Teares which our Soule doth for her sins let fall,
which are the waters _above_ our firmament as opposed to the _land_
or _earthly_ waters which are the tears of passion. The 'these' of the
MSS. seems necessary for clearness of references: 'For, _Lacrymae sunt
sudor animae maerentis_, Teares are the sweat of a labouring soule,
... Raine water is better then River water; The water of Heaven,
teares for offending thy God, are better then teares for worldly
losses; But yet come to teares of any kinde, and whatsoever occasion
thy teares, _Deus absterget omnem lacrymam_, there is the largeness of
his bounty, _He will wipe all teares from thine eyes_; But thou must
have teares first: first thou must come to this weeping, or else God
cannot come to this wiping; God hath not that errand to thee, to wipe
teares from thine eyes, if there be none there; If thou doe nothing
for thy selfe, God finds nothing to doe for thee.' _Sermons_ 80. 54.
539-40.
The waters above the firmament were a subject of considerable
difficulty to mediaeval philosophy--so difficult indeed that St.
Augustine has to strengthen himself against sceptical objections by
reaffirming the authority of Scripture: _Maior est Scripturae huius
auctoritas quam omnis humani ingenii capacitas. Unde quoquo modo et
qualeslibet aquae ibi sint, eas tamen ibi esse, minime dubitamus._
Aquinas, who quotes these words from Augustine, comes to two main
conclusions, himself leaning to the last. If by the firmament be meant
either the firmament of fixed stars, or the ninth sphere, the _primum
mobile_, then, since heavenly bodies are not made of the elements of
which earthly things are made (being incorruptible, and unchangeable
except in position), the waters above the firmament are not of
the same _kind_ as those on earth (_non sunt eiusdem speciei cum
inferioribus_). If, however, by the firmament be meant only the upper
part of the air where clouds are condensed, called firmament because
of the thickness of the air in that part, then the waters above the
firmament are simply the vaporized waters of which rain is formed
(_aquae quae vaporabiliter resolutae supra aliquam partem aeris
elevantur, ex quibus pluviae generantur_). _Above_ the firmament
waters are generated, _below_ they rest. _Summa_ I. 68.
If I follow him, Donne to some extent blends or confounds these views.
Tears shed for our sins differ in _kind_ from tears shed for worldly
losses, as the waters above from those below. But the extract from
the sermon identifies the waters above the firmament with rain-water.
'Rain water is better than River-water.' It is purer; but it does
_not_ differ from it in kind.
l. 12. _Wee, after Gods Noe, drowne our world againe._ I think the
'our' of the majority of the MSS. must be correct. From the spelling
and punctuation both, it is clear that the source from which _1633_
printed closely resembled _D_, _H49_, _Lec_, which read 'our'. The
change to 'the' was made in the spirit which prompted the grosser
error of certain MSS. which read 'Noah'. Donne has in view the
'microcosm' rather than the 'macrocosm'. There is, of course, an
allusion to the Flood and the promise, but the immediate reference
is to Christ and the soul. 'After Christ's work of redemption and his
resurrection, which forbid despair, we yet yield to the passion of
sorrow.' We drown not _the_ world but _our_ world, the world within
us, or which each one of us is. This sense is brought out more clearly
in _Cy_'s version, which is a paraphrase rather than a version:
Wee after Gods mercy drowne our Soules againe.
l. 22. _Porcelane, where they buried Clay._ 'We are not thoroughly
resolved concerning _Porcelane_ or _China_ dishes, that according to
common belief they are made of Earth, which lieth in preparation about
an hundred years under ground; for the relations thereof are not only
divers, but contrary, and Authors agree not herein.' Browne, _Vulgar
Errors_, ii. 5. Browne quotes some of the older opinions and then
points out that a true account of the manufacture of porcelain had
been furnished by Gonzales de Mendoza, Linschoten, and Alvarez the
Jesuit, and that it was confirmed by the Dutch Embassy of 1665. The
old physical theories were retained for literary purposes long after
they had been exploded.
l. 29. _They say, the sea, when it gaines, loseth too._ 'But we passe
from the circumstance of the time, to a second, that though Christ
thus despised by the _Gergesens_, did, in his Justice, depart from
them; yet, as the sea gaines in one place, what it loses in another,
his abundant mercy builds up more in _Capernaum_, then his Justice
throwes downe among the _Gergesens_: Because they drave him away, in
Judgement he went from them, but in Mercy he went to the others, who
had not intreated him to come.' _Sermons_ 80. 11. 103.
