Page59.The Blossome.

Come not, when I am dead,To drop thy foolish tears upon my grave,To trample round my fallen head,And vex the unhappy dust thou wouldst not save.There let the wind sweep and the plover cry;But thou go by.

Come not, when I am dead,

To drop thy foolish tears upon my grave,

To trample round my fallen head,

And vex the unhappy dust thou wouldst not save.

There let the wind sweep and the plover cry;

But thou go by.

Compare also the LetterTo MrsM. H.(pp.216-8), where the same idea recurs:

When thou art there, if any, whom we know,Were sav'd before, and did that heaven partake, &c.

When thou art there, if any, whom we know,

Were sav'd before, and did that heaven partake, &c.

l. 10.labour'st.The form with 't' occurs in most of the MSS., and 't' is restored in1635. The 'labours' of1633represents a common dropping of the 't' for ease of pronunciation. See Franz,Shakespeare-Grammatik, § 152. It is colloquial, and I doubt if Donne would have preserved it if he had printed the poem, supposing that he wrote the word so, and not some copyist.

ll. 21-4.You goe to friends, whose love and meanes presentVarious contentTo your eyes, eares, and tongue, and every part:If then your body goe, what need you a heart?

ll. 21-4.You goe to friends, whose love and meanes present

Various content

To your eyes, eares, and tongue, and every part:

If then your body goe, what need you a heart?

I have adopted the MS. readings 'tongue' and 'what need you a heart?' because they seem to me more certainly what Donne wrote. He may have altered them, but so may an editor. 'Tongue' is more exactly parallel to eyes and ears, and the whole talk is of organs. 'What need you a heart?' is more pointed. 'With these organs of sense, what need have you of a heart?' The idiom was not uncommon, the verb being used impersonally. The O.E.D. gives among others:

What need us so many instances abroad.Andros Tracts, 1691.

What need us so many instances abroad.

Andros Tracts, 1691.

'What need your heart go' is of course also idiomatic. The latest example the O.E.D. gives is from Hall'sSatires, 1597: 'What needs me care for any bookish skill?'

It is noteworthy that the addition 'being at Montgomery Castle', &c. was made in1635. It is unknown to1633and the MSS. It may be unwarranted. If it be accurate, then the poem is probably addressed to Mrs. Herbert and is a half mystical, half cynical description of Platonic passion. The perfect primrose has apparently five petals, but more or less may be found. Seeking for one to symbolize his love, he fears to find either more or less. What can be less than woman? But if more than woman she becomes thatunreal thing, the object of Platonic affection and Petrarchian adoration: but, as he says elsewhere,

Love's not so pure and abstract as they useTo say, which have no Mistresse but their Muse.

Love's not so pure and abstract as they use

To say, which have no Mistresse but their Muse.

Let woman be content to be herself. Since five is half ten, united with man she will be half of a perfect life; or (and the cynical humour breaks out again) if she is not content with that, since five is the first number which includes an even number (2) and an odd (3), it may claim to be the perfect number, and she to be the whole in which we men are included and absorbed. We have no will of our own.

'From Sarai's name He took a letter which expressed the number ten, and reposed one which made but five; so that she contributed that five which man wanted before, to show a mutual indigence and support.'Essays in Divinity(Jessop, 1855), p. 118.

'Even for this, he will visite to the third, and fourth generation; and three and foure are seven, and seven is infinite.Sermons50. 47. 440.

l. 30.this, five,I have introduced a comma after 'this' to show what, I think, must be the relation of the words. The later editions drop 'this', and it seems to me probable that an original reading and a correction have survived side by side. Donne may have written 'this' alone, referring back to 'five', and then, thinking the reference too remote, he may have substituted 'five' in the margin, whence it crept into the text without completely displacing 'this'. The support which the MSS. lend to1633make it dangerous to remove either word now, but I have thought it well to show that 'this'is'five'. In the MSS. when a word is erased a line is drawn under it and the substituted word placed in the margin.

l. 13.Where mis-devotion doth command.The unanimity of the earlier editions and the MSS. shows clearly that 'Mass-devotion' (which Chambers adopts) is merely an ingenious conjecture of the1669editor. Donne uses the word frequently, e.g.:

Here in a place, where miss-devotion framesA thousand Prayers to Saints, whose very namesThe ancient Church knew not, &c.Of the Progresse of the Soule, p.266, ll. 511-13.

Here in a place, where miss-devotion frames

A thousand Prayers to Saints, whose very names

The ancient Church knew not, &c.

