As, in the firmament,Starres by the Sunne are not inlarg'd, but showne.Gentle love deeds, as blossomes on a bough,From loves awakened root do bud out now.
As, in the firmament,Starres by the Sunne are not inlarg'd, but showne.Gentle love deeds, as blossomes on a bough,From loves awakened root do bud out now.
As, in the firmament,
Starres by the Sunne are not inlarg'd, but showne.
Gentle love deeds, as blossomes on a bough,
From loves awakened root do bud out now.
Preads here:
As in the firmamentStarres by the sunne are not enlarg'd but showneGreater; Loves deeds, &c.
As in the firmamentStarres by the sunne are not enlarg'd but showneGreater; Loves deeds, &c.
As in the firmament
Starres by the sunne are not enlarg'd but showne
Greater; Loves deeds, &c.
This certainly makes the verse clearer. As it stands l. 18 is rather an enigma. The stars are not revealed by the sun, but hidden. Grosart's note is equally enigmatical: 'a curious phrase meaning that the stars that show in daylight are not enlarged, but showne to be brighter than their invisible neighbours, and to be comparatively brighter than they appear to be when all are seen together in the darkness of the night.'Pis so carelessly written that an occasional good reading may be an old one because there is no evidence of any editing. The copyist seems to have written on without paying any attention to the sense of what he set down. Still, 'Gentle' is the reading of all the other MSS. and editions, and I do not think it is necessary or desirable to change it. ButP's emendation shows what Donne meant. By 'showne' he does not mean 'revealed'—an adjectival predicate 'larger' or 'greater' must be supplied from the verb 'enlarg'd'. 'The stars at sunrise are not really made larger, but they are made to seem larger.' It is a characteristically elliptical and careless wording of a characteristically acute and vivid image. Mr. Wells has used the same phenomenon with effect:
'He peered upwards. "Look!" he said.
"What?" I asked.
"In the sky. Already. On the blackness—a little touch of blue. See!The stars seem larger.And the little ones and all those dim nebulosities we saw in empty space—they are hidden."
Swiftly, steadily the day approached us.'The first Men in the Moon.(Chap. vii. Sunrise on the Moon.)
A similar phenomenon is noted by Donne: 'A Torch in a misty night, seemeth greater then in a clear.'Sermons50. 36. 326.
l. 11.A non obstante: a privilege, a waiving of any law in favour of an individual: 'Who shall give any other interpretation, any modification, anyNon obstanteupon his law in my behalf, when he comes to judge me according to that law which himself hath made.'Sermons50. 12. 97. 'ANon obstanteand priviledge to doe a sinne before hand.' Ibid. 50. 35. 313.
l. 14.minion: i.e. 'one specially favoured or beloved; a dearest friend' &c. O.E.D. Not used in a contemptuous sense. 'Johnthe Minion ofChristupon earth, and survivor of the Apostles, (whose books rather seem fallen from Heaven, and writ with the hand which ingraved the stone Tables, then a mans work)' &c.Sermons50. 33. 309.
ll. 29 f. Dryden borrows:
Great God of Love, why hast thou madeA Face that can all Hearts command,That all Religions can invade,And change the Laws of ev'ry Land?A Song to a fair Young Lady Going out of Town inthe Spring.
Great God of Love, why hast thou madeA Face that can all Hearts command,That all Religions can invade,And change the Laws of ev'ry Land?A Song to a fair Young Lady Going out of Town inthe Spring.
Great God of Love, why hast thou made
A Face that can all Hearts command,
That all Religions can invade,
And change the Laws of ev'ry Land?
A Song to a fair Young Lady Going out of Town in
the Spring.
Compare with this the poemLoves Freedomein Beaumont'sPoems(1652), sig. E. 6:
Why should man be only ty'dTo a foolish Female thing,When all Creatures else beside,Birds and Beasts, change every Spring?Who would then to one be bound,When so many may be found?
Why should man be only ty'dTo a foolish Female thing,When all Creatures else beside,Birds and Beasts, change every Spring?Who would then to one be bound,When so many may be found?
Why should man be only ty'd
To a foolish Female thing,
When all Creatures else beside,
Birds and Beasts, change every Spring?
Who would then to one be bound,
When so many may be found?
The third verse runs:
Would you think him wise that nowStill one sort of meat doth eat,When both Sea and Land allowSundry sorts of other meat?Who would then, &c.
Would you think him wise that nowStill one sort of meat doth eat,When both Sea and Land allowSundry sorts of other meat?Who would then, &c.
Would you think him wise that now
Still one sort of meat doth eat,
When both Sea and Land allow
Sundry sorts of other meat?
Who would then, &c.
Poems on such themes were doubtless exercises of wit at which more than one author tried his hand in rivalry with his fellows.
l. 16.And not to seeke new lands, or not to deale withall.I have, after some consideration, adhered to the1633reading. Chambers has adopted that of the later editions, taking the line to mean that a man builds ships in order to seek new lands and to deal or trade with all lands. But ships cannot trade with inland countries. The form 'withal' is the regular one for 'with' when it follows the noun it governs. 'We build ships not to let them lie in harbours but toseek new lands with, and to trade with.' The MS. evidence is not of much assistance, because it is not clear in all cases what 'wthall' stands for. The words were sometimes separated even when the simple preposition was intended. 'People, such as I have dealt with all in their marchaundyse.' Berners'Froissart, I. cclxvii. 395 (O.E.D.). ButD,H49,Lecread 'wthAll', supporting Chambers.
For the sentiment compare:
A stately builded ship well rig'd and tallThe Ocean maketh more majesticall:Why vowest thou to live in Sestos here,Who on Loves seas more glorious would appeare.Marlowe,Hero and Leander:First Sestiad219-222.
A stately builded ship well rig'd and tallThe Ocean maketh more majesticall:Why vowest thou to live in Sestos here,Who on Loves seas more glorious would appeare.Marlowe,Hero and Leander:First Sestiad219-222.
A stately builded ship well rig'd and tall
The Ocean maketh more majesticall:
Why vowest thou to live in Sestos here,
Who on Loves seas more glorious would appeare.
Marlowe,Hero and Leander:First Sestiad219-222.
For 'deale withall' compare:
For ye have much adoe to deale withal.Spenser'sFaerie Queene, VI. i. 10.
For ye have much adoe to deale withal.Spenser'sFaerie Queene, VI. i. 10.
