Immanuel Tremellius was born in the Ghetto of Ferrara in 1510. His
father was apparently a Jewish surgeon, a man of distinction in the
Jewish community. Educated as a Jew, Tremellius became a Christian
about the age of twenty, and, under the influence of the Protestant
movement which was agitating Italy as well as other countries, a
Calvinist. When persecution began Tremellius fled from Lucca, where
he had taught Hebrew under the reformer Vermigli, to Strasburg, and
thereafter his life was that of the wandering, often fugitive, scholar
and reformer. He was invited to England by Cranmer in 1548, and held
the Professorship of Hebrew at Cambridge until 1553. The accession of
Mary drove him back to the Continent, and he was tutor to the children
of the Duke of Zweibrüchen from 1554 to 1558, and rector of the
Gymnasium at Hornbach from 1558 to 1560. The Duke became a Lutheran,
and Tremellius was exiled, but found after a year or two a haven in
the University of Heidelberg, where Duke Frederick III had rallied to
the Calvinist cause. Tremellius was Professor of Theology here from
1562-77, and it was here that he issued most of his works. He had
already published a Hebrew version of the Genevan Catechism intended
for his Jewish brethren. The works issued at Heidelberg include a
Chaldaic and Syriac Grammar, an edition of the Peschito (an old Syrian
version of the New Testament), and the Latin translation of the Old
Testament which Donne utilized for his paraphrase. In this work he was
assisted by his son-in-law Francis Junius (father of the Anglo-Saxon
and Antiquarian scholar), a native of Bourges, who had served as a
field-preacher under William the Silent. Junius was responsible only
for the Apocrypha, so that Donne rightly mentions Tremellius alone.
The work was published at Frankfort in 1575-9; in London in 1580,
1581, and 1585; at Geneva in 1590 and 1617. In the Genevan editions
it was coupled with Beza's translation of the New Testament. The whole
was re-issued at Hanover as late as 1715.
Duke Frederick III's successor was a Lutheran, and Tremellius was
driven into exile once more in 1577. His last years were spent as
teacher in the Academy instituted by Henri de la Tour d'Auvergne,
Vicomte de Turenne, in Sedan. Here he died in 1580.
I have compared Donne's version throughout with both Tremellius'
translation and the Vulgate, and wherever the collation helps to fix
the text I have quoted their readings in the textual notes. I add here
one or two more quotations from the originals. Tremellius' version was
accompanied, it must be remembered, with an elaborate commentary.
PAGE =356=, l. 58. _accite_, the reading of _B_, _O'F_ as well as
_1635-69_, I have not yet found elsewhere in Donne's works, but
doubtless it occurs. Shakespeare uses it once:
He by the Senate is accited home
From weary wars against the barbarous Goths.
_Tit. Andr._ I. i. 27-8.
ll. 75-6. _for they sought for meat
Which should refresh their soules, they could not get_.
Chambers has printed this poem from _1639_, noting occasionally the
readings of _1635_ and _1650_, but ignoring consistently those of
_1633_. Here _1633_ has the support of _N_, _TCD_; _B_ reads 'they none
could get'; and _O'F_, if I may trust my collation, agrees with
_1635-69;_ Grolier follows _1633_ but conjectures 'the sought-for
meat'. This is unnecessary. It is quite in Donne's style to close with
an abrupt 'they could not get'. Modern punctuation would change the
comma to a semicolon. The version of Tremellius runs: 'Expirarunt
quum quaererent escam sibi, qua reficerent se ipsos.' The Vulgate,
'consumpti sunt, quia quaesierunt cibum sibi ut refocillarent animum.'
PAGE =357=, l. 81. _Of all which heare I mourne_: i.e. 'which hear
that I mourn.' The construction is harsh, and I was tempted for a
moment to adopt the 'me' of _N_, but Donne is translating Tremellius,
and 'me in gemitu esse' is not quite the same thing as 'me gementem'.
Grosart and Chambers and the Grolier Club editor would not have
followed _1639_ in changing 'heare' to 'here' had they consulted the
original poem which Donne is paraphrasing in any version. The Vulgate
runs: 'Audierunt quia ingemisco ego, et non est qui consoletur me.'
PAGE =359=, l. 161. _poure, for thy sinnes_. The 'poure out thy
sinnes' of _1635-69_ which Grosart and Chambers follow is obviously
wrong. The words 'for thy sinnes' have no counterpart in the Latin of
Tremellius or the Vulgate. The latter runs: 'Effunde sicut aquam cor
tuum ante conspectum Domini.'
PAGE =360=, ll. 182-3. _hath girt mee in
With hemlocke, and with labour_.
