l. 38. our Pinnaces. 'Venices' is the reading of 1633 and most of the MSS., where, as in 1669, the word is often spelt 'Vinices'. But I can find no example of the word 'Venice' used for a species of ship, and Mr. W. A. Craigie of the Oxford English Dictionary tells me that he has no example recorded. The mistake probably arose in a confusion of P and V. The word 'Pinnace' is variously spelt, 'pynice', 'pinnes', 'pinace', &c., &c. The pinnaces were the small, light-rigged, quick-sailing vessels which acted as scouts for the fleet.

l. 48. A scourge, 'gainst which wee all forget to pray. The 'forgot' of 1669 and several MSS. is tempting—'a scourge against which we all in setting out forgot to pray.' I rather think, however, that what Donne means is 'a scourge against which we all at sea always forget to pray, for to pray for wind at sea is generally to pray for cold under the poles, for heat in hell'. The 'forgot' makes the reference too definite. At the same time, 'forgot' is so obvious a reading that it is difficult to account for 'forget' except on the supposition that it is right.

Donne is here playing with an antithesis which apparently he owes to the rhetoric of Tertullian. 'Canst thou choose', says the poet in one of his later sermons, 'but think God as perfect now, at least as he was at first, and can he not as easily make thee up againe of nothing, as he made thee of nothing at first? Recogita quid fueris antequam esses. Think over thyselfe; what wast thou before thou wast anything? Meminisses utique, si fuisses: if thou had'st been anything than, surely thou would'st remember it now. Qui non eras, factus es; cum iterum non eris, fies. Thou that wast once nothing, wast made this that thou art now; and when thou shalt be nothing again, thou shalt be made better then thou art yet.' Sermons 50. 14. 109. A note in the margin indicates that the quotations are from Tertullian, and Donne is echoing here the antithetical Recogita quid fueris antequam esses.

This echo is certainly made more obvious to the ear by the punctuation of 1669, which Grosart, the Grolier Club editor, and Chambers all follow. The last reads:

This may be right; but after careful consideration I have retained the punctuation of 1633. In the first place, if the 1669 text be right it is not clear why the poet did not preserve the regular order:

To place 'he was' at the end of the line was in the circumstances to court ambiguity, and is not metrically requisite. In the second place, the rhetorical question asked requires an answer, and that is given most clearly by the punctuation of 1633. 'How little more, alas, is man now than [he was] before he was? He was nothing; and as for us, we are fit for nothing. Chance or ourselves still throw us out of gear with everything.' To be nothing and to be fit for nothing—there is all the difference. In the 1669 version it is not easy to see the relevance of the rhetorical question and of the line which follows: 'Nothing for us, we are for nothing fit.' This seems to introduce a new thought, a fresh antithesis. It is not quite true. A breeze would fit them very well.

The use of 'for' in 'for us', as I have taken it, is quite idiomatic:

Page 180. To S^r Henry Wotton.

The occasion of this letter was apparently (see my article, Bacon's Poem, The World: Its Date And Relation to Certain Other Poems: Mod. Lang. Rev., April, 1911) a literary débat among some of the wits of Essex's circle. The subject of the débat was 'Which kind of life is best, that of Court, Country, or City?' and the suggestion came from the two epigrams in the Greek Anthology attributed to Posidippus and Metrodorus respectively. In the first (Ποίην τις βιότοιο τάμῃ τρίβον;) each kind of life in turn is condemned; in the second each is defended. These epigrams were paraphrased in Tottel's Miscellany (1557) by Nicholas Grimald, and again in the Arte of English Poesie (1589), attributed to George Puttenham. Stimulated perhaps by the latter version, in which the Court first appears as one of the principal spheres of life, or by Ronsard's French version in which also the 'cours des Roys', unknown to the Greek poet, are introduced, Bacon wrote his well-known paraphrase:

It is just possible too that he wrote a paraphrase, similar in verse, of the second epigram, which I have printed in the article referred to. A copy of The World was found among Wotton's papers and was printed in the Reliquiae Wottonianae (1651) signed 'Fra. Lord Bacon'. It had already been published by Thomas Farnaby in his Florilegium Epigrammatum Graecorum &c. (1629). Bacon probably gave Wotton a copy and he appears to have shown it to his friends. Among these was Thomas Bastard, who, to judge by the numerous epigrams he addressed to Essex, belonged to the same circle as Bacon, Donne, and Wotton,—if we may so describe it, but probably every young man of letters looked to Essex for patronage. Bastard's poem runs:

Ad Henricum Wottonum.

Donne was one of those to whom Wotton showed Bacon's poem, and the result was the present letter which occasionally echoes Bacon's words. Wotton replied to it in some characteristic verses preserved in B (Lord Ellesmere's MS.) and P (belonging to Captain Harris). I print it from the former:

To J: D: from M^r H: W:

The date of the débat is before April 1598, when Bastard's Chrestoleros was entered on the Stationers' Register, probably 1597-8, the interval between the return of the Islands Expedition and Donne's entry into the household of Sir Thomas Egerton. Mr. Chambers has shown that during this interval Donne was occasionally employed by Cecil to carry letters to and from the Commanders of the English forces still in France. But it was not till about April 1598 that he found permanent employment.

l. 8. Remoraes; Browne doubts 'whether the story of the remora be not unreasonably amplified'. The name is given to any of the fish belonging to the family Echeneididae, which by means of a suctorial disk situated on the top of the head adhere to sharks, other large fishes, vessels, &c., letting go when they choose. The ancient naturalists reported that they could arrest a ship in full course. See Bartholomaeus Anglicus, Lib. xiii, De Aqua et ejus Ornatu.

l. 11. the even line is the reading of all the MS. copies, and must have been taken from one of these by the 1669 editor. The use of the word is archaic and therefore more probably Donne's than an editor's emendation. Compare Chaucer's 'Of his stature he was of even length', i.e. 'a just mean between extremes, of proper magnitude or degree'. The 'even line' is, as the context shows, the exact mean between the 'adverse icy poles'. I suspect that 'raging' is an editorial emendation. There are several demonstrable errors in the 1633 text of this poem. The 'other' of P, and 'over' of S, are errors which point to 'even' rather than 'raging'.

l. 12. th'adverse icy poles. The 'poles' of most MSS. is obviously necessary if we are to have two temperate regions. The expression is a condensed one for 'either of the adverse icy poles'. Compare:

One cannot be under both the poles at once. One is 'under' the pole in Donne's cosmology because the poles are not the termini of the earth's axis but of the heavens'. 'For the North and Southern Pole, are the invariable terms of that Axis whereon the Heavens do move.' Browne, Pseud. Epidem. vi. 7.

l. 17. Can dung and garlike, &c. This is the text of the 1633 edition made consistent with itself, and it has the support of several MSS. Clearly if we are to read 'or' in one line we must do so in both, and adopt the 1635-69 text. It is tempting at first sight to do so, but I believe the MSS. are right. What Donne means is, 'Can we procure a perfume, or a medicine, by blending opposite stenches or poisons?' This is his expansion of the question, 'Shall cities, built of both extremes, be chosen?' The change to 'or' obscures the exact metaphysical point. It would be an improvement perhaps to bracket the lines as parenthetical.

According to Donne's medical science the scorpion (probably its flesh) was an antidote to its own poison: 'I have as many Antidotes as the Devill hath poisons, I have as much mercy as the Devill hath malice; There must be scorpions in the world; but the Scorpion shall cure the Scorpion; there must be tentations; but tentations shall adde to mine and to thy glory, and Eripiam, I will deliver thee.' Sermons 80. 52. 527. Obviously Donne could not ask in surprise, 'Can a Scorpion or Torpedo cure a man?' Each can; it is their combination he deprecates. In Ignatius his Conclave he writes, 'and two Poysons mingled might do no harme.'

In speaking of scent made from dung Donne has probably the statement of Paracelsus in his mind to which Sir Thomas Browne also refers: 'And yet if, as Paracelsus encourageth, Ordure makes the best Musk, and from the most fetid substances may be drawn the most odoriferous Essences; all that had not Vespasian's nose, might boldly swear, here was a subject fit for such extractions.' Pseudodoxia Epidemica, iii. 26.

This is the punctuation of 1633 and of D, H49, Lec, and W. The later punctuation which Chambers has adopted and modernized, is not found to be an improvement if scrutinized. He reads:

The mark of interrogation after 'three' would be justifiable only if the poet were going to expatiate upon the badness of cities. 'Of all three? that is saying very little, &c., &c.' But this is not the tenor of the passage. From one thought he is led to another. 'Cities are worst of all three (i.e. Court, City, Country). Nay, each is equally the worst.' The interjected 'O knottie riddle' does not mean, 'Who is to say which is the worst?' but 'How can it come that each is worst? This is a riddle!' Donne here echoes Bacon:

ll. 25-6. The country is a desert, &c. The evidence for this reading is so overwhelming that it is impossible to reject it. I have modified the punctuation to bring out more clearly what I take it to mean. 'The country is a desert where no goodness is native, and therefore rightly understood. Goodness in the country is like a foreign language, a faculty not born with us, but acquired with pain, and never thoroughly understood and mastered.' Only Dr. Johnson could stigmatize in adequate terms so harsh a construction, but the 1635-54 emendation is not less obscure. Does it mean that any good which comes there quits it with all speed, while that which is native and must stay is not understood? This is not a lucid or just enough thought to warrant departure from the better authorized text.

l. 27. prone to more evills; The reading 'mere evils' of several MSS., including D, H49, Lec, is tempting and may be right. In that case 'meere' has the now obsolete meaning of 'pure, unadulterated', 'meere English', 'meere Irish', &c. in O.E.D., or more fully, 'absolute, entire, sheer, perfect, downright', as in 'Th'obstinacie, willfull disobedience, meere lienge and disceite of the countrie gentlemen,' Hist. MSS. Com. (1600), quoted in O.E.D.; 'the mere perdition of the Turkish fleet,' Shakespeare, Othello, II. ii. 3. Such a strong adjective would however come better after 'devills' in the next line. Placed here it disturbs the climax. What Donne says here is that men in the country become beasts, and more prone to evil than beasts because of their higher faculties:

And in this same letter, ll. 41-2, he develops the thought further.

Page 182, ll. 59-62. Only in this one thing, be no Galenist, &c. The Galenists perceived in the living body four humours; hot, cold, moist, and dry, and held that in health these were present in fixed proportions. Diseases were due to disturbance of these proportions, and were to be cured by correction of the disproportion by drugs, these being used as they were themselves hot, cold, moist, or dry; to add to whichever humours were defective. The chymiques or school of Paracelsus, held that each disease had an essence which might be got rid of by being purged or driven from the body by an antagonistic remedy.

Page 183. To S^r Henry Goodyere.

He was a friend of wits and poets and himself wrote occasional verses in rivalry with his friends. Like Donne he wrote satirical congratulatory verses for Coryats Crudities (1611) and an elegy on Prince Henry for the second edition of Sylvester's Lachrymae Lachrymarum (1613), and there are others in MS., including an Epithalamium on Princess Elizabeth.

The estate which Goodyere inherited was apparently encumbered, and he was himself generous and extravagant. He was involved all his life in money troubles and frequently petitioned for relief and appointments. It was to him probably that Donne made a present of one hundred pounds when his own fortunes had bettered. The date of the present letter was between 1605 and 1608, when Donne was living at Mitcham. These were the years in which Goodyere was a courtier. In 1604-5 £120 was stolen from his chamber 'at Court', and in 1605 he participated in the jousting at the Barriers. Life at the dissolute and glittering Court of James I was ruinously extravagant, and the note of warning in Donne's poem is very audible. Sir Henry Goodyere died in March 1627-8.

Additional MS. 23229 (A23) contains the following:

Camden transcribes his epitaph:

The Epitaph is probably by the same author as the Verses, a nephew perhaps. Sir Henry's son predeceased him.

Page 183, l. 1. It is not necessary to change 'the past' of 1633-54 to 'last' with 1669. 'The past year' is good English for 'last year'.

Page 184, l. 27. Goe; whither? Hence; &c. My punctuation, which is that of some MSS., follows Donne's usual arrangement in dialogue, dividing the speeches by semicolons. Chambers's textual note misrepresents the earlier editions. He attributes to 1633-54 the reading, 'Go whither? hence you get'. But they have all 'Goe, whither?', and 1633 has 'hence;' 1635-54 drop this semicolon. In 1669 the text runs, 'Goe, whither. Hence you get,' &c. The semicolon, however, is better than the full stop after 'Hence', as the following clause is expansive and explanatory: 'Anywhere will do so long as it is out of this. In such cases as yours, to forget is itself a gain.'

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:

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.

Page 185. To M^r Rowland Woodward.

