John Donne - Delphi Poets Series (94 page)

LXXX

For the date see XXIV, and note.

LXXXI

To Sir Henry Goodyer, and evidently written just prior to Donne’s appointment as Dean of Saint Paul’s (November 19th, 1621). “My Cases of Conscience” is, I suppose, the
Paradoxes and Problems
to which we have had frequent allusions.

LXXXII

The identity of Donne’s “worthy friend F. H.” is unknown to me. The letter evidently belongs to the closing years of Donne’s life. In printing this letter, Mr. Gosse (
Life and Letters of John Donne, II, 254
) quotes from Walton:

“The latter part of his life may be said to be a continued study; for as he usually preached once a week, if not oftener, so after his Sermon he never gave his eyes rest till he had chosen out a new Text, and that night cast his Sermon into a forme, and his Text into divisions; and the next day betook himself to consult the Fathers, and so commit his meditations to his memory, which was excellent. But upon Saturday he usually gave himself and his mind a rest from the weary burthen of his week’s meditations, and usually spent that day in visitation of friends and other diversions of his thoughts; and would say that
he gave both his body and mind that refreshment, that he might be enabled to do the work of the day following, not faintly, but with courage and cheerfulness
.”

LXXXIII

To Sir Henry Goodyer, but a few weeks earlier than the date of LXI, and at about the same time as LXXV. “Mr. Selden” is the great John Selden.

LXXXIV

Written from Sir John Danvers’ house in Chelsea where Donne had gone to stay at the height of the plague which raged in London during the summer of 1625. Lady Danvers was Donne’s old friend, Mrs. Magdalen Herbert. (See note to XLIV, above.) Sir Edward Sackville became Earl of Dorset on the 28th of March, 1624, on the death of his brother, the third Earl. King James died on the 27th of March, 1625. “The Queen” is Henrietta Maria, whom Charles married a few weeks after his accession.

LXXXV

To George Gerrard. “The 14th of April, here (i.e., at Paris) 1612” would in England be April 4th, 1612. For the criticisms of his poems in honour of Elizabeth Drury to which Donne here makes reply, see note to XXVI above.

LXXXVI

To George Gerrard, and apparently written within a few weeks of the date of the next letter, addressed to the same friend and dated January 7th 1630 in the 1719 edition of Donne’s Poems to which it is appended.

LXXXVII

To George Gerrard. Walton quotes this letter in full in his
Life of Donne
, and in spite of their length his comments cannot be omitted here:

“We left the Author sick in Essex, where he was forced to spend much of that winter, by reason of his disability to remove from thence: And having never for almost twenty yeares omitted his personall Attendance on his Majesty in that moneth in which he was to attend and preach to him; nor having ever been left out of the Roll and number of Lent-Preachers; and there being then (in January 1630) a report brought to London, or raised there, that Dr. Donne was dead: That report gave him occasion to write this following letter to a friend....

“Before that moneth ended, he was designed to preach upon his old constant day, the first Friday in Lent; he had notice of it, and had in his sicknesse so prepared for that imployment, that as he had long thirsted for it, so he resolved his weaknesse should not hinder his journey; he came therefore to London, some few dayes before his day appointed. At his being there many of his friends (who with sorrow saw his sicknesse had left him onely so much flesh as did cover his bones) doubted his strength to performe that task; and therefore disswaded him from undertaking it, assuring him however, it was like to shorten his daies; but he passionately denyed their requests, saying,
he would not doubt that God who in many weaknesses had assisted him with an unexpected strength, would not now withdraw it in his last employment; professing an holy ambition to performe that sacred work
. And when to the amazement of some beholders he appeared in the Pulpit, many thought he presented himself not to preach mortification by a living voice, but mortality by a decayed body and dying face. And doubtlesse many did secretly ask that question in
Ezekiel, Do these bones live? or can that soul Organize that tongue, to speak so long time as the sand in that glasse will move towards its Centre, and measure out an hour of this dying mans unspent life?
Doubtlesse it cannot; yet after some faint pauses in his zealous prayer, his strong desires enabled his weake body to discharge his memory of his preconceived meditations; which were of dying, the Text being,
To God the Lord belong the issues from Death
. Many that then saw his teares, and heard his hollow voice, professing they thought the Text prophetically chosen, and that Dr. Donne
had preach’t his own funerall sermon
.