Of the Progresse of the Soule, p.266, ll. 511-13.

and: 'This mis-devotion, and left-handed piety, of praying for the dead.'Sermons80. 77. 780.

l. 17.You shalbe.I have recorded this reading of several MSS. because the poem is probably addressed to Mrs. Herbert and Donne may have so written. His discrimination of 'thou' and 'you' is very marked throughout the poems. 'Thou' is the pronoun of feelingand intimacy, 'you' of respect. Compare 'To Mrs. M. H.', and remember that Mrs. Herbert's name was Magdalen.

ll. 27-8.Comming and going, wee Perchance might kisse, but not between those meales: i.e. the kiss of salutation and parting. In a sermon on the text 'Kisse the Son, lest he be angry', Donne enumerates the uses of kissing sanctioned by the Bible, and this among them: 'Now by this we are slid into our fourth and last branch of our first part, The perswasion to come to this holy kisse, though defamed by treachery, though depraved by licentiousnesse, since God invites us to it, by so many good uses thereof in his Word. It is an imputation laid uponNero, thatNeque adveniens neque proficiscens, That whether comming or going he never kissed any: And Christ himself imputes it toSimon, as a neglect of him, That when hecame into his househe did notkissehim. This then was in use', &c.Sermons80. 41. 407.

The kiss of salutation lasted in some countries till the later eighteenth century, perhaps still lasts. See Rousseau'sConfessions, Bk. 9, and Byron'sChilde Harold, III. lxxix.

But Erasmus, in 1499, speaks as though it were a specially English custom: 'Est praeterea mos nunquam satis laudatus. Sive quo venis, omnium osculis exciperis; sive discedis aliquo, osculis dimitteris; redis, redduntur suavia; venitur ad te, propinantur suavia; disceditur abs te, dividuntur basia; occurritur alicubi, basiatur affatim; denique quocunque te moves, suaviorum plena sunt omnia.'

l. 10.earthly sad despaire.Cf. O.E.D.: 'Earthly. 3. Partaking of the nature of earth, resembling earth as a substance, consisting of earth as an element; = Earthy, archaic or obsolete.' The form was used as late as 1843, but the change in the later editions of Donne indicates that it was growing rare in this sense. Compare, 'A young man of a softly disposition.' Camden'sReign of Elizabeth(English transl.).

l. 15.What we know not, our selves.'All creatures were brought to Adam, and, because he understood the natures of all those creatures, he gave them names accordingly. In that he gave no name to himselfe it may be by some perhaps argued, that he understood himselfe lesse then he did other creatures.'Sermons80. 50. 563.

l. 18.So, these extreames shall neithers office doe.The 'neithers' ofD,H40,JC, supported by 'neyther' inO'Fand 'neyther their' inCy, is much more characteristic than 'ne'er their', and more likely to have been altered than to have been substituted for 'ne'er their'. The reading ofCyshows how the phrase puzzled an ordinarycopyist. 'These extremes shall by counteracting each other prevent either from fulfilling his function.' Compare, 'As two yoke-devils sworn to either's purpose' (i.e. each to the other's purpose). Shakespeare,Hen. V,II. ii. 107.

l. 22.So shall I, live, thy stage not triumph bee.I have placed a comma after I to make quite clear that 'live' is the adjective, not the verb. The 'stay' of1633is defensible, but the1633editor was somewhat at sea about this poem, witness the variations introduced while the edition was printing in ll. 20 and 24 and the misprinting of l. 5. All the MSS. I have consulted support 'stage'; and this gives the best meaning: 'Alive, I shall continue to be the stage on which your victories are daily set forth; dead, I shall be but your triumph, a thing achieved once, never to be repeated.' Compare:

And cause her leave to triumph in this wiseUpon the prostrate spoil of that poor heart!That serves a Trophy to her conquering eyes,And must their glory to the world impart. Daniel,Delia,x.

And cause her leave to triumph in this wise

Upon the prostrate spoil of that poor heart!

That serves a Trophy to her conquering eyes,

And must their glory to the world impart. Daniel,Delia,x.

ll. 23, 24. There are obviously two versions of these lines which the later editions have confounded. The first is that of the text, from1633. The second is that of the MSS. and runs, properly pointed:

Then lest thy love, hate, and mee thou undoe,O let me live, O love and hate me too.

Then lest thy love, hate, and mee thou undoe,

O let me live, O love and hate me too.

The punctuation of the MSS. is very careless, but the lines as printed are quite intelligible. As given in the editions1635-69they are nonsensical.

l. 5.We ask'd.The past tense of the MSS. makes the antithesis and sense more pointed. 'It was with no one's leave we lov'd to begin with, and we will owe to no one the death that comes with parting.'

ll. 7 f.Goe: and if that word have not quite kil'd thee,Ease mee with death, by bidding mee goe too.

ll. 7 f.Goe: and if that word have not quite kil'd thee,

Ease mee with death, by bidding mee goe too.

Compare:

Val.No more: unless the next word that thou speak'stHave some malignant power upon my life:If so, I pray thee, breathe it in mine ear,As ending anthem of my endless dolour.Two Gentlemen of Verona,III. i. 236 f.

Val.No more: unless the next word that thou speak'st

Have some malignant power upon my life:

If so, I pray thee, breathe it in mine ear,

As ending anthem of my endless dolour.