For ye have much adoe to deale withal.
Spenser'sFaerie Queene, VI. i. 10.
ll. 1-10.Deare love, for nothing lesse then theeWould I have broke this happy dreame,It was a theameFor reason, much too strong for phantasie,Therefore thou wak'dst me wisely; yetMy Dreame thou brok'st not, but continued'st it,Thou art so truth, that thoughts of thee suffice,To make dreames truths; and fables histories;Enter these armes, &c.
ll. 1-10.Deare love, for nothing lesse then theeWould I have broke this happy dreame,It was a theameFor reason, much too strong for phantasie,Therefore thou wak'dst me wisely; yetMy Dreame thou brok'st not, but continued'st it,Thou art so truth, that thoughts of thee suffice,To make dreames truths; and fables histories;Enter these armes, &c.
ll. 1-10.Deare love, for nothing lesse then thee
Would I have broke this happy dreame,
It was a theame
For reason, much too strong for phantasie,
Therefore thou wak'dst me wisely; yet
My Dreame thou brok'st not, but continued'st it,
Thou art so truth, that thoughts of thee suffice,
To make dreames truths; and fables histories;
Enter these armes, &c.
I have left the punctuation of the first stanza unaltered. The sense is clear and any modernization alters the rhetoric. Chambers places a semicolon after 'dreame' and a full stop after 'phantasie'. The last is certainly wrong, for the statement 'It was a theme', &c. is connected not with what precedes, but with what follows, 'Therefore thou waked'st me wisely.' In like manner Chambers's full stop after 'but continued'st it' breaks the close connexion with the two following lines, which are really an adverbial clause of explanation or reason. 'My dream thou brokest not, but continued'st it,' for 'Thou art so truth', &c. A full stop might more justifiably be placed after 'histories', but the semicolon is more in Donne's manner.
l. 7.Thou art so truth.The evidence of the MSS. shows that both 'truth' and 'true' were current versions and explains the alteration of1635-69. But 'truth' is both the more difficult reading and the more subtle expression of Donne's thought; 'true' is the obvious emendation of less metaphysical copyists and editors. Donne's 'Love' is not true as opposed to false only; she is 'truth' as opposed to dreams or phantasms or aught that partakes of unreality. She is essentially truth as God is: 'Respondeo dicendum quod ... veritas invenitur in intellectu, secundum quod apprehendit rem utest; et in re, secundum quod habet esse conformabile intellectui. Hoc autem maxime invenitur in Deo. Nam esse eius non solum est conforme suo intelligere; et suum intelligere est mensura et causa omnis alterius esse, et omnis alterius intellectus; et ipse est suum esse et intelligere. Unde sequitur quod non solum in ipso sit veritas, sed quod ipse sit ipsa summa et prima veritas.SummaI. vi. 5.
To deify the object of your love was a common topic of love-poetry; Donne does so with all the subtleties of scholastic theology at his finger-ends. In this single poem he attributes to the lady addressed two attributes of Deity, (1) the identity of being and essence, (2) the power of reading the thoughts directly.
The Dutch poet keeps this point:
de Waerheyt is so ghy, enGhy zijt de Waerheyt so.
de Waerheyt is so ghy, enGhy zijt de Waerheyt so.
de Waerheyt is so ghy, en
Ghy zijt de Waerheyt so.
ll. 11-12.As lightning, or a Tapers lightThine eyes, and not thy noise wak'd mee.
ll. 11-12.As lightning, or a Tapers lightThine eyes, and not thy noise wak'd mee.
ll. 11-12.As lightning, or a Tapers light
Thine eyes, and not thy noise wak'd mee.
'A sodain light brought into a room doth awaken some men; but yet a noise does it better.'Sermons50. 38. 344.
'A candle wakes some men as well as a noise.'Sermons80. 61. 617.
ll. 15-16.But when I saw thou sawest my heart,And knew'st my thoughts, beyond an Angels art.
ll. 15-16.But when I saw thou sawest my heart,And knew'st my thoughts, beyond an Angels art.
ll. 15-16.But when I saw thou sawest my heart,
And knew'st my thoughts, beyond an Angels art.
Modern editors, by removing the comma after 'thoughts', have altered the sense of these lines. It is not that she could read his thoughts better than an angel, but that she could read them at all, a power which is not granted to Angels.
St. Thomas (Summa Theol.Quaest. lvii. Art. 4) discusses 'Utrum angeli cognoscant cogitationes cordium', and concludes, 'Cognoscunt Angeli cordium cogitationes in suis effectibus: ut autem in se ipsis sunt, Deo tantum sunt naturaliter cognitae.' Angels may read our thoughts by subtler signs than our words and acts, or even those changes of countenance and pulsation which we note in each other, 'quanto subtilius huiusmodi immutationes occultas corporales perpendunt.' But to know them as they are in the intellect and will belongs only to God, to whom only the freedom of the human will is subject, and a man's thoughts are subject to his will. 'Manifestum est autem, quod ex sola voluntate dependet, quod aliquis actu aliqua consideret; quia cum aliquis habet habitum scientiae, vel species intelligibiles in eo existentes, utitur eis cum vult. Et ideo dicit Apostolus I Corinth. secundo: quodquae sunt hominis, nemo novit nisi spiritus hominis qui in ipso est.'
Donne recurs to this theme very frequently: 'Let the Schoole dispute infinitely (for he that will not content himself with means of salvation till all Schoole points be reconciled, will come too late); let Scotus and his Heard think, That Angels, and separate souls have anaturall power to understand thoughts ... And let Aquinas present his arguments to the contrary, That those spirits have no naturall power to know thoughts; we seek no farther, but that Jesus Christ himself thought it argument enough to convince the Scribes and Pharisees, and prove himself God, by knowing their thoughts.Eadem Maiestate et potentiasayesS. Hierome, Since you see I proceed as God, in knowing your thoughts, why beleeve you not that I may forgive his sins as God too?'Sermons80. 11. 111; and compare alsoSermons80. 9. 92.
This point is also preserved in the Dutch version:
Maer als ick u sagh sien wat om mijn hertje laghEn weten wat ick docht (dat Engel noyt en sagh).
Maer als ick u sagh sien wat om mijn hertje laghEn weten wat ick docht (dat Engel noyt en sagh).
Maer als ick u sagh sien wat om mijn hertje lagh
En weten wat ick docht (dat Engel noyt en sagh).
