Page80.Elegie II.

Thenceforth to her he sought to intimateHis inward grief, by meanes to him well knowne:Now Bacchus fruit out of the silver plateHe on the table dasht as overthrowne,Or of the fruitfull liquor overflowne,And by the dancing bubbles did divine,Or therein write to let his love be showne;Which well she red out of the learned line;(A sacrament profane in mysterie of wine.)Spenser,Faerie Queene, III. ix.

Thenceforth to her he sought to intimate

His inward grief, by meanes to him well knowne:

Now Bacchus fruit out of the silver plate

He on the table dasht as overthrowne,

Or of the fruitfull liquor overflowne,

And by the dancing bubbles did divine,

Or therein write to let his love be showne;

Which well she red out of the learned line;

(A sacrament profane in mysterie of wine.)

Spenser,Faerie Queene, III. ix.

ll. 21 f.Nor when he, swoln and pamper'd with great fareSits down and snorts, cag'd in his basket chair, &c.Vir bibat usque roga: precibus tamen oscula desint;Dumque bibit, furtim, si potes, adde merum.Si bene compositus somno vinoque iacebit;Consilium nobis resque locusque dabunt.Ovid,Amores, I. iv. 51-4.

ll. 21 f.Nor when he, swoln and pamper'd with great fareSits down and snorts, cag'd in his basket chair, &c.

ll. 21 f.Nor when he, swoln and pamper'd with great fare

Sits down and snorts, cag'd in his basket chair, &c.

Vir bibat usque roga: precibus tamen oscula desint;Dumque bibit, furtim, si potes, adde merum.Si bene compositus somno vinoque iacebit;Consilium nobis resque locusque dabunt.Ovid,Amores, I. iv. 51-4.

Vir bibat usque roga: precibus tamen oscula desint;

Dumque bibit, furtim, si potes, adde merum.

Si bene compositus somno vinoque iacebit;

Consilium nobis resque locusque dabunt.

Ovid,Amores, I. iv. 51-4.

l. 4.Though they be Ivory, yet her teeth be jeat: i.e. 'Though her eyes be yellow as ivory, her teeth are black as jet.' The edition of 1669 substitutes 'theirs' for 'they', referring back to 'others'. Grosart follows.

l. 6.roughis the reading of1633,1669, and all the best MSS. Chambers and Grosart prefer the 'tough' of1635-54, but 'rough' means probably 'hairy, shaggy, hirsute'. O.E.D.,Rough, B. I. 2. Her hair is in the wrong place. To have hair on her face and none on her head are alike disadvantageous to a woman's beauty.

Page81, ll. 17-21.If we might put the letters, &c.Compare:

As six sweet Notes, curiously variedIn skilfull Musick, make a hundred kindesOf Heav'nly sounds, that ravish hardest mindes;And with Division (of a choice device)The Hearers soules out at their ears intice:Or, as of twice-twelve Letters, thus transpos'd,The World of Words, is variously compos'd;And of these Words, in divers orders sow'nThis sacredVolumethat you read is grow'n(Through gracious succour of th'Eternal Deity)Rich in discourse, with infinite Variety.Sylvester,Du Bartas, First Week, Second Day.

As six sweet Notes, curiously varied

In skilfull Musick, make a hundred kindes

Of Heav'nly sounds, that ravish hardest mindes;

And with Division (of a choice device)

The Hearers soules out at their ears intice:

Or, as of twice-twelve Letters, thus transpos'd,

The World of Words, is variously compos'd;

And of these Words, in divers orders sow'n

This sacredVolumethat you read is grow'n

(Through gracious succour of th'Eternal Deity)

Rich in discourse, with infinite Variety.

Sylvester,Du Bartas, First Week, Second Day.

Sylvester follows the French closely. Du Bartas' source is probably:

Quin etiam passim nostris in versibus ipsisMulta elementa vides multis communia verbis,Cum tamen inter se versus ac verba necessestConfiteare et re et sonitu distare sonanti,Tantum elementa queunt permutato ordine solo.Lucretius,De Rerum Natura, I. 824-7.

Quin etiam passim nostris in versibus ipsis

Multa elementa vides multis communia verbis,

Cum tamen inter se versus ac verba necessest

Confiteare et re et sonitu distare sonanti,

Tantum elementa queunt permutato ordine solo.

Lucretius,De Rerum Natura, I. 824-7.

Compare Aristotle,De Gen. et Corr.I. 2.

l. 22.unfit.I have changed the semicolon after this word to a full stop. The former suggests that the next two lines are an expansion or explanation of this statement. But the poet is giving a series of different reasons why Flavia may be loved.

ll. 41-2.When Belgias citties, the round countries drowne,That durty foulenesse guards, and armes the towne:

ll. 41-2.When Belgias citties, the round countries drowne,

That durty foulenesse guards, and armes the towne:

Chambers, adopting a composite text from editions and MSS., reads:

Like Belgia' cities the round country drowns,That dirty foulness guards and arms the towns.

Like Belgia' cities the round country drowns,

That dirty foulness guards and arms the towns.

