Main Text
To Sir Henry Wotton
- pg 71Editor’s Note1Sir, more then kisses, letters mingle Soules;
- Editor’s Note2 For, thus friends absent speake. This ease controules
- 3The tediousnesse of my life: But for these
- Editor’s Note4I could ideate nothing, which could please,
- Editor’s Note5But I should wither in one day, and passe
- Editor’s NoteCritical Apparatus6To'a bottle'of Hay, that am a locke of Grasse.
- Critical Apparatus7 Life is a voyage, and in our lifes wayes
- Editor’s Note8Countries, Courts, Towns are Rockes, or Remoraes;
- 9They breake or stop all ships, yet our state's such,
- Editor’s Note10That though then pitch they staine worse, wee must touch.
- Editor’s NoteCritical Apparatus11If in the furnace of the even line,
- Editor’s NoteCritical Apparatus12Or under th'adverse icy Poles thou pine,
- 13Thou know'st two temperate Regions girded in,
- 14Dwell there: But Oh, what refuge canst thou winne
- Editor’s Note15Parch'd in the Court, and in the country frozen?
- Critical Apparatus16Shall cities, built of both extremes, be chosen?
- Editor’s NoteCritical Apparatus17Can dung and garlike be'a perfume? or can
- Editor’s NoteCritical Apparatus18A Scorpion and Torpedo cure a man?
- Editor’s Note19Cities are worst of all three; of all three
- 20(O knottie riddle) each is worst equally.
- Critical Apparatus21Cities are Sepulchers; they who dwell there
- Editor’s NoteCritical Apparatus22Are carcases, as if no such there were.
- Editor’s Note23And Courts are Theaters, where some men play
- 24Princes, some slaves, all to one end, and of one clay.
- Editor’s NoteCritical Apparatus25The Country is a desert, where no good,
- Critical Apparatus26Gain'd (as habits, not borne,) is understood.
- Critical Apparatus27There men become beasts, and prone to more evils;
- Editor’s Note28In cities blockes, and in a lewd court, devills.
- pg 72Editor’s Note29As in the first Chaos confusedly
- 30Each elements qualities were in the'other three;
- 31So pride, lust, covetize, being severall
- Critical Apparatus32To these three places, yet all are in all,
- Critical Apparatus33And mingled thus, their issue'incestuous.
- Editor’s NoteCritical Apparatus34Falshood is denizon'd. Virtue'is barbarous.
- 35Let no man say there, Virtues flintie wall
- Critical Apparatus36Shall locke vice in mee,'I'll do none, but know all.
- 37Men are spunges, which to poure out, receive,
- 38Who know false play, rather then lose, deceive.
- Editor’s Note39For in best understandings, sinne beganne,
- 40Angels sinn'd first, then Devills, and then man.
- Editor’s Note41Onely perchance beasts sinne not; wretched wee
- 42Are beasts in all, but white integritie.
- 43I thinke if men, which in these places live
- Editor’s NoteCritical Apparatus44Durst looke for themselves, and themselves retrive,
- Editor’s Note45They would like strangrs greet themselves, seeing then
- Editor’s Note46Utopian youth, growne old Italian.
- Editor’s NoteCritical Apparatus47 Be then thine owne home, and in thy selfe dwell;
- Editor’s Note48Inne any where, continuance maketh hell
- Editor’s Note49And seeing the snaile, which every where doth rome,
- Editor’s NoteCritical Apparatus50Carrying his owne house still, still is at home,
- Critical Apparatus51Follow (for he is easie pac'd) this snaile,
- Critical Apparatus52Bee thine owne Palace, or the world's thy Gaole.
- 53And in the worlds sea, do not like corke sleepe
- 54Upon the waters face; nor in the deepe
- 55Sinke like a lead without a line: but as
- 56Fishes glide, leaving no print where they passe,
- Critical Apparatus57Nor making sound, so, closely thy course goe;
- Critical Apparatus58Let men dispute, whether thou breathe, or no.
