Moreover, only the last two of Davies' sonnets are 'couched in legal
terminology':
My case is this, I love Zepheria bright,
Of her I hold my harte by fealty:
and
To Love my lord I doe knights service owe
And therefore nowe he hath my wit in ward.
terminology':
My case is this, I love Zepheria bright,
Of her I hold my harte by fealty:
and
To Love my lord I doe knights service owe
And therefore nowe he hath my wit in ward.
John Donne
In 1594 Parsons' tract, _A Conference about the
next Succession to the Crown of England. By R. Doleman_, defended her
claim, and made the Infanta's name a byword in England.
If _H51_ is thus approximately right in its dating of the first Satire
it may be the better trusted as regards the other two, and there is at
least nothing in them to make this date impossible. The references to
poetry in the second acquire a more vivid interest when their date or
approximate date is remembered. In 1593 died Marlowe, the greatest of
the brilliant group that reformed the stage, giving
ideot actors means
(Starving 'themselves') to live by 'their' labour'd sceanes;
and Shakespeare was one of the 'ideot actors'. Shakespeare, too, was
one of the many sonneteers who 'would move Love by rithmes', and in
1593 and 1594 he appeared among those 'who write to Lords, rewards to
get'.
It would be interesting if we could identify the lawyer-poet, Coscus,
referred to in this Satire. Malone, in a MS. note to his copy of
_1633_ (now in the Bodleian Library), suggested John Hoskins or
Sir Richard Martin. Grosart conjectured that Donne had in view the
_Gullinge Sonnets_ preserved in the Farmer-Chetham MS. , and ascribed
with probability to Sir John Davies, the poet of the _Epigrams_
just mentioned. Chambers seems to lean to this view and says, 'these
sonnets are couched in legal terminology. ' Donne is supposed to have
mistaken Davies' 'gulling' for serious poetry. This is very unlikely.
Moreover, only the last two of Davies' sonnets are 'couched in legal
terminology':
My case is this, I love Zepheria bright,
Of her I hold my harte by fealty:
and
To Love my lord I doe knights service owe
And therefore nowe he hath my wit in ward.
Nor, although Davies' style parodies the style of the sonneteers (not
of the anonymous _Zepheria_ only), is it particularly harsh. It is
much more probable that Donne, like Davies, has chiefly in view this
anonymous series of sonnets--_Zepheria_. _Ogni di viene la sera. Mysus
et Haemonia juvenis qui cuspide vulnus senserat, hac ipsa cuspide
sensit opem. At London: Printed by the Widow Orwin, for N. L.
and John Busby. _ 1594. The style of _Zepheria_ exactly fits Donne's
description:
words, words which would teare
The tender labyrinth of a soft maids eare.
'The verbs "imparadize", "portionize", "thesaurize", are some of
the fruits of his ingenuity. He claims that his Muse is capable
of "hyperbolised trajections"; he apostrophizes his lady's eyes as
"illuminating lamps" and calls his pen his "heart's solicitor". '
Sidney Lee, _Elizabethan Sonnets_. The following sonnet from the
series illustrates the use of legal terminology which both Davies and
Donne satirize:
Canzon 20.
How often hath my pen (mine heart's Solicitor)
Instructed thee in Breviat of my case!
While Fancy-pleading eyes (thy beauty's visitor)
Have pattern'd to my quill, an angel's face.
next Succession to the Crown of England. By R. Doleman_, defended her
claim, and made the Infanta's name a byword in England.
If _H51_ is thus approximately right in its dating of the first Satire
it may be the better trusted as regards the other two, and there is at
least nothing in them to make this date impossible. The references to
poetry in the second acquire a more vivid interest when their date or
approximate date is remembered. In 1593 died Marlowe, the greatest of
the brilliant group that reformed the stage, giving
ideot actors means
(Starving 'themselves') to live by 'their' labour'd sceanes;
and Shakespeare was one of the 'ideot actors'. Shakespeare, too, was
one of the many sonneteers who 'would move Love by rithmes', and in
1593 and 1594 he appeared among those 'who write to Lords, rewards to
get'.
It would be interesting if we could identify the lawyer-poet, Coscus,
referred to in this Satire. Malone, in a MS. note to his copy of
_1633_ (now in the Bodleian Library), suggested John Hoskins or
Sir Richard Martin. Grosart conjectured that Donne had in view the
_Gullinge Sonnets_ preserved in the Farmer-Chetham MS. , and ascribed
with probability to Sir John Davies, the poet of the _Epigrams_
just mentioned. Chambers seems to lean to this view and says, 'these
sonnets are couched in legal terminology. ' Donne is supposed to have
mistaken Davies' 'gulling' for serious poetry. This is very unlikely.
Moreover, only the last two of Davies' sonnets are 'couched in legal
terminology':
My case is this, I love Zepheria bright,
Of her I hold my harte by fealty:
and
To Love my lord I doe knights service owe
And therefore nowe he hath my wit in ward.
Nor, although Davies' style parodies the style of the sonneteers (not
of the anonymous _Zepheria_ only), is it particularly harsh. It is
much more probable that Donne, like Davies, has chiefly in view this
anonymous series of sonnets--_Zepheria_. _Ogni di viene la sera. Mysus
et Haemonia juvenis qui cuspide vulnus senserat, hac ipsa cuspide
sensit opem. At London: Printed by the Widow Orwin, for N. L.
and John Busby. _ 1594. The style of _Zepheria_ exactly fits Donne's
description:
words, words which would teare
The tender labyrinth of a soft maids eare.
'The verbs "imparadize", "portionize", "thesaurize", are some of
the fruits of his ingenuity. He claims that his Muse is capable
of "hyperbolised trajections"; he apostrophizes his lady's eyes as
"illuminating lamps" and calls his pen his "heart's solicitor". '
Sidney Lee, _Elizabethan Sonnets_. The following sonnet from the
series illustrates the use of legal terminology which both Davies and
Donne satirize:
Canzon 20.
How often hath my pen (mine heart's Solicitor)
Instructed thee in Breviat of my case!
While Fancy-pleading eyes (thy beauty's visitor)
Have pattern'd to my quill, an angel's face.
