Donne has in this Elegy carried to its farthest extreme, as only a
metaphysical or scholastic poet like himself could, the favourite
Elizabethan pun on the coin called the Angel. Shakespeare is fond of
the same quibble: 'She has all the rule of her husband's purse; she
hath a legion of angels' (_Merry Wives_, I. iii. 60). But Donne knows
more of the philosophy of angels than Shakespeare and can pursue the
analogy into more surprising subtleties. Nor is the pun on angels the
only one which he follows up in this poem: crowns, pistolets, and gold
are all played with in turn. The poem was a favourite with Ben
Jonson: 'his verses of the Lost Chaine he hath by heart' (_Drummond's
Conversations_, ed. Laing).
The text of the poem, which was first printed in _1635_ (Marriot
having been prohibited from including it in the edition of 1633),
is based on a MS. closely resembling _Cy_ and _P_, and differing
in several readings from the text given in the rest of the MSS.,
including _D_, _H49_, _Lec_, and _W_. I have endeavoured rather to
give this version correctly, while recording the variants, than either
to substitute another or contaminate the two. When _Cy_ and _P_ go
over to the side of the other MSS. it is a fair inference that the
editions have gone astray. When they diverge, the question is a more
open one.
PAGE =97=, l. 24. _their naturall Countreys rot_: i.e. 'their native
Countreys rot', the 'lues Gallica'. Compare 'the naturall people of
that Countrey', Greene, _News from Hell_ (ed. Grosart, p. 57). This
is the reading of _Cy_, and the order of the words in the other MSS.
points to its being the reading of the MS. from which _1635_ was
printed.
l. 26. _So pale, so lame, &c._ The chipping and debasement of the
French crown is frequently referred to, and Shakespeare is fond
of punning on the word. But two extracts from Stow's _Chronicle_
(_continued ... by_ Edmund Howes), 1631, will throw some light on the
references to coins in this poem: In the year 1559 took place the last
abasement of English money whereby testons and groats were lowered in
value and called in, 'and according to the last valuation of them,
she gave them fine money of cleane silver for them commonly called
Sterling money, and from this time there was no manner of base money
coyned or used in England ... but all English monies were made of gold
and silver, which is not so in any other nation whatsoever, but have
sundry sorts of copper money.'
'The 9. of November, the French crowne that went currant for six
shillings foure pence, was proclaimed to be sixe shillings.'
In 1561, 'The fifteenth of November, the Queenes Maiestie published a
Proclamation for divers small pieces of silver money to be currant,
as the sixe pence, foure pence, three pence, 2 pence and a peny, three
half-pence, and 3 farthings: and also forbad all forraigne coynes to
be currant within the same Realme, as well gold as silver, calling
them all into her Maiesties Mints, except two sorts of crownes of
gold, the one the French crowne, the other the Flemish crowne.' The
result was the bringing in of large sums in 'silver plates: and as
much or more in pistolets, and other gold of Spanish coynes, and one
weeke in pistolets and other Spanish gold 16000 pounds, all these to
be coyned with the Queenes stamps.'
l. 29. _Spanish Stamps still travelling._ Grosart regards this as an
allusion to the wide diffusion of Spanish coins. The reference is more
pointed. It is to the prevalence of Spanish bribery, the policy of
securing paid agents in every country. It was by money that Parma
secured his first hold on the revolted provinces. Gardiner has shown
that Lord Cranborne, afterwards Earl of Salisbury, accepted a pension
from the Spanish king (_Hist. of England_, i, p. 215). The discovery
of the number of his Court who were in Spanish pay came as a profound
shock to James at a later period. The invariable charge brought by
one Dutch statesman against another was of being in the pay of the
Spaniard.
'It is his Indian gold,' says Raleigh, speaking of the King of Spain
in 1596, 'that endangers and disturbs all the nations of Europe; it
creeps into councils, purchases intelligence, and sets bound loyalty
at liberty in the greatest monarchies thereof.'
ll. 40-1. _Gorgeous France ruin'd, ragged and decay'd;
Scotland, which knew no state, proud in one day:_
The punctuation of _1669_ has the support generally of the MSS.,
but in matters of punctuation these are not a very safe guide. As
punctuated in _1635_, 'ragged and decay'd' are epithets of Scotland,
contrasting her with 'Gorgeous France'. I think, however, that the
antithesis to 'gorgeous' is 'ruin'd, ragged and decay'd', describing
the condition of France after the pistolets of Spain had done their
work. The epithet applied to Scotland is 'which knew no state', the
antithesis being 'proud in one day'.
PAGE =98=, ll. 51-4. _Much hope which they should nourish, &c._
Professor Norton proposed that the last two of these lines should run:
Will vanish if thou, Love, let them alone,
For thou wilt love me less when they are gone;
but that 'alone' is a misprint for 'atone.' This is unnecessary, and
there is no authority for 'atone'. What Donne says, in the cynical
vein of _Elegie VI_, 9-10, is: 'If thou love me let my crowns alone,
for the poorer I grow the less you will love me. I shall lose the
qualities which you admired in me when you saw them through the
glamour of wealth.'
l. 55. _And be content._ The majority of the MSS. begin a new
paragraph here and read:
Oh, be content, &c.