Here 'the round country drowns' is an adjectival clause with the relative suppressed. But if the country actually drowned the citiesthe protector would be as dangerous as the enemy. The best MSS. agree with1633-54, and the sentence, though a little obscure, is probably correct: 'When the Belgian cities, to keep at bay their foes, drown (i.e. flood) the neighbouring countries, the foulness thus produced is their protection.' The 'cities' I take to be the subject. The reference is to their opening the sluices. See Motley'sRise of the Dutch Republic, the account of the sieges of Alkmaar and Leyden. 'The Drowned Land' ('Het verdronken land') was the name given to land overflowed by the bursting of the dykes.

l. 5.forc'd unto noneis a strange expression, and the 'forbid to none' ofBis an attempt to emend it; but 'forc'd unto none' probably means 'not bound by compulsion to be faithful to any'. In woman's love and in the arts you may always expect to be ousted from a favoured position by a successful rival. No one has in these a monopoly:

Is sibi responsum hoc habeat, in medio omnibusPalmam esse positam, qui artem tractant musicam.Ter.Phorm.Prol. 16-17.

Is sibi responsum hoc habeat, in medio omnibus

Palmam esse positam, qui artem tractant musicam.

Ter.Phorm.Prol. 16-17.

l. 8.these meanes, as I,It is difficult to say whether the 'these' of the editions and ofD,H49,Lecor the 'those' of the rest of the MSS. is preferable. The construction with either in the sense of 'the same as', 'such as', was not uncommon:

Under these hard conditions as this timeIs like to lay upon us. Shakespeare,Jul. Caes.I. ii. 174.

Under these hard conditions as this time

Is like to lay upon us. Shakespeare,Jul. Caes.I. ii. 174.

l. 17.Who hath a plow-land, &c.This has nothing to do, as Grosart seems to think, with the name for a certain measurement of land in the north of England corresponding to a hide in the south. A 'plow-land' here is an arable or cultivated field. Possibly the 'a' has crept in and one should read simply 'plow-land', or, likeP, 'plow-lands.' Otherwise 'Who hath' is to be slurred in reading the line. The meaning of the passage seems to be that though a man puts all his own seed into his land, he is quite willing to reap the corn which has sprung from others' seed, brought thither, it may be, by wind or birds.

l. 30.To runne all countries, a wild roguery.The Oxford English Dictionary quotes this line, giving to 'roguery' the meaning of 'a knavish, rascally act'. But Grosart is certainly right in explaining it as 'vagrancy'. In love, Donne does not wish to be a captive bound to one, but he does not wish on the other hand to be a vagrant with no settled abode. The O.E.D. dates the poem c. 1620, which is much too late. Donne was not writing in this manner after he took orders. It cannot be later than 1601, and is probably earlier.

l. 32.more putrifi'd, or, as in the MSS., 'worse putrifi'd.' The latter is probably correct, but the difference is trifling. By'putrifi'd' Donne means 'made salt' and so less fit for drinking. The 'purifi'd' of some editions points to a misunderstanding of Donne's meaning; for saltness and putrefaction were not identical: 'For Salt as incorruptible was the Symbol of friendship, and before the other service was offered unto their guests.' Browne,Vulgar Errors, v. 22.

l. 2.All thy suppos'd escapes.He is addressing the lady. All her supposed transgressions (e.g. of chastity) are laid to the poet's charge. 'Escape' = 'An inconsiderate transgression; a peccadillo, venial error. (In Shaks. with different notion: an outrageous transgression.) Appliedesp.to breaches of chastity.' O.E.D. It is probably in Shakespeare's sense that Donne uses the word:

Brabantio.For your sake, jewel,I am glad at soul I have no other child;For thy escape would teach me tyranny,To hang clogs on them. Shakespeare,Othello,I.iii. 195-8.

Brabantio.For your sake, jewel,

I am glad at soul I have no other child;

For thy escape would teach me tyranny,

To hang clogs on them. Shakespeare,Othello,I.iii. 195-8.

ll. 7-8.Though he had wont to search with glazed eyes,As though he came to kill a Cockatrice,

ll. 7-8.Though he had wont to search with glazed eyes,

As though he came to kill a Cockatrice,

i.e. 'with staring eyes'. I take 'glazed' to be the past participle of the verb 'glaze', 'to stare':

I met a lionWho glaz'd upon me, and went surly by,Without annoying me. Shakespeare,Jul. Caes.I.iii. 20-2.

I met a lion

Who glaz'd upon me, and went surly by,

Without annoying me. Shakespeare,Jul. Caes.I.iii. 20-2.

The past participle is thus used by Shakespeare in: 'With time's deformed hand' (Com. of Err.V.i. 298), i.e. 'deforming hand'; 'deserved children' (Cor.III.i. 292), i.e. 'deserving'. See Franz,Shakespeare-Grammatik, § 661.

The Cockatrice or Basilisk killed by a glance of its eye:

Here with a cockatrice dead-killing eyeHe rouseth up himself, and makes a pause.Shakespeare,Lucrece, 540-1.

Here with a cockatrice dead-killing eye

He rouseth up himself, and makes a pause.

