The first and third of these _Elegies_, those by King and Hyde, were
affixed, without any signature, to _Deaths Duell, or A Consolation to
the Soule, against the dying Life, and living Death of the Body.... By
that late learned and Reverend Divine John Donne, D^r in Divinity, and
Deane of S. Pauls, London. Being his last Sermon, and called by his
Maiesties houshold_ THE DOCTORS OWNE FVNERALL SERMON. _London, Printed
by Thomas Harper, for Richard Redmer and Beniamin Fisher, and are to
be sold at the signe of the Talbot in Alders-gate street._ 1632. The
book was entered in the Stationers' Register to Beniamin Fisher and
Richard Redmer on the 30th of September, 1631, and was issued with a
dedicatory letter by Redmer to his sister 'M^{rs} Elizabeth Francis of
Brumsted in Norff' and a note 'To the Reader' signed 'R'. Now we know
from his own statement that King was Donne's executor and had been
entrusted with his sermons which at King's 'restless importunity'
Donne had prepared for the press. (Letter, dated 1664, prefixed to
Walton's _Lives_, 1670.) The sermons and papers thus consigned to King
were taken from him later at the instance apparently of Donne's son.
But the presence of King's epitaph in this edition of _Deaths Duell_
seems to show that he was responsible for, or at any rate permitted,
the issue of the sermon by Redmer and Fisher. The reappearance of
these Elegies signed, and accompanied by a number of others, suggests
in like manner that King _may_ have been the editor behind Marriot
of the _Poems_ in 1633. This would help to account for the general
excellence of the text of that edition, for King, a poet himself as
well as an intimate friend, was better fitted to edit Donne's poems
than the gentle and pious Walton, who was less in sympathy with the
side of Donne which his poetry reveals.
Of Henry King (1591-1669) poet, 'florid preacher', canon of Christ
Church, dean of Rochester, and in 1641 Bishop of Chichester it
is unnecessary to say more here. A fresh edition of his poems by
Professor Saintsbury is in preparation and will show how worthy a
disciple he was of Donne as love-poet, eulogist, and religious poet.
Probably the finest of his poems is _The Surrender_.
It was to King also that Redmer was indebted for the frontispiece to
_Deaths Duell_, the picture of Donne in his shroud, reproduced in the
first volume. 'It was given', Walton says, 'to his dearest friend
and Executor D^r King, who caused him to be thus carved in one entire
piece of white Marble, as it now stands in the Cathedral Church of St.
Pauls.'
The second of the _Elegies_ in 1633 was apparently by the author of
the _Religio Medici_ and must be his earliest published work, written
probably just after his return from the Continent. The lines were
withdrawn after the first edition.
The Edw. Hyde responsible for the third Elegy, 'On the death of Dr.
Donne,' is said by Professor Norton to be Edward Hyde, D.D. (1607-59),
son of Sir Lawrence Hyde of Salisbury. Educated at Westminster School
and Cambridge he became a notable Royalist divine; had trouble with
Parliament; and wrote various sermons and treatises (see D.N.B.). 'A
Latin poem by Hyde is prefixed to Dean Duport's translation of Job
into Greek verse (1637) and he contributed to the "Cambridge Poems"
some verses in celebration of the birth of Princess Elizabeth.'
It would be interesting to think that the author of the lines on Donne
was not the divine but his kinsman the subsequent Lord Chancellor.
There is this to be said for the hypothesis, that among those who
contribute to the collection of complimentary verses are some of
Clarendon's most intimate friends about this time, viz. Thomas Carew,
Sir Lucius Carie or Lord Falkland, and (but his elegy appears first
in 1635) Sidney Godolphin. The John Vaughan also, whose MS. lines to
Donne I have printed in the introduction (_Text and Canon, &c._, p.
lxiv, note), is enrolled by Clarendon among his intimates at this
time. If his friends, legal and literary, were thus eulogizing Donne,
why should Hyde not have tried his hand too? However, we know of no
other poetical effusions by the historian, and as these verses were
first affixed with King's to _Deaths Duell_ it is most probable that
their author was a divine.
