Chapter XII: Part 12

The fifth _Satyre_ is referred by Grosart and Chambers to 1602-3 on the ground that the phrase 'the great Carricks pepper' is a reference to the expedition sent out by the East India Company under Captain James Lancaster to procure pepper, the price of which commodity was excessively high. Lancaster captured a Portuguese Carrick and sent home pepper and spice. There is no proof, however, that this ship was ever known as 'the Carrick' or 'the great Carrick'. That phrase _was_ applied to 'that prodigious great carack called the _Madre de Dios_ or _Mother of God_, one of the greatest burden belonging to the crown of Portugal', which was captured by Raleigh's expedition and brought to Dartmouth in 1592. 'This prize was reckoned the greatest and richest that had ever been brought into England' and 'daily drew vast numbers of spectators from all parts to admire at the hugeness of it' (Oldys, _Life of Raleigh_, 1829, pp. 154-7). Strype states that she 'was seven decks high, 165 foot long, and manned with 600 men' (_Annals_, iv. 177-82). That pepper formed a large part of the Carrick's cargo is clear from the following order issued by the Privy Council: _A letter to Sir Francis Drake, William Killigrewe, Richard Carmarden and Thomas Midleton Commissioners appointed for the Carrique_. 'Wee have received your letter of the 23^{rd} of this presente of your proceeding in lading of other convenient barkes with the pepper out of the Carrique, and your opinion concerning the same, for answere whereunto we do thinke it meete, and so require you to take order, so soone as the goods are quite dischardged, that Sir Martin Frobisher be appointed to have the charge and conduction of those shippes laden with the pepper and other commodities out of the Carrique to be brought about to Chatham.' 27 Octobris, 1592. See also under October 1. The reference in 'the great Carricks pepper' is thus clear. The words 'You Sir, whose righteousness she loves', &c., ll. 31-3, show that the poem was written after Donne had entered Sir Thomas Egerton's service, i.e. between 1598, if not earlier, and February 1601-2 when he was dismissed, which makes the date suggested by Grosart and Chambers (1602-3) impossible. The poem was probably written in 1598-9. There is a note of enthusiasm in these lines as of one who has just entered on a service of which he is proud, and the occasion of the poem was probably Egerton's endeavour to curtail the fees claim'd by the Clerk of the Star Chamber (see note below). With Essex's return from Ireland in 1599 began a period of trouble and anxiety for Egerton, and probably for Donne too. The more sombre cast of his thought, and the modification in his feelings towards Elizabeth, after the fatal February of 1600-1, are reflected in the satirical fragment _The Progresse of the Soule_.

The so-called sixth and seventh _Satyres_ (added in 1635 and 1669) I have relegated to the _Appendix B_, and have given elsewhere my reasons for assigning them to Sir John Roe. That Donne wrote only five regular _Satyres_ is very definitely stated by Drummond of Hawthornden in a note prefixed to the copy of the fourth in _HN_: 'This Satyre (though it heere have the first place because no more was intended to this booke) was indeed the authors fourth in number and order he having written five in all to using which this caution will sufficientlie direct in the rest.'

[Footnote 1: Attention was first called to this inscription by
J. Payne Collier in his _Poetical Decameron_ (1820). He uses
the date to vindicate the claim for Donne's priority as a
satirist to Hall. 'Dunne' is of course one of the many ways
in which the poet's name is spelt, and 'Jhon' is a spelling
of 'John'. The poet's own signature is generally 'Jo. Donne.'
'Jhon Don' is Drummond's spelling on the title-page of _HN_.
In _Q_ the first page is headed 'M^r John Dunnes Satires'.]

[Footnote 2: Of the forty-five which the MS. contains, some
thirty-three were published in the edition referred to above.
On the other hand the edition contains some which are not
in the MS. Of these, one, 47, 'Meditations of a gull,' alone
refers to events which are certainly later than 1594. As this
is not in the MS. there is nothing to contradict the assertion
that it (and the Epigrams cited above) belong to 1594.
Davies' Epigrams are referred to in Sir John Harrington's
_Metamorphosis of Ajax_, 1596.]

PAGE =145=. SATYRE I.

This _Satyre_ is pretty closely imitated in the _Satyra Quinta_ of _SKIALETHEIA. or, A shadowe of Truth in certaine Epigrams and Satyres. 1598_. attributed to Edward Guilpin (or Gilpin), to whom extracts from it are assigned in _Englands Parnassus_ (1600). Who Guilpin was we do not know. Besides the work named he wrote two sonnets prefixed to Gervase Markham's _Devoreux. Vertues tears for the losse of the most Christian King Henry, third of that name; and the untimely death of the most noble and heroical Gentleman, Walter Devoreux, who was slain before Roan in France. First written in French by the most excellent and learned Gentlewoman, Madame Geneuefe Petan Maulette. And paraphrastically translated into English by Jervis Markham._ 1597. See Grosart's Introduction to his reprint of _Skialetheia_ in _Occasional Issues_. 6. (1878). Donne addresses a letter to _Mr. E. G._ (p. 208), which Gosse conjectures to be addressed to Guilpin. That Guilpin knew Donne is probable in view of this early imitation of a privately circulated MS. poem. Guilpin's poem begins:

Let me alone I prethee in thys Cell,
Entice me not into the Citties hell;
Tempt me not forth this _Eden_ of content,
To tast of that which I shall soone repent:
Prethy excuse me, I am hot alone
Accompanied with meditation,
And calme content, whose tast more pleaseth me
Then all the Citties lushious vanity.
I had rather be encoffin'd in this chest
Amongst these bookes and papers I protest,
Then free-booting abroad purchase offence,
And scandale my calme thoughts with discontents.
Heere I converse with those diviner spirits,
Whose knowledge, and admire, the world inherits:
Heere doth the famous profound _Stagarite_,
With Natures mistick harmony delight
My ravish'd contemplation: I heere see
The now-old worlds youth in an history:

l. 1. _Away thou fondling, &c._ The reading of the majority of editions and MSS. is 'changeling', but this is a case not of a right and wrong reading but of two versions, both ascribable to the author. Which was his emendation it is impossible to say. He may have changed 'fondling' (a 'fond' or foolish person) thinking that the idea was conveyed by 'motley', which, like Shakespeare's epithet 'patch', is a synecdoche from the dress of the professional fool or jester. On the other hand the idea of 'changeling' is repeated in 'humorist', which suggests changeable and fanciful. I have, therefore, let the _1633_ text stand. 'Changeling' has of course the meaning here of 'a fickle or inconstant person', not the common sense of a person or thing or child substituted for another, as 'fondling' is not here a 'pet, favourite', as in modern usage.

