Compare Ovid, _Amores_, I. 13.
Iam super oceanum venit a seniore marito,
Flava pruinoso quae vehit axe diem.
Quo properas, Aurora?
. . .
Quo properas, ingrata viris, ingrata puellis?
. . .
Tu pueros somno fraudas, tradisque magistris,
Ut subeant tenerae verbera saeva manus.
A comparison of Ovid's simple and natural images and reflections with
Donne's passionate but ingenious hyperboles will show exactly what
Testi meant by his contrast of the homely imagery of classical and the
metaphysical manner of Italian love poetry.
l. 17. _both th' India's of spice and Myne._ A distinction that Donne
is never tired of. 'The use of the word mine specifically for mines
of gold, silver, or precious stone is, I believe, peculiar to Donne.'
Coleridge, quoted by Norton. The O.E.D. does not contradict this, for
the word had a wider connotation. Compare _Loves exchange_, p. 35, ll.
34-35:
and make more
Mynes in the earth, then Quarries were before.
And _The Progresse of the Soule_, p. 295, l. 17:
thy Western land of Myne.
And for the two Indias: 'As hee that hath a plentifull fortune in
Europe, cares not much though there be no land of perfumes in the
East, nor of gold, in the West-Indies.' _Sermons_ 50. 15. 123. And
'Sir. Your way into Spain was eastward, and that is the way to the
land of perfumes and spices; their way hither is westward, and that
is the way to the land of gold and of mines,' &c. _To Sir Robert Ker._
Gosse's _Life, &c._, ii. 191.
l. 24. _All wealth alchimie_: i.e. imposture or 'glittering dross'
(O.E.D.). 'Though the show of it were glorious, the substance of it
was dross, and nothing but alchymy and cozenage.' Harrington, _Orlando
Furioso_ (1591). See also poem cited II. p. 11.