“Being full of joy that God had enabled him to performe this desired duty, he hastened to his house, out of which he never moved, till like St.
Stephen, he was carryed by devout men to his Grave
.”

LXXXVIII

This letter, addressed, I suppose, to Donne’s sister Jane, the wife of Sir Thomas Grymes, is printed in the 1719 edition of the Poems, and is there dated “Amyens, the 7th of
Febr.
here, 1611,” i.e., January 28th, 1612.

LXXXIX

To George Gerrard, and written from Paris not long after the date of the preceding letter.

XC

Written in 1624, during Donne’s recovery from a dangerous illness. Here, as elsewhere, Walton is our best commentator:

“Within a few dayes his distempers abated; and as his strength increased, so did his thankfulnesse to Almighty God, testified in his
book of Devotions
, which he published at his recovery. In which the reader may see, the most secret thoughts that then possest his soul, Paraphrased and made publick; a book that may not unfitly be called a Sacred picture of spiritual extasies, occasioned and applyable to the emergencies of that sicknesse, which being a composition of
Meditations
,
disquisitions
and
prayers
, he writ on his sick-bed; herein imitating the holy Patriarchs, who were wont to build their Altars in that place, where they had received their blessings.”

Donne’s
Devotions upon Emergent Occasions and Several Steps in my Sickness
was published in 1624, and dedicated “To the most excellent prince, Prince Charles.”

XCI

To George Gerrard, and written from the Low Countries, where Donne was travelling with Sir Robert Drury in the late summer of 1612.

XCII

To George Gerrard, and evidently an amplified version of LXXXV.

XCIII

Apparently written on Donne’s return to London at the beginning of the winter of 1612-13. I imagine that George Gerrard and his sister had come up to London to meet Donne, but had, by some mischance, failed to find him.

XCIV

Written, I think, early in the summer of 1612, and, if so, from Paris, whither Donne had gone with his “noble neighbour,” Sir Robert Drury. “That Noble Lady” is presumably the Countess of Bedford.

XCV

To George Gerrard, and like the next letter written from Amiens in the winter of 1611-12.

XCVII

To George Gerrard’s sister, and written from Spa in the summer of 1612.

XCVIII

Certainly not addressed to Sir Henry Goodyer, but probably to Somerset, during the negotiations of which Walton, though with some inaccuracy, reports the happy ending:

“His Majesty had promised him a favour, and many persons of worth mediated with his Majesty for some secular employment for him, to which his education had apted him, and particularly the Earle of Somerset, when in his height of favour, being then at
Theobalds
with the King, where one of the Clerks of the Council died that night, the Earle having sent immediately for Mr.
Donne
to come to him, said,
Mr.
Donne
, To testifie the reality of my affection, and my purpose to prefer you, stay in this garden till I go up to the King, and bring you word that you are Clerk of the Council
. The King gave a positive denial to all requests; and having a discerning spirit, replied,
I know Mr.
Donne
is a learned man, has the abilities of a learned Divine, and will prove a powerfull Preacher, and my desire is to prefer him that way
. After that, as he professeth,
the King descended almost to a solicitation of him to enter into sacred Orders
: which, though he then denied not, yet he deferred it for three years.”

XCIX

Written in 1613. (See note on L, above.)

C

Donne’s fifth daughter, Margaret, was christened April 20th, 1615, three days after the date of this letter.

CI

Mary, Donne’s fourth daughter, died in May, 1614, in her fourth year.

CII

This letter, and CXIII, below, seem to belong to the same period, probably to the closing years of Donne’s residence at Mitcham, when Donne may have begun to hope that through his acquaintance with the Earl of Bedford (who is, I think, here intended by “My Lord”) he might obtain public employment of some kind.

