SATYRES.
The earliest date assignable to any of the Satyres is 1593, or more probably 1594-5. On the back of the Harleian MS. 5110 (H51), in the British Museum, is inscribed:[1]
Jhon Dunne his Satires
Anno Domini 1593
The handwriting is not identical with that in which the poems are transcribed, and it is impossible to say either when the poems were copied or when the title and date were affixed. One may not build too absolutely on its accuracy; but there are in the three first Satires (which alone the MS. contains) some indications that point to 1593-5 as the probable date. Mr. Chambers notes the reference in I., 80, 'the wise politic horse,' to Banks' performing horse, and says: 'A large collection of them' (i.e. allusions to the horse) 'will be found in Mr. Halliwell-Phillips's Memoranda on Love's Labour's Lost. Only one of these allusions is, however, earlier than 1593. It is in 1591, and refers not to an exhibition in London, but in the provinces, and not to Morocco, which was a bay, but to a white horse. It is probable, therefore, that by 1591 Banks had not yet come to London, and if so the date 1593 on the Harl. MS. 5110 of Donne's Satires cannot be far from that of their composition.' But this is not the only allusion. The same lines run on:
Or thou O Elephant or Ape wilt doe.
This has been passed by commentators as a quite general reference; but the Ape and Elephant seem to have been animals actually performing, or exhibited, in London about 1594. Thus in Every Man out of his Humour, acted in 1599, Carlo Buffone says (IV. 6): ''S heart he keeps more ado with this monster' (i.e. Sogliardo's dog) 'than ever Banks did with his horse, or the fellow with the elephant.' Further, all three are mentioned in the Epigrams of Sir John Davies, e.g.: