ce
proclaime
thy wisdom with those woders,
Rarer then sommers snowes, or winters thunders.
Rarer then sommers snowes, or winters thunders.
John Donne
but 'to cast at Portescues' may have been a term, perhaps
translated. A greater difficulty is that 'Portescue' is not given as a
form of 'Portague' by the O. E. D. , but a false etymology connecting it
with 'escus', crowns, may have produced it.
The following poem is also found among the poems prefixed to Coryat's
_Crudities_. It may be by Donne, but was not printed in any edition of
his poems:
_Incipit Ioannes Dones. _
Loe her's a Man, worthy indeede to trauell;
Fat Libian plaines, strangest Chinas grauell.
For Europe well hath scene him stirre his stumpes:
Turning his double shoes to simple pumpes.
And for relation, looke he doth afford
Almost for euery step he tooke a word;
What had he done had he ere hug'd th'Ocean
With swimming _Drake_ or famous _Magelan_?
And kis'd that _vnturn'd[1] cheeke_ of our old mother,
Since so our Europes world he can discouer?
It's not that _French_[2] which made his _Gyant_[3] see
Those vncouth Ilands where wordes frozen bee,
Till by the thaw next yeare they'r voic't againe;
Whose _Papagauts_, _Andouelets_, and that traine
Should be such matter for a Pope to curse
As he would make; make! makes ten times worse,
And yet so pleasing as shall laughter moue:
And be his vaine, his game, his praise, his loue.
Sit not still then, keeping fames trump vnblowne:
But get thee _Coryate_ to some land vnknowne.
From wh?
ce proclaime thy wisdom with those woders,
Rarer then sommers snowes, or winters thunders.
And take this praise of that th'ast done alreadie:
T'is pitty ere they _flow_ should haue an _eddie_.
_Explicit Ioannes Dones. _
PAGE =174=. IN EUNDEM MACARONICUM.
A writer in _Notes and Queries_, 3rd Series, vii, 1865, gives the
following translation of these lines:
As many perfect linguists as these two distichs make,
So many prudent statesmen will this book of yours produce.
To me the honour is sufficient of being understood: for I leave
To you the honour of being believed by no one.
[Footnote 1: _Terra incognita. _]
[Footnote 2: _Rablais. _]
[Footnote 3: _Pantagruel. _]
[(These notes are given in the margin of the original,
opposite the words explained. )]
LETTERS TO SEVERALL PERSONAGES.
Of Donne's _Letters_ the earliest are the _Storms_ and _Calme_ which
were written in 1597. The two letters to Sir Henry Wotton, 'Sir, More
then kisses' and 'Heres no more newes, then vertue', belong to 1597-8.
The fresh letter here published, _H: W: in Hiber: belligeranti_ (p.
188), was sent to Wotton in 1599.
translated. A greater difficulty is that 'Portescue' is not given as a
form of 'Portague' by the O. E. D. , but a false etymology connecting it
with 'escus', crowns, may have produced it.
The following poem is also found among the poems prefixed to Coryat's
_Crudities_. It may be by Donne, but was not printed in any edition of
his poems:
_Incipit Ioannes Dones. _
Loe her's a Man, worthy indeede to trauell;
Fat Libian plaines, strangest Chinas grauell.
For Europe well hath scene him stirre his stumpes:
Turning his double shoes to simple pumpes.
And for relation, looke he doth afford
Almost for euery step he tooke a word;
What had he done had he ere hug'd th'Ocean
With swimming _Drake_ or famous _Magelan_?
And kis'd that _vnturn'd[1] cheeke_ of our old mother,
Since so our Europes world he can discouer?
It's not that _French_[2] which made his _Gyant_[3] see
Those vncouth Ilands where wordes frozen bee,
Till by the thaw next yeare they'r voic't againe;
Whose _Papagauts_, _Andouelets_, and that traine
Should be such matter for a Pope to curse
As he would make; make! makes ten times worse,
And yet so pleasing as shall laughter moue:
And be his vaine, his game, his praise, his loue.
Sit not still then, keeping fames trump vnblowne:
But get thee _Coryate_ to some land vnknowne.
From wh?
ce proclaime thy wisdom with those woders,
Rarer then sommers snowes, or winters thunders.
And take this praise of that th'ast done alreadie:
T'is pitty ere they _flow_ should haue an _eddie_.
_Explicit Ioannes Dones. _
PAGE =174=. IN EUNDEM MACARONICUM.
A writer in _Notes and Queries_, 3rd Series, vii, 1865, gives the
following translation of these lines:
As many perfect linguists as these two distichs make,
So many prudent statesmen will this book of yours produce.
To me the honour is sufficient of being understood: for I leave
To you the honour of being believed by no one.
[Footnote 1: _Terra incognita. _]
[Footnote 2: _Rablais. _]
[Footnote 3: _Pantagruel. _]
[(These notes are given in the margin of the original,
opposite the words explained. )]
LETTERS TO SEVERALL PERSONAGES.
Of Donne's _Letters_ the earliest are the _Storms_ and _Calme_ which
were written in 1597. The two letters to Sir Henry Wotton, 'Sir, More
then kisses' and 'Heres no more newes, then vertue', belong to 1597-8.
The fresh letter here published, _H: W: in Hiber: belligeranti_ (p.
188), was sent to Wotton in 1599.