l. 3. _Consorted._ Grosart, who professes to print from _H51_, reads _Consoled_, without any authority.

l. 6. _Natures Secretary_: i.e. Aristotle. He is always 'the Philosopher' in Aquinas and the other schoolmen. Walton speaks of 'the great secretary of nature and all learning, Sir Francis Bacon'.

l. 7. _jolly Statesmen._ All the MSS. except _O'F_ agree with _1633_ in reading 'jolly', though 'wily' is an obvious emendation. Chambers adopts it. By 'jolly' Donne probably meant 'overweeningly self-confident ... full of presumptuous pride ... arrogant, over-bearing' (O.E.D.). 'Evilmerodach, a jolly man, without Iustyse and cruel.' Caxton (1474). 'It concerneth every one of us ... not to be too high-minded or jolly for anything that is past.' Sanderson (1648).

l. 10. _Giddie fantastique Poets of each land._ In a letter Donne tells Buckingham, in Spain, how his own library is filled with Spanish books 'from the mistress of my youth, Poetry, to the wife of mine age, Divinity'. This line in the Satires points to the fact, which Donne was probably tempted later to obscure a little, that his first prolonged visit to the Continent had been made before he settled in London in 1592 and probably without the permission of the Government. The other than Spanish poets would doubtless be French and Italian. Donne had read Dante. He refers to him in the fourth _Satyre_ ('who dreamt he saw hell'), and in an unpublished letter in the Burley MS. he dilates at some length, but in no very creditable fashion, on an episode in the _Divina Commedia_. Of French poets he probably knew at any rate Du Bartas and Regnier.

l. 12. _And follow headlong, wild uncertain thee?_ I have retained the _1633_ punctuation instead of, with Chambers, comma-ing 'wild' as well as 'headlong'. The latter is possibly an adverb here, going with 'follow'. The use of 'headlong' as an adjective with persons was not common. The earliest example in the O.E.D. is from _Hudibras_:

The Friendly Rug preserv'd the ground,
And headlong Knight from bruise or wound.

Donne's line is, however, ambiguous; and the subsequent description of the humorist would justify the adjective.

l. 18. _Bright parcell gilt, with forty dead mens pay._ Compare: 'Captains some in guilt armour (unbatt'red) some in buffe jerkins, plated o'r with massy silver lace (raz'd out of the ashes of dead pay).' Dekker, _Newes from Hell_, ii. 119 (Grosart). So many 'dead pays' (i.e. men no longer on the muster roll) were among the perquisites allowed to every captain of a company, but the number was constantly exceeded: 'Moreover where' (i.e. whereas) 'there are 15 dead paies allowed ordinarily in every bande, which is paid allwaies and taken by the captaines, althogh theire nombers be greatly dyminished in soche sorte as sometimes there are not fower score or fewer in a company, her Majestys pleasure is that from hence the saide 15 dead paies shall not be allowed unlesse the companies be full and compleate, but after the rate of two dead paies for everie twenty men that shalbe in the saide bande where the companies are dyminished.' Letter to Sir John Norreyes, Knighte. _Acts of the Privy Council_, 1592.

PAGE =146=, l. 27. _Oh monstrous, superstitious puritan._ The 'Monster' of the MSS. is of course _not_ due to the substitution of the noun for the adjective, but is simply an older form of the adjective. Compare 'O wonder Vandermast', Greene's _Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay_.

l. 32. _raise thy formall_: 'raise' is probably right, but 'vaile' is a common metaphor. 'A Player? Call him, the lousie slave: what will he saile by, and not once strike or vaile to a Man of Warre.' Captain Tucca in Jonson's _Poetaster_, III. 3.

l. 33. _That wilt consort none, &c._ It is unnecessary to alter 'consort none' to 'consort with none', as some MSS. do. The construction is quite regular. 'Wilt thou consort me, bear me company?' Heywood. The 'consorted with these few books' of l. 3 is classed by the O.E.D. under a slightly different sense of the word--not 'attended on by' these books, but 'associated in a common lot with' them.

l. 39. _The nakednesse and barenesse, &c._ The reading 'barrennesse' of all the editions and some MSS. is due probably to similarity of pronunciation (rather than of spelling) and a superficial suggestion of appropriateness to the context. A second glance shows that 'bareness' is the correct reading. The MSS. give frequent evidence of having been written to dictation.

l. 46. The 'yet', which the later editions and Chambers drop, is quite in Donne's style. It is heavily stressed and 'he was' is slurred, 'h' was.'

PAGE =147=, l. 58. _The Infanta of London, Heire to an India._ It is not necessary to suppose a reference to any person in particular. The allusion is in the first place to the wealth of the city, and the greed of patricians and courtiers to profit by that wealth. 'No one can tell who, amid the host of greedy and expectant suitors, will carry off whoever is at present the wealthiest minor (and probably the king's ward) in London, i.e. the City.' Compare the _Epithalamion made at Lincolns Inn_:

Daughters of London, you which be
Our Golden Mines, and furnish'd Treasury,
You which are Angels, yet still bring with you
Thousands of Angels on your marriage days
. . . . . . . .
Make her for Love fit fuel,
As gay as Flora, and as rich as Inde.

Compare also: 'I possess as much in your wish, Sir, as if I were made Lord of the Indies.' Jonson, _Every Man out of his Humour_, II. iii.

The 'Infanta' of _A25_, _O'F_, _Q_ is pretty certainly right, though 'Infant' can be applied, like 'Prince', to a woman. There is probably a second allusion to the claim of the Infanta of Spain to be heir to the English throne.

l. 60. _heavens Scheme_: 'Scheme' is certainly the right reading. The common MS. spelling, 'sceame' or 'sceames', explains the 'sceanes' which _1633_ has derived from _N_, _TCD_. For the _Satyres_ the editor did not use his best MS. See _Text and Canon, &c._, p. xcv. It is possible that a slurred definite article ('th'heavens') has been lost.