M. Legouis in a recent French version has left it ambiguous:
Mais quand j'ai vu que tu voyais mon coeurEt savais mes pensées au dela du savoir d'un ange.
Mais quand j'ai vu que tu voyais mon coeurEt savais mes pensées au dela du savoir d'un ange.
Mais quand j'ai vu que tu voyais mon coeur
Et savais mes pensées au dela du savoir d'un ange.
The MS. reading, 14 'but an Angel', heightens the antithesis.
ll. 27-8.Perchance as torches which must ready beeMen light and put out.
ll. 27-8.Perchance as torches which must ready beeMen light and put out.
ll. 27-8.Perchance as torches which must ready bee
Men light and put out.
'If it' (i.e. a torch) 'haveneverbeenlighted, it does not easily take light, but it must bebruisedandbeatenfirst; if it have been lighted and put out, though it cannot take fireof it self, yet it does easily conceive fire, if it be presented within any convenient distance.'Sermons50. 36. 332.
ll. 1-9. I have changed the comma at l. 6 to a semicolon, as the first image, that of the coins, closes here. Chambers places a full stop at l. 4 'worth', and apparently connects the next two lines with what follows—wrongly, I think. Finishing the figure of the coins, coined, stamped, and given their value by her, Donne passes on to a couple of new images. 'The tears are fruits of much grief; but they are symbols of more to come. For, as your image perishes in each tear that falls, so shall we perish, be nothing, when between us rolls the "salt, estranging sea".'
It is, I suppose, by an inadvertence that Chambers has left 'divers' unchanged to 'diverse'. I cannot think there is any reference to 'a diver in the pearly seas'. Grolier and the Dutch poet divide as here:
Laet voor uw aengesicht mijn trouwe tranen vallen,Want van dat aengensicht ontfangen sy uw' munt,En rijsen tot de waerd dies' uwe stempel guntBevrucht van uw' gedaent: vrucht van veel' ongevallen,Maer teekenen van meer, daer ghy valt met den traen,Die van u swanger was, en beyde wy ontdaenVerdwijnen, soo wy op verscheiden oever staen.
Laet voor uw aengesicht mijn trouwe tranen vallen,Want van dat aengensicht ontfangen sy uw' munt,En rijsen tot de waerd dies' uwe stempel guntBevrucht van uw' gedaent: vrucht van veel' ongevallen,Maer teekenen van meer, daer ghy valt met den traen,Die van u swanger was, en beyde wy ontdaenVerdwijnen, soo wy op verscheiden oever staen.
Laet voor uw aengesicht mijn trouwe tranen vallen,
Want van dat aengensicht ontfangen sy uw' munt,
En rijsen tot de waerd dies' uwe stempel gunt
Bevrucht van uw' gedaent: vrucht van veel' ongevallen,
Maer teekenen van meer, daer ghy valt met den traen,
Die van u swanger was, en beyde wy ontdaen
Verdwijnen, soo wy op verscheiden oever staen.
l. 7.th'Elixar: i.e. 'the Elixir Vitae', which heals all disease and indefinitely prolongs life. It is sometimes identified with the philosopher's stone, which transmutes metals to gold. In speaking of quintessences (see note, II. p.30) Paracelsus declares that there are certain quintessences superior to those of gold, marchasite, precious stones, &c., 'of more importance than that they should be called a quintessence. It should be rather spoken of as a certain secret and mystery ... Among these arcana we here put forward four. Of these arcana the first is the mercury of life, the second is the primal matter, the third is the Philosopher's Stone, and the fourth the tincture. But although these arcana are rather angelical than human to speak of we shall not shrink from them.' From the description he gives they all seem to operate more or less alike, purging metals and other bodies from disease.
ll. 7-10.And as no chymique yet, &c.'My Lord Chancellor gave me so noble and so ready a dispatch, accompanied with so fatherly advice that I am now, like an alchemist, delighted with discoveries by the way, though I attain not mine end.' To ... Sir H. G., Gosse'sLife, &c., ii. 49.
ll. 23-4.
at their bestSweetnesse and wit, they'are but Mummy, possest.
at their bestSweetnesse and wit, they'are but Mummy, possest.
at their best
Sweetnesse and wit, they'are but Mummy, possest.
The punctuation of these lines in1633-54is ambiguous, and Chambers has altered it wrongly to
Sweetness and wit they are, but Mummy possest.
Sweetness and wit they are, but Mummy possest.
Sweetness and wit they are, but Mummy possest.
The MSS. generally support the punctuation which I have adopted, which is that of the Grolier Club edition.
I have restored this poem to the place it occupied in1633. In1635it was placed first of all theSongs and Sonets. A strange choice to our mind, but apparently the poem was greatly admired as a masterpiece of wit. It is the first of the pieces translated by Huyghens:
Slaet acht op deze Vloy, en leert wat overleggen,Hoe slechten ding het is dat ghy my kont ontzeggen, &c.,
Slaet acht op deze Vloy, en leert wat overleggen,Hoe slechten ding het is dat ghy my kont ontzeggen, &c.,
Slaet acht op deze Vloy, en leert wat overleggen,
Hoe slechten ding het is dat ghy my kont ontzeggen, &c.,
and was selected for special commendation by some of his correspondents. Coleridge comments upon it in verse:
Be proud as Spaniards. Leap for pride, ye Fleas!In naturesminimrealm ye're now grandees.Skip-jacks no more, nor civiller skip-johns;Thrice-honored Fleas! I greet you all asDons.In Phoebus' archives registered are ye,And this your patent of nobility.
Be proud as Spaniards. Leap for pride, ye Fleas!In naturesminimrealm ye're now grandees.Skip-jacks no more, nor civiller skip-johns;Thrice-honored Fleas! I greet you all asDons.In Phoebus' archives registered are ye,And this your patent of nobility.
Be proud as Spaniards. Leap for pride, ye Fleas!
In naturesminimrealm ye're now grandees.
Skip-jacks no more, nor civiller skip-johns;
Thrice-honored Fleas! I greet you all asDons.
In Phoebus' archives registered are ye,
And this your patent of nobility.
