Chapter XIX

The postscript to this letter, written, like that which follows it, from Mitcham in the closing years of Donne's residence there, is serious enough, but the letter itself must be understood as extravagant banter, not without a touch of bitterness. "When sadness dejects me," says Donne in a letter (XXV) written about this time, "either I countermine it with another sadnesse, or I kindle squibs about me again, and flie into sportfulnesse." The present letter is the fruit of such a mood.

The _Aurum Reginae_ is the Queen Consort's share (one-tenth) of all fines exacted by the King, which under the old law was due to her. Mr. Hakewill was Queen Anne's Solicitor-General.