In preparing his 'theme' or horoscope the astrologer had five principal things to consider, (1) the heavenly mansions, (2) the signs of the zodiac, (3) the planets, (4) the aspects and configurations, (5) the fixed stars. With this end in view the astrologer divided the heavens into twelve parts, called mansions, to which he related the positions occupied at the same moment by the stars in each of them ('drawing the horoscope'). There were several methods of doing this. That of Ptolemy consisted in dividing the zodiac into twelve equal parts. This was called the equal manner. To represent the mansions the astrologers constructed twelve triangles between two squares placed one within the other. Each of the twelve mansions thus formed had a different name, and determined different aspects of the life and fortune of the subject of the horoscope. From the first was foretold the general character of his life, his health, his habits, morals. The second indicated his wealth; and so on. The different signs of the zodiac and the planets, in like manner, had each its special influence. But sufficient has been said to indicate what Donne means by 'drawing forth Heavens scheme'.

l. 62. _subtile-witted._ There is something to be said for the 'supple-witted' of _H51_ and some other MSS. 'Subtle-witted' means 'fantastic, ingenious'; 'supple-witted' means 'variable'. Like Fastidious Brisk in _Every Man out of his Humour_, they have a fresh fashion in suits every day. 'When men are willing to prefer their friends, we heare them often give these testimonies of a man; He hath good parts, and you need not be ashamed to speak for him; he understands the world, he knowes how things passe, and he hath a discreet, a supple, and an appliable disposition, and hee may make a fit instrument for all your purposes, and you need not be afraid to speake for him.' _Sermons_ 80. 74. 750. A 'supple disposition' is one that changes easily to adapt itself to circumstances.

PAGE =148=, l. 81. _O Elephant or Ape_, See Introductory Note to _Satyres_.

l. 89. _I whispered let'us go._ I have, following the example of _1633_ in other cases, indicated the slurring of 'let'us' or 'let's', which is necessary metrically if we are to read the full 'whispered' which _1669_ first contracts to 'whisperd'. _Q_ shows that 'let's' is the right contraction. Donne's use of colloquial slurrings must be constantly kept in view when reading especially his satires. They are not always indicated in the editions: but note l. 52:

I shut my chamber doore, and come, lets goe.

PAGE =149=, ll. 100-4. My punctuation of these lines is a slight modification of that indicated by _W_ and _JC_, which give the proper division of the speeches. The use of inverted commas would make this clearer, but Chambers' division seems to me (if I understand it) to give the whole speech, from 'But to me' to 'So is the Pox', to Donne's companion, which is to deprive Donne of his closing repartee. The Grolier Club editor avoids this, but makes 'Why he hath travelled long?' a part of Donne's speech beginning 'Our dull comedians want him'. I divide the speeches thus:--

_Donne._ Why stoop'st thou so?

_Companion._ Why? he hath travail'd.

_Donne._ Long?

_Companion._ No: but to me (_Donne interpolates_ 'which
understand none') he doth seem to be
Perfect French and Italian.

_Donne._ So is the Pox.

The brackets round 'which understand none' I have taken from _Q_. I had thought of inserting them before I came on this MS. Of course brackets in old editions are often used where commas would be sufficient, and one can build nothing on their insertion here in one MS. But it seems to me that these words have no point unless regarded as a sarcastic comment interpolated by Donne, perhaps _sotto voce_. 'To you, who understand neither French nor Italian, he may seem perfect French and Italian--but to no one else.' Probably an eclectic attire was the only evidence of travel observable in the person in question. 'How oddly is he suited!' says Portia of her English wooer; 'I think he bought his doublet in Italy, his round hose in France, his bonnet in Germany, and his behaviour everywhere.' Brackets are thus used by Jonson to indicate a remark interjected _sotto voce_. See the quotation from the _Poetaster_ in the note on _The Message_ (II. p. 37). Modern editors substitute for the brackets the direction 'Aside', which is not in the Folio (1616).

PAGE =149=. SATYRE II.

ll. 1-4. It will be seen that _H51_ gives two alternative versions of these lines. The version of the printed text is that of the majority of the MSS.

PAGE =150=, ll. 15-16. _As in some Organ, &c._ Chambers prints these lines with a comma after 'move', connecting them with what follows about love-poetry. Clearly they belong to what has been said about dramatic poets. It is Marlowe and his fellows who are the bellows which set the actor-puppets in motion.

ll. 19-20. _Rammes and slings now, &c._ The 'Rimes and songs' of _P_ is a quaint variant due either to an accident of hearing or to an interpretation of the metaphor: 'As in war money is more effective than rams and slings, so it is more effective in love than songs.' But there is a further allusion in the condensed stroke, for 'pistolets' means also 'fire-arms'. Money is as much more effective than poetry in love as fire-arms are than rams and slings in war. Donne is Dryden's teacher in the condensed stroke, which 'cleaves to the waist', lines such as

They got a villain, and we lost a fool.

PAGE =151=, l. 33. _to out-sweare the Letanie._ 'Letanie,' the reading of all the MSS., is indicated by a dash in _1633_ and is omitted without any indication by _1635-39_. In _1649-50_ the blank was supplied, probably conjecturally, by 'the gallant'. It was not till _1669_ that 'Letanie' was inserted. In 'versifying' Donne's _Satyres_ Pope altered this to 'or Irishmen out-swear', and Warburton in a note explains the original: 'Dr. Donne's is a low allusion to a licentious quibble used at that time by the enemies of the English Liturgy, who, disliking the frequent invocations in the Litanie, called them the _taking God's name in vain_, which is the Scripture periphrasis for swearing.'

l. 36. _tenements._ Drummond in _HN_ writes 'torments', probably a conjectural emendation. Drummond was not so well versed in Scholastic Philosophy as Donne.

l. 44. _But a scarce Poet._ This is the reading of the best MSS., and I have adopted it in preference to 'But scarce a Poet', which is an awkward phrase and does not express what the writer means. Donne does not say that he is barely a poet, but that he is a bad poet. Donne uses 'scarce' thus as an adjective again in _Satyre IV_, l. 4 (where see note) and l. 240. It seems to have puzzled copyists and editors, who amend it in various ways. By 'jollier of this state' he means 'prouder of this state', using the word as in 'jolly statesmen', I. 7.

l. 48. '_language of the Pleas and Bench._' See Introductory Note for legal diction in love-sonnets.