'They flatly say that he eateth into others dominions, as the sea doth
into the land, not knowing that in swallowing a poore Iland as big as
Lesbos he may cast up three territories thrice as big as Phrygia: for
what the sea winneth in the marshe, it looseth in the sand.' Lyly,
_Midas_ v. 2. 17.
Compare also Burton's _Anatomy of Melancholy_, Part 2, Sect 2, Mem. 3.
Pope has borrowed the conceit from Donne in _An Essay on Criticism_,
ll. 54-9:
As on the land while here the ocean gains,
In other parts it leaves wide sandy plains;
Thus in the soul while memory prevails,
The solid power of understanding fails;
Where beams of warm imagination play,
The memory's soft figures melt away.
l. 34. _For, graves our trophies are, and both deaths dust._ The
modern printing of this as given in the Grolier Club edition makes
this line clearer--'both Deaths' dust.' 'Graves are our trophies,
their dust is not our dust but the dust of the elder and the younger
death, i.e. sin and the physical or carnal death which sin brought
in its train.' Chambers's 'death's dust' means, I suppose, the same
thing, but one can hardly speak of 'both death'.
PAGE =281=, ll. 57-8. _this forward heresie,
That women can no parts of friendship bee._
Montaigne refers to the same heresy in speaking of 'Marie de Gournay
le Jars, ma fille d'alliance, et certes aymée de moy beaucoup plus que
paternellement, et enveloppée en ma retraitte et solitude comme l'une
des meilleures parties de mon propre estre. Je ne regarde plus qu'elle
au monde. Si l'adolescence peut donner presage, cette ame sera quelque
jour capable des plus belles choses et entre autres de la perfection
de _cette tressaincte amitié ou nous ne lisons point que son sexe ait
pu monter encores_: la sincerité et la solidité de ses moeurs y sont
desja bastantes.' _Essais_ (1590), ii. 17.
PAGE =282=. ELEGIE ON M^{ris} BOULSTRED.
Cecilia Boulstred, or Bulstrode, was the daughter of Hedgerley
Bulstrode, of Bucks. She was baptized at Beaconsfield, February 12,
1583/4, and died at the house of her kinswoman, Lady Bedford, at
Twickenham, on August 4, 1609. So Mr. Chambers, from Sir James
Whitelocke's _Liber Famelicus_ (Camden Society). He quotes also from
the Twickenham Registers: 'M^{ris} Boulstred out of the parke, was
buried ye 6th of August, 1609.' In a letter to Goodyere Donne speaks
of her illness: 'but (by my troth) I fear earnestly that Mistresse
Bolstrod will not escape that sicknesse in which she labours at this
time. I sent this morning to aske of her passage this night, and the
return is, that she is as I left her yesternight, and then by the
strength of her understanding, and voyce, (proportionally to her
fashion, which was ever remisse) by the eavenesse and life of her
pulse, and by her temper, I could allow her long life, and impute all
her sicknesse to her minde. But the History of her sicknesse makes me
justly fear, that she will scarce last so long, as that you, when you
receive this letter, may do her any good office in praying for her.'
Poor Miss Bulstrode, whose
voice was
Gentle and low, an excellent thing in woman,
has not lived to fame in an altogether happy fashion, as the subject
of some tortured and tasteless _Epicedes_, a coarse and brutal Epigram
by Jonson (_An Epigram on the Court Pucell_ in _Underwoods_,--Jonson
told Drummond that the person intended was Mris Boulstred), a
complimentary, not to say adulatory, _Epitaph_ from the same pen, and
a dubious _Elegy_ by Sir John Roe ('Shall I goe force an Elegie,' p.
410). It was an ugly place, the Court of James I, as full of cruel
libels as of gross flattery, a fit subject for Milton's scorn. The
epitaph which Jonson wrote is found in more than one MS., and in some
where Donne's poems are in the majority. Chambers very tentatively
suggested that it might be by Donne himself, and I was inclined for a
time to accept this conjecture, finding it in other MSS. besides those
he mentioned, and because the sentiment of the closing lines is quite
Donnean. But in the Farmer-Chetham MS. (ed. Grosart) it is signed B.
