[March 18. 162⅞ c.]
Esteemed knight take triumph over deathe,
And over tyme by the eternal fame
Of Natures workes, while God did lende thee breath;
Adornd with witt and skill to rule the same.
But what avayles thy gifts in such degrees
Since fortune frownd, and worlde had spite at these.
Heaven be thy rest, on earth thy lot was toyle;
Thy private loss, ment to thy countryes gayne,
Bredde grief of mynde, which in thy brest did boyle,
Confyning cares whereof the scarres remayne.
Enjoy by death such passage into lyfe
As frees thee quyte from thoughts of worldly stryfe.
Wm. Goodere.
Camden transcribes his epitaph:
An ill yeare of a Goodyere us bereft,
Who gon to God much lacke of him here left;
Full of good gifts, of body and of minde,
Wise, comely, learned, eloquent and kinde.
The Epitaph is probably by the same author as the Verses, a nephew perhaps. Sir Henry's son predeceased him.
Page 183, l. 1. It is not necessary to change 'the past' of 1633-54 to 'last' with 1669. 'The past year' is good English for 'last year'.
Page 184, l. 27. Goe; whither? Hence; &c. My punctuation, which is that of some MSS., follows Donne's usual arrangement in dialogue, dividing the speeches by semicolons. Chambers's textual note misrepresents the earlier editions. He attributes to 1633-54 the reading, 'Go whither? hence you get'. But they have all 'Goe, whither?', and 1633 has 'hence;' 1635-54 drop this semicolon. In 1669 the text runs, 'Goe, whither. Hence you get,' &c. The semicolon, however, is better than the full stop after 'Hence', as the following clause is expansive and explanatory: 'Anywhere will do so long as it is out of this. In such cases as yours, to forget is itself a gain.'
l. 34. The modern editors, by dropping the comma after 'asham'd', have given this line the opposite meaning to what Donne intended. I have therefore, to avoid ambiguity, inserted one before. Sir Henry Goodyere is not to be asham'd to imitate his hawk, but is, through shame, to emulate that noble bird by growing more sparing of extravagant display. 'But the sporte which for that daie Basilius would principally shewe to Zelmane, was the mounting at a Hearne, which getting up on his wagling wings with paine ... was now growen to diminish the sight of himself, and to give example to greate persons, that the higher they be the lesse they should show.' Sidney's Arcadia, ii. 4.
Goodyere's fondness for hawking is referred to in one of Donne's prose letters, 'God send you Hawks and fortunes of a high pitch' (Letters, p. 204), and by Jonson in Epigram LXXXV.
l. 44. Tables, or fruit-trenchers. I have let the 'Tables' of 1633-54 stand, although 'Fables' has the support of all the MSS. T is easily confounded with F. In the very next poem 1633-54 read 'Termers' where I feel sure that 'Farmers' (spelt 'Fermers') is the correct reading. Moreover, Donne makes several references to the 'morals' of fables:
The fable is inverted, and far more
A block inflicts now, then a stork before.
The Calme, ll. 4-5.
O wretch, that thy fortunes should moralize
Aesop's fables, and make tales prophesies.
Satyre V.
If 'Tables' is the correct reading, Donne means, I take it, not portable memorandum books such as Hamlet carried (this is Professor Norton's explanation), but simply pictures (as in 'Table-book'), probably Emblems.
Page 185. To Mr Rowland Woodward.
Rowland Woodward was a common friend of Donne and Wotton. The fullest account of Woodward is given by Mr. Pearsall Smith (The Life and Letters of Sir Henry Wotton, 1907). Of his early life unfortunately he can tell us little or nothing. He seems to have gone to Venice with Wotton in 1604, at least he was there in 1605. This letter was, therefore, written probably before that date. One MS., viz. B, states that it was written 'to one that desired some of his papers'. It is quite likely that Woodward, preparing to leave England, had asked Donne for copies of his poems, and Donne, now a married man, and, if not disgraced, yet living in 'a retiredness' at Pyrford or Camberwell, was not altogether disposed to scatter his indiscretions abroad. He enjoins privacy in like manner on Wotton when he sends him some Paradoxes. Donne, it will be seen, makes no reference to Woodward's going abroad or being in Italy.
