The epitaph too is his own
composition
and is the natural
supplement to this hymn:
JOHANNES DONNE
SAC.
supplement to this hymn:
JOHANNES DONNE
SAC.
John Donne
_wee drunke, and pay_: 'pecunia bibimus' _Tremellius and
Vulgate_: the Latin may be present or past tense, but the verse goes
on in the Vulgate, 'ligna nostra pretio comparavimus,' which shows
that 'bibimus' is 'we drunk' or 'we have drunk'. The Authorized
Version reads 'we have drunken'.
PAGE =367=, l. 374. _children fall_. 'Juvenes ad molendum portant, et
pueri ad ligna corruunt,' _Tremellius_; 'et pueri in ligno corruerunt,'
_Vulgate_. But the latter translates the first half of the line quite
differently.
PAGE =368=. HYMN TO GOD MY GOD, IN MY SICKNESSE.
The date which Walton gives for this poem, March 23, 1630, is of
course March 23, 1631, i. e. eight days before the writer's death.
Donne's tense and torturing will never relaxed its hold before the
final moment: Being speechlesse, he did (as Saint Stephen) look
steadfastly towards heaven, till he saw the Sonne of God standing at
the right hand of his Father; And being satisfied with this blessed
sight, (as his soule ascended, and his last breath departed from him)
he closed his owne eyes, and then disposed his hands and body into
such a posture, as required no alteration by those that came to shroud
him. ' _Walton_ (1670).
Donne's monument had been designed by himself and shows him thus
shrouded.
The epitaph too is his own composition and is the natural
supplement to this hymn:
JOHANNES DONNE
SAC. THEOL. PROFESS.
POST VARIA STVDIA QVIBVS AB ANNIS
TENERRIMIS FIDELITER, NEC INFELICITER
INCVBVIT;
INSTINCTV ET IMPVLSV SP. SANCTI, MONITV
ET HORTATV
REGIS JACOBI, ORDINES SACROS AMPLEXVS
ANNO SVI JESV MDCXIV. ET SVAE AETATIS XLII
DECANATV HVJVS ECCLESIAE INDVTVS
XXVII NOVEMBRIS, MDCXXI.
EXVTVS MORTE VLTIMO DIE MARTII MDCXXXI.
HIC LICET IN OCCIDVO CINERE ASPICIT EVM
CVJVS NOMEN EST ORIENS.
The reference in the last line of the epitaph, and the figure of the
map with which he plays in the second and third stanzas of the _Hymne_
are both illustrated by a passage in a sermon on Psalm vi. 8-10: 'In
a flat Map, there goes no more, to make West East, though they be
distant in an extremity, but to paste that flat Map upon a round body,
and then West and East are all one. In a flat soule, in a dejected
conscience, in a troubled spirit, there goes no more to the making
of that trouble, peace, then to apply that trouble to the body of the
Merits, to the body of the Gospel of Christ Jesus, and conforme thee
to him, and thy West is East, thy Trouble of spirit is Tranquillity
of spirit. The name of Christ is _Oriens_, _The East_; And yet Lucifer
himself is called _Filius Orientis_, _The Son of the East_. If thou
beest fallen by _Lucifer_, fallen to _Lucifer_, and not fallen as
_Lucifer_, to a senselessnesse of thy fall, and an impenitiblenesse
therein, but to a troubled spirit, still thy prospect is the East,
still thy Climate is heaven, still thy Haven is Jerusalem; for, in
our lowest dejection of all, even in the dust of the grave, we are
so composed, so layed down, as that we look to the East: If I could
beleeve that _Trajan_, or _Tecla_, could look Eastward, that is,
towards Christ, in Hell, I could beleeve with them of Rome, that
Trajan and Tecla were redeemed by prayer out of hell. ' _Sermons_ 80.
55. 558.
Vulgate_: the Latin may be present or past tense, but the verse goes
on in the Vulgate, 'ligna nostra pretio comparavimus,' which shows
that 'bibimus' is 'we drunk' or 'we have drunk'. The Authorized
Version reads 'we have drunken'.
PAGE =367=, l. 374. _children fall_. 'Juvenes ad molendum portant, et
pueri ad ligna corruunt,' _Tremellius_; 'et pueri in ligno corruerunt,'
_Vulgate_. But the latter translates the first half of the line quite
differently.
PAGE =368=. HYMN TO GOD MY GOD, IN MY SICKNESSE.
The date which Walton gives for this poem, March 23, 1630, is of
course March 23, 1631, i. e. eight days before the writer's death.
Donne's tense and torturing will never relaxed its hold before the
final moment: Being speechlesse, he did (as Saint Stephen) look
steadfastly towards heaven, till he saw the Sonne of God standing at
the right hand of his Father; And being satisfied with this blessed
sight, (as his soule ascended, and his last breath departed from him)
he closed his owne eyes, and then disposed his hands and body into
such a posture, as required no alteration by those that came to shroud
him. ' _Walton_ (1670).
Donne's monument had been designed by himself and shows him thus
shrouded.
The epitaph too is his own composition and is the natural
supplement to this hymn:
JOHANNES DONNE
SAC. THEOL. PROFESS.
POST VARIA STVDIA QVIBVS AB ANNIS
TENERRIMIS FIDELITER, NEC INFELICITER
INCVBVIT;
INSTINCTV ET IMPVLSV SP. SANCTI, MONITV
ET HORTATV
REGIS JACOBI, ORDINES SACROS AMPLEXVS
ANNO SVI JESV MDCXIV. ET SVAE AETATIS XLII
DECANATV HVJVS ECCLESIAE INDVTVS
XXVII NOVEMBRIS, MDCXXI.
EXVTVS MORTE VLTIMO DIE MARTII MDCXXXI.
HIC LICET IN OCCIDVO CINERE ASPICIT EVM
CVJVS NOMEN EST ORIENS.
The reference in the last line of the epitaph, and the figure of the
map with which he plays in the second and third stanzas of the _Hymne_
are both illustrated by a passage in a sermon on Psalm vi. 8-10: 'In
a flat Map, there goes no more, to make West East, though they be
distant in an extremity, but to paste that flat Map upon a round body,
and then West and East are all one. In a flat soule, in a dejected
conscience, in a troubled spirit, there goes no more to the making
of that trouble, peace, then to apply that trouble to the body of the
Merits, to the body of the Gospel of Christ Jesus, and conforme thee
to him, and thy West is East, thy Trouble of spirit is Tranquillity
of spirit. The name of Christ is _Oriens_, _The East_; And yet Lucifer
himself is called _Filius Orientis_, _The Son of the East_. If thou
beest fallen by _Lucifer_, fallen to _Lucifer_, and not fallen as
_Lucifer_, to a senselessnesse of thy fall, and an impenitiblenesse
therein, but to a troubled spirit, still thy prospect is the East,
still thy Climate is heaven, still thy Haven is Jerusalem; for, in
our lowest dejection of all, even in the dust of the grave, we are
so composed, so layed down, as that we look to the East: If I could
beleeve that _Trajan_, or _Tecla_, could look Eastward, that is,
towards Christ, in Hell, I could beleeve with them of Rome, that
Trajan and Tecla were redeemed by prayer out of hell. ' _Sermons_ 80.
55. 558.
