No More Learning

In a letter to Goodyere written apparently in 1609 or 1610, Donne
says: 'Since my imprisonment in my bed, I have made a meditation in
verse, which I call a Litany; the word you know imports no other then
supplication, but all Churches have one forme of supplication, by that
name. Amongst ancient annals I mean some 800 years, I have met
two Litanies in Latin verse, which gave me not the reason of my
meditations, for in good faith I thought not upon them then, but they
give me a defence, if any man, to a Lay man, and a private, impute it
as a fault, to take such divine and publique names, to his own little
thoughts. The first of these was made by Ratpertus a Monk of Suevia;
and the other by S. Notker, of whom I will give you this note by the
way, that he is a private Saint, for a few Parishes; they were both
but monks and the Letanies poor and barbarous enough; yet Pope Nicolas
the 5, valued their devotion so much, that he canonized both their
Poems, and commanded them for publike service in their Churches: mine
is for lesser Chappels, which are my friends, and though a copy of it
were due to you, now, yet I am so unable to serve my self with writing
it for you at this time (being some 30 staves of 9 lines) that I must
intreat you to take a promise that you shall have the first, for a
testimony of that duty which I owe to your love, and to my self,
who am bound to cherish it by my best offices. That by which it will
deserve best acceptation, is, that neither the Roman Church need call
it defective, because it abhors not the particular mention of the
blessed Triumphers in heaven; nor the Reformed can discreetly accuse
it, of attributing more then a rectified devotion ought to doe. '

The Litanies referred to in Donne's letter to Goodyere may be read in
Migne's _Patrologia Latina_, vol. lxxxvii, col. 39 and 42. They are
certainly barbarous enough. That of Ratpertus is entitled _Litania
Ratperti ad processionem diebus Dominicis_, and begins:

Ardua spes mundi, solidator et inclyte coeli
Christe, exaudi nos propitius famulos.
Virgo Dei Genetrix rutilans in honore perennis,
Ora pro famulis, sancta Maria, tuis.

The other is headed _Notkeri Magistri cognomento Balbuli Litania
rhythmica_, and opens thus:

Votis supplicibus voces super astra feramus,
Trinus ut et simplex nos regat omnipotens.
Sancte Pater, adiuva nos, Sancte Fili, adiuva nos,
Compar his et Spiritus, ungue nos intrinsecus.

Michael, John the Baptist, Peter, Paul, and Stephen, martyrs and
virgins, are appealed to in both. There are some differences in
respect of particular saints invoked.
It is interesting also to compare Donne's series of petitions with
those in a Middle English Litany preserved in the Balliol Coll. MS.
354 (published by Edward Flugel in _Anglia_ xxv. 220). The poetry is
very poor and I need not quote. The interesting feature is the list
of petitions 'Vnto the ffader', 'ye sonne', 'ye holy gost', 'the
trinite', 'our lady', 'ye angelles'. 'ye propre angell', 'John
baptist', 'ye appostiles', 'ye martires', 'the confessours', 'ye
virgins', 'unto all sayntes'. Donne, it will be observed, includes
the patriarchs and the prophets, but omits any reference to a guardian
angel and to the saints. Other references in his poems and sermons
show that he had the thought of a guardian angel often in his mind:
'As that Angel, which God hath given to protect thee, is not weary of
his office, for all thy perversenesses, so, howsoever God deale with
thee, be not thou weary of bearing thy part, in his Quire here in the
Militant Church. ' _Sermons_ 80. 44. 440.

PAGE =339=, l. 34. _a such selfe different instinct
Of these;_

'As the three persons of the Trinity are distinguished as Power (The
Father), Knowledge (The Son), Love (The Holy Ghost), and are yet
identical, not three but one, may in me power, love, and knowledge be
thus at once distinct and identical. ' The comma after 'these' in _D_,
_H49_, _Lec_ was accidentally dropped.