While with Wotton he was sent as a spy to Milan and imprisoned by the Inquisition. In 1607, while bringing home dispatches, he was attacked by robbers and left for dead. On Feb. 2, 1608, money was paid to his brother, Thomas Woodward (the T. W. of several of Donne's Letters), for Rowland's 'surgeons and diets'. In 1608 he entered the service of the Bishop of London. For subsequent incidents in his career see Pearsall Smith, op. cit. ii. 481. He died sometime before April 1636.
It is clear that the MSS. Cy, O'F, P, S96 have derived this poem from a common source, inferior to that from which the 1633 text is derived, which has the general support of the best MSS. These MSS. agree in the readings: 3 'holiness', but O'F corrects, 10 'to use it,' 13 'whites' Cy, O'F, 14 'Integritie', but O'F corrects, 33 'good treasure'. It is clear that a copy of this tradition fell into the hands of the 1635 editor. His text is a contamination of the better and the inferior versions. The strange corruption of 4-6 began by the mistake of 'flowne' for 'showne'. In O'F and the editions 1635-54 the sense is adjusted to this by reading, 'How long loves weeds', and making the two lines an exclamation. The 'good treasure' (l. 33) of 1635-69, which Chambers has adopted, comes from this source also. The reading at l. 10 is interesting; 'to use it', for 'to us, it', has obviously arisen from 'to use and love Poetrie' of the previous verse. In the case of 'seeme but light and thin' we have an emendation, even in the inferior version, made for the sake of the metre (which is why Chambers adopted it), for though Cy, O'F, and P have it, S96 reads:
Thoughe to use it, seeme and be light and thin.
l. 2. a retirednesse. This reading of some MSS., including W, which is a very good authority for these Letters, is quite possibly authentic. It is very like Donne to use the article; it was very easy for a copyist to drop it. Compare the dropping of 'a' before 'span' in Crucifying (p. [320]), l. 8. The use of abstracts as common nouns with the article, or in the plural, is a feature of Donne's syntax. He does so in the next line: 'a chast fallownesse'. Again: 'Beloved, it is not enough to awake out of an ill sleepe of sinne, or of ignorance, or out of a good sleep, out of a retirednesse, and take some profession, if you winke, or hide your selves, when you are awake.' Sermons 50. 11. 90. 'It is not that he shall have no adversary, nor that that adversary shall be able to doe him no harm, but that he should have a refreshing, a respiration, In velamento alarum, under the shadow of Gods wings.' Sermons 80. 66. 670—where also we find 'an extraordinary sadnesse, a predominant melancholy, a faintnesse of heart, a chearlessnesse, a joylessnesse of spirit' (Ibid. 672). Donne does not mean to say that he is 'tied to retirednesse', a recluse. The letter was not written after he was in orders, but probably, like the preceding, when he was at Pyrford or Mitcham (1602-8). He is tied to a degree of retirednesse (compared with his early life) or a period of retiredness. He does not compare himself to a Nun but to a widow. Even a third widowhood is not necessarily a final state. 'So all retirings', he says in a letter to Goodyere, 'into a shadowy life are alike from all causes, and alike subject to the barbarousnesse and insipid dulnesse of the Country.' Letters, p. 63. But the phrase here applies primarily to the Nun and the widow.
l. 3. fallownesse; I have changed the full stop of 1633-54 to a semicolon here because I take the next three lines to be an adverbial clause giving the reason why Donne's muse 'affects ... a chast fallownesse'. The full stop disguises this, and Chambers, by keeping the full stop here but changing that after 'sown' (l. 6), has thrown the reference of the clause forward to 'Omissions of good, ill, as ill deeds bee.'—not a happy arrangement.