Two Gentlemen of Verona,III. i. 236 f.

l. 14.lights life.The MSS. correct the obvious mistake of the editions, 'lifes light.' The 'lights life' is, of course, the sun. In the same way at 21 'lye' is surely better suited than 'dye' to an epitaph. This poem is not inD,H49,Lec, and1633has printed it fromA18,N,TC.

In the latter group of MSS. this poem is followed immediately by another of the same kind, which is found also inH40,RP31, andO'F, as well as several more miscellaneous MSS. I print fromTCC:

Whosoe termes Love a fire, may like a poetFaine what he will, for certaine cannot showe it.For Fire nere burnes, but when the fuell's neareBut Love doth at most distance most appeare.Yet out of fire water did never goe,But teares from Love abundantly doe flowe.Fire still mounts upward; but Love oft descendeth.Fire leaves the midst: Love to the Center tendeth.Fire dryes and hardens: Love doth mollifie.Fire doth consume, but Love doth fructifie.The powerful Queene of Love (faire Venus) cameDescended from the Sea, not from the flame,Whence passions ebbe and flowe, and from the braineRun to the hart like streames, and back againe.Yea Love oft fills mens breasts with melting snowDrowning their Love-sick minds in flouds of woe.What is Love, water then? it may be soe;But hee saith trueth, that saith hee doth not knowe.

Whosoe termes Love a fire, may like a poet

Faine what he will, for certaine cannot showe it.

For Fire nere burnes, but when the fuell's neare

But Love doth at most distance most appeare.

Yet out of fire water did never goe,

But teares from Love abundantly doe flowe.

Fire still mounts upward; but Love oft descendeth.

Fire leaves the midst: Love to the Center tendeth.

Fire dryes and hardens: Love doth mollifie.

Fire doth consume, but Love doth fructifie.

The powerful Queene of Love (faire Venus) came

Descended from the Sea, not from the flame,

Whence passions ebbe and flowe, and from the braine

Run to the hart like streames, and back againe.

Yea Love oft fills mens breasts with melting snow

Drowning their Love-sick minds in flouds of woe.

What is Love, water then? it may be soe;

But hee saith trueth, that saith hee doth not knowe.

FINIS.

l. 12.His highnesse &c.'Presumably his highness was made of gilt gingerbread.' Chambers. See Jonson,Bartholomew Fair,III. i.

ll. 28-30. As these lines stand in the old editions they are unintelligible:

Because that other curse of being short,And only for a minute made to beEager, desires to raise posterity.

Because that other curse of being short,

And only for a minute made to be

Eager, desires to raise posterity.

Grosart prints:

Because that other curse of being shortAnd—only-for-a-minute-made-to-be—Eager desires to raise posterity.

Because that other curse of being short

And—only-for-a-minute-made-to-be—

Eager desires to raise posterity.

This and the note which he appends I find more incomprehensible than the old text. This is his note: 'The whole sense then is: Unless Nature decreed this in order that man should despise it, (just) as she made it short, that man might for that reason also despise a sport that was only for a minute made to be eager desires to raise posterity.' Surely this is Abracadabra!

What has happened is, I believe, this: Donne here, as elsewhere, used an obsolescent word, viz. 'eagers', the verb, meaning 'sharpens'. The copyist did not recognize the form, took 'desire' for the verb,and made 'eager' the adjectival complement to 'be', changing 'desire' to 'desires' as predicate to 'curse'. What Donne had in mind was the Aristotelian doctrine that the desire to beget children is an expression of man's craving for immortality. The most natural function, according to Aristotle, of every living thing which is not maimed in any way is to beget another living thing like itself, that so it may partake of what is eternal and divine. This participation is the goal of all desire, and of all natural activity. But perishable individuals cannot partake of the immortal and divine by continuous existence. Nothing that is perishable can continue always one and the same individual. Each, therefore, participates as best he may, some more, some less; remaining the same in a way, i.e. in the species, not in the individual.' (De Anima, B. 4. 415 A-B.) Donne's argument then is this: 'Why of all animals have we alone this feeling of depression and remorse after the act of love? Is it a device of nature to restrain us from an act which shortens the life of the individual (he refers here to a prevalent belief as to the deleterious effect of the act of love), needed because that other curse which Adam brought upon man, the curse of mortality,

of being short,And only for a minute made to be,Eagers [i.e. whets or provokes] desire to raise posterity.'

of being short,

And only for a minute made to be,

Eagers [i.e. whets or provokes] desire to raise posterity.'

The latest use of 'eager' as a verb quoted by the O.E.D. is from Mulcaster'sPositions(1581), where the sense is that of imitating physically: 'They that be gawled ... may neither runne nor wrastle for eagering the inward'. The Middle English use is closer to Donne's: 'The nature of som men is so ... unconvenable that ... poverte myhte rather egren hym to don felonies.' Chaucer, Boëth.De Consol. Phil.In the Burley MS. (seventeenth century) the following epigram on Bancroft appears:

A learned Bishop of this landThinking to make religion stand,In equall poise on every sydeThe mixture of them thus he tryde:An ounce of protestants he singlesAnd a dramme of papists mingles,Then adds a scruple of a puritanAnd melts them down in his brayne pan,But where hee lookes they should digestThe scruple eagers all the rest.