- Editor’s NoteCritical Apparatus59Onely'in this one thing, be no Galenist: To make
- Editor’s Note60Courts hot ambitions wholesome, do not take
- pg 73Editor’s Note61A dramme of Countries dulnesse; do not adde
- 62Correctives, but as chymiques, purge the bad.
- Critical Apparatus63 But, Sir, I'advise not you, I rather doe
- Critical Apparatus64Say o'er those lessons, which I learn'd of you:
- Editor’s Note65Whom, free from German schismes, and lightnesse
- 66Of France, and faire Italies faithlesnesse,
- 67Having from these suck'd all they had of worth,
- 68And brought home that faith, which you carried forth,
- Critical Apparatus69I throughly love. But if my selfe I'have wonne
- Editor’s NoteCritical Apparatus70To know my rules, I have, and you have
- donne.
Critical Apparatus
To Sir Henry Wotton. MSS.: C 57, H 49; TC; Dob, O'F; W. Title from 1633, Σ: To Mr. H. W. W.
Editor’s Note
l. 1. kisses … mingle Soules. For this idea, descending from an epigram in the Greek Anthology ascribed to Plato, see the note on 'The Expiration', ll. 1–2, in Gardner, Elegies etc., p. 159, and cf. Castiglione, p. 315: 'Chaste lovers covet a kisse, as
a coupling of soules together. And therefore Plato the devine lover saith, that in kissing, his soule came as farre as his lippes to depart out of the bodie.'
letters mingle Soules. Cf. St. Ambrose, Epistolae (Migne, P.L. xvi. 1151), speaking of letters, 'in quibus etiam cum amico miscemus animum, et mentem ei nostram infundimus'. James Howell refers to this idea, Familiar Letters, ed. J. Jacobs, 1892, i. 13, 28.
Editor’s Note
l. 2. ease controules: 'easing' or 'relief' (of loneliness, or strain) 'modifies' (my boredom).
Editor’s Note
l. 4. ideate: form an idea of. Cf. 'that forme of a State which Plato Ideated' (Pseudo-Martyr, p. 4); 'the Ideating of this world, which was from everlasting' (Simpson, Essays, p. 63).
Editor’s Note
l. 5. wither in one day. Cf, Ps. xxxvii, 2, ciii. 15. The Vulgate in the latter place (= Ps. cii. 15) has 'foenum' ('hay') for the A.V. 'grass'.
Critical Apparatus
6 bottle] botle 1633
that] wch Dob, O'F
Editor’s Note
l. 6. bottle: bundle (Old Fr., 'botteau'). Cf. Bottom's desire for 'a bottle of hay' (A Midsummer Night's Dream, IV. i. 30).
locke: tuft (as in 'lock of hair').
Critical Apparatus
7 No paragraph 1633
lifes] lives O'F
Editor’s Note
l. 8. Remoraes. The Remora was a small sucking-fish which, fastening on to the rudder or keel, was supposed to be able to stop a ship. Cf, Pliny, Nat. Hist. ix. 79, xxxii. 1; many references are collected by C. Camden, 'Spenser's "Little Fish that men call Remora"', Rice Institute Pamphlets, xliv. 1, 1957.
Editor’s Note
l. 10. Cf Tilley, P358: 'He that touches pitch shall be defiled' (Ecclus, xiii. 1).
Critical Apparatus
11 even MSS.: raging 1633
Editor’s Note
l. 11. even line: Equator. It is 'even' because it is 'the Aequinoctiall line, / Whiche doth declare the dayes and nightes, of equal length and time' (Palingenius, Zodiac of Life, translated by Googe, ed. R. Tuve, p. 205); but also because it is midway between the Poles (O.E.D. 11, 'a just mean between two extremes'). In 1633 'even' is replaced by 'raging'; the appropriate meanings of 'even' were obsolescent, and the word was perhaps not understood (or
approved of) by the editor.
