To deify the object of your love was a common topic of love-poetry;
Donne does so with all the subtleties of scholastic theology at his
finger-ends.
Donne does so with all the subtleties of scholastic theology at his
finger-ends.
John Donne
_Thou art so truth.
_ The evidence of the MSS.
shows that both
'truth' and 'true' were current versions and explains the alteration
of _1635-69_. But 'truth' is both the more difficult reading and
the more subtle expression of Donne's thought; 'true' is the obvious
emendation of less metaphysical copyists and editors. Donne's 'Love'
is not true as opposed to false only; she is 'truth' as opposed
to dreams or phantasms or aught that partakes of unreality. She is
essentially truth as God is: 'Respondeo dicendum quod . . . veritas
invenitur in intellectu, secundum quod apprehendit rem ut est; et
in re, secundum quod habet esse conformabile intellectui. Hoc autem
maxime invenitur in Deo. Nam esse eius non solum est conforme suo
intelligere; et suum intelligere est mensura et causa omnis alterius
esse, et omnis alterius intellectus; et ipse est suum esse et
intelligere. Unde sequitur quod non solum in ipso sit veritas, sed
quod ipse sit ipsa summa et prima veritas. _Summa_ I. vi. 5.
To deify the object of your love was a common topic of love-poetry;
Donne does so with all the subtleties of scholastic theology at his
finger-ends. In this single poem he attributes to the lady addressed
two attributes of Deity, (1) the identity of being and essence, (2)
the power of reading the thoughts directly.
The Dutch poet keeps this point:
de Waerheyt is so ghy, en
Ghy zijt de Waerheyt so.
ll. 11-12. _As lightning, or a Tapers light
Thine eyes, and not thy noise wak'd mee. _
'A sodain light brought into a room doth awaken some men; but yet a
noise does it better. ' _Sermons_ 50. 38. 344.
'A candle wakes some men as well as a noise. ' _Sermons_ 80. 61. 617.
ll. 15-16.
'truth' and 'true' were current versions and explains the alteration
of _1635-69_. But 'truth' is both the more difficult reading and
the more subtle expression of Donne's thought; 'true' is the obvious
emendation of less metaphysical copyists and editors. Donne's 'Love'
is not true as opposed to false only; she is 'truth' as opposed
to dreams or phantasms or aught that partakes of unreality. She is
essentially truth as God is: 'Respondeo dicendum quod . . . veritas
invenitur in intellectu, secundum quod apprehendit rem ut est; et
in re, secundum quod habet esse conformabile intellectui. Hoc autem
maxime invenitur in Deo. Nam esse eius non solum est conforme suo
intelligere; et suum intelligere est mensura et causa omnis alterius
esse, et omnis alterius intellectus; et ipse est suum esse et
intelligere. Unde sequitur quod non solum in ipso sit veritas, sed
quod ipse sit ipsa summa et prima veritas. _Summa_ I. vi. 5.
To deify the object of your love was a common topic of love-poetry;
Donne does so with all the subtleties of scholastic theology at his
finger-ends. In this single poem he attributes to the lady addressed
two attributes of Deity, (1) the identity of being and essence, (2)
the power of reading the thoughts directly.
The Dutch poet keeps this point:
de Waerheyt is so ghy, en
Ghy zijt de Waerheyt so.
ll. 11-12. _As lightning, or a Tapers light
Thine eyes, and not thy noise wak'd mee. _
'A sodain light brought into a room doth awaken some men; but yet a
noise does it better. ' _Sermons_ 50. 38. 344.
'A candle wakes some men as well as a noise. ' _Sermons_ 80. 61. 617.
ll. 15-16.