A learned Bishop of this land

Thinking to make religion stand,

In equall poise on every syde

The mixture of them thus he tryde:

An ounce of protestants he singles

And a dramme of papists mingles,

Then adds a scruple of a puritan

And melts them down in his brayne pan,

But where hee lookes they should digest

The scruple eagers all the rest.

In Harl. MS. 4908 f. 83 the last line reads:

That scruple troubles all the rest.

The text of this poem in the editions is that ofA18,N,TCamong the MSS. A slightly different recension is found in most ofthe other MSS. The chief difference is that the latter read 'love' for 'loves' at ll. 9, 14, and 19. They also, however, read 'least' for 'high'st' at l. 12. In l. 19 they vacillate between 'once' and 'our'. It would not be difficult to defend either version. The only variation from the printed text which I have admitted is that on which all the MSS. are unanimous, viz. 'first' for 'short' in l. 26; 'short' is an obvious blunder.

A song meant for the Elizabethans a poem intended to be sung, generally to the accompaniment of the lute. Donne had clearly no thought of his songs being an exception to this rule:

But when I have done so,Some man his art and voice to showDoth set and sing my paine.

But when I have done so,

Some man his art and voice to show

Doth set and sing my paine.

Yet it is difficult to think of some, perhaps the majority, of Donne'sSongs and Sonetsas being written to be sung. Their sonorous and rhetorical rhythm, the elaborate stanzas which, like the prolonged periods of theElegies, seem to give us a foretaste of the Miltonic verse-paragraph, suggest speech,—impassioned, rhythmical speech rather than the melody of song. We are not haunted by a sense of the tune to which the song should go, as we are in reading the lyrics of the Elizabethan Anthologies or of Robert Burns. Yet some of Donne's songswereset to music. A note in one group of MSS. describes three of them as 'Songs which were made to certain ayres which were made before'. One of these isThe Baite, which must have been set to the same air as Marlowe's song. I reproduce here a lute-accompaniment found in William Corkine'sSecond Book of Ayres(1612). The airs of the other two (see p.18(note)) I have not been able to find, nor are they known to Mr. Barclay Squire, who has kindly helped and guided me in this matter of the music. With his aid I have reproduced here the music of two other songs, and, at another place, that of one of Donne's greatHymns.

The following air is found in Egerton MS. 2013. As given here it has been conjecturally corrected by Mr. Barclay Squire:music

The following air is found in Egerton MS. 2013. As given here it has been conjecturally corrected by Mr. Barclay Squire:

midi file.pdf file

GO, and catch a falling star,Get with child a mandrake roote,Tell me where all past times are,Or who cleft the Devils foot,5Teach me to hear mermaid's singing,Or to keep of Envy's singing,And findWhat windServes to advance an honest mind.

GO, and catch a falling star,

Get with child a mandrake roote,

Tell me where all past times are,

Or who cleft the Devils foot,

5Teach me to hear mermaid's singing,

Or to keep of Envy's singing,

And find

What wind

Serves to advance an honest mind.

This is set to the following air in Corkine'sSecond Book of Ayres(1612). As given here it has been transcribed by Mr. Barclay Squire, omitting the lute accompaniment:musicmusic

This is set to the following air in Corkine'sSecond Book of Ayres(1612). As given here it has been transcribed by Mr. Barclay Squire, omitting the lute accompaniment:

midi file.pdf file

'TIS true, 'tis day; What though it be?And wilt thou therefore rise from me?What, will you rise, What, will you rise, because 'tis light?Did we lie downe, because 'twas night?Love which in spight of darknesse brought us hether,In spight of light should keepe us still together.In spight of light should keepe us still together.In spight of light should keepe us still together.

'TIS true, 'tis day; What though it be?

And wilt thou therefore rise from me?

What, will you rise, What, will you rise, because 'tis light?

Did we lie downe, because 'twas night?

Love which in spight of darknesse brought us hether,

In spight of light should keepe us still together.

From Corkine'sSecond Book of Ayres(1612).music

From Corkine'sSecond Book of Ayres(1612).

midi file.pdf file

COME live with mee, and bee my love,And wee will some new pleasures proveOf golden sands, and christall brookes,With silken lines, and silver hookes.

COME live with mee, and bee my love,

And wee will some new pleasures prove

Of golden sands, and christall brookes,

With silken lines, and silver hookes.

Pages75-8. Of the epigrams sixteen are given in all the editions,1633-69. Of these, thirteen are inA18,N,TC, none inD,H49,Lec. Of the remaining three, two are inW, one inHN, both good authorities. I have added three of interest fromW, of which one is inHN, and all three are inO'F.Wincludes among theEpigramsthe short poemOn a Jeat Ring Sent, printed generally with theSongs and Sonets. InHNthere is one and in the Burley MS. are three more. Of these the one inHNand two of those inBurare merely coarse, and there is no use burdening Donne with more of this kind than he is already responsible for. The last inBurruns:

Why are maydes wits than boyes of lower strayne?Eve was a daughter of the ribb not brayne.

