John Donne
Page 47
90. cordial: Restorative, reviving, especially to the heart.
Text notes: 5 debt ms] doubt 1633; 7 nothings ms] nothing 1633; 14 hath ms] have 1633; 20 all it, you ms] all, in you 1633; 30 is ms] it 1633; 32 Stoop ms] Stop 1633; 60 vice 1635] it 1633; 75 you ms] your 1633
To the Countess of Bedford, on New Year’s Day
1. two years: One beginning, one ending.
3. meteor-like: Any atmospheric or meteorological phenomenon.
perplexed: Entangled.
16. tincture: The quintessence of a thing, which may be imbued into material things.
28. corn: Particle.
44. disport: Amusement.
45. comport: Agree with, accord with; suit.
47. ingress: Enter, invade; specifically ‘go in to’ carnally.
60. state: Financial status.
63–4. dis-enrol / Your name: Remove your name from the Book of Life, which lists the names of the redeemed.
Text notes: 10 times ms] time 1633; 18 spirits ms] spirit 1633; 35 praiser ms] prayer 1633; 47 Which ms] With 1633
To the Countess of Bedford,
Begun in France but never perfected
This poem was written while Donne was staying in France in 1611–12, though it remained unfinished.
1. dead and buried: Due to his absence from England.
6. embalms: Preserves from decay.
11–12. First I … stock: Having praised Elizabeth Drury in ‘The First Anniversary’, Donne betrays a certain anxiety lest he lose Lady Bedford’s patronage.
20. complexion: Temperament.
24. less: Inferior.
26. Desunt cætera: (Latin), ‘The rest is lacking.’
Text notes: 5 begot 1633] forgot ms; 14 or 1633] and 1649–69
To the Lady Bedford (‘You that are she’)
title Lady Bedford: Lucy, Countess of Bedford. This poem may commemorate the death of Lucy’s close friend Lady Markham, the subject of Donne’s funeral elegy, ‘Elegy on the Lady Markham’ (‘Man is the World’).
7. Cusco and Musco: Cuzco, the Incan capital city in Peru, and Moscow.
22. contracted: Acquired, collected, taken in.
26. recollect: Collect together again.
34. both rich Indies: The East Indies were known for spices, the West for precious metals.
37. forced: Constricted by force.
42. without: At a loss.
43. faithful book: The Bible.
44. Judith: In the Bible, the widow Judith saves Israel by defeating Nebuchadnezzar’s general, Holofernes. Judith remained faithful to her husband forever, and never remarried.
Text notes: title 1635] Elegie to the Lady Bedford 1633; 20 were 1635] was 1633; 42 can 1635–69] can can 1633
To Sir Edward Herbert, at Juliers
title Sir Edward Herbert, at Juliers: Herbert (1582?–1648) was the son of Magdalen Herbert (see the notes to ‘To Mrs M. H.’) and the elder brother of the poet George Herbert. A poet himself, Edward was also a philosopher, soldier and ambassador to France. In 1610 he travelled to Juliers, a duchy in the Netherlands that would be besieged by Protestants at the beginning of the Thirty Years War. He was knighted in 1603, and made Lord Herbert of Cherbury in 1629.
1. kneaded: Reduced to a common mass.
2. ark: Place of refuge; an allusion to Noah’s ark, which preserved all the world’s species during the great flood (Genesis 6:13–8:19).
3. jar: Discord.
8. couple: Come together sexually.
10. disaforested: Stripped of privilege; reduced to ordinary standards.
11. Impaled: Fenced in.
15–17. Else man … worse: Coming upon two men possessed by demons, Jesus cast the demons out into a herd of swine, which caused the herd to run suddenly into the sea (Matthew 8:28–32).
24. Hemlock: A plant, poisonous to man, but food to birds (‘chickens’).
31. his pleasure: His own pleasure.
his rod: His own punishment, by living sinfully.
43–4. For knowledge … opium: In some men, knowledge causes a delirious fever (‘calentures’), while in others it acts as a cooling sedative (‘opium’).
45. brave: Excellent.
profession: Declaration.
50. mart: Any public place for buying and selling; originally any of various international book fairs central to the publishing trade of early modern Europe, including one held twice a year in Frankfurt until 1749.