PAGE =152=, ll. 62-3. _but men which chuse
Law practise for meere gaine, bold soule, repute._

The unpunctuated 'for meere gaine bold soule repute' of _1633-69_ and most MSS. has caused considerable trouble to the editors and copyists. One way out of the difficulty, 'bold souls repute,' appears in Chambers' edition as an emendation, and before that in Tonson's edition (1719), whence it was copied by all the editions to Chalmers' (1810). Lowell's conjecture, 'hold soules repute,' had been anticipated in some MSS. There is no real difficulty. I had comma'd the words 'bold soule' before I examined _Q_, which places them in brackets, a common means in old books of indicating an apostrophe. The 'bold soule' addressed, and invoked to esteem such worthless people aright, is the 'Sir' (whoever that may be) to whom the whole poem is addressed. A note in _HN_ prefixed to this poem says that it is taken from 'C. B.'s copy', i.e. Christopher Brooke's. It is quite possible that this _Satyre_, like _The Storme_, was addressed to him.

ll. 71-4. _Like a wedge in a block, wring to the barre,
Bearing-like Asses; and more shamelesse farre, &c._

These lines are printed as in _1633_, except that the comma after 'Asses' is raised to a semicolon, and that I have put a hyphen between 'Bearing' and 'like'. The lines are difficult and have greatly puzzled editors. Grosart prints from _H51_ and reads 'wringd', which, though an admissible form of the past-participle, makes no sense here. The Grolier Club editor prints:

Like a wedge in a block, wring to the bar,
Bearing like asses, and more shameless far
Than carted whores; lie to the grave judge; for ...

Chambers adopts much the same scheme:

Like a wedge in a block, wring to the bar,
Bearing like asses, and more shameless far
Than carted whores; lie to the grave judge, for ...

By retaining the comma after 'bar' in a modernized text with modern punctuation these editors leave it doubtful whether they do or do not consider that 'asses' is the object to 'wring'. Further, they connect 'and more shameless far than carted whores' closely with 'asses', separating it by a semicolon from 'lie to the grave judge'. I take it that 'more shameless far' is regarded by these editors as a qualifying adjunct to 'asses'. This is surely wrong. The subject of the long sentence is 'He' (l. 65), and the infinitives throughout are complements to 'must': 'He must walk ... he must talk ... [he must] lie ... [he must] wring to the bar bearing-like asses; [he must], more shameless than carted whores, lie to the grave judge, &c.' This is the only method in which I can construe the passage, and it carries with it the assumption that 'bearing like' should be connected by a hyphen to form an adjective similar to 'Relique-like', which is the MS. form of 'Relique-ly' at l. 84. Certainly it is 'he', Coscus, who is 'more shameless, &c.,' not his victims. These are the 'bearing-like asses', the patient Catholics or suspected Catholics whom he wrings to the bar and forces to disgorge fines. Coscus, a poet in his youth, has become a Topcliffe in his maturer years. 'Bearing,' 'patient' is the regular epithet for asses in Elizabethan literature:

Asses are made to bear and so are you.
_Taming of the Shrew_, II. i. 200.

In Jonson's _Poetaster_, v. i, the ass is declared to be the hieroglyphic of

Patience, frugality, and fortitude.

Possibly, but it is not very likely, Donne refers not only to the stupid patience of the ass but to her fertility: 'They be very gainefull and profitable to their maisters, yielding more commodities than the revenues of good farmers.' Holland's _Pliny_, 8. 43, _Of Asses_.

PAGE =153=, l. 87. _In parchments._ The plural is the reading of the better MSS. and seems to me to give the better sense. The final 's' is so easily overlooked or confounded with a final 'e' that one must determine the right reading by the sense of the passage.

ll. 93-6. _When Luther was profest, &c._ The 'power and glory clause' which is not found in the Vulgate or any of the old Latin versions of the New Testament (and is therefore not used in Catholic prayers, public or private), was taken by Erasmus (1516) from all the Greek codices, though he does not regard it as genuine. Thence it passed into Luther's (1521) and most Reformed versions. In his popular and devotional _Auslegung deutsch des Vaterunsers_ (1519) Luther makes no reference to it.

l. 105. _Whereas th'old ... In great hals._ The line as I have printed it combines the versions of _1633_ and the later editions. It is found in several MSS. Some of these, on the other hand, like _1633-69_, read 'where'; but 'where's' with a plural subject following was quite idiomatic. Compare: 'Here needs no spies nor eunuchs,' p. 81, l. 39; 'With firmer age returns our liberties,' p. 115, l. 77.

At p. 165, l. 182, the MSS. point to 'cryes his flatterers' as the original version. See Franz, _Shak.-Gram._ § 672; Knecht, _Die Kongruenz zwischen Subjekt und Prädikat_ (1911), p. 28.

Donne has other instances of irregular concord, or of the plural form in 's', and 'th':

by thy fathers wrath
By all paines which want and divorcement hath.
P. 111, l. 8.

Had'st thou staid there, and look'd out at her eyes,
All had ador'd thee that now from thee flies.
P. 285, l. 17.

Those unlick't beare-whelps, unfil'd pistolets
That (more than Canon shot) availes or lets.
P. 97, l. 32.

The rhyme makes the form here indisputable. The MSS. point to a more frequent use of 'hath' with a plural subject than the editions have preserved. The above three instances seem all plurals. In other cases the individuals form a whole, or there is ellipsis:

All Kings, and all their favorites,
All glory of honors, beauties, wits,
The Sunne it selfe which makes times, as they passe,
Is elder by a year, now, then it was.
_The Anniversarie_, p. 24, ll. 1-4.

He that but tasts, he that devours,
And he that leaves all, doth as well.
_Communitie_, p. 33, ll. 20-1.

PAGE =154=, l. 107. _meanes blesse_. The reading of _1633_ has the support of the best MSS. Grosart and Chambers prefer the reading of the later editions, 'Meane's blest.' This, it would seem to me, needs the definite article. The other reading gives quite the same sense, 'in all things means (i.e. middle ways, moderate measures) bring blessings':

Rectius vives, Licini, neque altum
Semper urgendo neque, dum procellas
Cautus horrescis, nimium premendo
Litus iniquum.