Why are maydes wits than boyes of lower strayne?

Eve was a daughter of the ribb not brayne.

Donne's epigrams were much admired, and some of his elegies were classed with them as satirical 'evaporations of wit'. Drummond says: 'I think if he would he might easily be the best epigrammatist we have found in English; of which I have not yet seen any come near the Ancients. Compare his Marry and Love with Tasso's stanzas against beauty; one shall hardly know who hath best.' The stanzas referred to are entitledSopra la bellezza, and begin:

Questo che tanto il cieco volgo apprezza.

Page75.Pyramus and Thisbe.The Grolier Club edition prints the first line of this epigram,

Two by themselves each other love and fear,

which suggests that 'love' and 'fear' are verbs. As punctuated in1633the epigram is condensed but precise: 'These two, slain by themselves, by each other, by fear, and by love, are joined here in one tomb, by the friends whose cruel action in parting them brought them together here.' Every point in the epigram corresponds to the incidents of the story as narrated in Ovid'sMetamorphoses, iv. 55-165. The closing line runs:

Quodque rogis superest, una requiescit in urna.

A Burnt Ship.InWthe title is given in Italian, inO'Fin Latin. Compare James's letter to Salisbury on the Dutch demands for assistance against Spain;—'Should I ruin myself for maintaining them.... I look that by a peace they should enrich themselves to pay me my debts, and if they be so weak as they cannot subsist, either in peace or war, without I ruin myself for upholding them, in that case surely the nearest harm is to be first eschewed:a man will leap out of a burning ship and drown himself in the sea; and it is doubtless a farther off harm from me to suffer them to fall again into the hands of Spain, and let God provide for the danger that may with time fall upon me or my posterity, than presently to starve myself and minewith putting the meat in their mouth.'The King to Salisbury, 1607, Hatfield MSS., quoted in Gardiner'sHistory of England, ii. 25.

Page76.A Lame Begger.Compare:

Dull says he is so weake, he cannot rise,Nor stand, nor goe; if that be true, he lyes.Finis quoth R.Thomas Deloney,Strange Histories of Songes & Sonets ofKings, Princes, Dukes, Lords, Ladyes, Knights andGentlemen. Very pleasant either to be read or songe, &c.,1607.

Dull says he is so weake, he cannot rise,Nor stand, nor goe; if that be true, he lyes.Finis quoth R.

Dull says he is so weake, he cannot rise,

Nor stand, nor goe; if that be true, he lyes.

Finis quoth R.

Thomas Deloney,Strange Histories of Songes & Sonets ofKings, Princes, Dukes, Lords, Ladyes, Knights andGentlemen. Very pleasant either to be read or songe, &c.,1607.

Thomas Deloney,Strange Histories of Songes & Sonets of

Kings, Princes, Dukes, Lords, Ladyes, Knights and

Gentlemen. Very pleasant either to be read or songe, &c.,

1607.

Page76.Sir John Wingefield.In that late Island.Mr. Gosse has inadvertently printed 'base' for 'late'. The 'Lady' island ofO'Fis due probably to ignorance of what island was intended. It is, of course, Cadiz itself, which is situated on an island at the extreme point of the headland which closes the bay of Cadiz to the west. 'Then we entered into the island of Cales with our footmen,' says Captain Pryce in his letter to Cecil. Strype'sAnnals, iv. 398. Another account relates how 'on the 21st they took the town of Cadiz and at the bridge in the island were encountered by 400 horses'. Here the severest fighting took place at 'the bridge from Mayne to Cadiz'. What does Donne mean by 'late island'? Is it the island we lately visited so gloriously, or the island on which the sun sets late, that western island, now become a new Pillar of Hercules? It would not be unlike Donne to give a word a startlingly condensed force. Compare (if the reading be right) 'far faith' (p.189, l. 4) and the note.

Pages75-6.The series of EpigramsA burnt ship,Fall of a wall,A lame begger,Cales and Guyana,Sir John Wingefieldseem to me all to have been composed during the Cadiz expedition. The first suggests, and was probably suggested by, the fight in the harbour when so many of the Spanish ships were burned. TheFall of a wallmay mark an incident in the attack of the landing party which forced its way into the city.A lame beggerrecords a common spectacle in a Spanish and Catholic town.Cales and Guyanamust clearly have been written when, after Cadiz had been taken and sacked, the leaders were debating their next step. Essex (and Donne is on Essex's side) urged that the fleet should sail west and intercept the silver fleet, but Howard, the Lord Admiral, insisted on an immediate return to England. The last of the series chronicles the one death to which every account of the expedition refers.