Rowland Woodward was a common friend of Donne and Wotton. The fullest account of Woodward is given by Mr. Pearsall Smith (The Life and Letters of Sir Henry Wotton, 1907). Of his early life unfortunately he can tell us little or nothing. He seems to have gone to Venice with Wotton in 1604, at least he was there in 1605. This letter was, therefore, written probably before that date. One MS., viz. B, states that it was written 'to one that desired some of his papers'. It is quite likely that Woodward, preparing to leave England, had asked Donne for copies of his poems, and Donne, now a married man, and, if not disgraced, yet living in 'a retiredness' at Pyrford or Camberwell, was not altogether disposed to scatter his indiscretions abroad. He enjoins privacy in like manner on Wotton when he sends him some Paradoxes. Donne, it will be seen, makes no reference to Woodward's going abroad or being in Italy.

While with Wotton he was sent as a spy to Milan and imprisoned by the Inquisition. In 1607, while bringing home dispatches, he was attacked by robbers and left for dead. On Feb. 2, 1608, money was paid to his brother, Thomas Woodward (the T. W. of several of Donne's Letters), for Rowland's 'surgeons and diets'. In 1608 he entered the service of the Bishop of London. For subsequent incidents in his career see Pearsall Smith, op. cit. ii. 481. He died sometime before April 1636.

It is clear that the MSS. Cy, O'F, P, S96 have derived this poem from a common source, inferior to that from which the 1633 text is derived, which has the general support of the best MSS. These MSS. agree in the readings: 3 'holiness', but O'F corrects, 10 'to use it,' 13 'whites' Cy, O'F, 14 'Integritie', but O'F corrects, 33 'good treasure'. It is clear that a copy of this tradition fell into the hands of the 1635 editor. His text is a contamination of the better and the inferior versions. The strange corruption of 4-6 began by the mistake of 'flowne' for 'showne'. In O'F and the editions 1635-54 the sense is adjusted to this by reading, 'How long loves weeds', and making the two lines an exclamation. The 'good treasure' (l. 33) of 1635-69, which Chambers has adopted, comes from this source also. The reading at l. 10 is interesting; 'to use it', for 'to us, it', has obviously arisen from 'to use and love Poetrie' of the previous verse. In the case of 'seeme but light and thin' we have an emendation, even in the inferior version, made for the sake of the metre (which is why Chambers adopted it), for though Cy, O'F, and P have it, S96 reads:

l. 2. a retirednesse. This reading of some MSS., including W, which is a very good authority for these Letters, is quite possibly authentic. It is very like Donne to use the article; it was very easy for a copyist to drop it. Compare the dropping of 'a' before 'span' in Crucifying (p. 320), l. 8. The use of abstracts as common nouns with the article, or in the plural, is a feature of Donne's syntax. He does so in the next line: 'a chast fallownesse'. Again: 'Beloved, it is not enough to awake out of an ill sleepe of sinne, or of ignorance, or out of a good sleep, out of a retirednesse, and take some profession, if you winke, or hide your selves, when you are awake.' Sermons 50. 11. 90. 'It is not that he shall have no adversary, nor that that adversary shall be able to doe him no harm, but that he should have a refreshing, a respiration, In velamento alarum, under the shadow of Gods wings.' Sermons 80. 66. 670—where also we find 'an extraordinary sadnesse, a predominant melancholy, a faintnesse of heart, a chearlessnesse, a joylessnesse of spirit' (Ibid. 672). Donne does not mean to say that he is 'tied to retirednesse', a recluse. The letter was not written after he was in orders, but probably, like the preceding, when he was at Pyrford or Mitcham (1602-8). He is tied to a degree of retirednesse (compared with his early life) or a period of retiredness. He does not compare himself to a Nun but to a widow. Even a third widowhood is not necessarily a final state. 'So all retirings', he says in a letter to Goodyere, 'into a shadowy life are alike from all causes, and alike subject to the barbarousnesse and insipid dulnesse of the Country.' Letters, p. 63. But the phrase here applies primarily to the Nun and the widow.

l. 3. fallownesse; I have changed the full stop of 1633-54 to a semicolon here because I take the next three lines to be an adverbial clause giving the reason why Donne's muse 'affects ... a chast fallownesse'. The full stop disguises this, and Chambers, by keeping the full stop here but changing that after 'sown' (l. 6), has thrown the reference of the clause forward to 'Omissions of good, ill, as ill deeds bee.'—not a happy arrangement.