Auream quisquis mediocritatem
Diligit, tutus caret obsoleti
Sordibus tecti, caret invidenda
Sobrius aula.
Horace, _Odes_, ii. 10.

The general tenor of the closing lines recalls Horace's treatment of the same theme in _Sat._ ii. 2. 88, 125, more than either Juvenal, _Sat._ ix, or Persius, _Sat._ vi.

Grosart states that 'means, then as now, meant riches, possessions, but never the mean or middle'. But see O.E.D., which quotes for the plural in this sense: 'Tempering goodly well Their contrary dislikes with loved means.' Spenser, _Hymns_. In the singular Bacon has, 'But to speake in a Meane.' _Of Adversitie_.

PAGE =154=. SATYRE III.

PAGE =155=, l. 19. _leaders rage._ This phrase might tempt one to date the poem after the Cadiz expedition and Islands voyage, in both of which 'leaders' rage', i.e. the quarrels of Howard and Essex, and of Essex and Raleigh, militated against success; but it is too little to build upon. Donne may mean simply the arbitrary exercise of arbitrary power on the part of leaders.

ll. 30-2. _who made thee to stand Sentinell, &c._ 'Souldier' is the reading of what is perhaps the older version of the _Satyres_. It would do as well: 'Quare et tibi, Publi, et piis omnibus retinendus est animus in custodia corporis; nec iniussu eius a quo ille est vobis datus ex hominum vita migrandum est, ne munus assignatum a Deo defugisse videamini.' Cicero, _Somnium Scipionis_.

'Veteres quidem philosophiae principes, Pythagoras et Plotinus, prohibitionis huius non tam creatores sunt quam praecones, omnino illicitum esse dicentes _quempiam militiae servientem a praesidio et commissa sibi statione discedere_ contra ducis vel principis iussum. Plane eleganti exemplo usi sunt eo quod militia est vita hominis super terram.' John of Salisbury, _Policrat._ ii. 27.

Donne considers the rashness of those whom he refers to as a degree of, an approach to, suicide. To expose ourselves to these perils we abandon the moral warfare to which we are appointed. In his own work on suicide ([Greek: BIATHANATOS], &c.) Donne discusses the permissible approaches to suicide. An unpublished _Problem_ shows his knowledge of John of Salisbury.

ll. 33-4. _Know thy foes, &c._ I have followed the better MSS. here against _1633_ and _L74_, _N_, _TCD_. The dropping of 's' after 'foe' has probably led to the attempt to regularize the construction by interjecting 'h'is'. Donne has three foes in view--the devil, the world, and the flesh.

l. 35. _quit._ Whether we read 'quit' or 'rid' the construction is difficult. The phrase seems to mean 'to be free of his whole Realm'--an unparalleled use of either adjective.

l. 36. _The worlds all parts._ Here 'all' means 'every', but Shakespeare would make 'parts' singular: 'All bond and privilege of nature break,' _Cor._ V. iii. 25. Donne blends two constructions.

PAGE =156=, l. 49. _Crantz._ I have adopted the spelling of _W_, which emphasizes the Dutch character of the name. The 'Crates' of _Q_ is tempting as bringing the name into line with the other classical ones, but all the other MSS. have an 'n' in the word. Donne has in view the 'schismatics of Amsterdam' (_The Will_) and their followers. The change to Grant or Grants shows a tendency in the copyists to substitute a Scotch for a Dutch name.

PAGE =157=, ll. 69-71. _But unmoved thou, &c._ As punctuated in the old editions these lines are certainly ambiguous. The semicolon after 'allow' has a little less value than that of a full stop; that after 'right' a little more than a comma, or contrariwise. Grosart, Chambers, and the Grolier Club editor all connect 'and the right' with what precedes:

But unmoved thou
Of force must one, and forced but one allow;
And the right.

So Chambers,--Grosart and the Grolier Club editor place a comma after 'allow'. It seems to me that 'And the right' goes rather with what follows:

But unmoved thou
Of force must one, and forced but one allow.
And the right, ask thy father which is she.

If the first arrangement be right, then 'And' seems awkward. The second marks two stages in the argument: a stable judgement compels us to acknowledge religion, and that there can be only one. This being so, the next question is, Which is the true one? As to that, we cannot do better than consult our fathers:

In doubtful questions 'tis the safest way
To learn what unsuspected ancients say;
For 'tis not likely we should higher soar
In search of Heaven than all the Church before;
Nor can we be deceived unless we see
The Scriptures and the Fathers disagree.
Dryden, _Religio Laici_.

'Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations: ask thy father, and he will shew thee; thy elders, and they will tell thee.' Deut. xxxii. 7.

l. 76. _To adore, or scorne an image, &c._ Compare: 'I should violate my own arm rather than a Church, nor willingly deface the name of Saint or Martyr. At the sight of a Cross or Crucifix I can dispense with my hat, but scarce with the thought or memory of my Saviour: I cannot laugh at, but rather pity the fruitless journeys of Pilgrims, or contemn the miserable condition of Friars; for though misplaced in circumstances, there is something in it of Devotion. I could never hear the _Ave-Mary_ Bell without an elevation, or think it a sufficient warrant, because they erred in one circumstance, for me to err in all, that is in silence and dumb contempt.... At a solemn Procession I have wept abundantly, while my consorts blind with opposition and prejudice, have fallen into an excess of scorn and laughter.' Sir Thomas Browne, _Religio Medici_, sect. 3. Compare also Donne's letter To Sir H. R. (probably to Goodyere), (_Letters_, p. 29), 'You know I have never imprisoned the word Religion; not straightning it Friarly _ad religiones factitias_, (as the Romans call well their orders of Religion), nor immuring it in a Rome, or a Geneva; they are all virtual beams of one Sun.... They are not so contrary as the North and South Poles; and they are connaturall pieces of one circle. Religion is Christianity, which being too spirituall to be seen by us, doth therefore take an apparent body of good life and works, so salvation requires an honest Christian.'

l. 80. _Cragged and steep._ The three epithets, 'cragged', 'ragged', and 'rugged', found in the MSS., are all legitimate and appropriate. The second has the support of the best MSS. and is used by Donne elsewhere: 'He shall shine upon thee in all dark wayes, and rectifie thee in all ragged ways.' _Sermons_ 80. 52. 526. Shakespeare uses it repeatedly: 'A ragged, fearful, hanging rock,' _Gent. of Ver._ I. ii. 121; 'My ragged prison walls,' _Rich. II_, V. v. 21; and metaphorically, 'Winter's ragged hand,' _Sonn._ VI. i.

ll. 85-7. _To will implyes delay, &c._ I have changed the 'to' of _1633_ to 'too'. It is a mere change of spelling and has the support of both _H51_ and _W_. Grosart and Chambers take it as the preposition following the noun it governs, 'hard knowledge to'--an unexampled construction in the case of a monosyllabic preposition. Franz (_Shak.-Gram._ § 544) gives cases of inversion for metrical purposes, but only with 'mehrsilbigen Präpositionen', e.g. 'For fear lest day should look their shapes upon.' _Mid. N. Dream_, III. ii. 385.

