'They were
the discoverers of the wisdom which relates to the heavenly bodies and
their order, and that their inventions might not be lost they made
two pillars, the one of brick, the other of stone, and
inscribed
their
discoveries on them both, that in case the pillar of brick should be
destroyed by the flood, the pillar of stone might remain and exhibit
these discoveries to mankind.
John Donne
It is impossible to attach any other meaning to the
seventh stanza; and that intention also explains the bitter tone in
which women are satirized in the fragment. Women and courtiers are
the chief subject of Donne's sardonic satire in this poem, as of
Shakespeare's in _Hamlet_.
I have indicated elsewhere what I think is the most probable motive
of the poem. It reflects the mood of mind into which Donne, like many
others, was thrown by the tragic fate of Essex in the spring of the
year. In _Cynthia's Revels_, acted in the same year as Donne's poem
was composed, Jonson speaks of 'some black and envious slanders
breath'd against her' (i.e. Diana, who is Elizabeth) 'for her divine
justice on Actaeon', and it is well known that she incurred both
odium and the pangs of remorse. Donne, who was still a Catholic in
the sympathies that come of education and association, seems to
have contemplated a satirical history of the great heretic in lineal
descent from the wife of Cain to Elizabeth--for private circulation.
See _The Poetry of John Donne_, II. pp. xvii-xx.
PAGE =295=, l. 9. _Seths pillars._ Norton's note on this runs: 'Seth,
the son of Adam, left children who imitated his virtues.
'They were
the discoverers of the wisdom which relates to the heavenly bodies and
their order, and that their inventions might not be lost they made
two pillars, the one of brick, the other of stone, and
inscribed
their
discoveries on them both, that in case the pillar of brick should be
destroyed by the flood, the pillar of stone might remain and exhibit
these discoveries to mankind.
... Now this remains in the land of
Siriad to this day.' Josephus, _Antiquities of the Jews_ (Whiston's
translation), I. 2, ?3.
PAGE =296=, l. 21. _holy Ianus._ 'Janus, whom Annius of Viterbo and
the chorographers of Italy do make to be the same with Noah.' Browne,
_Vulgar Errors_, vi. 6. The work referred to is the _Antiquitatum
variarum volumina XVII_ (1498, reprinted and re-arranged 1511), by
Annius of Viterbo (1432-1502), a Dominican friar, Fra Giovanni
Nanni. Each of the books, after the first, consists of a digest
with commentary of various works on ancient history, the aim being
apparently to reconcile Biblical and heathen chronology and to
establish the genealogy of Christ.
