For a full discussion of the authorship of these poems see _Text and
Canon of Donne's Poems_, pp. cxxix _et seq._
PAGE =401=. TO S^r NICHOLAS SMYTH.
Chambers points out that a Nicholas Smyth has a set of verses in
_Coryats Crudities_, 1611.
In the _Visitation of the County of Devon_, 1620, a long genealogy is
given, the closing portion of which shows who this Nicholas Smith or
Smyth of Exeter (l. 15) and his father were:
Joan, d. of James Walker = Sir Geo. Smith of Exeter,
who was descended of the | Knt., ob. 1619.
Mathewes of Wales who |
were descended of Flewellyns |
and Herberts. |
+-----------------+-----------+------+-----------------------+
| | | |
Divers children Elizabeth, Sir Nicholas Smith=Dorothea, d. James,
d. without &c. of Larkbeare in of Sir Raphe &c.
issue. com. Devon, Kt. Horsey de
com. Dorsett.
Seven children of Sir Nicholas are given, including another Nicholas
(aet. 14), and the whole is signed 'Nich Smith'.
This is doubtless Roe's friend. With Roe as a Falstaff he had probably
'heard the chimes at midnight' in London before he settled down to
raise a family in Devonshire.
l. 7. _sleeps House, &c._ Ovid xi; Ariosto, _Orlando Furioso_, Canto
xiv; Spenser, _Faerie Queene_, I. i.
PAGE =402=, l. 26. _Epps_. 'This afternoon a servingman of the Earl
of Northumberland fought with swaggering Eps, and ran him through the
ear.' _Manninghams Diary_, 8th April, 1603 (Camden Club, p. 165). This
is the only certain reference to Epps I have been able to find, but
Grosart declares he is the soldier described in Dekker's _Knights
Conjuring_ as behaving with great courage at the siege of Ostend
(1601-4), where he was killed. I can find no name in Dekker's work.
ll. 27-31. As printed in _1669_ these lines are not very intelligible,
and neither Grosart nor Chambers has corrected them. As given in the
MSS. (e.g. _TCD_) they are a little clearer:
For his Body and State
The Physick and Counsel (which came too late)
'Gainst whores and dice, hee nowe on mee bestowes
Most superficially: hee speakes of those,
(I found by him) least soundly whoe most knows:
The purpose of bracketing 'which came too late' is obviously to keep
it from being taken with ''Gainst whores and dice'--the very mistake
that _1669_ has fallen into and Grosart and Chambers have preserved.
The drawback to this use of the bracket is that it disguises, at least
to modern readers, that 'which came too late' must be taken with 'For
his Body and State'. I have therefore dropped it and placed a comma
after 'late'. The meaning I take to be as follows: 'The physic and
counsel against whores and dice, which came too late for his own body
and estate, he now bestows on me in a superficial fashion; for I found
by him that of whores and dice those speak least soundly who know
most from personal experience.' A rather shrewd remark. There are some
spheres where experience does not teach, but corrupt.
l. 40. _in that or those_: 'that' the Duello, 'those' the laws of the
Duello. There is not much to choose between 'these' and 'those'.
ll. 41-3. _Though sober; but so never fought. I know
What made his Valour, undubb'd, Windmill go,
Within a Pint at most:_
The MSS. improve both the metre and the sense of the first of these
lines, which in _1669_ and Chambers runs:
Though sober; but nere fought. I know ...
It is when he is sober that he never fights, though he may quarrel.
Roe knows exactly how much drink it would take to make this undubb'd
Don Quixote charge a windmill, or like a windmill. But the poem is too
early for an actual reference to _Don Quixote_
PAGE =403=, ll. 67-8. _and he is braver now
Than his captain._
By 'braver' the poet means, not more courageous, but more splendidly
attired, more 'braw'.
PAGE =404=, l. 88. _Abraham France_--who wrote English hexameters. His
chief works are _The Countess of Pembrokes Ivy Church_ (1591) and _The
Countess of Pembrokes Emmanuel_ (1591). He was alive in 1633.
PAGE =405=, l. 113. _So they their weakness hide, and greatness
show._ Grosart refused the reading 'weakness', which he found in
his favourite MS. _S_, and Chambers ignored it. It has, however, the
support of _B_, _O'F_, and _L74_ (which is strong in Roe's poetry),
and seems to me to give the right edge to the sarcasm. 'By giving to
flatterers what they owe to worth, Kings and Lords think to hide their
weakness of character, and to display the greatness of their wealth
and station.' They make a double revelation of their weakness in their
credulity and their love of display.
l. 128. _Cuff._ Henry Cuff (1563-1601), secretary to Essex and an
abettor of the conspiracy.
l. 131. _that Scot._ It is incredible that Donne wrote these lines. He
found some of his best friends among the Scotch--Hay, Sir Robert Ker,
Essex, and Hamilton, to say nothing of the King.