ll. 16-18. There is no Vertue, &c. Donne refers here to the Cardinal Virtues which the Schoolmen took over from Aristotle. There are, Aquinas demonstrates, four essential virtues of human nature: 'Principium enim formale virtutis, de qua nunc loquimur, est rationis bonum. Quod quidem dupliciter potest considerari: uno modo secundum quod in ipsa consideratione consistit; et sic erit una virtus principalis, quae dicitur prudentia. Alio modo secundum quod circa aliquid ponitur rationis ordo; et hoc vel circa operationes, et sic est justitia; vel circa passiones, et sic necesse est esse duas virtutes. Ordinem enim rationis necesse est ponere circa passiones, considerata repugnantia ipsarum ad rationem. Quae quidem potest esse dupliciter: uno modo secundum quod passio impellit ad aliquid contrarium rationi; et sic necesse est quod passio reprimatur, et ab hoc denominatur temperantia; alio modo secundum quod passio retrahit ab eo quod ratio dictat, sicut timor periculorum vel laborum; et sic necesse est quod homo firmetur in eo quod est rationis, ne recedat; et ab hoc denominatur fortitudo.' Summa, Prima Secundae, 61. 2. Since the Cardinal Virtues thus cover the whole field, what place is reserved for the Theological Virtues, viz., Faith, Hope, and Charity? Aquinas's reply is quite definite: 'Virtutes theologicae sunt supra hominem ... Unde non proprie dicuntur virtutes humanae sed suprahumanae, vel divinae.' Ibid., 61. 1. Donne here exclaims that the cardinal virtues themselves are non-existent without religion. They are, isolated from religion, habits which any one can assume who has the discretion to cover his vices. Religion not only gives us higher virtues but alone gives sincerity to the natural virtues. Donne is probably echoing St. Augustine, De Civ. Dei, xviiii. 25: 'Quod non possint ibi verae esse virtutes, ubi non est vera religio. Quamlibet enim videatur animus corpori et ratio vitiis laudibiliter imperare, si Deo animus et ratio ipsa non servit, sicut sibi esse serviendum ipse Deus precepit, nullo modo corpori vitiisque recte imperat. Nam qualis corporis atque vitiorum potest esse mens domina veri Dei nescia nec eius imperio subjugata, sed vitiosissimis daemonibus corrumpentibus prostituta? Proinde virtutes quas habere sibi videtur per quas imperat corpori et vitiis, ad quodlibet adipiscendum vel tenendum rettulerit nisi ad Deum, etiam ipsae vitia sunt potius quam virtutes. Nam licet a quibusdam tunc verae atque honestae esse virtutes cum referentur ad se ipsas nec propter aliud expetuntur: etiam tunc inflatae et superbae sunt, et ideo non virtutes, sed vitia iudicanda sunt. Sicut enim non est a carne sed super carnem quod carnem facit vivere; sic non est ab homine sed super hominem quod hominem facit beate vivere: nec solum hominem, sed etiam quamlibet potestatem virtutemque caelestem.'

Page 186, ll. 25-7. You know, Physitians, &c. Paracelsus refers more than once to the heat of horse-dung used in 'separations', e.g. On the Separations of the Elements from Metals he enjoins that when the metal has been reduced to a liquid substance you must 'add to one part of this oil two parts of fresh aqua fortis, and when it is enclosed in glass of the best quality, set it in horse-dung for a month'.

l. 31. Wee are but farmers of our selves. The reading of 1633 is 'termers', and as in 'Tables' 'Fables' of the preceding poem it is not easy to determine which is original. 'Termer' of course, in the sense of 'one who holds for a term' (see O.E.D.), would do. It is the more general word and would include 'Farmer'. A farmer generally is a 'termer' in the land which he works. I think, however, that the rest of the verse shows that 'farmer' is used in a more positive sense than would be covered by 'termer'. The metaphor includes not only the terminal occupancy but the specific work of the farmer—stocking, manuring, uplaying.

