185) was
probably
written about the same time, and to these
years--1598 to about 1608--belong also, I am inclined to think, the
group of short letters beginning with _To Mr T.
years--1598 to about 1608--belong also, I am inclined to think, the
group of short letters beginning with _To Mr T.
John Donne
_Explicit Ioannes Dones. _
PAGE =174=. IN EUNDEM MACARONICUM.
A writer in _Notes and Queries_, 3rd Series, vii, 1865, gives the
following translation of these lines:
As many perfect linguists as these two distichs make,
So many prudent statesmen will this book of yours produce.
To me the honour is sufficient of being understood: for I leave
To you the honour of being believed by no one.
[Footnote 1: _Terra incognita. _]
[Footnote 2: _Rablais. _]
[Footnote 3: _Pantagruel. _]
[(These notes are given in the margin of the original,
opposite the words explained. )]
LETTERS TO SEVERALL PERSONAGES.
Of Donne's _Letters_ the earliest are the _Storms_ and _Calme_ which
were written in 1597. The two letters to Sir Henry Wotton, 'Sir, More
then kisses' and 'Heres no more newes, then vertue', belong to 1597-8.
The fresh letter here published, _H: W: in Hiber: belligeranti_ (p.
188), was sent to Wotton in 1599. That _To Mr Rowland Woodward_
(p.
185) was probably written about the same time, and to these
years--1598 to about 1608--belong also, I am inclined to think, the
group of short letters beginning with _To Mr T. W. _ at p. 205. There
are very few indications of date. In that to Mr. R. W. (pp. 209-10)
an allusion is made to the disappointment of hopes in connexion with
Guiana:
Guyanaes harvest is nip'd in the spring,
I feare; And with us (me thinkes) Fate deales so
As with the Jewes guide God did; he did show
Him the rich land, but bar'd his entry in:
Oh, slownes is our punishment and sinne.
Grosart and Chambers refer this, and 'the Spanish businesse' below,
to 1613-14. The more probable reference is to the disappointment of
Raleigh's hopes, in 1596 and the years immediately following, that the
Government might be persuaded to make a settlement in Guiana, both on
account of its wealth and as a strategic point to be used in harassing
the King of Spain. Coolly received by Burleigh, Raleigh's scheme
excited considerable enthusiasm, and Chapman wrote his _De Guiana:
Carmen Epicum_, prefixed to Lawrence Keymis's _A Relation of the
Second Voyage to Guiana_ (1596), to celebrate Raleigh's achievement
and to promote his scheme. The 'Spanish businesse', i. e. businesses,
which, Donne complains,
as the Earth between the Moone and Sun
Eclipse the light which Guiana would give,
are probably the efforts in the direction of peace made by the party
in the Government opposed to Essex.
