Page 95. Elegie X.
The title of this Elegy, The Dream, was given it in 1635, perhaps wrongly. S96 seems to come nearer with Picture. 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.
Page 96. Elegie XI.
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 in 1635 (Marriot having been prohibited from including it in the edition of 1633), is based on a MS. closely resembling Cy and P, and differing in several readings from the text given in the rest of the MSS., including D, H49, Lec, and W. I have endeavoured rather to give this version correctly, while recording the variants, than either to substitute another or contaminate the two. When Cy and P go 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.
Page 97, 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 of Cy, and the order of the words in the other MSS. points to its being the reading of the MS. from which 1635 was printed.
l. 26. So pale, so lame, &c. The chipping and debasement of the French crown is frequently referred to, and Shakespeare is fond of punning on the word. But two extracts from Stow's Chronicle (continued ... by Edmund 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:
The punctuation of 1669 has the support generally of the MSS., but in matters of punctuation these are not a very safe guide. As punctuated in 1635, '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 their work. The epithet applied to Scotland is 'which knew no state', the antithesis being 'proud in one day'.
Page 98, 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;
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 of Elegie 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 of Soliman 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 in The 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's Alchemist for 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.' Summa I.
lxiv. 1-2. They have 'wisdom and knowledge', but it is immovably set to do ill.
ll. 77-8. Pitty these Angels; yet their dignities
Passe Vertues, Powers and Principalities.
There is a good deal of vacillation in the MSS. as to the punctuation of 'Angels yet', some placing the semicolon before, others after 'yet'. The difference is not great, but that which I have adopted, though it has least authority, brings out best what I take to be the meaning of these somewhat difficult lines. 'Pity these Angels, for yet (i.e. until they are melted down and lose their form) they, as good angels, are superior in dignity to Vertues, Powers, and Principalities among the bad angels.' The order of the Angelic beings, which the Middle Ages took from Pseudo-Dionysius, consisted of nine Orders in three Hierarchies. The first and highest Hierarchy included (beginning with the highest Order) Seraphim, Cherubim, and Thrones; the second, Dominions, Virtues, and Powers; the third, Principalities, Archangels, Angels. Thus the three Orders mentioned by Donne are all in rank superior to mere Angels; but the lowest Order of Good Angels is superior to the highest Order of Evil Spirits, although before their fall these belonged to the highest Orders. Probably, however, there is a second and satiric reference in Donne's words which explains his choice of Vertues, Powers, and Principalities. In the other sense of the words Angels are coins, money; and the power of money surpasses that of earthly Vertues, Powers, and Principalities. This may explain, further, why Donne singles out 'Vertues, Powers, and Principalities'. One would expect that, to make the antithesis between good and bad angels as complete as possible, he would have named the three highest orders, Seraphim, Cherubim, and Thrones. But the three orders which he does mention are the highest Orders which travel, as money does. The angels are divided into Assistentes and Administrates. To the former class belong all the Orders of the first Hierarchy, and the Dominions of the second. The Vertues are thus the highest Order of Administrantes. Aquinas, Summa, cxii. 3, 4. The Assistentes are those who 'only stand and wait'.
Page 99, l. 100. rot thy moist braine: So Sylvester's Du Bartas, I. ii. 18:
the Brain
Doth highest place of all our Frame retain,
And tempers with its moistful coldness so
Th'excessive heat of other parts below.
This was Aristotle's opinion (De Part. Anim. II. 7), refuted by Galen, who, like Plato, made the brain the seat of the soul and the generator of the animal spirits. See II. p. [45].
Page 100, ll. 112, 114. Gold is Restorative ... 'tis cordiall. 'Most men say as much of gold, and some other minerals, as these have done of precious stones. Erastus still maintaineth the opposite part, Disput. in Paracelsum, cap. 4, fol. 196, he confesseth of gold, that it makes the heart merry, but in no other sense but as it is in a miser's chest:
——at mihi plaudo
——simulac nummos contemplor in arcâ
as he said in the poet: it so revives the spirits, and is an excellent receipt against melancholy,
For gold in phisik is a cordial,
Therefore he lovede gold in special.'
Burton, Anatomy of Melancholy, Pt. 2, Sub. 4.
Elegie XII.
Page 101, l. 37. And mad'st us sigh and glow: 'sigh and blow' has been the somewhat inelegant reading of all editions hitherto.
l. 42. And over all thy husbands towring eyes. The epithet 'towring' is strange and the MSS. show some vacillation. Most of them read 'towred', probably the past participle of the same verb, though Grosart alters to 'two red'—not a very poetical description. RP31 here diverges from H40 and reads 'loured', perhaps for 'lurid', but both these MSS. alter the order of the words and attach the epithet to 'husbands', which is manifestly wrong, and the Grolier Club edition prints 'lowering' without comment, regarding, I suppose, 't' as a mistake for 'l'.
The 'towring' of 1669 and TCD is probably correct, being a bold metaphor from hawking, and having the force practically of 'threatening'. The hawk towers threateningly above its prey before it 'sousing kills with a grace'. If 'towring' is not right, 'lowring' is the most probable emendation.
Page 102, l. 43. That flam'd with oylie sweat of jealousie. This is the reading of all the MSS., and as on the whole their text is superior I have followed it. If 'oylie' is, as I think, the right epithet, it means 'moist', as in 'an oily palm', with perhaps a reference to the inflammability of oil. If 'ouglie '(i.e. ugly) be preferred it is a forcible transferred epithet.
l. 49. most respects? This is the reading of all the MSS., and 'best' in 1669 is probably an emendation. The use of 'most' as an adjective, superlative of 'great', is not uncommon:
God's wrong is most of all.
