No More Learning

Of the _Second Anniversarie_, in like manner, my text is that of
_1633_, corrected in a few details, and with a few typographical
features borrowed, from the edition of _1612_. The editor of _1633_
had rather definite views of his own on punctuation, notably a
predilection for semicolons in place of full stops. The only certain
emendations which _1612_ supplies are in the marginal note at p.
234 and in l. 421 of the _Second Anniversarie_ 'this' for 'his'. The
spelling is less ambiguous in ll. 27 and 326.


[Footnote 1: _1621-25_ abound in misplaced full stops which
are not in _1611_ and are generally corrected in _1633_. The
punctuation of the later editions (_1635-69_) is the work of
the printer. Occasionally a comma is dropped or introduced
with advantage to the sense, but in general the punctuation
grows increasingly careless. Often the correction of one error
leads to another. ]


The subject of the _Anniversaries_ was the fifteen-year-old Elizabeth
Drury, who died in 1610. Her father, Sir Robert Drury, of Hawsted in
the county of Suffolk, was a man of some note on account of his great
wealth. He was knighted by Essex when about seventeen years old, at
the siege of Rouen (1591-2). He served in the Low Countries, and at
the battle of Nieuport (1600) brought off Sir Francis Vere when
his horse was shot under him.
He was courtier, traveller, member of
Parliament, and in 1613 would have been glad to go as Ambassador to
Paris when Sir Thomas Overbury refused the proffered honour and was
sent to the Tower. Lady Drury was the daughter of Sir Nicholas Bacon,
the eldest son of Queen Elizabeth's Lord Keeper. She and her brother,
Sir Edmund Bacon, were friends and patrons of Joseph Hall, Donne's
rival as an early satirist. From 1600 to 1608 Hall was rector of
Hawsted, and though he was not very kindly treated by Sir Robert
he dedicated to him his _Meditations Morall and Divine_. This tie
explains the fact, which we learn from Jonson's conversations with
Drummond, that Hall is the author of the _Harbinger to the Progresse_.
As he wrote this we may infer that he is also responsible for _To the
praise of the dead, and the Anatomie_.

Readers of Donne's _Life_ by Walton are aware of the munificence with
which Sir Robert rewarded Donne for his poems, how he opened his
house to him, and took him abroad. Donne's letters, on the other hand,
reveal that the poem gave considerable offence to the Countess of
Bedford and other older patrons and friends. In his letters to Gerrard
he endeavoured to explain away his eulogies. In verse-letters to the
Countess of Bedford and others he atoned for his inconstancy by subtle
and erudite compliments.

_The Funerall Elegie_ was doubtless written in 1610 and sent to Sir
Robert Drury. He and Donne may already have been acquainted through
Wotton, who was closely related by friendship and marriage with Sir
Edmund Bacon. (See Pearsall Smith, _Life and Letters of Sir Henry
Wotton_ (1907). _The Anatomie of the World_ was composed in 1611, _Of
the Progresse of the Soule_ in France in 1612, at some time prior to
the 14th of April, when he refers to his _Anniversaries_ in a letter
to George Gerrard.

Ben Jonson declared to Drummond 'That Donnes Anniversaries were
profane and full of blasphemies: that he told Mr. Done if it had
been written of the Virgin Marie it had been something; to which he
answered that he described the Idea of a Woman, and not as she was'.