Critical Apparatus
12 Poles Σ: pole 1633, TC
Editor’s Note
l. 12. adverse: opposite to each other; also, perhaps, 'hostile' (to one pining under them).
Poles. The plural is needed if there are to be two temperate regions (l.13). It is, of course, impossible to be under two poles at once, but (as in 'The Calm', l. 50) the meaning 'under either of the poles' emerges without strain.
The phrase is 'under the Poles' because in the old cosmology they are the termini, not of the earth's axis, but of the heavens'; 'For the North and Southern Pole, are the invariable terms of that Axis whereon the heavens do move' (Browne, Vulgar Errors, vi. 7). Grierson quotes Ovid, Epist. ex Ponto, 11. vii. 64: 'Tristior ista / Terra sub ambobus non iacet ulla polis.'
Editor’s Note
l. 15. Donne handles the same ideas in a long passage in Letters, pp. 62–64. Cf. note to ll. 60–61 below.
Critical Apparatus
16
cities,… extremes,
]
cities … extremes
1633
Critical Apparatus
17 dung] dung, 1633
and] or Dob, O'F
Editor’s Note
l. 17. Can dung and garlike be'a perfume? 'Can we make a sweet scent from two unpleasant ones (and isn't it just as useless trying to blend into a pleasant combination the blaze of the Court and the chillness of the Country to make a City life)?' We might have a better chance with dung alone: 'if, as Paracelsus encourageth, Ordure makes the best Musk, and from the most fetid substances may be drawn the most odoriferous Essences' (Browne, Vulgar Errors, iii. 26).
Critical Apparatus
18 Scorpion] Scorpion, 1633
and H 49, TC, W: or 1633, C 57, Dob, O'F
Editor’s Note
l. 18. Scorpion and Torpedo. The point, as in l. 17, is the impossibility of mingling two harmful things to produce a beneficial thing. Hence 'and' is right here, as in l. 17, and 1633 and C 57 hare joined Group III in error. By itself, in fact, the scorpion, at least, could cure a man; it was a commonplace that 'To a man smitten of ye scorpion, ashes of scorpions burnt, dronke in wine, is remedy' (Batman upon Bartholome, 1582, f. 381r).
The torpedo, numb-fish, or cramp-fish caused numbness or cramp on contact with a man. Cf. the 'Elegy upon Prince Henry', l. 30.
Editor’s Note
ll. 19–20. Cities are worst, etc. The 'knottie riddle' is that Court and Country could each also be called the 'worst'. Cf. Bacon's 'The World', ll. 15–16 (N.Ault, Elizabethan Lyrics, 3rd ed., 1949, p. 248):
- And where's a city from all vice so free,
- But may be termed the worst of all the three?
Critical Apparatus
21 who] wch Dob, O'F
Critical Apparatus
22 no] none Dob, O'F
there Σ: they 1633: then TC
Editor’s Note
l. 22. no such: no such people (they are like walking dead).
Editor’s Note
l. 23. Courts are Theaters. Cf. the following letter to Wotton, ll. 20–21.
Critical Apparatus
25 no] the Dob, O'F
Editor’s Note
ll. 25–26.
- The Country is a desert, where no good,
- Gain'd (as habits, not borne,) is understood.
The crabbed and ambiguous syntax in these lines has given trouble to copyists and editors from the first. Donne is using the terms of Aquinas, who says that virtue is a good habit, attributed to reason (hence to 'understanding') (S. T., Ia pars, II, q. lv, art. 3); it is not inborn. On the other hand, original sin is a habit inborn because of our corrupt origin (Ia pars, II, q. lxxxii, art. 1).