J., and Mr. Percy Simpson tells me that a letter is extant from Jonson
to George Gerrard which indicates that the epitaph was written by
Jonson while Gerrard's man waited at the door. I quote it from _B_:
_On the death of M^{rs} Boulstred._
Stay, view this Stone, and if thou beest not such
Reade here a little, that thou mayest know much.
It covers first a Virgin, and then one
That durst be so in Court; a Virtue alone
To fill an Epitaph; but shee hath more:
Shee might have claym'd to have made the Graces foure,
Taught Pallas language, Cynthia modesty;
As fit to have encreas'd the harmonye
Of Spheares, as light of Starres; she was Earths eye,
The sole religious house and votary
Not bound by rites but Conscience; wouldst thou all?
She was Sil. Boulstred, in which name I call
Up so much truth, as could I here pursue,
Might make the fable of good Woemen true.
The name is given as 'Sal', but corrected to 'Sil' in the margin.
Other MSS. have 'Sell'. It is doubtless 'Cil', a contraction for
'Cecilia'. Chambers inadvertently printed 'still'.
The language of Jonson's _Epitaph_ harmonizes ill with that of his
_Epigram_. Of all titles Jonson loved best that of 'honest', but
'honest', in a man, meant with Jonson having the courage to tell
people disagreeable truths, not to conceal your dislikes. He was a
candid friend to the living; after death--_nil nisi bonum_.
For the relation of this _Elegie_ to that beginning 'Death, be not
proud' (p. 416) see _Text and Canon, &c._, p. cxliii.
The _1633_ text of this poem is practically identical with that of
_D_, _H49_, _Lec_. With these MSS. it reads in l. 27 'life' for the
'lives' of other MSS. and editions, and 'but' for 'though' in the last
line. The only variant in _1633_ is 'worke' for 'workes' in l. 45. The
latter reading has the support of other MSS. and is very probably what
Donne wrote. Such use of a plural verb after two singular subjects of
closely allied import was common. See Franz, _Shakespeare-Grammatik_,
§ 673, and the examples quoted there, e.g. 'Both wind and tide stays
for this gentleman,' _Com. of Err_. IV. i. 46, where Rowe corrects to
'stay'; 'Both man and master is possessed,' _ibid._ IV. iv. 89.
l. 10. _Eating the best first, well preserv'd to last._ The 'fruite'
or 'fruites' of _A18_, _N_, _TC_, which is as old as _P_ (1623), is
probably a genuine variant. The reference is to the elaborate dainties
of the second course at Elizabethan banquets, the dessert. Sleep, in
Macbeth's famous speech, is
great Nature's second course,
and Donne uses the same metaphor of the Eucharist: 'This fasting then
... is but a continuation of a great feast: where the first
course (that which we begin to serve in now) is Manna, food of
Angels,--plentiful, frequent preaching; but the second course is the
very body and blood of Christ Jesus, shed for us and given to us, in
that Blessed Sacrament, of which himself makes us worthy receivers at
that time.' _Sermons_. 'The most precious and costly dishes are always
reserved for the last services, but yet there is wholesome meat before
too.' _Ibid._
l. 18. _In birds, &c._: 'birds' is here in the possessive case,
'birds' organic throats'. I have modified the punctuation so as to
make this clearer.
l. 24. _All the foure Monarchies_: i.e. Babylon, Persia, Greece, and
Rome. John Sleidan, mentioned in a note on the _Satyres_, wrote _The
Key of Historie: Or, A most Methodicall Abridgement of the foure
chiefe Monarchies &c._, to quote its title in the English translation.
l. 27. _Our births and lives, &c._ _1633_ and the two groups of MSS.
_D_, _H49_, _Lec_ and _A18_, _L74_, _N_, _TC_ read 'life'. If this be
correct, then 'births' would surely need to be 'birth'. _HN_ shows, I
think, what has happened. The voiced 'f' was not always distinguished
from the breathed sound by a different spelling ('v' for 'f'), and
'lifes' would very easily become 'life'. On the other hand 'v' was
frequently written where we now have 'f', and sometimes misleads.
Peele's _The Old Wives Tale_ is not necessarily, as usually printed,
_Wives'_. It is just an _Old Woman's Tale_.