Shakespeare,Lucrece, 540-1.

The eye of the man who comes to kill a cockatrice stares with terror lest he be stricken himself.

If 'glazed' meant 'covered with a film', an adverbial complement would be needed:

For sorrow's eye, glazed with blinding tears.Shakespeare,Rich. II,II.ii. 16.

For sorrow's eye, glazed with blinding tears.

Shakespeare,Rich. II,II.ii. 16.

ll. 9, 15.have ... take.I have noted the subjunctive forms found in certain MSS., because this is undoubtedly Donne's usual construction. In a full analysis that I have made of Donne's syntax in the poems I have found over ninety examples of the subjunctive against seven of the indicative in concessive adverbial clauses. In these ninety are many where the concession is an admitted fact, e.g.

Though her eyes be small, her mouth is great.Elegie II, 3 ff.

Though her eyes be small, her mouth is great.

Elegie II, 3 ff.

Though poetry indeed be such a sin.Satire II, 5.

Of the seven, two are these doubtful examples here noted; one, where the subjunctive would be more appropriate, is due to the rhyme.

ll. 10-11.Thy beauties beautie, and food of our love,Hope of his goods.

ll. 10-11.Thy beauties beautie, and food of our love,

Hope of his goods.

Grosart is puzzled by this phrase and explains 'beauties beautie' as 'the beauty of thy various beauties' (face, arms, shape, &c.). I fear that Donne means that the beauty which he most loves in his mistress is her hope or prospect of obtaining her father's goods. The whole poem is in a vein of extravagant and cynical wit. It must not be taken too seriously.

l. 22.palenesse, blushing, sighs, and sweats.All the MSS. read 'blushings', which is very probably correct, but I have left the two singulars to balance the two plurals. But the use of abstract nouns as common is a feature of Donne's syntax: 'We would not dwell upon increpations, and chidings, and bitternesses; we would pierce but so deepe as might make you search your wounds, when you come home to your Chamber, to bring you to a tendernesse there, not to a palenesse or blushing here.'Sermons80. 61. 611.

l. 29.ingled: i.e. fondled, caressed. O.E.D.

ll. 33-4.He that to barre the first gate, doth as wideAs the great Rhodian Colossus stride.

ll. 33-4.He that to barre the first gate, doth as wide

As the great Rhodian Colossus stride.

Porters seem to have been chosen for their size. Compare: 'Those big fellows that stand like Gyants (at Lords Gates) having bellies bumbasted with ale in Lambswool and with Sacks.' Dekker.

l. 37.were hir'd to this.All the MSS. read 'for this', but 'to' is quite Elizabethan, and gives the meaning more exactly. He was not taken on as a servant for this purpose, but was specially paid for this piece of work:

This naughty manShall face to face be brought to Margaret,Who I believe was pack'd in all this wrong,Hir'd to it by your brother.Shakespeare,Much Ado,V.i. 307.

This naughty man

Shall face to face be brought to Margaret,

Who I believe was pack'd in all this wrong,

Hir'd to it by your brother.

Shakespeare,Much Ado,V.i. 307.

l. 44.the pale wretch shivered.I have (with the support of the best MSS.) changed the semicolon to a full stop here, not that as the punctuation of the editions goes it is wrong, but because it is ambiguous and has misled both Chambers and the Grolier Club editor. By changing the semicolon to a comma they make ll. 43-4 an adverbial clause of time which, with the conditional clause 'Had it beene some bad smell', modifies 'he would have thought ... had wrought'. This seems to me out of the question. The 'when' links the statement 'the pale wretch shivered' to what precedes, notto what follows. As soon as the perfume reached his nose he shivered, knowing what it meant. A new thought begins with 'Had it been some bad smell'.

The use of the semicolon, as at one time equivalent to a little less than a full stop, at another to a little more than a comma, leads occasionally to these ambiguities. The few changes which I have made in the punctuation of this poem have been made with a view to obtaining a little more consistency and clearness without violating the principles of seventeenth-century punctuation.

l. 49.The precious Vnicornes.See Browne,Vulgar Errors, iii. 23: 'Great account and much profit is made ofUnicornes horn, at least of that which beareth the name thereof,' &c. He speaks later of the various objects 'extolled for precious Horns'; and Donne's epithet doubtless has the same application, i.e. to the horns.

l. 8.With cares rash sodaine stormes being o'rspread.I have let the1633reading stand, though I feel sure that Donne is not responsible for 'being o'rspread'. Printing fromD,H49,Lec, in which probably the word 'cruel' had been dropped, the editor or printer supplied 'being' to adjust the metre. I have not corrected it because I am not sure which is Donne's version. Clearly the line has undergone some remodelling. My own view is that the earliest form is suggested byB,S,S96,

With Cares rash sudden storms o'rpressed,

where 'o'erpress' means 'conquer, overwhelm'. Compare Shakespeare's

but in my sightDeare heart forbear to glance thine eye aside.What need'st thou wound with cunning when thy mightIs more than my o'erprest defence can bide.Sonnets, 139. 8.

but in my sight

Deare heart forbear to glance thine eye aside.