In the country the good which men achieve (for it is not inborn, and they must achieve it by the use of reason) is not recognized for what it is, so much does living in the country dull the understanding. Hence men there become as beasts, but are liable to sin even more than they (l. 27), because, though beasts lack the understanding needed to develop virtue, they also lack the inborn habit of original sin (and so 'sinne not, and have a 'white integritie' which men lack, ll. 41–42).
I have adopted from Grierson the parenthesis which brings out the meaning of the better authenticated text. In some Group III manuscripts attempts (due to misunderstanding) have been made to 'improve' the lines, to account for (supposedly) two sorts of 'good', that acquired as habits, and that inborn; the emendations were adopted in 1635, and still have their defenders (see J. V. Hagopian, 'Some Cruxes in Donne's Poetry', N. and Q. ccii, 1957, p. 501).
Critical Apparatus
26 Gain'd (as habits,] Gain'd, as habits, 1633, Σ: Gayn'd, inhabits O'F
not borne,) is understood] not borne, is understood 1633, Σ: borne, is not understood Dob, O'F; see note
Critical Apparatus
27 more 1633, C 57, W: meere H 49: men TC: all Dob, O'F
Editor’s Note
l. 28. blockes: logs, dullards.
Editor’s Note
ll. 29–33. As in the first Chaos, etc, Before the Creation matter was without form and the four elements were mixed and confused; the Gloss on Gen. i. 2 says that they did not have their proper accidental qualities till they were made distinct elements on the third day. The idea that the elements 'originate from one another, and each of them exists potentially in each' derives from Aristotle, Meteorologica, I. 3 (339a-b).
In the moral sphere pride, lust, and covetousness are 'elemental' (being three of the deadly sins); they are typical, respectively, of Country, Court, and City, yet, in the chaotic moral state of modern life, each is equally in all three places (cf. l. 20). The more complex sins that issue from the mixture of these three are monstrous, resulting from an 'incestuous' union between closely related beings.
Critical Apparatus
32 these] those Dob, O'F
all are in all] are all, in all Dob, O'F
Critical Apparatus
33 issue] yssue is Dob: Issue's O'F
issue'incestuous] issue incestuous 1633
Critical Apparatus
34. Virtue'is] Virtue is 1633
Editor’s Note
l. 34. denizon'd naturalized. A 'denizen' was a person not native to a country, but allowed to enter and reside, with the rights of a citizen. Falsehood was not originally part of life at any of the 'three places' (l. 32).
Critical Apparatus
36 mee,'I'll] mee, I'll 1633
Editor’s Note
ll. 39–40. For in best understandings, etc. Cf. 'God made this whole world in such an uniformity,… as that it was an Instrument, perfectly in tune: we may say,the trebles, the highest strings were disordered first; the best understandings, Angels and Men, put this instrument out of tune' (Sermons, ii. 170).
Editor’s Note
ll. 41–42. wretched wee Are beasts. Man, having reason and moral understanding, is worse than the beasts if by the uncontrolled activity of the irrational part of his nature, which he has in common with the beasts, he sins and debases himself. Cf.
when the purest Understandings of ali, The Angeis, fell … ; when Lucifer was tumbled downe … then he tried upon them, who were next to him in Dignity, upon Man. … So he overthrew man. … Ever since this fall, man is so far from affecting higher places, then his nature is capable of, that he is still groveling upon the ground, and participates, and imitates, and expresses more of the nature of the Beast then of his owne. There is no creature but man that degenerates willingly from Ms naturall Dignity; Those degrees of goodnesse, which God imprinted in them at first, they preserve still … ; we are not onely inferior to the Beasts, and under their annoyance, but we are our selves become Beasts … (Sermons, ix. 372–6).
Critical Apparatus
44 for Σ: in 1633: into Dob, O'F
Editor’s Note
l. 45. strangers: including the meaning 'foreigners' ('Italian', l. 46).
Editor’s Note
l. 46. Utopian. Donne's use of the adjective (referring to his ancestor's Utopia) is quite modern: 'ideally nurtured and trained'.
old. There is a pun on two senses: (1) 'when older', (2) 'completely', 'plentifully'.
