_ I will anatomize the world for
the benefit of those who still, by the influence of her virtue, lead a
kind of glimmering life.
the benefit of those who still, by the influence of her virtue, lead a
kind of glimmering life.
John Donne
He and Donne may already have been acquainted through
Wotton, who was closely related by friendship and marriage with Sir
Edmund Bacon. (See Pearsall Smith, _Life and Letters of Sir Henry
Wotton_ (1907). _The Anatomie of the World_ was composed in 1611, _Of
the Progresse of the Soule_ in France in 1612, at some time prior to
the 14th of April, when he refers to his _Anniversaries_ in a letter
to George Gerrard.
Ben Jonson declared to Drummond 'That Donnes Anniversaries were
profane and full of blasphemies: that he told Mr. Done if it had
been written of the Virgin Marie it had been something; to which he
answered that he described the Idea of a Woman, and not as she was'.
This is a better defence of Donne's poems than any which he advances
in his letters, but it is not a complete description of his work.
Rather, he interwove with a rapt and extravagantly conceited laudation
of an ideal woman two topics familiar to his catholic and mediaeval
learning, and developed each in a characteristically subtle and
ingenious strain, a strain whose occasional sceptical, disintegrating
reflections belong as obviously to the seventeenth century as the
general content of the thought is mediaeval.
The burden of the whole is an impassioned and exalted _meditatio
mortis_ based on two themes common enough in mediaeval devotional
literature--a _De Contemptu Mundi_, and a contemplation of the Glories
of Paradise. A very brief analysis of the two poems, omitting the
laudatory portions, may help a reader who cannot at once see the wood
for the trees, and be better than detailed notes.
_The Anatomie of the World. _
_l. 1. _ The world which suffered in her death is now fallen into the
worse lethargy of oblivion. _l. 60.
_ I will anatomize the world for
the benefit of those who still, by the influence of her virtue, lead a
kind of glimmering life. _l. 91. _ There is no health in the world. We
are still under the curse of woman. _l. 111. _ How short is our life
compared with that of the patriarchs! _l. 134. _ How small is our
stature compared with that of the giants of old! _l. 147. _ How
shrunken of soul we are, especially since her death! _l. 191.
Wotton, who was closely related by friendship and marriage with Sir
Edmund Bacon. (See Pearsall Smith, _Life and Letters of Sir Henry
Wotton_ (1907). _The Anatomie of the World_ was composed in 1611, _Of
the Progresse of the Soule_ in France in 1612, at some time prior to
the 14th of April, when he refers to his _Anniversaries_ in a letter
to George Gerrard.
Ben Jonson declared to Drummond 'That Donnes Anniversaries were
profane and full of blasphemies: that he told Mr. Done if it had
been written of the Virgin Marie it had been something; to which he
answered that he described the Idea of a Woman, and not as she was'.
This is a better defence of Donne's poems than any which he advances
in his letters, but it is not a complete description of his work.
Rather, he interwove with a rapt and extravagantly conceited laudation
of an ideal woman two topics familiar to his catholic and mediaeval
learning, and developed each in a characteristically subtle and
ingenious strain, a strain whose occasional sceptical, disintegrating
reflections belong as obviously to the seventeenth century as the
general content of the thought is mediaeval.
The burden of the whole is an impassioned and exalted _meditatio
mortis_ based on two themes common enough in mediaeval devotional
literature--a _De Contemptu Mundi_, and a contemplation of the Glories
of Paradise. A very brief analysis of the two poems, omitting the
laudatory portions, may help a reader who cannot at once see the wood
for the trees, and be better than detailed notes.
_The Anatomie of the World. _
_l. 1. _ The world which suffered in her death is now fallen into the
worse lethargy of oblivion. _l. 60.
_ I will anatomize the world for
the benefit of those who still, by the influence of her virtue, lead a
kind of glimmering life. _l. 91. _ There is no health in the world. We
are still under the curse of woman. _l. 111. _ How short is our life
compared with that of the patriarchs! _l. 134. _ How small is our
stature compared with that of the giants of old! _l. 147. _ How
shrunken of soul we are, especially since her death! _l. 191.