To the Countess of Huntingdon (‘That unripe side of earth’)
title Countess of Huntingdon: Elizabeth Stanley (bap. 1587, d. 1633), stepdaughter of Donne’s employer, Sir Thomas Egerton.
1–3. That unripe side … ate: America, where the natives went naked like Adam before the Fall.
16. atomi: Smallest particles, atoms.
22. cross-armed: The conventional pose of an unrequited lover.
24. white-livered: Cowardly.
57. sueth: Pursues, both legally and romantically.
83. curious hit: Skilfully imitated.
85. what is more: God.
87. next: Shortest.
92. zanies: Imitators or mimics.
100. large: Free.
Text notes: Copy-text, 1635; 69 sigh ms] sin 1635; 74 and ms] I 1635; 107 dares ms] dare 1635; 121 men ms] man 1635; 123 Their ms] There 1635; 125 violent ms] valiant 1635; 128 feigned ms] fancied 1635; 128 which only tempts man’s appetite ms] omitted 1635; 130 contract in ms] contracted 1635
To the Countess of Huntingdon (‘Man to God’s image’)
1–2. Man … in her: God created man in his own image (Genesis 1:27). Eve was created from a rib of man (Genesis 2:21–3). The Bible is ambiguous as to whether she too was created in God’s image. The Bible specifically states that God breathed a soul into man (Genesis 2:7), but does not indicate that He did the same for woman.
3. Canons: Canon law.
4. prefer: Advance in status or rank.
13. Magi: The three wise men who were guided to Christ’s manger by the Star of Bethlehem (Matthew 2:1–12).
17–18. If … doth bend: Many believed that the sun was nearer the earth than in the past, and this was taken as a sign that the earth was dying.
22. She fled to heaven: Possibly a reference to Astraea, goddess of justice, who fled to the heavens because she was so disgusted with man’s corruption.
26. informed: Shaped, fashioned.
transubstantiates: Transforms, transmutes.
38. Crab and Bull: Cancer and Taurus.
41. one: Her husband, Henry Hastings, 5th Earl of Huntingdon (1586–1643).
58. long ago: Donne had met her many years before, when she was twelve, and her mother married his employer, Sir Thomas Egerton.
Text notes: 13 the ms] which 1633; 47 do so ms] to you 1633; 66 and ms] or 1633
A Letter to the Lady Carey, and Mistress Essex Rich, from Amiens
title Lady Carey, and Mistress Essex Rich: In late 1611, while Donne was in Amiens with Sir Robert Drury (1575–1615), Sir Robert Rich (1587–1658) passed through and probably persuaded Donne to write this verse letter to his sisters, whom Donne may never have met. They were the children of Penelope Devereux (the heroine of Sir Philip Sidney’s Astrophel and Stella (c. 1582)), who left Robert Rich (1559?–1619), 3rd Lord Rich and later 1st Earl of Warwick, to live with Charles Blount, 8th Baron Mountjoy (1563–1606). Lettice Rich, the eldest daughter, married Sir George Carey of Cockington, Devon. Essex Rich later married Sir Thomas Cheke of Pirgo. Although their father was probably Lord Rich, their mother’s notoriety cast doubts on their parentage.
7. convertite: Convert.
9. Pardons: The Protestant Reformation criticized the Roman Catholic Church for selling indulgences.
12. faith alone: The Church of England believed in justification by faith alone, while the Roman Catholic Church maintained that good works were also necessary for salvation.
18. their humours: Their temperaments, as determined by their predominant humour – phlegmatic, sanguine,
melancholy or choleric.
21. phlegm: Equanimity, one of the four humours.
31. parcel-gilt: Partially gilded.
32. complexion: The particular combination of the four humours thought to determine a person’s temperament.
34. aguish: Fitful.
several: Separate, distinct, various.
40. that part of you: Your body.
Text notes: This is the only known poem in Donne’s handwriting, with his punctuation which is followed in the text. 13 are 1635] is 1633; 30 this 1635] their 1633; 41 scarce] but little authorial correction 53 ecstasy ] ecstasy I see authorial correction
To the Countess of Salisbury, August 1614
title Countess of Salisbury: Lady Catherine Howard (1593?–1672), daughter of Thomas, 1st Earl of Suffolk, married William Cecil, 2nd Earl of Salisbury.
