe wines be lusty, high, and full of spirit,And amber'd all.Beaumont and Fletcher,The Custom of the Country, iii. 2.

Be sure

The wines be lusty, high, and full of spirit,

And amber'd all.

Beaumont and Fletcher,The Custom of the Country, iii. 2.

This was the original meaning of the word 'amber', which was extended to the yellow fossil resin through some mistaken identification of the two substances. Mr. Gosse has called my attention to some passages which seem to indicate that the other amber was also eaten. Tallemant des Réaux says of the Marquise de Rambouillet, 'Elle bransle un peu la teste, et cela lui vient d'avoir trop mangé d'ambre autrefois.' This may be ambergris; but Olivier de Serres, in hisThéâtre d'Agriculture(1600), speaks of persons who had formed a taste for drinking 'de l'ambre jaune subtilement pulvérisé'.

Page134, ll. 85-6.Thou hast no such; yet here was this, and more,An earnest lover, wise then, and before.

Page134, ll. 85-6.Thou hast no such; yet here was this, and more,

An earnest lover, wise then, and before.

This is the reading of1633and gives, I think, Donne's meaning. Missing this, later editions placed a full stop after 'more', so that each line concludes a sentence. Mr. Chambers emends by changing the full stop after 'before' into a comma, and reading:

Thou hast no such; yet here was this and more.An earnest lover, wise then, and before,Our little Cupid hath sued livery.

Thou hast no such; yet here was this and more.

An earnest lover, wise then, and before,

Our little Cupid hath sued livery.

This looks ingenious, but I confess I do not know what it means. When was Cupid wise? When had he been so before? And with what special propriety is Cupid here called 'an earnest lover'? What Donne says is: 'Herewasall this,—a court such as I have described, and more—an earnest lover (viz. the Earl of Somerset), wise in love (when most men are foolish), and wise before, as is approved by the King's confidence. In being admitted to that breast Cupid has ceased to be a child, has attained his majority, and the right to administer his own affairs.' Compare: 'I love them that love me, &c.... The Person that professes love in this place is Wisdomherself ... so thatsapere et amare, to be wise and to love, which perchance never met before nor since, are met in this text.'Sermons26. 18, Dec. 14, 1617.

Then, sweetest Silvia, let's no longer stay;True love we know, precipitates delay.Away with doubts, all scruples hence remove;No man at one time can be wise and love.Herrick,To Silvia to Wed.

Then, sweetest Silvia, let's no longer stay;

True love we know, precipitates delay.

Away with doubts, all scruples hence remove;

No man at one time can be wise and love.

Herrick,To Silvia to Wed.

Page135. I have inserted the titleEpithalamionafter theEccloguefromD,H49,Lec,O'F,S96, as otherwise the latter title is extended to the whole poem. This poem is headed in two different ways in the MSS. InA18,N,TC, the title at the beginning is:Eclogue Inducing an Epithalamion at the marriage of the E. of S.The proper titles of the two parts are thus given at once, and no second title is needed later. In the other MSS. the title at the beginning isEclogue. 1613. Decemb. 26.Later follows the titleEpithalamion. As1633follows this fashion at the beginning, it should have done so throughout.

Page136, l. 126.Since both have both th'enflaming eyes.This is the reading of all the MSS. and it explains the fact that 'th'enflaming' is so printed in1633. Without the 'both' this destroys the metre and, accordingly, the later editions read 'the enflaming'. It was natural to bring 'eye' into the singular and make 'th'enflaming eye' balance 'the loving heart'. Moreover 'both th'enflaming eyes' may have puzzled a printer. It is a Donnean device for emphasis. He has spoken ofherflaming eyes, and now that he identifies the lovers, that identity must be complete. Both the eyes of both are lit with the same flame, both their hearts kindled at the same fire. Compare later: 225. 'One fire of foure inflaming eyes,' &c.

l. 129.Yet letA23,O'F. The first of these MSS. is an early copy of the poem. 'Yet' improves both the sense and the metre. It would be easily dropped from its likeness to 'let' suggesting a duplication of that word.

Page137, l. 150.Who can the Sun in water see.The Grolier Club edition alters the full stop here to a semicolon; and Chambers quotes the reading ofA18,N,TC, 'winter' for 'water', as worth noting. Both the change and the suggestion imply some misapprehension of the reference of these lines, which is to the preceding verse:

For our ease, give thine eyes th'unusual partOf joy, a Teare.

For our ease, give thine eyes th'unusual part

Of joy, a Teare.

The opening of a stanza with two lines which in thought belong to the previous one is not unprecedented in Donne's poems. Compare the sixth stanza ofA Valediction: of my name in the window, and note.

Dryden has borrowed this image—like many another of Donne's:

Muse down again precipitate thy flight;For how can mortal eyes sustain immortal light?But as the sun in water we can bear,Yet not the sun, but his reflection there,So let us view her here in what she was,And take her image in this watery glass.Eleonora, ll. 134-9.