It will be noticed that there are two versions of Donne's poem.
l. 3.His only, and only his purse.This, the reading of all the editions except the last, and of the MSS., is obviously right. What is to dispose 'some dull heart to love' is hisonlypurse andhisalone, no one's but his purse. Chambers adopts the1669conjecture, 'Him only for his purse,' but in that case there is no subject to 'may dispose', or if 'some dull heart' be subject then 'itself' must be supplied—a harsh construction. 'Dispose' is not used intransitively in this sense.
l. 27.Mynes.I have adopted the plural from the MSS. It brings it into line with the other objects mentioned.
l. 11.But if it be taught by thine.It seems incredible that Donne should have written 'which if it' &c. immediately after the 'which' of the preceding line. I had thought that the1633printer had accidentally repeated from the line above, but the evidence of the MSS. points to the mistake (if it is a mistake) being older than that. 'Which' was in the MS. used by the printer. If 'But' is not Donne's own reading or emendation it ought to be, and I am loath to injure a charming poem by pedantic adherence to authority in so small a point.De minimis non curat lex; but art cares very much indeed.JCandPread 'Yet since it hath learn'd by thine'.
ll. 14 f.And crosse bothWord and oath, &c.
ll. 14 f.And crosse bothWord and oath, &c.
ll. 14 f.And crosse both
Word and oath, &c.
The 'crosse' of all the MSS. is pretty certainly what Donne wrote. An editor would change to 'break' hardly the other way. To 'crosse' is, of course, to 'cancel'. Compare Jonson'sPoetaster, Act II, Scene i:
Faith, sir, your mercer's BookWill tell you with more patience, then I can(For I am crost, and so's not that I thinke.)
Faith, sir, your mercer's BookWill tell you with more patience, then I can(For I am crost, and so's not that I thinke.)
Faith, sir, your mercer's Book
Will tell you with more patience, then I can
(For I am crost, and so's not that I thinke.)
and
Examine well thy beauty with my truth,And cross my cares, ere greater sums arise.Daniel,Delia, i.
Examine well thy beauty with my truth,And cross my cares, ere greater sums arise.Daniel,Delia, i.
Examine well thy beauty with my truth,
And cross my cares, ere greater sums arise.
Daniel,Delia, i.
l. 12.For I am every dead thing.I have not thought it right to alter the1633'every' to the 'very' of1635-69. 'Every' has some MS. support, and it is the more difficult reading, though of course 'a very' might easily enough be misread. But I rather think that 'every' expresses what Donne means. He is 'every dead thing' because he is the quintessence of all negations—'absence, darkness, death: things which are not', and more than that, 'the first nothing.'
ll. 14-18.For his art did expresse ... things which are not.This is a difficult stanza in a difficult poem. I have after considerable hesitation adopted the punctuation of1719, which is followed by all the modern editors. This makes 'dull privations' and 'lean emptinesse' expansions of 'nothingnesse'. This is the simpler construction. I am not sure, however, that the punctuation of the earlier editions and of the MSS. may not be correct. In that case 'From dull privations' goes with 'he ruined me'. Milton speaks of 'ruining from Heaven'. 'From me, who was nothing', says Donne, 'Love extracted the very quintessence of nothingness—made me more nothing than I already was. My state was already one of "dull privation" and "lean emptiness", and Love reduced it still further, making me once more the non-entity I was before I was created.' Only Donne could be guilty of such refined and extravagant subtlety. But probably this is to refine too much. There is no example of 'ruining' as an active verb used in this fashion. A feature of the MS. collection from which this poem was probably printed is the omission of stops at the end of the line. In the next verse Donne pushes the annihilation further. Made nothing by Love, by the death of her he loves he is made the elixir (i.e. the quintessence) not now of ordinary nothing, but of 'the first nothing', the nothing which preceded God's first act of creation. The poem turns upon the thought of degrees in nothingness.
For 'elixir' as identical with 'quintessence' see Oxf. Eng. Dict.,Elixir, † iii. b, and the quotation there, 'A distill'd quintessence, a pure elixar of mischief, pestilent alike to all.' Milton,Church Govt.
Of the 'first Nothing' Donne speaks in theEssays in Divinity(Jessop, 1855), pp. 80-1, but in a rather different strain: 'To speak truth freely there was no such Nothing as this' (the nothing which a man might wish to be) 'before the beginning: for he that hath refined all the old definitions hath put this ingredientCreabile(which cannot be absolutely nothing) into his definition of creation; and that Nothing which was, we cannot desire; for man's will is not larger than God's power: and since Nothing was not a pre-existent matter, nor mother of this all, but only a limitation when any thing began to be; how impossible it is to return to that first point of time, since God (if it imply contradiction) cannot reduce yesterday? Of this we will say no more; for this Nothing being no creature; is more incomprehensible than all the rest.'
ll. 31-2. The Grolier Club edition reads:
I should preferIf I were any beast; some end, some means;
I should preferIf I were any beast; some end, some means;
I should prefer
If I were any beast; some end, some means;
which is to me unintelligible. 'If I were a beast, I should prefer some end, some means' refers to the Aristotelian and Schools doctrine of the soul. The soul of man is rational and self-conscious; of beasts perceptive and moving, therefore able to select ends and means; thevegetative soul of plants selects what it can feed on and rejects what it cannot, and so far detests and loves. Even stones, which have no souls, attract and repel. But even of stones Donne says: 'We are not sure that stones have not life; stones may have life; neither (to speak humanely) is it unreasonably thought by them, that thought the whole world to be inanimated by one soule, and to be one intire living creature; and in that respect does S. Augustine prefer a fly before the Sun, because a fly hath life, and the Sun hath not.'Sermons80. 7. 69-70.
l. 35.If I an ordinary nothing were.'A shadow is nothing, yet, if the rising or falling sun shines out and there be no shadow, I will pronounce there is no body in that place neither. Ceremonies are nothing; but where there are no ceremonies, order, and obedience, and at last (and quickly) religion itself will vanish.'Sermons(quoted inSelections from Donne, 1840).
l. 41.Enjoy your summer all; This is Grosart's punctuation. The old editions have a comma. Chambers, obviously quite wrongly, retains the comma, and closes the sentence in the next line. The clause 'Since she enjoys her long night's festival' explains 43 'Let me prepare towards her', &c.,not41 'Enjoy your summer all'.
ll. 1-13. The Grolier Club editor places a full stop, Chambers a colon, after 'shrinke', for the comma of the old editions. Chambers's division is better than the first, which interrupts the steady run of the thought to the climax,
A verier ghost than I.
