The following poem is also found among the poems
prefixed
to Coryat's
_Crudities_.
_Crudities_.
John Donne
_ See _Epigrams_.
PAGE =173=, l. 56. _Which casts at Portescues. _ Grosart offers the
only intelligible explanation of this phrase. He identifies the
'Portescue' with the 'Portaque' or 'Portegue', the great crusado of
Portugal, worth ? 3 12_s. _, and quotes from Harrington, _On Playe_:
'Where lords and great men have been disposed to play deep play, and
not having money about them, have cut cards instead of counters, with
asseverance (on their honours) to pay for every piece of card so
lost a portegue. ' Donne's reference to the use which is to be made of
Coryat's books shows clearly that he is speaking of some such custom
as this. Chambers asks pertinently, would the phrase not be 'for
Portescues'? 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.
PAGE =173=, l. 56. _Which casts at Portescues. _ Grosart offers the
only intelligible explanation of this phrase. He identifies the
'Portescue' with the 'Portaque' or 'Portegue', the great crusado of
Portugal, worth ? 3 12_s. _, and quotes from Harrington, _On Playe_:
'Where lords and great men have been disposed to play deep play, and
not having money about them, have cut cards instead of counters, with
asseverance (on their honours) to pay for every piece of card so
lost a portegue. ' Donne's reference to the use which is to be made of
Coryat's books shows clearly that he is speaking of some such custom
as this. Chambers asks pertinently, would the phrase not be 'for
Portescues'? 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.