Page77.Antiquary.Who is the Hamon or Hammond that is evidently the subject of this epigram and is referred to inSatyre V, l. 87, I cannot say. I am disposed to think that it may be John Hammond, LL.D., the civilist, the father of James I's physician and of Charles I's chaplain. I have no proof that he was an antiquarian, but a civilist and authority on tithes may well have been so, and he belonged tothe class which Donne satirizes with most of anger and feeling, the examiners and torturers of Catholic prisoners. We find him in Strype'sAnnalscollaborating with the notorious Topcliffe.

Phryne.An epigram often quoted by Ben Jonson. Drummond,Conversations, ed. Laing, 842.

Page78.Raderus.'Matthew Rader (1561-1634), a German Jesuit, published an edition of and commentary upon Martial in 1602.' Chambers. Compare: 'He added, moreover, that though Raderus and others of his order did use to geld Poets and other authors (and here I could not choose but wonder why they have not gelded their Vulgar Edition which in some places hath such obscene words, as the Hebrew tongue which is therefore called holy, doth so much abhorre that no obscene thing can be uttered in it)....' The reason which Donne gives is that 'They reserve to themselves the divers forms, and the secrets, and mysteries in this latter which they find in the authors whom they gelde.'Ignatius his Conclave(1610), pp. 94-6. The epigram is therefore a coarse hit at the Jesuits.

Mercurius Gallo-Belgicus.A journal or register of news started at Cologne in 1598. The first volume consisted of 659 pages and was entitled:Mercurius Gallo-Belgicus;sive rerum in Gallia et Belgia potissimum:Hispania quoque,Italia,Anglia,Germania,Polonia,vicinisque locis ab anno 1588 usque ad Martium anni praesentis 1594 gestarum, nuncius. In the seventeenth century it was published half-yearly and ornamented with maps. Its Latin was not unimpeachable (Jonson speaks of a 'Gallo-Belgic phrase',Poetaster,v.i), nor its news always trustworthy.

The Lier.This was first printed in Sir John Simeon'sUnpublished Poems of Donne(1856-7), whence it is included by Chambers in his Appendix A. It is given the titleSupping Hours. Its inclusion inHN(whence the present title) andWstrengthens its claim to be genuine. Probably it was written after the Cadiz expedition, and contains a reminiscence (Mr. Gosse has suggested this) of Spanish fare.

l. 3.Like Nebuchadnezar.Compare: 'I am no great Nebuchadnezzar, sir; I have not much skill in grass.' Shakespeare,All's Well,IV. v.

Of the Elegies two groups seem to have been pretty widely circulated before the larger collections were made or publication took place. Each contained either twelve or thirteen, the twelve or thirteen being made up sometimes by the inclusion of the Funeral Elegy, 'Sorrow who to this house,' afterwards calledElegie on the L. C.The order in the one group, as we find it in e.g.D,H49,Lec, isThe Bracelet,1Goingto Bed,Jealousie,The Anagram,Change,The Perfume,His Picture, 'Sorrow who to this house,' 'Oh, let mee not serve,'Loves Warr,On his Mistris, 'Natures lay Ideott, I taught,'Loves Progress. The second group, as we find it inA25,JC, andW, containsThe Bracelet,The Comparison,The Perfume,Jealousie, 'Oh, let not me (sicW) serve,' 'Natures lay Ideott, I taught,'Loves Warr,Going to Bed,Change,The Anagram,On his Mistris,His Picture, 'Sorrow, who to this house.' The last is not given inA25. It will be noticed thatD,H49,LecdropsThe Comparison;A25,JC,W,Loves Progress; and that there were thirteen elegies, taking the two groups together, apart from the Funeral Elegy.

1I take the titles given in the editions for ease of reference to the reader of this edition. The only title whichD,H49,Lechave isOn Loves Progresse;A25,JC, andWhave none. Other MSS. give one or other occasionally.

These are the most widely circulated and probably the earliest of Donne'sElegies, taken as such. Of the restThe Dreameis given inD,H49,Lec, but among the songs, andThe Autumnallis placed by itself. The rest are either somewhat doubtful or were not allowed to get into general circulation.

Can we to any extent date theElegies? There are some hints which help to indicate the years to which the earlier of them probably belong. InThe BraceletDonne speaks of Spanish 'Stamps' as having

slily madeGorgeous France, ruin'd, ragged and decay'd;Scotland which knew no State, proud in one day:mangled seventeen-headed Belgia.

slily made

Gorgeous France, ruin'd, ragged and decay'd;

Scotland which knew no State, proud in one day:

mangled seventeen-headed Belgia.

The last of these references is too indefinite to be of use. I mean that it covers too wide a period. Nor, indeed, do the others bring us very far. The first indicates the period from the alliance between the League and the King of Spain, 1585, when Philip promised a monthly subsidy of 50,000 crowns, to the conversion and victory of Henry IV in 1593; the second, the short time during which Spanish influence gained the upper hand in Scotland, between 1582 and 1586. After 1593 is the only determinable date. InLoves Warrewe are brought nearer to a definite date.

France in her lunatique giddiness did hateEver our men, yea and our God of late;Yet shee relies upon our Angels wellWhich nere retorne

France in her lunatique giddiness did hate

Ever our men, yea and our God of late;

Yet shee relies upon our Angels well

Which nere retorne

points to the period between Henry's conversion ('yea and our God of late') and the conclusion of peace between France and Spain in 1598. The line,

And Midas joyes our Spanish journeyes give

(taken with a similar allusion in one of his letters:

Guyanaes harvest is nip'd in the springI feare, &c., p.210),

Guyanaes harvest is nip'd in the spring

I feare, &c., p.210),

refers most probably to Raleigh's expedition in 1595 to discover the fabulous wealth of Manoa. Had the Elegy been written after the Cadizexpedition there would certainly have been a more definite reference to that war. The poem was probably written in the earlier part of 1596, when the expedition was in preparation and Donne contemplated joining it.

To date one of the poems is not of course to date them all, but their paradoxical, witty, daring tone is so uniform that one may fairly conjecture that these thirteen Elegies were written between 1593 and Donne's first entry upon responsible office as secretary to Egerton in 1598.

The twelfth (His parting from her) and fifteenth (The Expostulation) Elegies it is impossible to date, but it is notlikelythat they were written after his marriage.Juliais quite undatable, a witty sally Donne might have written any time before 1615. But the fourteenth (A Tale of a Citizen and his Wife) was certainly written after 1609, probably in 1610.

The Autumnallraises rather an interesting question. Mr. Gosse has argued that it was most probably composed as late as 1625. Walton's dating of it is hopelessly confused. He states (Life of Mr. George Herbert, 1670, pp. 14-19) 'that Donne made the acquaintance of Mrs. Herbert and wrote this poem when she was residing at Oxford with her son Edward, Donne being then near to (aboutFirst Ed.) the Fortieth year of his Age'; 'both he and she were then past the Meridian of man's life.' But according to Lord Herbert his mother left Oxford and brought him to town about 1600, shortly before the insurrection of Essex, i.e. when Donne was twenty-seven years old, and secretary to Sir Thomas Egerton, and Lady Herbert was about thirty-five or thirty-six. It is, of course, not impossible that Donne visited Oxford between 1596 and 1600, but he was not then the grave person Walton portrays. The period which the latter has in view is that in which Donne was at Mitcham and Mrs. Herbert living in London. 'This day', he writes in a letter to her, dated July 23, 1607, 'I came to town and to the best part of it your house.' In 1609 Mrs. Herbert married Sir John Danvers. We know that in 1607-9 Donne was in correspondence with Mrs. Herbert and was sending her copies of his religious verses. Walton's evidence points to its being about the same time that he wrote this poem.

Mr. Gosse's argument for a later date is, regardeda priori, very persuasive. 'Unless it is taken as describing the venerable and beautiful old age of a distinguished woman, the piece is an absurdity; to address such lines to a youthful widow, who was about to become the bride of a boy of twenty, would have been a monstrous breach of taste and good manners' (Life, &c., ii. 228). It is, however, somewhat hazardous to fix a standard of taste for the age of James I, and above all others for John Donne. To the taste of the time and the temper of Donne such a poem might more becomingly be addressed to a widow of forty, the mother of ten children, one already an accomplished courtier, than it might be written by apriest in orders. Donne would have been startled to hear that in 1625 he had spent any time in such a vain amusement as composing a secular elegy. The poem he wrote to Mrs. Herbert before 1609 was probably thought by her and him an exquisite compliment. He expressly disclaims speaking of the old age which disfigures. He writes of one whose youthful beauty has flown. Forty seemed old for a woman, even to Jane Austen, and in Montaigne's opinion it is old for a man: 'J'estois tel, car je ne me considère pas à cette heure, que je suis engagé dans les avenues de la vieillesse, ayant pieça franchy les quarante ans:

Minutatim vires et robur adultumFrangit, et in partem pejorem liquitur aetas.

Minutatim vires et robur adultum

Frangit, et in partem pejorem liquitur aetas.

Ce que je seray doresnevant ce ne sera plus qu'un demy estre, ce ne sera plus moy; je m'eschappe les jours et me desrobe a moy mesme:

Singula de nobis anni praedantur euntes.'Essais, ii. 17.

Mrs. Herbert's marriage was due to no 'heyday of the blood'. It was the gravity of Danvers' temper which attracted her, and he became the steady friend and adviser of her children.

There are, moreover, some items of evidence which go to support Walton's testimony. The poem is found in one MS.,S, dated 1620, which gives us a downward date; and in 1610 occurs what looks very like an allusion to Donne's poem in Ben Jonson'sSilent Woman. Clerimont and True-wit are speaking of the Collegiate ladies, and the former asks,

Who is the president?True.The grave and youthful matron, the Lady Haughty.Cler.A pox of her autumnal face, her pieced beauty! there's noman can be admitted till she be ready now-a-days, till she haspainted and perfumed ... I have made a song (I pray theehear it) on the subjectStill to be neat, still to be drest...

Who is the president?

True.The grave and youthful matron, the Lady Haughty.

