Donne's metaphor is perhaps borrowed by Benlowes when he says of the soul:
She her own farmer, stock'd from Heav'n is bent
To thrive; care 'bout the pay-day's spent.
Strange! she alone is farmer, farm, and stock, and rent.
Donne in a sermon for the 5th of November speaks of those who will have the King to be 'their Farmer of his Kingdome.' Sermons 50. 43. 403.
It must be remembered that in MS. 'Fermer' and 'Termer' would be easily interchanged.
l. 34. to thy selfe be approv'd. There is no reason to prefer the 1669 'improv'd' here. To be 'improv'd to oneself' is not a very lucid phrase. What Donne bids Woodward do is to seek the approval of his own conscience. His own conscience is contrasted with 'vaine outward things'. Donne has probably Epictetus in mind: 'How then may this be attained?—Resolve now if never before, to approve thyself to thyself; resolve to show thyself fair in God's sight; long to be pure with thine own pure self and God.' Golden Sayings, lxxvi., trans. by Crossley.
Page 187. To Sr Henry Wootton.
The date of this letter is given in two MSS. as July 20, 1598. Its tone is much the same as that of the previous letter (p. [180]) and of both the fourth and fifth Satyres. The theme of them all is the Court.