Muse down again precipitate thy flight;

For how can mortal eyes sustain immortal light?

But as the sun in water we can bear,

Yet not the sun, but his reflection there,

So let us view her here in what she was,

And take her image in this watery glass.

Eleonora, ll. 134-9.

l. 156.as their spheares are.The crystalline sphere in which each planet is fixed.

Page138, ll. 171-81.The Benediction.The accurate punctuation of Donne's poetry is not an easy matter. In the 1633 edition the last five lines of this stanza have no stronger stop than a comma. This may be quite right, but it leaves ambiguous what is the exact force and what the connexion of the line—

Nature and grace doe all, and nothing Art.

The editions of 1635-69, by placing a full stop after 'give' (l. 178), connect 'Nature and grace' with what follows, and Chambers and the Grolier Club editor have accepted this, though they place a semicolon after 'Art'. It seems to me that the line must go with what precedes. The force of 'may' is carried on to 'doe all':

may here, to the worlds end, liveHeires from this King, to take thanks, you, to give,Nature and grace doe all and nothing Art.

may here, to the worlds end, live

Heires from this King, to take thanks, you, to give,

Nature and grace doe all and nothing Art.

'May there always be heirs of James to receive thanks, of you two to give; and may this mutual relation owe everything to nature and grace, the goodness of your descendants, the grace of the king, nothing to art, to policy and flattery.' That is the only meaning I can give to the line. The only change in1633is that of a comma to a full stop, a big change in value, a small one typographically.

Page139, l. 200.they doe not set so too; I have changed the full stop after 'too' to a semicolon, as the 'Therefore thou maist' which follows is an immediate inference from these two lines. 'You rose at the same hour this morning, but you (the bride) must go first to bed.'

ll. 204-5.As he that sees, &c.'I have sometimes wondered in the reading what was become of those glaring colours which amazed me inBussy D'Amboisupon the theatre; but when I had taken up what I supposed a fallen star, I found I had been cozened with a jelly; nothing but a cold, dull mass, which glittered no longer than it was a-shooting.' Dryden,The Spanish Friar. In another place Dryden uses the figure in a more poetic or at least ambitious fashion:

The tapers of the gods,The sun and moon, run down like waxen globes;The shooting stars end all in purple jellies,And chaos is at hand.Oedipus,II.i.

The tapers of the gods,

The sun and moon, run down like waxen globes;

The shooting stars end all in purple jellies,

And chaos is at hand.

Oedipus,II.i.

The idea was a common one, but I have no doubt that Drydenowed his use of it as an image to Donne. There is no poet from whom he pilfers 'wit' more freely.

Page140, ll. 215-16.Now, as in Tullias tombe, i.e. Cicero's daughter. 'According to a ridiculous story, which some of the moderns report, in the age of Pope Paul III a monument was discovered on the Appian road with the superscriptionTulliolae filiae meae; the body of a woman was found in it, which was reduced to ashes as soon as touched; there was also a lamp burning, which was extinguished as soon as the air gained admission there, and which was supposed to have been lighted above 1500 years.' Lemprière. See Browne,Vulgar Errors, iii. 21.

Page141, l. 17.Help with your presence and devise to praise.I have dropped the comma after 'presence' because it suggests to us, though it did not necessarily do so to seventeenth-century readers, that 'devise' here is a verb—both Dr. Grosart and Mr. Chambers have taken it as such—whereas it is the noun 'device' = fancy, invention. Their fancy and invention is to be shown in the attiring of the bride:

Conceitedly dresse her, and be assign'dBy you, fit place for every flower and jewell,Make her for love fit fewellAs gay as Flora, and as rich as Inde.

Conceitedly dresse her, and be assign'd

By you, fit place for every flower and jewell,

Make her for love fit fewell

As gay as Flora, and as rich as Inde.

'Devise to praise' would be a very awkward construction.

Page142, l. 26.Sonns of these Senators wealths deep oceans.The corruption of the text here has arisen in the first place from the readily explicable confusion of 'sonnes' or 'sonns' as written and 'sonne', the final 's' being the merest flourish and repeatedly overlooked in copying and printing, while 'sonne' easily becomes 'some', and secondly from a misapprehension of Donne's characteristic pun. The punctuation of the 1633 edition is supported by almost every MS.

The 'frolique Patricians' are of course not the sons of 'these Senators' by birth. 'I speak not this to yourselves, you Senators of London,' says Donne in theSermon Preached at Pauls Cross ... 26 Mart. 1616, 'but as God hath blessed you in your ways, and in your callings, so put your children into ways and courses too, in which God may bless them.... The Fathers' former labours shall not excuse their Sons future idleness.' The sons of wealthy citizens might grow idle and extravagant; they could not be styled 'Patricians'. It is not of them that Donne is thinking, but of the young noblemen who are accompanying their friend on his wedding-day. They are, or are willing to be, the sons, by marriage not by blood, of 'these Senators', or rather of their money-bags. In a word, they marry their daughters for money, as the hero of theEpithalamionis doing. It is fortunate for the Senators if the young courtiers do not find in their wives as well as their daughters, like Fastidious Brisk in Jonson's comedy, 'Golden Mines and furnish'd Treasurie.' But they are 'Sunnes' as well as Sonnes'—suns which drink up the deep oceans of these Senators' wealth:

it rain'd moreThen if the Sunne had drunk the sea before.Storme, 43-4.

it rain'd more

Then if the Sunne had drunk the sea before.Storme, 43-4.

