No More Learning

EPITHALAMIONS.

PAGE =127=. The dates of the two chief Marriage Songs are: the
Princess Elizabeth, Feb. 14, 1613; the Earl of Somerset, Dec. 26,
1613. The third is an earlier piece of work, dating from the years
when Donne was a student at Lincoln's Inn. It is found in _W_,
following the _Satyres_ and _Elegies_ and preceding the _Letters_,
being probably the only one written when the collection in the first
part of that MS. was made.

While quite himself in his treatment of the theme of this kind of
poem, Donne comes in it nearer to Spenser than in any other kind.
In glow and colour nothing he has written surpasses the Somerset
Epithalamion:

First her eyes kindle other Ladies eyes,
Then from their beams their jewels lusters rise,
And from their jewels torches do take fire,
And all is warmth and light and good desire.


_An Epithalamion, or Marriage Song, &c. _ 'In February following, the
Prince Palatine and that lovely Princess, the Lady Elizabeth, were
married on Bishop Valentine's Day, in all the Pomp and Glory that so
much grandeur could express. Her vestments were white, the Emblem of
Innocency; her Hair dishevel'd hanging down her Back at length,
an Ornament of Virginity; a Crown of pure Gold upon her Head, the
Cognizance of Majesty, being all over beset with precious Gems,
shining _like a Constellation_; her Train supported by Twelve young
Ladies in White Garments, so adorned with Jewels, that her passage
looked like a Milky-way. She was led to Church by her Brother Prince
Charles, and the Earl of Northampton; the young Batchelor on the Right
Hand, and the old on the left. ' Camden, _Annales_.
A full description of the festivities will be found in Nichol's
_Progresses of King James_, in Stow's _Chronicle_, and other works.
In a letter to Mrs. Carleton, Chamberlain gives an account of what he
saw: 'It were long and tedious to tell you all the particulars of the
excessive bravery, both of men and women, but you may conceive the
rest by one or two. The Lady Wotton had a gown that cost fifty pounds
a yard the embroidery. . . . The Viscount Rochester, the Lord Hay, and
the Lord Dingwall were exceeding rich and costly; but above all, they
speak of the Earl of Dorset. But this extreme cost and riches makes us
all poor. ' _Court and Times of James I_, i. 226. The princess had been
educated by Lord and Lady Harington, the parents of Donne's patroness,
the Countess of Bedford. They accompanied her to Heidelberg, but
Lord Harington died on his way home, Lady Harington shortly after her
return. Donne had thus links with the Princess, and these were renewed
and strengthened later when with Lord Doncaster he visited Heidelberg
in 1619, and preached before her and her husband. He sent her his
first printed sermon and his _Devotions upon Emergent Occasions, &c. _
(1624), and to the latter she, then in exile and trouble, replied in a
courteous strain.