A verier ghost than I.
A verier ghost than I.
The original punctuation preserves the rapid, crowded march of the clauses.
l. 10. This line throws light on the character of the1669text. The correct reading of1633was spoiled in1635by accidentally dropping 'will', and this error continued through1639-54. The 1669 editor, detecting the metrical fault, made the line decasyllabic by interpolating 'a' and 'even'.
l. 8.A flaske of powder burne a day.The 'flash' of later editions is probably a conjectural emendation, for 'flaske' (1633and many MSS.) makes good sense; and the metaphor of a burning flask of powder seems to suit exactly the later lines which describe what happened to the heart which love inflamed
but Love, alas,At one first blow did shiver it as glasse.
but Love, alas,At one first blow did shiver it as glasse.
but Love, alas,
At one first blow did shiver it as glasse.
Shakespeare uses the same simile in a different connexion:
Thy wit, that ornament to shape and love,Mis-shapen in the conduct of them both:Like powder in a skilless soldiers flaske,Is set a fire by thine own ignorance,And thou dismembred with thine owne defence.Romeo and Juliet,III. iii. 130.
Thy wit, that ornament to shape and love,Mis-shapen in the conduct of them both:Like powder in a skilless soldiers flaske,Is set a fire by thine own ignorance,And thou dismembred with thine owne defence.Romeo and Juliet,III. iii. 130.
Thy wit, that ornament to shape and love,
Mis-shapen in the conduct of them both:
Like powder in a skilless soldiers flaske,
Is set a fire by thine own ignorance,
And thou dismembred with thine owne defence.
Romeo and Juliet,III. iii. 130.
l. 14.and never chawes: 'chaw' is the form Donne generally uses: 'Implicite beleevers, ignorant beleevers, the adversary may swallow; but the understanding beleever, he must chaw, and pick bones, before he come to assimilate him, and make him like himself.'Sermons80. 18. 178.
This poem is quoted by Walton after his account of the vision which Donne had of his wife in France, in 1612: 'I forbear the readers farther trouble as to the relation and what concerns it, and will conclude mine with commending to his view a copy of verses given by Mr. Donne to his wife at the time that he then parted from her: and I beg leave to tell, that I have heard some critics, learned both in languages and poetry, say, that none of the Greek or Latin poets did ever equal them.' The critics probably included Wotton,—perhaps also Hales, whose criticism of Shakespeare shows the same readiness to find our own poets as good as the Ancients.
The song, 'Sweetest love I do not go,' was probably written at the same time. It is almost identical in tone. They are certainly the tenderest of Donne's love poems, perhaps the only ones to which the epithet 'tender' can be applied. TheValediction: of weepingis more passionate.
An early translation of this poem into Greek verse is found in a volume in the Bodleian Library.
ll. 9-12.Moving of th'earth, &c.'The "trepidation" was the precession of the equinoxes, supposed, according to the Ptolemaic astronomy, to be caused by the movements of the Ninth or Crystalline Sphere.' Chambers.
First you see fixt in this huge mirrour blew,Of trembling lights, a number numberlesse:Fixt they are nam'd, but with a name untrue,For they all moove and in a Daunce expresseThat great long yeare, that doth contain no lesseThen threescore hundreds of those yeares in all,Which the sunne makes with his course naturall.What if to you those sparks disordered seemAs if by chaunce they had beene scattered there?The gods a solemne measure doe it deeme,And see a iust proportion every where,And know the points whence first their movings were;To which first points when all returne againe,The axel-tree of Heav'n shall breake in twain.Sir John Davies,Orchestra, 35-6.
First you see fixt in this huge mirrour blew,Of trembling lights, a number numberlesse:Fixt they are nam'd, but with a name untrue,For they all moove and in a Daunce expresseThat great long yeare, that doth contain no lesseThen threescore hundreds of those yeares in all,Which the sunne makes with his course naturall.
First you see fixt in this huge mirrour blew,
Of trembling lights, a number numberlesse:
Fixt they are nam'd, but with a name untrue,
For they all moove and in a Daunce expresse
That great long yeare, that doth contain no lesse
Then threescore hundreds of those yeares in all,
Which the sunne makes with his course naturall.
What if to you those sparks disordered seemAs if by chaunce they had beene scattered there?The gods a solemne measure doe it deeme,And see a iust proportion every where,And know the points whence first their movings were;To which first points when all returne againe,The axel-tree of Heav'n shall breake in twain.Sir John Davies,Orchestra, 35-6.
What if to you those sparks disordered seem
As if by chaunce they had beene scattered there?
The gods a solemne measure doe it deeme,
And see a iust proportion every where,
And know the points whence first their movings were;
To which first points when all returne againe,
The axel-tree of Heav'n shall breake in twain.
Sir John Davies,Orchestra, 35-6.
l. 16.Those things which elemented it.Chambers follows1669and reads 'The thing'—wrongly, I think. 'Elemented' is just 'composed', and the things are enumerated later, 20. 'eyes, lips, hands.' Compare:
But neither chance nor complimentDid element our love.Katharine Phillips (Orinda),To Mrs. M. A. at parting.
But neither chance nor complimentDid element our love.Katharine Phillips (Orinda),To Mrs. M. A. at parting.
But neither chance nor compliment
Did element our love.
Katharine Phillips (Orinda),To Mrs. M. A. at parting.
This and the fellow poemUpon Absencemay be compared with Donne's poems on the same theme. See Saintsbury'sCaroline Poets, i, pp. 548, 550.
l. 20.and hands: 'and' has the support ofallthe MSS. The want of it is no great loss, for though without it the line moves a little irregularly, 'and hands' is not a pleasant concatenation.
ll. 25-36.If they be two, &c.Donne's famous simile has a close parallel in Omar Khayyam. Whether Donne's 'hydroptic immoderate thirst of humane learning and languages' extended to Persian I do not know. Captain Harris has supplied me with translations and reference:
In these twin compasses, O Love, you seeOne body with two heads, like you and me,Which wander round one centre, circle wise,But at the last in one same point agree.Whinfield's edition ofOmar Khayyam(Kegan Paul,Trübner, 1901, Oriental Series, p. 216).
In these twin compasses, O Love, you seeOne body with two heads, like you and me,Which wander round one centre, circle wise,But at the last in one same point agree.Whinfield's edition ofOmar Khayyam(Kegan Paul,Trübner, 1901, Oriental Series, p. 216).
