Who the Dr. Andrews referred to was we do not know. Dr. Grosart
identifies him with the Andrews whose poems are transcribed in _H49_,
but this is purely conjectural.
The lines which I have taken out and made into a separate Epigram
are printed in the old editions as the third and fourth lines of the
letter. As Professor Norton pointed out, they have no connexion with
it. They seem to be addressed to some one who had travelled to Paris
from Frankfort, on an Embassy to the King of France, and had returned.
'The Maine passed to the Seine, into the house of the Victor, and with
your return comes to Frankfort.'
If Grosart's conjecture be correct, the author of the epigram may be
the Francis Andrews whose poems appear along with Donne's in _H49_,
for among these are some political poems in somewhat the same vein:
Though Ister have put down the Rhene
And from his channel thrust him quite;
Though Prage again repayre her losses,
And Idol-berge doth set up crosses,
Yet we a change shall shortly feele
When English smiths work Spanish steele;
Then Tage a nymph shall send to Thames,
The Eagle then shall be in flames,
Then Rhene shall reigne, and Boeme burne,
And Neccar shall to Nectar turne.
And of Henri IV:
Henrie the greate, great both in peace and war
Whom none could teach or imitate aright,
Findes peace above, from which he here was far;
A victor without insolence or spite,
A Prince that reigned, without a Favorite.
Of course, Andrews may be only the transcriber of these poems.
PAGE =398=. TO MR. GEORGE HERBERT, &c.
Walton has described the incident of the seals: 'Not long before his
death he caused to be drawn the figure of the Body of Christ, extended
upon an Anchor, like those which Painters draw when they would present
us with the picture of Christ crucified on the Cross; his varying
no otherwise than to affix him not to a Cross, but to an Anchor (the
Emblem of hope); this he caused to be drawn in little, and then many
of those figures thus drawn to be ingraven very small in _Helitropian_
Stones, and set in gold, and of these he sent to many of his dearest
friends, to be used as _Seals_ or _Rings_, and kept as memorials of
him, and of his affection to them.'
These seals have been figured and described in _The Gentleman's
Magazine_, vol. lxxvii, p. 313 (1807); and _Notes and Queries_, 2nd
Series, viii. 170, 216; 6th Series, x. 426, 473.
Herbert's epistle to Donne is given in _1650_. In Walton's _Life_ the
first two and a half lines of Donne's Latin poem and the whole of
the English one are given, and so with Herbert's reply. As printed
in _1650_ Herbert's reply is apparently interrupted by the insertion
between the eighth and ninth lines of two disconnected stanzas, which
may or may not be by Herbert. The first of these ('When Love' &c.)
with some variants is given in the 1658 edition of the _Life_ of
Donne; but in the collected _Lives_ (1670, 1675) it is withdrawn. The
second I have not found elsewhere.
Although the Crosse could not Christ here detain,
Though nail'd unto't, but he ascends again,
Nor yet thy eloquence here keep him still,
But onely while thou speak'st; This Anchor will.
Nor canst thou be content, unlesse thou to
This certain Anchor adde a Seal, and so
The Water, and the Earth both unto thee
Doe owe the symbole of their certainty.
Let the world reel, we and all ours stand sure,
This holy Cable's of all storms secure.
When Love being weary made an end
Of kinde Expressions to his friend,
He writ; when's hand could write no more,
He gave the Seale, and so left o're.
How sweet a friend was he, who being griev'd
His letters were broke rudely up, believ'd
'Twas more secure in great Loves Common-weal
(Where nothing should be broke) to adde a Seal.
[Line 2: Though _1650_: When _Walton_]
[Line 10: of _1650_: from _Walton_]
In the _Life of Herbert_ Walton refers again to the seals and adds,
'At Mr. Herbert's death these verses were found wrapped up with that
seal which was by the Doctor given to him.
When my dear Friend could write no more,
He gave this Seal, and, so gave ore.
When winds and waves rise highest, I am sure,
This Anchor keeps my faith, that, me secure.'
PAGE =400=, l. 22. <_Wishes_> I have ventured to change 'Works' to
'Wishes'. It corrects the metre and corresponds to the Latin.
PAGE =400=. TRANSLATED OUT OF GAZAEUS, &c.
The original runs as follows:
Tibi quod optas et quod opto, dent Divi,
(Sol optimorum in optimis Amicorum)
Vt anima semper laeta nesciat curas,
Vt vita semper viva nesciat canos,
Vt dextra semper larga nesciat sordes,
Vt bursa semper plena nesciat rugas,
Vt lingua semper vera nesciat lapsum,
Vt verba semper blanda nesciant rixas,
Vt facta semper aequa nesciant fucum,
Vt fama semper pura nesciat probrum,
Vt vota semper alta nesciant terras,
Tibi quod optas et quod opto, dent Divi.