l. 3. _That subtile wreath of haire, which crowns my arme_; 'And
Theagenes presented her with a diamond ring which he used to wear,
entreating her, whensoever she did cast her eyes upon it, to conceive
that it told her in his behalf, that his heart would prove as hard as
that stone in the admittance of any new affection; and that his to
her should be as void of end as that circular figure was;' (compare
_A Ieat Ring sent_, p. 65) 'and she desired him to wear for her sake
a lock of hair which she gave him; the splendour of which can be
expressed by no earthly thing, but it seemed as though a stream of
the sun's beams had been gathered together and converted into a solid
substance. With this precious relique about his arm,' (compare _The
Relique_, p. 62) 'whose least hair was sufficient' (compare _Aire and
Angels_, p. 22, 'Ev'ry thy hair' and note) 'to bind in bonds of love
the greatest heart that ever was informed with life, Theagenes took
his journey into Attica.' Kenelm Digby's _Private Memoirs_ (1827), pp.
80-1. When later Theagenes heard that Stelliana (believing Theagenes
to be dead) was to wed Mardonius, 'he tore from his arm the bracelet
of her hair ... and threw it into the fire that was in his chamber;
when that glorious relic burning shewed by the wan and blue colour
of the flame that it had sense and took his words unkindly in her
behalf.'
Theagenes was Sir Kenelm Digby himself, Stelliana being Lady Venetia
Stanley, afterwards his wife. Mardonius was probably Edward, Earl of
Dorset, the brother of Donne's friend and patron.
It is probable that this sequence of poems, _The Funerall_, _The
Blossome_, _The Primrose_ and _The Relique_, was addressed to Mrs.
Herbert in the earlier days of Donne's intimacy with her in Oxford or
London.
l. 24. _That since you would save none of me, I bury some of you._ I
have hesitated a good deal over this line. The reading of the editions
is 'have none of me'; and in the group of MSS. _D_, _H49_, _Lec_,
while _H49_ reads 'save', _D_ has corrected 'have' to what _may_ be
'save', and _Lec_ reads 'have'. The reading of the editions is the
full form of the construction, which is more common without the
'have'. 'It's four to one she'll none of me,' _Twelfth Night_, I.
iii. 113; 'She will none of him,' Ibid. II. ii. 9, are among Schmidt's
examples (_Shakespeare Lexicon_), in none of which 'have' occurs.
The reading of the MSS., 'save none of me,' is also quite idiomatic,
resembling the ' fear none of this' (i.e. 'do not fear this') of
_Winter's Tale_, IV. iv. 601; and I have preferred it because: (1) It
seems difficult to understand how it could have arisen if 'have none'
was the original. (2) It gives a sharper antithesis, 'You would not
save me, keep me alive. Therefore I will bury, not you indeed, but
a part of you.' (3) To be saved is the lover's usual prayer; and the
idea of the poem is that his death is due to the lady's cruelty.
Come not, when I am dead,
To drop thy foolish tears upon my grave,
To trample round my fallen head,
And vex the unhappy dust thou wouldst not save.
There let the wind sweep and the plover cry;
But thou go by.
Compare also the Letter _To M^{rs} M. H._ (pp. 216-8), where the same
idea recurs:
When thou art there, if any, whom we know,
Were sav'd before, and did that heaven partake, &c.