Cingit cicuta et molestia, _Tremellius_: circumdedit me felle et
labore, _Vulgate_. Donne combines the two versions. He is fond of
using 'hemlock' as the typical poison: and he tells Wotton in one of
his letters that to him labour or business is the worst of evils:
'I professe that I hate businesse so much, as I am sometimes glad
to remember, that the _Roman Church_ reads that verse _A negotio
perambulante in tenebris_, which we reade from the pestilence
walking by night, so equall to me do the plague and businesse deserve
avoiding.' _Letters_, p. 142. To Goodyere in like manner he writes,
'we who have been accustomed to one another are like in this, that we
love not businesse.' _Letters_, p. 94.
PAGE =361=, l. 193. _the children of his quiver_. Donne found this
phrase in the Vulgate or in the margin of Tremellius. In the text
of the latter the verse runs, 'Immitit in renes meos tela pharetrae
suae.' The marginal note says, '_Heb._ filios, id est, prodeuntes a
pharetra.' The Vulgate reads, 'filias pharetrae suae.'
l. 197. _drunke with wormewood_: 'inebriavit me absinthio, _Tremellius
and Vulgate_.
PAGE =362=, ll. 226-30. I have changed the full stop in l. 229, 'him',
to a comma, for all these clauses are objective to 'the Lord allowes
not this'. The construction is modelled on the original: 'Non enim
affligit ex animo suo, moestitiaque afficit filios viri. 34. Conterere
sub pedibus suis omnes vinctos terrae, 35. Detorquere ius viri coram
facie superioris, 36. Pervertere hominem in causa sua, Dominus
non probat.' The version of the Vulgate is similar: '33. Non enim
humiliavit ex corde suo, et abiecit filios hominum, 34. Ut contereret
sub pedibus suis omnes vinctos terrae; 35. Ut declinaret iudicium viri
in conspectu vultus Altissimi; 36. Ut perverteret hominem in iudicio
suo; Dominus ignoravit.'
PAGE =364=, l. 299. _their bone_. The reading of the editions
is probably right: 'Concreta est cutis eorum cum osse ipsorum,'
_Tremellius_.
l. 302. _better through pierc'd then through penury_. I have no doubt
that the 'through penury' of the 1635-69 editions and the MSS. is
what Donne wrote. The 1633 editor changed it to 'by penury'. Donne is
echoing the parallelism of 'confossi gladio quam confossi fame'. The
Vulgate has simply 'Melius fuit occisio gladio quam interfectio fame'.
PAGE =366=, l. 337. _The annointed Lord, &c._ Chambers, to judge from
his use of capital letters, evidently reads this verse as applying to
God,--'Th'Annointed Lord', 'under His shadow'. It is rather the King
of Israel. Tremellius's note runs: 'Id est, Rex noster e posteritate
Davidis, quo freti saltem nobis dabitur aliqua interspirandi occasio
in quibuslibet angustiis: nam praefidebant Judaei dignitati illius
regni, tamquam si pure et per seipsum fuisset stabile; non autem
spectabant Christum, qui finis est et complementum illius typi,
neque conditiones sibi imperatas.' 'The anointed of the Lord' is
the translation of the Revised Version. The Vulgate version seems
to indicate a prophetic reference, which may be what Chambers had in
view: 'Spiritus oris nostri, Christus Dominus, captus est in peccatis
nostris: In umbra tua vivemus in gentibus.' Donne took this verse as
the text of a Gunpowder Plot sermon in 1622. He points out there
that some commentators have applied the verse to Josiah, a good king;
others to Zedekiah, a bad king: 'We argue not, we dispute not; we
embrace that which arises from both, That both good Kings and
bad Kings ... are the anointed of the Lord, and the breath of the
nostrils, that is, the life of the people,' &c. James is 'the Josiah
of our times'. James had good reasons for preferring bishops to Andrew
Melville and other turbulent presbyters. But Donne, who was steeped in
the Vulgate, notes a possible reference to Christ: 'Or if he lamented
the future devastation of that Nation, occasioned by the death of the
King of Kings, Christ Jesus, when he came into the world, this was
their case _prophetically_.' _Sermons_ 50. 43. 402.
l. 355. _wee drunke, and pay_: 'pecunia bibimus' _Tremellius and
Vulgate_: the Latin may be present or past tense, but the verse goes
on in the Vulgate, 'ligna nostra pretio comparavimus,' which shows
that 'bibimus' is 'we drunk' or 'we have drunk'. The Authorized
Version reads 'we have drunken'.
PAGE =367=, l. 374. _children fall_. 'Juvenes ad molendum portant, et
pueri ad ligna corruunt,' _Tremellius_; 'et pueri in ligno corruerunt,'
_Vulgate_. But the latter translates the first half of the line quite
differently.