Hence the metaphor 'deep oceans', and hence the appropriateness of the predicate 'Here shine'. This pun on 'sunne' and 'sonne' is a favourite with Donne:

Mad paper stay, and grudge not here to burneWith all those sonnes [sunnesB,S96] whom my braine did create.To Mrs. M. H. H., p.216.

Mad paper stay, and grudge not here to burne

With all those sonnes [sunnesB,S96] whom my braine did create.

To Mrs. M. H. H., p.216.

I am thy sonne, made with thyself to shine.Holy Sonnets, II. 5.

I am thy sonne, made with thyself to shine.

Holy Sonnets, II. 5.

Sweare by thyself, that at my death thy sonneShall shine as hee shines now, and heretofore.A Hymn to God the Father.

Sweare by thyself, that at my death thy sonne

Shall shine as hee shines now, and heretofore.

A Hymn to God the Father.

'This day both Gods Sons arose: The Sun of his Firmament, and the Son of his bosome.'Sermons80. 26. 255. 'And when thy Sun, thy soule comes to set in thy death-bed, the Son of Grace shall suck it up into glory.' Ibid. 80. 45. 450.

Correctly read the line has a satiric quality which Donne's lines rarely want, and in which this stanza abounds. I have chosen the spelling 'Sonns' as that which is most commonly used in the MSS. for 'sonnes' and 'sunnes'.

Page143, l. 57.His steeds nill be restrain'd.I had adopted the reading 'nill' for 'will' conjecturally before I found it inW. There can be no doubt it is right. As printed, the two clauses (57-8) simply contradict each other. The use of 'nill' for 'will' was one of Spenser's Chaucerisms, and Donne comes closer to Spenser in theEpithalamiathan anywhere else. Sylvester uses it in his translation of Du Bartas:

For I nill stiffly argue to and froIn nice opinions, whether so or so.

For I nill stiffly argue to and fro

In nice opinions, whether so or so.

And it occurs in Davison'sPoetical Rhapsody:

And therefore nill I boast of war.

In Shakespeare, setting aside the phrase 'nill he, will he', we have:

in scorn or friendship, nill I construe whether.ll. 81-2.Till now thou wast but ableTo be what now thou art;

in scorn or friendship, nill I construe whether.

ll. 81-2.Till now thou wast but ableTo be what now thou art;

ll. 81-2.Till now thou wast but able

To be what now thou art;

She has realized her potentiality; she is now actually what hitherto she has been onlyἐν δυνάμει, therefore she 'puts on perfection'. 'Praeterea secundum Philosophum ...qualibet potentiâ melior est eius actus; nam forma est melior quam materia, et actio quam potentia activa: est enim finis eius.' Aquinas,Summa, xxv. i. See also Aristotle,Met.1050a2-16. This metaphysical doctrineis not contradicted by the religious exaltation of virginity, for it is not virginity as such which is preferred to marriage by the Church, but the virgin's dedication of herself to God: 'Virginitas inde honorata, quia Deo dicata.... Virgines ideo laudatae, quia Deo dicatae. Nec nos hoc in virginibus praedicamus, quod virgines sunt; sed quod Deo dicatae piâ continentiâ virgines. Nam, quod non temere dixerim, felicior mihi videtur nupta mulier quam virgo nuptura: habet enim iam illa quod ista adhuc cupit.... Illa uni studet placere cui data est: haec multis, incerta cui danda est,' &c.; August.De Sanct. Virg.I. x, xi. Compare Aquinas,SummaII. 2, Quaest. clii. 3. Wedded to Christ the virgin puts on a higher perfection.

The earliest date assignable to any of theSatyresis 1593, or more probably 1594-5. On the back of the Harleian MS. 5110 (H51), in the British Museum, is inscribed:1

Jhon Dunne his SatiresAnno Domini 1593

Jhon Dunne his Satires

Anno Domini 1593

The handwriting is not identical with that in which the poems are transcribed, and it is impossible to say either when the poems were copied or when the title and date were affixed. One may not build too absolutely on its accuracy; but there are in the three firstSatires(which alone the MS. contains) some indications that point to 1593-5 as the probable date. Mr. Chambers notes the reference in I., 80, 'the wise politic horse,' to Banks' performing horse, and says: 'A large collection of them' (i.e. allusions to the horse) 'will be found in Mr. Halliwell-Phillips's Memoranda onLove's Labour's Lost. Only one of these allusions is, however, earlier than 1593. It is in 1591, and refers not to an exhibition in London, but in the provinces, and not to Morocco, which was a bay, but to a white horse. It is probable, therefore, that by 1591 Banks had not yet come to London, and if so the date 1593 on the Harl. MS. 5110 of Donne'sSatirescannot be far from that of their composition.' But this is not the only allusion. The same lines run on:

Or thou O Elephant or Ape wilt doe.