What need'st thou wound with cunning when thy might

Is more than my o'erprest defence can bide.

Sonnets, 139. 8.

He bestrid an o'erpressed Roman.Coriolanus,II.ii. 97.

To begin with, Donne described his grey hairs by a bold synecdoche, leaving the greyness to be inferred: 'My head o'erwhelmed, o'ermastered by Cares storms.' But 'o'erpressed' was harshly used and was easily changed to 'o'erspread', which was made more appropriate by substituting the effect, 'hoariness,' for the cause, 'Cares storms.' This is what we find inJCand such a good MS. asW:

With cares rash sudden horiness o'erspread.

InBandP'cruel' has been inserted to complete the verse when 'o'erpressed' was contracted to 'o'erprest' or changed to 'o'erspread'. In1635-69the somewhat redundant 'rash' has been altered to 'harsh'.

With cares harsh, sodaine horinesse o'rspread.

The image is more easily apprehended, and this may be Donne's final version, but the original (if my view is correct) was bolder, and more in the style of Shakespeare's

That time of yeeare thou maist in me behold,When yellow leaues, or none, or few doe hangeVpon those boughes which shake against the could,Bare ruin'd quiers, where late the sweet birds sang.Sonnets, 72. 1-4.

That time of yeeare thou maist in me behold,

When yellow leaues, or none, or few doe hange

Vpon those boughes which shake against the could,

Bare ruin'd quiers, where late the sweet birds sang.

Sonnets, 72. 1-4.

l. 16.Should now love lesse, what hee did love to see.Here again there has been some recasting of the original by Donne or an editor. Most MSS. read:

Should like and love less what hee did love to see.

To 'like and love' was an Elizabethan combination:

And yet we both make shew we like and love.Farmer,Chetham MS.(ed. Grosart), i. 90.

And yet we both make shew we like and love.

Farmer,Chetham MS.(ed. Grosart), i. 90.

Yet every one her likte, and every one her lov'd.Spenser,Faerie Queene,III.ix. 24.

Yet every one her likte, and every one her lov'd.

Spenser,Faerie Queene,III.ix. 24.

Donne or his editor has made the line smoother.

l. 20.To feed on that, which to disused tasts seems tough.I have made the line an Alexandrine by printing 'disused', which occurs inA25andB, but it is 'disus'd' in the editions and most MSS. The 'weak' of1650-69adjusts the metre, but for that very reason one a little suspects an editor. Donne certainly wrote 'disus'd' or 'disused'. Who changed it to 'weak' is not so certain. The meaning of 'disused' is, of course, 'unaccustomed.' The O.E.D. quotes: 'I can nat shote nowe but with great payne, I am so disused.' Palsgr. (1530). 'Many disused persons can mutter out some honest requests in secret.' Baxter,Reformed Pastor(1656).

It seems to me probable thatPpreserves an early form of these lines:

who now is grown tough enoughTo feed on that which to disused tastes seems rough.

who now is grown tough enough

To feed on that which to disused tastes seems rough.

The epithet 'tough' is appropriately enough applied to Love's mature as opposed to his childish constitution, while rough has the recognized sense of 'sharp, acid, or harsh to the taste'. The O.E.D. quotes: 'Harshe, rough, stipticke, and hard wine,' Stubbs (1583). 'The roughest berry on the rudest hedge', Shakespeare,Antony and Cleopatra,I.iv. 64 (1608).

Possibly Donne changed 'tough' to 'strong' in order to avoid the monotonous sound of 'tough enough ... rough', and this ultimately led to the substitution of 'weak' for 'disused'. The present close of the last line I find it difficult to away with. How can a thing seem tough to the taste? Even meat does nottastetough: and it is not of meat that Donne is thinking but of wine. I should be disposedto return to the reading ofP, or, if we accept 'strong' and 'weak' as improvements, at any rate to alter 'tough' to 'rough '.

l. 6.Their Princes stiles, with many Realmes fulfill.This is the reading of all the best MSS. The 'which' for 'with' of the editions is due to an easy confusion of two contractions invariably used in the MSS. Grosart and Chambers accept 'with' fromSandA25, but further alter 'styles' to 'style', following these generally inferior MSS. The plural is correct. Donne refers to more than one prince and style. The stock instance is

the poor king Reignier, whose large styleAgrees not with the leanness of his purse.2 Henry VI,I.i. 111-12.

the poor king Reignier, whose large style

Agrees not with the leanness of his purse.

2 Henry VI,I.i. 111-12.

But the English monarchs themselves bore in their 'style' the kingdom of France, and for some years (1558-1566) Mary, Queen of Scots, bore in her 'style' the arms of England and Ireland.

Page88, ll. 21-34. These lines evidently suggested Carew's poem,To my Mistress sitting by a River's Side, An Eddy:

Mark how yon eddy steals awayFrom the rude stream into the bay;There, locked up safe, she doth divorceHer waters from the channel's course,And scorns the torrent that did bringHer headlong from her native spring, &c.