In these twin compasses, O Love, you see
One body with two heads, like you and me,
Which wander round one centre, circle wise,
But at the last in one same point agree.
Whinfield's edition ofOmar Khayyam(Kegan Paul,
Trübner, 1901, Oriental Series, p. 216).
'Oh my soul, you and I are like a compass. We form but one body having two points. Truly one point moves from the other point, and makes the round of the circle; but the day draws near when the two points must re-unite.' J. H. McCarthy (D. Nutt, 1898).
This is one of the most important of the lyrics as a statement of Donne's metaphysic of love, of the interconnexion and mutual dependence of body and soul. It is printed in1633fromD,H49,Lecor a MS. resembling it, and from this and the other MSS. I have introduced some alterations in the text: and two rather vital emendations, ll. 55 and 59.The Extasieis probably the source of Lord Herbert of Cherbury's best known poem,An Ode Upon a Question Moved Whether Love Should Continue For Ever. Compare with the opening lines of Donne's poem:
They stay'd at last and on the grassReposed so, as o're his breastShe bowed her gracious head to rest,Such a weight as no burden was.While over eithers compass'd waistTheir folded arms were so compos'dAs if in straightest bonds inclos'dThey suffer'd for joys they did tasteLong their fixt eyes to Heaven bent,Unchanged they did never move,As if so great and pure a loveNo glass but it could represent.
They stay'd at last and on the grassReposed so, as o're his breastShe bowed her gracious head to rest,Such a weight as no burden was.
They stay'd at last and on the grass
Reposed so, as o're his breast
She bowed her gracious head to rest,
Such a weight as no burden was.
While over eithers compass'd waistTheir folded arms were so compos'dAs if in straightest bonds inclos'dThey suffer'd for joys they did taste
While over eithers compass'd waist
Their folded arms were so compos'd
As if in straightest bonds inclos'd
They suffer'd for joys they did taste
Long their fixt eyes to Heaven bent,Unchanged they did never move,As if so great and pure a loveNo glass but it could represent.
Long their fixt eyes to Heaven bent,
Unchanged they did never move,
As if so great and pure a love
No glass but it could represent.
In a letter to Sir Thomas Lucy, Donne writes: 'Sir I make account that this writing of letters, when it is with any seriousness, is a kind of extasie, and a departing, and secession, and suspension of the soul, which doth then communicate itself to two bodies.' Ecstasy in Neo-Platonic philosophy was the state of mind in which the soul, escaping from the body, attained to the vision of God, the One, the Absolute. Plotinus thus describes it: 'Even the word vision (θέαμα) does not seem appropriate here. It is rather an ecstasy (ἔκστασις), a simplification, an abandonment of self, a perfect quietude (στάσις), a desire of contact, in short a wish to merge oneself in that which one contemplates in the Sanctuary.'Sixth Ennead, ix. 11 (from the French translation of Bouillet, 1857-8). Readers will observe how closely Donne's poem agrees with this—the exodus of the souls (ll. 15-16), the perfect quiet (ll. 18-20), the new insight (ll. 29-33), the contact and union of the souls (l. 35). Donne had probably read Ficino's translation of Plotinus (1492), but the doctrine of ecstasy passed into Christian thought, connecting itself especially with the experience of St. Paul (2 Cor. xii. 2). St. Paul's word isἁρπαγέντα, and Aquinas distinguishes between 'raptus' and 'ecstasis': 'Extasis importat simpliciter excessum a seipso ... raptus super hoc addit violentiam quandam.' Another word for 'ecstasy' was 'enthusiasm'.
l. 9.So to entergraft our hands.All the later editions read 'engraft', which makes the line smoother. But to me it seems more probable that Donne wrote 'entergraft' and later editors changed this to 'engraft', than that the opposite should have happened. Moreover, 'entergraft' gives the reciprocal force correctly, which 'engraft' does not. Donne's precision is as marked as his subtlety. 'Entergraft' has the support of all the best MSS.
Page52, l. 20.And wee said nothing all the day.'En amour un silence vaut mieux qu'un langage. Il est bon d'être interdit; il y a une éloquence de silence qui pénètre plus que la langue ne saurait faire. Qu'un amant persuade bien sa maîtresse quand il est interdit, et que d'ailleurs il a de l'esprit! Quelque vivacité que l'on ait, il est bon dans certaines rencontres qu'elle s'éteigne. Tout cela se passe sans règle et sans réflexion; et quand l'esprit le fait, il n'y pensait pas auparavant. C'est par nécessité que cela arrive.' Pascal,Discours sur les passions de l'amour.
l. 32.Wee see, wee saw not what did move.Chambers inserts a comma after 'we saw not', perhaps rightly; but the punctuation of the old editions gives a distinct enough sense, viz., 'We see now, that we did not see before the true source of our love. What we thought was due to bodily beauty, we perceive now to have its source in thesoul.' Compare, 'But when I wakt, I saw, that I saw not.'The Storme, l. 37.
l. 42.Interinanimates two soules.The MSS. give the word which the metre requires and which I have no doubt Donne used. The verbinanimatesoccurs more than once in the sermons. 'One that quickens and inanimates all, and is the soul of the whole world.'Sermons80. 29. 289. 'That universall power which sustaines, and inanimates the whole world.' Ibid. 80. 31. 305. 'In these bowels, in the womb of this promise we lay foure thousand yeares; The blood with which we were fed then, was the blood of the Sacrifices, and the quickening which we had there, was an inanimation, by the often refreshing of this promise of that Messias in the Prophets.' Ibid. 80. 38. 381. 'Hee shews them Heaven, and God in Heaven, sanctifying all their Crosses in this World, inanimating all their worldly blessings.' Ibid. 80. 44. 436.
Page53, l. 51.They'are ours though they'are not wee, Wee areThe line as given in all the MSS. is metrically, in the rhetorically effective position of the stresses, superior to the shortened form of the editions:
They'are ours, though not wee, wee are
They'are ours, though not wee, wee are
They'are ours, though not wee, wee are
l. 52.the spheare.The MSS. all give the singular, the editions the plural. Donne is not incapable of making a singular rhyme with a plural, or at any rate a form with 's' with one without:
Then let us at these mimicke antiques jeast,Whose deepest projects, and egregious gestsAre but dull Moralls of a game of Chests.To SrHenry Wotton, p. 188, ll. 22-4.