This has been passed by commentators as a quite general reference;but the Ape and Elephant seem to have been animals actually performing, or exhibited, in London about 1594. Thus inEvery Man out of his Humour, acted in 1599, Carlo Buffone says (IV.6): ''S heart he keeps more ado with this monster' (i.e. Sogliardo's dog) 'than ever Banks did with his horse, or the fellow with the elephant.' Further, all three are mentioned in theEpigramsof Sir John Davies, e.g.:

Amongst the poets Dacus numbered isYet could he never make an English rime;But some prose speeches I have heard of his,Which have been spoken many an hundred time:The man that keepes the Elephant hath one,Wherein he tells the wonders of the beast:Another Bankes pronounced long agon,When he his curtailes qualities exprest:Hee first taught him that keepes the monumentsAt Westminster his formall tale to say:And also him which Puppets represents,And also him that wththe Ape doth play:Though all his poetry be like to this,Amongst the poets Dacus numbred is.

Amongst the poets Dacus numbered is

Yet could he never make an English rime;

But some prose speeches I have heard of his,

Which have been spoken many an hundred time:

The man that keepes the Elephant hath one,

Wherein he tells the wonders of the beast:

Another Bankes pronounced long agon,

When he his curtailes qualities exprest:

Hee first taught him that keepes the monuments

At Westminster his formall tale to say:

And also him which Puppets represents,

And also him that wththe Ape doth play:

Though all his poetry be like to this,

Amongst the poets Dacus numbred is.

And again:

Titus the brave and valorous young gallantThree years together in the town hath beene,Yet my Lo. Chancellors tombe he hath not seene,Nor the new water-worke, nor the Elephant.I cannot tell the cause without a smile:Hee hath been in the Counter all the while.

Titus the brave and valorous young gallant

Three years together in the town hath beene,

Yet my Lo. Chancellors tombe he hath not seene,

Nor the new water-worke, nor the Elephant.

I cannot tell the cause without a smile:

Hee hath been in the Counter all the while.

Colonel Cunningham has pointed out another reference in Basse'sMetamorphosis of the Walnut Tree(1645), where he tells how 'in our youth we saw the Elephant'. Grosart's suggestion that the Elephant was an Inn is absurd.

Davies'Epigramswere first published along with Marlowe's version of Ovid'sElegies, but no date is affixed to any of the three editions which followed one another. But a MS. in the Bodleian which contains forty-five of the Epigrams describes them asEnglish Epigrammes much like Buckminsters Almanacke servinge for all England but especially for the meridian of the honourable cittye of London calculated by John Davies of Grayes Inne gentleman Ano1594 in November.2This seems much too exact to be a pure invention, and if it be correct it is very unlikely that the allusions would be to ancient history. Banks' Horse, the performing Ape, and the Elephant were all among the sights of the day, like the recently erected tomb of Lord Chancellor Hatton, who died in 1591. The atmosphere of the firstSatyre, as of Davies'Epigrams, is that of 1593-5. The phrase 'the Infanta of London, Heire to an India', in which commentators have found needless difficulty, contains possibly, besides its obvious meaning, an allusion to the fact that since 1587 the Infanta of Spain had become in official Catholic circles heir to the English throne. In 1594 Parsons' tract,A Conference about the next Succession to the Crown of England. By R. Doleman, defended her claim, and made the Infanta's name a byword in England.

IfH51is thus approximately right in its dating of the first Satire it may be the better trusted as regards the other two, and there is at least nothing in them to make this date impossible. The references to poetry in the second acquire a more vivid interest when their date or approximate date is remembered. In 1593 died Marlowe, the greatest of the brilliant group that reformed the stage, giving

ideot actors means(Starving 'themselves') to live by 'their' labour'd sceanes;

ideot actors means

(Starving 'themselves') to live by 'their' labour'd sceanes;

and Shakespeare was one of the 'ideot actors'. Shakespeare, too, was one of the many sonneteers who 'would move Love by rithmes', and in 1593 and 1594 he appeared among those 'who write to Lords, rewards to get'.

