S. E.
[We did not dispute that Mr. Doughty's style is natural to him. We merely said that that is his and our misfortune.—Editor.]
JOHN DONNE
(To the Editor of The London Mercury)
Sir,—After reading the most interesting paper on John Donne in the last number of The London Mercury, I wonder whether Browning had not him in mind when he wrote The Grammarian's Funeral. "An hydroptic immoderate desire of human learning and languages" consumed the "soul by-droptic" grammarian no less than Donne; like Donne even to the crumbs he'd "fain eat up the feast, Aye, nor feel quaesy." He knew nothing, it is true, of "the quaesy pain Of being beloved and loving"; his was a passion of mind only, though, like Donne, he knew the sickness of the body overwrought. The analogy could be traced further.
For more reasons than the tracing of remembrance of Donne in one poem it would be interesting to know how "longe" Browning "hadde ygo" to the earlier poet.—Yours, etc.,
J. R. Rackham.
Queen Mary High School for Girls, Anfield Road, Liverpool, February 13th.