Mark how yon eddy steals away

From the rude stream into the bay;

There, locked up safe, she doth divorce

Her waters from the channel's course,

And scorns the torrent that did bring

Her headlong from her native spring, &c.

ll. 23-4.

calmely rideHer wedded channels bosome, and then chide.

calmely ride

Her wedded channels bosome, and then chide.

The number of MSS. and editions is in favour of 'there', but the quality (e.g.1633andW) of those which read 'then', and the sense of the lines, favour 'then'. The stream is at one moment in 'speechless slumber', and the next chiding. She cannot in the same place do both at once:

The current that with gentle murmur glides,Thou know'st, being stopp'd, impatiently doth rage;But when his fair course is not hindered,He makes sweet music with the enamell'd stones,Giving a gentle kiss to every sedgeHe overtaketh in his pilgrimage;And so by many winding nooks he strays,With willing sport to the wild ocean.Shakespeare,Two Gentlemen of Verona,II.vii. 25-32.

The current that with gentle murmur glides,

Thou know'st, being stopp'd, impatiently doth rage;

But when his fair course is not hindered,

He makes sweet music with the enamell'd stones,

Giving a gentle kiss to every sedge

He overtaketh in his pilgrimage;

And so by many winding nooks he strays,

With willing sport to the wild ocean.

Shakespeare,Two Gentlemen of Verona,II.vii. 25-32.

ll. 27-8.Yet if her often gnawing kisses winneThe traiterous banke to gape, and let her in.

ll. 27-8.Yet if her often gnawing kisses winne

The traiterous banke to gape, and let her in.

The 'banke' of the MSS. must, I think, be the right reading ratherthan the 'banks' of the editions, the 's' having arisen from the final 'e'. A river which bursts or overflows its banks does not leave its course, though it 'drowns' the 'round country', but if it breaks through a weak part in a bank it may quit its original course for another. 'The traiterous bank' I take to be equivalent to 'the weak or treacherous spot in its bank'.

l. 1.Natures lay Ideot.Here 'lay' means, I suppose, ignorant', as Grosart says. His other suggestion, that 'lay' has the meaning of 'lay' in 'layman', a painter's figure, is unlikely. That word has a different origin from 'lay' (Lat.laicus), and the earliest example of it given in O.E.D. is dated 1688.

ll. 7-8.Nor by the'eyes water call a maladieDesperately hot, or changing feaverously.

ll. 7-8.Nor by the'eyes water call a maladie

Desperately hot, or changing feaverously.

The 'call' of1633is so strongly supported by the MSS. that it is dangerous to alter it. Grosart (whom Chambers follows) reads 'cast', fromS; but a glance at the whole line as it stands there shows how little can be built upon it. 'To cast' is generally used in the phrase 'to cast his water' and thereby tell his malady; but the O.E.D. gives one example which resembles this passage if 'cast' be the right word here:

Able to cast his disease without his water.Greene'sMenaphon.

Able to cast his disease without his water.

Greene'sMenaphon.

I rather fancy, however, that 'call' is right, and is to be taken in close connexion with the next line, 'You could not cast the eyes water, and thereby call the malady desperately hot or changing feverously.'

If thou couldst, Doctor, castThe water of my land, find her disease.Shakespeare,Macbeth,V.iii. 50.

If thou couldst, Doctor, cast

The water of my land, find her disease.

Shakespeare,Macbeth,V.iii. 50.

The 'casting' preceded and led to the finding, naming the disease, calling it this or that.

ll. 9 f.I had not taught thee then, the AlphabetOf flowers, &c.

ll. 9 f.I had not taught thee then, the Alphabet

Of flowers, &c.

'Posy, in both its senses, is a contraction ofpoesy, the flowers of a nosegay expressing by their arrangement a sentiment like that engraved on a ring.' Weekly,Romance of Words, London, 1912, p. 134. She had not yet learned to sort flowers so as to make a posy.

l. 13.Remember since, &c.For the idiom compare:

Beseech you, sir,Remember since you owed no more to timeThan I do now. Shakespeare,Winter's Tale,V.i. 219.

Beseech you, sir,

Remember since you owed no more to time

Than I do now. Shakespeare,Winter's Tale,V.i. 219.

See Franz,Shakespeare-Grammatik, § 559.

l. 22.Inlaid thee.The O.E.D. cites this line as the only example of 'inlay' meaning 'to lay in, or as in, a place of concealment or preservation.' The sense is much that of 'to lay up', but the word has perhaps some of its more usual meaning, 'to set or embed in another substance.' 'Your husband has given to you, his jewel, such a setting as conceals instead of setting off your charms. I have refined and heightened those charms.'

l. 25.Thy graces and good words my creatures bee.I was tempted to adopt with Chambers the 'good works' of1669and some MSS., the theological connexion of 'grace' and 'works' being just the kind of conceit Donne loves to play with. But the 'words' of1633-54has the support of so good a MS. asW, and 'good words' is an Elizabethan idiom for commendation, praise, flattery:

He that will give,Good words to thee will flatter neath abhorring.Shakespeare,Coriolanus,I.i. 170-1.

