]
[2 leavened _1611:_ learned _1649-69 and mod.
[2 leavened _1611:_ learned _1649-69 and mod.
John Donne
Thus thou, by means which th'Ancients never took,
A Pandect makest, and Vniversall Booke. 50
The bravest Heroes, for publike good,
Scattered in divers Lands their limbs and blood.
Worst malefactors, to whom men are prize,
Do publike good, cut in Anatomies;
So will thy booke in peeces; for a Lord 55
Which casts at Portescues, and all the board,
Provide whole books; each leafe enough will be
For friends to passe time, and keep company.
Can all carouse up thee? no, thou must fit
Measures; and fill out for the half-pint wit: 60
Some shall wrap pils, and save a friends life so,
Some shall stop muskets, and so kill a foe.
Thou shalt not ease the Criticks of next age
So much, at once their hunger to asswage:
Nor shall wit-pirats hope to finde thee lye 65
All in one bottome, in one Librarie.
Some Leaves may paste strings there in other books,
And so one may, which on another looks,
Pilfer, alas, a little wit from you;
[Sidenote *: I meane from
one page which shall paste
strings in a booke[1]]
But hardly[*] much; and yet I think this true; 70
As _Sibyls_ was, your booke is mysticall,
For every peece is as much worth as all.
Therefore mine impotency I confesse,
The healths which my braine bears must be far lesse:
Thy Gyant-wit'orethrowes me, I am gone; 75
And rather then read all, I would reade none.
_I. D. _
[Footnote 1: I meane _&c. _ _side-note in 1611_]
[Vpon Mr. _&c. _ _1649_, _where it was placed with_ The Token
(_p. _ 72_), _at the end of the_ Funerall Elegies: _appeared
originally in_ Coryats Crudities (_1611: see note_) _with
heading_ Incipit Joannes Donne.
]
[2 leavened _1611:_ learned _1649-69 and mod. edd. _]
[7 longdst _1611:_ long'st _1649-69_]
[19 sometimes. ] sometime _1611_]
[24 Gazettier. _1611:_ Garretteir _1649-69_]
[28 booke,] booke. _1611_]
[37 barrels; _1649-69:_ barrels, _1611_]
[56 board, _1611:_ board _1649-69_]
_In eundem Macaronicon. _
_Quot, dos haec_, +Linguists+ perfetti, _Disticha_ fairont,
_Tot_ cuerdos +States-men+, _hic_ livre fara _tuus_.
Es _sat_ a my l'honneur estre hic inteso; Car +I leave+
L'honra, de personne nestre creduto, _tibi_.
_Explicit Joannes Donne. _
[In eundem _&c. 1611, concluding the above_]
* * * * *
[Illustration: JOHN DONNE, 1613
_Viri seraphici Joannis Donne Qua-
dragenarij Effigies vera, Qui post
eam aetatem Sacris initiatus Ec-
clesiae S^{ti} Pauli Decanus obijt. _
_Ano { Do[~m] 1631?
{ AEtatis suae 59? _
("A true portrait of that seraphic man John Donne at the age of 40;
he was later ordained into holy orders and died Dean of St Paul's
in the year of our Lord 1631 at the age of 59")
From the engraving prefixed to his son's edition of the _Letters to
Several Persons of Honour_ 1651, 1654]
* * * * *
LETTERS
TO SEVERALL PERSONAGES.
THE STORME.
To Mr.
