l. 240. a scarce brooke. Donne uses 'scarce' in this sense, i.e. 'scanty'. It is not common. See note to l. 4.
Page 168, l. 242. Macchabees modestie. 'And if I have done well, and as is fitting the story, it is that which I have desired; but if slenderly and meanly, it is that which I could attain unto.' 2 Maccabees xv. 38.
Page 168. Satyre V.
l. 9. If all things be in all. 'All things are concealed in all. One of them all is the concealer of the rest—their corporeal vessel, external, visible and movable.' Paracelsus, Coelum Philosophorum: The First Canon, Concerning the Nature and Properties of Mercury.
Page 169, l. 31. You Sir, &c.: i.e. Sir Thomas Egerton, whose service Donne entered probably in 1598 and left in 1601-2. Norton says 1596 to 1600. In 1596 Egerton was made Lord Keeper. In 1597 he was busy with the reform of some of the abuses connected with the Clerkship of the Star Chamber, and this is probably what Donne has in view throughout the Satyre. 'For some years the administration of this office had given rise to complaints. In the last Parliament a bill had been brought in ... for the reformation of it; but by a little management on the part of the Speaker had been thrown out on the second reading. Upon this I suppose the complainants addressed themselves to the Queen. For it appears that the matter was under inquiry in 1595, when Puckering was Lord Keeper; and it is certain that at a later period some of the fees claimed by the Clerk of Council were by authority of the Lord Keeper Egerton restrained.' Spedding, Letters and Life of Francis Bacon, ii. 56. In the note Spedding refers to a MS. at Bridgewater House containing 'The humble petition of the Clerk of the Council concerning his fees restrained by the Rt. Hon. the Lord Keeper'. Bacon held the reversion to this Clerkship and in a long letter to Egerton he discusses in detail the nature of the 'claim'd fees'. The question was not settled till 1605. It will be noticed that in several editions and MSS. the reading is 'claim'd fees'.
ll. 37-41. These lines are correctly printed in 1633, though the old use of the semicolon to indicate at one time a little less than a full stop, at another just a little more than a comma, has caused confusion. I have, therefore, ventured to alter the first (after 'farre') to a full stop, and the second (after 'duties') to a comma. 'That', says Donne (the italics give emphasis), 'was the iron age when justice was sold. Now' (in this 'age of rusty iron') 'injustice is sold dearer. Once you have allowed all the demands made on you, you find, suitors (and suitors are gamblers), that the money you toiled for has passed into other hands, the lands for which you urged your rival claims has escaped you, as Angelica escaped while Ferrau and Rinaldo fought for her.'
To the reading of the editions 1635-54, which Chambers has adopted (but by printing in roman letters he makes 'that' a relative pronoun, and 'iron age' subject to 'did allow'), I can attach no meaning:
The iron Age that was, when justice was sold (now
Injustice is sold dearer) did allow