He that will give,

Good words to thee will flatter neath abhorring.

Shakespeare,Coriolanus,I.i. 170-1.

In your bad strokes you give good words.Shakespeare,Julius Caesar,V.i. 30.

In your bad strokes you give good words.

Shakespeare,Julius Caesar,V.i. 30.

Moreover, Donne's word is 'graces', not 'grace'. 'Your graces and commendations are my work', i.e. either the commendations you receive, or, more probably, the refined and elegant flatteries with which you can now cajole a lover, though once your whole stock of conversation did not extend beyond 'broken proverbs and torne sentences'. Compare, inElegie IX: The Autumnall, the description of Lady Danvers' conversation:

In all her words, unto all hearers fit,You may at Revels, you at Counsaile, sit.

In all her words, unto all hearers fit,

You may at Revels, you at Counsaile, sit.

And again,Elegie XVIII: Loves Progresse:

So we her ayres contemplate, words and heart,And virtues.

So we her ayres contemplate, words and heart,

And virtues.

l. 28.Frame and enamell Plate.Compare: 'And therefore they that thinke to gild and enamell deceit, and falsehood, with the additions of good deceit, good falshood, before they will make deceit good, will make God bad.'Sermons80. 73. 742. 'Frame' means, of course, 'shape, fashion', and 'plate' gold or silver service. The elaborate enamelling of such dishes and cups was, I presume, as common as in the case of gold watches and clocks. See F. J. Britten'sOld Clocks and Watches and their Makers, 1904.

l. 2.Muskats, i.e. 'Musk-cats.' The 'muskets' of1669is only a misprint.

ll. 5-6. In these lines as they stand in the editions and most of the MSS. there is clearly something wrong:

And on her neck her skin such lustre sets,They seeme no sweat drops but pearle coronets.

And on her neck her skin such lustre sets,

They seeme no sweat drops but pearle coronets.

A 'coronet' is not an ornament of the neck, but of the head. The obvious emendation is that ofA25,C,JC, andW, which Grosart and Chambers have adopted. A 'carcanet' is a necklace, and carcanets of pearl were not unusual: see O.E.D.,s. v.But why then do the editions and so many MSS. read 'coronets'? Consideration of this has convinced me that the original error is not here but in the word 'neck'. Article by article, as in an inventory, Donne contrasts his mistress and his enemy's. But in the next line he goes on:

Ranke sweaty froth thy Mistresse'sbrowdefiles,

contrasting her brow with that of his mistress, where the sweat drops seem 'no sweat drops but pearle coronets'.

The explanation of the error is, probably, that an early copyist passed in his mind from breast to neck more easily than to brow. Another explanation is that Donne altered 'brow' to 'neck' and forgot to alter 'coronets' to 'carcanets'. I do not think this likely. The force of the poem lies in its contrasts, and the brow is proverbially connected with sweat. 'In the sweat of thy brow,' &c. Possibly Donne himself in the first version, or a copy of it, wrote 'neck', meaning to write 'brow', misled by the proximity and associations of 'breast'. Mr. J. C. Smith has shown that Spenser occasionally wrote a word which association brought into his mind, but which was clearly not the word he intended to use, as it is destructive of the rhyme-scheme. Oddly enough the late Francis Thompson used 'carcanet' in the sense of 'coronet':

Who scarfed her with the morning? and who setUpon her brow the day-fall's carcanet?Ode to the Setting Sun.

Who scarfed her with the morning? and who set

Upon her brow the day-fall's carcanet?

Ode to the Setting Sun.

Page91, l. 10.Sanserra's starved men.'When I consider what God did for Goshen in Egypt ... How many Sancerraes he hath delivered from famines, how many Genevas from plots and machinations.'Sermons.

The Protestants in Sancerra were besieged by the Catholics for nine months in 1573, and suffered extreme privations. Norton quotes Henri Martin,Histoire de France, ix. 364: 'On se disputa les débris les plus immondes de toute substance animale ou végétale; on créa, pour ainsi dire, des aliments monstrueux, impossibles.'

ll. 13-14.And like vile lying stones in saffrond tinne,Or warts, or wheales, they hang upon her skinne.

ll. 13-14.And like vile lying stones in saffrond tinne,

Or warts, or wheales, they hang upon her skinne.

Following the MSS. I have made 'lying' an epithet attached to 'stones' and substituted 'they hang' for the superficially more grammatical 'it hangs'. The readings of1633, 'vile stones lying' and 'it hangs', seem to me just the kind of changes a hasty editorwould make, the kind of changes which characterize the Second Folio of Shakespeare. The stones are not only 'vile'; they are 'lying', inasmuch as they pretend to be what they are not, as the 'saffron'd tinne' pretends to be gold.

l. 19.Thy head: i.e. 'the head of thy mistress.' Donne continues this construction in ll. 25, 32, 39, and I have restored it from the later editions and MSS. at l. 34, 'thy gouty hand.'

l. 34.thy gouty hand: 'thy' is the reading of all the editions except1633and of all the MSS. exceptJCandS. It is probably right, corresponding to l. 19 'Thy head' and l. 32 'thy tann'd skins'. Donne uses 'thy' in a condensed fashion for 'the head of thy mistress', &c.