ll. 16-18. There is no Vertue, &c. Donne refers here to the Cardinal Virtues which the Schoolmen took over from Aristotle. There are, Aquinas demonstrates, four essential virtues of human nature: 'Principium enim formale virtutis, de qua nunc loquimur, est rationis bonum. Quod quidem dupliciter potest considerari: uno modo secundum quod in ipsa consideratione consistit; et sic erit una virtus principalis, quae dicitur prudentia. Alio modo secundum quod circa aliquid ponitur rationis ordo; et hoc vel circa operationes, et sic est justitia; vel circa passiones, et sic necesse est esse duas virtutes. Ordinem enim rationis necesse est ponere circa passiones, considerata repugnantia ipsarum ad rationem. Quae quidem potest esse dupliciter: uno modo secundum quod passio impellit ad aliquid contrarium rationi; et sic necesse est quod passio reprimatur, et ab hoc denominatur temperantia; alio modo secundum quod passio retrahit ab eo quod ratio dictat, sicut timor periculorum vel laborum; et sic necesse est quod homo firmetur in eo quod est rationis, ne recedat; et ab hoc denominatur fortitudo.' Summa, Prima Secundae, 61. 2. Since the Cardinal Virtues thus cover the whole field, what place is reserved for the Theological Virtues, viz., Faith, Hope, and Charity? Aquinas's reply is quite definite: 'Virtutes theologicae sunt supra hominem ... Unde non proprie dicuntur virtutes humanae sed suprahumanae, vel divinae.' Ibid., 61. 1. Donne here exclaims that the cardinal virtues themselves are non-existent without religion. They are, isolated from religion, habits which any one can assume who has the discretion to cover his vices. Religion not only gives us higher virtues but alone gives sincerity to the natural virtues. Donne is probably echoing St. Augustine, De Civ. Dei, xviiii. 25: 'Quod non possint ibi verae esse virtutes, ubi non est vera religio. Quamlibet enim videatur animus corpori et ratio vitiis laudibiliter imperare, si Deo animus et ratio ipsa non servit, sicut sibi esse serviendum ipse Deus precepit, nullo modo corpori vitiisque recte imperat. Nam qualis corporis atque vitiorum potest esse mens domina veri Dei nescia nec eius imperio subjugata, sed vitiosissimis daemonibus corrumpentibus prostituta? Proinde virtutes quas habere sibi videtur per quas imperat corpori et vitiis, ad quodlibet adipiscendum vel tenendum rettulerit nisi ad Deum, etiam ipsae vitia sunt potius quam virtutes. Nam licet a quibusdam tunc verae atque honestae esse virtutes cum referentur ad se ipsas nec propter aliud expetuntur: etiam tunc inflatae et superbae sunt, et ideo non virtutes, sed vitia iudicanda sunt. Sicut enim non est a carne sed super carnem quod carnem facit vivere; sic non est ab homine sed super hominem quod hominem facit beate vivere: nec solum hominem, sed etiam quamlibet potestatem virtutemque caelestem.'
Page 186, ll. 25-7. You know, Physitians, &c. Paracelsus refers more than once to the heat of horse-dung used in 'separations', e.g. On the Separations of the Elements from Metals he enjoins that when the metal has been reduced to a liquid substance you must 'add to one part of this oil two parts of fresh aqua fortis, and when it is enclosed in glass of the best quality, set it in horse-dung for a month'.
l. 31. Wee are but farmers of our selves. The reading of 1633 is 'termers', and as in 'Tables' 'Fables' of the preceding poem it is not easy to determine which is original. 'Termer' of course, in the sense of 'one who holds for a term' (see O.E.D.), would do. It is the more general word and would include 'Farmer'. A farmer generally is a 'termer' in the land which he works. I think, however, that the rest of the verse shows that 'farmer' is used in a more positive sense than would be covered by 'termer'. The metaphor includes not only the terminal occupancy but the specific work of the farmer—stocking, manuring, uplaying.
Donne's metaphor is perhaps borrowed by Benlowes when he says of the soul:
She her own farmer, stock'd from Heav'n is bent
To thrive; care 'bout the pay-day's spent.
Strange! she alone is farmer, farm, and stock, and rent.
Donne in a sermon for the 5th of November speaks of those who will have the King to be 'their Farmer of his Kingdome.' Sermons 50. 43. 403.
It must be remembered that in MS. 'Fermer' and 'Termer' would be easily interchanged.
l. 34. to thy selfe be approv'd. There is no reason to prefer the 1669 'improv'd' here. To be 'improv'd to oneself' is not a very lucid phrase. What Donne bids Woodward do is to seek the approval of his own conscience. His own conscience is contrasted with 'vaine outward things'. Donne has probably Epictetus in mind: 'How then may this be attained?—Resolve now if never before, to approve thyself to thyself; resolve to show thyself fair in God's sight; long to be pure with thine own pure self and God.' Golden Sayings, lxxvi., trans. by Crossley.
Page 187. To Sr Henry Wootton.
