_ This is at first sight a
strange reading, and I was disposed to think that _1635-69_, which
has the support of several MSS.
strange reading, and I was disposed to think that _1635-69_, which
has the support of several MSS.
John Donne
Compare: 'The traditional doctrines in the Roman Church, which are
so many, as that they overflow even the water of life, the Scriptures
themselves, and suppresse and surround them. ' _Sermons_ 80. 59. 599.
With this whole poem compare: 'Sir, Because I am in a place and season
where I see every thing bud forth, I must do so too, and vent some of
my meditations to you. . . . The pleasantnesse of the season displeases
me. Everything refreshes, and I wither, and I grow older and not
better, my strength diminishes and my load growes, and being to pass
more and more stormes, I finde that I have not onely cast out all my
ballast, which nature and time gives, Reason and discretion, and so
am as empty and light as Vanity can make me, but I have overfraught
myself with vice, and so am ridd(l)ingly subject to two contrary
wracks, Sinking and Oversetting,' &c. _Letters_ (1651), pp. 78-9 (_To
Sir Henry Goodyere_).
l. 15. _Indure, nor yet leave loving.
_ This is at first sight a
strange reading, and I was disposed to think that _1635-69_, which
has the support of several MSS. (none of very high textual authority),
must be right. It is strange to hear the Petrarchian lover (Donne is
probably addressing the Countess of Bedford) speak of 'leaving loving'
as though it were in his power. The reading 'nor leave this garden'
suits what follows: 'Not to be mocked by the garden and yet to linger
here in the vicinity of her I love let me become,' &c.
It is remarkable that _D_, _H49_, _Lec_, and _H40_ omit this half
line. If the same omission was in the MS. from which _1633_ printed,
the present reading might be an editor's emendation. But it is older
than that, for it was the reading of the MS. from which the Dutch poet
Huyghens translated, and he has tried by his rhymes to produce the
effect of the alliteration:
Maer, om my noch te decken
Voor sulcken ongeval, en niet te min de Min
Te voeren in mijn zin,
Komt Min, en laet my hier yet ongevoelicks wezen.
Donne means, I suppose, 'Not to be mocked by the garden, and yet to be
ever the faithful lover. ' Compare _Loves Deitie_, l. 24. 'Love might
make me leave loving. ' The remainder of the verse may have been
suggested by Jonson's
Slow, slow, fresh Fount, keep time with my salt Tears.
_Cynthias Revels_ (1600).
l.
