The line,
And Midas joyes our Spanish journeyes give
(taken with a similar allusion in one of his letters:
Guyanaes harvest is nip'd in the spring
I feare, &c.
And Midas joyes our Spanish journeyes give
(taken with a similar allusion in one of his letters:
Guyanaes harvest is nip'd in the spring
I feare, &c.
John Donne
Other MSS.
give one or other
occasionally. ]
These are the most widely circulated and probably the earliest of
Donne's _Elegies_, taken as such. Of the rest _The Dreame_ is given in
_D_, _H49_, _Lec_, but among the songs, and _The Autumnall_ is placed
by itself. The rest are either somewhat doubtful or were not allowed
to get into general circulation.
Can we to any extent date the _Elegies_? There are some hints which
help to indicate the years to which the earlier of them probably
belong. In _The Bracelet_ Donne speaks of Spanish 'Stamps' as having
slily made
Gorgeous France, ruin'd, ragged and decay'd;
Scotland which knew no State, proud in one day:
mangled seventeen-headed Belgia.
The last of these references is too indefinite to be of use. I mean
that it covers too wide a period. Nor, indeed, do the others bring us
very far. The first indicates the period from the alliance between
the League and the King of Spain, 1585, when Philip promised a monthly
subsidy of 50,000 crowns, to the conversion and victory of Henry IV in
1593; the second, the short time during which Spanish influence gained
the upper hand in Scotland, between 1582 and 1586. After 1593 is the
only determinable date. In _Loves Warre_ we are brought nearer to a
definite date.
France in her lunatique giddiness did hate
Ever our men, yea and our God of late;
Yet shee relies upon our Angels well
Which nere retorne
points to the period between Henry's conversion ('yea and our God of
late') and the conclusion of peace between France and Spain in 1598.
The line,
And Midas joyes our Spanish journeyes give
(taken with a similar allusion in one of his letters:
Guyanaes harvest is nip'd in the spring
I feare, &c. , p. 210),
refers most probably to Raleigh's expedition in 1595 to discover the
fabulous wealth of Manoa. Had the Elegy been written after the Cadiz
expedition there would certainly have been a more definite reference
to that war. The poem was probably written in the earlier part of
1596, when the expedition was in preparation and Donne contemplated
joining it.
To date one of the poems is not of course to date them all, but their
paradoxical, witty, daring tone is so uniform that one may fairly
conjecture that these thirteen Elegies were written between 1593 and
Donne's first entry upon responsible office as secretary to Egerton in
1598.
The twelfth (_His parting from her_) and fifteenth (_The
Expostulation_) Elegies it is impossible to date, but it is not
_likely_ that they were written after his marriage. _Julia_ is quite
undatable, a witty sally Donne might have written any time before
1615. But the fourteenth (_A Tale of a Citizen and his Wife_) was
certainly written after 1609, probably in 1610.
_The Autumnall_ raises rather an interesting question. Mr. Gosse has
argued that it was most probably composed as late as 1625. Walton's
dating of it is hopelessly confused. He states (_Life of Mr. George
Herbert_, 1670, pp. 14-19) 'that Donne made the acquaintance of Mrs.
occasionally. ]
These are the most widely circulated and probably the earliest of
Donne's _Elegies_, taken as such. Of the rest _The Dreame_ is given in
_D_, _H49_, _Lec_, but among the songs, and _The Autumnall_ is placed
by itself. The rest are either somewhat doubtful or were not allowed
to get into general circulation.
Can we to any extent date the _Elegies_? There are some hints which
help to indicate the years to which the earlier of them probably
belong. In _The Bracelet_ Donne speaks of Spanish 'Stamps' as having
slily made
Gorgeous France, ruin'd, ragged and decay'd;
Scotland which knew no State, proud in one day:
mangled seventeen-headed Belgia.
The last of these references is too indefinite to be of use. I mean
that it covers too wide a period. Nor, indeed, do the others bring us
very far. The first indicates the period from the alliance between
the League and the King of Spain, 1585, when Philip promised a monthly
subsidy of 50,000 crowns, to the conversion and victory of Henry IV in
1593; the second, the short time during which Spanish influence gained
the upper hand in Scotland, between 1582 and 1586. After 1593 is the
only determinable date. In _Loves Warre_ we are brought nearer to a
definite date.
France in her lunatique giddiness did hate
Ever our men, yea and our God of late;
Yet shee relies upon our Angels well
Which nere retorne
points to the period between Henry's conversion ('yea and our God of
late') and the conclusion of peace between France and Spain in 1598.
The line,
And Midas joyes our Spanish journeyes give
(taken with a similar allusion in one of his letters:
Guyanaes harvest is nip'd in the spring
I feare, &c. , p. 210),
refers most probably to Raleigh's expedition in 1595 to discover the
fabulous wealth of Manoa. Had the Elegy been written after the Cadiz
expedition there would certainly have been a more definite reference
to that war. The poem was probably written in the earlier part of
1596, when the expedition was in preparation and Donne contemplated
joining it.
To date one of the poems is not of course to date them all, but their
paradoxical, witty, daring tone is so uniform that one may fairly
conjecture that these thirteen Elegies were written between 1593 and
Donne's first entry upon responsible office as secretary to Egerton in
1598.
The twelfth (_His parting from her_) and fifteenth (_The
Expostulation_) Elegies it is impossible to date, but it is not
_likely_ that they were written after his marriage. _Julia_ is quite
undatable, a witty sally Donne might have written any time before
1615. But the fourteenth (_A Tale of a Citizen and his Wife_) was
certainly written after 1609, probably in 1610.
_The Autumnall_ raises rather an interesting question. Mr. Gosse has
argued that it was most probably composed as late as 1625. Walton's
dating of it is hopelessly confused. He states (_Life of Mr. George
Herbert_, 1670, pp. 14-19) 'that Donne made the acquaintance of Mrs.