6. periwigs and ’tires: Wigs and apparel (attires).
14. being vapoured: Having passed away; dissipated.
18. gold-ingot: Bars of gold.
34. largeness: Liberality, generosity, unlike the ‘littleness’ of the ‘Court, city, church’ (l. 16).
39–44. For had God … earth: According to the Bible, man was created on the sixth day, plants and fruits on the third, and the ‘lights in the firmament’ on the fourth (Genesis 1:14).
48. that you: That you are worthiest.
52–4. We first … no name: It was believed that plants have the ‘soul’ of growth, animals, sense and growth, and man, growth, sense and reason.
64. walks: Walkways or haunts; course of conduct.
74. Illustrate: Enlighten; make luminous.
76. one born blind: The blind bard Homer, or, possibly, Tiresias, the mythological blind prophet of Thebes.
Text notes: 2 and 1633] omitted 1635–54; 57 any 1633] any, if I 1635
FUNERAL ELEGIES
Anniversaries
To the Praise of the Dead, and the Anatomy
title To the Praise of the Dead: Presumably written by the satirist, Joseph Hall (1574–1656), a supporter of the Church of England, and later bishop of Exeter and of Norwich. When An Anatomy of the World was first published in 1611, this poem appeared as the dedicatory epistle. Like Donne, Hall portrays the decay of the world as a sign of the world’s imminent end.
See note to ‘The Harbinger to the Progress’.
5. state: Estate.
15. last nephew’s eyne: Eyes of our descendants.
42. presage: Indicate or suggest; predict; portend.
44. burden: Also, a song’s refrain.
Text note: Copy-text, 1611
The First Anniversary. An Anatomy of the World
‘The First Anniversary’ commemorates the death of Elizabeth Drury, the daughter of Donne’s patron Sir Robert Drury. She died on 17 December 1610 at the age of fourteen. The first edition of 1611 was entitled An Anatomy of the World. Wherein, by the occasion of the untimely death of Mistress Elizabeth Drury the frailty and decay of this whole world is represented.
title Anniversary: The yearly commemoration of a saint’s death-day.
Anatomy: Dissection of a body; a detailed examination or analysis.
4. see, and judge, and follow: Corresponding to the faculties of the rational soul – memory, understanding and will.
6. inmate: Poor, temporary lodger.
7. that queen: Elizabeth Drury, but probably also Queen Elizabeth.
progress: A monarch’s stately journey through the countryside.
8. standing house: Permanent home.
13. vital spirits: Elements in the blood that were believed to unite body and soul.
19. consumption: Wasting of the body by a disease.
21. agues physic are: Agues, or violent fevers, were thought to be curative.
24. in a lethargy: Near death.
31. thy name thou hadst: The name that you had.
32. o’erpast: Passed over, forgotten.
33. font: The baptismal font.
36. her coming: Elizabeth Drury’s birth.
41–2. none / Offers … that’s gone: Since no one has celebrated her death in verse.
48. A strong example … law: An example equal in status to law.
50. resolved: Dissolved.
52. our weakness: The weakness of those left in the world after her death.
57. intrinsic balm: Restorative substance, necessary for life.
68. inanimate: Animate, infuse life into.
76. new world: Paradise within man.
82. weedless paradises: Like the Garden of Eden before the Fall.
98. precipitation: A witty pun, drawing on the root meaning, ‘to fall head first’.
99. witty: Wise, ingenious.
102. For man’s relief: Eve was created as Adam’s helpmate (Genesis 2:20–23).
105. that first marriage was our funeral: By eating the apple, Eve condemned mankind to death.
107–10. And singly … our kind: These lines pun on the words ‘death’ and ‘dying’, which had a sexual double meaning since it was believed that orgasm shortened one’s life.
111. yet: If.
we do not that: Because our offspring are less than men.
112–26. There is not now … direct: Before the Fall, man was immortal. There were giants upon the earth in those days, in the time of the biblical patriarchs (Genesis 6:4).
116. in minority: While a minor.
128. Methusalem: Methuselah, the biblical patriarch who was a symbol of longevity because he lived 969 years (Genesis 5:25–7).