Donne's metaphor is perhaps borrowed by Benlowes when he says of the soul:

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 S^r 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.

l. 2. Cales or St Michaels tale. The point of this allusion was early lost and has been long in being recovered. The spelling 'Calis' is a little misleading, as it was used both for Calais and for Cadiz. In Sir Francis Vere's Commentaries (1657) he speaks of 'The Calis-journey' and the 'Island voiage'. I have taken 'Cales' from some MSS. as less ambiguous. All the modern editors have printed 'Calais', and Grosart considers the allusion to be to the Armada, Norton to the 'old wars with France'. The reference is to the Cadiz expedition and the Island voyage: 'Why should I tell you what we both know?' In speaking of 'St. Michaels tale' Donne may be referring to the attack on that particular island, which led to the loss of the opportunity to capture the plate-fleet. But the 'Islands of St. Michael' was a synonym for the Azores. 'Thus the ancient Cosmographers do place the division of the East and Western Hemispheres, that is, the first term of longitude, in the Canary or fortunate Islands; conceiving these parts the extreamest habitations Westward: But the Moderns have altered that term, and translated it unto the Azores or Islands of St Michael; and that upon a plausible conceit of the small or insensible variation of the Compass in those parts,' &c. Browne, Pseud. Epidem. vi. 7.

ll. 10-11. Fate, (Gods Commissary): i.e. God's Deputy or Delegate. Compare:

The idea that Fate or Fortune is the deputy of God in the sphere of external goods (τὰ ἐκτὸς ἀγαθά, i beni del mondo) is very clearly expressed by Dante in the Convivio, iv. 11, and in the Inferno, vi. 67 f.: '"Master," I said to him, "now tell me also: this Fortune of which thou hintest to me; what is she, that has the good things of the world thus within her clutches?" And he to me, "O foolish creatures, how great is this ignorance that falls upon ye! Now I wish thee to receive my judgement of her. He whose wisdom is transcendent over all, made the heavens" (i.e. the nine moving spheres) "and gave them guides" (Angels, Intelligences); "so that every part may shine to every part equally distributing the light. In like manner, for worldly splendours, he ordained a general minister and guide (ministro e duce); to change betimes the vain possessions, from people to people, and from one kindred to another, beyond the hindrance of human wisdom. Hence one people commands, another languishes; obeying her sentence, which is hidden like the serpent in the grass. Your knowledge cannot withstand her. She provides, judges, and maintains her kingdom, as the other gods do theirs. Her permutations have no truce. Necessity makes her be swift; so oft come things requiring change. This is she, who is so much reviled, even by those who ought to praise her, when blaming her wrongfully, and with evil words. But she is in bliss, and hears it not. With the other Primal Creatures joyful, she wheels her sphere, and tastes her blessedness."' Dante finds in this view the explanation of the want of anything like distributive justice in the assignment of wealth, power, and worldly glory. Dante speaks here of Fortune, but though in its original conception at the opposite pole from Fate, Fortune is ultimately included in the idea of Fate. 'Necessity makes her be swift.' 'Sed talia maxime videntur esse contingentia quae Fato attribuuntur.' Aquinas. The relation of Fate or Destiny to God or Divine Providence is discussed by Boethius, De Cons. Phil. IV. Prose III, whom Aquinas follows, Summa, I. cxvi. Ultimately the immovable Providence of God is the cause of all things; but viewed in the world of change and becoming, accidents or events are ascribed to Destiny. 'Uti est ad intellectum ratiocinatio; ad id quod est, id quod gignitur; ad aeternitatem, tempus; ad punctum medium, circulus; ita est fati series mobilis ad Providentiae stabilem simplicitatem.' Boethius. This is clearly what Donne has in view when he calls Destiny the Commissary of God or declares that God made but doth not control her. The idea of Fate in Greek thought which Christian Philosophy had some difficulty in adjusting to its doctrines of freedom and providence came from the astronomico-religious ideas of the Chaldaeans. The idea of Fate 'arose from the observation of the regularity of the sidereal movements'. Franz Cumont, Astrology and Religion among the Greeks and Romans, 1912, pp. 28, 69.

l. 14. wishing prayers. This may be a phrase corresponding to 'bidding prayers', but 'wishing' is comma'd off as a noun in some MSS. and 'wishes' may be the author's correction.

Page 188, l. 24. dull Moralls of a game at Chests. The comparison of life and especially politics to a game of chess is probably an old one. Sancho Panza develops it with considerable eloquence.

Page 188. H: W: in Hiber: belligeranti.