Page92, l. 51.And such.The 'such' of the MSS. is doubtless right, the 'nice' of the editions being repeated from l. 49.

For the date, &c., of this poem, see the introductory note on theElegies.

The text of1633diverges in some points from that of all the MSS., in some others it agrees withD,H49,Lec. In the latter case I have retained it, but whereD,H49,Lecagree with the rest of the MSS. I have corrected1633, e.g.:

Page93, l. 6.Affection here takes Reverences name: where 'Affection' seems more appropriate than 'Affections'; and l. 8.But now shee's gold: where 'They are gold' of1633involves a very loose use of 'they'. Possibly1633here gives a first version afterwards corrected.

ll. 29-32.Xerxes strange Lydian love, &c.Herodotus (vii. 31) tells how Xerxes, on his march to Greece, found in Lydia a plane-tree which for its beauty (κάλλεος εἵνεκα) he decked with gold ornaments, and entrusted to a guardian. Aelian,Variae Historiae, ii. 14,De platano Xerxe amato, attributes his admiration to its size:ἐν Λυδίᾳ γοῦν, φασίν, ἰδὼν φυτὸν εὐμέγεθες πλατάνου, &c. In the Latin translation in Hercler's edition (Firmin Didot, 1858) size is taken as equivalent to height, 'quum vidisset proceram platanum,' but the reference is more probably to extent. Pliny,N. H.12. 1-3, has much to say of the size of certain planes under which companies of men camped and slept.

The quotation from Aelian confirms the1633reading, 'none being so large as shee,' which indeed is confirmed by the lines that follow. The question of age is left open. The reference to' barrennesse' I do not understand.

Page94, l. 47.naturall lation.This, the reading of the great majority of the MSS., is obviously correct and explains the vacillation of the editions. The word was rare but quite good. The O.E.D. quotes: 'I mean lation or Local-motion from one place to another.' Fotherby (1619);

Make me the straight and oblique lines,The motions, lations, and the signs. (Herrick,Hesper.64);

Make me the straight and oblique lines,

The motions, lations, and the signs. (Herrick,Hesper.64);

and other examples as late as 1690. The term was specially astronomical, as here. The 'motion natural' of1633is an unusual order in Donne; the 'natural station' of1635-69is the opposite of motion. The first was doubtless an intentional alteration by the editor, which the printer took in at the wrong place; the second a misreading of 'lation'.

The title of this Elegy,The Dream, was given it in1635, perhaps wrongly.S96seems to come nearer withPicture. The 'Image of her whom I love', addressed in the first eight lines, seems to be a picture. When that is gone and reason with it, fantasy and dreams come to the lover's aid (ll. 9-20). But the tenor of the poem is somewhat obscure; the picture is addressed in terms that could hardly be strengthened if the lady herself were present.

l. 26.Mad with much heart, &c.Aristotle made the heart the source of all 'the actions of life and sense'. Galen transferred these to the brain. See note to p.99, l. 100.

Donne has in this Elegy carried to its farthest extreme, as only a metaphysical or scholastic poet like himself could, the favourite Elizabethan pun on the coin called the Angel. Shakespeare is fond of the same quibble: 'She has all the rule of her husband's purse; she hath a legion of angels' (Merry Wives,I.iii. 60). But Donne knows more of the philosophy of angels than Shakespeare and can pursue the analogy into more surprising subtleties. Nor is the pun on angels the only one which he follows up in this poem: crowns, pistolets, and gold are all played with in turn. The poem was a favourite with Ben Jonson: 'his verses of the Lost Chaine he hath by heart' (Drummond's Conversations, ed. Laing).

The text of the poem, which was first printed in1635(Marriot having been prohibited from including it in the edition of 1633), is based on a MS. closely resemblingCyandP, and differing in several readings from the text given in the rest of the MSS., includingD,H49,Lec, andW. I have endeavoured rather to give this version correctly, while recording the variants, than either to substitute another or contaminate the two. WhenCyandPgo over to the side of the other MSS. it is a fair inference that the editions have gone astray. When they diverge, the question is a more open one.

Page97, l. 24.their naturall Countreys rot: i.e. 'their native Countreys rot', the 'lues Gallica'. Compare 'the naturall people of that Countrey', Greene,News from Hell(ed. Grosart, p. 57). This is the reading ofCy, and the order of the words in the other MSS. points to its being the reading of the MS. from which1635was printed.

l. 26.So pale, so lame, &c.The chipping and debasement of the French crown is frequently referred to, and Shakespeare is fond ofpunning on the word. But two extracts from Stow'sChronicle(continued ... byEdmund Howes), 1631, will throw some light on the references to coins in this poem: In the year 1559 took place the last abasement of English money whereby testons and groats were lowered in value and called in, 'and according to the last valuation of them, she gave them fine money of cleane silver for them commonly called Sterling money, and from this time there was no manner of base money coyned or used in England ... but all English monies were made of gold and silver, which is not so in any other nation whatsoever, but have sundry sorts of copper money.'

