Page 348, l. 246. Gaine to thy self, or us allow. If we perish neither Christ nor we have gained anything. Both have died in vain. If 'and' is substituted for 'or' in this line (1635-69 and Chambers) then the next line becomes otiose.
Page 348. Upon the translation of the Psalmes, &c.
We do not know what was the occasion of these lines. The Countess was the mother of William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke, and Philip Herbert, Earl of Montgomery, and of Pembroke after his brother's death. Poems by the former are frequently found with Donne's, e.g. in the Hawthornden MS. which is made from a collection in Donne's own possession. Doubtless they were known to one another, but there is no evidence of intimacy, such as letters. To the Countess of Montgomery Donne in 1619 sent a copy of one of his sermons which she had asked for (Gosse, Life, &c., ii. 123). It may have been for her that he composed this poem.
An elaborate copy of the Psalms was prepared by John Davis of Hereford. From this they were published in 1822.
From l. 53 it is evident that Donne's poem was written after the death of the Countess of Pembroke in 1621.
Page 349, l. 38. So well attyr'd abroad, so ill at home. Donne has probably in mind the French versions of Clement Marot, which were the war-songs of the Huguenots.
Page 351. To Mr. Tilman.
Of Mr. Tilman I can find no trace in printed Oxford or Cambridge registers. The poem is a strange comment on the seventeenth century's estimate of the clergy:
Why do they think unfit
That Gentry should joyne families with it?