The author of the fourth elegy, Dr. C. B. of O., is Dr. Corbet, Bishop
of Oxford (1582-1635). Walton reprinted the poem in the _Lives_ (1670)
as 'by Dr. Corbet ... on his Friend Dr. Donne'. We have no particulars
regarding this friendship, but they were both 'wits' and their poems
figure together in MS. collections. Ben Jonson was an intimate of
Corbet's, who was on familiar terms with all the Jacobean wits
and poets. For Corbet's life see D.N.B. His poems are in Chalmers'
collection.
The Hen. Valentine of the next Elegy matriculated at Christ's College,
Cambridge, in December, 1616, and proceeded B.A. in 1620/1, M.A. 1624.
He was incorporated at Oxford in 1628, where he took the degree of
D.D. in 1636. On the 8th of December, 1630, he was appointed Rector
of Deptford. He was either ejected under the Commonwealth or died, for
Mallory, his successor, was deprived in 1662. For this information
I am indebted to the _Biographical Register of Christ's College,
1505-1905, &c., compiled by John Peile ... Master of the College_,
1910. Of works by him the British Museum Catalogue contains _Foure
Sea-Sermons preached at the annual meeting of the Trinitie Companie in
the Parish Church of Deptford_, London, 1635, and _Private devotions,
digested into six litanies ... Seven and twentieth edition_, London,
1706. The last was first published in 1651.
Izaak Walton's _Elegie_ underwent a good deal of revision. Besides the
variants which I have noted, _1635-69_ add the following lines:
Which as a free-will-offring, I here give
Fame, and the world, and parting with it grieve,
I want abilities, fit to set forth
A monument great, as _Donnes_ matchlesse worth.
In 1658 and 1670, when the _Elegie_ was transferred to the enlarged
_Life of Donne_, it was again revised, and opens:
Our Donne is dead: and we may sighing say,
We had that man where language chose to stay
And shew her utmost power. I would not praise
That, and his great Wit, which in our vaine dayes
Makes others proud; but as these serv'd to unlocke
That Cabinet, his mind, where such a stock
Of knowledge was repos'd, that I lament
Our just and generall cause of discontent.
But the poem in its final form is included in the many reprints of
Walton's _Lives_, and it is unnecessary to note the numerous verbal
variations. The most interesting is in ll. 25-6.
Did his youth scatter Poetry, wherein
Lay Loves Philosophy?
Professor Norton notes that 'the name of the author of this' (the
seventh) 'Elegy is given as Carie or Cary in all the early editions,
by mistake for Carew'. But the spelling (common in the MSS.) simply
represents the way in which the name was pronounced. Thomas Carew
(1598?-1639?) was sewer-in-ordinary to King Charles in 1633, and in
February 1633/4 his most elaborate work, the _Coelum Britannicum_,
was performed at Whitehall, on Shrove Tuesday. It was published
immediately afterwards, 1634. His collected _Poems_ were issued in
1640 and contained this _Elegie_. I note the following variants from
the text of 1640 as reproduced by Arthur Vincent (_Muses Library_,
1899):
3. dare we not trust _1633_: did we not trust _1640_; 5. Churchman
_1633_: lecturer _1640_; 8. thy Ashes _1633_: the ashes _1640_; 9.
no voice, no tune? _1633_: nor tune, nor voice? _1640_; 17. our Will,
_1633_: the will, _1640_; 44. dust _1633_: dung _1640_; rak'd _1633_:
search'd _1640_; 50. stubborne language _1633_: troublesome language
_1640_; 58. is purely thine _1633_: was only thine _1640_; 59. thy
smallest worke _1633_: their smallest work _1640_; 63. repeale _1633_:
recall _1640_; 65. Were banish'd _1633_: Was banish'd _1640_; 66.
o'th'Metamorphoses _1633_: i'th'Metamorphoses _1640_;
68-9.
Till verse refin'd by thee, in this last Age,
Turne ballad rime _1633_:
Till verse, refin'd by thee in this last age,
Turn ballad-rhyme _1640_ (_Vincent_):
Surely 'in this last Age' goes with 'Turne ballad rime'; 73. awfull
solemne _1633_; solemn awful _1640_; 74. faint lines _1633_: rude
lines _1640_; 81. maintaine _1633_: retain _1640_; 88. our losse
_1633_: the loss _1640_; 89. an Elegie, _1633_: one Elegy, _1640_;
91-2.