Grosart, the Grolier Club editor, and Chambers have all, I think, been misled by the accidental omission in _1633_ of the full stop or colon after 'doe', l. 85. Chambers prints:

To will implies delay, therefore now do
Hard deeds, the body's pains; hard knowledge to
The mind's endeavours reach.

The Grolier Club version is:

To will implies delay, therefore now do
Hard deeds, the body's pains; hard knowledge too
The mind's endeavours reach.

The latter is the better version, but in each 'the body's pains' is a strange apposition to 'deeds' taken as object to 'do'. We do not 'do pains'. The second clause also has no obvious relation to the first which would justify the 'too'. If we close the first sentence at 'doe', we get both better sense and a better balance: 'Act _now_, for the night cometh. Hard deeds are achieved by the body's pains (i.e. toil, effort), and hard knowledge is attained by the mind's efforts.' The order of the words, and the condensed force given to 'reach' produce a somewhat harsh effect, but not more so than is usual in the _Satyres_, and less so than the alternative versions of the editors. The following lines continue the thought quite naturally: 'No endeavours of the mind will enable us to _comprehend_ mysteries, but all eyes can _apprehend_ them, dazzle as they may.' Compare: 'In all Philosophy there is not so darke a thing as light; As the sunne which is _fons lucis naturalis_, the beginning of naturall light, is the most evident thing to be seen, and yet the hardest to be looked upon, so is naturall light to our reason and understanding. Nothing clearer, for it is _clearnesse_ it selfe, nothing darker, it is enwrapped in so many scruples. Nothing nearer, for it is round about us, nothing more remote, for wee know neither entrance, nor limits of it. Nothing more _easie_, for a child discerns it, nothing more _hard_ for no man understands it. It is apprehensible by _sense_, and not comprehensible by _reason_. If wee winke, wee cannot chuse but see it, if wee stare, wee know it never the better.' _Sermons_ 50. 36. 324.

PAGE =158=, ll. 96-7. _a Philip, or a Gregory, &c._ Grosart and Norton conjecture that by Philip is meant Melanchthon, and for 'Gregory' Norton conjectures Gregory VII; Grosart either Gregory the Great or Gregory of Nazianzus. But surely Philip of Spain is balanced against Harry of England, one defender of the faith against another, as Gregory against Luther. What Gregory is meant we cannot say, but probably Donne had in view Gregory XIII or Gregory XIV, post-Reformation Popes, rather than either of those mentioned above. Satire does not deal in Ancient History. The choice is between Catholic and Protestant Princes and Popes.

PAGE =158=. SATYRE IIII.

This satire, like several of the period, is based on Horace's _Ibam forte via Sacra_ (_Sat._ i. 9), but Donne follows a quite independent line. Horace's theme is at bottom a contrast between his own friendship with Maecenas and 'the way in which vulgar and pushing people sought, and sought in vain, to obtain an introduction'. Donne, like Horace, describes a bore, but makes this the occasion for a general picture of the hangers-on at Court. A more veiled thread running through the poem is an attack on the ways and tricks of informers. The bore's gossip is probably not without a motive:

I ... felt my selfe then
Becoming Traytor, and mee thought I saw
One of our Giant Statutes ope his jaw
To sucke me in.

The manner in which the stranger accosts him suggests the 'intelligencer': 'Two hungry turns had I scarce fetcht in this wast gallery when I was encountered by a neat pedantical fellow, in the forme of a Cittizen, who thrusting himself abruptly into my companie, like an Intelligencer, began very earnestly to question me.' Nash, _Pierce Penniless_.

In the _Satyres_ Donne is always, though he does not state his position too clearly, one with links attaching him to the persecuted Catholic minority. He hates informers and pursuivants.

ll. 1-4. These lines resemble the opening of Régnier's imitation of Horace's satire:

Charles, de mes peches j'ay bien fait penitence;
Or, toy qui te cognois aux cas de conscience,
Juge si j'ay raison de penser estre absous.

I can trace no further resemblance.

l. 4. _A recreation to, and scarse map of this._ I have ventured here to restore, from _Q_ and its duplicate among the Dyce MSS., what I think must have been the original form of this line. The adjective 'scarse' or 'scarce' used in this way ('a scarce poet', 'a scarce brook') is characteristic of Donne, and it always puzzled his copyists, who tried to correct it in one way or another, e.g. 'scarce a poet', II. 44; 'a scant brooke', IV. 240. It is inconceivable that they would have introduced it. The preposition 'to' governing 'such as' regularizes the construction, but would very easily be omitted by a copyist who wished to smooth the metre or did not at once catch its reference. Donne's use of 'scarse', like his use of 'Macaron' in this poem, is probably an Italianism; in Italian 'scarso' means 'wanting, scanty, poor'--'stretta e scarsa fortuna', 'E si riduce talvolta nell' Estate con si scarsa acqua', 'Veniva bellissima tanto quanto ogni comparazione ci saria scarsa', 'Ma l'ingegno e le rime erano scarse' (Petrarch).