It would be interesting if we could identify the lawyer-poet, Coscus, referred to in this Satire. Malone, in a MS. note to his copy of1633(now in the Bodleian Library), suggested John Hoskins or Sir Richard Martin. Grosart conjectured that Donne had in view theGullinge Sonnetspreserved in the Farmer-Chetham MS., and ascribed with probability to Sir John Davies, the poet of theEpigramsjust mentioned. Chambers seems to lean to this view and says, 'these sonnets are couched in legal terminology.' Donne is supposed to have mistaken Davies' 'gulling' for serious poetry. This is very unlikely. Moreover, only the last two of Davies' sonnets are 'couched in legal terminology':

My case is this, I love Zepheria bright,Of her I hold my harte by fealty:

My case is this, I love Zepheria bright,

Of her I hold my harte by fealty:

and

To Love my lord I doe knights service oweAnd therefore nowe he hath my wit in ward.

To Love my lord I doe knights service owe

And therefore nowe he hath my wit in ward.

Nor, although Davies' style parodies the style of the sonneteers (not of the anonymousZepheriaonly), is it particularly harsh. It ismuch more probable that Donne, like Davies, has chiefly in view this anonymous series of sonnets—Zepheria.Ogni dì viene la sera. Mysus et Haemonia juvenis qui cuspide vulnus senserat, hac ipsa cuspide sensit opem. At London: Printed by the Widow Orwin, for N. L. and John Busby.1594. The style ofZepheriaexactly fits Donne's description:

words, words which would teareThe tender labyrinth of a soft maids eare.

words, words which would teare

The tender labyrinth of a soft maids eare.

'The verbs "imparadize", "portionize", "thesaurize", are some of the fruits of his ingenuity. He claims that his Muse is capable of "hyperbolised trajections"; he apostrophizes his lady's eyes as "illuminating lamps" and calls his pen his "heart's solicitor".' Sidney Lee,Elizabethan Sonnets. The following sonnet from the series illustrates the use of legal terminology which both Davies and Donne satirize:

How often hath my pen (mine heart's Solicitor)Instructed thee in Breviat of my case!While Fancy-pleading eyes (thy beauty's visitor)Have pattern'd to my quill, an angel's face.How have my Sonnets (faithful Counsellors)Thee without ceasing moved for Day of Hearing!While they, my Plaintive Cause (my faith's Revealers!),Thy long delay, my patience, in thine ear ring.How have I stood at bar of thine own conscienceWhen in Requesting Court my suit I brought!How have the long adjournments slowed the sentenceWhich I (through much expense of tears) besought!Through many difficulties have I run,Ah sooner wert thou lost, I wis, than won.

How often hath my pen (mine heart's Solicitor)

Instructed thee in Breviat of my case!

While Fancy-pleading eyes (thy beauty's visitor)

Have pattern'd to my quill, an angel's face.

How have my Sonnets (faithful Counsellors)

Thee without ceasing moved for Day of Hearing!

While they, my Plaintive Cause (my faith's Revealers!),

Thy long delay, my patience, in thine ear ring.

How have I stood at bar of thine own conscience

When in Requesting Court my suit I brought!

How have the long adjournments slowed the sentence

Which I (through much expense of tears) besought!

Through many difficulties have I run,

Ah sooner wert thou lost, I wis, than won.

We do not know who the author ofZepheriawas, so cannot tell how far Donne is portraying an individual in what follows. It can hardly be Hoskins or Martin, unlessZepheriaitself was intended to be a burlesque, which is possible. Quite possibly Donne has taken the author ofZepheriasimply as a type of the young lawyer who writes bad poetry; and in the rest of the poem portrays the same type when he has abandoned poetry and devoted himself to 'Law practice for mere gain', extorting money and lands from Catholics or suspected Catholics, and drawing cozening conveyances. IfZepheriabe the poems referred to, then 1594-5 would be the date of this Satire.

The thirdSatyrehas no datable references, but its tone reflects the years in which Donne was loosening himself from the Catholic Church but had not yet conformed, the years between 1593 and 1599, and probably the earlier rather than the later of these years. On the whole 1593 is a little too early a date for these three satires. They were probably written between 1594 and 1597.

The long fourthSatyreis in the Hawthornden MS. (HN) headedSat. 4. anno 1594. But this is a mistake either of Drummond, who transcribed the poems probably as late as 1610, or of Donne himself, whose tendency was to push these early effusions far back in his life. The reference to 'the losse of Amyens' (l. 114) shows that the poem must have been written after March 1597, probably between that date and September, when Amiens was re-taken by Henry IV. These linesmaybe an insertion, but there is no extant copy of theSatyrewithout them. It belongs to the period between the 'Calis-journey' and the 'Island-voyage', when first Donne is likely to have appeared at court in the train of Essex.