Though every pen should share a distinct part,
Yet art thou Theme enough to tyre all Art;
_1633_: _omit 1640_.
Some of these differences are trifling, but in several instances (3,
8, 50, 59, 66, 91-2) the 1633 text is so much better that it seems
probable that the poem was printed in 1640 from an early, unrevised
version. In 87. 'the' _1633_, _1640_ should be 'thee'.
Sir Lucius Cary, second Viscount Falkland (1610-1643), was a young man
of twenty-one when Donne died, and succeeded his father in the year
in which this poem was published. He had been educated at Trinity
College, Dublin. 'His first years of reason', Wood says, 'were spent
in poetry and polite learning, into the first of which he made divers
plausible sallies, which caused him therefore to be admired by the
poets of those times, particularly by Ben Jonson ... by Edm. Waller of
Beaconsfield ... and by Sir John Suckling, who afterwards brought him
into his poem called _The Session of Poets_ thus,
He was of late so gone with divinity,
That he had almost forgot his poetry,
Though to say the truth (and Apollo did know it)
He might have been both his priest and his poet.'
But Falkland is best known through his friendship with Clarendon,
whose account of him is classical: 'With these advantages' (of birth
and fortune) 'he had one great disadvantage (which in the first
entrance into the world is attended with too much prejudice) in his
person and presence, which was in no degree attractive or promising.
His stature was low, and smaller than most men; his motion not
graceful; and his aspect so far from inviting, that it had somewhat
in it of simplicity; and his voice the worst of the three, and so
untuned, that instead of reconciling, it offended the ear, so that
nobody would have expected music from that tongue; and sure no man
was less beholden to nature for its recommendation into the world:
but then no man sooner or more disappointed this general and customary
prejudice: that little person and small stature was quickly found to
contain a great heart, a courage so keen, and a nature so fearless,
that no composition of the strongest limbs, and most harmonious and
proportioned presence and strength, ever more disposed any man to
the greatest enterprise; it being his greatest weakness to be too
solicitous for such adventures: and that untuned voice and tongue
easily discovered itself to be supplied and governed by a mind and
understanding so excellent that the wit and weight of all he said
carried another kind of lustre and admiration in it, and even another
kind of acceptation from the persons present, than any ornament of
delivery could reasonably promise itself, or is usually attended with;
and his disposition and nature was so gentle and obliging, so much
delighted in courtesy, kindness, and generosity, that all mankind
could not but admire and love him.' _The Life of Edward Earl of
Clarendon_ (Oxford, 1827) i. 42-50. Coming from him, Falkland's
poem is an interesting testimony to the influence of Donne's poetry,
presence, and character.
Jaspar Mayne (1604-72), author of _The City Match_, was a student and
graduate of Christ Church, Oxford, a poet, dramatist, and divine. He
wrote complimentary verses on the Earl of Pembroke, Charles I, Queen
Henrietta, Cartwright, and Ben Jonson--all, like those on Donne,
very bad. He was the translator of the Epigrams ascribed to Donne and
published with some of his _Paradoxes, Problemes, Essays, Characters_
in 1651.
Arthur Wilson (1595-1652), historian and dramatist, author of _The
Inconstant Lady_ and _The Swisser_, had in 1633 just completed a
rather belated course at Trinity College, Oxford, whither he had gone
after leaving the service of the third Earl of Essex. For Wilson's
_Life_ see D.N.B. and Feuillerat: _The Swisser ... avec une
Introduction et des Notes_, Paris, 1904.