Then let us at these mimicke antiques jeast,Whose deepest projects, and egregious gestsAre but dull Moralls of a game of Chests.To SrHenry Wotton, p. 188, ll. 22-4.
Then let us at these mimicke antiques jeast,
Whose deepest projects, and egregious gests
Are but dull Moralls of a game of Chests.
To SrHenry Wotton, p. 188, ll. 22-4.
Still, I think 'spheare' is right. The bodies made one are the Sphere in which the two Intelligences meet and command. This suits all that followes:
Wee owe them thanks, because they thus, &c.
Wee owe them thanks, because they thus, &c.
Wee owe them thanks, because they thus, &c.
The Dutch translation runs:
Het Hemel-rond zijn sy,Wy harenHemel-geest.
Het Hemel-rond zijn sy,Wy harenHemel-geest.
Het Hemel-rond zijn sy,
Wy harenHemel-geest.
l. 55.forces, sense, This reading of all the MSS. is, I think, certainly right; the 'senses force' of the editions being an emendation. (1) It is the more difficult reading. It is inconceivable that an ordinary copyist would alter 'senses force' to 'forces sense', which, unless properly commaed, is apt to be read as 'forces' sense' and make nonsense. (2) It is more characteristic of Donne's thought. He is, with his usual scholastic precision, distinguishing the functions of soul and body. Perception is the function (theδύναμις, power or force) of soul:
thy faire goodly soul, which dothSatyre III.Give this flesh power to taste joy.
thy faire goodly soul, which dothSatyre III.Give this flesh power to taste joy.
thy faire goodly soul, which doth
Satyre III.Give this flesh power to taste joy.
But the body has its function also, without which the soul could not fulfil its; and that function is 'sense'. It is through this medium that human souls must operate to obtain knowledge of each other. The bodies must yield their forces or faculties ('sense' in all its forms, especially sight and touch—hands and eyes) to us before our souls can become one. The collective term 'sense' recurs:
T'affections, and to faculties,Which sense may reach and apprehend.
T'affections, and to faculties,Which sense may reach and apprehend.
T'affections, and to faculties,
Which sense may reach and apprehend.
ll. 57-8.On man heavens influence workes not so,But that it first imprints the ayre.
ll. 57-8.On man heavens influence workes not so,But that it first imprints the ayre.
ll. 57-8.On man heavens influence workes not so,
But that it first imprints the ayre.
'Aucuns ont escrit que l'air a aussi cette vertu de faire decouler avec le feu elementaire les influences et proprietez secrettes des estoilles et planettes: alleguans que l'efficace des corps celestes ne peut s'estendre aux inferieurs et terrestres, que par les moyens et elemens qui sont entre deux. Mais cela soit au iugement des lecteurs que nous renvoyons aux disputes de ceux qui ont escrit sur la philosophie naturelle. Voyez aussiPline au 5 ch. du 2 liu.,Plutarque au 5 & 2 liu. des opinions des Philosophes,Platon en son Timee,Aristoteen ses disputes de physique, specialement au i. liu. de la generation et corruption, et ceux qui ont escrit depuis luy touchant les elemens.' Du Bartas,La Sepmaine, &c.(1581),Indice. Air.
l. 59.Soe soule into the soule may flow.The 'Soe' of the MSS. must, I think, be right rather than the 'For' ofD,H49,Lec, and the editions. It corresponds to the 'So' in l. 65, and it expresses the simpler and more intelligible thought. In references to the heavenly bodies and their influence on men one must remember certain aspects of older thought which have become unfamiliar to us. They were bodies of great dignity, 'aeterna corpora,' not composed of any of the four elements, and subject to no change in time but movement, change of position. If not as the older philosophers and some of the Fathers had held, 'animata corpora,' having a soul united to the body, yet each was guided by an Intelligence operating by contact: 'Ad hoc autem quod moveat, non opportet quod uniatur ei ut forma, sed per contactum virtutis, sicut motor unitur mobili.' Aquinas,SummaI. lxx. 3. Such bodies, it was claimed, influence human actions: 'Corpora enim coelestia, cum moveantur a spiritualibus substantiis ... agunt in virtute earum quasi instrumenta. Sed illae substantiae spirituales sunt superiores animabus nostris. Ergo videtur quod possintimprimere in animas nostras, et sic causare actus humanos.' Aquinas, however, disputes this, as Plotinus had before him, and distinguishes: As bodies, the stars affect us only indirectly, in so far namely as the mind and will of man are subject to the influence of physical and corporeal disturbances. But man's will remains free. 'Sapiens homo dominatur astrisin quantum scilicet dominatur suis passionibus.' As Intelligences, the stars do not operate on man thus mediately and controllingly: 'sed in intellectumhumanum aguntimmediate illuminando: voluntatem autem immutare non possunt.' Aquinas,SummaI. cxv. 4.
Now if 'Soe' be the right reading here then Donne is thinking of the heavenly bodies without distinguishing in them between soul or intelligence and body. 'As these high bodies or beings operate on man's soul through the comparatively low intermediary of air, so lovers' souls must interact through the medium of body.'
If 'For' be the right reading, then Donne is giving as an example of soul operating on soul through the medium of body the influence of the heavenly intelligences on our souls. But this is not the orthodox view of their interaction. I feel sure that 'Soe' is the right reading. The thought and construction are simpler, and 'Soe' and 'For' are easily interchanged.
Of noblemen Donne says: 'They areIntelligencesthat move greatSpheares.'Sermon, Judges xv. 20, p. 20 (1622).
ll. 61-4.As our blood labours to begetSpirits, as like soules as it can,Because such fingers need to knitThat subtile knot, which makes us man.
ll. 61-4.As our blood labours to begetSpirits, as like soules as it can,Because such fingers need to knitThat subtile knot, which makes us man.
ll. 61-4.As our blood labours to beget
Spirits, as like soules as it can,
Because such fingers need to knit
That subtile knot, which makes us man.