Italian: degenerate in morals and manners; after the proverb, 'Inglese italianato è un diavolo incarnato'.
Critical Apparatus
47 then Σ: thou 1633, C 57, Gr
Editor’s Note
l. 47. in thy selfe dwell. 'For as every Man is a little World, so every man is his owne House, and dwels in himselfe; And in this House God dwells too' (Sermons, vi. 251). 'Respue quod non es … tecum habita' (Persius, Sat. iv. 52).
Editor’s Note
l. 48. Inne. lodge, sojourn, as at an inn; opposed to dwelling in one's home. Thus Donne says that vices 'Inne not, but dwell in me' (Letters, p. 80).
continuance maketh hell. To 'continue' in any one place (Country, City, Court) is to be restricted by its values, hence by its vices—the reward for sharing which is Hell.
Editor’s Note
l. 49. the snaile: 'a Stoicke, because he carries all whatsoever hee hath on his backe' (A Strange Metamorphosis of Man, 1634, ed. D. C. Allen, 1949, p. 45).
Critical Apparatus
50 his] her Dob, O'F
home,] home. 1633
Editor’s Note
l. 50. still: always. Cf. 'Eclogue' before the Somerset 'Epithalamion', ll. 71– 72; 'so is hee still at home / That doth, abroad, to honest actions come'.
Critical Apparatus
51 easie 1633, H 49, W: easilye C 57, TC, Dob, O'F (b.c)
Critical Apparatus
52 Gaole.] goale; 1633
Critical Apparatus
57
sound, … goe;
]
sound; … goe,
1633
Critical Apparatus
58 breathe] breath 1633
no.] no: 1633
Critical Apparatus
59 one thing] omit Dob, O'F
Galenist:] Galenist. 1633
Editor’s Note
ll. 59–62.
Galenist … cbymiques. The followers of Claudius Galenus (second century A.D.) believed that illness was caused by disturbance in the correct proportions of 'humours' (hot, cold, moist, dry); they therefore used remedies that had qualities contrary to the humour that was excessive, so that they would be 'correctives' of the balance of humours. The 'chymiques' or 'chemists' (especially Paracelsus, 1493–1541) acted on a theory like that held in
relation to the purifying of metals, etc.: each illness had an essence or 'spiritual seed', which could be 'purged' from the body by an antagonistic remedy prepared by 'extraction'. There is a long discussion of the two schools of medicine in Letters, pp. 97–98. Cf. 'The Cross', l. 27, and Burton, Anatomy, part. 2, sect. 5, memb. 1, subsect. 3.
Wotton is advised here not to try to compound a balanced life by mingling the (evil) qualities of Court and Country, but rather to live a life purged of all evil.
Editor’s Note
l. 60. Courts bot ambitions. Cf. 'Obsequies to the Lord Harrington', ll. 24–25.
Editor’s Note
l. 61. Countries dulnesse; 'the barbarousnesse and insipid dulnesse of the Country' (Letters, p. 63).
Critical Apparatus
63 No paragraph 1633
I'advise] I advise 1633
Critical Apparatus
64 you:] you. 1633
Editor’s Note
ll. 65–66. These 'national characteristics' were commonplaces. Cf. Francis Osborn, Adrice to a Son, 1656, p. 68: 'the externall Levity of France, Pride of Spaine, and Treachery of Italy'.
Critical Apparatus
69 selfe] selfe, 1633
Critical Apparatus
70 donne.] donne: 1633
Editor’s Note
l. 70. donne. Apparently nobody could resist the pun. The Benchers of Lincoln's Inn (11 February 1622) solemnly recorded in the Black Books (ed. 1898, p. 229) that Donne had been made Dean of St. Paul's, 'by reason whereof he cannot conveniently supply the place of publick Preacher of God's Word in this House, as formerly he hath Donne'.