CIII

This and the two following letters belong to July and August, 1622, and seem to relate to a single incident. Sir Robert Ker had apparently asked Donne for his opinion of one of his fellow-travellers in attendance on Lord Doncaster during the German tour. Donne’s evident anxiety to be fair to both parties results in a somewhat indefinite answer.

CVI

Donne’s eyes gave him a good deal of trouble in the winter of 1613-14; this letter, as well as LXVII, above, may belong to this period.

CVII

“In August, 1630,” says Walton, “being with his eldest daughter, Mrs. Harvy, at Abury Hatch in Essex, he there fell into a fever, which, with the help of his constant infirmity (vapours from the spleen,) hastened him into so visible a consumption, that his beholders might say, as St. Paul said of himself, ‘He dies daily.’” This letter was written from Abury (or Aldeburgh) Hatch. “Mrs. Harvy” is Donne’s daughter Constance, the widow of Edward Alleyn, and now the wife of Samuel Harvey. Donne’s son George, the soldier, was taking part in the campaign in Spain. Lord Carlisle was the old friend whom, as Lord Doncaster, Donne had attended in his German embassy. Lord Percy was Algernon Percy, soon to become fourth Earl of Northumberland.

CVIII

Written apparently before Donne had entered the church, and probably in 1614, while Donne was still living in Drury House. George Gerrard was at court. His “hopeful designs upon worthy widows” seem to have been the cause of much pleasantry. (See XIX.)

CIX

There is no certain indication of the date of this letter. Mr. Gosse assigns it conjecturally to 1622. It seems to me more likely that it belongs to the period of Donne’s residence at Mitcham, and is of 1609, or earlier date. “My house” would then be Donne’s lodgings in the Strand.

CX

Written not long after the date of CVII, above, and presumably from Aldeburgh Hatch. “The Lady of the Jewel” (obviously “the Diamond Lady” of CVII) remains a mystery. Apparently she had placed her jewels in Donne’s keeping, thus charging him with a responsibility which he seems to have found exceedingly irksome.

CXI

Donne was ordained in January, 1615, a “very few days” before the date of this letter.

CXII

This letter may safely be assigned to 1613. Rochester was made Earl of Somerset in December of this year, a few days before his marriage to Lady Frances Howard. Surely none of the letters to Somerset for which Sir Francis Bacon has been so severely condemned expresses a more complete submission than is here offered.

CXIV

To George Gerrard. Probably written from France, and, if so, presumably to be assigned to 1612, when Donne was in Paris with Sir Robert Drury. “This book of French
Satyrs
” Mr. Gosse takes to be the first authoritative edition of Regnier’s
Satyres et autres œuvres folastres
, 1612.

CXV

The allusion to Pierre du Moulin, the French theologian, who preached before the Court in June, 1615, gives the approximate date of this letter. Sir Thomas Grymes, the husband of Donne’s sister Jane, we have already met. Donne says
father-in-law
where we should say
step-father
.

CXVI

Sir Dudley Carleton remained as Ambassador to Venice until 1616, when he was succeeded by Sir Henry Wotton, but this letter must have been written before Donne’s ordination in January, 1615. “My Lord” is, of course, the Earl of Somerset.

CXVII

This, and the next letter, may belong to the same period as the preceding letter to Sir Robert Ker. “
Monte Magor
” is George de Montemayor, whose “Shepherdess Felismena,” in the Spanish pastoral romance of “Diana,” tells the same story as “The Two Gentlemen of Verona.” A translation into English by Bartholomew Yonge was published in 1598, but Donne may have read it in the original.

CXIX

On November 4, 1616, Charles, the Duke of York, was created Prince of Wales.

CXX

This letter, like CXVI, seems to belong to the period immediately preceding Donne’s entrance into the church, when Sir Robert Ker’s advice as to the best way of retaining Somerset’s interest was constantly in request.

CXXI

To George Gerrard, and belonging to the winter of 1612-13. Cf. XCI, which also carried an enclosure. The letter enclosed with the present letter may have been addressed to Lord Clifford (Cf. CVI) or, more probably, to Rochester.

CXXII

This and the next two letters were written in April, 1627, and relate to the same incident. This letter is the first, and the next the last of the series.