Donne would almost seem to have read or seen (he was a frequent
theatre-goer) the old play of _Soliman and Perseda_ (pr. 1599). There
the lover, having lost a carcanet, sends a cryer through the street
and offers one hundred crowns reward. Chambers notes a similar case in
_The Puritan_ (1607). Lost property is still cried by the bellman
in northern Scottish towns. The custom of resorting in such cases
to 'some dread Conjurer' is frequently referred to. See Jonson's
_Alchemist_ for the questions with which their customers approached
conjurers.
ll. 71-2. _So in the first falne angels, &c._ Aquinas discusses the
question: 'Utrum intellectus daemonis sit obtenebratus per privationem
cognitionis omnis veritatis.' After stating the arguments for such
privation he replies: 'Sed contra est quod Dionysius dicit ... quod
"data sunt daemonibus aliqua dona, quae nequaquam mutata esse dicimus,
sed sunt integra et splendidissima." Inter ista, autem, naturalia
dona est cognitio veritatis.' Aquinas then explains that knowledge is
twofold, that which comes by nature, and that which comes by
grace: and that the latter again is twofold, that which is purely
speculative, and that which is 'affectiva, producens amorem Dei'.
'Harum autem trium cognitionum prima in daemonibus nec est ablata nec
diminuta: consequitur enim ipsam naturam Angeli, qui secundum suam
naturam est quidam intellectus vel mens. Propter simplicitatem autem
suae substantiae a natura eius aliquid subtrahi non potest.'
Devils, therefore, have natural knowledge in an eminent degree
(_splendidissima_); they have even the knowledge which comes by grace
in so far as God chooses to bestow it, for His own purposes, by
the mediation of angels or 'per aliqua temporalia divinae virtutis
effecta' (Augustine). But of the knowledge which leads to good they
have nothing: 'tenendum est firmiter secundum fidem catholicam, quod
et voluntas bonorum Angelorum confirmata est in bono, et voluntas
daemonum obstinata est in malo.' _Summa_ I.
lxiv. 1-2. They have 'wisdom and knowledge', but it is immovably set
to do ill.
ll. 77-8. _Pitty these Angels; yet their dignities
Passe Vertues, Powers and Principalities._
There is a good deal of vacillation in the MSS. as to the punctuation
of 'Angels yet', some placing the semicolon before, others after
'yet'. The difference is not great, but that which I have adopted,
though it has least authority, brings out best what I take to be the
meaning of these somewhat difficult lines. 'Pity these Angels, for yet
(i.e. until they are melted down and lose their form) they, as good
angels, are superior in dignity to Vertues, Powers, and Principalities
among the bad angels.' The order of the Angelic beings, which the
Middle Ages took from Pseudo-Dionysius, consisted of nine Orders in
three Hierarchies. The first and highest Hierarchy included (beginning
with the highest Order) Seraphim, Cherubim, and Thrones; the second,
Dominions, Virtues, and Powers; the third, Principalities, Archangels,
Angels. Thus the three Orders mentioned by Donne are all in rank
superior to mere Angels; but the lowest Order of Good Angels is
superior to the highest Order of Evil Spirits, although before their
fall these belonged to the highest Orders. Probably, however, there
is a second and satiric reference in Donne's words which explains his
choice of Vertues, Powers, and Principalities. In the other sense of
the words Angels are coins, money; and the power of money surpasses
that of earthly Vertues, Powers, and Principalities. This may explain,
further, why Donne singles out 'Vertues, Powers, and Principalities'.
One would expect that, to make the antithesis between good and bad
angels as complete as possible, he would have named the three highest
orders, Seraphim, Cherubim, and Thrones. But the three orders which he
does mention are the highest Orders which travel, as money does. The
angels are divided into _Assistentes_ and _Administrates_. To the
former class belong all the Orders of the first Hierarchy, and the
Dominions of the second. The Vertues are thus the highest Order of
_Administrantes_. Aquinas, _Summa_, cxii. 3, 4. The _Assistentes_ are
those who 'only stand and wait'.
PAGE =99=, l. 100. _rot thy moist braine_: So Sylvester's _Du Bartas_,
I. ii. 18:
the Brain
Doth highest place of all our Frame retain,
And tempers with its moistful coldness so
Th'excessive heat of other parts below.
This was Aristotle's opinion (_De Part. Anim._ II. 7), refuted by
Galen, who, like Plato, made the brain the seat of the soul and the
generator of the animal spirits. See II. p. 45.
PAGE =100=, ll. 112, 114. _Gold is Restorative ... 'tis cordiall._
'Most men say as much of gold, and some other minerals, as these have
done of precious stones. Erastus still maintaineth the opposite part,
Disput. in Paracelsum, cap. 4, fol. 196, he confesseth of gold, that
it makes the heart merry, but in no other sense but as it is in a
miser's chest:
----at mihi plaudo
----simulac nummos contemplor in arcâ
as he said in the poet: it so revives the spirits, and is an excellent
receipt against melancholy,
For gold in phisik is a cordial,
Therefore he lovede gold in special.'
Burton, _Anatomy of Melancholy_, Pt. 2, Sub. 4.