PAGE =159=, l. 21. _seaven Antiquaries studies._ Donne has more than one hit at Antiquaries. See the _Epigrams_ and _Satyre V_. The reign of Elizabeth witnessed a great revival of antiquarian studies and the first formation of an Antiquarian society: 'There was a time, most excellent king,' says a later writer addressing King James, 'when as well under Queen Elizabeth, as under your majesty, certain choice gentlemen, men of known proof, were knit together, _statis temporibus_, by the love of these studies, upon contribution among themselves: which company consisted of an elective president and of clarissimi, of other antiquaries and a register.' Oldys, _Life of Raleigh_, p. 317. He goes on to describe how the society was dissolved by death. In the list of names he gives there are more than seven, but it is just possible that Donne refers to some such society in its early stages.

l. 22. _Africks monsters, Guianaes rarities._ Africa was famous as the land of monsters. The second reference is to the marvels described in Sir Walter Raleigh's _The discoverie of the large, rich and bewtiful Empire of Guiana, with a relation of the great and golden City of Manoa which the Spaniards call El Dorado, performed in the year 1595_ (pub. 1596). Among the monsters were Amazons, Anthropophagi,

and men whose heads
Do grow beneath their shoulders.

l. 23. _Stranger then strangers, &c._ The 'Stranger then strangest' of some MSS. would form a natural climax to the preceding list of marvels. But 'strangers' is the authoritative reading, and forms the transition to the next few lines. The reference is to the unpopularity in London of the numerous strangers whom wars and religious persecution had collected in England. Strype (_Annals_, iv) prints a paper of 1568 in which the Lord Mayor gives to the Privy Council an account of the strangers in London. In 1593 there were again complaints of their presence and threats to attack them. 'While these inquiries were making, to incense the people against them there were these lines in one of their libels: Doth not the world see that you, beastly brutes, the Belgians, or rather drunken drones and faint-hearted Flemings; and you fraudulent father (_sic. Query_ 'faitor[s]'), Frenchmen, by your cowardly flight from your own natural countries, have abandoned the same into the hands of your proud, cowardly enemies, and have by a feigned hypocrisy and counterfeit show of religion placed yourself here in a most fertile soil, under a most gracious and merciful prince; who hath been contented, to the great prejudice of her own natural subjects, to suffer you to live here in better case and more freedom then her own people--Be it known to all Flemings and Frenchmen that it is best for them to depart out of the realm of England between this and the 9th of July next. If not then to take that which follows: for that there shall be many a sore stripe. Apprentices will rise to the number of 2336. And all the apprentices and journeymen will down with the Flemings and strangers.'

Another libel was in verse, and after quoting it the official document proceeds: 'The court upon these seditious motives took the most prudent measures to protect the poor strangers, and to prevent any riot or insurrection.' Among other provisions, 'Orders to be given to appoint a strong watch of merchants and others, and like-handicrafted masters, to answer for their apprentices' and servants' misdoing.' Strype's _Annals_, iv. 234-5.

In the same year a bill was promoted in Parliament _against aliens selling foreign wares among us by retail_, which Raleigh supported: 'Whereas it is pretended that for strangers it is against charity, against honour, against profit to expel them: in my opinion it is no matter of charity to relieve them. For first, such as fly hither have forsaken their own king: and religion is no pretext for them; for we have no Dutchmen here, but such as come from those princes where the gospel is preached; yet here they live disliking our church,' &c. Birch, _Life of Raleigh_, p. 163.

I have thought it worth while to note these more recent references as Grosart refers to the rising against strangers on May-day, 1517.

l. 29. _by your priesthood, &c._ In 1581 a proclamation was issued imposing the penalty of death on any Jesuits or seminary priests who entered the Queen's dominions, and in 1585 Parliament again decreed that all Jesuits and seminary priests were to leave the kingdom within forty days under the capital penalty of treason. The detection, imprisonment, torture, and execution of disguised priests form a considerable chapter in Elizabethan history. Donne's companion looks so strange that he runs the risk of arrest as a seminary priest from Rome, or Douay. See Strype's _Annals_, passim, and Meyer, _Die Katholische Kirche unter Elisabeth_, 1910.

PAGE =160=, l. 35. _and saith_: 'saith' is the reading of all the earlier editions, although Chambers and the Grolier Club editor silently alter it to an exclamatory 'faith'--turning it into a statement which Donne immediately contradicts. The 'saith' is a harshly interpolated 'so he says'. One MS. adds 'he', and possibly the pronoun in some form has been dropped, e.g. 'sayth a speakes'.

ll. 37-8. _Made of the Accents, &c._ It is perhaps rash to accept the 'no language' of _A25_, _Q_, and the Dyce MS. But the last two represent, I think, an early version of the _Satyres_, and 'no language' (like 'nill be delayed', _Epithal. made at Lincolns Inn_) is just the sort of reading that would tend to disappear in repeated transmission. It is too bold for the average copyist or editor. But its boldness is characteristic of Donne; it gives a much better sense; and it is echoed by Jonson in his _Discoveries_: 'Spenser in affecting the ancients writ no language.' In like manner Donne's companion, in affecting the accents and best phrases of all languages, spoke none. I confess that seems to me a more pointed remark than that he spoke one made up of these.

l. 48. _Jovius or Surius_: Paolo Giovio, Bishop of Nocera, among many other works wrote _Historiarum sui temporis Libri XLV. 1553_. Chambers quotes from the _Nouvelle Biographie Générale_: 'Ses œuvres sont pleines des mensonges dont profita sa cupidité.'

Laurentius Surius (1522-78) was a Carthusian monk who wrote ecclesiastical history. Among his works are a _Commentarius brevis rerum in orbe gestarum ab anno 1550_ (1568), and a _Vitae Sanctorum, 1570 et seq._ He was accused of inaccuracy by Protestant writers. It is worth while noting that _Q_ and _O'F_ read 'Sleydan', i.e. Sleidanus. John Sleidan (1506-56) was a Protestant historian who, like Surius, wrote both general and ecclesiastical history, e.g. _De quatuor Summis Imperiis, Babylonico, Persico, Graeco, et Romano_, 1556 (an English translation appeared in 1635), and _De Statu Religionis et Reipublicae, Carolo Quinto Caesare Commentarii_ (1555-9). The latter is a history of the Reformation written from the Protestant point of view, to which Surius' work is a reply. Sleidan's history did not give entire satisfaction to the reformers. It is quite possible that Donne's first sneer was at the Protestant historian and that he thought it safer later to substitute the Catholic Surius.

l. 54. _Calepines Dictionarie._ A well-known polyglot dictionary edited by Ambrose Calepine (1455-1511) in 1502. It grew later to a _Dictionarium Octolingue_, and ultimately to a _Dictionarium XI Linguarum_ (Basel, 1590).