The 'Mr. R. B.' who wrote these lines is said by Mr. Gosse to be the
voluminous versifier Richard Brathwaite (1588-1673), author of _A
Strappado for the Divell_ and other works, satirical and pious. He is
perhaps the most likely candidate for the initials, which are all we
have to go by. At the same time it is a little surprising that a
poet whose name was so well known should have concealed himself under
initials, the device generally of a young man venturing among more
experienced poets. If he had not been too young in 1633, I should have
ventured to suggest that the author was Ralph Brideoak, who proceeded
B.A. at Oxford 1634, and in 1638 contributed lines to _Jonsonus
Virbius_. He was afterwards chaplain to Speaker Lenthall, and died
Bishop of Chichester. In the lines on Jonson, Brideoak describes the
reception of Jonson's plays with something of the vividness with which
the poet here describes the reception of Donne's sermons. He also
refers to Donne:
Had learned Donne, Beaumont, and Randolph, all
Surviv'd thy fate, and sung thy funeral,
Their notes had been too low: take this from me
None but thyself could write a verse for thee.
This last line echoes Donne (p. 204, l. 24). Most of Donne's eulogists
were young men.
Brathwaite's wife died in 1633, and, perhaps following Donne, he for
some years wrote _Anniversaries upon his Panarete_. W. C. Hazlitt
suggests Brome as the author of the lines on Donne, which is not
likely.
The Epitaph which follows R. B.'s poem is presumably by him also.
Endymion Porter (1587-1649) may have had a common interest with Donne
in the Spanish language and literature, for the former owed his early
success as an ambassador and courtier to his Spanish descent and
upbringing. He owes his reputation now mainly to his patronage of art
and poetry and to the songs of Herrick. For his life see D.N.B. and E.
B. de Fonblanque's _Lives of the Lords Strangford_, 1877.
Daniel Darnelly, the author of the long Latin elegy added to the
collection in 1635, was, according to Foster (_Alumni Oxonienses_,
vol. i. 1891), the son of a Londoner, and matriculated at Oxford on
Nov. 14, 1623, at the age of nineteen. He proceeded B.A. in 1627, M.A.
1629/30, and was incorporated at Cambridge in 1634. He is described
in Musgrave's _Obituary_ as of Trinity Hall. In 1632 he was appointed
rector of Curry Mallet, Somersetshire, and of Walden St. Paul, Herts.,
1634. This would bring him into closer touch with London, and probably
explains his writing an elegy for the forthcoming second edition of
Donne's _Poems_. He was rector of Teversham, Cambridgeshire, from
1635 to 1645, when his living was sequestered. He died on the 23rd of
November, 1659.
The heading of this poem shows that it was written at the request of
some one, probably King. In l. 35 _Nilusque minus strepuisset_ the
reference is to the great cataract. See Macrobius, _Somn. Scip._ ii.
4.
Of Sidney Godolphin (1610-43) Clarendon says, 'There was never so
great a mind and spirit contained in so little room; so large an
understanding and so unrestrained a fancy in so very small a body: so
that the Lord Falkland used to say merrily, that he was pleased to be
found in his company, where he was the properer man; and it may be
the very remarkableness of his little person made the sharpness of his
wit, and the composed quickness of his judgement and understanding the
more notable.' _The Life of Edward Earl of Clarendon_, i. 51-2. He
was killed at Chagford in the civil war. Professor Saintsbury has not
included this poem in his collection of Godolphin's poems, _Caroline
Poets_, ii. pp. 227-61.
John Chudleigh's name appears in MSS. occasionally at the end of
different poems. In the second collection in the Trinity College,
Dublin MS. G. 2. 21 (_TCD_ Second Collection) he is credited with the
authorship of Donne's lyric _A Feaver_, but two other poems are also
ascribed to him. He is the author of another in Addl. MS. 33998. f. 62
b. Who he was, I am not sure, but probably he may be identified with
John Chudleigh described in 1620 (_Visitation of Devonshire_) as son
and heir of George Chudley of Asheriston, or Ashton, in the county of
Devon, and then aged fourteen. On the 1st of June, 1621, aged 15,
he matriculated at Wadham College, Oxford. He proceeded B.A. 1623-4,
being described as 'equ. aur. fil.' for his father, a member of
Parliament, had been created a baronet on the 1st of August, 1622.
He took his M.A. in 1626, and was incorporated at Cambridge in 1629
(Foster, _Alumni Oxonienses_, i. 276). Just before taking his M.A. he
was elected to represent East Looe. He died, however, before May 10,
1634, which is difficult to reconcile with his being the author of
these verses in 1635, unless they were written some time before.