This poem is taken from the Burley MS., where it is found along with a number of poems some of which are by Donne, viz.: the Satyres, one of the Elegies, and several of the Epigrams. Of the others this alone has the initials 'J. D.' added in the margin. There can be little doubt that it is by Donne,—a continuation of the correspondence of the years 1597-9 to which the last letter and 'Letters more than kisses' belong. In Life and Letters of Sir Henry Wotton Mr. Pearsall Smith prints what he takes to be a reply to this letter and the charge of indolence. 'Sir, It is worth my wondering that you can complain of my seldom writing, when your own letters come so fearfully as if they tread all the way upon a bog. I have received from you a few, and almost every one hath a commission to speak of divers others of their fellows, like you know who in the old comedy that asks for the rest of his servants. But you make no mention of any of mine, yet it is not long since I ventured much of my experience unto you in a long piece of paper, and perhaps not of my credit; it is that which I sent you by A. R., whereof till you advertise me I shall live in fits or agues.' After referring to the malicious reports in circulation regarding the Irish expedition he concludes in the style of the previous letters: 'These be the wise rules of policy, and of courts, which are upon earth the vainest places.'

l. 11. yong death: i.e. early death, death that comes to you while young.

ll. 13-15. These lines are enough of themselves to prove Donne's authorship of this poem. Compare To S^r Henry Goodyere, p. 183, ll. 17-20.

Page 189. To the Countesse of Bedford.

The eldest child of John Harington, created by James first Baron Harington of Exton, was married to Edward, third Earl of Bedford, in 1594 and was a lady in waiting under Elizabeth. She was one of the group of noble ladies who hastened north on the death of the Queen to welcome, and secure the favour of, James and Anne of Denmark. Her father and mother were granted the tutorship of the young Princess Elizabeth, and she herself was admitted at once as a Lady of the Chamber. Her beauty and talent secured her a distinguished place at Court, and in the years that Donne was a prisoner at Mitcham the Countess was a brilliant figure in more than one of Ben Jonson's masques. 'She was "the crowning rose" in that garland of English beauty which the Spanish ambassador desired Madame Beaumont, the Lady of the French ambassador, to bring with her to an entertainment on the 8th of December, 1603: the three others being Lady Rich, Lady Susan Vere, and Lady Dorothy (Sidney); "and", says the Lady Arabella Stewart, "great cheer they had."' Wiffen, Historical Memoirs of the House of Russell, 1833. She figured also in Daniel's Masque, The Vision of the Twelve Goddesses, which was published (1604) with an explanatory letter addressed to her. In praising her beauty Donne is thus echoing 'the Catholic voice'. The latest Masque in which she figured was the Masque of Queens, 2nd of February, 1609-10.

In Court politics the Countess of Bedford seems to have taken some part in the early promotion of Villiers as a rival to the Earl of Somerset; and in 1617 she promoted the marriage of Donne's patron Lord Hay to the youngest daughter of the Earl of Northumberland, against the wish of the bride's father. Match-making seems to have been a hobby of hers, for in 1625 she was an active agent in arranging the match between James, Lord Strange, afterwards Earl of Derby, and Lady Charlotte de la Trémouille, the heroic Countess of Derby who defended Lathom House against the Roundheads.

An active and gay life at Court was no proof of the want of a more serious spirit. Lady Bedford was a student and a poet, and the patron of scholars and poets. Sir Thomas Roe presented her with coins and medals; and Drayton, Daniel, Jonson, and Donne were each in turn among the poets whom she befriended and who sang her praises. She loved gardens. One of Donne's finest lyrics is written in the garden of Twickenham Park, which the Countess occupied from 1608 to 1617; and the laying out of the garden at Moore Park in Hertfordshire, where she lived from 1617 to her death in 1627, is commended by her successor in that place, Sir William Temple.

Donne seems to have been recommended to Lady Bedford by Sir Henry Goodyere, who was attached to her household. He mentions the death of her son in a letter to Goodyere as early as 1602, but his intimacy with the Countess probably began in 1608, and most of his verse letters were written between that date and 1614. Donne praises her beauty and it may be that in some of his lyrics he plays the part of the courtly lover, but what his poems chiefly emphasize is the religious side of her character. If my conjecture be right that she herself wrote 'Death be not proud', her religion was probably of a simpler, more pietistic cast than Donne's own was in its earlier phase.

