It is in our State ever held for a good sign to change Prison, and _nella
Signoria de mi_, I will think it so, that my sicknesse hath given me leave
to come to my _London_-prison. I made no doubt but my entrance-pain (for
it was so rather then a sicknesse, but that my sadnesse putrefied and
corrupted it to that name) affected you also; for nearer Contracts then
generall Christianity, had made us so much towards one [another], that one
part cannot escape the distemper of the other. I was therefore very
carefull, as well to slack any sorrow which my danger might occasion in
you; as to give you the comfort of having been heard in your prayers for
me, to tell you as soon as my pain remitted what steps I made towards
health, which I did last week. This _Tuesday_ morning your man brought me
a Letter, which (if he had not found me at _London_) I see he had a hasty
commandment to have brought to _Micham_. S{r}, though my fortune hath made
me such as I am, rather a sicknesse and disease of the world then any part
of it, yet I esteemed my self so far from being so to you, as I esteemed
you to be far from being so of the world, as to measure men by fortune or
events. I am now gone so far towards health, as there is not infirmity
enough left in me for an assurance of so much noblenesse and truth, as
your last Letter is to work upon, that might cure a greater indisposition
then I am now in: And though if I had died, I had not gone without
testimonies of such a disposition in you towards the reparation of my
fortune, or preservation of my poor reputation; yet I would live, and be
some such thing as you might not be ashamed to love. Your man must send
away this hour in which he visits me; and I have not yet (for I came last
night) offered to visit my La. _Bedford_, and therefore have nothing to
say which should make me grudge this straitnesse of time. He tels me he
sends again upon _Thursday_, and therefore I will make an end of this
Letter, and perfect it then. I doubt my Letters have not come duly to your
hand, and that I writing in my dungeon of _Michim_ without dating have
made the Chronologie and sequence of my Letters perplexed to you;
howsoever you shall not be rid of this Ague of my Letters, though
perchance the fit change daies. I have received in a narrow compasse three
of yours, one with the Catalogue of your Books, another I found here left
last _Saterday_ by your man, and this which he brought me this morning.
Sir, I dare sit no longer in my wastcoat, nor have any thing worth the
danger of a relapse to write. I owe you so much of my health, as I would
not mingle you in any occasion of repairing it, and therefore here ask
leave to kisse your hands, and bid you good morrow and farewell.
_Your very true friend and servant_
J. Donne.
[xxi.]
_To S{r}_ H. G.