'Spirit is a most subtile vapour, which is expressed from the Bloud, and the instrument of the soule, to perform all his actions; a common tye ormediumbetwixt the body and the soule, as some will have it; or asParacelsus, a fourth soule of itselfe.Melancthonholds the fountaine of these spirits to be theHeart, begotten there; and afterward convayed to the Braine, they take another nature to them. Of these spirits there be three kindes, according to the three principall parts,Braine,Heart,Liver;Naturall,Vitall,Animall. TheNaturallare begotten in theLiver, and thence dispersed through the Veines, to performe those naturall actions. TheVitall Spiritsare made in the Heart, of theNaturall, which by the Arteries are transported to all the other parts: if theseSpiritscease, then life ceaseth, as in aSyncopeor Swowning. TheAnimall spiritsformed of theVitall, brought up to the Braine, and diffused by the Nerves, to the subordinate Members, give sense and motion to them all.' Burton,Anatomy of Melancholy(1638), p. 15. 'The spirits in a man which are the thin and active part of the blood, and so are of a kind of middle nature, between soul and body, those spirits are able to doe, and they doe the office, to unite and apply the faculties of the soul to the organs of the body, and so there is a man.'Sermons26. 20. 291.
ll. 19-24. This stanza, carefully and correctly printed in the 1633 edition, which I have followed, was mangled in that of 1635, and has remained in this condition, despite conjectural emendations, in subsequent editions, including those of Grosart and Chambers. What Donne says is obvious: 'Whatever Love dictated I wrote, but burnedthe letters. When she wrote to me, and when (correctly resumed by 'that') that favour made him (i.e. Love) fat, I said,' &c. The 1650-54 'Whate'er might him distaste,' &c. is obviously an attempt to put right what has gone wrong. No reading but that of the 1633 edition givesanysense to 'that favour' and 'convey'd by this'.
ll. 25-7.reclaim'd ... sport.In1633'reclaim'd' became 'redeem'd', probably owing to the frequent misreading of 'cl' as 'd'. The mistake here increases the probability that 'sports' is an error for 'sport' or 'sporte'. It is doubtful if 'sports' was used as now.
ll. 19-27. This verse is omitted in most of the MSS. Probably in James's reign its references to religion were thought too outspoken and flippant. Charles admired in Donne not only the preacher but also the poet, as Huyghens testifies.
The first three lines turn on a contrast that Donne is fond of elaborating between the extreme Protestant doctrine of justification by faith only and the Catholic, especially Jesuit, doctrine of co-operant works. It divided the Jesuits and the Jansenists. The Jansenists had not yet emerged, but their precursors in the quarrel (as readers ofLes Provincialeswill recall) were the Dominicans, to whom Donne refers: 'So also when in the beginning of S. Augustines time, Grace had been so much advanced that mans Nature was scarce admitted to be so much as any means or instrument (not only no kind of cause) of his own good works: And soon after in S. Augustines time also mans free will (by fierce opposition and arguing against the former error) was too much overvalued, and admitted into too near degrees of fellowship with Grace; those times admitted a doctrine and form of reconciliation, which though for reverence to the time, both the Dominicans and Jesuits at this day in their great quarrell about Grace and Free Will would yet seem to maintaine, yet indifferent and dispassioned men of that Church see there is no possibility in it, and therefore accuse it of absurdity, and almost of heresie.'Letters(1651), pp. 15-16. As an Anglican preacher Donne upheld James's point of view, that the doctrine of grace and free-will was better left undiscussed: 'Resistibility, and Irresistibility of Grace, which is every Artificers wearing now, was a stuff that our Fathers wore not, a language that pure antiquity spake not.... They knew Gods law, and his Chancery: But for Gods prerogative, what he could do of his absolute power, they knew Gods pleasure,Nolumus disputari: It should scarce be disputed of in Schools, much less serv'd in every popular pulpit to curious and itching ears; least of all made table-talke, and houshold-discourse.'Sermons26. 1. 4.
The 'Schismaticks of Amsterdam' were the extreme Puritans. See Jonson'sThe Alchemistfor Tribulation Wholesome and 'We of the separation'.
l. 3.That subtile wreath of haire, which crowns my arme; 'And Theagenes presented her with a diamond ring which he used to wear, entreating her, whensoever she did cast her eyes upon it, to conceive that it told her in his behalf, that his heart would prove as hard as that stone in the admittance of any new affection; and that his to her should be as void of end as that circular figure was;' (compareA Ieat Ring sent, p.65) 'and she desired him to wear for her sake a lock of hair which she gave him; the splendour of which can be expressed by no earthly thing, but it seemed as though a stream of the sun's beams had been gathered together and converted into a solid substance. With this precious relique about his arm,' (compareThe Relique, p.62) 'whose least hair was sufficient' (compareAire and Angels, p.22, 'Ev'ry thy hair' and note) 'to bind in bonds of love the greatest heart that ever was informed with life, Theagenes took his journey into Attica.' Kenelm Digby'sPrivate Memoirs(1827), pp. 80-1. When later Theagenes heard that Stelliana (believing Theagenes to be dead) was to wed Mardonius, 'he tore from his arm the bracelet of her hair ... and threw it into the fire that was in his chamber; when that glorious relic burning shewed by the wan and blue colour of the flame that it had sense and took his words unkindly in her behalf.'
Theagenes was Sir Kenelm Digby himself, Stelliana being Lady Venetia Stanley, afterwards his wife. Mardonius was probably Edward, Earl of Dorset, the brother of Donne's friend and patron.
It is probable that this sequence of poems,The Funerall,The Blossome,The PrimroseandThe Relique, was addressed to Mrs. Herbert in the earlier days of Donne's intimacy with her in Oxford or London.
l. 24.That since you would save none of me, I bury some of you.I have hesitated a good deal over this line. The reading of the editions is 'have none of me'; and in the group of MSS.D,H49,Lec, whileH49reads 'save',Dhas corrected 'have' to whatmaybe 'save', andLecreads 'have'. The reading of the editions is the full form of the construction, which is more common without the 'have'. 'It's four to one she'll none of me,'Twelfth Night, I. iii. 113; 'She will none of him,' Ibid. II. ii. 9, are among Schmidt's examples (Shakespeare Lexicon), in none of which 'have' occurs. The reading of the MSS., 'save none of me,' is also quite idiomatic, resembling the 'fear none of this' (i.e. 'do not fear this') ofWinter's Tale, IV. iv. 601; and I have preferred it because: (1) It seems difficult to understand how it could have arisen if 'have none' was the original. (2) It gives a sharper antithesis, 'You would not save me, keep me alive. Therefore I will bury, not you indeed, but a part of you.' (3) To be saved is the lover's usual prayer; and the idea of the poem is that his death is due to the lady's cruelty.