In 1612 the Countess had a serious illness which began on November 22-3 (II. p. 10). She recovered in time to take part in the ceremonies attending the wedding of the Princess Elizabeth (Feb. 14, 161⅔), but Chamberlain in his letters to Carleton notes a change in her behaviour. After mentioning an accident to the Earl of Bedford he continues: 'His lady who should have gone to the Spa but for lack of money, shows herself again in court, though in her sickness she in a manner vowed never to come there; but she verifies the proverb, Nemo ex morbo melior. Marry, she is somewhat reformed in her attire, and forbears painting, which, they say, makes her look somewhat strangely among so many vizards, which together with their frizzled, powdered hair, makes them look all alike, so that you can scant know one from another at the first view.' Birch, The Court and Times of James the First, i. 262. Donne makes no mention of this illness, but it seems to me probable that the first two of these letters, with the emphasis which they lay on beauty, were written before, the other more serious and pious verses after this crisis.

See notes on Twicknam Garden and the Nocturnall on St. Lucies Day.

Page 189, ll. 4-5. light ... faire faith. I have retained the 'light' and 'faire faith' of the editions, but the MS. readings 'sight' and 'farr Faith' are quite possibly correct. There is not much to choose between 'light' and 'sight', but 'farr' is an interesting reading. Indeed at first sight 'fair' is a rather otiose epithet, a vaguely complimentary adjective. There is, however, probably more in it than that. 'Fair' as an epithet of 'Faith' is probably an antithesis to the 'squint ungracious left-handedness' of understanding. If 'farr' be the right reading, then Donne is contrasting faith and sight: 'Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.' Heb. xi. 1. The use of 'far' as an adjective is not uncommon: 'Pulling far history nearer,' Crashaw; 'His own far blood,' Tennyson; 'Far travellers may lie by authority,' Gataker (1625), are some examples quoted in the O.E.D. But there is no parallel to Donne's use of 'far faith' for 'faith that lays hold on things at a distance'. 'These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off', Heb. xi. 13, is probably the source of the phrase. Such a condensed elliptical construction is quite in Donne's manner. Compare 'Neere death', p. 28, l. 63. Both versions may be original. The variants in l. 19 point to some revision of the poem.

Page 190, l. 22. In every thing there naturally grows, &c. 'Every thing hath in it as, as Physicians use to call it, Naturale Balsamum, a naturall Balsamum, which, if any wound or hurt which that creature hath received, be kept clean from extrinseque putrefaction, will heal of itself. We are so far from that naturall Balsamum, as that we have a naturall poyson in us, Originall sin:' &c. Sermons 80. 32. 313.

'Now Physitians say, that man hath in his Constitution, in his Complexion, a naturall Vertue, which they call Balsamum suum, his owne Balsamum, by which, any wound which a man could receive in his body, would cure itself, if it could be kept cleane from the annoiances of the aire, and all extrinseque encumbrances. Something that hath some proportion and analogy to this Balsamum of the body, there is in the soul of man too: The soule hath Nardum suum, her Spikenard, as the Spouse says, Nardus mea dedit odorem suum, she hath a spikenard, a perfume, a fragrancy, a sweet savour in her selfe. For virtutes germanius attingunt animam, quam corpus sanitas, vertuous inclinations, and disposition to morall goodness, is more naturall to the soule of man, and nearer of kin to the soule of man, then health is to the body. And then if we consider bodily health, Nulla oratio, nulla doctrinae formula nos docet morbum odisse, sayes that Father: There needs no Art, there needs no outward Eloquence, to persuade a man to be loath to be sick: Ita in anima inest naturalis et citra doctrinam mali evitatio, sayes he: So the soule hath a naturall and untaught hatred, and detestation of that which is evill,' &c. Sermons 80. 51. 514.

Paracelsus has a great deal to say about this natural balsam, though he declares that 'the spirit is most truly the life and balsome of all Corporeal things'. It was to supply the want of this balsam that mummy was used as a medicine. Of a man suddenly slain Paracelsus says: 'His whole body is profitable and good and may be prepared into a most precious Mummie. For, although the spirit of life went out of such a Body, yet the Balsome, in which lies the Life, remains, which doth as Balsome preserve other mens.'

l. 27. A methridate: i.e. an antidote. See note to p. 255, l. 127.

ll. 31-2. The first good Angell, &c. 'Our first consideration is upon the persons; and those we finde to be Angelicall women and Evangelicall Angels: ... And to recompense that observation, that never good Angel appeared in the likenesse of woman, here are good women made Angels, that is, Messengers, publishers of the greatest mysteries of our Religion.' Sermons 80. 25. 242.