l. 13. _Care not then, Madam,'how low your praysers lye._ I cannot but
think that the 'praysers' of the MSS. is preferable to the 'prayses'
of the editions. It is difficult to construe or make unambiguous sense
of 'how low your prayses lie'. Donne does not wish to suggest that the
praise is poor in itself, but that the giver is a 'low person'. The
word 'prayser' he has already used in a letter to the Countess
(p. 200), and there also it has caused some trouble to editors and
copyists.
ll. 20-1. _Your radiation can all clouds subdue;
But one, 'tis best light to contemplate you._
Grosart and the Grolier Club editor punctuate these lines so as to
connect 'But one' with what precedes.
Your radiation can all clouds subdue
But one; 'tis best light to contemplate you.
I suppose 'death' in this reading is to be regarded as the one
cloud which the radiation of the Countess cannot dispel. There is
no indication, however, that this is the thought in Donne's mind.
As punctuated (i.e. with a comma after 'subdue', which I have
strengthened to a semicolon), 'But one' goes with what follows, and
refers to God: 'Excepting God only, you are the most illuminating
object we can contemplate.'
PAGE =219=, l. 27. _May in your through-shine front your hearts
thoughts see._ All the MSS. agree in reading 'your hearts thoughts',
which is obviously correct. _N_, _O'F_, and _TCD_ give the line
otherwise exactly as in the editions. _B_ drops the 'shine' after
'through'; and _S96_ reads:
May in you, through your face, your hearts thoughts see.
Donne has used 'through-shine' already in '_A Valediction: of my name
in the window_':
'Tis much that glasse should bee
As all confessing, and through-shine as I,
'Tis more that it shewes thee to thee,
And cleare reflects thee to thine eye.
But all such rules, loves magique can undoe,
Here you see mee, and I am you.
If there were any evidence that Donne was, as in this lyric, playing
with the idea of the identity of different souls, there would be
reason to retain the 'our hearts thoughts' of the editions; but there
is no trace of this. He is dwelling simply on the thought of the
Countess's transparency. Donne is fond of compounds with 'through'.
Other examples are 'through-light', 'through-swome', 'through-vaine',
'through-pierc'd'.
ll. 36-7. _They fly not, &c._ Chambers and the Grolier Club editor
have here injured the sense by altering the punctuation. 'Nature's
first lesson' does not complete the previous statement about the
relation of the different souls, but qualifies 'discretion'. 'Just as
the souls of growth and sense do not claim precedence of the rational
soul, so the first lesson taught us by Nature, viz. _discretion_, must
not grudge a place to zeal.' 'Anima rationalis est perfectior quam
sensibilis, et sensibilis quam vegetabilis,' Aquinas, _Summa_, ii. 57.
2.
PAGE =220=, l. 46. _In those poor types, &c._ The use of the circle
as an emblem of infinity is very old. 'To the mystically inclined the
perpendicular was the emblem of unswerving rectitude and purity; but
the circle, "the foremost, richest, and most perfect of curves" was
the symbol of completeness and eternity, of the endless process of
generation and renascence in which all things are ever becoming new.'
W. B. Frankland, _The Story of Euclid_, p. 70. God was described
by St. Bonaventura as 'a circle whose centre is everywhere, whose
circumference nowhere'. See also supplementary note.
PAGE =221=. A LETTER TO THE LADY CAREY, AND M^{rs} ESSEX RICHE, FROM
AMYENS.
Probably written when Donne was abroad with Sir Robert Drury in
1611-12. 'The two ladies', Mr. Chambers says, 'were daughters of
Robert, third Lord Rich, by Penelope Devereux, daughter of Walter,
Earl of Essex, the Stella of Sidney's _Astrophel and Stella_.' Lady
Rich abandoned her husband after five years' marriage and declared
that the true father of her children was Charles Blount, Earl of
Devonshire, to whom, after her divorce in 1605, she was married by
Laud. Lettice, the eldest daughter, married Sir George Carey, of
Cockington, Devon. Essex, the younger, was married, subsequently to
this letter, to Sir Thomas Cheeke, of Pirgo, Essex.
ll. 10-12. _Where, because Faith is in too low degree, &c._ Donne
refers to the Catholic doctrine of good works as necessary to
salvation in opposition to the Protestant doctrine of Justification by
Faith. He is fond of the antithesis. Compare:
My faith I give to Roman Catholiques;
All my good workes unto the Schismaticks
Of Amsterdam;...
Thou Love taughtst mee, by making mee
Love her that holds my love disparity,
Onely to give to those that count my gifts indignity.
_The Will_, p. 57.
PAGE =222=, l. 14. _where no one is growne or spent._ Like the stars
in the firmament your virtues neither grow nor decay. According to
Aquinas the heavenly bodies are neither temporal nor eternal; not
temporal because they are subject neither to growth nor decay; not
eternal because they change their position. They are 'Aeonical', their
life is measured by ages.
l. 19. _humilitie_ has such general support that the 'humidity' of
_1669_ seems to be merely a conjecture.