l. 9. _If all things be in all._ 'All things are concealed in all.
One of them all is the concealer of the rest--their corporeal vessel,
external, visible and movable.' Paracelsus, _Coelum Philosophorum: The
First Canon, Concerning the Nature and Properties of Mercury_.
PAGE =169=, l. 31. _You Sir, &c._: i.e. Sir Thomas Egerton, whose
service Donne entered probably in 1598 and left in 1601-2. Norton says
1596 to 1600. In 1596 Egerton was made Lord Keeper. In 1597 he
was busy with the reform of some of the abuses connected with the
Clerkship of the Star Chamber, and this is probably what Donne has in
view throughout the Satyre. 'For some years the administration of this
office had given rise to complaints. In the last Parliament a bill
had been brought in ... for the reformation of it; but by a little
management on the part of the Speaker had been thrown out on the
second reading. Upon this I suppose the complainants addressed
themselves to the Queen. For it appears that the matter was under
inquiry in 1595, when Puckering was Lord Keeper; and it is certain
that at a later period some of the fees claimed by the Clerk of
Council were by authority of the Lord Keeper Egerton restrained.'
Spedding, _Letters and Life of Francis Bacon_, ii. 56. In the note
Spedding refers to a MS. at Bridgewater House containing 'The humble
petition of the Clerk of the Council concerning his fees restrained
by the Rt. Hon. the Lord Keeper'. Bacon held the reversion to this
Clerkship and in a long letter to Egerton he discusses in detail the
nature of the 'claim'd fees'. The question was not settled till 1605.
It will be noticed that in several editions and MSS. the reading is
'claim'd fees'.
ll. 37-41. These lines are correctly printed in _1633_, though the old
use of the semicolon to indicate at one time a little less than a
full stop, at another just a little more than a comma, has caused
confusion. I have, therefore, ventured to alter the first (after
'farre') to a full stop, and the second (after 'duties') to a comma.
'_That_', says Donne (the italics give emphasis), 'was the iron age
when justice was sold. Now' (in this 'age of rusty iron') 'injustice
is sold dearer. Once you have allowed all the demands made on you, you
find, suitors (and suitors are gamblers), that the money you toiled
for has passed into other hands, the lands for which you urged your
rival claims has escaped you, as Angelica escaped while Ferrau and
Rinaldo fought for her.'
To the reading of the editions _1635-54_, which Chambers has adopted
(but by printing in roman letters he makes 'that' a relative pronoun,
and 'iron age' subject to 'did allow'), I can attach no meaning:
The iron Age _that_ was, when justice was sold (now
Injustice is sold dearer) did allow
All claim'd fees and duties. Gamesters anon.
How did the iron age allow fees and duties? The text of _1669_ reverts
to that of _1633_ (keeping the 'claim'd fees' of _1635-54_), but does
not improve the punctuation by changing the semicolon after 'farre' to
a comma.
Mr. Allen (_Rise of Formal Satire, &c._) points out that the allusion
to the age of 'rusty iron', which deserves some worse name, is
obviously derived from Juvenal XIII. 28 ff.:
Nunc aetas agitur, peioraque saecula ferri
Temporibus: quorum sceleri non invenit ipsa
Nomen, et a nullo posuit natura metallo.