Gosse conjectures that the person
addressed
is Edward Guilpin, or
Gilpin, author of _Skialetheia_ (1598), a collection of epigrams and
satires.
Gilpin, author of _Skialetheia_ (1598), a collection of epigrams and
satires.
John Donne
306.
)
l. 10. _Heavens liberall and earths thrice fairer Sunne. _ I prefer the
_1633_ and _1669_ reading, amended from _W_ which reads 'fairer', to
that of the later editions, 'the thrice faire Sunne', which Chambers
adopts. There are obviously _two_ suns in question--the Heavens'
liberal sun, and the earth's thrice-fairer one, i. e. the lady. Exiled
from both, Donne carries with him sufficient fire to melt the ice of
the wintry regions he must visit--not 'that which walls her heart'.
Commenting on a similar conceit in Petrarch:
Ite caldi sospiri al freddo core,
Rompete il ghiaccio, che pieta contende,
Tassoni tells how while writing he found himself detained at an Inn
by a severe frost, and that sighs were of little use to melt it.
_Considerazioni, &c. _ (1609), p. 228.
TO M^r E. G.
Gosse conjectures that the person addressed is Edward Guilpin, or
Gilpin, author of _Skialetheia_ (1598), a collection of epigrams and
satires. Guilpin imitates one of Donne's _Satyres_, which may imply
acquaintance. He makes no traceable reference to Donne in his works,
and we know so little of Guilpin that it is impossible to affirm
anything with confidence. Whoever is meant is in Suffolk. There were
Gilpins of Bungay there in 1664. It is worth noting that Sir Henry
Goodyere begins one of his poems (preserved in MS. at the Record
Office, _State Papers Dom. _, 1623) with the line: 'Even as lame things
thirst their perfection. ' Goodyere's poem was written before the
issue of Donne's poems in 1633, and that edition does not contain this
letter. One suspects that E. G. may be a Goodyere.
ll. 5-6. _oreseest . .
l. 10. _Heavens liberall and earths thrice fairer Sunne. _ I prefer the
_1633_ and _1669_ reading, amended from _W_ which reads 'fairer', to
that of the later editions, 'the thrice faire Sunne', which Chambers
adopts. There are obviously _two_ suns in question--the Heavens'
liberal sun, and the earth's thrice-fairer one, i. e. the lady. Exiled
from both, Donne carries with him sufficient fire to melt the ice of
the wintry regions he must visit--not 'that which walls her heart'.
Commenting on a similar conceit in Petrarch:
Ite caldi sospiri al freddo core,
Rompete il ghiaccio, che pieta contende,
Tassoni tells how while writing he found himself detained at an Inn
by a severe frost, and that sighs were of little use to melt it.
_Considerazioni, &c. _ (1609), p. 228.
TO M^r E. G.
Gosse conjectures that the person addressed is Edward Guilpin, or
Gilpin, author of _Skialetheia_ (1598), a collection of epigrams and
satires. Guilpin imitates one of Donne's _Satyres_, which may imply
acquaintance. He makes no traceable reference to Donne in his works,
and we know so little of Guilpin that it is impossible to affirm
anything with confidence. Whoever is meant is in Suffolk. There were
Gilpins of Bungay there in 1664. It is worth noting that Sir Henry
Goodyere begins one of his poems (preserved in MS. at the Record
Office, _State Papers Dom. _, 1623) with the line: 'Even as lame things
thirst their perfection. ' Goodyere's poem was written before the
issue of Donne's poems in 1633, and that edition does not contain this
letter. One suspects that E. G. may be a Goodyere.
ll. 5-6. _oreseest . .