'The 9. of November, the French crowne that went currant for six shillings foure pence, was proclaimed to be sixe shillings.'

In 1561, 'The fifteenth of November, the Queenes Maiestie published a Proclamation for divers small pieces of silver money to be currant, as the sixe pence, foure pence, three pence, 2 pence and a peny, three half-pence, and 3 farthings: and also forbad all forraigne coynes to be currant within the same Realme, as well gold as silver, calling them all into her Maiesties Mints, except two sorts of crownes of gold, the one the French crowne, the other the Flemish crowne.' The result was the bringing in of large sums in 'silver plates: and as much or more in pistolets, and other gold of Spanish coynes, and one weeke in pistolets and other Spanish gold 16000 pounds, all these to be coyned with the Queenes stamps.'

l. 29.Spanish Stamps still travelling.Grosart regards this as an allusion to the wide diffusion of Spanish coins. The reference is more pointed. It is to the prevalence of Spanish bribery, the policy of securing paid agents in every country. It was by money that Parma secured his first hold on the revolted provinces. Gardiner has shown that Lord Cranborne, afterwards Earl of Salisbury, accepted a pension from the Spanish king (Hist. of England, i, p. 215). The discovery of the number of his Court who were in Spanish pay came as a profound shock to James at a later period. The invariable charge brought by one Dutch statesman against another was of being in the pay of the Spaniard.

'It is his Indian gold,' says Raleigh, speaking of the King of Spain in 1596, 'that endangers and disturbs all the nations of Europe; it creeps into councils, purchases intelligence, and sets bound loyalty at liberty in the greatest monarchies thereof.'

ll. 40-1.Gorgeous France ruin'd, ragged and decay'd;Scotland, which knew no state, proud in one day:

ll. 40-1.Gorgeous France ruin'd, ragged and decay'd;

Scotland, which knew no state, proud in one day:

The punctuation of1669has the support generally of the MSS., but in matters of punctuation these are not a very safe guide. As punctuated in1635, 'ragged and decay'd' are epithets of Scotland, contrasting her with 'Gorgeous France'. I think, however, that the antithesis to 'gorgeous' is 'ruin'd, ragged and decay'd', describing the condition of France after the pistolets of Spain had done theirwork. The epithet applied to Scotland is 'which knew no state', the antithesis being 'proud in one day'.

Page98, ll. 51-4.Much hope which they should nourish, &c.Professor Norton proposed that the last two of these lines should run:

Will vanish if thou, Love, let them alone,For thou wilt love me less when they are gone;

Will vanish if thou, Love, let them alone,

For thou wilt love me less when they are gone;

but that 'alone' is a misprint for 'atone.' This is unnecessary, and there is no authority for 'atone'. What Donne says, in the cynical vein ofElegie VI, 9-10, is: 'If thou love me let my crowns alone, for the poorer I grow the less you will love me. I shall lose the qualities which you admired in me when you saw them through the glamour of wealth.'

l. 55.And be content.The majority of the MSS. begin a new paragraph here and read:

Oh, be content, &c.

Donne would almost seem to have read or seen (he was a frequent theatre-goer) the old play ofSoliman and Perseda(pr. 1599). There the lover, having lost a carcanet, sends a cryer through the street and offers one hundred crowns reward. Chambers notes a similar case inThe Puritan(1607). Lost property is still cried by the bellman in northern Scottish towns. The custom of resorting in such cases to 'some dread Conjurer' is frequently referred to. See Jonson'sAlchemistfor the questions with which their customers approached conjurers.

ll. 71-2.So in the first falne angels, &c.Aquinas discusses the question: 'Utrum intellectus daemonis sit obtenebratus per privationem cognitionis omnis veritatis.' After stating the arguments for such privation he replies: 'Sed contra est quod Dionysius dicit ... quod "data sunt daemonibus aliqua dona, quae nequaquam mutata esse dicimus, sed sunt integra et splendidissima." Inter ista, autem, naturalia dona est cognitio veritatis.' Aquinas then explains that knowledge is twofold, that which comes by nature, and that which comes by grace: and that the latter again is twofold, that which is purely speculative, and that which is 'affectiva, producens amorem Dei'. 'Harum autem trium cognitionum prima in daemonibus nec est ablata nec diminuta: consequitur enim ipsam naturam Angeli, qui secundum suam naturam est quidam intellectus vel mens. Propter simplicitatem autem suae substantiae a natura eius aliquid subtrahi non potest.' Devils, therefore, have natural knowledge in an eminent degree (splendidissima); they have even the knowledge which comes by grace in so far as God chooses to bestow it, for His own purposes, by the mediation of angels or 'per aliqua temporalia divinae virtutis effecta' (Augustine). But of the knowledge which leads to good they have nothing: 'tenendum est firmiter secundum fidem catholicam, quod et voluntas bonorum Angelorum confirmata est in bono, et voluntas daemonum obstinata est in malo.'SummaI.

lxiv. 1-2. They have 'wisdom and knowledge', but it is immovably set to do ill.

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