134. three lives: Ninety-nine years, the traditional length of a lease.
136. span: Unit of measurement representing the distance from the tip of the thumb to the tip of the little finger or forefinger – approximately nine inches.
148–9. to gold / Their silver: Adam and Eve were thought to have lived in the Golden Age, the biblical patriarchs in the Silver Age.
151. damped: Stifled, choked, extinguished, deadened.
159. new diseases: Probably syphilis and influenza.
167, 169. This man: Christ.
173. depart: Part.
176. they called virtues by the name of she: In Greek and Latin the words for virtues are feminine, as are most abstract nouns.
178. alloy: An admixture of an alien element that lowers the value or character, or detracts from the purity of the original element.
180. poisonous tincture: Donne poisons the alchemical meaning of ‘tincture’ (a purifying spiritual principle) by equating it with original sin.
203–4. And now … after fifty be: ‘They that be born in the strength of youth are of one fashion, and they that are born in the time of age, when the womb faileth, are otherwise … ye are less of stature than those that were before you. And so are they that come after you less than ye, as born of the creature which now beginneth to be old, and is past the strength of youth’ (2 Esdras 5:53–5 in the Apocrypha).
205. new philosophy: New discoveries in science and astronomy, especially Galileo’s (1564–1642) observation that the earth revolves around the sun, which challenged the traditional view of the earth as the centre of the universe.
206. The element … out: ‘All the other three elements, earth, and water, and air abound with in habitants proper to each of them, only the fire produces nothing’ (John Donne, Sermons, ed. George R. Potter and Evelyn M. Simpson, 10 vols. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1953–62), VII, 184).
211. so many new: New planets and stars, discovered by astronomers in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries.
212. atomies: Atoms, motes; also anatomies.
214. just supply: Rightful support or succour.
230. West … the East: The West Indies were known for precious metal, and the East Indies for spices and perfumes.
234. single money: Small coins.
248. age’s darts: The missiles, spears or arrows thrown by age.
255. eccentric parts: Deviations from the regular, circular movement of the heavenly spheres.
/> 263–7. zodiac … run: Capricorn (the Goat) and Cancer (the Crab), two of the twelve signs of the zodiac, known as the tropics, were thought to check the sun’s movement toward the poles.
278. meridians and parallels: Longitudes and latitudes of the sky.
286. Tenerife: A volcanic peak on the island of Tenerife in the Canary Islands.
295. vault infernal: Medieval theologians thought hell was at the centre of the earth.
296. except that: Unless.
314. resultances: Emanations, reflections.
319. type: A person, object or event from the Old Testament that prefigures something in the New Testament.
338. Wicked is not much worse than indiscreet: Because discretion was the ability to distinguish between good and evil.
343–4. compassionate turquoise … well: Turquoise, it was believed, turned pale if its wearer was unwell, losing colour completely if the wearer died.
347. the first week: According to Genesis 1:1–2:2, God created the earth in one week.
351. enow: Enough.
352. various rainbow: The rainbow, in all its varied colours, the sign of God’s covenant with Noah (Genesis 9:8–17).
364. verdure: The green of new vegetation.
368. to her: Compared to her.
376. colours: Cosmetics.
elude: Trick, deceive.
380. father … mother: Traditionally, the sky and the earth.
387. meteors: Atmospheric phenomena, especially comets, considered ominous and portentous.
389. worms: Serpents.
390. Egyptian mages: The Egyptian magicians who turned their rods into serpents in Exodus 7:10–12.
391. artist: Alchemist.
392. constellate: Construct a charm under a particular constellation.
396. correspondence: Active communication; concordant or sympathetic response; similarity, agreement.
400. Embarred: Prevented.
407. one dying swan: It was thought that swans sang only once, on the verge of death.
417–18. transubstantiate / All states to gold: Alchemists sought an elixir capable of transforming base metal to gold.
422. stay: Support.
426. our age was iron: The Iron Age, which came after the ages of Gold, Silver and Bronze, was a period of the world’s decline.
432. travail: Toil; trouble, hardship, suffering.
440. punctual: Exact, proceeding point by point.
452. Be got: Pun on ‘begot’.