l. 56. _Some other Jesuites._ The 'other' is found only in _HN_, which is no very reliable authority. Without it the line wants a whole foot, not merely a syllable. Donne more than once drops a syllable, compensating for it by the length and stress which is given to another. Nothing can make up for the want of a whole foot, though in dramatic verse an incomplete line may be effective. To me, too, it seems very like Donne to introduce this condensed and sudden stroke at Beza and nothing more likely to have been dropped later, either by way of precaution or because it was not understood. No one of the reformers was more disliked by Catholics than Beza. The licence of his early life, his loose Latin verses, the scurrilous wit of his own controversial method--all exposed him to and provoked attack. The _De Vita et Moribus Theodori Bezae, Omnium Haereticorum nostri temporis facile principis, &c.: Authore Jacobo Laingaeo Doctore Sorbonico_ (1585), is a bitter and calumnious attack. There was, too, something of the Jesuit, both in the character of the arguments used and in the claim made on behalf of the Church to direct the civil arm, in Beza's defence of the execution of Servetus. Moreover, the _Vindiciae contra Tyrannos_ was sometimes attributed to Beza, and the views of the reformers regarding the rights of kings put forward there, and those held by the Jesuits, approximate closely. (See _Cambridge Modern History_, iii. 22, _Political Thought in the Sixteenth Century_, pp. 759-66.) In his subsequent attacks upon the Jesuits, Donne always singles out the danger of their doctrines and practice to the authority of kings. Throughout the _Satyres_ Donne's veiled Catholic prejudices have to be constantly borne in mind.

PAGE =161=, l. 59. _and so Panurge was._ See Rabelais, _Pantagruel_ ii. 9. One day that Pantagruel was walking with his friends he met 'un homme beau de stature et elegant en tous lineaments de corps, mais pitoyablement navré en divers lieux, et tant mal en ordre qu'il sembloit estre eschappe es chiens'. Pantagruel, convinced from his appearance that 'il n'est pauvre que par fortune', demands of him his name and story. He replies; but, to the dismay of Pantagruel and his friends, his answer is couched first in German, then in Arabic (?), then in Italian, in English (or what passes as such), in Basque, in Lanternoy (an Esperanto of Rabelais's invention), in Dutch, in Spanish, in Danish, in Hebrew, in Greek, in the language of Utopia, and finally in Latin. '"Dea, mon amy," dist Pantagruel, "ne sçavez-vous parler françoys?" "Si faict tresbien, Seigneur," respondit le compaignon; "Dieu mercy! c'est ma langue naturelle et maternelle, car je suis né et ay esté nourry jeune au jardin de France: c'est Touraine."--"Doncques," dist Pantagruel, "racomtez nous quel est votre nom et dont vous venez."... "Seigneur," dist le compagnon, "mon vray et propre nom de baptesmes est Panurge."' Panurge was not much behind Calepine's Dictionary, and if Donne's companion spoke in the 'accent and best phrase' of all these tongues he certainly spoke 'no language'.

l. 69. _doth not last_: 'last' has the support of several good MSS., 'taste' (i.e. savour, go down, be acceptable) of some. It is impossible to decide on intrinsic grounds between them.

l. 70. _Aretines pictures._ The lascivious pictures of Giulio Romano, for which Aretino wrote sonnets.

l. 75. _the man that keepes the Abbey tombes._ See Davies' epigram, _On Dacus_, quoted in the general note on the _Satyres_.

l. 80. _Kingstreet._ From Charing Cross to the King's Palace at Westminster. It was for long the only way to Westminster from the north. 'The last part of it has now been covered by the new Government offices in Parliament Street'. Stow's _Survey of London_, ed. Charles Lethbridge Kingsford (1908), ii. 102 and notes.

ll. 83-7. I divide the dialogue thus:

_Companion._ Are not your Frenchmen neat?

_Donne._ Mine? As you see I have but one Frenchman, look he
follows me.

_Companion (ignoring this impertinence)._ Certes they (i.e.
Frenchmen) are neatly cloth'd. I of this mind am, Your only
wearing is your grogaram.

_Donne._ Not so Sir, I have more.

The joke turns on Donne's pretending to misunderstand the bore's colloquial, but rather affected, indefinite use of 'your'. Donne applies it to himself: 'You are mistaken in thinking that I have only one suit.' Chambers gives the whole speech, from 'He's base' to 'he follows me', to the bore. This gives 'Certes ... grogaram' to Donne, and the closing repartee to the bore. Chambers uses inverted commas, and has, probably by an oversight, omitted to begin a new speech at 'Mine'.

For 'your' as used by the bore compare Bottom's use of it in _A Midsummer Nights Dream_: 'I will discharge it in either your straw-coloured beard, or your orange-tawny beard', and 'there is not a more fearful wild-fowl than your lion'. In most of the instances quoted by Schmidt there is the suggestion that Shakespeare is making fun of an affectation of the moment. That Donne had a French servant appears from one of his letters: 'therefore I onely send you this Letter ... and my promise to distribute your other Letters, according to your addresses, as fast as my Monsieur can doe it.' To Sir G. B., _Letters_, p. 201.

PAGE =162=, l. 97. _ten Hollensheads, or Halls, or Stowes._ Every reader of these old chroniclers knows how they mingle with their account of the greater events of each year mention of trifling events, strange births, fires, &c. This characteristic of the Chronicles is reflected in the History-Plays based on them. Nash complains of these 'lay-chroniclers that write of nothing but of Mayors and Sherifs, and the deere yere and the great frost'. _Pierce Penniless._

ll. 98. _he knowes; He knowes._ I have followed _D_, _H49_, _Lec_ in thus punctuating. To place the semicolon after 'trash' makes 'Of triviall household trash' depend rather awkwardly on 'lye'. Donne does not accuse the chroniclers of lying, but of reporting trivialities.

PAGE =163=, l. 113-4. _since The Spaniards came, &c._: i.e. from 1588 to 1597.

l. 117. _To heare this Makeron talke._ This is the earliest instance of this Italian word used in English which the O.E.D. quotes, and is a proof of Donne's Italian travels. The _Vocabolario degli Accademici della Crusca_ (1747) quotes as an example of the word with this meaning, _homo crassâ Minerva_, in Italian:

O maccheron, ben hai la vista corta.
Bellina, _Sonetti_, 29.