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.