The fifthSatyreis referred by Grosart and Chambers to 1602-3 on the ground that the phrase 'the great Carricks pepper' is a reference to the expedition sent out by the East India Company under Captain James Lancaster to procure pepper, the price of which commodity was excessively high. Lancaster captured a Portuguese Carrick and sent home pepper and spice. There is no proof, however, that this ship was ever known as 'the Carrick' or 'the great Carrick'. That phrasewasapplied to 'that prodigious great carack called theMadre de DiosorMother of God, one of the greatest burden belonging to the crown of Portugal', which was captured by Raleigh's expedition and brought to Dartmouth in 1592. 'This prize was reckoned the greatest and richest that had ever been brought into England' and 'daily drew vast numbers of spectators from all parts to admire at the hugeness of it' (Oldys,Life of Raleigh, 1829, pp. 154-7). Strype states that she 'was seven decks high, 165 foot long, and manned with 600 men' (Annals, iv. 177-82). That pepper formed a large part of the Carrick's cargo is clear from the following order issued by the Privy Council:A letter to Sir Francis Drake, William Killigrewe, Richard Carmarden and Thomas Midleton Commissioners appointed for the Carrique. 'Wee have received your letter of the 23rdof this presente of your proceeding in lading of other convenient barkes with the pepper out of the Carrique, and your opinion concerning the same, for answere whereunto we do thinke it meete, and so require you to take order, so soone as the goods are quite dischardged, that Sir Martin Frobisher be appointed to have the charge and conduction of those shippes laden with the pepper and other commodities out of the Carrique to be brought about to Chatham.' 27 Octobris, 1592. See also under October 1. The reference in 'the great Carricks pepper' is thus clear. The words 'You Sir, whose righteousness she loves', &c., ll. 31-3, show that the poem was written after Donne had entered Sir Thomas Egerton's service, i.e. between 1598, if not earlier, and February 1601-2 when he was dismissed, which makes the date suggested by Grosart and Chambers (1602-3) impossible. The poem was probably written in 1598-9. There is a note of enthusiasm in these lines as of one who has just entered on a service of which he isproud, and the occasion of the poem was probably Egerton's endeavour to curtail the fees claim'd by the Clerk of the Star Chamber (see note below). With Essex's return from Ireland in 1599 began a period of trouble and anxiety for Egerton, and probably for Donne too. The more sombre cast of his thought, and the modification in his feelings towards Elizabeth, after the fatal February of 1600-1, are reflected in the satirical fragmentThe Progresse of the Soule.

The so-called sixth and seventhSatyres(added in 1635 and 1669) I have relegated to theAppendix B, and have given elsewhere my reasons for assigning them to Sir John Roe. That Donne wrote only five regularSatyresis very definitely stated by Drummond of Hawthornden in a note prefixed to the copy of the fourth inHN: 'This Satyre (though it heere have the first place because no more was intended to this booke) was indeed the authors fourth in number and order he having written five in all to using which this caution will sufficientlie direct in the rest.'

1Attention was first called to this inscription by J. Payne Collier in hisPoetical Decameron(1820). He uses the date to vindicate the claim for Donne's priority as a satirist to Hall. 'Dunne' is of course one of the many ways in which the poet's name is spelt, and 'Jhon' is a spelling of 'John'. The poet's own signature is generally 'Jo. Donne.' 'Jhon Don' is Drummond's spelling on the title-page ofHN. InQthe first page is headed 'M^r John Dunnes Satires'.

2Of the forty-five which the MS. contains, some thirty-three were published in the edition referred to above. On the other hand the edition contains some which are not in the MS. Of these, one, 47, 'Meditations of a gull,' alone refers to events which are certainly later than 1594. As this is not in the MS. there is nothing to contradict the assertion that it (and the Epigrams cited above) belong to 1594. Davies' Epigrams are referred to in Sir John Harrington'sMetamorphosis of Ajax, 1596.

ThisSatyreis pretty closely imitated in theSatyra QuintaofSKIALETHEIA. or, A shadowe of Truth in certaine Epigrams and Satyres. 1598. attributed to Edward Guilpin (or Gilpin), to whom extracts from it are assigned inEnglands Parnassus(1600). Who Guilpin was we do not know. Besides the work named he wrote two sonnets prefixed to Gervase Markham'sDevoreux. Vertues tears for the losse of the most Christian King Henry, third of that name; and the untimely death of the most noble and heroical Gentleman, Walter Devoreux, who was slain before Roan in France. First written in French by the most excellent and learned Gentlewoman, Madame Geneuefe Petan Maulette. And paraphrastically translated into English by Jervis Markham.1597. See Grosart's Introduction to his reprint ofSkialetheiainOccasional Issues. 6. (1878). Donne addresses a letter toMr. E. G.(p.208), which Gosse conjectures to be addressed to Guilpin. That Guilpin knew Donne is probable in view of this early imitation of a privately circulated MS. poem. Guilpin's poem begins:

Let me alone I prethee in thys Cell,Entice me not into the Citties hell;Tempt me not forth thisEdenof content,To tast of that which I shall soone repent:Prethy excuse me, I am hot aloneAccompanied with meditation,And calme content, whose tast more pleaseth meThen all the Citties lushious vanity.I had rather be encoffin'd in this chestAmongst these bookes and papers I protest,Then free-booting abroad purchase offence,And scandale my calme thoughts with discontents.Heere I converse with those diviner spirits,Whose knowledge, and admire, the world inherits:Heere doth the famous profoundStagarite,With Natures mistick harmony delightMy ravish'd contemplation: I heere seeThe now-old worlds youth in an history:

Let me alone I prethee in thys Cell,

Entice me not into the Citties hell;

Tempt me not forth thisEdenof content,

To tast of that which I shall soone repent:

Prethy excuse me, I am hot alone

Accompanied with meditation,

And calme content, whose tast more pleaseth me

Then all the Citties lushious vanity.