The date of this letter is given in two MSS. as July 20, 1598. Its tone is much the same as that of the previous letter (p. [180]) and of both the fourth and fifth Satyres. The theme of them all is the Court.
l. 2. Cales or St Michaels tale. The point of this allusion was early lost and has been long in being recovered. The spelling 'Calis' is a little misleading, as it was used both for Calais and for Cadiz. In Sir Francis Vere's Commentaries (1657) he speaks of 'The Calis-journey' and the 'Island voiage'. I have taken 'Cales' from some MSS. as less ambiguous. All the modern editors have printed 'Calais', and Grosart considers the allusion to be to the Armada, Norton to the 'old wars with France'. The reference is to the Cadiz expedition and the Island voyage: 'Why should I tell you what we both know?' In speaking of 'St. Michaels tale' Donne may be referring to the attack on that particular island, which led to the loss of the opportunity to capture the plate-fleet. But the 'Islands of St. Michael' was a synonym for the Azores. 'Thus the ancient Cosmographers do place the division of the East and Western Hemispheres, that is, the first term of longitude, in the Canary or fortunate Islands; conceiving these parts the extreamest habitations Westward: But the Moderns have altered that term, and translated it unto the Azores or Islands of St Michael; and that upon a plausible conceit of the small or insensible variation of the Compass in those parts,' &c. Browne, Pseud. Epidem. vi. 7.
ll. 10-11. Fate, (Gods Commissary): i.e. God's Deputy or Delegate. Compare:
Fate, which God made, but doth not control.
The Progresse of the Soule, p. [295], l. 2.
Great Destiny the Commissary of God
That hast mark'd out a path and period
For every thing ...
The idea that Fate or Fortune is the deputy of God in the sphere of external goods (τὰ ἐκτὸς ἀγαθά, i beni del mondo) is very clearly expressed by Dante in the Convivio, iv. 11, and in the Inferno, vi. 67 f.: '"Master," I said to him, "now tell me also: this Fortune of which thou hintest to me; what is she, that has the good things of the world thus within her clutches?" And he to me, "O foolish creatures, how great is this ignorance that falls upon ye! Now I wish thee to receive my judgement of her. He whose wisdom is transcendent over all, made the heavens" (i.e. the nine moving spheres) "and gave them guides" (Angels, Intelligences); "so that every part may shine to every part equally distributing the light. In like manner, for worldly splendours, he ordained a general minister and guide (ministro e duce); to change betimes the vain possessions, from people to people, and from one kindred to another, beyond the hindrance of human wisdom. Hence one people commands, another languishes; obeying her sentence, which is hidden like the serpent in the grass. Your knowledge cannot withstand her. She provides, judges, and maintains her kingdom, as the other gods do theirs. Her permutations have no truce. Necessity makes her be swift; so oft come things requiring change. This is she, who is so much reviled, even by those who ought to praise her, when blaming her wrongfully, and with evil words. But she is in bliss, and hears it not. With the other Primal Creatures joyful, she wheels her sphere, and tastes her blessedness."' Dante finds in this view the explanation of the want of anything like distributive justice in the assignment of wealth, power, and worldly glory. Dante speaks here of Fortune, but though in its original conception at the opposite pole from Fate, Fortune is ultimately included in the idea of Fate. 'Necessity makes her be swift.' 'Sed talia maxime videntur esse contingentia quae Fato attribuuntur.' Aquinas. The relation of Fate or Destiny to God or Divine Providence is discussed by Boethius, De Cons. Phil. IV. Prose III, whom Aquinas follows, Summa, I. cxvi. Ultimately the immovable Providence of God is the cause of all things; but viewed in the world of change and becoming, accidents or events are ascribed to Destiny. 'Uti est ad intellectum ratiocinatio; ad id quod est, id quod gignitur; ad aeternitatem, tempus; ad punctum medium, circulus; ita est fati series mobilis ad Providentiae stabilem simplicitatem.' Boethius. This is clearly what Donne has in view when he calls Destiny the Commissary of God or declares that God made but doth not control her. The idea of Fate in Greek thought which Christian Philosophy had some difficulty in adjusting to its doctrines of freedom and providence came from the astronomico-religious ideas of the Chaldaeans. The idea of Fate 'arose from the observation of the regularity of the sidereal movements'. Franz Cumont, Astrology and Religion among the Greeks and Romans, 1912, pp. 28, 69.
l. 14. wishing prayers. This may be a phrase corresponding to 'bidding prayers', but 'wishing' is comma'd off as a noun in some MSS. and 'wishes' may be the author's correction.
Page 188, l. 24. dull Moralls of a game at Chests. The comparison of life and especially politics to a game of chess is probably an old one. Sancho Panza develops it with considerable eloquence.