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.