I had rather be encoffin'd in this chest

Amongst these bookes and papers I protest,

Then free-booting abroad purchase offence,

And scandale my calme thoughts with discontents.

Heere I converse with those diviner spirits,

Whose knowledge, and admire, the world inherits:

Heere doth the famous profoundStagarite,

With Natures mistick harmony delight

My ravish'd contemplation: I heere see

The now-old worlds youth in an history:

l. 1.Away thou fondling, &c.The reading of the majority of editions and MSS. is 'changeling', but this is a case not of a right and wrong reading but of two versions, both ascribable to the author. Which was his emendation it is impossible to say. He may have changed 'fondling' (a 'fond' or foolish person) thinking that the idea was conveyed by 'motley', which, like Shakespeare's epithet 'patch', is a synecdoche from the dress of the professional fool or jester. On the other hand the idea of 'changeling' is repeated in 'humorist', which suggests changeable and fanciful. I have, therefore, let the1633text stand. 'Changeling' has of course the meaning here of 'a fickle or inconstant person', not the common sense of a person or thing or child substituted for another, as 'fondling' is not here a 'pet, favourite', as in modern usage.

l. 3.Consorted.Grosart, who professes to print fromH51, readsConsoled, without any authority.

l. 6.Natures Secretary: i.e. Aristotle. He is always 'the Philosopher' in Aquinas and the other schoolmen. Walton speaks of 'the great secretary of nature and all learning, Sir Francis Bacon'.

l. 7.jolly Statesmen.All the MSS. exceptO'Fagree with1633in reading 'jolly', though 'wily' is an obvious emendation. Chambers adopts it. By 'jolly' Donne probably meant 'overweeningly self-confident ... full of presumptuous pride ... arrogant, over-bearing' (O.E.D.). 'Evilmerodach, a jolly man, without Iustyse and cruel.' Caxton (1474). 'It concerneth every one of us ... not to be too high-minded or jolly for anything that is past.' Sanderson (1648).

l. 10.Giddie fantastique Poets of each land.In a letter Donne tells Buckingham, in Spain, how his own library is filled with Spanish books 'from the mistress of my youth, Poetry, to the wife of mine age, Divinity'. This line in the Satires points to the fact, which Donne was probably tempted later to obscure a little, that his first prolonged visit to the Continent had been made before he settled in London in 1592 and probably without the permission of the Government. The other than Spanish poets would doubtless be French and Italian. Donne had read Dante. He refers to him in the fourthSatyre('who dreamt he saw hell'), and in an unpublished letter in the Burley MS. he dilates at some length, but in no very creditable fashion, on an episode in theDivina Commedia. Of French poets he probably knew at any rate Du Bartas and Regnier.

l. 12.And follow headlong, wild uncertain thee?I have retained the1633punctuation instead of, with Chambers, comma-ing 'wild' as well as 'headlong'. The latter is possibly an adverb here, going with 'follow'. The use of 'headlong' as an adjective with persons was not common. The earliest example in the O.E.D. is fromHudibras:

The Friendly Rug preserv'd the ground,And headlong Knight from bruise or wound.

The Friendly Rug preserv'd the ground,

And headlong Knight from bruise or wound.

Donne's line is, however, ambiguous; and the subsequent description of the humorist would justify the adjective.

l. 18.Bright parcell gilt, with forty dead mens pay.Compare: 'Captains some in guilt armour (unbatt'red) some in buffe jerkins, plated o'r with massy silver lace (raz'd out of the ashes of dead pay).' Dekker,Newes from Hell, ii. 119 (Grosart). So many 'dead pays' (i.e. men no longer on the muster roll) were among the perquisites allowed to every captain of a company, but the number was constantly exceeded: 'Moreover where' (i.e. whereas) 'there are 15 dead paies allowed ordinarily in every bande, which is paid allwaies and taken by the captaines, althogh theire nombers be greatly dyminished in soche sorte as sometimes there are not fower score or fewer in a company, her Majestys pleasure is that from hence the saide 15 dead paies shall not be allowed unlesse the companies be full and compleate, but after the rate of two dead paies for everie twenty men that shalbe in the saide bande where the companies are dyminished.' Letter to Sir John Norreyes, Knighte.Acts of the Privy Council, 1592.

Page146, l. 27.Oh monstrous, superstitious puritan.The 'Monster' of the MSS. is of coursenotdue to the substitution of the noun for the adjective, but is simply an older form of the adjective. Compare 'O wonder Vandermast', Greene'sFriar Bacon and Friar Bungay.

l. 32.raise thy formall: 'raise' is probably right, but 'vaile' is a common metaphor. 'A Player? Call him, the lousie slave: what will he saile by, and not once strike or vaile to a Man of Warre.' Captain Tucca in Jonson'sPoetaster,III.3.

l. 33.That wilt consort none, &c.It is unnecessary to alter 'consort none' to 'consort with none', as some MSS. do. The construction is quite regular. 'Wilt thou consort me, bear me company?' Heywood. The 'consorted with these few books' of l. 3 is classed by the O.E.D. under a slightly different sense of the word—not 'attended on by' these books, but 'associated in a common lot with' them.

l. 39.The nakednesse and barenesse, &c.The reading 'barrennesse' of all the editions and some MSS. is due probably to similarity of pronunciation (rather than of spelling) and a superficial suggestion of appropriateness to the context. A second glance shows that 'bareness' is the correct reading. The MSS. give frequent evidence of having been written to dictation.

l. 46. The 'yet', which the later editions and Chambers drop, is quite in Donne's style. It is heavily stressed and 'he was' is slurred, 'h' was.'

Page147, l. 58.The Infanta of London, Heire to an India.It is not necessary to suppose a reference to any person in particular. The allusion is in the first place to the wealth of the city, and the greed of patricians and courtiers to profit by that wealth. 'No one can tell who, amid the host of greedy and expectant suitors, will carry off whoever is at present the wealthiest minor (and probably the king's ward) in London, i.e. the City.' Compare theEpithalamion made at Lincolns Inn:

Daughters of London, you which beOur Golden Mines, and furnish'd Treasury,You which are Angels, yet still bring with youThousands of Angels on your marriage days. . . . . . . .Make her for Love fit fuel,As gay as Flora, and as rich as Inde.

Daughters of London, you which be

Our Golden Mines, and furnish'd Treasury,

You which are Angels, yet still bring with you

Thousands of Angels on your marriage days

. . . . . . . .

Make her for Love fit fuel,

As gay as Flora, and as rich as Inde.

Compare also: 'I possess as much in your wish, Sir, as if I were made Lord of the Indies.' Jonson,Every Man out of his Humour, II. iii.

The 'Infanta' ofA25,O'F,Qis pretty certainly right, though 'Infant' can be applied, like 'Prince', to a woman. There is probably a second allusion to the claim of the Infanta of Spain to be heir to the English throne.

l. 60.heavens Scheme: 'Scheme' is certainly the right reading. The common MS. spelling, 'sceame' or 'sceames', explains the 'sceanes' which1633has derived fromN,TCD. For theSatyresthe editor did not use his best MS. SeeText and Canon, &c., p.xcv. It is possible that a slurred definite article ('th'heavens') has been lost.

In preparing his 'theme' or horoscope the astrologer had five principal things to consider, (1) the heavenly mansions, (2) the signs of the zodiac, (3) the planets, (4) the aspects and configurations, (5) the fixed stars. With this end in view the astrologer divided the heavens into twelve parts, called mansions, to which he related the positions occupied at the same moment by the stars in each of them ('drawing the horoscope'). There were several methods of doing this. That of Ptolemy consisted in dividing the zodiac into twelve equal parts. This was called the equal manner. To represent the mansions the astrologers constructed twelve triangles between two squares placed one within the other. Each of the twelve mansions thus formed had a different name, and determined different aspects of the life and fortune of the subject of the horoscope. From the first was foretold the general character of his life, his health, his habits, morals. The second indicated hiswealth; and so on. The different signs of the zodiac and the planets, in like manner, had each its special influence. But sufficient has been said to indicate what Donne means by 'drawing forth Heavens scheme'.

l. 62.subtile-witted.There is something to be said for the 'supple-witted' ofH51and some other MSS. 'Subtle-witted' means 'fantastic, ingenious'; 'supple-witted' means 'variable'. Like Fastidious Brisk inEvery Man out of his Humour, they have a fresh fashion in suits every day. 'When men are willing to prefer their friends, we heare them often give these testimonies of a man; He hath good parts, and you need not be ashamed to speak for him; he understands the world, he knowes how things passe, and he hath a discreet, a supple, and an appliable disposition, and hee may make a fit instrument for all your purposes, and you need not be afraid to speake for him.'Sermons80. 74. 750. A 'supple disposition' is one that changes easily to adapt itself to circumstances.

Page148, l. 81.O Elephant or Ape, See Introductory Note toSatyres.

l. 89.I whispered let'us go.I have, following the example of1633in other cases, indicated the slurring of 'let'us' or 'let's', which is necessary metrically if we are to read the full 'whispered' which1669first contracts to 'whisperd'.Qshows that 'let's' is the right contraction. Donne's use of colloquial slurrings must be constantly kept in view when reading especially his satires. They are not always indicated in the editions: but note l. 52:

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