Cler.A pox of her autumnal face, her pieced beauty! there's noman can be admitted till she be ready now-a-days, till she haspainted and perfumed ... I have made a song (I pray theehear it) on the subject

Cler.A pox of her autumnal face, her pieced beauty! there's no

man can be admitted till she be ready now-a-days, till she has

painted and perfumed ... I have made a song (I pray thee

hear it) on the subject

Still to be neat, still to be drest...

The resemblance may be accidental, yet the frequency with which the poem is dubbedAn Autumnal FaceorThe Autumnallshows that the phrase had struck home. Jonson's comedies seethe with such allusions, and I rather suspect that he is poking fun at his friend's paradoxes, perhaps in a sly way at that 'grave and youthful matron' Lady Danvers. We cannotprovethat the poem was written so early, but the evidence on the whole is in favour of Walton's statement.

l. 4. That Donne must have written 'sere-barke' or 'seare-barke' is clear, both from the evidence of the editions and MSS. and from the vacillation of the latter. 'Cere-cloth' is a word which Donne uses more than once in the sermons: 'A good Cere-cloth to bruises,'Sermons80. 10. 101; 'A Searcloth that souples all bruises,'Ibid. 80. 66. 663. But to substitute 'sere-cloth' for 'sere-barke' would be to miss the force of Donne's vivid description. The 'sere-cloth' with which the sick man is covered is his own eruptive skin. Both Chambers and Norton have noted the resemblance to Hamlet's poisoned father:

a most instant tetter barked about,Most lazar-like, with vile and loathsome crust,All my smooth body.ll. 19-20.Nor, at his board together being satWith words, nor touch, scarce looks adulterate.Quum premit ille torum, vultu comes ipsa modestoIbis, ut adcumbas; clam mihi tange pedem,Me specta, nutusque meos, vultumque loquacem:Excipe furtivas, et refer ipsa, notas.Verba superciliis sine voce loquentia dicam:Verba leges digitis, verba notata mero.Quum tibi succurrit Veneris lascivia nostrae,Purpureas tenero pollice tange genas.Si quid erit, de me tacita quod mente queraris,Pendeat extrema mollis ab aure manus:Quum tibi, quae faciam, mea lux, dicamve placebunt,Versetur digitis annulus usque tuis,Tange manu mensam, quo tangunt more precantes,Optabis merito quum mala multa viro.Quod tibi miscuerit sapias, bibat ipse iubeto;Tu puerum leviter posce, quod ipsa velis.Quae tu reddideris, ego primus pocula sumam,Et qua tu biberis, hac ego parte bibam.Ovid,Amores, I. iv. 15-32.

a most instant tetter barked about,Most lazar-like, with vile and loathsome crust,All my smooth body.

a most instant tetter barked about,

Most lazar-like, with vile and loathsome crust,

All my smooth body.

ll. 19-20.Nor, at his board together being satWith words, nor touch, scarce looks adulterate.

ll. 19-20.Nor, at his board together being sat

With words, nor touch, scarce looks adulterate.

Quum premit ille torum, vultu comes ipsa modestoIbis, ut adcumbas; clam mihi tange pedem,Me specta, nutusque meos, vultumque loquacem:Excipe furtivas, et refer ipsa, notas.Verba superciliis sine voce loquentia dicam:Verba leges digitis, verba notata mero.Quum tibi succurrit Veneris lascivia nostrae,Purpureas tenero pollice tange genas.Si quid erit, de me tacita quod mente queraris,Pendeat extrema mollis ab aure manus:Quum tibi, quae faciam, mea lux, dicamve placebunt,Versetur digitis annulus usque tuis,Tange manu mensam, quo tangunt more precantes,Optabis merito quum mala multa viro.Quod tibi miscuerit sapias, bibat ipse iubeto;Tu puerum leviter posce, quod ipsa velis.Quae tu reddideris, ego primus pocula sumam,Et qua tu biberis, hac ego parte bibam.Ovid,Amores, I. iv. 15-32.

Quum premit ille torum, vultu comes ipsa modesto

Ibis, ut adcumbas; clam mihi tange pedem,

Me specta, nutusque meos, vultumque loquacem:

Excipe furtivas, et refer ipsa, notas.

Verba superciliis sine voce loquentia dicam:

Verba leges digitis, verba notata mero.

Quum tibi succurrit Veneris lascivia nostrae,

Purpureas tenero pollice tange genas.

Si quid erit, de me tacita quod mente queraris,

Pendeat extrema mollis ab aure manus:

Quum tibi, quae faciam, mea lux, dicamve placebunt,

Versetur digitis annulus usque tuis,

Tange manu mensam, quo tangunt more precantes,

Optabis merito quum mala multa viro.

Quod tibi miscuerit sapias, bibat ipse iubeto;

Tu puerum leviter posce, quod ipsa velis.

Quae tu reddideris, ego primus pocula sumam,

Et qua tu biberis, hac ego parte bibam.

Ovid,Amores, I. iv. 15-32.

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