Shakespeare, Rich. III, IV. iv. 377.
Though in this place most master wear no breeches.
Ibid., 2 Hen. VI, I. iii. 144.
l. 54. I can make no exact sense of this line either as it stands in 1669 or in the MSS. One is tempted to combine the versions and read:
Yea thy pale colours, and thy panting heart,
the 'secrets of our Art' being all the signs by which they communicated to one another their mutual affection. But it is necessary to explain the presence of 'inwards' or 'inward' in both the versions.
Page 103, l. 79. The Summer how it ripened in the eare; This fine passage has been rather spoiled in all editions hitherto by printing in this line 'yeare' for 'eare', even in modernized texts. The MSS. and the sense both show that 'eare' is the right word, and indeed I have no doubt that 'year' in 1635 was simply due to a compositor's or copyist's pronunciation. It occurs again in the 1669 edition in the song Twicknam Garden (p. [28], l. 3):
And at mine eyes, and at mine years,
These forms in 'y' are common in Sylvester's Du Bartas, e.g. 'yerst'. The O.E.D. gives the fourteenth to the sixteenth centuries as those in which 'yere' was a recognized pronunciation of 'ear', but it is found sporadically later and has misled editors. Thus in Sir George Etherege's letter to the Earl of Middleton from Ratisbon, printed in Dryden's Works (Scott and Saintsbury), xi, pp. 38-40, some lines run:
These formed the jewel erst did grace
The cap of the first Grave o' the race,
Preferred by Graffin Marian
To adorn the handle of her fan;
And, as by old record appears,
Worn since in Kunigunda's years;
Now sparkling in the Froein's hair,
No rocket breaking in the air
Can with her starry head compare.
In a modernized text, as this is, surely 'Kunigunda's years' should be 'Kunigunda's ears'.
ll. 93-4. That I may grow enamoured on your mind,
When my own thoughts I there reflected find.
'I there neglected find' has been the reading of all editions hitherto—a strange reason for being enamoured.
Page 104, l. 96. My deeds shall still be what my words are now: 'words' suits the context better than either the 'deeds' of 1635-69 or 'thoughts' of A25.
Page 104. Elegie XIII.
Page 105, ll. 13-14. Liv'd Mantuan now againe,
That foemall Mastix, to limme with his penne
Chambers, following the editions from 1639 onwards, drops the comma after 'Mastix', which suggests that Julia is the 'foemall Mastix', not Mantuan. By Mantuan he understands Virgil, and supposes there is a reference to the 'flammis armataque Chimaera' of Aen. vi. 289. The Mantuan of the text is the 'Old Mantuan' of Love's Labour's Lost, iv. 2. 92. Donne calls Mantuan the scourge of women because of his fourth eclogue De natura mulierum. Norton quotes from it:
Femineum servile genus, crudele, superbum.
The O.E.D. quotes from S. Holland, Zara (1656): 'It would have puzzell'd that Female Mastix Mantuan to have limn'd this she Chymera'—obviously borrowed from this poem. The dictionary gives examples of 'mastix' in other compounds.
The reference to Mantuan as a woman-hater is a favourite one with the prose-pamphleteers: 'To this might be added Mantuans invective against them, but that pittie makes me refraine from renewing his worne out complaints, the wounds whereof the former forepast feminine sexe hath felt. I, but here the Homer of Women hath forestalled an objection, saying that Mantuans house holding of our Ladie, he was enforced by melancholic into such vehemencie of speech', &c. Nash, The Anatomy of Absurdity (ed. McKerrow, i. 12).
'Where I leave you to consider, Gentlemen, how far unmeete women are to have such reproches laid upon them, as sundrye large lipt fellows have done: who when they take a peece of work in hand, and either for want of matter, or lack of wit, are half gravelled, then they must fill up the page with slaundering of women, who scarsly know what a woman is: but if I were able either by wit or arte to be their defender, or had the law in my hand to dispose as I list, which would be as unseemely, as an Asse to treade the measures: yet, if it were so, I would correct Mantuans Egloge, intituled Alphus: or els if the Authour were alive, I would not doubt to persuade him in recompence of his errour, to frame a new one,' &c. Greene, Mamillia (ed. Grosart), 106-7. Greene is probably the 'Homer of Women' referred to in the first extract.
l. 19. Tenarus. In the Anatomy of the World 'Tenarif' is thus spelt in the editions of 1633 to 1669, and Grosart declared that the reference here is to that island. It is of course to 'Taenarus' in Laconia. There was in that headland a sulphurous cavern believed to be a passage to Hades. Through it Orpheus descended to recover Eurydice. Ovid, Met. x. 13; Paus. iii. 14, 25.
l. 28. self-accusing oaths: 'oaths' is the reading of the MSS., 'loaths' of the editions. The word 'loaths' in the sense of 'dislike, hatred, ill-will' is found as late as 1728 (O.E.D.). 'If your Horse ... grow to a loath of his meat.' Topsell (1607). A self-accusing loath may mean a hatred, e.g. of good, which condemns yourself. In the context, however, 'cavils, untroths,' I am inclined to think that 'oaths' is right. Among the malevolent evils with which her breast swarms are oaths accusing others of crimes, which accuse herself, either because she is willing to implicate herself so long as she secures her enemy's ruin, or because the information is of a kind that could be got only by complicity in crime.